The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-29

form without violence whatever his motives No
adequate explanation Of the disturbance at the
Garden be made without reference to these
factors"
THE fact of deliberate, brutal provocation at the
Garden meeting the part Of the Socialist
Party leadership is thus fully confirmed in the
report of the Civil Liberties Union. This confirma
ton could not have been withheld by the Civil Lib
critics Board too without making the report OBJ
viously distorted and false
But the Civil Liberties Union report, after
giving the facts which it could not ignore because
they are too we'll known to the thousands of work
ers who witnessed them at the Garden delivers its
slap at the Socialist Party only it is clear to give
greater force to its main blow, the blow aimed at
the Communist Party. The Civil Liberties Union
report gives the appearance of above-the-strugge,
impartial judgments only to weight its condem-
nation of the Communist Party the revolutionary
party of the American working class.
The facts here are definite and clear The pic
ture of provocation deliberately planned by the So
cialst Party leaders in order to introduce definite
atmosphere of disruption and provocation is fully
based on the facts, facts that can be attested to
by the thousands of workers who saw the Garden
events with their own eyes.
In regard to this section of the report on the
deliberately provocative way the meeting was han
died by the Socialist Party leaders, it is necessary to
say that the disruption and provocation Of the So
cialist leaders, with the conscious purpose of break
ing the meeting, was not a sudden, accidental &C.
currence.
The evidence of the meeting itself, well as
other known facts, give indisputable indication
that the course taken by the Socialist leaders at
the Garden had already been determined upon by
them well in advance of the meeting itself.
With the news of the heroic uprising of the Aus
trian proletariat contrasting terribly with the
actions and policies of the Austrian Socialist lead
ers it necessary for the leaders of the American
Socialist Party to get some issue other than the
bloody events of Austria itself.
1t was necessary for them to quickly find some
issue upon which to divert the attention of the
workers from the open class war raging in the
streets of Vienna and Linz the open class
that left the Socialist Party in distinctly
favorable light And the issue they planned
precisely the issue which their ARRANGEMENTS SO
clearly indicated they wanted "a break in the
united front of the workers coming together in
the pride and enthusiasm of the Austrian up
rising
But they over-reached themselves. The brutal
assault on Hathaway a spontaneous extension
of the pre-arranged plan. 1t had the effect of
revelation to the thousands of workers who packed
the Garden, who saw with establishment and in
dignation an exhibition of brutality and reaction
airy violence that was in no way distinguishable
from the police oppression of the capitalist class
The assault on Hathaway gave the show away, for
it revealed not only to the thousands of workers
who witnessed it, but to the vaster workingclass
audience of the country, the actual living proof of
who it is that is the party of reactonary oppressive
violence. In the attack on Hathaway coming as the
elimination to the whole series of pre-arranged
provocationS outlined above in the report of the
Civil Liberties Union, the fact that the Socialist
Party leadership is at with the capitalist ruling
class in its of brutality and violence against its
worEngclass opponents was made as clear as day.
TWO minority reports then follow, revealing that
the impartial" report itself reflects the same
forces that met in conflict in the Garden meeting
A dissenting opinion from the majority was
signed by Robert Dunn and Mary Van Kleeck:
I'm our opinion such public meeting could
not escape protest from dissenting group in
cluded in the general call and vitality anxious to
have its point of view expressed. An audience
has rights as well the platform. We dissent
from the implication that the right of free
assemblage requires peace gained by withholding
protest.
The last dissenting opinion of the impartial"
and neutral report is from none other than Nor
man Thomas, who repeats with truly impartial in
sistence that 1.-THE sole and single responsibility of
the Civil Liberties Union was to determine who was
responsible for the kind of attack that turned what
would have been solemn and orderly meeting into
a riot"
The significance of the impartial" report is
made clearer when it is remembered that it is the
result of the determined efforts of the two mem
bers of the Civil Lbrties Union board who are two
avowed enemies of the Communist Party, Norman
Thomas and the Rev. A. j. Music Was it in the
interests of neutral agency outside the con-
fct" that these two gentlemen of the Civil Liber-
ties Board demanded its report?
The report of the Civil Liberties Union on an
incident resulting from the struggle of opposing
class points of view only makes it clear that its
claim to supra-claSs impartialty and neutrality
is without foundation The report reveals that the
Board of the Civil Liberties Union is itself torn
with the unacceptable forces of the class struggle
and that all its reports and opinions inevitably re-
fleet these class forces The class forces we repeat
that conf1icted at the Garden only find additional
(even if distorted) expression in the Impartial"
report of the neutral" Civil Liberties Union
The report concludes with the proposal for a
committee outside the membership or sympathzers
OF groups likely to be in the conflict for the pur-
pose OF obtaining agreements to minimize interior
ence and the hearing of complaints when thew &C.
cur"
The Communist Party of course recognizes NO
neutral" agency in the class struggle While il
cannot accept any alegedly supra-class supreme
court to pass judgments upon its struggles to lead
the working class to the seizure of nover from tho