Lawsuit against socialists takes aim at Bill of Rights
1986 1986-05Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 14 →
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14 SOCIALIST ACTIOI MAY 1986 In 1928 Swabeck was placed in charge of the party's work in the United Mineworkers In 1922 Swabeck was a delegate to the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, held in Moscow. He remained in the Soviet Union for six months doing work for the International.
In 1928 Swabeck attended the Sixth Congress of the Communist International, Some of the details in this article have been taken from Arne Swabeck's unpub -lished political autobiography, which was made available to Milton Alvin.
CALENDAR San Francisco:
Solidarnosc and the Workers Struggle in Poland. Speaker: Göran Jacobsson, member, Swedish Section of the Fourth Inter.
national. Friday, May 9, 8 p.m.
3435 Army St. Rm. 308.
Boston:
Bar-B-Que in honor of "Gustie" Traynor: 50 years in the Socialist Sat. May 10, 5 p.m. For more information call (617) 332- 9016.
The Political Committee of Socialist Action sent a letter to the Freedom Socialist Party on April 7, 1986, asking the FSP to add Socialist Action to the amicus brief of the National Lawyers Guild in the case of Snedigar vs. Hoddersen et al.
The letter asked that Socialist Action be included as a supporter of the fundamental democratic rights of the Freedom Socialist Party in this case. Major excerpts from the letter are reprinted below.—The Editors Socialist Action views with great alarm any and all efforts of the government to interfere in the internal functioning of political organizations. The attempt to force the FSP to submit its minutes to government scrutiny is a violation of the elementary rights of privacy protected by the Bill of Rights.
Democratic rights in the United States are the product of the struggles of past and present generations for human dignity and freedom.
The ruling rich in this country have never acceded to the principle that all people must enjoy the rights of association, privacy, freedom of speech and of the press, and all other democratic rights. These democratic acquisitions were wrested from those who sought to suppress the majority in order to protect their privileges and power.
It is the responsibility of all who seek to build a society where human freedom is cherished to defend the rights of the Freedom Socialist Party. The loss of these rights in this case will open the way to further erosions in the future. Most affected will be the broad organizations of the workers themselves-the trade unions.
Socialist Action was formed in 1983 to continue the struggle for revolutionary socialism in the United States. Our polit -ical roots and traditions are in the American Trotskyist movement founded by James P. Cannon. We seek to educate and organize the working class and its allies in the United States on the need to establish a socialist government and society.
As an organization in fraternal solidarity with the Fourth International, the world -wide revolutionary party founded by Leon Trotsky, we see our struggle as directly related to the struggle for socialism in every country of the world.
As revolutionary socialists, we join and solidarize with all workers and their allies who struggle for their freedom and dignity.
The full and free exercise of democratic rights is a prerequisite to the socialist society we seek to build. The struggle for these rights today, for everyone, is essential. The FSP deserves the support of all who uphold uphold democratic prin -ciples.