Sihlali was under house arrest. They were taken back to their respective home towns and charged with breaking the conditions of their banning orders and attempting to leave South Africa without valid passports. Both men were remanded in custody pending the trial of their cases, Mr. Mtshizanats bail of £500 was estreated,.
Behind that bare report lies a tale of suffering and persecu-= tion that should arouse everyone who believes in freedom, democracy and equality. It is a tale you will not find in the English and Afrikaans press of South Africa. A blanket of silence is cast over the organisations these men belong to and the ideas they stand for,
The First Victim
Mr, Sihlali was president of the Unity Movement of South Africa until he was banned, puts under house arrest and pronibited from membership in any of the organisations affiliated to the Unity Movement. The fiveeyear ban imposed on him also prohibited him from receiving visitors, and compelled him to report to the police at regular inter~ vals.
A graduate of the University of South Africa, Mr. Sihlali had been a teacher in several secondary schools in the Cape. During his teaching career he became president of the Cape African Teachers! Association, which was outlawed by the Verwoerd government for opposing "Bantu Education." He, together with the entire executive of that association, was dismissed from the teaching profession when the new system of education was implemented,
Subsequently the Association decided that he should sue the Verwoerd government for damages for wrongful dismissal. This was in 1957. Several teachers affected by the judgment are still awaiting payment of their damages by the government. But meanwhile the government promptly amended the law to make it impossible in future for teachers similarly placed to claim damages.
We have given -the bare facts. But these do not tell the fury
of the persecution unleashed against him, and the unceasing tracking down of an individual for the sole purpose of breaking his courage and spirit of resistance.
From the day he was dismissed from his post, -his. was an une ceasing struggle. It became the job of that department of state, the Native Affairs Department [NAD], which controls and regiments the very lives of the African people, to deny him the right to obtain work, to find a roof over his head and keep his family together. At the time of his dismissal, he was teaching at a secondary school in Butterworth where,. incidentally, he was born. On his discharge, the local Native authority on instruction from above told him to leave the area because he had no rights of residence since he did not grow up there. On returning to his home in Queenstown, where he had been brought up and had previously taught for many years, he was warned that he could not live in an urban area, unless he was employed, since he was not born there.
He took his young children to his old widowed mother one hundred miles away; his wife, likewise a qualified teacher, was also not permitted to teach, and had to find work as a domestic servant. For it is the practice of the Verwoerdian regime to visit the "sins" of a man upon his wife, his children, and relatives. Mr, Sihlali himself got a job as a labourer with a building contractor in East London. He had no sooner started work than the Native Affairs Department caught up with him. The police visited his employers. He was summarily dismissed without any reasons given. The NAD, invoking one of the numerous clauses of the Urban Areas Act, threw him out of East London as a "redundant [unemployed] Native,"
Now his plight really became desperate. His children became very ill. He was unemployed. He was without a home. His wife was tied to the domestic chores of South Africa and eking out a truly miserable existence. At his mother's home in Kingwilliamstown he found one of his children, as he thought, dying. Against medical ad-~ vice and his mother's objection, he decided to take the child away with him to Queenstown. But he was forbidden by law to live there. That night, like a criminal, he stealthily entered his home, his own house, there to sleep for: the night. The next day he roamed the town, * looking for work, dressed in rags to avoid identification by the police.
One of those freaks of circumstances happened. He met an old acquaintance of his, a Jewish shopkeeper who was running a hand=to-~ mouth sort of business in one of the smaller lanes off the main street, and to him he unburdened himself. With abounding compassion and human feeling, this white man offered him work in his shop. He could not afford to pay him a living wage, but he made it possible for him to remain in Queenstown and to live in his own house, for he was now em= ployed,
The condition of his children deteriorated. His white friend
advised him to call his wife back to look after the children, He would offer her nominal employment. On medical examination the doctor found that his children were suffering from nalnutrition, They were starving, a common enough disease when half the babies born yearly die in the location, His job did not solve his problem. On hearing of his plight, his friends rallied to him and with their help he opened up a small general dealer's shop. This venture opened up the next chapter of disasters. He and his friends knew this would result in failure; but in order to get the right to remain in Queenstown he had to be "gainfully employed.’ He had no business training. His nature and upbringing were in revolt against this kind of life. . .. the long hours from five in the morning to nine in the evening, the endless counting of pennies from the poor. This drab and mole=like existence was foreign to him and his outlook on life.
