As Dr. Edward Jennings wisely observed, "Most Polish American historians were too conservative to be interested in radicalism. On the other hand, most historians, especially labor historians, were liberal to radical, and weren't interested in the Polish community because it wasn't radical enough."  However, it must be emphasized that I am presenting primarily an American perspective of liberal persuasion of the work of Leo Krzycki in the Polish Left, 1942-1950, while attempting to be loyal to the Polish cause. The Detroit Left was an infinitesimal part of Polonia.  Hopefully, I have not been chauvinistic to either view.
        The label, "Detroit Left," resulted from many radical activities, often spawned by the Depression.  The anti-Soviet writers coined the expression, "Detroit Left," based upon the perceived headquarters of the Polish Left. Only Krzycki's involvement has been researched, not the complete breadth of the Polish Left, so that their entire involvement remains to be revealed. Starting with Daniel DeLeon's "Detroit IWW," headquartered in Hamtramck, Detroit was home to the radicals in the circle of C.L.R. James known as the Johnson-Forest Tendency in the 1940s.  A 1940s member of the Detroit Habonim recalled "the panoply of radical groups that existed in Detroit, not only Zionist radicals, but Communists, Trotskyites, Socialist Labor Party people, and even a few surviving Wobblies."  Black Power manifested itself in DRUM and Malcolm X, dubbed "Detroit Red."
        "In the Detroit area, as nationally, labor did more than most civilians to win the war," stated William O'Neill.  During WW II, Detroit, America's fourth largest city, became the center of America's heavy industry, the arsenal of democracy. The auto workers union, the UAW, headquartered in Detroit, represented the "most important working-class organization in all of American machine industry."  Starting in 1919, B.K. Gebert (1895-1986) agitated and organized Ford workers, 1937-40.   Probably, no large American city was as unionized as Detroit with such a multitude of militant CIO unions.  The higher wages paid to union members allowed those few Communist Party (CP) members and radicals of other persuasions to support not only the many CP front groups in the Detroit area but also other radical groups. Smaller than Chicago, a small Polish communist cadre developed, starting in 1919 with the Glos Robotniczy (The Worker's Voice) and then in 1924 with the paper, Trybuna Robotnicza (The Workers Tribune) by Gebert.  With the most Polish city in America, Hamtramck, in its territorial center, Detroit became a central geographical location in America with its many Polish organizations and buildings. The Polish Workers Hall erected in 1919 at 3014 Yemans, Hamtramck, developed into the center for the Polish Left. Joseph Kowalski, the first Pole on the executive board of the Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA or CP), made Detroit his headquarters. Marrying a Detroiter in 1920, Gebert also headquartered himself in Detroit.  Stanley Nowak (1903-1994) settled in Detroit and pioneered the rise of the United Automobile Workers.  His Polish Trade Union Committee consisted of militant CP members.  They used the radio more effectively than FDR. However, it must be remembered that the socialists, active for over 40 years, paved the way for the CPUSA, created in 1919 from left-wing groups expelled by the Socialist Party.
        Tadeusz Radwanski (1884-1960) not only edited the various newspapers but developed a CP correspondence course in Polish.  In 1936, the Polish left founded the Glos Ludowy (The People's Voice, 1936-1991) which because the official organ of the Polonia Society, IWO, headed by Gebert. Edited by Henry Podolski; Wladyslaw Kucharski (1883- 1960); Thomas X. Dombrowski (1917-1956); Conrad Komorowski (1906-1991); Adam Kujtkowski et al., the Glos Ludowy paper had a national circulation and it was later reinforced by Waclaw Soyda's weekly, Nasz Swiat (Our World).  Father Stanislaw Orlemanski' s Kosciuszko League used the office address of the Glos Ludowy as their headquarters.
        Like President George W. Bush, Krzycki was essentially a figurehead. Obviously, he had no training or background in international events or realpolitik.  His close personal involvements with CP labor activists, particularly Gebert and Nowak, led him to trust their judgment in international events.
