LEFT WING VICTORY SWEEPS Y. P. S. L. CONVENTION (See Story on page 2)

SOCIALISTPublished Weekly as the Organ of the Socialist Party of APPEAL New York, Left Wing Brandies.

Yol. 1. - No. 5.. 401 Saturday, September 11, 1937 5 Cents per Copy National Executive Committee Sells Out Socialist Party To La Guardia Orders Expulsion of all Revolutionists Forward to a Rank and File Convention to Throw Out the Betrayers and Rebuild the Party on A Revolutionary Basis

The National Executive Committee of the But they are mistaken. There can be no doubt whatever of the out­ Socialist Party, at its meeting held over the come. There can be no doubt that whatever The first smashing answer to these heroes Labor Day weekend, approved the Altman- of the committee chamber was given by an­ is active, militant, and healthy within the party Thomas motion on the New York City election other meeting, held simultaneously with the ranks will rally to this call. What self-respec­ campaign for the withdrawal of the Socialist meeting of the N&tionaLExe^tiye Committee : ting militant, what conceivable revolutionary candidate for Mayor in order to permit support by the Ninth Convention of the Young People’s socialist, can for a moment longer pretend to of the capitalist candidate, La Guardia. Socialist League. By a proud and overwhelm­ accept the “authority” and “discipline’.’ of a ing majority, the Young Socialists repudiated “National Committee” which has now so fully The National Executive Committee coupled the sell-out policy, solidarized themselves with its sell-o.ut to La Guardia with a unanimous exposed itself as a bare-faced alliance of be­ the revolutionists in the party, and steered trayers with capitulators united on the bitter vote ordering the mass expulsion of every rev­ boldly on a clear revolutionary course. olutionist from the paHy. platfoi-m of brutal and x*eactionary opposition to revolutionary socialism? Who can any longer The policy of Jack Altman, identical in its The actions of the Labor Day session of the take seriously a Committee which in reality is fundamental political meaning to the policies of National Executive Committee, coming as a no more than a.clique, representing nothing the Social-Democratic Federation and of the climax to its decisions at the Philadelphia ses­ but a handful of pacifists, People’s Fronters, Stalinists, conquered. sion and the Special Session held in July, are and Stalinists? The movement has passed this a direct and brazen defiance of the party con­ Conpiittee by, and its actions now are no more Exactly as we had foretold, the Clarityites stitution and statutes, the solemn decisions of than the last gasps of its political death rattle. on the National Committee crumpled before the Chicago Convention, and the will of the There remains to be performed little more the drive of the Right Wing, handed the Right party membership. than the funeral oration. . Wing a majority on the La Guardia issue, and humbly pledged submission and loyalty to the W these actions, therefore, the National Ex­ Likewise there can be no doubt that out of sell-out. A t the same time, with not one single ecutive Committee has placed itself outside of the wreckage left by this unholy alliance there exception, the Clarityites joined hands with all party legality, and no longer functions in will arise a regenerated revolutionary party, this Right Wing of liquidators and betrayers any sense as representative of the member­ a patty resolved and able to carry forward to expel the revolutionary opponents of the ship. No authority or standing can henceforth triumphantly the mighty tasks of our day and sell-out policy. be granted the National Executive Committee epoch. What Altman, Thomas, and Tyler have and its decisions. wrecked is not the revolutionary tendency nor The demand of left wingers throughout the The great majority of the active membei*- its adherents. These emerge stronger, more party for the calling of an emergency conven­ united, more determined, with ranks enlarged tion so that the membership might itself decide ship of the party has already declared in favor of a Special Convention. and ideas clarified, against the cringing blows the fate of the party was cynically disregarded. of our opponents. No: it is their own pitiful .The dozens of resolutions, motions, and tele­ Now is the time to translate words into ac­ tions. house of cards which Altman, Thomas, and grams, proposing such a convention and pro­ Tyler are bringing tumbling down about their testing the La Guardia sell-out, received from Next on the order of the day in the struggle ears. branches,, locals, and State organizations, were for revolutionary socialism is the immediate tossed aside. summoning of a genuinely representative con­ The great goal of a revolutionary party in this country, the ‘party of the victory and These gentlemen of the National Executive vention which w ill throw out the betrayers and rebuild the party. triumph of the socialist revolution, born and Committee had assembled for one task only, built in the fire of uncompromising struggle asd this task they carried out, so far as was The usurping bureaucrats of the National and based on the unshakeable foundation of in their power: to put an end to independent Executive Committee, hoping to solve aH prob­ the mighty principles a£ revolutionary Marx­ socialist polities, to head the Socialist party to­ lems behind closed doors, and fearing in the ism, is closer and more assured. ward the home version of Popular Frontism, depths of their political cowardice to face the tmd to get rid of all revolutionary opposition membership, have refused to call a çonvention. Down with the La Guardia Socialists! to their course. V e ry well. Now is the time for the revolu­ Down with the betrayers and liquida­ By their shameful and treacherous decisions, tionary branches, locals, and State organiza­ to rs ! they think they have succeeded in their aim, tions to assert their rights and fulfil their have solidly yoked independent socialist poli­ duties. It is now their imperative task to go Forward to a rank and file Convention tics under the People’s Front harness, have ef­ over the heads of these usurping bureaucrats, and a regenerated revolutionary socialist fectively silenced and smashed the revolution­ and to call the convention in their own name ary opposition. and in the name of the membership. p a rty ! TOWARD THE CONVENTION ! 2 SOCIALIST APPEAL September 11, 1937 Left Wing Carries YPSL Convention By Hal Draper trists had gone too far to draw walls again resounded to the In­ back now. By the same mechan­ ternational, louder than before. Huge Majority Prevails National Secretary ica l vote a t 5-2, they ruled The convention got down to Young Peoples Socialist League that Barshop’s inflated delega­ business immediately with the tion of 58 (the total number al­ election of Erber and Blackie As Gerrymander Flops lotted to New York) would vote Palia, West Coast seaman, to ing, Friday. on whether or not to seat them­ the chair, and the election of con­ The Young People’s Socialist Thursday, they postponed the They met again in the morn­ selves! And since Hamilton re­ vention committees. The first, Lee ¿fee of America becomes the opening while their majority on ing for a "short” session, at the fused to present a full creden­ sessions took up the political fltat Organisation of the Second the committee, elected over two S. P. headquarters, ta k in g up the tials report, we did not know in problems around which the pre­ jHtOI national to go over to the years ago, attempted to fix the case of the suspension without a how many other cases this pro­ convention fight had revolved. Banner of Dhe Fourth-interna­ composition of the convention. hearing of the California Party. cedure would be repeated. tionalist movement by action of But the Committee had to work Erber’s motion to condemn Wal’d The NEC had exceeded the Convention Decisions its Ninth National Convention lim it of its powers. The conven­ in the face of a large audience Rodgers and demand the rein­ The main resolutions on Spain last week-end. of over a hundred left-wing dele­ tion was waiting eagerly to statement of California, backed and on the Internationa! question swing into action. By an overwhelming majority, gates. That already showed who up by photostatic evidence of were passed unanimously. The National Chairman of the with a discredited handful of had the majority of the conven­ Rodgers criminal charges against The Spanish resolution, declar­ right-wingers and centrists walk­ tio n. League, and by his office chair­ the California comrades, was ing for the struggle of Socialism ing out after the failure of their The first question the com­ man of the NEC meeting, Ernest met by a motion to—investi­ against Capitalism, set forth the Ticious campaign to disrupt the Erber, thereupon declared the mittee took up was for the re­ gate! This debate took till Marxist position for which the -organization, the convention en­ cord—a motion against the en­ meeting adjourned and called the 12:30. At that late hour, with left wing in the Socialist Party dorsed the Marxist principles for dorsement of La Guardia. But convention to order with the sing­ the convention already more than and League had been fighting. ithe revolutionary overthrow of when National Chairman Ernest a day over due and with all the ing of the International. The old The International resolution -capitalism, and enthusiastically Erber amended it to call also for headquarters rang with the dele­ delegates tense for the opening noted the bankruptcy of the laid plans for rooting the YPSL condemnation of all deals with gates’ response, everyone (in­ of their convention, the centrists two existing Internationals . and among young -workers and all the A .L.P ., for reorganization cluding the Clarityites) standing made a motion to adjourn till the of the so-called "London the organizations of youth. of Local N. Y. for -violation of up and joining in. When the afternoon to take up still more Bureau", and declared for the The convention met in Phila­ discipline, and for a democratic credentials! clenched fists were down, Hamil­ building of a new, Fourth Inter­ delphia from Sept. 3-5. Up to City Convention of the Party, the ton jumped up and called upon They backed down on this on national; the NEC was instruc­ the last day, the “Clarity" man- centrists sidestepped by tabling his loyal cohorts to walk out our vigorous protest. We de­ ted to carry this out organize •w verers tried every trick to ger­ f t . manded that Hamilton present with him and go to the Young tionally in collaboration with our rymander the convention. Falsifi- his whole i-eport on credentials Women’s Christian Association. party comrades. On the separ­ -cation of dues records, fantastic The Key Questions Gathering up his papers, he led so that the situation would be ated question of material aid to Apportionment of delegates, in­ clarified. Hamilton refused to the retreat of about a dozen dele­ The second point was the cru­ the Spanish Government a min­ validation of legitimate elections, make this elementary report, ob­ gates out of the hall, followed cial issue—the expulsion of the ority of seven was recorded. A sale of dues stamps to Clarity viously following the tactic of by two individuals named Laz- N. Y. left wing. It came up as resolution on our student tasks •circles on credit—every shady lopping off one section after an­ aruB Becker and Mendel Mendel­ a choice between recognizing the was passed almost unanimously, device long known to every labor other piece-meal« Thereupon son. left wing D istrict Committee rep­ calling for a left wing movement faker was part of the administra­ Comrade Gould