Pro-Gomulka Vote Masks Continued THE MILITANT Conflicts in Poland PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE „Hit 267 N E W YORK, N. Y., MONDAY, JANUA RY 28, 1957 PRICE 10c By George Lavan Vol. X X I - No. 4 JAN. 22 — The Polish people went to the polls on Jan. 20 and gave Premier Wladyslaw Gomulka what he had asked for — an overwhelming show of support. Between 90 and %% of eligi­ the proposition: For or against ble Poles voluntarily cast bal­ lots. This participation compares G om ulka? There were no opposition par­ favorably, or even exceeds, the Eisenhower Pushes Biggest ties or candidates on the ballot. turnouts achieved in the 1952 and previous elections when police All had been approved by Go­ mulka. A ll were on the coalition measures were employed to get slate of the National Front in out the vote. the following proportions: Com­ Secondly, crossing names of munist Party — 50%, Peasant Communist Party candidates off Party — 25%, Democratic Party the ballot was not widespread — 10%, the remainder being un­ enough to defeat any of the 450 U.S. Peacetime' War Budget affiliated. The election differed candidates favored by Gomulka. from the usual single slate af­ The specter of mass deletions of fair, however, in that the Na­ names from the ballot, constitut­ tional .Front put forth 720 can­ ing lukewarm support, or even a didates for 4d9 6eats in parlia­ repudiation, of the new Polish ment. The voter . could choose Arms Inflation Hikes Tax Steal Tegime, had brought election-eve among them by crossing off pleas by Gomulka a*hd his follow­ names. For example, in a district ers that crossing out on the bal­ entitled to four seats, there might lot was tantamount to crossing appear on the ballot the names Poland off the map. That these To Record $86 Billion a Year of seven candidates. Crossing out pleas were effective is demon­ the names of the top three would By The Editors tion plus veterans’ medical care and hos- strated by the results. give the votes to the last four pitals. This atmosphere, iplus the F or the second1 year in a row, President candidates. An unmarked ballot According to the budget message, these mechanics of the voting itself, would be a vote for the first four Eisenhower has proposed the largest made the election a plebiscite on “ vastly superior weapons have a profound names. peacetime military budget in history. While the amount of crossing impact on the size and composition of the Forty-five billion dollars, or roughly two out varied from district to dis­ military budget.” New “Atomic Support trict, apparently it was nowhere thirds of the entire budget for the fiscal Commands” are being formed to “provide heavy or concerted enough to de­ year beginning next July, will be spent nuclear fire power support for our allies feat any of the top two-thirds in the United States and abroad to prepare in Europe, the Middle East, and pertiaps of the slate. Thus Gomulka has for nuclear war. Another ten percent or been given his popular “vote of the Far East,” says the Jan. 20 New York $7.4 billion will go directly into the coffers confidence,” a coalition in the Times. of big corporations, banks and insurance exact proportions he asked and The new budget reveals the meaning of a hand-picked parliament. companies as “interest” on the national the “Eisenhower Doctrine” for the Middle debt. “GOMULKA OR TANKS” East. By replacing Great Britain and The spending budget is given as $71.9 The overrriding issue of the France in that area, U.S. capitalism is campaign was that of relations billion, or a $2.9 billion increase over the more and more revealing its true nature with the USSR. How to safe­ current year. The amount of taxes taken as the chief organizer of imperialist guard the concessions forced out of,the economy, however w ill be $85.9 from the Kremlin since the be­ counter-revolution. It confronts the Arab billion, since special taxes on highways, ginning of the political revolu­ revolution for national independence as tion in October and to extend social security, etc. are not listed in the an irreconcilable foe. The “Doctrine” gives them without bringing on a budget, and since there w ill be a $1.8 b il­ the Big Business rulers of this country massive intervention by the Rus­ lion surplus for “retirement” of the na­ Che power to order armed intervention sian army preoccupies the minds tional debt. This means that more than of the Polish people. Gomulka against the colonial revolution without claims that he alone can walk the 25% o f the national income w ill go in consulting Congress or the people. The tight rope and that the choice in taxes to the federal government alone. budget makes it unmistakably clear that GOMULKA (Continued on page 2) Big business spokesmen are decrying full-scale, cold-blooded preparations for, Eisenhower’s failure to curb the federal the use of atom and hydrogen weapons in government’s tax bite, and even Secretary such intervention is now underway. SWP to Run of the Treasury Humphrey, said that if thp trend continues the country will h ^e The CP Faction Fight “a depression that would curl your hair.” ; Labor’sDuty By Harry Ring the initial impression of throw-1 democratic rights of the member- Lenin. He did so in large meas­ The Jan. 17 Wall Street Journal, in agree­ ■ It is the duty of the American labor ing off past submission to the ship. ure not because he campaigned Cowley for On Feb. 9-12, the Communist ing with Humphrey, suggests cuts in movement to oppose the atomic w ar Kremlin. The Daily Worker ex- In his bid for power, Foster for a program, but because the Party of the U.S. will meet in school building funds, medical care and pressed shock at the. revelations employed a different strategy. It Gates faction was rapidly demon­ budget with all its strength. In the first convention. The gathering will of (Stalin’s crimes. It apologized consisted essentially of letting strating that whatever it had to research, veterans nospitals, and soil and place the budget provides only a pittance be dominated by a faction fight the adversary get out on 'a limb, offer on the side of party de­ N. Y. Mayor for its defense of these crimes, water conservation projects. Neither the between the Gates and Foster for social welfare; it robs the American pledging that henceforth it would then trying to saw the limb off. mocracy was outweighed by its tendencies. NEW YORK, Jan. 20—Enter­ Journal, nor Humphrey, nor any other people of its rig h t to use the country’s speak out unequivocally against For a month after the Khrush- steady rightward evolution. The ing the 1957 New York City elec­ spokesmen for Big Business, propose any The Khruschev revelations at such monstrous deeds as frame- shev revelations, while the Gates proposal for transforming resources to build a better life for all; it tion campaign with a clear call the 20th Congress of the Com­ party was in a seething turmoil the CP into a Browder-type “po­ real cuts in military spending. Yet it is fails to provide for the burning needs of up trials and persecution of the for independent working-class munist Party of the Soviet and his factional opponents were litical -association” was recog­ precisely that section of the 'budget which Jewish people. political action, the New York education, housing, health and public con­ Union last year not only pro­ taking a stand, Foster maintained nized by worker-militants as liq­ The Daily Worker hailed the Local of the Socialist Workers is inflationary and which accounts for struction. Secondly, the budget proposes duced a crisis in the ranks of a public silence. uidating any vestige of the Len ascendancy of Gomulka to power Party nominated Joyce Cowley the American CP, but served to inist concept of a revolutionary over $2 billion of the increase in the to utilize the wealth produced by Ameri­ in Poland and came to deplore Finally, in the March 16 Daily for Mayor at a convention last end a decade of uneasy “ coexist­ party. His increasingly concilia­ proposed budget over that of the current can workers and farmers to deliver atomic Kremlin intervention in Hungary. Worker, he emerged to declare: Sunday. Mrs. Cowley was the ence” between the Party’s Nat’l tory attitude toward the Social year. It decl'ared for an end to bureau­ “Our task is neither to rush in­ party's candidate for U.S. Sen­ death and destruction to the insurgent Committee and its National Democracy and the lunion bureau­ cratic misrule in the OP although dignantly to the defense of Sta­ ator in the 1956 elections. colonial peoples who are rightfully fight­ Chairman, William Z. Foster cracy clearly revealed a high it was helping to prop it up. lin nor to tear him to political During her campaign last fall, ing for their freedom. When Earl Browder was booted sensitivity to the Jpressure of cap­ Thus, the Gates faction sought shreds, as some, in our ranks are she presented the party’s pro­ All for Destruction out in 1946, Foster assumed the italist public opinion. The fact that both Big Business parties, to recommend