SYNOPSIS

Current operations of the Communist Party in Northern California-in terms of tactics, leaders, and techniques to avoid detection-were the focus of committee hearings held in San Francisco, May 12-14, 1960.

Extensive evidence of party actions on the national level was also received as party documents were put into the record tracing the activities of Northern California Communist leaders up to their roles at the Communist Party 17th National Convention in New York City, December 10-13, 1959.

A total of 46 witnesses testified before the committee in its first hearing in the area since the party, in 1957, reorganized and elevated its Northern California membership into a "district"-separate and distinct from the Southern California party apparatus.

Karl Prussion, who left the Communist Party in August 1959, after 26 years' membership, testified that Communists sought to fulfill "prerequisities" for the overthrow of the American form of government by "the infiltration of social, economic, and political organizations" in this country. By the process of infiltration, Mr. Prussion stated, Communists hope not only to gain leadership in the organzations but also to arouse in non-Communists hatred against big business and against the Government.

A former dedicated Communist who later became an informant within the party for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mr. Prussion described, from his own experience in party cells in the Los Altos, Mountain View, and Palo Alto communities, how Communists have concentrated on infiltrating non-Communist, community-level groups. The witness said the Communists in his cell joined a "splenlid" local civic organization dedicated "to the principles of our Amercan way of life" and managed to make an impact on its policies. Specific Communist attempts to exert influence from within parenteacher associations and political organizations were also described by he witness.

Communists were directed to ditch the party-controlled political rganization, the Independent Progressive Party, after the 1952 elecions and to become active in the Democratic Party, Mr. Prussion tated. He named a number of Communists who became active in the California Democratic Clubs in the Palo Alto and Stanford areas as result of this shift in party policy. Ed Ross, Los Altos salesman hose principal party assignment was activity in local Democratic Clubs according to Mr. Prussion, appeared as a witness before the ommittee but invoked his constitutional privilege against self-inrimination in response to questions dealing with party affiliation. nother witness called during the hearings was William Reich, of akland, who also invoked the fifth amendment when asked if he

made his Communist Party affiliation known to the 8th Congressional District Democratic Council, which he served as corresponding secretary.

The aforementioned Ed Ross was also closely questioned by the committee regarding his contacts as a ball-bearing salesman with plants in missile and allied industries. Mr. Prussion had testified that Mr. Ross boasted to fellow Communist cell members on one occasion that he knew when and where missiles were fired, as well as the types of missiles and the direction of firing. Mr. Ross refused to affirm or deny Mr. Prussion's testimony.

Efforts to recruit non-Communist supporters for party policy and activities through front organizations created by the party were illus trated by the activities of the Palo Alto Peace Club. Set up by the party in 1949, this Communist front still uses "peace as a means of disarming, pacifying, and placating the citizenry of a nation," Mr. Prussion testified. Its official organ, The Flashlight, serves as the "megaphone of the voice from the Kremlin," the witness declared.

Doris Dawson, identified by Mr. Prussion as a fellow Communist cell member and one-time president of the Palo Alto Peace Club, was called as a witness before the committee but invoked her constitutional privilege against self-incrimination in response to various committee questions, including that of whether she had been a paid functionary of the Communist Party.

Communist documents distributed to delegates to the party's 17th National Convention were introduced in the course of the hearings. The documents, which have been reproduced in an appendix to the printed hearings, verify that the party faithful, not only in California but throughout the Nation, are being called upon for intensive effort in infiltrating non-Communist organizations, with special emphasis on those dealing with labor, the Negro, youth politics, and farmers. The documents include an important policy statement by the party's national leader, Gus Hall, and proposed reso lutions for action by the convention. They were analyzed at the hearings by Mrs. Barbara Hartle, who testified on the basis of many years' previous experience as a full-time, paid functionary of the Communist Party. Mrs. Hartle declared that the Communist Party continues to exploit the privileges of democracy and, despite various public statements to the contrary, the party has not altered its basic belief in the seizure of power by force. The party, she said, looks forward to "mass action," to

breaking through the bourgeois laws, traditions and conventions, and doing by force and by mass action, by sheer bodily weight and numbers, what you cannot accomplish through using the laws, the Constitution and the democratic rights

