FULL TEXT

February, 1967

Federal Bureau of Investigation
United States Department of Justice
John Edgar Hoover, Director

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

I. MAIN COMMUNIST YOUTH FRONT     1

A. Lineal Descendant     1
B. Party Appendage     2

II. ORIGIN AND OBJECTIVES     5

A. Immediate Predecessors     5
B. Founding Convention     7
C. Aims and Purposes     8

III. ORGANIZATION AND MEMBERSHIP     10

A. National Headquarters     10
B. Organizational Structure     10
C. Membership     11

IV. LEADERSHIP     14

A. General     14
B. Franklin Delano Alexander     14
C. Hugh Sterling Fowler II     16
D. Charles Harris     16
E. Roque Ristorucci. Jr.     17
F. James Milton Peake, Jr.     18
G. Stephanie Allan Wishart     19

V. GENERAL POLICIES AND MAJOR ACTIVITIES     20

A. General Policies     20
B. Campus and Community     20
C. Civil Rights     22
D. Vietnam War     26

1. Speeches     26
2. Literature     27
3. Demonstrations     28

a. Local Protests     28
b. National Protests     30
c. International Days of Protest     31

4. National Youth Conference     32

VI. PUBLICATIONS

A. Newsletters     34
B. Magazines     34

VII. FINANCES     36

VIII. ATTORNEY GENERAL'S PETITION     37

A. Petition Filed     37
B. Honorary Members     38
C. Counteraction     39

The communist movement has always regarded youth as a primary target for exploitation. The W. E. B. DuBois Clubs of America (DCA), founded in June, 1964, is the latest in a line of communist youth front organizations that have existed in the United States over the years for the purpose of attracting young people to promote the cause of communism.

The DCA is named for the late Dr. William Edward Burghardt DuBois, a prominent Negro civil rights crusader who joined the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA), at the age of 93. The DCA is a vehicle of the CPUSA and receives substantial financial support from it. In addition virtually all the top DCA national leaders and many DCA members are members of the CPUSA.

Like preceding communist youth fronts, the DCA serves as a recruiting agent and a training school for young communists and also functions as an important medium for agitating and propagandizing among noncommunist youth.

Total DCA membership is reported to be approximately 425. DCA activity is concentrated in two general areas--the campus and the community.

The main foreign goals of the DCA are the withdrawal of United States military forces from South Vietnam and a negotiated peace with the National Liberation Front, political arm of the Viet Cong. The DCA also advocates expanded trade with "socialist" countries, admission of Red China to the United Nations, and diplomatic relations with Communist China and Cuba. Domestic objectives of high priority to the DCA are the repeal of the Internal Security Act of 1950 and the abolition of the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

Almost every domestic issue--especially civil rights--is linked by the DCA to peace in Vietnam. The DCA maintains that the Vietnam war is harmful to the welfare and interests of American Negroes on the grounds that the war is preventing the Government from initiating the programs and expending the funds necessary for Negro improvement.

The civil rights issue was of primary concern to the DCA at the time of its formation in June, 1964, but in the past two years DCA attention has been focused increasingly on the war in Vietnam. That conflict now dominates all DCA activities.

I. MAIN COMMUNIST YOUTH FRONT

A. Lineal Descendant

Young people have been a primary communist target even since Lenin theorized that "the youth will determine the issue of the whole struggle, the student youth and still more the working-class youth." In countries where there is a Communist Party or its equivalent, there is usually some communist youth organization by means of which the Party tries to influence, condition, and manipulate youth.

The Communist Party, USA (CPUSA), since its founding in 1919, has created a number of front organizations designed to appeal to the youth of America--particularly students and workers--in order to promote the cause of communism. The W. E. B. DuBois Clubs of America (DCA) is the latest in a line of communist youth fronts that have existed in the United States.

The principal Marxist youth group in this country from 1922 until 1943 was the Young Communist League (YCL),* which functioned under several different names and was an affiliate of the Young Communist International.** In 1943, the YCL was transformed into a group known as the American

*Cited as subversive pursuant to Executive Order 10450.
**The Young Communist International was an international communist youth group which became defunct in 1943.

Youth for Democracy (AYD).* The AYD was succeeded in 1948 by a communist front called the Labor Youth League (LYL)," which became defunct in 1957.

*Cited as subversive pursuant to Executive Order 10450.

Not only did the YCL, the AYD, and the LYL function as a recruiting agent and a training school for young communists who were later promoted to the Communist Party, but also--and equally important--they served as a vehicle for agitating and propagandizing among noncommunist youth. The DCA is currently fulfilling the same role as its predecessors.

