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From The Militant, Vol. 13 No. 6, 7 February 1949, p. 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
“The present trial of the twelve Communist leaders is an unusual development,” says L. Fogelman, political “expert” of the Social Democratic Jewish Daily Forward on Jan. 25. “It is unusual, if only because America, as a free, democratic country, does not, usually occupy itself with political trials. Where political freedom exists, there is, of course, no room for political trials; because in a free country no one is persecuted either for his political convictions or for his political activities.”
It so happens that American history is filled with “unusual developments” of this kind. There was Haymarket, and what followed. The persistent hounding of Altgeld. The persecution of Debs. The years of political trials of socialists, anarchists, IWW’s. The famous case where the N.Y. Legislature refused to seat five elected members of the Socialist Party. The Mooney-Billings case and the Sacco-Vanzetti case. The infamous Lusk Laws and the Palmer raids (including a raid on the Social-Democratic Rand School). The denial of political freedom to “unorthodox” teachers, students and writers. The political discrimination against the Negro people. The “subversive” list, resulting in the political victimization of legless veteran James Kutcher. And that’s only a very small part of the list.
Dodging these well-known facts because they don’t jibe with his declaration about “unusualness,” Fogelman says: “The chief question is simply whether there exists at present any basis for such a political trial in America, and whether this type of a trial jeopardizes the political freedom and the country’s democratic system.” And how does this great democrat – pardon, Social Democrat – answer this question? Is he, perchance, disturbed even a little over the turn of events in the U.S.?
Not at all. He openly defends the Smith Act and its present application and couples his defense with a statement that could come only from a political ignoramus or a conscious liar: “In order to Counteract the new communist danger, in order to protect themselves against the communist ‘fifth-column,’ it was necessary for the democratic countries to pass new laws, that would defend the democratic system. And, to this end, America also passed a special law (the ‘Smith Act’), which is being invoked for the first time and applied in the trial of the communist leaders.” (Our emphasis.)
That is exactly the same lie that is being spread by the Stalinists, although for different reasons. The Stalinists keep mum about the famous Minneapolis Trial, in which 18 leaders of the Socialist Workers Party were sent to jail under the Smith Act, because they don’t want their sympathizers to recall that the Stalinists supported the government in that trial and opposed the efforts of the labor movement to help the defendants Smash the Smith Act. The Social Democrat Fogelman suppresses the facts about the precedent-setting Minneapolis case too because it isn’t in accord with his “democratic” analysis and because he wants to quiet the fears of the Forward readers who are alarmed,by the spread of thought-control. This isn’t the first time that Social Democrats have peddled falsifications invented by the Stalinists, and it won’t be the last time either. Social Democrats and Stalinists basically have more in common than they have in dispute.
Fogelman’s crude effort to whitewash the government’s assault on democratic rights is printed in a newspaper that daily carries in its masthead the unforgettable words of Karl Marx: “Workers of the World, Unite!” and “The Freedom of the Workers is the Task of the Workers Alone!” How little the Forward has in common with the spirit of Marxism is shown not only by Fogelman’s article but also by a “democratic” ad on Page 7 of the same issue (Chicago edition): “Colored help for day, or week, women and men, for housework, dish washers, factory labor. Call WAgner 4-6964.”
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