Twin Cities M AY DAY MEETING

Speaker:

JAMES P. CANNONSee details page 6

THE MILITANTF o rm e rly the S O C IA L IS T A P P E A L

Official Weekly Organ of the Socialist Workers Party

VOL. V—No. 17 NEW YORK, N. Y. SATURDAY, A P R IL 26, 1941 FIV E (5) CENTS

ALL UNIONS CONDEMN VINSON BILLFascism Will Be Smashed- By A Workers-Farmers GovernmentMay Day Manifesto Of The Socialist Wokers Party

This May 1st is the 55th that class-conscious workers o f the United States w ill celebrate as the day dedicated to the w orking class. The place o f honor this May Day belongs to the Ford and Beth­lehem strikers and to those loyal veterans, the coal m iners. Hundreds o f thousands, indeed m illions o f workers, have recently jo ined the organized w ork­ing class. Despite th e ir inexperience they have suc­cessfully stormed Bastilles h itherto im pregnable to unionization. Despite a ll the “ national defense” pressure o f the capitalists and the political agents o f capitalism, these new recruits have firm ly fought on fo r labor’s rights. These new evidences o f the in ­exhaustible power and m ilitancy o f the w orking class give us new hope fo r the fu tu re . Harnessed to the correct program , that power can conquer and transform the w orld.

And transformation of the world is the task to which the working class must dedicate itself this May Day. The world that our capitalist masters have molded w ill destroy us all i f i t is permitted to continue. For the second time in a generation the ruling classes have precipitated World War. This war is a continuation of the last, fought like the last for the re-divi­sion of the earth among the grasping imperialists.

T h e ru lin g class o f the United States is not at a ll interested in fighting a war against fascism. W hen the Nazi monster seized control o f Germ any in 1 93 3 , it was w ith the approval o f both Washing­ton and Louden, which considered H itle r the em­bodim ent o f ‘law and order’ against the ‘anarchy’ o f a Germ an pro letarian revolution. W ashington and London helped the Nazi monster to grow and arm itself: they considered it a bulw ark against the Soviet Union and proletarian revolution in Europe. O nly when Germ an im perialism grew to the point o f becoming a threat to the im peria lis t interests o f the Am erican and British ru lin g classes did the lat­te r become piously indignant about fascism.

They lie who tell the workers that democracy versus dic­tatorship is the issue between Churchill and H itler in Europe. The Greek dictatorship of Metaxas permitted as few democratic rights to the masses as the Italian dictatorship of Mussolini. The Yugoslav despotism was no more tolerable than that of Hungary or Bulgaria. We have seen how easily, as i f changing a shirt, Petain and the other French “ democrats” became dic­tators overnight.

They lie who tell the workers that democracy versus dic­tatorship is the issue between Germany and Britain in Africa and Asia. Ask the enslaved hundreds of millions who suffer in the colonies of British "democracy” ! The “ war for democracy” has brought even worse oppression to the 375 millions of India who are in the war by Britain'? decree but against their will. T ry to tell the black masses of Africa that they must fight against the Nuremburg racial laws—they who have lived under the same kind of racial laws for as long as Britain has ruled over them.

You want them to fight against fascism, in ­cluding H itle r fascism? The peoples o f Asia and A frica w ill do so gladly— just as soon as they have to rn fro m the ir necks the yoke o f British oppres­sion.

Not the least of the reasons for emphasizing Brita in ’s re­actionary role is that everyone who understands what is hap­pening takes it for granted that the United States w ill, if suc­cessful in this war, fa ll heir to most of the power of the British Empire. Is that what America’s young workers shall die for? That American, instead of British policemen and soldiers, shall beat and maim and k iil fighters fo r freedom in India and West Africa? Yes. that is the concrete reality that lies behind Roose- velts’s glittering words.

And a fle r the war? W hat can we expect then, i f as a result o f the last war fo r “ democracy” the toilers o f Am erica reaped only the “ right” to two and a h a lf decades o f increasing impoverishment,, unem ploym ent and insecurity? A t the end o f the last war fo r democracy h a lf the countries o f Europe succumbed to dictatorships. How many at the end o f this war, no m atter whether H itle r or C hurchill wins?

This war is not our war, any more than the war of 1917 was the workers’ war. t his one is conducted under the same slogans, with the same ruling classes at the helm. Under those rulers we shall gain as little in this war as in the last.

We Trotskyists, like the workers everywhere, are infinitely more interested in destroying fascism than is Roosevelt or Churchill. We never praised H itler as Churchill did and as many an associate of Roosevelt did! We were fighting, the fascist menace during years when Washington and London were wooing Hitler. Tomorrow London may decide on a negotiated peace with Hitler. The capitalists of Britain and the United States can make their peace with fascism, just as did the capi­talists of Germany whom H itler serves. But between the work­ers and fascism, there can never be peace.

The spectacle of the French capitalists collaborating with H itle r is a final warning to us. No capitalist class can be de­pended upon in the struggle against fascism.

The workers must take charge o f the struggle against fascism, and cannot delegate that task to any Roosevelt or C hurchill. O nly i f the workers are in fu ll control, can there be a guarantee against the betrayals that were perpetrated by the bourgeoisie in Spain, France, Norway.

How shall the workers move toward taking charge? By increasing the power of the workers' organizations until they can wrest all power from the bourgeoisie.

That is why the workers are profoundly correct in striking against the bosses despite all the "national defense” ballyhoo. Our only criticism is that the insufficient program under w'hich the strikes are carried on renders the strikes less effective than they can be.

No union fig-leaves for government strikebreaking—de­mand that trade union officials resign from all appointive posts in the government. Organize the picket lines for all-out m ili­tant defense against the thuggery of company hoodlums and government cops.

Demand the unification of the A LL and CIO on the basis of preserving and extending the industrial form of organiza­tion.

End company unionism in politics— build an Independ­ent Labor Party.

Ten out o f eleven o f the men in the “ national defense” forces are the workers in the war indus­tries, owned by fascist-minded Fords and Graces. E xpropriate the w ar industries and operate them under workers’ control!

These are some of the demands that the workers must raise.But if the workers arc to take charge of the fight against

fascism they must prepare m ilita rily to defend themselves against the fascists everywhere. We are no pacifists, whether of the "sincere” Norman Thomas variety or the Stalinist variety in the service of the Krem lin’s foreign policy.

That-is why we call upon the workers to demand:M ilita ry tra in ing o f workers, financed by the

governm ent, under control o f the trade unions!The estahlishment o f special officers’ tra in ing

camps, financed by the government and controlled by the trade unions, to tra in workers to become officers!

F u ll equality fo r Negroes in the arm ed forces — down w ith J im Crowism!

Yes, w'e want the workers to become expert in all the m ili­tary arts. We don’t want the bourgeois officer-caste to have life-and-dcath control over the men, any more thari we want the boss to have that in the factory. I f the workers must fight, then they shall tight under the leadership of men whom they can trust— their own fellow-workers, chosen by them as their officers.

Carry out these steps, crown them w ith the fo rm ation o f a W orkers and Farm ers Government — and the real war against fascism can be waged to a successful and speedy conclusion.

Against a Workers and Farmers Government in the United States, H itler would soon be rendered powerless. His weapons would be o f no avail against revolutionary war. I le would no longer be able to frighten the German people with the spectre of another Versailles— for the American workers could then guarantee that there would be no second Versailles oppression.I !c could no longer demagogically pretend that he was fight­ing "international capitalism,” and would stand revealed for what he is— agent of German capitalism.

A ll the oppressed peoples of Asia and Africa, now con­ceded their independence and freedom, would join the Ameri­can workers to destroy fascism. H itler and Mussolini would fa ll—toppled by the German and Italian workers, now assured of the international solidarity of the workers of the world.

This is the road to wipe out fascism f o r e v e r - through a W orkers aud Farm ers Governm ent. And it is the only road. W orkers, op this M ay D ay pledge yourselves to fo llow th is road!

30,000 Ford Workers Meet

P art of the mammoth crowd of 30,000 Ford workers which jammed the U A W -C IO mass meeting on A p ril 10 a t the D etro it F a ir Grounds to ra tify the settlement of the Ford Motor Company strike. T h irty thousand reasons why Ford backed down!

General Motors Strike Vote Starts MondayGM Workers Are Determined To W in Wage Raises, Union Shop; Are Inspired by Ford Strike, Raises In Steel, Coal, Cloth ing

F L IN T — Representatives of the International Lxecutive Board of the UAW-CIO, forced to take a firm position by the adamant attitude of the General Motors corporation, and by the insistent demands of the union rank and file for improved con­ditions, called upon all GM locals to take a strike vote beginning Monday, April 28. The announcement met with enthusiastic cheers of an audience of 7,000 workers in a mass meeting at the IM A auditorium here today.

The GM locals had voiced their demands at a delegated con­ference held February 8, 9, and 10 at which a proposed contract was approved p rov id ing fo r sev­era l im proved po in ts: among them a ten-cent ho u rly wage increase, a shop steward system, a union shop, 80-hour vacation w ith pay instead o f the 40 hours now pre­va ilin g , a 60 day sen io rity clause fo r new w orkers instead of the six-m onth clause before sen io rity is acquired, and a $25 week wage

to a ll GM workers conscripted in to the armed forces.

RECORD OF N E G O T IA T IO N SOn February 20th these de­

mands were presented by the un­ion to the GM corporation. Ac­cord ing to W a lte r lteu the r, GM D irec to r fo r the UAW-CIO, nego­tia tio ns have been held fo r the

ON THE W AR FRONTSby GEORGE STERN

The B a ttle o f the Balkans is d raw ing s tead ily tow ard its ap­pointed end— a new Dunkerque fo r the B r it is h on the shores o f the Aegean. The hasty move o f B r it is h forces in to I ra k shows th a t the B r it is h have already dis­counted the defection o f Turkey. B r ita in ’s Suez ‘ ‘li fe lin e ” w i l l be defended in W estern E g y p t and a t T u rk e y ’s fro n tie r .

Meanwhile whatever devel­opments were planned by the Axis strategists to follow upon the conclusion of the Sovict- Japancse pact are evidently awaiting the further course of the Mediterranean campaign. The week that has passed since the pact was signed in Mos­cow has been marked chiefly by the confirmation in Moscow that the pact accorded w ith the Axis strategy dictated by Adolf H itler.Pravda, S ta lin ’s newspaper

mouthpiece, made i t p la in on A p r i l 19 th a t th e pac t was to be regarded as a b low a t B r ita in

and the U n ited States by v ir tu e o f the new “ solid founda tion fo r development o f f r ie n d ly re la tions between the tw o states” — the Soviet U n ion and Japan.

From Chungking came re­ports that the Kremlin had "as­sured” the Chinese that aid to China would continue as be­fore— i.c., in the same slow trickle. The well-informed N . Y. T IM E S correspondent said that the Chinese Stalinists were “stunned” by the pact and re­fused to believe i t could pos­sibly mean any change in their own anti-Japanese policy. The United Press quoted a Chinese Stalinist spokesman as saying that his party’s aim was still the„ reconquest of Manchuria, where the Krem lin has given recognition to Japan’s “special position.”

B u t w hatever is done to cover up the fa c t th a t S ta lin has s truck a deal w ith the im p e ria lis t in ­vaders o f China, -the damage is e ffe c tiv e ly done.

past s ix weeks w ith practica lly no results.

The corporation lias given a fla t NO to the un ion shop demand, has refused the steward system, and has refused to give an ans­w er on wage increases, Reuther reported.

W ORKERS ARE, F IR MThe mass m eeting in F lin t de­

m onstrated beyond doubt the de­te rm in a tio n and so lid a rity of the GM workers behind th e ir de­mands.

R e fe rring to the proposed 30 day cooling o ff period, the speak ers pointed out th a t the Ford workers had “ copied o ff” fo r three years and then had to s trike . . . and th a t the GM w orkers had been “ cooling-off” fo r s ix weeks, and were now ready to tu rn the heat on.

C O M P A N Y ’S H U G E PRO FITSMany excellent facts were o f­

fered by Reuther, Addes -and Thomas, p rov ing th a t GM could a ffo rd to accede to the un ion ’s demands.

I t was pointed out th a t the Du Pont fa m ily alone reaped d iv i dends las t year on th e ir common shares o f $37,500,000 — the equi­valent of $4,600 per hour, on a 50-week, 40 hour-week basis. The tcn-ceut ho u rly wage increase could be paid fo r ou t of the Du Pout’s GM pro tits alone.

Addes fu rth e r pointed out that fo r every do lla r paid a w o rke r in wages, GM reaped 65 cents in pro­fit. The ten-cent increase would s t i l l leave the company 5?> cents an hour to storo in the bank and to d is tr ib u te to the coupon c lip ­pers.

IN S P IR E D B Y S T R IK E G A IN SThe greatest in d ica tion as to

the new m ilita n c y of the GM workers, was shown when reports were made oT the wage increases in Iho coal, stool and c lo th in g in ­dustries. These gains by the CIO ba\e insp ired the GM workers. The Ford s tr ik e served to give

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Anti- Strike, Open-Shop Bill Blasted By CIO, AFLMain Danger Now Is Maneuver By FDR To Provide 'Compromise'

Both the American Federa­tion of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organization have gone on record expressing com­plete ’opposition to the anti­strike, open-shop Vinson Bill.

A FL President W illiam Green last Monday added his protest to that voiced the week pre­viously by Philip Murray, head of the CIO.

The b ill is expected to be re­ported out of the Rules Com­mittee and on the floor of the House by this week-end.

The House Naval A ffa irs Committee last week approved the anti-strike,, open-shop V in­son B ill and rushed it to the floor of Congress following a two day “ hearing” at which but one CIO spokesman was per­mitted, and he was given only one hour to testify against the bill.

The only other "witness” to appear before the committee was Secretary of the Navy Knox, who had a day and a h a lf to expand on his endorse­m ent o f the “ coo ling o f f ” p r in c ­ip le involved in the b ill.

The Vinson measure would impose a compulsory 25 day “cooling o ff” period before a union could take action on a strike vote. In addition, i t pro­poses to “freeze” wages and open-shop conditions in all plants and industries directly or indirectly engaged in w ar production.

R O O S E V E LT’S G A M ERepresentative V inson, Georgia

poll-tax Democrat in troduced the b ill. H is closeness to the adm in­is tra tio n is indicated by the fact th a t he occupies the key post o f cha irm an o f the pow erfu l Naval A ffa irs Committee. Roosevelt can ha lt action on th is b i l l any tim e he cares to nod h is head.

The a d m in is tra tion is s im p ly p lay ing the old game o f “ hard cop-solt cop” w ith organized la­bor, using the th re a t o f d rastic curbs, represented in the V inson b ill, as a club over labo r’s head to force acceptance of some fo rm of “ vo lu n ta ry ” cooling o ff period before strikes. As Knox, Stimson aud other a d m in is tra tion spokes­men have indicated, Roosevelt does not care to r is k the onus of com pulsion unless i t is “ neces­sary.”

“ LA S T RESO RT” T H R E A TSecretary o f W ar Stim son ex­

pressed the “ soft cop” a ttitu d e of the ad m in is tra tion in a le tte r to Chairm an Thomas of the Senate Labor Committee, made pub lic last week, in w h ich Stim son sta t­ed th a t the W ar D epartm ent “ is loath to recommend re s tr ic tive leg is la tion concern ing labor re la ­tions as lour/ as there is hope th a t other methods of p reventing in ­te rru p tio n to production w i l l prove effective.”

However, when "o th e r m eth­ods,” such as the in te rve n tio n of f lic N a tiona l M ediation Board, pressure upon conservative- and tim id union offic ia ls and the ex­tension o f t&e OPM “ fo rm u la ” fo r s e ttlin g s trikes w ithout, wage in-

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T H E M I L I T A N T APRIL 26, 19412 -

W rite to us— tell us what’s going on in your part of the labor movement— what are the workers thinking aboutf— tell us what the bosses are up to— and the G-men and the local cops— and the Stalinists— send us that story the capitalist press didn’t print and that story they buried or distorted— our pages are open to you. Letters must carry name and address, but indicate i f you do not want your name printed.

Soldiers Forbidden To W rite Letters To Congressmen

E D IT O R :There were a num ber o f sold­

ie rs here who sta rted w r it in g personal le tte rs to the P resident and th e ir Congressmen, p ro tes t­in g aga inst some o f the th ings the y d idn ’t lik e in the a rm y setup.