The CPUSA views so-called "new left" organizations and groups which have precipitated "peace" marches, protest demonstrations against American policy in Vietnam, and turmoil on college campuses as a fertile field for communist exploitation. Through the DCA, the CPUSA is striving to influence, guide, and capture this youthful sentiment which is hostile to the "status quo" and the "establishment" and has even encouraged civil disobedience.

B. Party Appendage

That the DCA is nothing more than a vehicle and a mouthpiece of the CPUSA is evidenced in the following statements made by several important functionaries of these two organizations:

"Naturally, the closest ties we (CPUSA) have are with the DuBois Clubs since they occupy Marxist positions. Many of the DuBois Clubs members have joined our party."
--Gus Hall, General Secretary, CPUSA

"The DCA should be a mass organization favorable to socialism, favorable to the socialist countries, favorable to Marxism, and with a working class outlook."
--Mortimer Daniel Rubin, National Organizational Secretary, CPUSA

"In Negro communities, the Party still supports the plan to build left socialist centers and to solidify the Party base through the DCA."
--Michael Zagarell, National Youth Director, CPUSA

"All DuBois Clubs are under control of the Party. I doubt if any clubs exist without communists in their ranks. I feel that the essential ingredient for the success of any DuBois Club is Communist Party youth."
--Bettina Aptheker, CPUSA

National Committee Member and DCA Member "The DuBois Clubs is now in fact a functioning Young Communist League."
--Franklin Alexander, National Chairman, DCA

The intimate relationship and mutual interests of the CPUSA and the DCA are graphically demonstrated by a recent incident. A number of those who attended the CPUSA's 18th National Convention on June 22-26, 1966, in New York City are also members of the DCA. The DCA adjourned its second National Convention in Chicago, which was held on June 17-19, 1966, in sufficient time to allow DCA leaders to travel to New York City for the CPUSA convention.

A. Immediate Predecessors

After the dissolution of the LYL in 1957, CPUSA plans for a new youth front took several years before bearing fruit. Following the Party's 17th National Convention in December, 1959, some 125 communist and non-communist youths formed in New York City a group called Advance, which was termed an "organization of progressive youth" committed to the ideas and concepts of "socialism." Advance remained, however, strictly a New York group.

Party plans for a national youth organization were given impetus by the rioting against the House Committee on Un-American Activities at San Francisco in May, 1960, and the upsurge of youth activity in the civil rights field in the South. Such activity indicated to Party leaders that the Nation's youth was becoming sufficiently stirred to be interested in a new youth organization. As a result, Mortimer Daniel Rubin, then CPUSA national youth secretary, visited colleges to study campus organizations and student activities.

In Chicago, in late December, 1960, the Progressive Youth Organizing Committee (PYOC) was formed at a conference dominated by CPUSA youth leaders. The chairman and vice chairman elected were CPUSA members. The task of the PYOC was to prepare for a founding convention of a new youth organization within a year. However, the PYOC was not able to fulfill that objective.

In October, 1963, Rubin warned the Party's National Executive Committee that campus youth who were drifting toward the left, as evidenced by demonstrations for civil rights, for "Hands off Cuba," for peace, and against the war in Vietnam, were being lost to the CPUSA and were joining Trotskyist and other left-oriented groups. Rubin said that the CPUSA must provide a youth group or forego its influence among young people.

Several weeks after Rubin's remarks, 30 Party youth leaders met with CPUSA General Secretary Gus Hall and Rubin in Chicago. Hall emphasized that, while the new organization was not going to be openly Marxist-oriented, it must not be anti-Communist Party, USA, or anti-Soviet. The delegates voted to compile a list of "initiators," both communist and noncommunist, to be present at a meeting during the ensuing Christmas holidays. In addition, they voted to issue a call for a national founding convention in June, 1964.

The December, 1963, meeting of 25 young people--all Party members except two or three-selected a National Coordinating Committee that issued a call for the creation of the new group. The call was also sent to non-Party youth. Subsequently, Party clubs and the Coordinating Committee raised funds to enable convention delegates to travel to San Francisco.

B. Founding Convention

Nearly 500 delegates attended the proceedings of the founding convention in San Francisco on June 19-21, 1964. CPUSA districts had chosen representatives, and opposition groups also sent representatives.

The Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party designated members of its youth group, the Young Socialist Alliance (YSA) to attend to order to "force" the new organization to "reveal its Stalinist domination." As a consequence, considerable factionalism developed at the convention. On the second day of the convention, it became obvious that workshop chairmen were controlling the floor, recognizing no opposition speakers for the discussions of resolutions. The next day, the YSA and the independent delegates walked out. Communist Party youth was left in complete control.

*Cited as subversive pursuant to Executive Order 10450.

Mortimer Daniel Rubin, at that time a member of the CPUSA's National Board, was in San Francisco during the convention, but remained in hiding to confer secretly with selected delegates. While establishing and maintaining control of the new organization, the CPUSA endeavored to conceal its grip in order to make the group more attractive to American youth.

