Goldman Archive | Trotskyist Writers Index | ETOL Main Page
From The Militant, Vol. V No. 29, 19 July 1941, p. 1.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Albert Goldman, attorney for Leon Trotsky during his lifetime and at present attorney for the Socialist Workers Party and also one of those indicted by the St. Paul Grand Jury, issued the following statement:
“I consider these indictments as the most flagrant violation of civil rights ever perpetrated by any government in the United States. They make a mockery of the claim of the Roosevelt government that it is in the war on behalf of democracy.
“When the case comes to trial it will be proved that the charges and the indictments are nothing but persecution calculated to help Daniel J. Tobin keep unwilling truck drivers in his union. After Tobin decided to place a receiver in charge of Local 544 of the Minneapolis truck drivers, the workers voted to secede from Tobin’s union and join the CIO. Tobin then whiningly complained to Roosevelt, who set the Department of Justice into motion, and the result is the indictments.
“Local 544 seceded from the AFL on June 9th. On June 13th Tobin sent a telegram to President Roosevelt, who issued a statement aimed against Local 544. After that the leaders of Local 544. and members of the Socialist Workers Party were indicted. The coincidence of dates conclusively proves the real motives of this indictment.
“The charge made in the indictments that the Socialist Workers Party conspired to overthrow the government by force and violence is an old charge which all reactionaries have used to, crush anti-war and anti-capitalist sentiments. The Socialist Workers Party is an open political organization dedicated to the ideals of socialism and its present function is to educate the workers to understand the real causes of war, fascism and unemployment, and to convince the workers that to do away with these evils of modern society it is necessary to establish socialism. This is the only kind of conspiracy of which we are guilty.”
Goldman Archive | Trotskyist Writers Index | ETOL Main Page
Last updated: 15 February 2020