People's Front Moves to Cripple Strike Movement in France - - -— .... _ , . ■ gf-" > .... -■ ------1 " 1111 — 11 = ? See Page Four NEW MILITANT Official Organ of the Workers Party of the U.S. VOX. 2 f NO. 2 2 I[WHOLE NO. 74] NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 6, 1936 PRICE 3 cents' Workers Party Calls A ll Revolutionary Workers to Join the Socialist Party

•T H E Cleveland convention of the Socialist Party Roosevelt camp; comfortable, aging Philistines, stem finally smashed the Old Guard domination, and the and implacable only against revolutionists and mili­ Old Guard withdrew. By rejecting the Old Guard, tants,— for a decade and a half these traitors poured the convention ratified the slogan of an inclusive, dem­ their poison into the minds and hearts of Socialist ocratic party, open to all who stand for the goal of Statement of workers. The socialist worker, seeking a way out from socialism and who are willing to work loyally within capitalism, could find guidance, in all those years, only the framework of the party. ip the venal and corrupt Jewish Forward or its Eng­ From these two significant developments we draw lish version, the New Leader. The worker or student two conclusions: National Committee seeking to learn something of scientific socialism was 1. By breaking with the Old Guard and by open­ delivered into the hands of the Algernon Lees and the ing its doors to revolutionary workers, the Socialist The Cleveland convention of the Socialist Party midst the rounded views of consistent revolutionary Rand School! Groups of workers engaged in struggle Party becomes the. best rallying ground for the revo­ has brought to an organizational climax the internal M arxism . against repressive administration in their unions, if lutionary forces in building the party of the American struggle which had arisen out of the Leftward devel­ they were naive enough to bring their problems to the A t its last convention, the National Committee proletarian revolution. opment in the party. The break with the Old Guard Julius Gerbers, were betrayed to the bureaucrats not of the Workers Party was Ibstructed to follow 2, Taking the militant Socialists at their word, shifts the center of gravity to the Left and facili­ only by being restrained from struggle, but also by the closely the developments within the Socialist Party the revolutionary workers outside the Socialist. Party tates the growth and activity of the party. This, direct process of stool-pigeoning. The Old Guard gave and was given full power to take appropriate action should immediately join it. , as well as the militant position the party has taken aid to not a single one of the important struggles for in the event of a favorable outcome of the internal Acting on these conclusions, the National Committee on the crucial question of imperialist war, confronts democratic rights on behalf of political prisoners! ■of the Workers Party, exercising the authority ex­ struggle. By virtue of this authority, the National revolutionary workers throughout the country with They did not lift a finger to aid the organization of pressly given to it by the party convention, has form­ Committee herewith decides to dissolve the Workers the millions of unemployed. Under their regime, the a new situation. The composition of the Socialist ally dissolved the organization and all its members are Party as a separate organization and calls upon all Socialist Party had all the vices of the European So­ Party today is no longer what it was under the joining the Socialist Party. The Spartacus Youth its members to enter the ranks of the Socialist Party cial Democracy without even the advantage of being domination of the Old Guard. Into its ranks have League has taken similar action to join the Young )f America. It appeals to all revolutionary workers the p a rty o f the masses. entered a new generation of class-conscious mili­ People’s Socialist League. to follow this example. tants, inspired by the spirit of the class struggle, These conclusions, and the actions proceeding from Degeneration of the Communist Party them, are the result of a careful and concrete analysis who want to make the party a party of revolution­ The comrades who have been grouped in the of the course of development of the Socialist Party ary Marxism. They represent a movement of great Workers Party join not as a separate faction, and Now the Socialist workers are freed of this horrible* during the last two years. potentialities for the cause of a mass party of social­ take their places side by side with the militant parasitic excrescence. A t first thought, indeed, it ap­ ist revolution in the United States. lighters in the ranks of the S.P. with the aim of pears incredible that thousands of militant workers building it into a mass party of revolutionary and youth could have joined the Socialist movement Turning Point at Detroit The Workers Party, formed to advance the in­ socialism. We aim to work loyally and devotedly in while the Old Guard ruled the party. They joined, of terests of revolutionary internationalism, cannot The Detroit convention of the Socialist Party in the ranks of the Socialist Party and to observe dis­ course in spite of the Old Guard. The main influ* has stand apart from this movement. It is fully con­ 1934 marked a decisive turning point in the history cipline in action. We enter the Socialist Party as come since 1928. That influx was only possible because scious of the tremendous importance of this move­ o f the movement. The Declaration of Principles then we are, with our ideas. We assume all the obliga­ of the degeneration of the Communist Party. ment for the future of the American and interna­ adopted, despite the ambiguity and confusion of its tions and duties of party membership and ask no The revolutionary workers have been joining the So­ formulations, made a sharp break with the classical tional working class and of the fact that this cialist Party since 1928 because the relative autonomy special privileges. On the basis of equal duties and reformism of the post-war Social Democracy, and gave movement can be advanced more speedily and of state and local organizations made it possible for equal rights we obligate ourselves to work loyally evidence of a determination not to repeat the terrible consistently in the direction in which it has traveled them to function in it, even though under fearful han­ and devotedly to build the Socialist Party into a mistakes and crimes of the parties which had led the only by the closest, most loyal and direct contact dicaps. In the Communist Party, they could not func­ powerful, united organization in the revolutionary A u s tria n and German masses to the yoke of Fascism. w ith it. tion at all. It is no mere coincidence that the Socialist The Waldmans, Pankens and Oneals rightly charac­ struggle for socialism. Party has grown precisely in the years since the Com­ Unlike the Communist (Stalinist) Party, which terized the document as a break with “democratic NATIONAL COMMITTEE, munist Party, yoked to the “national Socialism” of Socialism,” i.e., the cowardly and treacherous Social- has sunk deeper and deeper into the mire of reform­ Stalin, ceased in actual fact to be a party. It is no WORKERS PARTY OF THE U. S. Democratic reformism of the war and post-war years. ism and social-patriotism, the Socialist Party has accident that the growth of the Socialist Party began Though the leftward tendency of the Socialist Party freed itself from the strangulating domination of in the same year that we, then the Left Opposition, has not achieved programmatic clarity and, in some the Right wing and has advanced towards the posi­ were expelled from the Communist Party.' The C. P. respects, retrogressive steps were taken at Cleveland, tion of revolutionary-Marxism on a number of basic became nothing more than a rigid apparatus-clique; nevertheless the general trend of the party, as mea­ questions, notably on the question of war, the cen­ The National Committee of the Spartacus Youth even the memory of party democracy disappeared; sured by the activities of its membership and the in­ tral question of our time. League endorses the declaration of the Workers scoundrels and nonentities were appointed by Stalin creasing violence of its collisions with the extreme Party. By the authority of the last convention, and consecrated overnight as “beloved leaders” ; party right wing of the party, is undoubtedly progressive. Unlike the Communist Party, in which the bu­ the National Committee hereby formally dissolves policies are infinitely closer to those of the Old Guard This is to be seen, for example, in the fruitful work of reaucracy has stifled every last remnant of party the Spartacus Youth League and calls upon all its than to those of militant Socialism. From this repel­ the Socialist militants among the unemployed— a field democracy, outlawing all views contrary to those members and sympathizers to take their place in the lent caricature of a revolutionary organization, an or­ completely neglected in the past; in the tendency to imposed upon the ranks by an appointed officialdom, ranks of the Young People’s Socialist League. ganization neither revolutionary nor a party, thou­ coordinate the work of Socialists in the trade unions, the Socialist Party openly takes a stand for internal sands of revolutionary workers recoiled. Instead, they despite the resistance of party reactionaries allied with democracy, welcomes revolutionists into its ranks NATIONAL COMMITTEE, joined the Socialist Party. From the first they chafed the trade union bureaucracy; in the firm stand of the and offers the possibility of putting forward in its SPARTAOUS YOUTH LEAGUE. at the Philistine passivity imposed by the Old Guard, L eft Wing in breaking with the hidebound reactionary and now they have smashed through the Old Guard.. opposition to the United Front; and in the steadily It is extraordinary, indeed, to contemplate the dia­ increasing interest of the party membership in the lutionary conception of the nature of the proletarian its break with the ossified Old Guard. We have often lectics of this swift development. The Socialist Party fundamental questions of the revolutionary program, struggle against war. In this field the Cleveland con­ pointed out what, in our opinion, has constituted the is left an empty shell by the surge of revolutionists to Above all in the consistent development within the So­ vention made its most important theoretical contribu­ main weakness of the fight against the Old Guard: it the Communist Party in 1919. But the Communist cialist Party on the question of the struggle against tion, adopting a detailed resolution which goes further was permitted to look like a purely organizational P a rty becomes a stifling apparatus. W orkers recoil •war. in the direction of a Leninist position against war than fight between groups contending for power, while the and enter1 the Socialist Party and give it new life. But any Socialist party has ■ever done. basic program m atic issues underlying th a t struggle in the process they have also transformed the party The Question of W ar Naturally, it remains to be seen to what extent this were not clarified. Fighting for corrupt and reaction­ and driven out the Old Guard Democrats who con­ developing position on war has been and will be as­ ary principles the Old Guard, nevertheless, has formu­ trolled it. Thus the drive of the proletariat to revolu-. W ar is the most crucial issue of this epoch. On this similated by the party membership. Undoubtedly, this lated the issues more clearly than its opponents. B u t, tionary organization asserts itself in spite of all ob­

ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE AGAIN The Anti- T. J. O ’Flaherty Dead (Concluded In this issue) of the League. It is not that sanc­ By KARANDASH tions .were defeated, but their sabo­ The New M ilitant learns with formed in November, 1928, upon the- Bittleman Takes the Swing this tage and betrayal.” This is printed Trotsky One year after Hitler's assump­ great sorrow of the sudden death expulsion of three members of th» in bold type, as the ‘revolutionary” tion of power in Germany, the in Ireland of comrade T. J. O’Flah­ Central Committee of the Commu­ position on the League of Nations! erty, an adherent of “Trotskyism” gangs of reaction raised their ra­ Time in Pamphlet "Going Left" In the Camp of Revisionism Cliques from the first days of the forma­ nist Party (Cannon, Shachtman zors and guns in Paris on February and Abera) for support of the posi­ 6, 1934 against the “corrupt” Dala­ In every sphere the Stalinists have tion of the Left Opposition In the ists for what they say, Bittleman or it w ill cease to exist (Against taken over the views of the revi­ United States and a firm supporter tion of the Russian Opposition, com­ dier government On this day, attacks them for what they alleg­ the Stream, pp. 145-146 Russian sionists of Marxism, their precur­ Fold up to his dying day of the movement rade O’Flaherty was one of the first l’Humanite, the central organ of edly fa il to say. According to B it­ edition. Emphasis in original). sors in betrayal. As is well known, for the Fourth International. On to announce his unqualified support the French Communist Party, ap­ telman, they are guilty of failing One need change only a few Bernstein and his associates pro­ his death-bed all his thoughts and to the Left Opposition and to join pealed for a demonstration in the to mention the central task of the names, places, and incidental re­ ceeded by subtly a lte rin g the The disintegration which has been interests were with his comrades it. He became a member of the very midst of the reactionary gangs, anti-war struggle. A serious charge, marks to have practically every­ Marxian theory of the State. How taking place within the various in the United States and to the last Communist League of America and and with practically the self-same indeed! thing that Lenin and the Bolshe­ do the Stalinists stand with regard sectarian groups, which have made he had hopes to recover his health remained a firm supporter of the slogans, against the “corrupt” and In the school of Marx and Lenin viks wrote on this subject apply to this mainspring of revisionism? and to return to the States to func­ Fourth International movement led “Fascist” Daladier. This was a a common platform of fighting1 we have been taught that history directly to citizen Bittelman, and The Stalinist theory of the state is tion actively in the movement. He by L. D. Trotsky. repetition on a minor scale of the “Trotskyism,” had several open has put the following alternative his associates. The Marxists never a rehash of the views of revision­ gave full support to the Workers Red Referendum in Germany, where The December 15, 1928 issue of to the advanced capitalist coun­ approached the question of peace in ists, not to be distinguished from manifestations during the past Party of America upon its forma­ The M ilitant, organ of the Commu­ the Stalinists appealed to the work­ tries: Either socialism—or a new the abstract W riting in the dark­ them,except in ignorance and clum­ week. In addition to open splits, tion end viewed it as the first step nist League (Opposition), an­ ers to cast their votes against the series of imperialist wars. And est days of the war (at a time siness. accompanied by the most disgrace­ in the process of unification of the nounced comrade O’Flaherty’s ad­ Socialist (social-fascist) govern­ that therefore the central task of when the workers were certainly The essence o f the revision ist genuine revolutionary elements who herence to the cause of the Bolshe- ment of Braun and Severing to­ ful episodes, information is made the struggle against war is the pro­ “vitally interested in the mainten­ theory of the state does not lie in based themselves on the teachings vik-Lenlnists as follows: gether with the Nazis. In France public of the frightful decomposi­ letarian revolution, the only means ance of peace” to use Bittelman’s the denial that the state is an in­ of Lenin and Trotsky. the Stalinists did not mix their “T. J. O’Flaherty, the most popu­ of overthrowing the bourgeoisie. terminology), Lenin and Zinoviev strument of class rule but in the tion and internal stagnation of His sister, Anna Johnson, in a votes with the Fascists, instead lar Communist propagandist in An American Austro-Mandst kept stressing that peace under assertion that there are stages in these bankrupt cliques. The rank letter to comrade Martin Abern, they staged a demonstration which America and the writer of the fa­ capitalism “today” as well as to­ the evolution of the state. At a writes from the Aran Isles, Ireland: could not be distinguished from But Bittelman wants to instill in and file workers who were misled mous Daily Worker column “As We- morrow can only mean an interval certain stage the state can lose its that of the Fascists, thus sowing the minds of the Left Socialists the into these blind alleys on an ultra- Letter from His Sister See It” and a revolutionist of many between two imperialist wars. specific class character, cease to confusion among the workers. idea that “the central task in the “revolutionary” program are draw­ “You w ill be eorprised to hear years standing, has issued a state­ Peace under capitalism is an im­ serve as the instrument of class On February 7 and 8 the French anti-war struggle today is the that Tom has passed away. He ment setting forth his uncondition­ perialist peace. Anyone who is for oppression, and therefore can be ing a balance of their unfortunate working class was treated to the struggle for peace” (p. 27). Offer­ died on May 19 from heart trouble. al support of the Platform of the ing the foreign policy of Stalin- peace under capitalism is in reality utilized to advance the interests of experiences and returning to our He came back here on January 15 spectacle of a Socialist Party pro­ for peace with the bourgeoisie. Russian Opposition and his soli­ Litvinoff in place of revolutionary other classes. The revisionists ranks. This process is especially after 18 months between Dublin darity with all comrades expelled posing a united front to the C.P., Those who today cry, Long live im­ Marxism, Bittelman insists that: never denied that the state was an noticeable among the youth. and England. He was ill when he for these views: and the latter refusing the propo­ perialist peace!, w ill tomorrow cry, “The Communists propose to fight instrument of class oppression, or A statement made public last got back and got worse every day. sal. B’Humanité replied to the S.P. Long live imperialist war! This is “ ‘After studying new material on against imperialist war under the even that the democratic state week by a majority of the clique You know he always suffered from in substance as follows: If you the question of the Trotsky line in central slogan of the struggle for the position of revolutionary Marx­ could be utilized by the bourgemsie of B j Field (who was expelled heart trouble. want to struggle against fascism, ism. the C.P.S.U. and the Comintern,’ peace” (p. 28). This is the central for its rule. But, said they, once from the Communist League for *It as very pitiful to see him you should apply to the Amster- said comrade O’Flaherty in his slogan not of Marxism but of Aus- It was Earl Kautsky who insisted the state has evolved to a democ­ treachery during the Hotel strike), suffer and he wanted so to get well. dam-Pleyel Committee whose par­ statement, T have come to the con­ tro-Marxism. Bittelman, whether that the International was ‘in the racy, then it has reached that stage operating under the pretentious He lived those last months in New ticular specialty this is. A few clusion that the line of the Russian he knows or not, is a true disciple nature of things an instrument of when a transition is possible, when title of “The League for a Revolu- York and Chicago and was contin­ months later the “line” was Opposition led by comrade Trotsky of Max Adler. peace. . . . The struggle fo r peace the state need no loans* serve as ¡iewtty Workers Party,’’ informs of ually with you. He talked to all changed. is the correct Leninist line and Back in 1915, M ax A dler w rote a is the international organization of the instrument of bourgeois rate. the other members of the Party That is why in 1936, Bittelman a sattt in the organization and of therefore I associate myself with pamphlet Prinzip oder Romantik the working class.” This is the po The machinery of the ototo can be and tried to persuade me in the has to write, “It is strange that an attempt by Field to impose the position taken by comrade Can­ (also in criticism of “sectarians”) sition of the social-patriots whom taken over by the majority of the “unity” by means of physical force. morning that he actually was there. the Left elements . . . should have non and his associates in the in which he advanced the idea that Lenin and the Bolsheviks attacked. people, and legislation introduced You see, I had to be continually allowed this Old Guard and Trot- This method of persuasion was re­ Workers (Communist) Party of socialism after the war must make From the instrument of the world to inaugurate a different social with him night and day for the last skyite slander to creep into the sorted to after representatives of America. They were unjustly ex­ peace its central slogan, otherwise proletarian revolution, the Third system. the majority, F. L. Demby and S. five weeks. He was so nervous and draft program” (p. 20). pelled for attempting to explain to socialism w ill cease to exist. Zino­ International has been transformed The Capitalist Transition Stanley, had submitted a statement was always fainting. Blttelman devotes fully two-flfths the membership of the Party th» viev, at that time closely collabo­ by Stalin into an “instrument for The Stalinists do not deny that to the “National Committee” de­ It is now that his second book, of his pamphlet to a "criticism" of political line really advocated by rating with Lenin, replied to Adler peace,” that is, of betrayal. the democratic state is an instru­ claring the organization to be ‘Cliffmen of the West’ (a book on the draft program on the question Trotsky in the C.P.S.U. and the ment of bourgeois rule either. -But, “bankrupt” and announcing their the agrarian northwest in the U.S.) of Fascism and War. On these as follows: New Converts for the League Comintern.’ Comrade O’Flaherty’s they say, under certain conditions intention to sever all relations with is being advertised. And two weeks central questions the Left Social Zinoviev on Adler and Bittelman Every day, almost every hour, statement then went on to set forth (as laid down by Dimitroff) it is it. Thereupon, according to the ago the publishers wrote for per­ ists have moved closest to the rev­ “ F o r those Socialists who see no brings added proof of the Stalinist his agreement with the position of possible to have extraordinary gov­ statement, “the door was locked” mission to sell the language rights, olutionary Marxist position. On other perspectives—the revolution­ treachery, over which the Stalinists the Russian Opposition on the vari­ ernments which can serve not the and “Stanley and Demby were at­ on a 50-50 basis. the other hand, the degeneration ary perspective of the transforma­ unfailingly throw the usurped ban­ ous issues (Anglo-Russian Commit­ interests of the bourgeoisie, but tacked, knocked to the floor and “Tom received papers regularly and betrayal of the Third Interna­ tion of the imperialist wars into ner of the October revolution. In tee, Chinese Revolution, etc.).” those of its class enemies. Such a beaten about the head.” Field par­ from the U. S. but lately was un­ tional stand out most sharply pre­ civil wars—for them there is really his pamphlet, Bittelman patroniz­ “transitional” government on com­ ticipated in the attack, his group able to read them and was too weak The Communist Party forthwith cisely in the struggle against Fas­ no other way out . . . ‘Die Frled- ingly compliments the Socialists for ing into power would carry through outnumbering the other members to have them read to him. His sis­ expelled him. cism and War. The Stalinist rec­ ensidee zum Mittelpunkt.’ “The breaking with the “traditional So­ “a number of fundamental revolu­ at the time. Eight out of the ter Delia spared nothing on him; ord and policy in this sphere are idea of peace must be made our cialist Party attitude on the League Wrote for The M ilitant tionary measures (control of pro­ twelve members of the group sup­ but it was no use; he was already only too clear. It is hardly sur­ central slogan!’ . . . This is what of Nations.” He forebears to men­ Comrade O’Flaherty wrote for duction and of the banks, disband­ port the position of Demby and far too ill when he returned home.” the events have taught them. . . . tion that he and his colleagues have the “Militant” from time to time prising therefore that the Stalinists ment of the police and its replace­ Stanley in severing relations with He was 47 years o f age. should concentrate their efforts ‘Not a Friedensidee but the Buer- now taken over this "traditional” and participated in other activities. ment by an armed workers’ m ili­ F ield: Founder of Communist Movement upon trying to check any further gerkriegsidee!, one feels like shout­ attitude. Thus, in the June 5 issue tia.) . . . It would so weaken the Interested in the agrarian problems, clarification or evolution of the So­ ing to these great Utopians who are of the Daily Worker, Gabriel Peri, bourgeoisie and so strengthen the Simultaneously with the disgrace­ Comrade O’Flaherty was a revo­ he proceeded to function for some lutionist of many years standing. cialists on these burning questions running around with such a petty while on the subject of the “Fight working class and its allies, that ful finale of the Field adventure years in the Northwest and edited He participated in the Irish move­ o f our epoch. utopia. Not the idea of peace—but for the Defense of Peace” has the the working class would become came the announcement o f seces­ the farmers’ publication, the Pro­ ment prior to coming to the United The draft expresses the funda­ the idea of civil war, citizen Adler! following to ’say: ready to make the proletarian rev­ sions from the Oehler group, follow­ ducer’s News (Plentywood, M ont). States in 1912, im m ediately jo in in g mental thesis of the Marxian posi­ T h a t is w hat m ust become the cen­ “ I t seems to us th a t France must olution” (p. 8). ing upon previous expulsions and At the same time he was engaged the Socialist Party in Boston. He tion on war: only the overthrow of tral point of our program. . . . We now declare: It is not the League This remarkable government, ac­ withdrawals. A total of ten com­ In literary efforts. He was ill dur­ remained in the S.P. till the split capitalism can put an end to war, say to you: either socialism w ill of Nations that was defeated but cording to Bittelman, would not be rades announced their repudiation ing all these years, particularly in 1919 when he joined w ith the Unable to criticize the Left Sodal- become the organizer of civil war the inadequacies and shortcomings the government that is set up by of the platform of the Oehler group with his heart for which he was Left Wing and was one of the the proletarian revolution, but a and their intention to follow the taking treatment for many years. founders of the Communist move­ different kind of a "workers’ and lead of the Workers Party in join­ A little over two years ago he de­ ment in America, and a member of. farmers’ government”—the kind ing the Socialist Party. Five other cided to pay a visit to his native the Central Committee of the Com­ which is set up within the frame­ members had previously left the home, on the wild spot, the Aran Stalinists Hedge on Committees; munist Party for many years. He work of capitalism, a government Oehler group and returned to the Isles, on which the famous film, W-P- Several others who have been was active during these many years Man of Aran, was made during the of “the united and people’s front particularly in the field of journal­ against fascism and war ___ a expelled remain indecisive as to time. He lived the hard life that Explain Non-Revolutionary Aims their next steps. ism, being one of the leading and all most live on this barren place. united front government, a people’s popular writers in the revolutionary front government, a workers’ and Meantime the world-shaking an­ During this time, he wrote and had Thorez declared in turn (l’Hu­ press. He was the first editor of From Revolution (Paris) in effect revealed themselves as the farmers' government.” Whose class nouncement is made by the “Revo­ published his first book, “Aranmen manite, May 19) : the weekly, “Voice of Labor” in hypocritical enemies of the people interests would such a “workers’ lutionary Workers League” (Oehler All,” based on life on the Isles. On the morning after the elec­ who do not fear anything as much “We want to bring about the Chicago, official organ of the Com­ and farmers’ government” serve? group) that the “disintegration of After a time, he left the Aran Isles tions, the “communists” declared collaboration of the people with munist Party. He was on the staff as contact with the workers. Certainly not those of the bour­ the entire group (of Field) makes and lived and labored in Dublin, that they were going to devote parliament and the government, of The Worker and later on the Front, May 16, organ of the party geoisie. How else could it intro­ it impossible to continue negotia­ London and other places in Great themselves to the organization of as the program of the People's Daily Worker, official organs of the of Deat and Paul Boncour, warned duce “a number of fundamental tions with the League for a Revo­ Britain, contributing articles from Rank and File Committees of the Organization stipulates. The Com­ Communist Party. He conducted, its readers: revolutionary measures, and “ weak­ lutionary Party (Field group), time to time to the labor press. He People’s F ront. mittees of the People’s Front must too, a special column in the Daily “Tlie latest discovery of the en” the bourgeoisie w h ile looking toward a fusion with it.” returned to the Aran Isles upon the Thorez wrote in l’Humanite, be developed, strengthened, im­ Worker under the caption, “As We C.P. consists in the creation of “strengthening” the working class So th a t’s o ff . B u t th a t is n ot a ll. completion of his second book, May 10: See I t . ” Committees in the cities and proved.” and its allies! The Oehlerites are very thorough­ “Cliffmen of the West” where his “We w ill insist on the demo­ Thorez offered the following ex­ neighborhoods to which the mem­ At a time when the bourgeoisie going people and when they start Comrade O’Flaherty was one of persisting illness soon thereafter cratic election of Committees of planations in his speech at Grange- ber parties of the People’s Front is no longer able to maintain a to break off negotiations they be. the band of Communists under in. brought the peace of death to him. the People’s Front in the country, aux-Belles : dictment in the famous Brldgeman, are invited to participate. . . . stable parliamentarian regime and lieve in doing a complete job. The Comrade O’Flaherty in a recent city and village.” “. . . This firm desire to guar­ Without anticipating the deci­ must resort to Fascism because the same statement which pronounces Mich. case. He p articip a ted in th a t letter to comrades in New York ex­ Replying to questions asked by antee the support of the masses renowned underground C.P. conven­ sions our central bodies w ill not ruling' class is no longer able to the doom of the Field group also pressed the hope and belief that he reporters, Duclos stated: through the medium of the Peo­ tion as well as other convention fail to immediately adopt on this provide the most miserly conces­ announces suspension of the mo. would soon return to the United “. . . That is why our friend ple’s Front Committees has al­ gatherings of the revolutionary subject, we recommend the great­ sions to the oppressed classes in mentous negotiations with the “Ita l­ States, health greatly improved and Thorez emphasized our action for ready been exploited by the reac­ movement. He participated in the est circumspection to the secre­ society, the Stalinists propose to ian Left Fraction of Communism” be able to continue his revolution­ the democratic election of Com­ tionary press which is trying to taries of the groups. There w ill set up under capitalism a govern­ in order to give the three members work of the International Labor ary activity more fully. He re­ mittees of the People’s Front divide us. What is involved, how­ Defense, and was a delegate to the be enough difficulties for the re­ ment that would pass fundamental of the latter organization an oppor­ mained a revolutionist, a Bolshevik, throughout the country. Thus we ever, is to improve what already International Red Aid Congress publican government not to have revolutionary measures, etc.... tunity “to conclude a discussion in to the end, and all his friends and give proof that we are a party exists. . . . (Labor Defense) in Moscow. to ris k the creation o f new ones What have we here if not the re­ their ranks in the U. S. and inter­ comrades, who are legion, are glad w hich bases its e lf on the people.” “The bourgeois press pretends by mass and street action which visionist myth that the machinery nationally over the class character Expelled as Left Oppositionist to honor the memory of a revolu­ A propaganda pamphlet of the that this w ill be an intolerable w ill get out of its control. of bourgeois oppression can be u til­ of the Soviet Union.” It is to be When the Left Opposition was tionary stalwart C.P., which we have already cited, control over parliamentary and ized by the working class for its inferred that if and when this formally states: Bergery’s paper, Fleche, makes governmental activity. . . . We, emancipation? “small point” is cleared up one way “The C. P. recommends Com­ similar comments. Mr. Bergery communists, think that only on Left Is Anti-Stalinist or another the negotiations w ill ei­ mittees of the People’s Front, prefers the salons to the workers’ the parliamentary and govern­ The only difference between the ther be resumed or finally broken Do You W a n t to Know democratically elected in the en­ m eetings: mental plane one can obtain what above formulation of Bittelman off. We shall see what we shall see. tire country, in the neighbor­ “If such a move can justify a the masses want and supported the sources of the social patriotism of the Third and the classic formulation of the hoods and in the factories, and frenzied campaign on the part of by their activity in the entire Diligent inquiry by our reporter International revisionists is that Bernstein embracing not only members of the trusts, it is certainly one country. failed to uncover any tangible in­ the significance of the theory of “Socialism in one organizations but the unorgan­ which permits “Temps” and other “They pretend that such com­ would have insisted that such a formation about the present status country” government could proceed to “build ized masses as w ell.” Right papers to declare that the mittees are revolutionary clubs, and whereabouts, if any, of the a socialist society” instead of to the relation of this theory to the working class * * * Sovietization of France is being Soviets! The bourgeoisie is very “Communist League of Struggle” “make a proletarian revolution.” movement in Russia, Germany, China, England The Radicals in a Panic organized.’’ well aware that this is not true, (Albert Welsbord). The cafeterias and elsewhere Izard, deputy from Briey, un­ but it is faithful to its time-worn But Bernstein could afford to be are thick with rumors that Weis- It is therefore clear that the O.P. much more logical and consistent. .the place of the Soviet Union in the world revolu­ adopted a demand which we have doubtedly thinks that the workers ta c tic : spread panic. . . .” bord has departed for Chicago, that ? tionary movement ■ Who elected him w ill defeat de He did labor under the necessity of he has returned, that the bus broke not ceased to defend: practical or­ Since then the C.P. has shelved the meaning of the so-called “Trotsky-Stalin” Wendel with newspaper articles. palming off his revisionist garbage down on the way there or back, ganization, from below, of People’s the mass Committees. But that struggle • * • was not enough for Messieurs the as, “revolutionary Marxism.” that he has retired into seclusion in Committees, democratically elected. Bittelman and the other flunkies the program for world Socialism To that Vaillant-Couturier added Stalinists Retreat Under Fire Radicals. order to write a book about his of Stalin must resort to their shab­ life and labors, etc. Up to the mo­ that the Communists would consti­ Confronted wth these attacks, the The pro-fascist Dominique was READ still writing in Republique, May by “revolutionary” subterfuges to ment of going to press our reporter tute as well a “ministry of the Stalinists beat a quick retreat. be able to continue using the pres­ masses.” 