READ "The History Of American Tr — SEE PAGE 6 — the PUBLISHEDMILITANT IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE VOL. IX—No. 29 NEW YORK, N. Y„ SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1945 PRICE: FIVE CENTS Trotskyist Runs British Despots For Parliament New York News Delivery Strikers In Nigeria Ban In Chile Election By Henriquez SANTIAGO, Chile, July 4 Check Union-Busting Assault Native Papers (By Airmail) — The Partido Obrero Revolucionario, Chilean Special to The Militant section of the Fourth Interna­ Congressional Lynchers at Work tional, ran a candidate in last COMPEL WLB TO ISSUE ORDER LONDON, July 16 — Two Negro-edited newspapers in week’s1 by-election for a parlia­ Nigeria which have espoused the cause of the terribly oppressed mentary deputy to represent the ON PUBLISHERS TO ARBITRATE and exploited population of that country hav^ been suppressed city of Concepcion, third largest by order of Governor Richards, according to cabled advices re­ of the country and second larg­ BULLETIN ceived here. est in industry. NEW YORK — A general membership meeting of the Nigeria is a British crown colony in Equatorial Africa, one of The POR delegates at the elec­ Newspaper Deliverers Union here, held just before The Militant the largest and wealthiest of British possessions, with a population tion tables counted 400 votes cast of over 21,000,000. I t is ruled through the Colonial Office in London. fo r our candidate, but the offi­ went to press, voted to end the 18-day strike halting circulation Suppression of the two papers, the West African Pilot and cial figures gave us 321 votes. of 14 metropolitan dailies, after the War Labor Board issued an order to the New York Publisher’s Association to arbitrate Daily Comet, was accompanied by a threat on the part of the B rit­ POLITICAL SITUATION ish Government to banish the editor, Nnamdi Azikiwe, from his However, the figures do not as the union had demanded. homeland. tell the story. The situation in the working class must be under­ These repressive acts have arisen from a strike of over 150,000 By John Locke Nigerian workers, including all the railroad men, coal miners, civil stood. Four months ago the general Servants and others. The strikers are demanding a minimum wage parliam entary. elections took NEW YORK, July 16 — Tlie powerful New of 60 cents a day. Their present pay averages two shillings a day, place. The Tightest conservative- York Publishers Association has teamed up with the the equivalent of about 50 cents. liberal bloc, representing the Under British imperialist rule the natives are subjected to in­ landlords and the big bourgeoisie, War Labor Board to try its hand at union-busting. human conditions of exploitation. Children between nine and twelve won a m ajority away from the But so far the newspaper-government all-out drive work even in tin and coal mines, 12 hours a day, carrying heavy Democratic Alliance which had loads up to 65 lbs. Colored bus drivers and conductors receive less had the m ajority since 1941. The to smash the striking deliverers’ union hasn’t passed Socialist and Communist parties than one-third the wages paid to European workers for similar (part of the Democratic Alliance) ■^first base. Work. lost 40 per cent of their electoral Yesterday the deliverers met The workers of Nigeria are organized into 64 trade unions votes and a third of their depu­ Dobbs Blasts Role and tossed a “ final” return-to- corresponding to the various industries and occupations. These ties. The Stalinists lost nearly work-or-be-fired order back into unions are combined in the Nigeria Trade Union Congress which 10,000 votes and two deputies, the teeth of the publishers. As held a convention in August, 1944. while the Socialist party dropped Of LaGuardia in this report is being written, the A t the convention resolutions were adopted calling for the in­ from 80,000 votes to 38,000 and small but fighting independent dustrialization of the country and nationalization of important from 18 deputies to six. Newspaper and Mail Deliverers The reason fo r this was that Newspaper Strike Union is still standing firm — industries. They called for the introduction of unemployment and a large part of the laboring mass­ trading blow for blow with the health insurance and fo r the improvement of housing conditions and Fa,rrell Dobbs, Trotskyist es abstained from voting. candidate for mayor in the New most powerful group of capital­ educational facilities. ist newspaper owners on earth. The workers were skeptical and York C ity elections, has issued (Continued on page 7) a statement denouncing the NEWSSTANDS EMPTY Persecuted Nigerian Editor Appeals to U. S. strike-breaking role of Mayor The thousands of newsstands F. H. La Guardia in the current in the New York area are s till Labor and Negro