On April 5, 1951, Julius  nd Ethel Rosenberg were s**tenced to die in the ele
ric chair, after having **en framed on a charge of **nspiring to "spy" on beh
of the Soviet Union. On **ne 19th, 1953, in the fac* of world wide protest an
with very grave questions raised concerning the validity,of the trial, testim
conviction and guilt of the Rosenbergs, they were martyred in the cause of Am
ican democracy and the fight for peace. The statement of Ethel  Rosenberg when
she was taken to the Sing Sing death house gives an accuratee picture of the n
ure of this case. "We said and we say again that we are victims of the grosse
type of political frameup ever known in America."

The murder of the Rosenbergs was an act of political genocide. Wall Street's
fear that its xxxx hoax was daily being exposed and that the clemency movemen
would soon involve millions more in America and throughout the world, hastene
the killing of the Rosenbergs. It further had the four-fold aim of trying to
stamp out the growing resistance to McCarthyite fascism, to stem the tide of
widening disillusionment with American imperialist intervention in Korea and
elsewhere, to terrorize minority groups, the foreign born, and Jewish and Negr
people, imposing on them the new economic and political recriminations, and finall
to attempt to bring to their knees the leading organized progressive forces
fighting for peace and democracy.

The statement made many times to the effect that the Rosenberg case was primar
ily a labor case was fully realized by the "evidence" which put the Rosenberg
couple to death. The federal prosecutors said that the Rosenbeergs had conspire
to commit sabotage because their "loyalty was to communism in the country and
communism throughout the world." The following are typical items introduced as
evidence of the "spy activities", activities which millions of American citize
are "guilty" of.
   1. The Rosenbergs had a Spanish Refugee appeal can in their home.
   2. Ethel Rosenberg was one of fifty thousand New York  citizens who had sign
      a nominating petition in 1941 for Peter  W. Cacchione, successful Commun
      ist Party candidate for New York City Councilman.
   3. The Rosenbergs carried sick and death benefit insurance with the Interna
      ional Workers Order, a multi-national, inter-racial  fraternal insurance
      society with 160,000 members in 18 states.
   4. The Rosenbergs were both active members of their trade unions; Ethel in
      Local "65" of the Wholesale Retail and Warehouse Workers Union; Julius
      in the Federation of Architects, Engineers, and Technicians.
   5. The Rosenbergs occasionally read the Daily Worker.
   6. The Rosenbergs believed that the Soviet Union had borne the brunt of the
      war against Nazi Germany, and that it had done its share in wiping out 
      the murderers of six million Jews.
   7. The Rosenbergs had been pleased and lauded the United States and Great
      Britain for opening up a second front.

The deadly parallel of this ersatz evidence with the government's efforts to i
dict the Labor Youth League for its struggles to preserve peace, jobs for Negr
and white youth, and for youth unity against the forces of rabid reaction, is 
clear. The murder of the Rosenbergs was an open attempt to intimidate peace
fighters and trade unionists.

The execution of the Rosenbergs made a mockery out of the Supreme Court's "in-
dependence", "impartiality", and "non-class" nature, and the American legal ed
fice generally. With unseemly haste and without having even xxxx looked at the
evidence, the Supreme Court vacated the stay of execution granted by Justice
Douglas (which was later concurred in by Justice Black and Frankfurter). The
death of the Rosenbergs demonstrated Lenin's classic statement that the State
in capitalist society is simply an instrument for carrying out the will of the
ruling class.