Congress. House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Subversive Influences in Riots,
Looting, and Burning. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1967, 1968. Pt. 3: Subversive Influences
in Riots, Looting, and Burning (Los Angeles – Watts) (November 28, 29, 30, 1967).
SuDoc No.: Y4.Un1/2:R47/pt.3
Date(s) of Hearings: November 28, 29, and 30, 1967
Congress and Session: 90th - 1st
EXCERPTS
SYNOPSIS
On November 28, 1967, the subcommittee of the House Committee on Un-American Activities met
at 10 a.m. in Room 311, Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C., in continuation
of hearings on subversive influences in riots, looting, and burning, with particular
reference to "the Watts riot of 1965 in Los Angeles and activity conducted by certain
groups prior to, during, and after the riot."
Committee counsel noted that the riot in the Watts area broke out on August 11, 1965,
and lasted for 7 days. Its toll was 37 deaths, an unknown number of injured, over 4,000
arrests, 600 buildings destroyed, and an estimated property damage of $40 million.
TESTIMONY OF JAMES C. HARRIS
The first witness was Detective James C. Harris of the Los Angeles district attorney's
office. Mr. Harris testified that an organization called Communist Party U.S.A.
(Marxist-Leninist), a group whose headquarters are located in Los Angeles, had
"concentrated on agitation in the Negro community."
Detective Harris noted that the leader and founder of the group, Michael Isaac Laski,
a former student at UCLA, had organized a "Marxism Discussion Group" there
in 1960. Later, in 1964, Laski served as West Coast organizer of the Provisional
Organizing Committee to Reconstitute the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party U.S.A. (POC),
a Communist Party splinter group.
The POC, the Los Angeles detective declared, organized a front group for the purpose of
racial agitation: Freedom for the People, an organization which rejected integration as
a solution to the Negro's plight in America. Michael Laski also instituted a labor-type
group, the Automobile Maintenance Workers' Union, which organized employees of Los
Angeles carwash businesses. Another POC front was the Watts Action Committee, an
organization whose "purpose was to promote animosity towards the police and other
law enforcement personnel."
Prior to and through the 1965 Watts riot, Laski agitated in the predominately Negro
Watts section of Los Angeles in the name of the POC.
In September 1965, following the Watts riot and after having been expelled from the POC,
Laski and a handful of his followers from that organization formed the aforementioned
Communist Party, United State of America (Marxist-Leninist). The main program of this
new group, according to the witness, continued to be "primarily agitation in Watts."
He continued:
They have utilized charges of police brutality, the Vietnam issue. They have advocated
a Chinese political philosophy and the formation of what they call the People's Armed
Defense Groups in order to oppose alleged police brutality.
Detective Harris told the subcommittee that Laski's group intermittently published a
journal titled People's Voice and also Red Flag, which contained highly
inflammatory articles designed to sustain an atmosphere of racial tension in the Watts
area. Samples of these publications were offered for insertion in the hearing record.
The witness said that the CPUSA-ML also maintained a propaganda outlet, the Worker's
International Book Store, in Los Angeles. The bookstore offered literature which
advocated a Red Chinese political philosophy and, according to their own letter, all
kinds of "revolutionary magazines, books, and periodicals."
The witness then cited a number of examples of agitation on the theme of "police
brutality" by the CPUSA-ML. He underscored these examples with appropriate exhibits.
Detective Harris expressed the belief that the "intent of the CPUSA-ML has been to
aggravate" the Negro population in Los Angeles "to the point of civil
disobedience and to attempt to condition their minds to respond in a rebellious way in
the event of a contact with a police officer."
In the resumption of testimony the following day, Detective Harris offered a number of
highly inflammatory documents which were produced and disseminated by the CPUSA-ML in
the Los Angeles area.
TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM A. WHEELER
Mr. Wheeler, a committee investigator for 20 years, assigned to the West Coast since 1951,
testified that the Los Angeles Committee to Support Grievances of Watts Negroes was an
outgrowth of the Committee To End the War in Vietnam (CEWV). The CEWV, in turn, was
"a united front effort" of "the Socialist Party, Socialist Workers Party,
Students for a Democratic Society, the Los Angeles W.E.B. DuBois Club, and the Young
Socialist Alliance," youth arm of the Trotskyist Communist organization, the Socialist
Workers Party.
The committee's West Coast investigator submitted for exhibit documents prepared by the
Committee to Support Grievances of Watts Negroes, one of which was headed:
STOP POLICE REPRESSION OF WATTS NEGROES!! FIRE POLICE CHIEF PARKER!! CREATE A CIVILIAN
POLICE REVIEW BOARD!! ELIMINATE GHETTO CONDITIONS!!
Mr. Wheeler stated that an organization known as the Congress of Unrepresented People
replaced the Committee to Support Grievances of Watts Negroes in August 1965, demonstration
sponsored by the Congress of Unrepresented People as members of the Socialist Party,
Socialist Workers Party, W.E.B. DuBois Club, Communist Party, and Young Socialist Alliance.
TESTIMONY OF JAMES C. HARRIS – RESUMED
Detective Harris, recalled to the stand, stated that the South Side Citizens Defense
Committee was identified by the Los Angeles district attorney's office "as a front
of the old-line Communist Party and formed for the purpose of capitalizing on the Watts
riot." The address of the South Side Citizens Defense Committee was shown to be
identical to that of the Committee To Defend the Bill of Rights, the successor organization
to the old Communist front organization, the Los Angeles Committee for Protection of
Foreign Born.
He testified that another agitational group operating in Watts after the riot was the
Watts Council for Equal Rights, a creation of the Provisional Organizing Committee to
Reconstitute the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party. The Watts Council for Equal Rights
was formed in November 1965.
Detective Harris stated that the group was involved in agitation at the time of the
"Deadwyler affair in Los Angeles." Deadwyler was a Negro accidentally shot
by a police officer in May 1966. (As revealed in later testimony, a number of Communist
organizations seized upon the Deadwyler affair in mounting a vociferous racial agitation
campaign against alleged "police brutality.")
Chairman Willis told the witness that he had made a great contribution to the committee.
He added:
Mayor Yorty, a former Member of Congress, testified that the minds of the people,
particularly the colored people in the Watts area, were conditioned for a long time to
set the scene and to prepare them for the riots. Then yesterday we covered, through you,
the conditions prevailing during the riots.
This morning, you and Mr. Wheeler, an employee of this committee, talked about the postriot
shenanigans going on.
Now, in short, as I understand it, these nefarious activities started a long time ago.
They were pursued during the riot and, after the riot, unquestionably under one form or
guise or another are still going on in the Los Angeles area.
TESTIMONY OF CLAYTON R. ANDERSON
On November 30, 1967, a subcommittee composed of Mr. Tuck, Mr. Ichord, and Mr. Ashbrook
convened in the committee hearing room to hear the testimony of Lieutenant Clayton R.
Anderson concerning postriot activities in the Los Angeles area. Mr. Tuck, chairman of
the subcommittee, presided.
Lieutenant Anderson stated that he was employed in the Los Angeles district attorney's
bureau of investigation, assigned to the intelligence section.
He testified that the Freedom Now Committee in Los Angeles held a press conference on
February 10, 1966, at which it was stated that the purpose of the committee was to stage
a demonstration on February 12, 1966, for "complete freedom for American Negro
citizens now and immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Vietnam."
The intelligence section officer stated that key leaders of the Freedom Now Committee
were leaders of the W.E.B. DuBois Clubs.
Lieutenant Anderson said that the demonstration was held as scheduled and was comprised of
"less than 100 actual demonstrators," of whom about "25 percent" were
either DuBois clubs members, Communist Party members, or former party members.
The witness revealed that the Freedom Now Committee was apparently formed especially for
the February 12, 1966, demonstration and was then abandoned.
Lieutenant Anderson told the subcommittee that an organization called the Ad Hoc Committee
To End Police Malpractices sponsored a demonstration at Los Angeles City Hall on September
24, 1964. The Ad Hoc Committee, "a front group of the W.E.B. DuBois Club of Los
Angeles," demanded immediate action to correct police malpractice, including the
resignation of the chief of police and the establishment of a civilian police review board.
This demonstration took place 11 months prior to the Watts riot.
Another organization which was established after the riot in the Watts area was the
Community Alert Patrol. Mr. Anderson noted that this group, while not subversive, was
a nuisance. The members of the Community Alert Patrol had their cars equipped with
short-wave radios and in turn responded to police calls in order to observe any "police
brutality." The group never made any charges of police brutality against the Los
Angeles Police Department.
Lieutenant Anderson discussed the "Deadwyler case," which was the accidental
shooting of a Negro, Leonard Deadwyler, by a police officer on May 7, 1966. Even though
the policeman was cleared by a coroner's jury, "a number of Communist and extreme
leftwing organizations tried to capitalize on this accidental killing to foment racial
discord in the Watts area."
The Committee To End Legalized Murder by Cops was "formed for agitation during the
Deadwyler inquest." Key leaders of this committee included high-ranking officials of
the Communist Party, U.S.A., and the W.E.B. DuBois Clubs.
The "End Legalized Murder" committee held an unruly demonstration on May 17, 1966,
in front of the 77th Division police station, which included some 350 demonstrators. Among
these demonstrators were a number of well-known members of the Communist Party, the W.E.B.
DuBois Clubs, and other Communist organizations.
Lieutenant Anderson told the subcommittee of the demonstrations which took place during
the Deadwyler inquest and introduced literature and a number of inflammatory handbills which
were distributed for agitational purposes during this demonstration by the CPUSA-ML, the
Muslims of the Nation of Islam, and the Progressive Labor Party.
Lieutenant Anderson pointed out that John Wesley Harris, Watts area organizer for the
Progressive Labor Party, was arrested for distributing insurrectional literature at the
Deadwyler hearing. Shortly thereafter the Committee to Defend John Harris was organized
– chiefly by members of the Progressive Labor Party. This committee was endorsed
and supported by the W.E.B. DuBois Clubs.
TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM A. WHEELER – RESUMED
Committee investigator Wheeler returned to the witness stand and testified about an
organization called the Afro-American Cultural Association, apparently formed in December
1966, and headed by black nationalist playwright Frank Greenwood, who had formerly been
associated with various Communist Party front groups.
Mr. Wheeler stated that Greenwood has been connected with the Black Anti-Draft Union in
Los Angeles.
Investigator Wheeler attested to information concerning a group called Self Leadership for
All Nationalities Today (SLANT), which was formed on August 19, 1965, 2 days subsequent to
the Watts riot.
The motto of SLANT is "BROTHERHOOD – UNITY – RESPONSIBILITY –
NATIONWIDE." The initials of this motto spell "BURN."
The founder of SLANT, Tommy Ray Jacquette, a former social worker with the Westminister
Neighborhood Association, a federally funded charity organization, has stated, "change
for the Negroes can never be brought about without violence."
The committee investigator stated that he had also investigated the activities of an
organization called simply "US." They key leaders of US are Ron Karenga,
chairman, and Allen Jamal, vice chairman. Both men are known to be militant black
nationalist extremists.
The revolutionary philosophy of US as developed by Ron Karenga was thoroughly documented
as Mr. Wheeler read a number of statements by its militant chairman into the record.
US was documented to be anti-Semitic in its preachments and extremely militant in its
activities. "On October 19, 1967, five members of the US organization were arrested
for throwing Molotov cocktails in a bakery in the Watts area," the witness said.
Mr. Wheeler said, in reference to CPUSA participation in the Watts riot: "The
Communist Party has been very cautious. It has done little or nothing under its own
name." He added, however, that both the Communist Party and the W.E.B. DuBois Clubs,
its youth arms, had set up various fronts to "foster racial division and antagonism
in the Los Angeles area" while attempting to conceal the role of the party in such
activity.
The fronts set up by the Communist Party, he stated, included the South Side Citizens
Defense Committee, the Committee To End LEgalized Murder by Cops, and the Freedom Now
Committee.
The W.E.B. DuBois Clubs and/or its leaders and members supported and took part in the
activities of the following racial-agitation organizations in the Los Angeles area:
Committee to Support Grievances of Watts Negroes
Ad Hoc Committee To End Police Malpractices
Congress of Unrepresented People
South Side Citizens Defense Committee
Freedom Now Committee
Committee for the Defense of John Harris
Mr. Wheeler stated: "Finally, as previously indicated, on the national level the
DuBois Clubs have called for the separation of the Watts area from the city of Los
Angeles."
The "Socialist Workers Party issued a statement which, like that of the Communist
Party, exonerated the rioters..." This statement was published 2 days after the Watts
riot ended.
Investigator Wheeler commented briefly concerning the activity of the Progressive Labor
Party in circulating inflammatory literature during the Watts riot. PLP distributed posters
and flyers titled: "Don't be a sucker!" (This pamphlet asked the question:
"ISN'T THIS A DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST THE AFRO-AMERICAN PEOPLE BY THE UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT?"); "BLACK LIBERATION – NOW!"; "THE NEED FOR
REVOLUTION"; "WANTED FOR MURDER – Parker the Cop in Watts" (This
poster was patterned after the PLP's "Wanted for Murder – Gilligan the Cop"
poster which was distributed during the Harlem riot of 1964.); and, during the Deadwyler
affair, "WANTED for the MURDER of Leonard Deadwyler – 'BOVA – the
COP.'"
PLP leader, John Wesley Harris, was indicted for criminal syndicalism for his agitational
activities during the Deadwyler inquest. The PLP then formed the Committee to Defend John
Harris, which "has been used not only to assist in Harris' defense, but also to further
racial discord, and for the distribution of inflammatory literature." Mr. Wheeler
noted that Harris "has since proclaimed that he is proud to be a Communist."