16: was unable to locate any authorized In PHumanite, May 15, Vaillant- “If Mr. Vaillant-Couturier con­ tige and the traditions of the Oc­ spokesmen who could deny or con­ The 3rd International After Lenin That was enough for the entire Couturier wrote: tober revolution In order to bull­ Right and Radical Socialist press stitutes his M inistry of the Mass­ firm any or all of these rumors. by LEON TROTSKY “The point in question on the doze workers away from the revo­ to set up a howl about the dicta­ es, neith er parliam ent nor the Sic transit gloria mundi. W ith an Introduction and Explanatory Notes by Max Shachtman People’s Front Committees is not cabinet w ill be free. And we want lutionary traditions and policies of torship of the proletariat, Soviets, the October revolution. To go left of substituting itself for the par­ i t to be.” 416 Pages Cloth Bound S on^S S etc.! Indeed, these gentlemen had is in the first instance to go away the right slant! ties, nor of substituting itself for In other words, the bourgeoisie NEW MILITANT the regular government bodies. w ill be less free to carry through from Stalinism. To be charged with In face of the impotence of Par­ with which Is merged PIONEER PUBLISHERS The only question for them—ar­ its maneuvers against the working being a counter-revolutionist by a liament, the People’s Committees THE MILITANT 28 EAST 12th STREET, N. Y. C. dent defenders of democracy—is class, w ill be less free to horse- Stalinist is a well nigh infallible w ill appear as the only force cap­ proof that one is learning to differ­ able of assuring the power of the to actively second a government trade, to plot, to lie, to deceive in Published weekly by the New M ili­ which is about to take office- parliament. And that is what these entiate between the revolutionary tant Publishing Oo„ 100 F ifth Ave., working masses. The mass com­ program of Marx and Lenin and mittees w ill set themselves against supplanting a ministry which in gentlemen do not want! N. Y. C. the last week has permitted the * * * the revisionism of the Stalinist bur­ LUMEN CAMP COOPERATIVE the arbitrary, dictatorial and po­ eaucracy. Entered as second class m ail matter lice rule of the bourgeois state. flight of three billions of gold— But here also promises are made. at the Post Office at New York, N. Rivervale, N. J. ' in face of very heavy tasks and We call upon the workers to put Intransigeant and Jour published Bound Volumes of Y. under the act of March 3, 1879. OPENING JUNE 14 for which the action of the masses them into practice. inflamed articles against the pro­ NEW MILITANT JAMBS P. CANNON : Editor posed Committees. The bourgeoisie should be of great assistance.” Let us begin the practical organ­ Roond Trip $ .75 Modem Facilities has learned something since 1917. In effect, Herriot, Daladler and ization of the committees ! Let us Bound volumes of the NEW Subscription rates: In the United TENNIS SWIMMING SHOWERS M IL IT A N T fo r the year 1935 and But what was remarkable was Co. immediately made known that denounce the capitulations to the States $1.00 per year; 65c per six Band and Entertainment Every Saturday 1936, up to and in clu ding the that immediately all the famous they would have no part of it, just Radical blackmailers ! The cardinal months; Canada and foreign $1.50 $14 a Week $12 for Members “Jacobins” of the Daladler stripe as they attacked the workers after task of the hour is : 1) democratic present issue, all hound in one, per year; $1.00 six months. Bundle began to howl against the “dicta­ the events of Brest and Toulon, as election of the mass committees and w ill now be available. The price rates: Two cents per copy. For Information Call Labor Bookshop torship of the clubs” ! All these they w ill always attack every time 2) put the People’s Front Govern­ is $1.50. It can be ordered from ‘ SATURDAY, JU N E 6, 1936 23 East 12th Street STwy. #-0567 Labor Book Shop, 28 Bast 12th capitalist democrats, who had just real action is taken against the ment on the spot to execute its Vol. 2, No. 22 (Whole No. 74) lost 500,000 votes In the election, privileges of the bourgeoisie. promises. Street, New York, N. Y. SATURDAY, JUNE 6, 1936 NEW MflLTlTANT PAGE 3 Stalin Destroys Conquests of October Revolution

Bolsheviks Hounded; Class The Class Nature of the Soviet State Bureaucracy Strangles Enemy Granted New Rights A Letter from Leon Trotsky the Factory Committees

It Is possible to learn bow “Trot­ conscious Bolshevik-Leninist or When a worker abroad asks a by laughing and mocking them for skyists” are unearthed by reading a simply arrived independently at You ask the question of whether Precisely the bourgeoisie has re­ that the productive forces continue question about the conditions of the their prudishness. The social in­ telegram from Kazan printed in certain conclusions, is immaterial. the present Soviet system can give duced the forms of property to their in their rise, there w ill remain—in workers in the U.S.S.R., he is not surance funds were expended with­ the January 17 issue of Pravda • • • way to a “third” form of society, barest expression. The proletarian your hypothesis—nothing but the interested only in the material con­ out any control. The president of under the following scarehead: Privileges and Repressions which would be neither capitalist revolution nationalized capitalist fact that the bureaucracy has suc­ ditions of labor (wages, length of the committee did not permit the "The Trotskyist Calumny of Sur- By means of a special decree, the nor socialist. Urbahns believes that property. The question therefore ceeded in stabilizing, fortifying and the working day) but also in the workers to become delegates from ovtxev". It appears tbat during a Soviet government has abolished precisely this is “state capitalism,” arises: cannot this nationalization eternalizing its parasitism, juridi­ place of the workers in production. the factory to the insurance depart­ district membership meeting in all social restrictions in the sphere identifying the soviet system with itself degenerate into a fiction, real cally, ideologically and politically The most important conquest of ment. And the workers complained Bongulm, Surovtzev, the director of education. Henceforth children a fascist capitalism. In doing this property, under one form or an­ (and why not religiously?). This October was the occupation of the of many other things. of the machine and tractor station of former noblemen, capitalists and he completely forgets a small dif­ other, returning to the new ruling perspective assumes that the great factories by the working class. It Finally, after the discussion, they criticized the party regime or, as kulaks w ill be accepted into the ference: fascism hems in the high­ class emerging from the bureau­ mass of the population patiently ac­ bad become proprietor of all the passed over to the election of the Pravda puts it, “he openly and bra­ highest institutions of learning-on ly developed productive forces in cracy? cepts the new yoke despite the means of production. The factory new committee. It appears that zenly calumniated the party, deny­ the same plane with the children the framework of the national state Nationalized property stands or raising of the level of economy and committees had two extremely Im­ half of the candidates were not ing that conscious discipline exists of workers and peasants. “Today by cutting short their further de­ falls with planned economy. Thus, culture and endures it without of­ portant tasks: the control of pro­ even present at the conference, in the party”. there is no longer any need for velopment. The Soviet system, even it is not a fiction, but a powerful fering any insistence, and forever. duction, struggle for the improve­ the workers did not want to elect The indignant correspondent these restrictions,” announced Mol­ in its present form, imparts a rhy­ reality. Nationalization, however, That is not at all probable. To a ment of the conditions of labor un­ the absentees. The chairman of the states in his telegram that “One otov a t a session o f the G.E.O. in thm to the development of the pro­ does not only signify that the pro­ certain degree the progress of econ­ der the dictatorship of the prole­ conference and the presidium in­ would Imagine that such a speech January, 1936. One w ould im agine ductive forces never before attained. ductive forces are organized and omy opens great sources of power ta ria t. sisted nevertheless on the election to the bureaucracy. But this very would have met with harsh repudi­ that these words as well as the Urbahns thus does not know how to directed according to a plan, but What is the role of the factory of all the candidates. Why? Be­ also in the interests of all. The progress is more and more turning ation”. However, those present at privilege itself were to be under­ distinguish between what is his­ committees at the present time? cause “ the candidates have been en­ the meeting listened to Surovtzev stood in the sense that the stabil­ torically progressive and what is bureaucracy prejudices the new against its autocracy and its para­ dorsed by the party committee.” sitism . Nothing remains of the role they without any protests. Taking into ized socialist society is no longer arch-reactionary. system in these two ways. On the played in the past. With the de­ Finally, the president obtained the one hand, it reduces the efficiency account the Stalinist regime this in need of an artificial defense What perspective opens before generation of the party, the govern­ election of all the candidates and I see that you have nothing in of planned economy and on the implies that the meeting sided against the youth of bourgeois de­ us? Very probably a new revolu- ment, the trade unions, the factory even succeeded in “slipping into” common w ith Urbahn’s. formulation. other it consumes an enormous por­ completely with Surovtzev. Not scent. The only thing to do would tio n . This w ill not be a social rev­ committees have also undergone a the committee several members of But you think that the Soviet bu­ tion of its surplus. only the secretary of the District be to greet the new decree! But olution, but a political revolution. transformation. Their role now is the former committee whom the reaucracy, in its further develop­ If we speak of a “third” system, Committee but even the representa­ against the background of liberal The bourgeoisie too in its evolution that of a superintendent, an aid to workers had demanded be expelled ment, will be able to adapt the we must answer the question as to tive of the D istrict Committee, i.e., measures of this sort, all the more has known of “great” revolutions, the economic organs, closely con­ from the committee. forms of property to its own in­ whether it is a matter of the rights the Important party summit kept monstrous is the new flood of bur­ i.e., social revolutions, and purely nected with the entire bureaucratic In this note we see all the fea­ terests to such a point that it be­ newly acquired by the bureaucracy mum, not daring evidently to pro­ eaucratic viciousness against the political revolutions which took apparatus of the U.S.S.R. It Is no tures of bureaucratism: a scornful, comes in reality a ruling class. You to an ever larger party of.the na­ ceed too much counter to the mood oppositionists, the savage repres­ place on the basis of already estab­ longer the representative of the rude attitude towards the workers, do not specify these new forms of tional income—which would be of the meeting. “Only towards the sions against the working class lished property. . . . The theoretical working class, controlled by the the blind execution of orders “from property. You content yourself equivalent to the right of parasit­ end of the meeting, as a conse­ youth, the moment that the latter prognoses of Marx and Lenin did workers in the factory, but rather above” and the reduction to zero of with the general statement that ism, or if what is involved is the quence of the indignation expressed raises a voice in criticism. As a not foresee, in any case, the possi­ a group of functionaries under or­ the most elementary principles of living evolution is inexhaustible in virtual liquidation of planned econ­ by individual (!) Communists— matter of fact there is no contra­ bility of the political revolution on ders of the bureaucratic tops. democracy. It is interesting to note its new forms and formations. omy. Only the second hypothesis reads the telegram—did the secre­ diction here. The luxuriant growth the bases of property nationalized There is rarely any information that the only reaction of the editors In this general form, I find it as would constitute a new social base. tary of the District Committee of bourgeois relations in the sphere by the proletariat. But they did in the Soviet press on the real life of the paper in relating these facts difficult to adopt as to reject the We must clearly understand that briefly remark that the criticism of the distribution of the articles not also foresee the bonapartist