Statement to the North Carolina Advisory Commission on Civil Rights

              COMMUNIST WORKERS PARTY
P.O. Box 6874
Greensboro,  North Carolina 27405
February 26,  1980
STATEMENT TO THE NORTH CAROLINA ADVISORY COMMISSION ON CIVIL
RIGHTS
These hearings today are     being conducted in a growing atmosphere
of racial tension and anti-communist hysteria.  In the last several days,   the
shock troops for capitalism,   have stepped up their work to cultivate this atmosphere.  We view this as an attempt to cover up the   criminally calculated
acts Of daylight murder perpetuated against members of our party and affecting
all justice-loving people.  Moreover,   it is part of the general thrust to divert
attention from the real source of the economic hardships that people are forced
to endure on a day to day basis.
On November 3rd,  1979,  Dr.   Jim Waller,   William Sampson,  Sandra
Smith,   Cesar Cauce   and Dr.  Michael Nathan were murdered in the Morningside
Community.  Nine other people,   including myself,  were wounded while preparing
to participate in an anti-Klan march and conference.   The entire community was
terrorized.  This vicious act of cowardly,  organized murder cannot be understood if we see this as merely an outgrowth of anti-Klan and anti-Nazi work.
These acts cannot be understood if we see it as a shoot-out. In fact,   the all-out
attempt to portray the November 3rd assassinations as a shoot-out between
similarly deranged extremist fringe groups is not only totally false,   it is part
of the conscious political and legal cover-up.
November 3rd can only be properly understood if it is viewed in the
context of the ongoing day to day work that the Communist Workers Party has
been carrying out for several years.   The November 3rd massacre is an extension
of the bitter opposition that our party has received from Cone Mills,   the police
and the F.B.I, openly and secretly for the last several years.  The November 3rd
mu rders differ from the ongoing harrassment our party has been receiving in two
significant ways: it differs firstly in the degree and blatant character of these
murderous acts and secondly it differs in the use of the historically F.B.I. -
infiltrated Klan and Nazis to carry out these acts.
Who were these five people?  What work were they doing on a day to day
basis? What type of organization is the Communist Workers Party and whose
interest does it represent?  These are the questions which must be considered in
order to put the November 3rd massacre in context.
Dr.  Jim Waller   gave up a successful medical practice to more actively
take up the cause of exploited and oppressed people.    Jim became a textile mill
worker.  He was employed for several years at Cone Mills Granite Finishing Plant.
There       he worked tirelessly in the interests of the workers.  He filed many
grievances and led job actions against unsafe working conditions and for better
wages. In the course of his work,   Jim was able to cut through   racist attitudes
and unite black and white workers.   Under his leadership,   the union membership
at Granite was built from 15 members to 200 members. After a bitter strike in
the summer of 1978,   Jim was overwhelmingly elected president of his union local.