THEMILITANTPublished in the Interests of the W orking People

V o l. 29 - No. 10 M onday, M a rch 8, 1965 P rice 10c

i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i r i i i i i i i i in iiii i i i in i iii ii i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i iH iii iii i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i iH i iiii i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i . ’i ii iiii i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i it l ii i i i i i i i i i i i i i in ft '

Interview With Aide To Malcolm X

— See page 3 —i i i i im i i im ' i i i i i i i i i ir i i i i i i i i i i i i ' i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i n iiiii i i i i i i i i i i i i i iiiiin iiiii ir ii ii ii i i i i i i i i i i i ill ill i i i i i ! i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i 11iiliiiiiiiiil i l l iiii iii i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i m i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i l l l l l l l l l l l l l l it i i l i i l i l l l l l i i i i l i i i i i i ill i i i i i i i i i i i i i l i i i i i i i i i

NEW YORK, March 2 — One afterm ath of the assassination of Malcolm X tha t has received lit t le attention is that one of M alcolm ’s adherents was arrested, is s till being held, and faces charges car­ry ing s t if f prison sentences. He is Reuben Francis, 32, who police say has been arrested fo r shooting one of the accused assassins, Thomas Hagan, in the leg. The fact tha t Hagan was wounded resulted in his capture, and he is the only one of the suspected five men in ­volved in the actual assassination who was apprehended at the scene of the crime.

Francis, one of M alcolm ’s closest associates, is being held in $10,000 bail on charges of felonious as­sault and vio la tion of the Sullivan Law w hich makes possession of pistols by citizens illegal in New York. Francis was arrested at the police station where he had gone vo lun ta rily a fte r the tragic events at M alcolm ’s last meeting.

Francis had gone to the station to accompany M alcolm ’s secretary, James Shabazz, who was taken there by the police. [See in te rv iew w ith James Shabazz, Page 3.] Francis was unarmed at the time of his arrest.

Francis was one of several of - M alco lm 's associa tes . who.- had been detailed to accompany M a l­colm because o f repeated threats and actual attempts on his life which the police and F B I had ignored.

Francis faces s t if f prison sen­tences on the charges and a w e ll- organized, w ide ly publicized and expensive legal defense w il l be necessary to save h im from this injustice. I t is a m atter of simple decency that a man should not be victim ized on charges of attem pt­ing to defend him self and his close friend from the guns of as­sassins. A ttem pts to have the bail reduced have been denied.

The case of Reuben Francis is not a c rim ina l matter, bu t a c iv il liberties case of broad significance. In addition, the persecution of Francis represents an attem pt by the authorities to strike a damag­

More Nationalists Jailed in N.Y.

N E W Y O R K , March 3 — Continuing the ir persecution of supporters of Malcolm X , N ew Y ork police arrested three men yesterday on charges of v iolating the S u l­livan weapons law .

John 57X , C yril 2X and W illie H ilton were charged w ith being in the “presence” of an unloaded sawed-off shotgun. The three young men were in an apartm ent which belonged to another person, when police broke in and claimed they found the shotgun there. The police have not charged them w ith possession of the shotgun, but w ith being in the apart­ment where the gun allegedly was found. John 57X and C yril 2X were described as supporters of Malcolm X .

M eanw hile, the arra ign ­m ent of Reuben Francis was postponed to M arch 15 (see story above).

ing blow at the central group of M alcolm ’s fo llowers and to pre­vent them from carry ing on his w ork in the freedom struggle.

A t th is point, Francis’ legal de­fense is being handled through the organization w h i c h Malcolm founded, the Organization of A fro - American U nity . A ll supporters of the freedom struggle, of c iv il l ib ­erties, or of simple human decen­cy should ra lly to the defense of Reuben Francis in th is ease. Con­tribu tions to the legal defense may be sent to and fu rthe r in fo rm a­tion obtained from : ReubenFrancis, Organization of A fro - American U nity, Hotel Theresa, 2090 Seventh Ave., New York, N. Y. 10027.

By W illiam BundyM ARCH 3 — President Lyndon

B. Johnson moved fu rth e r up the escalator to nuclear w ar by the renewal yesterday of bombing raids on N orth Vietnam. This tim e the U.S. abandoned a ll p re ­tex t of “ re ta lia tion” fo r guerrilla attacks against U.S. forces in South Vietnam. I t now declares that i t w il l bomb North Vietnam any tim e i t chooses.

In addition during the preceding week Washington abandoned the fic tion tha t U.S. forces were not figh ting on the ir own. U.S. per­sonnel, w ithou t any Saigon “ co­

pilo ts” or passengers, carried out a ir strikes in South V ietnam open­ly in the name of the U.S. a ir force.

The U.S., therefore by its own admission is now in a shooting war in Vietnam, and has declared an open policy of aggressive w ar against N orth V ietnam — all w ith ­out a vote in Congress or even an explanation from Johnson to the American people as to w hat his policy rea lly is regarding escala­tion of the war.

The State Departm ent W hite Paper issued Feb. 27 explains no­thing. I t s im ply tries to ju s tify

Scene at H arlem funeral service fo r Malcolm X .

MALCOLM X’s FUNERAL SERVICES

bombing of N orth V ietnam by as­serting that there has been in f i l ­tra tion o f some arms and cadres from the N orth to aid the rev­o lu tionary guerrilla forces in the South. The o ffic ia l U.S. line is that this alleged in filtra tio n is the cause of the c iv il w ar in the South; that w ithou t it, the U.S. puppet regime in Saigon w ould be able to cope w ith the insurgent peasants.

B ut this is hogwash, and the w orld knows it. The rebellion in South V ietnam against the Saigon regime is a popular revolution, supported by the overwhelm ing m a jo rity of the South Vietnamese people, and fought w ith weapons captured from U.S. and puppet troops. Even the W hite Paper fo r a ll its trumped-up evidence fa ils to cite any crucia l aid from N orth Vietnam, the rem oval of which w ould make a s ign ificant d iffe r­ence in the fu tu re course of the revo lu tionary w ar in the South. This po in t is recognized by a ll observers, though adm itted only p riva te ly by U.S. officia ls.

Private Admission Max Frankel r eported in the

_Feh. 18 N ew York. Times tha t U:S. o ffic ia ls p riva te ly adm it ‘ ‘tha t the non-Communist forces in South Vietnam are too weak p o lit ica lly and m ilita r ily to negotiate any­th ing except the surrender of the ir country to the Vietcong . . . that even i f the Soviet Union, Commu­nist China and N orth V ietnam were interested in guaranteeing the ‘n eu tra lity ’ o f South V ietnam , they could not persuade the V ie t­cong to lay down the ir arms w ith ­out assuring them a dominant, position in fu tu re Saigon govern­ments — the equivalent in Wash­ington’s eyes of defeat.”

Nevertheless, the U. S. now proclaims tha t its bombing strikes against the N orth — and open threats to bomb N orth V ietnam

(Continued on Page 6)

‘He Would Not Bow His Head to Any Tyrant’By Fred Halstead

NEW YORK, Feb. 27 — Three hours before the funeral of M a l­colm X was scheduled to begin at 9:30 th is morning, people started lin in g up outside the church at 147th St. and Amsterdam Ave. in Harlem. Though i t was Saturday, the stores in the surrounding area were closed, or were doing no business. By the tim e the services began at about 10 a.m. there were several thousand Negroes — and a few dozen whites — standing qu ie tly in the b itte r cold, unable to gain admission to the packed church which held about 1,000.

Inside the church, which had at one tim e been a movie theatre, most o f the stage had been as­signed to the press and was crowd­ed w ith reporters, cameras and TV equipment.

There were a number of u n i­formed policemen inside the hall. (A ll were Negroes, as were those who had been stationed in the funera l home where the body had been on view and where some 30,-

000 persons had passed through to pay the ir respects.)

The casket, open and w ith a glass cover over the body, rested in fron t of the stage. The fam ily and close friends sat in the fron t rows. B etty Shabazz, Malcolm X ’s w idow, was veiled in black. Be­hind them sat members of M al­colm ’s M uslim Mosque, Inc.

Prominent Figures *In the audience were a number

of prom inent figures, including John Lewis, chairman of the S tu­dent Nonvio lent Coordinating Committee; D ick Gregory; Stan­ley Branche of the Chester, Pa., Freedom Now Committee; James Farm er of CORE; Bayard Rustin, organizer of the 1963 March on Washington; Harlem rent strike leader Jesse Gray; and James Forman, executive d irector of SNCC. I believe I recognized Rob­e rt Moses, head of SNCC’s M is­sissippi Project, in one of the fron t rows.

Ossie Davis, the Broadway actor-producer, took the pu lp it.

On behalf of the w idow he thanked Bishop A lv in A. Childs, pastor o f Faith Temple, Church of God in Christ, who had made the church available fo r the fu n ­eral. Rev. Childs, who is also the uno ffic ia l M ayor of Harlem, had d istributed a statement to the re­porters present which said in part:

“ . . . B rother Malcolm was cut o ff in the prime of a life tha t was portending to be a greatly con­structive one. A life w h ich would have, perhaps, i f i t has not already done so, made him a part of that select group which are hallowed in history as great leaders.”

Ossie Davis acknowledged the presence of many Negro leaders and said tha t a m em orial meet­ing is being planned fo r a la ter time, at which there could be many more speakers — and speeches of a d iffe ren t k ind — than at the funeral.

Ruby Dee, the actress, then read some of the messages received by the w idow from around the w orld. Included among the senders men­tioned were: The P an-A frican ist

Congress of South A frica w hich hailed Malcolm X as “ a n ti- im ­peria list, anti-colonialist and anti-

(Continued on Page 5)

Memorial Meeting To Hear ShabazzN E W Y O R K — James Sha­

bazz of the M uslim Mosque, Inc., w ill be guest speaker at a m em orial meeting fo r M a l­colm X on Friday, M arch 5, 8:30 p.m. at 116 U niversity Place. Shabazz was Malcolm X ’s personal secretary.

Sponsored by the M ilita n t Labor Forum , the meeting w ill also hear Robert Vernon, contributor to The M ilitan t, and Jack Barnes of the Young Socialist A lliance. C lifton D eBerry, 1964 pres­idential candidate of the So­cialist Workers P arty w ill be chairman.

Supporter of Malcolm X Faces Police Frame-Up

Johnson's Bombings Keep World at Brink in Vietnam

Page Two T H E M IL IT A N T Monday, March 8, 1965

THE STEEL WORKERS' ELECTION

B y A r th u r M a g linChallenge to 'Tuxedo Unionism’

D AYTO N , Ohio — About 150 people, demonstrated in fro n t of D ayton’s Federal B u ild ing Feb. 20, demanding an end to the w ar in Vietnam. They carried signs w ith such slogans as “ Self-D e­te rm ination For V ietnam ,” “ B ring O ur B oys Home,” “ End U.S. In ­tervention in V ietnam ” and, “ W ith ­d raw Stop Senseless K illin g .” -,

The demonstration was spon-

SWP Backs Nominee In Milwaukee Race

M ILW A U K E E — M yrtle Kast­ne r has file d nom ination papers as a candidate fo r th is c ity ’s school board in the M arch 9 p rim ary . She is the on ly candi­date w ho served as a Freedom School teacher during the school boycott last M ay 18.

That, boycott was a m a jo r event in the h is to ry o f M ilw aukee’s Ne­gro comm unity. Some 16,000 stu­dents supported it.

Miss Kastner, 33, is a native M ilwaukeean. She has been active'.' in * the c iv il-righ ts move­m ent since the student sit-ins in the.fi South f irs t evoked sympathy p icke t lines in th e ir support at the W oolworth chain here. She is a member of the M ilw aukee U n it­ed School In tegration Committee (M U S IC ), CORE and the Negro Am erican Labor Council. She served as o ffice chairman of M USIC u n til she resigned to run fo r the school board. Among the places she has helped to p icket is the school board itself.

When asked w hy she was ru n ­ning, Miss Kastner stated: “ Last year Malcolm X said tha t i f whites were tru ly se rious about the fig h t fo r equa lity , they should te ll other whites. I believe the best way to accomplish th is is through an elec­tion campaign.”

Miss Kastner seeks the endorse­m ent o f a ll progressive labor and c iv il-righ ts organizations. She has been interviewed by the AFL-CIO Com m ittee on P o litica l Education (COPE), bu t does not expect its endorsement in v iew of its de­c lina tion to endorse school-boycott leader L loyd Barbee in his suc­cessful campaign last fa ll fo r the state assembly. Miss Kastner’s campaign p la tfo rm has been en­dorsed by the Wisconsin Socialist W orkers Party.

sored by the Dayton Area Com­m ittee i t i r Peace in Vietnam, a group formed in response to the U.S. government’s bomb attacks on N orth Vietnam. The committee is composed of Dayton-area resi­dents, Antioch College students and students from other Dayton- area schools, includ ing W ilberforce U niversity.

Whe'ri they arrived at the Fed­eral B u ild ing, the demonstrators were met by an u ltra -r ig h t group of 25, composed Of Cuban counter­revolutionaries and r ig h t-w in g students from the U n ivers ity of Dayton. They called themselves “ Americans fo r Am erica.”

The righ t-w ingers carried signs reading “ Better Dead than Red,” “ Retreat H ell, A ttack ,” “ Does A n ­tioch College Endorse the UN and One-W orld Government?” One C u b a n counter-revo lu tionary ’s sign said: “ We A re the R igh tfu l Citizens of Dayton — .Get Out In truders.” Another counter-picket group arrived jus t as the demonstration

ended. They demanded the U.S. stay in V ietnam to fig h t “ communism,” This group was from the U n ivers ity of Dayton Young Democrats.

The righ t-w ingers ’ mention of Antioch refers to the fact tha t a l it t le over ha lf o f the an ti-w a r demonstrators were students from nearby Antioch College.