de­ of the factory committees and their is to add at the bottom of the ar­ “third” possibility, because too the abolition of planned economy, of Surovtzev was incorrect and was of consumption, the re-establish­ generation of the proletarian dic­ relation to the working class. Only ticle: “Must we say after this‘that many factors must be abstracted and by the same token also the a repetition of everything ‘the ment of rankB ih the army and the tatorship. Both these things belong when it is impossible for them to the elections should be annulled?” for that: in the first place those nationalization of the productive Trotskyists said in their time’ ”. creation of a privileged stratum of to those stages, transitory forms, remain silent on some repugnant No, it is not by voiding that these that are decisive for our revolu­ forces, w ill inevitably and automat­ The entire mechanism of the meet­ the “beçt people” on the basis of etc., in the formation of which his­ facts does the bureaucracy itself go facts can be changed ! It is the en­ tionary activity. ically lead to paralysis and disin­ ing stands clearly revealed before personal performance open up the tory is so rich. The general laws in for “self-criticism” and assume tire bureaucratic system, where the tegration of the latter. We would of the evolution of capitalism to lower ranks follow in the footsteps ns. “The Individual indignant com­ possibility of a career for the self- Now, forms of property are social the air of seriously struggling then no longer have before us a socialism, as they are established of their superiors, where the crush­ munists"—Is, of course, the author seeking progeny of the bourgeoisie. forms par excellence. You cite ex­ against the “bureaucracy.” progressive system, but one in de­ by Marxism, do not lose their force ing of democracy is the principle of of the correspondence himself, the On the other hand the self-same amples—moreover taken from the composition, which would Inevitably by these “episodes" (very disagree­ To allow the reader to form his the regime, which bears the re­ henchman of Pravda, i.e., of the manifestations of the bourgeoislfi- pre-capitalist epoch—where certain lead to fascist capitalism. It is able “ episodes” ). own judgment on the real life of sponsibility for these revolting General Secretariat: it was only cation of the ruling summits en­ forms of property had no great conceivable that a development so the factory committees I w ill cite facts. upon his direct insistence that the gender opposition on the part of significance. These examples only These are a few considerations rich in possible formations creates several facts culled from the cen­ Naturally these committees do secretary explained to the meeting the working class youth, and at the prove that it is necessary to dis­ on the subject of the interesting tral organ of the Soviet trade unions that the very same criticism of the same time make this opposition es­ something original. But in the es­ problem which you have posed to not interest themselves in working tinguish the real from the supposed sence of the matter there would —Trad. These facts do not pre­ conditions in the factories which party regime received by those pecially dangerous and hated in the forms of property, i.e., from jurid­ me—and which I send you in all tend to give a complete picture of present with obvious sympathy, eyes of the bureaucracy. Thus the be hardly any change. haste. are often horrible. Listen to wbat ical fictions (which also have a real the life of the factory committees was nothing else than “Trotsky­ removal of restrictions upon those Let us suppose that planned the w orkers say in speeches a t rite function, but on a higher plane). economy remains basically intact, January 1, 1986 but should however provide useful 0.0. of the Metal Workers trade ism". The secretary was unable to who emerge from the bourgeois m il­ information. do more. It ought to be added that ieu and the strengthening of the unions (Trod, Dec. 26, 1935) : “The sim ilar episodes occur at hundreds repressions against the working Trad (Jan. 1, 1936) gives the children of the worker Mezendinov and thousands of party meetings. class youth naturally supplement following report of the life of the (he has worked in the factory since Whether Surovtzev is actually a one another. factory committee of the textile 1911) cannot attend school. They corporation at Tashkent: “For the have neither worn clothes nor Czarist Methods Return in Schools first time in three years, the work­ shoes.” In the chemical corpora­ ing men and women of tbe corpora­ tion at Mychitsinsk “it is very 1935 was a year o f “ great” re­ that is why all discipline “from power, the bureaucracy no longer tion met in conference to hear the damp, the workers remain standing Workers Party Joins the forms for the U.S.S.R In almost above” is superfluous. On the con­ tolerated any expression of free report of the outgoing factory com­ in their slippers on tbe damp floor; all fields of Soviet life, changes trary, the youth must develop free­ thought It demands absolute sub­ mittee and to elect a new one. Out it is very warm and close. New ma­ Socialist Party took place which remove the U.S.S. ly without the pressure of author­ mission. This regime was sim ilarly of the 19 members elected three chines have been placed in rite rope- R. ever further from the conquests ity exercised by the family, by the introduced in the school. Autonomy years ago only one remained. A ll walk, the amount of injurious se­ of October. The re-establishment (Continued from Page 1) school or anything else. of the pupils is supplanted by the the other members of the commit­ cretions has increased and the of grades in the army, the monetary “Tbe appeal to the scholars from police surveillance of adults—this tee were appointed.” workers have begun to contract cance of the day to day drudgery, knows very well reform, the reform of the family the People’s Commisariat of Educa­ is to guarantee the state from the It is clear that the workers eye-sicknesses.” The lack of ven­ what a powerful aid to these tasks is the clarifying and finally the academic reform tio n " in 1917 sa id : spirit of opposition. learned nothing from tbe report of tilation, the dampness causes rheu­ word, the sharp arrow pointing out the road ahead. are landmarks on the road of the "Pupils of the secondary schools The decree on academic reform, activity of the committee. During matism among the workers. Here degeneration of the Soviet state. must not, have no right to consider published by tbe Council of People’s Theory and practice go hand in hand in a healthy rev­ the discussion the indignation of is the situation already known to We intend to pause here exclusive^ themselves as children and to gov­ Comissars, Sept 3, 1935 makes a the factory committee: “. . . . In olutionary movement. Naturally, there are differ­ the workers was expressed in the ly on the academic reform, and by ern their future according to the complete sweep of everything intro­ speeches of some 50 of those pres­ the factory ‘Red Star,’ the new ences th a t arise a t every cru cial tu rn in g o f the road. contrast with the academic reform orders of their parents and their duced by the October Revolution ent (The small number indicates chairman of the factory committee^ These differences must be threshed out by free dis­ put into effect by the October rev­ teachers.” (Izvestia , October 15, and returns to the methods of ed­ the interest the workers have in comrade Bratchenko, coopted new olution, show how in 1936 Stalin 1917) ucation established by Gzarist cussion among the membership, and not decided by conferences of this kind). What members to the plenum and re­ is liquidating one by one the con­ The Government under Lenin ac­ Russia. Let usr examine this decree moved elected members from their bureaucratic decrees of self-constituted Popes. A did they speak about? They told quests of the revolution of 1917 in complished a veritable revolution as published in Pravda, Sept 4, of “70 men in the apparatus of the jobs. He did not call any meetings, party without democracy is not a party. The best and, the academic field and approaching in the academic system. A series of 1935, closer. The principal clause is committee who did nothing but not wanting to give them any re­ indeed, the only guarantee for a normal solution of the model of the Gzarist schools decrees opened a new era in the the following: were paid and that thousands of sponsible tasks although they were with its uniforms and respect for disputed questions is the fullest democracy in educa­ education of the youth. Above all “Underlying the ruling on the rubles were expended to maintain very active members.” uniforma . . an institution un­ their aim was the liquidation of the conduct of he pupils must be placed tional work and discussion, coupled with an attitude them.” They told of the relations These few facts present a par­ known even in the schools of the Gzarist system. a strict and conscientious applica­ o f the leader o f th e paym aster sec­ tial picture of the real situation in of responsibility and discipline. There is only one cure capitalist Nations of Europe. “Utilization of the system of tion of discipline, politeness In rela­ tion with the women workers: the factories of the U.S.S.R The for the terrible blight of mental stultification which Every government which does not marks for an estimate of the tion with teachers, comrades and “When we came to him to obtain working class of the U.S.S.R works support itself upon (he broad mas­ Stalinism and Old Guardism have brought into the knowledge or the conduct of a pu­ adults.” authorization for a sanitarium, he under extremely painful material ses o f the to ile rs and is the govern­ pil is annulled in all cases in ac­ What are the measures taken to labor movement: we must recapture, and make a liv­ unshamedly proposed to us to call and moral conditions because the ment of a minority utilizes as a ademic practise.” (No. 50 of the ensure that the pupils apply this for the authorizations . . . in the Soviet buraucracy sees in tbe guarantor of its power—just as it ing part“ of the heritage of the revolutionary move­ collection of decrees and laws, N.38, discipline? evening at his home.” When the workers only a force of labor whose utilizes the police apparatus—the ment, the Marxist principle that the free discussion published May 31, 1918) “Instruct a commission. . . to workers pleaded w ith the president duty it is to execute the plan, to education of the youth in a spirit of of ideas is the only method whereby the proletarian “The wearing of uniforms by. . . elaborate a draft of a ruling for of the factory committee, he replied« increase output and production. submission by suppressing a ll free pupils. . . as also the distribution of every type of School. The ruling vanguard can collectively hammer out the correct pro­ expression on the benches of the insignias and medals at the end of must have a categoric and absolute­ school they decree: gram that it needs if it is to work out the salvation of school. By creating a state police the term are annulled.” (361 “Col­ ly obligatory meaning for pupils as “To establish one uniform for system of education with supervis­ the human race. lection of decrees and laws” N. 28 well as for teachers. This ruling scholars.” (Pravda, Sept 4, 1935). ANNOUNCEMENT We are confident that in such an atmosphere of de­ ors of classes, uniforms, marks, in­ published Feb. 21, 1918). must be the fundamental document dividual memorandums, the State The most complete collection of . . . which strictly establishes the In comparing.the decree of 4-9- mocracy and discipline, the Socialist Party will g ro w has on the one hand the opportun­ all the principles of new education regime of studies and the basis for 1935 w ith th a t o f 1918, we see th a t WITH OUR ENTRY as never before. Already, with the ousting of the Old ity of controlling all the movements of the youth is the celebrated order in the school as well as the all that the victorious revolution INTO THE SOCIALIST Guard in New York and the simultaneous influx of rex- of the scholar and on the other “Charter of the United School of rules of conduct of pupils Inside had annulled of the cursed heritage of the past, is now re-established. PARTY THE PRESS OF olutionary elements the party has taken a swift leap hand it imbues the scholar with Labor of the R.S.F.S.R” and outside of school.” the principles of discipline and “1. A ll schools go under a single Autonomy and independence in THE