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League Activities, The Militant, Vol. VI No. 22, 8 April 1933, p. 2.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Chicago – The mass meeting on the German situation held by the Chicago branch of the Communist League, proved to be a great success. Over two hundred workers gathered at Redifer Hall on March 20, to hear the position of the Left Opposition on the united front and the turn of the Communist International, presented by comrade Albert Glotzer.
The main feature of the meeting was the discussion that followed Glotzer’s speech. An invitation was extended to any party representative in the hall to take the floor and present the position of the party. One active party member, Hans Pfeifer was given twenty minutes in which to present the position of the party and to defend its line. His remarks only further strengthened the position ot the I.L.O. But he made a plea for the unity of the Communist forces, and declared that he would investigate the charges of violence against members of the Left Opposition and protest such methods of solving disputes between Communists. As an active member of the Unemployed Councils he extended a public invitation to the Opposition to participate in the State Hunger March; an invitation that was at once accepted by the Chicago organization.
In the course of the discussion a resolution on the German situation was presented by a member of the Chicago Left Opposition, who proposed its adoption and suggested further that the resolution be sent to the German consulate and the Daily Worker and Militant for publication. This proposal was carried unanimously with an amendment that a committee elected by the mass meeting go over the resolution before sending it out. As a reflection of the sentiment of the meeting a committee was elected representing the Communist party, the Left Opposition and the Spartacus Youth Club. The party was represented by comrades Hans Pfeifer (an aldermanic candidate who drew 1,100 votes in his ward) and Norval Allen, a Negro comrade. They met together with Joe Giganti and Al Glotzer of the Left Opposition, and Nathan Gould of the Spartacus Youth Club.
The resolution signed by the committee elected by the mass meeting represents further evidence of breaking down the walls between the party members and the Left Opposition. It signifies that the campaign on Germany has not been in vain; that it has really penetrated the ranks of the class-conscious workers. The bankruptcy of the line of Stalinism becomes more and more evident in the course of the active life of the movement.
Approximately 200 workers, representing various revolutionary tendencies, gathered in mass meeting to discuss the German situation, at Redifer Hall, 30 North Wells Street, in Chicago, on Sunday, March 26th, 1933, under the auspices of the Communist League of America (Opposition), record their strenuous protest against the Fascist terror reigning in Germany today against the proletariat of that country and its revolutionary leadership, the Communist party and the Young Communist League, also against the terror inaugurated against the class conscious working masses in the social democratic party and the trade unions that are struggling against Fascism
The German bourgeoisie through its henchmen, Hitler and the National Socialists have been persistently attacking the German proletariat.
Today, aside from the hundreds and thousands whose “heads have rolled in the sand” following the attacks of the Fascist forces, thousands of leaders and members of the Communist party are rotting in the Fascist dungeons and undergoing tortures paralleled only by that of the mediaeval period.
Comrades Thaelmann, Torgler, Pieck and Remmele, the leaders of the Communist Party of Germany are in prison. Direct information as to their condition is not available. But that they are victims of the “mustard-rub” and the “castor-oil” has already leaked out.
In this regard, we, assembled in mass meeting today, protest and demand the immediate cessation of the murder and torture of the German working class and its leaders, by the Fascists.
Submitted by the Communist League of America (Opposition)
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Signed: The Committee elected by the meeting HANS PFEIFER, member of the Communist Party of America |
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