Vote for Working-Class Candidates! Vote for Dobbs and Carlson! Workers of the World, Unite! TRADITION OF DEBS LIVES IN OUR PARTY (See Page 2) t h e MILITANT PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE Voi. XII - No. 39 NEW YORK, N. Y., MONDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 1948 PRICE: FIVE CENTS SWP Candidates Blast Truman's By George Clarke The big campaign news this Demagogy; Urge Labor Congress week is the battle of the ballot— and how we are winning it. By FARRELL DOBBS and GRACE CARLSON We are on in New York, certi­ fied by the Secretary of State SWP Presidential and Vice-Presidential Candidates and the time fo r legal shenanig­ ans safely passed. HALF-MILLION MICHIGAN Dobbs Hits Slum Conditions In .Connecticut rough estimates Nothing in this election campaign is likely to be from comrades on the spot show weirder than the debate last week between Democrat that we topped the required 8300 WORKERS HEAR DOBBS signatures by approximately 450 Truman and Republican Taft, one of Dewey’s chief after finicky town clerks scrutin­ By Howard Lerner backers. The immediate issue was Truman’s charge that T aft per­ ized 13,300 signatures with a spy­ SWP Candidate for Michigan Governor sonally pressured the NLRB to act against the A F L International glass. Unfortunately, they gave Typographical Union. But the real issue was: Who are the best the petitions for Alvin Berman, DETROIT, Sept. 20—A specter is haunting Truman in “ friends of labor,” the Democrats or Republicans? our candidate for Congressman- Michigan— the specter of the Socialist Workers Party and its Certainly we can recall nothing more fantastic than a debate at-large such brusque treatment presidential candidate, Farrell Dobbs. on this issue between the Republican Senator who c'o-authored the he emerged 100 short of the re­ The SWP nominee, treading most vicious anti-labor law in U. S. history and the Democratic quired amount. It is now’ up to the President who established the precedents fo r some of this law’s Secretary of State to review the on Truman’s heels from ai/to worst features and has enforced it with brutal vigor. petitions again and then do her town to auto town, blasted Amer­ Few workers, we are sure, will doubt that multi-millionaire Taft, duty by certifying Dobbs, Carl­ ica’s No. 1 Strikebreaker over On Your Radio whose fam ily owns one of the leading Ohio newspapers, has used son and Morris Chertov, SWP four radio stations and before all his influence on behalf of the publishers against the ITU-AFL. candidate for governor, on the large, enthusiastic meetings in SWP broadcasts And fewer still will swallow his claim that the Taft-Hartley Act Connecticut ballot. Flint, Pontiac, Lansing, Grand was designed to “ help labor.” From the opposite end of the Rapids and Detroit. in Fifteen Forums “ In ju n c tio n ” Harry Truman country comes the news that a An estimated half million over Station WNEW lively nominating convention of Michigan workers heard Dobbs’ But for prize demagogy and hypocrisy we have to award the devastating- exposure of “ Injunc­ the Washington State District of The Socialist Workers palm w ith double-cross to Truman. He’s making a play fo r labor the Socialist Workers Party was tion” Harry and the corrupt Party ran its first ’two broad­ support by attacking Taft’s intervention against the ITU — while held on Sept. 14. In addition to capitalist party he heads. The the ITU is battling for its life against a vicious federal injunction Farrell Dobbs and Grace Carl­ keen attention and hearty ap­ casts in the series of election secured by Truman’s hand-picked NLRB! Truman complains about son, the convention nominiited plause accorded Dobbs at open- forums sponsored by station Taft “putting the heat” on the NLRB. But what does Truman have Dan Roberts for Governor. It is air meetings shows that the W NEW in New York City'. to say about the real heat on the ITU — the injunction? Dead si­ Michigan workers are not going lence. now up to state officials to place This series entitled “ Peo­ us on the ballot. down the line like sheep fo r Tru­ We can confidently predict that the word “ injunction” will never At approximately the same man and that thousands of them ples Choice” consists of 30 pass “ Injunction” H arry Truman’s lips in this campaign. He doesn’t time, we unfurled our banner for are going to vote for genuine broadcasts running nightly want the workers reminded that it was he who revived the use of a Workers and Farmers Govern­ independent working-class poli­ from 9:45 to 10 EST. federal injunctions against strikes; who tried to smash three mine tical action by voting