WORKERS PARTY forward in membership and activity. The party is still “To introduce in all schools a “order,” i.e. with an absolute sub­ name—The United School of La­ uniform type of pupils’ report card 1918—s tric t discipline and “ p o lite ­ SUSPENDS PUBLICA­ in relation to the American working class, in its prac­ mission before the class in power. bor.” ness” tow ards the adults in 1935. on which all the principal rules for TION. THE EDITORIAL tical impact upon it, primarily a propaganda organi­ The bourgeois school has as its task “ 12. The old fo rm o f discipline the conduct of the pupil is to be A b o litio n o f the u nifo rm In 1918 zation. But it is today the party that can, given the not to create the free« citizen, but which corrupts the entire life of the inscribed.” —re-estblishment of the uniform in STAFF W ILL CONTRIB­ the functionary, the engineer, the school and the untrammelled devel­ “Every director is instructed to 1936. correct developments within it, become the party of doctor, humble and loyal servants UTE TO THE SOCIAL­ opment of the personality of the establish a personal record fo r every Abolition of marks and examina­ the masses. We revolutionary Internationalists who of the Government Such was the child cannot be maintained in the pupil.” (Pravda, Sept. 4, 1935). tions in 1918—re-establishm ent o f IST PARTY PRESS. are called “Trotskyites’’ begin our work in the Social­ school in Czarist Russia and so It School of Labor. The process of “The People’s Commissariat of marks and examinations in 1936. is in all capitalist countries. Dis­ ist Party with the fullest confidence in the outlook for labor itself develops this internal Public Education has established cipline and order in the school is A b o litio n o f surveillance in 1918 the future. discipline without which collective new models for the pupils’ report one of the guarantors of discipline and rational work is unimaginable.” —re-establishment of the uniform in WORKERS! We are not afraid of isolation. There are times card and for the pupil’s memorand­ etc. and order in the state. Revolution­ “ 17. The assignment o f o bligatory Protect Yourselves Against the um. Then, for the first time a per­ Of the “Charter of the United when the revolutionists, if they are to remain true to ary parties have always under­ homework is forbidden.” Hazards of Life. Join the stood the importance of the free sonal record is to be established School of Labor” nothing remains, their principles, have no other alternative. For more “18. A ll punishment in school is for every pupil. . . Every five days school and struggle for this libera­ forbidden.” nothing remains of the school it- WORKMEN’S SICK AND than seven years we endured repression and slander, the chief instructor of a class w ill DEATH BENEFIT FUND tion of the school has always been “19. A ll admission tests and tests self. contumely and physical assault, in an isolated struggle examine the memorandum, w ill OF THE U. S. an integral part of their programs. for the graduation from one class • • * for principle. We survived. We are proud of our That is why it is quite natural that mark cases of absence and tardi­ 1884-1935 to another at the end of the term ness in it and w ill demand the sig­ one of the first steps of the Russian We have dealt at length with the Organized, managed by and struggle. We retract nothing and repent nothing. We —are annulled.” nature of the parent under all re­ proletariat in power in 1917 was a reform o f 1918 and th a t o f 1935-36. are not afraid of isolation when circumstances impose (These detailed extracts are nec­ marks of the Instructor.” for workers with only one radical reform of tbe school. essary for us for a more complete Thus the recent scholastic reform purpose: to render protection it. But no less courage is required to turn away from The Revolutionary Reform “In the personal record there Trill (annulling that of the October comparison with tbe Stalinist de­ be marked for the entire duration to members and their families, isolation and move toward the mass party when con­ “Voluntary discipline, a spirit of Revolution) is only a link in the crees of 1936). of the studies, the marks of the pu­ and to support all endeavors mutual aid, the single school, au­ chain of the degeneration of the ditions open the way for such a step. It would be sec­ The Soviet pupil ceases to be a p il for every quarter, his prizes and and struggles for the Improve­ tonomy on the basis of complete Soviet regime. The party is smash­ tarian folly to reject the opportunity to participate subject of “labor” in tbe spirit of bis punishments.” (Izvestia, Jan. ment of tollers. equality, the collective principle ed, all rights for the workers are in a broader movement, bringing to it all our heritage the Czarist-bourgeois state, but be­ 15, 1986). About 50,000 members or­ everywhere; . . that is the princi­ comes an Independent citizen, with suppressed and the Soviet pupil is ganized in 850 branches. Re­ and all our ideas, which have been confirmed by every ple tbat w ill create tbe citizen we the right to exercise his own initia­ A special apparatus of Commun­ dressed In the pre-revolutionary serves $3,400,000. development in the international working class move­ need.” (“Basic Principles of the tive, his free thought and his w ill ist Youth organizers Is to be In­ uniform, dyed only in a new tin t Death benefit graded accord­ stalled for the surveillance of the Thus is “Socialism being built in ment. United School of Labor,” Ixvestia, • • • ing to age at entry. Sick bene­ No. 225, Oct 16, 1918) pupil Inside and outside of school. one country"! Joining the Socialist Party as we are, with our fit payments from $225 to $901) The extract quoted shows the The Stalinist Reform They are to watch over the moral­ —to men and women, accord­ ity and the state of mind of the ideas and traditions, we urge all revolutionary work­ complete incompatibility of the free With the death of Lenin began PAUL LUTTINGBR, MJ>. ing to classes. and revolutionary school in a work­ the struggle of Stalinism against pupils. They, better than the direc­ ers to do likewise and to add their energies to the ef­ DANUSL LUTTINGKB, HJX Monthly assessments from ers state with the old Gzarist Bolshevism, the struggle of tbe con­ tors, the instructors and the par­ 45c to $2.10. forts of the many thousands of socialist workers in a ents w ill follow the internal life of school. servative clique of bureaucrats S Washington Square Worth For further information common struggle to build a powerful party of revolu­ the adolescents. (Molodaia Guardia» ap­ The proletarian state does not against the representatives of the 1*2 and 6*8 Unapt Sundays ply to Main OIBce: tionary Socialism. N . 10) fear the free citizen, It has no need ideas of October. and Holidays. *14 Sense» A te , B ldyn. N . & of whips to assure its authority and After having strengthened its To facilitate control outside of PAGE 4 NEW MILITANT SATURDAY, JUNE 6, 1936 BLUM-THOREZ STRAIN TO HEAD OFF STRIKES Blum and Stalinists Place Preservation of Capitalist Order Above Workers’ Interests

One m illion French workers hare and Stalinists as the acts of “pro­ occupied 500 key plants, shops, vocateurs.” On May 9 the French Stalinist And in the same article: “The Com- mines and factories across the The Elections and After party officially pledged its unre­ ftunist Party has reaffirmed its sup­ served support to Leon Blum. “It port of the Blum government” whole of France. In the elections, the workers and Stalinists Incite Pogrom Against is necessary to assure at any price the petty bourgeoisie gave resound­ God Forbid! To end the spontaneous sit-down the triumph of the experiment we ing evidence of the depth of the “The capitalist press,” adds the strike that paralyzed French indus­ are about to launch.” (L’Humanite, leftward trend. The Radicals and Revolutionists at Commune Rally Daily Worker, “w ill, as usual, be try, to stifle the tendencies which May 1. Emphasis in original). the parties of the Center found silent or vague on what the workers led workers in Northern France to “Those who voted Communist, themselves cut to shadows. The are striking for, and may even at­ raise red flags over their factories, PARIS, May 25^-While last from marching past the sacred attacks the Stalinists worked perhaps did not vote for the Soviet fundamental sectors of the French year the traditional demonstra­ tempt. to misrepresent the strikes as the Socialist Premier Leon Blum, wall, occupied by the Stalinist and hand in hand with the police who system, but want to preserve peace supported by the French Stalinist population were splitting in two tion at the Wail of the Federate Socialist bureaucrats together slugged together with them, w ith­ being 'revolutionary.’ ” and guarantee the security of the And that would be the worst party and the General Confedera­ diamentric directions. Huge gains at the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, in with the future Prime Minister, out making any arrests. From a country. . . . Our people demand on the left. Gains on the right, crime of all—to call these strikes tion of Labor, has rushed through commemoration of the victims of Leon B lum . certain point of view the profi­ that the agonizing threat of the a “settlement” of their Immediate which polled only 1,000,000 less the Commune, took place under “revolutionary” only less heinous a Before the supporters of the ciency of the Stalinist police is civil war leagues comes to an end.” votes than the le ft crime than the French workers demands which in the present state the cloud of the Stalin-Laval dec­ Fourth International arrived at superior to that of the state po­ (Thorez, l’Humanite, May 10.) of French economy can have no larations, the Stalinists, depressed would themselves commit if they After the electoral victory, Leon the entry to the cemetery, the lice: they can organize veritable The Communists called for Popu­ re a lity . went ahead and made their revolu­ Blum, leader of the Socialist Party or worried, had to suffer the jeers Stalinists and Henaff especially, mass pogroms and be more suc­ lar Front committees but hastened of the Bolshevik-Leninists, the tio n ! ■While in a few plants, workers and premier-designate of the - Peo­ had harrangued the crowd against cessful in separating and remov­ to explain on May 15 that these fesumed or opened negotiations, the ple’s Front government openly an­ Revolutionary Socialist Youth and them, spreading the rumor that ing the revolutionists from the “Order w ill ensure success,” ap­ committees “ would in no sense be pealed l’Humanite on June 6. “We announcement of Blum’s settlement nounced that he was taking power, the anarchists; etc., who shouted the renegade Do riot was in their masses, in digging a ditch be­ intended to substitute for existing ym greeted With a new wave of not to install a new order, but to “Sac an dos” («Adler’s pack on ranks, etc. Thereupon a crowd tween them. The Stalinists offer are sure that the people of France political parties or government in­ w ill preserve the magnificent mas­ btrikes, including 150,000 miners in “revive French economy” and pre­ your shoulders) at them and of more than a thousand threw the government not only their par­ stitutions. It is only a question of the north and 10,000 white collar serve the old order. The left vic­ danced a pirouette around them themselves upon the revolution­ liamentary support but their fists. tery over itself which it has dis­ actively seconding the government played for several weeks.” Insurance company employees in tory caused a stampede on the without any serious scuffles ensu­ ists with the utmost savagery, As long as the betrayals of the . . ( l’H um anite, ¡May 15). Bourse and a steady flow of gold ing, this year the demonstration throwing rod« and refuse at future Blum government does not Jouhaux, the Bill Green of Paris. The grand total rose oyer C.P. Urges W orkers R eturn one million. from the country, calculated to was turned into a veritable mass them, tearing down their four disillusion broad masses, this sup­ France, also, in a radio speech, "de­ “We are facing a situation in force the new government to deval­ pogrom against the revolutionists. large red flags, destroying all the port w ill retain its efficacy. The On May 29, in the first stages of fended the strikers’ movement” but which every hour counts,” declared uate the franc and bear the brunt H iirsty for revenge, proud of placards, among which was one incidents of Sunday, May 24 are the strike, the United Press report­ “warned them