The Agitator

January 1, 2019
A biography of an important 20th-century activist who was one of the first to stand up to "the well-publicized injustices of the Third Reich."The subject of Duffy's (Double Agent: The First Hero of World War II and How the FBI Outwitted and Destroyed a Nazi Spy Ring, 2014, etc.) latest is Bill Bailey (1915-1995), a merchant seaman with little formal education who joined the American Communist Party as a teenager and became increasingly angry about the U.S. government appeasing Hitler during 4his rise to power and subsequent comprehensive repression of any form of dissent. Bailey's fleeting fame occurred when he and a few like-minded Nazi haters boarded the Bremen, "the flagship of Hitler's commercial armada," in New York Harbor in 1935. A dress-up party was in progress to celebrate the departure of the massive ship. Bailey and his colleagues had devised a plan to scale the mast and remove the Nazi flag, which featured a swastika. The plan succeeded, becoming "the first blow landed against the Third Reich by foreign adversaries, delivered without guns or bomb, years before America, or any country, chose to take military action against a regime that was already signaling its treacherous intentions." However, local authorities, feeling duty-bound to protect a foreign vessel against politically oriented trespassers, arrested Bailey and a few accomplices. Throughout the narrative, Duffy offers detailed sections about the Bremen and its impressive luxury, the duties of merchant mariners, the American Communist Party, Hitler's rise, the German persecution of Jews, and the failure of most Americans--including President Franklin Roosevelt--to counteract the evils of Nazism in the early 1930s. In addition, the author critiques the criminal justice system as he provides detailed coverage of the trial that resulted in the acquittals of Bailey and his colleagues. After the acquittal, Bailey remained a political activist, union organizer, and merchant mariner, serving in World War II. For the last few decades of his life, he remained out of the spotlight.A well-fleshed-out biography featuring an appropriate amount of historical context.

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February 25, 2019
In this well-told history, journalist Duffy (Double Agent) recounts a little-known incident of American protest against the Third Reich. In July 1935, a small group of Communist Party members and fellow travelers, led by a young merchant seaman named Bill Bailey, crashed a huge reception on the German luxury liner SS Bremen, berthed at a New York dock. They tore down its swastika flag and tossed it into New York Harbor to protest the Third Reich’s violence against Jews and dissidents. Duffy profiles Bailey in depth: a “slum kid from a destitute Irish family, a reformed juvenile delinquent with a Hell’s Kitchen twang who developed a political conscience” who went on to be an actor and to defy the House Un-American Activities Committee. Duffy places the event in context (including the summer 1935 Berlin pogrom against Jews known as the Kurfürstandamn riots) and recounts how Bailey and his comrades (the Bremen Six) were acquitted of charges of violence and unlawful assembly thanks to popular support, a skilled defense team headed by the communist congressman Vito Marcantonio, and a sympathetic judge, Louis Brodsky. Duffy also contrasts their action with the diplomatic diffidence of the State Department, which apologized to Berlin three times for the incident. The Bremen protest was a fascinating event, and Duffy’s account of it is pleasaing and brisk.

March 1, 2019

With this latest work, Duffy (Double Agent) details how the luxury liner SS Bremen became the symbol of Nazi Germany's reemergence on the world stage. The narrative centers on the life of mostly self-taught Irish immigrant and activist Bill Bailey, from his childhood in New Jersey to his conversion to communism, which led to a life of protest, particularly against the Nazi regime. Each time the SS Bremen berthed in New York harbor flying a flag with the Nazi swastika, Bailey and his associates led a violent protest against the liner by cutting down the flag and throwing it into the water. During a subsequent trial of the "Bremen six" for injuring a New York policeman, the judge, Louis B. Brodsky, emerged as a friend and protector of the protestors and all the men were acquitted. Bailey later left the Communist Party after learning about the violent repressions administered by Joseph Stalin in Russia. VERDICT With parallels to today's ongoing conversations about activism, immigration, nationalism, and religious extremism, this newest work by Duffy is recommended for history buffs.--Harry Willems, Great Bend, KS

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