        There were at least three distinct phases of Krzycki's 1942-1950 activity. His involvement in the American Slav Congress in World War II and the involvement of the American Polish Labor Council in FDR's fourth election constituted the first phase.  Roughly the two year interim period prior to the Cold War with the formation of the World Federation of Trade Unions and the death of Sidney Hillman involved the second phase.  As discussed ad nauseam, if Krzycki had retired after five decades in the labor movement, he would not have been vilified and remained persona non grata, for some, to this day.  The third phase involved his participation with the pro-Soviet group during the Cold War, 1947, to his retirement in 1950.
        Born and raised in Milwaukee, the home of American socialism, Krzycki quickly became enamored with its leader, Eugene Debs (1855-1926).  Although the Zwiazek Socjalistow Polskich (ZSP, Alliance of Polish Socialists), 1893, was affiliated with the Polish Socialist Party [PPS] in Poland, it cooperated with all American socialists.  However, Krzycki did not join them but became active with the Socialist Party (SP) founded in 1901.
        For over three decades, Krzycki worked assiduously in both the SP and the labor movement. As testimony of his own devotion to idealism, Krzycki named his first son Eugene after Eugene Debs and his second son, Victor, for Congressman and editor Victor Berger.  His eldest child, Leona, named her first born for Norman Thomas and the second for FDR.  The Socialists were the only political party primarily interested in improving the working conditions of the working man.  It didn't take a rocket scientist to observe that money interests controlled the two major parties, a fact unchanged to this day. Poet Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) joined the Socialist Party initially because of their fight for child labor laws.  Sandburg wrote his pamphlet during the two-year period he served as a full time organizer for the Milwaukee Socialist Democratic Party.  Secretary to Mayor Emil Seidel, Sandburg enjoyed a rich socialist past.  "Later, my father and Carl Sandburg, then a reporter for the Milwaukee Leader," recalled Gene Krzycki, "pulled off a strike against the Milwaukee street car company.  Only one motorman was pried loose from his post."
        Concurrent with his union activities, Krzycki was elected a Milwaukee alderman on the socialist ticket in 1912 and 1914.   Incomplete Socialist Party records showed that Krzycki attended the 1917 National Convention as a delegate from Wisconsin. The Wisconsin delegation also included Berger, John Doerfler Jr., W. R. Gaylord, N. P. Neilsen, Emil Seidel, and Gerrit Thorn. Seventeen years later in Cleveland, Krzycki remarked, "I was fortunate in being present in St. Louis in 1917." Forgotten was the 1920 New York Times report, "Victor Berger, publisher of The Milwaukee Leader, candidate for Congress and leader of Socialists in this city, was, with four other Socialists, indicted by the Federal Grand Jury here today.  The others are Leo Krzyczki (sic), candidate for Congress, and former Sheriff of Milwaukee (sic); Oscar Ameringer, candidate for Congress; Louis A. Arnold, State Senator, candidate for re-election, and Miss Elizabeth Thomas, President of the Social Democratic Publishing Company."  Fortunately, the government did not proceed against Krzycki or his comrades.
        Krzycki patterned himself after his hero, Debs, "first and foremost an orator-an orator of the first rank."  Like him, Krzycki "was a propagandist, not a great thinker, and he never pretended to be anything else."  As passionate as Debs, Krzycki's entire life was premised upon the cornerstone of Debs's philosophy: "He who aspires to master the art of expression must first of all consecrate himself completely to some great cause, and the greatest cause of all is the cause of humanity." Running on the Socialist ticket with Berger, Krzycki lost his 1924 congressional bid while Berger succeeded.  Krzycki agreed to run for any office that the SP desired, whether it was the 24th Ward alderman or the U.S. Senate. He was secretary of the Wisconsin state central committee. In 1930, as the guest of the Polish socialists, Mrs. Krzycki and Leo studied conditions, political and economic, in England, France, Belgium, Germany, Katowice (birthplace of Pope John Paul II), Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Switzerland.