One day the officers assembled the whole company and gave us a w a rn in g th a t th is practice m ust be stopped. They said i t was a c o u rt-m a rtia l offense to w r ite le tte rs to you r Congressmen or to the President.

So fa r as I know, however, no one has ye t been prosecuted fo r th is offense. I th in k , though, th a t the mere th re a t was enough to stop th is practice. A fe llo w sleep­in g ne x t to me had been w r it in g such le tte rs , b u t I d idn ’t know i t t i l l they gave th is w a rn in g . He had never said an y th in g about i t to anyone.Camp X —

W O R K E R S O LD IE R

The arm y’s court-martial system is bad enough, but it says nothing against w riting letters to Congressmen or to the President. No one, to our knowledge, has ever b e e n court-martialled for it, nor could he be under the m ilitary law. O f course, on this score as on many others, an officer out to “get" a man would find another pretext i f he wanted one; for, as Michael Cort has pointed out (in his important artiele, “The Court M artia l System In the U. S. A rm y.” March, 1941, F O U R T H IN ­T E R N A T IO N A L magazine), the whole system lends itself to officers wreaking yengeance on the lower ranks.— ED ITO R S .

Negro Picket Line Wins Jobs On N. Y. Bus Lines

Good Horse-Sense

analysis of the present s itua tion in the m a ritim e unions.

I disagree however, w ith the inference in the a rtic le th a t the seamen’s unions are menace«.’ by, i f not infested w ith , Nazi and fascist agents and sympathizers among th e ir memberships.

I th in k i t is apparent tha t such elements are to be found among the Fords, G ird lers, Mellons, Du- Ponts, W eirs, etc. and th e ir o r­ganizations ra the r than among the re la tive ly advanced workers who form the membership of the trade unions.

The w r ite r has been an active seaman fo r many years, his sea- service pre-dating the inception of fascism and Nazism in th is country, and in a ll those years he has encountered on ly two mem bers of seamen's unions who m ight be described as Nazi sym path iz­ers. These men were both Ger­man im m igran ts. However, I can state w ith ce rta in ty tha t there are no Nazi or Fascist “ ce lls” or undercover organizations in the seamen’s unions;

I do not question the necessity of the ran k and file of the seamen cleaning out such elements in th e ir ranks i ) they exist.

However, i t is i l l advised fo r u w orkingclass paper to make the unfounded inference tha t they do ex is t in the seamen’s unions.

Since the bourgeoisie and th e ir press and government agencies are preparing to get m aritim e la ­bor bound and gagged under cover o f a hue and c ry against “ com­m un ists” ■ and "N azis and Fasc­is ts” in the un ion ranks, I be­lieve th a t the reference in T H E M IL IT A N T a rtic le to Nazis and Fascists in the seamen’s unions more or less plays in to the bosses' hands.

JA M E S B E N N E T T

Contract Signed By Company, Negroes And Union on Jobs

Protests in ference That Any Seamen A re Fascists

E D IT O R :The a rtic le “ T H E SEAM EN

FACE R E G IM E N T A T IO N " in the A p r i l 12th issue of T H E M IL I ­T A N T was a clear and correct

O u r AnswerBrother Bennett is mistaken:

the article in question did not in­tend to imply that there are fascists among the organized sea­men. The point made by the article was that, IF there were such fascists, the task of ridding the union o f them would be one for the workers and should not provide a pretext for govern­mental interference in the union. — ED ITO R S .

N E W YO RK. A p r i l 20— The p icket lines ol' the U n ited Negro Bus S trike Com m ittee yesterday succeeded in ga in in g a con tract from the F if th Avenue Bus Co. and the New Y o rk C ity Omnibus C orpora tion to h ire a m in im um o f 100 colored bus d rive rs , 70 colored maintenance men. and eventua lly a to td l o f 17 per cent o f the com pany’s employes w i l l be colored.

The con tract was also signed by M ichael Q u ill and A u s tin H o­gan o f the T ransp o rt W orkers U nion. The com pany agreed to h ire the add itiona l colored w o rk ­ers before h ir in g any o ther new employees.

A t the close o f the recent 11- day s tr ik e ' o f the bus w orkers, a movem ent was s ta rted in H a r­lem to do som eth ing about g e t­t in g Negroes jobs as chauffeurs and mechanics on the bus lines. The United Negro Bus S trike Com­m ittee was formed and at a mass m eeting in the A byss in ian B ap t­is t church attended by more than 1,000 H a rlem ites, i t was enthus­ia s tica lly decided to boycott and p icke t the bus lines a t a ll H a r­lem bus stops.

M IL IT A N T M E TH O D S W INThe cam paign was carried on

in m il ita n t fashion. The bus com­panies adm itted a d a ily loss fro m the cam paign o f $3,000.

Before any colored bus d rive rs are hired, 94 w h ite w orkers whose sen io rity r ig h ts are recog­nized by the T W U w i l l be p u t to w ork firs t. The maintenance men are to be h ired im m edia te ly . The Rev. A . C. Powell, cha irm an o f the H arlem committee,1 stated th a t w ith in tw o months, Negroes w il l be m anning the wheels o f buses th rou gh ou t New Y o rk C ity . A huge open a ir v ic to ry mass m eeting is be ing planned fo r Colon ia l P ark , 145th St. and B rad hu rs t A v e n u e , Saturday A p r i l 26 a t 4 P.M.

Two Chilean Parties Unite O n 4th Int'l ProgramCongress Will Launch United Party In June

Even the horses which haul scrap for the Buffalo Steel Co. refuse to scab the strike at the company’s plant and, instead, inarch on the picket line with the members of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (C IO ) who walked out for a wage in­crease.

Local 302 Opens Contracts TalksCafeteria Workers1 Negotiators Are Under Instructions From Membership On Wages

A M A Y D A Y F U L L OF PR O M ISE

I t ’s M ay F ir s t again and not fo r m any a year has the A m e ri­can w o rk in g class insp ired us w ith as much hope fo r the fu tu re as today. Labor is on the march, c l o s i n g its m illion-co lum ned ranks and consolidating its fig h tin g organizations.

To the Socia list W orke rs P a rty and its press, T H E M IL IT A N T and the FO U R TH , IN T E R N A ­T IO N A L th is M ay D ay is r ich w ith prom ise. W ith every m ail come le tte rs o f apprecia tion fo r the q u a lity o f our publications,

Subscrip tions, bo th new and renewals, have continued to come w ith every m a il and those who have delayed w ith th e ir renewals make fra n t ic demands fo r the is­sues they have missed, fre q u e n t requests fo r sample copies keep o u r m a ilin g departm ent busy w ith w ra p p in g paper and paste a l l week.

I f any s ign is needed o f the v i r i l i t y and s p ir it o f our pa rty m em bership i t can be seen in the flood o f increased orders fo r bundles o f th is M ay D ay issue o f T H E M IL IT A N T . F rom every in ­d u s tria l center in the country have come— by s tra ig h t m ail, a ir ­m a il and telegram-—requests th a t we double the re g u la r num ber of bundles o f papers so th a t the w orkers engaged in m il ita n t trade un ion a c t iv ity can have our lite ra tu re on th e ir ho liday.

May Issue Of 'Fourth Int'l' Out This Week

the membership in th e ir dealings w ith the A ffilia te d Restaurateurs. Inc. on the question o f the A rb i­tra tio n Board.

A STORY T O LD BY A ‘M IL IT A N T ’ S A L E S M A N

We cannot res is t the impulse to le t the re s t -bf the cou n try in on the fo llo w in g l i t t le anecdote w r itte n down fo r us by one o f the women comrades in New Y ork who sold T H E M IL IT A N T before the doors o f the T ra n sp o rt W o rk ­ers U n ion h a ll the o ther day. She says:

“ W h ile se lling T H E M IL I ­T A N T in f r o n t o f the T ransp o rt W orkers ’ b u ild in g I had the good fo rtu n e to meet an o ffice r o f the T h ird Avenue lines d iv is ion o f the union. W hen I handed the paper to h im he looked a t i t and said, ‘This is the on ly paper tha t a w o rk in g man can believe in .’ As lie bought the paper I in ­qu ired i f he w ou ld be interested in ou r M ay F irs t mass meeting. He was de lighted a t the oppor­tu n ity to come and p ro m p tly bought a ticke t.

“ As we were engaged in con­versation we were accosted by a b u rly Ir ishm a n who began to abuse me in a loud voice. I stood ny ground and answered his noisy accusations. T h is d is tu rb ­ance b rough t me several bus and tro lle y d rive rs w ho listened w ith much a tten tion , w h ile the man who had bought the May, Day tic k e t stood staunch ly behind me and defended m y r ig h t to sell the paper.

"P.S.: A fte r the big argum ent, another o f the bus d rive rs bought me a soda-pop.”

The May issue of the FOURTH IN T E R N A T IO N A L magazine w ill be o ff the press th is week, fea­tu r in g several ou tstanding a r­ticles.

N a ta lia Sedov T ro tsky has w r i t ­ten the story of the te rr ib le day on wh ich S ta lin ’s GPU murdered Leon T ro tsky : “ How Jt Hap­pened”

The upsurge of the Am erican labor movement is comprehensiv­ely dealt w ith in two articles. One, by the editors, “ Labor On the M arch: 1941,” analyses the recent strikes. The other, by W il­liam F. Warde, "The M obilization of Am erican Labor: 1929-1940,”provides the background fo r un­derstanding the present s trike struggles.

Leon T ro tsky is represented by one of his most illu m in a tin e theoretical pieces: “ The Curve o ' C ap ita lis t Development,” w ritte n in 1923, but equally pe rtinen t to day. The stenogram of a discus­sion w ith T ro tsky on the prob­lem of bu ild in g a revo lu tionary party, is also published.

Other artic les in th is m onth ’s issue are: “ The Permanent Revo­lu tio n ,” by Jack Weber; a thesis by ■ the Executive Committee of the F ourth In te rn a tion a l on the w orkers ’ tasks in China’s s trug ­gle fo r independence: an ed ito ria l on the Soviet-Japanese pact; and an artic le , by V la d im ir Iv lev, on the economic cris is in the Soviet Union.

An elected contract committee o f 14, pins the three major officers of Local 302, Cafeteria Employees Union, had their first conference last week w ith the Affiliated Restaurateurs. Inc.. 1he association representing the m ajority of bosses employing 5,000 workers,

The contract delegation had been carefully instructed by the membership meeting on April 10 as far as wage demands were concerned.

The following are the major wage demands: A ll miscellan­eous workers are to receive a minimum $2 increase, raising their wage to $18 minimum per week. Kitchen men are to receive new minimums of $¿1. Counter- gilds must receive a $2 minimum increase, raising their wage to $20. The scale fo r chefs must be raised to $50 m ini­mum. Countermen are to receive new minimums w ith an increase of from $2 to $5 for the various stations, a $32 minimum for night countermen and a $30 minimum for all countermen in chain stores, many of whom are now receiving as low as $22 and $23 per week.

A ll these wage scales to be paid for eight hours work with a six day week, except in the case of countergirls who must receive a seven hour day instead of the pre­sent eight hour day.

O TH E R D E M A N D SThe union membership is very

much concerned to secure the above wage demands. Howevqr, the question 'of wages is not the only issue in the present fight with the -bosses.

There is also the question of the infamous Arbitration and Adjustment Board, the boss-stoog­ing arbitrator for disputes be­tween the union and the bosses.The Adjustment Board is hated by the workers, and rightfully so.Thousands of workers, directly and indirectly have felt Its sharp, boss-inspired lash. The Board has handcuffed the hands of the union and maintained a stranglehold on the throats of the workers. Everyboc’v :t ex­cept certain clique elements that installed i t in collaboration with the bosses.

U N IO N R E F E R E N D U M PR O M IS E D

The prpgram of the recently- elected United Union Administra­tion pledged as port of its united program the holding of a referen­dum on the question of the aboli­tion of the Adjustment Board. To date no such referendum has been held. Certain clique elements have given no indication of their desire to fu lfill this program pledge. On the contrary, they have indicated quite strongly that they intend to renege on this pledge.

I t has become quite obvious that these clique elements don’t wish to be bound .by decisions of

SANTIAGO, Chile (By M ail) —A great step forward for the Fourth International is the Congress, to be held the first week in June, unifying in one organization the Revolutionary Workers Party and the Inter­nationalist Workers Party.

The two parties are uniting as the Chilean section of the Fourth International, on the basis of acceptance of the re­solutions of the (1038) Found­ing Congress of the Fourth In­ternational.

The Internationalist Workers Party was formed over a year ago by the proletarian left wing of the Socialist Party, which was expelled from that reform­ist organization because of the left wing’s struggle against the Peoples Front policy. In devel­oping a consistent class-struggle policy this left wing found its way to a thoroughgoing T ro t­skyist program.

The Revolutionary Workers Party had been, up to that time, the Trotskyist organiza­tion in Chile.

Unification makes the Chil­ean Trotskyists the strongest Foitrth International move­ment in South America.

Stalinists Show Their Teeth In Their Phoney " United" May Day CommitteeBrazenly Refuse To Permit Trotskyists To Participate In May Day Parade

NEW YORK C IT Y , A pril 19.— The Stalinist-controlled “ United May Day Committee,” which met today at Webster Hall, 119 East 11th St., ostensibly on the basis o f an invitation to “ all working class organizations” to join in preparations for a “ united” May Day parade, showed its real colors when it.barred the Socialist Workers Party from participation in the parade.

The delegation from the Socialist Workers Party was denied the floor and two union delegates who protested the dictatorial action of the committee were ruled “ out o f order.”

A t the same time a delegation from the Communist Party was seated w ith fu l l r ig h ts as the “ on ly p o lit ic a l p a rty w h ich sent a delegate!”

The m eeting began w ith about tw o-th irds the num ber tha t were present at the f irs t m eeting of

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th is com m ittee on March 28. H a r­ry W einstock, who gave the o r­ganizational report, l is t in g the unions pa rtic ip a ting , adm itted th a t some o f the unions represent­ed a t the M arch 28 m eeting had since w ith d ra w n th e ir delegates.

He did not specify w hat unions these were o r w hy they w ithdrew , but declared tha t th e ir loss was more than compensated fo r by the add ition of new organizations, presum ably the Com m unist Party and its various fronts.

When A r th u r Burch, delegate of the Socia list W orkers Party, asked the cha irm an what, had been done to include a ll p o litica l parties o f the w o rk in g class in the parade, the cha irm an res­ponded: "W e don’t have tim e to answer any questions. T im e /is g row ing short. We must, get on.”

C R U D E H A T C H E T JOB. The Socialist W orkers P arty

had sent delegates to the firs t m eeting of the United May Day Committee on M arch 28 to p ro­pose (1) th a t a ll p o lit ic a l parties of the w ork ing ' class be inv ited to pa rtic ipa te in the May Day parade in order to show a united fro n t against the bosses on th is h is to ric occasion — probably the las t May Day before the U n ited States is sucked in to W orld W ar I I and (2) to propose tha t cer­ta in slogans be added to the o ffi­c ia l l is t : such as, Down w ith the Im p e ria lis t W ar! Defend the So­v ie t U n ion! Trade Union Control of M il ita ry T ra in in g ! B u ild an Independent Labor P a rty ! etc.

A t th a t tim e the credentials com m ittee refused to seat the T ro tsky is t delegation on the grounds tha t “ no p o lit ic a l parties had been in v ited .” The delegates were in v ite d to rem ain as “ ob­servers.”

The credentia ls com m ittee th is tim e reported tha t every organ­iza tion w h ich had sent delegates, in c lud in g the Com m unist Party, had been accepted w ith one ex­ception: the Socia list W orkersParty. The chairm an asked that the Socia list W orkers P a rty be "re jected” by today's m eeting on the ground th a t " th is organiza­tion has not worked fo r the ideals

of the United May Day Com m it­tee.”

W hen A r th u r B urch, the T ro t­sky is t delegate, asked the ch a ir­man fo r “ two m inutes” to defend h is pa rty , he was ru led "o u t of order.”

“ B u t you seated the Commun­is t P arty . . . ” began Comrade Burch.

The cha irm an shouted through the m icrophone: “ I declare youout of order! S it down! A ll those in favo r of re jec ting the Socia list "Workers — I mean o f accepting the report o f the credentia ls com­m ittee, say A y e !” '

“ A y e !” chorused the S ta lin is t'1 dom inated audience.