The convention adopted the name of William Edward Burghardt DuBois for the new group--W. E. B. DuBois Clubs of America (DCA)--Obviously hoping to exploit sympathies for the civil rights issue and for DuBois. A prominent Negro civil rights crusader, DuBois was a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909, but later repudiated it. The Lenin Peace Prize was bestowed upon him in 1959. At the advanced age of 93, he joined the CPUSA, subsequently becoming a resident and citizen of Ghana, where he died in 1963.

In keeping with the projected theme of unity, brotherhood, and peace, the convention chosen for the official DCA insignia a half-white, half-black circle encompassing a white hand and a black hand under a dove.

C. Aims and Purposes

According to the preamble of the DCA constitution, as revised in June, 1966, at the second DCA National Convention, the organization was created &quto;in the name and with the vision and dedication of W. E. B. DuBois. We join together to fight against the evils which plague our generation and our world--poverty, racism, exploitation, and war. We will build a movement which can create a now America--a society where every individual may develop to the limits of his capability, where human dignity is valued above corporate profit; a world where men shall not know want, where there will be no war."

A. National Headquarters

National headquarters of the DCA was located in San Francisco from the DCA's inception until May, 1966, when it was moved to 180 North Wacker Drive, Chicago. The reason given for the move was that the DCA was too isolated in San Francisco and needed a central location to better coordinate its activities.

On March 6, 1966, while the headquarters was still in San Francisco, the three-story headquarters building was wrecked by a bomb explosion still considered unsolved by the San Francisco Police Department. The explosion gutted the building and caused extensive damage to homes and businesses in the same block.

B. Organizational Structure

According to the constitution, DCA policies are formulated by the highest ruling body, the National Convention, that is supposed to convene every two years. To direct the national operations of DCA, there is a National Executive Committee whose duties include the execution of general policies, supervision of publications, and control of finances.

A National Coordinating Committee coordinates national action projects, assists local groups in organizing, and acts as the interim policy body between National Conventions. This body is set up to include the National Executive Committee, one representative from each chartered chapter or its delegated authority, and all area officers.

The original constitution also provided for five regional officers with officers--West, Southwest, Midwest, South and East--as a link between national headquarters and individual chapters. The 1966 Convention, however, eliminated reference to the regional level from the DCA constitution, apparently abandoning the regions and their officers in order to create closer control of the local chapters by the national headquarters and reduce expenses.

There are two types of DCA chapters--campus and community. Some of the DCA's campus clubs are located at the University of California, at Berkeley and at Los Angeles; the University of Michigan; Indiana University; the College of the City of New York; and the University of Bridgeport in Connection. The DCA claimed in May, 1966, to have over 70 chapters of organizing committees in the United States and Canada.

C. Membership

Some 500 delegates attended the DCA founding convention in June, 1964. In January, 1965, the total national membership was reported to be 800. During the earlier part of 1966, DCA spokesmen publicly claimed from 2,000 to 4,000 members. However, at the second National Convention in June, 1966, Hugh Fowler, then national chairman, announced that the east and west coast memberships together totaled about 300 and the midwest region totaled about 300, giving a national membership of about 600.

In November, 1966, DCA membership totaled approximately 425. Membership is concentrated in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago.

The constitution of the DCA as revised at the 1966 Convention states that membership is open to any young person who agrees with the basic aims of the DCA as presented in its constitution and directives. There are no age requirements, and membership ages have ranged from 17 to 35.

Certain DCA leaders and associates are members of the CPUSA or else have Party parents. Franklin Alexander, Hugh Fowler II, and James Peake, Jr., for example, are Party members. Richard Healey is the son of Dorothy Healey, chairman of the Party's Southern California District; and Frank Emspak is the son of the late Julius Emspak, a CPUSA member and a labor leader. Others are members of the CPUSA National Committee. These are Bettina Aptheker, Michael Eisenscher, Donald Hamerquist, Theodore Pearson, Timothy Wheeler, and Roque Ristorucci, Jr.

A. General

The DCA constitution provides for six national officers to be elected by the National Convention. Those members elected to the positions of leadership at the second National Convention in June, 1966, include Franklin Delano Alexander, national chariman; Hugh Sterling Fowler II, executive secretary; Charles Harris, community field director; Roque Ristorucci, Jr., campus field director; James Milton Peake, Jr., national educational director; and Stephanie Allan Wishart, publications director. Only two--Harris and Wishart--are not CPUSA members although they have participated in Party activities in the past. The ages of the six leaders average nearly 26, with one officer now 35.

