Stalin Murdered the MILITANT K rivitsky formerly the The New Proof—See Page 3 Socialist Appeal Official Weekly Organ of the Socialist Workers Party

VOL. V—No. 8 NEW YORK, N. Y. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY, 22 1941 FIVE (5) CENTS ‘RISK OF WAR’ ADMITTED BY FDR MEN GPU Now Attempt To Bandiera Rossa! Phrase Is A Part Free Killers Of Trotsky Of War Move No less an authority than W EH R M AC H T, German army m ilitary organ, admits the truth o f ‘the recent reports that captured Italian soldiers, when informed of the fall of Kor- First Open Move Is Made To Get Siqueiros Out of Jail, After itza, sang the revolutionary working class song, “ Bandiera Rossa” and other revolutionary Is Step to Prepare Public for Actual songs! Judges, In Fear of their Lives, Refuse To Pass On His Case The January, 1941, issue of W EHRMAC11T, in its section on foreign m ilitary news, W ar Involvement; Formula of “All page 23, says: “ Reports originating from foreign and enemy sources concerning unrest among Aid Short of W ar" Dropped Altogether M EX IC O C ITY , Feb. 15—The latest move- of Stalin’s and calculatingly having planted Italian front-line units are largely, but unfortunately not wholly, unsubstantiated. GPU is nothing less than a systematic move to prevent the pun­ two women spies near the Trot­ “Lieutenant-Colonel Meissner (German military attache in Athens) has con­ ishment of the GPU assassins who are now in jail awaiting trial sky household (to corrupt tlfb pol­ Roosevelt’s spokesmen in the Senate produced an entirely for the May 24, 1940 attempt to murder Trotsky and the assas­ ice on guard outside) more than firmed reports of the singing of revolutionary hymns by Italian prisoners formerly new formula in the opening speeches in Congress on Monday. three months before the actual sination on August 20. belonging to second class Landsturm regiments now being held in prison camps in “ Even at the risk of war” was the new formula. And with attempt. That he did this as a Thessaly. The comparative scartity of such incidents, considering the severity of the In addition to the successful assassin, Jacson, a group of subordinate cog in the murder- its appearance the original formula with which the “ Iend-leasc” men and women, most of whom have admitted their complicity, machine of the GPU—none of this fighting on the Greek front and the privations endured by the soldiers of Italy, is bill was justified— “ all aid short of war"— disappeared from the are awaiting trial for the M ay 24th attempt, in which they mur­ is so much as referred to in this a compliment to the endurance and the courage of the Italian Arm y both now and in scene altogether. dered Robert Sheldon Marie, Trotsky’s American secretary- letter of “Intellectuals and Art­ the past.” It was obvious that the “ risk of war” formula was not an guard. ists.” By “ Landsturm” regiments, the m ilitary organ refers to men between ihe ages of 35-45, accidental interpolation by anybody. It appeared first in the David Alfaro Siqueiros was so completely identified by most Let us recall to these “Intel­ serving mainly for duty behind the lines, and used at the front only in great emergencies. carefully-prepared ^address of Senator Barkley, m ajority leader, of his arrested accomplices as the organizer and leader of the lectuals and Artists” that the en­ was repeated by Senator Thomas*®- Four regiments of such troops, according to German reports, actually participated in front May 24th attempt that Siquei-^ ormity of Siqueiros’ crime was so of Utah and even more bluntly A Japanese army spokesman line actions in Greece in the December battles at Koritza. Ear from belittling the signific­ ros, when finally caught after move to prepare public opinion obvious that even the brazen Stal­ affirmed by Senator Pepper of described the landing as “ a bel­ being a fugitive for months, (and (he judges already softened inist leadership made no at tempi ance of the revolutionary demonstration made by these Italian soldiers, the German m ili­ Florida. ligerent action.” The British mil­ up bv more forceful private steps) ita ry spokesman - in Hongkong had to admit he participated in to defend him. On the contrary— tary organ’s “ explanation” only serves to confirm the fact and to reveal the desperate plight This formula so dominated the for putting Siqueiros at liberty. despite the fact that Siqueiros of H itler’s ally, the fascist regime of Italy. presentation of the proponents of meanwhile announced that “ all the assault. On Kebruaray 14th E l Popular— had been publicly identified with preparations humanly possible” This is the greatest news-that has come out of the war! For the revolutionary ferment the bill that the New York Times Yet the case of Siqueiros is Toledano’s paper, which prepared the Stalinist movement for fifteen headline (Feb. 18) was: “ Aid bill had been made to defend that not in the hands of a judge! tlie ideological ground for Trot­ yeai'3, had been a M ajor in the in Italy w ill inevitably spread to both sides o f the battlcfronts! urged in Senate even at the risk colony against any Japanese at­ (U nder M exican law, a case is sky’s m urder by its incessant Stalinist-controlled forces in Loy­ And it w ill inspire the revolutionary forces everywhere, just as did the Russian re­ of war.” tack. placed in the hands of a judge GPU-written slanders against him alist Spain, is president of tne volution'in 1917. Pepper went far: “Call it (See story on the Japanese who is given a year in which to --published a letter signed by Stalinist-front Union of Mexican It was the Russian revolution that reall y put an end to the war in 1918. It is the com­ war, or do not call it war,” he crisis, page 6.) Investigate and hand down a fin “ Intellectuals and Artists” and ad­ Ex-Combatants of Spain, etc. etc. ing Italian revolution and its aftermath of revolution elsewhere that will put an end to this declared—and a hush fell over El decision. There is no jury.) dressed to President Camacho, —the Stalinists made desperate the galleries, the correspond­ The first judge who had the “cheerfully offering our moral attempts to dissociate themselves war! ents report—“ Lay it down as a case insisted on being replaced. support” to Siqueiros. from Siqueiros. premise, America w ill not let What Big Business His -successor declined to take The letter does not directly ask STALINIST TESTIMONY England fall to Hitler. If this Says CIO “ Defense over the case and refused to give for Siqueiros’ release, but pre­ (b ill) w ill not save England, Thus David Serrano, member his reasons for so declining. But pares the way for that by com­ we w ill save it anyway.” of the Political Buro of the Mex­ Plan" Really Means the press spoke openly of the fact plete silence about the crime and ican Communist Party, arrested Which Senator Austin of Ver­ that the judge had been threaten­ much talk about what a “great and awaiting trial in the same S.W.P. Will Back A.L.P. mont, assistant Republican lead­ The Kipllnger WASHING­ ed by'the GPU, as the first judge artist” (painter) he is. It con­ er, went one better, dramatically had been. Other judges have also case—be was identified as having TON LETTER, circulated cludes by asking that Siqueiros striding into the center aisle of refused to take the case, and ordered the purchase of the police privately to business men, in be treated “justly.” The implica­ the chamber to declare, in solid­ therefore the records arc now in tion is'clearly presented: he is a un iform s used as disguises by the its Feb. 1 issue urges its em­ machine-gunners — proceeded to arity with tlie Democrats: ployer-subscribers to get and Mexico City, after a trip from “great” Mexican artist and there­ Candidate For Congress denounce Siqueiros. Serrano’s tes; Coyoaean to Villa Obregon and fore should go free. “ If ever it becomes necessary study the “ CIO Defense Plan” from there to Xochimilco. timony, made to the chief of pol­ for us to fight, we will fight!” issued by Philip Murray, CIO The purpose of GPU pressure UNESTHETIC DETAILS ice, General Jose Manuel Nunez, Local New York of the Socialist Workers Party informed We feel that the platform of It was abundantly clear that, head. to prevent any judge from handl­ T hat Siqueiros murdered I’ ob and released to the press on June the New York County Committee of the American Labor Party the American Labor Party (New over the week-end, a new strat­ Commenting on the results in g the case is clear. Thus tim e Harte. That he nearly succeeded 18, 1940, characterized Siqueiros this week that the S.W.P. is prepared to support the A.L.P. can­ York County Committee) presents egy meeting of the Roosevelt in­ of this “ Defense Plan,” the elapses in w hich the case, S ta lin ’s in m urd e rin g L,con and N a ta lia as an “undesirable person” and didate for Congressman in the 17th New York District. a pacifist rather than a militant ner circle had decided to launch Letter says: "half crazy.” Serrano stated he proletarian opposition to war. For agents hope, w ill gradually sink Trotsky. That he led a score of The S.W.P. sent a letter to this effect shortly after the news this new formula and abandon “ Labor is apt to get more- into oblivion. men with machine-guns in this at­ believed Siqueiros, together with became public that the A.L.P. county committee had named a example: You correctly oppose the the “short of war” line of argu­ Siqueiros’ brother, with their war-mongering ”!end-lease” hill and-more under government And now has come an open tempt. That he did this coldly candidate, Eugene Connolly. ^ ------ment. control. friends, were responsible for the now pending in Congress, but you As part of the anti-war cam­ are motivated in this action by Perhaps the immediate motiva­ attempt on Trotsky. The Com­ suggest no real alternative to it. “Labor discipline is not paign in the 17th District, the the burning necessity before the tion fo r this decision was the re­ munist party, Serrano stated, “for Our program does provide a real good, especially w ithin many S.W.P. w ill hold a rally at Trans­ labor movement of consolidating newal of the Ear Eastern crisis, some time bad been suspicious of alternative. We call for: CIO unions. The chiefs at the port Hall, 153 West 64th .Street, its forces and building an inde­ rather than the ostensible object top know this and admit i t them .” M ilitary training ot workers, on Thursday, March 6, at 8 p.m. pendent labor party on a national of the “ lend-lease” bill: the Eu­ (but not for quotation). ON THE WAR FRONTS Thus La Voz Germany would have of the ‘democracy of life in the ranks’ is the most utter ¡my more than there was justification in industrial science for mans seem to think otherwise brought the Germans into action flapdoodle anyone ever enunciated. Any service where That “ is the great leadership problem of the American preventing unionization. on still another Soviet frontier. Arm y today” — in other words the officers are going to decide and in these matters they have a soldier must address his commander as ‘The Cap- T hat’s why our party stands for; usually proved to be the more German victory over the Turks lain’ and is called ‘You’ in return is hardly democratic. what rights the conscripts w ill keep and which “ are essential” correct. would install them directly ad­ to surrender to 1 he tender mcrcies of the officer caste. To call Military training of workers, financed by the jacent. to the Caucasus and es­ Any mass effort where one is endowed with sole res­ The lurks have left them­ Ibis democracy is, as the Arm y and Navy Register says, tlie selves an exit in the pact by tablish them on a second coast ponsibility and given fu.ll authority for purposes of ef­ government, under control of the trade unions. of the Black Sea. This is what ficient action is hardly democratic... It is no solution most "utter flapdoodle anyone ever enunciated.” stating that it does not affect The establishment of special officers'’ training their obligations under other Stalin fears and this is what he to use

Battering Down Ford’s Bastille Wartime Censoring Has Already Begun, Highlights In Says Boss Organ The Labor Press You may have noticed that thick fog that is settling down By CARL O'SHEA over your morning newspaper. Here’s why. according to the President. Sal Hoffman writes On the pressure by the soup': in the AFL UPHOLSTERERS' 'Cause the lim it of compression Write to tis—tell us what’s going on in your part of the Feb. 1 issue of the Kiplinger JOURNAL that during (lie past (’Specially when you got no labor movement—what are the workers thinking aboutf—tell WASHINGTON LETTER, a weekly confidential bulletin year "a procession of important i gauge) us what the bosses are up to—-and the G-men and the local cops— Furniture Workers Locals previ­ Is tlie limit of tlie tubin’. and the Stalinists—send us that story the capitalist press didn't circulated privately to busi­ ness men: ously affiliated with another In­ A n ’ a knowledge of its age. print and that story they buried or distorted— our pages are open ternational have asked to be re to you. Letters must carry name and address, but indicate if you ^‘Censorship has started, like eetved within our fold.” Among “You don’t have to go to college Or read no fancy tracts. do not want your name printed. war-time, on paper, radio, the unions who have switched movies. It ’s voluntary, by re­ from the AFL Carpenters and the To be ’quainted with the logic quest, not mandatory. It cov­ CIO Woodworkers to the AFL Up­ Of a sim ple set of facts. of this paragraph regarding “torn W ants Us to Review ers certain -navy news, /unless . holsterers are locals in Paris, Tex­ You can't crowd no ten-pound of voice,” etc. those factors ap such news is announced or au- i as; New London, and Ladysmith, pressure pear nearly always and are not Dean of Canterbury's thorized by the government it- , Wis.; Winston-Salem; Hallarn, Into jes’ a t.wo-pound space, to he taken too seriously. self. Editors are complying': Pa.; TToquiam, Wash.: M innea­ Without tube an’ casing giving, “ Soviet Power ” If a review lias already appear without much complaint, but : polis," Minn.; and Burlington An’ explosion tailin’ place! ed then count me as one of t.-hosi it is recognized that the 're- , Iowa. ■Comments (sometimes annoy­ who missed it and would greatl; "So, the gents who plan our quest rules’ w ill be extended i Hoffman states “ we have added ingly repetitious and highly lau­ appreciate having it brought tc housin’’ later to other 'kinds of news. ! 27 new local unions to the rostei da tory) have been made to me my attention. If a review is to be An' who aim to shut us off “ This first dose of censor- of our International during 19-10 made would you kindly inforn From the 'strickly white-folks’ recently in connection with the We have added some 10.000. nev question of whether I have or me by letter of the issue and pub ship-by-request is not a big . buildings, members to our ranks. We havt lication in which it is to appear? dose, but it is a foretaste of Ai-nt goin' find tlie job so soft, haven’t read the latest “Bible" of consummated agreements wit! the Communist Party: “The So­ Thank you. what is to come when govern­ 'Cause when houses are exhausted K. G. S 2,000 .individual firms. A lm ost one- (An' there aint a one in sight) viet Power,” by the Dean of Can­ ment takes control. The ob­ half of our Local Unions nov terbu ry. Inasmuch as niv time Chicago. 111. Crampin’ black folks into ghettos ject will be not only to keep have 'one week vacation clause: Is like droppln’ dynamite! has been taken up considerably With pay’ . . . The average wagf with other matters. I have as yet valuuble secrets from the increase gained was 10 cents pet “Though the Housin’ Board had no chance to read it. ’We've Done It enemy. BUT ALSO TO PRO­ hour or $4 per week per mem dire cto r I feel, personally, that a review VIDE THE PROPER CONDI­ Editor: her.” Has the thing all cut an’ dried; by you or a member of the staff TIONS FOR PUBLIC MOR­ Revolts against the ultra-reac­ He may find his Jim-Crow ideals of this book would aid me consid­ Reader Smollett w ill lind an Women members of the CIO’s United Auto Workers Auxiliary are shown as they aid the Ford tionary regime of Hutcheson in Bouncin’ back to skin liis hide! erably. It. is possible also that exhaustive review of the Dean ALE.” (Our emphasis.) Union organizing drive. They are distributing union literature at the River Rouge plant. the Carpenters and against the You can’t crowd no 10-pound the re m ay be others in m.v pre di­ of Canterbury’s “Soviet Pow­ er” in the current (February) Stalinist raisleaders in (lie Wood pressure cament who would also desire a workers explains this situation. In to norm al 2-pound space, review . issue of our monthly magazine, * * Without riskin’ that your tire w ill Also, the tone of voice and gen­ FOURTH INTERNATIONAL. La Follette's PROORESSIVF Blow right smack up in your eral impressions of these individ­ That review w ill provide him for February- 8th reprints a com fa ce !” uals who recommend the book with the direct citations from "Silk Stocking" District Has Many * * * inent from an anonymous Engl ¡si- suggest, th a t it is som ething rea l­ the Soviet press and Stalin’s ukases which give the lie to columnist confirming our view; Charles Yale Harrison, pro-war ly worth looking into. Further­ Social-Democrat, is now director more, an individual who I be­ the pious Dean’s fairy tales. that Roosevelt's aid to England can have only reactionary effects of public relations of the Elec­ lieve was telling the truth stated We also intend to review the Dean soon in THE M ILITA N T. Poor — They Like Our Program “The National Government re trical Workers Union Local 3 in th a t the o rig in a l edition of 100,000 We'll also bet anybody even m ains national, but. so does tin New York. He used to be featured had already been subscribed for ■•olumnist for the New Leader at money that the Dean's book— 5,000 were at the meeting, almost national dilemma. We can have > and plans were being made for which time lie defended it against which hasn’t a word on the all of them Negroes. National Government only on con the publication of another. Since Those Who Signed Nominating Petitions For Our Candidate Trotskyist criticism. Now lie’s abolition of free education, the Comrade Burch discussed one of dilion that it is an all-party gov th is book, as stated above, is be­ written a letter to the Socialist new statutes of the Red Army, the ideas expressed at the meet­ em inent. B ut the domestic isSue' ginning to appear as a “Bible” Knew What They Were Supporting: They Made Sure Of That Call telling of the splendid strike the June 26 labor laws, etc. ing: “ Peace and Democracy.” raised by the war are so profound for the Stalinists it doubly de­ if Local 3 against Leviton, and etc.