Vol. 72/No. 8      February 25, 2008

A suit has been brought against the Socialist Workers Party by a former member, Alan Gelfand. Gelfand was expelled from the party in 1979 for going into court against the SWP.

Gelfand is asking the court to restore his membership in the SWP; to declare that his expulsion from the party was a breach of contract subject to court regulation; and to order that the members of the SWP responsible for his expulsion be removed by the courts from the leadership positions to which they were elected by the membership of the SWP.

District Court Judge Mariana Pfaelzer, who is presiding over this case, has repeatedly refused to throw out this suit.  
 
February 24, 1958
Governor Faubus and the white supremacists of Little Rock have scored an important victory. Minnie Jean Brown, one of the nine Negro students in Central High School, has been expelled. The racists are jubilantly crowing their new slogan—which has already been displayed on placards within the school—“One down and eight to go!”

In Central High a small core of racist students began a twofold campaign. By threats and violence they intimidated the small group of white students who had displayed friendliness to the nine Negro students. Simultaneously they began an increasingly vicious campaign of harassment and violence against the Negro students.

Minnie Jean Brown, 16, was particularly singled out for such treatment. In several instances she flared back at her tormentors. For this she was twice suspended.  
 
February 24, 1933
Berlin, February 11—While the Fascist hordes are at the helm of government in Germany they have not yet conquered. Throughout the Reich there is an ominous calm, a lull before the storm, but interrupted surreptitiously by the barking of guns in clashes between workers and Fascists. But these are only vanguard skirmishes before the battle.

The situation as a whole leaves a painful impression as if the German working masses do not yet really know what is at stake. The advent of the Hitler government found them stunned, bewildered, and unprepared, left in the lurch by the deliberate treason of the Socialist party bureaucrats and the criminal failures of the Communist party Stalinist leadership.

Yet all is not lost. The issue is not yet decided. The German workers have previously proven their gigantic fighting capacity and they will still have a decisive word to say.  
 
 
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