        Krzycki was secretary of the Labor Committee (my emphasis) for Thomas and Maurer in the 1932 presidential election.  He sent hundreds of letters on their behalf.  The New Jersey and Ohio Socialist Party endorsed Krzycki in 1936 for Vice President on the Socialist ticket Crying before President Thomas when he was forced to resign and indicating that he was compelled to support Roosevelt for re-election, Krzycki cut his lengthy ties with the Socialist Party in 1936 although he preserved his socialist philosophy.  Others, like Leonard Woodcock and the Reuther brothers remained loyal to the SP past the 1944 presidential elections. Polish Americans, like most Americans, never considered the constitutional guaranties of free speech and freedom of association when it pertained to the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and its front groups.  For the record, it must be also emphasized that Krzycki was never a member of the CPUSA and his FBI file verified this fact, after 20 years of investigation.  In the aftermath of the Cold War (1947-1989), we should re-evaluate our concerns for First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights just as we have apologized to the Japanese Americans and Italian Americans for their unconstitutional detainment.
        Volume 1 provided proof of Krzycki's early anti-Communism.  However, when he was forced to leave the Socialist Party, socialists reluctantly engaged in the popular front with the CPUSA.  Having encountered Gebert in the 1919 Chicago steel strike and Stanley Nowak, who was an ACWA committeeman in 1922, Krzycki, like all of the founders of the CIO, cooperated with CP members to form the CIO as well as the rubber, steel and auto workers unions.
        Beginning with his new allegiance to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936, Krzycki remained loyal to the New Deal ideals as a "Roosevelt Progressive" for the rest of his life.  Tragically, to the detriment of his reputation, he failed to consider the change of international events, which included the USSR's hegemonic subjugation of Poland.  However, did he not have the constitutional right to a different opinion?
         Fervent anti-Communists, like John Edgar Hoover, found it convenient to overlook the fact that the USSR was an ally, 1941-1945.  Worse, they retroactively accused all those who engaged in wartime cooperation as pro-Soviet, collaborationists and fellow-travelers.
With 40% of the workers in heavy industries Slavic, Sidney Hillman, Gebert, and others decided to form the American Slav Congress (ASC) in 1942, mainly as a symbol of unity against Hitler and the Nazis.  Unlike the various Germanic groups, the Slavs never cooperated to any degree.  Suspicious of the Soviets, the Polish Americans, the largest American Slavic group, initially participated on a limited basis but then abandoned the Slav Congress entirely.
        Alan Cranston (1914-2000) was sent to personally observe the first meeting of the ASC.  With the help of Cranston (later U. S. Senator from California) of the OWI, the conservative State Department finally acquiesced to the creation of the Slav Congress, but it always maintained reservations distrustful of its "foreign" citizens.  Several safeguards were constructed. The Foreign Nationality Branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) as well as the FBI and the military intelligence would closely monitor the ASC. At age 60, Krzycki had established his loyalty and it was reiterated. "Krzycki informed the IWO leaders that the American Slav Congress would take its directives from the American Government, and from no outside group.  He advised them loyalty to America comes first (emphasis added), and they could 'take it or leave it.'"
        The International Workers Order (IWO), an insurance company, patterned itself after the many ethnic fraternal organizations but it proved to be the most effective CP front group.  The IWO allowed the CP inroads in every ethnic group.  In the case of Polonia, it was unique because Gebert, the most prominent Pole on the executive board of the CP, headed the Polonia Society from which he operated.  It must be emphasized that only a small percentage of IWO members were communists but most communists were also members of the IWO.
        Having created the Slav Congress, the American government could have dissolved it at any time.  During WW II, the Slav Congress mainly engaged in war bond rallies and other morale functions designed to maintain high productivity.  Since there were no unionization drives, aging labor leaders, like Krzycki, could make their contribution to the war effort in this way. Gebert employed Edward J. Falkowski for the Polonia Society, IWO, whose dedicated secretary was Wojciech (Albert) Haracz (1885-1971). Soliciting suggestions from Polonia's leaders, Falkowski visited numerous Polish American leaders and other Slavic leaders to gain their support for the ASC.  Continuing its providential start, the first banquet preliminary to the actual formation of the American Slav Congress was held December 7, 1941, (attack on Pearl Harbor) with over 1200 representatives meeting at Detroit's Masonic Temple "sponsored by the Slav-American Defense Savings Program."  U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle was guest of honor. Relying more upon MacLeish and Berle (and probably Hillman), President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent the following telegram to the American Slav Congress on April 25, 1942:
        "A victory for the United Nations will be a victory for all peoples, since the United Nations are fighting for the four essential freedoms of peoples. In the common struggle there is created a common brotherhood.  America is proud of her Slavic citizens, whether their origin be Russian, Polish, Czech or Yugoslav.