He soon sank into deep financial waters and his home, heavily mortgaged, was threatened with foreclosure, At this point the longdelayed payment of damages which the court had awarded him against the government was made. All of it was swallowed up by his heavy debts. But this gave him a temporary respite and made it possible for him once more to engage in his political work.
He had fallen foul of the South African police. From 1955 onwards, he was continually harassed by Verwoerd's agents of terror. His home and his shop were constantly raided, books, private letters and even business papers confiscated. It was at this stage that his shop was subjected to frequent visitations by burglars who somehow were never apprehended by the police. Even when he and his family identified some of his merchandise in the possession of notorious characters, the police were reluctant to make arrests and, when they did, the cases for some reason would be indefinitely postponed and the suspects mysteriously released in the end without being brought to trial.
During the general state of emergency in 1960, he narrowly escaped the police raids and fled to Bechuanaland. After a few weeks he slipped back into South Africa to carry on his political work, organising the people in Johannesburg (where he was in hiding, in danger of summary arrest, for he had no pass entitling him to be there). When the police got wind of this, he went to Natal where he continued his political work until the storm blew over at his own home. In 1964, he was placed under house arrest. Thus, he was politically and socially, completely isolated from his fellow men.
By now the older of his children had passed the lower primary and had to be enrolled in the higher primary school. No principal in any of the schools would accept them. The agents of the Native Affairs Department, which now controlled "Bantu Education," had got at them. He had to send his children to..some remote schools in the Transkei where the school boards had not received instructions.
It was from this continual campaign of terror that Mr. Sihlali
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was trying to flee when he was arrested.
He is now released from the tortures of "freedom reserved for people like him; saved from the Scylla of a black man's life in the South African society of "free enterprise," he is plunged headlong into the Charybdis of the Verwoerdian dungeons from which there can be no escape. His children now in secondary boarding schools will be cast out for lack of school fees, to starve at home for lack of food, if indeed there will still be a home. Such is the life of a man who dares to oppose Verwoerdian schemes and who dares to claim the ordinary rights of a human being, especially if he is a black in that wonderful and sunny land of ours, The Second Victim
Mr, Mtshizana is an ex-chairman of the East London branch of the Society of Young Africa (SOYA), an affiliate of the Unity Movement. A lawyer by profession, he figured prominently in the defence of hundreds of men and women charged under the Anti-Communism Act and the Sabotage Act. In the process he fell foul of the police and was himself arrested and charged with unlawful possession of a firearm,
Mr. L. Mqotsi, who appeared for him in applying for bail, vigorously rejected the prosecution's objection that Mr. Mtshizana would flee the country if granted bail. He declared that, on the contrary, his client was. keen to stand his trial for he held this to be a trumped=-up charge and that the revolver found in his rooms, in his absence, was a plant. He was anxious to expose the perpetrators, He was convicted by the local magistrate. On appeal, the Supreme Court set aside both the conviction and the sentence. The police served a banning order on him.
