In the Neighborhood

Home from camp in the fall of 1937 Mendy turned away from student activities, because his colleagues on the student committee, sharply criticizing his work, felt he was not overcoming a trace of irresponsibility which marred his record. Some of the comrades he had worked with were going into the field for the Communist Party as organizers. For a time there was talk of Mendy also going out. There also was the growing tug toward Spain. After discussion it was agreed that he gather more experience. The place considered best was his own neighborhood—the 2nd Assembly District. During this last period in our country, September 1937 to mid-May 1938, he carried out various responsibilities for the Communist Party of the Second A.D. During the day he worked for a textile house.

One of his leading posts was that of Acting-Organizational Secretary to work on the re-enrollment of the Party membership for the coming year 1938. We have two bulletins which we found among his papers. Reading them you catch Mendy's flavor. We note this on the problem of stimulating dues collection:

"Are we satisfied with our efforts to get our comrades paid up on back dues? Has there been weekly checkup on the work of the control committee? Has the matter been taken to the floor of the regular membership meeting? Is everyone asking his fellow comrade in the street . 'Are you paid up?' and the answer not a dull 'What?' accompanied by a blank expression; rather a snappy comeback, 'But of course, and you?"

and in the same bulletin a few pointers on recruiting in January:

“ ... Since January 21 signals the end of the great Party Building Drive, the entire effort toward re-enrollment of old members can bring with it a marked upswing in recruiting en masse. This can be done if:

1. Business on January 4th is cut to the bone (one half hour). Executive to take care of all detail at its own meeting. Spare the membership !
2. Organizer delivers short summary of year's work and accomplishments of branch or unit.
3. Snappy skit, March of Time, any apt radio feature on that night, or good educational, like question and answer hat talk, where everybody will have a chance to participate in discussion. Singing of our revolutionary songs.
4. Tea and cake. Perhaps our splendid women Bolsheviks will re-enter the kitchen once again just to bake a cake. Comrades we assure you, it won't hurt the revolution! and may aid our digestion."

A successful job was done.

Next Mendy was assigned to bring life into a certain branch called eight. A comrade of the branch retraces some of the work then:

"Mendy became something of a celebrity as soon as he entered the branch, where I met him, because a lot of us remembered him as the brilliant boy who used to lead 'hat talks' at Camp Unity where he doubled as bus boy and political leader.

"He was a splendid comrade, with a rare combination of political development and willingness to do the humblest rank and file work. One time the section was running an election mass meeting at a public school, and our small weak branch had 10,000 leaflets to distribute. It seemed like an impossible task, but Mendy swore it was going to be done. He and I alone were responsible for about half. We gave them out at the station as the people came home from work, and I never saw anything quite as fast as the way Mendy managed to hand them out. Then when rush hour was over (we hadn't had time to eat first, of course) he insisted on taking me home with him and cooking dinner for me, and a very good dinner it was. Then we started work again—going from house to house, sticking leaflets under doors until we were ready to drop with exhaustion. He kept saying that if the meetings were a flop we'd go out and get drunk. Well the meeting was a flop—it wasn't easy in those days to fill a school auditorium—and after it was all over he took me to drown our sorrows, in the largest, gooiest ice cream sodas Kings Highway offered.

"Mendy was always conscious of the importance of theory and always anxious to help the new members learn. He did more during the few months he was educational director of the branch than the rest of us did in years. He used to lend me some of his books, and then to make sure that I read them carefully, would give oral quizzes on them which I had to pass before I could return the book.

"Almost everyone liked him; you just couldn't help it ... "

The letters he sent out for meetings contained a linking of the burning world news which was searing him to the work of the branch. One such letter called for the Branch meeting of March 15, 1938. Across the top was a streamer: "An Appeal for Hundred Per Cent Attendance At Our Next Branch Meeting, March 15th" then it continued:

March 12, 1938

"Dear Comrade:

"You have seen the headlines: HITLER INVADES AUSTRIA. What terrific menace lies in those bold, black lines. Its bitter meaning must surely stop short every comrade in the tracks of his daily routine. How much closer is the 'accident' of which Comrade Browder spoke on his return from abroad ... the 'accident' which will blow up the powder keg of European and world peace?