"I am glad to greet this gathering of Americans of Slavic descent, and of men of Slavic descent who have taken up their life in America, as a part of the growing stream of American life.  The American purpose has been to unify many great racial groups in a common effort for national freedom, international order, and the attainment, through strength and victory, of a world in which all people may live freely in thought and religion, free from want and free from fear."

         In the initial Slav Congress program book, the IWO ran their ad, "70,000 Members of the Slav-American Sections of the International Workers Order greet the unity of the 15,000,000 Americans of Slav extraction gathered at this historical Congress!"
When the bodies of the thousands of Polish officers were discovered by the Germans in 1943 at Katyn, the Polish Government-in-Exile demanded an investigation.  The USSR, blaming the Nazis for Katyn, broke off relations with this London government since it was preparing its puppets to run Poland once it was liberated.  This only confirmed the suspicions of the Poles towards Stalin, and their cold war commenced as soon as the secret pact at Teheran was revealed in 1943.  At Teheran, reaffirmed subsequently at Yalta, and without consulting the Poles, the allies secretly conceded the Polish territory that had been seized by the Soviets in 1939.
        In January 1944, the CIO under Hillman had Krzycki form the American Polish Labor Council, consisting mainly of CIO activists, to aid in the re-election of President Roosevelt.  Although opposed by an anti-Communist Polish American Labor Council, Krzycki and his CIO cohorts continued their pro-Soviet stance.  Polonia boycotted Krzycki's activities and made him a pariah.  After the Polish American Congress was formed in May 1944, it tried to pressure the Roosevelt Administration for a less conciliatory policy toward the USSR, but it failed.
         Nowhere in America, except in Michigan, did Polonia elect three Polish American congressmen in 1932.  President Roosevelt's visit to Hamtramck followed four years later.  For over the next fifty years, candidates and presidents visited Hamtramck.
The Polish émigrés could not trust sanacja and their heirs in the Polish government in exile.  Unless one experienced the oppressive Pilsudski regime and the subsequent rule of the colonels, one cannot lightly dismiss the Polish émigrés. Like Americans, they wanted a new deal in Poland.
        While the pro-Soviet group was not ultimately effective, it is fitting testimony to the accomplishments that a relatively few dedicated individuals can achieve.  However, what little had been accomplished by the Detroit Left could not have been done without the indispensable assistance of a few Polish intelligentsia led by Oskar Lange (1904-1965), a Chicago economist, an American citizen, and who maneuvered behind the scenes as Venona documents revealed.  At the beginning, the list of professors supporting the Alliance of Polish Democrats: Dr. Abraham Penzik, Prof. Ignacy Zlotowski, Prof. B. Zawadski, Prof. Waclaw Szymanowski, Julian Tuwim, poet, (1894-1953), Prof. H. Grossman, Artur and Lucja Szyk, famous cartoonist, Olgierd Langer, Prof. Tadeusz Malinowski, Prof. Alexander Hertz (1895-1989), and Oskar Lange.  Jan Kiepura (1902-1966) sang at some of their events. The group of Polish liberals were led by Lange and Dr. Penzik who published a book with Zygmunt Gorzynski, Czeslaw Grzelak, Adam Kober, Lucjan Szenwald, Bohdan Zawadzki, W Przededniu (Before Daybreak, 1944).  They were joined by U-M Prof. Louis Karpinski, and many of the aforementioned, including Eugeniusz Cenkalski, Marek Krygier, Ryszard Ordynski, and several less prominent personalities led by Oskar Lange actively supported the new Polish government in 1944.
        They continued their propaganda drive with rallies and publications.  By the end of the war, Lange renounced his American citizenship to become Poland's first Ambassador to the United Nations. The Polish Underground had circulated a proposal for post-war Poland that had been first submitted by Jan Kwapinski from representatives of the Polish Socialist Party and the Polish Peasants Party, which first presented it to the Polish National Council, Poland's parliament in exile in London. They agreed that "it will be their task to make sure that any plans for a new Poland which may be drafted in London shall, in accordance with the will of the people, be a plan for a democratic Poland-A TRUE PEOPLE'S POLAND."
