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a SZ SEyRET ¢ va ckcaGcNCY CIVIL LIBERTIES COMMITTEE 1. “The Emergency Civil Liberties Committee is an organization with headquarters in New York, whose avowed purpose is to abolish the House Committee on Un-American Activities and discredit the FBI.***The committee finds that the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, established in 1951, although representing itself as a non-Communist group, actually operates as a front for the Communist Party. It has repeatedly assisted, by means r of funds ana legal aid, Communists involved in Smith Act violations ‘+ and similar legal proceedings. One of its chief activities has eee been and still is the dissemination of voluminous Communist rt propaganda material.” “Frank Wilkinson was called as a witness when he appeared in Atlanta as a representative of the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee to propagandize against the Committee on Un-American Activities and to protest its hearings. In 1956 Wilkinson was identified as a Communist Party member by a former FBI undercover agent within the party. Summoned at that time to answer the allegation, his reply to allquestions was, ‘I am answering no questions of this committee.' This also became his stock reply to questions when he appeared during the Atlanta hearings.***Wilkinson has since been convicted of contempt of Congress and sentenced to one year in jail." “Disputing the non-Communist claim of the organization, the committee finds that a number of other individuals connected ¥ with the ECLC also have been identified under oath as Communists.*** (Committee on Un-American Activities, Annual Report for 1958, House Report 187, March 9, 1959, pp. 34 and 35.) 2. "To defend the cases of Communist lawbreakers, fronts have been devised making special appeals in behalf of civil liberties and reaching out far beyond the confines of the Communist Party itself. Among these organizations are the *** Emergency Civil Liberties Committee. When the Communist Party itself is under fire these fronts offer a bulwark of protection." (Internal Security Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Handbook for Americans, §. Doc. 117, April 23, 1956, p. 91.) f ee, . APPENDIX