Several delegates protested. One delegate, representing Local 430 of the U n ited E le c trica l W orkers un­ion tr ied to take the floo r:

“ Out of o rd e r!” bellowed the cha irm an through the m icrophone.

“ I appeal th e decision o f the cha ir,” responded the delegate, Joe Daim.

“ I t ’s useless . . . I mean, i f you w ant to appeal, you can, bu t the m a tte r’s fin ished.”

D aim stood h is ground. “ I ap­peal the decision of the cha ir.”

A no ther member of the com m it­tee took the m icrophone. “ A ll those in favo r o f upho ld ing tire decision of the cha ir say, Aye.”

“ Aye,” responded the audience, but not so h e a rtily as on the pre­vious reso lu tion.

A no ther delegate, who did no t m ention what un ion he represent­ed stood up and said: “ I agree w ith the views o f the body here, but I feel th a t since we’ve started out to make th is a un ited May Day parade, the delegate from the Socia list W orkers P a rty should a t least be allowed a few m inutes to give his side before condemna­tion .”

“ Out of order! Out of o rd e r!” repeated the chairm an, w aving down another delegate asking fo r the floo r. “ The m atte r has already been decided. A m otion to ad­jo u rn is in order.”

The m otion to ad journ carried by the m a jo r ity im m edia te ly standing tip and m il lin g toward the door.

Crude— b u t the d ir ty job had to be done a t whatever cost — T h ir ­teenth Street had ordered it. Even i f the "U n ite d ” parade was thereby revealed as a S ta lin is t af­fa ir , the T ro tsky is ts m ust not be perm itted to march.

C losing Sessions

The MARXIST SCHOOLLectures for Sessions— Week of A pril 28th

MONDAY7:10 to 8:40 p.m ......................................... by W illiam M . Warde

The Coming American Revolution.

8:50 to 10:20 p.m..................................................... . . by Lydia Beidel

General Trade Union Principles.

WEDNESDAY7:10 to 8:40 p.m............................................................... by Jack Weber

Imperialist War and the Class Struggle: The Workers and the War.

8:50 to 10:20 p.m..........................................................by F arre ll Dobbs

Machine Control—The Boss Mechtmism for Sterilizing Organized Labor.

IRVING PLAZAIrv ing Place and 16th St.

APRIL 26, 1941 T H E M I L I T A N T - 3

Clashes In Ford PlantAFL Leaders Help Ford In Union-Busting CampaignFord Again Tries To Break Union By Race Riot

The Place To Win A Strike

FLIN T , Mich., A pril 20— Michael Widman, Director of the CIO’s Ford organizing cam­paign, revealed in a speech here today that, though the smoke o f battle has cleared at the gates of Ford’s River Rouge empire, inside the plants the 80,000 workers are faced again w ith the bruta lity of Ford’s “ Service Department’’ and paid provocateurs.

Widman told the story at the m a s s meeting of General M otors w orkers in F lin t, called in preparation fo r a s tr ik e vote.

The A F L top leadership, w h ich has served as s trikebreakers in the In te rn a tion a l Harvester, Al- lis-Chalm ers and Ford s trikes, is now attem pting, W idm an rep o rt­ed, to organizo Negro workers in the F oundry at F o rd ’s in to an A F L “ un ion” and to p it them in a race r io t against w h ite CIO members.

The service departm ent, w ith the help o f the A F L leaders, has in tim ida ted a section of the Negro w orkers in the p lan t, a sm all but im p o rtan t m in o rity , in to m aking physica l attacks on CIO workers. T h is renewed a tte m p t to provoke a race r io t, th is tim e inside the plants, is the most serious prob­lem fac ing the UAW in its pres­ent position a t Ford.

The m ajority of the Negro workers at Ford are side by side w ith the white workers, in the ranks of the U A W -C IO . Most of them understand the hypocritical attem pt of the Ford management and their A F L agents to separate them from the CIO.I t is easy to see through the

A F L campaign as com pany-insp ir­ed. The Negro w orkers were spurned fo r years by m any A F L unions, and above a ll by Green and the A F L E xecu tive Council. I t was no t u n t il the CIO appeared on the scene, organ iz ing the in ­d u s tria l masses of th is country, th a t the Negroes secured in the CIO the op po rtun ity to show what courageous un ion fighters they are i f g iven a chance.

John Murphy, who heads the A F L Ford drive, himself is a representative of the Brick­layers Union, which in most places follows a Jim Crow policy. And now this P inker­ton in A F L disguise poses as the Negroes’ friend!

C O M P A N Y PROVOKES F IG H TThe company cam paign o f p ro ­

vocation came to a head last F r i ­day, when telegram s were sent to Negro workers in the F oundry in ­fo rm in g them th a t the CIO was going to t r y to th ro w them out of the p lant. T h is fooled some o f' the Negro workers, who came to w o rk armed and attacked CIO members.

A fte r p rovoking the troub le h im ­self, H a rry Bennett called upon the state to send in state troop­ers. T h is was done, and troopers are now p a tro llin g both the inside and outside of the p lant. A ttem pts by un ion men to gather in groups outside the p lan t have shown tha* the state police is no t the un ion ’s friend. They broke up a ll groups and did no t a llow union men to discuss o r gather.

So aroused did un ion men in D e tro it become upon hearing of F ord ’s campaign of te rro r and pro vocation, th a t one un ion man and several stewards drove a sound tru c k on M ille r Road, w a rn ing the F oundry w orkers against go­in g to w ork where they would be attacked by armed "service” men.

Ford is t ry in g by every means to destroy the confidence of the Ford workers, and to wreck the great morale w h ich was b u ilt up as a resu lt o f the s trike . I f he can do th is before the N LR B vote, he hopes to be able to defeat the union.

Several union men have been

Big Publicity Drive Begun By TWU On Subway FightUnion W ill Take Case to N. Y. Worker-Public

These strikers of the Phelps Dodge Copper P roducts Corporation, Elizabeth, J., have given a fla t turn-down to strikebreaking proposals to “ return to work pending negotiations.” The s trik ­ers, members of the United Electrical, Radio an d Machine Workers (CTO), unanimously rejected a National Mediation Board proposal that they re tu rn to work and then negotiate.

General Motors Strike Vote Starts Monday

{Continued from pane 1) them an even greater fee ling of power.

In repo rting the progress of ne­gotia tions — or lack o f progress — Reuther to ld some o f the com­pany’s answers to the un ion ’s pro'j posals. V e ry in te res ting was the company’s rep ly to the demand fo r a un ion shop: " I t would des­tro y the democracy of the union and reduce the m il ita n t s p ir it ." A fte r th is obvious hypocrisy was dealt w ith by the negotiators, the company gave the rea l reason i t feared the un ion shop:

“ The CIO is not on ly a union w ith economic meaning, b u t i t is p o te n tia lly a p o lit ic a l force w ith a program we m ust f ig h t” was in essence w ha t the GM executives said. In other words, they are a fra id the un ion shop would entrench the union too deeply as a force on the A m erican scene ,and make i t too d if f ic u lt to destroy.

I t is c lear fro m th is th a t the issue' o f the union shop is fa r d iffe re n t in the mass produc­tio n industries organized by the CIO. than in the sm all plants, shops o r industries o r­ganized by back-door methods by A F L leaders, when com­pany and union agree to check­o ff, and the w orkers ga in li t t le . The company was so firm on

the un ion shop po in t, i t to ld the UAW com m ittee th a t the union would absolute ly have to s trike to get it.

W A G E R A IS E L IK E L YIn fac t the on ly issue on which

the company showed any si£ns of bargain ing, was the issue of wages. There w i l l undoubtedly he wage concessions, w h ich the union insists upon in v iew of r is in g l iv ­in g costs and the huge pro fits of the corporation.

In answer to the company’s a t­tem pt to discourage s tr ik e action by means o f propaganda about defense, the un ion has pointed out th a t on ly 5% of GM produc­tion is w o rk in g cu rre n tly on de­fense. The un ion has stated i t w il l not s tr ik e th is 5%.

In answer to the corpora­t io n ’s a rgum ent th a t increased wages would mean in fla tio n , Addes rep lied w ith the sugges­tio n th a t they cu t the wages o f

badly beaten since the p lan t re ­opened.

B u t in sp ite o f th is cam ­paign, the CIO is now a m ig h ty force inside the R iver Rouge plants, and w il l no t be so easily destroyed.

The colored w o rkers who fo u g h t side by side on the p ick ­e t lin e w ith the w h ite Ford workers, w i l l s tick to the union, and b rin g w ith them those m is ­led Negroes who are s t i l l under the dom ination o f 'th e company. W h ite and colored, the Ford

w o rkers are determ ined to show by an overw helm ing vote fo r the UAW-CIO in the com ing N LR B election tha t they have b u ilt an im pregnable union, and to go on from there to a complete v ic to ry , a signed contract w ith H enry Ford.

Charles W ilson, President, who makes about $400,000 a year ou t o f GM, o f Donaldson B row n, who rakes in over a m illio n a year in wages and dividends, o f K e tte r in g who hauled down tw o and a h a lf m illio n do lla rs in wages and bonus and dividends, and the res t o f the m u lti-m illio n a ire hoard members o f the corpora­tion .A ll the officers o f the In te rn a ­

tio n a l who spoke were forced by circumstances to expose the “ pa­t r io t in” p ro fiteering of the com­pany and also to a ttack the gov­ernm enta l attem pts to outlaw s trikes and force w a itin g periods on the unions.T H O M A S ’ R E D -B A TT IN G

In the m idst of th is m eeting w h ich was called fo r the purpose of w e ld ing together the workers fo r the even tua lity of a s trike , R J. Thomas in h is speech injected a barrage of red-baiting. H is speech was obviously a fo re run­ner o f w ha t he in tends to do a( the com ing U A W convention in Ju ly , where he hopes to w h ip up a red-ba iting -hysteria, and r id h im se lf of some of the m ilita n ts in the un ion who have been mak in g li fe tough fo r him .

I t is no t ye t possible to know w hether o r no t a s tr ik e is goins to develop in General Motors. The locals, representing a to ta l of 7? GM plants and 170,000 workers, w i l l undoubtedly vote in favo r o' s tr ik e au thoriza tion . I t m ay lx th a t the company w i l l give wa? su ffic ie n tly as a resu lt to avert a s trike .

The leadership, in spite of the m il ita n t speeches in F lin t, w il l probably prove none too strong a t tbe nego tia ting table, and w ill prove subject to the same k ind of governm ental pressure as in ­duced them to settle the Ford s tr ik e w ith o u t a signed contract. W O R KERS A R E R E A D Y

Nevertheless, the s p ir it of the GM workers runs high. The Ford

v ic to ry , the steel and coal in ­creases, and the general fee ling tha t now is the tim e to w in con­cessions, a ll tend to pu t consider­able pressure upon the In te rn a ­tio n a l Executive Board.

I f a s tr ik e ensues, i t w i l l come at a tim e of year usua lly marked by the cu rta ilm en t of production. Th is may prove a handicap to a s trike , and serve to give the com­pany some advantage. I t would mean a long s trike , since curren t models would have been com­pleted.

B u t tbe corporation is t ry in g to p ile up a huge inven to ry o f cars, and there is in fo rm a tio n which po in ts to the fac t th a t fu l l pro­duction schedules w i l l be m a in ­tained u n t il the end o f May. I f t il ls is so, the company’s strategy to m aneuver tbe union in to a show-down figh t at tbe slack tim e of year, w i l l have fa iled i f the union acts p rom ptly , w h ich there is every sign the workers intend to do.

The GM workers are not inex­perienced workers. They have been through the 1937 battles. They know they can w in a s trike . There are m any among them, moreover, who know enough to watch every move o f the Board members, and to in s is t th a t the w orkers ’ demands not be throw n in to the waste basket.

In h is report of tbe negotiations Reuther did not m ention once two im portan t demands embodied in the contract drawn up a t the GM conference in February.

One was the demand fo r a $23 a week paym ent to a ll drafted workers, and the other was the subs titu tion o f a 60 day fo r a six- m onth sen io rity clause. V ig ilan? m ilita n ts are w a tch ing events to see tha t these two im p o rtan t de­mands, and a ll others, are not lost in the shuffle.

The general s p ir it in F lin t in ­dicates th a t the boys who did i t in 1937, are even better prepared to figh t to a v ic to ry in 1941.

Here's A Labor Dispute For Madame Perkins!

W hile Madame Secre tary o f Labor P erk ins has been a tte m p t­in g to roost over every labor c o n flic t in the cou n try th a t she can s it on, a b ig collective bar­ga in in g egg has been la id in her own back yard and is ready fo r ha tching.

A dispatch in the New Y ork T imes, A p r i l 22, te lls the whole s to ry , as fo llow s :

W A S H IN G T O N , A p r i l 21— Some of Secretary P erk ins ’s em­ployes read her a lectu re today on collective ba rga in ing .

Oscar W itm e r, president, and Helen M ille r, ad jus tm en t diyec- to r, o f Labo r D epartm ent Local No. 12. U n ited Federa l W orkers 'o f A m erica (Congress o f Indus­t r ia l O rgan iza tions), said in a le tte r to the Secre tary o f Labor th a t the un ion was “ shocked” to lea rn th a t the S ecre tary had to ld the W age-H our D iv is io n to d is­

continue the practice o f pub lic iz ­in g vacancies and new positions to its employes.

T h is action, they said, was the th ird step taken by Secretary P erk ins in recent m onths “ in break ing down labo r standards fo r you r own employes.”

I t was asserted th a t the Sec­re ta ry had p rev iously , w ith o u t notice o r discussion w ith em­ployes, closed the ca fe te ria lunch counter d u rin g the m orn ing and afte rnoon and cu rta ile d the b reakfast hour.

The le tte r said th a t fo r e igh t and one-ha lf m onths the union had been t r y in g to ad ju s t its grievances Ufith Charles V . Mc­La ug h lin , f ir s t ass is tant secre­ta ry , bu t “ appa ren tly you gave M r. M cLa ug h lin a u th o r ity on ly to lis te n to the un ion and n o t to nego tia te ; th a t is n o t collective ba rga in ing .”

P repa ring to take the offensive aga inst the s tr ikeb rea k ing e f­fo r ts o f M ayor L a G uardia, the New Y o rk Local o f the T ransport W orkers U n ion (C IO ) announced la s t S atu rday th a t i t would ca rry its f ig h t fo r renew al o f the sub­w ay w o rke rs ’ closed shop con­tra c t th is June to the m illio ns o f New Y o rk w orkers, th rou gh an extensive p u b lic ity cam paign in ­vo lv ing the c ircu la tio n o f m il­lions o f pam phlets, tw ice weekly rad io broadcasts and public meet­ings.

U n ion o ffic ia ls made th is p ro ­gram pub lic a t a dem onstra tion o f over 5,000 m embers o f the T W U . employed on the c ity - owned subway, elevated and s tree t ra ilw a y systems, before the offices o f the New Y o rk C ity Board o f T ransporta tion .

The un ion ’s projected campaign to w in mass support in its fo r th ­com ing ba ttle w ith LaG uardia fo r the re ten tion o f the union rig h ts of the 27,000 subway w o rk ­ers is d ire c tly in line w ith the program o f un ion p u b lic ity which T H E M IL IT A N T has repeatedly recommended fo r the past two months. I t is. a program w hich, i f fu l ly ca rried opt, is certa in to b rin g v ic to ry to the union.

AN SW ER S BOSS L IE SAccord ing to the statements of

un ion offic ia ls a t the demonstra­tion , the campaign to ga in the active support o f the m illio n s oT wage earners who are the chief users o f the subways w i l l begin th is week w ith the pub lic d is tr i­bu tion o f 1,000,000 pamphlets ex­p la in in g the un ion's position id the subway controversy.

D u rin g the m onth o f June, pre­ceding the te rm in a tio n o f the pre­sent closed shop contracts on June 30. the un ion w i l l d is tr ib u te each week 2,000,000 copies o f lite ra tu re at subway and elevated entrances and at s tree t car and bus stops.

In add ition , arrangem ents are being made fo r twice-a-week ra ­dio broadcasts and a huge public ra l ly a t Madison Square Garden. Regular outdoor mass meetings are to be held in the various sec­tions o f the c ity .

In m aking these plans public, the speakers a t the dem onstra­tion scored the m isrepresentations w h ich LaG uardia, the Board of T ransporta tion offic ia ls and the newspapers have been c ircu la tin g against the union.

L A G U A R D IA ’S N E W M O VESLast week the Board of T rans­

po rta tion made tw o fu rth e r moves in its un ion-busting drive.