***

Considerable testimony dealt with varied techniques employed by Communists to obscure technical membership in the party. These techniques pose difficult legal problems which are under continuous study by members of the committee. Mr. Prussion described four types of party "membership":

1. They have one type of member who attends cell meetings, pays his dues.

2. They have another type of Communist, because he doesn't want to identify himself with the cell for fear of exposure by an informant such as myself, who has a courier pay his dues. 3. Then there are many, many Communists who have dropped out of the Communist Party, conveniently, so that they can hide their identity and in that way are better able to carry out the revolutionary work.

4. There is a fourth type of Communist who is never associated with a cell, but he is a Leninist, and so imbued with the forthcoming revolution that he works diligently wherever possible and keeps contact with Communist leaders on the higher level.

This type of a Communist is usually a doctor, a lawyer, a political officer, and in the professional field of life. The witness said that, in his experience, as many Communists have technically dropped out of the party to hide their identity in recent years as have remained in it as formal cell members. He described the chief purpose of these technical withdrawals as desire to hide Communist connections in view of the individual's occupation and to avoid the impact of security laws. He cited as illustrations two fellow cell members: William King, who resigned from the cell and retained party contact only on an upper level because he wanted to continue working as an electronics engineer in a local plant; and Elliott Wilson, who was the subject of a fraudulent expulsion from the party so that he could apply for a teaching license from the state and swear he was not a member of the party.

Mrs. Hartle also testified to the existence of a "large group of Communist followers or associates" who do not have formal party memDership, pay dues, or attend meetings but, nevertheless, follow the discipline of the party insofar as their activities and field of work are

concerned.

Quite another type of formal dissociation from the Communist Party was demonstrated to the committee as details of the "Vernon Bown case" were unfolded during the hearings. In 1959, as the reult of a policy disagreement with higher party officials in the Northrn California District, Bown was unwillingly ousted from his job as rganizer for an important party section in San Francisco embracng party members affiliated with the unions traditionally in the AFL. He was finally expelled from the party itself.

Documents written by Bown and a Communist section associate, eibel Bergman, on the details of this internal party conflict were obined by the committee from sources within the party and made part f the hearing record.

The documents provided striking corroboration of testimony rearding the totalitarian nature of the Communist Party organizaon. The written complaints of Bown and Bergman noted that own had been ousted from his party office and the party despite the pport of other Communists in his club and section; that he was nvicted at a party "trial" which neither he nor any of his representives were allowed to attend; and Bown was never fully informed of e nature of the charges against him. There was better observance the principles of justice in a Nazi court than in the Communist arty, the complainants observed in an appeal that went all the way

56597-60-pt. 1-2

to the National Convention of the party without results. Called as witnesses before the committee, Mr Bown and Mr. Bergman invoked the fifth amendment in response to all questions relating to this party controversy. Similar stands were taken by two other witnesses, Jack Weintraub and John Andrew Negro who, according to committee information, supported Bown in the inner party councils. Wit ness Prussion summed up the "democracy" in internal operations of the party as follows:

Within the Communist Party there is total disregard for law *** there are rigged trials, forced confessions, provocations of suicides of Communists who have deviated, reprisals of Communists who might deviate even on party strategy. The committee called as witnesses five of the nine Communist Party functionaries who represented the Northern California District at the party's National Convention in New York City in December 1959. Despite party documents inserted into the record to show their partici pation in the convention, the following delegates uniformly refused to answer pertinent questions by the committee:

Archie Brown, San Francisco longshoreman and, according to committee information, the second-ranking Communist in the Northern California District; his official party post is district committee member in charge of trade union matters.

Ralph Izard, of San Francisco, active in Communist propaganda work in addition to serving on the San Francisco County Committee of the party.

Joseph Figueiredo, active party official in Massachusetts until his transfer to Northern California party activities. He served on the district committee of the party in 1957.

