SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 1936 NEW MILITANT PAGE LIFE IN STALIN PRISONS WORLD OF LABOR Dr. Ciliga Continues Series on Persícution and Political Life of Polish Bund Flays Stalinists for Pogrom InImprisoned Revolutionists in the Soviet Union citement Against 4th Internationalists Malcolm Cowley Student Strike. By JOHN WRIGHT (Continued from Page 1)
POLAND ly in the ranks of our party, our trials of wreckers were prepared recognized as political prisoners. The food is the traditional fare similar in nature, taken against comrades among the Bolshevik Len The Polish has not been becomrades are entitled to one other and organized. One of the men who confessed spoke to me as follows: the Communist Oppositionists of Thus, for instance, the students of the poor Russian mouzhik. workers, peasants and revolution inists, among them Lena Danilo hind hand in following out the 80 right, namely, the right to be de They kept me in solitary confine the former Chinese University of bread and gruel for dinner and ists in Stalinist Russia.
vich, slashed their veins in protest cial patriotic line of Stalinist dip ended by the party!
against this bestial treatment. The lomacy, and of the Seventh World ment for five months, without news Sun Yat Sen in Moscow were eisupper, day in and day out, from Should any member of the Bund papers, without tobacco, without ther shipped to the worst exile year to year. In addition we got The Hunger Strikes consequences of this regime proved Congress of the c, The Polish fall in his obligations to the organcatastrophic for a number of com Stalinists run second to none when ization, he must be called to ac.
my being allowed to receive pack areas and into concentration a tiny portion of bad fish or of In 1961 we went through an 18 rades. In addition to two grave it comes to proclaiming the love count. He will be judged but not Ages (of food and clothing) or to camps where only criminals were canned, and often half rotten meat. day hunger strike in our prison. cases of insanity Vera Berger and they feel for their Polish Father in accordance with reports carried see my family. was starved and sent, or they were simply hand Contlicts broke out several times it passed peacefully, and most of Victor Krainy, who were trans land, and their readiness to defend by the Left papers.
tortured by loneliness. They kept ed over for extermination to over the rotten meat. Once a week the demands were granted. This ferred to an insane asylum there its frontiers against foreign agdemanding that confess myself Chiang Kai shek (they were we were given vinaigrette (a sause was the only case of a peaceful was the serious psychical illness of gressors. The real enemies of the in the Volkszeitung article, it is (From the tenor of the remarks guilty of acts of wrecking that placed on board of a ship which made of vinegar and oil Ed. settlement of a conflict. During Marusia Ivanova, whose name is Polish people, according to the stal clear that the Polish Stalinists have never took place: refused to as goes from Vladivostok to Shang. his day was considered a holiday the 1930 conflict, during one of the famous throughout all of Siberia asinists (who masquerade under the appointed themselves as spies to sume responsibility for crimes hai. Two times a year on May and harshest winters, in the month of the heroine of the civil war and of name of Lefts. is a small gang snitch on the disloyal acts of never committed was afraid of Comrade Deditch and mysell on November we received a slice February, the prison, administra, the underground strugle against of Fascist plotters at the head of the Trotskyists who have entered the consequences of such grave were removed from Leningrad in of white bread. But even this on the self same sed Kolchak. After a long drawn out the Government who are bent on the Bund. self accusations, but the prosecu. the middle of October. True to its modest and monotonous fare was the water bose, sprayed the pro struggle, the agreed to free selling Poland to Hitler and his tor kept assuring me that it was methods, the did not tell us given us in inadequate quantities. testing prisoners with ice water, her from jail but refused to let Nazis.
The writer disclaims any knowledge of disloyalty on the part of said was then must prove it woh Cheryabinske did we learn that creased only after the 18 day hum heat. During the contlict in 1929, her instead into exite. One of the the stalinist social patriotic cam the Stalinists that the Buna not As elsewhere. Trotskyistsout to need of my confessions, and there. Uraisk. We arrived there on the unfortunately, remained unchanged. atter they were doused with water stone blind in the prison acter the pain, thefr beating of the drums a harracks. and that differences for fore must give them. need not evening of November Through be afraid of the consequences be out the day, from our car windows, we began reading in the papers bound hand and foot, and, in this ary. 1930.
