PAGE NEW MILITANT SATURDAY, JUNE 6, 1936 BLUM THOREZ STRAIN TO HEAD OFF STRIKES Blum and Stalinists Place Preservation of Capitalist Order Above Workers Interests Stalinists Incite Pogrom Against Revolutionists at Commune Rally of one million One million French workers have and Stalinists as the acts of proOn May the French Stalinist And in the same article: The Comoccupled 500 key plants, shops, vocateurs.
The Elections and After party officially pledged its unreihunist Party has reaffirmed its sup mines and factories across the served support to Leon Blum. It port of the Blum government.
whole of France.
In the elections, the workers and is necessary to assure at any price God Forbid!
To end the spontaneous sit down the petty bourgeoiste gave resoundthe triumph of the experiment we strike that paralyzed French Indus ing evidence of the depth of the are about to launch. Humanite, Dally Worker, will, as usual, be The capitalist press, adds the try, to stifle the tendencies which leftward trend. The Radicals and May Emphasis in original. led workers in Northern France to the parties of the Center found Those who voted Communist, are striking for, and may even atsilent or vague on what the workers raise red flags over their factories, themselves cut to shadows. The PARIS, May 25. While last from marching past the sacred attacks the Stalinists worked perhaps did not vote for the Soviet tempt to misrepresent the strikes as the Socialist Premier Leon Blum, fundamental sectors of the French year the traditional demonstra wall, oceupied by the Stalinist and hand in hand with the police who system, but want to preserve peace being revolutionary.
supported by the French Stalinist population were splitting in two tion at the Wall of the Federals Socialist burenucrats together slugged together with them, withand guarantee the security of the with the future Prime Minister, out making any arrests. From a country. Our people demand crime of all to call these strikes party and the General Confedera diamentric directions. Huge gains at the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, in And that would be the worst tion of Labor, has rushed through on the left. Gains on the right, commemoration of the victims of Leon Blum.
certain point of view the profil. that the agonizing threat of the revolutionary only less heinous a settlement of their immediate which polled only 1, 000, 000 less the Commune, took place under Before the supporters of the ciency of the Stalinist polloo is civil war leagues comes to an end.
the cloud of the Stalin Laval deedemands which in the present state votes than the left.
Fourth International arrived at superior to that of the state po(Thorez, Humanite, May 10. crime than the French workers of French economy can have no After the electoral victory, Leon larations, the Stalinists, depressed the entry to the cemetery, the lice: they can organize veritable The Communists called for Popu went ahead and made their revoluwould themselves commit if they reality.
Blum, leader of the Socialist Party or worried, had to suffer the doors Stalinists and Henaff espeelally, mass pogroms and be more suclar Front committees but hastened tion!
While in a few plants, workers and premier designate of the Peo of the Bolshevik Leninists, the had harrangued the crowd against cessful in separating and remov. to explain on May 15 that these Revolutionary Socialist Youth and resumed or opened negotiations, the ple Front government, openly anthem, spreading the rumor that Order will ensure success, aping the revolutionists from the committees would in no sense be pealed Humanite on June We announcement of Blum settlement nounced that he was taking power, the anarchists, ete. who shouted the renegade Dorlot was in their masses, in digging a ditch be intended to substitute for existing are sure that the people of France was greeted with a new wave of not to install a new order, but to Sac au dos (soldier pack on ranks, etc. Thereupon a crowd tween them. The Stalinists offer political parties or government in. will preserve the magnificent masstrikes, including 150, 000 miners in revive French economy and pre your shoulders) at them and of more than a thousand threw the government not only their par stitutions. It is only a question of tery over itself which it has disthe north and 10, 000 white collar serve the old order. The left vic danced a pirouette around them themselves upon the revolution liamentary support but their fists. actively seconding the government. Played for several weeks.
