Workers of the World. Unite! AN ANALYSIS OF THE GM CONTRACT
— See Page 4 —
PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE
Vol. X II ■ No. 23 NEW YORK, N. Y., MONDAY, JUNE 7, 1948 PRICE: FIVE CENTS AUTO PAY BOOSTS REOPEN WAGE FIGHT Farrell Dobbs' Bigart Links U. S. Results Show What United Mission Head to Action Could Have Achieved Talk Over ABC Greek Executions By Art Preis Granting of limited wage increases by General Correspondent Gives Motors and Chrysler Corporation, two of tile “ Big Radio Network The Lie to Griswold Three” in the key anto industry, appears to have The following is the text of the speech on “ Capital and Labor Momer Bigart, Greek corre loosened the log-jam of Big Business opposition to in 1948” delivered by Farrell Dobbs, Socialist Workers Party spondent for the conservative any “ third-round” pay boosts. Presidential candidate, over the ABC network on May 29. N'Y. Herald Tribune, has refused Three days after Gen INTRODUCTORY REMARKS BY GEORGE CLARKE, to be intimidated by the attacks eral Motors granted an 11 SWP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: on him by the Greek Government Capitalist Press cents an hour raise with a sliding The speaker this afternoon is eminently qualified to deal and Dwight Griswold, director of scale cost-of-living contract, the American mission in Greece. “ Hesitant” About Chrysler bowed to the 17-day with the topic under discussion which involves the problems strike of its 75,000 woraers, who of the trade union movement today. As a result of pressure from Greek authorities and the U.S. spearheaded the wage drive of Farrell Dobbs was one of the leaders of the great Minneapo State Department, Bigart was GM Sliding Scale the CIO United Auto Workers. lis truckdrivers strikes in 1934 and Secretary-Treasurer of Team recently transferred from Greece The capitalist press, reflec Chrysler agreed to a flat 13-cent to Yugoslavia. Bigart’s unpopu raise and the Chrysler contract sters Local 344 of that city. Subsequently he directed an organ ting the general attitude of the pi’ovides fo r reopening wage izing drive which brought 200,000 motor transport workers into larity in official circles was large corporations, is expressing caused by his honest reporting of negotiations in a year. the union. During the recent war uncertainty and uneasiness about Hard on the heels of the GM the mass executions and govern the cost-of-living escalator con Farrell Dobbs was railroaded to ment corruption which mark the and Chrysler settlements, leading tract signed by General Motors. corporations in the electrical prison for bis defense of demo American dominated regime in John W. Love, business colum Greece. equipment industry have taken cratic unionism and for his op nist for a number of newspapers, steps to reopen negotiations with Dwight Griswold, top strategist position to the imperialist war. NEWS ITEM — “ I look on myself as the best friend capitalism has in the United States today.” says that reaction among Detroit the CIO United Electrical Work of the civil war in Greece, per In recent years he has been edi —Henry A. Wallace, Portland, Oregon, May 24, 1948. manufacturers “ is described as a ers. sonally wrote a long letter to ‘thundering surprise.’ Amongst tor of The Militant, weekly Bigart’s employer, the Herald employers it is said to be ‘be GE BACKS DOWN newspaper of the American Tribune, charging that the cor wildering’ and ‘embarrassing.’ ” General Electric, which had Trotskyists. respondent was giving a false been the first major corporation BOOST WAGES picture. On May 30, the paper to lay down the dictum of “ no Farrell Dobbs has been Mounting Protest Delays Joseph A. Loftus, Washington carried a reply from Bigart com wage increases,” reopened "ex nominated by the National pletely refuting Griswold and correspondent of the N.Y. Times, ploratory” wage talks with the Committee of the Socialist pointing the finger of accusation points out that the chief fear of UE on May 28. r.t him for the recent mass exe the industrialists is that the slid Workers Party as the Presiden Westinghouse Electric, which cutions in Athens. Mundt 'Police-State' Bill ing scale principle w ill boost for months has refused to make tial candidate of the party in One of Griswold’s hangers-on wages enormously in a period of Opponents of the M undt police-state B ill testified last week before a hostile Senate Com the UE any offer, on June 1 1948. The nomination is sub in Athens is Rentis, the Minister inflation. “ For example, suppose tossed out the first crumb in the ject to approval of the national of Justice. Bigart states that a mittee whose intention was to rush the measure to a vote. The Senate judiciary Committee the foreign aid and defense pro form of a proposal for a security grams were expanded and the convention o f the party which single word from Griswold would and welfare program that the hastily adjourned the hearings if passed, by refusing .to regis ced the Stalinists at great length. supply of consumer goods were will be held in New York, July have stopped the mass execu company said would be equivalent tions. But Griswold never gave with only a small fraction of ter. The Senate Committee at He opposed the passage of the reduced substantially. The mer to three to six cents an hour 1st to 5th. that word and the firing squads those wishing to speak against tempted to turn the hearings Mundt Bill, he stated, not only chandise shortage would result more in eventual benefits to the into a hysteria against the Stal because of its violation of civil in high prices, with wages trying Copies of the speech this are still working overtime. the measure heard. workers. inists by demanding to know liberties but also because it to maintain the same pace.” Griswold brazenly claims that The General Motors Electrical afternoon can be obtained by FARRELL DOBBS The battle did not end with the whether they would support Am would strengthen the Stalinists freedom of the press exists in The Scripps-Howard labor col Division, which employs 40,000 close of hearings. Behind the erican imperialism in a war by making them martyrs. writing to the Socialist Workers Party, 116 University Place, Greece. Bigart writes: “ He knows umnist, Fred W. Perkins, tells of workers under UE contract, has scenes powerful reactionary forc against Russia. the “ hesitancy” of government New York 3, New York. very well what I think of his WIDESPREAD OPPOSITION settled with UE for the same es were pressuring Senators to officials to support the sliding It is my privilege now to introduce Farrell Dobbs. freedom of the press statement. put the bill on the statute books ROBESON TESTIFIES Spokesmen fo r the National contract as in auto. This provides scale of wages principle because an immediate 11-cent raise, with You either have it or you don’t before Congress adjourns June Paul Robeson was asked whe Lawyers Guild, the National * * * “ they say the plan could encour- a cost-of-living escalator clause and in Athens today all papers 19. Opponents of the bill, which ther he belonged to the Commun Farmers Union and ’ Lewis G. i ge inflation. However, it might providing automatic wage in FAR R ELL DOBBS: The unceasing war between labor and cf the left have been closed by would violate all the political ist Party. Refusal to answer this Hines of the AFL also managed work the other way if it would creases fo r future price rises. capital is the outstanding issue of this election campaign. This government order except Machi.” freedoms guaranteed by the Bill question “ yes” or “ no” resulted to get the stand to oppose the is well understood by the rich, and they determine their politics And even the editors of Machi of Rights, organized a March on in the convictions of 19 Holly bill. On May 31, the four major have been arrested fo r mildly Washington of about 5,000 peo wood writers fo r .contempt of the The huge number of anti- Letters to Farrell Dobbs carpet and rug manufacturers in accordingly. It is not fully understood by the great mass of the criticizing the government. the East came through with a ple. These picketed the White House. Robeson stated he pre Mundt B ill witnesses who have from ABC Radio Audience working