' - ’• BOSTON MALCOLM X: HIS LIFE AND WORK.

A tribute and1 Analysis by Robert Ver­non, writer for The Militant. Fri.. March 12, 8 p.m. 295 Huntington Ave. Rm. 307 (one block from Mass. Ave.) Contrib. 50c Ausp. Militant Labor Forum/- -

• P .- •CHICAGO

JOHNSON'S DIRTY WAR IN VIET­NAM. Speaker, Joel Britton, Midwest Organizer, Young Socialist Alliance. Fri., March 12, 8 p.m. Debs Hall, 302 S. Canal St. Ausp. Friday Night Socialist Forum.

•- LOS ANGELES

THEODORE EDWARDS presents a Marxist view of the news in his bi­weekly* radio commentary. Tues., March 16, 6:30 p.m. (repeated Wed.. March 17, 9 a.m.) KPFK-FM (90.7 on your dial).

•MINNEAPOLIS

THE RISE OF THE CIO: Lessons for Today's Youth. Speaker, Charles Scheer. Fri., March 12, 8:30 p.m. 704 Hennepin Ave., Hall 240. Ausp. Friday Night So­cialist Forum.

•NEW YORK

WHO'S RESPONSIBLE FOR VIET­NAM.?. Speaker: Edward Shaw, '64 Vice- Pr*«6dential candidate of the Socialist Workers Party. Fri., March 12, 8:30 p.m. Mi University PI. Contrib. $1. Ausp. Militant Labor Forum.

* * * - JAMES SHABAZZ, secretary to Mal­colm X, will be interviewed by Harry Rirvg, staff writer for the Militant, on WBAI-FM (99.5 on the dial). Thurs., March II, 7:45 p.m. (repeated Fri., March 12 10 a.m.)

D AYTO N — The Dayton A l­liance fo r Racial E qua lity (DARE) is now engaged in a fig h t to force the Dayton C ity Commission to pass a F a ir Housing Ordinance which- would help relieve the s it­uation of the citizens of th is c ity ’s West Side black ghetto,

fr* A F a ir Housings Ordinance was presented to the C ity Commission last June, bu t the Commission voted i t down. I t used a threat from Dayton’s rea lty board as its excuse. The realtors had th reat­ened to pu t a c ity -cha rte r amend­ment on the ba llo t against fa ir housing and against acceptance of federal urban-renewal funds.

Urban renewal brings about $200 m illion a year to Dayton. These programs knock down slums and replace them w ith h igh-ren t d istricts. The fo rm er slum resi­dents then have to fin d housing elsewhere, w hich is especially d if ­f ic u lt fo r Negroes because of hous­ing d iscrim ination.

DARE is in the process of col­lecting enough signatures to file a pe tition w hich w ould require a vote of the electors on a ll housing ordinances in the city, includ ing urban-renewal o r d i n a n c e s . DAR E’s position is tha t urban re­newal w ould be a ll r ig h t i f Day­ton had a fa ir-housing ordinance, bu t i f they don’t get it, they w il l f ile the ir petition and jeopardize the urban-renewal funds.

By Tom LeonardThe recent election in the U n it­

ed Steelworkers of America (U S A ), and the intensive cam­paigning tha t preceded it, is the healthiest development in tha t un­ion in over 15 years.

I t brought the f irs t m a jor chal­lenge to USA President David J. McDonald and tb w ha t his oppo­nents, re fe rring to his fra te rn iz­ing and deal-making w ith the steel barons in plush surroundings, ca ll his policy of “ tuxedo union­ism.”

U no ffic ia l returns cred it I. W. Abel, the challenger fo r the USA presidency, w ith having won the election by a m argin estimated in the Jan. 23 New Y ork Times at4.000 and by Abel supporters at10.000 votes,- The only report so fa r in the uno ffic ia l counting of a McDonald v ic to ry comes from his supporters who cla im a 2,400-vote m argin.

The pattern o f voting revealed t h a t the deepest resentment against the McDonald machine was in Canada, where union mem­bers reportedly voted three-to-one fo r Abel. In the U.S., however, the vo ting indicates tha t general op­position to the regime in the un­ion made i t d iff ic u lt fo r workers to d iffe ren tia te between Mc­Donald’s Slate and tha t of Secre- tary-Treasurer Abel, w hich in ­cluded USA executive-board mem­bers, who, l ik e : -Abel, had col­laborated w ith McDonald fo r years. •«;

D is tric t 4 D irector Joseph Mo- lony, fo r example, whose ju r is ­d iction includes most o f the Bethlehem Steel plants, was the vice-presidential candidate on A be l’s slate. Most of the workers in his d is tric t reportedly voted fo r McDonald.

S im ila rly in D is tr ic t 31, which takes in East Chicago and Gary, Ind., comprising some 125,000 steel workers, the biggest u n it in the union, McDonald reportedly got a ve ry heavy vote. Joseph Germano, the long-time d is tric t d irector there, had served as A be l’s cam­paign manager.

S lim EdgeOn the West Coast, where he

had been expected to w in by a landslide, McDonald got on ly a s lim m a jo rity .

Should the o ffic ia l count con­firm A be l’s v ictory) McDonald w il l undoubtedly launch a pro­tracted court fig h t against it. So fa r charges of election violations, file d by both sides, to ta l at least 150.

The only other challenge to Mc­Donald’s regime was in 1959'by tHfe m ovem ent headed by -Donald C. R arick. This was a weak and isolated opposition 'ca lling itse lf the Organization fo r Membership Rights. Despite the movement’s

U of C Students at Berkeley Hit Firing of N.Y. Teacher

NEW YORK, Feb. 22 — A peti­tion signed by 814 persons at the U n ive rs ity of C a liforn ia at Berkeley, protesting the f ir in g of a professor, has been sent to Adelphi U niversity. The petition reads as fo llows:

“ We the undersigned students, facu lty and employes of the U n i­vers ity o f C aliforn ia Berkeley cam­pus: 1) Protest the abridgement of academic freedom by the Adel­phi A dm in istra tion in the fir in g of Sociology Professor A llenKrebs, because of his po litica l be­liefs, and 2) Express our support fo r the Free Student Movement o f A delph i in its efforts to defend academic and po litica l freedoms.”

The petition was signed by M ario Savio and other leaders of the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley.

Krebs was suspended from 1 teaching any classes th is semester

though his contract extends through June. No reasons were given h im fo r the suspension, nor was any facu lty hearing granted. K rebs had an outstanding record at Adelphi. Trouble began only a fte r he and his fam ily w ent to Cuba last summer in defiance of the State Departm ent ban.

O ffic ia ls of Adelph i said in state­ments to the press tha t Krebs was fired because he taught M arx is t views in his classes.

Krebs stated in an in te rv iew tha t a number o f members of the facu lty who supported h im in his efforts to reta in his job had been victim ized by the adm inistration. Part-tim e teachers w ithou t tenure were fired ; schedules were unex­pectedly rearranged to cause in ­convenience; and one teacher was not given an expected raise.

Students a t''A d e lp h i have pro­tested the f ir in g of Krebs.

w ith an eye to s im ila r results in the pending steel negotiations.

McDonald isn’t the on ly one w orried about the outcome of the election. The steel barons and busi­ness newspapers are deeply con­cerned. The big-business magazine, U.S. News and W orld Report of March 1, notes: “ Where younger, or newer, leaders take charge of unions, employers expect more trouble at the bargaining table.” The an ti-labo r jou rna l then ob­served tha t in te rna l union disputes can last fo r months or years — “ adding up to a good deal o f trou ­ble fo r employers.”

SignificanceThe dispute in the steel union,

however, is not m erely a power fig h t among offic ia ls. Behind i t there is the beginning o f a fle x ing of muscles b y> ran k-a n d -file w o rk ­ers. They are alarmed about the deterioration in the ir w ork ing con­ditions and the prevalent job in ­security because of automation and technological changes in the steel industry. Im p lic it in the sup­port of Abel, therefore, are de­mands, s ti l l unform ulated, to cope w ith these dangers.

One step tha t opponents of Mc­Donald’s company unionism po­licies must take ' i s t o . guard against v ictim izations — as took place in the case o f R arick and his supporters — by e ither Mc­Donald or the steel companies. The most effective safeguard Against that is to ra lly the ranks around a program representing the in ­terests of a m a jo rity of the steel workers. r •

Such a program should include the demand fo r 30-for-40, the shorter w ork-w eek w ith no reduc­tion in take-home pay. This is the only effective way of stopping the loss of jobs to automation. , ,

That th is demand -is -in vthe thoughts of steel workers is shown by the Feb. 4 issue of the Lora in Labor Leader, the weekly news­paper of USA Local 1104 in Lo ­rain, Ohio. The longest artic le in th is pro-Abel paper begins on page one under a headline proclaim ing: “ The 30-Hour Week; W hy I t ’s P ractica l.”

Return of Files Is Won by SCEF

NEW ORLEANS — A ll o rig ina l records and other m ateria l seized from the Southern Conference Educational Fund have been re­turned fo llow ing a hearing in the U.S. D is tr ic t Court.

The- records Were delivered to the SCEF office on Perdido Street here Feb. 16, about 16 months a fte r they were taken away by City and state police.

A vanload of m ateria l had been seized on orders of the Louisiana Un-American A ctiv ities Com m it­tee (L U A C ), w hich charged that SCEF was a subversive organiza­tion. SCEF describes itse lf as a Southwide organization of whites and Negroes dedicated to ending segregation and d iscrim ination.

SCEF declared tha t LU AC used the charge of subversion as a pre­tex t fo r destroying an organiza­tion w ork ing fo r c iv il rights. Th is question is now under study by the U.S. Supreme C ourt as a re­su lt o f an appeal by SCEF, heard on Jan. 25.

Meantime, c rim ina l charges re­main against J im Dombrowski, SCFF -executive d irector; Ben­jam in E. Smith, SCEF treasurer and noted c iv il-righ ts attorney, and Bruce W altzer, Sm ith ’s law pa rt­ner.

The charges by LU AC are the latest in a long series o f attacks on SCEF and its s ta ff by state investigating bodies, the House Un-American A ctiv ities Committee and Senator James O. Eastland of M ississippi. Eastland heads the Senate In te rna l Security Subcom­mittee.

New Dayton Anti-War Group Pickets For End of Intervention in Vietnam

M cD ona ld

weakness and lack of program, R arick polled 250,000 votes to Mc­Donald’s 404,000. Rarick claimed he would have won i f there had. been an honest count.

A t the USA convention in 1960 R arick and some o f his supporters were physically, assaulted by con­vention “ ushers.” H is movement was red-baited by the union news­paper and subsequently disap­peared.

In this year’s election, however, McDonald has been . „unable to u tilize the union’s national ap­paratus to smash the opposition since a m a jo rity of ttie USA execu­tive board supports Abel. More­over, Abel himself, in his capacity as USA secretary-treasurer, is in charge of the counting of the votes under supervision of the Honest B a llo t Association.

Court TestShould the uno ffic ia l v ic to ry of

the Abel slate stand up a fte r the o ffic ia l ta lly , court challenges by McDonald could tie up the out­come fo r a year or two, during which he m ight be able to con­tinue as USA president.

McDonald’s close ties w ith the capita lis t politicians, pa rticu la rly w ith the present Democratic ad­m in istra tion, could assure h im of a favored hearing in the mass media and the courts. H is close­ness to the boss-dominated parties was cited during the campaign by his supporters in Los Angeles, the Committee fo r Experienced Lead­ership. “ Repeatedly,” they boasted, “ both Republican and Democratic Presidents have been seeking Pres­ident McDonald’s advice on matters

tha t pertain to Labor and Management relations and legisla­tion .”

(M cDonald’s “ advice” a p ­parently was ineffective 6r not in* the interests of rank-and-file un­ionists, judg ing by the fact that since he took office in 1954 not a single m ajor piece o f pro-labor legislation was passed, nor a m ajor piece of anti-labor legislation re­pealed.)

Another threat to rank-and-file steel workers, both in regard to an honest outcome of the election and the pending negotiations w ith the steel corporations, is federal in tervention. On Jan. 23 i t was announced that Secretary of Labor W irtz had sent representatives to P ittsburgh to observe the o ffic ia l counting of the ballots.

H it Dockers TooW irtz ’s most recent in tervention

in a union dispute was during the longshore strike whose outstand­ing feature was rank-and-file re­sistance to acceptance of a contract being imposed by the union lead­ers and the stevedoring companies. W irtz served on the presidential panel which called fo r the strikers to re tu rn to w ork in ports where contracts had been accepted. The im position of th is “ recommenda­tion ” broke the Internationa l Longshoremen’s Association’s tra ­d itiona l policy of industry-w ide bargaining and united action by a ll ports. I t is npt excluded tha t W irtz ’s early in tervention in the steel union’s matters is calculated

Monday, March 8, 1965 TH E M IL IT A N T Page Three

Interview W ith James ShabazzBy H arry Ring

[James Shabazz was Malcolm X ’s personal secretary. He is a member o f the M uslim Mosque, Inc., and the Organization of A fro- Am erican U n ity . In granting th is in te rv iew , however, he emphasized tha t he was speaking as an in ­d iv idua l and not fo r e ither organ­ization.]

Q. Do you have any comment on the reports tha t supporters of M alcolm may be seeking revenge fo r his death?

A. In te lligen t people realize tha t the tremendous power struc­ture tha t exists in the United States and throughout the w orld came in to being by d iv id ing peo­ple, who had jus t grievances, one against the other so the forces o f oppression could control both. Thus we understand w hy the power structure w ould u tilize any opportun ity to t r y to give the im ­pression tha t we are fig h tin g one another instead o f our common enemy.

