09.03.1995

United States: No comment required

From The Call, paper of the British Socialist Party, March 11 1920

The Communist, organ of the Communist Party of America, appears ... (February 15) with no signed articles or printer’s address. Possibly in connection with this, it states that “about 3,000 members of the Communist Party are being held at Ellis Island, New York City; Deer Island, Boston; and in prisons throughout the country ... charged with being members of the Communist Party ... Over 250 members of the Party, amongst them the entire central executive committee and all the translator secretaries of the federations, are under indictment under ‘criminal syndicalism’ and ‘criminal anarchy’ laws.

“...The programme of the Party has been declared illegal and the Party organisation is under ban ...

“The Party organisation must go underground ... Open branch meetings should be discontinued at once ... All membership cards and charters should be destroyed. The details of the organisation plan will be communicated to the Party units through new channels.”