Communist activities in the peace movement (Women Strike for ...

2050 COMMUNIST ACTIVITIES EST THE PEACE MOVEMENT
by her to be members of the party or from any organization known
to be Communist-controlled or designated as subversive by the
Attorney General of the United States or any official agency of Government;
if she had transmitted information from the WSP files to
person or persons known to be members of the Communist Party;
and if she had knowledge of, or belonged to, a Communist caucus
within the New York organization of the WSP which met separately
to coordinate Communist policies with respect to the WSP.
The next witness who appeared at the committee's public hearings
on December 11 was Mrs. Ruth Meyers of Roslyn, N.Y., a graduate of
Hunter College, with a master's degree in the science of education
from Hofstra College. She denied that she was a member of the
Women Strike for Peace on the ground that the WSP has "no membership."
She refused to acknowledge whether she knew Mrs. Posner.
Mrs. Meyers admitted, however, that she was associated with a
group in her neighborhood laiown as Women for Peace, which had
acted on certain occasions under the banner of Women Strike for Peace.
The witness refused to say whether she knew Mrs. Dagmar Wilson,
ostensibly the head of the national Women Strike for Peace group, but
did admit that she first met with women working for peace after Mrs.
Wilson's annomicement of the formation, and call for support, of the
national WSP.
Mrs. Meyers said that, whenever possible, her Women for Peace
group tried to send representatives to county meetings of the Women
Strike for Peace. (According to WSP literature, local groups were
to send representatives to WSP county meetmgs from which delegates
would be sent to meetings of the Central Coordinating Committee for
the Metropolitan New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut area.)
Mrs. Meyers expressed pride in the work she had done to help organize
a New York group of Women Strike for Peace members who took
part in a picket-line demonstration at the White House on January 15,
1962. She also acknowledged that she had played a leading role in
arranging a sendoff demonstration at Idlewild Airport on April 1,
1962, for the Women Strike for Peace delegation to the 17-nation
disarmament conference at Geneva, Switzerland.
The witness denied that she was the Ruth Meyers who, as a resident
of Brooklyn on July 27, 1948, had signed a Communist Party nominating
petition for an identified Communist who was seeking a seat on
the New York City Council.
Mrs. Meyers invoked the fifth amendment, however, when asked if
she was then, or ever had been, a member of the Communist Party
and declined to state if she had engaged in activities with the Women
Strike for Peace or the Women for Peace in order to carry out Communist
Party directives.
The final witness at the committee's public hearings on December
11 was Mrs. Lyla Hoffman of Great Neck, N.Y., a high school
graduate, who described herself as a "housewife and peace worker."
Mrs. Hoffman testified that she helped form the Great Neck Women
Strike for Peace group, that she had represented that group at Nassau
County meetings of WSP and, in turn, had represented Nassau County
at meetings of the Central Coordinating Committee of the New York
City group. She also said that she had attended several of the meetings
which established the structural plan for the Metropolitan New
York, New Jersey, and Connecticut area group of the Women Strike
for Peace.