The Communist Party’s advice for comrades under arrest.

‘How to Act Under Arrest and Police Terrorism,’ Central Control Commission Directives from Party Organizer. Vol. 4 No. 4. May, 1931.

WITH the continuation and the deepening of the crisis, which is accompanied by a great sharpening of the class struggle, the fighting organizations of the working class are subjected to ever increasing vicious attacks from various government agencies.

Injunctions against strikers, mass arrests, deportations, police raids upon workers’ organizations and gatherings, and brutal beatings of those arrested are daily occurrences in various parts of the country.

And while the Communist Party and the revolutionary unions, as well as other working class organizations, are fighting in the open, are not concealing their aims and tactics; it is the capitalist government itself that is trying to outlaw them, is trying to drive them underground.

Not only that, but in their attempts to terrorize the workers and to force them patiently to submit themselves to wage cuts and speed-up, and to unemployment with its attending misery, starvation and suffering, the ‘”red squads” and the strongarm thugs of the police pay no attention to the laws and constitutional guarantees of the capitalist government itself.

In this situation, it is of the utmost importance for all class conscious revolutionary workers to have a clear understanding and firm determination as to certain fundamental policies and rules of conduct which they should follow in order to protect themselves, their organizations and their fellow workers and comrades from the frame-up and intimidation methods of the ruling class.

Every member, and especially every leading member, of the Communist Party, of the revolutionary unions, of shop organizations and strike committees, as well as of all other workers’ organizations, must be ready and determined to do and to bear everything for the protection of the revolutionary proletarian movement from the attacks of the capitalists and their government.

He must keep in mind and observe at all times the first basic general rule to safeguard from the police and from the agents of the bosses all important organization documents, instructions, mailing lists, leading functionaries, etc.

He must not carry around with him such papers and addresses any more than absolutely necessary. He must not keep them in well-known and easily accessible places where raids and arrests can be expected.

When arrested and subjected to beatings and torture, he must insist upon his constitutional right to refuse to answer any questions before being brought to court, and he must insist upon his right to consult a lawyer, whom he can select himself.

He does not have to answer even such questions as to whether or not he is a member of the Communist Party or of some other working class organization.

At the same time, of course, he should realize the fact that his legal rights will not be respected by the police thugs and third-degree experts, and that the only thing by which he can defeat all their wiles and tortures will be his moral courage and stamina, and his steadfast will power not to give in. He must refuse to give to the police any information whatever, regardless of what methods and brutalities they may employ to break down his physical and moral resistance; not to believe their claims, or yield to their promises; not to give any promises to them, even though determined not to carry them out.

No credence should be given to the claims of the police that they have obtained “confessions” from some other comrades. That is a favorite method of the police, by which they try to sow distrust among the workers, try to break down their morale, and by which the police try to get confirmation for their conjectures and guesses, or for some information, obtained from unreliable stool-pigeon sources, which even in their own eyes cannot be trusted without confirmation.

Another trap frequently employed by the police, when all their brutalities and tortures fail to break down the refusal of the arrested comrade to give them any information right then and there, is to offer cessation of beatings and to promise immediate release against the mere promise of the arrested comrade to stop his activities in the revolutionary movement, or to leave the city, or to, report to the police in the future upon the plans and activities of the movement.

This is a clever stratagem on the part of the police, because the arrested worker may yield to it, may give the promise without intention of keeping it, and with the idea that this would be a good stratagem on his part in fooling the police.

In the end, however, such promises, though given in words only, do not fool the police, but serve their purposes, and are apt to turn out very detrimental to the movement and to the worker himself.

Having obtained such promises from one worker, the police will try to get them from others also, and, if resisted, will subject them to additional brutalities.

Having succeeded in breaking down the morale of a worker once, however slightly, the police will try to break it down further the next time they lay their hands on him, and will be so much more ruthless in their efforts to do so. Not only that, but the realization of this, the constant fear of reprisals from the police is apt to have very demoralizing effect on the comrade in his future activities.

And also, the information about the “promise” is apt to become known, to be spread by the police itself or by disruptive elements, and thus destroy the confidence which a worker must have among his fellow workers in order to do effective work for the movement.

The best policy all round, the policy that has been tested and found correct in many years of experience in the revolutionary movement in old Czarist Russia and in present fascist Poland and Italy, is to refuse steadfastly to give any information whatever, any promises, or any concessions or satisfaction to the police.

Later, when a comrade may be brought to a court trial, he should still remember that he cannot be forced to testify against himself. If he IS known as a leading member of the Party, or, if he is known even as only a rank-and-file member of the Party, denial of such membership may be futile and harmful.

While still guarding against giving any information which the government may want for use against the Party, or against other workers’ organizations, the aim should be to turn the trial into an open tribunal for the spreading and propagating of Communist ideas and aims.

In each particular case, however, the detailed plans and policies to be followed in court trials, are to be worked out by responsible Party committees.

The Party Organizer was the internal bulletin of the Communist Party published by its Central Committee beginning in 1927. First published irregularly, than bi-monthly, and then monthly, the Organizer was primarily meant for the Party’s unit, district, and shop organizers. The Organizer offers a much different view of the CP than the Daily Worker, including a much higher proportion of women writers than almost any other CP publication. Its pages are often full of the mundane problems of Party organizing, complaints about resources, debates over policy and personalities, as well as official numbers and information on Party campaigns, locals, organizations, and periodicals making the Party Organizer an important resource for the study and understanding of the Party in its most important years.

PDF of issue (large file, contains multiple volumes): https://files.libcom.org/files/Party%20Organizer%204.pdf