In his concluding remarks Mr. Tuck stated:
This hearing has not proved that the Watts riot of August 1965 was instigated by the
Communists. The record indicates that most of this literature was distributed after the
riot in an apparent attempt to capitalize on it and incite further violence. Some of it,
however, was distributed prior to the riot. To have engaged in this activity in disturbing
the community after the Watts riot is even worse than it was before the riot.
...
Whether or not Communists and black nationalist elements can be said to have played a major
role in the initial Watts riot, it is clear that their desire and intent is to foment racial
violence in this country and that they are doing everything possible to accomplish that end.
TESTIMONY OF JAMES C. HARRIS
Mr. Smith. Will you state your name for the record?
Mr. Harris. I am James C. Harris.
Mr. Smith. What is your occupation?
Mr. Harris. I am a detective in the office of the district attorney,
Los Angeles, California.
********************************************
Mr. Smith. What has been the main program of the Communist Party U.S.A.
(Marxist-Leninist)?
Mr. Harris. Primarily agitation in Watts.
They have utilized charges of police brutality, the Vietnam issue. They have advocated a
Chinese political philosophy and the formation of what they call the People's Armed Defense
Groups in order to oppose alleged police brutality.
The Chairman. That is the situation in Watts rather than nationwide.
Mr. Harris. I am not aware of the nationwide organization.
Mr. Chairman. I say, it was primarily engaged in, in the Watts area.
Mr. Harris. Yes, sir.
********************************************
Mr. Smith. Are there other illustrations you desire to submit relating
to police brutality charges?
Mr. Harris. Yes, sir.
In August 1966, the Communist Party U.S.A. (M-L), attempted to organize a rally at the Watts
police station on August 11, using what they called the Preparatory Committee for the
Commemoration of the Watts Uprising. This was a front organization, and the CPUSA-ML issued
leaflets in the Watts area. This leaflet called upon "All groups and individuals
interested in the defense of the people of Watts against the brutality and the racism of
the police" to participate in a protest demonstration.
While we do not know the reason, it is a fact that this demonstration did not take place.
Yet, the seeds of hatred were planted through the distribution of the leaflet throughout
the Watts area.
In May of this year again the CPUSA-ML staged a May Day demonstration with the theme being,
according to their literature distributed throughout Watts:
Protest against exploiting working conditions and unemployment; protest against the US
imperialist war in Vietnam; support the cultural revolution in China, Chairman Mao-Tse-Tung,
and the Red Guards; [and] protest against police brutality – support the peoples armed
defense groups!
********************************************
Mr. Smith. In addition to the issues which you have discussed, has the
Communist Party U.S.A. (M-L) been active on the question of Vietnam?
Mr. Harris. During the last several years, Communist organizations have
attempted to tie together America's involvement in Vietnam and the problems faced by Negroes
living in urban areas. Laski's CPUSA-ML has been no exception.
Through a news bulletin issued on January 10, 1966, the CPUSA-ML announced a rally at Los
Angeles City College for January 14, 1966. The announced theme of the rally was: "The
Need for the Immediate Withdrawal of U.S. Troops from Vietnam"; "The Need for the
End of Imperialist Wars of Aggression"; "Why U.S. Imperialism Will Be Defeated";
and "the Attack by the Los Angeles Police Department Against the Communist Party U.S.A.
(M-L) for Its Stand Against the U.S. Imperialist Wars of Aggression."
In addition to the leaflet announcing this rally, I have an issue of the Los Angeles
Times of January 15, 1966, which contains not only pictures of Laski speaking at the
rally, but a photo showing him and his people being routed by the students who tore up a red
flag which Laski's group was carrying.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I ask that these documents be accepted and marked
as "Harris Exhibits Nos. 20 and 21."
The Chairman. It is so ordered.
(Documents marked "Harris Exhibits Nos. 20 and 21," respectively, and retained
in committee files.)
Mr. Tuck. Mr. Chairman, the House is now in session. I suggest that we
recess until tomorrow morning.
Mr. Smith. We have only two more questions.
Detective Harris, does the Communist Party U.S.A. (M-L) tie police brutality also into the
issue of Vietnam?
Mr. Harris. Well, in December 1965, the CPUSA-ML issued a leaflet headed
"COMMUNISTS ATTACKED BY L.A. POLICE AT L.A. CITY COLLEGE!"
The theme of the leaflet attempts to charge the police with unprovoked attacks against the
CPUSA-ML because of its demands for an immediate and complete withdrawal of all U.S. troops
in Vietnam.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I ask that this document be accepted and marked
as "Harris Exhibit No. 22."
The Chairman. It is so ordered.
(Document marked "Harris Exhibit No. 22" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Smith. Please continue.
Mr. Harris. They have also distributed a leaflet or leaflets announcing
a May Day demonstration on April 30, 1967, for the announced purpose of protesting against
the "U.S. imperialist war of aggression in Vietnam."
In an accompanying leaflet, the CPUSA-ML accuses President Johnson of carrying out an
imperialist war of aggression in Vietnam.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I ask that these documents be accepted and marked
as "Harris Exhibits Nos. 23 and 24."
The Chairman. It is so ordered.
(Documents marked "Harris Exhibits Nos. 23 and 24," respectively, follow:)
HARRIS EXHIBIT NO. 23
HARRIS EXHIBIT NO. 24
OPPOSE THE WAR IN VIETNAM – FIGHT FOR SOCIALISM
We are told by the ruling capitalist class (Johnson Administration) that the war in
Vietnam is being fought to bring "freedom", "democracy", and
"justice" to the people of South Vietnam. This is an out and out lie. We have
only to look around us to see that the very persons who are talking about "freedom"
in Vietnam are the rich who are: robbing the workers in the United States, jailing innocent
workers on "suspicion of this or that" whose police are in proletarian (the most
oppressed and exploited workers) districts such as Watts, Bellflower, and East Los Angeles
for one reason – to "serve and protect the rich" and "beat and oppress
the poor".
The people of Vietnam are fighting for the right to self-determination, the right to decide
their own political and economic destiny. They demand that the United States aggressors
(sent by the ruling capitalist bandits of the U.S.) get out of their homeland and let them
settle the issue for themselves. We must support their struggle.
The U.S. imperialist war of aggression in Vietnam is against the interests of the international
proletariat – all workers are class brothers and comrades, all workers have a common
enemy – imperialism. All workers must unite to destroy this predatory beast –
imperialism headed by the U.S. imperialism. We must demand the immediate and complete
withdrawal of all U.S. troops and puppet troops from Vietnam.
How can imperialist wars of aggression be ended? There is but one solution, destroy the
source of war – imperialism. There must be a proletarian socialist revolution –
organized by the Communist Party, U.S.A. (M-L). Why serve in the armed forces of the rich?
Such as the army, navy, air force, etc. Why be a flunkey for the ruling class of the U.S.
to oppress other people? Why die for your oppressors and exploiters? Why not fight them?
Train in the use of arms and revolutionary politics so that your enemy – the ruling
class – can be successfully defeated. We have such a program – THE PEOPLES
ARMED DEFENSE GROUPS – (Members of the PEOPLES ARMED DEFENSE GROUPS are not drafted,
because their views constitute a political danger to the ruling class.) THE PEOPLES ARMED
DEFENSE GROUPS ARE THE ARMED FORCES OF THE POOR and are the basis for a workers army and
for a National Liberation Army for the Negro Nation in the South and will counter the terror
of the Klan with the revolutionary violence of the workers. Don't fight for your masters
so that he can have more wage slaves.
President Johnson an imperialist, carries out the policies of his class – the
capitalist – to exploit and oppress workers. They use racism as a cover for their
policies of colonilizing [sic] the Negro Nation in the South (the "Black Belt")
and Puerto Rico and their semi-colonies – Mexico, the Phillipines [sic], South Korea,
South Vietnam, etc. The rich have their flunkeys who support their policy of oppression
and exploitation, such as Dymally, Greene, Leon Ralph, Gus Hawkins, Adam Clayton Powell,
and their lackeys who use the disguise of being "revolutionaries" and against
"the Power Structure" such as the revisionist Dorothy Healy [sic] (who calls
herself a communist) and persons such as Stokely Carmichael and Ron Kerenga [sic]. These
flunkeys and Toms apologize and cover for the police brutality and exploitation of workers.
They too must be opposed, exposed, and destroyed along with their masters!
As Comrade Michael Laski, our Party's General Secretary, said, "the lackeys of the
ruling class of the government's agencies are against the interest of the workers and are
there only to buy the militant youth and push the reactionary racist line of U.S. imperialism.
All class concious [sic] workers must be opposed to the imperialist, their agencies and
front men".
The solution to the problems of the working class is proletarian socialist revolution, the
dictatorship of the proletariat and building socialism.
Oppose the U.S. imperialist war of aggression in Vietnam, join with your revolutionary
working class comrades and brothers in all countries to defeat U.S. imperialism and modern
revisionists and local Tom's.
MAY DAY DEMONSTRATION: Sunday, April 30, 1967, 1:30 pm at Will Rogers Park, 102-103rd Street,
Central Ave., Los Angeles, Cal.
SPEAKERS: M.I. LASKI, General Secretary, Communist Party, USA, (M-L)
E.W. SIMMONS, Chairman, Central Committee, CP USA (M-L)
PUBLIC MEETING: 8:00 pm, April 7, 1967, Peoples Voice Book Store, 9122 S. Compton Ave.
L.A., Cal, Tel: 569-2542. SPEAKER: E.W. SIMMONS, L.A. Branch Secretary. "The role
of our Party in the coming revolution".
Mr. Smith. Detective Harris, does that conclude your testimony with
respect to the Communist Party U.S.A. (M-L)?
Mr. Harris. Yes, sir.
I just want to note one other thing, that on Sunday, May 21, 1967, Laski was arrested for
operating a loudspeaker on a Sunday when he staged an anti-Vietnam rally at MacArthur Park.
The Chairman. May I say that the House is in session, as was suggested
by Governor Tuck.
We will be adjourning in a second until tomorrow morning.
In the meantime, I want to say that we greatly appreciate your appearance before the
committee. We all understand it is a most important task, and it is a real job to pass
the message that you have to give us and that your mayor has to give us on to the people.
We are doing the best we can under very trying circumstances.
You have made a great contribution and you are a credit to the police department of
Los Angeles.
I understand you are attached to the district attorney's office.
Mr. Harris. Yes, sir.
The Chairman. Pay my compliments to all the good law enforcement officers
in the district attorney's office.
Mr. Harris. Thank you, sir.
The Chairman. Now we will stand in recess until tomorrow morning at 10
o'clock when we will resume the taking of Mr. Harris' testimony.
(Whereupon, at 12 noon, Tuesday, November 28, 1967, the subcommittee recessed, to reconvene
at 10 a.m., Wednesday, November 29, 1967.)
TESTIMONY OF CLAYTON R. ANDERSON
Mr. Smith. Will you state your name, please?
Mr. Anderson. Clayton R. Anderson.
Mr. Smith. Your residence and employment?
Mr. Anderson. I am a resident of Los Angeles County, California. I am
a lieutenant in the district attorney's bureau of investigation, assigned to the
intelligence section.
Mr. Smith. Lieutenant Anderson, are you familiar with an organization
known as the Freedom Now Committee? If so, what was the composition of this committee and
when was it formed?
Mr. Anderson. Our records show the first meeting was held January 24,
1966. Among those present at that meeting that would be of interest to this committee were
John Haag, who was at that time head of the W.E.B. DuBois Club in Los Angeles; a William
Taylor, whom you will recognize as being a member of the Communist Party in Los Angeles
and a member of the district committee of the Communist Party, Southern California District.
He was a former resident of Washington, D.C.
Dan Bessie was also present. He has also been a member of the Communist Party and active
in youth work. He appeared before this committee on October 20, 1959, at which time he
pleaded the fifth amendment.
Mr. Smith. What was the prime purpose of this organization?
Mr. Anderson. On February 10, 1966, they held a press conference at
the Ambassador Hotel. I have a copy of the results of that press conference, which was
originally taped. The conference opened with a Thomas Settle conducting the conference.
He described the Freedom Now Committee as follows:
The Souther Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam and the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee have issued a call for a demonstration on the birthday of Abraham
Lincoln under the slogan Freedom Now – Withdrawal Now. That is to say, complete
freedom for American Negro citizens now and immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from
Vietnam. The newly formed Freedom Now Committee is answering this call with a demonstration
and rally on February 12th. The demonstration will take place at the 77th Street
"Precinct" and the rally will take place at the Greater Tabernacle Baptist Church.
Mr. Smith. Who is Thomas Settle?
Mr. Anderson. Thomas Settle is identified as Thomas Archibald Settle,
born July 3, 1947, in Chicago. In March of 1966 he was the vice chairman of the DuBois
Club and he was attending functions of the Vietnam Day Committee, Students for a Democratic
Society, and Peace Action Council.
He was also a supporter of Dorothy Healey in her political campaign of May 1966, at which
time she ran for county assessor in Los Angeles County.
Mr. Smith. Who were the officers of the Freedom Now Committee?
Mr. Anderson. According to a newsletter of the Freedom Now Committee,
dated March 22, 1966, the cochairmen were Bob Freeman and John Haag. The executive
secretary was Thomas Settle. The financial and recording secretary was Arvilla Jackson,
and the corresponding secretary was Carol Columbo.
Mr. Smith. Did anyone else participate in this press conference?
Mr. Anderson. Yes; Franklin Alexander, former national chairman of the
W.E.B. DuBois Clubs, and also John Haag.
Mr. Smith. I note from your reading of Settle's press conference
statement that the 77th Street police station was selected for the demonstration.
Why was that?
Mr. Anderson. That same question was asked by the press at this press
conference.