itself to the party inclined to do.” gram at many many forums, Ne­ titular leadership of the party Gates lost further ground when This whopping increase is entirely 1/he Republicans and the Democrats, are ranks for such Leninist attributes Foster was able to win the gro churches, radio debates and but the decisive control rested as independent thinking, speaking support of many of those mem it became apparent that he was symposiums, TV appearances and devoted to the procurement of ghastly uniting behind the Eisenhower budget, with those who had previously the truth and supporting the ber's who sought a road back to (Continued from page 2) interviews. She plans a similarly new weapons of mass destruction — is a bitter reminder that American labor comprised Browder's machine in energetic campaiign for the may­ the leadership. Supported by a nuclear and thermo-nuclear bombs and is still without its own political party to oralty race. few old-time associates, Foster missiles, and devices to utilize them. The represent its own political interests. With­ Mrs. Cowley is an active par­ remained in conflict with the rest ticipant in the struggle to inte­ money to be spent on guided missiles out such a party the billionaire monopol­ of the committee for full control grate New York city schools. alone is more than the entire amount ists continue to call the tune in Washing­ of the party’s completely bu> Right Wing Socialist Groups (¡See story page four.) She has earmarked for public education, plus reaiucratizcd apparatus. ton and the working people cannot have an ¡¡Iso written articles exposing the public health, plus soil and water conserva­ effective means of opposing them. With the post-20th Congress Santana frame-up (a case in developments, these power-seek which a Puerto Rican youth was ing cliques emerged before the railroaded to prison on a 25-year membership as the Gates and Unified in N. Y. Convention sentence) and spoke against the Foster tendencies. Meanwhile, injustice over TV. m any in the ranks, now «recog­ By Myra Tanner Weiss a hundred. The new organiza­ convention,. However, the cabinet White Students Joining In announcing Mrs. Cowley’s tion, until the next regularly crisis of England’s imperialist nizing that Stalinism and Lenin­ JAN. 23 — The Socialist Party candidacy, Tom Kerry, New York scheduled convention, will be government required that Gait­ ism were differing and conflict­ and part of the Social Democratic SWP Chairman stated: “Although called the Socialist Party-Social skell, as head of her majesty’s ing conceptions, were trying to Federation merged into one or­ the city elections are still ten official opposition party, return find the ,way ¡back to the authen­ ganization at a national conven­ Democratic Federation. months off, we believe now is the Negro-Bus Boycotters in haste for consultations with tic Leninism as the solution to tion held in New York City Jan. time for radical and union or­ GAITSKELL ABSENT the queen of the British empire. the ¡Party crisis. 18 and 19. The Jewish Socialist ganizations to make plans for By Vincent Grey I succeed in breaking down the Students very often move Unlike the ultra-conservative Still, the convention was not Those members seeking a re­ Verband, largest section of the presenting wording class candi­ Almost buried in the capitalist racial. barriers erected by an op­ faster in changing their opinions right wingers in the SDF who left without its dignitaries. The turn to LeniTust criteria were put SDF, remained outside of the dates. It is for this reason that press last week was the report Passive ruling class. The strug- that do the workers. Thereby snubbed the unity convention, the mayor of Milwaukee, Frank in the position of having to de­ unification. In addition, the Cen­ we have nominated Mrs. Cowley Pf the historic act of twenty I «le of the NeSro PeoPle has won they can anticipate the coming leadership of the small 'left-wing’ Zeidlcr, was there to deliver the termine if either of the leader­ tral Committee of the 'New York at this time. We are ready, how­ white Florida State University! the admiration of all class-con- movements of the working class. in the Socialist Party that had keynote address. The mayor was ship could advance the party in City SDF voted 41-9 in opposi­ ever, to discuss any other pro­ students in Tallahassee joining ®clous workers. But this magm- In this' case, the students of also opposed the merger capi­ also elected National Chairman the direction of Leninism. tion to the merger with the SP posal for advancing independent the Negro Inter-Civic Council’s ficent / lguht IS directed not only Florida State who joined in defy­ and announced that the conven­ tulated, entered the unity con­ of the new organization with ing segregation are anticipating BOTH FEAR RANKS working-class political action drive for full integration on city a?ainst *he repressive- measures tion was “irregular, unauthoriz­ vention, even compromising its Darlington Hdopes and Louis buses of a ruling class, but against the coming unity of white and Both Foster .'and Gates re­ against Big-Business domination ed and invalid.” last and final demand, that the Goldberg as Vice Chairmen. Negro workers in the South. vealed the indelible stamp of long of New York City. They attended the ICC mass 'prejudices of white victims The convention was attended new organization Call itself the In a statement issued by the years of Stalinist politics. Neither “We strongly recommend Joyce protest rally against segregation o1' . class oppression It is True, the students’ action may by fewer than a hundred who Socialist Party. Unity Convention, the merger is was willing to make a full and Cowley to the socialist-minded on Jan. 17. Windows on two of a for white allies by the at first antagonize the majority claimed delegate’s status, with Hugh Gaitskell, Chairman of described as “prim arily the result honest appraisal of the past. workers and youth of New York their cars were smashed by white, very nature of the f,g ht of whites. But it is such a the British Labor Party, had of our turbulent era — profoundly Neither would clearly spell out the SDF bringing to the SP a as well as to the city’s entire hoodlums while the meeting was lMILL1CNS W ILL A m courageous act that it will make national membership of less than been scheduled to address the changed social, economic and in­ the political platform on which working class. She will be cam­ going on. A day or two later, six1 it easier for the next step of ternational developments — just he stood. Neither tendency dared paigning on a socialist platform Negro and white students were The self-interest of a majority while solidarity to be taken, and as the original split between the •entrust resolution of the party of opposition to American im­ arrested for violating segrega- of whites must eventually com- still easier for the next step after Socialist Party and the Social ■ crisis to democratic process perialism’s war plans, of support tion rules on the buses. These pel them to come to the aid of th a t. Democratic Federation itself State Department “Socialism” to the Negro people in the South rules are still imposed despite the embattled Negro people. This The Jim Crow system of the the organization, grew out of events of twenty v Through the mechanics of pre- The following is an excerpt from the “Memorandum and the North, for support to the a Supreme Court decision out- force is made up of millions of j South does not rest only upon the years ago. . . events and circum­ ■senting a compromise draft res­ of Understanding” arrived at between the Socialist struggle of working people lawing bus segregation. I white workers — especially cruel and reactionary legal stances have made unity between against inflation and sub-stand­ olution for tiie convention, both Afterward, defying threats of those who belong, alongside their system, but more immediately Party and the Social Democratic Federation prior to the SP and the SDF not only ard wages, and for the building tendencies sought to avoid hav­ expulsion from the college, the Negro union brothers and sisters upon social pressure and upon their Jan. 18-19 unity convention in New York: possible but imperative.” ing the disputed Question settled of a labor party.” group signed a letter in the to the organized labor move- terror. Any time a whole group by the democratic decision of the “ (The point program! must not be based on the REAL STORY OF SPLIT student newspaper calling upon ment. White workers cannot ef- of whites defies this social pres­ the student body to support the fectively force the capitalists .membership. They feared that illusion that peace can be achieved by appeasement of This was apparently as close sure and the threats of the KKK, Introductory Offer integration movement. I to pay them higher wages while such a precedent would encourage the Communist imperialism that threatens the world’s as the convention could come to the ugly system itself is thereby Up to now, there