My appeal for aid was published in the July 1 issue of Rassviet. No doubt some of those who read that appeal have thought that because I was a political prisoner I should ask for aid from the International Labor Defense, since this organization professes to specialize in aiding political prisoners. When I was a political prisoner in the Federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, I wrote many times to the International Labor Defense in New York asking for aid. I appealed to the general secretary of this organization to investigate my case and to send me a few dollars for cigarettes. They declined to send me any aid and they refused to investigate my case. Why? Because the International Labor Defense is not interested in such matters. Other things, which have nothing in common with political affairs, occupy their attention, as, for instance, the Scottsboro case.

2

Many people all over America wonder why the so widely publicized Scottsboro nonsense has been made into a great political case. And why the issues of the Scottsbore case have been changed to involve politics? All this has been done simply because the gadabouts and idlers of the International Labor Defense need money, much money, many thousands of dollars every year. In order to get the money from the pockets of poor workers it was necessary to work on their sentiments, and after it had been transformed into a great political case the Scottsboro case provided a good opportunity to that end.

Everyone who reads newspapers well knows that the Scottsboro case was purely a criminal affair, having no political aspect of any kind. In 1928, in the state of Alabama, ten young Negrees and two white girls were traveling without tickets in a freight car. The girls were raped by the Negroes, and the offenders were brought before the courts to answer for their crime. Nothing political about it. Many thousands of dollars have been spent on this case already, and the end is not near. The International Labor Defense with all its branches.

3

also the Daily Worker are now in the thick of a campaign to collect twenty thousand dollars for the Scottsbore case. When this sum is collected there will be a cry for more. This is their great political program.

At the time I left the Leavenworth penitentiary there were some two hundred political and wartime prisoners in that penal institution, and they were all sentenced to long terms. However, none of them ever received any assistance from the International Labor Defense. I know it because I asked them about it many times. Neither they nor their families received a penny from this organization. The International Labor Defense is interested mainly in collecting their monthly membership dues of ten cents from their many branches scattered all over the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

What right, then, have the International Labor Defense to collect tens of thousands of dollars supposedly for the aid of the politically-persecuted people all ever the world, if they subsequently refuse such aid to that very group?

4

What disposal is made of the money collected for that purpose from the working people of the United States? In this organization's many articles and appeals which appear regularly in the Daily Worker and in other newspapers, the International Labor Defense tries to convey the impression that it is actually engaged in bringing wide and effective aid to political prisoners. It asks for new and greater contributions to the defense fund of the organization, "to case the lot of political prisoners suffering in the prisons of many countries".

I remember the years before the World War when I was in a position to help others and to contribute to the general welfare of some people. I regarded it as my duty to do so. Every man of sound mind should feel it his obligation to help others if he possibly can. As soon as I get back on my feet I shall again open my heart and my pocketbook to those in need. But I will not give a penny to the International Labor Defense. In my humble opinion the International Labor Defense does not offer defense, but offense to every intelligent worker. It should be run from out our midst.