I t issued a four-page prin ted c irc u la r to the 22,000 employes of the c ity ’s tra n s it systems, te ll­in g them th a t they d id not have to belong to a un ion in order to re ta in th e ir r ig h ts and conditions. The c ircu la r fa iled to state th a t the present un ion conditions o f the subway w orkers were won by the un ion and th a t the w orkers had the r ig h t to belong to a un ion.

As a gesture to cover up its s trikeb reak ing activ ities , t h e Board also announced th a t i t was m aking some "concessions” to the subway workers in the fo rm of two-week vacations w ith pay, s ix days of paid ho lidays and lib e ra l­iza tion of compensation sick leave.

A union spokesman described these “concessions” as “ wretch­ed crumbs” to counter the union's demands for increased pay, shorter hours and genuine collective bargaining under a closed shop union contract. I t was pointed out further, that the conditions offered by the Board are already supposed to prevail under the present con­tracts won by the union, or have been demanded for months by the union.W hile re ten tion of the present

closed shop clause in the agree­ment is a param ount issue of the com ing showdown, LaG uard ia has made i t clear th a t h is purpose is to deatroy any, fo rm o f collective barga in ing on the tra n s it systems.

Seafarers Union Makes Big Gains in War BoomEast Coast Seamen Get Theirs, Unswayed By Bosses' Howls About "National Defense"

Em ploying m ilita n t t a c t i c s w h ich take advantage of the in ­creased demand fo r seamen In the present w ar boom, the Seafarers In te rn a tion a l Unipn, confederate in the A tla n tic and G u lf area of the Sailors Union of the Pacific, has w rung im p o rtan t gains from thq shipowners in recent weeks. I ts wages and w o rk in g standards by fa r o u ts tr ip conditions ob ta in­ed by the N a tiona l M aritim e U n­ion, whose S ta lin is t leaders con­tinue th e ir shady practices.

Most o f the coastwise companies under contract w ith the S IU have granted a $7.30 increase in wages to th e ir crews th is m onth, bring- ing the average wage to about $15 to $17.50 above the basic pay fo r seamen a year ago. And last year the SIU had obtained a $10 and $7.50 increases from m ost of these companies.

NM U wages are about $5 per m onth below the S IU standard. B o tli last year as w e ll as th is NM U increases have fa llen behind those obtained by the S IU ; in fact, the NM U got increases on ly a fte r the SIU had pu t up t lie pioneering figh t th a t broke the ground.

E A S T E R N S T E A M S H IP F IG H TOne method by w h ich wage

gains are obtained by the SIU can best he illu s tra te d by the case of (he Eastern Steamship Com­pany. T h is company, long a bu l­w a rk of reaction among the sh ip­owners on the East Coast, refused to go along w ith the general $10 and $7.50 increases last year as w e ll as the increases th is ye'ar, re ly in g upon company stooges on the ships to prevent any action by the crews. B ut th e ir system broke down th is m onth, when se­veral of the Eastern crews, on the S.S. Robert E. Lee and M adi­son, decided to “ pay o ff” w ithout fo rm a lly s tr ik in g .

The jobs j were placed on the board at the Union h ir in g halls With, a question m ark. Np SIU man would take them. Form al reason given: there were too ma­ny gopcl jobs a t hand and too nluch of a shortage o f seamen, fo r anyone to w ant the Eastern jobs.

A t th is point., the NM U leaders displayed th e ir “ o rgan iz ing” tab ents. Long practiced in ra ids of a shady nature against other bona fide unions, long covetous of the S IU ’s Eastern contro l, one of the “ organizers,” Jack I.awrenson, is reported to have called up the company and offered to man the tied-up ships w ith NM U crews. Had th is l i t t le “ ra id ” been a t­tempted there is no doubt th a t a bloody, in te r-un ion battle would have ensued.

W hether the NM U rank and file would have supported such a scab­by move, is h ig h ly questionable, altough Lawrenson, C urran and Co, are kqown to have a hand­picked S ta lin is t “ goon squad” fo r ju s t such purposes.

In any case, the crews stood firm in spite of th is news and the company, w ish ing to avoid prolonged troub le tha t would in ­

te rfe re w it l i th e ir lu c ra tive busi­ness in boom times, q u ic k ly came to term s w ith the SIU, granted, the men a $10 m on th ly increase w h ich together w ith las t year’s $5 raise brings th e ir wages on a par w ith those on a ll other coast­wise companies.

W A R BO NUS F IG H TPerhaps even more im portan t is

the S IU action fo r bonuses fo r tr ip s to w ar zones. The SIU has been leading in t il ls field as well. Last year a 25 per cent bonus was prevalent on these runs, w h ich amounted to about $20 a m onth on an average. The S IU took ac­tio n last year w h ich resu lted in a raise firs t to 33 1|3 per cent and la te r to a f la t $1 per day bonus. When the S IU established a new bonus rate i t amounted to pres­sure fo r th a t same rate on a ll ships and the companies operat­in g them, in c lud in g N IIU ships.

Two weeks ago, the S IU crews of the Robin L ine ships operating to South A fr ic a decided th a t the tim e had come to boost w ar bo­nus pay again. They argued very correctly th a t the passage of the Leaso-Lend B il l and the increas­in g ho s tilit ie s in South East A f ­rica had made th a t zone fa r more dangerous. E m ploy ing the same method of "pay ing o ff,” the crew of the S. S. Robin Loeksley took the lead and demanded a $50 m onth ly bonus.

The jobs were put “ on the board." The un ion announced tha t there were no “ takers" fo r them. The membership supported the crews 100 per cent. A t- th is po in t the shipowners began the usual hu llaballoo about "n a tio na l de­fense.” The p a trio tic hyste ria was lo t loose in the press at. the Ro­bin L ine men. W ashington worked overtim e to b rin g pressure on the union, through a ll available chan­nels.

The S IU men stood th e ir ground, however. The ships did not move. F in a lly , a fte r a week of negotiating, a governm ent conci­lia to r was rushed to the scene and w ith the pa rtic ip a tio n of a b ig shot from the shipowners asso­cia tion , an agreement was, drawn up g ra n tin g the men the'demand' fo r the $50 bonus. The unions of the sh ip ’s officers, encouraged by th is v ic to ry , have since followed the lead o f th e ir crews w ith bo­nus demands o f th e ir own and the ships are s t i l l being detained am id con tinu ing p a tr io t ic bally» lioo w ith in te rven tion by. Roos­evelt mentioned as a likelihood, by the press.

O TH E R S IU G A IN SAside from the $50 bonus,

-which is now established fo r a ll seamen sa ilin g to A fr ic a and other w a r zone areas, the S IU obtained also a doub ling o f the insurance fo r each 'seaman, from $2,500 to $5,000 and a clause w hich reopens the whole question o f the bonus in case o f the s in k in g o f any Am erican ship or the bombing o f any po rt w h ich the. ships reach.

W ith o u t any fanfare, the SIU men are leading the way in the

figh t fo r be tte r conditions among the seamen in tho East, showing rem arkable calm and self-posses­sion in spite of the whole m achi­nery o f “ na tiona l defense” propa­ganda and syn the tic pa trio tism unleashed against them. They in ­tend to he as “ p a tr io t ic ” in de­fense of th e ir wages and condi­tions as the shipowners are “ pa­tr io t ic ” in defense o f th e ir p ro­fits. They take a s tr ic t ly class po in t of v iew on “ na tiona l de­fense” and refuse to he bulldozed in to "sacrifices” w h ich the p a tr i­o tic shipowners don’t even dream of m aking on th e ir side.

JAMES P. CANNON SPEAKS IN FOUR CITIES

James P. Cannon, N a tiona l Sec­re ta ry o f the Socia list W orkers Party, w i l l speak in M inneapolis, Chicago, D e tro it and B u ffa lo du r­ing the next tw o weeks. H is schedule fo llow s:

M IN N E A P O LIS : M a y D a y ,Thursday, May 1, 8 p. m., a t So­c ia lis t W orkers P a rty H a ll, 919 M arquette Ave.

CHICAGO: Sunday, May 4, 2:30. p. m „ a t Ashland A ud ito rium , Room 237, Van Buren & Ashland Ave. Subject: “ S trikes And !Na- tio n a l Defense’.”

D E T R O IT : Tuesday, May 6,8:30 p. m., a t Garage W orkers H a ll, W oodward and A lexandrine Aves. Subject: “ S trikes and ‘Na­tion a l Defense’.”

B U FFA LO : Thursday, May 8, 8 p. m. (See next week’s M IL I ­T A N T fo r address o f m eeting h a ll) .

Harry Bennett and William Green Are Now Together

H arry Bennett, ex-pug, union-buster and leader of the biggest army of anti-union thugs in the world, has been made an honorary life member of the A F L Musicians Union in Detroit.

B ill Green, kicked out of the Miners Union, is also in the Musicians Union. In view of their teamwork as strike­breakers during the Ford strike, i t is expected their new association is the begin­ning of quite an orchestra.

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Big Steel Signs Up!

CIO President Philip M urray and J. L. P erry , president of U . S. Steel’s largest unit, Car­negie-Illinois Steel are shown here, in Pittsburgh, as they signed fhe contract between U . S. Steel and the Steel Workers Organizing Committee which boosted wages 10 cents an hour for the company’s 261,000 employes.

4 — T H E M I L I T A N T APRIL 26, 1941

May Days Recorded Rising Tide Of Revolt 1915-1918Europe Saw No May Day Parades In 191 5 -- -But Then Came Great Days

By DO N DOREThis year, throughout the continent of capitalist Europe, the

international workers’ holiday, May Day, w ill be observed only by tiny, isolated groups meeting in deepest secrecy.

There is nothing new in this. During the first half of the last World War, the masters of Europe sim ilarly were able to prevent the masses from celebrating May Day. In 1914 and 1915, after the parties and leaders ol the Second (Socialist) In­ternational had betrayed the workers of Europe to the imperial­ist war machines and in each country were supporting the war, the tide of the class struggle had ebbed to its lowest point. Only a handful of socialists in all Europe were not swept away by the wave o f national chauvinism that engulfed the warring nations during the first years o f the war.

On M ay Day, 1915, fo r the firs t tim e in 25 years, the m arch ing feet of the workers were not heard in the streets of the in d u s tria l c ities of Europe. The cow ard ly and tra ito ro us leaders of the Second In ­te rna tiona l banned the tra d itio n a l May Day s tr ik e and instructed the workers to continue to work on May Day in the in terests of ‘ ‘na tiona l defense.”

B u t the monstrous repressions o f the ru lin g classes and the be­traya ls of the “ socia lis t” and “ la ­bor” leaders could not subdue the revo lu tiona ry w i l l o f the E uro ­pean p ro le ta ria t.

K A R L L IE B K N E C H T R E V IV E S T H E W O R KERS’ M A Y D A Y

I t was on May Day, 1916, that K a r l Liebknecht, a revo lu tiona ry socia lis t leader and member of the German Reichstag, succeeded in b ring ing together a huge w o rk ­ers’ dem onstration in B e rlin . L ieb­knecht was im prisoned fo r his an ti-w a r declarations and actions.

But w ithin two years his ideas and example had perm­eated the German masses and led to the revolution which de­stroyed the German monarchy and helped bring an end to the war.

On May 1, 1916, not a single w o rke r had come ou t in to the streets of St. Petersburg and Mos­cow to commemorate May Day.

But one year later, May.,.1,1917, the streets of every Rus­sian city were 'choked with the mightiest May Day mass out­pouring that the world had ever witnessed up to that time.I t was at once a triumphal celebration of the overthrow of Czarism in the February 1917 revolution, arid a gathering of forces for the complete over­throw of Russian capitalism which was to come six months later.Leon T ro tsky described tha t

h is to r ic May Day in his H is to ry o f the Russian R evolution:

“ . . . A ll the c ities of Russia •were drowned in meetings and dem onstrations. Not on ly the in ­d u s tria l enterprises, but the state, c ity and ru ra l pub lic in s titu tio n s wero closed. In M oghilev, the headquarters of the General Staff, the Cavaliers of St. George p a rc h ­ed a t the head of the procession.The members of the s ta ff — un­

removed tza ris t generals — marched under May 1 banners. The holiday of p ro le ta rian a n ti­m ilita r is m blended w ith revo lu ­tion -tin ted m anifestations of pa­tr io tism .

" In both capitals and in the in d u s tria l centers the workers do­m inated the celebration, and am id them the strong nucle i of Bolshevism stood out d is tin c tly w ith banners, placards, speeches and shouts. Across the immense fa­cade of the M ariinsky Palace, the refuge of the P rovis ional Govern­ment, was stretched a bold red stream er w ith the words: “ Long L ive the T h ird In te rn a t io n a l!“ The au thorities , not r id of th e ir ad m in is tra tive shyness, could not make up th e ir m inds to remove th is disagreeable and alarm ing streamer. Everybody, i t seemed, was celebrating. So fa r as i t could the a rm y at the fro n t celebrated. News canto of meetings, speeches banners and revo lu tiona ry songs in the trenches, and there were responses from the German side.”

The May Day celebration of 1918 in Russia included no Tzarist or bourgeois generals.I t was the greatest May Day in history. I t was the first May Day celebration in a workers’ state, the Soviet Union. I t was a manifestation of that t r i ­umphant seizure of power which ended the war for the Russian workers and peasants and'speeded the end of the en­tire World war.

M A Y D A Y IN A M E R IC A D U R IN G T H E W A R

M ay Day, 1917, was marked in '.lie United States by an ti-w a r de­m onstrations and b itte r battles of the m archers w ith the forces of the governm ent and “ p a trio tic ” bosses’ gangs.

In 1918, the tra d itio n a l May Day dem onstrations were v ic i­ously curbed by the government. In addition, these dem onstrations were impeded by the actions of some of the lead ing Am erican Second In te rna tiona lis ts , who sup­ported the war.

Im m edia te ly a fte r the war, in 1919, there occurred one of the- largest, and most m il ita n t May- Day dem onstrations in Am erican h is to ry . The w orkers stormed the streets of the lead ing Am erican cities in the hundreds of thou­sands.

One of the most memorable

B a ttle o f M a y D a y 1886 Now Won B y In te r' l H arveste r Workers

The recent m ilitant strike of the International Harvester Company workers successfully established unionism at the com­pany’s Chicago McCormick Reaper plant, the plant which is in­separably linked with the historic first May Day of 1886.

Just last week, for the first time in. its history, the Interna­tional Harvester Company had to yield to the organized pressure of the workers, granting a five cents an hour wage boost for 42,000 workers.

A fte r more than five decades, the McCormick workers are beginning to exact historic vengeance for the Haymarket martyrs of 1886.

During this recent Harvester strike, Mrs. Lucy Parsons, 82 years old widow of A lbert Parsons, one of the Haym arket m ar­tyrs, addressed a mass meeting of the strikers and helped inspire them to continue the- battle for which her husband sacrificed his life so long ago.

Thus have the living ideas of Parsons and his brave com­rades bridged the gap of more than half a century to arouse the workers of our own time. Not even the hangman’s noose could silence their voices.

AFL, C IO FightVinson Bill

(Continued from page 1) creases o r un ion contracts, fa il to stop m il ita n t labor actions, the ad m in is tra tion lias made i t c lear tha t i t w i l l endorse compul­sion as a “ last resort.”

There is a strong like lihood tha t Roosevelt w i l l a llow the Vinson b ill to make considerable head-

May Day demonstrations took place that year in Cleveland, Ohio, where over 50,000 work­ers participated. They were met by a huge concentration of police and specially mobilized armed hoodlums, who succeed­ed in breaking up the demon­stration after they had shot two workers to death and hun­dreds were beaten and injured. This savage assault upon the Cleveland May Day demonstra­tion of 1919 became a symbol of that “democracy” for which the workers had been told to fight and die.Today, when reaction has black­

ed out May Day in so many coun­tries, we need on ly remember the h is to ry of May Day du rin g the last w*ar to understand tha t the revo lu tiona ry s p ir it and character of M ay Day can never be des- stroyed.

T hat sp irit lives on in the vilest hell-holes and prison- camps of fascist Europe, just as it lived through the darkest years of the last war. Even before the last w ar had ended, the workers of the world could celebrate the victory of the first successful workers’ revo­lution. The end of this war may well witness— it shall witness— the greatest M ay Day celebra­tion of all, marking the over­throw of capitalism and the victory of the world socialist revolution.

