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Paul Robeson says:

‘Nobody

‘HERE will be no non- sense about separating me

from the Negro people. In fact, the men who attacked us at Peek-

we

skill moved me closer to my people. And there I shall re- main.”

This was how Paul Robe

son phrased his answer to the terrorists of Peekskill—and else- “ where—when I interviewed him recently at Los Angeles.

The giant Negro singer, who has become one of the most pow- erful spokesmen for peace in the United States today, was the prin- cipal target in two attacks on au- diences gathered to hedr him at Peekskill, N.Y.

At the first, he was prevented from speaking. At the second, or- ganized at his owm insistence, a

mob of hoodlums, klansmen and’

veterans stoned the audience and sent hundreds to the hospital in a shocking demonstration of open fascist terror .that made head- lines all over the world.

Whatever the hopes of the ter- rorists in the way of silencing the great voice of protest in Paul “ Robeson, they came to nothing.

“I'm.in America to stay and to struggle for the rights of the Negro people to full citizenship,” Robeson said. “Nobody’s scaring me, and pobody's scaning the people I’m with. Meetings held since Peekskill—in Chicago and New York—have been fine. Huge crowds turned out.”

Robeson spoke with the deep- est conviction when he praised the bravery and comradeship of the thousands who turned out at Peekskill, despite threats, fought “shoulder to shoulder” to defend American civil liberties.

“Those 25,000 who turned out at Peekskill are but a part of the millions of this America that I love to the depths of my being. These are my friends . . . friends who are interested in the free- dom of millions of people throughout the world... . I leave to American reaction their close friends in a revived fascist West

Germany, fascist Spain, fascist Greece. I want no part of them. 4..."

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Robeson became a chief target for smear attacks by American reactionaries, culminating in the physial attacks at Peekskill, fol- ‘lowing his famous speech at the World Congress for Peace in Paris this summer.

At that time, Robeson warned the colonial people all over the world of the dangers in the reaching hand of the big U.S. trusts, and said that the Negro people would never support an imperialist war. Since then he has been under constant attack. His speech, distorted and mis- quoted, was used to slander him and to sereen the Peekskill at- tack in a semblance of patriot- ism.

“Two things disturb.me,” said Robeson, speaking of the events since his Paris speech. “People seem to be wondering whether I spoke too sharply, whether my recent statements have not been too sharp. This confusion exists even among some progressives and friends. Many seem to be wondering, what's happened to Robeson? Has he changed?

and .

* dential

By MASON ROBERSON

f

“The answer igs exactly noth- ing has happened to Paul Robe Son, He’s exactly as he was be- fore. He is an American, but also a Negro American, and one very conscious of his responsi- bilities. ~

“Like every other Negro, he is looking for a chance to live in freedom.

“For many years I functioned as an athlete and an artist in the belief that individual achieve- ment might help to prove the Negro’s right to full citizenship. I was a progressive, but I found that just being a progressive was not enough.

“In this setting — in the set- ting of Paris and Peekskill — I go further. For a Negro who is fortunate enough to achieve dis- tinction ... that isn’t ‘ enough. Not only is it not enough to win equality for the Negro people, but, if he is not careful, he will be used against the Negro people.”

a

Commenting on the struggle of the Negro people in present-day America, Robeson observed that it had sharpened—for evertybody.

“Tt has become, today, the core

: struggle for American democracy.

We saw this in the last presi- campaign, when the struggle for civil rights became the core of the campaign and split the Democratic party. Yet this Congress has done nothing for civil rights or for the Negro people. Today civil rights legis- lation in the Senate is under the

direct supervision of Senator Eastland of Mississippi. “All I said at Paris is very

clear, if one concentrates on this struggle for the Negro people for first-class citizenship. The con-

text of my remaitiis was that the peoples of the world would fight for peace. Not only 15 mil- lion American Negroes, but 150 million African Negroes and 40 million in the Caribbean and Latin America.

“We'll fight for peace because in we? war that would de- stroy ” civilization itself—there ‘is no possibility of achieving the rights denied to us. Or further, in a drive toward war which would help enslave the peoples of Af

rica and the West Indies, a war

which serves the interests of a new imperialism with its roots vight in the heart of our own country—in Wall Street.

“My remarks were taken out

of context. In passing, I said -

that it was unthinkable that the Negro people would serve the in- terests of these would-be fas- cists in a war against the Soviet

mocracies and China.

