The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-04-07

South threatens Mr.. Leibowitz with
death because in the court room his
fight is tearing at the basis of their
system. Mr.. Leibowitzs conduct has
strengthened the basis Of struggle for
the international Labor Defense. He
has exposed the hypocrisy of CAPT
talist law. The danger to the lives
of the boys lies in the failure of the
entire labor movement to mobilize
around their defense. What part
have the gentlemen of the Militant
played in this mobilization?
The determining factor in the
class struggle in the capitalist courts,
as elsewhere, is the relation of class
forces. That is why success rests
with the working class defendant
only where the mobilization of the
working class and its sympathizers
around him is raised to an over
whelming high political level. The
center Of support must be shifted
from reliance upon Justice" dis
pensed in capitalist courts to reliance
upon mass pressure.
Basic International Labor
Defense Policy.
The International Labor Defense
believes that only mass pressure can
bring about the release of a class
war prisoner; that pressure must be
supplemented by legal defense. The
legal defense must be of the most
expert character Every legal tech
nicality must be used. The more far
reaching the knowledge of the lawyer
retained by the international Labor
Defense, the more easily and effec-
lively can the worker be shown that
the guarantees Of justice extended
him by the ruling class are mean
ingless.
Mr.. Leibowitz has this expert
knowledge. Every report coming out
of the Decatur court house shows
him in the forefront along the line
of the International Labor Defense
of the legal battle for every right
supposedly guaranteed the innocent
defendants, by State and Federal
Constitutions. He has brought out
the class character of this case with
the utmost clarity because he fol-
lowed the International Labor De-
Tense line.
Mass Pressure Only Guarantee.
Mass pressure by the American
working class, mobiliSed to that point
where the ruling class recognizes its
potential force, is the only guaran-
tee Of safety for the Scottsboro boys.
This mobilization does not rest alone
in the hands of the International La
Dor Defense. 1t rests in the hands
of the entire leadership of the Amer
lean working class. This mobiliza-
ton can be realized only to the ex-
tent that the American working class
is made to recognize that the strug-
gle against the system of national
oppression, and for the democratic
rights of the Negro masses, is part
and parcel of the struggle for the
democratic rights of the working
class as whole.
In the Scottsboro case, the Inter
national Labor Defense has achieved
its greatest success defending the
rights of members of an oppressed
| nation. 1t has, therefore, achieved
1tS greatest success IN the defense OF
the democratic rights of the work
ing class Of America as whole. 1t
has advanced this defense to a high
political level under Lenin's slogans
repudiated by the righteous de
tenders of principles" who control
the Militant" without q relentless
united struggle for equal rights for
Negroes, white workers cannot realize
complete democracy. Without the
right to self determination, the toll
ing Negro masses cannot secure equal
rights.
Onward to mass mobilization Of
the American working class in de-
Tense of the Scottsboro boys, of Tom
Mooney and of all class war prison.
ers! An end to capitalist justice!