        However, the Polish émigrés envisioned a more liberal Poland with their Program for People's Poland, July 24, 1942,  (New York: Polish Labor Group). It must be remembered that victims of Pilsudski's concentration camp at Bereza Kartuska, like Penzik, would never trust members of sanacja. Because moderates, especially Polish Americans, refused to participate, the CPUSA, through its IWO members, gained control of the Slav Congress, virtually a paper organization, by 1944.
        Winning the war was FDR's paramount preoccupation and then establishing the United Nations (UN).  Concessions were made to Stalin to secure his cooperation at Yalta, including the recognition of the Ukraine and Belarus as "independent" members of the UN.  FDR's death in April confirmed the changes in Europe as the war ended in May 1945.  All of Krzycki's activities were meticulously reported and remain preserved in the 1988 declassified Foreign Nationality Branch records of the Office of Strategic Services. Shortly, the allies recognized the Soviet puppet government of Poland and withdrew their recognition of the Polish Government-in-Exile at London.  As discussed in Volume 1, Hillman, Krzycki and other CIO members formed the World Federation of Trade Unions in 1946.
        Krzycki had his historic meeting with Stalin and toured parts of the USSR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia.  Hillman's premature death and Krzycki's forced retirement coincided in 1946, and they provided him the opportunity to bow out of politics gracefully.  For unexplained reasons he continued. This was a brief period before the acknowledged start of the Cold War.
         The FBI maintained their close surveillance of Krzycki that had begun in March 1944 and continued for the next 20 years.  While denounced by the House Un-American Affairs Committee, he was never given the opportunity to defend his loyalty.
With the start of the Cold War in 1947, Polonia used the Yalta agreement as a scapegoat for Stalin's successful takeover of central and eastern Europe. Under Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Republicans and the military-industrial complex succeeded in not only making America anti-Communist but also intolerant of any opposing views no matter how innocuous.  Yet, no Republican president has ever suggested the repudiation of the Yalta treaty. In this highly charged emotional environment, former Vice President Henry Wallace attempted to discuss peace and a more moderate view of the USSR. Without any question, then Krzycki and his colleagues advocated continued cooperation with the USSR as enunciated by Wallace.
        Falkowski, Krzycki and a few stalwarts participated in the ill-advised 1948 presidential campaign which ended in a total fiasco for Wallace.  Needless to say, this gesture made Krzycki persona non grata in most anti-Communist circles, like the Americans for Democratic Action.
        The following year, Krzycki made his last trip to Europe at Paris, which he described in My Peace Mission to Europe.  Like Henry Ford's 1914 aborted attempt, Krzycki only met more opposition at home."I fully believe that Dad's retirement years were relaxing, rewarding and satisfying, it became the years of Leo and Anna.husband and wife.  Who can add to that? You [the author] ask about Stalin, Khruschev, the Korean War and the Cold War.  I have nothing that I can contribute to you in these areas," wrote Victor Krzycki.
Because of his fidelity to his Polish heritage, Krzycki would have to have enjoyed the selection of Karol Cardinal Wojtyla as the first non-Italian Pope in 450 years.
How would Krzycki have reacted to the rise of the Solidarnosc movement?
Would he have continued to follow Gebert or would he have followed his son, Konstanty Gebert, who opposed the Communist regime and joined the Solidarnosc movement?  Given Professor Anna Cienciala's conclusion that "Solidarity was a uniquely Polish combination of socialism, democracy, nationalism and Catholicism," how could Krzycki have objected to the only independent labor union in the Soviet satellites?  It is difficult to believe that he would have disagreed with the Polish Pope, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and AFL-CIO, which channeled $50 million to Solidarity as reported in His Holiness by Carl Bernstein and Marco Politi.