demanded to resented by Hal Draper or the in the American Student Union to tion’s repertory. know whether the Barshop dele­ splitters’ D istrict Comittee led by Splitters Exposed fight against the Stalinist leader­ gation from New York, which Barshop, author of the notorious ship’s Peoples Front program: Frantic Centrists was contested, would have the dues-falsiftcation letters. Here In this way, the splitters made collective security, abandonment right to vote on its own contest. But even with all this they the pretext for the expulsion— clear to the whole world who are of militant strike action and could not make a m ajority out of the sale of the Socialist Appeal the YPSL. They walked out. keeping away from labor strug­ a small minority, and were com­ —-was ripped to pieces and the Only Convention Can They walked out of the S. P. and gles. pelled in a last frantic measure political and organizational bank­ D ecide YPSL headquarters where the The resolution on the labor tp start expelling the majority ruptcy of the Clarity group con­ convention was being held, to party led to a vigorous discus­ -two weeks before the Convention. cretely demonstrated, in a It is a longstanding rule that foregather in the more genteel sion after which a pro-labor-par- Hi New York mass expulsions of lengthy discussion. But by the the NEC can seat only uncon­ halls of the Y.W.C.A. girls. They ty resolution received four votes; -Hie left wing Yipsels began for machine vote o i 5-2 (in the very tested delegations, the conven­ walked out, after the National the m inority comrades expressed tile sole purpose of lopping off face of the great left wing ma­ tion itself voting on the contests. Chairman had opened the con­ themselves as gratified hy the .a large section of the left wing jority of the convention!), the Obviously any other procedure vention, in accordance with his quality and tone of the debate. delegation. NEC voted to recognize the Bar- means the hand-picking o f the duties, long after the time set The resolution on trade unions The centrist administration shop committee, thereby expelling delegates by the outgoing NEC. by the organization. After they puts this work in the forefront made its last desperate stand at some 250 Yipsels. This job fin­ At this moment the question walked out, the hall, crowded be­ of our activities for the coming the meeting of the outgoing Na­ ished, they then -adjourned, set­ was clearly posed: Wlas tthe old fore, still was crowded to the period, calling for concentration tional Committee. Although the ting the opening of the conven­ NEC going to substitute itself doorway and the window-sills. of Yipsels in the basic indus- -Convention had been called for tion for 10 A. M. the next mom- for the Convention 1 The cen­ And as they walked out, the (Continned on page 5)

ganization was seen in the dele­ gates who attended the conven­ tion and the high political level Erber Surveys YPSL Progress upon which discussion took place. Leaders Elected by Y .P .S .L Those who had attended several conventions and national confer­ ences of the Y.P.S.L. could not Young in Years, Old in Work In Five Years of Development help commenting again and again, as they scanned the assembled delegates, that this easily marked ERNEST ERBER. was re­ inception in 1,935. He was the By Ernest Erber 1932 rem ain a t the head o f the the most competent and best elected National Chairman, hav­ editor of ‘Out of Their Mouths", left wing today. People like A lt­ trained group of young Socialists ing served in that capacity for a complilation of quotations from National Chairman man, Larks, Smerken, Leven- who had ever gathered in a na­ the last two years. At the age Stalinist sources upon their Young Peoples Socialist League stein, and Gomberg have long tional meeting. This not only o f 24 Comrade E rber has six- changed line on the war question, since passed over to Stalinism, speaks well of work done to dev­ years of full-time work in the which had an international cir­ Our Ninth National Conven­ either during its “third period" elop the membership but, of much Socialist movement to his credit. culation. The Old Guard leader­ tion brought us victory in our insanity or its “fourth period" greater importance, it indicates He stood at the extreme left of ship of local New York attempt­ long battle to convert our organ­ degeneration, or have found their the work which such a member­ the Militant caucus during the ed to keep him out o f the So­ berth in the American Labor ship can accomplish in the com­ fight against the Old Guard. In cialist Party for adherence to ization into a revolutionary Party or the job of a trade union ing period of mass work. 1934 he was one o f the leading the program of the Revolutionary youth movement. The decisive­ bureaucrat. Others like Fischer, As one of the group whose re­ members of the Revolutionary Policy Committee which called ness of the victory is attested to Fish, Friedman, and others have cord includes participation in Policy Committee. He has served for a dictatorship of the prole­ by the pitifully small number of ended up in the camp of Clarity- every national convention since as Editor of the Challenge of ta ria t. * * * right wing and centrist delegates A ltm an. 1932 and service in various ca­ Youth and the Young Socialist Review. The Y.P.S.L. sent him who walked out of the conven­ But as some members of the pacities and upon various bodies, NATHAN GOULD. National left wing became stultified in I cannot help repeating to the to Europe last year to attend the Organizer, at the age of 24 has tio n . their development and dropped membership of the League what World Youth Congress at Ge­ been in the revolutionary move­ The loft wing began the strug­ into the various opportunist and I said to the convention upon ac­ neva, and to confer with the lead­ ment for 11 year, having joined gle in 1932. The Socialist Youth centrist channels, new blood was cepting re-nomination for Na­ ers of the Socialist youth move­ the Young Pioneers on 1922. He learned much under the terrific being added from several sources. tional Chairman. I have never yet ments in Spain, France and Bel­ was a member of the Young In 1936, several hundred young accepted a post in the movemept gium . impact of the events in Germany, * * * Com m unist League fro m 1928 to revolutionists of the Spartacus w ith such confidence in those who 1931, a t w hich tim e he was ex­ Austria, and Spain, as well as Youth League joined the ranks go to make up the leading cadres HAROLD DRAPER is the new celled for "Trotskyism". He or­ the growing class struggles in of the left wing. To them goes and membership of the organiza­ National Secretary of the Y.P. ganized the Spartacus Youth which they themselves partici­ a great deal of credit for the tion. We have come together S.L. At the age of 23, Draper is (League in Chicago the following pated on the industrial front in final stages in the training and through a severe struggle that i know throughout the Socialist j year, and served upon its Na­ development of the young Social­ has steeled us and taught us to America. The program of the left movement as one of the ablest tional Committee until it entered ists fighting for a revolutionary' work together. We now face con- ; of the younger writers and speak­ ¡the Y.P.S.L. He served the Wing continually moved in the program. Other hundreds came fidently the task of building and ers on questions of Marxist ;S.Y.L. as National Secretary ■direction of greater clarity and to the left wing directly from the guiding a movement that must theory. He has served the Y.P. jin 1935 and in 1936 he became Became ever more firm ly based struggles led by left wing mem­ establish its place at the head of S.L. in various capacities since district secretary of the Chicago upon the principles of Marx and bers of the YPSL, on the indus­ the working and student youth of joining in 1933; among his of­ Y.P.S.L.. The Chicago organ­ Lenin. trial and student fields. this country, to rally them around fices was that of Student Direc­ ization has more than doubled, The personnel of the group The thereotical clarity and or­ the banner of the revolutionary tor in New York City. He has its membership under his lead­ «banged in conformity with poli­ ganizational experience achieved movement we are building, to been a member of the National ership. He has been a member tical development. Only a small by the membership during this struggle for workers’ power and Executive Committee of the Am­ of the National Organization «ore of the leading comrades of struggle for a revolutionary or­ Socialism. |erican Student Union since its Committee since last May. Septem ber 11» 1937 SOCIALIST APPEAL 3 “SUPPORTING LA GUARDIA BETRAYS SOCIALISM” So Said Clarity, But Accepts NEC Betrayal and Leads Expulsions ' Two inter-Telated questions pending successes, for was not By Max Shachtman fused to recognize the authority Fox, Laidler, etc.; etc. Not a confronted last week's meeting of the N.E.C. “theirs”, was it not of the City Central Committee single statement could be chal­ the National Executive Com­ a "le ft wing” Committee, was it on the grounds that it was illegal lenged; none was. B urt announced mittee of the Socialist Party, not the mighty rampart of Marx­ A t the N.E.C. meeting, it dropped that an invitation had been tele­ upon the answer to which depend­ ism which the right wing could ing, all bluster and braggadocio its pretense of opposition to our graphed to Lasser to attend the ed nothing less than the existence never scale? to the contrary notwithstanding. expulsion and led the campaign N.E.C. meeting to discuss his of the organization. Let us therefore summarize the to extend it nationally. “You line and position; lesser did not The first was the decision results of the N.E.C. meeting. It Clarity Capitulates want to take the Trotskyists out even answer. Expelled? Not at taken by the Thomas-Altman can be done, and all the political It was, therefore, not surpris­ of Altman’s grave and put them all. A sub-ajmmittee is promptly administration in New York to conclusions drawn from it, in the ing to the left wing when, after into the Clarity grave?” asked appointed (tor the 50th time) to sell out the party to the La space of a few sentences. the vote had been cast in favor Lewis. “Yies,” replied Krueger. visit him in Washington, hat in Guardia Republican-Fusion ma­ (What did Altman demand? The of La Guardia and the People’s (By the way, is it not a little hand, to “discuss” with him. chine and the American Labor endorsement of the La Guardia Front, the Clarity leaders in the unwise for the dying to speak of Party bureaucracy—a decision line of the right wing, denounced N.E.C., not excluding the Oh so graves in any connection?) Expulsions Are Political adopted in violation» not only of as a “betrayal of Socialism” by radical Tyler and Trager, an­ The conclusion is inescapable: the best socialist tradition, but the Clarity leaders. nounced that they would submit Confusion Confounded directly in violation of the specific the left wing was expelled for to the decision of the majority. After denying the appeal of purely political reasons. It was decision almost unanimously Altman’s Line Carries How touchingly noble! What adopted by the national party the left wing and voting to expel not expelled for violating discip­ convention in Chicago only six What did Altman get? By a divine hum ility! What a gesture it, the “Clarity N.E.C.” there­ line, but for its political opinions* of restraint! What a model of months ago. vote of eight to seven, the N.E.C. upon voted to condemn the A lt- and above all, because its political The second question was the gave the right wing carte blanche