—w ill soon be withdrawn “Under capitalism there is nei­ that an all-party government car mands a review. In looking back orolesting that the New Leader is The campaign to place Arthur Burch on the ballot in the1®’ ther peace nor democracy,” Com­ exist only by ignoring them. Sine' over tlie sentence at the beginning from circulation.—EDITORS. revolutionary candidate. "During ‘(lie only newspaper in New York Seventeenth Congressional district in New York as the candidate ' rade Burch explained to the the issues remain, it looks a( ■one disturbance in the West In­ ‘hat so far has not printed a sin­ of the Socialist Workers Party brought gratifying results. A l­ crowd. “Only the working class though the only way of prevent dies,” he said, “the British sent gle line on this important strug­ can lead the way out by opposing ing the facade of national unit’ though this district embraces many of the wealthiest and most a battleship and shot down thou­ gle.” Harrison's late political the war and by overthrowing the from being broken hy some sor QUEENS BRANCH SOCIAL •reactionary families in the country, those gathering signatures sands of workers.” He invited the ’riends are so busy going to war Newark capitalist system.” of social revolution is that Amer .report that thousands of workers who live in the poverty-stricken signature collector to come in and that they can’t find tlie time or SAT. FEB. 22 8:30 P.M. The judge and the attorney, ica should finance the war. Amer sections were not only w illing to sign the nominating petitions, tell him about the program of the space to defend tlie workers Readers ! Remember our last affair??? when they took tlie floor, were iean finance would enable us tr but discussed the anti-war program of the parly. SWP. against the employers. forced to agree with Comrade retain the illusion of being a unit Beginning in the next issue of Those on relief were in many Bigger and Better! The popular response to the anti-war program of the So­ Burch that under capitalism there ed democracy hy sparing us tin * * * cases apprehensive that the La- THE MILITANT will be the This one? cialist Workers party is indicated by the fact that small shop­ was neither “peace” nor “democ­ extra financial pinch that would Latest union to fall victim to Guardia administration would first of a series of articles keepers in the working class sec-^" racy" hut they argued, like Fath­ expose the class cleavage. In othei the “conspiracy” charge is the Jamaica Labor Center seek reprisals against them, tftit tions offered their help in secur­ groes are heart-rending. Their er Divine, that the only way out words, America would pay us to Des Moines Drivers Union Local analyzing 92-21 165 St. (near Jamaica many signed despite this danger. ing signatures for the candidate. flats are unheated although it is was "God.” remain a capitalist democracy.” 90. Blanket indictments have been 92-21 165 Street the dead of winter. They are. The program of Trotskyism has * * * Father Divine likewise agreed returned against five union offi­ The Newark City (near Jamaica Ave.) EXAMINED PROGRAM .a powerful appeal to them, caught over-crowded and many without “with t.he speaker” that there was I-’d like to display to our M IL­ cers for "conspiring” against an In the homes of the workers as they are in the blind alley of Commission Elections (From Manhattan: Take 8th lights. neither “peace” nor “democracy” ITANT readers a man whom I anti-union truck operator who the petitions almost invariably re­ unemployment under the capital­ Ave. or BMT to 168 St„ Jam­ In one home an elderly widow I but in his opinion neither the would certainly nominate for th< took a punch at one of the union dealing with the class forces, ceived a hearty welcome, especial­ ist system. aica. 35 minutes from Times answered the door. Her lights had j “laboring classes” nor the “capi- best news-poet writing in the organizers and was properly re­ the candidates, the election is­ ly among the Negroes, but only In one home, two men playing Square.) been cut off because of her in­ j talist class” have a way out. Fath United States today, Mr. Charles pulsed. The case is s im ila r to the after they had read the party's cards denounced the “ reds” when sues, and the platform of the ability to pay the bill. She apol­ er Divine believes “God” is the H. I.oeb, who each week composes fink suit against tlie Minneapolis material. In one apartment bouse the petition circulator rang the Socialist Workers Party, ogized for the darkness, explain­ only way out. tn “editorial in rhyme” for the General Drivers Union Local 544. where the most desperate poverty bell and announced the purpose ing that her husband, formerly Comrade Burch was asked to Cleveland CALL-POST, Ne'gro pa­ Clarence Darrow once aptly des­ BY GEORGE BREITMAN was evident, the Negro families of his visit. A woman nursing a on W PA, had died and th a t she tak,e the flo o r again and he was per. Here’s his latest, on the hous­ cribed the conspiracy indictment In Los Angeles refused to sign the petitions on baby in the same room told them In addition, next week’s issue had nothing left but the miser­ able to dwell at greater length on ing shortage in Cleveland; as “a legal device which has been Buy the the first visit. “Leave us your to hush up. and took up the de­ w ill include announcement of able old-age pension granted by the program of the Socialist Wor­ The Blowout used as a modern and ancient prospectus and your newspaper,” fense of the “reds.” She signed the Socialist Workers Party’s the government. She was glad to kers Party in ending the oppres­ ‘‘If you’ve ever pumped a tire up dragnet for compassing tlie im­ MILITANT was the response of many in the the petition and said that she was nomination of a candidate. sign the petition that would place sion that is visited upon the work­ Mused my friend, Metheusalah prisonment and death of men at building, “we’ll read them and if glad to see the Trotskyists try a revolutionary candidate cn the ers, colored and white, by the ca­ Brown, whom the ruling class does not Lazerus Candy Store 2109 we agree we’ll sign." to get on the ballot. ballot. pitalist system. He received con­ Then you’ll know you never figger lik e .” THE MILITANT Brooklyn Ave. The comrade circulating the NOT SO FRIENDLY siderable applause. Book Store E. 1st St. petition reported that when he re­ FRIENDLY RESPONSES may be bought in Newark at It was not all clear sailing, how­ Rowan Ave. turned the following day, seven­ An old man who said that ho Newsstand, Broad & William ever. At one apartment a well- Sam Smit’s Newsstand 5th teen registered voters in the build­ was born in the West Indies and Confectionery, 11 Springfield dressed lady answered the bell & Main St. ing then gave their signatures. knew what capitalist democracy Friends, Branches The. liv in g conditions of the Ne- was like in practice in the col She refused to sign. “ I was a Re­ Keep This Date Open onies congratulated the signature publican,” she said. "I voted for collector on-his p - ’•mining a Wendell Wlllkie. After what has Anti-Wpr happened since the election, I’ve decided I’m through with politics.” Election Roily And she slammed the door. Closing the Campaign in the A Coughlinite upon learning 17(h D istrict A MILITANT START FOR THE MILITANT Grace Carlson the mission of the petition cir­ SUB DRIVE some of the best of them to culator smiled bitterly. “ We know Thursday, March 6 GATHERS STEAM shame! ! you fellows," he said. “ You stop- 8:30 P.M. W ith four additional branches Reports O n | ped our parade.” He likewise making the record this week, and MASS WORK j slammed the door. The memory TRANSPORT the totals of the early birds IN THE BRONX of how the Trotskyists led the WORKERS HALL swelling rapidly, we can really BRONX, N. Y.—“Our MILI­ The New 6-Page MILITANT New Locals fight against Coughlin is still 153 West 64th Street state that the SUB DRIVE is off TANT work at an important fre s h ! New York City to an excellent start. Almost union hall in the Bronx reveals tw.ice as many subs came in, dur­ what results can be obtained by PENTHOUSE STALINIST a continued and steady distribu­ announces By GRACE CARLSON One comrade decided to try one ing the second week of the drive, as in the first: 64 this week in tion of our paper. PITTSBURGH — The most in­ of the exclusive streets where “After our covering this local in conjunction with the the wealthy live. He picked out comparison to last week’s 34. teresting news of tlie week on Minneapolis brought in the lion’s for about two months the work­ my tour conies from two cities the most sumptuous apartment ers now come to us and ask-for house, rode* with the uniformed SCHEDULE OF share: 23 subs in one week. where until the other h-v our Here’s the score-board; show­ papers. A t first they wouldn’t party had nothing—PiLoburgh elevator man to the top floor and even accept them, but now they started ringing bells. The first ing the subs fo r this week, the FOURTH INTERNATIONAL magazine and Baltimore. CARLSON TOUR actually ask for them. And when door he tried swung open on total thus far, and the total num­ Today, however, the So: ialist vfe miss a week they complain thick rugs. He caught a glimpse ber of points (for half-dollars Workers Party is definitely on Fri. Feh. 21 Memphis that they’ve been skipped. of a huge radio, a grand piano, collected); the political map in Pittsburgh. Sat. Feb. 22 A Special Introductory Offer an oil painting on the wall. A Week’s Total Total “ Previously when we covered My meeting here was the only Sun. Feb. 23 Arkansas young man with soft white hands Place Subs Subs Points a factory and didn’t get any re­ public comment'-ration of the an­ Mon. Feb. 24 Arkansas looked at the hulking worker ask­ Minnesota 23 26 59 sults we quit and looked around niversary of Lenin’s death. Twen­ Tues. Feb. 25 to both publications: ing for a signature to help a Trot­ Texas New York 8 16 29 1 for another place. This was a bad ty-nine workers attended the open Wed. Feb. 26 skyist candidate pet on the ballot. Texas Chicago 8 11 17 mistake. It finally dawned on us meeting, and indicated by their Thurs. Feb. 27 “You say you oppose imperialist Newark 5 8 11 that it takes the workers not a 8 issues of THE MILITANT both to Thurs. Mar. 13 interested questions and partici­ war and stand for the revolution­ Los Angeles 4 6 15 few weeks, but a few months to Fri. March 14 pation in the discussion a real ary overthrow of capitalism?” ask­ Los Angeles Allentown 4 4 7 overcome their initial hostility to 2 issues of FOURTH INTERNATIONAL for 50 interest in the Trotskyist pro­ Sat. March 15 and vicinity radicals and to have our point of ed the man in the door. “But I Boston 3 - 3 3 gram. Subscriptions for THE Sun. March 16 99 understand the Trotskyists are Flint 3 3 3 view sink in. Mon. March 17 » MILITANT were obtained and counter-revolutionary and against New Haven 2 6 7 “ However, once factory and You have reason to be proud of our fine publications! other Trotskyist literature was Tues. March 18 99 the Soviet Union.” Detroit 1 7 15 union hall work is carried on Wed. 99 sold, so we can be confident that “Are you a Stalinist?” asked March 19 Paterson 1 1 2 steadily, the results will inevit­ Introduce them to a friend! these workers intend to study our Thurs. March 20 99 the petition collector in amaze­ Philadelphia 1 1 2 ably come in. After a large group program. There is real promise Fri. ment. March 21 Albany 1 1 2 of workers reads the M ILITA N T ______CLIP AND MAIL THIS COUPON NOW ______of a rapid growth of our party Sat. March 22 San Francisco “Well, not exactly. But all the >> Plentywood 0 1 2 for a number of months its ef­ in this great steel center. liberal progressive circles say that Sun. March 23 fect is bound to be felt, and this 99 Cleveland 0 1 2 Baltimore is another important the Trotskyists are counter-revol­ Mon. March 24 is exactly what is taking place. The Militant 99 Kansas 0 1 2 steel center. It is also becoming utionary. I can’t sign.” He closed Tues. March 25 Now we are starting to get real Wed. March 26 99 «■ I . 116 University Place a cento- !n tlie aviation industry. the door. 64 98 Subs contacts among these New York New York City The “open shop” tradition of Bal­ The petition collector . decided Thurs. March 27 99 union workers.’’ timore is breaking down as the right then and there that perhaps Fri. March 28 The cities listed in bold letters The New York comrades I enclose 50c. Please send my introductory subscription to: SWOC and the UAW meet with it was an error to petition the Sat. March 29 are current leaders in their Chal­ lagged a bit behind the rest of great success in their organizing penthouse for signatures and rode Sun. March 30 Portland lenge Categories. Some are lead­ the country in learning the value drives. the glittering elevator back down Mon. •March 31 ers by sheer default of the others of mass work w ith the M ILI- Name ______The Baltimore bran h of the to the street. Tues. A p ril 1 Seattle in the same category, which have j TANT—but in the last few party was organized a short time Last Sunday night Comrade Wed. A p ril 2 not yet made their mark. | months they’ve been learning ago. Its first task, successfully Burch was invited by Fatner Div­ Thurs. A pril 3 The best surprise of the week | fast. Now in every borough of Address achiêved, was to get all of the ine’s organization to speak at ons’ Fri. A p ril 4 Plentywood was ALLENTOWN, coming : the city factories and union halls members into basic industry and of his mass meetings in Harlem. Sat. A p ril 5 W illiston through with a fistful of subs I are covered regularly with our jt-he unions of these industries. We He had invited two prominent Sund. A p ril 6 fast enough to place high up on paper. More and more New York j City ______otateState ______may look forward w ith confidence whites as guest speakers also. Mon. A p ril 7 Fargo the list, along with the big fel­ I workers are coming to know the to other achievements, and soon, Judge Walcott and Mr. Shintag, Tues. A p ril 8 lows. Good work, comrades! In I M ILITA N T and are asking fo r it by the Baltimore branch. a prominent attorney. More than Wed. A p ril 9 Twin Cities proportion to strength you put each week. FEBRUARY 22, 1941 THE MILITANT 3 Stalin Assassinated Krivitsky: The New Proof