At that time, Mr. Settle answered and I will quote:
One of the other things which we are concerned with is, of course, local issues which are
the police malpractices and the city problems concerning the war on poverty, et cetera,
and we hope to be able to unify the actions and thoughts of the people in this area who
are greatly concerned with police brutality...
And then he goes on to other things.
Mr. Smith. Did the Freedom Now Committee have an address?
Mr. Anderson. Yes. I have a press release announcing the demonstration,
dated February 7, 1966, giving Post Office Box No. 18976 and also telephone number
HOllywood 6-8466; also a throwaway flyer announcing the same demonstration, giving the
same box and phone number.
I also have a news article from the Los Angeles Times, dated February 11, 1966,
reporting a planned demonstration by the Freedom Now Committee.
This committee is also known as the Freedom Now – Withdraw Now.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I ask that these documents be received and
marked "Anderson Exhibits Nos. 1, 2, and 3."
Mr. Tuck. They will be so received and so marked.
(Documents marked "Anderson Exhibits Nos. 1, 2, and 3," respectively, appear
on pp. 1224-1226.)
ANDERSON EXHIBIT NO. 1
FREEDOM NOW COMMITTEE
P.O. Box 18976
Los Angeles, California 90018
telephone Ho 6-8466 (24 hour service)
PRESS RELEASE
February 7, 1966
Lincoln Day – February 12,
In the anti-imperialist tradition of Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln Day this year will be marked
by a series of nation-wide Freedom Now demonstrations, emphasizing support for the civil
rights struggle in our country and an end to the war in Vietnam, on the basis of full
recognition of the right of self determination for all people.
In Los Angeles, the demonstration will begin with a picket line in front of the 77th police
precinct, on 77th St. between Main St. and Broadway. This will be followed by a walk to
the Greater Tabernacle Baptist Church, 4155 McKinley Ave., for a Lincoln Day Rally for
Peace and Freedom.
The rally will open at 2:00 P.M. with the following speakers: John Lewis, of SNCC, Bill
Williams, Dr. Carlton Goodlett and Assemblyman Marvin Dymally. The planning of the
demonstrations began last fall when the Southern Coordinating Committee held a meeting
with the Vietnam Day Committee in Washington D. C.
The objective of the nation-wide demonstrations has been broadened by the refusal of the
Georgia legislature to permit Julian Bond to take the seat to which he was elected by a
vast majority of voters in his district, the racist murder of Samuel Younge in Tuskegee,
Alabama and the increasing diversion of funds from the war on poverty to support our
aggression in VietNam.
The refusal to seat Julian Bond is a definite attempt to castigate freedom of speech and
to dictate the policies and tactics of the Civil Rights movement as well as an attempt
to force Negroes to support, against their own interests, America's effort to resuscitate
colonialism and its corollary of white supremacy. In its opposition to the Vietnam war,
SNCC correctly stated in its resolution on Vietnam, adopted by the 23 member executive
committee and was approved without dissent by more than 130 SNCC field secretaries which
states in part. "We believe the U.S. government has been deceptive in claims of
concern for the freedom of the Vietnamese people, just as the government has been deceptive
in claiming concern for the freedom of the colored people in such other countries as the
Dominican Republic, the Congo South Africa Rhodesia and in the U.S. itself.
ANDERSON EXHIBIT NO. 2
FREEDOM NOW – WITHDRAWAL NOW
DEMONSTRATION
STARTS AT 11:00 AM AT THE 77th STREET
POLICE PRECINCT (77th St. between Main St. and Broadway)
LINCOLN DAY RALLY FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 12, 1966 – 2:00 P.M.
AT
GREATER TABERNACLE BAPTIST CHURCH
4155 McKinley Ave.
PRINCIPLE SPEAKERS:
Dr. Carlton Goodlett
Bill Williams
Assemblyman Marvin Dymally
John Lewis
The demonstration and rally is in support of demonstrations being held throughout
the nation, in support of the struggle for Peace and Freedom which is best expressed
in the following quote taken from the resolution adopted by SNCC Jan. 6th and approved
by more than 130 field secretaries
"We recoil with horror at the inconsistency of this supposedly free society where
responsibility to freedom is equated with responsibility to lend oneself to military
aggression. We take note of the fact that more than 16% of the draftees from this country
are Negro, called on to stifle the liberation of Vietnam, to preserve a
"democracy" which does not exist for them at home".
AUSP: FREEDOM NOW COMMITTEE
P.O. Box 18976
Los Angeles Calif. 90018
Telephone HO 6-8466
(24 hour service)
ANDERSON EXHIBIT NO. 3
[Los Angeles Times, February 11, 1966]
RALLY TO URGE RIGHTS, END OF VIET 'INTRUSION'
"Freedom Now" and "Withdrawal Now" will be co-slogans of a Lincoln
Day rally here Saturday to support the civil rights struggle and to urge an end to
American "intrusion" in Vietnam.
The two issues are close parallels, members of the Freedom Now Committee insisted Thursday
during a press conference at the Ambassador.
"We fail to see," said committee member Tom Settle, "how a young Negro can
be asked to end his life in a dubious war by a government which doesn't give him his rights
in his own country."
Freedom Now Committee members at the press conference included representatives from the
Women's Strike for Peace, the Los Angeles Committee to End the War in Vietnam and the
Congress of Racial Equality.
Saturday's demonstration, scheduled to begin in front of the 77th Street Police Station
and move to Greater Tabernacle Baptist Church at 4155 McKinley Ave., is one of several to
be held around the nation.
Listed as speakers are Assemblyman Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Los Angeles); John Lewis, national
chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating COmmittee, and Dr. Darlton Goodlett,
physician and publisher of a Negro newspaper in San Francisco as well as a member of the
World Council of Peace.
Mr. Smith. Was this demonstration a success?
Mr. Anderson. The demonstration was held. Just how successful it was
is hard to gauge. The theme, according to the signs carried by the pickets, was protesting
the war in Vietnam and police brutality.
There were actually less than 100 actual demonstrators. The picket signs were delivered
to this demonstration in an automobile registered to John Haag.
Mr. Smith. Did you make a survey to determine how many Communists
participated in this demonstration?
Mr. Anderson. In coupling the W.E.B. DuBois Club, Communists, and
former Communists together, a good estimate would be 25 percent. There were also
members of the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) and Socialist Workers Party present.
Mr. Smith. You introduced information from a press release that a rally
was to be held from the Greater Tabernacle Baptist Church.
Was that rally held at this church?
Mr. Anderson. No. The pastor of that church learned of the makeup of
the rally and the committee and denied use of the church to them.
Mr. Smith. Where was the rally held?
Mr. Anderson. Well, it was then announced the rally would be held at
the Victory Baptist Church. However, this pastor likewise learned of the nature of the
group and refused permission to use the church. Ultimately, the rally was held in the
parking lot of the Victory Baptist Church.
Mr. Smith. Who was the principal speaker at this rally?
Mr. Anderson. Dr. Carlton Goodlett.
Mr. Smith. Can you tell us who Dr. Carlton Goodlett is?
Mr. Anderson. At the time of this rally, he was the candidate for Governor
of the State of California and he is the publisher and editor of the San Francisco
Sun Reporter.
Mr. Smith. Was anyone else at the rally who would be of interest to the
committee?
Mr. Anderson. Yes. Dorothy Healey, chairman of the Southern [California]
District Communist Party, was there; William Taylor, whom we have discussed; Rose Chernin
Kusnitz, also an identified Communist and active in front organizations; and also members
of the W.E.B. DuBois Club, the Communist Party, and the Socialist Workers Party.
Mr. Smith. Were there any others?
Mr. Anderson. Franklin Alexander was there; Mimi Alexander, Frank Beyea,
Robert Eugene Duggan, John Haag, Raphael Konigsberg, Samuel Kushner, Michael Laski, Pierre
Mandel, Barbara Nestor, Steve Roberts, and Frank Spector were there.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, for the record I would like to state the
following with respect to these individuals he has named:
Franklin Alexander was former chairman of the W.E.B. DuBois Clubs of America.
Mimi Alexander attended a number of meetings of the party's Southern California District
Council or Committee in 1959 or 1960 and participated as a delegate from the Moranda Smith
Section of the party in the November 1959 session of the Southern California District
convention. She was a witness before this committee on April 25, 1962, and invoked the
fifth amendment.
Frank Beyea was chairman of the Peace Action Council of Southern California, sponsor of
the Spring Mobilization To End the War in Vietnam. In 1952, he was publicly identified
as a Communist Party section organizer from San Fernando Valley, California. On April
25, 1962, he appeared before this committee and pleaded the fifth amendment.
Robert Eugene Duggan was elected a member of the national committee at the Communist
Party's 18th National Convention, New York, June 22-26, 1966.
John R. Haag, June 1966, was chairman of the Culver City, California, W.E.B. DuBois Club.
Raphael Konigsberg has been publicly identified as a member of the Communist Party in
1952. On June 29, 1955, he refused to testify about membership in the Communist Party,
invoking the first and fifth amendments.
Samuel Kushner was a top functionary of the Communist Party for the last 30 years.
Michael Isaac Laski – Mr. Chairman, we have already dealt with Laski at great
length yesterday. Let the record note that.
Pierre Mandel was born in Russia, active in the Communist Party of France before entering
the United States in 1948. He attended meetings of the Southern California District
Council of the Communist Party in 1958 and 1959. He was a delegate to its conventions
in 1959, 1960. He appeared before this committee on April 26, 1962, where he invoked
the fifth amendment in response to questions regarding his Communist Party activities.
Barbara Nestor is the mother of Dorothy Healey, a longtime Communist.
Steve Roberts is a leader of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Roberts appeared before
the committee on April 27, 1962, and invoked the first and fifth amendments in response
to questions relating to his activities with both Fair Play for Cuba Committee and the
Socialist Workers Party.
Frank Spector, a member of the Communist Party whose indictment under the Smith Act was
dismissed in December 1957. He now operates Communist Party bookstore in Los Angeles,
California.
Lieutenant Anderson, was any other material distributed by the Freedom Now Committee?
Mr. Anderson. Yes, there was.
I have copies of two flyers they distributed. I would like to read a portion out of each.
One is headed "Freedom Now – Withdraw Now." At the bottom it says,
"SUBSCRIBE TO THE SPARTACIST." One paragraph says:
SPARTACIST is a revolutionary socialist organization. We believe in militant
struggle for basic social change. This, we believe, will ultimately mean the establishment
of a socialist society under the control of all the people.
The second flyer is headed "Freedom Now – Withdraw Now!!" A portion of
it reads:
Police brutality was exposed to its nakedness of gestapo like tactics by the murder of 31
Negroes by the police and 2 by the national guard. This expression was also opposing the
discriminatory hiring policy of the 77th police precinct which is in a predominantly Negro
community with a staff of over 200 and only five (5) Negroes employed. The people of Watts
and its surrounding community feel that Negroes, who are more than 85% of the population,
should be prominent in the police department, fire department and other city service jobs
and functions for the area...
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that these documents be accepted as
Anderson Exhibits 4 and 5.
Mr. Tuck. It is ordered that they be accepted and so marked.
(Documents marked "Anderson Exhibits Nos. 4 and 5," respectively, appear on
pp. 1229-1233.)
ANDERSON EXHIBIT NO. 4
FREEDOM NOW – WITHDRAW NOW
Spartacist wholeheartedly endorses the slogan being raised by the Freedom Now Committee
in response to the call sent out by S.N.C.C. and the Southern Coordinating Committee to
End the War in Vietnam.
The war in Vietnam is not an isolated issue. It is not simply a moral question of war vs.
peace, hawks vs. doves. Nor is it a question of an otherwise "good" government
engaged in one naughty activity.
The government which wages war on the people of Vietnam in the name of Freedom and which
drafts young Negroes to fight in the name of Freedom which they don't even have themselves
is the same government which is responsible for the deaths of Civil Rights workers in the
South by refusing to enforce its own laws.
This same government, "our" government, seeks to strangle the unions with
"wage and price levels" while looking the other way as industry sneaks around
them with price hikes. This again in the name of an illegal and immoral war in Vietnam.
Even by the standards of Johnson, 20% of the American population is living in poverty.
Yet the miserly "war on poverty" (ineffective as it is) threatens to be washed
away in the tide of war expenditures.
Each day brings new indications that the government intends to use this war, not only to
maintain its oppressive and dictatorial regime in South Vietnam, but also to stem the tide
of labor unrest in this country and to stifle the militant struggle being waged by the
Negro people in this country for Freedom Now.
The time has come for those who are concerned with world peace to join with the Civil Rights
and Labor movements in a common effort: it is in this way that we will be able to get at
the basic social problems involved and work together to eliminate them. As long as the
peace movement continues to orient towards students and intellectuals (valuable as they
may be in raising and publicizing the issues), the peace movement will not be in a position
to attack the root causes.
_______________________________________
SPARTACIST is a revolutionary socialist organization. We believe in militant struggle for
basic social change. This, we believe, will ultimately mean the establishment of a
socialist society under the control of all the people.
For more information about SPARTACIST write:
SPARTACIST, P.O. Box 4054, Terminal Annex, Los Angeles, Calif. 90054
SUBSCRIBE TO THE
SPARTACIST
6 Issues 50¢
12 Issues $1.00
Name______________________________________________
Street____________________________________________
City____________________ Zone__________________ State_____
(Please PRINT Plainly)
ANDERSON EXHIBIT NO. 5
FREEDOM NOW!! WITHDRAW NOW!!
The beacon of hope for Freedom begins with YOU in your own home, community and country
and is guided through many channels which lead to Full Economic security, Social and
Political EQUALITY for all: where Brotherhood Week is 52 weeks a year, and where human
dignity is afforded to all mankind.
