Investigation of Communist activities in Seattle, Wash., Area, Hearings, Part 2United States. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities
History
Investigation of Communist activities in Seattle, Wash., Area, Hearings, Part 2
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities
Communism -- Washington (State) -- Seattle
Mr. VELDE. I think that is a matter of record. In fact, you have
said everything favorable to Mr. Lundeberg’s record. But I suppose
it might be presumed that if you and another Communist Party leader
had a conference with Mr. Lundeberg some time that that would be a
meeting such as you mentioned in your testimony yesterday, or could be
considered a fraction meeting; could it not?
Mr. DENNETT. No; that would not be regarded as a top fraction meeting.
A top fraction meeting would be only a meeting where the leaders of an
organization who were members of the Communist Party met either with
themselves or with some official of the Communist Party. And in Mr.
Lundeberg’s case----
Mr. VELDE. Is that the type of meeting to which you referred when you
said that you had general knowledge, or it was common knowledge that
Mr. Lundeberg attended top fraction meetings?
Mr. DENNETT. True.
Mr. TAVENNER. My recollection of your testimony was that you made it
clear Mr. Lundeberg was not a member of the Communist Party.
Mr. DENNETT. I thought so; I meant to, certainly.
Mr. TAVENNER. You meant to, and if there is any question about your
testimony on that point I understand you now do make it clear that you
did not intend, and that you did not characterize Mr. Lundeberg as a
member of the Communist Party. Am I correct in that?
Mr. DENNETT. That is correct.
Mr. TAVENNER. And your only information about his attendance at a
so-called fraction meeting was the information given to you by his
assistant, Mr. Fox?
Mr. DENNETT. And I might say, for verification, that the very line
which Mr. Lundeberg had urged upon me to follow was exactly the line
which the leaders of the Communist Party gave me at that time also;
namely, attack your leaders, get rid of them.
Mr. TAVENNER. We were discussing the activity of the Communist Party
within the Old-Age Pension Union. Will you tell the committee, please,
whether you can at this time recall the names of other persons active
in that organization who were known to you to be members of the
Communist Party?
Mr. DENNETT. My own knowledge doesn’t extend beyond the top leaders of
that organization, which I have already mentioned.
Mr. TAVENNER. That brings us to the period you described yesterday
when the Washington Commonwealth Federation was being dissolved. My
recollection is you indicated that it was dissolved at the instance of
the Communist Party. Am I correct in that?
Mr. DENNETT. It did that during the Second World War when I was in the
military service. I only know of that from correspondence and what I
read in the newspapers.
Mr. TAVENNER. You also told us that the component parts of the
Washington Commonwealth Federation began to pull away from that
organization.
Mr. DENNETT. That is true.
Mr. TAVENNER. What was the reason for that?
Mr. DENNETT. The main reason was the conflicting international policies.
You will recall that in that historical period there were rapid changes
taking place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account