discipline! manites for having expelled the views were speedily becoming the action taken by the rump City in carrying out their decision left wing illegally, by means of views of the majority of the Central Committee of the New not to auction off the S.P. but Never Serious a fake two-thirds m ajority! And if party (the m ajority of the activei this is not sufficiently senseless, York light wing in expelling to hand it to La Guardia and the The fact of the matter is that party membership is already Krueger introduced his motion more than 120 left wingers from A.L.P. for nothing. the Clarity leaders did not take with us), just qs they have al­ (which carried!) to condemn the the party and, in effect, proscrib­ What did Altman demand ? the fight seriously. After the ready become the views of the branches which, with Clarity’s ing from membership all other The immediate expulsion of the vote for La Guardia (which, majority of the Y.P.S.L. left wingers—an action involving left wing throughout the country, always remember, they call a consent, had refused to recog­ As for the Clarity leadership, nize the illegal Altman Central the expulsion of between 400 and one and all. policy of treason to socialism, the conclusion is annihilating and Committee. According to Krueger, 600 comrades in New York City What did Altman get? By a nothing less!), did they demand irrefutable. When all trifles and alo(ne. Together with this came of the N.E.C. a referendum of Altman’s Committee was illegal, details are brushed aside, these unanimous vote of the “ left wing” but the branches that refused to the announcement by the right N.E.C. all the supporters of the the national membership on the basic political facts remain: wing combination of its intention question? Not at all! Did they accept its illegality were no less They are able to remain in one SOCIALIST APPEAL are to be illegal! In this N.E.C., such a- to make a di-ive for the mass demand of the N.E.C. the-calling party and under the discipline Of expelled throughout the country, series of motions passes for wis­ expulsion of all the "Trotskyists" forthwith and summarily. of a special emergency conven­ those “ who are urging the Social­ all the supporters of the left tion to allow the membership to dom, forthright leadership and a ist Party to turn traitor to social-, sane sense of balance. wing, throughout the party na­ What This Means express itself against the sell­ ism” . (Zam and Delson in the tio n a lly . out, as it undoubtedly would? Clarity Hypocrisy SOCIALIST 'REVIEW ). They For a person capable of think­ Not at all! The Clarity leaders drive out of the party those Two Questions Are One ing politically, these eight sen­ allowed this vital question to be The Clarity leaders sought to whom, however “ sectarian”, they acknowledge to be revotoitionar- No half-way intelligent person tences are sufficient to demons­ settled bureaucratically, at the apologize for themselves by failed to understand, long before trate the complete victory of the top, without demanding that the declaring that while we were ists. the N.E.C. convened, the insepa­ right wing on the decisive ques­ membership be given the oppor­ illegally and wrongly expelled by They denounce the right wing rable emneqtion between those tions and to indicate the road tunity to intervene. It is true Altman, we had since violated as capitulators, as the New Old. two questions and their signifi­ back to the Old Guard-Stalinist that only an irresponsible group discipline Jpyj publishing the Guard, as people who “ surrender cance for the future of the Social­ position which the party is now would demand a referendum on Socialist Appeal and that is why to the trade union bureaucrats,” ist Party. The La Guardia pro­ traveling at a furious pace. Yet, every little disputed question, or we had to be expelled. as people guilty of a “betrayal posal pimply meant the complete a few additional comments on demand an emergency convention How lame and hypocritical! Let of socialism”, and are ready to abandonment of the class struggle what happened at the N.E.C. every week ip the month. But us assume for a moment that the live happily with this right wing. and the drowning of the S.P. in meeting are necessary to' illus­ the question involved in this dis­ publication of the Appeal is a The left wing — revolutionists* the morass of class collaboration trate fully the wretched role pute, if we. are to take Clarity’s purely formal question (which fighters, enemies of the trade and People’s Frontism. played by what passes fo r leader­ own word for it, is whether or it is not, for it was suspended on union bureaucrats, intransigent ' The mass expulsions of the left ship in the Clarity group; for it not the principles of socialism the basis of an “agreement” that socialists—they cannot suffer to wing were the indispensable pre­ is precisely about this leadership shall be betrayed! an inner-party discussion organ stay in the same party. requisite for the carrying out of that vestiglial illusions still re­ would be issued and, as is .known, What respect can one have fo r an abrupt termination of the de­ main among some of those in C larity Leads Expulsions that did not appear). How did those who submit quietly to velopment of the party towards the party who earnestly want to A far more decisive criterion the N.E.C. in the past deal with tra ito rs and expel revolutioniste? revolutionary Marxism. It was, so fight the right wing. by which to measure the serious­ the Old Guard, with its repeated Twist and squirm as they will* to speak, quite in order that the ness *of the Clarity leadership’s and flagrant violations of party the Clarity leaders w ill not be most viborous initiators and pro­ “Betrayal”, Said Clarity fight against betrayal, is their discipline, with its publication of allowed to escape an answer to ponents of the firs t action should attitude towards the expulsion of a purely factional organ, the this simple question and the res­ The Clarity leaders took a at the same time be the ones who the left wing. The prosecutors New Leader? Were the Old ponsibility for the consequences position against the La Guardia most loudly demanded the second. who arraigned the left wing at Guardsmen summarily expelled of their policy. policy of the right wing. They The victory of the right wing the N.E.C. meeting were not the by the N.E.C. ? Perish the even forgot themselves so fa r as eould only mean the end of the right wingers, not the Altmans thought! Month in and month The Fight Begins! to denounce the right wing policy 'Socialist Party. and Siegels who appeared against out, every attempt was made to in the most violent terms. The N.E.C.- meeting is over, Even more clearly known than us at the Central Committee of conciliate the Old Guard. Two In their statement as the mi­ the position of the right wing, the New York Local. This time years of innertparty discussion but not the fight. The bureauc­ racy of the right wing and the was the position of the left. Both nority of the New York municipal the distinction belonged exclusi­ went on before a single action, these tendencies in the party Campaign Committee (Z»m and vely to the' Clarity group. Here was taken against the Old Guard Clarity clique have made their position transparently and con­ knew where they stood, what they Delson), they characterized the they showed their power, their or its organ. clusively clear. They have taken wanted and how to proceed in right wing proposal as “capitula­ strength, their ability to take order to obtain it. Both of them tion” and “'betrayal” and the the leadership away from the Cotwardly Toward their stand. It is now up to the party membership, to the revolu­ were perfectly well aware that, right wingers as auctioneers right wing! The sub-committee R ig h tis ts while it was still possible to ready to sell the S.P. to the ca­ which brought in the report de­ tionary m ilitants in the ranks, to pitalist parties backing La Guar­ But you don’t understand, dear speak and to take their position. occupy a shabby intermediate manding our expulsion was com­ reader. The Old Guard was the position on a number of issues in dia and to the A.L.P. bureaucra­ posed of three Clarity leaders To stand by silently, is to be an right wing. Faced by the right accomplice in the La Guardia dispute for the past year or two, cy. and nobody else: Tyler, McDowell wing, the centrists crawl and betrayal and the expulsion crime. on these two life-and-death Now these are fairly weighty and Krupger. The bureauotr&tic dally ,and whine and beg and To stand by silently, means to questions, vitally affecting the words, and it might have seemed thoroughness with which the capitulate. Their blood turns to allow the revolutionary socialist immediate action and existence of that they were written down mass expulsion of the left wing water and their bones to rubber. movement to be cot to pieces. the party, the choice had to be with fu ll knowledge of their im­ nationally was recommended in But face them with a left wing The C larity-right wing leadership made: either with the liquidators portance and their implication». the sub-committee’s report ex­ and they promptly become vigor­ has already dona infinite haras and traitor’s, or with the revo­ The observer unacquainted with ceeded anything that Altman and ous, m ilitant, aggressive, intoler­ to the cause of socialism. It has lutionary Marxists. the C larity leadership would have Thomas had ever proposed. It ant, intransigent, fa ll of venom.. almost wrecked the movement it been further impressed by their was a perfect example of how We were expelled, you see, for was charged to lead. Boy Burt repeated declarations that they centrists seek to compensate for Clarity’s “Line” reported to toe NJ3.C. thpt intended to fight »gainst the sell­ their impotence against the right a serious breach of discipline. So although a re-registration of Only the leaders of the Clarity out to the bitter end without let­ wing by brutality and intolerance say the Clarity leaders. But they 5.000 had keen expected (a mi­ group sought to maintain, until up. Those who, like ourselves, toward the left. In three weeks, also said that the right .wing was serable enough figure!), oqjy the very eve of the N.E.C. meet­ were better acquainted with the says the Clarity ukase, which guilty of a gross breach of dis­ 2.000 had re-registered as ppity ing, that it was still possible to centrists, knew that they would the entire N.E.C, endorsed, every cipline in selling out the party to La Guardia’s machine a breach members to date. A leadership, take a position diatfawt from not and could not fight the treach­ supporter of the Appeal must could not records a greater bank­ both these ’’extremes”, who an­ ery to socialism advocated by the be expelled from the party, and compounded with treason. What ru p tc y . noyingly insisted that everybody right wing. They could not fight any local or state organization action did they take or even pro­ qpit straddling; only they eould (and by fight we do not mean failing to do so is subject to the pose to take against the right ' Bankrupts- have no place in the (they said) take a definite, vigor­ merely the writing of a resolu­ same penalty. / wing? None! leadership. Bankrupt» should not ous position which, avoiding the tion!) for the simple reason that Bear in mind, in considering In tills appeal to r the le ft wing* be entrusted- with. the lradowhip. fed?» of ’’Trotskyist sectarian­ nobody can fight a battio if he Shachtman referred to no less and direction of ton movement. this appalling resolution, the The membership o f this party w ill ism” and the Charybdis of has decided in advance to capi­ following single facts: than twenty