Defy Bus Racial Segregation in Montgomery

1956 — A Year of RevolutionaryStruggle t h e (See Page 3) I MILITANT PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE Vol. XX - No. 53 NEW YORK, N. Y., MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1956 Price 10 Cents Fryer’s Book Nails Stalinists Defy Bus Racial Segregation On Hungary By John White MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, Dec. 21 — Peter Fryer, In Montgomery, Tallahassee former London Daily Worker correspondent in Hungary, has now published a book, Hungarian Tragedy. It is based ■on what he saw in the 14 mo »-■ ------------------------------------------------- mentous days of his last visit ed to the London Daily Worker So. Africans Negroes Take Any Seats to Hungary. and the Stalinists who con When Fryer went there on trol it taught him another lesson Oct. 27, the Hungarian revolu when they suppressed his dis Fight Racial tion was less than four days old. patches. He le ft H u n g a ry on Nov. 10. First Time in History; He was there while the masses were flushed with victory after Those 14 days decisively turned Oppression their first uprising. He saw the Fryer from a Stalinist journalist development of dual power, with into a bitter and caustic oppo By Fred Halstead the armed working class and stu nent of the leadership of the Birmingham Opens Fight Last week, South African op British Communist Party. dents, organized in revolution ponents of racial segregation He quotes Pollitt’s advice to By Myra Tanner Weiss ary committees jealous of their displayed great courage and de a Communist Party member virile and surging democracy on termination in their struggle DEC. 26 — Two white men sat behind ia Negro on a one side; and with the Nagy who had lived for a long period against attempted government bus in Montgomery, Ala. last Friday. One of the whites in Eastern Europe as a journal Government on the other side. suppression in the city of Johan said loudly: “I see this isn’t going to be a white Christmas.” He was in Budapest when the ist. On his return he told PoUitt nesburg. Mass demonstrations — then General Secretary of The Negro looked up, smiled and® : ■Soviet bureaucracy launched its took place for three straight days said: “Yes, sir, that’s right.” treacherous attack; he was there the Communist Party — that he outside the courtroom where 153 the terrorists, especially at night This exchange marked the end during the four days and nights was appalled by the things he leaders of organizations opposed and on isolated street corners. of bus segregation in Mont of continuous bombardment, a saw. Pollitt’s reply was: “My to the government’s “apartheid” But they appealed in vain. The gomery, the victory of 50,000 bombardment which left “vast advice to you is to keep your (racial segregation) policies wrere City Commissioners that day areas of the city — the work mouth shut.” on trial for “treason.” The de Negroes who inspired the world were attending a rally of the ing class areas above all — vir “The day is over when Com fendants include members of all with their heroic defiance of the White Citizens Council where tually in ruins'.” munists will follow such advice,” major racial groupings recog white supremacists. Those who speakers were telling the 250 writes Fryer. “Never again shall nized in the Union of South A f had walked for a year rather racists present to “rise up and DW SUPPRESSES STORY we keep our mouths shut. The rica: African Negroes, Asiatics, than submit any longer to the say ‘no’ ” to bus integration. He saw an uprising ‘‘neither Daily Worker sent me to Hun Coloreds (mixed) and whites. insults and abuse of discrimina There were rumors that white organized nor controlled by fas gary, then suppressed what I During the pre-trial examina tion, boarded the buses, Dec. 21, goon squads would roam the city cist or reactionaries but the com wrote. Much of what I wrote tions, Dec. 19, proceedings v'ere and sat where they pleased. to keep Negroes “in their place.” mon people of Hungary: work was concealed even from col drov'ned out by the voices of In Tallahassee, Fla. Negroes There were reports that a white ers, peasants, students and sol leagues. Both as a Communist 5,000 Negroes singing “ God Bless sat in all bus-seats after ending boycott o f buses would be o r their seven-month old boycott, ganized. diers.” What he saw he report- (Continued on page 2) Africa,” outside the courtroom. On Dec. 20, police fire d on a Dec?. 24. (See Tallahassee story On the first day of the return similar demonstration injuring on page 4.) to the buses, cars loaded with fourteen people. Inside the court South Africa Freedom Fighters BIRMINGHAM BOMBING white men were observed follow room, meanwhile, the defendants, ing behind. Mrs. Janie Ruth W il In the large industrial city