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way in Congress in order to throw a f r ig h t in to labor leaders, ant’ then w i l l o ffe r a “ compromise“ proposal w h ich w i l l embody the p rinc ip a l "coo ling o ff” feature of the present b ill but exclude the compulsory clause fo r the tim e being. Roosevelt appears to be­lieve be can maneuver the top trade un ion offic ia ls in to agree­ment w ith such a measure,.as à "lesser e v il” to the V inson b ill.

The net effect of such a “ cooling o ff” period, whether compulsory o r "vo lu n ta ry ,” would of course be the same. I t would seriously cripp le organized labor in the use of its ch ie f barga in ing weapon, the s trike , and would enable the employers to s ta ll o ff wage in ­creases and other concessions.

G R E E N W H IN E SW illia m Green's opposition t i ­

the b il l was expressed in char­ac te ris tica lly cowardly terms.

“ The Am erican Federation of Labor has o ffic ia lly adopted a ‘no -strike ’ po licy in defense in ­dustries,” Green w rote to Vinson " In our e fforts to c a rry out th is ‘no-strike ’ policy we have made a w onderfu l record.

“ Do the members of Congress w ish to change th is s itua tion by creating hatred and enm ity in the m inds and hearts of labor toward Congress and the governm ent?”

Despite the w h in in g tone o f Green’s protest, the fact th a t he has been compelled to take a stand against, the b ill reflects Hu- tremendous pressure which the A F L ra n k and file members are p u ttin g on the leadership to fight an ti-labor legis lation.

CIO BLASTS B IL LCIO President P h ilip M urray

last week denounced the Vinson B il l as leg is la tion w h ich " w i l l se rio u s ly endanger the fu tu re ex­istence of our a ffilia ted unions,” in a message addressed to a ll CIO a ffilia tes and members urg ing them to protest against passage of the b ill.

Iu a le tte r to Representative Vinson, M urra y condemned the “ cooling o ff” proposal, declaring th a t i t “ s trikes at the very ex­istence of un ions” by subjecting them to “ an extended period of governmental in terference through m ediation and a rb itra tio n boards” before thek can exercise th e ir r ig h t to s trike .

M urra y has, however, consider­ab ly weakened the position o f la ­bor on th is issue by his fa ilu re to oppose o r denounce the action of the N ationa l M ediation Board, of wh ich .he is a member, when it enunciated as one of its gu id­in g ru les several weeks ago that i t would invoke “ cooling o ff” pe riods. M u rra y him self, by lending labor prestige to the Board, is he lp ing to subject the unions to th a t very "extended period of gov­ernm enta l in terference through m ediation and a rb itra tio n boards.” w h ich he so correctly opposes in connection w ith the V inson b ill.

The chief danger to the unions in the present ag ita tion around the V inson b il l is th a t M urray and the other top union offic ia ls may grasp at a worth less “ coni prom ise ’ involv fng acceptance et the p rinc ip le of “ cooling o ff” pe­riods, w ith thé un ion offic ia ls en­fo rc in g the procedure ra the r than the ad m in is tra tion ta k in g respon­s ib il i ty fo r compulsion.

May Day Was First Celebrated In The United States In 1886

May Day began in America, in 1886, since 1890 it has been celebrated as an international workers’ holiday. Each year since then workers everywhere have recognized May l as a day sym­bolizing their struggle for their broadest economic and political demands, a day for the expression of the international solidarity of all workers against all bosses, and for renewal of their fight for emancipation from capitalist rule in all lands.

There is scarcely a single day of the year which does not commemorate some memorable event in the history of the work­ing class. The road of proletarian struggle during the past century and a ha lf of cap ita lism is m ark-ed by innum erable blood-stained’ milestones.

B u t cap ita lism , w ith its recur­ren t wars and m ounting repres­sions, overlays the memories o f past oppressions and- con flic ts w ith ever fresh horrors.

In reality, nothing of the workers’ past is lost or forgot­ten, not a single crime of the master class, not one drop of the blood which has been shed for proletarian liberation. Each indignity, sacrifice and moment of struggle continues to live in our memories, not as isolated events, but as part of the fused experienced of the working class. On May Day, above all, we remember and draw fresh inspiration

A M E R IC A N LABO R IS T H E W O R LD V A N G U A R D

T his May Day comes in A m er­ica a t the crest of a great and vic torious wave o f strikes. A t the moment when our p ro le ta rian brothers in Europe seem crushed by the blows of ca p ita lis t war, reaction and fascism, Am erican labor stands fo rth as an unbow­ed giant, capable of in s p ir in g and ra lly in g the masses of a ll nations to h u rl themselves in renewed combat agaiust the ru lin g classes of the earth.

Today the American working class has the privilege of being able to hold high the banner of class struggle and reinvigorate the proletarian ranks of E u ­rope, just as the American

workers of the 1880’s revived the spirit of the international class struggle a fte r the crush­ing defeat of the Paris Com­mune in 1871.We recall w ith pride tha t i t was

the Am erican w o rk ing class tha t gave May Day to the workers of the world .

The firs t w o rkers ’ May Day oc­curred on May 1, 1886. T ha t was the day on which a group of Am erican trade unions, la te r to fo rm the Am erican Federation of Labor, bad determ ined to s tr ike and dem onstrate fo r the e ight hour day.

T H E F IR S T M A Y D A YOn th a t f irs t May Day, which

the bosses as w e ll as the w orking- class w i l l never forget, workers in every c ity of the United States downed tools and conducted one of the greatest and most m ilita n t s tr ik e dem onstrations in labor his-- to ry.

The character of that first May Day struggle has lived on in every M ay Day since. For this tremendous strike strug­gle was not lim ited to purely economic demands. Under the influence of m ilitant socialists of that period, the fight for eight hour day legislation as­sumed a political character. And it was a battle fought not simply in the legislative chamb­ers. but by masses of workers in the streets.Chicago became the scene o f a

tremendous con flic t. There the

workers of the M cCorm ick Reaper plant, had been on s tr ik e fo r three months p r io r to May . Day. 45,000 other Chicago workers s truck foi the e ight hour day on May 1, and stayed out. By May 3, 80.000 workers were out. The Chicago bosses determ ined to crush th is movement in blood. On May 3. the Chicago police opened fire w ith o u t w a rn in g on the McCor­m ick p icke t line. F our workers were k illed , scores in ju red .

The Chicago workers were in fu ria te d by th is deliberate slaught­er. The next day they held a gi gantic mass m eeting in Haym ar ke t Square to protest against the police b ru ta lity .

T H E H A Y M A R K E T M ASSACREAs the dem onstration was break

ing up, a fte r a peaceful gathering a great squad of police suddenU charged upon the th in n in g rank; of the dem onstrators. Someone ju s t who has never been disclosed threw a bofnl). W hen the smokr and confusion died away, sever police and fou r workers lay dead

W h ile a ll subsequent evidenci indicates tha t th is was the work o f a police agent or provocateur the boss class began how ling for- w orkers ’ blood. A lm ost every la ­bor leader in Chicago was a r­rested.

The police and courts centered th e ir murderous designs upon e ight of the most m ilitan t, and outstanding labor leaders, August Spies. A lb e rt R. Parsons, George Engels, A do lp li F ischer, Lou ir L ingg, Michael Schwab, Samue’ F iclden and Oscar Neebe.

The police had been unable to find Parsons, but on the day when the tria l began, Parsons walked into the courtroom and took his place on the prisoners dock to face death a t the side of his comrades.The t r ia l is a classic in capita l

Here’s The Bottleneck The Boss Press Doesn’t Blast

The cha rt below o r ig in a lly pub­lished in the CIO Economie Out­look, gives a graphic p ic tu re of how a re la tive hand fu l of b ig cor­porations have gobbled down most o f the w ar contracts.

A few g ian t corporations have back-logs on w a r orders w h ich w i l l take three and fou r years to fill. Thousands of sm all plants, representing a tremendous amount of unused U nited States indus­tr ia l capacity, are being ignored by the government.

The net effect of th is po licy is illu s tra te d by a repo rt of condi­tions of em ployment iu the P itts ­burgh area, a typ ica l in du s tria l area.

An ed ito ria l, en titled “ Jobs W anted.” published in the P itts ­burgh Post Gazette, A p r i l 16, states:

"The P ittsbu rgh d is tr ic t has had a great deal o f defense w ork, but nof, by fa r. as much as it can take care of e ffic ien tly . There are in A llegheny County alone, ac­cord ing to figures given the Great­er P ittsbu rgh Committee by state em ployment offices, some -13,000 men and 13,000 women ready to go to w ork im m edia te ly to p ro­duce whatever the Government lacks fo r defense. And the num ­ber rises to more than 100,000 available w orkers in the P itts ­burgh area, w h ich comprises 11 counties.

“ A delegation o f members of the com m ittee and labor leaders

is said to be p lann ing to go to W ashington fo r a conference w ith Donald M. Nelson, cha irm an o f the p lan t s ite committee of the Office fo r P roduction Manage­ment. Perhaps such a v is it, ca ll­in g a tten tion to the reservo ir of sk illed labor here and the s t i l l un­used p lan t fa c ilit ie s o f W estern Pennsylvania, would help to keep the a tten tion of na tiona l produc­tio n experts focused on th is area when fu rth e r p lacing of new in ­dus try is contemplated.”

W A S H IN G T O N F IL L E D W IT H S N A R L IN G JA CKA LS

B ig Business isn ’t w o rry in g about th is side o f the "n a tio na l defense” question. I t ’s out to de­fend its ho ld ings and profits.

A ll the Post Gazette can th in k of to change th is condition is to b ring pressure to bear to get a l i t t le more of the w a r profits g ravy flo w in g in to P ittsburgh. A nd the business class of every other section of the coun try is th in k in g in the same terms. W ashington has become a jung le of sna rlin g po litica l jacka ls each try in g to ^n a tc li more w ar orders fo r th e ir own business consti­tuents. T h is doesn’t mean tha t production w il l be expedited. I t s im p ly means th a t the sections th a t how l the m ost w i l l ge t a l i t t le more, and those th a t howl least w i l l get s t i l l less.

W ith over 9,900,000 unemployed in th is country, and tremendous

unused production fac ilit ie s , th on ly way the cap ita lis ts can th in of ge tting more w ar productio is to d iv e rt production from co: sumers goods to w a r m aterials Less goods fo r the workers, more goods fo r the cap ita lis t w a r ma­chine.

T H E W O R KERS’ W A Y TO IN C R E A S E PR O D U C TIO N

There is a way in wh ich p ro­duction can be stepped up w ith ­out in te n s ify in g the exp lo ita tion of labor. There is a way in wh ich production can be increased through tlie u tiliz a tio n of unused fa c ilit ie s and unemployed labor.

The war industries must be taken away from the war pro­fiteers and put. in the hands of the workers. The government must expropriate the war in ­dustries and place them under the control and management of of the workers.

That, is the firs t step in freeing production from the strang le­hold of t lie pro fit-hungry wolves o f cap ita lism . I t is an essential step in p repa ring the w orkers ’ defenses aga ins t fascism , a t home as w e ll as abroad.

I f the government will not take this st'¡ft, i t is because it is not interested in lighting fascis’ni. I t is concerned solely with defending the interests and profits of a handful of own­ing class parasites.

This chart shows

one reason w h y

there are still over

9,000,000 t i t le m-

ployed. 85% of war

orders have gone to

just 80 corporations,

while much of tlie

country’s industrial

capacity is not used.

is t frameups. The judge openly voiced his class hatred against the defendants and acted w ith undis- ;uised p a rtia lity .

The judge's agent who had p ick­ed the ju ry panel was proved to have stated: " I am m anagingth is case and know w hat I am about. These fellows are going to be hanged as certa in as death . . .’*

T H E Y W E R E T H E BO LS H E V IK S O F T H E IR T IM E

The capitalists and their press howled for the lives of these brave workers. They called them “Communards” after the workers of the Paris Commune, the first workers’ government in history. “Com­munard” was the 1886 equival­ent of “Bolshevik.”When th is fa rc ica l t r ia l had

fragged its course, seven of the lefendants were sentenced to be hanged, and one, Oscar Neebe, was given 15 years im prisonm ent.

In words of magnificent de­fiance, Spies declared to the court: “ I say, i f death is the penalty for proclaiming the truth, then I w ill proudly and defiantly pay the costly price. Call your hangmen!”A t the last moment, the death

sentences of two, Schwab and Fjelden, were commuted to lifé im prisonm ent. L ingg, to deprive the bosses o f the depraved satis­faction they m igh t ga in from his hanging, com m itted suicide by b itin g a dynam ite cap w ith his teeth. Spies, Parsons, Engels and Fischer were strangled on the gal­lows, b reath ing defiance o f the ru l­ing class w ith th e ir last breaths.

The example o f the H aym arket m artyrs moved the w o rk in g class profoundly. The Am erican w o rk ­ers began to organize and figh t w ith greater de term ination than ever.

AN IN T E R N A T IO N A L H O L ID A Y

In 1889, the convention o f the Am erican Federation of Labor again set aside May 1, 1890, as another day of mass s trikes and dem onstrations fo r the e ight hour day. T lie In te rn a tio n a l W ork in g ­man's Congress of the Second (So­c ia lis t) In te rn a tion a l, insp ired by the Am erican example, decreed that May 1, 1890 should be an in ­te rna tiona l w o rk ingm en ’s ho liday.

On tha t f irs t in te rna tiona l May. Day, t iie workers o f Europe and Am erica gave an unforgettable de­m onstra tion o f in te rna tiona l w o rk ­ing-class so lid a rity . B y the m il­lions, the p ro le ta ria t o f the most advanced cap ita lis t countries pour­ed in to the streets and fought against the savage m il ita ry and police repressions wh ich were hurled against them in every land.

Thus May Day was born of the liv in g struggles of the Am erican w o rk ing class Slid was baptized in the battles and blood of the in­te rna tiona l p ro le ta ria t.

T lie ru lin g classes, everywhere have tr ied to destroy the revo lu­tion a ry sp irit, of May Day. And the treacherous leadership of the Second and T h ird (S ta lin is t) In ­ternationals have tr ie d to w a te r down tlie m il ita n t tra d it io n and revo lu tiona ry character of May Day. The trade un ion bureaucracy of the Am erican Federation of La­bor attempted to make of M ay Day pure ly an occasion fo r p icnics and outings; and then, in conniv­ance w ith the bosses and th e ir government, tr ied to do away w ith May Day by establishing Labor Day as the “ o ffic ia l” labor ho liday in September.

B u t the s p ir it and character of the real M ay( Day canuot be des­troyed. T ha t is w hat the hangmen of the H aym arkdt m a rty rs tr ied to do a fte r the firs t May Day in 1886. Today the names o f the judge and hangmen are forgotten, w h ile each year, on M ay Day, m illio n s of workers pay tr ib u te to the m emory o f the H aym arke t m arty rs of tha t f irs t M ay Day struggle.

On th is May Day, in the lig h t o f the class battles w h ich the Am erican w orkers have been wag­ing w ith in recent months, we can better understand the im perish­able t ru th o f the la s t words of August Spies, spoken when the black hangman's mask already covered h is face:

“There w ill be a time when our silence.will be more power­fu l than the voices you strangle today.”

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APRIL 26, 1941 T H E M I L I T A N T 5

Negro S truggleBy A L B E R T P A R K E R

Mass Action Against Jim CrowThe N.A.A.C.P. p icket lines “ before the gates

o f in d u s tr ia l plants ho ld ing governm ent defense contracts and re fus ing to h ire colored w orkers,” scheduled to be held in 50 key c ities on S atu rday m orn ing, A p r i l 26, w ith an estim ated m in im um o f 33,000 people pa rtic ip a ting , is a step to be wel­comed and supported.

The business o f lobbying and w a it in g in gov­ernm ent chambers ha t in hand, and w r it in g to Congressmen and the President, cannot do much tow ard b reaking down the bars o f in d u s tr ia l J im Crow ism . T a lk is necessary, bu t i t m ust be sup­plemented by action. The bosses read le tte rs and te legram s, the governm ent departm ents meet w ith com m ittees o f 10 o r 15 people— b u t i t takes mass dem onstrations in vo lv in g thousands to show them th a t the N egro w orkers are no t m erely ask ing fo r th e ir r ig h ts , they are D E M A N D IN G them.

I t is also g ra tify in g lo learn tha t A. P h ilip Randolph, head of the Pullm an Porters Union, lias not on ly called fo r ,a m arch o f 10,000 Negroes on W ashington, but is also going ahead w ith plans to organize it.

