MESSAGES SENT TO TONY BLOOM
Socialist youth in the United States, who have been the target of native fascists, felt immediate solidarity with Tony Bloom, a member of the Young Communist League in London, when they learned that he had been shot in the stomach by a fascist January 29. [See World Outlook February 10.] The attempted killing of Tony Bloom was a fresh reminder of the three members of the Young Socialist Alliance who were shot down by an "anti-~ Communist" in Detroit last May 16 -- Leo Bernard, who was killed, and Jan Garrett and Walter Graham, who were seriously wounded. The National Executive Committee of the YSA sent a message of solidarity to Tony Bloom as follows:
"The Young Socialist Alliance extends its solidarity to you. The fascist attack on you is a desperate attempt to stop youth from fighting for fundamental social change, against reaction, and for an end to the inhuman war in Vietnam. The barbaric acts of the U.S. government in Vietnam and the British government's complicity with those acts contribute greatly to the anticommunist atmosphere upon which your assailants rely. In the United States this war-fed atmosphere has recently led to several terroristic acts,. including the assassination of our comrade, Leo Bernard. Such acts will not intimidate us, and our immediate response must be to deepen the struggle for an end to the war in Vietnam. We will work all the harder for an internationally united and coordinated fight against the Vietnam war, for a world free from poverty, oppression, and violence -- for socialism.
The Socialist Workers party sent the following message: "We condemn the attempt by a fascist thug to murder you, and extend our sympathy and solidarity to you against this attack. Fascist violence is bred and nurtured by the capitalist system, including in those countries where capitalism rules for the time being under a 'democratic' guise. But the objective of the terrorists to intimidate fighters for peace and socialism will not be attained. We pledge to redouble our efforts to build a world cleansed of all violence, the great objective of the socialist revolution."
The Militant declared in an editorial in its February 13 issue: "These attacks are spawned by the atmosphere of anti-communism generated by the capitalist ruling class. This atmosphere is intensified by the war in Vietnam, where the capitalists make the killing of communists a virtue. The support by the Wilson government to the war in Vietnam is undoubtedly a factor in developing an anti~communist atmosphere in England which makes fascists feel they can kill communists and other radicals with official sympathy and moral sanction."