instances of gross brazen reformism, would be tulate to the enemy. And that ia violations of party discipline and not beeitate tor lyjeetbrr moment Tte whole Clarity leadership “thoroughly Marxian” and, at the precisely what the Clarity leader­ policy by outstanding right wing —ape »to eoiWHpPod hi uniting sqne time, prevent‘a split and ship did, and what its whole pro h«d not only denounced the e*- leaders: Thomas, Edlin, Valenti, around-the W M' for top r**: pbeperve party unity. They, were w kog course indicated it was palsion.of the left wing by A lt­ lesser» Smeetlaad» Ctendeain, building of the pppte on s menu especially confident -of their im­ going to do at the N-JLC. moot- man in. Nate Yteck, but bad re­ Lewis» Baskin» Bauson, Altman, totiM wsrtaaKtatiM . SOCIALIST APPEAL September 11, 1937 LA GUARDIA’S RECORD: A LACKEY OF CAPITALISM Fiorello is Wall Street's Cleverest Candidate But His Record is Damning In New York at present we sought a seat in Congress on a By James Casey measure was that it did not pro-& behold three candidates zealous­ straight Republican ticket. Once vide for three brigadier generals ly bidding for the job of "savior” elected, however, he announced as flying officers. NOTICE TO PARTY in, of course, the “democratic" himself a "progressive” so that thrown the full weight of Or­ BRANCHES American style. he might array new forces to his Aids Fascists Please send in names of support in coming campaigns. ganized Labor behind a local This trio is unanimous in the candidate for public office as in Again, LaGuardia is looked comrades elected to - serve as pledge to save the municipality Fiorello and Tammany the case this year of LaGuardia. upon as an anti-fascist. Wall correspondents to the SOCIAL­ for doctrines of Americanism as Under the circumstances, it would Street is inordinately happy that IST APPEAL. Special at­ bid down by the Chamber of And, as though to prove that not he amiss to scan his position Stalinists have chosen anti­ tention must be given to pro­ Commerce, the American Bankers he meant what he said, LaGuardia in labor matters and thus learn fascist slogans to strengthen viding us with timely stories Association, the various manufac­ took on as one of his first "pro­ whether he merits this unprece­ capitalist "democracy.” Much is on trade union struggles. turer’s groups and the Daughters gressive” tasks a retainer to serve dented. action. being made of LaGuardia’s verbal All copy must be in by Saturday. of the American Revolution. as special counsel for the Tam­ One need go too further thqn bouts w ith the Nazi dictator. But Broadly speaking, this American­ many administration that was to the files of the Daily Worker what about LaGuardia’s attitude ism stands for "good govern­ then fleecing the C ity’s treasury. for the first three-years of La toward the barbarous and deadly ment”, "non-partisan rule”, “ef­ Having of late criticized Tamma­ Guardia’s administration. This Mussolini regime? Why are the ficient business administration”, ny politicians for their unshake- was before the inauguration of Stalinisto silent ? Why is La and all other forms of legalized able habit of making "grabs’" of the People’s Front line and the Guardia silent? SOCIALIST APPEAL tax-payers’ money, would it be robber}' and exploitation of the Daily Worker, which is now In 1935 when anti - fascist Vol. 1 No. 5 Saturday, city’s population. oo rude to remind LaGuardia that avidly supporting his candidacy, groups were preparing for a September 11th, 1937 One of the well-known aspir­ he, too, likes to cash in, while the was not then duty bound to con­ Columbus Day démonstratif«, the ants, Royal S. Copeland, has an sun shines? ceal LaGuardia’s a n ti-la b o r fascist forces arranged for a rally Published every week by the adequate record to fit him for On A n p u st 31, 1932, La Guardia record. Week after week, the at Columbus Circle. LaGuardia Socialist Appeal Pub. Assn. the job. He is a celebrated quack collected $8,508 of taxpayers’ i Stalinist organ covered columns chose to speak at the fascist rally who aids patent medicine manu­ money from the Tammany gang of space to show how he used his along w ith Generoso Pope, pub­ Published at Room 1609 facturers, with a "health hints" at City Hall for "services". On police force against demonstra­ lisher of II Progrès so, New York’s 100 Fifth Avenue, New York column in one of the local news­ December 14, 1923 he received tions of jobless and his authority fascist daily. LaGuardia address­ papers. During his years in another check from Tammany as arbitrator against the trade ed the meeting in spite of protests Subscriptions: $2.00 per year; Washington, he has done every­ officials, this time for a $2,688. unions in wage and hour dispute. from liberal and working class $1.00 for 6 months. Bundle thing possible for the public It must be noted here that dur­ But his soiled record extends back circles and anti-fascists, who orders 3 cents per copy. Single utility interests short of intro­ ing the time he was making these to even before the issuance of marched to the scene of the copies 5 cents. ducing legislation to send all the collections from Tammany offi­ the first number of the Stalinist fascist meeting, were clubbed and AH checks and money or­ legislators back to their homes cials, LaGuardia was officially a paper that is now swallowing trampled by the police of La ders should be made out to and have the vice-president of the Republican legislator on the every word that it has printed Guardia’s "progressive” adminis­ the Socialist Appeal. Consolidated Gas and affiliated Federal government payroll. against LaGuardia in other years. tra tio n . companies take over the whole Having wooed both Tammany Application for entry as parliamentary extravaganza. and the Republicans for a spell Against Postal Workers Casey’s next article w ill deal with second class m atter is pending. with a fair amount of success, LaGuardia supporters). “New Dealer” Mahoney I LaGuardia decided to expand and Ln the summer of 1919 when try- out a new field. Thus, in 1924, the nation’s postal employes were pressing for passage of a bill In Jeremiah T. Mahoney, the he bloomed as a full-fledged to increase their wages, LaGuar­ Senator has an interesting rival “Socialist” and a candidate for Harry Lundeberg is Defended by dia came out flatly against the and one whose past is the envy Congress on the Old Guard- measure. On September 6, 1919, of many a politician who also controlled Socialist Party ticket. he made a sharp attack on the would like to serve the nation’s But in that campaign Fortune N.M .U. Sailors Against Slander postal workers’ b ill on the floor biggest tax dodgers. As a former lagged a bit and did not reach of the House. Indeed, the sub­ Democratic Judge, a Grand F io re llo . By Joe Lookout suffered by the Stalinist fraction sequent defeat of this bill was Sachem of the Tammany Robbers in the N.M.U. in no small measure due to the and a corporation lawyer, Ma­ Ham Fish’s Man The Stalinist slander campaign demagogic opposition of this Moscow Frameup honey is a reliable guarantor of In 1926 LaGuardia was again against Harry Lundeberg, leader the "good government” demanded “ progressive.” of the Sailors Union of the The article accused Lundeberg in the race for Congress, this His speech on August 30th last by Rotary, Lions and Kiwanis time as a good Republican, as Pacific, received a sharp set­ of making a deal with the noto» chibs. which was “played up” in all the back when the Headquarters rious Joe Ryan, dictator of tW a standard bearer of Ham Fish’s city’s newspaper and which ad­ Yet, in spite of their willing­ Party and with the blessing of Branch of the Deck Department longshoremen union on the East vised trade unionists “to discipli­ of the National Maritime Union ness and their overwhelming the Herald-Tribune. coast. The absurdity of this ne themselves and not call un­ voted an investigation of an ar­ ambition, neither of these two What happened? Ham Fish’s "Moscow frameup” is obvious to necessary strikes” was a subtle ticle in The Pilot, N.M.U. organ. aspirants compare in subtlety, party, the Herald-Tribune, the the many East Coast sailors who, cunning and demagogy to the assurance to Big Business that A nearly unanimous vote of the on trips to the West Coast, have Coolidge administration, the he can be counted on to deal remaining member of the trio— House of Morgan and Fiorello three hundred members present been able to see for themselves with workers. at the August 31 meeting, order­ Hizzoner himself,, Fiorello H. La won a smashing victory. The that the West Coast sailors, under ed an investigation of the w riter Guardia, Republican, Democratic, working class candidates were It must be borne in mind that Lundeberg’s leadership, have won of the article attacking Lunde- superior conditions to those on Fuskmist Communist, "Socialist" defeated. LaGuardia is not a union man Progressive Social Democrat and and has never been a member Jberg, and a retraettion to be the East Coast. The contrasts Independent, one in all and all Fiorello Defends of any. trade union. Since 1905 printed if he cannot prove his between Lundeberg’s militancy in one. Here you truly have a he has served the ruling interests statements. As a check against and the soft-peddling of the combination of parts that has won Tam m any in one public capacity or another. sim ilar incidents, the membership Curran leadership of the N.M.U. also voted that similar articles was brought home to the sailors the admiration and appreciation ■ Back to Congress therefore The records show that he has spent not a single day as a bona hereafter not be printed until during the fight against the of bankers, industrialists, merc­ went LaGuardia, with a light fide member of the nation’s work­ ve rifie d . Copeland "fink book.” The West hants and manufacturers from heart, a fa t salary and still burn­ in g class. "Blackie” Meyers, Stalinist Coast union prohibited its mem­ one corner of the land to the ing with ambition. It was during floor-leader, vainly sought to bers from accepting the Copeland other. this session that LaGuardia won prevent the membership’s action. book, while Curran made it op­ his chance to tell the world what Jingoism This is the firs t important defeat tio n a l. Big Capital Backs 'he thought of Tammany Hall. But the trade union leaders, The occasion was a debate on the- L a G u a rd ia who hail him as a labor sym­ floor of the House on March 7, pathizer, ’also herald faim as a It is this striking unity on the 1926-and Tammany’s fa ir name part of W all Street reaction and vigorous opponent of imperialist MORE PARTY BODIES was taken in vain. The impudent war. On this point, too, the claims Stalin’s representatives for their offender was Representative and hopes and election campaign "all inclusive" candidate that Lewis C. Crampton of Michigan. makes it imperative for every stories run counter to the cold FIGHT RIGHT WING Whereupon, Fiorello got good and indisputable record. A t the toiler to become fam iliar with La and sore. His sense of justice A unanimous vote condemning qualifiedly condemns the resort outbreak of the Wlorid War, La Guardia's anti-working class re­ was outraged to the breaking Ward Rodgers was adopted by to a criminal court in any inner- Guardia le ft his seat in Congress cord. James Burnham already point. He jumped to his feet and the State Action Comittee of the party controversy.” to enlist as an army aviator. has written a highly enlightening this is what he told Congress, Colorado Socialist Party, August The resolution is signed by article on ■ the Mayor and The gallery spectators, the Congres­ Soon after leaving fo r the front 30. The resolution follows: Carl Whitehead, Chairman, and Socialist Appeal in a previous sional Record and the whole darn­ LaGuardia was sent to Italy to “According to information re­ Marjorie McCormick, Secretary. issue hafc shown how L a G uardia ed w o rld : whip up a war hysteria among ceived by the State Action Com­ is backed by the Democratic New the nation’s more or less apathetic * * * “ Tammany Hall is fu ll of heart mittee, Socialist Party of Colo­ York Times, semi-official organ people. LaGuardia speaks the and fu ll of human interest. Tam­ rado, Ward Rodgers, as repre­ The Louisville (Kentucky) of Wall Street, the Republican Italian language fluently and he many has done more for the wel­ sentative of the N.E.C. of the Local of the Socialist Party has -Herald-Tribune, organ of Liberty went from city to city and from fare institutions of the great city S.P., USA, has brought criminal passed the following resolution League interests, and the Daily (New. York) in one year than village to village exhorting the proceedings against Comrades by a unanimous vote: Worker, organ of the Stalinist citizenry to join in the “war for any private foundation with its Glen Trimble and A1 Furth, "It is hereby resolved that Party. He is also supported by theories and statistics can do democracy.” So well did he per­ charging them with theft and Local Louisville of the Socialist the Daily News of the Interna­ form his task for the jingoists from now until the end of tim e." embezzlement for their failure to Party goes on record as vigorous­ tional Harvester Co., a House of that he was elevated to the rank So there you have, in plain, turn over to him property be­ ly opposing the mass expulsions, Morgan affiliate, the strike- o f m ajor. healthy English, the official ex­ longing to Local San Francisco, past and pending, due to political busting Gcrippa-Howard news­ pression of the Morgan-duPont- LaGuardia returned to America Socialist Party of California. beliefs. We urge the immediate paper and the yellow journalism Browder-Thomas candidate in and the "fighter far democracy” “Regardless of whether or not, reinstatement o f those expelled, of the New York Evening Poet. regard to Tammany Hall. was again elected to Congress. as a last resort, a civil suit to the abandonment of this method To LaGuardia, the alliance in One of his first official acts was recover possession of party funds of procedure in the party, and the bis behalf of reaction with work­ Labor Record to vote f ir a $150,000,000 aviation or records might be justified restoration of the traditional ing class deserters is neither building program as Advocated under any circumstances, the democracy, the abdication of strange nor new. Never before in American his­ by the Wfar Department. La State Action Committee of the which we can only view with In the Fall of 1922 LaGuardia tory have trade union leaders Guardia’s sole objection to thé Socialist Party of Colorado un­ a la rm .” September 11, 1937 SOCIALIST APPEAL S Y.P.S.L. Convention Spanish Anti-Fascist Movement Organizes for Work (Continued from page 2) Martinez for the agricultural tries, and provides for surveys workers; Ed Parker representing Slandered by Church Hierarchy and placement drives by the a circle made up entirely of young N.E.C. A number of other re­ steel workers in the Chicago Signed by the Catholic hierar-, By Felix Morrow vantage with private industry. solutions were more briefly con­ area; representatives also of t hy of Spain and by Cardinal I The economic power wielded by sidered and referred to the in­ the electrical and radio field; Coma y Tomas, the Vatican’s the Church can be gauged from coming National Committee. The pocketbook workers; stenograph­ representative (who could scarce­ the m onarchy since 1812 has the estimate, made in the Cortes age lim it for new members was ers unions; truckdrivers, and ly have acted without the Pope’s been accompanied by widespread in 1931, that the Jesuit order set a t 23. others. Two delegates, out on assent), a vicious attack on the burning of churches and killing alone possessed one-third of the bail, were facing ja il sentences anti-fascist forces, dated July 1, of clergy. The hierarchy was country’s wealth. The lying Workingclass Delegates as a result of class-struggle ac­ has now been published here simply part of the reactionary- lawyer’s answer of the hierarchy tivity—Ed. Parker indicted for The outstanding fact about the (New York Times September 3, cannot hide these facts. inciting to riot and a comrade nobility. As a result, the peasant­ convention, other than its direct­ and the Catholic press). Its ap­ ry burned churches »for the same from California for beating up a The Church Army ly political significance, was its pearance undoubtedly signifies a reason that they burned the scab. new and unparalleled campaign composition. No other Socialist manorial houses of the land- One startling fact the hierarchy by the Catholic Church against convention has approached it in Morale High owners: to symbolize their hatred iare not mention: the vast size the loyalist forces. The task of its unmistakable demonstration of those who oppressed them. of the Church’s .personnel. In Nothing could exceed the un­ analysing this document and ex­ of the existence of a really na­ Burning of churches is an old 1931 there were eighty to ninety bounded enthusiasm and spirit posing its downright falsehoods tional movement (and a strong and deeply rooted phenomenon in thousand in 4,000 religious houses of the delegates. On Thursday is an elementary duty in the fight proletarian base) with firm con­ Spain. It is a lie, when the clergy of the orders, and over 25,000 nections with the mass move­ morning, while waiting for the against Franco. letter claims that “hatred of re­ parish priests! ment. Some facts: NEC meeting to begin, the hall- The unusually reactionary ligion came from Russia export­ The claim that the “rights of There were 104 delegates, only fu ll of delegates put on a spon­ character of the Spanish Church— ed by Orientals’’ (a touch of ant- God” were abolished and the 29 of whom were from New York taneous amateur show, w ith origi­ a monarchical state institution Semitism?). “ Church persecuted^’ under the City. This proportion is itself nal and topical songs and im ita­ u n til 1931—and its fla g ra n t sup­ tio ns. Even Kings Fought Clergy 1931 Constitution is sheer false- unprecedented in the YPSL. It port of every reactionary move­ lood. the “rights of God” may be Comrade Cannon’s address at ment of the last six years has may be compared to the Clarity- Even the most Catholic King 1 euphemism to describe the Right-Wing rump “convention” the left wing conference preced­ alienated the sympathies of many Carlo« III had been compelled separation of church and state, ing the convention met with a Catholics—in England, France in Philadelphia, with about 60 to expel the Jesuits in 1767; since the hierarchy dare not de­ per cent New Yorkers (who resounding reception. A t the mo­ and America—who have grown Joseph Bonaparte had to dissolve fend too openly its opposition to m ent when the Clarityites up in a church without direct represented fewer members than the religious orders, and Mendi- a principle which the civilized our New York delegation!). It shambled out of the hall, enthusi­ state functions. zabel suppressed them in 1835. world has so long accepted. The asm reached its height. Every Nevertheless, libcral-Catholic may be compared w ith the recent Even King Alfonso, after the separation was, unfortunately, convention of the Young Com­ last delegate at the completion sympathy w ill now, at the least, Barcelona revolt of 1909, had to incomplete. Even government of the convention, inspirited, went cease to be articulated, due to munist League, where over W/< announce that he would “give subventions to the clergy did not were from N. Y. back to his locality to build a direct Vatican support to Franco. expression to the public aspira­ end with the official declaration mass League on the basis laid of disestablishment, for the down by the convention. Must Tell Catholic Worker tions for the reduction and re­ From Coast to Coast gulation of the excessive number clergy continued to receive pay- The case against the Spanish of religious orders”, and would nents for education; the ousting The rest of the delegates were Erber Re-Elected Church is also a damning indict­ establish religious freedom. Ro­ of the Church from the schools from centers of Young Socialist By unanimous vote of the con­ ment of the Church everywhere me, however, changed Alfonso’s was delayed. activity from coast to coast. vention, Ernest Erber of Chicago (There were about 25 “out-of- which backs the Spanish hiearchy. mind for him. The Church frus­ The clerical orders were not was re-elected National Chair­ town” delegates at the Clarity The Loyalist Government, anxious trated every attempt to liberalize to be molested, unless proven, man. The new National Execu­ consolation party, including about to win the sympathy of Catholics the regime—the last under the like any other organization, det­ tive Committee was voted by ac­ rimental to the commonweal, a dozen or more from Philadel­ abroad, has made the mistake of monarchy—in 1923, when it veto­ clamation to stand as follow: minimizing the extent to which ed Premier Alhucemas’ proposal and there was a gentleman’s phia alone). Several of our Cali­ Frank Demby, Hal Draper, the clergy and influential lay­ to call a constituent Cortes and agreement that this would apply fornia delegations were unable to Eleanor Fine, Manny Garrett, men of the church have sided instead backed Primo de Rivera’s only to the Jesuits, who were come because of their inability with Franco; the Government has dictatorship. To “vote libei-al” dissolved in January 1932, having to get away from their Socialist Anne Kracik, Oscar Schoenfeld, paraded such Catholics who sup­ was inscribed, in the catechism, been given plenty of opportunity work; the delegation of ten Cali­ (New York); Yetta Barsh, Irving port it, to prove that the Church as “ mortal sin” (in 1931). to transfer most of their wealth. fornians, however, gave an ex­ Bern, Nate Gould, (Chicago); is not an issue in the civil war. The Church never ceased its This was the sum total of the cellent cross-section of their Paula Aragon, Frank Ricco, But the Church, as a politico- struggle for reaction. The Church Government’s Church program in work, including three seamen, a Howard Rosen, Ray Sparrow religious institution, with its burnings of May, 1931, of which 1931. The Church has not the young Mexican agriculture work­ (C alif.); Tarmo Hannula (Mass.); army of priests, nuns and monks, the fetter complains, were the flim iest case for complaint. On er, Fred Martinez, representing A1 Lowenthal (Newark); Bob is on Franco’s side; that fact masses’ response to the cardinal- the contrary, it is the masses a circle recruited entirely from Stiler (Ohio); Alex Wollod m ust be underlined, and the primate’s injuction to Catholics who must complain, since by its this field, and other mass work­ (Phila.) The alternates are: Ben damning reasons given, in order to vote against the republicans leniency toward the Church, the ers. Delegations came also from Alexander (Upstate N. Y.); Bill to win to the anti-fascist move­ in the pending elections. The government left its power intact, Chicago, Akron, Youngstown, Brody (Minn.); Irving Howe ment every Catholic worker who government, fa r from “surrender­ and the Church used it against Cleveland, Boston, New Haven, (New York); Fred Martinez can be taught to distinguish bet­ ing their power to the populace” the republic and the workers. Lynn, Syracuse, Ithaca, Roches­ (Calif.); Saul Mendelson (New­ ween his religious beliefs—to responded as cruelly as Alfonso, ter, Albany, Reading, Newark, ark); Paul Picquet (Chicago); which he is entitled — and the shooting down the workers and Popular Front Leaves Church Philadelphia, Louisville, Detroit, Les Reid (Youngstown, Ohio). reactionary institution and hie­ declaring martial law until the untouched Minneapolis, St. Paul, Eastern The national officers will, be, rarchy who taike advantage of movement subsided. ’ennsylvania, Indiana Harbor, etc. in addition to National Chairman his religious beliefs to align him Even after the Church’s allian­ There were 65 young workers Erber: National Secretary—Hal against his fellow-workers. Economic Power of the Church ce with Gil Robles in the “two among the delegates, the large Draper; National Organizer— .majority active in their trade The reactionary role of the black ye ars” o f 1931<-1935, the Nate Gould, Editor of the official Church S till Hypocretical unions and unemployed organiza­ Church was intensified by the fact Popular Front Government, as­ organ of the League—Manny suming control of February, tions. Among them were three Garrett; National Student Direc­ The Spanish Episcopate’s letter- that it was owner of the largest 1936, le ft the Church unscathed. seamen; six C.I.O. organizers; tor — Anne Kracik; Educational still does not dare to admit the concentration of capital in Spain. Only its program on education three foodworkers; six W.P.A. Director—Frank Demby. A Na- active role which the Church To cover up this fact, the hierar­ affected the Church: the Popular unionists; two auto workers; (Continued on page 6) played in supporting Gil Robles’ chy’s letter says; "We are asked Front was pledged to “impel with fascist movement, which laid the from abroad to say whether it is the same rhythm as in the first it is not to be found in the con­ Damning Evidence basis for Franco’s, nor the true that the Church in Spain years of the Republic the crea­ servative press stories of that Church’s part in preparing the owned one-third of the national tion of primary schools....”. But week! To speak less politely: the Yet the priests have blundered. present civil war. Despite the territory.... It is an absurd ac­ ¿hat rhythm had scarcely touch­ reverend fathers have construct­ For, imbedded in their letter, is testimony of numerous news­ cusation. The Church did not ed the Church’s unwarranted ed a pack of lies. a damning admission of Franco’s papermen and other neutral ob­ possess more thain a few and privileges in education. The most impudent sections of mass executions of prisoners and servers, who saw the caches of nsignificant portions of land, the letter are those dealing with workers. It is introduced by the arms seized in churches and the presbyteries and schools...". This The clergy repeat Franco’s atrocities. Fantastic claims are priests, boastingly, to prove that clergy who manned machine- is w ha t is known as formal de­ poppycock about Russia and the made against the loyalists, in­ atheism is not deep-rooted. guns in the church towers, the nial, which covers up the real Spanish Comunists “preparing cluding a daintily-worded charge Actually it proves that religious, letter merely enters a blainket tru th . for the breaking out of a revolu­ of wholesale rape: “The honor Catholic workers, fought against denial.But it more than makes The actual claim made concern­ tion which could be predicted of women has not been respected, the fascist rebellion. ‘When they up for this claim of “neutrality", ing the Church’s wealth is that nearly at a fixed period,” that not even of those consecrated to were dying under the »actions by its fervent defense of Franco’s it possessed something like a on February 27 “the Russian God.” Proofs? None, of course. of the law, our Communists have rebellion. third of the nation’s wealth. And Comintern resolved to decree the been reconciled in their vast Spanish Revolution” and on May But Franco’s vast and witness­ Responsibility for civil wiy- is this is a fact. Until 1868 the majority to the God of their day, “hundreds of young people ed record of murdering—the tens blamed on the republic. “ Disre­ Church possessed more than a fathers. In Majorca, only 2 per clamored openly in Madrid ‘for of thousands executed in the garding causes of minor bearing, third of the land. The land then cent have died impenitent in bombs and pistols, powder and bull-ring of Badajoz, the bom­ it was the law-makers of 1931... taken by the short-lived republic the southern regions no more dynamite for the coming revolu­ bardment of unarmed people as which persisted in roughly tw ist­ was so generously indemnified by than 20 %; and in the north they the reaction, that the Church tion,’" and that 150,000 armed at Guernica, etc. etc. — of this ing the path of our history.... The terrible story the priests blandly do n o t reach, perhaps, 1099 * was launched on a career in in­ shock troops and 100,000 reserves After this testimony from their laws which developed its spirit say: “ Rejecting in the name of dustry and finance. Its monopo­ were prepared. own mouths, what becomes of were a violent and continuous justice and of Christian charity listic “agricultural credit” banks The truth unfortunately, is their drivel about “hatred of attack against the national cons­ every excess which may have were the usurers of the country­ that the Stalinists had abandon­ religion came from Russia” ? cience. The rights of God being been committed by error or by side and its city banks the part­ ed the perspective of revolution The letter of the Spanish abolished and the church perse­ subordinates..... we affirm that ners of industrial capitalism. altogether, and that the working- Episcopate is contemptible in its cuted..... ". The republic is espe­ there is an enormous and un­ Until 1931 the religious orders class as a whole was unarmed hypocrisy, crooked in its facts, cially indicted for the burning of bridgeable distance between the conducted re g u la r industrial and unprepared for the fascist revolting in its social outlook. I churches in 1931 and F ebruary- principles of justice, of its ad­ establishments (flour m ill, laund­ rebellion. As for the circumstan­ have touched upon only a few of June, 1936. ministration and of its applica­ ries, sewing, clothing, etc.) with tial b it of detail about the youth its more important falsehoods. What arc the real facts? unpaid labor (orphans and “ stu­ on May day, it is curious that it tion, on the one side and on the These must be pointed out to Every period of ferment under dents") competing to great ad- now appears for the first time; o th e r.” Catholic workers. ft SOCIALIST APPEAL September 11, 1937 PROGRESSIVE LEADERS BUILD LA GUARDIA ATTACKS N. W. LABOR MOVEMENT MILITANT UNIONISM MiNNJSAPOJUXS, Sept. 3.— Minneapolis, was arrested on prior to the rise of the General W ritten almost on the third an- charges of ‘"highway robbery," Drivers Union. NEW YORK. Fiorello La | repression from the hand of the Biversar^ of the triumphant 1934 placed against him after a scab Whole Movement Advances Guardia is now proceeding to Mayor himself. strike of the General Drivers truck had been damaged. While make plain just what kind of The bureaucrats evidently un­ Onion in Minneapolis, this article the «barges were pending, 83 The steady -progress of the “labor candidate" he is. U ntil he derstand very well what i* re­ will picture briefly for trade delegates of the North Central workers in the driving crafts has had sewed up all of the impor­ quired. For example, the Trans­ union, Mutants of America the. District Drivers Council met nt naturally stimulated unionization tant labor bureaucracy he kept port Workers Union is dropping progress and growth of the labor their quarterly meeting in Duluth in other industries. Other locals, fairly quiet; but with that done its efforts to gain recognition on movement in this section for the and resolved to call a 48-hour following the progressive policies he feels freer to speak his mind. the City-owned Independent Sub­ past six months. general protest strike in four of the drivers, have won impor­ Two recent addresses, one at way System, where the Union In contrast to the early days states if Brown were convicted.' tant victories during this period the convention of - the Brother­ has a substantial majority, until of the rise of progressive trade Had the strike occurred, it On March 3, the utility section hood of Sleeping Car Porters, after the elections, in order not unionists to power locally, studd­ would have been the first political of Electrical Workers Local 292 and the other delivered to a rally to “embarrass" the Mayor. It ed with spectacular strikes, the strike of this character in Ame­ in Minneapolis, won a short strike of Local 3 of the Electrical would, of course, be-a great error past half year has been more or rica . The bosses backed down against the Northern States Wlorkers, are the most revealing. to expect “labor’s candidate" to less one of steady but relatively ■before the th re a t, however, and Power Company, gaining union They read very much like edi­ take a stand on the side of labor. quiet growth. Many thousands on July 26 Judge Clayton Parker recognition, wage increases, etc. torials from the New York Times, A t the same time, the Union has of new workers, in Minnesota, dismissed the case against Brown. A comparative newcomer, the outstanding spokesman of the stopped pressing for a formal Wisconsin, and North and South Prior to the strike threat, infor­ Warehouse and Inside Workers pix>-LaGuardia movement. Espe­ agreement w ith the B. M. T. Sub­ Dakota have been enrolled in the mation leaked out that the St. Local 20316, has gained union cially is the Mayor at pains to way system—where the Union movement for the first time. The Paul employers were determined contracts at the B. F. Nelson insist that he “does not take has already overwhelmingly won spearhead, of the organization to railroad Brown to prison, as plant, the Buzza plant (through sides" in labor disputes. “Al­ a Labor Board election. To go campaign has been the North an example and a warning to a strike), Butler Brothers, .Sears, though strike situations tend to ahead might mean a strike; and, Central District Drivers Council, ■progressive labor leaders to stay Roebuck (by strike), Jenny, become complex and confused," comments the Times, “such a organized one year ago on the out of that city. Semple, H ill, etc. he told the electrical workers, strike... would place th.