The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-06-09
Brutal Attack, Savage Jail Terms
Against Boston Anti-Nazis Is A
Challenge To ALI Anti-Fascists
LID. Presenting Proof
Barred by Court; Calls
for Mass Fight

Savage SEN
~ fences, totalling, SO months
in Jail, have been imposed on
Is workers and students by
Judge S. Sullivan in the
Charlestown District Court,
Boston, Mass. Three others
have been ordered to pay fines
totalling 1920. Another three have
been placed on probation-for good
behavior" in the future.
Who are these offenders against
American capitalism? Anti-fascst
workers and students. Their crime?
Participating in a peaceful demon
stration May II against the good
Will' propaganda visit of the Nazi
warship Karlsruhe; against the
official welcome extended by Boston
capitalists and their city govern
ment to the Nazi officers, represen-
tatives of the hated Hitler murder
regime; against the growing fas-
citation Of the bourgeois state APP
paratus in democratic fire e
America.
The police deliberately attacked
the peaceful protest demonstration.
For over an hour the battle be-
tween the workers and students for
Their constitutional rights of free
speech on the one side, and the
Boston cops defending the murder
GUS emissaries of Hitler against
any discoutesy" on the other hand
ragged back and forth literally in the
very shadow of the Bunker Hill
Monument, a couple of blocks away.
Finally at the close of the battle
after the forces were scattered, the
two Jewish detectives, Goulston
and Goodman who, as heads of the
red squad were specially in charge
of the defense of the Nazis through
out the visit, rushed around pick
ing out known Communist leaders,
and ordering their arrest Inside
the police station the cops began a
systematic beating up Of prisoners
shouting Hell Hitler!" with every
kick and punch.
The trial of the 81 arrested be-
fore the rabidly reactionary Judge
Sullivan in Charlestown Court has
made history in Boston. For seven
years, ever since the murder of
Sacco and Vanzetti in Charlestown
Jail, there have been no struggles
or political action in Charlestown.
Except for a case in a ship strike
a few months ago, the Charlestown
court has never witnessed workers
self-defense in the courts. The trial
of the 81 on charges of melting to
riot went far beyond even ordinary
prejudice on the part of the Judge
Every question by the defendants
bringing out the brutality of the
police was excluded by the Judge.
Time and again the judge was fore
ed to bark out, Il tell you the DO
lice are not on trial here!" Hitler
Is not on trial here!" Fifty COPS
guarded the courtroom outside. Fol
lowing irrepressible laughter at the
clumsy and easily exposed evasions
by the police witnesses, the Judge
ordered a dozen cops to stand all
over the courtroom with instructions
to arrest Immediately anyone
caught laughing
On the second day of the trial
Donald Burke, LID. organizer. act
ing as attorney for some of the
defendants, was SummariIy removed
rs attorney by the Judge and order
ed out Of the courtroom. Marv. Sell
lin, one of the defendants. was ar
rested for contempt of court and
placed in the dock for insisting on
telling how workers had been beaten
up. Leon Lapin, one of the defend
ants, was removed as attorney bv
the judge and arrested for con-
tempt Of court because he didn't
take his seat quickly enough.
Whereupon Mary Sellin got IN in
the dock and told the Judge what
she thought of him. This trial is
q farce. You are hopelessly biased
and prejudiced from the start" She
was Immediately arrested Q. second
time for contempt of court and
taken out to cell while her trial
on the original melting to-riot
charge continued. BY the time that
Leon Lapin from his seat in the
COCK explaining why he went to
demonstrate against fascism. stated
that "Fascism is dying capitalism
shedding its last democratic pre-
lenses like justice in this court"
the judge seemed to give up the