Committee to Defend the Panther 21
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Template:TOCnestleft In 1970, a mixed group of Communist Party USA members, CPUSA sympathizers, assorted socialists and a few left-liberals formed the Committee to Defend the Panther 21, a group of Black Panther Party members in New York City who, according to the fundraising letter of January 25, 1970, have been charged "with a conspiracy to murder New York City policemen and to dynamite a variety of sites ranging from Abercrombie & Fitch to the Bronx Botanical Gardens."[1] The letter reads as follows,
- "The Committee to Defend the Panther 21 has been formed to raise funds for the defense effort, to focus local and national attention on the case, and to inform people about the full scope of what is happening to the Black Panther Party. Bail money for the 21 totals over one million dollars. Twelve thousand dollars is needed immediately for a defense investigation. Transcripts will cost $3000 a day for a trial that may last as long as four months. The total defense costs are now projected at well over $100,000, even though the lawyers are volunteering their services.
- - Yours for the Committee, Murray Kempton"
Sponsors
The following is a partial list of sponsors of the committee, in alphabetical order:
- Ralph Abernathy - SCLC
- Frank Baraff
- Anne M. Bennett - wife of leftist clergyman John C. Bennett, both well documents supporters of communists and far left fronts and causes. Visited North Vietnam in 1970[2]
- Mrs.Leonard Bernstein - wife of conductor/composer and identified member of the CPUSA, Leonard Bernstein. Both were fundraisers for communist and black extremist causes, esp. for the BPP
- Julian Bond - black extremist, former Georgia State senator who supported many CPUSA and other communist fronts and causes
- Noam Chomsky - then a rising star on the marxist Left, Professor at MIT in linguistics, and later a "voice" of the Hanoi Lobby and similar anti-American groups since 1970.
- Leon J. Davis - leader of the radical Local 1199 Hospital Workers Union, and identified member of the CPUSA (see New Mobe Staff Study, HISC, 1970 for details.
- Ossie Davis - one of the CPUSA's top black supporters since the 1950's when he openly wrote of his support for Soviet communism in New World Review, Fall, 1967, "50 Years USSR"
- Ruby Dee - wife of Ossie Davis whose record of support for the CPUSA and its fronts is basically as long as that of her husband, Ossie Davis
- David Dellinger - self admitted "small c" communist; leader of the Hanoi Lobby and multiple visits to Hanoi during the war
- F. W. Dupee
- Richard Feigen - leftist activist
- Sandra Feigen
- Robert Ginsberg
- Joan Goldman
- Dr. Carolyn Goodman
- Prue Greenblatt
- Ewart Guinier - CPUSA member since the 1940's in Hawaii. Later head of the Black Studies Program at Harvard
- Nat Hentoff - liberal "first amendment" writer who kept supporting both CPUSA and SWP fronts and causes
- Clarence B. Jones
- Dr. Milton Jucovy
- Murray Kempton - seemingly a liberal columnist but his record of support for various communist fronts and causes brings his liberalism into question
- Dr. Harold Kooden
- Andrew Kopkind- a left-liberal from New Republic magazine and other leftist groups
- Jerome Kretchmer
- Burton Lane
- David Livingston - id. CPUSA labor leader who was ousted from District 65, Distributive Workers of America union during a CPUSA purge of some of its Jewish members (See "Theory and Practice of Communism, Communism in the Labor Unions, HISC, 1974 FIND FULL CITATION).
- Mrs. Sidney Lumet - wife of the leftist movie producer Sidney Lumet
- Lincoln Lynch - far-left supporter of communist fronts and causes. A leader of CORE Congress of Racial EqualityCite error: Closing
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- Jerry Nadler - later a member of the New York City Council and then the U.S. Congress as a Representative from New York (D-NY)
- Jack Newfield - another left-liberal writer who sponsored some communist fronts and causes
- Rev. Walter P. H. Parker
- Cleveland Robinson - veteran CPUSA supporter in labor and later in the DSA (see his Bluelink page)
- Alex J. Rosenberg
- William A. Rutherford
- Hal Scharlett
- Nathan H. Schwerner- father of slain civil rights worker Michael Schwerner. He has some sponsorships of CPUSA fronts and causes to his name
- John J. Simon
- Lyle Stuart - far-left publisher, supporter of the made-in-Cuba Fair Play for Cuba Committee FPFCC. He testified in SISS hearings about the FPFCC.
- Harold Taylor
- Doris Turner - leftist labor leader in New York City, Local 1199
- Cora Weiss - head of the Hanoi Lobby; IPS financial supporter; Women Strike for Peace WSP leader, and daughter of Soviet agent of influence and CPUSA member Samuel Rubin. Hanoi visitor.
- Peter Weiss - German-born husband of Cora Weiss. Affiliated with a radical law firm that included at least one identified CPUSA member among its top five attorneys Kunstler, Kinoy, Hirschkopf, Stavis and Weiss. IPS Board member and supporter of cited CPUSA legal fronts including NECLC and the National Lawyers Guild NLG creation, the Center for Constitutional Rights CCR
- Livingston Wingate
References
- ↑ Jan. 25, 1970 letter and letterhead, "Committee to Defend the Panther 21", 37 Union Square West, 4th Floor, New York New York, 10003, (212) 243-2260), "Dear Friend"
- ↑ The Loyal Opposition:Americans in North Vietnam, 1965-72, James W. Clinton, Un. of Colorado Press, 1995, abbreviated reference as "The Loyal Opposition"