for Dobbs strikes, two of them with injunctions; who broke two railroad strikes ment for the first time in the The next SWP broadcast Farrell Dobbs, Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate, is shown above talking with and his vice-presidential run­ Mrs. Owens, with her two children, who is point ing out some of the filth and squalor in the Detroit w ith Arm y seizures; who secured injunctions against the CIO sea­ farm state of Iowa. A nominating w ill be heard on Fridav, Oct. convention was held in the city ning-mate, Grace Carlson. slum areas. men and longshoremen. In short, Truman doesn’t want the workers of Davenport, which designated It was not by accident that I and Wed., Oct. 29. Throughout the area where Mrs. Owens lives, there is a nauseating odor of burning garbage. reminded that he is the greatest government strikebreaker in U. S. history. our presidential candidates and Truman chose to open his cam­ W NEW is 1130 on your She told Comrade Dobbs, “ They used to pick up the garbage down south every other day. Up But what shall we say of the union leaders who, knowing Tru­ electors. Minutes of the conven­ paign in Michigan. He recognizes here, they pick it up every two weeks in summer. If we didn’t burn it ourselves, it would soon dial. man’s record fu ll well, now try. to whitewash it and conceal it and tion were filed in Des Moines, that labor is the decisive sector swamp us. In winter, they don’t pick it up at all. The snow just buries it until spring.” of the population and that this There are 90,000 homes in crowded Detroit that the Detroit Housing Commission recommend­ represent this deadly foe of labor as its “best friend.” Are they the State Capital. simply stupid or mistaken? Or are they conscious traitors? Los Angeles filed 4258 signa­ state is the heart of industrial ed be razed to the ground. They are rat and vermin-infested and lack toilet, washing or cook­ America. W ith the way paved by for Truman in Detroit, so many ing facilities. Even the ITU leaders, it is painful to note, are silent about tures, or the maximum permitted Truman’s strikebreaking role. How can they square this with their Walter Reuther of the CIO and thousands of workers walked Dobbs told Mrs. Owens that what is needed is to take the $18 billion war budget and use the by the state, to place Myra Tan­ battle against an injunction for which Truman — we repeat Truman Frank X. Martell of the AFL, away that it amounted to a vir­ money to build millions of low-rent modern homes. ner Weiss on the ballot as SWP — is chiefly responsible? Congresswoman in the 19th Dis­ Truman stomped into Michigan tual demonstration. trict. Myra will be the only op­ to make a bid fo r labor’s votes. Although Dobbs had none of the A Congress of Labor press build-up Truman received, ponent to the Bipartisans since VIRTUAL DEMONSTRATION the Wallaceites have' withdrawn the SWP candidate’s meetings A few weeks ago we hailed the ITU convention for advocating* in favor of Democrat Chet Holli- Despite the advance ballyhoo were very well-attended. More­ N. J. Committee Formed a National Emergency Congress of Labor, to be held in Washington, field. of the CIO and A F L leaders, the over, the workers listened eagerly to unite all unions around a joint action program to smash the T aft- Hartley Act and government-by,--injunction. That would be a real In San Francisco, we placed the to the SWP program. Michigan workers, particularly in step forward for labor. We see in the Congress of Labor not only name of Harry Press in nomina­ A t Pontiac on Sept. 15, Dobbs auto, gave Truman a cool recep­ the means to consolidate labor’s forces against the Slave Labor tion for State Assemblyman from addressed an open-air neighbor­ To Defend Legless V et tion. A t the Labor Day meeting hood rally of more than 300 Law but to unite labor politically into its own party that will fight the 20th District. He w ill be the NEW ARK, Sept. 22—The wide-spread sympathy in New Jersey for James Kutcher is be­ to see that no anti-labor laws are ever again passed. only opponent of Thomas Ma­ Negro and white workers who remained fo r over two hours to ginning to take on active and organized form to help the legless veteran keep the VA clerical The basic issue of this campaign is not whether Truman or loney, Democratic boss running Dewey is the “ lesser evil” for labor, but to rid ourselves of all capi­ on both capitalist party tickets in hear him and other SWP speak­ job from which he faces dis­ ers, including Genora Dollinger, is appealing fo r support on the public hearing at which his party talist politicians by building our own class party.