Speech #790173703

Harold J. Laski. Red Fascist leader of England. -attacked the Catholic Church at a meeting sponsored by the Spanish Refugee Appeal of the Joint AntiFascist Refugee Committee at a rally held in Madison Square Garden. A few days later. this same Communist propagandist attacked our system of Government and attempted to discredit capitalism and the part our Government had played in the winning of the war. Following the attacks by this disciple of Marx and Lenin. the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities received over 8.000 complaints against Laski. the Joint AntiFascist Refugee Committee. the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and the American Committee for *Spanish Freedom. The Committee on UnAmerican Activities. therefore. decided to investigate the charges made by over 8.000 citizens of the United States against the Joint AntiFascist Refugee Committee. the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. and the American Committee for Spanish Freedom. The investigation of the Joint AntiFascist Refugee Committee divulged. among other things. that the sponsors and officers of this group included some of the leadirig Communists and Communist sympathizers in the United States. It was further determined that this organization was a merger of three groups consisting of first. American Committee to Save Refugees. which was cited as a Communist front by the Dies committee on March 29. 1944. second. the League of American Writers. which was found to be a cooperating arm of the Communist Party by the RappCoudert committee of New York State in 1942. Harold Ickes. in a letter to Robert Morss Lovett. dated April 25. 1941. described the League of American Writers as a Communist subsidiary. its policies paralleling the Communist Party. Attorney General Francis Biddle stated on September 24. 1942. that this league was founded under Communist auspices and that the overt activities of the league left no doubt of its Communist control. third. the third organization which was merged to create the Joint AntiFascist Refugee Committee. was the United American Spanish Aid Committee. This organization was cited as a Communist front on March 29. 1944. by the Dies committee. This is the historical background of the formation of the Joint AntiFascist Refugee Committee. which indicates beyond any doubt that it was born of communism. The chairman of the committee is Dr. Edward K.