people. Yet this conflict of capital and labor has been Bigart tells of the smear cam House demanding that Truman ferred going to jail rather than applied to testify before the com 13 Vi -ceil t an hour “ package” greatly intensified during the past year. paign against correspondents who veto the Mundt B ill in the event answering that question which mittee has shown the Senators — Sec Page 3 — raise to avert a strike of 20,000 The employing class, aided and abetted at every turn by insist upon w riting true reports it passes the Senate. violated his secrecy of the ballot that there is widespread opposi members of the CIO United Tex tile Workers. the government at Washington, has been conducting a furious instead of accepting the official Leading the fight against the box. tion to the measure. Because of induce big employers to cut prices news handouts. Bigart’s Greek bill in the heated Committee Henry Wallace, presidential this; the politicians are wavering in order to avoid paying higher Although the wage raises in offensive against the workers. Their object is to beat down liv GM arid Chrysler make up for assistant was framed on an in hearings were spokesmen for the candidate of the Third Party, cm the next step. That is why it wages.” ing standards, and make the workers pay for the Third World only about a Half of the loss in toxication charge while Bigart Communist (Stalinist.) Party and told the Senators that his party is doubly important that the Observe the contradictions. real wages due to the soaring War. They aim to break up the trade unions and impose upon was still on the scene. A fter he the Wallace movement. It ap would refuse to register under labor movement cast its decisive Some say “ inflation” w ill result the people of this country a m ilitary and police dictatorship. had been transferred out of pears that the strategy of the weight into the balance. from wages following the rise in prices of the past two years, the proposed law. even these meager boosts were Greece his assistant was arrested Senate Committee was to give Among other spokesmen If the powerful international prices, as the escalator clause the direct result of strike action WORKERS HAVE SUFFERED DEFEATS for “ espionage.” preference in the hearings to unions of the AFL, CIO, Railroad provides. Others warn that if against the police state b ill were by the Chrysler workers and the A t the very start of our analysis we must begin with incon According to Bigart, who is spokesmen of these movements, Oswald Fraenkel, attorney for Brotherhoods and independents prices rise, as they must, in a now in Yugoslavia, there is less *n order to create a popular im period of war-preparation infla threat of a CM strike that might testable facts. The anti-labor offensive of the employers and the the American Civil Liberties tell the Senate Committee in no have spread into an industry terror there than "in American- pression that these were the only tion, workers will get big pay Union, and Norman Thomas, So uncertain terms that they insist wide shutdown in auto. government has scored numerous successes during the past year controlled Greece. important opponents of the re boosts. cialist Party Candidate fo r Pres upon the hearings being continued In spite of all their tough talk or so. Due to the false policy of the union leadership the workers pressive measure. Summing up industry reaction, Bigart was a friend of George ident. The Senators and the news till their spokesmen can testify, and the backing they are getting have suffered a number of serious defeats on the political as well Polk who was murdered by Greek William Z. Foster, head of the papers continued their tactic of there is very good chance that a General Electric official com from the government, the corpora as on the economic field. The danger of still greater defeats and reactionaries because of his un American Stalinists, told the using No email Thomas as a the attempt to steamroller the plained that GM’s action was tions still have a healthy respect “confusing to the remainder of even catastrophies for the workers of America is inherent in the flattering reports about the Greek red-baiting committee that his counter-weight to the Stalinists police state bill at this session for the fighting powers of the regime. organization would defy the bill, and Wallaceites. Thomas denpuii- w ill be stopped. the industry.” present d rift of things. CIO. The. retreat of GM and Chrysler graphically demonstrates Let us review in brief the price that the workers have al what great gains were possible ready paid in the last year or so for tolerating the misleadership for the CIO unions IF THEY of the present labor officialdom and the false policy that is im HAD ALL BEEN UNITED IN posed upon the unions. MILITANT ACTION. There "Nationalize the Roads!", Says Rail Labor would have been no defeat of the Labor’s purchasing power has been driven down 15% since CIO Packinghouse Workers strike, V-J Day. At the same time corporation profits have soared to By Arthur Burch the railroads on May 10, Presi as members of our own companies creases, which added the tidy token gesture, it must be imple no smashing of the CIO strike unprecedented billions of dollars. dent Truman ordered Secretary arc still responsible to the direc sum of 2,500,000,000 dollars to mented with a concrete program against the cable companies. Concessions to the unions are bitterly resisted. The steel Faced with an impasse in cf the Army Kenneth Royall to tors and stock holders.” their revenues, an increase of of action. The rail unions must The gains in auto, limited as their fight for adequate wages operate them. The next day seven It goes without saying that the 43% in less than two years. Their lake the lead in insisting that the they are, underscore the extent trust rewarded the no-strike pledge of Philip Murray, president government confiscate the roads and improved working condi new colonels, all leading railroad railroad workers were completely profits rose last year, after in of the treachery of Philip Murray of the Steel Workers Union, with a cynical refusal to grant any officials, were added to the U.S. terest and all charges, to 480,- Without compensation to the in capitulating to the steel com tions, the leaders of the Engin overlooked in the new appoint cost-of-living wage increases whatever. Henry Ford II has even Arm y to 'become the seven re 000,000 dollars, or 64% above bondholders and stockholders who panies without liftin g a finger eers, Firemen, and Switchmen’s ments. Moreover, the workers’ gional directors of “Operation 1946. This year their net profit have already been compensated and withdrawing the mighty steel had the effrontery to demand that the Ford workers take a wage Brotherhoods were forced into demands continued to be ignored. Railroad." They were Gustav is therefore expected to go up many times over for their orig union from the CIO wage fight. cut. demanding “ that the government Thus the nature of the govern Metzman, president of the New another 50%. Small wonder there inal investments, not to mention assume the full responsibilities ment as the agency of the ruling UNIFIED STRATEGY NEEDED CONGRESS SERVES WALL STREET York Central System, Roy B. fore that rail stocks were in the the land and right-of-way which of operation; take control of the class was brought home to every White, Baltimore and Ohio; R.H. lead in the recent stock market they received gratis from an Unfortunately, the new GM Today Congress works directly from the blueprint laid out revenues of the railroads as it thinking worker. Smith, Norfolk and Western; E r boom and are at the highest point obliging capitalist-dominated gov contract i-epcats the chief weak« by the National Association of Manufacturers. Price controls already has taken control of the HARD H IT of the last two years. But this ernment. ness of the steel contract bji employes of the railroads; and nest E. Norris, Southern Rail were obediently smashed and taxes reduced for the rich when road; Ralph Budd, Burlington Railroad workers have been es remains the private business of The roads must be operated providing a two-year reopening the N AM cracked the whip. W ith