have been they are divided by Jim Crow weakened. the formation of independent an explanation of the “historic A Six-Month Subscription peace and freedom. . . We realize that until universal, only individual cases of solidarity from Negro workers. This groupings in the ranks advancing significance” of the merger. The In this ¡slense, the students' enforceable disarmament can be achieved, tlhe free TO THE MILITANT ' by whites in the South for the lesson has already been learned platforms opposed to that of both “ events of twenty years ago” action not only anticipates, but anti-segregation struggle. The to a substantial degree in the factions in the leadership. world and its democratically established military agen­ that led to the split actually Only $1 begins a new phase of, the Negro The Gates-tendency, with con­ student action is a real “first,” North and will be assimilated by cies must be constantly on guard against the military consisted of an upsurge of the 116 University Place struggle, — that of winning trol of the Daily Worker, was a genuine. “break-through.” I workers in the South. _ (See ¿lrive of the Communist dictators.” American working class that New York 3, N. Y. Southern whites as active par­ the first to appear before the It is only the joint action of “Good News From Texas” on membership. It gave CP ranks (Continued on page 3) Negro and white that can finally, page four.) ticipants in it. Page 2 THE MILITANT Monday, January 28, 1957 Events Refute Draft Resolution Trotsky’s The New Course’ THE NEW COURSE. By Leon Trotsky. London: New Park Publi­ cations. 1956, 111 pp., 50 cents, (Distributed in the U. S’ by become strong enough to exile ment throughout the world was The historic tragedy was that, Pioneer Publishers). the great revolutionary leader a t stake. with the failure of revolution in O f CP on ^Co-Existence77 and expel and imprison the mem­ The occasion for the opening of any of the advanced industrial Revelations of Stalin’s bloody, capricious and ignor­ bers of the Left Opposition. An­ the struggle was the unanimous countries, Russia’s economic By Harry Ring ant tyranny, made by Khrushchev to the 20th Congress other decade witnessed the full adoption by the leadership of the backwardness gave the bureau­ development of the bureaucratic Communist Party of a resolution cracy the social base to destroy While sharply divided on other issues, the warranted conclusion that the pressure of the of the Soviet Communist Party, evoked from millions the regime in the nightmarish “con­ calling for “a new course” in the the Left Opposition and workers’ ieadership of the Communist .Party stands Soviet orbit, the colonial world and the Ameri­ questions: "Why didn’t you do-p fession” trials, anti-Semitism and party: a struggle against the democracy. Hit a short time, how­ united on the main political line of the draft can people can comp«l the big trusts and something to stop him?” and value today in answering the conversion of the Communist growing bureaucracy and a re­ ever, economic collapse forced the resolution which it has presented for adoption corporations to abandon their aim of world “ How could such a monstrous sit­ questions which the 20th Con­ Party into a privileged but ter­ generation of party democracy. bureaucracy against its will, to at the Party's forthcoming convention. Through­ domination and accept the need to dwell in uation come about?” gress raised but which the Com­ munist Party leaders both in the rorized body of yesmen for the The ruling “troika” (trio) of the embrace economic planning. This out the pre-convention discussion both the peaceful co-existence with the non-capitalist To the first question Khrush­ USSR and abroad have left un­ K re m lin . party — .Stalin, Zinoviev and it did with all the terrible over­ Foster and Gates wings of the National Com­ w orld. chev and Kremlin apologists answered. When Trotsky wrote “The New Kamenev, however, voted for the head cost and brutality inherent mittee has studiously avoided the fact that The post-Geneva events have served to tor­ throughout the world have plead­ Course" this process was in its resolution with tongue in cheek. in Stalinism. Yet the changed /their draft resolution, written only four months pedo this illusory theory that a durable "era” ed the better part of valor — BEGINNING OF FIGHT early stages and still reversible. Their control of the party was social conditions that 28 years of ago, has already failed the test of events. of peaceful co-existence is possible. The aim merely to have looked at Stalin "The New Course” shows that Trotsky was to extend and deep­ based on the growing bureaucrat­ planned economy have brought The central thesis of the resolution is that of U.S. imperialism to rule the globe is not oddly, let alone oppose him, valiant efforts to stop Stalin en his analysis of the Stalin re­ ization and while they could be about have now placed on the World War III can be averted by “peaceful simply the subjective aspiration of power- would have cost Khrushchev or were made and that part of that gime with the unfolding of events. forced publicly to deplore it they agenda -of history a political revo­ co-existence” between imperialism and the non­ drunk tycoons. Far more decisive is the fact anyone else his head, they say. effort was an explanation of the Yet for a complete understanding had uo intention of acting against lution that will overthrow the capitalist world. The resolution contends that that such global domination is an organic need The latter question they try to process, then taking place, that of a social phenomenon one must it. Kremlin bureaucracy and restore the perspective of such co-existence is now of U.S. imperialism in the era of the disin­ artswef with pseudo-psychologi­ would unfortunately culminate in study its beginnings as well as w o rke rs’ dem ocracy. realizable because a decisive change allegedly tegration of world capitalism. CLEAR OUT BUREAUCRATS cal talk: as Stalin got older his the monstrous situation described its maturity. This is why this Because it aids in understand­ occurred in the world situation in 1955 when vanity grew until it was an al­ GRIM CHOICES by Khrushchev to the 20th Con­ book is so useful for readers to­ ■ Trotsky, on the other hand, ing the present Soviet reality, "the Eisenhower administration was compelled most psychopathic obsession. wished to take the issue > to the “ The New Course” is an invalua­ W ith the rest of the capitalist world already gress. day. to drop its opposition to great power negotia­ Such beggaring of the question ranks of the party. "The New ble addition to the library of in advanced state of decay, American imperial­ W ritten in 1923, this book was Trotsky, however, was not tions, meet with the Soviet Union at Geneva, is the cult of the individual stood Course” consists of articles and every Marxist. ism’s ultimate hope of survival is to smash Trotsky’s opening move to lance writing The New Course for his­ and formally renounce the use of force to cn its head. In Stalin’s ’ lifetime letters he wrote analyzing for — George Lavan the colonial revolution and to restore capital­ the tumor of bureaucracy which torians and students. It was a resolve differences.” he was pictured as a demi-god, the membership not only what ism where it has been abolished. Wall Street had developed within the party broadside fired at the degenera­ The resolution adds that “the pressures that Since his death he is pictu red as was going on but what should be knows it may not survive another war. But it and was changing it from the tive elements that had gained the brought Eisenhower to the Summit meeting an arch-fiend. This is about as en­ done to remedy the situation. a"Uo knows that it is doomed if it fails to stem spirited, democratic organization upper hand in the Bolshevik Par­ are today stronger then ever. They are pro­ lightening as the “wisdom” of the For example, his first letter the rising anti-capitalist tide. As history has built by Lenin into an unthinking, ty. It was the first organized ducing an ‘agonizing reappraisal’ on the part peasant elders of a century ago to the party meetings said; “The . . . Faction already demonstrated, when their backs are to docile tool of the apparatus. attempt to stop what has become of Big Business and of various political circles. who explained Russian history in Trotsky and his supporters, who known to history as Stalinism. renovation of the party appara­ It is widely recognized that the bankrupt and the wall, the capitalists will risk War as the terms of “good” czars and “bad” came to be knpwn as the L e ft Thus the book is the record of tus — naturally within the clear- dangerous Dulles’ diplomacy of ‘massive alternative to final loss of power. czars. Opposition, continued this inner the opening phase of a battle in cut framework of the statutes — retaliation’ and ‘brink of war’ has brought The “ Geneva, spirit” can be correctly under­ must aim at replacing the mum­ Fight in CP The reprinting of Trotsky’S party fight until 1028 by which which the future of the Soviet American prestige to a new low,” etse issues w ill welcome discussion of these tions as the Committee to Secure Justice cialist Party supports imperial­ in each case caused by the pres­ that are basic to a principled and other issues basic to a prin­ intense hysteria would understand' the ism against the socialist and co­ for Morton Sobell and the Emergency ent adverse political climate in revolutionary position. A full dis­ cipled socialist program and will follow ing facts : Sobell was never accused lonial revolutions abroad. The cussion is necessary to bring pro?