The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1934-06-28

If the towns population. talked /
TO many leading citizens, clergy
men, "intellectuals," officials of
the large mining companies. also
a close contact with
Communist organizers and with
Negro and white workers who
were continuing and intensifying
the activity of the Communist
Party in spite of campaign of
terror carried on by the police.
In my interviews with many up
per-class citizens, the thing that
impressed me most was the fact
that Birmingham, unlike most
cities of equal size, is almost to-
tally lacking in genuine liberal
opinion. By this l mean that
there are no upper-class sympa- ,
thizers with the labor movement
who dare assert themselves on such
elemen ary issues as free speech,
civil liberty and the right to strike.
Every problem connected with the
growth of strike disturbances and
evaded by a reference to the race
evaded by a difference to the race
question. 1t doesn't matter what
you ask: the Negro problem is the
answer to everything. How about
the right of collec i've bargaining?
How about wholesale starvation?
How about free speech or the wage
differential or murders on the pick
et-line? It's all on account of the
black race, and the black race is
a mystery which no one from
north of the Mason-DixOn line can
begin to understand.
This absurd racial myth is ASST
duously cultivated by all the re-
dictionary forces of the feudal
South. The newspapers, in edi-
torials and propaganda news sug-
gest that Ignorant" Negroes (whO
have apparently been perfectly
content to starve and occasionally
be lynched under the kindly guild
ance of their white masters) are
being stirred to rebellion by the
Northern agitatOrs.
The terror against militant work
ers in Alabama started in the Goa
and ore strikes, and soon spread tt
the city of Birmingham. At the
time of my arrival, houses wer'
being broken into and searched
2 daily and arrests were being mad,
: without any legal excuse. In thu
red-baiting activity, the police wer
actively assisted by the White LIE
:, gion, a bunch of thugs who hav
reorganized the discredited XXX
The White Legion maintains eff
d ces at 1907 Fifth Ave-, Birming
}, ham, at which address a window
d display features copies of The Ne
Masses and clippings from TIT
Daily Worker. Across these deaC
, ly pieces Of evidence are scrawle
crayon announcements: COMM
= nists do not believe is God" "tf
u Communists want to destroy tn
Io home"
At first one thinks this crude
= nonsense is merely laughable. b
-s one must realize that the Viii
a Legion is made up of lynchers al
gangsters whose definite purpos
y is to carry on a program of terri
y, against the working class and Il
10 working class leaders, and p
ticularly to brighten the Negroe
e. They are in close contact with t
at police, and in fact, in many case
n they give the police orders.
~ Birmingham's "Red Squad" u
ID der the direction of Detectives CO
al and Mozer, is practically divisi
of the White Legion. 1t is sii
nificant that Mozer is a notorio
"nigger-killer," and is said to ha
notches on his gun indicating t
number of Negroes he has mu
dered. The activity of this "R
re, Squad is incredibly stupid. As
o. matter of fact, it was not come
er ed with the discovery and arrest
NJ the six Communists recently tri
~, on vagrancy charges. These
II comrades were arrested by Pol
~ Captain Mullins, who discover
ay them largely by accident. Cole a
VS. Mozer made the arrests of Alex;
der E. Racolin and Laura Stark
an the office of the LID after tt
ur had been led to the office by VIII
10 Legionnaires who proceeded
> wreck the place, tear down Il
light fixtures and even saw
ne desk in half. Just after these
LAT rests MAY 12) a clumsy atten
Cd was made to stir up hatred agai
ee the black race by charging Net
I'd bellboy, Nathan Johnson, with
attack on a white woman. I
nm frameup character of this story
n indicated by the fact that the
hy man concerned, Mrs. June L. Da
ne was the wife of a Tennessee c
no and Iron Company Deputy, and
search for the alleged assail
,ur was Immediately put In the hal
II of the "Red Squad" The sto
,gc published in the newspapers sta
o that Daily and his wife had rei
tered at thu Morris Hotel, that
're o'clock in the morning the n
per went downstairs to get some sa
the witches and on returning to
room found the Negro In
wife's bed; the wife had not
ticed the Negroes presence and
some way the attacker escaped
This fantasy was spread all
the Birmingham press and t
suddenly dropped.
The brutal ignorance Of Il
dicks and gangsters makes 1t ia