the corporation heads dic begin preparations for the trans date. Thus, next year the GM fer of railroad ownership from Railroad; Charles E. Denney, pecially hard hit by the recent the newly appointed colonels who, under workers’ control. Commit Northern Pacific and J. D. Far inflation. Over the past 12 years, in or out of uniform, .act on the workers will be withdrawn from tating policy, the Washington government enacted the Taft- private interests to the United tees representing the workres of rington, Rock Island Railroad. they dropped from third place to premise that the workers and the industry w ill secure all the the firing line when the other Hartley Slave Labor Law, a dagger aimed at the very heart States of America.” auto workers and the steel work 26th place on the lis t of wage public be damned. experts and specialists needed for of the trade union movement. The fraudulence of the present Everything remains as before. ers, w ill face new negotiations. rates paid to skilled and semi the running of the roads. government seizure—a crude The same people continue to op The central lesson of the The Taft-H artley Act fosters company unjons, legalizes skilled workers. The railroad GROWING REVOLT strikebreaking maneuver — has erate the roads, profits continue W ith the workers’ committees current CIO wage struggle is scabbing, sanctions the firing of union members and restores worker has continually lost I t is these facts that account become apparent to every rail to mount and the parasitic bond at the helm, there would be no the need fo r uniform contract ground even in comparison with for the growing revolt of the government by injunction. It restricts freedom of speech and worker and has caused mounting holders and stockholders continue need of the present "colonels.” termination dates fo r all CIO the rest of labor, in the last eight freedom of press, entangles the unions in a maze of red tape and indignation in their ranks. When to receive their dividends. The “ rails.” The railroad workers are The workers could be granted unions in all major corporations years. A t the same time, he is tired of strikebreaking seizures. proscribes political activity by the unions. the government announced that new colonels disdained even to adequate compensation fo r their and fo r a unified strategy of disguise their roles. In an arro handling over 55% more in re They know that the roads will labor and the freight and passen Under the T aft-I la'rtley Act, the National Labor Relations it did not even have the power to action. bargain on wages and working gant statement. Colonel Metzman venue tra ffic than eight years soon be handed back to the para ger rates could be reduced. And Had all the auto workers hit Board operates openly as an agent of the employers, as it did conditions, the anger of the rail- explained that the army head ago. site owners and the same strike then there would still be ample the auto corporations at one time; when it obtained anti-labor injunctions against the Typographical workers became so pronounced as quarters staff would function But the rail owners, with an breaking procedure reenacted moneys le ft over to improve and had the steel, packinghouse and Union. to induce their leaders to propose merely as “ Observers.” “ There inside track t,o the Interstate when the workers again propose modernize the roads and equip other CIO unions consolidated is no change in the management, Commerce Commission, have been to strike for a wage raise. 'file Democratic and Republican politicians in the state this drastic solution. ment. their forces with the auto workr employment or in the normal making hay. Since June 1916, the I f the demand of the rail union This is the real basic program ers into one solid fighting front; capitals have not lagged behind their Washington cousins. Wide- “COLONELS” ARE OWNERS icsponsibilities of individuals of companies have been granted no leaders fo r nationalization of the to Solve the pressing problems of the CIO- could have scored a (Continued on page 2) When the government “ seized” each system,” he added. “ We all, fewer than four freight rate in railroads is to be more than a vail labor. clear-cut victory. Page Two THE MILITANT Monday, June 7, 1948
Presidential Aspirants V Report on Conference Events on the Arthur H. Vandenberg International Scene By George Lavan O f British Labor Party LONDON, May 25— The solution on foreign policy, and ------By Paul G. S tevens ------In the recent movie, The Senator Was Indiscreet, a politician went after the presidential 47th Annual Conference of the the North Salford DLP resolution nomination by insisting that he was not a candidate. This has been the strategy of Senator on Iron and Steel nationalization. THE BRITISH LABOR CONFERENCE Labor Party symbolized the Arthur II. Vandenberg. With growing frustration of the as BITTER RESENTMENT A t the Labor party’s annual The Scarborough conference nights Harding’s gang of crooks On January 10, 1945 Vandert- conference in Scarborough last was preceded by agitated meet each strongly worded statement yet unorganized left wing. Con Opening on Production, Her and the Wall Street pirates stole berg became, in the course of one week, the leaders of the British ings in local organizations of the that “I am not a candidate,” the fronted with a block vote of sev bert Morrison repeated the usual everything in Washington that speech, a “ statesman.” He an “ Socialist” government encoun Labor party. In Herbert Mor tlie presidential chances of the eral millions in the hands. of a jargon about the need to work Republican wheelhorse f r o m wasn’t nailed down. However nounced to the Senate that he tered the greatest, pressure from rison’s own constituency, the Vandenberg didn’t bat an eyelash was no longer an isolationist but few-trade union,leaders, rank and harder. This line was bitterly re Michigan have shot upward. file opinion, as shown by a num the ranks since they took power leadership had to mobilize na-r and we soon find him plugging was now an interventionist. sented by a number of delegates. Of course Vandenberg has a ber of resolutions was thwarted three years ago. Ifrom scattered tional spokesmen to obtain w ith Coolidge so that the American Roosevelt promptly made him Waite from Eddisbury made a reports in the press the following drawal by a snvall voting margin “but” at the end oi bin refusal. at every turn. I t was this factor powerful ease against the rising This “ but” says, in effect, “ I f the people could, “ sleep nights when a delegate to the founding con picture emerges: of a resolution previously adopt he is in the White House.” Van* which gave rise to outbursts of profits in industry and attacked people of this country should ference of the tJnited Nations in hostility to Lawther (Minework- An attempt, spearheaded by ed, which called for the govern denberg fought desperately to San Francisco. Then Vandenberg the government for directing its draft me against my will, I would ers) and Deakin (Transport). cabinet ministers Sir Stafford ment to accept the discipline and save the American people from breame a close collaborator of fire against the workers. Speak carry out the decisions of the have po choice but to do my duty Between thefn they controlled al Cripps and Herbert Morrison, to insomnia. Secretary of State Byrnes. He ing fo r some of the lowest paid annual party conference. (Among to a grateful citizenry.” most one and a half million Votes scuttle the party’s program of accompanied Byrnes to interna sections of industry, he told the others, the government had Vandenberg is a senior “ states By 1928 Vandenberg found and the delegates were very con continuing nationalization— par tional conferences in Moscow, Conference that he was constant failed to carry out a resolution man” of the Republican Party. himself well fixed and decided to scious of this every time they ticularly the steel industry—was give up editing and enter the Paris, London and New York. ly asked, “ When is the Govern demanding the immediate institu He has been Republican Senator took the platform. The general beaten back. Premier Attlee him political arena. He sold the stock They saw eye to eye about