Within days during the summer of 1930 two Communist activists, Alfred Levy and Gonzalo Gonzales, were murdered by New York police during demonstrations. Levy, a young Black worker, was killed at an anti-lynching protest in Harlem, while Gonzales was murdered while leading a group of Latin American workers to pay their respects to Levy as he laid in state at the Communist Party’s Lenox Avenue offices. Tens of thousands would attend Gonzalez’s funeral.

‘Mass Protest Funeral for Comrade Gonzalo Gonzalez’ from The Daily Worker. Vol. 7 No. 159. July 3, 1930.

Fight Fascist Terror By Organization and Intensified Struggle

HOLD MASS DEMONSTRATION AT 110th STREET AND FIFTH AVENUE WHERE PROCESSION WILL HALT

Thousands of workers viewed the body of Gonzalo Gonzalez, killed Monday evening by a Tammany thug, as preparations for a mass protest funeral are well under way.

Paying their last revolutionary mass respects to their murdered comrade, Gonzalo Gonzalez, shot to death by a uniformed killer, the workers will assemble at Communist Party section headquarters, 308 Lenox Ave., near 125th St., at 3:30 a.m. Friday, July 4. Starting 9:30 a.m. sharp, from Communist Party section headquarters at 308 Lenox Ave., near 125th St., the mass procession will proceed up 126th, down Lenox Ave., over to 115^th St., down to Fifth Ave. and over to 110th St. At 110th St. and Fifth Ave. the funeral procession will mass for an open air demonstration. At this point speakers representing the Central Committee, District Committee of the Communist Party, the American Negro Labor Congress, the Anti-Imperialist League, the Spanish Workers Club and other workers’ organizations, will tell of the struggles for which Gonzalez gave his life. The entire capitalist press joins the Tammany police chorus in lying about the murders, and dishes up daily excuses to cover their murderous acts. Denouncing the fascist terrorism of the bosses, the Communist Party New York District calls upon all workers to close their ranks and in intensified struggle smash the gunman rule of Wall St.

“Within a few days, uniformed killers of the New York police department have murdered two workers. While thousands of workers were preparing for a mass funeral and protest against the murder of Alfred Levy, a Negro worker who was beaten to death at an antilynching street meeting in Harlem, the professional murderers of the bosses’ police force snuffed out the life of Gonzalo Gonzales, a Mexican worker who was leading a march of Latin-American workers to the hall where the body of Alfred Levy was lying in state.

“These two murdered workers are martyrs in the struggle of the working class against unemployment, wage-cuts, race discrimination and imperialist oppression. The cold-blooded, wanton murder of these two workers is the answer of the bosses to the demands of the working class for work or wages, for an end to the lynching of workers, for the right to organize, strike and picket and for complete independence of the colonial masses from the rule of the imperialist powers. By these murders the bosses seek to terrorize the workers into submission to tile policy of the bosses for solving the capitalist crisis at the expense of the working class.

“It is no accident that the first victims of the bosses’ murder campaign are Communists. The Communists are in the forefront of every struggle of the workers. The Communist Party leads and is the most active force in the struggle to organize the workers into powerful industrial unions. The Communist Party leads the movement against unemployment. The Communist Party raises the banner of struggle against all forms of discrimination and oppression of the Negro masses as practiced by the white ruling class. The Communist Party supports the struggles of the toiling masses of the colonial countries and fights against the imperialist wars which are now in preparation. The bosses know that the Communist Party alone can provide leadership for offensive struggle by the workers. By murdering and jailing the leaders, the bosses hope to destroy all possibility for effective organized resistance by the workers.”

Negro Workers to March. Calling upon the Negro workers to turn out in masses to demonstrate against the same boss terror that done to death Alfred Levy, revolutionary Negro worker, the American Negro Labor Congress has issued the following statement:

“The American Negro Labor Congress, the only Negro organization that leads in the struggle against lynching and the entire system of Jim Crowism and oppression of the Negro masses, calls upon all Negro workers to rally in masses to the funeral and demonstration in behalf of our murdered comrade, G. Gonzales, this Friday, July 4, at 9:30 a.m. at 308 Lenox Ave.

“Comrade Gonzales fell a victim to the murderous police while he demonstrated his solidarity with the Negro workers in the struggle against lynching, and was on his way to pay the last honors to our Negro comrade, Alfred Levy, murdered by the same Tammany police.

“We especially call upon the Negro workers, therefore, to rally in large masses to the demonstration, and rally to the united struggle of Negro and white workers against lynching, police terror, race discrimination and the entire system of capitalist exploitation and oppression.”

I.L.D. Statement.

In answer to a number of inquiries which are coming into the national office of the International Labor Defense, as to whether or not that organization will take legal action against the policeman who shot and killed Gonzalo Gonzalez, the Mexican Communist who was parading in protest against the murder by New York police of his comrade, the Negro Communist, Alfred Levy, the International Labor Defense states today:

“We have learned, through five years of defending working class victims against bosses’ and governmental persecution, that the courts  work hand in hand with the police and all other weapons of the ruling class against the workers.

“The killing of Steve Katovis, last February, shot in the back by a policeman, received official praise from the New York City government. And now, policeman O’Brien is being whitewashed for his role in the murder of the Mexican worker. The police killers of Albert Levy have been covered up by the Tammany officials.

“For this reason, the International Labor Defense will not make any legal attempt to bring Police Officer O’Brien to account for his killing of the Communist worker, Gonzalez. The growth of the militant organizations, and activity of the working class is our answer to these brutal slayings. This spirit will motivate the demonstration that will attend the funeral of Gonzalez on Friday morning at 9.30 a.m. when the huge procession of workers, including the International Labor Defense will follow the body from 308 Lenox Ave., near 125th St.”

The Trade Union Unity League, in a statement indicting the murderers of Comrade Gonzalez, declared in part:

“The armed thugs of the bosses, the Tammany police have again murdered one of our comrades, Gonzalo Gonzalez, a Latin American worker, who was shot dead while protecting another worker from being beaten by the police. Several days ago the police beat to death a Negro worker, Alfred Levy, for protesting against lynching. Both workers were active members of the revolutionary unions affiliated to the T.U.U.L.

“The bosses, the government and their agents, the fascist leaders of the A. F. of L. have instituted a campaign of terror against the workers who are struggling against rationalization, wage-cuts, unemployment, and the general worsening of the conditions of the working class. The workers must resist the fascist terror of the bosses and their thugs. By militant self-defense, by organization into the revolutionary unions of the T.U.U.L., by the organization of workers defense corps, we can defeat the capitalist fascist terror.”

Scoring the murders of Levy and Gonzalez, the Food Workers Union, in a statement, declared in part:

“The Food Workers Industrial Union, of which Comrade Gonzalez was a member, being a baker, and on whose picket line Comrade Katovis lost his life, has pledged itself to replace these comrades by thousands of militant fighters in our revolutionary union. The Food Workers Industrial Union, realizing that the killing of Alfred Levy is an attempt to terrorize the Negro workers from joining hands with the white workers under the leadership of the revolutionary industrial unions and the Communist Party, and pledged itself to carry on a more intense and energetic struggle on behalf of the Negro workers for self-determination, and for full political, social, and economic equality.”

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.

PDF of original issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n159-NY-jul-03-1930-DW-LOC.pdf