cunning underhandedness, political gangsterism, murderous hate of all
decent and straight living, anything that has ever plagued the human
race.
In the discussion of your paper at the Convention I shall criticise
your statement that the working class have taken over half of the
world. Unless you prefer to have it either left out or changed. I am
bound to do so not only because it is confusing to our workers if a man
of your standing and influence says that it is the working class which
took over, which is obviously not true, but also because we are the ones
who want work to take over against the Stalinite band of bums and
louts. Please let me know by wire whether I can take out this sentence.
I hope to have you here by the end of next week.Summerhill School
Leiston, Suffolk
My dear Reich,- • •
Sunday, August 20, 1950At last I have given up hope. The embassy remains silent, and
in two days every plane seat is booked.
Give me your opinion of my publishing the story here, not in a nasty
way, but simply making the point that a well known educationist has
been prevented from taking part in a vital conference on children. M ein
Gatt, Reich, the publication here the other day of a book by one of the
Scottsboro Negroes* will do more harm to U.S.A. than any visitor
could do.
I feel so lonely, so isolated with all my best friends and supporters
in U. S.A. And the affair has made me timid, as you will see from my
short lecture for the conference, where I was afraid to say much of
moment about sex relationships etc., afraid lest letters should be opened.
Irrational no doubt, but a rebuff like the one I have had awakens all
sorts of fears and suspicions. In short, it arouses the little man in me.
I picture you all meeting today in Orgonon. A memory comes to me
of when I was 12 and my mother wouldn't allow me to go to a picnic,
and I spent the day wandering in misery and wondering what the
picnickers were doing.
- Scottsboro Boy, by Haywood Patterson (Garden City, New York: Doubleday,
195°).