When, in the beginning of 1933. from the hose, the prisoners were brutal acts of the in Febru panied by a vile campaign of slan ranks, because in our party every People Front is accom of opinion are permissible in its cause the Soviet power would take we could observe the October pa about the workers delegations that without any food, they were left condition, soaking wet, hog tied, der against the most consistent op member has the right to defend The my unreserved confessions into acrades, the celebrations in the cities were being sent to Germany to visit imprisoned Communists ponents of the Stalinist treachery count, and give me an opportunity of Troitsk, Magnitogorsk, to work he was an engineer. and other places through which we with downright envy! It some days and three nights in solitary on the prison yard in Crousskylts. Upon the entry of the and the prisoners there, we were seized lying on the cement floors for three sede in their cells and took their in Poland as elsewhere the actor whatever views he deems to be corIn any case, the manner in which Everywhere against the workers delegation or a democra continement. Such is the juridical her compromed the communist see and into the Polish Socialist in purely the internal business of (3 cells together, 25 30 people. Trotskyists in Poland into the Bund the Trotskyists deport themselves through work. would immedi Sky rose the foundations, walls and tic delegation would only arrive label for these abominations, In ately be permitted to receive visits chimneys of factories, power plants from abroad to pay us a visit to the 1934 hunger strike, which wastor (all told, 140 180. The Social Party. the Polish Stalinists have the lund, for the latter to decide, from my family, obtain newspapers and industrial giants in process of take a look at what is going on, held in protest against the arbi ists of all parties (Russian and redoubled their efforts.
Georgian social democrats. Zionists Under the heading: The Camand not for the Stalinists.
But it persisted in remaining cruel and mighty sprouting over the prisous, concentration camps, tension of the prison terms the individuals from the Right The Volkszeitung, the Warsaw or and left the anarchists and paign against the Trotskyists following warning: The article concludes with the stubborn and kept mum, would lone sixth of the terrestrial globe. and exile! But for some reason or Oppositionists We will not tolerate any at be treated ruthlessly and not only The three of us, all Yugoslavs other, the self same leaders of the once again hogtied and subjected and the Maximalists were placed kan of the Bund (March 11, 1930) empt on any body part to conduct to forced artificial feeding, and different cells and composed and takes cognizance of the most re an incitation to a pogrom against find myself subjected to repres (comrade Draguitch was brought toreign working class organization, sions but my wife and children there three months later) spent and the seltsame democratie law then, they were transferred either other, an anarchist socialist sectocent piece of Stalinist abomination, them (i. e. the Trotskyists. would be persecuted as well.
to concentration campeor to other each of the above mentioned organ of the Communist Youth and (50 80 people, approximately ten to a circular issued by the Warsaw years (until May, 1933) in the sers who grow indignant at any For months refused to capitulate, Verkhne Uralsk political prison. a protest against the terrors of Hit. prisons, ixations)
but then things became so hard, political isolator, in Russian terier Germany keep quiet and remain Heavy Casualties Among Prisoners addressed to the students, and the Appropriately enough, the StalSeveral of the imprisoned female hold economie organization, head ject of. the Trotskyists.
was so lonely that it seemed to me minology. This prison is an old unconcerned about measures, quite that the future could hold nothing military jail, a structure three Each sector had its own house working class youth, on the sub inists are unfolding their pogrom campaign against the Trotskyists worse in store. In any case, be stories high on the steppes of the ed by an Elder and a Minister of The Volkszeitung article begins practically at the same time that came indifferent to everything. Ural Cossacks. The bottom story Finance. Lach collective was rep with the statement that the Bund that Polish Fascists are intensifyThen proceeded to sign everything of the prison is very cold. One has resented by the elder in dealing has always looked upon the Troting their anti semitic propaganda, the prosecutor demanded. to wear overshoes and sheepskin with the prison administration, skyists as a part of the interna and staging actual pogroms against while the Minister of Finance tional proletarian movement (even the Jews. monster protest strike The consequences? He was im throughout the entire winter, sit(Continued from Page 2) Trotsky. the world proletariat was had charge of the treasury of the though small numerically) The against this Fascist drive was held mediately permitted to receive ting in the cells of the first ther.