B u t B ro ther Malcolm died fo r the concept of u n ity o f A fro- Americans and other peoples of A frican descent. We are concerned w ith fu rthe ring the concept fo r w hich he died — a u n ity of A fro- Am erican peoples and people of A frican orig in in other parts of the w orld , and a u n ity o f Am er­ican Muslim s w ith Muslim s throughout the w orld — not w ith figh ting , b lack m ilita n t against b lack m ilitan t, w h ile our oppres­sor stands by laughing.

Q. The press is charging, even though the police have offered no basis fo r doing so, tha t supporters of M alcolm were responsible fo r the burn ing of the Nation o f Islam Mosque in Harlem . Do you have any comment on this?

A. This is rem iniscent of the Reichstag F ire incident in Ger­many "Where the Nazis burned down the Reichstag themselves in order to ju s tify oppressing people la te r on. The power structure is try in g to create pretexts now tha t w il l ju s tify oppressive measures w hich they already plan to put in to force against a ll the m ilita n t elements in the struggle fo r l ib ­eration in th is country.

Therefore, i t doesn’t surprise us, a fte r the jou rna lis tica lly - created “ blood-brothers” hoax and the S.tatue-of-Liberty fiasco, that the power structure is again a t­tem pting to create a basis to ju s tify fu rth e r oppressive meas­ures which i t has been planning to use against the m ilita n t people

James Shabazz

who are seeking freedom from oppression.

Q. Radio programs have re­peated the broadcasting o f a taped' statement, made by M a l­colm shortly before his death, in w h ich he said he was certain his fo llowers w ould not seek re ta lia ­tion. How do the members of the organization feel about this?

A. B ro ther Malcolm died teach­ing a concept of a u n ity o f op­pressed people. Oppressed people cannot achieve u n ity by figh ting against one another w h ile the real cu lp rit, who pits them one against the other, stands back and smiles. B rother M alcolm ’s assassination must be viewed in terms o f the forces tha t ordered i t ra ther than in terms of the tools that perpe­trated the act.

I t was not s im ply coincidental tha t he was assassinated a fte r having been refused admittance to France and a fte r an attem pt had been made to prevent h im from re-entering England, tw o countries w h ich — like the United States — are w orld powers that have tre ­mendous populations o f peoples of A frican orig in and Muslims, a ll o f whom are oppressed — tru ly a thorn in the side of a power struc­tu re determined to go to w ar in Asia against other non-w hite peo­ples.

Q. W hat is the status of Reuben Francis, an active member of M a l­colm ’s organization charged w ith wounding one o f the suspected as­sailants? I understand Francis is being held on $10,000 ba il on charges o f felonious assault and illega l possession of a gun.

A. B rother Reuben was never asked to come to police headquar­ters. I was asked i f I wanted po­lice protection. UP°n rep ly ing in the negative, two officers asked me i f I w ould take them o ff the hook by accompanying them to the 34th Precinct and te lling th e ir su­perior tha t I d id not require police protection.

H aving a knowledge o f police b ru ta lity — I have lived in the ghetto a ll m y life — I fe lt i t best tha t I be accompanied by some­one. I asked B ro ther Reuben to accompany me. We were both de­tained but not pu t under arrest.

A t th is tim e someone claimed tha t he had seen Brother Reuben pursuing a fleeing gunman — in other words, doing the job which the New Y ork Police Department, the FB I, the Bureau of Special Services and the C IA were un­w illin g and /o r unable to do.

They arrested h im on a fe lon i­ous assault charge and added the Su llivan Law charge though he was in possession o f no weapon and, to my knowledge, there was on ly one person who claims that B rother Reuben was g u ilty of carry ing out the function that the police should have carried out.

Q. How w ould you assess the police claims tha t they offered to provide protection a fte r the bomb­ing of M alcolm ’s home?

A. This is like a .locksmith who

offers to lock the barn a fte r the horse has been stolen. Police and F B I had been notified of attempts upon his life from A p r il 1964.

Q. Do you feel the bombing and k ill in g were the w ork of the same forces?

A. The bombing and the k ill in g stem from the same forces tha t assassinated Patrice Lumumba, Diem, Kennedy, the President of Burundi, Medgar Evers, the six ch ildren in the B irm ingham church and the 5,000 black people who have been murdered in A m e r­ica since the Emancipation Proc­lamation — w ith not one cu lp rit ever having been brought to jus­tice — the same vicious, racist forces that are attem pting to con­tro l America and who are m urder­ing peoples engaged in ju s t strug­gles of liberation against vicious oppressors a ll over the w orld.

Q. W hat are the plans so fa r fo r p rovid ing fo r M alcolm ’s w idow and children?

A. Peoples throughout the w orld who are in some small degree aware of the vast contribution that B rother M alcolm made to the A fro -A m erican L iberation strug­gle are m aking welcomed con tri­butions fo r the w idow and ch il­dren o f Malcolm X — as was done fo r the w idow of our Congolese brother, Patrice Lumumba.

Contributions can be sent to Mrs. Malcolm X, Hotel Theresa, 2090 Seventh Ave., New York, N.Y. 10027.

Q. Malcolm often spoke of an impending attack. D id he make

B y Joel B rittonSELM A, A la., Feb. 24 — In the

embattled Negro com m unity of th is b lack-be lt city, I had the op­p o rtun ity of in te rv iew ing two leaders of the freedom struggle — Mrs. A ir ii lia Boynton and Silas Norman.

Mrs. Boynton, secretary of the Dallas County Voters League, has lived in Selma fo r 33 years. Silas Norman, born in Georgia, is cu r­ren tly the pro ject d irector in Sel­ma fo r the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Mrs. Boynton said tha t despite the many arrests and beatings of Negroes by police, the voter-reg- istra tion campaign in Selma is m aking progress. Obtaining the rig h t to vote, in her opinion, would make i t possible to get rid of “ the radical segregationists who have the ir foot on the Negro’s neck.” She said, “ V io lent people, like S he riff J im C lark, must be re -. placed — he is outmoded, an ti­quated, has no place in th is mod­ern tim e.”

Discussing the situation in V ie t­nam, she said: “ I f we can have U.S. soldiers in Vietnam, w hy not in Mississippi and Alabama? . . . M any who are figh ting in V ie t­nam w il l come back and not be able to vote or even register to vote.”

Mrs. Boynton voiced her support o f the Mississippi Freedom Demo­cratic P arty (FD P) and its efforts to unseat the illega lly sleeted D ixiecrats “ representing” Missis­sippi in Congress. “ I w ould like to start one [an FD P] here,” she said. “ Less than five per cent of the Negroes are registered to vote in this d is tr ic t — 6,000 Negroes to95,000 whites.”

Going to the SNCC-SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) office,' I found on the door a sign which announced: ‘ ‘This office is in m ourning fo r Malcolm X .”

I asked Silas Norman about M alcolm ’s v is it to Selma three weeks earlier. “ He was very w e ll received, w arm ly received,” was the answer. “ The problem is tha t jm any more people agreed w ith

known his wishes as to the func­tion ing of the two organizations in the eventuality of his being k illed?

A. B rother Malcolm said that he had la id a foundation w hich could never be destroyed in case of his death — the Organization of A fro - Am erican U n ity , w ith branches in d iffe ren t areas of the w orld, is f irm ly established. He had, a fte r his re tu rn from his second tr ip , asked some o f us to assume the responsib ility fo r the M uslim Mos­que and had done so again two days before his assassination. H is plans fo r the function ing o f both organizations were made know n to myself and other ind iv iduals in whom he confided.

Q. Do you have any comment on the statement by Roy W ilk ins and others, w ide ly echoed in the da ily press, tha t M alcolm fe ll v ic ­tim to the violence he promoted?

A. Rather than d ign ify ing that assertion by a comment o r a state­ment, I w ould ask another ques­tion: Who promoted the violence tha t Medgar Evers was a v ic tim of? Who promoted the violence tha t the B irm ingham children were vic tim s of? Who promoted the violence tha t Charles Mack Parker was a v ic tim of? Who promoted the violence tha t Em­m ett T il l was a v ic tim of? Who promotes the violence that black people have been victim s o f since th e ir a rr iva l on the shores of America — violence tha t has re ­sulted in the lynch ing of 5,000 black people since the Emancipa­tion Proclamation?

h im than w il l adm it i t . . . . I t wasn’t fashionable due to the image people had of Malcolm as a bad thing, a fie ry renegade, a fanatic. The press was responsible fo r th is false image . . . I t is tra ­gic tha t most people d idn ’t under­stand the effect he was having on in ternationa l relations, the u n ify ­ing effect he was having on black people a ll over the w orld .”

Concerning M alcolm ’s assassins, the SNCC pro ject d irector said: “ I t couldn’t be ju s t the B lack Muslims. B u t i f you look at the Lum um ba m urder and other things the U.S. has done around the w orld, i t makes me suspicious. I th in k i t is much deeper than jus t a conflic t w ith the B lack Mus­lim s . . . Whoever succeeds h im w il l be even more m ilita n t . . . and may come from outside the O A A U ” [O rganization of A fro - American U n ity ],

Seek Big TurnoutSNCC, he said, w ould try to get

2,000 students to Washington to help w ith the FDP challenge of the Mississippi Congressmen and would get other states involved in FDP w ork. “ I t is necessary to take this po litica l step — we need in ­dependent po litica l action . . . ev­eryone ought to partic ipate in gov­ernment, people of a ll economic and educational levels — tha t’s what we are figh ting fo r.”

Norman also said his concept of independent po litica l action did not mean “ people try in g to absorb themselves into the present p o lit­ica l structure, but bu ild ing a p o lit­ica l structure where a ll people can take part. This is not possible in the Republican or Democratic parties.”

Asked his views on the situation in Vietnam, he replied: “ We have no business there, protecting U.S. business interests which go abroad to explo it. I don’t th in k we ought to be over there. B u t not enough people have said anyth ing about it. I haven’t e ither, but I won’t go over there, tha t’s a ll I can say.”

He described the situation in Selma, po in ting out tha t i f federal referees were appointed to ex­pedite the registration o f Negroes,

Q. The meeting at w hich M a l­colm was k ille d was announced as one where an action program fo r the O AAU w ould be • presented. Has the program been draw n up and w il l i t be made public?

A. The action program o f the O AAU has been completed and printed, bu t no copies have been made available to the public. A l l matters concerning i t w il l be de­term ined by those dedicated mem­bers o f the organization who are redoubling the ir e fforts to b ring in to rea lity the concepts fo r w h ich B ro ther Malcolm va lian tly offered his life .

Q. W hat can those sympathetic to your movement do to help In the present situation?

A. Those concerned w ith the w elfare o f the fa m ily can send contributions fo r them. Those i n - . terested in fu rthe ring A fro -A m e r­ican U n ity should fam ilia rize themselves w ith the w ork o f the Organization o f A fro -A m erican U n ity and communicate w ith i t a t the Hotel Theresa, 2090 Seventh Ave., New York, N. Y. 10027. Those interested in spreading the teaching o f Islam in this country, should communicate w ith the Mus­lim Mosque, Inc., at the same a d ­dress.

A ll o f these things w il l help en­sure tha t the concept fo r w h ich B rother Malcolm gave his life w i l l make his name a memory in x the , hearts and minds o f a ll people w ho are dedicated to m aking the w o rlc f a better place in which to live .

there was reason to believe peo-. pie w ould be registered. He said also tha t the ir research and ex­perience indicated tha t the local w hite power structure is divided, between the unsophisticated and the sophisticated racists.

“ The w h ite guy who is against J im C lark beating me on the head is no more interested in m y p a rti­cipating in government than J im C la rk is,” he declared. These so- : phisticated racists, in his opinion, want to pro ject a new image and w il l eventually become the dom­inant tendency in the w h ite com­m unity. A t present the ir spokes-*; man is W ilson Baker, Selma’s Public Safety D irector, “ Who pro­jects the image of protecting us from the w h ite mob, bu t we s ti l l aren’t getting registered . . . U n­less we’re careful, Negroes and our w h ite supporters • w il l be don-': fused.” j jv

Norman asked tha t opinions he expressed in the in te rv iew be considered as his own and not necessarily those of the c iv il-r ig h ts organizations.

We w ent to a church where grade-school and high-school stu­dents and some adults had gath­ered to discuss coming activ ities and problems.

One woman asked w hy she couldn’t “ go in the fro n t door o f the courthouse to register to vote when they le t me in to pay taxes.”

Another woman asked the same question, adding tha t they had le t her enter through the fro n t door to get her m arriage license.

In reply a teen-ager pointed out tha t Negroes getting m arried or paying taxes d idn ’t threaten the w hite man’s power, but register­ing to vote did. When the ques­tion: “ How does he m aintain his power?” was posed, the students pointed to the ba llo t and contro l of jobs.

One woman rose and said1: “ There was times when I ’d go to any door — side door or back door— and be glads ju s t to get in. B u t no more. Those times are over. .' I ’m going in the fro n t door!” E ft- ’ enthusiastic applause greeted these remarks.

M U S T R E A D I N G

The Road To Revolution

In Latin AmericaBY FIDEL CASTRO

Complete text of major policy

speech delivered on tenth an­

niversary of the historic July 26

attack on Fort Moncada.

50 eanh

P IO N E E R P U B L IS H E R S 5 East Th ird Street

N ew Y ork , N . Y . 10003

Describe Reaction to Malcolm X Speech

Interview With Selma Rights Fighters 1

Page Four TH E M IL IT A N T Monday, March 8, 1965

THE MILITANTE d ito r: JO SEPH H A N S E N

M anag ing E d ito r: G EO KG E L A V A N Business M anager: K A R O L Y N K E R R Y

P u b lish ed w e e k ly , excep t d u r in g J u ly and A u g u s t w hen pub lished b i-w e e k ly , by The M ili ta n t P u b lis h in g Ass’n., 116 U n iv e rs ity PI., N ew Y o rk 3, N .Y . Phone CH 3-2140. Second-class postage pa id a t N ew Y o rk , N .Y . S u b s c rip tio n : $3 a year; C anad ian , $3.50; fo re ig n , $4.50. S igned a rtic le s by c o n tr ib u to rs do n o t necessarily represen t The M il i ta n t ’s v iew s. These are expressed lx. ed ito ria ls .

