Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives vol 1939 12 Page 1
ISSUES FACING THE NATIONAL CONVENTION
RESPONSIBILITIES
OF VETS GROW
IN IMPORTANCE
By Milton Wolff.
For three years the Friends of the
Abraham Lincoln Brigade have been
doing a swell job of taking care of the
Veterans' needs. They have taken care of
our wounded and sick and have sought to
find jobs for as many of us as could be
had. At times the going was tough. for the
Friends and never was it too easy. At the
end of the year the Friends will no longer
exist as a functioning organization. Many
factors make it impossible for the Friends
to carry on. The Spanish war is a year past.
The Vets are home. The present war is
commanding a great deal of attention.
However, there is no need to mourn. We
thank the "Friends" and their friends for all
that they have done for us and we shall
never forget them.
But we must not forget our wounded or
our sick or our unemployed either. We
know that today it is our responsibility to
take care of our own ....and none can do a
better job. Too many of us have been
content to think that the problem was in
good hands. Too many of us have busied
ourselves in other ways ...to the exclusion
of our fellow Vets. Too many of us
consider such meetings as we do have
merely an opportunity to meet the guys
and to fight the war over again. Well, for
the benefit of all of us we might as well
face the facts and realize what is
happening.
There can be no doubt in the minds of
any of us that the ground work is being
laid for an attack on the men who went to
Spain to fight fascism. Some of our men
have already been called before the Grand
Jury. Some of the yellow-bellied rats have
appeared before the Dies Committee.
Different columnists of daily sheets have
taken pot shots at
THE NAKED FACTS
us. The Casado-Bestiero wonders have
denounced us. What does it all mean?
Soldados, we are under fire and the enemy
is out to destroy us.
We will build an organization. We will
strengthen our ranks. We will prepare not
only to defend ourselves ...BUT to launch
such a counter-offensive as will silence the
big guns of fascism and reaction in
America ...The DIES COMMITTEE.
From now on all other activities are
second to your responsibilities to the
Veterans.
From now on our meetings are for the
sole purpose of planning and carrying out
action. In New York we have already set
up a Speakers Bureau. We formed a
committee to work with the N.M.U. to
conduct an open trial of scummy Wm.
lumpen McQuistion. All over the country
the Vets are initiating a series of chain
letters to protest against the un-American
activities of the Dies Committee.
(Continued on Page 2)
PROBLEMS FACING
OUR CONVENTION
ARE ANALYZED
The National Convention of the Veterans
of the Lincoln Brigade will meet at a time
when the pro-Chamberlain-Daladier forces
in this country are developing a campaign
to silence the voices of all individuals and
organizations opposed to America's entry
into the present war. The Veterans of the
Abraham Lincoln Brigade are not being
spared by these reactionaries. They have
even greater desire to silence us because
we are a living testimony to the infamous
policies of Chamberlain and Daladier
which were responsible for the defeat of
the Spanish Republic. These are the
gentlemen who are now repeating on a
much larger scale the same policies.
Official government circles have already
indicated that they are preparing a
wholesale attack against all the men who
fought in Spain. They are employing a
flimsy charge that we violated the United
States laws by serving democracy in
Spain.
The Federal Grand Jury sitting in New
York City has already served several
subpoenas on veterans to appear as
witnesses in a so-called "investigation of a
passport racket." Their object is to turn
them into defendants in an effort to
discredit the prestige of the American
volunteers in the eyes of the public and
ultimately to break our organization. The
Dies Committee, which set itself up as a
scouting party in reaction's offensive
against American civil liberties, has on
several occasions employed known
deserters from our ranks, such rats as Bill
McCuistion, Alvin Halpern, Abraham
Sobel and William G. Ryan, to give a
distorted version of the role of the
Americans in Spain.
(Continued on Page 2)
VOL. 1 NO. 6
December, 1939