What The Police Translator " Failed" To Tell Was In The "Suicide" Letter Krivitsky Slain, By THE EDITORS testily that the words which the police translation “ failed” Then Trotskyists-likewise must be made to recant. Rudolph The imprint of Stalin was plainly visible in ihe room to include occupy enough sppcc to make it impossible to as­ Klement, secretary of the Fourth International, “writes” a where Walter K rivitsky was found murdered. But something sume that a hasty translator skipped over them. letter from Paris to Trotsky, “ breaking” with him and white­ then happened. The police “ failed1' to make public Stalin’s im­ It was but one of a score of "failures” in the police in­ washing Stalin, in July, 1938; just about the lime this “ letter” Says Barmine print. Here is the story, which all thinking people can judge vestigation of Krivitsky’s death. None of these “ failures” can arrives to Trotsky in Mexico, the dismembered body of poor for themselves. be explained by the ignorance of “ local police.” The Wash­ Klement -is fished out of the Seine and mutely explains ihe “ letter.” When Walter K rivitsky was found dead, the Washing­ ington police force is perhaps the most modern in the country. Ex-Soviet- Envoy, On Stalin's List, Warns ton police look possession of the three “ suicide” notes and is­ It is, indeed, not a local police force at all. Washington is run The debacle of the Klement “ letter” drives the Kremlin sued, after an inexplicable delay of nearly a day, the text of by the federal government. W ith the Far Eastern crisis ex­ to cram the murder of Trotsky somehow into the pattern of Friends He W ill Never Commit Suicide the letters, including a translation from the Russian of the ploding and relations with the Kremlin the crucial question recantations and whitewashings: the assassin Jacson "confes­ ses” that he, too, “ broke” with Trotsky, that “ perhaps Stalin “ letter” to his wife and son. The police insisted on retaining in that crisis, it was the perfect week for a GPU murder in Alexander G. Barmine, who as Charge d’Affaires of the possession of the originals but, again after some delay, re­ Washington. was right.” USSR in Greece broke with Stalin just a few days before K riv it­ leased a photostat copy to Louis Waldman, attorney for Mrs. Everything worked out perfectly for Stalin. By the time And when Jacson’s story, is broken down in court by sky did, made the following declaration in New York last week Krivitsky. Mrs. K rivitsky had discovered the “ omission,” the publicity Trotsky’s attorney, Albert Goldman, and when David Ser­ —on February 13— in the presence of bis wife and a number of For most of the week after K rivitsky’s death, M r. Wald­ on the case was over; the story had been pushed o ff the front rano, member of the Political Buro of the Communist Party witnesses. man remained in Washington, vainly attempting to get Fed­ [■age and out of the papers by the Far Eastern crisis. of Mexico, and the Stalinist, David Alfaro Siqueiros, are held “ In the presence of witnesses 1 hereby declare that under no circumstances do 1 intend to do away with myself and whatever eral authorities to conduct an adequate investigation. When it And now, with Mrs. K rivitsky having issued the correct as the organizers of the May 24, 1940 attempt on Trotsky, ‘letters’ might be found—in any eventuality—they will not be became clear that the coroner was going to be permitted to is­ version of the letter, it can appear in the Soviet press as then K rivitsky must “ testify” to the pattern of recantation and whitewashing. mine.” sue a verdict of suicide without a further investigation, Mr. “ proof” that all the other death-bed recantations of “ sinners” Before his break on December !, 19.37, Barmine had served Waldman threw up hisjtands and returned to New York. were true, for this one is authoritatively verified by the Wash­ Stalin is irrevocably the prisoner of this fantastic form­ for 19 years as a Soviet official, first as a soldier and political lie brought the photostat copy to Mrs. Krivitsky. As she ington police as the last words of a suicide. ula. lie must repeat it and repeat it and repeat it. Human commissar in the Red Arm y in 1919, then as a brigade com­ read it, there stared out at her two tremendous words which In each new crime, Stalin has been driven by the logic psychology must be transformed to lit Stalin’s murder-pat­ mander, Consul General in Persia, director-general of Imports, had not appeared in the translation issued by the police. of his situation to attempt to justify all his previous crimes. tern,-otherwise the long series of murders become known for first secretary of (lie Legation of what they are. If a hundred instances are not conclusive, then the USSR, then Charge d’Af­ In the translation issued by the police, the crucial sent­ The world is skeptical of the truth and sincerity of the numer­ Stalin w ill provide a thousand instances. faires. He had been a member of Nazi Press Pleased ences had read: ous recantations which have been “ signed” by oppositionists? the Communist Party of the USSR Stalin proves the truth and sincerity of these recantations by “ Good people w ill help you, but not enemies. 1 That is why Stalin had to put his signature to the mur­ since 1919. At the Death of issuing tenfold more. From 1924 to 1927 recantations were In making bis declaration, Bar- think my sins are big.” der of Krivitsky. Thanks to the “ failure” of the police trans­ W alter Krivitsky relatively infrequent. They are “ proved” by an increase in lation to reveal that, this fact w ill not be widely known ex­ m ine said: The actual text of those sentences in the photostat “ I have no doubt.-whatever their frequency and volume, from* 1927 to 1936. Those are cept as we and other labor papers can publicise it. One reads: that Walter K rivitsky was A Feb. 15 dispatch from not believed? Then the entire cadre of Lenin’s closest collab­ must record this as one of Stalin’s better efforts—so far. But murdered by Stalin’s agents. Geneva reports that, the con­ “ Good people w ill help you, but not enemies OF orators is paraded from 1936 to 1^38 in the ritual 6f recan­ we are not finished. Next Week we shall deal with other clues The letters that were found be­ trolled Nazi press has devoted T H E SOVIET PEOPLE. I think m y sins are big.” tations of their sins and whitewashings of Stalin. which, despite the skill of the forgers and\murderers, were side his body prove nothing at considerable space to the murder of Krivitsky. We have carefully examined the photostat copy. We can But these are not Trotskyists, not real oppositionists? left behind. all. The GPU has experts who are capable of w riting in any The Nazi press takes it for handwriting desired, whatever granted that Krivitsky was letters are required.” killed and goes on to say that After pointing out that the he deserved to die because he Kremlin had in its files consider­ was a Jew named Schmelke able written material of Krivit­ Ginsburg. Besides, the Nazis S ta lin ’s 18th Party “ Conference” Opens add, he was a “ Trotskyite” sky’s which the GPU experts could easily utilize for forgeries, Bar- and a “ Jewish rat.” mine declared: The Russian White Guard By JOHN G. WRIGHT characterization of Stalin’s rule: In other words, Stalin’s G.P.U. “ When I read in his ‘letter’ and anti-Semitic paper in It was not- Stalin who delivered the main report to the Eight­ The Reign of D irt! How Their Own Lies Expose the Liars w ill appoint special agents (“ sec­ to his wife the statement, ‘I New York, the NOVOYE eenth Part)' Conference which convened in the Kremlin on Feb­ Pravda, in commenting on Ma­ retaries” ) to enforce the new think my sins are big,’ I was RUSSKOYE SLOVO, is so “ law and order” to the letter. ruary 16th. The main reporter was a petty underling, one Georgi lenkov’s speech wrote: “ In eight very *much astonished that pleased with the Nazi version Malenkov, who is not even a prominent member of the Political industrial People’s Commissar­ Stalin always tries to represent his regime as an idyllic I f so much is admitted official­ there did not follow after­ of the case that it featured it iats 33,000 machine tools stood march of progress: successes pile up gradually and steadilyv The ly what must be the real situa­ wards: ‘Long live Stalin!” ’ last week. Buro but merely one of the secretaries of the Central Committee. idle. A t 7,629 enterprises, 170,000 tion in the Soviet Union? Kremlin marches from one victory to the next. What do a few (At the time Barmine made this This procedure is without precedent in the history of political electric motors were not mount­ Why has the Daily Worker purges, “ shortcomings,” murders, etc. matter, as against such statement, lie did not know that parties in general and of the Stalinist Party Conferences in par­ ed. The cement industry last year carried no news at all of the pre- the complete text of that “ letter" quite recently still shadowed my a background? ticular. worked only at 64 percent of its Conference “ discussion” ? told K riv its k y ’s w ife : “ Good every step. On February 17, the Daily Worker carried under a Moscow N ot that silence on Stalin’s part is in and of itself unpre­ capacity.” (Daily Worker, Feb­ Why does the Daily Worker in­ friends will help you, but not en­ “To remain in the service of cedented. Far from it. In every critical situation on the world ruary 18.) dateline a version of Malenkov’s speech obviously designed to gull sist on lying about Malenkov’s emies of the Soviet people.”) Stalin's government would have arena (China 1925-1927, Ger­ Malenkov denounced so many idiots and infants. We quote the most imposing section: report? Why does it claim that been to doom myself to the worst roborated by Malenkov’s speech W’HEN BARMINE BROKE many 1933, Spain 1931-37, et­ People’s Commissariats and Com­ “ In 1938 the capital investments ... constituted 22.3 billion “ every passing year sees an demoralization and to assume my and by—Stalin’s silence. cetera) this “Father of the missars as to make it obvious, in rubles; in 1939, 25.03 billion rubles; in 1940, 27.7 billion rubles” enormous increase in the gross Barmine’s public break with share of the responsibility for the The crisis in Soviet economy, Stalin was consummated by a Peoples”—whose whole political this case as in all others, that (Daily Worker, February 17). Verily, the march of billions! industrial output” ? crimes committed every day wisdom lies in evading, temporiz­ 'the complete breakdown of the statement addressed to tlic French against the people of my country. “ many” really means all. Let us confront these liars with their own lies: The official How could industrial output in­ ing and then betraying—has Third Stalinist Five-Year plan Committee of Inquiry info tber It would have been to betray the Às if to prove this, he referred Soviet figure for capital investments in the year 1936 is given as crease with “every passing year” has now been officially acknowl­ Moscow Trials on December 1, cause of socialism to which I have withdrawn to the sidelines to in his speech to the breakdown under a top-heavy bureaucracy, edged through the mouth of Ma­ 32 billion roubles. 1937. The Moscow T ria ls , lie de­ devoted my entire life. suck his pipe in silence. Indeed, of the railways and of water lenkov. So that! according to their own figures, in 1938 almost 10 under “armchair administrators,” clared. bad finally brought him “T am obeying my conscience i t can be said without any fear of transport. They have “ failed to In his speech he admitted billion rubles less was invested than in 1936; in 1939, almost “ buck-passers” etc? to the full realization “that a re­ in breaking with this government. exaggeration that the gravity of keep up to schedule in loadings that there was a “ lag” in “ sev­ seven billion less; in 1940, 4.3 billion less. In other words, in the No real defender of the Soviet actionary dictatorship had instal­ I am fully aware of the danger any given crisis may be partly of ores, petroleum, wheat, salt, eral key industries” ; that output last three years, —on the “ threshold of communism!” —industry Union would seek to cover up led itself in my country.*’ lo which 1 expose myself in act­ gauged by the duration of Stal­ wood and coal.” (N. Y. Times, in’s silences. had decreased “ in such industries has been expanding at a i;ate far below that during the Second the crimes of Stalinism which are “I would like to make the most ing this way. I am signing my as building material and lum­ February 17). weakening the workers’ state But this is the first time that Five Year Plan, namely in 1936. pressing, most desperate appeal to own death warrant and expose ber” ; that production costs have literally with every passing hour. public opinion,” he then said, “in the Kremlin Dictator has public­ FAMINE IN SIBERIA The levels already attained years ago have not been reached njyself to the blows of paid kill­ increased, and therefore the pr o­ Every thinking worker must qsk behalf at least of those — my ers. This consideration could not ly abdicated his leading role in W alter Duranty was permitted by the fourth year of the Third Five Year Plan. What bankrupts! a Party Conference. “ The atten­ ductivity of labor has fallen, in by the Moscow censors to cable himself why the Stalinists in chiefs and companions, all old modify in any way my line of con­ tion of the whole party,” cynical­ such industries as “oil, paper news of serious food shortages, America are compelled to cover Bolsheviks—of them who are still duct.” ly writes Pravda, “ ami all the and timber.” (N . Y. Times, Feb. i.e. famine in Siberia, one of the up G.P.U. lies and murders not perhaps living, and against the Only a few days after Barmine’s Soviet people centers on the Con­ 17). There is a “ backwardness,” great granaries of the Soviet omy is blamed, as usual, on ference,” reads the dispatch from only in Washington but in Mos­ false and ignoble accusations. I break with Stalin came that of ference.” (Daily Worker, Feb.- declared Malenkov, in “ coal, oil Union, due to the breakdown of scapegoats. “ A violent attack on Moscow, “ has the special right cow. am thinking of my friends re­ Krivitsky, for which the latter ruary 18). And yet a nonentity and textile industries in the transport. top-heavy bureaucracy and buck­ of replacing individual members When the Daily Worker first maining at their posts in other has now paid with his life. Only takes the floor on the main busi­ Urals, the Don, Kharkoff, Gorki, “ The Russians,” wrote Duranty, passing, blamed fo r slowing down of the Central Committee... printed the call for the Eighteenth countries of Europe, Asia or three months before that, the man ness before this all-important Yaroslav, Stalingrad, and D ne­ “ also need something else for Soviet industrial output was de­ though the number so1 replaced I Party Conference, it proudly an­ America, threatened daily with a who, after twenty years of serv­ Conference, while the “ General propetrovsk districts.” If the edi­ their great Siberian ‘empire,’ livered before Joseph Stalin.” must not exceed one-fifth of the nounced that all Party organiza­ sim ilar fate and placed before the ice to the USSR, had preceded Secretary” -sits mum on the Pre­ tors of the Daily Worker or the food. I t is all a matter of trans­ (N. Y. Times, Feb. 17). total number.” (Daily Worker, tions having more than 10,000 tragic dilemma: go back to cer­ Krivitsky and Barmine in break­ tain death, or, re,nouncing seeing sidium! Why? Dean of Canterbury were asked portation.” (N. Y. Times, Feb. The world-thus learns that a Feb. 15). members would be represented by ing with Stalin—Ignace Reiss— to call the roll of the most im­ "one reg ular delegate per 10,000 their country again, to risk the had been found riddled with ma­ The crisis in the Soviet Union 13). vast purge of the party has been To replace the victims, Malen­ portant industrial areas of the Party members” ( Daily Worker, bullets of the agents of the Secret chine gun slugs in Switzerland on must be very grave indeed* if Even the Daily Worker, which and is in progress. The party kov demanded “ hard-headed” ex­ Union, they would have to repeat December 21, 1940). Police abroad, of those agents who September 4, 1937. Stalin chooses not to talk. Ma­ was brazen enough to represent apparatus is “top-heavy.” Party ecutives and called fo r “ boldly Malenkov’s list of backward lenkov’s speech alone bears this Malenkov’s report as a picture of functionaries are being purged as promoting new capable workers The membership of the C.P.S.U. areas. out to the hilt. glowing progress, had to admit “ bureaucrats,” “armchair admin­ \Vith initiative.” In 1939 at the was officially given, in August last Party Congress Stalin made 1940 as alm ost 2 1|4 m illio n . Still more, the crisis is so grave “REIGN OF DiRT” that he “ spoke mainly of short­ istrators,” “ buck-passers,” “ chat­ a pledge to the Party that no Therefore, the number of "regular that Stalin is no longer able to In Soviet “ enterprises, shops, comings.” terboxes,” etc. etc. “Thieves” Break Into more mass purges would take delegates” at this Conference depots, harbor and railroad Small wonder, that Stalin pre­ On February 15 ihe Daily rule through the party, as the place. A ll the more reason for ferred, apart from all other con­ Worker unw ittingly announced could not be more than 225. avowed dominant force in Sov­ works” there was, according to keeping quiet in 1941. siderations, not to have these that not less than one-fifth of However S ta lin made a “ spe iet life. The party has been the same Malenkov, a “ reign of But in addition to being purged “New Leader” Office dirt.” Many a scoundrel some­ “shortcomings” entered into pub­ the incumbent Central Commit­ cial” provision. The Central Com­ shoved aside. Any nonentity may the party has been divested of lic record under his own name. tee would be lopped o ff at this mittee (alias Stalin) “gave one now address it with the voice of times utters the truth, even if authority not only in the Army, authority. Again, this is cor- unintentionally. We accent this The grave crisis in Soviet econ- Conference. “ The A ll Union Con- a d d itio n a l regular mandate to 125 The offices of the Social Demo­ and editorial offices of the Neio but in the sphere of economy. city committees . . . to 30 Party cratic Federation and the New Malenkov demanded, among Leader on the fourth floor, but organizations in railways and to Leader, weekly publication of the found nothing amiss there. other measures, “ undivided and 27 Party organizations in the Federation, were ransacked last At 12:30 A. M„ the building unchallenged authority fo r in­ ports, sea and river fleets.” ( D a ily Sunday in two separate raids. superintendent again checked the dustrial managers and foremen.” W orker, December 21, 1940. Our Both offices are located in the New Leader offices, but found ev­ And to make doubly certain that emphasis). JUST OFF THE PRESS Rand School building, 7 East 15th erything in order. The next morn­ this authority is not infringed The-flimsy pretext under which Street, New York City. ing, however, a staff member of upon, he announced as “ contemp­ Stalin violated—not for the first No property was damaged, nor the paper entered the editorial of­ lated” the following organiza­ time!