- participate in such discussion to Civil Liberties Committee. To include FARRELL DOBBS this country. AJl these tenden­ of committing atomic espionage. No evi­ Communist Party supports the cies are bending under the pro­ grammatic clarity to those ele­ the fullest extent through all these organizations built to defend the dence was ever introduced that he com­ Kremlin bureaucracy against the longed pressures of the artificial, ments who are now groping in a available means. victims of the witch hunt is to compound mitted any kind of espionage. He was political revolution of the work­ “ traditionally received support.” war-created prosperity and the the crime of the witch hunters. Defense ers in the Soviet sphere who are This proviso seems intended only consequent weight of- capitalist convicted of “conspiring” to commit es­ fighting to establish workers’ de­ to allow, room for local political committees have the limited objective of reaction which bears down upon pionage solely on the testim ony o f one mocracy within the framework machines like that of Mayor all radicals. But these manifes­ presenting the case for the witch-hunt man, an admitted perjurer, who gave “ac­ of the workers’ states. Zeidler in Milwaukee whose cam­ tations are not the basic features Kremlin Again Confesses victim s to the American people, and o f paigns have nothing in.common of the present shakeup in the complice testim ony” arid escaped arrest. FOSTER-GATES DIVISION trying' with its aid to undue judicial with actual socialist election radical movement. How many people believe that Sobell Both the Communist Party and cam paigns. The primary impulse toward a wrongs. was tried and convicted by the Govern­ the Socialist Party, each for their The fundamental SP-SDF elec­ socialist regroupment arises fi'om Real Stalin Role in 1917 •i To threaten and intimidate such organ­ own reasons, advocate support of toral policy is 6pelled out in a ment of Mexico in deportation proceed­ the crisis of Stalinism. That crisis the Democratic Party. Both par­ pyoyision allowing support of By C. R. Hubbard izations is flagrantly to obstruct justice. ings as the prosecution intimated? How stems from the developing politi­ ties reject revolutionary social­ candidates “ endorsed by labor and The highest court of appeal in the judi­ cal revolution in the Soviet sphere The task of correcting the falsification of history many know that the Government of Mex­ ist principles. Neither party will liberal groups.” In plain language cial structure of this country is the Amer­ where the workers are fighting ico, instead, protested to U. S. authori­ enter into public discussion with that means support of capitalist under Stalin — a task set down by Khrushchev at the to depose the Stalinist bureau­ ican people. It was the labor movement ties in both Laredo, Texas, and Washing­ revolutionary socialists. Each candidates. 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet crats from power. The aim of the in organized struggle that finally exposed» taken an ultimatistic attitude to Union — has now been under------ton, D.C. for a violation of the Extradi­ workers’ revolutionary interven­ ward regroupment. DEMAND BRAINWASH taken by Kommunist, leading Kamenev to Lenin’s policy of the judicial frame-ups in such famous tion in Soviet political life is to tion Treaty between these two countries Looking more deeply into the An article by Norman Thomas “theoretical” organ in the USSR. preparing the October insurrec­ cases as th a t of Mooney-and-Billings and establish the democratic rule of in the kidnapping of Sobell and his fam­ situation we find a division in the December Call proclaims As expected, however, the “cor­ tion was represented by Stalinist the working class on- the basis of Sacco-and-V anzetti. within the bureaucracy of the that the SP-SDF can have rection of history” is to be con­ historians as a crime committed ily? the socialist property forms. A In attempting to cut off the avenue of Communist Party between the “neither organic union nor a for­ fined to admitting the opposition by Zinoviev and Kamenev alone. The power of the prosecution to spread new era has been opened with Foster and Gates wings. The mal united front” with Soviet of Stalin to Lenin. The role Now Kommunist admits the fact public appeal to those who are persecuted the developing political revolu­ its lies against the witch-hunt victims is Gatek wing manifests motion- to sympathizers. He berates talk played by Trotsky in the Rus­ — previously struck from Stalin­ py the witch hunt, the House Committee tion. It w ill give fresh impetus to a thc/usand times greater.than the power the right under the pressure of about >ai uYiity which would in­ sian Revolution and, even more ist histories — that Stalin was the world revolution as a whole, reveals its fear to have their cases ex­ the crisis of Stalinism» They want clude “various Trotskyist out- significantly, in the struggle editor of the central Bolshevik of the defense to publicize the truth. By adding fuel to the already white- amined too closely in the open court of to find an accommodation with outgrowths or split-offs (Max against Stalin and the bureau­ paper, when it Carried the attack characterizing a defense committee as hot fires of colonial revolution popular discussion. the social democrats, the union Schachtman’s Independent Social­ cracy he represented w ill con­ on Lenin’s October policy. “subversive,” the witch-hunters seek to arid leading toward social revolu­ bureaucrats and the liberal cap­ ist League and the group around tinue to be suppressed. T o redu.ee S ta lin fro m the The Committee to Secure Justice for tions by the working class in the reinforce the side of the lie. italists. They seek “peaceful- co­ Bert Cochran’s American Social­ position of Lenin’s “chief col­ Norton Sobell, for example, worked for imperialist countries. Kommunist acknowledges the existence^ within the framework ist.)” He scorns “the self-ap­ laborator” to his rightful place All the more reason, then, for the labor profound differences between over a year to obtain proof that the prose­ of Democratic Party politics. pointed supporters of unity [who] Negative manifestations of the as only luke-warm supporter, movement to examine the facts in the Lenin and Stalin in the earliest cution in the Rosenberg-Sobell trial lied They want to loosen the CP ties seem to believe” that “If the Stalinist crisis are revealed and possibly cautious opponent days of- the Russian Revolution. M orton Sobell case to determine the tru th . with the Kremlin and change the Communist Party splits at its through the polarization of the of Lenin within the Bolshevik When it told the ju ry th a t Sobell had been When Lenin returned to Russia When this is done, we are sure th a t the name and form of the party in n e xt convention in F e b ru a ry 1957, Foster and Gates wings, centered movement suits' the needs of deported from Mexico. Clearly, the House from exile in April of 1917 he order to facilitate their class- the reformers . . would be .a within the Communist Party bu­ Stalin’s heirs. But to further demand for a new hearing for this man, found the Bolsheviks, under the Un-American Activities Committee aims coll'aborationist maneuvers. welcome part of the new organi­ reaucracy. On thè positive side, admit that Trotsky was co-leader who has already spent more than six leadership of Stalin, among to prevent the American people from Insofar as the Gates wing of zation . . . of which they dream.” a section of the CP ranks and with Lenin of the Russian Revo­ others, deeply committed to the years in prison, will be supported by all the CP may break away from For those who wish to regroup periphery are striving toward a lution and the builder of the hearing this new evidence. Else why the policy of supporting the capital­ Kremlin domination, they can be around the SP-SDF Thomas pre­ revolutionary-socialist position, Red Army — that the bureau­ listin g ? who care for justice. ist Provisional Government to­ expected to move toward social- scribes “a periftd of probation to seeking to regroup themselves cracy w ill not do. For this would gether with the Mensheviks. democratic positions, not toward put the sincerity of Communist around1 a Leninist program. ■compel i t t6 m ake fu rth e r ad­ Lenin, in his famous A pril Thesis, revolutionary-socialist