"Such students and such teachers are obviously to be regarded as a menace to reaction and its domestic and foreign policy. They have no great enthusiasm for the war. Too many of them have the habit of thinking independently, of acting in concert, of valuing democracy as a way of living rather than as a way of talking. They are organized. Any fascist, any open-shop saboteur of democracy, any labor spy could write a plan of attack for reaction, given this situation. Red-bait. Attack the union as Red-dominated. Use a few "liberals" to lend respectability to the smear. Gag the students by preventing them from hearing speakers of their own choice. Fire some of the most active teachers and trade unionists. Scare the rest. If they don't scare that easily, pin a criminal charge on one of them; if the others still don't scare, at least the charge will shake off the fence onto the side of reaction some who still stubbornly said the issue was academic freedom. These are the tactics, these are the slogans, this is the reasoning laid bare-of growing American fascism trying to coordinate its free school system."
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Communists from the United StatesJews from UkraineJewish socialistsMarxists from the United StatesMembers of the Communist Party USA
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Morris Schappes
Morris U. Schappes (pronounced SHAP-pess, born Moishe Shapshilevich in Kamianets-Podilskyi; May 3, 1907 – June 3, 2004) was a Jewish educator, writer, radical political activist, historian, and magazine editor who lived most of his life in the USA.
24 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Morris Schappes →
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