which coincided with Lenin 111 also defeated. Brandler policy of sector. In the event of struggles writer then goes on to comment as on March 17, in Warsaw.
newspapers, visits, books, packages, The Inside window panes become ness and the opening of the cam 1923, Borodin polley of 1927. this with the administration, both see follows: The rising tide of reaction in Po and was transferred to a common covered during the night with a paign against Trotskylam. The was the policy of Stalin based on tors harmonized their actions, supcell. The kept its promise thick sheet of ice.
struggle of the epigones for the theory of socialism in one porting each other in this or that We have always viewed with as land is, naturally enough, accomHis lot was improved by his false power, as shall try to prove, country. Cowley can scarcely be form, but otherwise the relations tonishment and deep concern (not panied by a violent drive against self accusations (and his accusations of others, although he made was not merely a struggle of per expected to know he knows so few between the two sectors, even as to use a harsher term) the bitter, the living standard of the workers.
no mention of them directly to sonalities; It represented a new movemenabout the revolutionary regards the day to day routine arbitrary and envenomed struggle strikes has been spread: political chapter the reaction movement that Stalin policy was were rigidly differentiated. The il that the Stalinists have waged ing through Poland for the last me. But why does the inagainst October, and the prepara already (Continued from Page 1)
ormulated days, legal post office wa organized against the small groups of Trot two months (since February. sist upon forcing such false testiand not after 1927. Today his jointly.
skyists. One might have imagined Early In March, the struggle of mony? Obviously in order to shift Fascism they supported the pro tion of the Thermidor. From this tragic burden is that he has been that after the Comintern had the textile workers in the city of the responsibility for the difficulties genuine neutrality. Officially, the call for the answer to the question that Political Life have so often been asked How defeated by historical forces, Cowchanged its approach towards the Lodz, and the surrounding region, and failures in the fulfillment of In the political domain the Com non Communist movements, the developed into a general strike did you lose power? follows ley says of Trotsky. Yes, the world munist sector was divided into a stalinists would also modify their that area. The Warsaw textile the Five Year Pan from Communist Party favors legislation Gov.
ernment onto the shoulders of the sanctions against the aggressor.
pledging the government to naturally. Pp. vi. proletariat has been defeated by number of groups and shadings struggle against the Trotskyists: workers were prepared to come out engineers that is the answer. InBut this position was not presented book to see that the personal is the historical force which made almost each of them with its own that an end would be put to the Also, but the strike One need but thumb through the historical forces, but Stalinism shortly set separate organization. Its own com previous Venomous this juil later ran across many lat Cleveland. Similar inconsisten quarel myth is completely explodes that defeat possible.
Inittees, its own publications. The struggle which they have directed methods oftled.
similar cases.
Sporadie outbursts One wonders whether Cowley Five Year Plan shook up the entire agalust this group. Just the oppo among the chocolate workers, the elsewhere, In the Leningrad prison was the American Youth Congress.