—his own statutes reads as any money or valuables taken. fice to find that the office had tional “reform” : In all “indus­ follows: “In view of the fact that The raiders simply made a system­ been raided. trialized cities, districts and re­ the main question before the Con atic search of all papers, files and publics” the City and District Trained hands were apparent in The Assassination ference is the work of Party or­ documents in the offices. But they the manner in which entrance Party Committees, that is the ganizations in industry and trans left empty handed. into the locked offices and build­ bureaucratic tops, w ill henceforth port therefore” it is permissible The raiders left clear Indica­ in g had been made, as w e ll as appoint special secretaries “ to to appoint almost as many addi­ tions of their purpose. They were in the skillful fashion in which direct the party organizations of tio n a l “ reg ular mandates” as there seeking written matter, letters or locked desks and a safe were op­ of Leon Trotsky each industrial branch, and sim­ might be “regular delegates.” If documents. All desks, drawers, ened. ila rly . . . in railway and water that is not packing a Conference files and cabinets, as w ell as a transport” (Pravda, February in accordance with the best “de­ locked safe In the SDF office, had What type of letters and docu­ THE PROOFS OF STALIN'S GUILT 17). mocratic” traditions, what is it? been opened and their contents ments were the -clandestine carefully examined. searchers after to resort to such Representatives of the New desperate expedients? Not any or­ By Who Belongs to the Russian Party? Leader informed this reporter dinary records or letters which “ In one of the old factories of Presnaya, where more than that nothing of any consequence might he found in the offices of Albert Goldman 1,300 workers are employed, the party organization consists of was stolen. A few old papers and such a paper as the New Leader 119,” complained Pravda on July 24, 1940. letters of a completely worthless or such a political group as the Counsel for Leon Trotsky during the Investigation of the Moscow Trials Social Democrats. Red Presnaya was one of the oldest traditional strongholds character had been taken hapha­ But the intimate ties between Counsel for Natalia Sedoff Trotsky in the Trial of the G P U Assassin of ttie Bolshevik party under Lenin, even in the days of the Czar. zardly from the top of an open pile in the SDF office. This was the murdered Krivitsky and per­ Under Stalin, less than 10 percent of the total labor force is en­ done either to provide a false clue sons connected with or friendly rolled in the party, twenty three years after the October revo­ as to what the raiders were after, to the SDF and the New Leader, PRICE PER COPY — 15c lution. or as possible evidence which the might have led the murder gang The “ 10 percent” just about covers all the bureaucrats in agents might show their super­ to fear their possible possession Bundle rates submitted on request the factory. This “ ten percent” is composed of the self-same iors to prove they had carried out of posthumous letters or docu­ people whom Stalin has been purging of late as “ scroundrels who their assigned task. ments of Krivitsky. eat the bread that they haven’t earned” (darmoyedniki) and The first raid was made early Professional burglars, possess­ “ scoundrels who do nothing” (bezdelniki)—if'th e y happen to be Sunday afternoon upon the offices ing the skill with which this job PIONEER PUBLISHERS 116 UNIVERSITY PLACE trade union functionaries; and as “armchair administrators,” of the SDF, on the second floor was done, would use their talents of the Rand School. The discovery “ buck-passers,” “ chatterers” etcetera—if they happen to be party on much more profitable enter­ of the raid was made by the build­ NEW YORK, N. Y. functionaries.* prises than breaking into the of­ ing superintendent. He hastened fices of a minor political party to make a survey of the business and a small paper. 4 T II E MILITANT FEBRUARY 22, 1941 The Negro And The U.S. Army

What Is Happening Now Is A Repetition Of What Happened In 1917---

Once again the colored people of America apprehension at this time as to whether or not to every other demand of the Government, and old grievances existing, in even sharper form, are being exhorted to join the “war for democ­ the Negro people are going to remain loyal to to serve alqng any lines that would help in the within the "democratic” army and navy. In the racy.’’ Once again vague promises are being the country in this crisis.” He hastened to add, struggle that was being fought for humanity.” navy, they found themselves used only as waiters made them that “after the war” they will be re­ “There need be no fears on this score.” * This These petty-bourgeois and bourgeois Negroes and lackeys. In the army they found themselves warded if they behave now. Negro “leaders” , like was undoubtedly true as far as Scott was con­ were closer in their outlook to the white bour­ segregated, and given the dirtiest and mbst dan­ the Judas Goats that lead cattle to the slaughter, cerned. In reality, however, the Negro people were geoisie than to their oppressed brothers. Thus gerous jobs. are urging their people to join the war party, divided on the question of the war. In May, Scott could write: “Whenever a THOROUGHLY As the resentment of the Negroes grew. Sec­ and are under-writing the promises of the white 1918, Moton, Principal of Tuskegee Institute, EDUCATED WHITE MAN meets the EDUCATED retary of War Newton D. Baker appointed Em­ rulers. stated that “some people have ventured the sug­ TYPE AND BETTER CLASS OF NEGRO MEN.... met J. Scott as his Special Assistant on Negro Once again—for all this is like seeing a very gestion that this crisis is an opportune time for (he differences connected with the so-called Race matters, thus trying to make the colored masses rotten moving picture over again. It all hap­ the Negro to demand ‘his rights.' " Unfortunately, Problem are reduced to minimum.” (His emph­ think they had a defender at court. What actu­ pened in 1917^1918. W hat the promises o f w hite only a small minority among the Negro leaders asis.» Hidden in these words of an "educated” ally happened may be told in Scott’s words: “It rulers and Negro “ leaders” are worth, what the held this po'nt. of view. lr found its greatest Negro is a vast contempt for his oppressed "un­ was not possible to accomplish even a small pro­ colored worker-soldiers face in the armed forces, expression not in speeches, nor in editorials, but, educated” people. portion of favorable results in all the matters can be accurately judged by recalling the Negro’s rather, in the great struggles of the Negro masses The "better class” Negro urged his people to which arose: and . . . in many instances the full This chart shows how many days each average worker lost experiences during the last war. That is what during the war. This was the program to which forget that the same class which had oppressed measure of justice was not accorded Negro sol­ through injury and illness as compared to days lost through Eugene Varlin has done in this important series they turned instinctively. them and continued to oppress them was at the diers, sailors, and civilians; it yet remains a fact strikes. How about cracking down on the system that causes of articles which we begin with this issue.— The overwhelming majority of the Negro .peo­ helm of the war government. He declaimed that that during the whole period of the war the of­ the real bottleneck ! EDITORS. ple have no stake whatsoever in the existing capi­ the war was not “a while man’s war, nor a blgck fice of Special Assistant continued to urge a pro­ * H« * talist society. A small group, however, has man­ man’s war, but a war of all the peoples living gram of One Hundred Per Cent Americanism.” By EUGENE VARLIN aged to carve, a fairly comfortable niche for itself under the Stars and Stripes for the preservation “One of the most important functions of the . . . When Wilson plunged the United States Into within the prevailing order. Its economic position of human liberties throughout the world." He Special Assistant to the Secretary of War was to Youngstown “Quickie” a war "to save the world for democracy” in 1917, binds it to bourgeois society. This group of conceded that the Negro in the United States help maintain a healthy morale among the Negro democracy at home was in a pretty poor state. “leaders,” by virtue of its education and its eco­ "does labor under certain handicaps and injust­ soldiers and the twelve million colored Americans There lived in this country nearly twelve million nomic weight, occupies the Key positions in the ices,” but asked the Negro people to rise above whose loyalty was so sorely tried during, the war. Gets Quick Results Negroes—disfranchised politically, condemned to Negro press, the Negro organizations, the Negro these “ handicaps and injustices in the face of the In cooperation with the Committee of Public In­ drudge in the most menial occupations at long schools. This group of “leaders” supported the national emergency and need.” formation, he conducted a systematic campaign hours for low pay. They lived in city ghettos and in war and dragged the reluctant Negro masses in So the Negro was to fight for liberty in the of publicity . . . which kept the colored people and Widespread Use of "Quickie" Strikes Shows ramshackle country shacks, deprived for the most its wake. “Without advice or counsel from any rest of the world and to tolerate tyranny at- home. the country at large fully informed . . . especially part, of even meager educational opportunities, seg­ organized body, official or otherwise,” Moton Once the war was over, the lot of the Negro would as to the attitude of the Department with refer­ Steel Workers Are Getting Ready For Action regated and persecuted. Wilson’s new crusade did boasted, “the educated Negroes, professional and be alleviated. H a vin g seen th a t the Negroes had ence to opportunities offered and treatment ac­ not end the miserable conditions of the twentieth business men and educators generally, showed served their country loyally and unquestioningly, corded colored soldiers. This campaign did much 1 YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio, Feb. 17. izing Committee (CIO), which century serfs; it aggravated them. "At the out­ themselves as loyal and patriotic as any other the powers that be would of their own free will to reassure the colored soldier, to maintain the — A s trik e of over 1,000 w orkers called the strike, stated that as break of the war with Germany,” wrote Emmett Americans, and not only counseled their people to emancipate the Negro people. "When through the morale of colored Americans generally, and to in the Youngstown Sheet and a result of this militant action discipline which it (thè world) is now under­ J. Scott, "there seemed to be in America an epi­ be loyal, but urged them to avoid loose expressions utilize their efforts toward winning the war.” Tube Company and its subsidiary, “ 80 percent of tiie grievances have demic of racial disturbances, such as friction due even in jest which might lead others to misunder­ going, it is strippdd of arrogance, selfishness, Why was the morale of the colored soldiers Youngstown Metal Products Com­ been cleared up and arrangements to the rapid emigration of Negro labor from the stand. Not. only so, but they urged th e ir people and greed," said Moton, ” ... then we shall made for handling the other 20 “sorely tried” ? Why was a “publicity campaign” pany, which was called last Fri­ South to the North, lynchings of Negro men and to raise food, to buy Liberty Bonds, to respond have a real democracy in America . . . War is day, was ended this week-end percent.” necessary to “reassure” them? How “reassuring" women in a number of states, etc.... teaching us that we are inseparably linked here when the company agreed to set­ did it actually prove? “QUICKIE” TACTIC The ruling class displayed widespread anxiety in America. Races, creeds, colors, and classes all tle many of the long-standing * Scott. Emmett J.—"The American Negro in This strike is but the latest and grievances of the men immedia­ on the attitude of the Negro to the war. the W orld W a r” — W ashington, 1920. T h is was have their interests interrelated and interdepen­ biggest of the many “quickie” tely, and to settle the remainder On April 7, 1917. Scott wrote Julius Rosen- the “official history” of the Negro in the World dent ...” stoppages which the Sheet and of unsettled grievances before a wald, a member of the National Defense Board, War, written by the Secretary of War’s Negro While Moton and his kind were spouting such (The second article in this important series Tube workers have resorted to in federal negotiator at the end of that “throughout the South there is considerable advisor. fables, the Negro masses were finding all their recent weeks. Similar walk-outs w ill appear in the next issue.) this month. have occurred at the hated Rep­ The strike was called when the ublic plant. workers in the open-hearth The quickie” tactic-seems to be and conditioning departments of Sheet and Tube became ted up gaining headway, and its increas­ Two Blessed Events For The DuPonts with the continued refusal of the ing use by the steel workers is management to adjust a rapidly a sign of the growing ferment mounting ’back-log’ of grievances. and desire for action. A two-day Picket lines were formed before By DON DORE building of the plant at a cost- The Delaware Tax Commissioner ent biographer, the heads of the bad to discontinue tbe count be­ ‘quickie’ whs pulled two weeks ago two main entrances of tbe plant, I lie clu Pont Family, ninth on the list of America’s Sixty plus basis, entailing a huge profit is Pierre du Font. Most of the dynasty had to forbid more in- fore it was well under way. to halt the afternoon shift from at the Macdonald plant of U. S. in itself. After the war, the plant newspapers in the slate are own breeding in recent years. In 1937, The du Fonts have more per­ Families, has enjoyed two blessed events this month. The joyous going into the struck departments. Steel, despite the opposition of was sold to the Nashville Indus­ ed, directly Or indirectly, by the Ethel du Pout, daughter of Eu­ sonal servants to cater to their occasions were not announced by Waller Winchell, but in the Workers from other departments tria l C orporation fo r $3,500,000. du Ponts, who run the press like gene du Font, made the first fam­ every want than the Royal Family the organizer who spoke against financial section of the :New York Times. were permitted to pass the line on Now history is repeating itself. a department of their corporation. ily tie with one of the old landed of Great Britain, not excluding the strike in the name of “na­ On February I, E. I. clu Pont de Nemours and Co., chief showing a paid-up union card. Among several construction con­ The original du Font fortune fortunes, when she married Frank­ the King’s Own Life Guards. tional defense.” Another strike, holding of the famous "Dynasty of> Death," announced a net goes back some six generations. A similar walk-out had been in tracts recently awarded E. I. du lin D. Roosevelt. Jr. This brief examination of the that of (lie Vanadium plant work­ profit tor l c)40 of $86,945,173, after deductions for deprecia­ progress at. the Youngstown Metal Pont de Nemours and Company Thus the family has many What do the du Ponts do with “Dynasty of Death,” one of that Products Company, employing 250 ers at Browersville, Fa., was end­ tion, interest payments and all taxes. An additional $10,000,000 by tbe War Department, is one branches today, and numbers sev­ all their wealth? They have man­ handful of all-powerful families workers, since Wednesday. ed recently only after the regional was set aside as a “ special contingency” fund, which brings the for a new smokeless powder plant eral hundred people. But the basic aged to accumulate with it more who control the wealth and des­ profits to almost $97,000,000. I his betters, despite increased to be located at Childersberg. Ala­ fortune remains iil tbe control personal possessions than any tiny ol’ the entire nation, is suf­ While only G50 men were di­ director of Hie SWOC attacked tiie federal taxes, the figure for 1939 bama, in the am ount of $47,997,- of about one dozen. other single family in the world. ficient to demonstrate for whom rectly