V o l. 29 - No. 10 .*ig3g»>345 M onday, M arch 8, 1965

Rowan's Smear of Malcolm XIn th e course o f a d isg race fu l sm ear a tta ck on the la te M a l­

co lm X , C a rl Rowan, N egro d ire c to r o f the U n ite d States In fo r ­m a tio n Agency, u n w it t in g ly revea led m ore in fo rm a tio n than he in tended to. He a t least made k n o w n w h a t the press had no t p re v io u s ly repo rted — th a t the re was a strong, sym pa the tic re ­sponse in A fr ic a to M a lco lm a t the tim e o f h is death.

S peaking before the A m e rica n F o re ign P o licy A ssocia tion Feb. 25, R ow an expressed anger a t the good w ords be ing said in A fr ic a about the s la in b lack n a tio n a lis t leader. He asserted th a t these reactions by A fr ic a n s w ere the re s u lt o f a m isunde rs tand ing w h ic h pers is ted despite zealous e ffo rts by h is agency to apprise them o f th e rea l “ fac ts .”

H e c ited eulogies to M a lco lm in the N ig e ria n D a ily T im es ( “ a dedicated and consistent d isc ip le o f the m ovem ent fo r the em ancipa tion o f h is b re th re n ” ) , The G hanaian A ccra T im es ( “ the m il i ta n t and m ost p o p u la r A fro -A m e ric a n a n ti-se g reg a tio n is t leader” ) and the A ccra D a ily G raph ic ( “ the greatest b lo w to the A m e rica n in te g ra tio n is t m ovem ent since the shocking assassination o f M edgar Evers and John F. K e n n e d y ” ). Then R owan made th is shock ing assertion:

“ M in d you , here was a N egro w ho preached segregation and race ha tred , k i lle d by ano the r N egro p resum ab ly fro m ano the r o r ­gan iza tion th a t preaches segregation and race ha tred , and n e ith e r o f th e m rep resen ta tive o f m ore than a t in y m in o r ity o f the Negro p o p u la tio n o f A m e rica .”

T h is fa lse and venom ous sta tem en t g ives open expression to th e deep and a b id in g h a tred th a t R ow an ’s agency — a long w ith th e S tate D e p a rtm e n t — had fo r M a lco lm X . F ro m th e ir a n ti­b la ck v ie w p o in t, th e y had good reason fo r such an a tt itu d e to w a rd M a lco lm . M ore than any o th e r in d iv id u a l he made the A fr ic a n people aw are o f th e re a l p l ig h t o f th e ir oppressed A m e rica n b ro the rs .

I t was because M a lco lm had done such an e ffe c tive jo b th a t th e U S IA fo llo w e d h im fro m one A fr ic a n c ity to ano the r w ith p u rp o rte d “ t r u th ” squads, w ith p o rta b le p r in t in g equ ipm ent, seek­in g to re b u t w h a t he had to say. A n d th a t ’s w h y i t was om inous ly repo rted d u r in g h is t r ip th a t the S tate and Justice D epartm ents w e re deep ly “ in te re s te d ” in his ac tiv itie s .

M a lco lm X was a th o rn deep in the side o f the U.S. go ve rn ­m en t n o t o n ly because he b ro u g h t the t r u th to A fr ic a b u t because he was also p ro v in g e ffe c tive in ra l ly in g A fr ic a n sen tim en t and su p p o rt fo r th e f ig h t aga inst rac ism in the U.S. T h is was expressed m ost d ra m a tic a lly d u r in g th e U N debate on the Congo w hen one A fr ic a n delegate a fte r ano the r rose to denounce the U.S. fo r p e rp e tra tin g the same k in d o f ra c is t crim es aga inst the Congolese people th a t w ere be ing pe rpe tra ted aga inst the people o f M is ­sissipp i. The press conceded a t the t im e th a t the U.S. de legation to th e U N and the S tate D e p a rtm e n t w e re “ v is ib ly d is tu rb e d ” by such charges w h ich th e y fe lt echoed the v iew s o f M a lco lm X .

M a lc o lm ’s im pact in A fr ic a , coupled w ith h is ro le in the U.S. had made h im a key in te rn a tio n a l fig u re . T h a t was w h y the pow er s tru c tu re ha ted and feared h im . A n d the A fr ic a n reaction to h is death was no t the re su lt o f m is in fo rm a tio n . As A hm ed Ossman p u t i t a t M a lco lm ’s fu n e ra l: “ W e understood h im . W e heard w h a t he sa id .”

In so fa r as R ow an h im se lf is concerned, perhaps the k indes t th in g th a t can be said abou t h im was said in ano the r connection b y M a lco lm h im se lf w hen he spoke at the M il i ta n t La b o r F o rum Jan. 7.

He said: “ I ju s t read w he re th e y p lanned to m ake a b lack cab ine t m em ber . . . T h e y ’re go ing to take one o f th e ir boys, b lack boys, and p u t h im in the cab ine t so he can w a lk a round W ash­in g to n w ith a c ig a r — f i r e on one end and foo l on the o th e r.”

Meany Hits New Low on VietnamGeorge M eany and h is b u re a u cra tic cronies in the execu tive

counc il o f the A F L -C IO , m ee ting in the co m fo rt o f the A m ericana H o te l in the w in te r re so rt to w n o f B a l H a rb o u r, F lo r id a , have p o n tif ic a te d on a n um ber o f issues.

L ik e an o ve r-e n th u s ia s tic ju n io r execu tive h e ll-b e n t on pleas­in g h is boss un d e r any circum stances, M eany has responded to Johnson’s bom bings o f N o rth V ie tn a m w ith th e jin g o is tic fe rv o r o f a r ig h t-w in g Congressman. T h is m is rep resen ta tive o f la b o r en­dorsed “ energe tic re ta lia to ry m easures” aga inst N o rth V ie tnam , and w arned the A m e rica n people no t to “ pressure” Johnson in to negotia tions.

The A F L -C IO execu tive counc il also a ttacked some A m erican businessm en — n o t fo r e x p lo it in g la b o r a t home and abroad, b u t fo r tra d in g w ith “ C o m m u n is t” coun tries ! “ N o trade o r c red its concessions should be accorded to Moscow, P e ip ing o r any C om ­m u n is t gove rnm en t w ith o u t an adequate q u id p ro quo,” i t de­clares, such as th e ir end ing the “ subve rs ion ” and “ in va s io n ” o f V ie tn a m and c a llin g o ff th e ir “ m il i ta r y in f i l t r a t io n ” o f the Congo.

These la b o r fake rs have tim e and again dem onstra ted th e ir a b i l i ty and readiness to se ll ou t the A m e rica n w o rke rs on dom estic issues. N ow th e y have outdone them selves in b e tra y in g the in ­te rn a tio n a l in te rests o f those w orke rs , and w o rke rs eve ryw here , in th e ir ab jec t eagerness to dem onstra te th e ir “ p a tr io t is m ” and lo y a lty to th e c a p ita lis t governm ent.

NOTABLES ESTABLISH COMMITTEE

To Defend Victim of S. African RacistsNEW YORK — An American

committee has been formed to aid in the defense of Dr. N eville A lexander and other po litica l prisoners in South A frica.

O fficers and orig ina l sponsors announcing the form ation of the A lexander Defense Committee are Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, M axw ell Geismar, Horace Kallen, John O. K illens, S later K ing and Staugh- ton Lynd. They have invited other prom inent men and women of various po litica l beliefs to jo in them as sponsors of the Commit­tee to aid Dr. A lexander, one of South A fr ica ’s outstanding colored scholars, and other victim s of the b ru ta l apartheid police-state.

Arrested in Ju ly , 1963, and held w ithou t charges u n til November under the “ N inety Days Detention A ct,” D r. A lexander and his friends, although never accused of having committed any overt act, were convicted under the no tori­ous sabotage law. The prosecution attempted to prove only tha t they had met to explore possible meth­ods of conducting the struggle against apartheid and had read and discussed M arx is t lite ra ture and books on gue rrilla warfare.

For these “ crimes,” five of the defendants, includ ing Dr. A lex ­ander, were sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment, w h ile the others received sentences ranging from five to seven years. Since the ir conviction, the male prison­ers have been held in the infamous concentration camp on Robben Is­land. A fte r more than a year of delay, an appeal w i l l be heard be­fore the Supreme C ourt in Bloem­fonte in on March 2.

Action by ind iv idua ls and or­ganizations in West Germany, where Dr. A lexander studied and is w e ll known in academic circles,

D r. N eville A lexander

England, Ire land, Japan, and A lgeria has already brought w ide­spread support fo r the defendants. R olf Hochhuth, Theodor Adorno, Bertrand Russell, Isaac Deutscher, and C.L.R. James are among the thousands who have sought to aid these victim s of South A frican “ justice.” Through the ir efforts, the costs of the M arch 2 appeal have been met.

P rovisional officers o f the newly-formed A lexander Defense Committee are: Paul B. Boutelle, chairman; Robert H. Langston, executive secretary; Berta Green, corresponding secretary; and Dave Dellinger, treasurer. In addition to raising money fo r legal defense and to aid the v ic tim s’ fam ilies, the Committee w il l conduct an intensive educational campaign

and w il l organize demonstrations to protest the savagery of the in ­creasingly fascist-like South A f r i ­can regime.

W hatever the outcome o f the March 2 appeal, the need fo r in ­ternational support to opponents of apartheid w il l remain great. The Committee urges a ll who are in sympathy w ith the world-w ide struggle fo r human d ign ity , who detest racia l d iscrim ination and national oppression, who desire to see c iv il and po litica l liberties strengthened and e x t e n d e d throughout the w o rld to jo in in support of the Committee’s w ork. Contributions and correspondence should be sent to: A lexander De­fense Committee, P.O. Box 345, Canal Street Station, New York, N. Y. 10013.

Alexander Defense Aided By 2 Poets in Canada

A t a poetry reading in Van­couver, B ritish Columbia, on Feb. 12, tw o of Canada’s leading poets, A lfre d P urdy and M ilton Acorn, lent th e ir support to efforts to raise funds to help meet the cost of appeal in the case of Dr. N eville A lexander, the noted South A fr i ­can in te llectua l imprisoned by the tyrann ica l Verwoerd regime.

The tw o poets read from the ir current w ork to an audience of 70, composed m a in ly of un ive r­s ity students. The chairman of the function, Jean Rands, b rie fly explained the circumstances sur­rounding the A lexander case.

The funds donated were sent to England where a committee has been organized to help in A lexander’s defense. The poetry reading was organized under the auspices of Vanguard Books.

Liberation Movements United in Protest

U.S. Role in Vietnam Condemned[The fo llow ing declaration, pub­

lished in the Feb. 13 issue o f the A lg iers weekly Revolution A fr i- caine, can be taken to represent the consensus among the freedom- seeking peoples of A frica about the U.S. m ilita ry assaults on North Vietnam. The signers in ­clude tw o governments in exile, the ZAPU — Zimbabwe A frican People’s Union (Southern Rhode­sia) and the GRAE — R evolution­ary Government of Angola in Exile ; fou r guerrilla movements (in addition to the G R A E): the FRELIM O — Mozambique L ib - ex'ation Front, M P LA — Move­ment fo r the L iberation of Angola, PAIGC — A frican Party fo r the Independence of Guinea and the Cape Verde Islands, UPC— Union o^ th e Populations o f the Cameroun, and an educational and p u b lic ity form ation, SWAPO — South West A frican People’s O r­ganization. I t is w orth noting that both the GRAE and the M P LA joined in pu tting the ir names to the declaration although they are separated by b itte r factional d if ­ferences. The declaration is en­titled : “ National liberation move­ments protest the American ag­gression against the Democratic Republic of V ietnam .” ]

Once again, the American im ­perialists have ju s t committed a new aggression against the Demo­cratic Republic o f V ietnam by bombing the v illage of Dong Hoi, the province of V inh and the is­land of Con Co on the seventh and eighth of February 1965.

This attack comes a fte r the de­feat of the American arm y at P lei- ku, where the pa trio tic forces of the FN L [F ron t National de L i ­beration] destroyed or damaged 26 planes, enta iling eight deaths and 108 wounded among the ranks of the Am erican aggressors.

Thus, a fte r many successive set-

backs in South Vietnam, persisting in the ir policy of aggression, the American im peria lists are try in g to extend the w ar to N orth V ie t­nam in flagrant v io la tion of the sovereignty o f th is state. This constitutes a very grave precedent fo r the sovereignty of a ll coun­tries and threatens w orld peace. The American im peria lists are a l­ready conducting a w ar against the Congolese (Leopo ldville ) peo­ple, in Mozambique, in Angola, in so-called “ Portuguese” Guinea, in Cameroun, through NATO. In La tin Am erica they continue to extend the ir plans of enslavement by supporting puppet regimes and they have not given up the ir aim of smothering Cuba.

We, the representatives in A l­

giers of the revo lu tionary A frican and Asian movements:

1) S trongly denounce and con­demn the aggression of the A m er­ican im perialists against the Dem­ocratic Republic of V ietnam. This demonstrates once again tha t the American im peria lists in p a rti­cu lar are the enemies of a ll the peoples.

2) R eaffirm our unconditional support to the Vietnamese people in the ir heroic struggle against the American aggressors.

3) We congratulate the N orth V ietnam armed forces fo r the ir quick and precise reply, w hich on this occasion brought down 13 American w ar planes and da­maged ten others.

4) We congratulate the patriots under the guidance of the FN L fo r the ir success in th e ir struggle against the Am erican puppets and fo r the freedom and un ifica tion of Vietnam.