cy is displayed by the in by Trotsky: it might be said that the raison etre of the book is to realizes how much he is revealing 170 million population of Russia. site hins been the case. Not only taxi drivers, the miners, etc. have also treated to the spectacle of people compelled to spend the enIn the the Young Com explain the political content of his when he writes: Trotsky has not The Plan represented a real techthas there been no modification in been flaring. All these struggles are tire day standing in the corridor munist League has the predominant struggle. It is an out and out only been expelled bodily from the nological, and, in part, an econo Cowley Nay country he helped to win, but also mic revolution (or, at any rate, as ist, but on the contrary, it has 500 miners struck at the state the struggle against the Trotsky purely defensive in character. Thus, before the doors of the prosecutor le slogans for the student strike Trotsky brings forward the Odessa painted out of his pictures and de could be sensed even back in 1030. been made still sharper that is mines near Cracow, remaining unWe an attempt at such a revolution. conceivable subjected to 16 24 hours grilling in were arrived at in agreement with school story to explain his fall leted from its schoolbooks.
derground, because the Government order to force from the contes the ers on the committee. The from power and that Trotsky be know that these Stalinist methods The social and political problema We have before us a circular introduced a two day lay off per alons wanted by the result has already been stated.
lieves that Stalin played the same are countenanced by Cowley, who which the Five Year Plan prosed There is Pacifism has always been ram lenoble role as Danilov. Trotsky is one of the editorial sponsors of before all thinking people could signed by the Warsaw of month.
At Lodz the textile workers no sense in deluding the addressed to the stuoneself that these inquisitorial terpant among the students during does use terms like selt satisfied the book, written along the specin not fail to aronse in the prison adents and the working class youth struck to compell the manufacturPhilistines to describe the psycho cations of painting out the picture profound ferment, new seekings, tures are, you please, applied peacetime! This pacifism was eastonly to the representatives of the ly converted into the most frenzied Sorical effects of the political react Trotsky from the October Revo and, in part, a crisis in old ideolo and devoted entirely to the Trot ers to abide by the contracts signed former ruling classes, or to the patriotism during the last war. tion expressed by Stalin national lution, signed by Barbusse. Docs gles. The intense and more or less skylsts. We have no intentions of in 1938. The General Strike was bourgeois Intelligentsia, and Rehearsals for Bolshevism: it is crystal clear in Cowley understand the implications fruitful search for answers to new replanting in the columns of our called off after the manufacturers action against middle classes. No. They are apwar when it breaks along pacifist the book what Trotsky is talking this method of struggle against question was accompanied by an paper the flowers of this circular: promised to maintain the terms of plied to workers. saw a sailor When Cowley counterposes Trotskyism. What does it mean, inevitable sharp internal struggle we refuse to do the authors of this the agreement. and also to prelines can have only this effect. For this with a different explanation when the stalinists cannot meet In 1913 1983 the situation in the circular such a favor. Everyone serve the 16 hour week, as well as the militant struggle against war, who, on being led out from the pacifist and patriotie slogans and of his fall. 90 magnanimously! Trotsky arguments on the level country had become more clarifies who has had the occasion to read to mitigate the methods of introcell, was several times told that he was going to face the firing squad concepts must be rejected. In the les either deliberately 1sing or he or logical argument? When they the theoretical questions had st. and who is not afflicted with ducing rationalization into the inStalinist myopia, bas had to agree dustry.
He was led out into the yard, and concrete situation this implies is too ignorant to understand what try to conceal from the Soviet popu sumed a more distinct and inte that its contents canont be suppraised The Waren organ of the lation not only Trotsky ideas, but grated form, and, on this basis, otherwise than as an incitation to Robotnik, stated, in conimenting then brought back to the cell.
above all a struggle against the he is reading.
don want to shoot you down like otle position of the Young Commu quality he reveals is a vanity that that Trotsky is not a counter revo the unification of all the Bolsheviklar has been read by a few, there cens.
toatematikou are a worker. We of the students and the social patrn trickery. But the Teast admrable Wheu prison or worse is the puntom of the prisoners fines stallera, progrom sutust the Trotskyists upon the settlementoe the Lodz ishment for speaking or writing hasic political groups, among them While this mimeographed circu strike, that it was quite a suc.
a White Guard. As a worker younist League.
is always striking proses and play. utionary? When such methods are Leninists into a single organizare, however, many who have had should make a clean breast of week after the supposed settleing roles, writes Cowley; and as it.
