Anthony Bimba
Bimba was once again in the news in 1963 when the United States Department of Justice began deportation proceedings against him, charging that he committed perjury during the course of his 1927 naturalization as an American citizen.
Antanas Bimba, most commonly known by the Americanized first name "Anthony," was born on January 22, 1894, in the village of Valaitiškis [lt], located near the Latvian border in the Rokiškis District of Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire.
[2] The Bimba family were patriotic Lithuanians and Roman Catholics — beliefs which made them de facto dissidents to the pervasive Great Russian nationalism and official religious orthodoxy of the tsarist regime.
[3] Although wages and working conditions were somewhat better in the paper mill, Bimba developed chest pains from the noxious fumes produced by chemicals used in the pulp-making process and was forced to find new employment.
[3] As a means of escaping the pulp mill, Bimba helped to establish a new cooperative bakery to make rye bread, an important staple food for the immigrant community, becoming a delivery truck driver in the process.
[4] Bimba lived briefly among the Lithuanian immigrant communities at Muskegon, Michigan, and Niagara Falls, New York, where he came to believe that "the church and saloon held them firmly in hand," as he later put it and helped sponsor a visit from an atheist lecturer from Chicago.
[5] Although his English was imperfect, Bimba studied history and sociology at the school, living very economically and earning his room by taking care of a small Lithuanian library in town.
[6] Bimba left school in the summer of 1919 to take a job offered to him as editor of Darbas (Labor), a monthly Lithuanian-language publication of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA), published in New York City.
[6] Bimba's task largely involved the translation and adaptation of the ACWA's English-language flagship publication, Advance, for the union's Lithuanian immigrant membership.
At the 10th National Convention of the Lithuanian Socialist Federation, held shortly after the establishment of the Communist Party, Bimba served on the 5 member Resolutions Committee and emerged as a leading spokesman for affiliation with the CPA.
[12] An anti-communist Lithuanian-American named Anthony Eudaco went to the local police prior to the event to express his concerns and to alert them to a potentially illegal situation.
[14] In the aftermath of Bimba's speech, authorities decided to charge him with criminal sedition and violation of a 229-year old state law against blasphemy, passed at the time of the Salem witch trials.
"[15] Local authorities attempted to undercut Communist efforts at building a mass protest movement through police prohibitions of Bimba defense meetings in Brockton, Boston, and Worcester, Massachusetts.
[12] In presenting Bimba's defense, Hoffman first addressed the blasphemy charge, defending atheism as akin to a religion and declaring that there was a constitutional right to belief in the non-existence of a God.
[17] Upon appeal, the sedition charge was dropped with a finding of nolle prosequi as District Attorney Winfield Wilbar found the case not worth pursuing.
[19] The government charged that Bimba had committed perjury during his 1927 hearings to become a naturalized citizen of the United States for failing to make mention of his 1926 prosecution for sedition and blasphemy.
[19] In the opinion of historian Ellen Schrecker, the government's action was actually retaliation for his failure to provide testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee IN 1957.
[19] Bimba contested the deportation effort and the matter dragged on without resolution, until in July 1967, Attorney General Ramsey Clark finally dropped the case.