It was during this period that Mr. Mtshizana was arrested in the streets and handcuffed for allegedly failing to produce a pass on demand by the police. He was kept in the police cells for five hours. When he appeared in court the magistrate dismissed the case. Subse-~ quently Mr. Mtshizana sued the government for damages for wrongful arrest, unlawful detention and malicious prosecution. He was awarded damages against the government. ;
It was not long before he was involved in one of those peculiar eases that have of late become a feature in the South African courts. Mr. Mtshizana had been briefed to defend a number of schoolboys charged under the Anti-Communism Act. In the course of his duties, he gave certain advice to his clients. The police held that this advice was tantamount to attempting to defeat the ends of justice as it was calculated to weaken the state's case. He was charged accordingly. The local magistrate convicted him and sentenced him to two years! impri-~ sonment., While the appeal was pending, he was allowed out on bail of £500 on condition that he report to the police twice daily -- in. the morning and in the evening. This was in addition to the once#a-week report in terms of the five-year banning order, This meant that on
Mondays he actually had to report three times -- once to one police station and twice to another. This has been going on since November 1963,
This case was regarded with great interest by international jurists. A member of this body who happened to be in South Africa at the time indicated his desire to send an observer when the trial came on. Mr. Mqotsi, who briefed an advocate to appear for Mr. Mtshizana, subsequently forwarded a report to this representative. The case was widely publicised in the South African newspapers,
He was still awaiting the hearing of his appeal in the Appellate division of the Supreme Court of South Africa when he was arrested in Rustenburg together with Mr. Sihlali., When this happened his &500 bail was estreated and they were both kept in custody.
With regard to the schoolboys themselves, Mr. Mtshizana never had the opportunity to defend them at the trial because on the eve of the case he was detained under the 90-day law and was kept in custody for three months, During interrogation by the police he was told, inter alia, that his crime was his continued defence of "saboteurs" and his association with the Unity Movement, which was an avowed enemy of the government, and which the government * intended to strangle. . If he agreed to mend his ways in these regards he would be permitted to continue his legal practice unmolested,
Mr. Mtshizana is the father of three children and has also to support his widowed mother,
The Third Victim
Who is this Mr. Mqotsi who appears for the defence in Mtshizana'ts case?
Mr. Mgotsi is the secretary of the All-African Convention, a body that federates mainly African Organisations, political, professional, civic, trade unions and peasant committees. He is also, together with Mr, Ali Fataar, a joint-secretary of the Unity Movement which federates African, Coloured and Indian organisations. The All- African Convention is federated to it. Mr. Mqotsi is also general secretary of the African People's Democratic Union of Southern Africa (APDUSA). .
A son of a poor peasant in a village in the Ciskei, who sacrificed much to educate his son, Mr. L. Mqotsi obtained his B.A.Honours Degree at the University of South Africa, and his M.A. at.the: University of Witwatersrand. He, too, worked as a secondary schood teacher and was an executive member of the Cape African Teachers! Association (CATA) until the Native Affairs Department took over African educa-~ tion and imposed the system of indoctrination known as “Bantu Education." He was dismissed from the profession at the same time as all the other members of the executive of CATA. From this point on, he
joined the ranks of the hounded outcasts. With his high qualifications it was not difficult for him to get posts. He soon found employment as a research psychologist in the South African Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
Within a month after he started work the police sent a report to the head of the council demanding his dismissal as a political risk. He was given a month's notice to quit. Then the University. of Grahamstown offered him a post as a senior research officer, When his pending appointment became known, the officials of the Native Affairs Department, together with the Broederbond, who held high positions in the scientific field, made strong objections to his appointment, declaring that this man had been dismissed from the teaching © profession by a department of state for his political activities. As a result he never started work there,
Undaunted he applied for a post at the University College, Fort Hare. He was offered a senior educational fellowship. This entailed research work at the various schools. The NAD stepped in. By this time it was in total control of "Bantu Education,"
It made it clear that it would not have a man with Mr. Mqotsi's political beliefs enter any of the. schools under it.
Let us explain here that Dr, Verwoerd, the ‘architect of "Bantu Education," in his capacity as Minister of Native Affairg had published a booklet in which he stated inter alia: "People who believe in equality are not desirable teachers for Natives. .. . when I have control of Native education, I will reform it so that Natives will be taught from childhood to realise that equality with Europeans is not... for them,"
Since Mr. Mqotsi is a confirmed believer in the equality of man, and as it was a matter of principle with him to fight for such equality, he was obviously an enemy of the state, and an avowed opponent of "Bantu Education." He could not be permitted to come withina mile of the precincts of such institutions. He never got the post.