ment going to freeze profits?” tion of equal pay fo r women in from Michigan since 1928. Be- comment from Divisional Party self was constrained to make a he had acquired in his newspaper getting tough with the Russians. A woman delegate from Barking government employ — passed at delegates was that something “ solemn pledge” that the steel for o\er half a million dollars When the Republicans gained stated that a satisfactory wage last year’s conference over the must be done about the trade industry would be nationalized and today receives the respect of majorities in Congress Vanden packet was the only answer to unanimous opposition of the union block vote, otherwise the before the next elections in 1950. his- fellow Senators due a m il berg, as head of the Senate For unofficial strikes. Almost all the leadership.) Party rank and file haven’t a contributions criticized the gov The leaders found it necessary lionaire. eign Affairs Committee, carried ERNEST BRVAN No less than 15 resolutions The state of Michigan has long out the hi-partisan support of chance. ernment’s plea to the workers t.o counter-weigh their expulsion were placed before the con been controlled lock, $tock and all the “cold war” acts of Tru Conference highlights were the for more production. It is clear delegate from Liverpool Labor of the pro-Stalinist Member of ference calling fo r workers con bairel by the auto barons. In the man. For the record it should be raising of the League of Youth that a very strong opposition ex Party and Trades Council, to make Parliament, Platt-Mills—as part trol of nationalized industry, the ’20s their party of preference also noted that he voted for the membership age to 25; the carry ists to such exhortations. a really good speech attacking of their “anti-Communist” cam most interesting of these comiiig was the Republican. No one could Tafl-Hartley Act. ing of the Co-op resolution Deakin (Transport Union) ini the government’s policy. He warn paign—with the expulsion of A. from the Salford organization and rise in that party who was in the Vandenberg thus emerges as a against the reduction of food sub tiated the debate on the reduction ed Conference delegates that Edwards, a Right Wing M.P. reading: least critical of Michigan’s big typical opportunist political sidies, and the re-affirmation of of prices and profits. His speech, they would be answerable to the who openly agitated against the “ This conference calls upon the gest industry. Vandenberg never wheelhorse, always ready to adapt the previous year’s decision to although formally supporting the rank and file. party’s nationalization program Labor government to place on gave offense to these industrial his “principles” to tiie needs of abolish the Tied Cottage. The motion, was in fact against. This - A . resolution calling vaguely for the steel industry. the statute books, during this overlords. He always play.ed the Big Business and do their bid raising of the League of Youth vas pointed out in a speech by for the reduction of profits was On foreign policy, the leadership session, an Act for the Nation machine’s game. His editorials ding. membership age provides real Mikardo, M.P. He roundly ac accepted by the Executive. had to swallow a resolution which alization of the Iron and Steel were always “ rig ht” —that is al scope for developing a strong na cused Deakin of making a speech On foreign policy, the usual "urges the Labor party to co industry, without compensation, ways for Big Business', against tional. youth movement. that would do justice to the Fed debate between Bevin and Zil- operate with European socialist an Act which shall have as ifs unions, for the legal murders of New York Social The main debates were cent eration of British Industries. It liacus, supporting a pro-Stalinist parties in taking practical steps foundation a complete scheme of SaCco and Vanzetti, for Prohibi ered on the .National Executive’s was left to John Braddock, the policy, took place. It resulted in to achieve the United Socialist control by the workers engaged tion, etc., etc. And Dinner Statement on Production, the re States of Eui'ope in complete VANDENBERG a resounding victory for~ Bevin. in the industry. In every steel With such a record Vanden New York's CENTRAL solution of the Amalgamated En m ilitary and political indepen and iron plant, there shall be fore that he was a power in the berg had no difficulty in getting BRANCH w ill hold a Chinese gineering Union on Control in Trotskyists Fined NATIONALIZE STEEL dence of the USA and the USSR.” elected a Committee of Control, Republican machine in Michigan the appointment to the Senate to dinner and social on Saturday the. Nationalized Industries, the The verdict in the trial of the A resolution calling for nation But,, of course, they indicated The Committee shall include the as editor and publisher of the fill a vacancy created by death evening, June 12, at 116 Univers resolution of the Transport Union French Trotskyists for their cam alization without compensation of through cabinet minister Hugh .Management and Technicians’ Grand Rapids Herald. He devoted in 1928. ity Place. Dinner w ill be seryec Oh the reduction of profits, the paign against the war in Indo- Iron and Steel, under workers’ Dalton that they merely intended representatives, but only the himself to editorials telling the at 7 p.m. Mineworkers’ pro-government re China was handed down on April control was moved by Ratner to give lip-service to this idea. elected workers shall have voting OPPORTUNIST Republican politicians of the 29. Heavy fines of 10.000 and representing the N. Salford DLP. Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin powers. This Committee shall state what to do and what to When the depression swept the 6,000 francs were imposed on the It was seconded by Jack Stanley, had to give repeated assurances have power to examine all aspects say. The paper was quite in New Deal into office Vandenberg AFL Lockout in Newark nine militants originally charged the general secretary of the Con that Marshall Plan aid was being of the companies’ activities, fluential and Vandenberg con had enough sense not to appear with sedition for their solidarity structional Engineering Union. accepted “without any political financial and technical and to sequently wielded great power in anti-Roosevelt. In the 1934 elec with the Viet Nam struggle The debate showed the powerful strings attached.” A resolution have access to all books past and party politics. tion he presented himself to the against colonial qppression. A pressure behind the demand. A l condemning the government’s present, relating to the business The young editor, later known v oters not as an opponent of the campaign fund to cover the fines though the motion was defeated, atrocities in Greece was tempered of the firm. The principle of as an isolationist, hailed Ameri New Deal but as a co-operator has been organized. Viet Nam the government were forced to by the party leaders to include Workers Control shall be ap can entry into the First World with it. While the political winds workers in France have been the assure the Conference that steel condemnation of “ reprisals” by plied !o all industries nationalized W ar as “ the greatest, revival the blew in Roosevelt’s direction first to make generous contribu would definitely be nationalized the guerillas. i past and present.” world has ever known since Vandenberg stuck close to the tions. before the next elections. administration. As public disil Christ came upon earth.” His The main lesson of the Con RDR AND THE SHACHTMANITES lusionment with the New Deal hatred for Eugene Debs and ference is the absolute necessity grew so did his opposition. The Swinging freely with epithets c f a change in attitude toward other anti-war fighters never leit for the organization of the left record of those days is a tribute characteristic of the hysteria Stalinism, any more than did him. A fter the war he wrote of 2,300 Signatures wing. A ll the major issues af to Vandenberg’s skill as an op whch is their style, the Shacht Rousset, one of the present the Socialist program as “hide fecting the working class were manites in Labor Action make leaders