Three notices chronicling the 1934 attack on the Young Communist League’s Sumer School held at the Finnish Hall in Van Etten, New York and the subsequent organizing of defense, including by left-wing veterans in the Workers Ex-Servicemen’s League. Van Etten, in the Finger Lakes, was also the sight of a Communist summer camp which saw a number of Klan attacks, including assaults and kidnappings, in the 1930s.

‘Workers and Farmers Defend Van Etten Finnish Workers Hall Against K.K.K.’ from the Daily Worker. Vol. 11. Nos. 178, 183, & 208. July-August, 1934.

‘KKK Hoodlums Make Night Raid on Finnish School in Van Etten.’ July 26, 1934.

VAN ETTEN, N. Y July 25. —Ku Klux Klan hoodlums broke into the Finnish Hall here late Monday night, broke doors and windows and chased fifty-four boy and girl students from their beds as a fulfillment of their threats of terrorization against militant working class organizations. The Finnish Hall is being used as a summer training school for youth members of the Finnish Workers Federation. The students from eleven states are attending courses in sociology, economics and working class organization principles. The F.W.F. is urging every working class organization to send wires of protest immediately to Governor Lehman, Albany, N.Y., and to Mayor Westbrook, Van Etten, demanding the arrest and punishment of those who participated in the raid on the school.

‘Workers and Farmers In Van Etten Defend Finnish Workers Hall.’ August 01, 1934.

VAN ETTEN, N. Y„ July 31— Barricades have been erected around the Finnish Hall here where a summer training school is being conducted by the youth clubs of the Finnish Workers’ Federation following another attack by Ku Klux Klan hoodlums Saturday night. Hundreds of workers and farmers of the surrounding territory have massed to the defense of the students. In spite of the danger from attack, courses are being continued as before, with students and workers ready to defend themselves at any moment. Saturday’s attack was the fourth in the last two weeks. Hundreds of hoodlums were mobilized from several New York and Pennsylvania towns. The arrival of 20 state police prevented a clash between the K.K.K. and the hundreds of workers and farmers defending the school. On July 25, the K.K.K. hoodlums broke into the hall, smashed doors and windows and chased 54 boy and girl students from their beds.

‘Red Builders Needed.’ August 30, 1934.

Dear Comrades:
The Youth School, for the New York Eastern District Y. C.L., at which there is an attendance from 11 states, on the Finnish property at Van Etten, N. Y., was attacked about three weeks before closing by the K.K.K. Seventy-five to 100 Klansmen came over to the school at midnight, threw rocks and attempted to provoke the students to battle, threatening to close down the school. The students resisted the attack and the K.K.K. promised to come back. The next day 16 W.E.S.L. men came up from New York, and other reinforcements from Elmira and Syracuse, to guard the school. On the following Saturday, after the arrival of the guards, the K.K.K. mobilized in full strength and arrived at 10 p.m. The veterans, armed with slingshots and clubs, were prepared to meet them. Soon after the arrival of the Klansmen the state police arrived, under orders from the Mayor, who had been deluged with protest telegrams from all over the state, to break up the Klan. The Klansmen, intimidated by the presence of the police, became orderly and stayed to talk to the students. The school continued its session for the next ten days as per schedule. At the closing session a meeting and festival was held which 400 local farmers attended.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924. National and City (New York and environs) editions exist