Secret Paris Meeting Decides for Early Liquidation of Comintern

SOCIALISTPublished Weekly as the Organ of the Socialist Party ofAPPEAL New York, Left Wing Branches. V o l. I. - No. 12. 401 Saturday, October 30- 1937 5 Cents per Copy; High Court Rejects Scottsboro Appeal — ——— ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ® Secret Paris Meeting Decides for ‘Liberal’ Black Early Liquidation of Comintern Ducks Opinion; Trotskyists To "Collective Securlty" Youth Faces 75 Be Annihilated Year Sentence The appeal of Haywood Pat terson. leading defendant in the six and a half year old .Scotts Is Main Slogan boro case, was rejected last Tuesday by a unanimous deci By Liston M. Oak sion of the United States Su On April 21, 1937, there preme Court. The newest Associate Justice, was an historic conference Hugo L. Black, apparently dis of the representatives of the qualified himself from participa 17 leading Communist Par ting in the decision of the Court, ties of the world, in Paris. according to the announcement Such conferences have dis made in the formal orders, placed the Congress of the Comintern, which met every Faces 75-Year Term year or two until 1928, after Patterson, one of the nine which it was seven years young Negroes framed-up by the before the Seventh Congress Alabama reactionaries and Negro- haters on the charge of rape, has which threw Leninism over been convicted on that charge board and adopted Menshev- four times, has been condemned ism as its guiding philoso three times to die, and is now phy. under sentence to serve the bar baric term of seventy-five years ... Earl Browder—that "great and in prison. beloved leader’’ of the CPUS A His appeal against the decision who assures Roosevelt that "he of the lower courts, whipped up has nothing to fear from the to a frenzy of Negro-baiting, Communists ’’— was present at the was based on having been de Paris conference. I was in Bar prived of the constitutional celona at the time, and know that guarantee of due process of law, the representative of the Ameri because he was refused permis can CP in Spain attended. Later sion to be tried in a Federal in Julian Gorkin, POUM leader stead of a State court and be now in a Spanish Stalinist jail, cause the jury was instructed by showed me a full report of the the judge to find him guilty even proceedings. (I presume Mike if he had not committed iape but Gold w ill cite this fact to prove had only "conspired” to do so. liis charge that I am a spy!) That the Supreme Court should cover up the reactionary South To Dissolve Comintern ern bearers of "white suprema There were two main items on Convention Postponed for W ider Discussions cy”, is not very surprising. the agenda for discussion—or rather, for instruction from the W ith the publication of the first provide adequate time for dis are to follow in rapid order. Pro “Liberal” Black Ducks Kremlin, for even among the big issue of the internal bulletin this cussion by the membership, the vision is being made throughout Of considerable significance, shots of the CP there is no longer week an animated discussion in convention, originally called for the party for the full and free however, is the position adopted any discussion, except on how to the ranks of the left wing social the last week in November, has presentation of all points of view by Justice Black, ex-K)ansmant. carry out orders. These two ques ist branches, in preparation for been postponed until Friday, De in the oral discussion at branch highly-touted "liberal " and self- tions were: the national convention, got into cember 31 at Chicago. and membership meetings and asserted friend of the Jews and 1. The physical liquidation offull .swing. The original plan The first internal discussion for the representation of minori Negroes. He had an opportunity the POUM and other revolution for the convention—to draw an bulletin, comprising 70 mimeo ties in the convention on a pro to express himself clearly against ary opposition to the Spanish organizational balance of the ex graphed pages, is now being portional basis. Unlike the prac the loathsome frame-up. Black People’s Front, and the cam pulsion campaign of the La studied by the membership. It tices of the fraudulent "democ ducked the issue in order not to paign against the “Trotskyite Guardia socialists and their cen contains theses and counter racy” followed by Altman-Tyler offend h i s Southern-cracker agents of fascism” internation trist lickspittles — has been theses and discussion articles & Co., who know no way of meet friends. ally; and 2. The possible liqui broadened into a decision to put from various points of view on ing argument and criticism but The Communist Party is