SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201020001-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 2, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201020001-5
P-1 4^14.'.`.
ON PASV.,L,
on the left
First Amendment-suit
GUARDIAN (US)
2 March 1983
Socialist Workers Party:
Court hearings showed that the WL was
funding Gelfand's case.
All of this might just be a footnote in the
A case with potentially far-reaching impli-. groups were it not for the extremely grave
cations for First Amendment rights is about consequences that are raised-not only for
to go to trial. the SWP, but for all political groups. -.
The Socialist_Woritets- Party (SWP), the In an emergency petition filed Jan._.15.
largest Trotskyist-party in the U.S., is being - SWP lawyers argued: "If this -cam is, al-
sued by. a foener member in a case that lowed to continue and some to trial, the
raises the question .of, whetter a political court will pass judgment--on whether thee.
p y-or any vu lrmtai. ?e o :.. plaintiff [Gelfand) or the SWP defendants
establish its own standards for who can be a -am, in plaintiff's words, the-'true believers''': -
member, who canbe% elected to leadership in the-principles that the SWP stands for. In
and what the group's ideology. should be.- -... ? making its decision the court will be required:'
In 1979 Mau. Gelfand, the plaintiff- iv tbt:.- ... to detye into the-doctrines of theSWP, "vary-
case, was expelled,from the SWP:Gelfantt ing interpretations of Marxism, differing
government aaenciies. sad is now awaiting
. ing.and disruption. That case revealed years
.of political groups dwE81 QA: and other:
/=
be restored, his expulsion be-ruled a breach-
of contract in violation. of. the- SWP's rules
and that the members of the SWP responsi-
bier for his expulsions: including several lead-
ing figures of the group, be removed from.
their leadership positions. The case is
scheduled to open in U.S. District Court.in
Los Angeles on March 1.
. Gelfand's bizarre charge is that the SWP?
leadership is controlled by U.S. government
agents who engineered his expulsion, thus
violating his First Amendment right to be a
member of the political party of his choice.
The case originated four years ago during a
lawwit by the SWP against government spy-
is seeking a court orderthat his membership - . -, views on the-proper organizational principles
Grier a sir I~ew York.oh whelhtrahrgovern also of the rights of all Americans;
nxrnt has to pay damages foe" their harassment. JOHN TRINKL
In .1978 druring the code of ,that case,;
Oflfand, who was a member of theSWP.in.
Los Angeles, argued that ,i2ue tenders rip of `.
the SWP couldn't be trusted and that he
should be given; the filet documenting gov-
ernment harassment He filed: his own.
brief, without the knowledge of the SWP, -.
noting he was trying to investigate'"die-al-
leged FBI relationships of certain prominent
SWP members." Upon learning of the con-
tents of this brief, the SWP expelled Ge:fand
in 1979.
Since Gelfand's expulsion, it has been re-
vealed that -he had been collaborating with
the Workers League ' (WL), a . small
Trotskyist sect hostile to the SWP. while he
was still a SWP member and that he had con-
ferred with the WL about filing his lawsuit
against the SWP shortly after his expulsion.
The WL has for several years mounted a
campaign against the SWP charging the
party was controlled by government agents. ,
for a Marxist party and other subjects which
the First Amendment puts beyond the juris-
"Such inquiry into the doctrine. admini-
stration and internal functioning of a political
party is forbidden by the First Amendment."
In a statement protesting the trial of the
SWP. Rev. Fred Taylor of the Southern
Christian . Leadership . Conference noted.
"The trial- itself is a violation of the most
fundamental rights of the American people:
the right of the people to band together in
voluntary -organizations like labor unions
and civil rights organizations and to set their
own policies, elect their own leaders and de-.
termine their own membership.
-The intervention of. the U.S. District
Courtinto this area of 4emocratic'rights is an
infrineemeint of the First Amendment clouts .
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201020001-5