Organizations for Support strike of the New York newspa­ empty. The 8,000,000 iirculation of 14 metropolitan dailies, rang­ NEW YORK, July 17 — Cable­ with strong views. .. It is obvious per delivery workers. The full IN THE NEWS ing from the frankly reactionary grams were received this week I cannot rely on official protec­ text of the statement is as fo l­ Daily News to the so-called “ lib­ by the Socialist Workers Party tion. Latest rumor that I may lows : eral” New York Post has been and the Civil Rights Defense be banished from Nigeria for Lies At Any Price Mayor LaGuardia’s p i o u f cut to a fraction of normal. Committee confirming the sup­ supporting strikers demanding 60 During the newspaper deliver­ mouthings about “ law and order” Using the slogan of the fig h t­ pression of the two Nigerian cents daily wage.” ers strike in New York City, in the New York newspaper, deliv­ newspapers and the threat of The Council informed The M ili­ members of the stock-exchange ing coal miners, “ No con tract-no. ery men’s strike are nothing more Work,” the deliverymen, 1,70.0 banishment for their editor, tant that African organizations and penthouse crowd have been than the time-worn alibi of the Nnamdi Azikiwe. in Great Britain had dispatched “doing their bit” against the strong, walked out June 30 after governmental strike-breaker. taking a strike vote under the Additional information regard­ cables to the ‘‘Big Three” leaders striking workers by encouraging Neither O’ Dwyer nor Gold­ ing the widespread strike of Ne­ in Berlin, informing them that a black market in newspapers. provisions of the anti-labor stein, the Democratic and Repub­ Smith-Connally Act. They ‘struck gro workers in Nigeria was ob­ “colonial fascism” is rampant in The gentry have been skulking in lican candidates to succeed La­ tained by The Militant from the Nigeria. The Council is sending dark places and paying as much after the publishers had fla tly re­ Guardia in office, have spoken in fused to negotiate the most rea­ American Council on African urgent appeals to the NAACP, as $1 -for* a bootleg copy of their condemnation o f LaGuardia’s Education, 55 West 42nd St., New African Students’ Association favorite anti-labor sheets. sonable of contract demands — strikebreaking tactics. By their demands that the wealthy own­ York. This organization has re­ (ASA) CIO, Council on African * * S silence O’Dwyer and Goldstein Affairs, Brotherhood of Sleep­ Southern Bourbon Spokesmen ers of the press had been farced ceived a cabled request from Azi­ show that they, too, are support- kiwe fo r aid and support against ing Car Porters, Congressmen Cost of Capitalist War to grant to most other labor i n g the wealthy publishers persecution by the British colon­ Powell and Mitchell of New York The first reported American groups in the industry. against the striking newspaper ial authorities. Azikiwe informed and Chicago, National Urban “ basketcase” of this war Sgt. The deliverers struck in the face Succeed In Lynching F. E. P. C. delivery men who are fighting for the American Council on African League and other civic and re­ Frederic Hensel, of Corbin, Ky., of a clearly fake proposal by ligious groups to mobilize public was recently interviewed in the a decent standard of living. the news bosses that the demands Education as follows: By Joseph Hansen fe> “ I have reason to believe that sentiment throughout America on Percy Jones General Hospital, LAGUARDIA THREATENS be submitted to the War Labof behalf of Azikiwe and the strik­ Battle Creek, Mich. Sgt. Hensel, Bilbo Incites Race Board’s Newspaper Commission my life is in danger, in view of Negro-hating Southern Bour'bon Congressmen, under the Faking impartiality, LaGuar­ who has lost both legs and both for settlement. As the union’s the fact that all local high offi­ ers by sending telegrams of pro­ leadership of Mississippi’s venom-spitting Senator Bilbo, have dia said in his July 13 radio test to Governor Itichards of Ni­ arms, stated: “ I’d make a good Riots in Detroit president, Joseph Simons, put it, cials wrongly suspect me to be speech, “ I warn both sides that geria and the Colonial Office in picture for propaganda against succeeded in lynching the Fair Employment Practices Commit­ Senator Bilbo of Mississippi, “ both the publishers and we know at the bottom of present general if there is any violence that force strike because I am a journalist London. the next war.” tee. In a shameful spectacle that brands Congress as .reaction­ ranting on the floor of the Sen­ the Commission has no rig ht un­ * * * ary to the core, these advocates of race prejudice, discrimina­ ate July 12: “ I believe in se­ w ill be used to suppress force, in der the WLB policy to rule on the maintenance of law and or­ tion and segregation put the proponents of FEPC to complete gregation.