44

JERRY J. O'CONNELL

Jerry J. O'Connell has just been appointed one of the regional directors of the C. I. O. Political Action Committee. In making this appointment, Sidney Hillman must have been fully apprised of the long and public Communist record of O'Connell.

We detail herewith a part of that record in which O'Connell and the Communist Party have been in league during the past 6 or 7 years.

In a statement issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party, U. S. A., Jerry J. O'Connell was listed as a member of a group called "the clearest voice" in Congress which supported the views and policies endorsed by the Communist Party at that time (Daily Worker, September 4, 1937, p. 6).

In a letter addressed to David Leeds, business manager of the Daily Worker, official organ of the Communist Party, O'Connell wrote as follows:

I feel that the Daily Worker is America's outstanding daily labor paper and has done much during these past crucial labor years to bring true and accurate accounts of labor conditions throughout the entire country to the attention of the public (Daily Worker, June 23, 1937, p. 1).

For some years the Communist Party maintained an official organ in Chicago known as the Midwest Daily Record. O'Connell endorsed the proposal for founding this paper (Daily Worker, September 24, 1937, p. 4).

O'Connell was at various times a contributor to the New Masses, Communist magazine (November 23, 1937, p. 3; February 22, 1938, p. 5).

O'Connell spoke from the same platform with Earl Browder, general secretary of the Communist Party, in behalf of the North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy, an organization which had the full support of the Communist Party (Daily Worker, July 8, 1937, p. 2). O'Connell acted as one of its national sponsors (letterhead, July 6, 1938), and spoke at its Madison Square Garden meeting on July 19, 1937.

The Communist Party was active in recruiting American boys for the so-called Abraham Lincoln Brigade in behalf of Loyalist Spain. Browder has boasted that 60 percent of the Brigade was composed of Communist Party members. O'Connell was a speaker for the Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (Daily Worker, January 8, 1938, p. 2), and for the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (Daily Worker, February 3, 1938, p. 2). He endorsed the work of the Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (Daily Worker, June 7, 1938, p. 1), and personally visited Spain to observe the activity of the Brigade (Daily Worker, January 4, 1938, p. 3).

O'Connell was a sponsor of the American Relief Ship for Spain (letterhead, September 3, 1938).

O'Connell was active in behalf of the International Labor Defense which has been cited as the "legal arm of the Communist Party" by the Attorney General. He was a member of the national committee of the International Labor Defense (leaflet, June 13, 1940), sponsor (Equal Justice, November 1938, p. 4), and speaker (Daily Worker, May 3, 1938, p. 3; May 25, 1938, p. 2).

O'Connell was active in behalf of Tom Mooney, a prisoner in San Quentin, who was defended by the International Labor Defense and its auxiliary organizations. He spoke in defense of Tom Mooney at a meeting held on February 3, 1938, in San Francisco. At this meeting he called Harry Bridges an "outstanding fighter for democracy" (Equal Justice, official organ of the International Labor Defense, February 1938, p. 1).

When the Communist Party advocated collective security, O'Connell was a member of the national committee of the American League for Peace and Democracy, which has been cited as a Communist front by the Attorney General. He was also a speaker for the organization (Daily Worker, March 17, 1938, p. 2; March 28, 1938, p. 2).

When the Stalin-Hitler Pact was signed, the Communists formed a new organization called the American Peace Mobilization, which picketed the White House and opposed the national defense program. O'Connell supported this organization and was present at its meeting on April 5, 1941.

O'Connell was actively associated with the International Workers Order, a Communist-controlled fraternal organization.

O'Connell's speeches have been featured in the Daily Worker (July 12, 1937, p. 3; July 21, 1937, p. 3; July 8, 1937, p. 2).

O'Connell supported a bill for relief which was sponsored by the Workers Alliance, a Communist-controlled organization of the unemployed (Daily Worker, April 21, 1937, p. 3).

He was a sponsor of the Conference on Constitutional Liberties in America, which was cited as subversive by the Attorney General (leaflet, June 7, 1940).

He has supported the American Friends of the Chinese People, a Communist-dominated front organization (Daily Worker, June 6, 1938, p. 3; June 8, 1938, p. 7).

O'Connell is a member of the National Lawyers Guild, which has been cited as Communist-controlled by Mr. Adolph A. Berle, Assistant Secretary of State, and by a New York City investigating committee headed by Councilman Emil K. Ellis.