        The Solidarity movement led to the Polish Round Table in 1989 and the demise of Communism in Poland.  This event, not the fall of the Berlin Wall, prompted the other Soviet satellites to free themselves from the USSR.  The U.S. reversed its policy and provided valuable aid in 1996 to the newly formed Confederation of Russian States to enable the old USSR to convert to a free market economy.   The Soviets had been exorcised and were no longer the "Evil Empire."  The free market economy finally came to Russia. I wholeheartedly agree with conservative columnist, Joseph Sobran's statement, "With every month that passes I become more convinced of the fraudulence of the Cold War."  Should not the opposition to some of the activities of Krzycki and others during the Cold War be re-evaluated in the disappearance of the communist threat?
        Hopefully, in time, Krzycki's three-year activity in the Cold War will be placed in its proper historical context and judged accordingly.  And, I cannot emphasize enough that Krzycki retired shortly after the Korean War in 1950 living in virtual isolation for the remaining sixteen years of his life. Unlike Wallace and others, Krzycki's activities received little publicity, consequently the pro-Soviet accusations proved totally useless.
Generally, only the CP and the pro-Soviet group knew of his limited activities.  At no time did Krzycki ever jeopardize or pose any threat to the national security of the United States.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas in his "Judicial Treatment of Nonconformists" observed, "The radical has never fared well in American life, whether he was dubbed anarchist, socialist, Bolshevik or Communist.
        Public passions have always run high against him; and that feeling has radiated from judges as well as from newspapers and the people on Main Street."
In any evaluation, this observation is most critical.


Biography of Don Binkowski


Ironically, while Christians have been urged to follow in the footsteps of St. Joseph, the patron saint of workers, blue-collar workers have been placed at the bottom of the American social strata.  Polish peasants immigrated to American urban centers to find work that would provide them a better life and improve the lives of their children.  Prejudice against foreigners placed Poles and other Slavic ethnics, who could not speak English, in the worst jobs at the lowest wages.  An over supply of unskilled workers kept the Poles in the lower class.  The automobile industry was a magnet that drew immigrants from all over the world making Detroit the second largest Polish urban center.
         Both of my grandfathers never learned English while struggling to eke out an existence in Detroit.  Compensating to anglicize her children, my mother (born in Poland but brought to America at age one), refused to teach her children Polish.
Don Binkowski (b. 1929, on 3176 Farnsworth, across from St. Hyacinth R.C. Church) was baptized at St. Albertus, the first Polish Roman Catholic Church, on St. Aubin and Canfield, in the heart of the Polish ghetto on Detroit's east side.  I attended the first two grades at St. Ladislaus in Hamtramck living on Pulaski St. We moved from one rented apartment to another during the Depression.  Because Dad dabbled in real estate, in 1938, we bought our first home, 17863 St. Louis, north of Nevada, in North Detroit, formerly known as the Village of Norris.  Following tradition, we attended St. Louis the King for a Polish/Catholic education, until the continuing Depression forced our transfer to the public school at John D. Pierce where my three sisters and I ultimately graduated.
         Unemployed like thousands of Detroiters, my father, Alex, was forced to join the Works Project Administration (WPA) during America's worst economic crisis. One of my indelible experiences was taking my wagon to get a load of coal for a quarter dressed in shoes that had cardboard soles to cover the holes.  The current generation can only look back to the Depression with disbelief or denial, never being able to realize the depths of despair, hunger, and suffering.
         Alex and Leo Binkowski (Don's Godfather) attended the first Wayne County Democratic Convention in 1932. Alex ran for the office of bailiff and later state senate. Finally, he became chief turnkey at the Wayne County Sheriff's Office, the height of his political career.
Most often, we would take the Baker Street Car from Nevada and Mt. Elliott to Forest where we would visit the Wojtowicz grandparents on  2000 Warsaw St. (somehow the house has survived), east of the railroad tracks, at St. Aubin.  My most vivid memory was that Sunday, December 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.  Unknown to me, it was only World War II that finally brought America out of the Great Depression. I attended the integrated Pershing High School where I engaged in many activities, including a community youth group, winning a scholarship to the University of Michigan.  After the death of my father in 1949, I worked during the days at the Social Security Administration while completing my bachelor's degree and then the University of Detroit Law School evening program.
