Thomas Nabried

I was born 61 years ago in Columbia County, Georgia, the son of a Negro tenant farmer. My working history began at the age of nine. When I was 14 years old, I participated in my first organized labor struggle (an abortive work stoppage in the Interstate Cotton Oil Mill s of Augusta, GA). This was my introduction to the historic struggle of American workers for better working conditions.

When I came to Philadelphia, I became a member of the I.W.W. Longshore local. In the latter half of the 20's I helped to organize the wood and metal lathers union and held membership in that union. I participated in the organizing drives of the industrial unions of the 30's among butchers and later seamen. I volunteered my services as an organizer for cleaning and dyeing workers. I also held membership in Local 1332 of the I.L.A.

I worked to aid the unemployed through organizing the first unemployed councils in North Philadelphia. I was one of the sponsors of the National Negro Congress and worked actively to build that organization in Philadelphia. This organization was a forerunner in the fight for Negro rights that helped lay the basis for today's upsurge. Such struggles as Scottsboro, the Angelo Herndon case, the fight to free Tom Mooney the labor leader, the Willie Brown frameup, the Haley case and others, were the opening guns to the Negro emergence in the revolutionary fright for freedom.

Intertwined with all these struggles was the fight for peace and against reaction and fascism. This briefly is my history and to these caused I remain dedicated. This is a history very similar to that of many of my comrades who have devoted a lifetime of struggle in the best interest of our class.

It is precisely for this reason that the most ultra right reactionary forces have singled out the Communist Party and its members for the most vicious, vengeful attacks. Since its very birth, the Communist Party, USA, has had to withstand the most powerful and merciless capitalist class the world has ever known. Communists have been beaten, jailed, murdered, maimed and martyred. Nonetheless, just as truth must survive, so has the Communist Party.

I personally have faced the clubs of vicious police, political imprisonment, FBI harrassment, Congressional inquiries, etc. In 1953 I was arrested and charged with advocating and teaching the violent overthrow of the government of the United States, under the Smith Act. After a 9 month trial, the government was forced to drop the case and I was cleared.

Today, more than 10 years later, Attorney General Robert Kennedy asks me to register voluntarily under the McCarran Law to the same lying charge that no court could prove me guilty of. But more than this, Mr. Kennedy who has been upheld by the Subversive Activities Control Board, wants me to register and admit to: subversion; treason; force and violence and almost every crime that I have spent a lifetime struggling against. These are crimes committed against my people and I have always dedicated myself to a life fighting for the best interests of my people and nation. A stand against this inhuman law is a stand for democracy and freedom. The inhumanity of this legislation is clear when one looks at the punishment it imposes for example. How contrary to the U.S. Constitution and its admonishment against punitive or excessive punishment. The McCarran Act calls for a $10,000 fine and 5 years of imprisonment for each day that I refuse to register.

This fascist like legislation is a threat to democracy and to all Americans, Communist and non-Communist who dare to voice an opinion that is not in accordance with the powers that be. If freedom and equality is to prevail-the McCarran Law must be defeated. I will never comply with this legislation.

Sincerely yours,
Thomas Nabried

Note: Up until his death Tom Nabried was serving as the District Organizer of the E. PA & DE District. He was a member of the National Committee of the CPUSA.