The uprising of Watts and South Central Los Angeles, August, 1965 was one channel many
people felt would be a direction against police – brutality; poverty; and against
the gouging practices of food stores and other businesses that inflated prices on many
items even though more than forty percent of the population was on welfare. It was an
expression of protest against such business that had continued these practices which kept
the people of the community continually deprivated. It was also an expression of the
demand for the removal of Chief of Police Parker who has demonstrated his contempt for
the Negro, Mexican-American and other depressed people. Police brutality was exposed to
its nakedness of gestapo like tactics by the murder of 31 Negroes by the police and 2 by
the national guard. This expression was also opposing the discriminatory hiring policy
of the 77th police precinct which is in a predominantly Negro community with a staff of
over 200 and only five (5) Negroes employed. The people of Watts and its surrounding
community feel that Negroes, who are more than 85% of the population, should be predominant
in the police department, fire department and other city service jobs and functions for
the area. Also, merchants doing business in the area MUST employ Negroes in their
establishments in just ratio.
According to the McCone report, which is sustained by the Presidents Budget program, a
drastic cut on funds which would be given to the War on Poverty have been transferred to
escalate the war in Vietnam; Even though 85% of the people of South Vietnam are in support
of the National Liberation Front and are opposed to the government of General Ky which is
controlled by the United States. One cut back of the war on poverty budget places the people
of the United States at the bottom of the toetom pole. It means a vast increase in the
investments in the implements of war and against the War on Poverty Program, an increase
that can only come about through a proportionate decrease in the expenditures in the
criminal, diversion of national resources and of men to do the dirty work for the Johnson
administration which is being carried out in Vietnam, where the United States soldiers
are busy killing men women and children who have risen in behalf of Freedom for themselves
as did our forefathers in the Revolutionary War and as we are now fighting for our Freedom
here at home.
The United States government, at the end of the Geneva Agreements Conference, declared
that the United States would not use force or the threat of force to interfere with the
armistice agreements, approved the principle of free elections, and promised that the
United States would act to prevent further aggression in the area.
The Geneva Agreements call for:
1. Cease-fire;
2. Recognition of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia as three separate independent states;
3. Establishment of a provincial military demarcation line at the 17th parallel in Vietnam,
the Vietnam forces to begin regrouping to the North and the French and associated forces to
the South;
4. Re-settlement of civilians in the military zones of their choice;
5. Political and civil liberties for those who had taken part on either side in the
military struggle;
6. No foreign military base to be established in any of the three countries, and no
commitments to foreign military blocs;
7. No military reinforcements of men or material to be sought or obtained from abroad;
8. Free election for a united Vietnam Government to be held not later than July 1956, on
the basis of electoral arrangements to be drawn up no later than July, 1955;
9. An International Commission for supervision and control.
The United States intervention in Vietnam has prevented the people of Vietnam from holding
elections as was stipulated in the Geneva Agreements thus, the Vietnamese people are
deprived of the right to choose their own government – thereby preventing the right
of self-determination for the Vietnamese people. While in Georgia, today, Julian Bond
has been deprived his right to be seated in the Georgian Legislature after winning an
election by 85% of the voters in his district. Also, in Harlem Bill Epton's name was left
off the ballot – thus preventing the people of Harlem from making their own choice.
The Julian Bond, and Bill Epton cases and the denial of the right of the NEgro people to
register to vote, in parts of the South, point up the fact that Negroes have been denied
the right to determine their own destiny and the people whom they wish to represent them
in the government of the U.S.
"The rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that
our flag was still there".
The United States flag waves in the Vietnamese winds as pompously as Governor Wallace's
Confederate flag waves in the storm winds over Alabama State Capitol. While many of the
people of this country sit and watch it all on TV – all about the War in Vietnam, and
they say either "Tsch, tsch, isn't it frightening?" or some say "Let's bomb
the hell out of them". THEM is a man or woman or a small child or a pet dog, cat
or bird.
Let the people decide their own affairs both in Vietnam and in this country. A basic flaw
in the policies of the Administration in this city and the Federal Government is that too
many of our leaders, both military and political, have succumbed to the anti-democratic
disease which has raged in the South and in South Los Angeles for decades.
They have a tendency to underestimate the little people of this globe, the brown the black
and the yellow people. The Administration glory in our tend technology and weapons of death
is almost frightening. They think we frighten these people into submission both at home
and abroad, that we can bomb and kill abroad and at home we are beaten, attacked by dogs,
bombed and killed; but we still sing, and will continue to sing
"WE SHALL OVERCOME
BLACK AND WHITE TOGETHER WE SHALL OVERCOME
AT HOME AND ABROAD WE SHALL OVERCOME"
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, the Spartacist reference by Lieutenant
Anderson is a publication of the Spartacist League.
I would like to state for the record that information from the committee's files concerning
the Spartacist League reveals that it began as a small group of dissident Trotskyite
Communists expelled from the Socialist Workers Party in December 1963 after 3 years of
activity within the SWP in favor of a less "centrist" and more purely Trotskyite
revolutionary course. (See also Committee Exhibit No. 3, part 1, pp. 907-909.)
Whom would you credit with the direction and creation of this committee?
Mr. Anderson. The evidence would indicate the W.E.B. DuBois Club was
certainly the most active organization.
Haag, Settle, and Alexander, the key leaders of the group, were or are all members of the
DuBois Clubs of America.
In addition, there would be Communist Party support indicated in the presence of Taylor and
Bessie and other Communists that were observed.
Mr. Smith. That is Dan Bessie?
Mr. Anderson. Dan Bessie and William Taylor; yes, sir.
Mr. Smith. Is this organization still in existence?
Mr. Anderson. No; this organization was organized apparently for this
one demonstration.
********************************************
Mr. Anderson. There were other documents passed out at the same time
calling for support of black militants and support of John Harris.
I would like to quote from one of them entitled "SUPPORT JOHN HARRIS!":
"Harris and PLP" – meaning the Progressive Labor Party –
have actively defended the right of Black people to seek liberation by whatever means
necessary. In organizing support for the Vietnamese people in their fight against U.S.
imperialism, Harris and PLP have opposed one form of the extermination campaign again Black
Americans.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that these documents be accepted
and marked "Anderson Exhibits Nos. 21, 22, and 23."
What is the address of the Committee to Defend John Harris?
Mr. Anderson. According to one of the documents just submitted, it lists
Post Office Box 121, 308 Westwood Plaza. This is a post office box listed to Arley T.
Hicks at UCLA.
(Documents marked "Anderson Exhibits Nos. 21, 22, and 23," respectively, follow:)
ANDERSON EXHIBIT NO. 21
WORLD MOVEMENTS OF NATIONAL LIBERATION
AFRICA
Robert Fitch, author of "Ghana, End of An Illusion" & expert in African affairs.
LATIN AMERICA
Timothy Harding, Professor of Latin American History at California State College at
Los Angeles, & recent traveller to the Dominican Republic.
BLACK LIBERATION U.S.A.
John Harris, Progressive Labor Party organizer in South Los Angeles, under indictment for
"criminal syndicalism" for his revolutionary activities.
MIDDLE EAST
Houssein Houssein-Mardi, of Iran, faces deportation for his radical attitudes.
Chairman – Jean Pestanna – noted radical lawyer
Fri.-June 2nd, 8PM
Channing Hall
donation $1.50 students $1.00
2936 W. 8th St.
Spon. by the John Harris Defense Committee – P.O. Box 121 308 Westwood Plaza
ANDERSON EXHIBIT NO. 22
PROGRESSIVE LABOR PARTY ORGANIZER IN WATTS ON TRIAL FOR "CRIMINAL SYNDICALISM"
SUPPORT BLACK MILITANTS
Come to the Courtroom – Nov. 29
On September 20, 1966, John Harris, militant Black leader and Progressive Labor Party
organizer in Watts, was arrested on the charge of criminal syndicalism. His
"crime" – passing out leaflets at the Deadwyler inquest, pointing out
that the cop who shot Deadwyler was a murderer and denouncing the system that creates
such a "legal" murder.
John now faces 14 years in prison.
The Criminal Syndicalist Law is an anti-Labor Law passed in 1919, and was last used to
convict farm labor organizers in the Sacramento Valley in 1937.
In Court, Tuesday, November 29th, at 9:00 A.M., Harris' attorneys will present a motion to
halt the proceedings on the basis that the law is unconstitutional.
LET THE PUBLIC KNOW THAT YOU SUPPORT JOHN HARRIS AND ALL OTHERS WHO ARE FIGHTING AGAINST
THE INHUMANITY OF A SYSTEM WHICH LEGALIZES "OFFICIAL" KILLINGS OF BLACK PEOPLE,
AND IMPRISONS THOSE WHO PROTEST THIS INJUSTICE.
Show Your Support...
COME TO THE HALL OF JUSTICE, 211 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, Tuesday, Nov. 29th
Picket Line begins at 8:00 A.M.
[?] – Department 105 – Hearing set for 9:00 A.M.
Labor Donated by the Committee to Defend John Harris
1169 Millen Avenue, Los Angeles
come to a PARTY
for the defense of
–JOHN HARRIS–
Black Revolutionary, Communist, & Accused Criminal Syndicalist
Drinks
Music
fun
On Friday Night – November 25
8:30 – .....
1623 S. Granville Ave. Apt. #3
(for info. call 399-6819 662-8769)
$1.oo Donation
ANDERSON EXHIBIT NO. 23
SUPPORT JOHN HARRIS!
NOVEMBER 29 WILL MARK the beginnings of the proceedings of the first use of the State of
California's "Criminal Syndicalist" law since 1937. This law, which was passed
in 1919, states that it is illegal to speak of leaflet so as to advocate "change in
industrial ownership" or to "effect political change" by so-called criminal
means. It is an anti-labor law which was last used to convict farm labor organizers in
the Sacramento Valley in 1937. The law was written to deal with revolutionary socialists
and is a candid reflection of the undemocratic essence of American society, in which all
power and wealth is concentrated into the hands of a tiny ruling class.
FOR BLACK LIBERATION
Now it is being used to intimidate those who speak out against the countless inhumanities
and acts of brutality committed in the name of "freedom" at home and around the
globe. This particular charge of "criminal syndicalism" is being directed against
John Harris, a Progressive Labor Party organizer in Watts. He was arrested because he
fought police brutality and for Black Liberation. He was arrested because he opposes the
U.S. Government's genocidal war in Vietnam and has urged his Black brothers not to fight
for the imperialist enemy. He was arrested because he is a communist, a revolutionary, a
member of the Progressive Labor Party and proud of it. He was arrested because he has not
equivocated but has said outright that the U.S. imperialist system must be destroyed and
replaced by a socialist system.
The arrest of John Harris is part of a general political attack on the Afro-American people
by Johnson's Government and its racist agents across the country. Similar acts of fascist
like suppression have taken place in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Detroit. The blows are
especially aimed at the most militant and vocal elements in the Black ghettoes of America.
AGAINST U.S. AGGRESSION IN VIETNAM
The Progressive Labor Party stands clear in its opposition to the systematic extermination
of Black people in the U.S. and supports their demand for self-determination, the right
to decide their own future. Harris and PLP have actively defended the right of Black
people to seek liberation by whatever means necessary. In organizing support for the
Vietnamese people in their fight against U.S. imperialism, Harris and PLP have opposed
one form of the extermination campaign against Black Americans.
The defense of John Harris is to defend Black people's right to seek liberation, every
American's right to oppose U.S. aggression in Vietnam, the right of revolutionaries to
organize and speak out against a system of oppression. In the fight against imperialism
an injury to one is an injury to all.
The outcome of the Harris indictment and of the November 29 proceedings are a vital concern
to all Americans who cherish social justice and the right to dissent.
STOP THE PROCEEDINGS!
In Los Angeles Superior Court November 29, Harris' attorneys Frank Pestana of the National
Lawyers Guild and Al Wirin of the American Civil Liberties Union will present a motion
seeking to halt the proceedings on the basis that the "Criminal syndicalist"
law is unconstitutional and violate the defendant's right of free speech.
This is just the beginning of a long process of legal and political maneuvers that will
be carried out by the ruling class in the Harris case. Your support, both moral and
financial, is urgently needed to insure victory in this case. Please send contributions
and statements of support as soon as possible to: Progressive Labor Party, P.O. Box 19724,
Los Angeles 19, Calif.
PROTEST THE HEARING NOVEMBER 29!
Picket line begins at 8 a.m. outside the Hall of Justice, 211 W. Temple Street, Los Angeles
TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM A. WHEELER (RESUMED)
********************************************
Mr. Tuck. Now, the second document also lists a series of lectures
starting July 23, 1967. The first lecture is "An African Views the American Civil
War." This gentleman was from Kenya.
On July 30, 1967, the topic of the lecture was "What's Happening in the Congo and
Nigeria?"
Mr. Smith. Who was the speaker there?
Mr. Wheeler. Brother Frank Greenwood, who, of course, was head of the
organization.
On August 6, 1967, the topic was "Black Nationalism: Revolutionary and
Reactionary." Now, the speaker on this date is John Harris, whom the previous witness,
Lieutenant Anderson, discussed in full. He is a member of the Progressive Labor Party.
The next date, August 13, 1967, the topic is "Which Road to Black Economic Power."
The last lecture that I have recorded –
Mr. Smith. Who spoke to that?
Mr. Wheeler. This was a debate.
The Reverend J. Patterson versus Cecil McIntyre.
On August 20, 1967, "Harriet Tubman, the Black Moses," was the talk.
Mr. Smith. I request that this document be received and marked
"Wheeler Exhibit No. 17-A."
Mr. Tuck. It is so ordered.
(Document marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 17-A" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Smith. Do you have anything in addition to add?
Mr. Wheeler. Not really concerning this organization.
However, Mr. Greenwood is connected with another organization in the Watts area called
the Black Anti-Draft Union. This organization distributed a leaflet in the Watts area
prior to President Johnson's appearance at the Central Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles on
June 23, 1967, appealing for demonstrators in the Watts area to participate.