Charley Cherokee o f the Chicago Defender states th a t Randolph is “ q u ie tly " going ahead w ith his plans fo r the march. We doubt tha t “ qu ie t" preparations w ill ac tua lly m obilize the Negro masses in to action. W hat is required is a conference of m il ita n t Negro organizations to organize and conduct the a ffa ir. We don't doubt tha t Randolph is seriously interested in m aking the m arch a successful tu rn o u t of the resentm ent of the Negro people, but we find i t hard to believe th a t any one man, even one w ith the support w h ich Randolph undoubtedly has, can by h im se lf ca rry out the .iob.

Read Your Own Paper!Horace Cayton, labor ed ito r of the P ittsbu rgh

Courier, th is week s truck out at those “ race lead­ers” responsible fo r the Ford s itua tion , “ wh ich so nearly spelt the doom fo r Negroes in the new labor movem ent." l ie says: “ These ‘race men’should be smoked ou t and made to take a position. There is no m iddle ground. In D e tro it the Negro com m unity , depending fo r em ploym ent on the au­tom obile indus try , m ust determ ine its a ttitu d e to ­w ard organized labor —- no com m unity organiza­t io n can be im p a rtia l — they arc e ithe r fo r or against . . . ”

We would suggest th a t Cayton read the D etro it ed ition of his paper, and an a rtic le from D e tro it in the cu rre n t issue of a ll its editions, w r itte n by John R. W illiam s , who says: “ Both M r. M ar­sha ll (F o rd ’s ha tchet m an) and M r. P atterson (U A W organ izer), along w ith thousands of others, have congratulated The Courie r fo r its im p a rtia l presentation of these issues . . . "

The Courier too m igh t have improved the s it ­ua tion w h ich so nearly spelt the doom fo r Negroes in the new labor movement, i f i t had been less " im p a rt ia l.” Cayton is r ig h t in saying there is no m iddle ground. I f you weren’t w ith the union, then you weren’ t w ith the best in terests t>f the N egro w orkers. The w orkers needed support, not im p a rt ia lity .

The Tragedy of YugoslaviaIts People Were Ready For Revolution, But Stalin Cut Off Their Hope

Negroes and the Mediation Board

The Chicago Defender, in com m enting on the makeup o f the N ational M ediation Board, deplores the appointm ent of George H arrison , head of thé lily -w h ite Brotherhood of R a ilw ay Clerks, who is w e ll known fo r h:s anti-Negro bias, and the fa i l­ure of Roosevelt to appoint a Negro to the Board even though the N e ^ o people constitu te one tenth o f our population and a much greater proportion of the w o rk ing class.

“ Under the circumstances.” say the Defender, “ Negroes m ust abandon a ll hopes of being bene­fic ia ries o f im p a rtia l judgm ent, unless the adm in­is tra t io n cancels the H arrison appo in tm ent and substitutes a black man in his place."

T h is is posing the question in co rrec tly . Cer­ta in ly the N egro w orkers (and the w h ite workers too ) should r id themselves o f illus ions th a t they w i l l get “ im p a rtia l judgm en t” from th is Board. They won’t ge t i t because there is no such th ing . ESther you are fo r the workers, o r you are fo r the bosses.

The appointm ent of H a rrison does serve to show how l i t t le Roosevelt considers the in terests o f the Negro workers. B u t his recall and the ap­po in tm ent of a Negro on the Board would not change the fundam ental fact tha t the Negro, like the labor representatives, would on ly serve as fig-leaf covering to the anti-labor, anti-Negro ro le of the M ediation Board.

Instead of ca lling fo r the appointm ent of a Negro to the Board, the Negro press should jo in T H E M IL IT A N T in ca llin g fo r the resignation o f a ll the labor representatives from the Board and in te llin g them th a t t l ie ir place is w ith the Workers, Negro and w hite , on the picket lines.

Jim Crow Squadron BoycottedIn spite of a ll e ffo rts to make the J im Crow

A ir Corps Squadron at Tuskegee seem appetizing to the Negro people, there has been a defin ite boycott against the segregated set-up handed down from W ashington to qu ie t the protests about dis­c rim ina tio n .

The Associated Negro Press called on the col­ored newspapers to feature stories about the op­po rtun ities tha t lay in store fo r young men who w ant to fly .

The P ittsbu rgh Courier ran an announcement on its ed ito ria l page. Mrs. Roosevelt had pictures o f herself taken and prin ted in the Negro press, show ing lifer p reparing to go up in a plane w ith a Negro p ilo t.

A nd in spite o f th is high pressure drive, the rid icu lou s ly low figu re o f applicants pe rm itted in to the squadron has s t i l l n o t been filled. Q ua li­fied young men don’t like a J im Crow squadron.

By E D W A R D B U R K H A R D TYugoslavia is a creation of Versailles. She was pieced to-

gcllier onl of the ancient kingdom of the Serbs, the Austrian provinces of Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, the independent duchy of Montenegro, and small parts of Southern Hungary and Norliiern Bulgaria. But what differentiates Yugoslavia from the the other Versailles masterpieces is the fact that the territorial union of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was absolutely justified and progressive, for all of these had in common national char­acteristics of language and history.

I f the c o u n try rem a ined p o v e rty -s tr ic k e n in sp ite o f its g reat n a tu ra l resources, i f the n a tio n a l question became ever more acute instead o f being solv ed, i f economic and cu ltu ra l pro gress stopped dead before it even had started, then th is was due ch ie fly to two reasons. One was the development of post-war E u­ropean cap ita lism w ith its gener­a lly devasting results. The other was the fa ilu re of the European w o rk ing class to figh t its w ay to fina l v ic to ry , and the subsequent bureaucra tiza tion o f the Soviet Union.

Yugoslavia 's advantageous geo­graph ic position at. the gate of Eastern Europe proved a double- edged sword, fo r sooner or la te r the coun try was hound to find its e lf in the path o f one or the other im p e ria lis t r iv a l. Neverthe­less, due to ju s t th is key position, a Yugoslav socia list revo lu tion would unquestionably have meant a sovie tiza tion of the en tire B a l­kan peninsula and would have checkmated Ita lia n fascism.

Im m edia te ly a fte r ra tifica tio n of the Versa illes trea ty , a govern­ment was formed under the d ic­ta to rsh ip of prince-regent A lexan­der, composed exclusive ly o f rep­

resentatives and members of the Serbian ru lin g clique. (The old k in g Peter I was s t i l l a live, hut through a conspiracy lie was forced to confer the powers of ru le r upon his second son A lex­ander, w h ile the real crown prince, George, was declared insane and a Bolshevik ( ' ) and im prisoned a t N ish.)

The firs t step of th is govern­ment was to suppress a ll progres­sive labor and peasant organiza­tions and to embark upon a crus­ade against communism which was surpassed hv German fasc­ism in no th ing but a certa in tech­n ica l refinem ent of to rtu re m eth­ods. T h is suppresion has con tinu­ed unabated, i f unsuccessful, up to the present day. I t is one of the .reasons w hy the S ta lin is ts s t i l l en joy a prestige among the masses qu ite out o f p roportion to th e ir actual strength, in the coun­try , despite the general disap­po in tm ent ■ o f the masses in the po litica l development o f the So­v ie t Union.

The Croats, who had waged a

long and bloody s trugg le against the A u s tria n m onarchy and at f irs t had w ild ly acclaimed th e ir na tiona l libe ra tion , were given no share whatsoever in the gov­ernm ent of the new state. As a resu lt, the ground was fe r t ile fo r the development of a Croat na­tio n a lis t anti-Serbian separatist movement among the Croatian peasants, most of whom were land- owners and by far* more prosper­ous than th e ir Serbian brethren. T h is movement was soon given a reactionary character by its leaders whose methods included co llabora ting w ith fascist te r ro r­ists. I t was led a t f irs t by the school teacher. Stephen Raditeh.

A fte r the assassination of Ra- d iteh in the Belgrade parliam ent in 1928, w h ich was used as pre­tex t fo r the in tro du c tion o f ab­solute m il ita ry d ic ta torsh ip . V la ­d im ir Matchek became the leader of the Croat separatists. C lum sily disguised as a champion o f de­mocracy, M atchek took the move­ment ever closer . to fascism. (W hich, however, d id not prevent the S ta lin is ts from supporting h im vociferously in the elections).

A t the same tim e the Serbian ru lin g class found its e lf u tte r ly unable to cope w ith the problems con fron ting them ; and indeed they were insoluble under capitalism . The irs was one of the richest countries in Europe; but in order to develop i t they needed trem en­dous sums of capita l w ithou t being able to guarantee im m ediate p ro­

fits. There was no in d u s try w hat­soever, ha rd ly any ra ilroads, and p ra c tica lly no roads at a ll. In many parts o f Southern Serbia the peasants are s t i l l t i l l in g the so il w ith wooden implements.

A t rid icu lous prices the B r it is h and French purchased a number of half-developed mines, such as Trepca and Bor, and operated and explo ited them w ith th e ir own labor and capital.

The Serbian peasants, who fo r centuries had fought a w ar of na­tion a l libe ra tion against the T u rks and against the Austrians, found themselves cheated of the m ate ria l f ru its of th e ir v ic to ry . The na tiona l independence they had craved was there — but the economic, oppression, instead of vanish ing, had grown more and more in to lerable.

A L L T H E FORCES P R E S E N T FOR S O C IA L IS T R E V O L U T IO N

The tra d itio n a l pan-Slavic ten­dencies among the masses, vastly strengthened by the v ic to ry o f the October re vo lu tio n in Russia brought about an upsurge of the revo lu tiona ry movement. F o r ? w h ile i t seemed as i f the country was about to fo llow the Russian example. And indeed, no ru lin g class would have been able to stem the r is in g tide of rebellion.

How easy the revo lu tion would have been! The ru l in g class itse lf was sm all and w ith o u t an estab­lished aristocracy, (The founder o f the present dynasty was a swineherd in 1865.) I ts urgent need

Bolivia Fights Standard O ilDespite W ashington ’s W arn ing . B o liv ia ’s Masses W ill N ot Y ie ld

B y Q U E B R A C H OBUENOS AIRES (By M a il)— Bolivia is the strangest of

the republics of South America. Situated in the interior of the. continent, it has no outlet to the sea. It lost its seacoast as a result of a war with Chile in 1879, which also meant the loss of large deposits of nitrates found in that locality.

Reduced thus to its inland position, Bolivia has the peculiarity that the major part of its inhabited territory consists of an arid plateau (more than 11,000 feet above sea level) where almost all of its three to four m illion inhabitants, mainly In­dians, are concentrated.

The large tin mines which constitute at present the principalwealth of B o liv ia , are found inthe h igh land. T ha t country is the world 's second largest producer of t in fo llow ing the Malay S tra its Settlements. Exports of that m in ­eral comprise 70% of B o liv ian ex­ports.

B u t the te r r ito ry o f B o liv ia stretches out from the east of the Andes m ountains in the d e c liv ity of tha t m ountainous chain towards the A tla n tic , a zone known as “ Oriente bo liv iano.” A petroleum deposit w h ich became the object of great speculation in the yedrs fo llow ing the firs t w orld w ar of 1914-18 was discovered there. A ll sorts of concessions passed in to the hands of the Standard Oil Company o f New Jersey w h ich fin ­a lly liad in its power five m illio n acres of o il lands.

S T A N D A R D O IL IN C IT E S A N U N S U C C E S S FU L W A R

The Standard O il Company of B o liv ia was organized in 1921 and i t began in 1923 to exp lo it the lands whose r ig h ts i t had acqu ir­ed. Those lands consisted of a l­most v irg in te r r ito ry w ith o u t the least means of com m unication. When the w ells of S tandard O il began to produce, a grave problem confronted th a t company: the d if­ficu lty o f ge tting the o il out of the country.

A pipe-line across the Andes m ountains to traspo rt i t to the Pacific, w h ich would have been the shortest route, was im p rac tic ­able. There on ly rem ained the poss ib ility of constructing i t to ­wards A rgen tina or Paraguay. B u t moves in tha t d irection d idn ’ t b rin g any resuks. p r in c ip a lly be­cause Dutch Shell, wh ich con tro l­led the A rgentine markets, and was in a nriv ileged position there, did not w ant to have the Standard O il Company as a com petitor.

There on ly rem ained one road and Standard O il chose i t : to ex­tend the fron tie rs of B o liv ia to wards the Paraguay R iver, h; h a -in g th a t country seize the Chaco te r r ito ry w h ich was in d is­pute w ith the Republic o f Para­guay. The w ar between the two countries w h ich broke out in 1932 lasted 3 years u n t il 1935. Fortune in arm s was unfavorable to B o l­iv ia and the la tte r had to cede

the whole Chaco te r r ito ry to P ar­aguay. The new road Standard O il had searched fo r was closed.

S T A N D A R D O IL P A Y S T H E P R IC E OF D E F E A T

B ut the gravest s itua tion fo r Standard Oil came thereafter. The people o f B o liv ia began to blame the company fo r having been the cause o f the w ar which had cost so much in blood and sacrifices and from w h ich came such a shameful defeat. Popular clam or against Sym dard O il rose to such a h igh p itch tha t the government of Colonel Toro decreed na tiona l­iza tion of the petroleum in du s try in 1937, w h ich s ignified the con­fiscation w ith o u t indem nity of a ll the properties and concessions of Standard O il in B o liv ia .

The tremendous petroleum re­serves of th is country were now to be d ire c tly exploited by the Bo liv ia n state which, w ith tha t end in m ind, organized the Y acim ien­tos Petro líferos Fiscales. T h is po l­icy was continued vigorously by the governm ent of L ieu tenant Colonel Busch w h ich succeeded tha t o f Toro.

Busch who demonstrated sym ­pathies fo r Nazi-fascism, also clashed in a deatli ba ttle w ith the Anglo-Yankee-Bolivian m ine com­panies (Patino, Aram ayo and R othschild) w h ich ended suddenly w ith h is “ suicide” at the he ight of th a t struggle, ju s t a fte r he had reached an accord fo r the cons­tru c tio n of a pipe-line to the P ar­aguay R iver w h ich was to have been insta lled by Germany in ex­change fo r petroleum.

S T A N D A R D O IL B E G IN S A CO M EBACK

General Q u in tan illa , the succes­sor of Busch, d id not fa ith fu lly fo llow the la tte r ’s footsteps as fa r as petro leum po licy was concern­ed. D u rin g his government, on the contrary, obstacles were placed in the way of the Yacim ientos Petro­lífe ros Bolivianos as a step lead­ing to its liqu ida tion and the res to ra tion to Standard O il of its old properties. The company had not of course ceased for- one mo ment its e ffo rts to reestablish it self in B o liv ia .

T h is is what the company has

now tr ie d to do openly under the new government of General Pen- oranda. On its behalf a group o f senators have ju s t raised in Con­gress the proposal: to fo rm a lly re ­vise the a ttitud e o f the govern­ment toward t lio company. The senators po in t to the advantages of a r r iv in g at a satis factory agree­m ent w ith the company in order to gain the good w il l of the U n it­ed States, and to be able to con­tra c t a loan of 30 m illio n pesos, since the Departm ent of State in W ashington hinted th a t an ad just­ment w ith Standard O il is .ind is­pensable before a loan would be granted.

In the leng thy discussions w h ich took place in the Senate, a good p a rt of its members spoke out against the m aintenance of the Yacim ientos P etro lífe ros F is ­cales and in favo r of the re s titu ­tion of Standard O il’s properties and concessions. D u ring many days, w h ile the m in is te rs of Gen­eral Penoranda partic ipated in the debate and bore the burden of m aking public the pressure of the W ashington State Department in favor of Standard O il, the ses­sions of the B o liv ia n senate held the v ig ila n t a tten tion o f the peo­ple of B oliv ia .

MASS PROTESTS H A L T S T A N D A R D O IL ’S R E T U R N

Foreseeing a maneuver tending to reestablish in th e ir country the hated im p e ria lis t enterprise, the people poured out in to the streets, demanding the maintenance of the Yacim ientos P etro lífe ros Fiscales and p ro testing against the a t t i­tude of the W ashington govern­ment and any steps w h ich would s ig n ify an agreement w ith Stand­ard O il. The Chauffeurs Union registered its protest by declaring a s trike , w h ile the le ft is t parties raised th e ir voices in the same sense.

