Hiss’ Own Story A Book Review (See Page 3) t h e MILITANT PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE Vol. XXI - No. 33 NEW YORK, N. Y., MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 1957 PRICE 10c Clifford T. McAvoy, Active Fighter for Congress Prepares to Send Socialism; Dies Harry Ring Civil Rights Bill to Its Grave The fight for a Socialist America suffered a grievous - — --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------f y --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- loss with the death of Clifford T. McAvoy on Aug. 9. A former leader of the American Labor Party in New York, McAvoy had played an important S --------------------------------------------------- role in current efforts to achieve Many Cases Revealed a regroupmcnt of revolutionary Strike Flares in Poland socialist forces. He died of nephritis at the age of. 52 _n Cape Cod1 Hospital in Mas­ Tr Of Political Horse-Trades sachusetts. He had planned to spend a summer vacation there Use Troops and also to play as violinist in the Provincetown Symphony. He With Dixiecrat Senators is survived by his wife and stead­ To Smash By Fred Hart fast co-worker, Muriel, and by a son and daughter. AUG. 16 — The civil rights bill, which had been Despite ill health over a Sit-Down amended to death in the Senate, now faces burial in the past number of years, McAvoy Rules Committee of the House of Representatives. Since continued with a rigorous By C. R. Hubbard <S the passage on Aug. 2 of the schedule of political activity. He AUG. 14—The sit-down strike jury-trial amendment, which was an organizer of the Amer­ of 2,500 transport workers in killed the one remaining enforce­ ican Forum for Socialist Educa­ Lodz, Poland’s second largest ment provision in the measure, tion and chairman of the Com­ city, was evidently broken today Harlem Negroes the Republicans and Northern mittee for Socialist Unity. In after sharp clashes with security Democrats have been concerned the latter capacity he organ­ police and army troops. Sym­ Say, “No Teeth” with the remnants of the bill ized the united May Day rally pathy strikes were reportedlv only from the point of view of in New York this year ati which, spreading to other Polish cities. any additional political advan­ for the first time in almost three The Strike began in the early In Rights Rill tage they might extract from it. morning hours of Aug. 12. The decades, the Communist Party, CLIFFORD T. McAVOY “ “ By David Miller “ “ Liberal Democrats have been the Socialist Workers Parly and transport workers, among the primarily concerned with cover­ 1901-1957 “Hell, man, they don’t enforce other radical groupings par­ lowest paid in Poland, demanded ing up the shabby role of a ma­ the Constitution, do they? What ticipated in a joint May Day a raise from 3.70 zlotys an hour jority of their number who, along to fiv.e. They also asked the makes you think they’ll enforce celebration. appointment by the Greater New with the Dixiecrat;, and a few restoration of a bopus amount this?” Such was probably the York CTO Council as legislative Republicans, voted for the jury- A WAY OF LIFE | ing to one-month’s wages and most typical response of Negroes and political action director. In trial amendment. The role of the Clifford McAvoy’s unswerving I payable every year that wa: in Harlem when asked by this 1944 he became Washington | Democratic Congressmen has devotion to the cause of social­ f t once awarded them but was later reporter what they thought of legislative director for the CIO j therefore been to represent the ism was expressed in his whole J canceled; and finally, the the present Civil Rights Bill. United Electrical Workers. Two Senate bill as a gain for Civil way of life. He was a gifted ' strikers demanded a change in As a result of the general years later he was appointed by rights despite the vitiating violinist who had performed with , the unjust system of wages. skepticism, almost everyone cen­ Jack Kroll of the CIO-PAC as amendment. major groups in Europe and the [ A spokesman for the' strikers tered his reply first of all on assistant PAC director for the U.S. Yet in latter years he con­ : said, “We are earning : today a the jury-trial provision. “A AdministJation strategy now Midwest. fined such performances to maximum of 800 zlotys, a month. colored man hasn’t got a chance is to permit the bill to stay in the rules committee while Re­ summer appearances with the ALP CANDIDATE We cannot bear it any longer.” before an all-white jury, man, Provincetown group as a form . (Official figures claim the wage and you know it.” “No