I quote from the leaflet. On the top is says Lyndon Johnson would be in Los Angeles on
June 23 [1967]. It says, "Tell it to LBJ – HELL NO... BLACKS WON'T GO!!"
Then further:
We must demonstrate against the Government's policy of drafting black people to
kill & die in a war that is not in our interest. Our interest is fighting for freedom
right here!!!
—Come join the demonstration—
And then it gives a place for them to meet and instructions, and "Sponsored By –
BLACK ANTI-DRAFT UNION, P.O. Box 73573, Los Angeles 90003."
This particular post office box is rented by John Wesley Harris, 218 West 82d Place. It
was rented on 12/15/66, which would also tend to give the date that the organization came
into existence.
Again, this is the John Wesley Harris that Lieutenant Anderson discussed and is a member
of the Progressive Labor Party.
On the other side, the telephone number, AXminister 3-3212, is a published phone listed
to Frank S. Greenwood, 5907 Fourth Avenue, Los Angeles, California.
Mr. Smith. Do you have the identity of the other persons listed, of the
persons listed to the other two phones?
Mr. Wheeler. Yes, sir, I have.
Do you want me to put them in the record?
Mr. Smith. Yes, please.
Mr. Wheeler. 750-8007 was a published phone, the subscriber being James
Daan – D-a-n-n – 218 East 82d Place, Apartment 2, Los Angeles, California.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, Dann was identified on a previously entered exhibit.
Mr. Wheeler. The third phone, AD, which would be Adams, 5-2747 is a
nonpublished phone, the subscriber being Freddie Anderson, 715 West 45th Street, Los
Angeles, California.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that this document be received and
marked "Wheeler Exhibit 18."
Mr. Tuck. The document will be so received and marked.
(Document marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 18" appears on p. 1266.)
WHEELER EXHIBIT NO. 18
LYNDON JOHNSON WILL BE IN LOS ANGELES ON JUNE 23rd
Tell it go LBJ,
HELL NO...
BLACKS won't go!!
friday – June 23rd at Century City Plaza – near beverly hills –
WE MUST DEMONSTRATE AGAINST THE GOVERNMENTS POLICY OF DRAFTING BLACK PEOPLE TO
KILL & DIE IN A WAR THAT IS NOT IN OUR INTEREST. OUR INTEREST IS FIGHTING FOR
FREEDOM RIGHT HERE!!!
–COME JOIN THE DEMONSTRATION–
Meet for Rides & Instructions at
6:30 P.M.
Friday – June 23rd
in
South Park
51st & Avalon
Sponsored by –
BLACK ANTI-DRAFT UNION
P.O. Box 73573
Los Angeles 90003
Phone: 750-8007
AX-33212
AD-52747
Mr. Smith. Mr. Wheeler, as an investigator for the committee on the
West Coast, did you make inquiries into an organization known as Self Leadership for
All Nationalities Today?
Mr. Wheeler. Yes, Mr. Smith.
Mr. Smith. Did your investigation disclose the date of its inception?
Mr. Wheeler. It was formed on August 19, 1965, 2 days subsequent to
the Watts riot.
Mr. Smith. What is the short title?
Mr. Wheeler. It is commonly called "SLANT."
Mr. Smith. Who is its founder?
Mr. Wheeler. Its founder is Tommy Ray Jacquette. He was born Tommy
Ray Henson – H-e-n-s-o-n – on December 13, 1943. His title is executive director.
Mr. Smith. What is his occupation?
Mr. Wheeler. The last position I know he held was that of a social worker
for the Westminister Neighborhood Association.
Mr. Smith. What is the Westminister Neighborhood Association?
Mr. Wheeler. It is a federally funded charity organization, perhaps
the largest in the Watts area. However, the funds for the Westminister Neighborhood
Association have been suspended, and the Westminister Neighborhood Association is under
investigation for misappropriation of funds. This all occurred within the last 2 weeks.
Whether Mr. Jacquette is presently employed or not, I do not know.
Mr. Smith. Does SLANT maintain an office and address?
Mr. Wheeler. Originally it maintained an address at 8501 South San Pedro
Street, Los Angeles, California.
Mr. Smith. What is the general purpose of this organization?
Mr. Wheeler. The original purpose of the organization on the surface
appeared to be to seek legitimate goals for the Negro. They went into some details and
prepared brochures and went to a lengthy effort to put up a budget, and so on and so forth.
I believe they probably anticipated being federally funded, from looking at the material.
However, the general tenor and objectives gradually changed. Let me first read from a
document headed "SELF LEADERSHIP FOR ALL NATIONALITIES TODAY."
In the print is a motto, "BROTHERHOOD-UNITY-RESPONSIBILITY-NATIONWIDE."
If we take the first four alphabetical letters from each of these words from the motto,
we conclude with the word "BURN."
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that this document be accepted and
marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 19."
Mr. Tuck. It is so ordered.
(Document marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 19" appears on p. 1268)
WHEELER EXHIBIT NO. 19
SELF LEADERSHIP FOR ALL NATIONALITIES TODAY
MOTTO: BROTHERHOOD – UNITY – RESPONSIBILITY – NATIONWIDE
S.L.A.N.T. was formed in August of Nineteen Sixty-five (1965) in the South Los Angeles
area by a number of persons who became deeply disturbed over the plight of our people
throughout the nation, especially the plight of those in the Los Angeles and surrounding
areas. It was decided that the sense of brotherhood and unity should be increased among
our people, and that we should concern ourselves locally and nationally in all instances
where our rights are involved.
Other purposes of S.L.A.N.T. are:
1. bringing the youth together with a new sense of purpose and identity, and thus decreasing
school dropouts by showing them that our people need their knowledge and education as much
as they themselves, and converting the negative force of "gangs" into a positive
and constructive force for our people.
2. building a feeling of dignity and pride upon the realization of the contributions of
Afro-Americans and our African brothers to the world.
3. cultivating and strengthening the principle and practice of "Self-help" as
a people.
4. destroying the myths and misbeliefs that made our people think that we have nothing
in common with Africans.
5. to bring the citizens into full participation in the decisions and activities which
determine his social and economic welfare.
6. to achieve full communications with elected and appointed officials at every level.
7. to promote full and fair employment opportunity for all citizens, including programs
of apprenticeship and on-the-job training designed to qualify workers for their highest
employment potential.
8. eliminate exploitation through mass communication.
9. to promote better relationships among the law enforcement officials and the community
it serves.
10. to protect all, through efficient factual information.
11. to be able to define and speak for ourselves, instead of being defined and spoken
for by others.
We the members of S.L.A.N.T. have formed this organization to help extend and accelerate
this work.
S.L.A.N.T.
Tommy R. Jacquette, Executive Director
8501 So. San Pedro Street
Los Angeles, California 90003
750-5010
750-5048
Mr. Wheeler. With reference to Exhibit 19, I have another document from
SLANT. This motto was evidently by design. It is a reproduction of a card on which is
printed the motto "B.U.R.N."
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that this document be accepted and
marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 20."
Mr. Tuck. It is so ordered.
(Document marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 20" appears on p. 1269.)
WHEELER EXHIBIT NO. 20
(motto) B.U.R.N.
Brotherhood
Unity
Responsibility
Nationwide
Mr. Smith. Do you have any further information concerning SLANT?
Mr. Wheeler. Yes, sir. SLANT was represented at the First Annual Message
from Malcolm X at the Garden of Prayer Church, 5326 South Central, on 2/20/66, at 5:30 p.m.
This meeting was sponsored by an organization known as "US." US will be the subject
of a different presentation. Jacquette was a featured speaker. SLANT was represented at
the US-sponsored KUZALIWA Services for Brother Malcolm X on Sunday, May 22, 1966, at the
Masonic Hall, 1133 West Manchester Avenue. The guest of honor at this event was Mrs.
Malcolm X. The slogan used was "Freedom, By ANY Means Necessary!"
Tommy Ray Jacquette was arrested on May 23, 1966, with others for robbery. I bring this
out because at the time of his arrest he was wearing a yellow "T" shirt with a
caricature of Malcolm X on the front. This type of distinctive "T" shirt was
worn by members of US.
Jacquette in a speech presented on Monday, July 11, 1966, and reported in the
Daily Bruin of July 15, 1966 – I might state that the Daily Bruin is
the publication of the University of California at Los Angeles – I quote now from
the Daily Bruin of the date previously referred to:
The next speaker was Jacquette from SLANT which he explained means "self-leadership
for all nationalities today."
The motto of SLANT is BURN, Jacquette said. This means "brotherhood, unity,
responsibility, nationwide." Jacquette explained that his group was presently involved
with education and job training in the Negro ghettos, but said that he was in favor of
Negroes "getting whatever they need by whatever means necessary."
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that this document be accepted
and marked as "Wheeler Exhibit No. 21."
Mr. Tuck. It is so ordered.
(Document marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 21" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Smith. Continue, please.
Mr. Wheeler. The Laguna Beach, California South Coast News of
May 22, 1967, describes Jacquette as "a young black nationalist from Watts" and
further reports he was scheduled to give a speech on black power on Thursday, May 25, 1967,
in Laguna.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that this document be accepted and
marked as "Wheeler Exhibit No. 22."
Mr. Tuck. It is so accepted and will be so marked.
(Document marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 22" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Wheeler. The Santa Ana Register of August 10, 1967, reported a
speech by Jacquette in Fullerton, California. I quote from the article:
Two weeks ago Thomas R. Jacquette stood in the pulpit of a Fullerton church – damning
"white racist America's government" for exploiting him and his people to the point
of armed rebellion.
...
In Fullerton, before an almost all-white Council of Churches Commission on Church and Race
meeting, Jacquette cited a long tale of discrimination, deprivation and mistreatment of the
Negro in America, as justification for a chilling prediction of future armed uprisings, of
burnings and killings by his followers.
"Martin Luther King and the so-called Big-Four Negro leaders don't speak for us,"
Jacquette said. "They are part of the establishment and have as much to lose as the
honkies (white people). We have nothing, and nothing to lose."
Jacquette told the churchmen he and other, "Black Power" advocates
(the 23-year-old Negro is listed as executive director of "Self Leadership for All
Nationalities Today," which operates in Los Angeles under the slogan "Burn")
are determined to be free of white "exploitation, deprivation and mistreatment"
– or they'll burn America down.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that this document be accepted and
marked "Wheeler Exhibit 23."
Mr. Tuck. It is so ordered.
(Document marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 23" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Wheeler. The Los Angeles Times of September 26, 1967, reports
a visit of a presidential aspirant to Los Angeles and a visit to Watts and his conversation
with Tommy Jacquette. Jacquette had this to say: "change for the Negroes can never be
brought about without violence."
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that this document be accepted and
marked as "Wheeler Exhibit 24."
Mr. Tuck. The document will be accepted and so marked.
(Document marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 24" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Wheeler. That concludes the presentation on this particular organization.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Wheeler, in your investigation as committee investigator
on the West Coast, were you directed to investigate the activities of an organization which
identified itself as "US"?
Mr. Wheeler. Yes, sir. This is a rather long one.
Mr. Smith. Who are the leaders of US?
Mr. Wheeler. Ron Karenga is chairman and Allen Jamal is vice chairman.
Mr. Smith. Who is Ron Karenga?
Mr. Wheeler. Karenga was born Ronald McKinley Everett on July 14, 1941,
Parsonburg, Maryland. He is a graduate of UCLA, holding a bachelor of science degree in
political science, and he received his M.A. in September 1965. Our information is that
he has studied for a doctorate degree in linguistics. His linguistic studies favor the
African languages and he is proficient in the Swahili language.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, for the record, "Swahili" is –
a generic name for inhabitants of the coasts of East Africa and the island of Zanzibar.
They are of Bantu stock with an Arab infusion, a handsome, intelligent people of no marked
racial type. Their language, KiSwahili, or Swahili, is a Bantu tongue modified by Arabic.
It is a lingua franca understood, along the coast, from Aden in the north to Durban
in the south; and inland, throughout Uganda, for a short distance into the southern Sudan,
over the basin of the River Congo, and throughout Nyasaland.
This is taken from Encyclopedia Americana, 1948 edition.
Mr. Tuck. Suppose we suspend for 5 minutes to enable me to call the Capitol.
(Brief recess.)
Mr. Tuck. Proceed.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Wheeler, who is Allen Jamal?
Mr. Wheeler. The true name of the subject is Allen Eugene Donaldson,
born March 28, 1931, in Boston, Massachusetts. Our records disclose he is a former member
of the Muslims of Islam and was so registered as Allen 2X in August 1961.
I have a letter regarding Donaldson's or Jamal's Muslim connections, dated June 13, 1961.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that this document be received and
marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 25."
Mr. Tuck. It is ordered to be received and will be so marked.
(Document marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 25" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Smith. What is his position or occupation?
Mr. Wheeler. He is a typesetter by trade.
Mr. Smith. What is the current address of US?
Mr. Wheeler. 8211 South Broadway, Los Angeles, California.
Mr. Smith. What does US stand for?
Mr. Wheeler. The alphabetical – well, the alphabetical letters of
US have no further meaning.
I have a blank membership card. I have a motto here that I would like to explain before I
put this in the record.
The organization, US, desires to represent the Negro masses throughout the United States,
although it has just recently originated in the Los Angeles area. This motto reflects that
the Negro is everywhere in the United States and "US" is the Negro himself. Now,
the motto is "Anywhere we are, US is!"
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that this document be accepted and
marked "Wheeler Exhibit 26."
Mr. Tuck. The document will be accepted and so marked.
(Document marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 26" follows:)
WHEELER EXHIBIT NO. 26
US
"Anywhere we are, US is!"