We are absolutely convinced tha t our common struggle against the common enemy and fo r the realization o f the fundam ental aspirations o f our peoples w il l succeed, no m atter w hat the cost, in overcoming the reactionary im ­peria lis t forces.

Down w ith Colonialism! Down w ith Neo-colonialism! Down w ith Im peria lism ! L o n g L ive the Friendship and S o lida rity of the Peoples!

1964 Bound Volume

T H E M I L I T A N T

$8.50

116 University Place New York, N. Y. 10003

A Feb. 20 dispatch in the Baltim ore A fro - A m erican from Andrews A ir Force Base in Washington reported this comment by Sfc. Eddie L. Anderson, a Negro G I who was flow n back w ith 29 oth­ers after being wounded d ur­ing the guerrilla attack at P le iku :

“First, the V ie t Cong seems to have more popular support than the Saigon government.

“ ‘They live w ith the peo­ple’, Anderson said. ‘During the day they’re farm ers and at night they’re V ie t Cong.’ ”

The in terv iew ended w ith the question: W ould he go back to V ietnam ?

‘“I hope not,’ he said in what sounded like a m ajority opinion.”

Negro GI Had Enough of Vietnam War

Monday, March 8, 1965 TH E M IL IT A N T Page Five

P ho to by C aro l S tevens

O R G A N IZE R S . Officers of the newly organized Appalachian Economic and Political Action Conference are (le ft to rig h t) Buford W . Posey, co-ordinator; Rev. G. J. H ill, secretary-treasurer; W ash­ington B utler Jr., chairm an; Bruce Moore, vice-chairm an; and Mrs. Lola Moore, vice-chairm an.

The Student Nonviolent Coor­d inating Committee met in A t­lanta, Ga., fo r the week of Feb. 12-19 to map plans fo r 19S5. The SNCC meeting decided to organ­ize “ upwards of 2,000” students to go to Washington, D.C., around June 15, and spend two to three weeks constantly lobbying fo r the unseating of the Mississippi Con­gressmen. SNCC feels that “ the Mississippi challenge — the un­seating of the five Congressmen from Mississippi — is the most im ­portant po litica l event of 1965 . . .”

These students w il l be asked to engage in non-v io len t d irect action to dramatize the need fo r unseat­ing the Mississippi Congressmen. The d irect action w il l also have the aim of supporting a new voting b il l m aking age and residence the sole qualifications fo r registering to vote, and o f supporting home ru le fo r the D is tr ic t o f Columbia itself. The nation ’s capital, which is presently run by a committee appointed by Congress, has a Ne­gro m a jo rity .

The SNCC meeting approved re­ports on the development o f a sec­u r ity system in Mississippi. I t has organized a flee t of over 60 cars in to the Sojourner M otor Fleet, w ith a state-w ide citizens-band radio system. “ F ie ld workers have said tha t such a radio system at the beginning of the summer m ight have prevented the murders of the three workers k illed in P hilade l­phia,” SNCC spokesmen said.

(Continued from Page 1)racist” ; the A frican-Pakistan-W est Ind ian Society of the London School of Economics; the M ichigan Freedom Now Party; the A m er­ican M uslim Students Association; the Los Angeles N AAC P Youth Chapter; the Freedom Fighters of Ohio; and P rim e M in is te r N kru- mah of Ghana. ,

Ahmed Ossman, a Sudanese who is head of the Islam ic Center of Geneva, Switzerland, then spoke.

“ We express deepest sorrow in the death o f our brother,” he said. “ We knew h im as a blood brother . . . especially a fte r his pilgrim age when he learned we are a ll bro­thers . . . he had come to know tha t a ll races can live in peace and harm ony w ith each other . . . and after he returned he never preached any racism. B u t he did not change his figh ting sp irit. He preached fu l l freedom. He would not bow down his head to any ty ra n t . . .”

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SNCC also is going to hold “ peo­ple’s conferences” in the states of Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama. “ A t these conferences we expect people from local com­munities to decide on certain pro­grams, and we w il l help them to implem ent these programs,” i t was stated.

In addition to the state confer­ences, plans were announced fo r “ a conference sometime in Ju ly, perhaps, when people from across the South, especially from the b lack-be lt counties of Georgia, A labama, Mississippi and A rka n ­sas w il l meet in a Southwide Peo­ple ’s Conference.” SNCC plans to discuss fu tu re programs at this conference.

The structure of SNCC was a l­tered. When i t began, SNCC was a co-ordinating committee of lo ­cally-based movements. Now' the entire s ta ff is pa rt of the decision­m aking co-ord inating committee and the executive committee. The executive committee is the in te rim governing body of SNCC. “ In es­sence, the in te rim governing body and the supervision of SNCC’s adm inistrative structure is con­tro lled by fie ld staff,” a release ex­plains.

To carry on the day-to-day w ork, a secretariat was set up. I t consists of John Lewis, chairman; James Forman, executive secre­ta ry ; and Cleveland Sellers, pro­gram secretary.

Ossman expressed anger w ith the Am erican press which ma­ligned Malcolm as a “ racist” even a fte r his break from E lijah Muhammad and his trips to A frica and the M iddle East. He referred to a report in the Feb. 26 New Y ork Times o f a speech by Carl" Rowan, d irector of the United States In fo rm ation Agency, in which Rowan said A fricans con­sidered Malcolm X a m arty r to freedom because they d idn ’t understand he was ju s t a racist.

“We Understood H im ”“ I was most shocked,” said

Ossman. “ He says we in A frica misunderstood M a l c o l m . No brothers! We understood him . We heard w hat he said . . . I have known Malcolm fo r tw o years. He preached justice fo r his brothers and sisters. He toured A frica, speaking w ide ly, speaking to the people in the street, and they loved him . In Islam, which he em­braced, we accept a ll people as our brothers, and he preached justice fo r his brothers every­where , . .

“ The highest th ing a M uslim can aspire to is to die on a ba ttle ­fie ld and not die at the bedside,” Ossman continued, and the au­dience broke out in applause. “ In the struggle fo r justice Malcolm reached a height few people in h istory have achieved. Those who die on the ba ttle fie ld are not dead. They are alive.” There was more applause.

Islamic StudentA student from Pakistan, rep­

resenting an association of 8,000 Islam ic students attending schools in the United States and Canada, then spoke: “ According to theKoran, i f you have k illed a man w ithou t ju s t cause, you have k illed the whole of hum anity . . . some­th ing of a ll hum anity died w ith M alcolm . . . The conditions which created Malcolm exist a ll over the w orld . . . We wholeheartedly en­dorse his mission to u p lif t the op­pressed people throughout the w orld .”

Ossie Davis returned to the p u l­p it to de liver the main address. Speaking in measured tones and figh ting successfully to hold back tears, he said:

“ Harlem has come to bid fond fa rew ell to one of its brightest hopes who is now gone from us

K N O X V ILLE , Tenn. — Four­teen organizations, including sev­eral c iv il-righ ts groups, have formed a committee to help or­ganize jobless and underpaid whites and Negroes in Appalachia.

The Appalachian Economic and Politica l Action Conference (AE- PAC) w il l w o rk in the ten South­ern states w hich lie p a rtly in A p­palachia. pThis mountain region has been harder h it by unemploy­ment and poverty than most other areas of the nation.

AEPAC said i t feels “ tha t gov­ernm ent programs to meet these problems are inadequate and tem­porary, and do not get at the basic causes of poverty. We hope to give the people of Appalachia a per­suasive voice in economic and po litica l decisions affecting the ir lives.

“ We w il l help people to develop the ir own organizations fo r the fo llow ing purposes: 1) For per­sistent action fo r redress of grievances; 2) to demand jobs or income; 3) elect candidates favor­able to equal opportun ity fo r a ll;4) seek proper education, medical care and housing; and 5) come to understand the economic and po litica l s ituation in w hich they fin d themselves.

“ We w il l be available to aid existing organizations and to en­courage people to fo rm the ir own organizations fo r the above pur­poses. We w il l w ork to arouse con-

forever. Harlem, despite its repu­tation, has always been gracious to those who have loved her, fought fo r her, and defended her honor even to the death . . .

Afro-American‘.‘Harlem never found a braver,

more gallant champion than this young A fro -A m erican who lies before us unconquered s till. I say i t again — Afro-Am erican. B ro­the r Malcolm was most meticulous in his use of words. No one knew better than he the power o f words . . . He had stopped being a Negro a long tim e ago. The word was too puny. Malcolm was bigger than that. He had become an A fro - American, and he wanted so desperately tha t a ll o f us become A fro-Am ericans too . . .

“ Many w il l te ll us to tu rn away from this man and his memory. They w il l te ll us he was a fanatic and a racist. And we w il l ask: D id you ever ta lk to Malcolm? D id you ever touch him? D id you ever rea lly listen to him? Was he ever associated w ith any violence o r public disturbance? Let him who is w ithou t sin cast the firs t stone! . . .

Special G ift“ I t was a particu la r and pe­

cu lia r g ift tha t he could unite many d iffe ren t elements. Those who disagreed w ith h im never­theless fo llowed him . . . The main th ing is tha t we keep a united fro n t . . .

“ Malcolm was our manhood, our liv in g black manhood. This was his measure. This was his meaning to his people. In honor­ing h im we honor the best in our­selves. We know h im fo r w hat he was — a prince. O ur own, *black, shining prince — who did not hesitate to die because he loved us so. And now we surrender his services to Islam .”

-The fam ily and close friends filed past the casket fo r a fina l look at the ir loved one. A lh a jj Heshaam Jaaber, an Islam ic Priest, led some b rie f prayers, answered by the Muslims in the audience. The casket lid was closed, and the casket carried out to the tra d i­tional m ourning wails of women relatives.

Outside, the silent, serious crowd broke up and slow ly d rifted to subway entrances o r back in to the maze o f dreary . streets which makes up the ghetto.

cern of people and organizations throughout the nation and en­courage the ir active partic ipation in th is program.”

O fficers of AEPAC are: C hair­man, Washington B utler, Jr., a c ity councilman in Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Vice Chairmen, Mrs. Lola Moore, Hazard, Ky., and Bruce Moore, S traw berry Plains, Tenn.; Secretary-Treasurer, the Rev. G. J. H ill, K n o xv ille ; Co-ordinator, Buford W. Posey, fo rm erly of Philadelphia, Miss.; and S ta ff Sec­retary, Miss Carol Stevens, fo r­m erly of Lou isv ille , Ky.

Partic ipa ting organizations are

CHICAGO — Nahaz Rogers, vice chairman of ACT, a federa­tion of m ilita n t Negro action groups, and Lew House, a c iv il- rights activ is t and news director of Radio Station W AAF, spoke be­fore an attentive F riday N igh t So­c ia lis t Forum here Feb. 26. The ir subject was “ How Can Racist Violence Be Stopped?”

As his theme, Rogers took a point made by Malcolm X — “ Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny.”

He developed this thought by saying: “ M alcolm ’s idea is that th is is a struggle fo r human dig­n ity . He shied away from the term c iv il-r ig h ts because i t had some­th ing to do w ith a revolution running w ith in the fram ew ork of some established rules and regula­tions . . .

Touches A11“ I am aware that racist violence

touches other groups but i t touches the black man in America more than any other single group. And, being a black man in America, then I must speak from that point of view. I see everywhere the case tha t the w hite power structure does v io len t acts to non-w hite members of th is society and i t ’s not considered anyth ing to be rea lly frowned upon. I need not go back in to the history of the black man in America during the times of slavery. Those vicious true tales have been to ld a thou­sand times. However, I confess that my American brothers have not listened . . .

“ How to end racist violence? You end i t the same way you end any other violence. I f someone is get­ting ready to h it you in your eye, you make h im aware tha t you w il l h it h im in both of his eyes . .

Lew House described his recent in te rv iew here in Chicago w ith

the Appalachian Committee fo r F u ll Employment, A lliance fo r Jobs or Income Now, Committee fo r Miners, H igh lander Center, K n o xv ille Education Project, Madison Students fo r a Democra­tic Society, National Committee fo r F u ll Employment, P o litica l Action Committee of A ff il ia te O r­ganizations, Southern C hristian Leadership Conference, Southern Conference Educational Fund, Southern Students Organizing Committee, Student Nonvio lent Coordinating Committee, Students fo r a Democratic Society, and the West Tennessee Voters Project.

Malcolm X. He emphasized how the m etropolitan press had mis­represented M alcolm ’s position of opposition to violence but firm insistence upon meeting force w ith force.

Speaking as a dissatisfied mem­ber o f the mass media, House said that the press had so dis­torted the views of Malcolm X tha t one would believe tha t i t was not the w hite racists, but Malcolm and others who advocated se lf- defense, who were the in itia to rs of violence. He pointed out tha t jus t as statements o f M alcolm X were w ide ly misrepresented, acts of racist violence were seldom tru th ­fu l ly reported — and even more ra re ly halted.

“ No one in h istory has men­tioned the 90 m illion slaves who were brought over here and the 60 m illion who were k illed . They are missing in history. No one mentions a word about how th is was brought about by violence. Violence is one o f the things in our society tha t we have to r id ourselves of. And how we can r id ourselves of it, w hat approach do we take, who wants to co-operate in this, and who is going to stop it, are questions today.

“ Is i t going to be the power structure or the po litica l factions? O r is i t going to be the grass- rooter who is going to come out and say, ‘We have to stop th is.’ ” .

In conclusion, House questioned the sincerity o f the power struc­tu re ’s attem pt to ha lt racist v io ­lence. To illus tra te his po in t about the ru lin g power in th is society he cited typ ica l headlines:' “ The U.S. Just Bombed N orth V ie t­nam” ; “ U.S. Parachutes Mercen­aries in to the Congo” ; “ Stanley­v ille O verthrow n” ; “ 7th Coup in 16 Months in Saigon” ; “ American Flag Ripped Down in Panama Stu­dent R io t.”