of who were enclosed in a six-foot- son was assaulted by a white Birmingham, Ala. a Negro leader high wire cage, joked, laughed man who pushed and slapped was bombed out.of his home, and asked frie n d s to “ feed us her, cutting her lip, as she' got Dec. .25, • and arrested the. next peanuts.” The cage was removed off a bus. Her assailant then day after he led a group of Ne when defense attorneys threat escaped, speeding awgy in a car groes in sitting in -front seats ened to walk, out. The following J 1 —-A -■ . : ~ ——: ■ ■■ M .» n ■■ ■■ n- ij u p il j .1 . ■■ ■ ■■■■ i ■ fu ll • ©Father whites. of fhe'buies/Five persohs werb day, the trials were recessed un On Dec. 23, shots were fired til Jan. 9, as police injured five injured including two children (Continued on page 4) persons w'hile attempting to who required hospitalization' in break up the demonstrations out French Trotskyists on Trial the blast which demolished the side the courtroom with a billy- home of Rev. F. L. Shuttles- club charge. worth. He is president of the Scores Victory Most of the defendants had Alabama Christian Movement been dragged fro m th e ir beds in for Human Rights which de pre-dawn raids by political police, For Defending the Algerians manded, Dec 20, that Birming Dec. 5, and charged with “trea ham bus, segregation be ended Though the prosecutions carry son” under the Suppression of By John Thayer be left out— the police inter immediately. After the bombing the threat not only of heavy fines Communism Act. The act was de In furtherance of its brutal rogations, the tortures, the il he said: “If I had been killed but of long prison sentences, the signed by the ruling Nationalist war of repression in Algeria. legal imprisonments, the concen then someone else would have Trotskyists have not abated their party specifically to repress French imperialism has opened a tration camps, the ratissages (lit taken my place.” opposition to the Algerian war erally Takings—the system used growing mass opposition to its campaign to destroy civil liber In the Gulf port city of Mobile, one bit. Indeed, they welcome the in cordoning off a village or city “apartheid” policies. (The Na ties in France itself. Bearing the Ala. the head of the city bus third ch-arge-^that of defamation section, arresting all the men tionalist party represents only a brunt of this attack at the pres lines announced, Dec. 26, that of the Governor General of Al then conducting a house-to-house small minority of the population. ent moment are the French Trot drivers have been instructed not geria. For legally this charge alL ‘search’ in which all the furniture It maintains its political con skyists and their newspaper, La to enforce bus segregation laws. lows them to do what the other is smashed and many of the wom trol by simply disenfranchising V erite. The long walk for Bus in charges severely restricted — to en and children beaten.)” Negroes and “coloreds,” who La Verite has been a thorn in tegration in Montgomery was expose what is going on in Al “ We shall reopen the dossier of number three quarters of the 13Vi the side of the Mollet government over on Dec. 20 when the Mont geria in the courtroom. The four the Nuremberg Trial, we shall million people in the Union of because of its unwavering sup gomery Improvement • Associa Trotskyist defendants have pro speak of the UN’s Genocide Con South Africa.) port of the movement of the Al tion met and voted to end their Efforts of the South African government to suppress the claimed their intention: vention. We shall put. colonialism The political police have made gerian people for independence fight against, white supremacy are being stepped up, but re “We are going to prove in and its methods on trial. We boycott. Notice was received by more than 1,000 raids on homes and its defense in France of the the City of Montgomery to halt sistance of the freedom fighters continues to grow. Above, as court what we have been saying shall turn the accusers into the of individuals and organizations civil liberties of Algerian work enforcement of city and state part of a 19.12 disobedience campaign, South Africans take ers. La Verite from the very be about Algeria. Nothing will accused.” opposed to “apartheid” during the segregation laws by order of the over a rail car marked “ Europeans only.” ginning has opposed and agitated past year. In 1955 60,000 Negroes Supreme Court. were driven at gun point from against the war being waged by their homes in Johannesburg in the French army against tile Al To Contest McDonald WCC THREATS Harvey O’Connor, author a Government attempt to make gerians, It calls for an immediate Integrated seating on the buses and free-speech fighter, suc Worker, Student Protests the city predominantly white.

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