B. Franklin Delano Alexander

Alexander, a Negro and DCA national chairman, has been active in the group since its origin. He is a CPUSA member as is his sister Charlene Alexander Mitchell, who has been a member of the CPUSA National Committee for several years. His father too has been an active Party member.

Since entering communist circles at 15, Alexander has traveled abroad as a representative of communist youth groups in the United States. He has also helped organize other communist youth fronts, taught Marxist classes, and participated in demonstrations and rallies against United States policy in the Congo, the Dominican Republic, and Vietnam. He had a prominent part in DCA and CPUSA activity protesting the accidental slaying in Los Angeles of Leonard Deadwyler, a Negro, by a white policeman after a high-speed chase on May 7, 1966.

When interviewed by a Chicago newspaper after his election as DCA national chairman in June, 1966, Alexander said he planned to direct a campaign to incorporate Watts, the Negro section of Los Angeles that was the scene of rioting in 1965 and 1966, as a separate municipality. He also stated that he would establish a "police observer corps" in Watts. Alexander has called for more "black power" in the DCA.

Born in Chicago in 1941, Alexander attended Los Angeles City College between 1960 and 1962. In 1964, he was arrested for selling liquor to minors, and in March, 1966, was sentenced to 30 days in jail for being drunk in an area where racial disturbances were occurring. He received $50 a week during 1965 as national fund raiser with the DCA national office. His first wife was a member of the CPUSA, and his present wife, Kendra, is a Party member.

C. Hugh Sterling Fowler II

Fowler, former DCA national chairman, is now executive secretary. He too is a member of the CPUSA.

Fowler was born in Los Angeles in 1944. After two years at the University of California at Berkeley, he failed to meet scholastic requirements, apparently as a result of devoting his time and efforts to heading a DCA peace committee.

In 1965, Fowler was extremely busy in behalf of DCA. He was on hand at meetings, educational sessions, and study classes. He organized a rally and a teach-in and prepared a leaflet urging Berkeley students to march on the Federal Office Building in San Francisco to protest United States policy in Vietnam.

He attended the CPUSA national youth leadership school in June, 1965, at Camp Midvale, New Jersey, and the CPUSA youth conference three months later in Monterey, Indiana. Fowler has traveled extensively at home and abroad for the DCA.

D. Charles Harris

Harris, a Negro, was elected DCA community field director at the June, 1966, DCA convention. Previous to that time, he had been full-time organizer and treasurer of the Chicago DCA and coordinator for the DCA's Midwest Region.

In recent months, Harris, because of his preoccupations with Negro affairs, disaffiliated the West Side Club in Chicago, of which he has been chairman, from the national DCA. However, it continues to receive DCA financial assistance and support.

Harris was born in Chicago in 1931. In the past, he has been arrested and convicted for assault, burglary, and other crimes, although in recent years he has become involved in efforts to rehabilitate school 'dropouts' and young criminals. It was this activity that brought him to the attention of the CPUSA and the DCA for exploitation in behalf of communism.

Harris attended the CPUSA national youth leadership school at Camp Midvale, New Jersey, in June, 1965.

E. Roque Ristorucci, Jr.

Ristorucci is DCA campus field director and was elected to the CPUSA National Committee in June, 1966. He was born in Puerto Rico in 1945.

Ristourcci attended the CPUSA youth leadership school at Camp Midvale, New Jersey, in June, 1965, and the Monterey, Indiana, CPUSA youth conference in September, 1965. Also, he has been a student at Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York.

Ristorucci has represented the DCA at a youth congress in Puerto Rico. Protesting United States policy in Vietnam, he participated in the March on Washington on November 27, 1965, as well as in various demonstrations at the United Nations. Building in New York City.

F. James Milton Peake, Jr.

Peake DCA national educational director, is also a CPUSA member and is highly regarded for his ability and potential.

Peake was born in Lafayette, Indiana, in 1938. His legs were paralyzed in an attack of poliomyelitis when he was 12. He is partially confined to a wheel chair but has learned to drive a car equipped with hand controls. Peake attended Southern Illinois University into his senior year, but did not graduate.

In the past, Peake has been a member of the Trotskyist Young Socialist Alliance; the pro-Castro Fair Play for Cuba Committee; the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), an extremely militant civil rights organization; the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a civil rights group; and the NAACP. He has been jailed frequently as a result of his participation in civil rights demonstrations.

Peake was a delegate to the founding convention of the DCA and was sent back to the Midwest to develop DCA activities. In June, 1965, he attended the CPUSA national youth leadership school at Camp Midvale, New Jersey. Afterward, he became coordinator for the DCA Midwest Region and a member of the DCA National Executive Committee.

G. Stephanie Allan Wishart

Wishart was elected DCA publications director at the June, 1966, DCA convention. Immediately prior to the convention, the married to Blaine Wishart, who is a DCA member on the Chicago headquarters staff and is a youth leader in the CPUSA's Illinois District. Stephanie Wishart was born in Detroit in 1943.