policies. reformers to the test.” As part of Even within the social-demo­ missions — namely, that Trot­ castigated this line and called for Mayor Wagner’s Medals The Foster wing represents the test, he stipulates, "we must cratic milieu some resistance to sky joined with Lenin to launch struggle around the slogan of the hard Stalinist core of the insist that reformed Communists, the rightward trend has appeared the fight against the bureau­ That “great liberal Democrat,” Mayor Post, Wagner persisted in accepting the “ A ll Power to the Soviets.” Communist Party. They agree Stalinists and Trotskyists, must among younger elements. They cracy headed by Stalin; that dictators’ decorations. His weak excuse Wagner of New York, who was the with the Gates group on the pol­ repudiate the doctrines and prac­ are repelled by the idea of be­ Stalinist historians distorted Trotsky continued this highly Democratic candidate for Senator, has was that he could not refuse an award icy of supporting the Democratic tices setVp not by Stalin but by coming captives—in the name of this important period of struggle progressive fight after Lenin’s recently accepted medals from two dicta­ offered by a government friendly to the Party because this happens to co­ Le nin.” a crusade for so-'called “social­ to orient the Party toward the death; and that Trotsky’s writ­ tors : Franco of Spain and Batista of Cuba, United States. This hypocrisy is exposed incide with»the Kremlin’s foreign Thus the political line of the ist democracy” — to a policy conquest of power by referring ings are the principal guide for CALL and the “sincerity test” which is in reality pro-iinperial- falsely to the “ Leninist-Stalinist i Batista’s troops and police are cur­ by asking oneself what Wagner would do policy aims. iBut the Fosterites Marxist-Leninist opposition to remain firm ly tied to the Soviet set down by Thomas amount to ist in its political implications. course” developed in the April the despotic rule of the privileg­ rently engaged in killing and jailing young if offered a medal by the Soviet Union bureaucracy, a- course they per­ a formula for regroupment in These leftward- moving ele­ days. ed bureaucrats at whose head people throughout Cuba who oppose his or by Egypt since both these governments ceive as the only basis for the support of imperialism with an ments cannot be fused with those The opposition of Zinoviev and now stand Stalin’s heirs. bloody regime. While Franco’s ambassa­ have' ambassadors in Washington which, continued existence of the dis­ appropriate “loyalty” screening credited Communist Party. in the tradition of the witch dor was pinning the Grand Cross of Civil by diplomatic definition, makes them hunt. M erit of Spain on Wagner’s chest and two friendly to the U.S. SP-SDF FUSION These are the circumstances of his aides, the Fascist police were Politician Wagner accepted the medals The iFosterites, who are under which the Jan. 14 issue of Five Speakers Discuss arresting and beating strikers and street­ because Cardinal Spellman and other against any regroupment that Labor Action reported, “ Recent­ car boycotters in Barcelona and other elements in New York, who admire Franco would displace the CP, attack the ly, the Political Committee of the Gates wing as liquidators. They Independent Socialist League an­ cities. have more influence over him than do aim to perpetuate the role of the nounced its readiness to support The labor movement in New York tried the labor leaders and liberals. Labor’s Communist Party as a Stalinist Left-Wing Regroupment the consolidation of a democratic agency within the 1‘abor move­ hard to dissuade Wagner from accepting rank and file should remember that when socialist movement in the United By Daniel Roberts launch and campaigning for cratic Federation to the U.S. ment, an aim that can have noth­ States by uniting with the Social­ Franco’s medal. Delegates representing a th^ir leaders ask them next year to en­ NEW YORK, Jan. 20 — Dif­ repudiation by the working peo­ State Department’s foreign ing in common with a revolution­ ist Party. The Young Socialist half-million union workers protested. fering views on the problem of ple of this war -drive. Defense of policy. Despite the pro-American dorse and finance Wagner’s campaign for ary-socialist regroupment. League has a similar position on regroupment in the American the workers’ states also includes imperialist nature of the SP- Especially eloquent were spokesmen for re-election. Turning to the social-demo­ the question.” radical! movement were presented sympathy for such uprisings in SDF merger, he still held out the Puerto Rican unionists, who declared that cratic sphere we note that a The New York local of the Socialist here last night at a symposium the Soviet orbit as that of the Socialist party as the organiza­ merger convention is now in ses­ FOR “DEMOCRACY” Wagner’s acceptance “ tended to cover up Workers Party has already nominated sponsored by the Socialist Unity Hungarian working class against tion for socialist regroupment. sion through which the Social­ The Independent Socialist all the reactionary, fascist and anti-labor Joyce Cowley as its candidate for mayor. Forum. The topic of the meeting the Kremlin, said Dobbs, because ist Party is uniting with the So­ League seeks unity with the So­ John T. McManus said the 50,- was “Can the Left Unite?” The these revolutionary movements deeds of the Franco regime and the If she were elected there is no likelihood cial Democratic Federation. Cen­ cialist Party as that party ca­ 000 readers of the National speakers included Farrell Dobbs, aim at freeing these states from Falangist movement.” that Franco or Batista would proffer tral to the unification is the to­ pitulates entirely to the pro-im- Guardian are favorable to a National Secretary of the So­ bureaucratic tyranny in order to tal capitulation of the Socialist perialiist policy of the Social realignment of socialist forces. Despite the big labor protest and the medals to New York’s mayor. They reserve cialist Workers Party and candi­ permit a further advance to so­ Party to the SDF line of all-out Democratic Federation. The I.SL These readers would appreciate opposition of liberals manifested by an such “honors” for America’s capitalist date for President in the 1956 cialism on the basis of the ex­ support to imperialism, as mani­ seeks unity with the SP as that a wholesorrie socialist movement elections; John T. McManus, isting socialized property rela­ anti-medal campaign in the New York politicians. fested in the December 1956 is­ party demands the repudiation of not -engaged' in fratricidal strug­ General Manager of the National tions. sue of the Socialist Call. Lenin as .ai test for admission to gle. They are not ready to write Guardian* a weekly newspaper; The program advanced by Max In an editorial on the unifi­ social-democratic circles. These off 38 years of the Soviet Union, A. J. Muste, Chairman of the Shachtman of the ISiL envisaged cation the Call states: “Socialists hard political facts the ISL he said. They ihave been tem­ Fellowship of Reconciliation; and unity of the radical movement on in this country need unity in or­ leadership tries to hide behind an pered in the Korean War and in Max Shachtman, National Chair­ the program of “democratic so­ Social Democrats Merge der to continue their own efforts assertion that socialist unity the fight around the Rosenberg ... man of the Independent Socialist cialism’ ’inside the Socialist to assist their comrades abroad should be based simply on the case. They are against red- (Continued from page 1) communism.” Right wing social­ cialist Party has cooperated League. Clifford T. McAvoy, Party. “What is the reason for . . . who occupy seats of political "principle of democracy.” baiters. And they w ill not go into ists, in addition, feel the need to closely with Anna Kethly. leader Chairman of the Socialist Unity the fragmentation of the radical power in the free nations.” By Revolutionary socialists fight the Democratic Party. brought into existence a powerful pool their forces to stem grow­ of the Social Democratic Party this they clearly mean such “so­ to defend workers’ democracy Forum, chaired the meeting. movement since 1917?” Shacht­ left wing and scared the right ing interest in regroupment of of Hungary,” reports that Miss The Socialist Party and the man said. “It is the Russian The viewpoint of the Socialist wing, composed largely of labor cialists” as Premier Mollet of agiainst bureaucratic usurpation, American radicals on a revolu­ Kethly “will call for a United Communist Party were invited to question, so-called. It split the Unity Foium on what should bureaucrats and their stooges, France, one of the authors of the whether by the Stalinist bureau­ tionary basis as a result of the Nations Emergency Force to be p&rtiAmerican Left. This “is possible if now all groups freeze German working class. The Ger­ the greatest necessity in Ameri­ “Isn’t it enough,” he said, “that support