Box 132, Compton, Calif.
Ron Karenga, Chairman
Allen Jamal, Vice-Chairman
774-4366
934-6570
Mr. Smith. What is US and what is its political philosophy?
Mr. Wheeler. US is a militant black nationalist organization. This is
documented by its leader, Ron Karenga; documents printed by US and described as such in
newspaper and magazine articles.
I will quote a few excerpts from a speech to a white audience by Ron Karenga, which was
recorded in the Santa Ana Register, a California newspaper, on September 3, 1967:
Costumed like Black Muslims, eight stone-faced bodyguards escorted speaker Ron Karenga to
the rostrum... and in short order, he smilingly insulted almost everyone as he espoused
Negro separatism and outlined the "cultural approach of his black power group,
designated US."
In answer to a question, he said:
"You are not a black man and can never be one. Our membership is for Negroes only.
Whites and blacks must not mix in marriage or anywhere else. Each must stay in his own
world but have equal social rights."
"We are here to educate the Negro first – as to his culture, his history, and his
pride in race. Black is black. White is white. They cannot meet."
From the same article:
He explained also the role of the late Malcolm X as a sort of patron saint of the US faith.
...
Karenga advised Negroes to abjure Christianity.
...
"Don't look for religion in the sky. Look for it in yourselves."
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request this document be accepted and
marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 27."
Mr. Tuck. The document will be accepted and so marked.
(Document marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 27" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Wheeler. From the Daily Bruin, dated 7/15/66, an article states:
"We're not African, and we're not American," Karenga said. "We're
Afro-Americans. We've got our own history, culture and set of values. We've got soul."
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, this document has previously been marked
"Wheeler Exhibit 21."
Mr. Wheeler. The Los Angeles Free Press of September 2, 1966,
in an article titled "A Talk with Ron Karenga – Watts Black Nationalist,"
the following is quoted:
Ron Karenga is the leader of probably the most influential of all the many black nationalist
organizations in Los Angeles. The organization, called US, was formed in February of
this year, but already its members play important roles in many other community organizations.
This would date the origin of the organization in February 1966. Another quote from the
article:
"We are peace loving, but we are not non-violent..."
Again from the same article:
"I think that SNCC is the greatest. But I don't know if SNCC is a civil rights
organization anymore. I think that everyone is realizing that it is useless to talk about
civil rights when the white boy is the one who can give them to you in terms of his
controlling the power citizenship...
"As far as SNCC is concerned, we will be working closer with it in the future. What
we would like to do is set up cultural and educational programs wherever they need them.
We hope we can be an asset to them in developing similar cultural programs to ours across
the country. This again is reflecting back to our first principle, Umoja, which is
functional unity."
A question was asked, "What is your position on the SNCC statement recommending that
Negroes not fight in Vietnam?"
"This follows the pattern of SNCC of being dynamic and outspoken. We try to stay
away from political stands since we are a cultural organization, however we are forced by
the political community in which we live to express our positions on things. So what we
say about the draft is this: a man would be a fool to defend a government in Vietnam which
refused to defend him in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi and in the streets of Los Angeles.
I don't think that the white man can expect us to be fighting in Japan and running in
Georgia." –
This must be an error in the document, but he says "Japan" –
"I was under the impression that whatever the state asks me to do, it must do that
same thing for me. NOW I ask for protection from the state and the state hasn't given me
protection, so I don't feel that I can protect the state."
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that this document be accepted and
marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 28."
Mr. Tuck. The document will be accepted and so marked.
(Document marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 28" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Wheeler. From The Saturday Evening Post of July 16, 1966,
and from an article titled "The Ugly Mood of Watts," the US organization is
discussed:
The name "US" is not an acronym. "US is the black people," Karenga
says, and then quotes the US motto: ANYWHERE WE ARE, US IS. Karenga, in fact, is everywhere
in Watts, lecturing, threatening, cajoling, educating...
From the same article in The Saturday Evening Post:
Each Saturday US staffers drill some 30 youngsters in black history and in the rudiments
of Swahili from a "Run, Jim, Run" reader that Karenga translated from English.
As part of their exercise program, the children, aged 3 to 14, are given close-order
military drill by an instructor wearing a Malcolm X sweatshirt...
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that this article be accepted and
marked as "Wheeler Exhibit No. 29."
Mr. Tuck. The document will be accepted and so marked.
(Document marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 29" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Wheeler. At the inception of US, it appeared that US followed the
philosophy of the late Malcolm X, whom Karenga has explained as sort of a patron saint of
US faith. Further documentation of US and the Malcolm X philosophy will be presented
in the record in chronological order.
However, later in 1967 Ron Karenga had developed his own philosophy and his own teachings.
During the early stages of US, members wore "T" shirts with the caricature of
Malcolm X with the word "US" imprinted on the "T" shirt. This, I
understand, will be eliminated and a new identification of members will bear a caricature
of Karenga.
I have here a recent publication setting forth the philosophy of US, which is the teachings
of Karenga. This document is broken down into the following parts and was printed in the
year 1967. The parts it is broken into are:
(1) Black Cultural Nationalism
(2) Revolution
(3) Politics
(4) House System
(5) Art
(6) Religion
(7) Liberals
Under the heading of "Black Cultural Nationalism" is additional proof of the type
of organization I have previously described. I quote several paragraphs:
Blacks must develop their own heroic images. To the white boy, Garvey was a failure
– to us he was perfect for his time and context. To the white boy Malcolm X was
a hate teacher – to us he was the highest form of Black Manhood in his generation.
...
The Seven-fold path of the Blackness is to Think Black, Talk Black, Act Black, Create Black,
Buy Black, Vote Black, and Live Black.
There are many other quotes from this section which can be placed in the record later if
the counsel so desires.
********************************************
Mr. Smith. What about the W.E.B. DuBois Clubs of America?
Mr. Wheeler. Yes, the activities of this group should really be considered
with those of the Communist Party because the DuBois Clubs are generally recognized as the
party's current youth organization.
First of all, during the Watts riot itself, the DuBois Club put out the flyer,
"POVERTY FRUSTRATION DEATH."
The August 25, 1965, issue of SPUR, the DuBois Club's West Coast publication, contained
inflammatory literature on the Watts riot and was distributed in the Watts area.
Next, the DuBois Clubs prepared the inflammatory booklet, "THE FIRE THIS TIME,"
released in November 1965.
When the Deadwyler case developed, the DuBois Clubs put out an agitational flyer on it.
During what is termed the second Watts riot which occurred in mid-March 1966, the W.E.B.
DuBois Club circulated a flyer in the Watts area headed "POVERTY FRUSTRATION DEATH."
They also created a front titled the "Ad Hoc Committee To End Police Malpractices,"
which demonstrated against the Los Angeles Police Department, claiming police brutality.
In addition to doing all of these things in the name of the DuBois Club or the front group
in Los Angeles, they engaged in more or less covert racial agitation through various fronts,
some of which it actually controlled. The DuBois Clubs and/or its leaders and members
supported and took part in the activities of the following racial agitation organizations
in the Los Angeles area:
Committee to Support Grievances of Watts Negroes
Ad Hoc Committee To End Police Malpractices
Congress of Unrepresented People
South Side Citizens Defense Committee
Freedom Now Committee
Committee for the Defense of John Harris
For the most part, these were the same organizations in which the known Communist Party
members I have previously mentioned were active.
Finally, as previously indicated, on the national level the DuBois Clubs have called for
the separation of the Watts area from the city of Los Angeles.
Mr. Smith. Has the Socialist Workers Party, the Trotskyist Communist
organization, been active in the area of racial agitation in Los Angeles?
Mr. Wheeler. Yes; but not to the same degree the other Communist groups
have. They more or less like to organize and stay in the background.
On August 19, 1965, 2 days after the Watts riot ended, the Los Angeles Socialist Workers
Party issued a statement which, like that of the Communist Party, exonerated the rioters,
attacked Mayor Yorty, Police Chief Parker, and the police in general, holding them largely
responsible for the riot. It described the riot as a "rebellion" and called for
the release of all those arrested during the riot.
On the national level the Socialist Workers Party published a pamphlet entitled "WATTS
AND HARLEM, THE RISING REVOLT IN THE BLACK GHETTOS." This pamphlet, published by the
Socialist Workers Party's then official publishing house, Pioneer Publishers, was a
collection of four articles originally printed in the party's official newspaper,
The Militant.
This pamphlet was distributed in the Watts area. Again, in typical Communist fashion,
it defended the rioters, absolved them of all blame, and held the police and the city
administrations responsible for the violence.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that this document be received and
marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 47."
Mr. Tuck. It is so ordered.
(Document marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 47" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Smith. Mr. Wheeler, hearings held by this committee several weeks
ago reflect that the Progressive Labor Party played a major role in inciting the riot which
took place in Harlem, New York City, in July 1964.
The name of the Progressive Labor Party has been brought out a number of times in these
hearings concerning Los Angeles.
Would you now summarize its activities in the area of fomenting racial hatred, disorder,
and incitation to violence in the Los Angeles area?
Mr. Wheeler. Yes, they have circulated literature. Of course, Lieutenant
Anderson has already presented literature that has been distributed by John Wesley Harris
and other literature by the Progressive Labor Party in Los Angeles. I have additional
information here.
First, I would like to mention two small pamphlets published by the Progressive Labor
Party and distributed in the Watts area and other areas of Los Angeles. The first is
titled "Don't be a sucker!" I have several quotes.
This summer the bosses and their political stooges in Washington and in local areas are
working overtime to promote race wars...
The following statement appears in this pamphlet:
Now they want us to be bigger suckers than ever. They want us to fight our Black brothers
at home. Bosses have been making the biggest profits off of the backs of Black workers
for over a century. The bosses love this. They want to keep it that way.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that this item be received and marked
"Wheeler Exhibit No. 48."
Mr. Tuck. It is so ordered.
(Document marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 48" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Wheeler. At another point in this pamphlet this question is asked:
IS THAT NOT A CLEAR CALL FOR THE WHITE POPULATION TO UNITE WITH THE POLICE AS VIGILANTES
AND POSSES TO HUNT DOWN THE BLACK PEOPLE? ISN'T THIS, ALONG WITH THE OTHER STATEMENTS BY
THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS FLUNKEYS, AND THE FOUNDATION BEING LAID DOWN BY THE NEWSPAPERS
– ISN'T THIS A DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST THE AFRO-AMERICAN PEOPLE BY THE UNITED
STATES GOVERNMENT?
They answer their own question. "Yes, it is."
I have a second pamphlet published by the Black Liberation Commission of the Progressive
Labor Party and distributed in Watts. It is called "BLACK LIBERATION – NOW!"
The inside cover features pictures of Bill Epton and John Harris, the Harlem and Watts
organizers of the Progressive Labor Party, respectively. Bill Epton has been indicted and
charged with inciting the riot in the Harlem riots. John Wesley Harris has been indicted
for criminal syndicalism in the State of California, which also was gone into by Lieutenant
Anderson.
The second sentence in this pamphlet states that the United States Government and State
and county and city administrations in large northern industrial areas of this country,
"are preparing a reign of terror against the Afro-American people this summer.
They are deliberately planning to start a so-called 'race war.'"
This statement sets the general tone of this pamphlet which is clearly intended to arouse
fear, hatred, and resentment by Negroes against whites, against Federal and local
government, against the FBI and the American institutions generally. It harps on police
brutality and states that the United States governmental system must be replaced by what
it calls socialism. It also states that, "The U.S. ruling class is not going to
give this to us. The only way we are going to get it is to take it."
Mr. Smith. What is the title?
Mr. Wheeler. I believe I mentioned the title, "BLACK LIBERATION
– NOW!"
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that this item be received and marked
as "Wheeler Exhibit No. 49."
Mr. Tuck. It is so ordered.
(Document marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 49" and retained in committee files.)
Mr. Smith. Will you continue, please.
Mr. Wheeler. The Progressive Labor Party distributed three highly
inflammatory posters and flyers in the Watts area, as previously mentioned. They were
"THE NEED FOR REVOLUTION" and the poster, "WANTED FOR MURDER – Parker
the Cop in Watts," which was really identical to the poster it distributed in Harlem
at the time of the 1964 riot, with no change except the substitution of the name and
picture of Parker for that of Gilligan [Anderson Exhibits Nos. 14 and 12, respectively].
The third was the flyer "WANTED for the MURDER of Leonard Deadwyler – 'BOVA
– the COP'" [Anderson Exhibit No. 13].
John W. Harris, the Progressive Labor Party organizer in Watts, distributed these flyers
at the Deadwyler inquest and was indicted for criminal syndicalism for doing so.
The Progressive Labor Party then established the Committee to Defend John Harris. This
committee has been used not only to assist in Harris' defense, but also to further racial
agitation and the distribution of inflammatory literature.
The Progressive Labor Party poster, "Uncle Sam wants YOU nigger," which was
distributed in the Harlem area, was also distributed in the Watts area.
The Progressive Labor Party has held a forum on "PLP and Black Liberation,"
with the discussion led by John Harris. A film from North Vietnam, "The Threatening
Sky," has been shown at the forum.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that these documents be received and
marked "Wheeler Exhibits Nos. 50-A, B, and C."
Mr. Tuck. It is so ordered.
(Documents marked "Wheeler Exhibits Nos. 50-A, B, and C," respectively. Exhibit
50-B retained in committee files; 50-A and 50-C appear on pp. 1300 and 1301.)
WHEELER EXHIBIT NO. 50-A
Uncle Sam wants YOU nigger
Become a member of the world's highest paid black mercenary army!
Support White Power – travel to Viet Nam, you might get a medal!
Fight for Freedom... (in Viet Nam)
Receive valuable training in the skills of killing off other oppressed people!