...M alcolm X's Funeral Service

Two Rights Fighters Address Socialist Forum in Chicago

By C arrie Jasin

SNCC Maps Mass Lobbying In Washington This Summer

Will Strike a t Roots of Poverty

14 Groups Set Appalachia Drive

Page Six TH E M IL IT A N T Monday, March 8, 1965

Tough Situation for Fascist D ictator

B y George SaundersStudents demanding the r ig h t to

fo rm the ir own organizations free o f contro l by Franco’s fascist gov­ernm ent have been m aking life hard fo r the aging d ic ta tor in re ­cent months. The ir grow ing agita­tion has merged w ith s im ila r de­mands by Spanish workers fo r free trade unions.

A recent student upsurge at M adrid U n ive rs ity made in te rna­tiona l headlines. Students there defied the o ffic ia l student union, set up a fte r the Spanish C iv il War as the only legal student organiza­tion. They formed the ir own Free Association o f Students and began to hold da ily meetings to publicize the ir fo u r-po in t program.

The program calls fo r: 1) an autonomous, free ly elected student union; 2) amnesty fo r a ll arrest­ed students; 3) freedom of speech and o f po litica l action; and 4) so lida rity w ith w orkers’ groups.

A London Times dispatch said “ a m a jo rity o f students are now supporting th is movement at M a­d rid - U n ive rs ity .”

A, i > demonstration to present these demands to the rector, the head o f the un ive rs ity , was set fo r F e ify .24 . Some 5,000 students, headed by fo u r professors, began a march to the rector’s office. A long the m ile-long route the s ilen t marchers m et a ba rr ie r of policemen. The marchers a ll then sat down on the pavement. Dozens of.,,jeeploads of cops and a truck w ith w ater hoses pulled up.

Cops Ready“ A bugle sounded and hundreds

o f policemen jum ped out of the jeeps w ith rubber truncheons drawn. The w ater hoses were turned on the students bu t they remained seated. When the bugle sounded again, the police charged, beating the students. Men and women students were hustled into the jeeps.” That is how a Lon­don Times correspondent described the scene.

The next day, students at the College o f Philosophy and Letters voted to hold a sit-dow n strike to protest police violence. On Feb. 26, the rector closed down the college. A t the news of that, s it-down strikes began at the Colleges of Law and Economics. The call went

up fo r s it-dow n strikes by a ll of Spain’s 80,000 students. On Feb. 28, the rector closed down the Medical College, largest in Spain, when students voted to w ithd raw from the o ffic ia l student union and form the ir own association.

The confident and rebellious mood leading up to th is big up­surge was apparent in actions throughout the previous month. The fo llow ing were some of them:

• Jan. 26: Students jo ined w ith M adrid workers in a demonstra­tion of over 1,500 organized by the underground unions and held in fro n t of the government labor syndicate headquarters. They shouted fo r free trade unions, the rig h t to strike, a m in im um da ily wage of $3 instead o f the current equivalent of $1, a 44-hour week, and an end to reprisals against s trik ing workers.

• Feb. 5: A demonstration of about 2,000 ca lling fo r free stu­

dent unions was held in fron t of the M adrid U n ivers ity rector’s o f­fice; students held o ff cops fo r an hour and a half. In Barcelona the same day, 3,000 students demon­strated against the banning of a film .

• Feb. 12: Some 2,500 students stood the ir ground in Quevedo Plaza in M adrid shouting, “ Long live free trade unions!” They voiced opposition to the govern­ment and d istributed leaflets u n til cops f in a lly moved in, c lubbing demonstrators and arresting about 20 .

• Feb. 18-19: A successful tw o- day demonstration achieved a v ic­to ry on the eve of the big Feb. 25 march. When a series of lectures, entitled “ Toward a Genuine Peace,” was canceled, 2,000 stu­dents marched to the rector’s o f­fice, shouting, “ Down w ith the rector,” “ Democracy, yes; d ic ta tor­ship, no!” The next day, they con­tinued, in the corridors, shouting s im ila r slogans. The rector gave in. In the f irs t lecture, a theologian said i t was a ll r ig h t to struggle “ w ith the M arx is ts” against “ re li­gious alienation.” Some priests have tended to side w ith the stu­dents, anxious to exercise a re ­s tra in ing influence on w hat is considered Spain’s rebel and “ de­linquent” younger generation.

A CommentCommenting on the student suc­

cesses in organizing despite the o ffic ia l ban on such activities, a New Y ork Times ed ito ria l ob­served: “ In the same way, a l­though industria l strikes are i l ­legal, workers in the Basque coun­try and Catalonia [p rovince] fre ­quently s trike — and get away w ith it . ”

The Asturias and Catalonia! Those are the most industria lized parts of Spain. I t was the w o rk ­ing class of those areas that formed the backbone of the trem ­endous revo lu tionary struggles of 1936-1939 tha t were so c rim in a lly misled and defeated.

B ut today the Spanish workers and the ir allies are beginning to s tir again. One day they w il l give battle again, and this time, v ic ­toriously, they w il l take the road of thoroughgoing social revolution— the Cuban way.

... Johnson's Bombings of North Vietnam(Continued from Page 1)

includ ing Hanoi — are designed to make N orth V ietnam stop the rev­o lu tion in South Vietnam.

Th is is a strange and ominous position. Oh the one hand the U.S. o ffic ia ls p riva te ly adm it N orth V ietnam couldn’t stop the revo lu­tio n 1 in the South i f i t wanted to, and on the other hand the U.S. threatens to bomb N orth Vietnam on an ever increasing scale un­less Hanoi does stop the revolution in the South.

Does th is mean the U.S. has sim ply decided to bomb North V ietnam to rubble before i t is forced to p u ll out of the impossible s ituation i t finds itse lf in South Vietnam? Does i t mean the U.S. has decided on another Korean- type adventure and w il l attempt to crush the revo lu tion w ith masses of American troops? (The sending o f a shipload of South Korean troops into South V ietnam last month is an ominous move in th is d irection which also implies

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tha t the w ar may not be lim ited to Vietnam.)

O r does i t mean that Johnson has sim ply got him self in to a situation he hadn’t t h o u g h t through and is b lind ly escalating the w ar in the hopes tha t some­how, some way, the U.S. can find a more favorable basis fo r nego­tia ting itse lf out o f the mess?

Nobody rea lly knows, because Johnson isn’t ta lking. But one th ing is certa in; whatever va rian t he has in m ind, his present actions can lead to w ar w ith China and the USSR and possible nuclear holocaust. He is risk ing the fu tu re of hum anity and arrogantly and illega lly refusing to consult Con­gress, the American people, or even his overseas a llie s .H e has f la tly refused every call fo r nego­tiations.

Johnson’s actions have been so reckless and so raw in th is situa­tion tha t UN Secretary General U Thant him self took the un­precedented step Feb. 24 of issuing a veiled bu t unmistakable rebuke to the U.S. In a press conference, Thant declared tha t “ the po litica l and d iplom atic method of discus­sions and negotiations alone can create conditions which w il l en­able the United States’ to w ith ­draw gracefu lly from tha t part of the w 6rld .” Thant also said that “ the Am erican people, i f they know the true facts "land back­ground', w il l agree w ith me $}at fu rth e r bloodshed is unnecessary.”

W hat is considered an ind irect

Leonard B. Boudin and Daniel T. Tay lo r I I I , attorneys fo r the Bloom ington students, have filed fo r a re-hearing before the In ­diana Supreme Court o f a Jan. 25 ru lin g o f tha t court upholding the Indiana Anti-C om m unism act. Ralph Lev itt, J im Bingham and Tom Morgan, officers o f the cam­pus Young Socialist A lliance at Indiana U n ivers ity in B loom ing­ton, face one- to three-year ja il terms under the thought-contro l law.

In upholding the law and the indictm ents against the three stu­dents, the state court rejected a 1956 ru lin g o f the U nited States Supreme Court in the Nelson case w hich held tha t state “ sedition” laws were unconstitutional. The State Supreme Court also rejected the ru lin g of a low er court which had held the law to be unconsti­tu tiona l and dismissed the in d ic t­ments against the students.

S p lit DecisionThe Indiana Supreme C ourt was

sp lit in its decision to uphold the law, and the m a jo rity opinion was based on the “ r ig h t” o f states to have such laws to “ protect” them­selves. The appeal by Boudin and T ay lo r points out tha t th is ru lin g is contrary to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ru lin g in the Nelson case, and says tha t the Indiana judges “ may or may not be sympathetic w ith . . . the decision of the U n it­ed States Supreme Court in Nel­son, bu t that decision is the law and is b inding upon courts as w e ll as upon other agencies of the gov­ernm ent.”

The students are charged not w ith having committed specific acts, bu t w ith having “ assembled” at a meeting where the “ over­th ro w ” of the United States and the State of Indiana was discussed. The Supreme C ourt concurred w ith the prosecutor’s arguments tha t the section re fe rring to the U nited States could be th row n out, keeping that part re fe rring to the “ overth row ” of Indiana.

The preposterous nature of this charge was pointed out by the de­fense appeal, w hich said, “ in the

Leonard B. Boudin

Tw entie th C entury there is no such th ing as an assembly fo r the purpose o f advocating and teach­ing the doctrine tha t the govern­m ent of a pa rticu la r state as dis­tinguished from the governments o f the rem ain ing states in the Union should be overthrow n.”

Boudin and Tay lo r also ex­plained tha t the prosecutor h im ­self has said in .legal documents tha t he intends to tr y the students on the ir activ ities as socialists op­posed to U.S. foreign policy — not fo r “ overth row ing” the State of Indiana.

The m a jo rity of the Indiana Su­preme C ourt cava lie rly dismissed the serious questions of freedom o f speech and assembly w hich the Anti-Communism A c t clearly and d irec tly in fringes upon. The law “ unquestionably relates to basic issues o f freedom of speech and assembly,” the appeal pointed out.

I f the Indiana Supreme Court refuses to re-hear the case, then the defense intends to appeal to the federal courts. This w il l be an expensive process, and the de­fense is u rgently in need o f funds. Send your contribution to: Com­m ittee to A id the Bloom ington Students, P.O. Box 213, Cooper Station, New York, N. Y. 10003.

Witch-Hunters Use 'Contempt' To Frame-Up 5 in New York

By C arl Feingold

answer by Johnson was made by Washington columnist W illiam S. W hite, one of Johnson’s “ inner c irc le ” of closest confidants ac­cording to the New York Times. W hite attacked Thant w ith the fantastic assertion tha t the UN head “ has now openly become an apologist and propagandist fo r Communist aggression in South­east Asia.”

Meanwhile, the situation in South V ietnam continues to de­teriorate fo r Washington and its puppet Saigon regime. One o f the largest helicopter operations of the w ar began last week and has com­pletely fa iled as the guerrillas it was supposed to flush out, 50 miles east of Saigon, melted in to the fr iend ly population.

In Saigon, the leaders of South V ietnam ’s Buddhists launched a peace movement at a conference Feb. 28. Such meetings are banned, but th is one was held anyway. The new organization is called the Struggle Movement fo r the Pre­servation of Peace and the Peo­ple’s Happiness, and it demands U.S. w ithd raw a l from Vietnam and negotiation w ith the revo lu tionary forces.

I t is supported by the princ ipa l Buddhist leaders and includes rep­resentatives of student, profession­al and other religious groups. I t has threatened demonstrations as w e ll as agitation. The facade of U.S. involvem ent in V ietnam at the request of the South V ie t­namese is rap id ly dropping away.

NEW YORK, March 1 — F ive w itch -hun t victim s are awaiting verdicts of a three-judge court here on charges of “ crim ina l con­tem pt.” The five — W illiam M c- Adoo, David Douglass, N at B ar­nett, V iv ian Anderson and M ike Crenovich — face sentences of up to a year each. The tr ia l is pa rt of a series of prosecutions and grand- ju ry harassment of socialists and m ilita n t supporters of Negro equality over the past six months.

The aim is to pu t a “ comm unist- conspiracy” label on last sum­mer’s outburst in H arlem which followed the slaying of a 15-year- old Negro boy by an o ff-d u ty policeman.

E lino r Goldstein, a 22-year-old student at C ity College of New York, who went to Cuba on the 1963 student tr ip in defiance of the State Departm ent ban, and two other CCNY students are cu rren t­ly serving 30-day sentences fo r “ contempt of the grand ju ry .”

Wagner CampaignDespite the F B I’s admission that

“ no systematic p lanning or organ­ization” was involved in the so­cial explosion in Harlem last sum­mer, Democratic M ayor Wagner’s adm inistration is persisting in a campaign of persecution o f mem­bers and supporters of several rad­ical groups, p a rticu la rly the Pro­gressive Labor Movement. So fa r 30 people have been summoned before the grand ju ry .

Among them are W illiam Epton of the PLM , arrested w h ile at­

tem pting to lead an abortive pro­test parade in H arlem last sum­mer. He was earlie r indicted fo r “ c rim ina l anarchy” w hich carries a m axim um sentence o f 20 years and a $10,000 fine ."

James Robertson, ed itor of Spartacist, a socialist publication, was subpoenaed to appear before the grand ju ry w h ile he was p ic­keting one of its sessions.

Last week, c iv il-r ig h ts attorney Len H o lt filed a counter-action on behalf of P LM Chairman M ilton Rosen and seven other p la in tiffs . Their su it charges that New Y o rk ’s g ra n d -ju ry system and tw o laws— the crim inal-anarchy law and the “ im m unity-from -prosecution law ” — are unconstitutional.

The la tte r law deprives a per­son called before a grand ju ry of his rights against se lf-inc rim ina ­tion on the grounds tha t he w il l be immune from prosecution on matters to which he testifies.

Yours for the AskingFor books and pamphlets on Cuba,

♦he Freedom Now struggle, the labor

movement, socialist theory, sand (or

a free copy of our catalogue.

