Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 18:33:04 -0500 (EST)
From: "L.R.F." <trinity-AT-hot-shot.com>
Subject: M-G: A Hero-Eugene Dennis.


{This Man's writing was brought to my attention by an American IWW
member}

       Below are the words of a REAL American Communist.A Forgotten Hero
       of the American left.These are the words of an American Communist
       fighting for his right to free speech and to fight against
       repression of the open and free exchange of ideas.The Man was
       also fighting to avoid imprisonment by the forces that sought to
       repress him.
       
       Let not the likes of a Godena or Kates seek to profane this Real
       American Communist's memory by claiming his fight or the meaning
       of his words as their own.It would be an obscenity for them to do
       so{considering their past displays},for they have no right to
       claim the heritage or history that this Great Man is a part of.
       
       {*A note to Rolf:I will stop labeling people as Stalinists,as an
       American IWW member suggested I consult some non American sources
       on Stalin to reach a Fuller understanding of his works and
       position in Soviet history.}
       
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>  =a0  Dennis, Eugene 
>  
>  =a0 =a0 original name FRANCIS XAVIER WALDRON, JR. (b. Aug. 10, 1905, Seattle,
>Wash., U.S.--d. Jan. 31, 1961, New York, N.Y.), American Communist Party
>leader and labour organizer. He was general secretary of the Communist
>Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) from 1945 to 1957 and
>national chairman during 1959-61.   


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> Dennis v. U.S. - excerpts from trial ------------------------------------------
> -------------------------------------- Opening Statement on Behalf of
>  the Communist Party, by Eugene Dennis, March 21, 1949 In view of
> the opening statement of the prosecution the defense is obliged to
> make sure that the jury fully understands just what the indictment
> charges and what it does not charge. The foreboding-sounding words
> "overthrow and destruction of the Government of the United States by
>  force and violence" appear five times in the ten paragraphs of the
> indictment. But I call to your attention that not one of . . . these
>  ten paragraphs charges that we Communist leaders at any time
> committed a single act, a single overt act of force and violence
> against the Government of the United States, or that we ever
> directly or indirectly advocated or attempted its forcible overthrow.
>  The alleged conspiracy as stated in the indictment limps only on
> three active verbs--to organize the Communist Party, to teach, and
> to advocate. Since no overt criminal act is even alleged there is no
>  X to mark the spot where it was not committed.... The allegation of
>  crime rests on the charge that we Communist leaders used our
> inalienable American rights of free speech, press, and association,
> and sought to advance certain general political doctrines which the
> indictment falsely says teach and advocate the duty and necessity to
>  overthrow the Government of the United States by force and violence....
>  We 11 defendants will prove that the very time when we allegedly
> began this menacing conspiracy we were in fact advocating and
> organizing all-out support to the Government of the United States....
>  We will prove that all of us . . . taught the duty of upholding the
>  United States Government and of intensifying the anti-Axis war
> effort . . . and we defendants will put in evidence the honorable
> war record of the 15,000 American Communists who, in accord with
> what we taught and advocated, served with the armed forces in the
> military defense of our country.... We Communist leaders will show
> that in June and July of 1945 we thought that labor and the people
> could not rely on the Truman Administration to curb the greedy
> monopolists. We taught that, on the contrary, the people would have
> to resist the efforts of the administration and the bipartisan
> Congress, to scuttle FDR's progressive policies. We will also prove
> that we did not even consider, let alone teach or advocate, that the
>  Government, headed by President Truman should therefore be
> overthrown by force and violence. We will establish that everything
> we did teach and advocate was in the interests of the American
> people and in accord with their understanding of achieving a
> Government of, by, and for the people.... .. . My co-defendants and
> I will show that we put into practice the real principles of
> Marxism-Leninism, by teaching that labor and the people should
> intervene to defend their living standards, their democratic rights,
>  and world peace.... .. . We will show with what peaceful intent we
> taught and advocated, amongst other things, . . . to oppose American
>  support to the unjust and criminal war against the Chinese people
> waged by the miserable Chiang Kai-shek, to oppose the civil war
> against the Greeks, waged by the monarchist-fascist puppet of the
> American masters, with the American people footing the bill, to
> oppose the Anglo-American oil lords against the new State of Israel,
>  and the people of Indonesia, and to oppose the restoration of the
> German and Japanese monopolies and war potential under the new
> management of the American cartelists.... .. . I and my co-defendants
>  will show, we will show that we publicly advocated that all
> peace-loving Americans should unite that the Truman Administration
> enter into direct negotiations with the U.S.S.R. and respond in good
>  faith to its repeated disarmament and other peace proposals.... And
>  to establish further the record of what we defendants actually have
>  done in the period covered by the indictment, we Communist leaders
> will show that we have advocated defense of the people's living
> standards as an inseparable part of the struggle for democracy and
> peace.... [Note: Dennis then describes Marxism-Leninism as an
> evolving doctrine that will enable people to "make a better and
> happier life for themselves."] .. . The defense will squarely meet
> and disprove the prosecution's charge that the principles of
> scientific socialism teach or imply the duty or the necessity to
> overthrow the United States Government by force and violence....
> When the defense puts our Communist Party constitution in evidence,
> the jury will see that it speaks of the duty to organize and educate
>  the working class, and declares that Socialism should be established,
>  not by force and violence, but "by the free choice of the majority
> of the American people." We defendants will prove that we have
> always taught that capitalism in America or elsewhere cannot be
> abolished by plots, or conspiracies, or adventures, or by power
> revolutions. We will put in evidence our teaching that this
> fundamental change can be brought about only when both of two
> conditions have been fulfilled, when capitalism has fully outlived
> its social usefulness and when a majority of the American people--I
> repeat, a majority--led by labor and the Communists resolve to get
> rid of a system of social production that has become destructive of
> their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.... I have
>  already indicated how we American Marxists will prove that we teach
>  that Socialism is not an immediate issue in the United States today,
>  but that the central issues, the central immediate issues
> confronting our people are peace or war, democracy or fascism....
> You will see that our Communist Party Constitution acknowledges not
> only that we learn from Marx and Lenin but that we owe much to and
> learn from the teachings of men like Thomas Jefferson, Abraham
> Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, William Sylvis, and Eugene V. Debs. . .
>  . .. . The prosecution asks this jury for what amounts to a
> preventative conviction, in order that we Communist leaders may be
> put under what the Nazis called protective custody. I ask the jury
> to weigh the prosecution's case against the proof we defendants will
>  offer to establish that we have taught and advocated the duty and
> necessity to prevent the force and violence of Fascism, imperialists
>  of war and Iynching and anti-Semitism. I ask you to weigh carefully
>  our sincere offer of proof which demonstrates that we Communists
> are second to none in our devotion to our people and to our country,
>  and that we teach and advocate and practice a program of peace, of
> democracy, equality, economic security, and social progress.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---

    
                                                            L.R.F.
                       {address information removed due to harassment and
                         abuse by internet thugs and their frontmen.}


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