involved in the Sheet and strike and supported the com­ is this which has earned for the of $93,218,66!. And America 000, on a cost-plus fixed-fee basis. Despite the growth of the fam­ They have more estates, more tiie last, w ar was fought, and the Tube walk-out, the shutting down pany. du Font family the title, the “Dyn­ hasn't officially entered the war The du Font dynasty controls ily, it has managed to keep its yachts, more pipe organs, more present war is being fought. And of 11 open hearth furnaces and asty of Death.” These mounting strike actions yet. the entire state of Delaware and wealth all together. This was done swimming pools and more bath the workers will continue to suf­ the stoppage of steel ingots Irom During recent, years, the press in the steel industry here and In addition to this tidy sum the large adjoining sections of Penn­ by in-breeding marriages. In fact, rooms (hail any other family in fer and die in capitalist wars, the' blooming department affected agents of the du Fonts have at­ Family, it was announced on Feb­ sylvania. Th,e du Ponts build the the marriages of first cousins human history. One investigator until the rule of the parasites like other workers. elsewhere indicate the growing tempted to build up an elaborate ruary 7. will get its usual 25 per­ schools and roads in Delaware, among the du Fonts became so was able to count 723 bathrooihs tiie du Fonts is broken for good The organizer for Lodge No. desire for decisive action against fiction to the effect that the du cent out of the 1940 net "earn­ collect all the taxes, run the state. frequent, that, according to a rec­ on various du Font estates, but and all. 1462 of the Steel Workers Organ- the steel profiteers. ings” of General Motors, which Pont fortune is based only inci­ amounted to $195.500,000, compar­ dentally on war profits. Tliey ed w ith the $183,290,222 earnings point to the far-flung purely peace­ fo r 1939. time commercial enterprises of Hie du Pont company, paints, SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE dyes, fertilizers, and a hundred Chiang Kai-shek And The Stalinists WITH THE WORKERS other chemical products, like ny­ The $96,000,000 earnings of E. lon, etc. And it is true that these I. (In Pont do Nemours and Co., products have sustained the du most of w hich goes to the du Pont Fonts rather well through "lean” Family, compares with a total years of peace. Chiang Oppresses Masses Regardless O f Consequences To The War Against Japan wage and salary bill of $129,- But what put the du Pouts in (This is the second of two articles on Chiang when talk arose of a pact between Russia and When Browder speaks of “national unity,” he the language of the revolutionary movement, such 600,000 paid out by the company tiie billion dollar class was war. Kai-shek’s slaughter of the New Fourth Army.) Japan. A fter battles had occurred between pro­ is referring, of course, to the unprincipled poli­ in 1940 to 81,000 employes. I f a policy is one of outright treachery to the mass­ At the end of 1913, the total vincial Kuomintang troops and the Eighth Route the amount of this wage and sal­ tical bloc between the Chinese Communist Party es, and, in iho case of a backward semi-colonial assets of E. I. du Font de Nem­ ary fund is reduced by what was Army, which has been continually enlarging its and Chiang Kai-shek. Stifling (he initiative of country like China, treachery to the struggle for ours and Co. were $71,817,826. By By LI FU-JEN paid to high salaried company ex­ territory, Stalin cut off the stream of military the masses, this bloc, instead of holding back the national liberation from imperialism. For the rul­ the end of 1918, these assets had Tiie leaders of the Chinese Stalinists are least ecutives and officials, it is seen supplies that had been flowing to Chiang, thereby Japanese invaders, has enormously facilitated ing class, as T. V. Soong’s explanation fo r the grown to $308,816.297. Despite the of all to blame for the renewed activity of the that the du Pouts took approxim­ serving notice on Chiang That he was displeased their task, for it has served to fortify Hie Kuo- hundreds of millions of dollars peasants in central China which led to the recent attack on the New Fourth Arm y shows w ith ately $1 in profits for every $1 with tiie latter’s attitude toward the Chinese of war profits which went to swell mintang regime against the masses and to keep crystal clarity, places its class interests first, paid to the du Pont workers. attack upon, and the disarming of, the Stalinist- the private estates of the various Stalinists. Chiang, as yet unready for a real the direction and leadership of tiie war against Chiang and his class hackers w ill sabotage the From General Motors, the du controlled New Fourth Army. du Fonts, there were still enough showdown and hoping to continue getting Rus­ Japan in the hands of the reactionary ruling class struggle against Japan a thousand times before Fonts will get an estimated $50.- They are as im potent to h a lt the class profits left, to reinvest back into sian supplies until America should conic through which, as in the case of the Republican bour­ yielding an inch to the interests of the popular 000,000 income for 1940. And this, struggle in China as they arc in any other coun­ the company at a rate which in­ with more decisive aid, agreed to a compromise. with the earnings from their mun­ geoisie of Spain, was bound to sabotage the strug­ masses. creased tbe company’s assets over try. The debt-laden’, poverty-stricken peasants itions and chemical works, plus No move was made against the New Fourth gle. A passive military strategy throughout Although the attack on the New Fourth Army 100 percent each year for four will seize the land wherever they see an oppor­ millions from scores of subsidiary Army. (which reflected Chiaug’s l'ear of the masses and years. tunity of doing so. They still associate the (using Browder’s own words) has been a “ shat­ companies and partial holdings, Matters finally came to a head when Wash­ of potential m ilitary challengers to his own clique tering blow” to China’s “ national unity,” the. In 1911, the du Font company Communist Party with the agrarian revolution plus millions in huge bonuses and ington advanced sizeable loans to China and in­ rule), graft and corruption in a)l Hie ruling circles, had a gross revenue of $25,179.948 and the expropriation of the landowners. Who Stalinists, as is their custom, have gone crawling salaries as corporation executives, tensified its diplomatic pressure against Japan, an endless list of crimes against Hie army For the years 1915 through 1918 can blame them now l’or disavowing in practice on all fours before the hangmah of the Chinese plus hidden profits, adds up to at the same time stepping up its war prepara­ brought the war to the present stalemate. w e ll over $200,000.000 fo r the du the average annual gross revenue the desertion of the class struggle by their Stal­ revolution, have knuckled under, determined to tions in the Pacific. Feeling confident now that Font Family. was $261.000.000. reaching a peak in ist leaders? On all these scores, the Chinese Stalinist lead­ continue their fatal class-collaborationist policy Moscow’s material aid in the war with Japan The announcement of the huge of $329.121.608 fo r 1918. The near­ The Stalinist leaders, for their part, cannot ers have maintained an unbroken silence. Only to the very end. I t is necessary to expose this ly $100,000.000 net p ro fit of the could be dispensed with if necessary, Chi&ng de­ General Motors profit was "soft­ lead the peasant struggle. The “ united fron t” now does Browder find it possible to refer—and miserable clique of political bankrupts before du Font company for 1910 indi­ livered his final ultimatum to the New Fourth ened” by an additional statement with Chiang Kai-shek pomes before everything. then without naming the criminals—to the “cor­ the broad masses, to reveal the fatal character cates a gross revenue, for the first, Army and followed with sw ift .action which took that the company was going to And so they damp down the struggle and do their ruption and incapacity of the ruling generals,” of their alliance with Chiang Kai-shek, to urge pay o u t $12,500.000 in “ bonuses” vear of the current war. which tiie Stalinists almost completely unawares. Ru­ best to extinguish it. In this way, they cut them­ as if this were a new aiid sudden development. forward the independent, movement of the masses to its employes. It turns out that is already equal to or greater than mors of a Soviet-Japanese pact had revived. A question is in order: If the ruling generals under the leadership of the Chinese section of this “bonus” is really Hie prin­ that of the host period of the last selves off from their mass base. No wonder Chiang was determined to get rid of the menace (and Chiang Kai-shek surely comes within this the Fourth International. Only thus will it be ciple. and interest o n '$100 apiece war. Chiang experienced no difficulty in killing -1,000 on his flank in case Stalin and his Chinese hench­ category) arc corrupt and incapable, how can a possible to drive forward to victory against which the company induced 35,- CORRUPTION FLOURISHES New Fourth Arm y soldiers, disarming the rest, men should execute a sudden flip-flop into the bloc with them possibly serve the interests of Japan and all the other imperialist freebooters, 000 G. M. w orkers to put in to a WHERE DU FONTS ARE and arresting their commander! camp of Japanese imperialism. He has succeeded. China’s struggle against Japanese imperialism? to the social liberation of the Chinese people. “savings fund” in 1935. The. innumerable corrupt and Peasant activity to the rear of Shanghai is But General Motors is just a thievish practices by which the not the whole explanation foi* Chiang’s attack As the Stalinists place their miserable “ united We may be told that there are “good” generals Today Chiang attacks the Stalinisl-led peasant profitable side line for the du du Fonts massed their titanic war on the New Fourth Army. Chiang has always front” with Chiang above the considerations of and "bad” generals, just as the Stalinists once armies, thereby aiding the Japanese imperialists. Fonts. Their real personal for­ fortune, in connivance with the felt uneasy in the Stalinist embrace. When he the class struggle, so Chiang places his interests, discovered “good” (democratic) imperialists and Tomorrow, when war breaks out between Japan tune, estimated at well over a bil­ government, was exposed after the made his pact with the C.F. in 1937, before war and those of the exploiting class which lie rep­ “had” (fascist or nazi) imperialists. Then let and the United States, Chiang w ill draw closer lion dollars, lias come mainly last war h.v a three year investi­ resents, above the interests of the struggle with Browder put one label or the other on Chiang in to his imperialist masters in Washington and w ill from their first and greatest love, started with Japan, he realized that the Stalinist gation of the Graham Committee armies, free from attack, would be able to en­ Japan, I f Browder is to he believed—and it wc/uld the light of recent developments. For there is seek to subordinate China’s struggle against Japan the munitions racket. of the House of Representatives. large their territories and might grow into really seem that iu this ease he told the truth—the no question but that Chiang himself attacked and to the interests and war aims of dollar imperial­ WHY IT’S CALLED One choice example was the nit­ formidable opponents. The Eighth Route Army, Kuomintahg armies came into the area held by destroyed the anti-Japanese New Fourth Army. ism. t W ill the Chinese Stalinists then maintain rate conspiracy in which the du “DYNASTY OF DEATH” main Stalinist force, was virtually bottled up in the New Fourth Arm y “ in agreement and ap­ their unprincipled bloc with Chiang in the name The du Font tic Nemours clan, Fonts were heavily involved. the northwest and was not then considered a very parent collaboration with the Japanese forces. The Lie o f “ National Unity ” of continued “.national unity” against Japan, or “ Armorers to the Republic.” grew They organized a scheme to corn­ “National unity” is a fiction in all countries will they openly break with him? A break is fat on every war in which the er the sale of nitrates to the gov­ serious menace. But when the New Fourth Army They had no collisions with the Japanese. When common people fought and died ern men I. and to get: the govern­ was established to the rear of Shanghai soon they had completed their first attack, they then where there is a class society. There can be no more than likely if Stalin remains subservient to since the beginning of the nine­ ment to buy American nitrates, after the war started, Chiang realized that his stood aside and looked on while the Japanese took unity between the exploited and the exploiters. Hie Nazi war bloc. Belatedly it will be “discov­ teenth century. War is the busi­ although there was a cheap and position had been flanked. up the battle to smash, the Fourth Army. When If the party of the oppressed masses (which is ered” that. Chiang is the tool of American im­ ness of the diiPonts. But they abundant supply of Chilean ult­ (lie fighting was over, file Japanese and Wang what the Chinese Communist Party claims to he) perialism. Will this signify return to an indc- never wasted any time on battle­ ra I c. Events 'Leading to the Clash Ching-wei (head of the puppet gov’t in Nanking) enters into- a “united front.” with the party or uemic!il. revolutionary policy by (he Chinese Stal­ And although it was entirely fields. They have merely provided, More than a year ago- he demanded that thit- had regained the territory won by the valor and parties of the ruling class, and drops its own re­ inist leaders? Not at ail. They will remain at a. profit, the bullets, shells and unnecessary, the du Fonts for in- force should transfer to the northwest, there to genius of Yeh Ting and his associates- And the volutionary program in order to do so, this means agents of Stalin, serving his counter-revolutionary h ig h explosives lo r the conduct of stance, were given $90,000,000 by its subordination to the ruling class party and wars. They have transmuted the the government, to build a nitrate amalgamate with the Eighth Route Army. Chiang national unity of China which had held ba-'k aims. They w ill continue to'deceive and disorient blood of the war dead and wound- plant at Old Hickory, Tennessee, wanted all the Stalinist forces centered in one the Japanese invaders fo r more than four years the subordination of the interests of the masses the Chinese masses. They w ill continue to be the ed iut’o dollars and cents. And it The du Fonts contracted tor tbe region. His demand became all the more urgent had been given a shattering blow!” to those of tlie ir exploiters and oppressors. In stranglers of the Chinese revolution. FEBRUARY 22, J941 THE MILITANT 9

"LABOR W“TTH A WHITE SKIN CANNOT EMANCIPATE ITSELF T h e WHERE LABOR WITH A BLACK S K I N IS BRANDED" — KARL MARX. How The GPU Murdered Ignace Reiss Negro Struggle

By ALBERT PARKER - t S The Swiss Police Caught One Of The GPU Agents Involved And Solved The Crime