PIONEER PUBLISHERS ; ~5 East Third Street i j i i New York 3. N . Y.

Spanish Student Upsurge MountsIndiana High Court Asked To Reconsider Student Case

Monday, March 8, 1965 TH E M IL IT A N T Page Seven

L etters From Our Readers% • : ' jfc' ..

[This column is an open jorum lor a ll viewpoints on subjects of general interest to our readers. Please keep your letters brief. Where necessary they w ill be abridged. Writers’ initials toilI be used, names being withheld unless authorization is given for use.1 "»■’*> ' ‘. * ",An Editorial on Malcolm X

Y ellow Springs, OhioI th in k readers o f The M ilita n t

m ay be interested in the fo llow ing ed ito ria l from the Feb. 24 issue of the Ye llow Springs News, a libe ra l small-town weekly.

W hile some obvious libe ra l prejudices rem ain visib le, the edi­to r ia l is m a in ly directed against the misrepresentations tha t the

giiiiiiMiiiwimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiitiiiimuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii*

I 10 Years Ago iI In The M ilitan t!i i

“ Don’t *say the capita list p o lit­icians .have no heart. They have ju s t moved w ith great dispatch to give ‘re lie f’ to 531 p it ifu l ‘hard­ship cases.’ On M arch 1, Congress sped to , Eisenhower fo r his sign­ature a l} i l l to raise Congressional salaries from a mere $15,000 a year to $22,500, a pay increase of 50per cent.

. -.n'Mi“ O rig ina lly , the Representatives

had approved a b ill p rov id ing a raise to. $25,000. B u t the Senators decided i t m ig h t look a b it in ­decent to raise th e ir own pay $10,000 at one clip. So they com­promised on a $7,500 h ike. The Representatives b it the ir lips, squared the ir shoulders anfl man­fu l ly w ent along.

“ In arguing to move themselves several notches higher in the in ­come brackets, Representatives and Senators painted a bleak and dismal p icture of the ir te rrib le hardships in try in g to exist on $15,000 a year. Some o f the ir sto­ries about having to m ainta in two residences and the high cost of en­terta inm ent would b ring tears to the eyes of, a rattlesnake . . .

“ I t should make every w orker bo il to th in k of . . . th is gang in Congress d ipping the ir s ticky fin g ­ers in to the public t i l l . . . There isn ’t a member o f e ither house w orth . . . one th in dime.” — M arch 7, 1955. • - v ^

I 20 Years Ago |“ In a dram atic protest against

racial d iscrim ination in the g rant­ing o f advance ratings, over l,000 Negro Seabees, at the P ort H u e - / neme base, near Oxnard, C a lifo r­nia, went on a hunger s trike on F riday, March 2 . . .

“ The protesting Negro Seabees are members of the 34th Construc­tion Batta lion who were returned to th is country last November a fte r serving 21 months at Tulagi and Guadalcanal in the South Pa­cific.

“ This action of the Negro ve t­erans was taken after they had been denied fo r three years the opportun ity to advance in ratings. T he ir spokesman . . . charged that the ir Southern w h ite commanding officer, Comdr. P. J. McDean, of M eridian, Miss., refused to grant promotions to Negroes but brought in w h ite men to f i l l h igher posts.. .

“ I t is a notorious fact, tha t Ne­groes are discrim inated against and segregated as a m atter of of­f ic ia l policy throughout the armed forces. This protest o f 1,000 ve t­eran Seabees, in the face of a pos­sible severe re ta lia tion , was a desperate measure. I t was un­doubtedly undertaken as the re ­sult o f d iscrim inatory acts which they viewed as in tolerable.” — March 10, 1945.

big-business-owned dailies have been putting forth .

* * *“ Malcolm X assassinated. A

B lack M uslim Mosque razed. W hat next in this procession of hor­rors?

“ There are those who piously say tha t Malcolm X was some­how responsible fo r his own death: that he ‘died according to his own preaching’ — by violence. Le t us set the facts straight.

“ M alcolm X neither preached nor practiced any k ind of violence other than that preached by nearly every non-pacifist citizen o f the U nited States. Violence in self-defense, yes. B u t use of v io­lence against a peaceful adver­sary, no.

“ I t is possible tha t th is k ind of preaching leads to violence. Jesus Christ, among others, taught tha t i t does. B u t i f teaching violence in self-defense leads to death .by violence, Malcolm X has a lo t of company. He is no more g u ilty of the assassination than most o f the rest of us, who preach and prac­tice the same thing.

“ Malcolm X may have had his faults. H is program and his meth-’ ods le ft much to be desired. Yet he could articulate, more clearly and fo rce fu lly than most, the way tha t Negroes in the Deep South and in the urban ghettos of the N orth feel about the w orld. When he was shot, many who do not agree w ith his program bled w ith h im . .. _• ■

“ ‘ I f you are born in America w ith a black skin, you are born in a prison.’ Every Negro knows that he spoke the tru th .”

Arthur Maglin

‘Did He Ever Smile at You?’New York, N. Y.

Because of the distortions of the press and television, most w h ite and even many black peo­ple had never had a chance to know Malcolm X as he rea lly was. As two o f the small group of w hite people who attended M a l­colm ’s funeral Saturday we wish to express our response to one of the statements in Ossie Davis’ fine eulogy:

“ They w il l te ll us he was a fanatic and a racist and we w il l smile and ask, D id you ever ta lk to B ro ther Malcolm? D id he ever smile at you?”

And we w ould add: D id you ever go to one of , his own meet­ings since his re turn from Africa?

The best way tha t we can describe M alcolm ’s manner at these meetings is to say tha t he was a w arm and relaxed host as w e ll as a patient, determined and , dedicated teacher.

We remember also the . way he would drive, home a thought w ith a humorous tu rn , punctuated by his rich and s ly chuckle. B u t the overall impression that came through in everyth ing he said and did was of a serious and thorough­ly honest man. A ll these combined to re flect M alcolm ’s confidence, appreciation and love fo r the peo­ple he was ta lk ing to.

We were gra tified that the fu ­neral service had th is same qual­ity of d ign ity and did honor to M alcolm and his ideas.

P.R. and E.N.

Tribute to Malcolm XLos Angeles, Calif.

Something tragic happened in New Y ork Sunday afternoon. Even though a man was shot to death, not th is alone was the tragedy, fo r i t was the reason that he died that was so tragic. The

power or powers behind his death have been among m ankind fo r centuries — the silencers of tru th . I feel appalled at the idea black has been set upon black fo r the sole .purpose of keeping the tongue stilled.

Bu t i t is not something new w hich is rea lly taking place. Socrates’ opponents were con­vinced his death was the only th ing which would calm the dis­sension he had s tirred up. I imagine the Romans fe lt the same th ing when they helped Jesus on to m artyrdom . I suppose Booth fe lt the same way when he placed L inco ln in to im m orta lity . So did the brain-washed mercenaries who k illed the man Lumumba, bu t not his ideas.

These men and countless others have died practica lly fo r the same purpose — the tru th . Each one in his d irect Or ind irect way, has placed h im self on the threshold of suicide. For i t is suicide to up­set the applecart, so to say. Each one comes w ith a message, a pro­posal, a plan to eradicate the con­ditions o f the times and, most of a ll, to make people th ink.

When someone comes along and speaks the tru th so shockingly, i t causes a rash o f irrita tions which continues u n til, some w ay or other, the voice is stilled.

“ The tru th is the most danger­ous weapon w ith which to fig h t the wrongdoings of m ankind.” These were the words of the now deceased Malcolm . I listened to

Counter-Move — The Post O f­fice has announced that lists of people w ho request “ propaganda” from “ Communist” countries have been ordered burned by March 15. Persons to whom such m a il is ad­dressed are compelled to n o tify the Post Office i f they w ant i t fo r­warded. Lists of people who so respond have been made available to the House U n-Am erican A c t­iv ities Committee and others. The decision to burn the lis t comes after a Supreme Court decision to review the constitu tiona lity of the whole procedure. I t may have been intended as a commentary on postal service when i t was ex­plained that the March 15 deadline had been set fo r burn ing the lists because i t “ takes some tim e” to n o tify local officials.

Here’s a Lesser-Evil Choice —That dashing young libera l, Sena­to r Robert F. Kennedy, says .we should keep the GIs in V ietnam — but not one m inute longer than necessary. He d idn ’t say who was to decide what was necessary.

Junior Electric Chairs in N.J.?—The New Jersey State Senate adopted a b i l l that w ould e lim in ­ate m urder from the category of possible juven ile crimes. Accord­ing to a state legal aide th is means tha t a child of seven could go to the cha ir fo r m urder since there is a common law princ ip le that a ch ild over the age of six can d is­tinguish r ig h t from wrong. The b ill is now before the State As­sembly.

The American Image — Ambas­sador Othman Shariff, who was expelled from the United States a fte r tw o U.S. diplomats had been asked to leave Tanganyika, w a rn ­ed Tanzanian students studying in America not to demonstrate against his expulsion. He to ld the students they m ight be shot.

th is fo rcefu l speaker fo r the firs t tim e at a ra lly in Los Angeles and he was appealing. Especially to the masses. He could reach an audience very easily.

He d idn ’t care i f he made you mad by w hat he said; he said it regardless of w hat you thought and because o f this, because of his message, he drew a large gather­ing wherever he went. He was extrem ely impressive and made you feel tha t here was. a man who knew ju s t w hat to say and how to say i t and reach, the masses.

Yes, tha t is the im portan t th ing about these “ voices” ; they can readily reach the masses w ith very lit t le e ffo rt. This is w hat makes them so dangerous to the im practica l th inke rs ' who are a dismembered branch of the fac­tions of these masses. I f the masses get to th ink ing too fa r away from the so-called mainstream of th in k ­ing, they too w il l each become a “ po ten tia lly ” dangerous thorn in the side and you can k i l l some of the people bu t you can’t jus t up and k m a ll o f them.

So i t is evident as always the “ voice” has been stilled, bu t the p ic tu re remains and the masses must now look and see w hat i t is the “ voice” was ta lk ing about. Men like Malcolm X arise out of an age tha t is ra p id ly draw ing itse lf tow ard self-destruction be­cause i t is too a fra id to face up to facts and realize tha t the tru th is the tru th and you cannot k i l l i t because i t is innate and men

Progress Report — It has only recently been made public that as a result o f mounting complaints, Postmaster General Gronouski last December ordered the closing of the peepholes in post-office rest­rooms. He defended the ir con­tinued use elsewhere in post o f­fices w ith the claim tha t i t p rev­ented employes from stealing m ail. And, incidenta lly, postal employes shouldn’t re lax too much, Grono­uski said new electronic equip­ment has made the trad itiona l rest-room peephole obsolete. He d idn ’t say w hy they were s till needed elsewhere.

Is Nothing Sacred? — We were shook up enough when we read tha t an electronics m anufacturer displayed bugging devices fo r Sen­ate investigators that included microphones small enough to be concealed in a tie clasp or a cigarette ligh ter. B u t w ^ " fe lt things were rea lly getting out of hand when he displayed^one tha t can be lodged in the olive o f a m artin i.

New House, Anyone? — A res­ident of Dusseldorf, West Ger­many, advertised in the in te rna­tiona l edition of the New York Times that he is forced to sell his “ house by the sea” in Spain. Fea­tures include five bedrooms, three draw ing rooms, a large ballroom,

w il l come and go but the tru th shall fo llow those who grasp, i t and give i t to the hungry minds' o f the masses who th irs t fo r it.

B.C.

From a Militant Salesman :i- .\New Y ork ;

As a regu lar salesman o f The M ilita n t, I w ould like to re flect the pride which I and other Sales­men of Th& M ilita n t have wheh selling the paper.

I t is ah honor to sell the, on ly paper, to m y knowledge, iri th e ' United States, which , te lls the tru th week a fte r week, a fte r week, Especially in the past year when The M ilita n t was the only- paper which consistently defended and accurately reported What Malcolm X was and w hat he said. *’• ̂ '

Last week’^ issue was especially' s ignificant'' ‘as the h y e n a s a n dvultures o f American journa lism were p icking at the fa llen b o d y of M alcolm X , as they rea lly - in ­tensified the ir lies and s la n d e rs o f h im — T h e M ilita n t came through w ith an honest account o f Mal - colm X and a human understand11'1 ing o f his l i f t and im pact u p S ft1 th is country and the w orld .

A ll o f us associated w ith The1’ M ilita n t can <vell be proud of- the* role we and the paper have played1̂ in spreading the tru th . A nd wew iM ; w o rk to make The M i l i t a n t a n even more im portan t paper in th e 1' days corning. " ;i

tw o modern kitchens w ith bu tle r’s pantry, fou r baths, central o il heating-,, a Spanish w ine natural-stone fireplaces, garage for- fou r cars, two mosaic-type filte red1 sw im m ing pools and a garden Jhat; stretches to the sea some 50 y a rd s away. “ Realistica lly priced” at a quarter of a m illion dollars. V j [';j?v

Note to New Yorkers — Ntew~ Yorkers faced w ith steadily ris ing 1 telephone b ills w il l be p le a s e d to note tha t the New Y o rk Tele­phone Co. enjoyed record receipts and p ro fits in 1964.

From One Autocrat to Another — A cting in his capacity as Pres­ident of the W orld ’s Fa ir, New York po litica l czar Robert Moses went to Spain and a w a rd e d ^ gold medal to fascist d icta tor F ra n c o fo r his “ con tribu tion ” to the fa ir?*

The U ltim ate -r-- A New. ^York, a rt theater is. p lanning a festiva l o f TV commercials'' ahd documen- taries. The theater manager j commercials “ are part o f our pop­a rt cu ltu re ” and “ i t would be fiU i, to see i f the public w ould pay! to see this melange.” -'Ki

12 Good Reasons to Abolish Death Penalty — The American C iv il L iberties Union reports that of 12 cases taken from Death Row by its F lo rida a ffilia te , in not one case was clear and su ffic ien t eyi- dcnce found o f a fa ir tr ia l.