Although her parents have been CPUSA members for a long time, she has hesitated to join the CPUSA formally for fear that her membership might curtail her acceptance in college and professional circles.

While not a Party member, she was leader of a Michigan CPUSA group in 1961 that traveled to the Soviet Union and to the Eighth world Youth Festival in Helsinki, Finland, in the Summer of 1962. She assisted in fund-raising to pay the expenses of delegates to the DCA founding convention.

Wishart was dropped from DCA activities in Detroit for several months as a result of an emotional disturbance over her personal problems, but she was readmitted later and has played a leading role in DCA local and regional activities.

A. General Policies

The chief foreign policy objectives of the DCA parallel CPUSA objectives. The DCA wants to bring about the withdrawal of United States military forces from South Vietnam and a negotiated peace with the National Liberation Front, the political arm of the Viet Cong. The DCA also advocates expanded trade with "socialist" countries, admission of Red China to the United Nations, and the establishment of normal United States diplomatic relations with Communist China and Cuba. Domestic objectives of high priority to the DCA are the repeal of the Internal Security Act of 1950 and the abolition of the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

Almost every domestic issue--especially civil rights--is linked by the DCA--as it is by the CPUSA--to peace in Vietnam. The DCA maintains that the Vietnam war is harmful to the welfare and best interests of the Negro, for the war is preventing the Government from initiating the programs and expending the funds necessary for Negro improvement.

B. Campus and Community

In agitating and propagandizing among young people, the DCA has conducted activities in two general areas--the campus and the community. Following its formation in June, 1964, several campus disturbances and demonstrations occurred, spurring the DCA to exploit the rebellious behavior and nonconformist views of a small but vociferous number of students.

Specifically, the DCA chapter in Berkeley, California, injected itself into the Free Speech Movement (FSM), which was initiated in October, 1964, by a group of students headed by Mario Savio at the University of California at Berkeley. Bettina Aptheker, a student at the University of California and a member of the Berkeley DCA, was a leading speaker, organizer, and demonstrator for the FSM.

The FSM demanded the right to engage in political activities on the campus in violation of university regulations. Demonstrations continued for several months thereafter, culminating in early December, when 1,000 demonstrators gathered at Sproul Hall and refused to leave. When police were compelled to arrest 780 demonstrators who refused to leave the hall, it was Bettina Aptheker who set the policy of "going limp."

In mid-November, 1964, Savio undertook a speaking tour of colleges in the Midwest and East, seeking financial support for the FSM. A close adviser who accompanied him on this tour was Bettina Aptheker.

The student rioting at the University of California convinced DCA leaders that students could be aroused to action and were no longer reluctant to speak out on issues and to become involved in causes. The DCA made efforts to approach young people in communities, particularly workers and unemployed. As a result of discussion at the second DCA National Convention in June, 1966, there has been a gradual shift away from heavy emphasis on campus activity and toward greater community action.

Since its inception, the DCA has initiated or participated in numerous demonstrations, conferences, and other activities in behalf of civil rights, civil liberties, and peace in Vietnam.

C. Civil Rights

The civil rights issue was of primary concern to the DCA at the time of its formation in June, 1964. To project a picture of its interest and concern in civil rights, the DCA founding convention elected a civil rights worker, Philip Davis, to be DCA national chairman. Davis, a Negro working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, had been active in civil rights demonstrations in the South.

The DCA founding convention also directed telegrams to President Johnson, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and various civil rights organizations, demanding Federal intervention in the civil rights strife at that time.

On August 24, 1964, several members of the DCA chapter in Philadelphia picketed the Democratic National Convention at Atlantic City, New Jersey, on behalf of the Mississippi Freedom delegation to the Convention.* Members of the New York DCA also joined the picket line.

*The Freedom delegation as opposed to the all-white regular delegation from Mississippi demanded recognition as the State's delegation on the grounds that the Democratic Party in Mississippi excluded Negroes.

In Chicago, the DCA sponsored a"Vigil for Vigilance on Freedom Day" on August 28, 1964, to mark the anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. The vigil also commemorated the three civil rights workers--James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner--who were murdered in Mississippi in June, 1964.

The DCA in San Francisco cosponsored and played a leading role in the Ad Hoc Committee to End Discrimination in 1964. During that year, the group held a militant nightlong picketing and sit-in at the Sheraton-Palace Hotel that eventually led to an agreement by the management to employ Negroes.

During the rioting in the Watts area in Los Angeles in August, 1965, members of the DCA joined members of the Socialist Workers Party in a demonstration at the Police Administration Building in Los Angeles. Two days later, DCA members passed out pamphlets demanding the removal of the now deceased Chief of Police William Parker.

