The New--------- NTERNATIONAL -----....1 . Mortll • 1943 1.... ----- NOTES OF THE MONTH · War Labor Board Ehrlich and Alter THE ROAD TO SOCIALISM Political Resolution of the Workers Party National and Colonial Problems By Max S#Jac#Jfman Whither Zionism? Whither Jewry?--II By Karl Minfer Archive. • Book Revi.lN• • Correspondence SINGLE COpy 20c ONE YEAR $1.50 Boost Our Press! Two hundred and fifty new subscribers for The NEW THE NEW INTERNATIONAL INTERNATIONAL, one thousand new subcribers for Labor Ac­ A Monthly Or.an of ••volutlonary Marxl... tion, by June 151 The readers and friends of both papers are mobilizing for a joint drive to raise the banner of socialist Vol. IX No.3, Whole No. 73 thougbt and socialJist action higher than ever before, in the Published monthly by the New International Publishing Co., very face of a difficult world situation and the rise of reaction. 114 West 14th Street, New York, N. Y. Telephone: CHelsea They are backed by the enthusiastic approval of the hundred 2-9681. Subscription rates: $1.50 per year; bundles, 14c for five copies and up. Canada and foreign: $1.75 per year; bundles, 16c or more delegates and visitors to the recent conference of for five and up. Entered as second-class matter July 10, 1940, at Workers Party activists. the post office at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 5,1879. The magnificent progress made by Labor Action during Editor: ALBERT GATES the past year gives us good reason to believe that LA will hold up its end of the drive. But The NEW INTERNATIONAL quota • cannot, unfortunately, be simply left to the initiative of even T AILE OF CONTENTS: its most devoted readers. Each one seems to labor under the delusion that the magazine appears exclusively for his per­ Netes of the Month: sonal and private political educatJion, and will continue to CRISIS OF THE WAR LABOR BOARD ______________ 67 appear as long as his personal and private need exists, regard­ less of such mundane mat,ters as rising printing costs, etc. MURDER AS A POLITICAL WEAPON -------------- 69 By A.G. Let us explain, without going into further detail, that such iii not the case. An organ of sociaNst education mus~ be con­ Artlc'es: stantly expanding its sphere of influence or it fails in its pur­ THE ROAD TO SOCIALISM pose. It cannot allow itself to shrink to the proportions of a private discussion bulletin of its editorial board. The NEW Political Resolution of the Workers Party________ 70 INTERNATIONAL is proud of its position as the outstanding SMALL BUSINESS IN DESCENT organ of socialist education in America. But its influence By Sam A dams -----------------... ---------- .. -------------------- 75 needs to be extended fin a large way. NATIONAL AND COLONIAL PROBLEMS An entirely new push will be required to bring in the 250 subs that will mean so much for the continued publkation By Max Shachtman --------.----------.--------------------- 76 a.nd improvement of our magazine. "Two hundred and fifty WHITHER ZIONISM? WHITHER JEWRY?-II new subscribers by June 15th" is not just another slogan fur By Karl M inter ____________________________________________________ 82 talking purposes only; it is the only way of givring the NI a wider sphere of influence. Archive. of the .evolutlon: PLAN A LOCAL DRIVE FOR NEW SUBSCRIBERS I WHAT DOES SPARTACUS WANT? CANVASS LOCAL LABOR ACTION SUBSCRIBERS I By Rosa Luxemburg ---------------- __ . ---------------------- 87 BRING SPECIAL AR'iICLES IN THE NI TO THE ATTENTION OF LOCAL UNIONS, NEGRO GROUPS, look. In .evlew: ETC.! 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By G. ------------------... -------------------------------------------------- 93 Correspondence: Nome ______________________________ ,________________________________________ _ A Ll£TTER By Freddie Forest --------------------------------- ------------ 94 Address ___________________________________________________________________ _ A REPLY By Reva C raine -------------------------------------------------- 95 City ----------------- _________ ,________________ State ______________________ , THE NEW INTERNATIONAL A Monthly Organ of Revolutionary Marxism VOLUME IX MARCH, 1943 NUMBER 3 A formula and the Cost of Living It is acknowledged that the general rise in prices has been NOTES OF THE MONTH about 21 per cent. Some quarters have estimated it as 36 per cent. In addition, there are many intangible ways in which the costs of living have risen that are not reflected in the price Crisis of the War