of the RDR. Under the ous sedition,” “ imported com portunist navigator of troubled waters. Gained in Conn. expressed in the discussions, but unfounded accusations against pen-name of Leblanc, the latter munism,” “which—thank God— the right wing and its powerful this column for throwing light wrote a brazen defense of Stalin had no effect other than to In the period of preparation for block vole dominated the pro on their unprincipledness in con World War II Vandenberg was an ism recently, which Shachtman galvanize the implacable fidelity Election Drive ceedings. The straggle to abolish nection with some French ex- tried to palm off as the “logical isolationists II wasn't that he was of an overwhelming American the block vote can be perfected Trotskyists who joined the cen consequence” of SWP policy on majority into grim determination anti-war but against the war as NÊW BRITAIN,Conn., May 3’ —À combination of rainy only by the widest organization trist swamp known as the “ Re-" this subject. It turned out in that Columbia should not be shot planned by Roosevelt. He dropped of all militants, both inside the volutionary Democratic Rally” his isolationism during the Fin weather and the holiday week stead, that their “ logic” leads in the back.” Labor Party and the trade unions. (RDR.) both into the same centrist As an influential editor in the nish-Soviet war and was hot for end cut deeply into the results They say that in our column swamp. Republican stable Vandenberg all possible assistance to Finland. of petition gathering last week. of A pril 12, we described the helped build up Harding. Van Vandenberg was also sponsor of Nevertheless a total of 2,300 In their embrace of the RDR RDR as a “ pro-Stalinist move denberg was enough of an insider fnc Senate resolution ending the signatures were secured after and Demazieres. the Shacht ment.” This is, of course, a bare to know all about the notorious Japanese Trade Treaty. Walter three weeks work. manites did not breathe a word faced invention, as any reader Ohio Gang and Harding. Never Lippmann called this act “ the The response of scores of work about the record of the latter or can verify for himself. On the theless he praised Harding to the longest stop on the road to war” ers in Waterbury and Bridgeport of Rousset-Leblanc. Only our ex contrary, we stressed its “ neo- skies. Since his job was to since Wilson’s action in 1915. who are tired of the Jaspar Mac posure forced them to say a few reformist character.” befuddle the public with words The isolationist wing of Amer Levy type of “ socialism” has words on the subject. Neither did he became an expert in propa ican capitalism was severely been very heartening. We did call unprincipled the we know then that the Shacht ganda ballyhoo. He coined famous defeated during the war. Today While the Connecticut organi Shachtmanites’ embrace of manites are appeasing Marshall slogans such as “ Harding is just very few important isolationists Pickets from a number of AFL building trades unions went zation of the Socialist Workers! Demazieres, the exTrotskyist who Plan supporters in their own one of us folks” and “With Hard exist. Senator Taft keeps his into action against the 12 million dollar Ivy Hill housing project Party has set a quota of 12,0001 for years headed “a right wing ranks. The French petty bourge ing at the Helm we can sleep mouth pretty much shut on fo r in Newark, N. J., after the construction company announced an signatures by July 4, it legally group which sought to water ois radicals make a 180-degree nights.” eign affairs. Others have swung open shop policy and fired 300 workers. Federated Pictures. has until September 2 to file its down the revolutionary program turn from pro - Stalinism; their While the public was sleeping over. petitions. of the PCI and pursued a line of counter-parts in the Shacht- adaptation to the Stalinist policy manitc ranks make just as sudden dominant in the French mass a turn toward the Marshall Plan. movement.” At the time of This provides the “ principled” w riting, however, we were not basis, no doubt, for an open aware of Demaziere’s 180-degree alliance between them, which Dobbs' Talk Over ABC Network turn from pro-Stalinism to oro- previously was kept well-hidden. Marshall Plan. Demazieres had If that is principled politics, (Continued from page 1) aration to capitulate to brass hat demands for the Prussianiza- The exploiters of labor are conscious of their class inter r.ever before given an indication excuse us! tion of American youth. spread stale legislation has been adopted .restricting the right ests. They are united in the fight against the workers. And they When the union rank and file tried to mobilize last year to to strike and picket, undermining union security in collective have the governmental power on their side. The basic weak block passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, the "labor statesmen” bargaining agreements and interfering in the internal affairs ness of the workers in the capital-labor war as it stands today sabotaged the struggle. Then they capitulated to the Slave Labor of the unions. These repressive laws have been passed not only is to be found in the union leadership and their false policy. Law by rushing to sign the "yellow dog” affidavits. in agricultural states, but even in major industrial states like Instead of recognizing that the conflict between labor and capital The top union officials, setvile and cowardly before the is irreconcilable, the labor leaders preach the ridiculous idea Manager Proposes tion and 15 The Struggle for Ne Michigan and Pennsylvania. gro Equality. We intend to keep enemies of labor, are very tough against the m ilitant union mem of the brotherhood of labor and capital and the identity of their The Democrats are no less guilty than the Republicans for 'Challengers' Club' this up.” bers who want to fight back agatnst’the union-busters.’ Govern interests — a formula which causes the most raucous laughter * $ * the bitter governmental attack on the unions. President Truman “Sub-a-Day” Bob Williams of ment-inspired red-baiting is today running wild in the unions, in the councils of the rich. Instead of recognizing that the Harlem Branch, New York, sells has dragged the coal miners into court three times in 18 months In Los Angeles, “ both news led and encouraged by the top officials. Democracy in the unions workers cab never get a fair deal from government until they Militant subs like some folks go stands have sold all their bundles in strikebreaking assaults against them. Truman has twice used is under attack because the leaders are acting against the inter set up a government of their own, the labor leaders restrain and to movies or eat apples—for re of Militants for the last eight the army to break strikes of the railroad workers. The President creation and health. Already he ests of the rank and file. They dare not permit freedom of dis sabotage every movement of the rank and file to set up their weeks. Belmont News wants the has been eagerly assisted by Judge T. Alan Goidsborough. Judge has 46 subs to his credit this bundle increased by one-half im cussion and criticism. OVZn political party, Which would aim at the formation of a Goldsborough — one man — proclaims, “ 1 am the law.” This year, with every indication he mediately,” wrote A1 Lynn. workers’ government. They support the imperialistic government can top 100 by election day. In one man vetoes the will of 600,000 coal miners, tens of thousands t - $ * PACKINGHOUSE DEFEAT, A W ARNING of the capitalists in its monstrous program to enslave the whole the last three weeks, while out of railroad workers, and ultimately, the will of 15 million or The defeat of the packinghouse workers’ strike is an ominous world. They act in effect as agents of the capitalist ruling class for a ir and exercise to recover Milwaukee sent eight, more ganized workers. warning that the union officialdom is following a fatal course. ftom a long illness, he has ob subs last week. “ This gives us a in the ranks of the workers. tained 23 subs (better than one The Republican governors of Iowa and Minnesota called It is a crime against all organized labor that the