In the Spring of 1966, leaders of the CPUSA's Southern California District instructed several members of the Los Angeles DCA branch to set up a DCA club in the Negro community of Los Angeles, which would seek new recruits and serve as a vehicle for the Party's work in the Watts area.

On May 7, 1966, Leonard Deadwyler, a Negro, was accidentally killed by a white policeman in Los Angeles after a high-speed automobile chase. The DCA and a communist-front group called the South Side Citizens Defense Committee sponsored a memorial meeting about a week later at a Los Angeles church, which was attended by 300 persons.

A rally held on May 17 at Will Rogers Park in Los Angeles to protest Deadwyler's death attracted some 300 persons. One of the principal organizers of the rally was Franklin Alexander, who was elected DCA national chairman in June, 1966. Top leaders in the CPUSA's Southern California District and the Los Angeles branch of DCA attended, supported or spoke at the rally.

Following the rally, some 500 persons, led by Alexander in an automobile equipped with loudspeakers, proceeded to the 77th Street Division of the Los Angeles Police Department, where they staged a boisterous picketing demonstration. A vehicle with press representatives was attached, and one occupant seriously wounded. After a window in a liquor store was broken, the store was looted. In addition, bottles and bricks were hurled at passing automobiles.

During the Chicago riot of July 12-19, 1966, DCA representatives visited the riot-torn area as observers in order to ascertain if any instances of "police brutality" were taking place.

In the late evening of July 14, 1966, during the course of a disturbance on Chicago's West Side, some 35 Negroes, a number of whom were known to be members of the DCA, proceeded to the Loop area. Armed with bricks and Molotov cocktails, they intended to throw these missiles into department stores. But when they found the Loop busy and well lighted, they returned to the West Side without accomplishing their purpose.

On July 18, 1966, during a riot in the Hough area of Cleveland, four members of the DCA were detained by the Ohio National Guard. Communist literature was found in a search of their automobile. Later, two of the four were arrested by Cleveland police and charged with obstructing police officers.

D. Vietnam War

The close attention which the CPUSA focused during 1965 and 1966 on the war in Vietnam has been duplicated by the DCA. This issue now dominates the activities of the DCA, and the importance of the "peace struggle" and the relationship of the Vietnam issue to all others--particularly civil rights--have been emphasized repeatedly by DCA spokesmen and publications.

1. Speeches

In August, 1965, Michael Myerson, then DCA international secretary, and three other men went to Hanoi, North Vietnam, where he talked with Premier Ho Chi Minh. The four went to Hanoi on a two-week visit after attending the World Peace Congress in Helsinki, Finland. Their trip was sponsored and paid for by the North Vietnam Youth Federation.

On his return to the United States, Myerson spoke to a number of student groups and accused this country of aggression in Vietnam. In these speeches, he defended the Government of North Vietnam and contended that it was ready to negotiate for peace if the United States would withdraw its troops.

Another active DCA speaker denouncing United States involvement in Vietnam is Hugh Fowler, former DCA national chairman. Now DCA executive secretary, Fowler has traveled extensively to condemn United States policy in Vietnam and has appeared before students at the City College of New York, Reed College and Portland State College in Oregon. Indiana University, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University in Detroit.

2. Literature

Literature prepared and disseminated by the DCA on the war in Vietnam is highly critical of the United States and viciously inflammatory. Typical of such material was an article by Terence Hallinan, then organizational secretary of the DCA, which appeared in the January, 1966, issue of "Dimensions," DCA theoretical quarterly journal.

Hallinan labeled the Vietnam conflict an "aggressive," "imperialistic," and "unjust" war which cannot be won by the United States. He stated that peace will come to Vietnam only as a result of a combination of the efforts made by the National Liberation Front on the battlefields, the pressure which can be brought to bear on our country internationally, and the opposition to the war which can be mobilized here in the United States. He urged DCA members to "help increase and organize the already widespread discontent with the war that exists in this country."

A similar article, written by Hugh Fowler, was published in the March-April, 1966, issue of "Insurgent," DCA bimonthly magazine. Fowler charged that the "farce of talking peace and then bombing innocent men and women is the wickedest hypocrisy." He charged that Americans "are the aggressors in Vietnam" and "the ones who are responsible for all the barbaric acts we claim to be saving the Vietnamese from." He called on the United States "to get out of Vietnam as fast as it can and leave Vietnam to the Vietnamese."