Beware of Judas Goats! By JOSEPH HANSEN sians in Russia" (.12, rue de Buie, Paris Vie). Tills On Saturday, September 4, at the Finhaut railway Representation Commerciale Sovietique in Paris; and Under the title. “Beware or Disunity.” printed On September 4. 1937, the Swiss police found tlie was a cover name for a nest of GPU agents. Here station she saw Reiss accompanied by his wife and they requested the Paris police to arrest them and in this week’s Pittsburgh Courier. Edward I.aw- body of a well-dressed man on the Cliamblandes road she became intimate with Pierre Sellwarzenberg, who child. She immediately telephoned to Rossi’s room hold them for extradition on the charge of complicity son, managing editor of Opportunity Magazine, not far from Lausanne. His body was riddled with introduced her to Serge Efron. GPU agent who posed in Lausanne. in the murder of Reiss. lias written the most nonsensical and disgusting machine gun slugs. His hand clinched a few strands, as a Russian journalist. Gertrude Schildbach answered the telephone. Grosovsky had already fled, to the Soviet Union, article that, lias yet appeared anywhere on the of gray hair. A Czecho-Slovakian passport in bis Schwarzenberg soon left Paris for Spain and was “Uncle lias left,” said Renata Steiner. however. Beletzky was questioned once by the police question of tlie Negro in the present war crisis. pocket gave bis name as Hans Eberliardt. not heard from again. Steiner received lier pay from Rossi came to the telephone and told Steiner to without their securing any information. He did not come immediately to Lausanne. When she reached wait to be questioned a second time, but disappeared. Lawson starts off by quoting a recent sjate- This name was already known to the Swiss police. Serge Efron. One of her first assignments was to Lausanne, Rossi sent her to Territet to search for Lydia Grosovsky was detained by the police and held ment of the National Urban League: “The Negro An anonymous denunciation of Eberhardl as a “traf­ trail Leon Sedov and his wife. the house where Mrs. Reiss was staying. for extradition. must guard against the possibility that, in the ficker in drugs’’ had been sent previously to police At various times she worked under the direction Unsuccessful at Territet, Steiner tried to telephone But contrary to all precedent, and without per­ excitement of the nation-wide defense program, headquarters. of Serge Efron on GPU assignments with Marcel Rol- Rossi, but. was unable to get. any response to repeated m itting it to leak out- into the press, until much later, propagandists for various'groups w ill attempt to The wife of the victim identified the body. He l’n (alias Dim itri Rmirensky, born October 24, 1897, ringing of his room. On September 5, she saw Mrs. the Paris court in charge of the case released Lydia stir up trouble between white and colored people.” was Ignace Reiss. He had been a member of the in Russia) with “Bob” (Pierre-Louls Ducomet,. a Communist Party of the USSR, a high functionary Frenchman born January 18, 1902) w ith Francois Reiss and trailed her to her home. Again she tried Gi-osovsky on bail of 50,000 francs. The Swiss author­ On this he comments: “Today that possibility of the CPU, decorated with the Order of the Red Rossi (Abbiat) and with three other GPU agents whom Rossi’s room without response. On September 6 slfc ities protested vigorously. They had already asked is a reality. In the press, on the radio, in count­ Flag. On June 27 of that year he had broken from she knew under the names of “Michel,” “Andre,” and read of the crime at Cliamblandes, but “attached no the French police to arrest GPU agents Gertrude less letters and handbills—and even more often the CPU, announced his decision to ,j£in the Fourth "Leo” (or “Adolphe”). Among the assignments this importance to it.” On the .7th, she began to wonder Schildbach, Schwarzenberg, Spiegelglass, Serge Efron, by word of mouth—we are hearing today the cry, International, and gone into hiding to escape the group carried out, besides trailing Leon Sedov, were and wrote to'Paris for instructions. On the $th the Knepyguine, Grosovsky, Beletzsky as well as the others ‘Let’s solve our own problems here in the United GPU killers. The denunciation which had been sent the trailing of Reiss and of his friend in Holland, police arrested her. traced to the French border. Now the one GPU States before we presume to interfere in the prob­ to the Swiss police revealed faots concerning the H. Sneevliet. agent whom the .French police had succeeded in ar­ A “ F rie n d ” Betrayed Reiss lems that beset the European nations.’ ” He aliases Reiss had used in line with Ills CPU duties— Others involved in the crime were the Grosovsky resting was permitted to go free! She was naturally points to recent statements of Dr. Robert Hut­ facts known Only to his superiors in the GPU. couple and Beletzky, posing as employees of Repres­ In response to a letter from Reiss, announcing his never seen again. split from Stalin, Gertrude Schildbach had written a chins, president of the University of Chicago, Dr. The automobile which had been used in the crime, entation Commerciale Soviétique in Paris, but in re­ The “laxity" of the French authorities was due sympathetic response. She came up from Rome where Emmett J. Scott, leading Negro Republican and a Chevrolet, was discovered. Ji had been rented from ality important GPU agents in Paris. On July 17, to pressure from Moscow and the anxiety of the French John P. Davis, executive secretary of the National a garage by a woman named Renata Steiner. In the 1937, Reiss had informed these petQle, with whom she was stationed to talk with Reiss. A woman, 43 government to keep in the good graces of Stalin in Negro Congress, to show that each (for different automobile, an overcoat was found bearing the label he had worked many years, bf his break with Stalin. years of age, she was rather short and masculine in view of the growing threat from Hitler—this was at reasons» has advocated this view. of a Madrid store. appearance, wore glasses, dressed plainly, had gray­ the time of the Franco-Soviet pact. From the view­ Hair the GPU Murdered Reiss ing hair. Her maiden name was Neugebauer; she Lawson claims lie doesn’t want to argue about Already at that time the GPU had launched its point of the “democrats” at the the helm of the campaign of murder against anti-fascist militants in was born in Germany. For twenty years she had the truth of their statements about conditions in The Swiss police were now able to reconstruct the French state, it would have been poor diplomacy to the Spanish Loyalist ranks who opposed Stalinism. worked with Reiss. At the time Zinoviev and Kam­ this country, that he is willing to admit that. crime from the beginning. permit the Swiss authorities to question the GPU Many Loyalist veterans were drawn into the GPU enev were shot, Schildbach had wept in talking about “But also,” he says in the same breath, such Reiss had been suspected by the GPU heads of agents who had been plotting muTder on French soil. ranks, as was later proved in the spectacular confes­ it with Reiss. statements “are dangerous.” And why? ” ... be­ “deviations” during the height of the 1937 purge. sions of the Loyalist veterans who participated in the Michel Spiegelglass. sub-chief of the Foreign Service Schildbach arrived in Switzerland on September The Plot Against Trotsky and His Son cause they paint for us an illusion . . . that alt 3. She told Reiss that she was in absolute agreement our problems could be solved in one brief period GPU machine gun raid on Trotsky’s bedroom on May of the GPU, was in Paris when Reiss decided to write The Swiss police also established that preparations with him, that she would break with the GPU, hut of readjustment .... because, by o ve rsim p lifyin g 24, 1940. his letter of rupture. Normally it would have gone were under way hy this’ same group of GPU agents did not know what to do in the future. Reiss told a many-faceted situation, tiiey lead to false hope.... directly to Moscow, but Spiegelglass, suspicious, ob­ to murder Leon Trotsky and his son, Leon Sedov. The Assassins Identified her that it was necessary to make a sharp break with because in their logical development they would tained it within an hour after its dispatch. The same Tlie discovery of the map of Mexico City in the room Police were soon able to positively identify one night Spiegelglass called a conference of a few high the past and to join the Fourth International. set one race against another, here in America, of Abbiat and the three attempts of tlie Soviet con­ of the assassins of Reiss: Gertrude Schildbach. In She asked Reiss to have dinner with her the fol­ at a time when we need more than anything else GPU functionaries and they decided that Reiss must sulate in Switzerland to obtain a passport for him to her hotel room the police found papers, photographs, lowing night, Saturday. Reiss told hor in a joking complete unity of spirit and full co-operation . . . be kille d . Mexico under the name of "Rossi” have already been and a box of chocolates which had been treated with way, that he was without money. This was no ob­ because, intentionally or not, they dovetail neatly Reiss, however, received a warning from someone mentioned. Abbiat, Serge Efron, Renata Steiger, Du­ strychnine. These chocolates had evidently been in­ stacle to Schildbach. She had enough money and into H itler’s technique of propaganda against the in the GPU service. This warning consisted of ring­ comet, Schwarzenberg, and Smirensky had also been tended for the Reiss'family. The strands of hair invited him to have dinner at her expense. Reiss democracies, which is divide and move in.” ing his telephone several times during the night. Each tra ilin g Sedov since 1936. They had succeeded in found clutched in the hand of the dead man were time Reiss lifted the receiver, the line went dead. agreed, although lie told his wife that Schildbach, renting an apartment separated from that of Sedov Later he asks. “ Could it be that Messrs. Hut­ proved by the police to be from the head of Schild­ Reiss understood. He left Paris at once. despite their long friendship, bad produced in him by no more than a balcony. Renata Steiner succeeded chins, Scott. Davis, et al, are helping him (H itler) bach. It was she who had lured Reiss into the trap, The GPU set out immediately to track him down. a very strange and incomprehensible impression. in striking up an acquaintance with Sedov and his to do this little job?” posing as sympathetic with his break from Stalinism. Ducomet, traveling with a false passport bearing the The police established that Reiss and Schildbach wife and made daily reports to Smirensky on the pro­ The other little nugget in this treacherous Schildbach had been brought into the Communist name of Woklav Cadek, left with Smirensky for Hol­ had dinner together and then left the restaurant. gress of this budding friendship. article of Lawson's is the following idea: movement by Reiss and had worked with him in the land to keep watch on Sneevliet with whom they As it was quite late, tlie streets were deserted. They In January 1937 Sedov arranged to meet a lawyer, GPU for years. expected Reiss would maintain contact. intended to take a taxi, but an automobile drove up. who was defending Trotsky against, the defamation “If America were a totalitarian state, and if The police next uncovered the fact that Schild­ At the beginning of August, Renata Steiner and A man sprang out and struck Reiss on the head with of the Stalinists iu the Swiss press, at the small the dictator were sympathetic and fair-minded in bach bad not been alone in the hotel. In the room Smirensky, leaving Ducomet in Amsterdam, followed a blackjack. Then they shoved him into the car. French town of Mulhouse. Ducomet, Smirensky, and his altitude toward minority groups, everything next to liers—he had arrived at the same time and a lead to a house near Versailles, where they stayed Reiss fought desperately before they succeeded in Renata Steiner were sent to Mulhouse by Serge Efron the Negro now desires could be accomplished over­ they had asked for connecting rooirts—a man had re­ four or five days waiting for Reiss to appear. killing .him. In his hand were wisps of Scliildbach's to wait for Sedov. They took rooms in separate hotels night, by one stroke of the dictator’s pen, or one gistered under the name of Francois Rossi. They On August 25, “Michel” made an appointment with hair when police discovered his body. and waited one week for Sedov to keep the appoint­ sweep of his sword. later discovered his real name to be Roland Abbiat, Renata Steiner in a cafe in the’-Place d’Italie at Paris. Besides those already involved, the police estab­ ment. At the end of eight days, Efron told them to “Because America is a Democracy, the changes a citizen of Monaco, born in London August 15, 1905. A Russian 30 or 35 years old met them. He called lished that the GPU had prepared a second line of return. Sedov had postponed the trip due to illness, In his1 baggage,' which like that of Schildbach had wrhicli we all desire for tlie betterment of our himself “Leo.” The next day she met Leo again and attack in case the first failed. GPU agents were sta­ and thus had escaped the GPU trap. But not for been left behind, the police discovered a map of Mex­ lives must come gradually, through’ what we’call with him “Rossi,” who told her to go to Berne, Switz­ tioned at Martigny and Mont-Sacconex under the di­ long. On February 16, 19138, he was dead—finished off ico fcity and the suburb where Trotsky was living. the Democratic process. erland. and await orders. rection of Vadime Kondratiev, an ex-White Guard. in a private Paris hospital. The authorities revealed later that the Russian con­ “Those who would substitute some other pro­ On August 28, Leo saw her off on the train, giving Kondratiev had been stopped hy the police at the In a' series of letters to the French authorities, sulate in Lausanne had previously applied three times cess should firs t be required to dem onstrate th a t her a letter to deliver, a box of chocolates, and a Lausanne railway station. Marshall Petain was ar­ Trotsky established the amazing “ laxity” of the for a passport in the name of “Rossi” with his des­ their method would be more advantageous to us tube of what appeared to be pills. riving from France to view the maneuvers of the French police in their perfunctory investigation of tin a tio n listed as Mexico. Swiss army and all people in the station were checked. than the one we already have.” Rossi met her in Berne on August 29. She gave Sedov’s death, showed that the very minor illness fo r The “inseparable friend” of Abbiat. according to His passport was apparently in order, and they per­ which Sedov was being treated could not explain his Now we do not mention all this because we him the tilings Leo had sent, and acting under Rossi's the police, was a man named Etienne Charles Martig- mitted him to continue his pacing back and forth sudden death, that Sedov’s entry into the hospital are particularly interested in defending any of instructions took a room in the City Hotel and then nat, born in 1900 at Culhat, France, who had been not far from a Chevrolet with the license plates BE- under a pseudonym had been discovered by a Stal­ the three men whom Lawson attacks. Hutchins rented a Chevrolet from the Casino garage. formerly employed in a gas factory, and who was 20-662 (the plates of the car in which' Schildbach inist doctor, that the hospital had links with is an isolationist who never before showed any On September 1, Rossi sent Renata Steiner back accustomed to spend far more than he earned, appar­ drove up to the hotel to rent a room, the same car the GPU, etc. etc. A ll in vain. The French authori­ interest, in the Negro’s problems. Scott is a Re­ to Paris to deliver a letter to Leo. ently having a secret source of income. in which the murder was committed later that day). ties refused to investigate further. It was still the publican, seeking to make political capital among Leo met her in Paris on September 2 at the cafe At nine o’clock in the evening of September 4, honeymoon of the Franco-Soviet pact. the Negroes for his brand of capitalist politics. The First Arrest in the Place d’Italie, read the letter she brought, and Kondratiev had received a telegram from tlie Hotel A few months later, the same thing happened Davis is a Stalinist, interested in winning support The first to be captured was Renata Steiner, who immediately wrote a reply for her to deliver to Rossi. Suisse in Martigny which read: “You are free; re­ when Rudolph Kleihent, secretary of the Fourth In­ among Negroes for Stalin's foreign policy. With had rented the death car. She was 29 at the time of On September 3, at 8 o’clock, Renata Steiner met turn home.” Police were able to trace his movements ternational, kidnapped on July 13, 1938, was found, a slight change in the international field, each her arrest. Not as hard, yet, as a Jacson, she finally Rossi at the railway station in Berne. They left in until September 9, when he disappeared. dismembered, in the Seine. There were many clues. agreed to talk. of these men w ill drop his interest in the Negro’s^ the Chevrolet together with Gertrude Schildbach, French “democracy” would not pursue them—pre­ problems. Converted to S talinism a fte r 1931, she had been to whom Steiner now met for the first time. They trav­ The “ L a x ity ” of the French Police cisely because as in the Reiss case, the Swiss investiga­ Moscow in 1934 and again in 1935. In 1936 she was eled as far as Martigny. From this point, Renata The Swiss police considered tliat they had enough tion had led to the doors of Soviet institutions abroad, offered work by the Soviet consulate in Paris, which W hat Lauson Really Means Steiner was sent alone to Finhaut to watch for Ignace evidence to convict Grosovsky, his wife Lydia, and' like the Representation Commerciale Sovietique in sent her to the “Union for the Repatriation of Rus- But we ARE interested in defending the idea Reiss. Beletzky, three agents -of the GPU stationed at the Paris, and to Soviet agents of the GPU. that Negroes have no reason to support this so- called war for democracy when they themselves are deprived of democracy by the capitalist class His New Fireside Companions preparing this war. How Stalin Stopped GPU Is Trying To Free THE UNITED STATES NEWS, ultra-conserv­ What, is the "disunity” that Lawson talks ative weekly, bitterly fought Roosevelt frofn the about? He is talking about disunity betwee.n the Purging the Party time he was nominated for the first time. So you Negro and the bosses who Jim Crow the Negro. “Tlie time has come,” Stalin’s According to the Bolshevik can take 'its word for this, which appeared in its To Lawson, asking for equal rights for the Negro Murderers O f Trotsky mouthpiece declared, “for all Par­ (Nos. 15-16, August 1940) the to­ Feb. 7 issue: is “disunity.” “Beware of asking for your rights” ty leaders to stop the practice of tal number of members, as of that “Roosevelt puts speedy arms production above is what he is warning the Negro people. mass expulsions.” (Pravda, March date, was 2,245,333, w h ile the can­ all other objectives. Private industry alone can 13, 1937). didates numbered 1,493,157. It is fair to ask: “Whose little job is Lawson (Continued from Page 1) of a conversation with Siqueiros Agents who w ill see the actual as­ - An official report issued at the If we subtract tbe number of give him that production. Result is that the Pres­ under arrest establish clearly in the prison in Mexico City. Un­ sassins of Trotsky unpunished helping?” Is he helping the Negro, or is he help­ time estimated that the party candidates who entered the party ident is listening to advice of industrialists. their personal responsibility; der a photo which shows Siquei­ will throw all caution to the ing Senators Bilbo and Cotton Ed Smith, when membership had fallen off to since A p ril 1, 1939, (i. e., 1,127,- “Gloom among New Dealers is increasingly but not that of the Communist ros in a very elegant pose, happy winds and do any conceivable he tells the Negro to beware of fighting for his about 1,400,000. 