One of the most successful areas of Trojan Horse infiltration was labor unions. In 1937, employees at the Fisher Body Works in Flint, Michigan, entered the plant, sat at their machines, refused to work, and refused to leave. The sit-down strike was born. A court order to leave was defied and jeered. When the sheriff asked Governor Frank Murphy for help, Murphy refused, instead he arranged for negotiations between union officials and the company. Condoning this illegal, revolutionary-style seizure of private property, led to 250 sit-downs in the Detroit area alone. At the request of Vice President John Nance Garner (one of the few top officials not infected with the Marxist virus, he refused to run for a third term with FDR), Dies gained House passage of a resolution to condemn and curb sit-down strikes. But FDR refused to support it, and liberals in the Senate defeated it to the roaring approval of a violent mob in the gallery. (Dies observed that the importance of Committee moves could be gauged by the fierceness of the opposition. This one was a whopper.) So was set the precedent for the whittling away of property rights -- a lesson well learned by conditioned students who staged the outrageous sit-downs and destruction of private university property in the 1960s, forcing spineless (or sympathetic) university presidents to cave in to their ultra-left, Marxist demands. When the Dies Committee investigated the Detroit upheavals, sworn testimony revealed that well-known Communists had instigated and directed the sit-down strikes. These Communists also directed the mob of 15,000 men who barricaded the State Capitol and, armed with clubs, prepared to march on the University of Michigan. Michigan State Police sat by helplessly with no instructions from Governor Murphy; the governor was in daily communication with FDR, who advised him not to use state troops in the face of open insurrection. When the Committee exposed these facts, FDR assailed Dies with the usual accusations of absurdly false charges, although the main Committee witness was the Chief of the Michigan State Police. Dies produced evidence that the leadership of 12 of the constituent unions of the CIO were either card-holding members of the Communist Party or subservient followers of that Party's line. Former American Communist Party functionary Benjamin Gitlow wrote in his celebrated book 'The Whole of Their Lives' that "it was Stalin himself who told us that he would rather get one union official into the Communist Party than 10,000 rank and file members." Dies produced Communist literature stating that union strikes are viewed as dress rehearsals for violent revolution; nevertheless, with protection from on high, Communist infiltration of unions ran rampant. For instance, the notorious Communist Jack Stachel was given general supervision of trade unions while B.K. Gebert was assigned to organizing and directing strikes. William Weinstone, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, was in charge of activities in the United Automobile Workers. In 1935 Stachel reported that "the old, conservative leadership of the (AFofL) is tottering.... Henceforth organized labor is definitely on the road toward bitter and gigantic class battles..." Communist records obtained by Dies indicated that leaders assumed great credit for organizing the steel, automobile, rubber, glass, and textiles industries. But the ordinary union worker, fed a diet of class hatred and resentment against management was ignorant of the fact he was being used to carry our Communist objectives. Well-meaning citizens were deceived in many other ways. One was by the use of words. Although the Dies Committee exposed numerous Nazi and Fascist fronts that folded due to scathing publicity and administration opposition, it was a different story when it came to Communism. Of more than 600 Communist or Communist front organizations exposed, the majority simply sneered at the Committee, changed their names to high-sounding titles (such as Committee for the Protection of the Bill of Rights or China Welfare Appeal), and continued their activities unopposed by either the administration or media. This sort of problem was made more difficult when FDR refused to cooperate with the Committee to obtain testimony from Leon Trotsky, then living in exile in Mexico. A bitter enemy of Stalin (who had been quicker to seize power), Trotsky offered to appear before the Committee to expose Stalinists in America and explain their conspiracy. Dies knew that Trotsky possessed an invaluable list of every member of the Communist Party in the U.S., Mexico, and South America, which Trotsky was eager to turn over to the Committee. Yet, when Dies requested a visa for Trotsky, the State Department responded that it could not guarantee Trotsky's protection and that, if Trotsky came to the U.S., Dies would have to be personally responsible for his safety. Although Dies challenged this double standard, pointing out that protection had been provided for other controversial figures, in the end he was forced to abandon this extraordinary opportunity to obtain revelations that our security agencies could have used to smash the many spy rings engaged in the theft of military, scientific, and diplomatic secrets so desired by the Soviets. Undeterred by ridicule, threats (the IRS audited his papers for six months), or bribes (even the promise of the Vice Presidency if he would simply keep his mouth shut). Dies continued his crusade, while the liberals, with their customary hypocrisy, assailed him for violating freedom of thought and speech. Dies went to great lengths to explain that our Republic has to have a way to prevent revolutionaries from using civil liberties to destroy civil liberties; that Communists were serving a foreign dictator committed to the destruction of our country; and that, of all the methods of defense, fearless exposure was the mildest and most effective means. Dies remained always vigilant against reckless charges or character assassination, more concerned with facts that opinions and with specific proof than generalities. As an experienced attorney, Dies was well aware of what was admissible in court, what constituted proof of subversive activity, and what was an hones difference of opinion. The record shows that the committee held to those standards throughout, balancing the demands of the Constitution with the imperatives of national security. No one has ever produced evidence that Dies was other than fair, straightforward, and honest, or that he ever maligned anyone. But there were no such standards when it came to mercilessly maligning Dies. In 'Martin Dies' Story', Dies discusses the corruption that overtook our once-factual media in the 1930s. Prior to this time, he says, most newspapers took pride in being objective, confining their opinions and prejudices to their editorials. During the 1930s, this standard swiftly deteriorated as reporters and columnists joined in all-out support for the Liberal Front. Their favorite victim was the Dies Committee, their chief weapons were irony, ridicule, invective, and vituperation. Reporters from the United Press, many of them Communist sympathizers, were particularly vicious; even those from the staid Associated Press were openly hostile. Many reporters were members of the Newspaper Guild, an affiliate of the CIO so far to the Left that the Committee found that the New York City chapter actually was Communist controlled. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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