that in the proof he weaves together some in employed against proletarian oppo tion. too, took the liveliest part the opportunity to hear Stalinist ment of the strike, the papers reolz S04)
WORKERS The sailor persisted in refusing cidents in Trotsky Ufe, each one ents in the new ever dawned in the search for the theoretical Left publientes. And they, too, soll textile mills were still out on year of the in the struggle of groups and ideas. Speeches or to read the so called porte to confess. But as a result of these Protect Yourselves Against the wool Cowley tortures he went hall mad. Then them he was left in peace. They insisted Hazards of Life. Join the humorous language! Trotsky rant for the Stalinist pogrom tactics place at that time, and everything that what the lefts permit them good workers in Marxist Leninist theory? Does that had occurred during the en selves relation to the Trotsky The police methods throughout that he confess his fictitious par.
WORKMENS SICK DEATH makes a forced march in the Civil tre know that they are as allen astire 16 years of the revolution, and it is alsolutely unheard of! Twis. Holand have been unprecedented in ticipation in a fictitious plot against BENEFIT FUND OF THE War back to his main forces, CowStalin. This happened not after 1884 1935 Ley describes it as General Phil tradition? But Cowley knows not the lessons or the Russian Revolu cards, abusive epithets all these tween the workers and the police is Fascism to the revolutionary in the search for the definitions of ted quotations, the most senseless their brutality. The friction bethe Kirov affair in 1934, but long before in the year 1930.
Organized, managed by and for Winchester. It Trotsky is forcibly ing; he only knows that he stands tion and the new revolutionary do not quite exhaust the entire ar came to a head in Cracow, where Persecution of Chinese workers with only one purpose: carried into exile, Cowley has him with Stalin, and anything that is tasks. The large numerical strength senal. weapons they employ more than 10, 000 workers demon against the Trotskyists.
strated on March 23 against the to render protection to members carried downstairs kicking and enough for him. Just let Cowley the political prisoners, the presence All that witnessed in the LenThe writer of the article then harsh police methods used the city ingrad prison came as a frightful Cracow, there of qualified representatives points out of the Stalinists that the March 20, blow to me. Until then had the port all endeavors and strugglesed a picture at his own sweet will know the line.
highest regard for the This for the Improvement of tollers Cowley can sagely conclude: In This, the reader will say, sounds of all tendencies and shadings of Trotskylts, who are members of against striking workers.
The demonstration was staged About 60, 000 members Organall these episodes there Was another one of the phases is a mix more like the task of a policeman revolutionary thought in Russia for the Bund, have not only obligations which demonstrated to me that the Ized in 350 branches. Reserve ture of profound drama with ac who must enforce the law, than the last 20 years helped greatly to towards the party, but that the despite the strict police orders prodegeneration of the once revolu 3, 400, 000 tor parade, and sometimes with the role of the critie whose intel facilitate the attainment of definite arty has also a duty towards hibiting it. When the police charg.
them: We, therefore, hold it nec ed, the demonstrators erected wood actor parade in circumstances lectual duty is to analyze and in results.
tionary power had gone much fur essary to stress that in addition to en barricades. The struggle lasted ther than had presumed.
Death benefit graded accord that make it seem trivial and un terpret. Yes, it does sound like ander conditions that doomed the right to defend their views ful the entire afternoon. The police im ing to age at entry. Sick benent charged with drawn sabers, acd mediately protested to the prosecutor against these horrors, tortures, payments from 225 to 900 to an honest judge who discovers that inclination, past training and pres rather, to subservlence and com culture and trade. These conces from the first opened fire Eight false accusations, and confesmen and women, ceording to Trotsky personality seems les pages of the New Republic as a obviously fulse official ideology, the during the period of the Five Year spot. More than fifty were wound sions.
expected.
Monthly 28essments from 45 Expected!
Upon the conclusion of the investo 10.
