Fiery cross burned by hoodlums

oe
meee

Burning fiery crosses,

hurling stones and wielding clubs,

hundreds of organized vets and hoodlums broke up a concert at
Peeskill, New York, at which Paul Robeson (left), world-famous
American singer, was to have appeared. Howard Fast (right),

widely read American author who was to have been Robeson’s

chairman, Was among those who fought off the mob.

A few

jdays after the first attack, Robeson held his concert, defying the
mob which persistently attempted to break it up.

AUTHOR i> STORY OF MOB ATTACK ON ROBESON CONCERT

“It was organized fascism with murder as.
its intent..approved and helped by Se

- THE FOLLOWING is a person-,

al account of what happened at~

the Lakeland picnic ,grounds, out-
side Peekskill, Saturday evening,
August 27, at the concert ar
ranged for Paul Robeson. This in-
cludes only ‘what I saw, what I
took part
willing to swear to these facts
before any authority or commit-
tée.

in.

Since I was slated to be chair-
man of the concert, I arrived at
the grounds an hour before the
scheduled time. Mine was next to
the last car admitted to the
grounds by the organized fascist
mob. I use the term fascist ad-
visedly.

‘When I arrived, there were al-
ready 40 or 50 carloads of fascists
at the spot and several hundred
more on foot. When I entered,
about 10 young people, boys and
girls, representing the Civil

Rights Congress, were at the en-

tranceway. ‘

I drove a quarter of a mile and

parked my car near the band--

stand, where some 2000 seats

Therefore I am.

clothes,, with gold badges: pinned
on. Aside from three other men—
were were identified as Justice
Department agents, and who
stood quietly by—these were the
only police we on the inside saw
for the next two and. a-half
hours.

The three sheriffs argued half-
heartedly with the fascists; one
of them with sufficient guts could
have broken the thing right there,
but all three, in all their actions,
were against us and on the side
of the fascists.

While the sheriffs argued, we
formed ourselves into three lines,
sending the girls back to the
bandstand. Our three lines
stretched across the road, which
was-embanked at this point._

There were exactly 42° of us,
and we organized into. seven
groups of six, with a squad lead-
eu for each group. We were about
half Negro and half white, half
teen-age boys and half men.

We had eight trade unionists

, among us, four of them merchant

seamen. From here on, for the
next two hours, we maintained
our discipline. :

* * *
AT 7.30 P.M., the second attack

were alréady set up. In this part - came, by about 300 of the fascists

of the picnic grounds, there were
about 150 people, many young
folks, children and women. As it
turned out later, there were not
more than 50 men, including teen-
age boys, on our side.

A few minutes after I anrived,

a boy came running down from
the state road and informed’ us.
- that the fascists. had started the

attack and that the road was
solidly blocked. All the available
boys and men—about 25—ran up -
to the entrance to the grounds.

There we discovered that the
double entrance had been block-
ed, one part with a Legion truck,

thé other with a stone barricade.”

AS we stood there, the fascists
launched their first attack, about
300° of then against our handful.

Phere was a brief melee, in...

witich two of our boys were hurt,
quite badly. We noticed now that
most of the attackers were heay-
ily liquored up, nor were they
teen-age boys, as so many stories
reported. Most of them were men
between 35 and 50. One of their,

leaders was identified as a prom-

inent real estate man of Peek-
skill. ©
sakes” f

* * *

At this point, three sheriffs ap-

peared. They’ were ‘in plain

- They used

rocks, fence-posts,
knives and billies. Their slogan,
constantly shrieked at us, was,
“No one of you leave here alive.”

This was the main refrain; they
added to it:

“You came in — you don’t go
out.”

“We're Hitler’s boys —.out si
finish his job.”

In beating off the second at-
tack, four of our people were in-
jured, but they remained in place.
We were driven back about 20
yards to a narrow part of the
toad, high and fenced in., eM PaG 0
termined to remain here.