• City initiative of the leaders of Gene­ On May 27, the Gas Workers “the city authorities throughout Ness-Belor Honored Administration, definitely recog­ ral Drivers Local 544 in Minnea­ Union Local 20490 climaxed a are sworn to safeguard the rights nized as friendly to organized polis. On Sunday, July IS, hundreds year’s organization campaign by of all concerned, whether it be labor, in a position where it At the present time there are of Minneapolis workers gathered winning a closed shop contract the strikers, the employers against might have to make the d-1 irate over 20,young Socialist movement and a tentative news story was this point is to be worked out by sent to the CalL Three weeks James Oneal, as editor of the resentatiye of the party. in America. th e NEC. passed and not the briefest notice New Leader, usually published . The temporary Headquarters History places tremendous res­ For the present at least one ■party news from various sections o f theLeague are at 22 East 1,7th ponsibilities upon us, not only as was given. Then comrades from popular pamphlet w ill be pub­ Colorado, San Francisco, Chicago, of the country even though he Street, N. Y. C. AU circles and the only revolutionary force in lished in the immediate period: Kansas, New York and other was not in agreement with it, correspondents are to> get in touch this country, but internationally' four district schools in four states as the largest youth organiza­ parts of the country began w rit­ reserving his editorial column for qritb the secretary at that ad­ w ill be set up; regular educa­ dress. tion lined up with the movement ing to the Call asking for an ex­ personal criticism. For instance, tional outlines w ill be issuM, in­ for the Fourth International. planation. he painted notice in 1933 of a re­ Program Mass Work cluding specific attention to the Now, when the regroupment of The State Action Comittee of solution adopted by Local Denver radicalized youth around the the revolutionary socialists may the Socialist Party of Colorado calling for the formation of the Wainbiag math the feeble dis­ Stajinis.ts. coincide w ith the outbreak of the officially denounced the Call Fourth International. If Oneal ruptive efforts pf the centrists, A t the same time, our student second World War, when the fate editorship for factionalism and could be brought back into the the- es— satina tuUpd its fane}*comrades w ill begin the cam­ of rite Spanish revolution and discrimination against the left party and made editor of the toward the future. After a pee-' paign for a m ilitant program for the preservation and extension of wing of the party. S till no notice Socialist Call, as far as demo­ Ifaamary tiightonmg up of the on- the -American Student Union rite Soviet October depends more, of the convention in the CaH and cracy of news selection is con- ganisatieu. through re-regiatra* through the organization of left- clearly than ever on the revolu­ still no reply whatever from erned, it would be a step forward. tia it, -and -, «MHftaiizatiom m arinc sentiment in the organiza- tionary organization of the work­ Tyler. Frank Trager was appeal­ Glen Trimble of California has exer .necessary, an extensive pro- tu » . - ers of the world, when even the ed to, and as National Labor been seriously reprimanded by the -of action wdl he under- . AU this, and the rest- of the nest radical representatives of Secretary of the Part; and an National Action Committee and program of action, is to he co­ centrism have sold out to the N.E.C. member, he wrote Tyler threatened with disciplinary ^Heamijigdefle group* rafean*» ordinated through national tones capitalist politicians through asking for an explanation and action for accusing Tyler of fac­ i tnáes -in-dhe fields o f .ike basic to be mqde by .Ether and Gould, Roosevelt or La Guardia, the requesting a copy of the same he tionalism in his editorship. I am .infurisi w , M r «apleege. the jadis , severing the entire-Country; aud­ Young Socialists o f .America raise sent to the Colorado comrades. herewith submitting my two bits' ipeniMld'i ¿«eriring arino »baso -cf {pointited toward rsetdts in a na- high the banner of Marxism. Tracer's letter was sent weeks worth of evidence in support of the-League. j rioiaal ■ membership drive. FORWARD!. ago, and s till silence from Tyler. T rim p le . September 11, 1937 SOCIALIST APPEAL 7 How G.P.U. Hounds Revolutionists Old Bolshevik, Tarov, Escapes, Testifies to Inquiry Commission The author of these lines was ings. Soon he was again arrested But this also does not suffice, director, the head of the G.P.U., local committee, of which he was born on November 7, 1889,, in and deported to Amadan, deep f the worker hears any kind or someone of the sort, who secretary. Guloyan then declared Shusha in Transcaucasia. The in the interior. It was not until of "gossip’’ he must report it served as the chairman of the that he was leaving the Opposi­ Son of a mason, he was a worker, 1937 th a t he succeeded fin a lly in immediately to his superiors. praesidium. When in 1927, at a tion, and betrayed all his com­ a mechanic by trade. He began tetting to Europe. Otherwise he w ill be considered general membership meeting in rades. The party leadership re­ bis political activity at the age A living witness and a direct an accomplice, a double-dealer, a the city of Erivan, one of the voked its charge of thoft, and o f eighteen, in 1917, when he en­ participant in the struggle of the suspect, traitor terrorist, Trot participants, Comrade D., opposed promoted him first to the rank tered the Bolshevik Communist Bolshevik - Leninist Opposition skyist, etc. Neither his skill nor the official reporter, the chair­ of chairman of the control com­ Party. He took part in the Civil against the Rightists and Cen­ his work w ill then any longer man of the meeting immediately mission and then to that o f chair­ W a r in the ranks o f the Red trists, the author of these lines avail him. At best, he will be silenced him. How dare he speak man of the C.E.C. of the Republic. A rm y u n til 1921. A fte r the C iv il hopes that his testimony w ill be dismissed from his job and w ill against the "authoritative" re­ But hundreds and thousands of iWar, he worked in the party ap­ useful to the Commission of In­ have to travel throughout the porter! After that, all those who Oppositionists who did not yield paratus. quiry into the Moscow Trials. country in search of other work. had placed their names on the to th is kind o f “ tra in in g ' had to In 1923, the party sent him to If, after long suffering, he finds speakers’ list refused to take the suffer in prisons and concentra­ the Transcaucasian Communist The Soviet Worker is some, he w ill not be able to re­ floor. Two weeks later, Comrade tion camps; their wives and University. In 1925, he was ex­ N o t F re e ceive wages corresponding to his D. was expelled from the party children were doomed to hunger pelled from the University as a skill, for he is on the blacklist and dismissed from his job. and death. From among these Left Oppositionist for his active I cannot refrain from saying as a “disrupter"; the local burea- In 1927, in the same city, one thousands of men, I should like struggle against the Rightists of all at least a few words on cracy w ill consider him suspect of the nuclei elected the Opposi­ to mention the following Opposi- and Centrists. He continued to the fact that the workers are not rom the beginning. tionist . Gazarian to the party sionists: Krapivsky, Popov, Bolto- work in the party, occupying free in the U.S.S.R. There was Every shop has its “steel". congress. The political bureau of boy Vanush, the machinist Tatek- rather important posts (as secre­ a time, when Lenin was alive, Generally these stool pigeons are the Central Committee at once hsian, the locksmith Oornilov, tary of local party committees, when they were free. Now they not workers, but students, sons sent Gazarian into the outlying and thousands of others who had as instructor-organizer of party are not. If the worker does not )f minor functionaries. The sons district, and ordered the nucleus three, four, or five, and sometimes organizations, as secretary of the hold his tongue, no qualification of the important functionaries to revoke its decision. A support­ more, small children. Each of press department of the Central will avail him. He will quickly play the role of spy in the insti­ er of the C.C. went to the con­ these was the sole snpp-rrt of C om m ittee, etc. In 1927 he was find himself in the street. In the tutions of the party and the gress as a delegate. This is a his family. After arresting' them, ¿spelled from the party for op­ U.S.S.R. there are many unem­ Soviets, in the trade unions and minor incident. Similar cases can the Stalinist apparatus deprived positionist activities. ployed, although they are not economic organizations, in the be cited by the thousands. their wives and children of all considered as such. They are un­ educational inssitutions and the Such were the conditions civil rights. Arrest, Deportation employed, not because there is army. They are attached to these everywhere, for the Opposition, There were Oppositionists who, no work, but because the burea- nstitutions as learners, students, in the struggle inside the party. frightened by arrests amt re­ On September 19, 1928, he was cracy will not give them work instructors, etc. But obviously Expulsion from the party, dis­ pressions, wished to leave the arrested for his opposition work and all industry is in the hands- there are also stool pigeons who missal, arrest, and exile. It was Opposition quietly and abandon at Erivan, whence he was trans­ of the State. In recent years, have came from the working precisely this situation that com­ politics. But the apparatus did ferred to Tiflis. After three hundreds of thousands of men class, those who have succeeded pelled the Opposition to go un- not let them off so easily. It de­ months in prison, he was deport­ have been expelled from the in obtaining some share of the dergroud. manded that they capitulate, that ed to Akmolinsk in Siberia. On party, and the immense majority secret funds. At present these they betray their cowtrades with January 22, 1931, he was again of them are without work. By spies constitute one of the essen­ How the G.P.U. Extorts whom they had worked in the arrested, in exile, for opposition­ such means the bureaucracy tial props of the Stalin regime. Opposition. Many of the capitu­ ist work and sentenced to three keeps the working class shackl­ Capitulations The whole Soviet population is lators consented to do so, as did years imprisonment in a G.P.U. ed. The worker dare not say a “ isolator". He served these three terrorized by a network of such The extortion of false test- the above-mentioned Gotoyan, single word against the appara­ stool pigeons. In the U.S.S.R. a mony under the threats of cruel Radek, and others. For this they years in the isolator of Verkhne- tus, against the regime. U ra lsk. man is not only forbidden to measures began a long time ago, were rewarded by the .Stalinist But that is not all. The work­ speak, but he dare not even think. at least ten years ago. If that apparatus with soft jobs. 'But Deportation and Escape er is obliged not to keep silent; is now being done in the cells there were also capitulators who at meetings he must speak and Why the Opposition of the G.P.U. prisons, in 1924- absolutely refused to become A fter completing his sentence, side with the leadership—with functioned Underground 1929 it was in the office of the traitors. In the offices of the in 1934, he was deported to An­ the director, the committee, the party committees and control central committees and control dijan in Central Asia, whence union bureacrat, and naturally the In the discussion meetings commissions. comissions, they were threaten­ after five months he escaped higher leadership; nobody dares (1926-1927), the members of the In 1927, the Opposirion Guloy- ed that unless they agreed to be­ abroad to Persia. He was impri­ "gossip", that is to say, speak apparatus generally occupied the an, now chairman of the C.E.C. tray their comrades they would of the faults of the institution soned by the Persian police. After seats around the praesidium. The of one of the Soviet Republics, be accused of crimes that would a month’s imprisonment in the employing him and of its heads, praesidium was not elected; it was expelled from the party and blacken them in the eyes of the Tabzriz jail, he was freed, owing or express his opinion in the in­ was appointed in advance. It was dismissed from his job on the masses, th a t they would be hand- to a major flood that overflowed timate circle of his comrades or always one of the most important charge o f having stolen 500 in all the police and-prison build­ a t home. functionaries, the secretary, the rubles from the treasury of the (Continued on page f!)

