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NY 100-25857 According /}é the "Daily Worker" of January 24, 1949, in an article written by JOSEPH:NORTH, ROBESON attended the trial of the twelve Commmnist — Party leaders on“ Jinuary 23, 1949, shaking hands with each of them. He reportedly stated to NORTH, "I came here because I, too, am on trial." - ROBESON also stated to NORTH that he attended not only as a private citizen but as Co-Chairman of the Progressive Party, as a leader of the Civil Rights Congress and as Chairman of the COAA. He stated that Communists in the Scottsboro case risked their lives to enter the South to challenge the jury system and that he respected the Commmists for it, The "New York World Telegram" issue of February 3, 1949, reported that ROBESON headed a picket line of three hundred members of the International Workers Order parading near City Hall in protest of the Board of Education's ban against after-hour classes conducted by Communist fraternal groups in New York City school buildings, >) - Confidential racorasn I sores that on February 8, 1949, \,| ° while in England, ROBESON would appe London before the British Battalion of the International Brigade and would go later to Paris. According to the informant, ROBESON planned to return to the United States for a ten day period at the end of Narch to testify at the trial of the Comunist leaders in New York City, He would then return to Europe, according to the informant, According to "New York Times" issue of March 10, 1949, PAUL ROBESON, - in a speech at Glasgow, Scotland on March 9, 1949, said "MARXISM is on trial, it is away of life, a philosophy. The trial of the Communist leaders in New York should be very interesting. I am going to take the view that MARXISN as is a cultural philosophy." Te, Acco o the "Daily Worker" issue of February 9, 1949, PAUL neon ROBESON and spots, Co-Chairmen of the Provisional Committee for a Democratic . : Jury System, on the previous day announced plans for a mass conference for - the elimination of the system of "hand picked juries" in the Southern District _— (/