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COMMUNISM IN MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY 1425 Mr. Ashe. At one time I was. I held possibly 20 positions at one time or another in the Communist Party. Mr. Tavenner. Well, I think this would be a good time for you to state just what positions you have held in the Communist Party. Mr. Ashe. Well, I was State chairman of the State central commit- tee of the party in 1936. I was downtown-section organizer for about a year, year and a half; Western Worker correspondent for approxi- mately a year. Mr. Tavenner. Now, right there for just a moment. What pub- lication was that? Mr. Ashe. Western Worker, official publication of the Communist Party at that time. Mr. Tavenner. Was it succeeded by another publication? Mr. Ashe. Yes. I was succeeded by the People's Daily World. Mr. Tavenner. Proceed. Mr. Ashe. I believe I was county chairman at one time of the Relief Workers' Protective Union, which was composed of unemployed work- ers and which was a very fine source for recruiting party members at that time. I was chairman of various united-front groups. I was official speaker for the Communist Party for a considerable period of time. I toured the State. I believe I edited a paper called the Hunger Fighter, official organ of the Relief Workers' Protective Union, and probably held a good many other jobs. I taught briefly in the Los Angeles Workers' School, taught what was known as labor journalism. Actually it was teaching them basic English. I can't think of any more offhand. Oh, yes, I served for a while on the Los Angeles County disciplinary committee and I was a mem- ber of the executive committee of the Communist Party here in Los Angeles County. Mr. Tavenner. Were you connected at any time with the Workers' Alliance? Mr. Ashe. Workers' Alliance succeeded the Relief Workers' Protec- tive Union and to the best of my recollection I was not in it at that time. I think I was deeply involved in State organizational work for the party. Mr. Tavenner. You were telling the committee of the assignment you had in organizational work in the establishment of certain cells or units of the party. Will you continue with that, please? Mr. Ashe. Well, as downtown-section organizer, I believe it was called subsection for a while, and later section, I had charge of all of the units in the section, which incidentally was, I believe, the largest section in the city, numerically. I believe in 1936 at our section convention we reported somewhere between 300 and 350 mem- bers. The reason I recall this is because there was considerable argu- ment among the delegates, who accused me of padding the member- ship. I was in the unenviable position of not being able to reveal to them that the membership was so large because I had attached to the street section, several professional sections that could not be ex- posed and couldn't even be identified by name. Mr. Tavenner. Were you instrumental in the formation of these professional sections ? Mr. Ashe. The professional units; yes. Mr. Tavenner. Why was it that the membership in the units was to be kept secret ?