802) from the total number of P a rty .” and smoking a cigarette, the re­ thing their masters in the Krem­ deep. Common inside complaint is that the Presi­ rights? Using Lawson’s own logic, one could “The report said the Commun­ candidates in A ugust 1940 (i. e., Thereafter Siqueiros was refer­ porter asks: lin w ill indicate. The murder-ma­ dent is ‘selling out’ the New Deal; that a ‘counter easily assert that, “intentionally or not,” he is ist Party, which once claimed al­ 1,493,157) th a t Bhould give us an red to as “irresponsible” frequent­ chine will increase Its output a revolution’ is occurring.” “Who would say that the most 4,000,000 members and can­ approximate number as of the helping the cause of white supremacy. ly in the Stalinist press. hundred-fold. much discussed painter Siquei­ didates for membership, now had date when S ta lin gave his no- Lawson says, in effect, that Hitler is helped NOW ON OFFENSIVE ros is speaking with these re­ That is what theBe “Intellectu­ on ly about 2,000,000 Russians in more-purge pledge in March, 1939. by a struggle for equal rights for Negroes. This But now that several months porters in the patio of the pen­ als and Artists” are paving the those categories” (N. Y. H erald- \ Good, we subtract: 1,493,157 less Daniel R. Topping, 29-year-old.Greenwich m il­ is a lie. Hitler could never be helped by a strug­ have elapsed and, the GPU chief­ itentiary? Without doubt, his way for, with their "esthetic” ar­ Tribune, M arch 14, 1937). Some. 1,127,802 equals 275,355. N ot very lionaire sportsman and husband of Sonja Henie, gle to wipe out racial discrimination, be is greatly tains hope, it is no longer neces­ appearance could not be more gument for Siqueiros’ release. Si­ 2.000,000 p a rty members and can­ many. waB reported physically unfit for m ilitary service elegant during an exposition in ] weakened in his own country whenever the idea sary to retreat, they have return­ queiros is a m urderer? Yes, but didates had thus been purged by W hat happened to the 600,000 by the selective service board of his city. Top­ some art gallery.” The report­ of racial superiority is wiped out anywhere in ed to the offensive, first with the he paints so well, reply the “In­ M arch 1937, leaving approxim a­ candidates on the rolls as of ping, who had claimed exemption, because of “who pressure on the judges, and now er’s story adds this to describe tellectuals and Artists,” and Tole­ the entire world. On the contrary, Hitler (and te ly 1,400,000 members and 600,- March, 1937? W hat happened to would care of the box office” of the Brooklyn pro with this letter of the “Intellec­ the situation of Siqueiros in dano generously provides them 000 candidates still on the rolls. the hundreds of thousands of new the American Bilbos) are greatly helped whenever football team, was placed in class 4F. We wonder tuals and Artists” which, if it the jail: “No one would think all the necessary space to say it Two years later, in March, 1939, candidates in the two-year period anyone tries' to tone down the struggle for racial where Topping gets the strength to stagger from gets by, w ill undoubtedly he fol­ that it deals with a prisoner.” in. at the Eighteenth Party Congress from M arch 1937 to M grch 1939? equality. night club to night dub. Tncldently, he must lowed by still bolder moves. I t has likew ise been an open In this very incident of the let- ' Stalln again Personally pledged I f in A ugust 1940, there were wear the panties in his household. No where in his entire article does Lawson The letter asks President Cam­ scandal that the assassin Jacson ter of the “Intellectuals and Art- Ìthat l)lere would be no more mass 2,245,333 members, and if only advocate a struggle against Jim Crowism in the acho “to take into consideration does very well by himself in pri­ ists” one can see how Stalinism purges.in the party. He kept his 605,627 entered the p a rty a lte r second pledge as he kept the first, M arch 1939, then before that time armed forces or in civilian life. This omission the artistic antecedents” of Si­ son. The GPU knows how to take destroys the roots of art and cul­ queiros, and reminds him that i. e. hy purging. there were altogether only 1,539,- by a so-called Negro leader is treachery to his care of its own -even behind p r i­ ture, corrupting every artist and GENTLE CORDELL the artists at:’1 the men of sci­ son w alls. intellectual that It touches. It In July, 1940, Pravda, officially 706 members. (2,245,333 m inus Pearson and Allen report that Sumner Welles, people. announced that from April 1, 605.627). But in March 1937 there ence are considered as- the bul­ It is clear’that the present man­ should become a matter of the Under-Secretary of State, opposed the plan to lend 1939 to June 1, 1940 the numbei were s till some 1,400,000 mem­ We ask Lawson: how was the Negro emanci­ warks of culture ~nd progress.” euvers to release Siqueiros are honor and integrity of genuine fascist Spain $100,000,000, on the plea th a t the of new; party members admitted bers. At most, therefore, it is pos­ pated? By gradualness? Or by civil dar? With “In *’ !s light,” the • "sk, Siquei­ but forerunners of far more pow­ artistic and intellectual circles of was 605,627 and the num ber of sible to account by “graduation” American public would not stand for a credit “to Lawson’s method, the Negro would still be a slave. ros "should be considered,” and erful moves to get Jacson out of North America to repudiate this that is why their lettr- “carries new candidates was 1,127,802. on ly fo r about 100,000 lost can­ a government which was shooting political pri­ A nd w h at has happened since 1877? The policy the hands of the authorities, one foul attempt to whitewash with (Pravda, July 29, 1940). In other didates. And what happened to soners on a large scale." (Our emphasis). But out most profound admire t’on and way or another. So long as Si­ “art” the murderers of Leon of gradual im provem ent has been followed, espe­ Secretary of State Hull calmly replied: “These artistic solidarity for David Al­ queiros and Jacson are incarcer­ T rotsky. words, in a period of 14 months. those who joined the party in the cially as exemplified by Booker T. Washington, 1,733,429 members and candidates two-year period between Pravda's faro Sioreiros in these difficult ated, there is always danger for prisoners are only Communists anyway.” and with what results? The Negro doesn’t have were admitted, a total number al­ “order” to halt the purge (March moments of trial.” the GPU that their agents will a single right more today than he had then. Thus most equal to the two million 1937) and S ta lin ’s "prom ise” of ’’’he “difficult moments of trial" talk. Comforts in jail constitute The will of Robert Marshall who survived the 1937 purge. no more purges (M arch 1939) ? history has tested Lawson’s method. do not exist, as we have already but a promise of eventual open­ Crown Princess Juliana of Holland entered the leaves $1,534,070 for the preser­ But, it may be objected, why There remains, at a very conser­ pointed out, because no judge has ing of the cell doors. White House fo r a visit with the President and We reject both the fairy tale about the bene­ do we overlook the hundreds ot vative estimate, a couple of mil­ yet accepted the case. N or are S i­ vation of wild life and civil liber­ Mrs. Roosevelt. Due to the situation of her coun­ volent dictator and the falsehood about the grad­ WHAT IT WOULD MEAN thousands, if not millions, of those lion or so unaccounted for. queiros’ moments in jail very dif­ ties. We know a couple of places try she was not traveling in state—only her ual method, and we stick to our own policy of If these men get away., the pres­ members and candidates who en­ The Daily Worker can’t tell yqu ficult. Three days before this let­ in this country where civil liber­ Negro and white labor unity against capitalist ter of the "Intellectuals and Art ent boldness with which the GPU tered the party in the two-yeir what happened to them but Stalin lady-in-waiting and a few other personal ser­ oppression and discrimination, in peace-time and ists,” the magazine ESTAMPA Commits crim es .w ill be as noth­ ties &re already as dead as the n te rv a l between M arch 1937 and and the GPU can. Only, they vants accompanied her. Practically roughing it, you know. in war-time. (Feb. 11, 1941) published a rep ort ing to what will come then. dodo. March 1939? answer questions with bullets. 6 THE MILITANT FERRUARY 22, 1941

union movement! But even that’s not enough, it appears. M ur­ ray and the other CIO top leaders don’t feel they The Crisis With Japan What Britain Means THE. MILITANT have enough power to crack down on "illegal” strikes with sufficient force. They w'ant govern­ mental posts, so that they can do the job even VOL. V—No. 8 Saturday, February 22, 1941 By "Independence" more efficaciously. Is Over—For A Minute Published Weekly by No wonder Kiplinger’s Washington Letter finds For Ethiopia THE MILITANT PUBLISHING ASS’N M urray’s plan so worthy of note. at 110 University Place. New York. N. Y. Both Sides Have Other More Pressing Business And Seek A Tolepiione: Alsonauin 4-8517 The great masses of the CIO should also find it of note—-in order to fight it tooth and nail. Temporary Truce; But The Battle For Empire Is Coming It is just about two years and three months since Editorial Board: What the CIO leaders are doing, under the Britain, by the Anglo-Italian accord of November, FELIX MORROW ALBERT GOLDMAN pressure of the w'ar machine, is vicious enough 1938, placed its seal of approval on Ita ly’s rape of Business Manager: now. They must be prevented from entering the Japan’s program of territorial expansion in the Far East,^ Ethiopia. RUTH JEFFREY government and thereby doubling their punitive which began with the conquest of Manchuria nearly ten years Now the wheel has turned, presumably. The B rit­ What You'll Get ish have recognized Haile Selassie as Ethiopia’s ruler, Subscriptions: $2.00 per year; $1.00 for six months, powers against the W'orkers. ago, has come into irreconcilable conflict with the aims and in­ terests of American imperialism. This fact is openly recognized free and independent. foreign: $3.00 per year, $1.50 for six months. Bundle NO UNION LEADERS IN CAPITALIST •rders: 3 cents per copy in the United States; 4 cents in both Tokyo and Washington and was underlined by “ crisis” I t seems, however, according to Minister Eden, per copy in all foreign countries. Single copies: 5 cents. G O VERNM ENT POSTS. That should become the developments during the past two weeks. A war in the Pacific that the Negus has intimated that he would need slogan of all the members of all the unions—CIO, outside help and guidance in leading the native “ Reentered as second class m atter February 13, 1041 is in the offing. at the post office at New York. N. Y.. under the Act of AFL and Railroad Brotherhoods. Secretary of State Cordell Hull told the Senate Foreign Re­ peoples of Ethiopia against the Italian conquerors, March 3. 1879.” lations Committee on January 27 that "long efforts to obtain and the British government has, of course, agreed mutual understanding and cooperation between the United States to provide it. and Japan had been virtually fruitless." Speaking the day be­ This help and guidance could be not only m ilitary, FIGHT WITH THE Browder And Bridges fore in the Japanese Diet, Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka but economic and political. While the present war is made the following pointed declaration: “The time for settling in progress, the Emperor’s forces -would need “ tem­ SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY Two leading representatives of Stalinist politics misunderstandings with the Unit-'' porary” m ilitary guidance and control. A fter the war in America, Earl Browder and Harry Bridges, have ed Stales through negotiations m ilitary establishments of chal is over, Eden added, the continuation of this m ili­ ON THE WAR FRONT: become the target of an intensive attack on the has passed. It is useless to talk longing size are taking shape ir tary, economic and political “ help” and “ guidance” the Philippines. Japan, without F o r: part of the capitalist government. Earl Browder further with the Americans. It “ could be” a matter for “ international arrangement.” faces a $2,000 fine and four years in prison. Harry is not that they cannot under­ doubt, has been given to under­ Lest there arise any misunderstanding later on 1. M ilitary training of workers, financed by the gov­ stand, but that they won't.’’ stand th a t a Japanese move on Bridges Ugain faces deportation proceedings in about Britain’s aims in Ethiopia, the British censors ernment, under control of the trade unions. Referring to President Roos­ either Singapore or the East In­ San Francisco. dies will precipitate war. The lat­ permitted the American correspondents in London to 2. The establishment of special officers’ training evelt and Secretary Hull as “war­ elaborate a bit on the “ independence” in store for The* attack on these two men can be viewed mongers,” Matsuoka declared est move has been the passage camps, financed by the government and controlled Ethiopia. only as part of the widespread offensive of the that these two spokesmen of by Congress of a huge new ap­ by the trade unions, to train workers to become propriation which provides for Raymond Daniell writes from London for the capitalist class against the labor movement. American imperialism had "plain­ officers. ly intimated that Britain is Amer­ the establishment! of naval and New York Times, February 5: It is doubtful that the FBI can prove that Har­ a ir bases a t Guam and Samoa. S. Confiscation of all war profits—all company books ica’s first line of defense in the “While it is probably true that the British have to be open for trade union inspection. ry Bridges is actually a member of the Commun­ Atlantic, and Australia and New BOTH SIDES SEEK no desire to incorporate Ethiopia in their common­ ist Party. As for Browder there is no doubt that Zealand in the Pacific, thus men­ TEMPORARY TRUCE wealth of nations, they definitely have a stake in its 4. Expropriation bf all war industries and their the technical violation- in obtaining a passport of acing Japan’s position.” Each side is still, however, feel future. Naturally, they do not want the country to re­ operation under workers’ control. which he w'as accused is a flimsy pretext against WORDS FOLLOWED BY ing out the other in an effort to A filled-out sample of one of main a part of the Italian colonial empire, and there discover if some basis lor a tem­ 5. Trade union wages for all workers drafted into the him. . The legal aspects of the two cases are not Wa r m o v e s the 4.500,000 casualty identif­ arc reasons to lead this correspondent to believe that porary reconciliation does not ex­ army. the point at issue. In the period of the People’s These challenges flung across ication tags recently ordered by they may not wish to see it become completely in­ the Pacific have been followed by ist. Naturally seeking to avoid dependent if and when they win the war. That com­ C. Full equality for Negroes in the armed forces— Front, when the Stalinists sang the Star Spangled giving battle to its challengers the arnpT—“ just a routine swift moves in the naval and m il­ procedure ” said the War De­ plete independence did not work so well in the past Down with Jim' Crowism. Banner and placed their influence behind Roose­ itary spheres, leading last week simultaneously in the Atlantic partment. and the British colonies in A frica conceivably would velt, Browder and Bridges were not touched. If to open talk of war. In Washing­ and the Pacific, the American lm 7. An end to secret diplomacy. perialists would like to immobil not want to see it tried again after this war.” that period were still going on, they would never ton and London the belief pre­ Just what the “ British colonies,” which are them­ 8. A peoples’ referendum on any and all wars. vails that Japan will time an at­ ize Japan for the time being, un have been hauled up as they have been. til Hitler has either won or lost cannot be reconciled, even tem­ selves completely subject to the British government, tack on Britain's great Singapore porarily. Japan’s economic weak­ AT HOM E: It would be a serious mistake for m ilitant fortress to coincide with the ex­ the battle of Britain. Japan, tre have to say about this or any other question, the cor­ mendously exhausted by three and nesses, the pressing need fo r raw respondent fails to make clear. But he does make F o r: workers to permit their well-justified hatred of pected Nazi blitzkrieg against the materials and markets, drove the Stalinism to blind them to the class lines which British Isles. a half years of war in China, ap clear the fact that British imperialism does not like proaches war with the Americar Tokyo imperialists first to the con- 1. A job and decent living for every worker. Having bullied the administra­ any “ completely independent” nation so close to its are clearly drawn in the cases of Earl Browder colossus with extreme trepida luest of Manchuria and then to tion of French Indo-China into own subject African colonies. 