True, we did commit some illegal acts against the socialists. But at the time we really did think they were legal.

That was the thrust of the opening argument by government lawyer Peter Salerno in the suit brought by the Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialist Alliance.

At the heart of the argument was the assertion that it is up to the “discretion” of the government to decide who it spies on, and how.

Margaret Winter, chief counsel for the SWP and YSA, said in her opening statement that the government’s extensive investigation over forty years had established that the SWP had not broken a single law and had no plans to do so.

She said the socialists want a court order barring any future investigation of the SWP and YSA based on their ideas and activities. They also want damages, she said, for illegal activities committed against them by the government.  
 
April 16, 1956
It will take 100 station wagons to operate an effective transportation system for the Negro people in Montgomery, according to Rev. M.L. King, leader of the bus protest movement in that city.

In an interview with a staff writer for the weekly Afro-American, the Rev. Mr. King disclosed that the Montgomery Improvement Association had applied for a “jitney service” franchise.

“We were turned down and plan to apply again. If the franchise is not granted, perhaps we will run a free jitney service.

“I think that we could do with about 100 station wagons. We could operate the free transportation system through contributions in our churches.”

Farrell Dobbs, National Secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, now on tour in support of the bus protest movement, is emphasizing the need for station wagons to build the Montgomery car pool. He is calling on union members and leaders to express their support in the form of collections to buy station wagons for the freedom fighters of Montgomery.  
 
April 15, 1931
Alfonso has quit the soil of Spain and the bourgeois republicans, assisted by their socialist allies, have proclaimed the republic. The universal acclaim with which the departure of the royal family was met by the people furnishes eloquent testimony to the profound unpopularity of the monarchy. In the proclamation of the republic, the Spanish masses have taken their first big step in breaking with the old régime and towards establishing their own rule tomorrow.

But the bloodless victory of the republican-socialist alliance over the Spanish monarch guarantees neither the radical uprooting of monarchical rule, the establishment of the republic, nor the real people’s régime of tomorrow. The essential evils with which the reign of the Bourbons inflicted the people still remain. More, the republican bourgeoisie, even with the servile aid of the social democrats, is incapable of solving any of the tasks which press with such burning urgency for solution.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home