against any manifes­ Blum, bringing laws to the Cham­ of the widespread miseries that step their electoral victory and con­ which called for the liberation of only a foretaste' of what is being ed that “the responsible leaders of tation that might lead to conflict ber to implement the settlement. w ill entail for the lower strata of scious of their role as policemen the Bolshevik-Leninist prisoners prepared against the revolution­ the labor unions and the Commu­ with opposition organizations.” The fundamental function of the the population. Blum made sweep­ of the incoming government of of Stalin, which had especially ists. nist Party were urging their mem­ A li together they chpered Leon “settlement” is to ward off the im­ ing statements of “appeasement.” the “People’s Front,’’ the Stalin­ aroused the Ire of the Stalinists. The morning after, Populates* bers to go back to work.” Blum in the Ghamber on June 6 mediate threat of the workers’ of­ The Bourse promptly recovered con­ ists not only provoked brawls all The column was broken, the Stal­ organ of the future/ government Like the Socialists and Jouhaux when he flatly declared: "We shall fensive. It w ill drag them into fidence in Blum. The workers be­ along the line of march against inists succeeded in their job. for the first time took up the Stal­ and the trade unions, the Commu­ govern as republicans. We shall negotiations, Ijreak their solid front gan to lose lb During the long the Bolshevik-Leninists, the Rev­ Only a small detachment among inist slander of “Trotskyist^pro- nists were caught short by the guarantee the Republican order.” and destroy their unity. In the delay before Blum took power, their olutionary Socialist Youth and the whom were several women, brav­ vocateurs,” eulogized Henaff and strike movement. First they tried Strikes Continue meantime, the French bourgeoisie confidence ebbed still further while Internationalist Communist Party, ing the blows, succeeded in enter­ rejoiced in the fact that several to hush it Failing that, finally on Socialist, Stalinist and C.G.T. ap­ and its Fascist gangs w ill have Blum, Faure, Lebas and Co. begged and the anarchists, who formed ing the cemetery and of march­ “ citizens were slightly maltreat­ June 4, they issued a statement peals did not check the movement. ample time to prepare to take hold Herriot, Boncour and all the old- a column of more than 1,000 peo­ ing with their banner before the ed” : that is small compensation “saluting” the strike. “A t the same The strikes mounted daily. The day when the People’s Front govern­ line Radicals, to come into their ple, but organized an ambush at Wall, shouting their fcidignation for the Stalinist cops. L’Hmnan- time file leading committee of the Blum presented his government to ment of Leon Blum has served its new government the entry to the cemetery in or­ at Thorez and Co. ite, on the other hand, maintained Communist Party promised the Blum the Chamber 136,000 workers joined purposes. Out of this suspicion stemmed der to prevent the revolutionists It is noteworthy that in their silence of the guilty. government its loyal support and the movement They wanted action. For the moment, the French the strikes that, hare swept France. urged continued unity and disci­ Blum, Salengro, Jouhaux and the bourgeoisie is heeding the urgent, This is proved by its spontaneity pline in file People’s Front. . . .” employers went into conference and piteous -plea of the French Stalin­ and the difficulty which the Social­ be in a state of anarchy. The be paralyzed by au infringement of play their assigned role. (Daily Worker, June 5). emerged with the “settlement” ists who on June 4 “warned the ists, the Stalinists and the C.G.T. People’s Front stands for order” order, by any interruption in the Andre Maurois, French bourgeois Following Blum’s radio speech hailed by all parties, the French employers that in the present in­ bureaucracy have had, in the words (N. Y. Times, June 4). vital services of the nation.” writer, described it in the N. Y. appealing for “industrial peace,” the bourgeois press most of all, as a ternational situation, a prolongation of a bourgeois correspondent, in Blum worked no miracles. “The At the same time it was openly Times of May 31 in the following Stalinists issued a special night happily peaceful termination of tbe of their resistance is endangering trying “to get in front of the strike strikes in the Paris district and announced that the government was terms: “The program . . . of the edition of l’Humanite to announce movement that threatens to upset the security of the country." (Daily and lead it instead of being dragged throughout the country, Instead of preparing to act as a strikebreaker. Communist leaders is not at all rev­ that “the French Communist Party all the calculations of the preserv­ Worker, June 5.) along in its wake.” (N. Y. Times, diminishing, spread . . (N. Y. Salengro, the U.P. reported on June olutionary. . . . The Russian Com­ fully supports the government’s ers of “Republican order.” announced legislative program.” Workers Take Possession June 6.) Times, June 5). 5, was planning an emergency rail­ munists who seek the aid of France But the troubles of the People’s (Daily 'Worker, June 5). While ‘Blum pleaded with the Capitalist Order, Blum Demands The first cabinet meeting issued way service in the event of a gen­ have no desire to see France weak­ Front government have only begun. a communique: “The government eral transport strike. Political Acts of Strike Its “settlement” was greeted with workers to end their strike, while The workers of France struck for ened by dissension.” has decided on the utmost efforts to Blum appealed for “industrial a new strike of 150,000 miners in Thorez-Cachin and Co. “ unreserv­ a new order. They want a com­ This description was amplified on On June 6 workers in Paris broke conclude a rapid and happy (?) so­ edly” supported Blum, workers in plete change. They want power. peace.” His appeal, reported the June 7 by no less a personage than out into the first violence of the the north of France and the build­ lution of the strike.” Herald-Tribune on June 6, “was ing trades workers in Paris and shop after shop laid down their They thought they had it in the Albert Sarraut, the outgoing pre­ strike, but what was more impor­ well received by the French bourse,” other workers in Bordeaux in the tools and took possession, grimly government of the People's Front Gov’t Prepares Strikebreaking mier, who absolved the Communists tant, carried out one of the first but “failed to make any visible im­ South. Accepting the settlement'be­ Ignoring the Socialist premier they This strike taught a different les­ Blum went to the radio to spread of all responsibility for the strike: clearly political acts of the strike: swept into power, grimly mistrust­ son. the good word. He “appealed for pression on the French strikes “It could not be that Moscow, They burned issues of the capital­ cause it is the only way out of tbe which continued to spread.” crisis for tbe moment, the employ­ fu l of his avowed determination to Blum took over the government calm.” “I hope the employers w ill which desired to encourage the m il­ ist papers, l’Intransigeant and Le ers served clear warning on Blum “preserve the capitalist order.” “at a moment when all authority show the greatest possible consider­ “It is fully realized,” said the itary strength of France in order Soir. They stormed the presses. Times, “that the situation is filled that bis government vfonld have to The tremendous strike movement seems to have disappeared in ation for the workers.” that she might be an effective ally On June 7, the Stalinist Daily with danger and that the govern­ face ail the consequences of the of the last fourteen days hurls the France, and order is being kept But even as he spoke new strikes against Germany, w ould w ish to see Worker, which had devoted inches ment must act quickly to get con­ settlement, because French indus­ lie into the teeth of the creators of only because hundreds of thousands broke. Blum’s appeal for calm was disorder in the country, unless the to the strike where the big bour­ trol of the strike by leading it and try would prove unable to carry the the People’s Front who declare that of workmen are themselves quiet greeted w ith 254 hew strikes within Soviet Government is returning to geois papers were giving it columns getting the workers’ confidence that weight imposed upon it. the French proletariat is not yet and orderly." (N.Y. Times, June 5). less than 25 hoars. its early ideals of fomenting world and whole pages, announced in a the electoral program of the Peo­ In the Chamber of Deputies Blum ripe for power. It was the great Roger Salengro, his Socialist Minis­ He asked the strikers “tp be pa­ revolution, and indications are ra­ headline : “Special Cable Spikes ple’s Front w ill be carried out” pleaded that “the occupation of fac­ leftward swing of the masses which ter of the Interior, had already set tient, to have confidence, to try to ther to the contrary” (N. Y. Times, Fake Rioting Reports.” “Calm and tories by strikers (is) less danger­ piled up the great People’s Front the tofle for the government’s at. obtain their demands by law. . . . On Other Side of Barricades June 8). discipline reign everywhere, despite ous than fighting in the streets.” majority in the recent elections. It titude: “This agitation is inadmis­ To be effective, the government Backing Blum to the hilt, the What has been the role of the alarmist stories printed with the was the same swing, moving way sible. The People’s Front must not must have public security. It would Stalinists continued unflinchingly to Stalinists since the election-? aim of provoking disturbances.” People’s Front Betrayal Everywhere beyond the leaders of the two big The People’s Front wants at all parties and the unified labor feder­ costs to avoid “fighting in tbe ation, which produced the great streets.” It offers the workers “set­ strikes of the past fortnight. tlements” which mean long-drawn Action Spontaneous A BALANCE OF SPANISH PEOPLES’ FRONT negotiations which are only now to Neither the Socialist Party, com­ begin. It seeks to drag out and ing to power in a bourgeois coali­ dissipate the legitimate w ill of the workers to independent struggle in tion government, nor the Stalinists By ALFREDO ROJAS Guards are reported practically the ■ national convention, empower­ cialist ranks, which forced Prieto the whole Spanish working class! who support that government, nor their own behalf, for their own At the moment that the Popular every day, All w&rkers’ centers ed - its subsidiaries to expel the to decline Azana’s invitation to be­ The only hope there s till might have the trade union bureaucracy, issued power. Front government begins to reign were closed in Lebrija, the general lefts and outlawed the left-wing pa­ come P rem ier; the speeches and a r­ been for the Maurln-Nin group— any strike call. The workers went In Spain today there is also a in France, it is highly instructive strike there was declared illegal, per, “Claridtyi.” When in response ticles intransigently attacking Az- after their joining the Popular into action without and despite all great strike wave, involving 300,000 to draw the balance sheet of the and the strike committee arrested. Caballero demands a new election ana, by Javier Bueno, Socialist Front, breaking with, joining and workers, and there can be plainly o f them. regime of the Popular Front gov­ AU syndicalist centers have been of the National Committee, that leader of the Asturian rebellion; breaking again, thus losing any Not an industry was unaffected; seen the People’s Front in action at ernment in Spain. closed in Madrid, and sixty syndi­ august body responds w ith the dec­ the party program proposed by the serious standing as a firm political steel, coal, munitions, automobiles, the next stage: the government ef After four months in power, the calist leaders arrested, with the laration that Caballero’s proposal Madrid oganization which, despite tendency—was in their correctly Cesares Is carrying out repressive airplanes, textiles, gas, power, estimating the epochal significance Spanish Popular Front government government threatening to outlaw is an unparalleled violation of par­ its confusion (for example, it says measures against working class or­ building, paper, press, department of the Socialist split. Now it is reveals itself as completely bank­ the sytndiicalist-led Confederation ty discipline! The rightist leaders that the organ of the proletarian ganizations