Witch-hunting then, now: Federal use of sweeping and dubious "conspiracy" doctrines [International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers at mid-century]
Note by Hunterbear: >From the moment Humanity emerged in all its problematic splendor from the muck, it's been an on-going fight to secure social justice: over many mountains, across many rivers -- and in many, many storms. This has certainly been true in the United States which grew up with capitalism and vice-versa. For a great many today, the sanguinary waves of repression -- both cunning and brutal -- are new, understandably frightening. For some of us, however, it's something we've seen before. And we know that we all -- in solidarity -- have to keep fighting. Most of this is a page -- from the extensive Mine-Mill section in our Lair of Hunterbear website -- discussing one of the great many cruel and vicious witch-hunting cases from the Red Scare of the latter 1940s through the 1960s: the Mine-Mill Conspiracy Case. This was the brutal essence of union busting by the Federal government and the copper bosses. The "conspiracy case" was initiated in 1956 -- and ten years later the United States Supreme Court threw the whole thing out. Mine-Mill, in fact, ultimately won all of the numerous Federal witch hunting cases directed against it. This would be of considerable interest to anyone committed to the struggles of American working people against great odds. But the case has considerable relevance in these increasingly grim times -- given the frequent and calculated Federal witch-hunting usage of "conspiracy" against contemporary targets. This website page of ours illustrates two historic pamphlets. One is the Mine-Mill attack on the infamously anti-union Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 -- and the other is "The Mine-Mill Conspiracy Case," the extremely well done defense pamphlet by labor writer Sid Lens and issued by the Union's defense committee in 1960. Although I cannot depict those pamphlets in this post here, you can see them -- and much Mine-Mill material on adjoining pages -- via this link: http://www.hunterbear.org/Mine-Millconspiracycase.htm [One page dealing in part with Mine-Mill precedes this page and a number of other Mine-Mill pages follow this one.] Quoted in the Mine-Mill defense pamphlet is this: 'Typical of the criticism leveled against the conspiracy doctrine is that by Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson. Justice Jackson wrote in 1949 that the conspiracy law is "elastic, sprawling and pervasive. . .as a practical matter, the accused often is confronted with a hodgepodge of acts and statements by others which he may never have authorized or intended, or even known about, but which help to persuade the jury of the existence of the conspiracy itself. In other words, the conspiracy often is proved by evidence that is admissible only upon the assumption that the conspiracy existed." ' from the "Mine Mill Conspiracy Case." by Sidney Lens with the introduction by Norman Thomas [ Mine-Mill Defense Committee, Denver, 1960.] THE MINE-MILL"CONSPIRACY" THAT WASN'T: RELENTLESS ATTACKS ON A MILITANT, DEMOCRATIC UNION [HUNTER GRAY 2/2/02] This now rare Mine-Mill pamphlet -- ca. 1948 -- attacks the viciously anti-labor Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 as a trap which no bona fide labor organization should have anything to do with. The Act. among all of its other nefarious provisions, required union officers to sign and file "non-Communist affidavits." Although initially, leaders of many United States unions refused to sign -- including Mine-Mill -- their unions were then denied NLRB privileges. lf all unions had maintained the boycott solidarity that many, including Mine-Mill [and John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers], vigorously encouraged, the Taft-Hartley Act would have been effectively undercut. But, increasingly, unions "signed" -- putting those who didn't at an increasingly serious disadvantage: the bosses refused to negotiate with non-signing unions and some unions who signed began vicious raids against those who had not. Eventually, virtually all unions signed. Mine-Mill finally did so in 1949 in order to defend the Union. International Secretary-Treasurer Maurice E. Travis publicly resigned from the Communist Party in order to sign. A Westerner who had worked in rough and tumble settings since his teen years, and son-in-law of the legendary I.W.W. organizer, A.S. "Sam" Embree, Travis had just lost one eye as the result of a brutal beating at Bessemer, Alabama by a gang of Klansmen who were involved on behalf of the rival, right-wing United Steelworkers. Maurice Travis, who was always very open about his political stance, was a direct speaking man: "Since the interest of the International Union is uppermost in my mind, I have been confronted with the problem of resigning from the Communist Party, of which I have been a member, in order to make it possible for me to sign the Taft-Hartley affidavit. I have decided, with the utmost reluctance and with a great sense of indignation, to take such a step. . .This has not been an easy step for me to take. Membership in the Communist Party has always meant to me, as a member and officer of the International Union, that I could be a better trade unionist. . .a call to greater effort in behalf of the union as a solemn pledge to my fellow members that I would fight for their interests above all other interests." Soon after this, in 1950, Mine-Mill was one of the several Left unions forced out of the CIO -- of which it had been a