to the U.S. State De­ up the cold war. In the guise of French imperialism to drown in liberately conceals the realities of their positions on the Russian man section of the Social Demo­ partment and its preparations people be critical of Stalinism helping the Hungarian workers blood the independence struggle the class struggle. It leaves un­ can political life today. . . It is question and do not make their crats permitted Hitler to walk and advocate change to greater for World War III. Speeches in their struggle against the of the Algerian people. answered the question: W hat kind entirely possible for the five or views on the Russian question a into power without a single blow democratization?” He then about “.human decency” and the Kremlin, the SP-SDF point to The Call also reports that “the of democracy, capitalist or work­ six or seven groups to unite on precondition for unity. Political to prevent it. By 1938 this left pleaded with Shachtman to be “moral strength of Socialism” Hungary as an area to be sub Socialist Party will cooperate in g class? a socialist program.” agreement is possible for all wing together with Trotskyists less “rigid” in his enmity to the were made to give a ‘‘socialist” jected by im p e ria lis t “ podice closely with Anna Kethly, leader This class void1 the ISL un­ Presenting the position of the groups on the basis of democratic who had been expelled from the Soviet Union. ring to such State Department action.” That is the real signif­ of the 'Social Democratic Party of dertakes to fill with the proposi­ Socialist Workers Party, Farrell socialism. Above all they must Communist Party and other A. J. Muste said that he was propaganda blasts as “the latest icance of their demand for a Hungary, who . . . will call for a tion that a regroupment should Dobbs stressed the need for full want democracy in the Soviet m ilitant forces, joined together shifts in Soviet foreign policy . . . UN Emergency Force. United Nations Emergency Force include “all who consider them­ discussion of basic issues to Union. The only condition neces­ not enthusiastic about a simple to form the Socialist Workers confronts the free world with merger of the existing groups Finally, the new organization to be dispatched to Hungary.” selves socialists.” But simple op­ bring Clarity to those groping sary for unity is agreement that ¡Party. The SP-SDF represents problems more fearsome than for a revolutionary socialist totalitarianism is not compatible such as Shachtman recommended is opposed to running independent Called by its right name this is position to capitalism on -ai pre- the unification after two decades before,” contained in the Unity program. (See text of Dobbs with socialism. Thus the move­ should take place inside the So­ socialist candidates in the U.S. an appeal for imperialist mili­ 1917 basis cannot today meet the of tww sections of the right wing Statement issued by the Conven­ ment cannot be committed to the cialist Party. Such a merger — except in cases like Milwaukee tary intervention which would full test of revolutionary-social­ speech, this' p-'ge.) He outlined of the Socialist Party. tion . proposition that the Soviet Union would lack a foundation in prin­ where SP candidates when elect­ aim to restore capitalism in- Hun­ ist principles. The Russian revo­ the stand the SWP takes on key ciples. Any unification should be The healirtg of the 20-year The role that the SP-SDF w ill ed go on to back the Democrats. gary, not to establish workers’ lution ended that era of primi­ issues confronting the radical is a workers’ state of any kind based on thorough discussion of breach takes place in a period of play in the labor movement is Like the Communist Party lead­ democracy on a socialist basis tive class struggle. Socialists m ovem ent and presented i t as or represents socialism to any basic issues such as were conservatism in American labor expressed in its first official ers, the SP-SDF endorse the as the H u n g a ria n W orkers Coun­ must take an unambiguous posi­ the party’s contribution to a degree.” discussion of Socialist regroup­ Shachtman indicated that dif­ presented by Farrell Dobbs. Every and marks a further turn to the public action. On Jan. 25 it is ! policy of the labor bureaucrats cils have set as their goal. tion on the imperialist assault group, the Communist and So­ right. The most ‘'imperative” of .sponsoring a meeting in ‘New in support of the Democratic In a joint “Memorandum of Un­ against the workers states in the m ent. ferences over such questions as whether or not to support capital­ cialist Parties also, must be in­ the “events and circumstances” I York City not to protest U.S. Party. It should be clear that derstanding” the SP-SDF has Soviet sphere. They must take Asked by A. J. Muste in the cluded in a genuine discussion that brings unity today in the imperialism’s war plans in the this unity convention has nothing made clear that the unified group an unambiguous position on the course of the discussion what he ist- candidates should be no bar | Mid-East but to hear Anna revolutionary struggles of the co­ understood by the defense of the to u n ity . looking to unity. The process of desire of the Second Interna­ to do with the regroupment of will conduct no more national tional “socialists” to have an Kethly, Norman Thomas and election campaigns with candi­ lonial and semi-colonial peoples workers’ states, Dobbs explained And at no time during the the discussion itself, he said, w ill socialist and communist work­ American section to support of­ ! others speak on Hungary. The dates of their own. An excep­ and on the class nature of the that it riieant exposing politically meeting did Shachtman condemn attract new forces' in the labor ficially the capitalist West in December issue of the Socialist ers and youth on a revolutionary tio n is allow ed fo r local cam- Chinese revolution. the character of the war that the support given by the So­ movement to the radical move­ the struggle against “world i Galil pointing out that the “ So­ socialist program. paigna where candidates have These questions of- socialist U.S. imperialism is preparing to cialist Party and Social Demo­ m ent. The Negra Struggle th e MILITANT By Jean Blak« Good News from Texas V O L U M E X X I MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 1957 N U M B E R 4 When Southern whites take a public motives by appealing to the prejudices of stand against segregation, that’s news; some of our people. . . when a Southern organization, represent­ “We are aware of the recent rise of ing thousands of white and colored work­ hate organizations in the state of Texas. N. Y. Negro Mothers Debate ers, lines up against the white su­ We recognize them for what they are and premacists, that’s particularly good news for the denial of human rights and resis­ and should be spread far and wide. tance to government by law upon which The Texas State CIO Council last month they,thrive. . . We recommend that the adopted a resolution calling on its mem­ Texas State CIO Council and all of our Racists at School Brd. Meet bers to co-operate in abolishing discrimi­ affiliates give every possible assistance By Joyce Cowley ' speaker's like Mrs. Healy, and the dilapidated old buildings ably never had the advantage of attending an integrated school.” On Jan. 17, several hundred Mrs. Concetta Roy of the High (w h ich alw ays seem to be lo­ nation in public schools and public agen­ and support to those organizations and In answer to Concetta Roy people crowded into the Board of School Teachers Association, who cated in “difficult” neighbor­ cies, according to the January issue of community forces seeking to combat the who objected to the use of buses Education's public hearing on opposed the recommendations on hoods), the overcrowded class­ Southern School News. , program of the ‘hate’ organizations. . Scnool integration in New York integration, to take from ten to rooms, the lack of lunchroom and to take Negro children from over-crowded schools to half- The Council also recommended that the The stand taken by the Texas CIO is C ity . The hearing lasted almost fifteen minutes. recreational facilities. Just the empty schools in white neigh­ legislature pass a law “ prohibiting use of significant because close to a m illion Ne­ six hours and there were 87 But Rose Kussell of the Teach­ week before, she said, a small borhoods, it was pointed out that speakers representing major so­ ers Union was cut off after fiv« boy was killed at lunchtime— hit symbols, religious or otherwise, for the groes live in that state, whose population buses had been used for years cial, civic, labor and religious minutes, ¡she protested tne ruling by a truck. He was playing in purpose of intimidation and/or coercion” is eight million. Moreover, according to for the opposite purpose — to groups. This heaping was the re­ of the Chair, because she repre­ the street because there is no take white children out of — a measure aimed at outlawing the official