Roosevelt And The Eighteen By The Editors t h e MILITANT On New Year’s eve 18 leaders of the Socialist Workers Party and the Minneapolis Truckdrivers Local 544-00 were PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE put behind prison bars. They were put behind prison bars by a government which represents the interests, not of the broad masses of the Ameri­ VOL. V III—No. 2 NEW YORK, N. Y„ SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1944 267 PRICE: FIVE CENTS can people, but of a small clique of the rich and privileged. These real masters of America, who are coining gold out of the agony and havoc of the 2nd world war, have determin­ ed to silence every voice of labor opposition to their govern­ ment of criminal misrule. They have determined to hamstring and throttle the powerful labor movement of America. No wonder they chose as their first victims eighteen individuals, who above all others, represent the Socialist consciousness of 18 FRAMED SWP LEADERS the awakening American working class. The spokesmen of the American plutocracy dare accuse the honest and fearless fighters for a new socialist world of the crime of “ conspiracy.” The conspirators are all on the other side. The con­ spirators are not located in the national head­ GO BEHIND PRISON BARS quarters of the Trotskyists or the Minneapolis CIO Truckdrivers. No, they are located in the govern­ Trotskyist Leaders Just Before Imprisonment mental offices of Washington and the counting Demonstrate Solidarity As houses of W all Street. Here are the men, who be- hind the backs of the American people, hatched the They Begin Jail Sentences gigantic conspiracy to plunge, them into the slaughter of the second world war. Minneapolis Workers Salute United March Roosevelt, who heads the list of these big conspirators, of 15 on Way to Federal Marshal's Office also stands at the head of the conspiracy that railroaded the 18 Socialist leaders and union militants to jail. Roosevelt, By Joseph Hansen who signed the Smith “ Gag” Act, personally initiated the MINNEAPOLIS, January 1.— At 3:10 yesterday prosecution of the 18 at the request of his labor flunkey, Daniel J. Tobin. Thus, the cogs of the machinery of capitalist afternoon, the jailer turned the key in the door of prosecution and frameup began to turn. Soon Biddle, an­ Hennepin County Jail, locking behind bars 15 of the other Rooseveltian "liberal” and a former member of the 18 defendants in the Minneapolis case. The other American C ivil Liberties Union, sent his G-men and prosecu­ tors into action. Federal Judge Joyce, who watches over the three were imprisoned in New York City and then interests of the plutocracy in the Minnesota Federal district sent to Danbury, Connecticut put his seal of approval oit the conspiracy. And now the Headed by James P. Cannon and Vincent R. nine begowned lawyers on the Supreme Court bench have permitted the conspiracy to run its course and the prison Dunne, the fifteen defendants formed ranks at 2:30 doors have closed on the 18. at the Minneapolis branch offices of the Socialist The great socialist agitator, Eugene V. Debs spoke Workers Party and marched in a body through the prophetically when he stated in his celebrated Canton speech during the last war: ‘‘ It is extremely dangerous to exercise crow ded streets o f th e c ity ® tionary tendency in the Scan­ the constitutional rights of free speech in a country fighting to the Federal C ourt to make democracy safe in the world.” In this self-proclaimed dinavian flavoring of Minnesota House. There they were politics. He was born in Sweden war to establish the “ four freedoms” all over the world, on an ancient feudal estate where Roosevelt is trampling on the freedom of the American peo­ received by the United his ancestors had worked as serfs ple here at home. States Marshal. In custody as fa r back as records extend. A»the masters in Washington are plunging into the fifth When Carl was a boy, capitalism year of the slaughter of the peoples, with no end in sight, of two deputies, they then penetrated into this area with saw their naked aims of conquest, subjugation and exploitation continued their closed mills and other entrprises based are becoming more obvious to millions of people at home and on cheap water power. Overnight, rank procession to the youths changed from serfs into abroad. Is it any wonder that they lash out in mad hatred After assembling at SWP headquarters and marching two abreast to the U. S. Marshall’s office, 15 of the 18 leaders proletarians. at men and women who are telling the truth? of the Socialist Workers Party and of Minneapolis Truckdrivers Local 544-010 are shown above at the Federal