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

2060 COMMUNIST ACTIVITIES IN THE PEACE MOVEMENT
Mrs. Wilson said that she could not recall precisely whether the
WISP picket demonstration at the White House on January 15, 1962,
had been her idea or someone else's. She testified that she was not
sure whether it had been she who called for a WISP demonstration
at the United Nations on February 20, 1962 (which was held to protest
President Kennedy's decision to resume nuclear testing after the
Soviet Union had violated the nuclear weapons test ban).
The witness conceded that the idea of sending 51 WISP delegates to
the Geneva disarmament conference in April 1962 had originated
from within the New York group.
The witness said that she had no part in drawing up the proposed
structural plan for the New York group of WSP which had been
entered as an exhibit when Mrs. Posner was a witness before the committee
on December 11. Mrs. Wilson admitted having discussed with
persons in the New York group the structural plan actually adopted
by the Women Strike for Peace, Metropolitan New York, New Jersey,
and Connecticut, which was also introduced as an exhibit during the
testimony of Mrs. Posner. The testimony of Mrs. Wilson on this subject,
however, did little to indicate that she had exerted any degree of
influence over the structure of the New York group of WSP.
Mrs. Wilson told the committee that she had participated in the
February 20, 1962, anti-U.S. nuclear test demonstration at the United
Nations as a result of an invitation to do so from the New York group
of the W^SP. She said that neither prior nor subsequent to that date
had she ever exercised any control over the activities of the New York
group.
The committee comisel introduced a copy of the March 28, 1962,
Moscow-published New Times, which stated that the Women's International
Democratic Federation was sponsoring a Women's World
Assembly for Disarmament (March 23-25, 1902) in Vienna, Austria.
The article further stated that the Women's International Democratic
Federation (which has been cited by this committee as an international
Communist front) had established contact with the Women
Strike for Peace in the United States about participating in the Assembly.
Mrs. Wilson denied that she had been in personal contact with the
WIDF on the matter of the Disarmament Assembly. She said that
she thought WIDF had initiated the contact between itself and the
Women Strike for Peace. The witness testified that the WSP person
who was the actual contact with the Moscow-based women's group
might have been WSP's international coordinator, who lived in New
York and was a member of the New York group of Women Strike
for Peace.
The witness told the committee that the first national demonstrations
by Women Strike for Peace had been staged in 60 cities through-
out the country on November 1 , 1961. She claimed that they occurred
as a result of her initiative, although she would not affirm or deny
having been the coordinator of them.
Mrs. Wilson acknowledged that in June 1962 she had attended a
national conference of Women Strike for Peace hosted by an Ann
Arbor, Mich., group of WSP. She said the idea of holding such a
conference had originated with that group. She initially denied that
it had been a political conference, although, as committee counsel