Peter Camejo, the presidential candidate of the SWP, greeted the decision as a "victory for the democratic rights of all Americans."

Camejo, appearing today with his vice-presidential running-mate, Willie Mae Reid, at a news conference in Washington, said the SWP and YSA would move "full-speed ahead" with their campaign against government spying and harassment.

He said the ruling by Attorney General Edward Levi would now "accelerate the pace, scope, and impact" of the suit against the FBI and other federal police agencies, which is being heard in federal district courts in Manhattan.

The presidential candidate told reporters at the news conference that the socialists are seeking:

• "a permanent injunction to outlaw all of the techniques of spying and disruption used against us by the FBI and other political police agencies." Such an injunction would mean that no attorney general could reverse this decision on the SWP without going to court to lift the injunction;
• "the immediate transfer to our hands of all files the government has on the SWP"; and
• "$40 million in damages."

"The Levi decision is the biggest opening yet for all those determined to bring a halt to the government's program of political spying and harassment, " Camejo said.
 
September 24, 1951
CHICAGO, Sept. 19: Yesterday a Cook County Grand Jury handed down indictments against the victims of the Cicero riots last July.

According to the Grand Jury, to sell or rent Cicero property to a Negro is "conspiracy to injure property," "conspiracy to injure the financial value of the real estate in the vicinity," and "inciting to riot."

However, it is legal to pass out inflammatory, anti-Negro literature, and it is legal to burn, wreck, and destroy property belonging to a Negro.

It is only illegal to have a black skin in the city of Cicero, County of Cook, Illinois.

A no-bill [failure to indict] was returned in the case of the notorious Joseph Beauharnis, head of the White Circle League, who openly distributed inflammatory, anti-Negro literature and participated in the riot. No-bills were also returned in the case of all 117 rioters arrested at the scene, and in the case of all Cicero officials except [police chief Erwin] Konowsky.

It is not only the vast Negro population of Cook County which is shaking its collective head in amazed disbelief and anger this morning. The complacency with which Chicago liberals had awaited the Grand Jury findings has changed to a dazed "They can't do this." But they have: And the time for vigorous counter-action has arrived.

So far the NAACP has placed full reliance on the courts and other official bodies. The stab in the back by the Grand Jury shows that the Negro people cannot depend on legal enforcement of their rights by Jim Crow politicians.

The capitalists politicians understand only one language--mass pressure.  
 
 
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