So I was looking for some organization which might give some kind of an answer. In fact, I think that I told some of my friends that I was actually looking for the Communist Party for 2 years before I found it.
In 1931 my father sent me a notice of a Civil Rights Conference to be held in Portland, Oreg. This conference was being called to organize a defense for some people in Portland who had been accused of violating the criminal syndicalism law in the State of Oregon. They were alleged to be Communists. Some of them I later learned actually were Communists. My father was unable to attend the conference. So he asked me to go. I went. There I met the first Communists. The first one that I met was Mr. Fred Walker, and a person by the name of Paul Munter.
Mr. Moulder. May I interrupt? Is that the Civil Rights Congress?
Mr. Dennett. It wasn’t a congress, it was a conference.
Mr. Moulder. Civil Rights Conference?
Mr. Dennett. Yes, sir.
Mr. Moulder. Was it an organization?
Mr. Dennett. No. It was certainly a temporary organization for that particular case.
Mr. Moulder. Who was the leadership of that?
Mr. Dennett. It was organized under the auspices of the International Labor Defense, better known as the ILD.