Biography
Gus Safis was a Young Communist League member prosecuted over an attempted antiwar street meeting in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, in 1934. The August 7 Pittsburgh dispatch identifies Hart, George Alexander and Safis as convicted of disorderly conduct, with their sentences sustained by the Superior Court. It expressly says all three were then free on bail. The ACLU attributed the convictions to suppression of free speech after Mayor George H. Lysle denied a permit although other groups used the same meeting site. The ACLU and ILD planned a State Board of Pardons appeal for September; that future hearing is not an accomplished outcome. Three-month workhouse sentence; not treated as time actually served. Neither an individual booking nor executed bail-release day is supplied. Daily Worker, August 8, 1936, page 6. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n190-NY-aug-08-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=6
The October 1936 Young Communist Review states that Gus Safis, Carolyn Hart and George Alexander began serving their McKeesport antiwar-protest sentences on Monday, October 5. It specifically places Safis under a three-month sentence at Blawnox workhouse, following the September 1, 1934 peace demonstration. This documents actual commencement, not a projected release or proof that the entire imposed term was served. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/young-communist-review/v01n02-oct-1936-YCR.pdf#page=3