The above examples of Cowley law of Stalin a cop patrolling his was transformed into a laboratory lished in Russia the system of tar of the wounded died in the hospital tigation of my case, sent a letter method must suhtce. That method beat in the book review section of of ideas. The prison became the Hung bureaucratie state capitalism The bestiality and ruthlessness to the collegium of the and For further information apply is not peculiar to him, but is em the New Republic with ready made only place for free sociological re in the domain of economy, support of the police aroused the Cracow the of the demandto Main Once: ployed by other stalinist intellec memorauda drawn up for him by search. attempted to make funded by a regime of Bonapartism in workers to a fighting pitch. And ing that be permitted to depart 714 Sensen Ave. Brooklyn, tuals when writing in liberal pub his Stalinist masters. Like most of damental use of my compulsory the sphere of politics.
abroad. My communication was when a few days later, the funeral lications. Louis Fischer uses it: the beef eaters patrolling our presence in this prison, this tiny left unanswered. There was no Because of these views left the procession took place, thousands so do others who write for the streets, in a simpler world he would island of liberty. collective of the left Bolshevik marched in the procession, a hunneed to treat us with ceremony, for NEW MILITANT Nation and the New Republic have been a farmer, suspicious of Ciliga Prison Conclusions Leninists. and became one of the dred thousand lined the streets, and Who was defeated when Trotsky the ways of city folk, good with was of the opinion that aims initiators of the unification of the the police were conspicuous by small Balkan people. Together with with which is merged was defeated? Only Trotsky, apcattle, simple and content so long and results fustify sufferings and so called ultra Left groupings. This their absence.
my Yugoslav comrade Deditch. THE MILITANT was shipped off to the political Published weekly by the New MI rently. In Cowley estimation as the seasons kept their appointed victims. As a consequence, ar unification took place only after The brutality in Cracow has stirYet his own few sentences on this rounds, but sullen and savage when rived to the views of the so called my departure from Verkhne Uralsk red the workers of Poland as few in. 55 11th of my returning home was post. st. a. Phone. Algon. 000 points Cowley understood the world and the problemu ultra Lefts. became convinced The Federation of left Commn events have in recent months. But poned indefinitely. As found out Entered as second class mall matter indicate the true answer.
the decisive nists (consisting of extreme left there has been no mitigation The kind of intellectual who has been breaking point in the Russian Rev. Bolshevik Leninists. section of offensive of the bosses against the later, the treatment accorded us at Post Office at New York, revolution in Western Europe was won by the Communist Party. They olution occurred in 1920 1921, when the ers. Workers Opposition, living standards of the workers.
was quite respectable. After all, under the act of March 1870. checked in 1923, with the failure can use no others.
the initial steps of the workers to followers of Myasnikov) was organ So far as can be gathered from ler would say, belonging to the Subacription rates: In the United 1927, when the Chinese revolution was a European, man, as Hitwards gaining control of production ized there. This Federation num the reports, all the struggles of reStates 00 per year: 650 per six PAUL LUTTINGER, white race.
came to an unsuccessful conclusion, bered 25 people. The re united cent months have been under the months; Canada and foreign decided that their only hope was was also suppressed, most Russiang But so far as Chinese and all DANIEL LUTTINGER, and when, as a result, the bureau organization of the Bolshevik Led leadership or with the active parother Asiaties are concerned, cratic state capitalist organization inists consisted of 140. section ticipation of the Bund and the Poper year: 00 six months. Bundle to develop socialism in thelr own Washington Square North of industrial production triumphed. of the ers and Independents lish Socialist Party. Hundreds of the present Soviet rulers deal rates: Two cento per copy country. Trotsky the internation 2 and Except Sundays with them much more uneerem Vol. 2, No. 16 (Whole No. 67)
being subsequently correlated un remained outside both these united socialists were arrested during the alist was thus defeated by events and Holidaya.
der the with concessions to groups Cracow events, as well as in the niously: they are generally not SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 1936 in Shanghal and Berlin. Not only private capitalist elements in agri. To be continued in next issue) various strikes the on das