packinghouse total of IS for May,” writes Carol The retreat of the labor movement must be halted. The every day). Andrews. At the same time M il out the national guard to break up picket lines of the packing workers were left isolated and unaided, while the meat trust rank and file of the workers must recognize the reality of the How many M ilitant readers waukee trebled the size of its house workers, fighting in self-defense against the greedy meat starved them out, and the courts, police and national guard war of capital and labor and create within the labor movement would like to challenge Bob to bundle order. Two of the new some socialist competition for trust. New York City’s Democratic mayor, William O’Dwyer, broke up their picket lines. a new policy and a new leadership corresponding to this reality. subscribers are members of Nor- sent his cops into Wall Street to club the striking APL financial this crucial election year—say man Thomas’ Socialist Party. This grim lesson has not caused the union officials to change 50 subs by Nov. 2? That’s the employes away from the doors of the stock exchange. INDEPENDENT POLITICAL ACTION Another works in a plant that is their course. On the contrary, they cling tighter than ever to the date on which M ilitant readers producing bombs; he’s sure an Strikebreaking is the one field in which government mono skirts of the capitalist politicians. They strive desperately to Twelve years ago, when the workers in basic industry were will want to see an army of other war is in the making. Still poly is replacing "free enterprise.” The bi-partisan coalition of breathe new life into the Democratic Party, while they cynically beginning to organize their industrial unions, they soon found workers at the polls voting for another knows of SWP work in that the old A FL leaders were not an aid, but an obstacle to Farrell Dobbs for President and the trade unions. These notations Democratic and Republican politicians are in the strikebreaking tell workers who want to build an independent labor party: Grace Carlson fo r Vice President. the campaign. It was necessary to thrust aside the old leaders were on the backs of the sub business up to their necks. "Now is not the time.” Every new sub may mean many cards sent in. What are the official labor leaders doing about it? Thanks to the spineless union officials, the night-riders of and raise up new, young leaders from the ranks. more votes fo r Dobbs and Carl . * * * Instead of mobilizing the workers for defensive battle, they reaction seem to have everything their own way. But the rank Today organized labor is compelled to take the road of son. Of course, Bob’s score up to now won’t be counted in. have retreated before the corporations and the government. They and file of the unions have not yet said their last word. They independent political action. Capitalism must be fought and F lin t’s drive for 400 new subs, How about it, Soldiers of the “ hampered from the beginning have tried to buy friendliness in the circles of wealth and state want to fight and they know how to fight. That was firmly defeated on the political, as well as the economic field. For Militant Army. Who’s ready for that big task, leaders of broad social vision are needed; leaders by union activities and then post power by so-called “ labor statesmanship.” proven after V-J Day when the great troop demonstrations from a Challengers’ (flub? poned two weeks ago when it Berlin to Tokio forced the brass hats to bring the veterans home; like Eugene V. Debs, Big B ill Haywood and Albert Parsons; * * * appeared there might be a Gen WALL STREET’S CRIMES when four million embattled workers forced the monopoly cor leaders who can tell one class from another in the present class Sara Ross of San Francisco re eral Motors strike, will probably CIO and A FL officials alike eagerly support the Marshall porations to grant wage increases; when veterans, industrial society. ports The M ilitant and Pioneer be resumed Sunday,” reports Plan. Both unions have sent representatives abroad,to sell the Workers of America! Close your ranks against the union pamphlets sold very well at two Genora Dollinger. “ We shall most workers, white collar workers and the middle classes united solidly likely have to revise our quota program of W all Street imperialism. They have stood as apolog major Wallace meetings in Oak and victoriously against their common enemy, America’s Sixty busters! Defend democracy in your unions. Seek out the able land and San Francisco last and the length of the campaign, ists for the bloodthirsty monarchist government in Greece — Richest Families. young men and women in your ranks who can lead you with a week. “ A t Oakland we sold about because of the coming national a Government which decreed the death penalty for strikers. correct program. Combine your economic struggles on the picket 20 Militants, 40 Build a Labor convention, our election cam Two weeks ago, Philip Murray rammed through the con WEAK AND COWARDLY LEADERSHIP line with independent labor political action. Party Now and 20 The Struggle paign banquet and other activ vention of the CIO steel workers’ union a resolution empower The basic reason for thd present frustration of the workers Unite with the Socialist Workers Party to rid America of for Negro Equality. In San Fran ities. While we’ll have to lower cisco we sold 50 Militants, 50 our sights fo r the time being, ing M urray to decide union policy on peacetime m ilitary con in their efforts to smash the anti-labor offensive can be stated the plague of capitalism with its wars and dépressions. Build Build a Labor Party Now, 20 we’ll have another campaign scription. This undemocratic procedure is nothing but prep- | simply and correctly as follows: a socialist party o f peace, freedom and plenty. The Coming American Revolu later.” Page Three NAACP Broadens Fight To Reinstate Frank Barnes SANTA MONICA, Calif., for renewed support of Barnes The experienee of my life, in which there has been no lack May 30 — "We have just begun in the fight against Sears. either of successes or of failures, has not only not destroyed to fig h t!” This was the spirited Other speakers included Dr. irty faith in the clear, bright future of mankind, but, on the keynote of a mass meeting held George H. Hudson, Negro physi contrary, has given it an indestructible temper. This faith in Tuesday by the Santa Monica cian, politician and member of the Los Angeles NAACP Execu WORKERS FORUM reason, in truth, in human solidarity, which at the age of NAACP. Speakers bitterly de nounced the U.S. Post Office De tive Board, representatives from eighteen I took with me into the workers’ quarters of the other NAACP branches, and a partment for its persecution of From Topeka, Kansas nincompoop Stalin and his Reds? years ago, but it is the same provincial Russian town of Nikolaiev — this faith I have pre the local NAACP president be United Steel Workers’ represen tative from the National CIO- Heard your talk over radio. You speak of the inability of spirit that operated slave trade served fully and completely. It has become more mature, but cause of his m ilitant leadership labor and capital to meet on com and slavery. not less ardent. of an equality-in-hiring campaign PAC. The meeting, attended by Would appreciate it very much 300 people, Negro and white, if I eould have a copy. This mon ground, and infer that labor Kindly send me any literature —Leon Trotsky, Address before Dewey Commission, against the local Sears Roebuck should attempt to destroy capital. ycu may have. store. President Prank H. Barnes was a high point in the six-month country is going like Germany Mexico City, 1937. fig h t against the Sears store. It fast. I think it is about time the On the day that they accomplish Wishing you success and God TROTSKY LENIN was suspended from his mail car that—God forbid—labor vail be bless vou. rie r’s job on charges of “ disloy marked a big step forward in Workers took things in their committing the national NAACP hands. in real trouble, because if one T. G. W alty” because, among the two took the whole blasted lot of you * * * dozen organizations he enlisted to a program of mass action in