Reds Page #13

Louise, please keep her quiet, will you?

- Hi, Eddie.

- How can...

- Hello, Eddie.

- Hello, Louise, Ben.

Hey.

Eddie, what about Levine?

- Eddie?

- Yeah.

- What did Levine say?

- He never showed. He...

I waited over an hour.

- Levine didn't show.

- That doesn't sound like Levine.

Sure it does. Where were you meeting?

In Casey's.

Now, that surprises me.

That really surprises me.

I could have missed him.

It was really busy in there.

- You could have missed him?

- What's that supposed to mean?

I was late.

How late?

Forty, forty-five minutes.

Nora started spitting up blood

again this morning.

I had to take her to the clinic,

and I had to wait for my mother

to come and pick up the kid.

So you were 45 minutes late.

Yeah. I thought I could make it.

I really did.

All right, we gotta get in touch

with the guy. How do we do it?

He's on his way to Chicago.

That's one of the reasons

I thought he would still be there.

Wait a minute,

you thought he'd still be there?

- Yeah.

- Who asked for the meeting, Eddie?

- Who asked for the meeting?

- Who asked for the meeting?

- Did Levine want the meeting?

- Yeah, I thought he wanted it.

Did he call us?

No. We called him.

Then why would he wait?

We wanted the meeting.

I'm sorry.

Well, why didn't you call one of us

and get somebody to take your place?

Because I thought I could make it.

I mean, I thought the man

would still be there.

You thought, you thought, you thought.

Try not to think too much, Eddie.

Not when your comrades

are depending on you.

Be sure.

All right, look.

Do we have a contact

for Levine in Chicago?

Let's call Singer.

- Do you have a number for him?

- Yeah. Well, I've probably got it.

Here.

Thanks.

You know, they might work better

if you put something in your stomach

besides coffee.

You're a little hard on Eddie,

aren't you, under the circumstances?

You think my sympathies

can help Eddie's wife?

Might help Eddie.

Listen to me.

Building a party will help Eddie.

Four, eight, twelve...

You know, I think we all believe

in the same things.

But with us,

it's more or less our good intentions.

And with Jack, it's a religion.

Our old friend Jack's

getting serious on us.

Okay. Hey, Frank, how are you?

How are you?

Excuse me. What's happening here?

No one's admitted without a red card.

That's the order of the Executive.

Well, I'm on the Executive,

so is he, so is he...

- No one's admitted without a red card.

- Where do we get the red cards?

You'll have to take that up

with the Credentials Committee.

And where's

the Credentials Committee?

And where's

the Credentials Committee?

I don't know.

I don't think he wants us to go in there.

Well, the way to take the hall

is to take the hall.

Edmund!

Edmund! Jack!

Okay. Let's go. Let's go.

Come on, this way!

To propose the agenda,

I would like to read a message

from the Credentials Committee

to the floor.

May we please have order back there?

In the back of the hall, could we have...

Sergeant-at-arms, would you see

what's going on back there?

Ladies and gentlemen, it seems

we have a group of intruders

who are trying to take over

this conference.

We're not going to let them.

Now, please, please sit down.

I need these aisles clear.

Sergeant-at-arms,

I must have these aisles clear!

Please, everyone, sit down.

Now, these are Bolshevik sympathizers

who are trying to take over this party,

and we're not going to let them.

The police are coming.

These people aren't socialists.

These people are just thugs!

Now you see? That is Bolshevik tactics!

Come on, delegates.

These people are imposters!

They were not elected

to the leadership of this party.

Ladies and gentlemen,

the police are coming!

- You see? The police.

- What the hell is this?

That's the only way the Executive

Committee can stay in power,

is by the use of the capitalist police.

Flash your red cards!

They'll resort to any tactics

to keep the working class

away from its true leadership

because they're afraid of revolution!

Officers, whoever has no red card

does not belong in this room.

Hold up your red cards.

It's all right. We're going.

You don't have to throw us out.

If you want to know

where the true leadership

of the Socialist Party of America is,

it'll be in the basement of this building

in five minutes...

- Red cards, everybody!

...and you're welcome to join us.

I want anybody who does not have

a red card to be out of this hall.

Comrade Chairman, I move that

we immediately constitute ourselves

as the bona fide Communist party,

and that we call ourselves

the Communist Labor Party of America.

I second that motion!

Well, look, if we're gonna have

a really revolutionary party,

I think what we have to do

is to find out from the American worker

what he wants the most and then

we have to translate it back to him

in terms of the labor movement

as a whole.

What we have to do

is make him want more.

We have to make him want

the whole goddamn revolution.

Those people upstairs

think that Karl Marx was somebody

who wrote a good antitrust law.

And whether we call our party

the Socialist Labor Party

or the Real Socialist Communist...

Whatever we call the party,

it doesn't matter because it...

Hello, Lou, are you lost?

No. I'm not lost.

I'm here to tell my friends

that the newly-formed

Communist Party of America

is meeting at the Russian Federation

on Blue Island Avenue.

We welcome your applications.

They will be judged

on an individual basis.

You're gonna judge our applications?

We're gonna apply to you

for membership?

Comrade Chairman,

I'd like to call that question, please.

The motion has been made

and seconded that

we immediately constitute ourselves

as the bona fide Communist party

and that we call ourselves

the Communist Labor Party of America.

All those in favor,

please signify by saying aye.

Aye!

Opposed? Motion is carried.

Comrades! Comrades!

Comrades, this is the wrong time

to be fighting against one another.

We should be united in our struggle

against the capitalists.

You should have thought of that

six weeks ago, Louis.

If your people had stayed with us,

we'd have had a majority,

and we'd be in control

of that convention upstairs.

We have five times your membership!

Louis, your arithmetic's

something like your politics.

We will be at the Russian Federation

on Blue Island Avenue.

I hope to see some of you there.

Comrade Chairman, I move we

immediately send a delegate to Moscow

to gain recognition by the Comintern

for the Communist Labor Party

of America,

- and that delegate be Jack Reed.

- Second the motion!

The motion has been made

and seconded to send Jack Reed

to Moscow immediately

as the international delegate

to obtain recognition of the Comintern

for the Communist Labor Party

of America.

All those in favor,

please signify by saying aye.

Aye!

Opposed? Motion is carried.

Since the first question

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