At 7.45, word came,up from
the bandstand that a dozen. fas-
cists had crossed the fields and

attacked the women and children.
We detached one squad of six and

sent them back. We told them to
tell the driver of a truck, which
had brought a load of children up
from Goldens Bridge, to bring his
truck up the road to barricade it.

A few minutes later, the truck
appeared. We swung it broadside
across the road, forming ourselves

in three ranks in front of it with

arms locked. By now, there were
well over 500 fascists. In the next
half hour they attacked us twice
without breaking our ranks.
They had worked themselves
into a screaming alcoholic frenzy,

and they repeated their threats
that no-one would leave the pic-
nic grounds alive. In the course
of these two attacks, they tore
-up the fence rails and used them
as weapons,

A little after’ eight o’clock, they
burned a 12-foot cross on the pic-
nic grounds. A hillock hid the
cross, but we saw the glare. Three

Negro girls came up and told us -

_ that the attack on the group be-
low had been repulsed. We put
the girls in the truck and told
, them to lie down.

It should be noted that the maj-
ority of the threats—and violence
too — was directed against the

- Negro men in our ranks. It was
quite evident that death faced
any of them who might be caught,
yet none of them bolted; none of
them brooke ranks. They gave a
rare and fine display of quiet
courage and discipline.

At 8.15, the fascists had spread

~ out on either side of us. They did

not attack, but started a barrage
of heavy rocks, many of them as
large ag grapefruit.

We stood in line in the gather-
ing dark, arms locked, singing,
“Freedom is our struggle, we
shall not be moved.” ;

Every few seconds, there was a
sickening thud as a rock crashed
against the skull of one of our

boys. Some held their places with >

the blood pouring from their torn
scalps; others went down. Those
we carried back and laid in the
truck. .
4 * Rok
BY NOW, we realized that in
just a few minutes more, most of
us would be out and that the field
‘would be clear for the fascists to
attack the women and children.

Now only 20 of us were left on*

our feet; three had been detached

to make a, run through the fieldg a
© iP the aafkness and call Governor

Dewey; the rest were injured. So
we decided ‘to drive the. truck
back slowly, using it-as a shield

and join the Saneeil at the’ band- |

stand below.
The truck, however, ‘went off

,the road ‘but did not crash; the

20 of us stayed together and ran
down to the bandstand, pursued

by a howling mob of 100, or so of

the “new Americans”.

A short distance from the band-

stand, our 20 rallied, and, joined
‘by a dozen more from around the
bandstand, we halted the fascist

attack. That sounds strange, but
it. happened that way; the thous-
and “new Americans”, for all
big talk, were not very brave
hand to hand’in the dark.,;

It was a little after: nine now.
We formed a half-circle against
the bandstand, women and chil-
dren inside and men and boys
outside. One of the deputy sher-
iffs had pulled a switch, cutting

4

out the floodlights, as a deliberate

move to/help the fascists.

It boomeranged, however, for
in the dark they were afraid to
attack us. For the next half hour,
we stood in thisstight circle, sing-
ing The Star Spangled Banner,
God Bless America, and Solidar-
ity Forever.

As an accompaniment to our
singing, the fascists, a few yards
away, made a bonfire of our
books, music and pamphlets. They
circled their fire, screaming ob-
scenities, smashing chairs and
tossng chairs on to the fire.

‘ US ote

WE LEARNED later that state
police had been on the main road:
since eight o'clock, But it wasn’t
until 9.45 that they made their
appearance at the scene of the
fighting.

A little before that the three
immaculate Justice Department

“men appeared and offered to take

our most badly injured to the hos-
pital. There were no barricades
for their car. Two of our boys
with head wounds went with
them. v
Brom 10 o’clock on, order pre-—
vailed. The hundreds of fascists
melted away like magic. State

“police took over, polite, non-com-

mittal, helpful now.
Our people remained disciplin-

‘ed and quiet, and the state police

took them out of the griounds in
carloads, of six, A half hour past
midnight, our last car left the
pienic grounds.