The po in t was reached where ta lk was heard tha t a revo lt, u t i l ­iz in g the ag ita tion provoked by the petro leum question, would take place d u rin g Easter week.

Confronted by th is state of pub­lic unrest, President Penoranda was compelled to issue a commu­nique em phatica lly decla ring that the old properties of Standard O il w ould not be given back to the company under any condi­tions, and in jase an accord should he reached, i t w ould not be con­tra ry to the in terests of Boliv ia .

F o r its part, the Senate defin­ite ly decided the fo llow ing :

1 — To liqu ida te the question pending w ith th e , Standard Oil Company in an honorable fashion, m a in ta in in g the prestige and sov­e re ignty of the na tion ; and .2.—

to obtain credits fo r the develop­m ent o f the Yacim ientos P e tro lí­feros Fiscales.

Such hag been the episode which in the la s t . fe,\y wepks has dis­turbed B o liv ia ; a coun try w h ich lias ju s t signed an agreement w ith the United States fo r the sale of its t in and is ready to conclude another one fo r the sale of its w o lfram . The resu lt o f th a t epi­sode has been a serious defeat fo r Standard O il in spite o f the support g iven to its im p e r ia lis t po licy by the governm ent of the “ great democrat” and “ good neighbor” Roosevelt.

Nevertheless, th a t defeat is no th ing more than apparent. The decision to welcome priva te capi­ta l fo r the development of the Yacim ientos Petro lífe ros Fiscales opens a new road whereby the Standard O il Company m ay be able to su rre p titio us ly regain tha t w h ich i t fo rm e rly possessed.

We expect, however, th a t the B o liv ian people w i l l discover in tim e the maneuver and be able to h inder it . F o r the had name o f Rockefeller’s company in the h igh land country is such th a t a governm ent w h ich has not p re v i­ously established a bloody d ic ta ­to rsh ip could on ly w ith d iff ic u lty defy popu lar op in ion by pe rm it­tin g the reestablishm ent in Bo­liv ia of Standard O il.

fo r professional experts — no m iddle class existed —: led (lie ru le rs to establish free u n ive rs i­ties in fou r m a jo r gities of the country. B u t the considerable bo­dy o f students and graduates is so lid ly com m unist. They know, despite the promises of the ru lers, th a t cap ita lism can provide no fu tu re fo r the country. They have a healthy m is tru s t o f a ll presum ­ably anti-S ovie t propaganda and an unsw erving fa ith in Soviet Russia. (Heretofore they made no d is tin c tio n between S ta lin and the USSR. The la test events w i l l not have remained w ithout, conse­quences: w hy d idn ’t S ta lin save Yugoslavia? they w i l l be asking.

Lack ing a na tive aris tocracy or a la rge layer of the bourgeoisie, t lie ru le rs were forced to tra in young peasants fo r m il ita ry lead­ership. The a rm y schools did th is w ith considerable technica l com­petence and turned out every year f. large number of officers w ithou t, however, being able to in s ti l in them d u rin g the three-year course tha t base and b ru ta l class in s ­t in c t w h ich elsewhere character­izes the m il ita ry h iera rchy. Thus Yugoslavia provided the unique spectacle o f an a rm y o f drafted peasants led by peasants.

R E V O L U T IO N D IS C O U R A G E D B Y D E V E L O P M E N T S IN USSR

W ith a desperately poverty- s tricken peasantry, w ith a com­m un is t student body and profes­sional group, w ith a peasant o f­ficer-body, and w ith the in s p ir in g example o f the Russian peasantry nearby, Yugoslavia was w e ll on the way to revo lu tion in the firs t years a fte r 1918.

B u t w hat the Bern ru le rs could not do fo r themselves, S ta lin did fo r them. As each succeeding year a fte r 1923 brought g lo w in g ly reactionary trea tm ent to the So­v ie t peasantry, the news seeped out in to the Balkans. The Soviet a lte rna tive grew ever less a ttra c ­tive to the Serb peasantry. They would no t make a revo lu tion to live under S ta lin — fo r thus the revo lu tion anpeared to them, un ­derstandably enough. They tu rn ­ed away from the Com m unist In ­te rna tiona l and closed th e ir ears to the idea lis tic students.

Yet the fear o f revo lu tion re ­mained in the ru lers. They under­stood how precarious was th e ir ru le.

T h is is the explanation w hy the Yugoslav governm ent tr ied so des­perately up to the very last m in ­ute to prevent war.

B u t the ru le rs knew w ell th a t as a class they could not re ly upon the a rm y; they feared th a t in the chaos of to ta l w a r they m igh t lose con tro l and lose i t forever.

W hen the Nazis fin a lly did s trike , the defense of the country from the ve ry outset was ham pered and cripp led by these very same fears and m isg iv ings. More over, the Croats, em bittered, prob ab ly were none too ready to die The Balkans, kept d iv ided by the im peria lis ts , had already fa llen , piece by piece to H itle r . The bourgeoisie, u n w illin g and unable to figh t fascism, led the country to speedy disaster, w h ile S ta lin stood id ly by.

A New P ioneer Publishers P am phlet

The Assassination of Leon Trotsky

The Proofs of Stalin's Guilt

By A LB E R T G O LD M A N

Attorney for Leon Trotsky and Natalia Sedov Trotsky

P ioneer Publishers

1 16 University Place New Y o rk , New Y ork

B y J A C K W E B E RBourgeois w rite rs of h is to ry, when they spoke

unguardedly, and the re fo re fra n k ly , called the B a lkan o r E aste rn Question “ the problem o f f i l l ­ing up the vacuum created by the gradual disap­pearance o f t iie T u rk ish Em pire from Europe.” In th is m anner of posing the “ problem ” there was not a trace o f though t given to the Balkan peoples themselves. Long before H it le r was horn, the Concert o f Europe — was there ever a more iro n ic name fo r it? — moved d ip lo m a tica lly to carve up the Balkans among the great powers.

The f irs t g re a t riva ls fo r the inheritance o f the S ick M an o f Europe, (so they called the S u ltan) were England and Czarist Russia. Russia wanted C onstantinople and an ou tle t to the sea. E ngland wouldn ’ t have minded that so much, except th a t she already possessed Ind ia . Hence she dared not to le ra te any power having a hold on the M editerranean w h ich m ig h t dom inate her life lin e to In d ia and the F a r East.

Each of the great powers was anxious to be­come 1 lie “ pro tector” o f the sm all Balkan nations. The Czar was the firs t p ro tector and in true gang­ster fashion exacted his price. But in the C ri­mean W ar, England muscled in and took over the protection. Today i t is H it le r who shoulders aside England, as w e ll h is a lly I ta ly , to become the “ pro tector.”

I t Was Also Napoleon’s StrategyH it le r is fo llo w in g closely in the footsteps of

Napoleon. The la tte r said: “ Really to conquerEngland u-e m ust make ourselves masters of E gypt.” B y th is Napoleon meant b reaking the sea route in the M editerranean tha t was a m atte r of life and death to B r it is h im peria lism .

The firs t W orld W ar was fought over th is same issue when Germany attem pted to bu ild the s tra ­tegic Berlln-to-Bagdad R ailw ay. T h is would have brought the K a iser close to the Suez Canal. Now H it le r again wishes to use the Balkans as the stepping-stone to Suez. In the last w a r Germany wished to ga in complete dom ination o f Europe in order next to break up the B r it is h E m pire. H it le r has fo llowed the ' same fo rm u la , thus fa r w ith much greater success.

People who do no t understand the w o rk in g o f im peria lism in the sm all nations wonder w hy H i t ­le r was so successful in keeping the Balkan states apart and sw a llow ing them one a t a tim e. In th is H it le r m erely in h e rits the “ benefits” derived from the in tr igu es of a ll the im p e ria lis t powrs of E u ­rope. I f the Balkan countries had been able to un ite in an economic and m il ita ry Federation, they m ig h t have held o ff a ll the Im peria lis ts . M any a Balkan statesman, even among the bour­geoisie, dreamed o f ach ieving such a union.

W hy N o Balkan Federation ExistedB ut every tim e a move was made in th is

d irec tion the big powers used every m ach ination to frus tra te it . We take a l'ew among innum er­able examples. In the firs t B alkan W ar, Serbia, Greece and B u lga ria form ed a League to ga in complete independence from T urkey. They were sueccessful, hu t at the end of the w ar Germany stepped in and c leverly set the a llies against each other by o ffe rin g support to Greece and Serbia to seize Macedonia, w h ich was predom in­a n tly B u lgarian . T h is brought on the Second Balkan W ar of 1912-13. To cap m atters Germany attracted B u lga ria to her side in the f irs t W orld W ar by then ho ld ing out the rew ard of r ig h tin g the wrong done her!

In 1923, when the peasant leaders, S tam bu lisk l in B u lga ria and Raditch in Yugoslavia, tr ie d to settle th e ir countries ’ disputes peacefully and form an alliance, M usso lin i found a ll h is plans disturbed. He had a hand, w ith the a rm y clique o f B u lgaria , in b r in g in g about the assassination o f S tam bulisk l th rough the use of the Macedonian te rro r is ts in h is pay.

Thus the h is to ry o f the Balkans shows no th­in g more c learly than the im p o ss ib ility o f the B alkan peoples to live th e ir own lives w h ile im ­pe ria lism is master in Europe. Im peria lism reaches down r ig h t to the heart of the sm all coun­tr ies of Europe. I t lays hold o f the financia l and banking in terests w h ich are tied up closely w ith the in terests of the bigger bankers o f the cap ita l­is t powers. T h rough its economic dom ination i t also con tro ls the m a jo r p o lit ic a l parties and the governments set up on the basis of these parties. Often each pa rty is in the pay of a d iffe re n t im ­p e ria lis t power. The on ly recourse o f the na tive bourgeoisie is to g rav ita te from the o rb it o f one o f the powers to th a t o f the other. I ts barga in­in g power lies on ly in the fac t th a t r iv a l im per­ia lis ts hid against each other fo r influence.

O nly Socialism Can Save the BalkansI t is th is in terfe rence by pow erfu l outside

forces tha t has made of the Balkans the most unstable section in the w orld , the powder keg of Europe. In te rn a l s ta b ility is un th inkab le in sm a ll countries where a ll the complicated lines of d ip ­lomacy cross and recross. The Balkans as back­ward countries under the yoke of a native feudal- cap ita lis t ru l in g class, could not possibly w ith ­stand the enormous pressure exerted from outside. The fierce class struggles in the Balkan countries, unable to cu lm ina te in pro le ta rian revo lu tion , have resulted in a rm y and m onarchical dicta torships.

H itle r has fo r the tim e being seized hold of the Balkans and he w i l l a ttem pt to ad just th e ir economy to su it tha t of Germany. B u t tha t w i l l depend on his a b ili ty to force the peasants to w o rk th e ir fields fo r h im , so as to supply the g ra in and o ther foods th a t Germany got prev iously from the Balkans. B ut these peasants have fo r years been accustomed to a B a lkan jacquerie — peasant w arfare. They w i l l now trans fe r th is from a figh t against the native oppressors to a figh t against H itle r . The Balkan Question w ill rem ain. I ts on ly so lu tion is the fo rm a tion of the Socia list U n ited States of Europe.

The

Price 15c

The Balkans— Pawns Of The Great Powers

6 T H E M I L I T A N T APRIL 26, 1941

THE MILITANTVO L. V — No. 17 Saturday, A p ril 26, 1941

Published Weekly byT H E M IL IT A N T P U B L IS H IN G ASS’N

At 116 U n ive rs ity Place, New V'ork, N , L Telephone: A leonauln 4-8511

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Business Manager:L Y D IA B E ID E L

S u b sc rip tio n s : $2.00 per y e a r ; $1.00 lo r s ix m onths, ¿•»reign: $3.00 per year, $1.50 fo r s ix m onths. B und l» in te r s : 8 cents pe r copy In the U n ite d S ta te s ; 4 cents oer cepy in a ll fo re ig n countries. S ing le cop ie s : 6 cen t»

'•Reentered ns second class m a tte r Fe b rua ry 13, 1841 a t the post o ffice a t New F o rk , N . Y.. under the A c t o f M arch 3. 1819."

PROGRAM FOR TODAY'S FIGHT1. No union fig-leaves fo r govern­

m ent strikebreaking. Dem and that trade union officials resign fro m a ll posts in the governm ent, including the O P M and the National M ediation Board.

2 . Organize the picket lines fo r all- out m ilitan t defense against the thuggery o f company hoodlums and governm ent cops.

3 . Organize U nion Defense Guards to protect the picked lines and union halls against ‘law and order committees,’ and all o ther anti-labor bands.

4 . Call an im m ediate halt to a ll acts o f hostility between the A F L and C IO which serve the bosses’ strikebreaking.

5 . Dem and the unification o f the A FL and C IO on the basis o f preserving and extending the industrial fo rm o f or­ganization.

6 . Independent w orking class po litic ­al action. B u ild an Independent Labor Party.

7 . Expropriate the war industries and operate them under workers’ control.

Stalin’s " Peace" LineI f there is any one idea that the Stalinist lead­

ership is try ing to put across, it is that Stalin’s foreign policy is one that achieves peace and pre­vents the spread of war. I t is an idea which the Stalinist leaders hope w ill counteract the bad ef­fects which Stalin’s pacts with H itler and with Japan have had upon the Soviet sympathizers throughout the world. I f it were true, then the masses of those countries which obtained peace would indeed be grateful.

To put this idea over, Pravda, discussing the Soviet-Japanese pact, hails it as "a new big achievement of the Stalinist foreign policy which steadfastly and consistently fights for peace and against the spread o f the war.”

But, accepting the premise of Pravda that peace is desirable under any and all circumstances, i t is obviously easy to prove that Stalin’s foreign policy has, at best, achieved peace for the people of the Soviet Union at the expense of war for the peoples of other countries.

Was not the Stalin-H¡tier pact followed by H itle r’s attack on Poland and therefore acted as a match that helped ignite the European flame?

M ind you, we are not arguing that the Stalin- H itle r pact was the fundamental cause of the war, which we consider a result of • basic imperialist rivalries. We simply show what poppycock is the argument that Stalin’s foreign policy resulted in peace.

Can it not be argued with far greater effective­ness that i f Stalin had not signed the pact, H itler fearing a war on two fronts, would not have dared launch his attack and thus war would have been avoided altogether?

Again, mind you, we are not arguing that this is true but that it can be used as a conclusive answer to the Stalinist argument.

And does not the Soviet-Japanese pact free Japan so that i t can, i f i t wants to, attack more easily in the Southern Pacific? Of course it does, and thereby, i f Japan should attack, the pact would not bring peace but war. Here again it can be argued that, i f Stalin had not signed the pact, Japan would not attack and the war would not be extended.

The same thing holds true with reference to Stalin’s acts in the Baltic. Had he taken a strong position against H itler with the intimation that H itler would have to risk war w ith the Soviet Union i f he dared attack in the Balkans, the at­tack would not have been made.

The truth of the matter is that Stalin’s “ pacif­ism” simply serves to confuse and disorient thou­sands of advanced workers.

What Stalinist foreign policy actually docs is to deliver m illions of workers into the clutches of H itle r’s and Japan’s imperialism, and ties other millions close to the democratic imperialists. And in the end it docs not and cannot bring peace to the Soviet Union. It can and does weaken the Soviet Union by antagonizing workers throughout the world.

Hillman’s UsesRepresentative Taber, like many another em­

ployers’ man in Congress, has a tendency to go all to pieces at mere thought of a union card. This is often apt to warp his immediate judgment con­cerning what is in the best interests o f his class.

For instance, take his statements last week about Sidney Hillman. “ And what is M r. H il l­man’s situation?” asked Taber.

“ He is at present drawing his salary from the Amalgamated Clothing Workers o f America— $12,500 a year. He is on the payroll of the United States Government for $1 a year. Is it not time that divided allegiance ceased and that i f M r. H ill­man is to continue in the employ of the United States Government in a most trusted position that he be paid by the United States Government alone?

"Is it not time,” continued Taber, “ that Mr. Hillman ceased at the same time that he is jo int head of the Office of Production Management to be the head of a labor union, w ith conflicting duties to each position? Is i t not time that those who were called to the service o f the United States made that job the first claim upon them?”

What Taber overlooks is that Hillman, divorced from the union movement, isn’t worth a red cent in his present government post to the employing class and its government.