Insurance company employees in tory caused a stampede on the without any serious scuffles ense ists with the utmost savagery, As long as the betrayals of the. Humanite, May 15. Parls. The grand total rose over Bourse and a steady flow of gola ing, this year the demonstration throwing rocks and refuse at future Blum govern does not Jouhaux, the Bill Green Urges Workers Return from the country, calculated to was turned into veritable mass them, tearing down their four disillusion broad masses, this sup France, also, in a radio speech, deLarge red flags, destroying all the We are facing a situation in force the new government to deval pogrom against the revolutionists.
port will retain its efficacy. The On May 29, in the first stages of tended the strikers movement but which every hour counts, declared uate the trane and bear the brunt Thirsty for revenge, proud of placards, among which was one incidents of Sunday, May 24 are the striko, the United Press report warned them against any manifesBlum, bringing laws to the Cham of the widespread miseries that step their electoral vietory and con which called for the liberation of only a foretaste of what is being led that the responsible leaders of tation that might lead to conflict ber to implement the settlement. will entail for the lower strata of scious of their role as policemen the Bolshevik Leninist prisoners prepared against the revolution the labor unions and the Commu with opposition organizations.
of Stalin, which had especially ists.
nist Party were urging their memThe fundamental function of the the population. Blum made sweep. of the incoming government of All together they cheered Leon settlement is to ward of the im ing statements of appeasement. the People Front, the Stalin aroused the Ire of the Staliniste The morning after, Populaire, bers to go back to work. Blum in the Chamber on June mediate threat of the workers of The Bourse promptly recovered con ists not only provoked brawls all The column was broken, the Stal organ of the futuro government Like the Socialists and Jouhaux when he flatly declared: We shall line of march against fensive. It will drag them into Adence in Blum. The workers be along Inista succeeded in their job.
We shall for the first time took up the Stal and the trade unions, the Commu govern as republicans negotiations, break their solid front gan to lose it. During the long the Bolshevik Leninists, the Rev Only a small detachment among Inist slander of Frotskyist pro nists were caught short by the guarantee the Republican order.
and destroy their unity. In the delay before Blum took power, thelr olutionary Socialist Youth and the whom were several women, brav vocateurs, eulogized Henar and strike movement. First they tried Strikes Continue meantime, the French bourgeoiste confidence ebbed still further while Internationalist Communist Party, ing the blows, succeeded enter rojoloed in the fact that several to hush it. Falling that, finally on Socialist, Stalinist and ap and its Fascist gangs will have Blum, Faure, Lebas and Co. begged and the anarchists, who formed ing the cemetery and of march citizens were slightly maltreat June 4, they issued a statement peals did not check the movement.
ample time to prepare to take bold Herriot, Boncour and all the old a column of more than 1, 000 peo ing with their banner before the eft that is small compensation saluting the strike. At the same The strikes mounted daily.
The day when the People Front govern line Radicals, to come into their ple, but organized an ambush at Wall, shouting thelr Indignation for the Stalinist cops. Human time the leading committee of the Blum presented his government to the entry to the cemetery In orment of Leon Blum has served its new government.
at Thorez and Co.
ite, on the other hand, maintained Communist Party promised the Blum the Chamber 136, 000 workers joined It is noteworthy that in their Out of this suspicion stemmed der to prevent the revolutionists purposes.
silence of the guilty.
government its loyal support and the movement. They wanted action.
urged continued unity and disci. Blum, Salengro, Joubaux and the For the moment, the French the strikes that have swept France.
pline in the People Front. employers went into conference and bourgeoisie is heeding the urgent, This is proved by its spontanelty The be paralyzed by an infringement of play their assigned role. Daily Worker, June piteous plea of the French Stalin and the dithealty which the Social. be in a state of Anarchy, emerged with the settlement ists who on June warned the ists, the Stalinists and the People Front stands for order order, by any interruption in the Andre Maurois, French bourgeois Following Blum radio speech hailed by all parties, the French employers that in the present in bureaucracy have had, in the words (N. Times, June vital services of the nation. writer, described it in the appealing for industrial peace, the bourgeois press most of all, as a ternational situation, a prolongation of a bourgeois correspondent, in Blum worked no miracles. The At the same time it was openly Times of May 31 in the following Stalinists issued special night happily peaceful termination of the of their resistance is endangering trying to get in front of the strike strikes in the Paris district and announced that the government was terms: The program. of the edition of Humanite to announce movement that threatens to upset the security of the country. Dails and lead it instead of being dragged throughout the country, instead of preparing to act as a strikebreaker. Communist leaders is not at all rev. that the French Communist Party all the calculations of the preseryWorker, June along in its wake. Times, diminishing, spread. Salengro, the reported on June olutionary. The Russian Com fully supports the government ers of Republican order.