census figures, no other state has sult of a three-year fight on the sented the only teachers’ organ­ playg roun d a t P.S. 10 and no mixed neighborhoods to all-white Klan’s burning cross, no doubt. seen a greater growth of its city popula­ part of organizations represent­ ization fully supporting the rec­ lunch-hour supervision. ommendations, wiuie au tnose op­ schools. The Texas CIO’s Committee on Human tio n s 'in recent years. In the decade from ing the iNegro people and other EFFECT ON TEACHERS minorities, backed up by tiie posing it haa received extended When Mrs. May Healy de­ Rights reported to the state convention: 1930 to 1940, ten Texas m etropolitan Parents booed and laughed determination ana hard work oi time. Although she was finally clared: “ We are very much afraid when speakers said that people in “We wish to commend the more than areas (population over 50,000) increased the parents themselves. forced to leave tne piatiorm, tne that the recommendations, if car­ the ghetto neighborhoods were 100 local school districts that are now in in size from 40 to 95 per cent. Most o i" tne demands raised audience applauded her entnusi- ried out to the letter, will pro­ “happy” and it was “natural” for during this light were incor­ asiicaily lor several minutes. duce new hostilities, conflicts, re­ th e ir second year of compliance w ith the If the Texas CIO .now suits action to them to want to live together. porated ;n tw o rep orts o f .Sub- An hour later, a ruling suddenly sentments and separations of ruling of the Supreme Court. More than words, the fight against segregation will They reprimanded teachers for com m issions o f the Boaz-d o f E d- came through granting her an peoples,” JRose Shapiro, chairman 800,000 school children are now studying rise to a new height . .. and so will union their unwillingness to transfer ucabion, on Zoning and on Teach­ additional five minutes. of the zoning commission, ad­ to Negro neighborhoods. in integrated schools without one single organization in that Southern state. When er Assignments. Such a wide­ vised her to “learn courage from NEGRO MOTHERS SPEAK “ When they thought there was serious incident being recorded in schools the workers — black and white — in spread organizational support the teachers of Clinton, Tennes­ A representative of the Social­ a crime problem in Harlem,” one Southern industrial centers and large nad been mobilized to put pres­ see.” actually integrated. We also commend the ist Party took this opportunity, of them said, “they sent in extra sure on the Board that approval Well-organized and determined, public school districts which have taken metropolitan areas, unite in their own not to discuss school integration, cops. No one asked these cops if of the recommendations seemed these parents are confident that JOYCE COWLEY but to difierentiate herseii Irom they wanted to w'ork art Harlem.” steps to integrate their faculties as well. class organization to consciously and almost certain. But opposition they can carry the fight to a suc­ ■‘communist-type” organizations “The unfortunate effects of These gains have been made despite the publicly oppose the Jim Crow policies o f developed from numerous teach­ cessful conclusion regardless of was the “communists” who fa­ like the Socialist WorKers .Party segregated schools are obvious,” interference and opposition of our Gov­ the state, then the main highway to in­ ers’ organizations. Almost without the outcome of this particular vored school integration. whose stand favoring integra­ another said, “ when you see what exception, they spoke against the ernor and Attorney General who have tegration and union organization in the tion I had presented. [See ex­ it did to Ihese teachers who prob­ he aring. integration proposals. Xneir op­ If Pfeffer and his friends used every means of advancing their South will be open. cerpts from Joyce Cowley state­ position was mainly due to fear sound like good material for ment, this page — Ed.] The SP that they might be assigned to W'hite Citizens Councils in the representative attacked “com- “difficult” schools. (They consist­ North, so did many of the teach­ muniists” for “selling the Negro ently referred to schools attended ers. Miss Ella Rose of the down the river” ana seemed to My First Boss by large numbers of Negro and Teachers Alliance said that im ­ Cowley Statement think the most important reason Puerto Rican children as “diffi­ migrants who came to this coun­ for integrating the schools was By Ben Stone ------cult.” A Negro veteran, repre­ try lived in the same neighbor­ to make anti-communist propa­ senting the 369th Veterans Asso­ hood because they spoke the same language and “ they were ganda abroad “more effective.” My first job was that of errand boy block began to seem too fa r. I started ciation, pointed out that the at­ never unhappy or considered A t School Hearing at the tender age of 15, and like all good wondering if the boss hadn’t mistaken me titude of the teachers may create An inspiring contrast to the themselves segregated.” Mrs. young Americans, I was determined to for a horse. much of the difficulty.) chauvinism of the teacher organ­ (The following are excerpts from a statement favor* May Healy, of the Joint Com­ izations and the Queens “home make good. Spurred on by the American Each day I felt like cutting short my W.CC M A T E R IA L mittee of Teacher Organizations, owners,” and the red-baiting of ing school integration made by Joyce Cowley, Socialist dream o f Success, I was certain o f be­ promising career with the Wolfs, but how Support for anti-integration said: "’Such localities (i.e. ghetto the Socialist Party, was the m il­ Workers Party candidate for Mayor of New York, at the coming the President of United States or could I go home and tell my mother I had teachers came from William neighborhoods) are natural. They itancy of Negro mothers who public ¡hearing, Jan. 17, of the Board of Education. See a millionaire. Inspired by the movies, the quit my job? Especially since I was bring­ Pfeffer of the Cambria Heights are the result of origin, pride, patiently waited many hours 'for Joyce Cowley’s story on the hearing, this page.) . Association, claiming to repre­ etc. . . They cater to the social their turn to talk. They told how thought also recurred intermittently that ing home $8 a week. “On behalf of the Socialist® ; ~ “ ; ~ sent 200 Queens home owners. customs and recreational habits they had gone tfo Jim Crow I would somehow rescue a rich man’s Finally, in desperation, just when my of the people. 'Like’ people want Workers Party, I would like to, He denied that segregation ac­ schools themselves and were de­ I profitable. Landlords in Harlem to live together and it is their make a statement about the prob- daughter from certain death and marry arms seemed ready to fa ll o ff, I quit. The tually- existed in New York and termined their children should and Bedford-Stuyvesant make a right to do so.” She. concluded lem of desegregating New York into her fortune. Wolfs were terribly disappointed in me. said that children in some schools not suffer the humiliation of in­ magnificent profit on their mis­ that it was also their right to City schools. The present hearing were “difficult” because of im­ ferior, segregated education. erable firetraps. North or South, My first boss was a man by the name “Why didn’t you let us know the packages move out of such a neighborhood is the result of a three-year fight proper home training. He felt They movingly described their Negro and other minority youth of Wolf, which in retrospect I think was on the part of various organiza­ were too heavy for you ?” they cried, “All if they wished. children’s experiences in the Jim that any change would bring tions representing the Negro provide employers w ith cheap, un« appropriate enough. He and his wife, who right, son, we’ll give you lighter packages One of the Negro mothers, rep­ Crow schools of New York. “hardship” to white parents apd people and other minority skilled labor, a fact which is served as his assistant, looked at me with from now on.” resenting a Brooklyn P.T.A., Mrs. Mallory, representing P.S. closely related to the problem of. children by disproportionately groups, backed up by the determi­ pointed out that if it was possi­ 30 in Manhattan, spoke of the the tender solicitude of a couple of wolves But by this time I hated the sight of favoring Negroes. “Why,” he nation and hard work of the par inferior schools and inadequate ble for Negroes to move to other prejudiced attitude of the teach­ academic programs for minority about to devour a young lamb. “Young the sanctimonious pair, and I felt a great asked, “ should we be subjected ents themselves. The Socialist neighborhoods, there would be no ers and their indifference to the children. to a sociological experiment? . . . Workers Party , supports this man,” Mr. Wolf said to me in our first weight lifted from me as I left. need for this hearing on integra­ children’s academic progress. On After all, many of the great Ne­ struggle, as it supports every interview, the memory of which I will On the way home to tell my mother the tion in New York City schools. one occasion, her son’s only home­ INFERIOR TEACHING gro leaders came from the seg­ struggle of the .Negro people for always cherish, “You’re a clean-cut chap The Board of Education is pre work assignment had been count­ “It explains why they are sad news, I felt determined to find a new regated schools in the south.” fu ll equality; we oppose and com­ sumably impartial. However, in ing the' pipes under his kitchen shunted off to vocational higl} and if you’re honest and ambitious, you’ll and better job which would be easier and A young man describing himself bat all forms of segregation in spite of announcing a five-min­ sink. Even the physical safety schools and discouraged from try.