(Die Nigger Die – you can't die fast enough in the ghettos.)
So run to your nearest recruiting chamber!
Issued by: HARLEM PROGRESSIVE LABOR CLUB, 336 Lenox Avenue, New York 10027
For additional copies send to: Progressive Labor Party: Chicago: 2049
North Dayton St.,
Los Angeles: 218 East 82nd Place, San Francisco: 3382 18th
Street, California
WHEELER EXHIBIT NO. 50-C
PL FORUM
BLACK LIBERATION
and the
PROGRESSIVE LABOR PARTY
– with a discussion led by John Harris
PLP organizer in Watts
A new film from North Vietnam –
(The Threatening Sky 45 min.)
Friday – May 5th at 7:30 p.m.
Severance Hall
2936 W. 8th St.
(1 block east of Vermont)
Donation $1.00
P.L.P.
P.O. Box 19930
Rimpau Sta.
L.A. 90019
399-6819
Mr. Wheeler. A Progressive Labor Party flyer announcing a New Year's
Eve party held at the end of last year urged "Support Black Revolutionaries,"
with specific references to John Harris. It suggested that the New Year be brought in
with "more agitatin' & troublemakin'."
This is dated December 1966.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that the document be received and
marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 51."
Mr. Tuck. It is so ordered.
(Document marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 51" appears on p. 1302)
WHEELER EXHIBIT NO. 51
A New Year's-Eve PARTY
– Bring in the new year
– more agitatin' & troublemakin'
Drinks – Music – Entertainment
– Support Black Revolutionaries
– Help us defend John Harris, framed under the California Criminal-Syndicalist law
COME!
Place: 970 St. Andrews Place
(1/2 bl. N. of Olympic Blvd. 2 blocks W. of Western Ave.)
Donation: $1.00
Time: 8:30
sponsored by the Progressive Labor Party
667-8769
Mr. Wheeler. On the national level again the Black Liberation Commission
of the Progressive Labor Party published a brochure entitled "THE REVOLT IN WATTS AND
THE COMING BATTLE." This featured a map of the "ghetto" area of Los Angeles
and the factory concentration in and around the area. Like other Progressive Labor Party
literature, this brochure was also designed to arouse Negro resentment and hatred of white
people and of government, industry, and police. It ended with the following statement:
The black people of South L.A. possess a weapon more powerful than twenty-two thousand guns!
And black people can choose their own time and places of battle!
This brochure was reproduced in the May 1966 issue of SPARK, the West Coast Progressive
Labor publication.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that this document be accepted and
marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 52."
Mr. Tuck. It is so ordered.
(Document marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 52". See pp. 1305-1308.)
WHEELER EXHIBIT NO. 52
THE REVOLT IN WATTS AND THE COMING BATTLE
Published by the Black Liberation Commission of the Progressive Labor Party
336 Lenox Avenue, New York, New York 10027
LOS ANGELES – In the summer of 1965, when the black ghetto of South Central Los
Angeles (soon to be internationally known as Watts) exploded in angry rebellion, thousands
of national guardsmen were deployed to the area. Waving machine guns and automatic rifles,
driving in army trucks and jeeps, they poured into the area.
Some were deployed to guard small businesses and stores. What was not mentioned –
either in the newspapers then or in the investigations afterwards – was that the
heaviest guard was sent in to protect the most vulnerable point of U.S. imperialism at home:
heavy industrial plants.
It is not surprising that the American people have been told nothing but lies and half-truths
about the Watts Rebellion of 1965 – truth is a rare commodity in this country, if
the facts were known concerning the magnitude and the origin of the misery to which the
black people of Watts live, the mark of doom would be put on those who live by profiteering
on this misery. The truth about U.S. Imperialism's greatest weakness would serve as a guide
to powerful mass action, which could cost the rich white imperialists a thousand times more
than the $40 million property damage and international disgrace for its racist barbarism,
which resulted in the police and army terror of August, 1965.
These are the facts.
The rebellion covered the predominantly black area (of 46 to 56 square miles) known as
South Central Los Angeles (commonly called South L.A.). The entire area came to be known
as Watts, because Watts was the starting point of the Rebellion and is 92 percent black.
A 3 square mile segment of a huge black ghetto, Watts is one of many neighborhoods,
including Avalon, Central, Exposition, Green Meadows, Florence, Willowbrook, and other units
of the 46-56 square mile area.
But these subdivisions are artificial, existing only on maps or in custom. There are no
boundaries except on paper; black people in South L.A. for the most part live in one
continuous land area, in a continuous population concentration.
Within the total area there are 576,000 black people – about 80 per cent of the
population of the ghetto. Mexican Americans make up another 10 per cent, so that as much
as 90 per cent of the population is "non-white."
The boundaries of the overall ghetto roughly extend from Adams Blvd. and Washington St. to
the north; Rosencrans Ave. to the south Alameda St. to the east; and Van Ness St. and
Crenshaw Blvd. to the west. With this information the man in the street can pinpoint the
black ghetto of South L.A. on a Los Angeles street map, which can be obtained free at a
gas station. The study of the map is of great strategic importance.
VAST UNEMPLOYMENT
There are about 50,000 unemployed black workers – and this figure does not include
the young people who have never had a job and therefore are not in the official unemployment
figures. Unemployment is three times higher than the overall city rate.
That's only part of the story:
- The average black man's wage is only a little more than half of what the white
worker earns;
- Between 1960 and 1965 the average white family income rose 14 per cent – but
the black family's income fell 8 per cent;
- The vast majority of employed black people are service and domestic workers, or work
at other low-paying menial occupations.
Rents in the ghetto are exorbitant. Two-thirds of the mostly wood-frame houses are owned
by absentee white landlords who refuse to make repairs on their over-priced buildings, so
the buildings are getting steadily worse. Coupled with the reduction in income, ghetto
rents rose 14 per cent in the 1960-65 period.
'MEDICARE' – L.A. STYLE
Medical facilities are appalling. The eight private hospitals in the ghetto have just
454 beds! Only two of the hospitals meet minimum standards of professional quality.
The two public hospitals – County General and Harbor General – are both outside
the area, too distant and difficult to reach. There are three times as many doctors to
serve the white communities as there are for the black (106 per 250,000 for blacks; 318
per 250,000 for whites). Medical fees are sky-high.
The death rate is far greater in the black community than in the white. For example, the
infant mortality rate (from birth to one year) is 150 per cent higher for black people than
for whites.
Ghetto schools are no more than institutions of ignorance. Teachers, teaching methods, and
facilities are inferior. Average reading ability for fifth grade black students is ranked
at approximately 20; for white L.A. students it is 50. In the eighth grade, black students
are ranked at 14 – a decrease – while whites remain at 50. Eleventh grade
high school students: black about 28, white about 70.
Two-thirds of all black students who enter high school will drop out. Is that surprising?
Even if they finish, they would graduate as functional illiterates! Perhaps more important,
they know that the old song and dance routine about "finish high school and you will
get a better job" is a fraud. Most graduates can't find work at all, much less a
"better" job. Approximately 25 per cent of all six year old black children aren't
enrolled in school – a year after they're supposed to start. They don't even get
the chance to drop out!
TRANSPORTATION WORSE THAN N.Y.
Public transportation is worse than inadequate. The only form of public transportation in
the whole area is buses that run only on the larger streets. Fares are high (25¢);
many black workers spend a dollar and more just to travel to and from work. There are so
few buses that it is not unusual to wait 45 minutes for one.
A car, the, is absolutely essential in the ghetto, just as it is in all of L.A. But only
14 per cent of the black families own a car, while 50 per cent of the families in Los
Angeles County as a whole own one. This is not just a measure of the poverty of black
families; it is a clear indication of the degree to which they are locked within the confines
of the ghetto.
The prices for food, clothing, home appliances and furniture in the ghetto are much higher
than prices in the City as a whole. The merchandise is inferior, and the predominantly
white merchants cheat the people with crooked installment plans. Trapped within the
ghetto walls, the black inhabitants are forced to submit to this robbery!
The $40 million in property damage from the August Rebellion is a drop in the bucket compared
to the millions stolen by these corrupt merchants each year! The black rebels were only
taking back a token, a symbolic amount of what they have had stolen from them!
The people have no rights that a white cop is bound to respect. Not a week passes without
a black man, woman or child being shot down or brutally beaten by the racist cops who are
there to protect the privileges of those who profit from the misery.
In short, the ghetto is a cheap-labor concentration camp for black people – a black
colony of poverty, exploitation and brutality – in the richest country in the world.
It stands as a symbol of the racist treatment given to 22 million Afro-Americans by U.S.
Imperialism – the leader of the so-called "free world." The same type of
"freedom" the U.S. is attempting to force on other colored peoples of the world
(such as the Vietnamese and the Dominicans): with gun barrels and napalm bombs... and
systematic extermination.
OCCUPYING ARMY FOR INDUSTRIAL PROTECTION
But the meaning of the August Rebellion only begins with the above facts.
The black ghetto of South L.A. in the hub of a mammoth industrial complex. Not only is
the ghetto surrounded by heavy industries, but there are industries in the heart of the
ghetto where thousands upon thousands of while workers are employed.
This is the fact that the rich white imperialists and their apologists (like former CIA chief
John McCone) would not reveal in their "reports" on the rebellion. Black workers
have been systematically excluded from industries in the heart of the black ghetto! They
are denied the right to work where they live. While factory smoke pours through their
windows, poisoning their children, black workers are forced into the misery of unemployment.
White workers must travel 20 and 40 miles down freeways into the heart of the black ghetto,
while the factory worker living under the factory windows in unemployed. In a ghetto in
which there is an 80 per cent black population, the ghetto industries hire a mere handful
of black workers.
What is U.S. imperialism's plan? What is the plan of its apologists with their phony
reports on the Rebellion? Can they claim that they didn't know that South L.A. was an
industrial area? Can they say that they did not know that, if black workers were given ghetto
factory jobs in proportion to their percentage of the ghetto population, that there would
be no unemployment among black ghetto workers?
Of course they are aware of this fact, but they have done everything possible to conceal it.
An Industrial Zone Map, published by the American Industrial Real Estate Assn., can be
obtained free from the L.A. Chamber of Commerce (404 Bixel St., L.A.). The map shows a
massive industrial complex in the north-western corner of the ghetto.
There is another in the southwestern corner, and on the eastern border there is still another
industrial complex. It also shows the industrial concentrations throughout the entire ghetto.
It would have been devastating for the imperialists to reveal this fact concerning the
systematic exclusion of black people from industries within their ghetto.
'NEW JOBS' FRAUD
The big noise about "retraining" the black man so he can get a job is a sham,
a fraud and a stall. Anyone with any experience in factory work knows that from 60 to 90
per cent of the jobs can be performed by an inexperienced illiterate. Training for many
companies jobs take all of a week or two. Most of the jobs require a mere demonstration
and one day's work experience.
At the General Motors automobile assembly plant on the western border of the ghetto, 5,000
workers are employed almost all of them white. The work is broken down to its smallest
component jobs. A worker turns a screw and the next worker does something else. How much
knowledge does it take for one man to hoist a transmission in place while another worker
screws in four retaining bolts? An illiterate can put a wheel on a car so that the next
worker can screw on five bolts to hold the wheel in place.
Many of these jobs are now performed by white illiterates (with "superior
educations") whose reading ability ends with the morning picture newspaper. This is
living proof of the fraud being perpetrated against unemployed black people, who are
considered "unprepared" to become workers.
The Goodyear Rubber Corp. plant, smack in the heart of the ghetto, also employs about
5,000 workers, including the handful of blacks. And this is true for a multitude of factories
in the ghetto that employ hundreds of thousands of men.
Retrain for what?! If black ghetto workers were given the factory jobs from which they
have been excluded, not only would black unemployment be eliminated but black workers would
make twice what they are now making in the menial jobs into which they have been forced.
Why have they been excluded systematically from these jobs? The answer is clear:
industrial automation and agricultural mechanization are eliminating hundreds of thousands
of jobs every year. Whereas industrialization created more jobs than it eliminated,
automation eliminates more than it creates. Workers are being driven out of the factories
and off the farms. The population is growing; at the same time, the job market is shrinking.
The simple truth is that the black worker is being used by the rich bosses to absorb the
first and most devastating blows of the impending crisis. While workers also are being
affected by unemployment, but these effects have been cushioned by forcing the black man on
the bottom to take the full weight. That's why the black unemployment rate is three times
greater than that of whites. This allows the white workers to hold onto their fading
"American dream" a little longer at the expense of the black man, who is already
living the nightmare.
The imperialists would rather starve and exterminate black workers – through police
brutality and use as "cannon fodder" in Vietnam – than take the chance of
white workers becoming revolutionary. What would happen if the TV tube went out for white
workers, if their cars were repossessed? Would Johnson's fine words about the Great
Society smooth the wrinkles of hunger? Would they be satisfied Anti-Poverty Program crumbs
or job training frauds? No! And that is why black workers are being systematically excluded
from factory jobs in South L.A. White workers are being forced to play the role of parasites.
This is the racist solution that the rulers of America are imposing with their "Great
Society"!
The standard of living for white workers historically has been kept up by U.S. imperialism's
robbery of its various colonial holdings in Latin America, Asia and Africa. The wars and
intrigues being carried by U.S. imperialism against the colored peoples of the world are
merely an attempt to continue the privileges of robbery and murder, and an army of white
workers is being used for this purpose. Would white workers be willing to die in south
Vietnam if their wives and children were starving at home? No!
The rulers of this country cannot reveal these reasons for excluding black workers from
factory jobs, because it is clear that, if it is now the black worker who must suffer for
the "holy" name of profits. It will be the white worker before long.
