Over 1,000 at Columbia University to hear CARP: Communism and America

Over 1,000 people crowded into Columbia University’s Wollman Auditorium June 25 to participate in a colloquium on “The Fact of Communism and America’s Future” sponsored by the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP).

The event, which commemorated the 24th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War, was characterized by one old time New York organizer as “the largest event of its kind ever held at Columbia.”

Featured speakers at the symposium were Rabbi Baruch Korff speaking on “Communism and Religion,” black minister and former Young Communist League member Rev. William H. Luke on “Communism and Race, “and FLF Secretary-General Dan Fefferman on “The Communist Threat and New Hope.”

During a documentary film on the Korean War which preceded the symposium, a group of about 25 radical students raised objections to the presentation. Chanting: “Fascist, Fascist! Park Chung Hee! Seoul, Korea will soon be free!” the radicals marched down the aisles of the darkened auditorium and began overturning CARP literature tables. The disrupters were ushered out by CARP members, but several of the cohorts remained inside.

The disrupters were soon silenced by the moving personal testimony of Rabbi Korff. With characteristic zeal, the Rabbi explained “I have lived under Black totalitarianism (Fascism) and Red totalitarianism. I despise them both. But I despise the latter more! For while the Black totalitarianism sought to kill my people’s body, the Red totalitarianism has sought to kill their soul!”

Pastor Luke warned in his talk against the Communists’ use of civil rights issues as a means to increase contradiction in society rather than further the cause of minority rights. “The Communists have nothing in mind but power,” he told the audience. “I urge my black brothers and sisters not to be deceived by them.”

Pastor Luke said he had been lured into joining with the Communists through deception during his days at Los Angeles City College before his conversion to Christianity.

FLF leader Dan Fefferman emphasized the need for understanding the Communist ideology in order to formulate a “viable policy of detente.” Warning against the possible consequence of too generous concessions to the Soviets at recent summit meetings, Fefferman declared, “Progress in diplomacy must not be confused with an abatement of the Cold War. The Communists have by no means given up their goal of world domination, and they see diplomacy only as one means toward that end.”

Fefferman nevertheless thought there was still hope for peace, as he said, “through an ideological victory.” He stressed the need for intensified educational programs about Communist theory and practice, calling on the audience to join in efforts to create a “constructive alternative.”

Pointing out that Communism thrives on conflict, Fefferman declared: “Our greatest weapon is unity. Nothing helps the Communists more than people thinking of themselves as whites against blacks, young against old, worker against boss, men against women, Jew against Christian, Chicano against WASP. We are all Americans! And God blessed America as a nation which could fulfill His ideal of creativity and universal brotherhood. When we recapture and fulfill this ideal of our forefathers, then the ideology of Communism will be destroyed and the future for both America and the whole world will be bright.”

New York CARP organizer Thomas Azar dosed the meeting with an invitation for the audience to become more involved in CARP activities.

He too stressed the idea of American unity and brotherhood, asking the people of New York to work together “to create an example and an inspiration” for the rest of the nation.

Some people might say Mr. Azar’s exhortation, especially in New York, is too idealistic. But then, any group which can mobilize more than 1,000 people for an anti-Communism symposium at Columbia University in the dead of summer can certainly claim it knows how to put its ideals into practice.