Hal Draper



SWP in Big Push on All
Anti-War Drive Fronts

Branches Work Hard to Come in Under Wire in Fund Drive –
Mass Meetings Held All Over Nation In Fight Against War

(11 September 1939)


From Socialist Appeal, Vol. III No. 68, 11 September 1939, pp. 1 & 3.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.


The “state of emergency” into which the Party has entered in its fight against the war continues with mass rallies, outdoor and indoor, attended by the largest crowds the Party has ever spoken to.

Six more branches came through during the past week on the Anti-War Fund, going over the top on the September 15 quotas.

The New York local is transforming its councilmanic election campaign into a city-wide anti-war drive, in order to utilize the opportunity afforded by the elections to bring its message to new thousands of workers. Under the slogan of “Vote for the Anti-War Party!” all New York branches and comrades are giving this drive first place in their activities, to insure that Comrades Shachtman and Paine get on the ballot.
 

Record Street Sales

The record runs of the Socialist Appeal which have been coming off the press three times a week are being sold out on the streets in all the main centers of the Party.

Ten branches in all are now under the wire in the Fund drive. Those which made the grade during the past week are: Detroit, Baltimore, Lexington, Ky., Evansville, Ind., Marston Mills, Mass., and Conneaut, Ohio. The last two have in addition fulfilled their entire quota in the $10,000 drive, the figure for September 15 being half of this total. The four other branches which were already in are: Toledo, Hartford, Calais, Me., and Rochester. In addition, San Francisco, Youngstown, Washington, D.C., and Akron have pulled themselves out of the $00.00 class and have shipped in their first instalments on their quotas.

The New York series of neighborhood mass meetings covering the whole city were held on Thursday and Friday, September 7-8, with uniform success. As scheduled, rallies were held by the Needle Trades branch, in the Bronx, Astoria, Brownsville, Downtown Manhattan and the Lower East Side. The audiences included a large number of young men of draft age and many Stalinists; the questions and lively discussion which followed the main speeches were sufficiently indicative of the anti-war temper of the workers, many of whom had never before come to listen to us.

The preceding day, on Wednesday, a New York Party membership meeting was held at Irving Plaza with an almost capacity attendance of the membership. Comrade Cannon, National Secretary of the Party, reported on some of the problems raised in the present war crisis and on the tasks of the Party.

Some of the Party rallies which have been held, according to our latest reports, are as follows.
 

Other Cities

Los Angeles ... mass meeting in Embassy Hall on the Stalin-Hitler deal and the War crisis, August 30. As was true of the other meetings, numbers of workers in the hall asked to be informed of other activities of the Socialist Workers Party.

St. Louis ... Indoor meetings on August 29, with a larger rally planned for September 8.

St. Paul ... The Socialist Workers Party branch in this city has introduced the innovation of holding street meetings, such meetings not having been organized by any party in St. Paul for years.

Philadelphia ... Felix Morrow on September 8.

Rochester ... public meeting on the war with Hal Draper as speaker, September 3.

Worcester ... highly successful meeting on the war and the Stalinazi pact, September 2.

Minneapolis ... Several hundred people heard Max Shachtman in the spacious hall of the S.W.P. headquarters on Marquette Street, on September 1 ... We are also informed that radio station KSTP, which had scheduled a forum on Let the People Vote on War with an S.W.P. representative and State Commander Briggs of the American Legion as opposing speaker, has called it off. The reason is: on account of the war crisis!

Youngstown ... Another successful stop in the speaking tour of B.J. Widick, national labor secretary of the Party, was made here on September 5, with a capacity audience and many contacts made.

All branches are urged to send in announcements of all meetings and rallies which are scheduled, and reports of all outdoor and indoor meetings.


Last updated on 11 March 2016