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From Labor Action, Vol. 13 No. 45, 7 November 1949, p. 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California has just issued its annual report for 1948–49 and it makes interesting reading. (You can get it from the ACLU office in San Francisco, 461 Market Street, for 10 cents.)
It is entitled Cold War on the Home Front. The first section of the report deals with a number of cases of federal employees in Northern California who have been persecuted under the president’s loyalty order of March 21, 1947. None of the cases have involved acts against the government, and almost all of them resulted from charges based on the alleged association of the government employee with Stalinists or Stalinist organizations.
A review of the cases handled by the Civil Liberties Union is a convincing indictment of the character of the federal loyalty program, and even more so of the arbitrary and vicious procedure under which it is carried out.
For instance, a stenographer in the Public Housing Administration was accused of comparing the United States unfavorably with Russia, and of subscribing to the Daily People’s World, a Stalinist publication. The FBI, which supposedly prepares the accusations on the basis of a careful investigation, slipped up on only one point. This little point was that the mailman had never delivered the Daily People’s World to the employee.
Another case involves a mechanic who got into lunch-hour discussions at his shop; and is now charged with expressing “Communistic” views, and with sympathetic association with four persons alleged to be Communists. His only contact with these people was that he met them once or twice at tenants’ council meetings at the project where he resides.
The moral is don’t talk about anything at lunch except, perhaps, the weather. And even then be careful when you say the weather is fine, because investigation may establish that the fine weather is due to some high-pressure area which formed originally over Siberia.
Several people were charged with having belonged to the Communist Party or some Stalinist front organization. They were dismissed even though their membership had merely been for from two to six months and had terminated as long as ten or fifteen years ago. The fact that some of these people had left the Communist Party in disgust and since then had belonged to organizations which actively combat the ideology of the Communist Party, did not save them.
I think this last point should provide food for thought to those of you who may still believe that the current governmental attack on the Communist Party is justified by the totalitarian nature and ideology of that organization. Independent socialists, who are adamant opponents of Stalinism and everything for which it stands, insist that the only way to combat this vicious organization and its ideology without establishing totalitarianism in America is to subject it to free and open discussion, and to confront it with a program and an ideology which is its superior in every respect, that of democratic socialism,
Whether or not you agree with this proposition, the procedure of the loyalty boards shows that they are not solely or even primarily concerned with prosecuting active members of the Stalinist movement. They are concerned with prosecuting anyone who shows, or who has shown at any time in the past, that he or she is critical of capitalist society in America. They are concerned with creating an atmosphere of terror – I use the word advisedly – in which people who begin to question the justice and adequacy of capitalist society dare not express their views, either publicly or privately, for fear of reprisals.
Just to nail this down so that even the most hardened apologists of our government can’t doubt that such are their intentions, the Senate has just refused to confirm the reappointment of Leland Olds for a third term as a member of the Federal Power Commission.
It seems that years ago Olds had written some articles which criticized capitalism in its fundamentals. It makes no difference that since then he has been a loyal servant of our capitalist government. The Senate wants it to be known by all that only those who have never shown a moment’s hesitation in their full-hearted approval and endorsement of the control of our national wealth by a handful of corporations are fit to hold public office.
In many of the cases of federal loyalty proceedings, and in others which you will find in the report, the Civil Liberties Union was able to intervene on behalf of the employees to get rehearings or to get the decisions reversed. The whole atmosphere which surrounds these hearings is such that many are thrown out of their jobs and have a permanent mark against their names simply because they don’t know their legal rights, or because they don’t approach attorneys or organizations who are willing and able to help them.
Another item of interest dealt with in this report is the illegal and harassing tactics employed by the FBI. For a long time now there has been an extensive campaign in the press and magazines of the country to glorify the FBI and to convince America that this agency is in fact one of the finest American institutions. As the FBI operates with the utmost secrecy and, as it were, in the dark of night, millions of citizens who have never been honored by its attention are prone to believe the myth that the FBI is fundamentally different from the late unlamented Gestapo or the Russian MVD (formerly GPU).
Now, it’s true that the FBI’s operations are different in degree from those of its sister organizations in totalitarian countries. We don’t have a police state in America, yet. But it operates on the same principles and with similar tactics.
For instance, the ACLU reports that a New York woman recently visiting San Francisco was continually harassed by FBI agents questioning her, not about herself but about some of her friends. They lost interest when the woman secured the Civil Liberties Union’s assistance.
And as the FBI is going to be harassing and bullying more and more people, here’s a word of advice. If they ever start bothering you, get in touch with the ACLU at once. It is your legal right to do so, and as the FBI operates in these matters illegally, or at least extra-legally, all that is needed to cool them off if you are innocent of any crime is to let them know that you are going to seek legal protection.
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