3. Demonstrations

The medium of propaganda most used by the DCA for protesting American action in Vietnam is demonstrations in the form of rallies, picket lines, sit-ins, teach-ins, marches, et cetera. The DCA has itself organized and directed some protests of this type and has participated on a local and national level in protests sponsored by other groups.

a. Local Protests

Members of the Portland, Oregon, chapter of the DCA--which was organized by Donald Lee Hamerquist, executive secretary of the CPUSA's Oregon District, and several young CPUSA members--were active in demonstrations protesting Vietnam policy during the early part of 1965 in Portland. One of these demonstrations, held on February 20 at the Pioneer Post Office, was led by Richard Healey, son of Dorothy Healey, chairman of the CPUSA's Southern California District. As a result of this demonstration, 51 persons were arrested for trespassing on Government property. Two other protests were organized by Healey, one on February 27 and another on March 7.

In August, 1965, DCA members in St. Louis participated in several anti-Vietnam demonstrations at the United States Post Office and the New Federal Building. One poster carried by demonstrators was a handmade enlargement of a Selective Service Registration Card. The facsimile was later soaked with lighter fluid and ignited as a protest of the drafting of youth for the Vietnam war.

In San Francisco, the DCA has been active in numerous anti-Vietnam protests. As an example, prior to President Johnson's State of the Union message to Congress. DCA members, on January 9, 1966, equipped themselves with a sound truck and a loudspeaker and began a "peace vigil" in front of the Federal Building. The DCA in San Francisco had earlier participated in a protest demonstration against Vice President Humphrey when he visited that city for several speaking engagements.

The Brooklyn college DCA chapter organized a demonstration against United States policy in Vietnam during a speech by President Johnson on the college campus on October 12, 1966. As a result of the disturbance, a DCA member was arrested. Later that day, several DCA members were among nine demonstrators arrested for interrupting a Brooklyn political rally being addressed by the President. The demonstrators carried placards and chanted slogans denouncing United States involvement in Vietnam.

b. National Protests

On April 17, 1965, the Student March on Washington was sponsored by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) with numerous other groups participating, including the DCA. The communists actively promote and participate in SDS activities, and CPUSA General Secretary Gus Hall has characterized the SDS, along with the DCA, as a group which the CPUSA has "going for us."

The Student March on Washington was designed to protest against military intervention in Vietnam and to demand an end to the war there. Approximately 15,000 students and others participated in a speaking program during the protest. Coordinating the march for the Philadelphia area was the DCA east coast coordinator, Jarvis Tyner, who is also a CPUSA member.

Major demonstrations in support of this march took place simultaneously in Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The largest was in San Francisco, where 2,000 gathered at the Federal Building to hear speeches made by representatives of various groups. That rally was coordinated and chaired by Hugh Fowler. Just prior to that protest, DCA members wearing identifying buttons acted as monitors at a smaller anti-Vietnam rally.

Following the Student March on Washington, Arnold Johnson, CPUSA public relations director, stated that "our people" were there from all over the country and that credit should be given to the stimulus that the DCA gave to the march.

The SDS, joined by the DCA, the Student NonViolent Coordinating Committee, and the Committee for Non-Violent Action--a pacifist group--sponsored a demonstration in Washington, D. C., from August 6 through August 9, 1965, known as the Washington summer Action Project. This demonstration included picketing of the White House and a sit-in at the White House gate, as well as workshops on Vietnam, the draft, Puerto Rico, and South Africa. On August 9, the demonstrators marched to the Capitol Grounds for the purpose of staging a "Congress of Unrepresented People" to declare peace in Vietnam. Numerous demonstrators were arrested when they attempted to enter the grounds.

c. International Days of Protest

So-called International Days of Protest have been observed in this country on three occasions--October 15 and 16, 1965, March 25 and 26, 1966, and August 6 through 9, 1966-- by various communist, subversive, and pacifist groups to condemn United States action in Vietnam. Opposition groups around the world were called upon to hold simultaneous demonstrations.

Although the DCA did not sponsor any of these protest demonstrations, DCA leaders and members did participate in the preparation, promotion, and staging of them. The three protests were observed in several large cities across the country: New York City, Philadelphia, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Washington, D. C.

4. National Youth Conference

While the DCA has joined other groups in several national anti-Vietnam activities, the DCA itself initiated a national youth conference which was held on August 27 and 28, 1966, in Washington, D.C. The conference, with the theme of "jobs, peace, and freedom," was called following a resolution passed at the DCA's second National Convention in June, 1966. Along with the DCA, the sponsors included the Students for a Democratic Society; the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; the National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam; and the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, which was expelled from the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1950 as a communist-dominated Union.

Workshops were conducted by DCA leaders and members with CPUSA affiliations including Hugh Fowler, DCA executive secretary; Matthew Hallinan; Charles Harris, Blaine Wishart; and Bettina Aptheker. Two high-level CPUSA functionaries at the conference were George Meyers, chairman of the CPUSA Maryland-District of Columbia District, and Michael Zagarell, CPUSA national youth director.

