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Line 1: − + − − ==Views of the ACLU Founder== − − In 1934, Roger Baldwin published his goals in Soviet Russia Today:<ref>The Volokh Conspiracy (blog entry), Eugene Volokh, September 7, 2005 [http://volokh.com/posts/1126138099.shtml]</ref> − − :I believe in non-violent methods of struggle as most effective in the long run for building up successful working class power. Where they cannot be followed or where they are not even permitted by the ruling class, obviously only violent tactics remain. I champion civil liberty as the best of the non-violent means of building the power on which workers rule must be based. If I aid the reactionaries to get free speech now and then, if I go outside the class struggle to fight against censorship, it is only because those liberties help to create a more hospitable atmosphere for working class liberties. The class struggle is the central conflict of the world; all others are incidental. − − :Proletarian Liberty in Practice − − :When that power of the working class is once achieved, as it has been only in the Soviet Union, I am for maintaining it by any means whatever. Dictatorship is the obvious means in a world of enemies at home and abroad. I dislike it in principle as dangerous to its own objects. But the Soviet Union has already created liberties far greater than exist elsewhere in the world. They are liberties that most closely affect the lives of the people — power in the trade unions, in peasant organizations, in the cultural life of nationalities, freedom of women in public and private life, and a tremendous development of education for adults and children. . . . − − Baldwin and the ACLU purged any open communists from its ranks in 1940. Line 58:
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move 70-87 year old items of primarily historical interest to less prominent position in the article (see talk)
[[Image:Nghfuyr.png|right|thumb|Current logo of the ACLU.]]
[[Image:Nghfuyr.png|right|thumb|Current logo of the ACLU.]]
The '''ACLU''' is the American Civil Liberties Union, which was run for its first 30 years by an American socialist named Roger Baldwin, who helped found it in 1920. This organization is devoted to protecting the civil liberties of Americans and defending them in court.
The '''ACLU''' is the American Civil Liberties Union, an organization founded in 1920 and devoted to protecting the civil liberties of Americans and defending them in court.
==ACLU Against the Boy Scouts==
==ACLU Against the Boy Scouts==
The ACLU has defended [[polygamy|polygamists]]{{fact-political}}.
The ACLU has defended [[polygamy|polygamists]]{{fact-political}}.
==Views of the ACLU Founder==
In 1934, Roger Baldwin, a co-founder of the ACLU and its first leader, published his goals in Soviet Russia Today:<ref>The Volokh Conspiracy (blog entry), Eugene Volokh, September 7, 2005 [http://volokh.com/posts/1126138099.shtml]</ref>
:I believe in non-violent methods of struggle as most effective in the long run for building up successful working class power. Where they cannot be followed or where they are not even permitted by the ruling class, obviously only violent tactics remain. I champion civil liberty as the best of the non-violent means of building the power on which workers rule must be based. If I aid the reactionaries to get free speech now and then, if I go outside the class struggle to fight against censorship, it is only because those liberties help to create a more hospitable atmosphere for working class liberties. The class struggle is the central conflict of the world; all others are incidental.
:Proletarian Liberty in Practice
:When that power of the working class is once achieved, as it has been only in the Soviet Union, I am for maintaining it by any means whatever. Dictatorship is the obvious means in a world of enemies at home and abroad. I dislike it in principle as dangerous to its own objects. But the Soviet Union has already created liberties far greater than exist elsewhere in the world. They are liberties that most closely affect the lives of the people — power in the trade unions, in peasant organizations, in the cultural life of nationalities, freedom of women in public and private life, and a tremendous development of education for adults and children. . . .
Baldwin and the ACLU purged any open communists from its ranks in 1940.
==References==
==References==