Labor Soard indices. Inferior quality goods, smaller portions of foods sold, substitutions, are additional ways in which the costs of living For some time now the War Labor are actually raised. These intangibles are by no means small Board, composed of representatives of labor, industry and items. In the case of meat, for example, a New York World­ "the public," has been threatened inlits position as an arbiter Telegram report of an estimate made by a meat packer showed of the living sttflndards of the American workers. The essential that 17 per cent of the meat today is being acquired and sold reason why it was threatened, almost from the start, with a on the black market. The black market, however, operates in desperate existence and the danger of dissolution resided in all fields. its position as the principal ruler of wage increases the work­ Rising costs of living reflected in the high prices charged ers should get to meet an admitted rapidly rising cost of for food, clothing, shelter and other necessaries of life, in a living. At least, this was the formal ,task of this body. Actu­ situation where the administrative head of price control ad­ ally, and it has been so stated on numerous occasions, the aim mits that he cannot actually prevent rising prices, has been of the WLB was to keep wages within a definite limit, no mat­ met by the now infamous Little Steel formula, granting wage ter to what heights the costs of living might rise, lin order increases to the limit of 15 per cent, of the War Labor Board. thereby to effect a barrier against inflation and to deflate the All certified cases for wage increases which come before this mass demand for consumer goods. board are decided by this standard of measurement. Geo­ graphic location, actual local conditions, specific outrages in By taking on the task of meeting the danger of inflation the costs of living in one area or another, are blithely ignored through a destruction of the living standards of the wo~king by the gentlemen seated on the WLB. Whenever and wher­ class, the WLB has acted as an agency of the government on ever they rendered a decision permitting an increase in wages the one hand and of the monopolistic industrialists on the to conform to the 15 per cent limit of the formula, the work­ other, for their rulings against wage increases, or for lim­ ers have merely reduced their wage cut, for the granting of the ited wage increases which never. matched the actual rises in full limit in that formula or bringing a specific wage within the costs of living, have redounded to the benefit of the bour­ its range has merely meant that the disproportion between geoisie. The net result of the WLB actions has been to bring the wages received and the cost of living (using the 21 per cent about an increase of the total profit of the bosses. figure) was reduced to 6 per cent. This is not all. The WLB has procrastinated to such an More recently the labor representatives on the WLB have extent in its deliberations that as many as six thousand cases come into increasing conflict with the rest of the board over have been charged as awaiting decision from this august body. the granting of even the increases permitted by its formula, Here again, the bosses suffer nothing froI'Il the delay. The but especially in two cases where the body refused to grant workers in the shops, faced with the burden of meeting rising increases despite the urgency of the needs in these two in­ prices, suffer from the inability of the board to act with the stances-the packing-house workers and the West coast air­ dispatch required of its position. plane cases. They have demanded a rehearing of the cases In general, the WLB has remained stoically unmoved by and a revision of the board's action. the sufferings of large sections of underpaid workers, whose The situation has been highly intensified as a result of the only resort, under the system created by the Administration, meeting between the coal operators in the bituminous field is this selfsame board. The professed principle upon which and the United Mine Workers, led by John L. Lewis. For the board was constructed, to keep wages in line with prices some time now, Lewis has been waging a one-man campaign and thus maintain an equilibrium, proved in practice to be against the War Labor Board and its Little Steel formula. the swindle it w~ expected to be. Prices, despite ceilings es­ He served notice many weeks ago that he would demand a tablished in Washington,