James Kutcher, victor in 1950's

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civil liberties fight, lifelong socialist Film: "The Case of the Legless Veteran-The Fight Against McCarthyism in the 1950s"

Speakers: Howard Petrick, film maker, and Asher Harer, organizer of Jimmy Friday, March 10, 8:00 p.m., 3435 Army St., suite 308. Tel. 821-0458 6 SOCIALIST ACTION MARCH 1989 Jimmy Kutchi :, kno in the labor and social "The Legless Ve teran," Brooklyn, N.Y., after a He was 76 years old. vn internationally st movements as died on Feb. 10 in prolonged illness.

Kutcher, who was a founding member of the Socialist Workers Party in 1938, lost both of his legs at the Battle of San Pietro during World War II. Soon after the war, Kutcher got a job as a file-clerk at the Veterans Administration for $36 a week.

But because of his membership in the SWP, the government fired him from his job. This was the infamous McCarthy "witchhunt" era; the SWP had been placed on Attorney General Clark's "subversive list."

Kutcher and the SWP responded by setting up the Kutcher Civil Rights Committee to fight for his job reinstatement. It was one of the most dramatic and widely supported defense cases of the McCarthy era. The Committee also fought the government's attempt to evict him and his parents from their apartment and to revoke his disability pension.

In 1955, after a 10-year fight, Kutcher left a court hearing in disbelief; he had won his case against the government.

Following his successful legal battle, Kutcher devoted himself to building the revolutionary party based on the program of the SWP and of the Trotskyist movement. One of his most important contributions was his book, "The Case of the Legless Veteran," in which he tells how his contact with socialist ideas in the turbulent days of the Depression changed his life.

For his commitment to the founding program of the SWP, Kutcher-along with over 150 other Trotskyists-was undemocratically expelled from the SWP in 1983. Following his expulsion, he became a member of the Fourth Internationalist Tendency.

The next issue of Socialist Action will include a more complete article celebrating Kutcher's life and contributions.

A memorial meeting, sponsored by the Fourth Internationalist Tendency, is scheduled for April 22-23 in New York. For further information call (212) 633-2007.

Socialist Action Forum in San Francisco Kutcher Defense in San Francisco Bay Area.

The Christic Institute, a public-interest law firm that filed a landmark suit in 1986 against key witnesses involved in the Contragate scandal, has come under increasing attack by the courts. But it is fighting back.

In mid-February, Miami Federal District Judge James Lawrence King gave the Christic Institute seven days to post a $1.2 million bond to cover lawyers' fees for some of the 29 defendants mentioned in the suit.

The Christic Institute was barred from pursuing its appeal of Judge King's June 23, 1988, dismissal of its lawsuit until the $1.2 million bond was posted. The money is to be placed in escrow pending the outcome of the suit.

Judge King also ordered that all Christic Institute assets be seized if Institute officials did not post the bond money in the allotted time. According to Christic Institute officials, Judge King's punitive ruling has no legal precedent.

The Christic Institute lawsuit was filed on behalf of plaintiffs Martha Honey and Tony Avirgan, two U.S. journalists who conducted original research into illegal U.S. government operations after Avirgan was severely injured in a suspected CIA bombing on May 30, 1984. Avirgan was covering a press conference of contra leader Eden Pastora in La Penca, Costa Rica.

The lawsuit charges 29 defendants with criminal conspiracy (including the La Penca bombing), drug and arms trafficking, violations of the U.S. Neutrality Act, and other crimes. The defendants include Robert Owen, Lt. Col. Oliver North's assistant; retired generals Richard Secord and John Singlaub; businessman Albert Hakim; and John Hull, the notorious CIA agent who operates a contra training camp in Costa Rica.

Upon learning of Judge King's bond order, Retired Major Gen. John Singlaub told the press that this ruling was like an air strike against the Institute—a "blow from which it would never recover."

But Christic Institute supporters across the LIKE THE FOUNDING FATHERS.

CONTRA FUNDS LAST SEEN WEARING A SWISO MAI AND YODELING KOCK country proved Singlaub wrong, and in a matter of 12 days (they were able to secure a five-day extension), supporters rallied to the cause, raising the unprecedented sum of $1.2 million.

To publicize their efforts to bring the 29 Contragate defendants to justice, Christic Institute support groups are organizing public meetings and other fund-raising activities around the country in the coming weeks.

Christic Institute Director Sarah Nelson reported that the 60,000-member American Trial Lawyers Association intended to help the Institute fight Judge King's punitive ruling.

The Christic Institute has filed a comprehensive seven-part appeal of Judge King's dismissal that documents the legal errors in his decision. Nelson saic . she was confident that Judge King's ruling would be overturned.

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A 1988 United Way study, in fact,

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