County jail. The conflict with the older Roosevelt and the American plutocrats are behaving as Courts building where they were taken into custody. They then marched around the block to the county jail to begin This morning at eight o’clock, Lutheran generation became every predatory ruling class that is already doomed by his­ serving their prison terms. The other three prisoners were taken into custody in New' Yoric City. See pictures Page 5. according to the County Sheriff, all were taken to Sandstone Peni­ peculiarly sharp. From devout be­ tory has behaved throughout the years. In this respect, he lief in witchcraft, charms and the is behaving like ITitler, Mussolini, Franco, Chiang-Kai-Shek tentiary except for Grace Carlson whose time of leaving for a Fed­ catechism, these youths were con­ who in their frenzied fear of the Marxist ideas, have executed, General Marshall’s vicious at­ eral women’s prison has not yet fronted with the ultra-modern assassinated and jailed our Trotskyist comrades. They hope Rail And Steel Disputes Show tack from ambush upon the been made public. scientific doctrines of Karl Marx. to silence the voice of tru th ; they hope to stifle and choke American labor movement has From the SWP branch offices to The feudal home broke up. A t o ff the socialist message which alone points the way out of aroused tremendous indigna­ the County Jail, these revolu­ the age of 15 Carl created a local this madhouse of fascism, hunger and war. But their jailings Roosevelt Swing To Reaction tion among workers every­ tionaries marched with great scandal by refusing to go through are in vain. Debs said in Canton: “ They may put those men where. The meaning of M ar­ dignity, fully aware of the his­ with confirmation in the Lutheran church. in ja il— and some of the rest of us in ja il— but they cannot By C. Thomas shall’s declarations and the toric significance of this imprison­ role of labor in the struggle He spent three years in the put the socialist movement in ja il.” ment. Theirs had been the first A significant development of the rising labor crisis is Roosevelt’s pronounced swing to the against fascism are analyzed trial in the United States of re­ Swedish army. in the feature article on page Every day the masses are learning more about volutionary socialists in the M ET COOVER right. Time magazine, comments approvingly: “ Behind the velvet glove technique of offering 2: “General Marshall and the the character of this ruling class, of its aims, of second world war. They are the concessions, within the (Little Steel) formula, was Roosevelt's iron hand — and the iron hand Fight Against Fascism.” first to be incarcerated in “demo­ In 1911 he came to the “land its war. A ll the repressions, all the prosecutions, cratic” America for expression of of freedom.” Working on.the rail­ was news.” road, he met Oscar Coover. “We all the jailings w ill not avail. The truth w ill prove opinion as to the character of the During the coal miners’ dispute, the workers’ struggle for higher wages was pictured as a second World War. hardly worked,” said Carl re­ miniscently; “we had such good more powerful in the long run than the hundreds personal feud between John.L. Lewis and Roosevelt, with the miners being used as pawns. The Frenzied Plea for DEBS’ MANTLE arguments a’oout socialism.” of thousands of lies with which they are inundating real grievances of the miners were for a long time dismissed as a pretext seized upon by Lewis St rike Curbs Made They marched proudly, fo r they But the freedom Carl sought the American nation. In the end the truth will to embarrass the President. The Stalinists con tribuled to this union-baiting campaign by add­ represent Trotskyism in America, in America seemed to have been the only political opposition to somewhat exaggerated in the ad­ prevail. For every one of the 18 that have been ing the note that Lewis was ac-^" Roosevelt’s regime serious enough vertisements of the steamship start of a strike. The three rail arbitration award in the case of By Stalinist Finks tually an “ agent of Hitler and in its advocacy of socialism to companies. Because he played a jailed, one hundred others w ill rise to take their officials who refused Roosevelt’s the two rail unions which had By R. B e ll receive treatment like that ac­ prominent part in building the Hirohito.” arbitration offer have given us accepted his arbitration offer. In place and carry on. The imprisonment of our corded the revolutionary socialists labor movement of the Northwest, The poison-pen artists find it an inkling of what happened. order to skirt around the Hit tic In the current labor crisis, the in the first World W ar.