        Drafted into the army, I was sent to Austria in 1954, at the border with the Russians at Linz, at Camp McCauley.  Strangely, there was no indoctrination against communism. The song, "Cross over the Bridge" had real meaning in Linz, which was divided by the dirty Danube River but serviced by a common streetcar.  American GI's or Soviet troops would, on occasion, fall asleep on the streetcar and cross over into the enemy's zone.  Although we needed gray passes to enter Vienna, which was administered by the four powers, there was no specific animosity toward the Soviets.  While Senator McCarthy was terrorizing Americans, we in Europe were safely oblivious to his demonic rantings.
The G.I. Bill allowed me to complete his legal education at Wayne State University in 1956.  He passed the Bar and became an attorney the following year.  As an assistant attorney general, Binkowski married in 1958 fathering Donna (1959), Beth Ann (1960), and Alex (1964).
        Following my father in Democratic politics, I became active in the First Congressional District, the most Democratic district in the country, where I continued working with African- Americans and other ethnics.
With the help of my public relation advisor, Paul Lutzeier, I capitalize on a lawsuit to stop the charge of 35 cents for bogus reflectorized plates.
Endorsed by the UAW and other unions, I won my first elective office, with the help of UAW coordinator, Ted Pankowski, in 1961.  For the first time, I witnessed the McCarthy tactics of the conservative Detroit daily publicizing the Communist Party background of Coleman Young.  Unbelievably naïve, I did not comprehend either the CPUSA or its impact upon American politics, not knowing anything either of socialism or communism.
Binkowski distinguished himself in the Michigan CONstitutional CONvention, 1961-1962, establishing a liberal record to help the working poor cooperating with other delegates: Harold Bledsoe, Young, Morris Hood, Sr., Malcolm Dade, Adelaide Hart, William Marshall, Tom Downs, Richard Austin, Daisy Elliott, William Ford, Harold Norris, Jack Faxon, William Greene, Joseph Snyder and Ralph Liberato.  Fortunately, my opponents never discovered my ultra-liberal record when I settled in Warren.  Later, I was appointed chairman of the Michigan Nationalities Division of the Democratic Party working in the Michigan Labor Mediation.  Unknown to me at the time was my collaboration with union pioneers, Ernest Goodman, Larry Davidow, Daniel Gallagher, Stanley Dobry, and Walter Quillico.
When we did not have a down payment for a home in Detroit, we moved across 8 Mile Road, to the new Hamtramck, the city of Warren, where a home was purchased on a land contract.
        Continuing my political activity, I was elected to the Warren City Council with union help.  Throughout my political career, I was able to garner the support of organized labor, an essential ingredient even in non-partisan offices, so that labor constituted an essential ingredient of my political success. I worked with UAW Region I directors, George Merrelli, Perry Johnson, and Steve Yokich.  In 1968, I was elected to the 37th District Court where I served for eighteen years honing the implementation of social justice.  Essentially, the district court was the people's court where most citizens sought justice for traffic violations.
At a Wayne State University writing class, I met Margaret Collingwood Nowak, whose husband I had previously met at political functions over the years.  At their request, I brought the Nowak manuscript to former Polish Ambassador, Jozef Winiewicz, in 1977 when I studied in Poland.  Later, I brought Mr. and Mrs. Ted Radzialowski to the Nowak residence.  Subsequently, Radzialowski wrote the "Introduction" to the Nowak book, Two Who Were There, 1995.  Frankly, Nowak cleverly concealed his Stalinism.  I never bothered to read about either the theory of communism or the CPUSA itself.
        In 1987, I retired. Exhausted, I felt that I needed a rest. With my wife Christina, we traveled.  In my retirement, I finally completed the book (dedicated to Christina) about Col. Philetus W. Norris, who founded the village in Detroit where we lived, and I began researching and writing about Polish American officials, like Stanley Nowak.  Stanley proved very guarded and he would control the discussion by only answering and talking about subjects that allowed him to present the pro-Soviet view.
On the evening of April 26, 1994, a voice on the telephone announced the death of Stanley Nowak.  It was the voice of Kazimierz (Cass) P. Nowak, whom I had never met and never heard of.