and declaring strikes stores, trucking and transport. Ger­ clear the “Party of Marxian Unity” rupt As we predicted when it came of Labor if it did not cease its are bowled down at meetings, and dictatorship w ill be the Socialist ille g a l. minating In sporadic strikes in is a sterile, doomed sect; it has to power, it has not made the strikes. And now the government their chief spokesman, Indalecio Party) is a revolutionary program. Is Fascism in France the price scattered plants throughout the not even the specious virtue of an slightest beginning toward a solu­ has declared that aU general Prieto, accuses the left wing of an The split in the Socialist Party is the French working class and the month of May, the movement flared. apparently independent political tion of the problems of the Spanish strikes are iUegal, that strikes for attempt to assassinate him. In ac­ a basic one, between reformists and world proletariat must pay to ex­ Some 60,000 w orkers occupied fac­ course, but vacillates between op­ masses. The Menshevik perspec­ political demands are illegal, and tual fact, there are now two separ­ revolutionaries. plode the criminal treachery of tories on May 26. With a surge portunistic moves and gestures of tives of the Stalinists, who put for­ that it w ill shorty outlaw the strike ate Socialist parties in Spain. Role of the Stalinists those who preach “industrial peace,” that came from the most profound intransigence. Maurin, who holds a ward, among other absurdities, the as an Instrument of the proletariat The Spanish Bight-Wing Social­ “national security,” “class collabo­ depths of the working class, hun­ The Stalinists are playing a thor­ firm majority in the organization, idea that the government could altogether. ists are hardly to be differentiated ration” in the form of the People's dreds of thousands in a few days’ oughly reactionary role. They con­ is like a little shopkeeper; he w ill solve the land question, has been The demagogy of the republicans from the “Left” Republicans of the Front? time stopped most of the key wheels tinue to support the government fawn upon the Popular Front at exposed a^i demagogic fakery. The has worn thin. The government re­ stripe who now govern Spain. Pri­ of French industrial life. wholeheartedly. Azana is a “friend one moment, upon Caballero at The Program of Victory electoral pact of the People’s Front peats a ll the elaborate mumbo-jum­ eto has bitterly attacked the strikes of the Soviet Union” and therefore Their conscious demands were because they debilitate the country. another, he w ill do anything—only The coming period in France included a specific repudiation by bo o f the 1931 days: i t draws up inviolate. One need only look at simple: for a 40-hour week; for in­ He and his colleagues have a per­ let him keep his own little shop. must provide the answer. The the republicans of the proposal to elaborate plans for building Span­ the Stalinist press in any country creases in starvation wages, now as spective of decades of coUaboration The idea of independent political French workers, with their magnifi­ confiscate the landed estates; and, ish economy, it scolds the Catholics to discover that they have yet to little as three francs (18c) a day; with the republican bourgeoisie. intervention by entry into the So­ cent strength, their reserves and as the Stalinists themselves used for their unfriendliness to the Re­ utter a single word of criticism of for collective contracts; for vaca­ They wish to enter the government cialist Party is alien to such minds. their readiness for the final strug­ to insist during the “third period” public, it stages parliamentary de­ the Spanish government! Capitula­ tions with pay. to form a coalition cabinet So far, th^ main body of the old gle, must give that answer. To help days of 1931, it is impossible for bates in which a furious verbal tion can go no farther; it is, in Crisis-Wracks France The Left Wing Socialists are an Left Opposition has not broken them give it in favor of the revolu­ backward, impoverished Spate to struggle goes on against religious fact, the most conscious kind of extremely heterogeneous combina­ with this sterile clique; but the de­ tionary way out, the Bolshevik-Len­ But the unrealized implication make even a stab at purchasing the education, etc. But this game can­ collaboration with the bourgeoisie tion. Certainly Caballero, though veloping split in the Socialist Party inists of France in the present situ­ underlying the great strike wave estates. Even the 1931 regulations not be repeated again. More and —fo r the bourgeoisie, you see, is he rides the crest of its wave today, must finally galvanize all those ation are tirelessly advancing the went far beyond these demands. for minimum wages for the peas­ more the government has to resort for the League of Nations and pa­ is not its authentic spokesman. In who are capable of thinking politi­ following demands: French capitalism is in acute crisis. antry have not been re-instituted. to the use of open force against the tronizingly praises Russia as a one and the same breath CabaUero ca lly. 1. Immediate and full am­ I t has reached the end of its rope. The result is that the land workers masses. peace-loving country. The promis­ declares that Lenin's prediction nesty. Its government has been living from and peasants—and in Spate twenty- Crisis in the Labor Movement ing Socialist youth movement is Regroupment S till Waits that Spain w ill be the second So­ 2. 40-hour week without pay hand to mouth, on loans, on rev­ out of the twenty-four millions live The intensification of the class now in serious danger of perma­ The present status of the Span­ enues wrung from the meagre viet republic in Europe is about to cuts, collective contracts, unem­ on the land—are just as badly off struggle has created a profound nent stultification; its leaders were ish Revolution may be described, wages of its employees and its pen­ be realized—and that he w ill not ployment insurance. as ever. crisis in the working class. The taken to Moscow for conferences, in short, as one in which the sionaries. The cost of living is oppose the party’s collaboration in 3. Workers’ control of produc­ As the masses realize that they syndicalists, terribly discredited for and came back to effect the entry masses have lost all faith in the prohibitive. The French monetary the government if the convention so tion; nationalization of the Mg have been deluded, they are begin­ their refusal in most places to join .of the Stalinist youth into the So­ government, and consequently have system is being strained beyond Its decides! He denounces the syndi­ industries. ning to fight back. The last two the October, 1934 revolt, and their cialist youth. The very first doc­ broken the link between govern­ capacity to endure. It was to change calists for draining the energy of 4. Fusion of all private banks weeks have seen the greatest strike anarchistically negative attitude in ument issued by the “united” youth ment and tbe main body of the So­ all this, to win security for them- the proletariat in aimless strikes into one (the Bank of Stance In­ wave in a ll Spanish history. Noth­ February of this year toward the movement was a vicious attack on cialist proletariat; but ‘the re­ pelves and their families that the (and this is true enough), but the cluded) ; nationalization of credit ing under the first Republic com­ problem of overthrowing the semi­ Trotskyism. Fortunately, the cor­ groupment of the revolutionary workers of France have moved into reason why the syndicalists are to be distributed by the State to pares to the present movement of fascist regime, have now regained ruption of the youth leadership has forces has not yet produced a lead­ the political arena in the last two able to lead the work»» in such the workers, peasants and small the masses. In Malaga province a much *>f their prestige, thanks to not prevented district organizations ership capable and ready to trans­ years. strikes is that they do (filer the merchants. hundred thousand agarians are on the opportunistic support given the from demanding a turn to struggle form the Spanish crisis into a Their leftward surge, accompan­ workers some form of action, 5. Political rights for soldiers; strike; agrarian strikes are also Popular Front government by the against the government. struggle for power. ied by a broad analogous trend of whereas Caballero, who heads the abolition of the 2-year m ilitary paralyzing Seville and other prov­ Stalinists and Socialists. The syn­ the impoverished petty bourgeoisie, General Union of Workers, pro­ Hie Maurin—Nta Party That leadership Is in process of service; reduction of toe war bud­ inces. The Asturian iron minora dicalists are now pressing their ad­ hard hit by the crisis, forced, the vides no leadership at all. He car­ The “Party of Marxian Unity”, arising out of the ranks of the get. vantage, even gaining ground in working class parties into a united are out Barcelona and Madrid find ries on a coy flirtation with the fusion of the former Lett Opposi­ Left Wing Sociialists. It has a 6. Arrest of the Fascist lead­ dozens of trades walking out In all Socialist-controlled Madrid; but front This united front instead of Stalinists, who support the Popular tion with the “Workers and Peas­ longer period in which to develop, ers; organization of a Workers’ there must be at least halt a m il­ their sporadic strike activity, coup­ leading the workers from struggle Front Government no less than the ants Bloc” led by Joaquin Maurin, that is, more time is permitted it, M ilitia; arming of the proletariat. lion out on strike today. led w ith no political perspective, is to struggle; against the bosses and Prietos, and deludes the Spanish a movement half-Oatalan national­ than is the case in France; for in 7. Formation of mass commit­ creating serious dissension in the their Fascist hired men, tacked it­ Hie Government Repression workers with the slogan of unity ist, has been caught entirely un­ Spain the forces of reaction are ba­ tees in shops, factories and local­ syndicalist ranks and w ill undoubt­ self on to the liberal bourgeoisie and Unable to solve Spate’s economic of all workers’ organizations as a awares by the split in the Social­ sically vety weak. But even in ities to carry out the workers’ dragged the workers into an alli­ problems, the government is re­ edly lead to an explosion as soon panacea. ist ranks. What is infinitely worse, Spain the revolutionary leadership own program. as a revolutionary re-groupment of ance with their own bitterest ene­ sorting more and more to the use Much more indicative of the it now pooh-poohs the significance must arise within a limited tme, The program of the Botehevft- forces becomes more apparent in mies. The workers strained to bat­ of violence against the workers and chasm which separates the two So­ of the split, the May 22 issue of its or reaction w ill triumph. The Lenintets is a program for a tle for their own lives, their own peasants. A week ago In Albacete the Spanish working class. cialist tendencies are the hundreds organ, La Batalla, declaring that masses are in motion, they want Workers’-Peasants’ Government. bread. The spontaneous struggles occurred a »massacre o f peasants by The Split in the &P. of strikes led by Socialists; the all- there is no basic difference between to fight to the end; bnt & long peri­ It demands a decisive break w ito at Brest and Toulon last August the Civil Guard, seventeen peas­ The crisls reveals itself most de­ Socialist tickets put up in a num­ Left and Right Socialists and even od o j sporadic, aimless activity, the bourgeoisie and a il its repre­ revealed their readiness to sweep ants being killed immediately, with cisively in fiie ranks of the mass ber of provinces during file Presi­ sinking so far as to say that if the will exhaust their vitality, and sentatives and lackeys in to e their path clean of the bourgeois many others reported dying of party of Spanish labor, the Social­ dential election ! the occupation of. split takes place It w ill lead to ter­ leave the way open for reaction. Radical party and calls for to e fiat» apparatus. Toulon and Brest ounds later. Deaths of workers ist». The Right wtog-controlled estates by Socialist-led peasants; rible conflicts between the twp fac­ Thus Spate mirrors also the com­ offensive toward toe workers’ Were denounced- by the Socialists Eid peasants at the bands of Civil National Committee bee postponed the terrific repercussions in the So- tions w ith dreadful consequences fo r ing events in France. power.