U.S. IMPERIALISM'S GREATEST FEAR
The greatest fear of the imperialist enemy is that the black people in the South L.A. ghetto
will shut down the factories, stop production, and demand 80 per cent of the industrial jobs,
because they are 80 per cent of the ghetto population – and demand to be employed
– NOW!
This would be a direct attack on the real enemy. These factories are completely vulnerable
and can be shut down with a minimum of preparation, personnel and effort. Once the weakest
flank of the enemy is discovered, a million ways will be found to focus the full strength
of resistance so that every blow drives straight to his heart (his profits).
When workers want to better their pay and conditions they strike! They bring the wheels of
production to a screaming halt. That brings profits to a halt.
The oppressor's greatest fear is that black people in South L.A. will raise the slogan:
"IF WE DON'T WORK, YOU DON'T RUN!" Instead of the $40 million dollars in property
damage incurred during the August Rebellion, billions upon billions would be lost when
industry stopped because of the fight for jobs by black workers. The merchant is a minor
enemy who can be taken as a mere diversion. He is a small bandit who sells what the factories
produce. But if the fight for jobs meant a halt in production, it would mean stopping the
beating heart of the real enemy. It would be the basis for a vast black resistance movement,
capable of uniting all black workers in South L.A., and capable of creating a mass political
sea so that resistance leaders may be secure in the bosom of the people.
THE PRICE OF CRIMES
The enemy fears the development of a vast political sea, founded on the exposure of every
crime that has been committed against black people. All these crimes discussed above, and
the day-to-day murders, would then become part of the immediate political consciousness of
the black people. Having identified the real enemy and his weakest point, the black people
would have a definite purpose and direction of struggle. Every act would have political
meaning and would further serve to unite black people in the pride of their new-found power
to confront the enemy with awesome strength. There would be no begging for crumbs when you
can take from the enemy more than he would be willing to give in a million years.
Hopelessness and frustration would be dispelled. The revolutionary potential of the black
masses would be heightened immeasurably. Instead of aiming to miss, those who defend our
black men, women and children against racist extermination campaigns – would aim to hit!
We would dare to win!
This, then, is what the enemy really fears. He fears the price he will have to pay for his
crimes! He is at home here in America. Everything he possesses is right here. It is not
as easy as murdering colored people 5,000 miles away. The battle will be brought right to
his doorstep – right to the source of his profits.
The black people of South L.A. possess a weapon more powerful than twenty-two thousand guns!
And black people can choose their own time and places of battle!
FIND OUT NOW!
Atlanta, Watts, Harlem... Where the struggle began, where its going. Read:
The Plot Against Black America – 10¢
Notes on Black Liberation – 25¢
Pre-Civil War Black Nationalism – 25¢
We Accuse (Bill Epton's Speech to the Court) – 25¢
SEND ORDER TO:
PROGRESSIVE LABOR; G.P.O. BOX 808, Brooklyn I, N.Y.
Mr. Wheeler. I have a little to add concerning John Wesley Harris for
the record, additional material that was being typed and it has just arrived.
Mr. Smith. Will you present it, please.
Mr. Wheeler. Thank you.
John Wesley Harris, Progressive Labor Party organizer and chairman of the Los Angeles PLP,
is a 24-year-old native of Birmingham, Alabama. Harris joined the Freedom Riders when they
went to Birmingham in 1960. Later, when a student at Howard University in Washington, D.C.,
Harris became chairman of the Howard University chapter of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, commonly known as SNCC.
In 1964 and part of 1965 Harris served as project director for SNCC in Indianola, Mississippi.
During this time he was arrested in October 1964 and twice in February 1965 on charges of
disobeying police and disturbing the peace.
Shortly after the August 1965 riots in the Watts area of Los Angeles, Harris moved to Watts.
In December of that year Harris joined the Progressive Labor Party. He has since proclaimed
that he is proud to be a Communist. He has served as a Los Angeles chairman of PLP.
According to his defense committee literature, he joined the PLP because he was impressed
with the work of Bill Epton, Harlem PLP organizer, who was convicted for criminal anarchy.
Since coming to Los Angeles he has been employed at times at UCLA as an examination reader
and teacher's assistant, sociology department.
On September 20, 1966, Harris was arrested and charged with criminal syndicalism. He was
subsequently released on bail.
In November 1966 he took part in a black power conference in the Watts area which featured
Stokely Carmichael. He has also joined a steering committee for Southern Californians for
New Politics. Harris has also urged Negroes not to fight in Vietnam and opposes the draft.
I have a copy of a PLP brochure which contains some biographical material on Harris and
the organization.
I want to introduce this document in the record. It is headed, "SUPPORT BLACK
REVOLUTIONARIES, Defend John Harris... arrested for 'criminal syndicalism.'" It is
signed by or has typed in the name "Progressive Labor Party, P.O. Box 19930, Los Angeles
19, California."
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I request that this document be received and
marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 53."
Mr. Tuck. It is so ordered.
(Document marked "Wheeler Exhibit No. 53". See pp. 1309-1312.)
WHEELER EXHIBIT NO. 53
SUPPORT BLACK REVOLUTIONARIES
Defend John Harris....
arrested for "criminal syndicalism"
John Harris, Progressive Labor Party organizer in Watts faces 1 to 14 years as a
"criminal syndicalist". His crime – passing out leaflets at the Deadwyler
inquest pointing out that the cop who shot Deadwyler was a murderer and moreover denouncing
the system that creates such a "legal" murder.
At 5:30 p.m. September 20, 1966, six plainclothesmen broke into the house where John Harris
lives. Although claiming to have a warrant they refused to show it. They handcuffed John
Harris and then ransacked the apartment throwing things around, ripping down pictures and
causing other damage. They carried off boxes of personal property of the three people who
live there as "evidence". They also took PL literature that was stored there.
For example, they took 250 copies of the new PL magazine, copies of Spark and
Free Student. They also took books and notes for classes, all this as
"evidence".
WHAT IS "CRIMINAL SYNDICALISM?"
The criminal syndicalism law states that it is illegal to speak or leaflet so as to
advocate "change in industrial ownership" or "effect political change"
by so-called criminal means. A Grand Jury meeting secretly apparently decided this is what
John was doing, and set the bail at $15,000.
Criminal syndicalism is an anti-labor law passed in 1919 and was last used to convict farm
labor organizers in the Sacramento Valley in 1937. The law is meant to deal with revolutionary
socialists and is a candid reflection of the undemocratic essence of a class divided society.
Like the anti-riot portions of the proposed Civil Rights law, it is intended as a weapon
against those who call for fundamental change. Such was John's offense. He questioned the
"justice" of the Deadwyler hearing and advocated revolutionary solutions. In so
doing he was in perfect tune with the mood of the black community of South Los Angeles.
Clearly, a "criminal syndicalist" is someone who represents a view dangerous to
America's rulers. ("You have your freedom until you need it," says Bertrand Russell.)
WHO IS JOHN HARRIS?
John Harris was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, the son of a steelworker. From his
earliest years, he was exposed to systematic racial oppression and injustice and he early
determined to fight it. When in 1960 the freedom riders came to town he joined with them.
Later in college he became chairman of the Howard University chapter of SNCC. In 1964 he
left school to work in the South where he was project director for SNCC in Sunflower County,
Mississippi – stronghold of the Ku Klux Klan. There he was arrested and beaten by the
cops and his home was attacked by the Klan. From his one and a half year's experience in
Mississippi he concluded that more basic changes were necessary. He left the South and came
to Los Angeles shortly after the Watts rebellion. Having seen the effects of the police riot
and having heard about the systematic police murder of scores of black citizens, he decided
to do political work in Watts. In December, 1965, impressed with the work of Bill Epton and
the program of the Progressive Labor Party he joined PL and became a revolutionary communist.
WHY THIS ARREST NOW?
In fact, they are arresting him to scare and terrorize PL members and others who protect
conditions in the black ghetto. Although John is not guilty of any criminal or illegal
act, he certainly is guilty of protesting the wretched living conditions in Watts. He has
spoken and written about the fact that real income in Watts declined 8% since 1960 while
rising in the rest of L.A. He has passed out leaflets which pointed out that in Watts is
one of the biggest concentrations of industry – yet black people living there aren't
given jobs in these plants, and that there is 27% unemployment there. He has constantly
worked to expose the outrages of Yorty's brutal cos in Watts who constantly murder and maim
black people, the Deadwyler case being only one example. He has publicly denounced the war
in Vietnam and urged his black brothers not to fight in that war. He has told them to oppose
the draft and warmly supported such people as Richmond and Roy who refused to be inducted
on the grounds that they are a colonial authority and shouldn't fight the colonial master's
dirty war against colored people of Southeast Asia. What is more, John has held classes
which sought to get at the root cause of U.S. oppression both at home and abroad. He has
not hesitated to name the real enemy, U.S. imperialism, and has stated unequivocally that
imperialism in this country must be replaced by a socialist system. He has stated openly
that he is a communist and proud of it. For this he was arrested on "criminal
syndicalism".
HARLEM – PHILADELPHIA – ATLANTA – LOS ANGELES –
In Harlem, late in 1964, Bill Epton, chairman of Harlem PL, was indicted for "criminal
anarchy" – his crime – trying to organize a peaceful demonstration to
protest the murder of black people during the "police riots" that summer. A year
later he was found guilty; he is now out on $25,000 appeal bond. This summer in
Philadelphia, young SNCC workers were falsely charged with possessing dynamite and held on
huge bail. Their crime – organizing in the black community. Next it was the turn
of the Atlanta cops who, after brutally suppressing a protest by black citizens of another
police murder, arrested Stokely Carmichael for inciting to riot. His crime –
advancing the slogan black power. Now in Los Angeles John Harris is arrested for criminal
syndicalism. Tomorrow, no doubt, it will be somebody in San Francisco. And the
"crime" will again be the same – organizing the black community around a
militant program.
It is clear Johnson is ordering his local stooges to begin a nationwide round-up of all
black militants who refuse to sell out because rebellions in black ghettos are harming his
war effort. Though the charges are serious and the bail is huge, we declare that the real
guilty ones are Johnson and company for pursuing the genocidal war against Vietnam; Yorty
and the police who daily are brutally murdering and maiming black people; the General Motors
and Goodyear plants in South L.A. who poison the air of Watts but refuse to hire its
residents. We must expect that as we get more effect in our protests, repression such as
this will get worse. But it can't stop us, on the contrary we will redouble our efforts!
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
Politically, all honest people interested in building a truly just society must break from
[?] farce conducted by the American ruling class. Work to free themselves and others
from the illusions of this system. It was this "lesser evil" Brown that this
frame-up was concocted. Recognize that in the black ghettos the battle has already been
joined. This war against imperialism is a class war. The victory of Vietnamese people
and the struggles of all other colonial peoples is a part of the crucial struggle against
the "free enterprising" system of exploitation and war.
Finally: Support the progress and work of John Harris and the Progressive Labor Party.
Money is desperately needed.
Progressive Labor Party
P.O. Box 19930
Los Angeles 19, California
For information on PL forums and classes, write to the above address.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, that concludes the testimony to be received in
this session of hearings.
Mr. Tuck. Mr. Wheeler, on behalf of the committee I wish to thank you
and commend you in the highest terms for your work in assembling this information and
presenting it to the committee.
We appreciate also the cooperation of the law enforcement authorities, the district attorney's
office of Los Angeles County.
The subcommittee has listened to factual testimony about inflammatory racial agitation in
the Los Angeles area for 3 days.
It is clear beyond a doubt that prior to the Watts riot, during the riot, and ever since
the riot Communists have been agitating in the central Southside area, and particularly the
Watts area, of Los Angeles. They have been distributing inflammatory literature in the
area which, without question, is designed to inflame the residents against the police, against
the city administration, and against the Federal Government and which is designed to
encourage resentment and rebellion and inflame passions.
We do not know precisely how many copies of the numerous pieces of inflammatory literature
introduced in this hearing were actually distributed in the Watts area. We do not know
just how many people received copies and the exact effect they had on these people.
Normally, of course, any group distributing flyers of the type we are discussing can, and
does, have thousands of copies printed at little cost. Many have been run off on mimeograph
machines, which makes the expense of producing them practically nil.
It is therefore reasonable to assume that many copies of these items were distributed in
the area and that they must have had considerable impact, at least on limited segments of
the population. And it is well known, of course, that it takes very few hotheads and
professional agitators to start a riot.
This hearing has not proved that the Watts riot of August 1965 was instigated by the
Communists. The record indicates that most of this literature was distributed after the riot
in an apparent attempt to capitalize on it and incite further violence. Some of it, however,
was distributed prior to the riot. To have engaged in this activity in disturbing the
community after the Watts riot is even worse than it was before the riot.
I believe the evidence substantiates Mayor Yorty's testimony, the conviction and belief he
has been expressing for several years, that there has been in Los Angeles and other cities
a deliberate conditioning of people in an effort to create a situation in which it is easy
for a riot to be triggered by a simple arrest or some other seemingly minor incident.
Whether or not Communists and black nationalist elements can be said to have played a major
role in the initial Watts riot, it is clear that their desire and intent is to foment racial
violence in this country and that they are doing everything possible to accomplish that end.
In conclusion, in the name of the subcommittee, I wish to thank Lieutenant Clayton Anderson
and Detective James Harris of the Los Angeles district attorney's office for their testimony.
They have made factual, detailed presentations which were a credit to them and the office
for which they work.
As the chairman said the other day, they have really made a significant contribution to
this inquiry.
I also want to thank and congratulate Mr. Wheeler, the committee's dedicated and able
investigator in Los Angeles, for his presentation and the work he has done in preparation
for these hearings.
The subcommittee will now adjourn, to be called again upon the order of the chairman of
the committee.
(Whereupon, at 1:30 p.m., Thursday, November 30, 1967, the subcommittee recessed, subject
to the call of the Chair.)
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