‘A few facts in cout ueee. Ev-
ery one in the fight on the en--
trance road—of our ‘people—suf-
fered some injury. None of us

‘were exempt. 4

Simply because I was eaeed to.

write this, I want to pay my own

%

tribute to the 36 people who held
the road for almost two hours.
If not for their calm and discip- |
line, there would. have been a
shameful mass murder. that would
have echoed across the world as

_a national disgrace.

The nature of what happened

“was organized fascism, with mur-

Westchester county — police,

der as its intent—directed par-—
ticularly against~the Negro peo-
ple. It was tacitly approved and
helped by every level of state and .
and
originally fomented in a public

' fashion by the Peekskill Evening

Star—_HOWARD FAST.

lette committee, can learn a
fiiom this pamphlet.

GOOD READING

Role of a

ELIZABETH Gurley Flynn? —
new pamphlet, Stoolpigeon, al
though written expressly, for thé
_ American labor movement, neve
theless has a special significanc®
for Canada where the militant
labor movement has sharp men
ories of the RCMP’s John Leo
pold, the most notorious stool-
pigeon in its history, and 4 host
of lesser stools and informers:

A study of history shows that
every movement of the people +h
the betterment of their conditions
hag its stoolpigeons. The idea °
a fifth column as a weapo?
against the people did not origin’
ate in the Spanish Civil Wa!
Stoolpigeons are the fifth colum™
of reaction.

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn gives
significant examples. She refers
to the experiences of the early
Christian movement, the Amer
can revolution the Irish rebellion
the labori movement in the
and elsewhere; and then bring?
the principle up to date and in
sharp focus, in the current tt
of the Communist leaders in New
York.

History records many import
ant attacks on people’s_ move-
ments which did not require stool-
Pigeons. But today in the unite
States it is noteworthy that the
common denominator of almost
all important attacks on civil
rights is the stoolpigeon. aed

For example, the “Un-aAmerical
committees, federal and state
the deportation cases, the Chris
toffel and Bridges cases, th®
stream of witnesses who call th@
fight for Negro rights “a Com ae
munist plot,” the new phase a d
the Los Angeles grand jury in
quisition, and finally, the NeW
York trial of the Communist q
party.

Today we are seeing a signif
cant extension in the use of th
stoolpigeon, in the form of were
“ideological _ stoolpigeon.” ~

The creature who used to ex
haust his usefulness with te
mony such as “I saw him nov
the rock” or, “He was at that
meeting,” now has become an 2°
thority on the most profound
economic, political and historical
questions, “I was taught force 27
violence,” he says. ol

The third new development i is
the atempt, with’ police state M% —
thods, to force Communists and
progressives.to act as stoolpigeon®

The clearest examples of
are the grand jury procedings dp
Log Angeles and Denver, and th®
jailing of John. Gates, “Henry ;
Winston and Gus Hall in the DIOR
York Communist trial.

. & | * * ok

THE LABOR movement, which Sy
found out about the use of pe
pigeons in the unions through ? ity
own experiences and the mont

mental exposure by the La Fe Pe

ey 7

It can learn. that the, stook
pigeons who reported on the Com
munist ‘party in the U.S. also ae
ported on: the unions to whic?
they belonged.

If ‘confused by the he ‘that
these stolpigeons are employed P
the FBI instead of by employe!
it->can learn from the : calle ng,
statement of U.S. Federal. re
Anderson: :

“I cannot adopt the conten
tion that government spies
any more trustworthy, or } ress |
disposed to make trouble in oni

der to profit therefrom, | i

are spies in private industty: _ wid!

This pamphlet ‘should be ee
studied, passed on and distribu
in hundreds of thousands

.

_ copies.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — SEPTEMBER 9, 1949 — PAGE 10

XN