The only avenue left to Mr. Mqotsi to keep body and soul together was to join the ranks of the unskilled labourers. He posted his wife and children to her parents in the Transkei and smuggled himself into East London and tried for a labourer's pass. At this point the Unity Movement started a printing press in East London and published a paper Ikhwezi Lomso (Morning Star). .He was put in charge of the press. With this his right of residence in the urban areas was established. The municipality, however, refused to lease him a house at the location. He moved in with friends. The police invoked the Urban Areas Act against the press itself. They threatened prosecution because under the law "No Native or Native Company has the right to lease property without permission within an urban area."= The organisation then got two "Non-Natives" to acquire nominal ownership of the press, Meanwhile, Mr. Mqotsi started a subsidiary paper Indaba Zasi
Monti (Hast London News, a Xhosa-English weekly), in which he lashed out at injustices against people of colour, The police instituted numerous prosecutions for libel. He was acquitted in every case; but this was an unbearable financial drain, which was what the police reckoned on, The Movement came to his assistance, supplying lawyers and financial aid. During the 1960 emergency, Mr. Mqotsi was locked up for two months without trial. Meanwhile, the police had been intimidating the lessor of the premises of the press, alleging that the lease was unlawful since the company was, in fact, Native.
When Mr. Mqotsi came out of jail, he found that the lease had been terminated. The Movement lost all its machinery since no other place could be found to accommodate it. This raised a very acute personal problem for him, for-he could not remain in thé urban areas without being "gainfully employed." The police demanded his eviction as a "redundant Native.” To save him, Mr. Mtshizana, a member of the Unity Movement, gave him articles in his legal office. He hated the legal profession but had no choice in the matter.
After two years he began to conduct cases on behalf of the office, joining Mr. Mtshizana in what had become a centre for the defence of persecuted Africans, particularly those concerned with prosecutions under the Anti-Communism and Sabotage Acts. This is how he came .to be defending Mr. Mtshizana when the latter was persecuted, .~and he was himself charged with attempting to defeat the ends of justice. On acquitting him the judge commented: "There is something unsavoury about this whole case." . .
Thereupon the police served Mr. Mqotsi with a five-year ban, confining him to the magisterial area of East London. This meant curtailing his legal practice. For by then, they had built up a practice that extended beyond the town into the surrounding rural areas. A peculiar situation arose. Both he and his principal were now banned and therefore prohibited from communicating with each other. This is how the gross irrationality of the Verwoerdian laws have reduced even the legal processes into an absurdity, the depths of which are revealed in the above-mentioned case of Mr. Mtshizana. Those who still believe that rule of law remains in South Africa need only read a record of this case to disabuse themselves of this myth, once and for all.
So vicious is the herrenvolk in South Africa in its vendetta against the individual that it will pay attention to the minutest details of his life in order to degrade and humiliate him. Even though these two men were running a very big legal practice and had earned the respect of the population for their courage and concern for the welfare of their fellow men, they were not allowed to lease houses to live in. Mr. Mqotsi had to occupy a room in the worst slum in the location. A family of six lived cramped in this room where they had to cook, wash, eat, sieep and study. This was not due to shortage of houses. He was not apportioned ground on.which he could build a house for himself. Such privileges were reserved only for those pro-
=~2B—
fessional and private entrepreneurs who were willing to co-operate and toady to the authorities in carrying out the Apartheid laws, It was then, because of close police surveillance over Mr. Mqotsi'ts movements, day and night, that the Organisation decided that, because he could no longer make his contribution to the Movement, he should flee the country. He is now a refugee in Zambia. His wife and children, unable to obtain travel permits to join him, had to acquire exit permits.
The Animosity of the South African Press
What is the source of the animosity of the herrenvolk press to the Unity Movement and all its affiliates, an enmity that forces it to distort news by reporting haif-truths or suppressing news and thus presenting to the world a completely perverted picture of the situa~ tion in South Africa?
The All-African Convention, founded in 1936, was the first organisation that united all the existing organisations among the African people, including the African National Congress, into one federal body.