Thought fo r the Week“ Every arm y must have its shock troops. They are a d iffe ren t sort

of men w ith a d iffe ren t sort o f tra in ing from the troops that w il l fo llow . They know that they may never see the fin a l v ic to ry , but i t is to them at last that the monuments w il l be raised. Malcolm X realized the dan­gers o f the course he followed. We must recognize the nature o f the job he d id .” — From a letter to the March 1 New Y ork Times.

SPECIAL $1 INTRODUCTORY OFFERTo reach the widest audience with ear

coverage of th j Freedom Now Movement we are offering a 4-month introductory subscription to The Militant for $1. ($1.50 outside of the U.S.)

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It Was Reported in the Press -4fi

Page Eight th e MILITANT Monday, March 8, 1965

2 Socialist Candidates Win Place on Los Angeles Ballot

B y Lois SaundersLOS ANGELES — Two candi­

dates, endorsed by the Socialist W orkers P arty and the Young Socialist A lliance, have qualified fo r the ba llo t in th is c ity ’s A p ril6 non-partisan elections.

Oscar G. Coover, 44, construc­tion w orker, 1961 SWP candidate fo r mayor of Los Angeles and SWP candidate fo r governor of C a lifo rn ia in 1962, is again ru n ­ning fo r the m ayoralty post. I r v ­ing K irsch, 21, a student at Los Angeles C ity College, is running fo r O ffice No. 6 on the Board of Education, one of three which are vacant.

Both candidates have spoken out in condemnation of the U.S. in tervention in South V ietnam and Johnson’s recent moves to escalate th a t war. In a jo in t public state­ment, Coover and K irsch declared:

“ Once again we are at the b rin k o f war. The bombing of N orth V ietnam by U.S. a ir forces, fo l­lowed by the dispatch of missile battalions, raises the grim specter o f nuclear war.

“ U.S. soldiers are figh ting and dying in a country where they are not wanted. The d ir ty w ar in South V ietnam has no support by the people, resulting in defeat a fte r defeat fo r the government.

“ There is no popular, democratic government. O nly U.S. arms prop up the hated regimes.

Both Coover and K irsch are active ly engaged in appeals to the electorate. The ir jo in t program focuses on the local manifestations of a crass, capita lis t society that boasts o f its a b ility to “ o v e r-k ill,” tha t caters to the cup id ity of the w ealthy few and is contemptuous of the needs of the low-income m ultitudes. I t also stresses what m ust be done to find a way out of the present b lind alley.

One of the main points empha­sized by both candidates is the gap between the projected “ Great Society” of President Johnson and the present rea lity in Los Angeles, especially as i t affects Negroes, w ho are hemmed in by ghetto re­strictions and face the handicaps of ghetto existence; the s im ila rly depressed M exican-Am erican; the unemployed made jobless by automation; the young people, who fin d no hope in a hostile environ­m ent; the e lderly, who lead pinched lives, squeezed between m ounting taxes 5nd soaring med­ica l costs, on the one hand, and the pittances a llotted them under social “ security” o r old-age pen­sions, on the other.

K irsch, in his b id fo r a post on the Board of Education, places special importance on the need to end school segregation, now o ff i­c ia lly condoned and fostered in ghetto areas; to adopt textbooks

Oscar Coover

tha t re flect the role of Negroes in American h istory; to a lter teach­ing methods so as to substitute thought-inducing programs fo r s tu ltify in g indoctrina tion ; and to insure to students at a ll levels freedom of speech and the righ t to consider a ll viewpoints on con­tested issues.

In the m ayora lty campaign, Coover outlined his approach as follows:

“ There is one aspect of cam­paigning in which I w il l not par­tic ipate — tha t is, propagating the m yth that any candidate fo r o f­fice can represent a ll o f the peo­ple. I make no such claim. M y campaign is in the interests only of the w ork ing people, the aged, the impoverished, the young dis­employed, the Negroes, the M e x i- can-Americans and a ll those who are oppressed and deprived in this so-called a ffluen t society. I make no pretense of being fr ie n d ly to downtown businessmen, indus­tria lis ts, the hucksters, the racists and those who are anti-labor. I can only oppose the treatm ent they mete out to the poor and the oppressed.”

Oscar Coover w il l appear on the Louis Lom ax television show Sun­day, March 7, 10:30 p.m. on Chan­nel 11. Lomax is a w e ll-know n Negro author and journa lis t. His program has been notew orthy fo r his perceptive treatm ent of the Negro struggle.

James Jackson, 26-year-old Ne­gro who was shot by state troopers in a c iv il-r ig h ts demonstration in Marion, Alabama, died of his wounds on Feb. 26, in a hospital in Selma. The state troopers who murdered James Jackson are com­manded by Public Safety D i­rector A1 Lingo who achieved in ­ternational notoriety fo r his racism and sadism during the B irm ing ­ham demonstrations of 1963.

Jackson was gunned down as part of a massive police assault on peaceful demonstrators in M arion on the evening o f Feb. 18. Over 300 Negroes qu ie tly marched toward the courthouse from a church across the street on that evening, to protest the arrest earlie r in the day o f a c iv il-r ig h ts w orker. State troopers ordered them to disperse, and then stormed in to th e ir m idst w ith clubs f la i l ­ing.

A t least 20 people were severely in ju red as the police succeeded in d riv in g the demonstrators back into the church. Several hours la te r James Jackson was in a cafe w ith others when state police burst in, allegedly looking fo r someone who had supposedly throw n a Coke bottle at them during the police assault earlier. Several troopers grabbed Jackson and another shot him in the stomach.

A fte r he was shot, he ran out the door and down the street. The troopers followed, caught him, and then beat h im to the ground. No doctors in M arion would treat him so he was f in a lly brought to Selma and treated at Good Samaritan Hospital.

V io la Jackson, James’ mother, was also beaten tha t n ight and Negro witnesses report that he was defending her when the cops shot him. H is grandfather, 80, was also beaten by L ingo ’s storm troop­ers.

Meanwhile, M artin Lu ther K ing, who has been in Selma and Marion supporting the voter-registration drive, was threatened in Los A n ­geles w ith bombing. Police arrest­ed an u ltra -righ t “ M inutem an” named K e ith G ilbert, w ith 1,400 pounds of stolen dynamite. K ing has also been threatened w ith death in Selma.

There is s till no federal protec­tion of Negroes and c iv il-righ ts workers in the South from the K lan and the cops despite repeat­ed requests to the federal govern­ment fo r such protection.

JACKSON, Miss. — hundred people attended the Free­dom Democratic P a rty ’s one-day convention here Feb. 21. Among the delegates were students, w o rk ­ers, teachers, m inisters, owners of small businesses, and unemployed. A tone of m ilitancy marked the discussions.

The convention heard many b rie f speeches and watched a narrated f ilm strip. This was a p ic to ria l h istory of the FDP and included scenes of the voter-reg­istration campaigns, freedom schools, and FDP candidates and supporters campaigning. The un­successful attempt to have the FDP delegation seated at the Democratic Party convention in A tlan tic C ity and the events in the curren t Congressional chal­lenge were also depicted.

In the discussion tha t followed a w ide range of views were ex­pressed. One o f the firs t speakers posed a key question: “ Who are we figh ting , the government of Mississippi or the federal govern­ment? You jus t show me one Ne­gro who is a federal agent, one Negro from the Justice Depart­ment o r the A gricu ltu re Depart­ment . . . You mean to te ll me that the F B I can round up people who are jus t th ink ing of bombing the Statue of L ib e rty and not see w hat’s going on in M ississippi?... So w h ile you’re exposing the w hite

By Joel B rittonSeveral

Fannie Lou Ham er

DETROIT MEMORIAL MEETING

Tribute Paid to Malcolm X

Irv in g Kirsch

By Jay GarnettDETROIT, Feb. 7 — Malcolm

X ’s friends and supporters here last n ight braved bombing threats and the worst snow drifts in 31 years to pay tr ibu te to the great freedom -fighter b ru ta lly gunned down last Sunday.

Members of the M ichigan Free­dom Now Party, the Group on Advanced Leadership (G O A L), form er members of the Nation of Islam, supporters of the Socialist Workers P arty and the Young So­cia lis t A lliance, and others gath­ered at the In ternationa l Masons’ H a ll and heard partic ipants in the freedom struggle here express the ir feelings about the assassinat­ed black leader.

The chairman of the meeting, O. Lee M ollette, attorney fo r GOAL, explained tha t neither Mrs. Malcolm X nor M ilton Henry, who had been scheduled to speak, could be present because they had to be in New Y ork fo r M alcolm ’s fu n ­eral the next day. The bu lk of the program was, therefore, in fo rm a l as ind iv idua ls rose to express the ir

sense of loss bu t to vow contin­uance of the struggle.

Speaking in the name of the Young Socialist A lliance, D errick M orrison said: “ Malcolm taught that we must make a po litica l declaration o f independence and take the road of independent black po litica l action in order to b ring about a fundamental change in this society, because neither the Democrats nor the Republicans w il l change the system . . . from w hich they p ro fit.

“ A B low ”“ M alcolm ’s death is a b low,” he

added, “ to everyone who shared his ideas — to the many black people who shared his ideas, the few whites who shared them, and revolutionaries the w orld over.”

F rank Lovell, state chairman of the Socialist W orkers Party, said: “ Independence in thought, dedica­tion to the tru th , and determ ina­tion to speak the tru th against a ll odds — these are the very qual­ities conspicuously absent today in most Am erican circles . . .

“ These are the qualities M a l­colm possessed, and i t is one of

the reasons he had the ear, the at­tention and the adm iration of the best young people in our society.”

LaM ar Barron, who was tem ­porary chairman of the Michigan Freedom Now Party in its in itia l period, rose to say: “ They called him a racist . . . I never heard him say he hated anybody; I heard h im say he hated to be misused. I f he was a racist because of that, a freedom -fighter racist, tha t’s what I am too.”

Mrs. Helen K e lly , a FNP can­didate in the ’64 elections, em­phasized: “ Malcolm X represented the poor people. And he was one man who couldn’t be bought . . .I hope there’s somebody r ig h t here in th is audience who’l l have the courage to take up where Malcolm le ft o ff and figh t his battle a ll the w ay.”

Henry K ing, announcer fo r the A fro-A m erican Broadcasting Com­pany w hich called the meeting, said, “ Malcolm X was the con­science of the Negro people.”

The meeting closed w ith the au­dience standing in silence in M a l­colm X ’s memory.

man in Mississippi, you’d better expose the federal government too.”

A teen-ager in the Mississippi Student Union said: “ The U.S. government is sending troops to V ietnam supposedly figh ting fo r freedom fo r South Vietnam. Why can’t they send troops to Mississip­p i to fig h t fo r our freedom.”

Several speakers were critica l of the NAACP and “ teachers and preachers” in Mississippi. “ They’re wading in love up to the ir knees,” one woman said of the NAACP. She blasted teachers and preach­ers who weren’t supporting the freedom movement. “ Preachers jus t want your do lla r . . . i f we take our children out o f school, the teachers w il l lose the ir jobs, so they’d better jo in w ith us.”

A young man, a teacher, said: “ We m ight lose our jobs or get k ille d but something’s got to be done.” A fte r endorsing the idea of a state-w ide school boycott, he said: “ I want to say I ’m sorry i t ’s taken so long fo r me to get on this freedom tra in .”

Others warned against “ un fa ir critic ism s” of the NAACP.

Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, who was elected to Congress in the COFO Freedom Election last No­vember and is now demanding a seat in Congress, to ld the del­egates: “ Don’t w o rry about the teachers and don’t w o rry about the preachers because a fte r we get going they’l l be jum p ing on the bandwagon.”

Many speakers discussed school problems and the need fo r boy­cotts. Complaints they voiced con- • cerned inadequate fac ilities and expulsions of students fo r wear­ing SNCC, COFO or FDP buttons or partic ipa ting in c iv il-r ig h ts ac­tiv ities.

, Next StepsMrs. V icto ria Gray, another of

the FDP Congresswomen, dis­cussed the steps of the challenge to the seating of the present M is­sissippi Congressmen. She ex­pressed concern about Negroes who m ight “ try to save them­selves” when the white-suprem ac- ists begin taking the ir depositions. “ Negroes w il l be used . . . we can’t s it back ju s t because our taking of depositions is done.” She urged FDPers to show up when and where the depositions are being taken.

She made her orientation clear when she declared “ We w ant to become the Democratic P arty of Mississippi — we are the Demo­cratic P arty of M ississippi — we intend to become o ff ic ia lly re ­cognized as the Democratic P a rty .”

She said the M FDP was becom­ing recognized in Washington as a “ serious group.” When letters had been w ritte n to federal agen­cies from Mississippi they weren’t answered. “ Now when we go in to the bureau offices, they can’t th row us in to the wastebaskets.”

James Forman, executive-sec- re ta ry of SNCC, warned that “ forces are moving in th is country to move into Mississippi to cut o ff this m ilita n t sp ir it you have ex­pressed here . . once the peoplebegin to move they move in to make the movement respectable . . . look out fo r wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing. Be c ritica l of yourselves and everybody else.”

Paul O’Dwyer, New Y ork C ity Councilman, the only w hite speak­er, supported the FDP as the le­g itim ate Democratic P arty of M is­sissippi and blamed the lack of social legislation on the reaction­ary Dixiecrats.

News a rrived du ring the con­vention of the assassination of M alcolm X . Lawrence Guyot, chairman of the FDP, asked the audience “ to un ite w ith me in a moment of s ilent prayer.”

Selma Movement Mourns Death of Rights Fighter

Militant Mood at Parley Of Freedom Democrats