Paragraphs of National Student League news from high schools, colleges, and universities around the country. Emerging from the 1931 free speech struggle at City College of New York, the National Student League was founded in early 1932 during a rising student movement. The N.S.L. would be the main C.P.-led student organization through the early 1930s.

‘Student Action Speaks’ from Student Review (N.S.L.). Vol. 2 No. 3. December, 1932.

Commonwealth College, Mena, Arkansas.

When two students, N.S.L. members, were expelled from this labor school, thirty-four of the student body of fifty-five went out on a protest strike. According to telegrams received as we went to press, the expulsions seem to have resulted from a struggle on the part of the students against Negro discrimination policies by the school, and for wider student representation on the administrative bodies.

The National Executive Committee of the N.S.L. has accepted an invitation from the Commonwealth College Association to conduct an investigation. At the same time it has informed the Association that the present conditions cannot exist pending an investigation. As a correlative requisite for this investigation the two students must be reinstated; no punitive action should be taken against the students who went out on strike; if any Negro discriminatory practises exist they must be removed immediately; and students be given wider representation in the governing bodies.

College of the City of New York.

City wide protests resulted in the reinstatement of the ten suspended students who had been arrested as they led a march on the Night Court where four of their fellow students were being arraigned. The four had been arrested for taking part in a Campus meeting protesting the dismissal of Dr. Oakley Johnson. Thirty City College students are now before the Board of Higher Education under belated charges of misconduct growing out of their participation in a student trial of the college president and evening session director, who had been responsible for the arrests and suspensions.

Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee.

Students at this Negro school protested in a body to the president of the University and forced him to give up his plan of allowing James W. Ford, then Vice Presidential candidate of the Communist Party, only a small room for his pre-election meeting. The University, like most of the Southern Negro colleges, has a very reactionary administration, the controlling board being dominated by white business men and landlords.

University of Texas

The Texas Student Club is fighting tooth and nail the bill to be considered at the next session of the legislature, which would raise fees at the University. The bill affects not only Texan students, but over a thousand students from other states, who attend the University. The Club’s objections are based on the grounds that by raising the fees the University officials are discriminating against the poorer students.

University of California, Los Angeles

Realizing the necessity of a national organization to help them in their local struggles, the members of the California Students’ League liquidated their organization and reformed as the Southern California District of the N.S.L. Activity has already begun with the new group initiating a student protest meeting against the action of the Long Beach police in releasing the Ku Klux Klanners who raided an International Labor Defense affair and severely beat the participants.

Reed College, Portland, Oregon

The militantly progressive students at this college are organizing an N.S.L. group as the basis for effective student activity.

Lindbloom High School, Chicago

Ostensibly because he had refused to attend an Armistice Day assembly which he branded a “military show,” Milton Galatsky, a second-year student, was expelled from school. Galatsky had been active in expounding his radical views in the class-room and outside of school; but the authorities denied that his views had anything to do with the expulsion.

The new High School Section in this area has been active in demands for his reinstatement. Leaflets have been distributed by the N.S.L. group and mass student resolutions of protest have been drawn up for presentation to the Superintendent of Schools by a delegation of students, teachers, and intellectuals. Both the Civil Liberties Union and the International Labor Defense are investigating the expulsion.

University of Illinois

A radical bookshop with additional facilities for meetings and socials has been established here by an active N.S.L. group. Symposia and forums are being held regularly and attracting many new students. The group has sent a challenge of “Socialistic Competition” to the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin to see who will have the largest membership before the National Conference.

University of California, Berkeley, California

A small group of anti-war demonstrators in front of the Stadium at an Armistice Day football game in Berkeley, were attacked by a mob of hoodlums.

The riot squad, as usual, appeared on the scene and took the demonstrators for a ride to the station-house. After being fingerprinted and photographed in true criminal fashion, they were released on their promise to appear for trial. Four members of the group were University of California students. The Social Problems Club there has arranged protest meetings against their treatment.

New Alumni Section

An Alumni Section of the National Student League is being formed. At a preliminary symposium in New York unemployed alumni were elected to participate in the Hunger March to Washington.

All interested alumni, employed and unemployed, should communicate with Madeline Jaffe c/o National Student League, 13 West 17 St., New York City.

Woodward High School

The war-mongers at this Toledo school suffered a painful set-back on Armistice Day. Instead of listening to the jingoistic speeches of army men and the D.A.R., the International Club took over the program and students spoke, condemning war, and pointing out its cause and cure. One student, a member of the High School Section of the N.S.L., discussed the class struggle and greatly impressed the rest of the student body.

Demands made by youthful workers in the neighborhood of the high school for the use of the gymnasium are encouraged by the N.S.L. group, and as soon as the Student Council begins to function the group will take steps to present formal demands to the Board of Education.

Cornell University

Practically the entire Ithaca police department and a number of R.O.T.C. officers joined forces to prevent any disturbance of the Armistice Day speech by ex-Senator Wadsworth, well-known militarist. They destroyed posters and leaflets carried by a large student group massed before the hall where he was to speak, and drove the crowd away, using their clubs freely. The meeting was initiated by the Cornell Liberal Club, which is alert to organize and lead vital student activity on and off the Campus.

Trenton State Teachers College

The militant students of Trenton, N.J., have organized a National Student League branch on this campus. An executive committee was recently elected.

DeWitt Clinton High School, New York City

Repeated resolutions in the General Organization Council, executive body of student government in this New York

City high school, student opinion influenced by constant distribution of N.S.L. leaflets for three terms, and powerful articles in an Armistice Day issue of the school newspaper, recently culminated in the revoking of the R.O.T.C. ‘s charter by the General Organization.

George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

The Liberal Club has protested to the President of the University against the refusal to recognize officially the National Student League group. The N.S.L. members, however, are undaunted, and even though acting in an unofficial capacity, they are remaining true to their principles and fighting side by side with the Liberal Club against student repression of all sorts.

Nation-Wide Anti-War Activity

Using the medium of the radio besides the special anti-war meetings in the colleges and universities throughout the United States, students all over the country are preparing for the coming Chicago Student Congress Against War. Anti-war broadcasts have been given by Ira Lattimer, of the National Committee of the Student Congress Against War through local stations in Memphis, Tennessee. In New York, Oakley Johnson, Chairman for the American Anti- War Committee won the radio listeners’ decision in a de- bate with an American Legionnaire, held during the WOR Forum Hour. WTAM in Cleveland broadcasted part of the Ohio State Anti-War Conference, at which students representing various social science and liberal clubs, “Y” groups, and peace organizations were present.

Joseph Cohen, N.S.L. delegate to the International Congress Against War at Amsterdam, spoke at anti-war meetings during his national tour of colleges and universities on the results of the Amsterdam Congress Against War.

Emerging from the 1931 free speech struggle at City College of New York, the National Student League was founded in early 1932 during a rising student movement by Communist Party activists. The N.S.L. organized from High School on and would be the main C.P.-led student organization through the early 1930s. Publishing ‘Student Review’, the League grew to thousands of members and had a focus on anti-imperialism/anti-militarism, student welfare, workers’ organizing, and free speech. Eventually with the Popular Front the N.S.L. would merge with its main competitor, the Socialist Party’s Student League for Industrial Democracy in 1935 to form the American Student Union.

PDF of original issue: https://archive.org/download/student-review_1932-12_2_3/student-review_1932-12_2_3.pdf