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Montgomery Sent Spirited Caravan Past Philadelphia the Flood of Protest and Honest Elections” Washington-Bound Curs Swelled by Ronald Jones Street

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Montgomery Sent Spirited Caravan Past Philadelphia the Flood of Protest and Honest Elections” Washington-Bound Curs Swelled by Ronald Jones Street Memorial Day Martyrs of Labor (See Page 3) THE MILITANT PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE INTERESTS OF THE W ORKINC PEOPLE Vol. XXI - No. 21 NEW YORK, N. Y., MONDAY, MAY 27, 1957 PRICE 10c Standing Up for Freedom March On Washington Showed Determination To Win Equal Rights Excellent Union Turnout The Union Train Rally Hailed From District 65 in N.Y. Each Note By Henry Gitano “Stand back and let ’em through,” is what the gateman shouted as New. York’s union train-contingent Of Militancy arrived to be “counted! in” at the nationwide mass demon­ By John Thayer stration against Jim Grow in Washington. It was a Part of the estimated 27,000 persons who demonstrated against Jim Crow by,- attending monumental event, this vanguard army that expanded By' special trains and buses, the “Prajter Pilgrimage For Freedom” in Washington, D. C., May 17. People above stood on chartered planes, motorcades Montgomery’s and Tallahasse’sJ the asphalt road curving around the Lincoln'Memorial throughout the 316-hour meeting. The and every means of individual mass action pattern to the na- for a high purpose. A Spanish size of the crowd was difficult to estimate since it could not be seen as a whole frpm any travel thousands of Negro free­ tional scene. speaking member of 65 said: “I point. believe in brotherhood against dom fighters from every corner This vast delegation did not discrimination. We are demon­ of the country marched on Wash­ come to lobby, nor did they come strating that we are united and ington for the May 17 prayer merely to hear speeches or ready to fight for one another. pilgrimage.’The great throng of to pray. They came as one I had to fight for the govern­ some 27,000 gathered at worker from District 65 said: American Forum Target ment in World War II,. this noon before the Lincoln Memorial “Because I feel this is the time we’re fighting for our­ for three hours of prayer and greatest thing that ever hap­ selves.” John Meegan of Local protest against Jim Crow. The pened in America. This brings 2, District 65, said: “The his­ size of the meeting and the Of Witch-Hunting Attack us closer together. In unity tory of our union is one long great distances traveled by the there is strength, and we are audience made it the most im­ By Harry Ring fight against segregation and purpose of American Forum “is marching together; • alone you for equality.” Another 65er said: pressive demonstration for civil “Pilgrims” arriving in Washington, I). C. aboard the train The newly organized American Forum — For So­ believed to be to furnis'h a can’t do anything, together we “We’ll flush this administration rights to date. chartered by various unions in the New York City area to respectable front organization for Can win.” out of their fox-holes and make Integrated in the audience and cialist Education, dedicated to promoting a free exchange carry members to the Prayer . Pilgrimage, May 17. The largest the U.S. Communist Party.” It How much more powerful this them conscious of what’s going in their mode of transportation of all socialist viewpoints, has become the target Q,f a union contingent came from District 65 of the Retail Wholesale goes on to suggest that “the demonstration could . have been, on. We want a living and prac­ were some two or three thou­ attack by the SenateS> and Department Store Union which had eleven cars on the witch-hunt Senate Internal Security Sub­ had the officialdom of the tical democracy, not a pious sand white supporters of the Internal Security Subcommittee Amcndments in refusing to committee look into this mob powerful American labor move­ election-day-speech democracy.” train. fight against race discrimina­ headed by racist Senator East­ testify about the American Forum without delay'; also that the A t­ ment done more than pay mere On the return trip, there was tion. Many of these were from land (D-Miss.) New York news­ and told the committee that its torney General make inquiries as lip service to it, is dramatized the same sense of comradeship, union delegations, antr-racist papers have joined the smear questions “could not conceivably to whether he oughtn’t to add it by what District 65 achieved. organizations and the various serve any valid legislative pur­ ther-e was singing and there against the organization which is In contrast to the labor “states­ Many Youth ‘Pilgrims’ components of the socialist pose.” He was also quizzed, ac­ (Continued on page 4) was the feeling expressed by a headed by the well known pacifist, men” who are afraid and in- movement. The license plates cording to the Daily Worker 65er that: “The handwriting is A. J. Muste. (See editorial, page capable of mobilizing- mass and signs on the endless rows report, regarding the Socialist on the wall. I’ll go to Washing- threei) action, New York’s District 65, In Baltimore Contingent of parked ears and buses which Unity Forum, which is sponsored ton again tomorrow if we’re Five people have been sub­ Retail, Wholesale and Depart­ called to go. We are on the By Fred Halstead occupied every inch of curb poenaed by the Senate committee by the Committee for Socialist Rarick Takes space for about three miles ment Store Union filled up move. It was not as big as and hospitals, the segregated which is seeking “information” Unity. To obtain another view of the around the Lincoln Memorial eleven complete coaches on the possible, but this is only the housing. He said there had been about the American ¡Forum as it The attempt to depict the May 17 Prayer Pilgrimage, I ac­ Freedom Train, besides three beginning. Whenever we of Dis­ some changes in the past 10 testified to the truly national relates to “current methods. of American Foriim as a “Com­ companied the bus caravan from character of the turnout. Peo­ Stand Against buses and 35 cars. Twelve trict 65 do anything, we’ve year's, but that they had to be Communist infiltration,” accord­ munist front” is particularly Baltimore, a border-state city ple from at least 36 states had hundred District 65 unionists always got a lot of spirit.” fought for. '‘We’ve organized ing to a report in the May 19 crude in that its 40-member na­ with a large Negro population, rrfade the journey and iti is sacrificed a day’s wages in ad­ From th e start, District some picket lines,” he said. N. Y. Herald Tribune. The five tional committee represents a only an hour’s ride from Wash­ dition to paying their own fare 65 threw its full weight behind I mentioned- the importance of probable that the other twelve are: Albert Blumberg of the broad spectrum of socialist view­ Senate Probe ington, D.C. in support of the fight against the Pilgrimage. Workers were (having a large pilgrimage from states were represented to one Communist Party, Clifford T. points. Many members of the YOUNGSTOWN — Declaring The Baltimore section of the extent or another. discrimination everywhere. urged to get together in in­ Baltimore, since it is so close to McAvoy, chairman of the Com­ committee have a long public Pilgrimage was organized almost that he has changed his mind as On the 65 Union Train there dividual shops and plan to march 'Washington and relatively little mittee for Socialist Unity, Mil­ record of political opposition to entirely through the various N. Y. SENDS 11,000 a result of ¡numerous discussions was a joyous mood. Singing, from as a unit. The union guaranteed sacrifice was involved in making, ton Zaslow of the same organiza­ the program of the Communist with rank-and-file steel workers, churches in the Negro communi­ The biggest turnout was from spirituals to calypso to Mexican that no disciplinary action would the trip. He agreed, then nodded tion, Bert Cochran, editor bf the Party. ty. By eight o’clock in the morn­ New York City which sent Donald C. Rarick took a strong love songs, filled the coaches. I be taken for absenteeism on to. a young man nearby. “His ing of May 17, a small crowd had some 11,000. Over 1,500' of these magazine American Socialist, This well-established fact has, stand, May 14, in opposition to asked a District 65 member May 17. A union spokesman ‘gathered in front of the Gillis foreman gave him fhe day off to arrived on two special trains — and the economist Victor Perlo. of course, not served to inhibit the the McClellan Committee’s anti- about the spirited atmosphere: attributed the solid turnout to make the trip,” said the Rev- unioon probe. ,Rarick, who piled Memorial Community Church chartered by District 65 of the All except Perlo are members of smear campaign of the capitalist “Everyone is happy doing what the “union’s tradition of fight­ ¡erend, “but they’re not all like awaiting the ¡buses from the oth­ AFL-CIO Wholesale Retail De­ the national committee of the press. The May 15 N. Y. Daily up one-third of the ¡yote by offi­ they are doing. They are doing ing discrimination on every' that. A person has to live the American forum. News, for example, carried an cial count when he opposed David er churches which were to con­ partment Store Union, the it with their heart. This should level. We spearheaded the verge and leave from this point. rest of the year. If you can’t get One of the five, Albert Blum­ editorial entitled, “Look into this J.
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