‘The World Looks at Scottsboro’ by Maxim Gorky from Labor Defender. Vol. 8 No. 2. February, 1932.

(Statement to workers of America by the world famous writer, Gorki, who has been tireless in his protests on behalf of the Scottsboro boys. This article was sent to the LABOR DEFENDER from the Soviet Union, where Gorki at present is one of the leaders of the M.O.P.R., (Russian workers section of the I.L.D.)

THE AMERICAN section of the I.L.D. has given the Scottsboro case international significance. For the first time since the American Civil War the merciless exploitation of the Negro masses by the ruling class of the United States has been brought into the light of inter- national public opinion and denounced. Thousands of resolutions demanding the release of the nine Scottsboro Negro boys were sent in from the Soviet Union, England, France, Australia, Cuba, Austria, Germany and many other countries. The American consulates in Germany and Cuba were besieged by thousands of demonstrating workers.

Famous scientists and writers: Einstein, Theodore Dreiser and others took part in this campaign.

The 9 boys are languishing in prison; the electric chair looms before them, and they are reminded every day by the guards that they will be burnt on it.

“The campaign must be intensified throughout the whole world. Not one meeting, not one demonstration must take place, not one leaflet, not one I.L.D. publication must be published without an appeal to the masses to rise in protest against the white terror which American imperial- ism is employing to stifle the growing unrest among the Negro masses in the United States.” (The appeal of the Central Committee of the I.L.D. to all the branches of the I.L.D.)

For in America, in the town of Scottsboro, a drama is unravelling which reminds us of the case of the two Italians, Sacco and Vanzetti, who, while sentenced to death, were confined in prison for seven years, waiting to be burned on the electric chair. Against this murder of the innocently condemned, the “humanitarians” as well as the working class of the whole of Europe protested, but these protests did not at that time make sufficient impression on the wooden mugs of the American millionaires.

In Scottsboro nine young Negroes are condemned to death. They too, are guilty of no crime, they were snatched up by the police at random, they were not even acquainted with each other, nevertheless they were all condemned to death.

This was done with the object of terrorizing the Negroes; this murder is a “precautionary measure.” This is done because the Negro masses are being more and more drawn into the revolutionary movement and are joining the ranks of the white toiling masses in the common cause.

They are taking an active part in the fight against American imperialism. The capitalist class, fearing the spread of the rebellious spirit among the 12 million Negroes–workers and farmers are concentrating all their powers to quell the growing fighting spirit of the Negro masses, using as a weapon against them the white terror.

This is quite evident from the sanguinary events at Camp Hill, Alabama, as well as Scottsboro, which intensified the campaign of the working class of the whole world against lynching and for the defense of Negro workers in the United States and emphasized its importance.

Working men and women! Class brothers and sisters! Remember that mass demonstrations of toilers under the leader- ship of the I.L.D., the strenuous effort of the proletariat of all countries and colors, have more than once been successful in achieving their aim. We must save the nine youths the revolutionary fighters from the hands of the executioners.

Let us double, triple our protests in their defense!

Hundreds of thousands of working men and women, collective farmers, pioneers, scientists in the U.S.S.R. and toilers throughout the whole world are again and again at huge mass meetings raising their voices in protest against the wave of white terror in America. Down with fascism and white terror!

Release the Scottsboro prisoners!

Labor Defender was published monthly from 1926 until 1937 by the International Labor Defense (ILD), a Workers Party of America, and later Communist Party-led, non-partisan defense organization founded by James Cannon and William Haywood while in Moscow, 1925 to support prisoners of the class war, victims of racism and imperialism, and the struggle against fascism. It included, poetry, letters from prisoners, and was heavily illustrated with photos, images, and cartoons. Labor Defender was the central organ of the Scottsboro and Sacco and Vanzetti defense campaigns. Not only were these among the most successful campaigns by Communists, they were among the most important of the period and the urgency and activity is duly reflected in its pages. Editors included T. J. O’ Flaherty, Max Shactman, Karl Reeve, J. Louis Engdahl, William L. Patterson, Sasha Small, and Sender Garlin.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n02-feb-1932-LD.pdf