It was the first organisation amongst the oppressed people of South Africa to formulate a clear programme, the 10-point programme, demanding full democratic rights for all the inhabitants of the country. It formulated the policy of Non-Collaboration with the oppressors and instituted a boycott of all political institutions created for an “inferior race."
The Unity Movement was the first organisation that called for the unity of all the different racial groups of the oppressed, and actually united them. Postulating that oppression is indivisible, it adopted the programme and policy of the All-African Convention, and thus declared war on the rulers! policy of "Divide and Rule." This was seen as a threat to white domination by the whole of the South African herrenvolk, the Verwoerdian, the Smuts and the Liberal wings alike.
This is the reason why those brave men and women who fall in the battle for liberty are either not mentioned in the South African press, or reported simply as businessmen, lawyers, teachers or as individuals who are being tried for such and such an offence. The press cannot afford to give their political affiliations, for to do so would be at the same time to give publicity to the organisations to which they belong.
The whole world knows of Dr. Nevills Alexander, but no one ever mentions the following facts well known to the South African press, namely:
(a) That Alexander, as a student at the University of Cape Town, belonged to the Cape Peninsular Students! Union (CPSU) which
i is affiliated to the Unity Movement.
(bo) That before he got a scholarship to Germany he was a mem=~ ber of the Society of Young Africa (SOYA), a youth organisation affiliated to the Unity Movement.
(ec) That on his return from Germany he joined a new political organisation formed in his absence, the African People's Democratic Union of Southern Africa (APDUSA), a national political organisation affiliated to the Unity Movement,
(d) That the people who appeared with him during the trial are members of APDUSA,.
(e) That all the women in that group were members of the Fund Raising Committee of APDUSA.
In fact, when they were arrested, it was the officials of the Unity Movement who started the fund-raising effort for their defence and support of their dependents, long before the generous support came from the outside world,
We are certain that Dr. Neville Alexander, when he leaves jail, will be the first to raise his voice in protest against the attempts of the South African press to dissociate him from the Unity Movement, thus denying him his political home. Whatever he did or said, in all his adult life, was in the hope of advancing the policy and principles of the Unity Movement to which he was wholly devoted.
There are others of our leadership who are awaiting trial at this very moment. They are Mr, Enver Nassim, treasurer of the All-— African Convention, and his wife, Dr. Zuleigha Christopher, chairman of the Durban Branch of APDUSA, and also Karim Essack, They were all executive members of the Unity Movement, and were all detained under the 90-day detention Act.
In this short article we have not dealt with the heroism of the landless peasantry whose plight is much worse than the people here mentioned. We have not mentioned the hundreds rotting in jails in the reserves without trial, Theirs is not a 90-day detention but indefinite detention, depending on the whim of the police. Little is known about the law of the country that gives such unlimited power to the police, We have said nothing about the thousands who were convicted for the unpardonable crime of protesting and resisting the evil juggernaut that seeks to crush them. For them there is no press to tell the world about their sufferings. Only occasionally, when a chief, a government instrument of oppression, dies at the hands of the people, does the press bruit it abroad, shrieking "Murderers! Savages}"
But there is never a word to tell how many of the long-suffering peasantry lost their lives at the hands of the chiefs.
Yes, the world learned about the army occupation of Pondoland in 1960 to subdue a peasant revolt, but not a word about the number of peasants who died there, or the women who were raped; nothing about the crops destroyed, the stock and chickens slaughtered and eaten by these gallant representatives of "law and order.” More recently the. army has moved once again into Pondoland. This time to stamp out APDUSA which they claim has captured the imagination of the ‘population there and has become the new rallying point. for the struggle of the landless peasantry. Once again the press is conveniently silent.
There is material enough in the reserves to fill any daily newspaper for years on end, but the world will never learn of it as long as the conspiracy continues between the Verwoerd regime and the socalled free press of South Africa, a press that seems to be free only to distort the news, - -
In conclusion we want to express our appreciation and thanks to all those men and women outside our country who generously assisted in many ways. and have unstintingly given to our fund-raising efforts.
