The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-02-16
|McLevy Ring
United TO.Jail
3 Anti-Nazis
Met on Common Ground
With Boss Parties
in Court Trial
BY Sam Krieger

II Inc unolSgulSeu nature OF bne
united front of the Socialist leaders,
Democrats and Republicans in
Bridgeport was certainly shown to
be a perfectly natural arrangement,
in time of need when the Socialist
Mayor, Republican police chief and
democratic judge got together to
frame up and convict three of us for
our part in the snti-Nazi demon
stration of last October.
Six of us were originally arrested
on charges of breach of peace"
when the Bridgeport branch of the
American League Against War and
Fascism, together with other or
CARNATIONS, decided to hold street
corner meeting without a police
permit near a concert hall where
the German Consul General Of New
York, DR.. Hans Borcher, was sched-
uled to deliver a speech.
The charges against three were
thrown out in the lower court while
three Of us received fines of S25
and costs. When the International
Labor Defense brought the case up
for trial in the Common Court of
Appeals, it was quite clear that the
Socialist city administration had
decided to take an open stand
against working -class demonstra-
tons and would show the landlords
and bosses that they had no SYM
pathy with militant working -class
actions. Mayor McLevy openly tes-
titled on the witness stand that he
had refused to interfere with the
police ruling prohibiting the anti
Nazi meeting because of his we'll
known stand of keeping politics
out of the police department" Sec
ondly, the Socialist leader and
executive head Of the city, declared
that he believed in free speech for
everybody and that you we're going
to make trouble for other people"
These two reasons were the only
ones given by McLevy to Justify his
and the policies action in preventing
the anti-Nazi meeting.
y, The former LID. attorney and
the new city attorne y, Harry
Schwartz, however, unintentionally
exposed the fact that the City Hall
had taken a great deal Of interest
in the affairs of the police depart
ment with regard to the snti-Na5i
meeting. Schwartz had written a
long letter to the American Civil
Liberties Union in New York in
reply to their inquiries, that the
Bridgeport police were willing to let
us hold the protest meeting near
the hall where the Nazi agent was
to speak but not in front of the hall.
Schwartz stated that the American
League Against War and Fascism
had, however, insisted on permit
for a meeting directly in front of
the hall so the permit was denied.
Forced into Damaging Admission
The superintendent of Police,
Wheeler, however, did not make any
such excuses. He admitted that we
had applied for a permit to hold a
meeting at least 300 feet away from
the concert hall; but he wanted us
to go at least four blocks away to
make our protest.
1t is clear, therefore, that the city
attorney lied to cover up the police
action of brutally breaking up an
anti-Na7i gathering and arresting
six workers for breach of peace"
in the bargain. 1t is clear also that
City Hall and the police depart
nent DID get together to deny
Bridgeport workers the right of free
speech and assemblage; the right
to protest against Hitlerism and to
demand the release of Ernst Thael-
mann and other victims Of German
Fascism.
The American Civil Liberties
Union officially interested itself in
the case and assigned its Connec-
ticut representative to work with
the International Labor Defense in
the campaign for our release after
our conviction in the Court Of APP
peals. However, in the report of its
findings, although condemning the
police permit system prevailing in
the Socialist" city of Bridgeport
and the brutality used by the police
In breaking up the meeting, the
American Civil Liberties Union de-
clared that the police may have
been justified in denying us per-
nit if they thought that our meet
ing was near enough to the concert
hall to disturb the Nazi meeting.
Whereupon the newspapers imme-
diately headlined the American
Civil Liberties Unions report: New
York Civil Liberties body justifies
police action" So that by its
equivocable position, the American
Civil Liberties Union played into
the hands of the police department
and the City Administration by pro-
viding them with complete white
wash.
Campaign Broadened
The suppression of the rights of
the workers under a socialist ao-
ministration as shown in this case
has resulted in drawing many new
supporters to the Communist Party
and the workers mass organizations
who, heretofore, were still under
the impression that McLeyy was an
honest Socialist at heart. Many
honest rank and file Social. Party
members Joined in the campaign
for our release and some stated
openly that the workers rights are
not secure under a Socialist" adj
ministration. 1t must be plain es-
pecially to the rank and file of the
Socialist Party in Bridgeport. that
while their leadership does not per-
nit unity of action between Social
ted cf tr.nrLoro ;y, 49,