\Ve reproduce tbr - uintni.ns procured by Ward Rodgers, against Glen Trim lie on criminal chasges. (his is the first iinof in# A uteri can histrry that a working class political .alien has tried to jail its opponents. Austin Lewie, nolnl Social­ ist lawyer of «Jaliiornia, w ill represent the defend­ ants in court. 8 SOCIALIST APPEAL September 11, 1937 Teachers Convention Adopts C IO Referendum, T arov Indicts G. P . U . Before Commission Organizing Plan (Continued from page 7) my exile, I subscribed to Rakovs- ed over to the G.P.U. and ex­ ky’s first telegram calling for ecuted. the unity of all proletarian, com­ The problem of the CIO was Three Rival Groups their formal polical 'tinge, and munist and revolutionary forces the outstanding issue of the 21st support those who have battled Suicides in the struggle against Fascist' Convention of the American Fe­ The convention forces fall side by side w ith us fo r measures aggression. Even at that time, deration of Teachers held at roughly into three groups strug­ that would insure our industrial In 1927, in Erivan, after such despite my many long years of Madison, Wisconsin, August 23-27, gling for control: The Chicago democracy.” lie other word, the threats from Tatian, the secre­ experience with Stalinist perse­ 1937. group which, due to the amalga­ old outworn AFL policy of re­ tary of the control commission, cutions, I believed in the com­ At its 1936 convention, the mation of the locals in Chicago ward your friends and punish the capitulator Tonow (I do not munist character of the Central AFT had expressed its adherence and an attendant upsurge in or­ your enemies. remember his name exactly) went Committee, and I thought that, to the principles of industrial ganizational work sent a larger home and blew out his brains. in the face of the impending . Main Fight Organizational unionism, protested the suspen­ delegation than ever before; the He had three children under eight danger of world fascism, the sion, of the CIO unions by the New York-Philadelphia group, , The real fight of the New York- years o f age, an old mother, and C.C. would necessarily go half­ Executive Council of the AFL and including the large WPA local of Philadelphia group took place a wife. He was the sole support way to meet Rakovsky’s tele­ called for the unification of the New York, which, w ith a scatter­ on the questions of organizational of the family. This incident re­ gram. I was profoundly mistaken. labor movement. The New York ed support from the rest of the controL Their crude attempt to ceived public notice at the time. Stalin proved to he not at all con­ and Philadelphia delegations, country, especially the West force the convention “by a show The newspaperJihmrurdeit-Ayas- cerned with the working-class coming to this convention with Coast, constituted about one of hands” to freeze their control tan, published on the third page movement; what mattered to him resolutions for immediate affilia­ fourth of the convention; and of the American Teacher for an article by the secretary of the and his partisans was first of all tion, found themselves opposed between them, acting as the bal­ another year raised so much re­ control commission, Tatian, with the protection of their interests by the Chicago delegatioh which ance of power, the large Ohio sentment that they were forced the title: “Unwilling to Betray and personal privileges. The pressed just as firm ly for retain­ delegation which wavers between to agree finally to a motion to (the Opposition), Commits Sui­ question of unity of the revolu­ ing the present AFL affiliation. support of Chicago and support refer the whole matter to the cide”. This article was passed by tionary communist forces was re­ of New York. On the CIO ques­ placed by another question: that Move Toward CIO Executive Council. the censor. The issue was put tion the Ohio delegation split, They were determined to elect on sale. Upon receiving the paper, of Trotsky and the Trotskyists. While the question of immedi­ acounting for the close vote on to the WPA vice-presidency a the secretary of the C.C. ordered ate affiliation was not put for­ the resolution. candidate whom they could con­ its sale stopped at once and the A Fatal Error ward at the convention, a resolu­ The Chicago delegates, to­ trol completely and for that replacement of this article by a tion was passed which marks an gether with more than half of the simple announcement of the sui­ reason criminally confused the Taking advantage of Rakov­ advance o f the Federation in the Ohio delegation represent, in the cide of the capitulator. But it real issue before the convention: sky’s first and fatal error, the direction of affiliation to the mam, the conservative elements was too late; more than half of a campaign fo r a federal system GP.U. developed its offensive. It CIO. This resolution provides for: of the Federation. Strictly speak­ of adult education which would the copies had been sold. This was the same for me as for 1. Reaffirmation of its previous ing the AFT has no reaction­ event casts a glaring light on absorb and make permanent the Rakovsky, although I was not endorsement of the principles of ary elements, with the exception the suicides of other, more prom­ WPA teaching projects and open such a well known Oppositionist. industrial unionism; of a few individuals who repre­ inent, party members such as a tremendous field fo r many more After the telegram in which I 2. A referendum of the mem­ sent only themselves. Joffe, Lominadze, Tomsky Khand- unemployed teachers than WPA joined in Rakovsky’s appeal, I bership on the question of affi­ The conservatives resent the jen, and others. could possibly employ under the was summoned to the local sec­ liation to the CIO, to be held at New York “radical” line—they present precarious set-up. In tion of the G.P.U., where they the discretion of the Executive wish to remain a staid profes­ His Own Experience sp ite o f a solid bloc o f about 125 asked me what I had to say Council not before February, sional organization and organize delegates, they received a decided about my convictions, whether 1938; teachers on a purely “union” To give a more concrete ex­ set-back as far as these two I considered them counter-revolu­ 3. An investigation, prior to basis, keep on good terms with ample, I shall recount my own questions were concerned. tionary or not. I replied that I the referendum, of the structure, their local central trades bodies experience. In April, 1934, from It is interesting to note that considering my-convictions auth- dues, contracts, autonomy, etc., and not seem too radical fo r what the expression of minority op­ m tically Marxist and revolution­ of the CIO in its relation to labor they call the “average” teacher. position in the New York City ary and that no one could prove and the significance to the AFT They believe that it is unnecesT view on these problems both in delegation was a decided thorn them to be counter-revolutionary. of CK) affiliation in regard to sary, and even dangerous, to the American Teacher and in the in the side of the leadership of The head of the G.P.U. tried to organizational campaign, natio­ bring up such issues as War and local magazines. the C.P. bloc and we may expect prove, without success, that my nal and local legislative cam­ Fascism, Spain and independent a decisive move against propor­ Stalinists-Conservatives Knife opinions were counter-revolution-* paigns and its general program political action too sharply. How­ tional representation in Local K re ug er ry. Observing that he was getting as a CIO affiliate; ever, when obliged to decide on No. 5 this coming year, such as nowhere, that I firm ly defended 4. Protest against the suspen­ these issues, they usually—and With the exception of the was carried out prior to the con­ my convictions, the head of the sion of CIO unions by the Exe­ much to their own surprise—find contest for the presidency, the vention in WJPA Local No. 453. G.P.U. pressed a button. An ord­ cutive Council of the AFL; that they have no real disagree­ elections of the convention re­ erly appeared. "You are not 5. Refusal to pay the special ments with the present line of Socialist Role volved, not so much around leaving the Opposition; you are per capita tax proposed by the the “radical” New" York-Phila­ issues, as around the question of The Socialist forces in this defending it.” he said to me, Cincinnati conference of the delphia group. control of the Executive Council. convention were small. However, making a sign to the orderly to AFL; Kreuger was eliminated from the they jplayed a role entirely out take me out. 6. The introduction of a resolu­ Peoples Fronters Council, not on the CIO issue, of proportion to their actual It was a clearly, sunny oriental tion into the 1987 convention of but because the AFL Chicago numbers. On organizational mat­ day» To me it seemed black as the AFL, calling for a conference The New York-Philadelphia group and the C.P. group com­ ters particularly, the strategy of midnight. “ A ll is over,” I thought. of all bona fide unions, AFL, CIO, group, with the exception of a bined against him, the former Maynard Krueger with the Chi­ “ The telegram about my abandon­ Railroad Brotherhoods and ge­ small minority in ^ocal No. 5, because of his opposition to the cago and Ohio groups resulted in ing the Opposition has already nuine independent unions, for the represent the present line of lifting of the charter of Local swinging toward Socialist candi­ been sent.” My comrades were purpose of unifying the American Stalinism. In the AFT, as in No. 5 three years ago, and the dates the support of those groups avoiding me and looking upon labor movement. other trade unions, it has but latter because bf his ability to who were, disgusted and repelled me as a traitor, although I was The minority resolution called one aim—to gain organizational recognize and block their moves by the crude and obvious attempts beti’aying nothing and nobody. for postponement of the whole control by whatever means pos­ for control. W ith one or two ex­ of the C.P. bloc to again organi­ “They consider me a traitor.” question until the 1938 conven­ sible in order to add one more ceptions, the contests for posts zational control. This can, in no That thought gnawed at my tion, where delegates would come organization to the building of a were between candidates who way, be interpreted as basic sup­ heart and soul. Yet I had wished specifically instructed for or People’s Front in the United were all CIO. port of the principles of Social­ only to leave the Opposition ho- against affiliation. The majority States. They straddled the CIO Composition of Executive ism . lorably. How could I have been resolution carried by a vote of issue last year, and, although in so mistaken? Rakovsky’s tele­ 285 to 227. control of the American Teacher, Left Socialists Act Of the fifteen members of the official organ of the AFT, en­ Executive Council elected at this gram had led me into a trap. Convention Pro CIO gaged in practically no educa­ It was only the determined convention, four are definitely tional work-to further CIO affi­ efforts of a small group of left- Stalinist in tendency, four are Terrible Plight The general sentiment of the lia tio n . wing Socialists within the S.P. Socialists '(it is very doubtful convention was one of sympathy On the issues of War and caucus that made it possible to whether they w ill act as a solid How could a leader as intelli­ for the CIO. This was shown Fascism, they find themselves in voice in the convention the only block) three are definitely AFL gent as Rakovsky have failed to complete agreement with the and the remaining four are doubt­ very. clearly in the vote for opposition to the betrayal and see the real face of the Stalinist Jerome Davis for president. In lliberal and conservative forces. confusion of the War resolution, ful, but w ill probably divide his opening speech, Davis very On the question of independent giving the revolutionary analysis evenly between the CIO and AFL bureaucracy? I felt I was losing decidedly set the tone for the political action, they accepted of the causes of war and showing tendencies. The Council has a my reason. I walked to the out­ convention in favor of the CIO. without a word of criticism the the fu tility of reliance on Leagues m ajority for the CIO affiliation, skirts of the city into the Adds He was elected by a vote of 321 resolution of the Milwaukee local of Nations, Kellog Peace pacts but on organizational questions and threw myself on the ground, as against 10 cast for George calling for the building of it would be impossible at the and Peoples’ Peace Congresses; I well understood what an enor­ Stillman of Chicago, the candi­ Farmer-Labor-Progressive move­ and to speak out clearly against present to predict any permanent date of the- anti-affiliation bloc. ments in the various States which the infamous Farmer - Labor- set-up. mous mistake I had committed However, a large number of w ill include the “Progressive” with my telegram offering to Progressive resolution by giving Organizing Campaign Planned .delegatee pressed fo r continuing (pro-New Deal) sections of the the clear line of independent leave the Opposition. But it is Democratic and Republican AFL affiliation because of local political action of the workers Hie convention made a great not such a great evil to make a conditions, such as dependence parties. WJiy should they criti­ seeking to ally to themselves the stride forward in adopting un­ mistake provided it is corrected upon AFL central bodies fo r sup­ cize? It is their line. lower middle class, farmers and animously a proposal of the old port of teacher legislation, the Mary Grossman, in the Legis­ liberal professionals on a working Executive Council to initiate a But how correct it? I could find absence in many localities of lative Report, says: “I trust class program. nation-wide campaign of organi­ no- answer. For one month, until any CIO bodies to work with, the rather that in the looming split The left wing delegates made zation of teachers, w ith the send­ I h it upon a solution, I was unable danger of upsetting campaigns in the Democratic Party, we w ill a vigorous protest against the ing out of paid organizers to to sleep at night, I could not eat, for election of pro-labor school take our place with the progres­ practice of leaving the most imr sections ripe for organization,' grew perceptibly thinner. I would boards by the injection of the sive forces against the reaction­ portant political, social and eco­ the funds to be supplied by an sit in front of my house for CIO-AFL controversy and the aries so th a t we m ay see th is nomic problems facing the labor assessment of one dollar on each general fear that the “average” new year the birth of a party— movement today to the last ses­ member of the Federation. hours, thinking, always thinking. teacher would be afraid to join let it be named what it will— sion of the convention, where the This, should result in a real My oppositionist comrades . in a CIO union. It was in view of that will represent truly the m ajority decisions were pushed growth of the Federation and exile noticed this but they refused these local problems that the CIO farmer-labor power o f our through with no adequate discus­ the attainment of the perspective to enter into any discussion with forces agreed to the referendum country. Let us repudiate at the sions. The left wing laid the of doubling its present member­ me. rather than press for immediate next election those who have basis fo r a campaign of open and ship of 22,000 by the-next con­ affiliation. betrayed us, no matter what full discussion of all points of vention. (Continued next week)