We appeal for more funds not only to defend those who are facing trial and maintaining their dependents, but to put an end to the intolerable life of a whole people whose crime amongst others is that they were born black and they refuse to live as inferiors,
THE FRENCH MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS
PARIS «- The municipal elections in France March 14 and 21 were notable in showing the stability of the out-going administrations, whatever their political label. This held true not only for the small rural towns but also for the 159 cities of more than 30,000 inhabitants, including Paris, for which the Gaullist government passed a special electoral law in hope of polarizing the votes in these cities around the UNR [Union pour la Nouvelle République], on the one hand, and the PCF [French Communist party] on the other. Only 24 shifts in administration occurred, the main beneficiary being the PCF, which now counts 34 mayors in place of 25,
Two main questions are nevertheless posed: (1) Were the gov- . ernment's objectives injured? (7) What were the results of the agreements between the PCF and the PS LSocialist party], in which the PSU [Parti Socialiste Unifié] and various numerically unimportant bourgeois and petty-bourgeois groupings were involved? ,
On the first question, the answer is quite clear: the hopes of the UNR proved largely illusory. The unconditionally Gaullist formation was beaten in the first round at Lyon, Marseille, Grenoble, Nice, Dijon, etc. Its main objective was to win in Paris where the Gaullists
~dl~
took all the seats in the legislative elections in 1962. In Paris, the old bourgeois parties (MRP [Mouvement Républicain Populaire], . independents, ultras), after being beaten in the first round March 14, did not want the UNR to win a crushing majority on March 21. Consequently in several sectors of Paris, they refused to withdraw, permitting the slates of the so-called Democratic Union (that is, the PCF, PS and PSU) to win. The result was a municipal council in which the UNR now holds 39 seats, the Democratic Union 38, and the old bourgeois parties 13,
- The setback dealt to the UNR should not be equated to a defeat for the Gaullist regime. To do so would be a sign of parliamentary cretinism. Under this regime, municipal rights have been considerably reduced along with those of parliament. The regime is not based on political groupings; the apparatus rises above these. The UNR is part of the apparatus; its men are interested first of all in the profits and perquisites associated with office. Already not badly nourished at the level of the state and its associated structures, they are like-~ wise attracted by the material advantages to be derived from the municipal administrations and it was on this that they suffered a setback.
In face of the divisions among the bourgeoisie, the workers! parties, unfortunately, did not present a much better image. The Socialist party left its federations a free hand, in some instances extending this down to the section level, in order to make whatever alliances might retain administrations or gain new ones. Thus some of them made deals with the old bourgeois parties (Mollet in Arras, Defferre in Marseille. . . ) while others joined in a common slate with the PCF and PSU (particularly in Paris and its suburbs), Also in some cases members of the Socialist party went against the deci-~ sions of their federation, those in Marseilles agreeing to a common slate with the Communist party, others (for example in towns of the Paris region) blocking with candidates of the MRP, independents, Radicals, and even in certain instances with the UNR. Even before the first round, there was a series of expulsions from the Socialist party, in Paris for refusing to join in a common slate with the Com= munists, in Marseille for doing precisely the opposite,
This ridiculous aspect of Socialist party policy reflected not only the traditional opportunism of the social democracy but also the existence of layers who have gone beyond this opportunism, now con-= stituting a kind of layer of "socialist" technicians, appreciative of the "efficiency" of the Gaullist government and its institutions and not so distant from the "capable" men of the regime itself.
We turn to the election results. First of all, the out-going Socialist mayors who worked out their slates independently of their party's decisions generally succeeded in getting re-elected, The most flagrant case was Dardel, who won as mayor of Puteaux, a,Paris suburb, thanks to bourgeois votes, and as chairman of the General Council of the Seine, thanks to Communist votes. se
~3e~
In Marseille, Defferre won on the second round, following a series of incidents reminiscent of the gangsterism in a Hollywood production, in a struggle against the joint slate of the Communists and a number of candidates in his own party who favored a Communist- Socialist bloc, Defferre won in five sectors out of eight. With practically no candidates opposing him from -the right on the second round, he gained the votes of particularly reactionary elements, especially the "pieds noirs"t who left Algeria following the victory of the Algerian Revolution and who are especially numerous in Marseille. It is also known that the Elysée (that is de Gaulle himself) intervened so that Defferre's slate would not be opposed from the right. Thus Defferre will make an ideal opponent for de Gaulle in the presidential elections at the end of the year. He was re-elected mayor of Marseille thanks to Gaullist votes which rescued him from the bloc of Communist and Socialist votes. The PCF has no choice but to find a candidate with working-class appeal to run against Defferre.