"We of the Communist Party know that the outbreak of world war is not inevitable. We know that at any particular moment, if the forces for peace are mobilized in time in sufficient strength the aggressors can be halted, war can be postponed, peace can be preserved. Time can be gained to rally the people's movement to overthrow for all time the war-makers in every country. And we of the Party know that it is upon us, the most conscious participants in the making of world history, that the question of the immediate future depends for favorable solution.

"If it is true then that our Party is destined to play a major role, the whole question of the fitness of our Party organizations to rise to the occasion comes up. What is our branch doing to awaken the folk of our community? How fast are the local clubs and organizations being mobilized into a solid democratic front against reaction? How rapidly are we recruiting into our Party in order the more widely to spread our message? Are we conscious that we are engaged in a desperate race against time?

"Comrades, as your newly-elected organizer, I feel the responsibilities that weigh upon our branch very keenly. And I am sure of all the comrades, that when you are aware of the particular tasks that we will be expected to carry through, there will be an immediate response to improve our work ... "

Two week later a letter started out:

"March 30, 1938

"Dear Comrades:

"At this fateful moment for Spain and the cause of the international working class, no special appeals need be made to the consciences of our Party membership. Rather let us but list a few of the things that each one of us can do as part of the organized general activity of the Party TO CHANGE the situation for the better ...

"Another reminder: CARL BRODSKY, member of the State Committee and outstanding authority on the history of the Trotskyite and Bukharin wreckers and spies is speaking at the Center this Sunday night. This is sure to be profoundly interesting and will be of great value to your friends who may be full of questions and who need a little more light. Let's not be bashful about these trials. Now as never before must we take the offensive to convince our union brothers and sisters about the necessity of cleaning out the Trotskyites from labor's ranks. When they realize the full meaning of the plans against peace and democracy of this scum, we will be more successful in our campaign to strengthen all our organizations ... "

With an eye to personal problems Mendy concludes this letter by saying:

“ ... For some comrades a card is enclosed. If you have not been attending regularly, the card is for you and addressed to me. Will you please write and tell your Executive Committee if it is possible for you to attend our next meeting, and why not if it is impossible? I would like to arrange a little personal discussion with comrades who have particular problems within the branch. Any time you have for this will be fine with me.

Comradely, Wilfred Mendelson, Organizer."

There were many activities outlined; in Mendy's jottings we find listed:

1. Change of groups;
2. Trial resolution—Hailing sentences of 21 traitors and concurring in the findings of Soviet workers' justice ;
3. O'Connell Peace Act ;
4. Dental strike picket volunteers.

Sundays were spent with the Sunday Worker, but better read a description of Mendy's Sunday in his letter of June 5 to Doris from Spain.

One assignment was as a delegate to the Affiliated Oceanfront Council where he represented the Communist Party. Many there remembered him for his quiet, simple and calm explanation of a question.

Most probably his happiest assignment was that of teacher in the section school to improve the understanding of the active Communist Party members. He taught The Negro Question.

The words of his Section organizer convey that school:

"A highly successful term of the Section Training School had ended. We were in the process of assigning the graduates to activities conforming to their preferences and recommendations of the instructors. I had been asking the students which of the sessions they had enjoyed and profited from the most. Without exception, all enthusiastically heaped praise on the evenings spent under Mendy's instruction. The clarity of his analysis of conditions and events, the application of this analysis to the problems to the wider problems of the big struggles taking place on the international scene—particularly Spain—all this had imbued the students with an eagerness and earnestness to throw themselves into the work and find their places in many tasks that had to be undertaken. Above all, however, every student harked back to the abrupt and salty humor of Mendy's incidental remarks and asides, quips and jokes that often sent them into stitches of laughter and yet helped to illuminate sharply the serious political questions under discussion.

"Our educational committee was convinced that another term must be started at once and that Mendy must not be allowed to engage in any other activity that might conflict with his invaluable work in the school."

During these months he also taught a class for new Party members.

May Day, 1938, was held under the slogans of Democracy, Jobs, Security and Peace. Into the immense work that went to make that huge parade Mendy poured his effort as a delegate to the United May Day Committee. That was his last Party job in the USA. Then he left our neighborhood.