On September 24, 1942, the Honorable Martin Dies disclosed before Congress that Jerry J. O'Connell had been selected as a trustee for the Robert Marshall Foundation, together with Gardner Jackson who was removed from his Government on the very eve of the exposure of his association with numerous Communist front organizations. With regard to the Robert Marshall Foundation, Mr. Dies declared:

The principal source of the funds by which these Communist front organizations are able to operate today is the legacy of the late Robert Marshall * * * We shall show presently that the funds of the Robert Marshall Foundation are being used to finance a considerable number of the Communist Party's front organizations *

*

Among these organizations Mr. Dies listed the following: American Youth Congress, Farm Research, Federated Press, Frontier Films,

International Juridical Association, National Federation for Constitutional Liberties, National Negro Congress, Southern Conference for Human Welfare, and U. S. Week.

On July 3, 1937, O'Connell sent greetings to the first national convention of the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing and Allied Workers of America, which convened at Denver, Colo., July 9-12, 1937. This organization is headed by Donald Henderson, an avowed Communist.

On the occasion when Mother Bloor, nationally known Communist leader, was being feted on her 75th birthday, O'Connell sent the following greeting which appeared in the souvenir book:

It affords me great pleasure to add my word of commendation and praise to Mother Bloor and to wish her well on the occasion of the celebration in her honor. When the final history of the movement of labor throughout the world is written, I know that proper tribute will be paid to her for her militant and unceasing fight for the betterment of the classes that toil, and I am happy and proud to be one of those to join in paying honor and tribute to her on the day of this memorable celebration. With the kindest of personal regards and every good wish, I greet her. In the March 16, 1938, issue of the Daily Worker, official Communist organ, O'Connell is quoted as follows:

I say that the only way to keep America out of war is to keep war out of the world * * * instead of going along this line of building a big navy, America ought to have the courage to go out and do something positive, something definite about stopping war.

These remarks were in full accord with the line of the Communist Party at that time.

45

LEE PRESSMAN

Lee Pressman is general counsel of the C. I. O. Political Action Committee. He holds the same position in the C. I. O. itself. Since the first convention of the C. I. O. in 1938, he has been secretary of the important resolutions committee of the organization. By and large, the resolutions adopted at the successive conventions of the C. I. O. have adhered faithfully to the Communist Party line. Pressman's secretaryship of the resolutions committee has enabled him to be of great service to the Communist and Communist-sympathizing leaders with respect to their party line resolutions.

It will be remembered that when the Communist Party was denouncing the present war as imperialistic, the country was torn by a wave of Communist-led strikes in key defense industries, necessitating at one time the intervention of the President of the United States. The country was compelled to initiate emergency measures against acts of sabotage and interference with defense projects. Pressman was a tower of legal defense in behalf of the Communists and their policies at that time.

Speaking as a member of the national executive board of the National Lawyers Guild and as general counsel of the C. I. O., Pressman attacked the Congress of the United States charging it with "criticism of strikes in defense projects," and "destruction of the rights of labor."

Pressman's associations with Communist-front organizations have been numerous. On May 18, 1940, he signed a letter of the proCommunist slate of the National Lawyers Guild, Washington Chapter, which condemned any effort to demand of prospective candidates for office in the Guild that they "stand four-square behind democracy" against communism, fascism, and naziism.

Pressman helped to found the International Juridical Association, a Communist front and an offshoot of the International Labor Defense. Together with such open members and supporters of the Communist Party as Joseph R. Brodsky, Carol Weiss King, Leo Gallagher, George R. Andersen, David J. Bentall, Yetta Land, and Abraham J. Isserman, he has served as a member of the national committee of the International Juridical Association.

On February 14, 1941, Pressman addressed the opening session of the New York State Conference on Legislation for Democracy, under the auspices of the New York Conference for Inalienable Rights, at Mecca Temple in New York City, called to attack anti-sabotage legislation and the Rapp-Coudert Committee investigating subversive activities in the New York public school system. Fellow speakers included Edwin S. Smith, executive director of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship. The New York Conference for Inalienable Rights was a Communist front.

The annual holiday of the Communist movement throughout the world is May Day. Pressman served as the chairman of the Communist May Day meeting held at the Monument Grounds, Washington, D. C., on May 1, 1939. Among the speakers were Harry Bridges and M. J. Garriga, a supporter of the American Peace Mobilization.

Until quite recently, the Communists in New York maintained an institution known as the School for Democracy. At the beginning of the present year, the old Communist Party Workers School and the School for Democracy were merged into the Jefferson School of Social Science. Lee Pressman was a lecturer at the School for Democracy. Other Communist-front organizations with which Pressman has been affiliated with include the following: Lawyers' Committee on American Relations with Spain, Coordinating Committee to Lift the Embargo, Washington Committee for Democratic Action, Film Audiences for Democracy, Films for Democracy, and the Washington Book Shop.