2. T h irty-thirty—$30 weekly minimum wage— 30 and H arry Bridges. It can only harm and weaken tion. the war with China. The war submission, Japanese troops and Another London dispatch to Ihe Times of the same hour weekly maximum for all workers on all jobs. Hence, after Hull and Mat with China, instead of ending in the labor movefnent to permit the capitalists to at­ marines are pounding the streets date adds: suoka, came the conciliatory ton'’ victory for Japan and a lessoning 3. $30 weekly old age and disability pension. tack any section of labor. It is labor’s duty to of Saigon, Japanese planes are of the Roosevell-Nomura ex if her economic, difficulties, has “ There was speculation that Britain, under an clean its own house. This job cannot be farmed using the city’s airport. At the 4. Full social, political and economic equality for the changes in Washington last week been stalemated fo r more than arrangement w ith the Emperor, might’ establish a same time, Japanese aviation has Negro people. out to the class enemy under any condition. If the Said Nomura, the new Japanes' wo years and has produced new British mandate over Ethiopia ...” acquired the use of airfields in capitalists get away unscathed w ith their attack on ambassador to the United States- economic difficulties in addition neighboring Thailand (Siam). Ah, the White Man’s “ B u rde n ” 5. Workers Defense Guards against vigilante and “It is needed now more than ever ‘o accentuating all the old ones. Browder and Bridges, then they w ill proceed fu r­ Units of the Japanese fleet are fascist attacks. to - bring about a better under Caught in this hopeless impasse, W illiam H. Stonemim, London correspondent for I ther with their offensive. patrolling the whole Indo-China standing of each other's position ’rom which retreat has become the New York Post, writes, February 4: 6. A twenty-billion dollar Federal public works and coast, and a powerful Japanese - The capitalists are very skillful in picking their in order to secure the interest' mpossible, Japan is driving for­ “ The British state emphatically that they have housing program to provide jobs for the unem­ naval squadron has been assemb­ openings in,their attacks on labor. They choose as and well-being of our nations ward to new territorial seizures. no territorial aspiratiop in Ethiopia, but they wish to ployed. led at Hainan Island, off China’s thereby preserving the peace o' The virtual subjugation of insure that Ethiopia w ill be modernized and civilized, targets for their opening barrages those who are south coast. Thus in the air and the Pacific and maintaining tin french Indo-China and of Thai 7. Expropriate the Sixty Families. most discredited and hated by the workers, them­ at sea Japanese imperialism is and past experience has convinced them that it would traditional friendship betweer :and (ap art from its strategic as poised for a swift descent on Sin­ he too much to dsk Haile Selassie alone to guarantee 8. An Independent Labor Party based on the Trade selves. They have calculated that the workers will us.” lects) was precipitated by an Unions. gapore. icute rice shortage in Japan, both the speedy realization of that process .., be slow to rally in defense of the Stalinists. Replied Roosevelt: “There are., Singapore would have to be re­ ’.ountries being large producers of “There is still some question as to the exact ex­ developments in the relations be 9. A Workers’ and Farmers’ Government. But precisely because of this it is necessary to duced before Japan could seize ’he staple. Roosevelt claps embar tent of ‘Ethiopia’ and whether it w ill include all the tween the United States and Jar overcome our revulsion and to defend the Stalin­ and hold the fabulous wealthy toes on exports of vital supplies territories which are included within the frontiers of an which cause concern. I wel­ ists against the offensive of the bosses. In so doing Netherlands East Indies. Having ’o Japan, in clu d in g a via tio n gas- the former Ethiopia. There seems* to be some tend­ come your assurance that, in tlir already forced the Dutch to make iline. Japan is forced to seek sup we are in reality providing the best defense for the interests of the traditional friend ency to lim it the authority of the Amharam dynasty important economic concessions, plies elsewhere and casts covetous labor movement and at the same time making it ship between our two countries (Haile Selassie’s royal line) to those territories in­ Japan is now seeking a ir bases eyes on the Dutch Islands-where It Was A Sham Battle and of the Japanese peoples, you habited principally by the so-called Ethiopian races— really possible for the working class itself to clean and naval facilities in the islands. oil is produced in abundance. The are resolved to do all you can tc Tigreans, Amharans and Shoans. These races, which Why had he attacked the Administration’s out Stalinism. If Japan should succeed in taking growing tempo of these moves and bring about a better understand­ over these insular possessions of counter-moves indicates that all live in Tigres, Amhara, Gojam and part of Shoa, foreign policy during the election campaign? Wen­ ing.” Dutch imperialism, she would be possibility of "compromise” is fast constitute about one-third of the population, and their dell Willkie was asked while he was testifying be­ IT’S STILL THERE! in position to strike later at Aus­ Earlier, Roosevelt had spoken disappearing. native territories cover one-third of Ethiopia.” fore the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. tra lia . less honeyed words at one of his Any reference to Japanese "to­ So this is the picture. Yet there are so-called . . . ‘‘Whereas, a struggle is going on in all the na­ "It was a bit of campaign oratory...,” Preparing to defend Singapore, press conferences, warning that if talitarianism” explains tliis com­ Negro leaders who are adducing, as one of their main tions of the civilized world between the oppressors the British have moved sizeable the United States should get into ing w a r as little as does reference arguments for supporting Britain, that Britain is answered W illkie. (Not one of the daily news­ and the oppressed of all countries, a struggle between military forces to the northern war in the Far East, it would to the “war for democracy” ex­ going to free Ethiopia! papers commented on this.) the capitalist and the laborer, which grows in intensity border of the Malay Peninsula in not affect American deliveries of plain the collision between British from year to year, and w ill work disastrous results anticipation of a Japanese land war material to Britain. The and German ■ imperialism. Oil to the toiling millions if they are not combined for attack by way of Thailand. warning was clearly directed to rice, raw materials, markets and Japan. mutual protection and benefit, The Roosevelt administration is fields for capital investment A Note on Greek W ar Aims speeding preparations to counter The coming weeks are likely “British Military Intelligence experts in Albania “ It, therefore, behooves the representatives of the these stakes of empire explain the Philip Murray’s Plan these Japanese plans. The naval to show witli each new develop­ crisis in the Pacific just as they have, sought to get specific declarations from the Trade and Labor Unions of America, in convention establishment at. Pearl Harbor, ment that the interests of Ameri­ are the issue in the Atlantic and Greeks on their intentions in Albania after the war, When Big Business likes wljat a union leader assembled, to adopt such measures and disseminate Hawaii, is in war trim, aerial and can and Japanese imperialism the Mediterranean. hut none has been forthcoming. It is clear from of­ is doing, it’s a good time for the rank and file mem­ such principles among the mechanics and laborers ficial pronouncements that in case of victory, at least bers of the union to get worried. of our country as w ill permanently unite them to a part of the conquered territory would be kept. Many secure the recognition of rights to which they arc On page 1 we quoted a spokesman for Big British leaders would like to arm the Albanians, but justly entitled. Business, Kiplinger’s Washington Letter, which some of the tribes dislike the Greeks almost as much “ We, therefore, declare ourselves in favor of the War Contract Scandals found one thing especially to its liking in the CIO as the Italians and might shoot in two directions.”— formation of a thorough Federation, embracing every “ Defense Plan" issued by Philip Murray, CIO New York Times, Feb. 10. trade and labor organization in America, organized president: "The Murray plan would put labor under the Trade Union System.” chiefs into the government and give them gov­ From the Preamble of the Constitution of the Begin—Here’s No. 1 Says Westbrook Pcgler, Hearst’s Yellow Kid, in ernmental authority which they could use on the American Federation of Labor. defense of aid_ fo r B ritain as a fine way to' defend the United States: “Is this a sordid viewpoint? You unions in cases of strikes and disturbances which The war contract scandals of that, the senior partner of a big year man.” He did not know he are not controllable." the last war are beginning to be construction firm working on an was getting paid until checks be­ bet it is. Nations, arc sordid, and our emotionalism is often a mask fo r sordidness, although often it This spokesman for Big Business likes the repeated on a bigger scale. $11,000,000 W ar D epartm ent con­ gan "dropping into my mail.” comes from the heart.” Peglcr for once is speaking idea. No wonder. Rather than do the job them­ Bandiera Rossa 1 A typical example of the meth­ struction contract was a member Blossom is speaking the truth ods being used by the bosses and of tile Army’s Construction Advi­ when he states that he was not as an expert. selves, the bosses would much rather have M ur­ We learn an amazing fact from the January, government officials in snaring sory Committee, drawing down an interested in his “pay” for the ray, Lewis, Green and the other labor "statesmen” 1941, issue of Left, the British labor monthly: the the profitable war order for pre­ incide ntal salary of $0,500 yearly committee post. He was interested The British government announced that rationing do the d irty work of cracking down on the work­ ferred firms, despite “competitive" for steering contracts to his linn. in the $1,114,700 p ro fit w h ich he British censorship did not permit the news to ap­ of horse feed went into effect February 1, but ex­ ers. pear in England that Italian prisoners of war in bidding, was brought to light on Francis Blossom, senior part­ would split with his partners. February 14, when someone spil­ ner in the firm of Anderson and The “aroused” committee went empted army, agriculture and mining horses, snd Even without holding governmental posts, the Greece had been singing “ Bandiera Rossa.” The led the beans before the “shock­ Porter, construction company of into “executive session” — secret those in racing and hunting stables. They still have CIO tops are cracking, down in numerous in­ song of the red flag wasn’t news fit to print to the ed” House Military Committee New York City, was revealed to meeting — immediately after the quite a way to go before rationing l'or animals is as stances. British censors, although the story was considered be also a member of the com m it­ hearing to plan an “investigation”’ severe as that fo r human beings. important enough to receive considerable atten­ tee which has the job Of submit­ into the whole system of war con­ In the United Auto Workers there have re­ ting names of three contractors tract letting, according to Chair­ tion in the American press in December. The first cently been two particularly outrageous instances. “qualified” to handle a construc- man May of the committee. knowledge of the story about “ Bandiera Rossa” Draftees Won't Go In Fisher Body in Flint, the UAW international i tion job to the chief of coustruc- All Blossom is guilty of, accord­ came when the editors of Left read it in an Ame­ I tion of the Quartermaster Corps. ing to the war profiteers’ lights, executive board agreed to have 17 men thrown Home at End of rican paper, the Call. I Quite by “ accident,” i t seems, is a little crudity of method. Un­ out of the plant, deprived of all seniority and union Sanderson and Porter lias con­ We have a limited number of copies of Sardonically, Left asks editorially: Year, Says General like William K. Iinudsen, who rights, because of an "illegal" stoppage. In the tracted, for a “fixed-fee” profit of “resigned” from his executive Hudson plant in Detroit, when a foreman wras al­ “ But where was,the B.B.C.’s (broad­ $1,114,700, to b u ild a shell-load­ post at the head of General Mo­ The Bolsheviki and World Peace legedly thrown out of the plant by union men, the casting) observer, Dimbleby at the fall of “1 don't think we will be ing plant in Elwood, Illinois. tors before he took the job of run­ By LEON TROTSKY going back to our homes when What aroused the ire of the ning the Office for Production union board agreed to have a group of union mem­ Koritza? Is his hearing so selective that he the year is up,” Major General House Military Affairs Commit­ Management, Blossom made the Pricfe $1.50 bers laid off for from four to six months without could not pick up the strains of ‘Bandiera William N. Haskell, command­ tee was not the fact that Blos­ mistake of failing to technically SPECIAL! The regular cloth-bound pay and added this threat: “ The union hereby Rossa’ ?” som was obviously using1 his “ ad­ disassociate himself from his com­ ing the 27th Division, said at $3.00 edition of the annual banquet’ of the An­ visory” position to see to it that pany before taking up his duties serves notice to all employees for the future that T he unwillingness of the “ democratic”—some any recurrence of similar situations w ill not be niston (Alabama) Chamber of his firm was not neglected in the for the government. The Case of Leon Trotsky say even “ revolutionary”— British government to Commerce, according to an war order scramble, but (hat Blos­ Knudsen, and the ex-corporation tolerated or so lightly punished. An)' future similar and permit the British working class to know this sig­ Associated Press dispatch of som was drawing down “two com­ executives who work with him, situations will subject the participants to summary nificant event tells a great deal. It tells what the Feb. 7. pensations” at the same lime from are perfectly free to look after the NOT GUILTY dismissal if guilty and they w ill receive no pro­ the government. interests of Du Pouts, Morgans, government’s attitude is toward the coming Ital­ “This is a different kind of (the famous volumes issued by the tection from the union.” Blossom himself testified before etc., to the tune of billions or ian revolution—the British “ democrats” w ill try war from any we have known the committee that lie saw “noth­ dollars. And that's OK to the con­ Dewey Commission) before,” the General said. “ It Now', the press reports, Anthony Federoff, CIO to suppress it as they suppressed this story of the ing improper” about his serving gressmen, because they . are no EACH 98 cents regional director, has agreed to the outright dis­ singing of revolutionary songs by the Italian sold­ is total war. W’e of the Army on the advisory committee and longer "connected” with their are in it, you are in, we all missal of four hundred workers who went on strike iers. It tells, in a word, that the British govern­ sharing in his firm’s fat war pro­ corporations. MODERN BOOKSHOP are in it. And I don t think fits. As a matter of fact, he de­ a week ago Monday at the Vanadium Corporation ment, if successful against its enemies, w ill then we w ill be going back to our 27 University Place New York City plant outside of Pittsburgh. clared, be did not expect any pay Subscribe to the take their place as the hangman and jailer of Eu­ homes when the year is up.” from his ’committee post, think­ There’s your wartime “leadership” of the trade rope. ing he would be just “a dollar-a-1 "Fourth International"