S. J. M. the economic field. * * * and turned you upside down, one From N. Mancheter, Ind. for support in boycotting and couldn’t shake a thin dime out of The NAACP attorney from From Harrisburg, Pa. Listened to your broadcast this SWP Election Campaign picketing the Sears store, were the whole lot of you to furnish Los Angeles, Loren Miller, has Please send me a copy of Mr. afternoon over ABC with inter several arbitrarily designated by the money fo r the purchase of filed w ith the Post Office De Dobbs’ radio speech on the sub est and seem to, in many re The. hundreds of letters and postcards re for autocracy.” There are many trade union the Attorney General as subver bricks and machinery to provide partment’s loyalty board a de ject “ Capital vs. Labor.” General spects, agree with your basic ceived by the Socialist Workers Party follow ists like the steel worker in Pennsylvania who sive. yourselves with a place to work mand for the removal of the dis ly I should appreciate any lite r trade union argument. Please ing the first two national broadcasts by its agree that Farrell Dobbs’ criticism of Philip Defending Barnes’ right to en and earn a living. loyalty brand placed on Barnes ature you can send me on the send further information. list such support and recognizing No, Mr. Dobbs, better stop presidential nominee, Farrell Dobbs, testify M urray and other top union leaders is “ well and has requested a hearing on economics, politics and sociology A. E. this move of the federal govern making inflammatory speeches * « * to a growing interest in the program of revolu founded.” Barnes’ case before the board. of America, or the whole world, ment as a mortal danger to the and learn to accept the American From Johnstown, Pa. tionary socialism and offer evidence of an The 1948 election campaign offers the SWP advancement of Negro rights, The United Committee to End for that matter. way of doing things, and that is Would you please send me the effective SWP election' campaign in the and The M ilita n t an excellent opportunity Noah G riffin, West Coast region Job Discrimination at Sears, R. S. K. * * * by arbitration and meeting on a literature you mentioned on your months to come. for reaching large numbers of such workers, al director of the NAACP, pled through which the most active common ground with capital, and ged to fight to a finish on this organizations give their support From Fond Du Lac, Wise. speech of May 29 over the Anv These responses by mail — from virtually acquainting them with our analysis of capi both working together rather erican Broadcasting Co. issue. Reverend W. P. Carter, to the NAACP campaign, is pro . . . I am interested in your than labor trying to have all the every state in the country, and prim arily talist crises and evils, arming them with the cne of the most influential Negro party. Any information would be On the issue of the position of jecting plans to develop support advantages, while capital pro organized labor concerning the from people who had never heard of the So Marxist program for combatting the drive of ministers in Southern California, greatly appreciated. vides the MONEY fo r erecting On a county-wide basis at a broad problems facing us today, I be cialist Workers Part}' before — express a de and candidate for the City Coun J. R. L. buildings and machinery and op reaction and thus equipping them to take conference in Los Angeles on * * * lieve you raised a very good sire to find an answer to the crucial problems cil last year, served as chairman portunities for labor which labor their place in labor’s struggle fo r a socialist of the meeting and issued a call June 17. From New Albany, Ind. point in your exposure of the bi confronting the working people. Large num couldn’t provide fo r themselves. partisan political program of the world. We promise to take full advantage . . . would appreciate any And remember I admit that there two major parties which is aimed bers of Americans are evidently willing to of this opportunity so that the 1948 campaign material which you m ight be are faults that need correcting at securing the maximum de give a fair hearing to a party that speaks w ill be remembered as the one that brought Strike Leader Shot able to supply me concerning the oi: both sides of the picture. gree of control of Wall Street Socialist Workers Party. Neither' side is wholly without out boldly in opposition to capitalism and onto the national political scene the party of ever the American people. The D. B. S. tells the truth not only about the parties of the American socialist revolution. blame or working under ideal Democratic and Republican par * * * conditions. Big Business but about the untrustworthiness ties do not represent the will of Our readers can assist us enormously in this I ron» Corning, N. Y. I say, “ Hurrah” fo r Judge T. and treachery of Wallace, the Stalinists, the great endeavor. You can become campaign the American people. ■Please send me one or more Alan Goldsborough. He should As a steelworker union man, I Norman Thomas "Socialists” and the labor ers for the SWP ticket on your job and in copies of Dobbs speech over the have sent John L. Lewis to jail may state that your criticism of Union bureaucrats. your neighborhood. You can assist us in get ail May 2!). . . I would appre for life fo r trying to consider the Murray is well founded. Murray welfare (or so he stated) of his In our opinion there are hundreds of thou ting the names of .our candidates on the bal ciate it if I had a number of apparently sold out to the Wail these copies to spread among miners before the welfare of the Street two-party, monopoly capi sands of such people in this country today. lot in the states where this difficult task still general public. those of this community who are tal forces. We definitely need a There are many who think, like a worker remains to be done. You can help to spread I think they better load all of so much in need of political edu drive to bring progressive gains writing us from Kansas, that “ this country is the message of revolutionary socialism by’dis- cation. your followers, led by yourself fo r labor and progressives. on a boat and ship you over to going like Germany fast.” There are many tributing and obtaining subscriptions to this L. M. E. E. K. * * * Russia where you evidently who are reaching the same conclusion as a paper. Such efforts w ill be concrete manifes * * * Profit Napa, Calif. would rather be. Or better still Navy veteran in California, that the Repub tations of your desire to build the forces of so From Portage, Pa. I have finished listening to sink the ship in the middle of lican and Democratic Parties "have for the cialism that alone can do away with the capi the ocean, so that you can’t beget I heard your radio broadcast your speech. . . of May 29 and would like you to last fifty years used the workers as a tool talist curse. I would appreciate receiving a any more of your ilk to inflame ignorant and unthinking workers send me a copy of your speech. copy of your script fo r that I t was the best radio broadcast speech—not that I want to keep who will follow any will of the wisp who promises them an un on politics that I ever listened to. it—but I would like to send it to You sure gave labor, the capital The Escalator Clause the FBI just in case they missed attainable Utopia. Edward C. Spengman ists atd government the real hearing your speech. * * * truth. The sliding scale cost-of-living contract provement” factor. This is based on the care 1 am 52 years old, have lived From Kennelbunkport, Maine I am a coal miner and would sigrled by General Motors with the auto un fu lly calculated fact that since 1900 the out all my life so far, in this, the like to read your speech to some best nation on earth. I don’t claim I would like to request a copy ion has stirred tip a considerable, .public dis put of the average American worker has in of your May 29 speech. . . of the local unions here. cussion. creased 2% a year — last year, Truman stated our economic or political system C. A. is perfect, but it is the best of R. E. C. * * * Corftments on it range all the way from in his January economic report, it was 2V£%. * * * any on earth, and we have, for From Longview, Texas “ unique” and “startling” to “revolutionary." GM’s "improvement” factor starts in 1948. the most part, prospered under From Ft. Dodge, Iowa . . . would be pleased to receive it. The law of “ supply and de I am interested in learning Corporations are said to be approaching the What happened to the “ improvement” factor a copy of the address by Mr, mand” still largely controls pe more about the socialist party question “cautiously.” The capitalist press for the past E IG H T years? That alone should Dobbs of this date over ABC. riods of prosperity and depres and your 1948 platform .