Barcelona Revolt Jolts Fascist Franco Regime
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Workers of the World, Unite ! Industry’s Stand Deepens National the MILITANT Labor Crisis PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE V o l. XV-No. 12 < *® ^ > 287 NEW YORK, N. Y., MONDAY, MARCH 19, 1951 PRICE: FIVE CENTS Eric Johnston Refuses Wage Gains To Packing and Textile Workers Mac Arthur By Joseph Andrews MARCH 14 — All efforts to patch up the break be Presses for tween the labor leaders and the Truman administration Barcelona Revolt Jolts have failed, as industry members of the Wage Stabilization Board refused to accept a peace -------------------------------------------------- All-Asia War formula proposed by Economic Stabilization Director Eric Johnston. Threatens Endless A t the same time, the situation Korea 'Stalemate' was aggravated by Johnston’s re Fascist Franco Regime By Art Preis jection of the proposed wage — — -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- & --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gen. MacArthur last week sent agreement between the A F L and a new shudder through the world. CIO Packinghouse unions and the He renewed his demand for an meat packing companies. This attack on Manchuria and China 300,000 Workers agreement provided an U-cent proper that would mean war on an hour wage increase. Ralph a scale a hundred-fold greater Helstein, President of the CIO than Korea. As an alternative, he Defy Armed Suppression by Packinghouse Workers Union threatened a “stalemate” in Korea announced his union will strike that would indefinitely drain off March 25. the lives of American youth, as Dictator Ally of Truman well as Chinese and Korean^, in a LOW WAGES, HIGH PROFITS struggle that can come to no By Joseph Keller The packinghouse workers are decision. MARCH 15 — Spain’s revolutionary working class is among the lowest paid industrial ERIC JOHNSTON Ris statement of March 7, workers. Their average wage to rising to its feet once more and serving notice that the issued with great fanfare and days of Bloody Franco’s clerical-fascist dictatorship are day is $1.49 an hour. But average The flat refusal by Eric headlined in the whole U-S. daily profits of the packing industry Johnston to allow the 11-cent an press, said that given “a con numbered. •>------------------------------------------- Spain, in defiance of the brutal went up two-thirds in the year hour w-age increase won by the tinuation of the existing limita- More than 300,000 factory measures they knew Franco would ending Oct. 31, 1950. Since that packinghouse unions in negotia ions upon our freedom of counter workers went on strike March 12 hurl against them. •time they have raised prices and tions with the companies, serves offensive action and no major ;n Barcelona and the surrounding no doubt profits have soared. notice that this former four additions to our organizational area, the industrial heart of This set off a tremendous These conditions account for the time President of the Chamber of strength, the battle lines cannot popular outpouring in the streets growing militancy among pack Commerce has no intention of fail in time to reach a point of of Barcelona, second largest city ing workers. allowing “elasticity” of wages theoretical m ilitary stalemate.” in Spain with 1,250,000 popula The compromise formula which while prices skyrocket. He said there should be “no Left Wing Scores tion. They paralyzed the city in Johnston proposed to reconstitute The breach between the labor illusions” that the U.S. forces, a revolt against the high cost of the WSB included a provision leadership and the war mobiliza under present circumstances, can Gains in UAW living that has reduced most of giving the board limited authority tion set-up is therefore widened. defeat the Chinese and North Spain’s impoverished people al to handle all labor disputes as Attempts by the union bureau Koreans. ■ most to starvation. well as economic matters. This crats to find a road back into the It is most exceptional for a Local Elections Despite the reported killing of had been one of the key demands service of the capitalist govern general in MacArthur’s position Annual U AW elections of of three demonstrators and wound of the United Labor Policy Com ment, as “window dressing,” has to admit the possibility that he ficers and convention delegates ing of hundreds of others, the mittee. been blocked by the arrogant Big cannot win and to'hint that, under in Detroit and Flint have shown arrest of more than 300, the land But industry members refused Business policies. certain conditions, he faces the a definite strengthening of the ing of marine detachments from to agree to expanding the au prospects of a defeat. There is, anti-Reuther sentiments among five war-ships and the arrival of NATIONAL