        As events developed, Cass revealed the involvement of Poles and Polish Americans in the Communist Party.  In the process, he became a seemingly bottomless fountain of information.  At this point, I stopped writing about Polish American officials and began collecting information about the Polish Left.  Unfortunately, Cass died unexpectedly in 1997, without revealing more information.  Concurrently, I discovered Leo Krzycki, and set upon writing his biography with the help of his two sons, Gene and Victor.  Soon, it became apparent that socialism was a taboo in Polonia so that the Polish socialists never received credit either for their activity either in the American labor movement; for their contribution to the independence of Poland in 1918; and for educating workers.
         With the amount of writings and labor activity of Boleslaw Konstantine Gebert, it proved that he became the dominating Polish member of the CPUSA. .  Armand, his first son, became a journalist with the Detroit News, where he worked until his retirement.  He has refused to talk about his father. When B.K. Gebert left America in 1947, his wife, Elvira faced deportation.
Unwilling to join B.K. in Poland, she divorced him.  Remarrying in Poland, Gebert fathered another son, Konstanty.  Although baptized as a Roman Catholic, B.K. never practiced any religion nor did his second wife, Krystyna Poznanska, of Jewish persuasion.  In separating from his parents, Konstanty turned to Judaism and to the Solidarnosc movement.  Working as a journalist for the Warsaw Gazeta Wyborcza, Gebert is probably the most quoted Jew in Poland.  Publishing two books under the pseudonym, David Warszawski, he was the founder and editor of the magazine, Midrasz. As Professor Roger Keeran has demonstrated, unions, even in the depths of the Depression, would not have been formed without the help of dedicated communists.  The overwhelming number of unions, except in the public and service sector, had been formed before 1945.  As the Soviet expansion became apparent with the start of the Cold War in 1947, the American labor movement moved in a different direction.  Krzycki's labor career ended with the formation of the World Federation of Trade Unions and his mandatory retirement from the Amalgamated in 1946.
         With a freeze on prices and strikes, labor leaders, like Krzycki, had little to do during World War II.  Gebert, with Hillman's support, established the American Slav Congress to motivate the disorganized Slavs, who constituted over 40% of the workers in heavy industries, for full support of the war effort.  No one was as qualified or as well known as Krzycki, who improved his command of Polish, to become its president in 1942.  It remains a mystery why Krzycki continued with the Slav Congress and later the American Polish Labor Council when they no longer fulfilled their original purpose.   Although Krzycki retired in 1950, some in Polonia refuse to practice a semblance of Christian love and forgiveness for his pro-Soviet positions.  No one would support his candidacy for entry into the United States Labor Hall of Fame in 2001, despite his unparalleled labor record.
Evidently, although Poles either forgave or forgot about Aleksander Kwasniewski's communist record electing him president of Poland in two separate elections, the Cold War did not end in 1989 for some in America's Polonia.
         In 2000, we spent a month in Poland where I was able to do some research but the Archiwum Akt Nowych could have been more helpful as well as the minuscule staff of the Biographical Dictionary of Activists in the Polish Worker's Movement.
The reader can only be urged to look at Krzycki's entire record as documented in the text.  Despite the resignation of President Richard Nixon, who was facing not only imminent impeachment but also criminal charges, many have forgiven him and highlighted his contributions in the American foreign policy area.  Although a life-long member of the Polish National Alliance and a visitor to Poland in 1930, 1946 and 1949, Krzycki remained a loyal American.  Some of the abuses of the Cold War, including an essential question of the validity of its continued operation, have been noted. Hopefully, in time, Krzycki's limited activity in the Cold War (1947-1989) will be placed in its proper historical context and judged accordingly. A Life member of Michigan Historical Society, Binkowski has participated in many historical seminars.  A former president of the Warren Historical Commission and a member of the Macomb County Historical Association, he is currently active with the Warren Historical Society and the Polish American Historical Association.  In recognition of the creation of the "Judge Don Binkowski Historical Collection" at the Warren Library, Binkowski received the Macomb County Historical Award in 1974.
In further recognition, Binkowski has been noted in Who's Who in the Midwest, 1970-75; Who's Who in the Law; Who's Who in Polonia and most recently in Michigan Authors, 1993, 199.  See Binkowski's web site about Poles and Polish Americans in the American labor movement:
http://www.binkowski.org/