Hillman couldn’t hold down the job of White House jan itor without his union connections. That’s the only thing he has to sell to the bosses. That’s what he and every other union official who takes a post with the bosses’ government have to offer. It is their official union prestige which en­ables them to perform the useful service to the employers of covering up the fundamentally anti­labor character of the OPM, the National Media­tion Board, and all the other government war agencies.

The instinct of the workers impels them to an undivided allegiance to their own class interests, a fact that Taber realizes. A fter all, he’s that way about his own class.

But the spectacle of the Hillmans in govern­ment posts confuses the workers as to the com­pletely employer class character of the government.

A union post and a government post involve "conflicting duties," admits Taber; that is, irre­concilable class interests. The union serves the workers; the government serves the owners.

W ith this premise of Taber's We heartily agree. We too are opposed to divided allegiance. But we do not agree with Taber when he says that union officials should desert their unions for government posts. We contend that union officials should get out of all appointive government posts and remain with their unions.

In addition to becoming a captive o f the em­ployers, a union leader in a government post is a peddler of stolen goods. He is taking something that doesn’t belong to him alone, the patrimony of the labor movement, and trading i t in for a mess of employer-government pottage.

Why Convoys WaitW hat’s holding up convoys? W hy has Roose­

velt momentarily paused from taking the next step to lead this nation into war?

A rthur Krock, a leading national political press commentator, writes in last Sunday's New York Times:

" . . . ‘Short of War,' the pledge of the cam­paign, has been abandoned as a phrase. But it is still acting as a brake on policy because the Ad­ministration is not certain whether it would dare to take the brake off. Its disposition has been to defer facing that decision as long as possible and pretend there is no future by the simple process of refusing to admit plans for it.

“ Thus, though every detail o f American naval escortage of supply ships has been worked out, the President dismissed every question on the sub­ject and his responsible Congressional spokesmen continue to assert they never hear the subject men­tioned in conferences at the White House.”

Roosevelt wants to take the next step of naval convoys, all right. “ Every detail o f American naval escortage. . . has been worked out.” But he does not "dare” to make the move.

Why? Because the m ajority of the American people are opposed to it ! They understand that convoys w ill lead to naval clashes and thus to direct m ilita ry participation in the war. Roosevelt may cynically abandon his “ short of war" cam­paign pledge. But the American masses have b it­ten into that phrase and arc grim ly clamping it between their jaws.

The latest Gallup Poll, reported in the New York Times, April 20, shows that four out of five Americans oppose sending any part of the Ame­rican army to help British imperialism. The Gal­lup results were 79 per cent against, only 17 per cent for. The same overwhelming results, w ith slight variations, held against sending any part of the air force or navy.

These results arc more impressive when it is understood that the Gallup polls.arc frequently so weighted as to give the1 edge to the Administra­tion side of a question. It is notable, for instance, that thu poll has refused.to pose the specific ques­tion of convoys— undoubtedly refraining in order not to embarass Roosevelt w ith the results.

Roosevelt intends to drag this country further into the war. But it is clear that he w ill do so only by deception and fraud, just as he put over his lease-lend b ill by his "short of war” pledge. The war for "democracy” w ill not be an expression of the democratic w ill of the American people.

That w ill, disorganized and poorly expressed as i t is, has been powerful enough, nevertheless, to make Roosevelt hold bade on his convoy plans.

Why Labor Must Defend Harry Bridges

The o ffic ia l defense of H a rry Bridges against deporta tion ' fo r alleged some-time membership in the Com m unist P a rty has bogged down to a technica l quibble over w hether o r no t the head of the CIO Longshoremen’s Union actu­a lly ever held a card in the S ta l­in is t party .

We don’t know. As fa r as we are concerned, we take h is word fo r i t th a t he is not, against tha t of the stool-pigeons’ who have turned on him . This, to us, is the least issue in the Bridges case.

The m ain issue is : does o r does not the r ig h t o f free po litica l opi­n ion apply to labor leader^ and un ion men and women? Can Bridges o r any o ther union mem­ber belong to the Communist P a rty — or any other rad ica l par­ty — w ith o u t being faced w ith deporta tion i f a non-citizen, or w ith ja i l i f he is a c itizen?

TO D E F E N D BR ID G ES IS TO D E F E N D U N IO N IS M

I n a word, is the governm ent to d icta te to the union movement and say o n ly those belonging to par­ties o f the em ploying class, the Republican and Democratic parties w h ich ru le the government, shall lead the unions? I f the govern­m ent can say th a t a un ion man m ay no t belong to one party , i t

can go on to d icta te th a t he may no t belong to some other pa rty too. I f th a t p rinc ip le is perm itted to be enforced, then free un ion­ism w i l l be dead.

The defense of Bridges is not the defense o f an in d iv idu a l against an un ju s t accusation. The defense o f Bridges is the defense of a p rinc ip le : the r ig h t Of the workers to believe in and belong to any organ ization or po litica l group they see fit.

The Bridges defense cannot rest on the pure ly technical lega lis tif ground .o.f non-membership. The governm ent says Bridges is in th is coun try in v io la tio n o f the A lien R eg istra tion A c t o f 1940. The defense says he is not. We say, i t ’s im m a te ria l. W e’re con­cerned w ith a vic ious anti-labor law w h ich is directed a t v ic t im ­iz in g members of organized labor.

We do not and have never sup­ported Bridges’ polic ies inside the unions. W e have attacked his policies ju s t as we have those of Greene, M u r r a y, Lewis. H illm a n or Dubinsky. We though! such policies against the in terests o f the labor movement.

B u t in th is instance, in defend­in g Bridges we are defending the r ig h ts of a ll labor against a v ic i­ous law.

Ours is not a pu re ly lega lis tic stand. B u t i t is a stand th a t w i l l

appeal to a ll workers and arouse them to the menace against them ­selves w h ich is involved in the governm ent’s action a g a i n s t Bridges.

T h a t does no t mean th a t we are opposed to the legal defense of Bridges. On the con tra ry, we in s is t th a t the governm ent should be compelled to show proof in court fo r every a llegation and tha t th is evidence should be sub­jected to every question and doubt w h ich can be th row n against it . B u t th is is not enough to save Bridges in a boss govern­ment tr ia l, in a boss court, charg­ed w ith v io la tio n of a boss law.

Bridges w i l l not be saved from the persecution of the govern­m ent inside the bosses court alone. He w il l be saved on ly by a pow erfu l mass movement of the w orkers w h ich can b ring such m il ita n t pressure to bear on the governm ent tha t i t w i l l drop the Bridges case lik e a hot po- tatoe.

Such a mass movement cannot be formed on the basis of a legal quibble and technica lities.

The Bridges defense m ust be shifted from the always narrow and s h ift in g base of boss lega lity . I t m ust be placed upon the broad and solid foundation of a fight fo r fundam ental r ig h ts and p r in ­ciples.

Stalin's "New" Edition Of Lenin’s Works

By OSCAR F IS C H E RS ta lin , a fte r having finished the

Moscow tr ia ls , the pact w ith H it ­ler, the g loribus wars against Po­land and F in land, and the assas­s ina tion of T ro tsky, believes i t t im e ly to occupy h im se lf once again w ith Lenin.

The press carries the report tha t a new ed itio n of the complete w orks of Len in is about to be pub­lished, com pris ing fo r ty volumes and con ta in ing “ about 500 h ith ­erto unknow n documents.”

A t f irs t one is tempted to take th is rep o rt as a satire . And yet there is mdre here than a satire. The rea l purpose of th is new edi­tio n we can easily understand when we th in k o f the “ 500 h ith ­erto unknow n documents.” These documents, of course, m ust be a r tid e s , speeches, and le tte rs of Lenin. And there are no less than "about 500” o f them. A very con­siderable am ount. One does not find such a large qu a n tity some­where in a trouser pocket or in a fo rgo tten d raw er; a la rge archive m ust have been discovered. But who discovered it? And where?

There are on ly too m any rea­sons w hy we can assume th a t the la rge r p a rt o f the 500 documents — i f no t a ll o f them — have been “ discovered” by the GPU on o r­

ders from S ta lin . C e rta in ly these 500 documents, h ith e rto unknown, w i l l o ffe r am ple proof tha t S ta l­in ’s po licy is indeed “ Le n in is t.” The h ith e rto know n — and by S ta lin no t ye t revised — docu­ments o f Len in prove ju s t the op­posite: ne ithe r the theory of “ so­c ia l fascism,” no r the strategy of the “ People’s F ro n t,” ne ithe r the H itle r-S ta lin pact nor the S ta lin ­is t m urders can be defended by those w orks of Le n in w h ich are know n so fa r.

B u t these “ h ith e rto unknown documents” w i l l ra d ic a lly a lte r the s itua tion . They w i l l ju s t ify and defend a ll th a t u n t il now could no t he defended in the lig h t of Len in ism . Len in is dead and can ne ithe r cap itu la te nor con­fess; bu t h is "s ifte d ” works, and p a rtic u la r ly the “ h ith e rto un­known 500 documents” w i l l in h is stead once again ca ll the opposi­t io n directed against S ta lin “ t ra i­tors, spies, and mad dogs” and celebrate S ta lin as the fa the r of the people, and perhaps even as the true creator of Lenin ism . Le­n in is being “ co-ordinated” — w ith the Moscow tr ia ls , the te r­ro rism o f the GPU, and w ith .th e H itle r-S ta lin pact.

A nd he is ge tting a break inas­much as he is not being dragged

fo r years th rough the to rtu re chambers o f the GPU and forced u ltim a te ly to confess before a Vys­h insky. He is being le ft to sleep peacefully in the w a lls o f the K re m lin and S ta lin h im se lf w rites w ha t is being expected from him today. Since he can no longer be shot, Le n in m ust subm it to a s lig h t "a d d itio n ” to h is complete works. In th is m anner he, top, does no t escape the Vyshinsky. A nd s low ly bu t sure ly S ta lin , his GPU,, and h is theore tica l come­dians w i l l have com plete ly re ­w r itte n the complete w orks of

.Lenin .They already have done that

w ith o ther documents. The his to ry o f the revo lu tion , o f the c iv il war, and of the Bolshevik P arty have long been re -w ritten fo r the sake o f the greater g lo ry of S ta l­in . Even K rupskaya had to re ­w r ite her m em oirs of Lenin, or a t least subm it them fo r revision. Now i t ’s Le n in ’s tu rn . So many “ new discoveries” w i l l probably be made th a t in due tim e the o rig ina l w o rk w i l l be a ll but buried.

So f in a lly S ta lif i’s theoreticians under, the con tro l of the GPU are ra is in g the dead Len in to “ S ta l­in ’s soaring heights.” I t was to be expected.

MAY DAY MEETINGSMay Day 1941 sees Am erica’s Sixty Fam ilies plunging the United

States into W o rld W ar I I .

H ear how the workers can end this second im perialist slaughterfo r profits!

H ear the program o f Trotskyism , the revolutionary road to a so­cialist society!

In New YorkSpeakers:

ALBERT GOLDMANAttorney for Leon Trotsky

ART PREISAssociate Editor,. T H E M IL IT A N T

THURSDAY, May 1 8:30 P.M.

Irving PlazaIrv ing Place and 15th St.

In Twin CitiesSpeaker:

JAMES P. CANNONNational Secretary, Socialist W orkers Party

THURSDAY, May 1 8:00 P.M.

Socialist Workers Party Hall919 Marquette Ave., Mpls.

Auspices: Twin C ity Branches, SWP Admission; 25 cents

Where We Stand

W hy W e D efend the Soviet UnionSince many various and contradictory interpreta­

tions are being given to the recently signed Soviet- Japanese pact, i t offers another opportunity to point out that our defense of the Soviet Union depends neither upon what Stalin does nor upon the signifi­cance which we attach to1 any agreement entered into by the Kremlin murderer.

I t w ill be remembered that when Stalin openly proclaimed to the world in August 1939 that he would henceforth play ball with H itle r rather than w ith the democratic imperialists, a number of people w ithin the ranks of our own party (who subsequently split away and formed their own organization), decided that they could no longer defend the Soviet Union. By their decision they in effect stated that they were w illing to defend the Soviet Union only i f Stalin would fight alongside the democracies but would not defend it i f Stalin fought on the side of H itler.

On our part, we insisted that our policy of de­fending the Soviet Union was based on the existence in that country of those property relations which had been established by the October Revolution and which had not yet been destroyed by the Stalinist bureaucracy. Defending the Soviet Union means de­fending these property relations, and not Stalin, whose policies we invariably condemned, including his pact w ith H itle r and his invasion of Finland.

W e interpreted the pact and all Stalin’s sub­sequent acts a’s indicating a fear on his part of being involved in a m ajor conflict, a desire to avoid such a conflict and at the same time to get m ilitary-strategic advantages to guard against a future attack on the part of H itler. The m inority in our ranks, as well as the Social-Democrats and most bourgeois democrats, interpreted the pact as evidence of a close partner­ship between H itle r and Stalin fo r the purpose of conquering and dividing the world, a t least the B rit­ish Empire. By this time the latter interpretation has become so ridiculous that even the m inority which le ft us has dropped it. ( I don’t see any references now to the “Moscow-Berlin Axis” in their paper.)

The point that i t is essential to make, however, is th a t i t is possible fo r us to make a mistake in in­terpreting the causes and the significance of an agreement made by Stalin, without its having any effect on our policy of defending the Soviet Union.

M any questions have, fo r instance, arisen w ith reference to the signing of the Soviet Japanese pact. Did Stalin sign the pact because it gives him a free hand against H itler? That is hardly plausible fo r the simple reason that he is not foolish enough to trust the Japanese imperialists in case of a w ar between the Soviet Union and Germany.

H itle r ’s Pressure Behind Pact W ith JapanThe most plausible explanation of the pact is that

i t was entered into under pressure from H itle r. The pact creates the impression that Japan is now ready to send its m ilita ry and naval forces towards the M alayan Peninsula and the Dutch Indies. Such a move on the part of Japan, or. even the threat of such a move, H itle r hopes, w ill prevent the United States from involving itself too deeply in the w ar in Europe. I t does not seem likely that Japan w ill make any actual attack in the southern Pacific until i t appears that H itle r is fa ir ly certain of winning the w ar. The pact therefore can be taken as having been signed under the pressure of H itler, a pressure which became all the greater w ith his decisive victory in the Balkans.

There are other questions about the pact which are difficult to answer. Does it mean that Stalin has made a deal w ith the Mikado w ith reference to China? W ill Stalin continue to send aid to the Chinese in th e ir struggle against Japan? Xhe Stalinists are try ing hard to create the impression that such aid w ill continue, but it is hardly probable that a pact between the Soviet Union and Japan should be signed without taking into consideration such an important question.

Pact Is A Blow At ChinaI t is impossible fo r anyone to be absolutely de­

finite in answering such questions. M arxism offt^'s no key to solving the riddle of Stalin ’s intentions and purposes a t any particular time or in any sign­ing any particular agreement. W hether Stalin w ill attack H itle r or refra in from attacking him; whether lie w ill help Turkey against H itle r or divide Turkey w ith H itle r; whether he w ill cease or continue giving aid to Chiang Kai-shek, are a ll questions subject to a great deal o f speculation. Basing ourselves on all the relevant facts we can indicate the most probable course that Stalin w ill’ follow.

M arxism does o ffer us a method of analyzing the nature of the Stalinist bureaucracy and the nature of the state over which Stalin has control. M arxism also enables us to predict w ith certainty that Stalin w ill be unable to solve the problems confronting the Soviet Union and consequently wc can predict w ith certainty the overthrow of the Stalinist bureaucracy by the Soviet workers.

W e do not have to speculate on certain questions involving the Soviet-Japanese pact, just as we did not have to speculate on certain questions involving the S ta lin -H itler pact. W c are absolutely certain that the mere signing of the pact is a blow a t the Chinese people who are exerting every ounce o f energy to expel’ the Japanese imperialists. W e may be wrong in thinking th a t Stalin w ill cease sending m ilita ry aid to China but we arc not and cannot be wrong in indicating the adverse effect that the treaty must have upon the struggle of the Chinese people.

And as wc have pointed out On innumerable occa­sions the signing of these pacts reacts against the Soviet Union because the millions of workers and peasants who are not trained to make the distinction between Stalin and the Soviet Union can no longer, by virtue of their resentment a t the pacts, be relied on to defend the Soviet Union.

S ta lins politics— domestic as well as foreign— weaken the Soviet Union but thus fa r have not changed the essential property relations in the Soviet Union. And i t is always necessary to remember that we defend only the Soviet Union and not Stalin.

By Albert Goldman