The workshop on United States policy in Vietnam and the draft discussed the case of the "Fort Hood Three," which relates to three members of the United States Army who refused to obey orders to report to Vietnam and were subsequently convicted in September, 1966, by Army court-martial on a charge of disobeying an officer's order. One of these individuals, Dennis Mora, is a DCA member. A resolution was passed by the conference favoring the formation of a National Committee to Defend the Fort Hood Three.

A. Newsletters

The first DCA publication circulated was "Spur," a national newsletter of approximately 12 pages that is issued irregularly. The title was chosen to symbolize its aim to "quicken the fight for social change, spread the world about socialism and jab at ourselves, making sure we remain active with energy equal to the job that must be done, now

In addition to "Spur," several other newsletters have been published by various DCA regions and chapters. "Organizer" was the newsletter produced by the Midwest Region. "The Hub" is the newsletter of the DCA in Pittsburgh, and "Area News" is the DCA newsletter in New York.

B. Magazines

"Insurgent," a bimonthly DCA magazine, describes itself as "lusty and bold" and "radical." "Insurgent" is intended to appeal to both campus and community youth who are not yet committed to the "left." The first issue claimed that "Insurgent" would survive if its editors, contributors, and readers "have the guts and imagination to speak out and fight for the goals of our wonderful generation."

A DCA quarterly "discussion" journal is called "Dimensions," but to date only the January, 1966, issue has appeared. The emphasis of this publication is "on the ideological and tactical problems of the movement, and on any aspect of life and culture confronting America's young activists." One of the international sponsors of "Dimensions" is Cheddi Jagan, formerly Premier of British Guiana,* who has admitted that the term "communist" best describes him.

*British Guiana became the sovereign state of Guyana on May 26, 1966.

All DCA members receive "Spur" and "Dimensions" free of charge, while "Insurgent" is sold for 25c a copy or $1.25 for a year's subscription.

Other types of literature disseminated by the DCA on a national and local level include pamphlets, leaflets, and posters.

A. Petition Filed

On March 4, 1966, the Attorney General filed a petition before the Subversive Control Board (SACB), requesting the SACB to order the DCA to register as a communist-front organization under the provisions of the Internal Security Act of 1950. The Attorney General petitioned the SACB on grounds that the DCA had failed to register with the Attorney General within 30 days after its inception on or about June 21, 1964, as required by the above law.

From the time of its formation, states the petition, "the DCA has been and is substantially directed, dominated, and controlled for the purpose of giving aid and support to the Communist Party." To substantiate the charges, the petition presents the following information:

In 1959, the Communist Party directed the establishment of a national Marxist youth organization.

During 1960, the Party appointed a national youth director and held meetings from New York to California to make plans.

At a conference from December 30, 1960, to January 1, 1961, Party leaders and representatives created the Progressive Youth Organizing Committee, which served to bring into being the DCA.

In late 1963, the Communist Party launched the organization afterward known as the DCA.

The Communist Party directed activities at the DCA founding convention on June 19-21, 1964.

The Party directs and controls the DCA through its members in the DCA who hold office, give guidance in forming new chapters, and discuss DCA problems at Communist Party meetings.

The Communist Party contributes active and financial support for the DCA.

The Party conducts classes and supplies literature to indoctrinate DCA members.

The Communist Party receives support from the DCA for its activities and its positions.

After the Attorney General's petition was filed with the SACB, leaders of the DCA called for demonstrations by all local chapters to protest the petition.

On March 6, 1966, DCA national headquarters, then in San Francisco, was bombed. The DCA claimed that the bombing was "invited" by the Attorney General's petition creating the "environment" for the bombing.

B. Honorary Members

Staughton Lynd, assistant professor at Yale University and former member of the American Youth for Democracy, applied for membership in the DCA later that month, adding that he would also apply for membership in any group subject to future petition by the Attorney General.

Capitalizing on the publicity given the bombing of its national headquarters, the Attorney General's petition to the SACB, and Lynd's application for membership, the DCA established what it calls "honorary" membership for those who want to protest the Attorney General's action but who do not want to be obligated to work with the DCA. Lynd was accepted as an honorary member of the DCA.

C. Counteraction

Leaders of the CPUSA have long been extremely concerned about the Party's increasing age level, for they are fully cognizant that CPUSA's future existence and success depend on "new, young blood." For this reason, Party officials have devoted considerable time and thought to ways and means by which they Party can attract and recruit youth.

In view of the importance that the CPUSA attaches to the DCA, this communist youth group can be expected to take all possible steps to counteract any adverse effects the Attorney General's action might have. In the period ahead, the DCA will exert strenuous efforts to strengthen itself as an organization and to expand its influence. The DCA will strive harder than ever to win young people to its ranks, and it will continue to make a serious bid to be a potent force in the "new left" in this country.