“I stood in Stalingrad recently and saw a letter written by Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Stal- ingrad people, saying» that there, in Stalingrad, in 1948, civilization’ was saved. Twenty million Soviet civilians and soldiers ‘perished. in defending us against world fas- cism. Many an American boy and girl, white and black, might not be living today but for the sac¢- rifices of these people. Lead want peace. \

“In the light of recent disielog: ures about the use of atomic en- ergy in the Soviet Union, war ob- viously pecennes senseless.”

e

Reverting to Peekskill, he con- tinued:

“Let us be very clear as to what happened there. The gov-

Union, the eastern European de-

is scaring me’

ernor of the state of New York ~-one who might have been president of the United States —sent his police to attack people,

not to defend them. The state

power, the judiciary, represented by the district attorney; the ex- ecutive power represented by the governor. ...A clear case of fas- cism—not emerging, but here! “Fortunately, pretests have been pouring in from all over the nation. In fact, many power- ful forces in the United States are calling for Dewey’s impeach- ment. It’s clear the American people are far from ready for

-fascism,

“And this throws again a tre- mendous responsibility on the progressive forces in America. Under the guise of attacking the Communists, the Ku Klux Klan

‘burned crosses around the place.

Every other cry you heard at Peekskill was you ——— n—-g, you Jew ——. Anti-Semitism, anti-Negro feeling, anti-labor feel- ing, ran riot.

“So, any section of the press, especially the Negro press, does people a great disservice to per- vert these facts. Peekskill must be used to point out to the Amer- ican people the very essence of the struggle of the Negro people. The nation was horrified at what happened at Peekskill. But this happens to the Negro people every day in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.

“A further point:

“Last winter I expressed a very deep affection for the people of the West Indies. I’ve express- ed a deep affection for the people of many lands, including the So- viet Union.

“This is my right, as it was the wight of Thomas Jefferson to express friendship for the people of France in the. Gays of their revolution.

“Phere is a further lesson from Peekskill. There white trade unionists, great sections of the Jewish people, of the foreign born—in fact, of every gnoup— Catholic and Protestant as well, 25,000 strong—stood shoulder to

shoulder in defense of American : democracy.

“Many liberals were there. Many Americans who just came to hear a concert. In dange?, they. stood shoulder to shoulder. — This could be the measure of a kind of united American people in struggling for peace and 4 decent America.”

Robeson declared that Peek- skill was a direct outgrowth of loyalty purges and of the attacks on 12 Communist leaders of the © American working class.

“Using the facade of attack against the Communists, reaction is clearly threatening the civil liberties of all Americans.

“Peekskill could not have har) pened without the trial of’ the Communists at Foley Square. 4S in Peekskill, so in Foley Square: these courageous men and women — defend American civil liberties. The best guarantee against any more Peekskills is the mobiliza- _ tion of the American people to free the 12 in Foiey Square.

“Tt-is quite clear that we'll have to understand that there aré many ways toward freedom Of — peoples. We will have to lear? to live in peace, to trade on equa! terms with 200 million Soviet cit- izens, 500 million Chinese, mil- lions of others in eastern Europe-

“We must never forget that i” every land Communists were the first to die in the struggle agaifist fascism. In my recent tour of Europe it was my privilege te lay wreaths on the grayes ef many of these’ heroes,

“And in America, led by Wil- liam Z. Foster, one of the great organizers of American labor, the Communists have sacrificed and struggled for all America. As a Negro I owe them, and I’m sure the Negro people owe. them, 4 debt, perhaps one never to be re- paid. ‘

“Progressive America must rec- ognize—labor and all the oppress ed groups must. recognize—that this must be a common struggle.

“One further lesson from oer skill: of

“America’s fascists must be very desperate, and that’s cor- rect. They are. I was asked to bring back from western Europe and other parts of the world, messages of friendship and ¢o- operation with all true Ameri- cans.

“World anti-fascist forces aré exceedingly powerful. I believe that the fascist forces in the world are gasping for, breath. Far from being terrorized, we could fulfil our historic duty by. taking an immediate offensive and mobilizing the AmericaD people to crush the would-be re- vival of a fascist world.”

raids,

and disease.’

$27,500 house

$50,000 cash present

Ireland, France, Germany,

given a cash donation of $62,500,000 for libraries

4 $62,500,000 for schools

$62,500,000 for hospitals

Political Science: aes. y

Costof World War Il

DESTRUCTION

- Over 21 million young men killed in battle.

15-20 million women, children and old people killed in air raids. 2914, million wounded, mutilated or incapacitated for work.

21,245,000 people lost their homes and belongings through air

45 million people were evacuated, deported, interned or other wise removed far from home. -

30 million hories Were reduced to ashes. nd 150 million “people” were left without shelter, prey to famine

, cosr Up to 1946, the Second World War cost three times as much as the First. This money could have provided:

$10,000 worth of furniture

tates, Canada, Australia, Britain, the Soviet Union and Belgium. In addition, each town of over 200,000 population could have beem

j to every family in the United S

(Figures from International

\

Review of Diplomatic and

Bc i

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PACIFIO TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 14, 1949 — PAGE 4