doubly dation of the Comintern, and all the fundamental problems of the problems of the civil war by "gag Laws” and expulsions, guilty, by virtue of its suppres the necessity of finding a sub the labor movement, national and in Spain. Other internal bul- the discussion in our ranks is a sion in recent years of the mass stitute for it as a weapon of international, on the agenda. lletins on American perspectives real discussion and the democ protest movement, and the sur the Soviet foreign office. Owing to the additional time ’and revolutionary tasks, on the racy is a real democracy. By this render of the case to the Tam The secretaries of the 17 lead required to elaborate the main j trade union question, on a basic method of internal democracy many attorney, Leibowitz. It is ing Communist Parties were in- political resolutions on these declaration of revolutionary prin- the collective opinion of the high time to revive the mass (Continued on page 3) basic questions, and in order to Iciples and on the Soviet Union membership can be recorded movement. 2 SOCIALIST APPEAL October 30, 1937 provisional confessions of the alleged members of the right Swiss Police Arrest Assassins opposition (Rykov-Bukharin) are aimed to' break down the two most important defendants and to oblige them to play their role Of Murdered G.P.U. Man, Reiss according to the script of the G.P.U. in a new trial. A characteristic detail concern near future. ing Gertrude Schildbach, who Documents Reveal Tortures Used To Get The G.P.U. made and is mak organized the assassination of ing all efforts to stage a Rykov- Reiss: She remains a German Confessions from Innocent Victims of Bukharin trial in order to count citizen born in Alsace. She asked eract hostile public opinion with for a substantial sum of money new confessions. In May, Rykov, from the G.P.U. in order to be Moscow Purges and Framed-Up Trials the former head of the Soviet come a French citizen. She re government, and Bukharin, the ceived the money but she never former head of the Comintern, took corresponding steps before By Leon Trotsky were brought from prison to a the French authorities. I have already described the assassi nation of Ignace Reiss, an important foreign meeting of the Central Commit That is enough for today. Other tee of the party. They refused things not less important will agent of the G.P.U. and the Comintern, near Lausanne, Switzerland. The assassina to confess to alleged treason, follow. In spite of our sufficiently tion was plotted by another G.P.U. agent stationed at Rome, Mrs. Gertrude Schild- terrorism, and so on. Stalin turbulent times, the question of bach. The reason for the assassination: Disgusted by the Moscow trials, Ignace Reiss shouted out, “Back to prison the activities of the G.P.U. gang with them! Let them defend merits, I believe, some attention. wrote a letter on July 17, 1937, to the Central Committee in Moscow, proclaiming his themselves there!” A series of October 19, 1937. definite rupture with them. When I gave you this information, it must have seemed to the causal onlooker to<& to write about the Trotskyite This same Slutzky, in the pre consists of unwarranted as- “terrorists.” sence of witnesses, described the sertions impossible of proof. In the next period we w ill thus questioning of Mrachkovsky, a Group Denounce Now the whole matter has have in Switzerland a trial of famous general of the civil war and one of the defendants shot become public. On October a G.P.U. gang, one of the most sensational trials of our time. I in August 1936, as having lasted 2, two of the assassins of suppose that Mrs. Reiss, the ninety hours without interrup The Kidnapping Reins were arrested in Paris. widow of the assassinated, w ill tion. This was one of the methods of extracting confessions. The Swiss police, which is appear before the court as a w it ness. There is no doubt that a not tied by diplomatic interests, powerful light w ill be thrown on Challenges Fischer Of Wolf, Rein ahem to have done a good job. the Moscow trials. The police have established that In connection with the assas The search of the police in the the Chevrolet car in which Reiss home of Rakovsky (former head sination of Ignace Reiss and the Men and women prominent in American liberal and was killed had been rented to a of the Ukrainion government, Swiss woman, Renata Steiner. discovery of his assassins, I dis labor circles issued a statement today, protesting the ab close very important information member of the Central Commit She was immediately arrested and tee, ambassador to London and duction of Erwin Wolf, well-known labor journalist and coming fo r.

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