^ go fa r.” would pay more. Little did I know how as a “citizen of Queens" backed education, in housing, in em­ ute time Limit, it permitted of the children 'is jeopardized in ing for the special academic up Pfeffer and declared that it ployment. . . . He didn’t say how far, but I soon found many more jobs and bosses I was to have. schools. Dr. Kenneth Clark, in “Almost three years have out when I carried his heavy packages My next employer was the subsidiary his original report to the first passed since the Intergroup Com­ Inter-group Conference, pointed around town. Every day the packages kept of a big public utility. But that’s another mittee first charged that seg­ out that only two-tenths of one getting heavier and heavier and even one story and another column. regated education was not ex­ Sit-Down Strike Wins percent of high school students clusively a southern institution, who meet basic college require­ but that most minority children ments are Negroes. in 'New York City were attend­ “Educational authorities have ing segregated and inferior told me that the reason there are Pay Hike in N. Y. Plant schools. It has taken the Board of so few Negroes in the special Education all this time just to By William Bundy ®~ schools is because they do n o t make recommendations for ante pass the competitive tests which machine operators often receive grating our schools and to date, A sit down strike begun by 37 workers, mostly Negro only the legal minimum wage of are required for entrance. lt| and Puerto Rican women, in a Manhattan book-binding no action has been taken. most cases, they never take the. $1 per hour. These classifications ‘‘The Board of Education at shop, Jan. 15, dramatized the miserable plight of hundreds arè filled mostly by Negro and tests. If they do take them, they first denied there was any seg­ may fail because the segregated of thousands of such workers in®- Puerto Rican workers, whose regation in New York and in­ schools which they attend have New York City. The workers won are the rule rather than the ex­ needs tend to be ignored by the sisted that Negro and Puerto giyen them inadequate academ­ an eight-cent per hour increase ception among semi-skilled and union officialdom. Rican children were attending ic preparation for advanced after 25 of them, mostly mothers, unskilled workers in thousands of The action of the plucky hand­ better schools, and receiving more w o rk. . . . had stayed inside the ninth-floor factories in New York City. Even ful at the Spiral Binding, is at­ attention, than white children. “Dr. Clark charged that when plant a full three days, sleeping in the garment, publishing and tracting some appreciative at­ But pressure from Negro and large numbers of Negroes and on wooden benches and eating food processing industries— large­ tention among the poverty strick Puerto 'Rican organizations, and Puerto Ritfans move into an! food smuggled in past police ly organized by powerful unions from the parents whose children en hundreds of thousands in this, area, the academic standards arel guards. —shipping help, packers, clean­ were attending Jim-Crow schools, automatically lowered, since it is The workers struck over de­ up help, errand “boys,” and even the richest city in the world. forced the Board to start an in­ assumed in advance that these mands for a ten cent increase vestigation, an investigation children are of inferior ability. by their union, Local 475 of the which it took them almost two Although they may not admit it,' International Union of Electrical years to complete. Their findings this is what many teachers and1 Workers, AFL-OIO. (Negotiations bear out all the original charges educational directors really be­ had bogged down and a regular made by the Intergroup Commit­ lieve. In Brooklyn, for example,' picket line had been planned out­ Introductory Offer! tee. when parents demanded advanced side the main entrance to the classes for bright children, school building. But Tuesday, Jan. 15 PASSING THE BUCK principals frequently claimed was ai record cold day for New “Recently, in a radio inter­ that there were no bright chil­ Y o rk C ity (three degre'fes above A Six-Month Subscription view, Dr. Morris Krugman of the dren. The parents themselves had zero) and the workers decided Board of Education gave the cus­ the children tested and proved (on their own) to strike inside tomary excuse. Segregation in to the Militant that the principals were wrong...t the factory. A few of their num­ New York City schools was not “The recommendations on zon­ ber picketed outside the main en deliberate, he said, but was the ing, if adopted by the Board of trance to the building with dm' result of segregated housing for Only St Education, are supposed to go into provised signs that demanded a which the Board is not responsi­ effect next September. Next No­ raise not of ten cents ail hour, ble. The report on zoning which The next six months promise to be even more eventful vember, we will be electing a but of $10 a week. we are discussing today proves than the past six months. The radical movement will be Mayor and many other city offi­ Police and company' officials that a great deal of the segrega­ absorbed in discussion about the regroupment question. In cials, and it will be a good time attempted to cut off all outside tion is deliberate and that despite February, the Communist Party w ill hold its convention, at to give them notice that we are contact for those inside, even segregated housing, it is possible which it will seek to bring its internal crisis under control. tired of interminable delays and the telephone. The sit-downers to make changes in zoning which The Negro struggle in the South is taking a huge step excuses. We can do this most ef­ subsisted on smuggled candy bars will ¿¡segregate many, of our forward, as moves are under way to coordinate the struggle fectively by running independent' and cookies for two days. On schools. in many cities against bus segregation. The Middle East labor candidates next fall.” the third day, more substantial “In the primary grades, since will feature ever more encouraging developments of the food was hauled up from street young children cannot travel as Arab national independence struggle, while Washington’s level in a basket lowered on a far as junior high or high school moves will be evermore ominous. Despite attempts of the rope. The mothers called to sym­ students, it will be difficult to Kremlin to hold the line, the working-class struggfle against pathizers outside to get messages integrate ALL of our schools as NEGROES bureaucratic despotism and for socialist democracy w ill con­ to their families. long as we have segregated hous­ Their courageous stand won tinue to unfold in the Soviet orbit. To follow all these develop­ ing, as long as there is no law the workers considerable sym­ ments, take advantage of our introductory offer, good until which makes discrimination in ON THE pathy and publicity in the city, March 31, of a six-month subscription for only $1. private housing illegal. We need and the company came to a quick such a law, a law with teeth in MARCH settlement with the official union it—with not just fines, but pris­ negotiators. Before the settle­ on sentences for violators. A Frenchman’s Report ment, wages in the shop, the “The SWiP is fighting for this on the American Negro Spiral Binding Co. at 406 W. 31 kind of legislation as we fight Struggle street-, ranged from $1.05 to $1.35 against all formsv of discrimna- per hour. (The average factory tion and segregation. At the By Daniel Guerin wage in the United States is same time, we call for a funda­ 102 pages $1.50 $2.00 per hour and the wage nec­ mental solution to this problem, a essary to maintain a family of socialist solution that w ill elim­ O rder fro m four on *■ minimum standard of inate the basic causes of dis­ PIONEER PUBLISHERS health and decency according to crimination in our society. Dis­ government figures is $2.20 per crimination is not the accidental 116 University Place hour.) Result of prejudice on the part of New York 3, N. Y. . Such below-subsistence wages some misguided individuals. It