advocating the organization of workers defense guards 3ulyanovistSeptember 21 2004, 22:49:33 UTC
Q: Did you ever hold a meeting where you spoke where workers’ defence guards protected the meeting? A: Yes. Here is The Militant (indicating) under date of January 15, 1929, which reports a meeting addressed by me in Cleveland, Ohio, on the same subject about which I was speaking then, “The Truth About Trotsky and the Russian Opposition”, and the account in the paper tells about a gang of Stalinists who came there and tried to disrupt the meeting, and heckled the speaker, and they began to try violence. Q: You were the speaker, were you? A: I was the speaker, and I recall very well that I was protected by a guard which we had organised, and the report says that the workers’ guard finally formed a flying wedge and put the disrupters out of the meeting, and the speaker was allowed to continue to the end. Q: And subsequent to that, did you ever speak at meetings where workers’ defence guards were organised to protect those meetings? A: Yes, here is a report in The Militant of February 1929, and it tells about two meetings addressed by me in the city of Minneapolis. Q: And do you remember what happened at those meetings? A: Yes, the first meeting we attempted to hold in some lodge hall here-I forget the name, AOUW Hall, it is reported here-I recall at this meeting, before the meeting started, a gang of Stalinist hoodlums invaded the meeting and attacked Oscar Coover with blackjacks, where he was standing at the door taking tickets, I think, and forced their way into the hall before the crowd had come, got front seats, and then as the crowd came in and I went to the front and tried to speak, they got up and interfered and heckled and disturbed and disrupted the meeting until it finally ended in a free-for-all scuffle, and I didn’t get a chance to make my speech. Then this account here tells - Q: Well, what do you remember? A: Yes, it is reported here in this issue of the paper that we then went to the IWW Hall here-that is another radical organisation which we are not affiliated with, but who had also suffered from these Stalinist tactics, and asked them if they would cooperate with us in organising a guard to protect the meeting, so that I could speak on the subject that I was touring the country then on, “The Truth About Trotsky and Our Platform”. They agreed. We formed a workers’ defence guard in Minneapolis in January 1929, and the IWW gave us the use of their hall. They had a hall of their own somewhere down here on Washington Street. We advertised the meeting widely and announced that this meeting was going to be held under the protection of the workers’ guard. And I personally know that there was such a guard, that they equipped themselves with hatchet handles, and stood along the side of the hall, and stood out in front and announced that nobody should interfere with this meeting. I spoke for about two hours there without any interference, under the protection of that workers’ guard. Q: So that you can say from your knowledge that the Workers’ Defence Guard - A: There are more news accounts here, if you want them. That was a period until we finally established our right to be let alone, and then there was no more need for the guard, and we dissolved.
A: Yes. Here is The Militant (indicating) under date of January 15, 1929, which reports a meeting addressed by me in Cleveland, Ohio, on the same subject about which I was speaking then, “The Truth About Trotsky and the Russian Opposition”, and the account in the paper tells about a gang of Stalinists who came there and tried to disrupt the meeting, and heckled the speaker, and they began to try violence.
Q: You were the speaker, were you?
A: I was the speaker, and I recall very well that I was protected by a guard which we had organised, and the report says that the workers’ guard finally formed a flying wedge and put the disrupters out of the meeting, and the speaker was allowed to continue to the end.
Q: And subsequent to that, did you ever speak at meetings where workers’ defence guards were organised to protect those meetings?
A: Yes, here is a report in The Militant of February 1929, and it tells about two meetings addressed by me in the city of Minneapolis.
Q: And do you remember what happened at those meetings?
A: Yes, the first meeting we attempted to hold in some lodge hall here-I forget the name, AOUW Hall, it is reported here-I recall at this meeting, before the meeting started, a gang of Stalinist hoodlums invaded the meeting and attacked Oscar Coover with blackjacks, where he was standing at the door taking tickets, I think, and forced their way into the hall before the crowd had come, got front seats, and then as the crowd came in and I went to the front and tried to speak, they got up and interfered and heckled and disturbed and disrupted the meeting until it finally ended in a free-for-all scuffle, and I didn’t get a chance to make my speech. Then this account here tells -
Q: Well, what do you remember?
A: Yes, it is reported here in this issue of the paper that we then went to the IWW Hall here-that is another radical organisation which we are not affiliated with, but who had also suffered from these Stalinist tactics, and asked them if they would cooperate with us in organising a guard to protect the meeting, so that I could speak on the subject that I was touring the country then on, “The Truth About Trotsky and Our Platform”. They agreed.
We formed a workers’ defence guard in Minneapolis in January 1929, and the IWW gave us the use of their hall. They had a hall of their own somewhere down here on Washington Street. We advertised the meeting widely and announced that this meeting was going to be held under the protection of the workers’ guard. And I personally know that there was such a guard, that they equipped themselves with hatchet handles, and stood along the side of the hall, and stood out in front and announced that nobody should interfere with this meeting. I spoke for about two hours there without any interference, under the protection of that workers’ guard.
Q: So that you can say from your knowledge that the Workers’ Defence Guard -
A: There are more news accounts here, if you want them. That was a period until we finally established our right to be let alone, and then there was no more need for the guard, and we dissolved.
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