% . Please generally expresses uneasiness. have meant a 24-cept raise in GM hourly send me any free literature that E. L. J. sion, and the problem to establish * * * For ten years, The M ilita n t has advocated rates. an even-running prosperity and you have and also a sample copy From Kewanee, III. the program of the sliding scale of wages, We do not agree with those union leaders avoiding depressions is a larger of your newspaper if you publish Lying in a pool of blood, Jamos Pfico bf the A F L National one. . . enclose a list of any Comrade Dobbs speech was a known also as the escalator clause, as the who point to the bad features of the GM con problem than YOU or any other Farm Labor Union writhes in pain wtifte awaiting afrival of publications that you sell. dandy. He told them just what most effective means of safeguarding living tract as arguments against the sliding scale medical aid-after being shot.through the head* For seven months, fathead like yourself can solve. I am a veteran of the First A. W. B. is what, rig ht from the shoulder; standards in a period of constantly mount of wages program. If the GM sliding scale Price has been leading a strike agaittsi the DlGiorgio fru it ranch, * * * didn’t mince words. I wish we Bakersfield. Calif. The Kern County Central Labor Cotincil has World War, and I am wondering ing prices. Frotn Pontiac, Mich. could have the ticket in Illinois, were based on an adequate basic wage, it offered a $5,000 reward for capture oL the “ person or persons*’ if you ever had the guts to be in but I guess I w ill have to stay The GM contract, however, does not con would have meant protection of a high level who fired nine bullets at Price through a Wlridow while he was uniform for your country—or did Please mail copies of Saturday home on election day because if tain the precise proposition that we advocate. presiding over a strike committee meeting. Federated Pictures. you wear the uniform of that evening’s broadcast. Send as of real wages for the life of the contract. many as you can spare. Can -use 1 can’t vote socialist I won’t go As we pointed out last week, the GM contract Our sliding scale program, we have always one half dozen. J. W. M, near the polls, newer have for 48 lacks important safeguards which are part of taken pains to make clear, is designed to # * years. Well, tell them all to work our sliding scale program. FORTIFY the basic wages. The UAW nego From Groton, Conn. like hell and roll up as big a vote as they can. I talk with a Even UAW Secretary-Treasurer Emil Ma- tiators accepted a sliding scale as a SUBSTI Honorable Mr. Dobbs. . . I just lot of fellows that take The zey admits in a letter to the N. Y. Times, May TU T E for the higher basic wages. heard you over the radio. I am 80 years old and have been in M ilitant and they are all well 29, that “ the present agreement, though head The sliding wage scale program, properly terested in the welfare of the pleased with it. J. W. C. ed in the right direction, starts with a de applied, is a tremendous weapon in the hands common people all my life. As a pressed base period and allows too small an labor bureaucrats and savagely young man I worked for a rich of the workers during the further inflation JACK LONDON, AMERICAN fu lly reasoned essays are dériva^ Akron W ill Hold annual increase in wage rates." which war preparations are bound to bring. tive and at times spuriously repressed by a huge police force family on a farm and they want REBEL: A COLLECTION Whose secret agents ferret out ed me to work over the ten hours Smorgasbord Supper The GM contract does nothing more than The GM wage agreement, for all of its in literary, for London thought with OF HIS SOCIAL WRIT his blood rather than with his the revolutionists in labor’s ranks, 3nd I asked pay for overtime. On Saturday« June 19, at 7 p.m., bring the GM wages up to the level of the adequacy, has set a precedent, demonstrated INGS, edited by Philip S brain. But his descriptions of his but as being indestructible, con Old Hannah Norman said the men the Akron Branch of the Social: depressed real wages of 1940. It does not im the realizability of this far-reaching wage pro stantly renewing itself and finally, that got up the ten hour law ist Workers Party will hold a Foner, The Citadel Press, experiences are glowing with life. prove the GM workers’ living standards, as gram and introduced it into the thinking of inevitably victorious. This warn ought to have been hung, My Smorgasbord supper and enter 533 pp., $3.50. THE IRON HEEL ing and statement of faith is tainment as a send-off celebra some have claimed. It freezes them at the the broad ranks of the unions. In this sense, mther, at eight, worked for a The book also ¡has some. of. the presented in vigorous, sometimes rich woman and heard her say, tion fo r the Akron delegates to “ norm” of nearly a decade ago. it may well prove to be a significant milestone Ja ck,London’s socialist writ best passages of The i Iron Heel. electrifying prose. A vividly “It won’t be good times until a the SWP ¡National Convention. To this GM has added a three-cent “im- in the advance of American labor. ings inspired a generation of Although: London . was not a written, graphic tract rather than poor man is willing to work for M ilitant readers invited. The working-class militants all over theoretician, The Iron Heel, which a novel with fu lly rounded & sheep’s pluck and eat it under SWP headquarters is at 4 South the world. Thé two great leaders embarrassed the reformist social characters, The Iron Heel in such a cart body.” This was many Howard. of the Russian Revolution, Lenin ist leaders by its vivid’ depictions passages as the description of National Guard Strikebreaking and Trotsky, both expressed ad of brutal reaction and revolu the Chicago Commune becomes literature of a high order. miration for London’s novel The tionary struggle ■■ so that they Activities of ‘M ilitant’ Readers and the The renewed large-scale use of injunctions but it w ill not and cannot do away with the Iron HeeL The power lodged in Complained that it gave “ a new The Iron Heel was Jack Lon against strikes has been accompanied by the National Guard itself or with its use as a this book and in some of London’s impetus to the old and generally don’s great contribution to the use of National Guard units to break up strikebreaking agency. other indictments of capitalism discarded cataclysmic theory,” revolutionary movement. Eight still retains its explosive force. has proved to be' a remarkable years after its publication he SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY picket lines and escort scabs into struck plants. In these troubled times, when force or the It is good, therefore, that a col prophecy of fascism. London had resigned from the Socialist party A striking example of the problems raised threat of force settles so many crucial dis lection of his socialist writings ¡earned from his own experience "because of its lack of fire and AKRON'— i So. H ow ard St., 2nd i t . M on, N E W A R K —423 S p rin g fie ld Ave. Phone for the union members was art incident in putes, military training is an art which it is has recently been published. the meaning of the class struggle. fight, and its loss of emphasis through Fri.. 7 to 9 p. m.; Branch meet Bigelow 8-2574. Reading room. Open “ History shows,” he once said, ing every Thurs. 8 p.m. d a ily . 12-4 and 7-10 p.m. Iowa, w'here one leading member of the CIO wise for all workers to acquire. The collection, to be sure, leaves upon the class struggle.” Spiri N E W Y O R K C IT Y