Saul Wachter, of Berkeley, active in the party's East Bay region Political Committee, according to the committee's information.

Douglas Wachter, student at the University of California and a leader in Communist work among youth.

Other witnesses subpenaed to appear before the committee on the basis of committee information respecting their leading roles in Northern California Communist echelons included the following individuals who, in every instance, invoked their constitutional privilege against self-incrimination and refused to answer pertinent questions: Merle Brodsky, Oakland; Noel Harris, Eureka; Ann Deirup, Berkeley; Elizabeth Nicholas, Sunnyvale; Donald H. Clark, San Jose: Morris Graham, San Jose; Sally Attarian Sweet, Hayward; Lillian Ransome, Wheatland; Ruben Venger, Cotati.

Six individuals employed as teachers were subpenaed before the committee on the basis of information that they have also been active in the Communist Party. Martin Irving Marcus, public school teacher of Pacific Grove; Lottie L. Rosen, teacher from Berkeley: Betty Halpern, a teacher in a Berkeley private school; and Travis Lafferty, Oakland teacher, invoked the fifth amendment when questioned regarding past and present Communist Party membership. Tillman H. Erb, a teacher at the Campbell School in Santa Clara County, California, stated he was willing to discuss his own activities but would not testify regarding others associated with him. Wher the committee did not agree to such qualifications, Mr. Erb declined to answer all questions concerning Communist Party activities on the

ground of possible self-incrimination. John Allen Johnson, a high school mathematics teacher of Ukiah, California, also declared he had decided to "offer a certain degree of cooperation" to the committee by answering questions concerning his own associations but not those of other individuals. Claiming that disorderly demonstrations against the hearings had altered his plans, Mr. Johnson proceeded to respond to all questions by invoking the fifth amendment.

Two other witnesses with teacher training, but employed in other capacities, were called before the committee as a result of information that they have been affiliated with the Communist Party. Ralph Johnsen, of Berkeley, presently a machinist, admitted he had resigned as a teacher in 1950 rather than subscribe to loyalty oath requirements but had finally agreed to sign such an oath in 1958. He denied present party membership but invoked the fifth amendment when asked whether he had been a member prior to 1958. Louis Zeitz, a graduate student at Stanford University holding teaching credentials he has never used, invoked his constitutional privileges in response to all questions concerning Communist activity.

Karl Prussion, in a resumption of his testimony in Washington, D.C., on June 10, emphasized that the Communist Party is a party of Leninism and that party members, as disciples of Lenin, strive to bring about the prerequisite conditions that will make it possible for them to overthrow the Government by force and violence and set up a dictatorship of the Communist Party. Mr. Prussion outlined the four prerequisites of Communist revolution as follows:

1. The establishment of a dedicated Communist Party nucleus which is strong enough to lead an insurrection to overthrow our Government by force and violence.

2. Disunity in the Government of our Nation; dissension within the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of our Government on vital current issues.

3. A chaotic economic situation in which the Communists, through their leadership in social, economic, and political organizations, could successfully carry out a revolution. This situation could be a depression or an inflationary spiral.

4. The establishment of a trade-union movement which the Communists can successfully actuate into a political strike. Mr. Prussion expressed the opinion that current Communist Party trength of approximately 10,000 hard-core, formal members, plus (his estimate) its equal number of secret members, is sufficient to carry out n insurrection "if the other prerequisites are attained."

He quoted as evidence for this belief a report by Communist Party fficial James S. Allen to the National Executive Committee of the arty on May 9, 1958. In that report, Mr. Allen stated:

Yet, in seeking to chart our road to socialism, we are in a much better position than the Marxists in the period before the Great Russian Revolution, which pioneered the road, or than we were before World War II, before a number of countries took that road.

Mr. Prussion explained that, to the Communists, all Communist arty activity is "revolutionary" in nature, whether it be in political, onomic, or social organizations and even though, on the surface, it ould appear to be "peaceful work within our Constitution and within r Bill of Rights."