teeth, publican Congressmen demagogic­ He remained with the UE after ally talk of winning a return of of vacation relaxation. it was expelled from the CIO11 scale varies from 750 to .1*100 that’s what’s the matter with-the . zlotys a month. The government bill.” ***;. thFTections amended out by the The son of a New York in 1948 and organized' at that Senate. On Aug. 15, James Res- Supreme Court Justice and ’ set the exchange rate last time the Progressive Labor Com- EFFECT ON SOUTH ton, head of the Washington Bu­ grandson of a Tammany Halt niitee for Wallace. February of 24 zlotys to the Enforcement seems so much reau of the New York Times, ex­ leader, he had every opporlun.ty As ALP candidate for Piesi- U.S. dollar.) to be the key ta the issue that a plained: “The Eisenhower Ad­ to carve out a lucrative per­ rlent of the New York City Coun­• POLICE USE TEAR GAS number of persons insisted that ministration is taking a calcu­ sonal career. Possessor of a Ph.D. cil! in 1951 he polled over 100,000 1 The strikers opened their fight even with teeth the law would lated gamble on the civil rights in Romance languages, he taught votes. In the 1953 race for by taking possession of the fail of its purpose. “In that; \ ,’n Hie belief that there is from 1927 to 1938 at Columbia Mayor he was designated as the; ' I Streetcar and bus terminals. case,” I asked, “what can be political gam in prolonging the University and City College of ALP candidate. However by that - They brought down their done?” “Well, bad as thi3 law battle.” New York. It was during this time the Communist Party families, packed lunches and ' period that he became immersed leadership — whose policies may be, it will do one good SMITH STAND ■ prepared to stay. until their , thing. Colored folks down South in labor and radical politics. McAvoy had previously sup­ for Witch Hunt In turning the bill over to ' demands were met. The police, Set-Back will start fighting even harder He was an active member cf ported — had begun the process s reinforced from Warsaw, closed than before.” Rules Committee Chairman How­ the Teachers Union during that of scuttling the ALP. Largelyr in on the strikers , with fixed ard Smith (D-Va.) the Republi­ “We just gotta get on those period and soon after its forma­ as a result of the CP forces* bayonets. John MacCormac, who cans are apparently banking on juries, that’s all,” put in his: tion became a leading figure in deserting the ticket he polled1'' interviewed the strikers at the j bringing the bill out again in in Ohio T-H Case neighbor. “But how?" said a| the American Labor Party. but 53,000 votes in that contest, j Seen • principal terminal, report'd in I the next session for further poli­ In 1938, after a unsuccessful At that point the late Vito Mar-1 By Jean Simon _ .•>- third man, five years out of tical exploitation. (On Aug. 14, ' I the Aug. 14 N. Y. Times that Mississippi. “How, man, that’s bid for the State Assembly on cantonio, who had campaigned* the resistance of the women who tended until August 5. The ino- Rep. Smith told the press, ‘‘I CLEVELAND, August 12 — Weakness of the gov- tion was gl.anted. the question. You know it will the ALP ticket he was appointed for McAvoy, broke from the^occupied the front ranks was am inclined to follow the course take a civil war to do that!” by La Guardia as a Deputy Wel­ ALP with a denunciation of the broken when police donned eminent s case becomes more apparent each week, as the 1 On August 5 another two most likely to result in no bill. “Well, anyway, this law will sure fare Commissioner, a post he CP’s role. masks and hurled tear gas bombs Sept. 16 trial date approaches in the Taft-Hartley Con­ weeks ext elusion was requested, Do I make myself clear?”) help put the South on the spot held until 1941. McAvoy remained in the ALP into the strikers’ ranks. Five spiracy Case. and granted. now. That’s one good thing about No m atter how much they try In that year he accepted an (Continued on page 3) Lust Jan. 23 eight persons of these documents must be pro­ The obvious inference is that women were reported injured it.” to pin the blame on each other, and hospitalized. were indicted by a federal grand vided. the Justice Department is hav­ both parties share the responsi­ It should hardly be surprising In a 15-minute act’on, Aug. 14, ,jury here for “conspiring” to vi­ The overt act charged to Eric ing difficulty in digging up facts bility for gutting the proposed that the reaction of many Ne­ 3,000 army and police units took olate the Taft-Hartley act by fil­ Reinthaler, another defendant, to back up its accusations.