The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-04-07
BY WILLIAM L. PATTERSON
National Secretary, International
Labor Defensel

National Secretary, International
Labor Defense)
The International Labor Defense
is an organization Of defense based
upon the principles Of class struggle.
1t believes that every class strug-
gle is a political struggle" and its
experience has been that every de-
Tense struggle at once takes on
political character.
Against the worker or poor farmer
defendant at every point stand the
united forces of the State. Whether
the arrest be for picketing, as in the
mining strikes in Kentucky, Penn
Sylvania, West Virginia and Ohio; in
the farmers milk strike in Roches-
ter, New York, or the food strikes
of the farmers in the Middle West;
whether it be for participation in
strike demonstrations like the New
England textile strikes, the steel
strikes, ETC.; whether it be for en-
gaging in a struggle against evic-
tons, the shutting off of water, gas
and electricity for non payment;
whether the arrest grows out of a
demonstration of international solid
arity against the deportation Of alien
workers or to develop unity and soli-
darity between Negro and white
workers against lynch law justice
| jim crowisn, or on the broader front
of defense struggle, it makes little
| difference.
If the worker, black or white, ma
tive or foreign-born, or those SYM
pathizing with him, has sought to
protect working class interests or
lives, he finds, in the administration
of the law, the hand of the State
against him. The class struggle be-
gun on the streets or in the shop
is carried into the court room. The
forces of working class defense rally
the forces of capitalist Justice" and
democracy"
Capitalist Justice"
Capitalist justice in theory is ex-
pressed in the beautiful democratic
phrases contained in the constitu-
tons of the capitalist governments,
il the Understanding phrases by
which the Judge and the Prosecutor
proclaim even-handed justice. The
real class essence Of capitalist justice
is exposed when an Angelo Herndon
| is given 10 years at hard labor on
the chain gang-his "crime" was that
he demanded bread and work for I'M
| employed and starving forgotten"
black and white toilers; when Moo
ney and Billings, whose "crimes"
were that they demanded for the
working class the right to apply its
right to organize, its right of free
speech, are given life Imprisonment
| by a capitalist court; when Sacco
and Vanzetti are ruthlessly murdered
to terrorize an awakening working
class; when nine innocent youths Of
an oppressed nation are railroaded
/ to the electric chair to smash with
terror any striving of their people
| for national liberation. A clear ana
| lysiS of these events helps to destroy
the illusions of the impartiality of
capitalist justice and capitalist fair
play.
The Militant" organ in the Uni
ted States of Mr.. Trotzky, who en-
joys such prestige in the press of
the capitalist world, hurls bouquet
of SANDER and invective at the In
ternational Labor Defense because OF
its utilization of the services of MIR.
Samuel S. Leibowitz, prominent at
torney, in the Scottsboro case. These
defenders" of principle tell us that
| this is proof that the international
| Labor Defense has fallen upon evil
days. ut begins to look as though
the International Labor Defense were
| lettering on the brink Of a piece of
rotten and dangerous opportunism, -
we are informed.
To these saviorS Of the Interna-
tional Labor Defense, who seek also
to Save" the only political party of
the working class by betraying its
fundamental principles, we answer,
dear friends" we are afraid that
the wish is father to the thought.
But our contempt for these friends
does not relieve us OF the duty of
dispelling the confusion they seek to
| create in the minds Of their follow
erS. Their demagogy must be ex-
| posed as relentlessly as we expose
the democratic illusion about the i'm
Partially of justice which appears
in the pages of the degenerate cap
italist press which SO readily hires
the services of their leader, Mr..
| Trotzky
Lawyers and Mass Action
We are told by the Militant that
the international Labor Defense,
when it retains lawyers, swears them
to silence ION all points where they
disagree with it," But the Militant"
editors lie deliberately The Inter
national Labor Defense imposes no
such obligation, nor is it so simple
as to regard this as possible.
International Labor Defense law
yers are engaged to serve it on the
basis Of their ability as court
| technicians" The services of Mr..
Walter Pollak, for example, were re-
tanned to argue the Scottsboro ap-