Another observation, perhaps the most important, should be made about the municipal elections -=- the Communist-Socialist agreements did not attract strong support from the peripheries of these two parties, This goes against the usual experience. Municipal administrations were won; but the number of votes remained mediocre, The vote did not always reach what the two parties have previously gained separately.
How is this to be explained? The recantations of, the Social-~ ist party certainly helped to create disgust among many voters who saw in the alliances with the PCF, as in the alliances with the center and the right, nothing but vulgar, unprincipled and unworthy deals. But this is only partially the answer, the part involving the responsibility of the Socialist party. The other part concerns the policy of the PCF. :
The Communist party denounced the unprincipled deals of the Socialists but offered no real perspective for Communist-Socialist agreements,
Although there were common slates with bourgeois and pettybourgeois candidates, and although the bourgeois press dubbed these slates with the name "Popular Front," they were not exactly a new edition of the Popular Front. The bourgeois and petty-bourgeois candidates represented nothing comparable to their predecessors of 1936, They were only individuals standing for nothing but themselves, not being spokesmen of organizations like the Radical party.
Some of the joint slates could be said to represent a united front of working-class parties, but they lacked either vigor or bite, or attraction for the working class. In short they lacked a sociale ist aim, In an atmosphere of sordid electoral deals, these agreements proposing "democracy" sounded like nothing but the small change,in the horse-trading. Who cared one way or the other? Under such conditions, the votes for such slates came from workers who wanted to
33m
maintain class lines, but the slates themselves aroused no enthusiasm and won no striking victories.
BRITISH RADIO DRAMATIZES MOSCOW TRIALS
The radio audience in Britain is being offered a series of three dramatized historical programs of unusual interest, Dealing with Stalin's great purges that culminated in the Moscow frame-up trials of 1936-38, they have been prepared by Isaac Deutscher, the well-known biographer of Leon Trotsky.
"In my series of dramatised historical documentaries," Deutscher writes in the Radio Times of March 11, "the hangman and the victims, Stalin and Vyshinsky on the one hand, and Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Bukharin on the other, are the main actors. They speak with their authentic voices: all their utterances are taken from the official records and from archives, and, in a few cases, from eyewitness accounts. Khrushchev, who was among the hangmen during Stalin's lifetime but later spoke for some of the victims, appears in his dual character."
In Part I of the series, Deutscher introduces historic precedents going back to Oliver Cromwell. The purges of the Great French Revolution are presented and premonitions of forerunners and makers of the Russian Revolution.
"Part II," continues Deutscher, "presents crucial scenes of the Moscow Trials, acted out before the Military Tribunal of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R., with Vyshinsky, Prosecutor General, delivering his fantastic indictments, and many famous defendants making their bizarre 'confessionst and declaring themselves guilty of huge, unheard-of crimes, which they could not have committed,"
In the final part, the scene shifts to Coyoacan, Mexico, where the Commission headed by John Dewey heard Leon Trotsky bring forward evidence to successfully prove what seemed to be an almost impossible task -- to clear his. own name and that of his son Leon Sedov and establish their complete innocence of the infamous charges levelled by Stalin.
The radio show picks up the famous revelations at the Twentieth Congress of the Soviet Communist party when the truth began to .. emerge in the Soviet Union itself, "But the story is not yet closed," says Deutscher. "In years to come we shall still be hearing a lot about the Great Purges because the revulsion against the Stalinist terror is now powerfully shaping and reshaping the moral and political outlook of the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe.”