LABOR 13,000 special police and Civil thority of the Board. Behind this of of course, the factor that Mac rank and file auto workers. CONFERENCE stubborn stand is the determina Arthur has had the gilt knocked Although Walter Reuther, UAW Guards hastily sent by train and tion of the industrialists to keep This situation raises the im off his reputation as a military President, will have a majority plane, some 50,000 strikers Still are out at the latest report. Sam their hands free to continue their portance of the National Con (Continued on page 3) of delegates at the April 1 to 5 Pope Brewer, N. Y. Times cor anti-labor war. I f the Board ference of Labor, called by the convention to be held in Cleveland, . \ % respondent in Barcelona, writes handled disputes, covering con ULPC for March 20-21 in Wash the opposition will have a size the strike was understood from tractual relations, such matters ington. This conference will now able delegation. the. start to be a one-day protest. as the union shop, seniority, and be confronted, barring a last In Ford Local 600, Joe Hogan, check off wouI4 become questions minute retreat by the union heads, Mr- Acheson, You Lied an independent militant, will meet The United Press reported, of national policy. with the need to mobilize pressure Reutherite Carl Stellato in a run however, that “25 percent of the from the entire labor movement ----------------------------------------------------- By Joseph Andrews ---------------------------------------- ———- off for the presidency. Hogan ran factory workers in Catalonia, the NAM ANTI-LABOR PLANS to protect the unions. Dean Acheson, Secretary of State, the triumph of corruption in high let-alone the consent of the peo Korea ? Certainly not the Ameri on a militant program which in great industrial area of North The National Association of The national conference, which Washington, I). C- places, the gnawing away of their ple, plunged this country into a can GIs, nor the American peo cluded two major political points: east Spain, were still idle today Manufacturers, however, wants will include 700 delegates from Sir: civil rights. They have watched war on the other side of the world ple. Certainly not the South 1. End the Korean W ar, and after striking yesterday in sym to retain freedom of action, to local central labor bodies of the As I read your answer to the with anger burning in their hearts that has already cost us admitted Korean people, if we can believe 2. Build a Labor Party. The fact pathy with demonstrators who wage an offensive against these CIO, A F L and Railroad Brother searching questions on Admin while the rich grew richer with casualties of nearly 53,000? the letter of the marine who wrote that this program gave Hogan surged through the streets of provisions, singling out certain hoods, was called to mobilize istration foreign policy raised every drop of blood spilled by Nor did you see fit to discuss Senator Kem: “We are not only such large support, over 9,000 Barcelona.” weaker sections of the labor “housewives, unionists, farmers their sons. Cpl. Moullette’s question about votes, is evidence of the mood of in Marine Cpl. John Moullette’s fighting the Chinese and North DEFIANT MOVEMENT movement. and small business men” in a letter, my blood boiled. There is They do not believe in your UN seating for the present gov Koreans, but also the South large sections of the workers. This same dispatch revealed In addition, should the Board fight against high prices. no act more base, I believe, than Korean war. They mistrust your ernment of China. That is be Koreans. You can see by their The Ford local elected a slim that “yesterday’s angry out handle disputes, certain sections To aggravate the tension, to lie to the youth who seek in aims. That is the reality of the cause you cannot give a plausible faces that they don’t wan’t us majority of opposition delegates. break” was “the worst anywhere of the Taft-Hartley Law would be Johnston yesterday also an “agony of spirit,” as you yourself present situation. You did not answer. You cannot deny that here.” All the other nations who In Ford Local 900 (Lincoln in Spain since the. civil war by-passed. nounced he would reject a pro well put it, an answer — a solu speak in the name of the Ameri the Peking government has as are so “willing” to “fight for plant) the opposition won the twelve years ago.” Brewer, in a posed 10-cent an hour wage in tion — to the future of futility can people, when you answered legitimate a right to sit in the freedom” in Korea arc certainly delegates race eight to two, and The rejection of the peace- cautiously-worded report called it crease for 200,000 woolen work and horror they see before them. Cpl. Moullebte. You scorned their U’N as, say," the South American showing a great reluctance to won local offices.