founder. And then the attacks upon Mine-Mill mounted with the greatest ferocity: flowing from the mining bosses and their legions, right-wing unions -- such as the Steelworkers; and the Federal government. Mine-Mill fought back -- hard, on all fronts. These attacks -- and Mine-Mill's prolonged and courageous struggle and its consistently democratic and egalitarian ethos -- are discussed in the pages that follow. This detailed, 19 page labor defense pamphlet, written by noted American labor reporter and writer, Sid Lens, carries an introduction by Socialist Party leader Norman Thomas who wrote, "The issue is not communism but justice." It also carries endorsements and substantial statements by several leaders of major AFL-CIO unions: O.A. Knight, President of Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers; Mike Quill, President of Transport Workers Union; Frank Rosenblum, Secretary-Treasurer of Amalgamated Clothing Workers. [A slightly earlier, much smaller Mine-Mill defense brochure on the same legal crisis carried an even larger number of support endorsements and brief statements by top officers of AFL-CIO unions, and the Teamsters.] A major leader of the American Quakers and the pacifist movement, Stewart Meacham, publicly and vigorously supported Mine-Mill. This big brochure was published in late 1960 by the Mine-Mill Defense Committee and focuses on one of the heaviest of the mounting Federal legal attacks against the Union: the so-called Mine-Mill "conspiracy" case which began in late 1956. Targeted were a number of present and former Union officials. They were charged with "conspiracy to defraud the government" in the matter of signing and filing the non-Communist Taft-Hartley affidavits. Once brought, the indictments lay dormant for three years. And then, in one of the most blatantly strike-breaking U.S. Government moves in history, the case was brought to trial at the same time the Big Five copper corporations refused to bargain -- and the great copper strike of 1959-60 began. With the far-flung copper strike swirling, the so-called Conspiracy Trial began at Denver on November 2, 1959. The defendants were Irving Dichter, Secretary-Treasurer; Vice-President Asbury Howard; Jack Marcotti, Arizona Regional Director; Executive Board Members Al Skinner and James Allen and Chase Powers; staff members Harold Sanderson and Charles Wilson and Jesse Van Camp; and former Secretary-Treasurer Maurice E. Travis and former staff member James Durkin -- both of whom had since left the Union. Attorneys for Mine-Mill were its general counsel, Nathan Witt -- and also General Telford Taylor [who had prosecuted at Nuremberg] and George Francis of Denver. The men were convicted on December 17, 1959. The great copper strike was won in January, 1960. As with all of the other Mine-Mill cases, the "conspiracy convictions" were appealed. And, as in all of the other Federal legal attacks on the Union, this one was eventually won. In June, 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court threw the case out. This historic 1960 pamphlet -- widely disseminated by Mine-Mill throughout and beyond the United States -- was accompanied by a letter from International President John Clark [who had once driven stage coach in Arizona Territory in the very early 1900s.] President Clark summed it up very well: "The enclosed pamphlet is the work of one of America's most distinguished labor writers and reporters, Sidney Lens. His examination of the Mine-Mill conspiracy case and of the twelve year history of persecution of this Union is a great contribution to our fight for justice. Norman Thomas' introduction to Mr. Lens' pamphlet helps further to expose the false charges of communism which obscure the real issues in the unprecedented hounding of a democratic union and its officers by the departments of government. The International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers has, during its 67 years of existence, a dramatic record of grassroots, independent, militant unionism. Starting as the Western Federation of Miners in 1893, it has brought decent wages and conditions to tens of thousands of metal miners and smeltermen in hundreds of company towns in the United States and Canada. Our officers are elected by secret ballot. Salaries are probably the most modest in the American labor movement and our union is completely run by the rank and file members. The unprecedented legal attack these past years on our union has put a harsh burden on our modest resources. Only the generosity and understanding of wide sections of American labor and liberal individuals has allowed us to fight back with such determination for complete vindication. . ." [John Clark, President] ============================================================================ ====== Keep fighting -- and fighting with solidarity. We shall win in this epoch. And then there'll be new mountains and new rivers and, fighting on together, we shall all win again and again -- and always. Hunter Gray [Hunterbear] www.hunterbear.org Protected by NaŽshdoŽiŽbaŽiŽ and Ohkwari' In our Gray Hole, the ghosts often dance in the junipers and sage, on the game trails, in the tributary canyons with the thick red maples, and on the high windy ridges -- and they dance from within the very essence of our own inner being. They do this especially when the bright night moon shines down on the clean white snow that covers the valley and its surroundings. Then it is as bright as day -- but in an always soft and mysterious and remembering way. [Hunterbear] _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
