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From Labor Action, Vol. 12 No. 36, 6 September 1948, p. 1.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the ETOL.
NEWARK – Another disgraceful episode in the government’s hit-and-run campaign against all non-conformist political opinion has just taken place.
The victim is James Kutcher, who was fired on August 13 from his job in the Newark Veterans’ Administration. He was accused of being a member of the Socialist Workers Party.
“I have never denied my membership in the Socialist Workers Party,” Kutcher stated. “I do not deny it now. On the contrary, I proudly reaffirm it. What I do deny is the false accusation that the Socialist Workers Party is subversive or advocates the overthrow of the government by force and violence.”
“You have the right to disagree with my views, but not to deprive me of my job for holding them,” he added.
Kutcher, who is the sole support of his parents, is a World War II veteran. He lost both his legs in the fighting in Italy, after having gone through the African and Sicilian campaigns. As a result of his injuries he was hospitalized for two years.
A Civil Rights Defense Committee has been set up to fight his case and to work for an immediate hearing before the federal loyalty board. Carl Holderman, president of the state CIO, has pledged support.
In a statement on the case, Kutcher said:
“I entered the armed forces in January 1941. My draft board did not ask me about my political views or the party to which I belonged; they drafted me.
“I became an infantryman. When I was at San Pietro, Italy, in November 1943, the German mortar crew did not ask me about my political views or the party to which I belonged; they fired at me.
“The Army surgeons did not ask me about my political views or the party to which I belonged; they amputated both my legs.
”The Army did not ask me about my political views or the party to which I belonged when it gave me the Purple Heart.
“I have already been deprived of both my legs and my freedom of movement. I do not propose to have any government official deprive me of my freedom of thought and expression and my right to earn a living. The methods employed against me are those of totalitarianism and not of democracy.”
Kutcher also said:
“Although I am not in sympathy with communism, I would stand ready to defend any Communist Party member in the same position as I am at present.”
Every person possessing a spark of human decency should lend his support to the Kutcher case, which so clearly reveals the reality behind the recent war – which, we were told, was to preserve democracy.
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Last updated: 6 October 2018