Workers Take Possession June Times, June 5, was planning an emergency rail munists who seek the aid of France announced legislative program. But the troubles of the People While Blum pleaded with the Capitalist Order, Blum Demands The first cabinet meeting issued way service in the event of a gen have no desire to see France wenk (Daily Worker, June Front government have only begun ened by dissension.
Political Acts of Strike Its settlement was greeted with workers to end their strike, while The workers of France struck for a communique: The government eral transport strike.
Thorez Cachin and Co. unreserv new order. They want a com has decided on the utmost efforts to Blum appealed for Industrial This description was amplified on On June workers in Paris broke a new strike of 150, 000 miners in edly supported Blum, workers in plete change. They want power conclude a rapid and happy (1) 80 peace. His appeal, reported the June by no less a personage than out into the first violence of the the north of France and the buildshop after shop laid down their They thought they had it in the lution of the strike.
Herald Tribune on June 6, was Albert Sarraut, the outgoing pre strike, but what was more impor ing trades workers in Paris and tools and took possession, grimly government of the People Front. Gov Prepares Strikebreaking well received by the French bourse, Blum went to the radio to spread but failed to make any visiblemler, who absolved the Communists tant, carried out one of the first other workers in Bordeaux in the Ignoring the Socialist premier they This strike taught a different lesim of all responsibility for the strike: clearly political acts of the strike: South. Accepting the settlement be swept foto power, grimly mistrust son.
the good word. He appealed for pression on the French strikes It could not be that Moscow, They burned issues of the capital cause it is the only way out of the ful of his avowed determination to Blum took over the government calm. hope employers will which continued to spread.
which desired to encourage the milist papers, Intransigeant and Le crisis for the moment, the employ preserve the capitalist order. at a moment when all authority show the greatest possible consider Times, that the situation is alled that she might be an effective all on June 7, the stalinist Daily that his government would have to Blum is itary strength. on The tremendous strike movement seems to have disappeared ination for of the last fourteen days burls the France, and order is being kept But even as he spoke new strikes with danger and that the govern against Germany, would wish to see Worker, which had devoted inches face an the consequences of the lle into the teeth of the creators of only because hundreds of thousands broke. Blum appeal for calm was ment must act quickly to get condisorder in the country, unless the to the strike where the big bour settlement, because French industhe People Front who declare that of workmen are themselves quiet greeted with 254 new strikes within trol of the strike by leading it and Soviet Government is returning to geois papers were giving it columns try would prove unable to carry the the French proletariat is not yet and orderly. Times, June less than 25 hours.
getting the workers confidence that its early ideals of fomenting world and whole pages, announced in a weleht Sposed upon it ripe for power. It was the great Roger Salengro, his Socialist MinisHe asked the strikers to be pa the electoral program of the Peo revolution, and indications are ra headline: Special Cable Spikes In the Chamber of Deputies Blum leftward swing of the masses which ter of the Interior, had already set tient, to bave confidence to try to ple Front will be carried out.
ther to the contrary (N. Times, Fake Rioting Reports. Calm and pleaded that the occupation fac piled up the great People Front the toffe for the government at obtain their demands by law.
On Other Side of Barricades June discipline reign everywhere, despite tories by strikers (18) less dangermajority in the recent elections. It titude: This agitation is inadmis To be effective, the government Backing Blum to the hilt, the What has been the role of the alarmist stories printed with the ous than fighting the streets.
was the same swing, moving way sible. The People Front must not must have public security. It would Stalinists continued unflinchingly to Stalinists since the election aim of provoking disturbances. People Front Betrayal Everywhere beyond the leaders of the two big The People Front wants at all parties and the unified labor federcosts to avoid fighting in the ation, which produced the great streets. It offers the workers setstrikes of the past fortnight.
tlements which mean long drawn Action Spontaneous negotiations which are only now to begin. It seeks to drag out and Nelther the Socialist Party, comdissipate the legitimate will of the ing to power in a bourgeois coalition government, nor the Stalinists By ALFREDO ROJAS Guards are who support that government, nor At the moment that the Popular every dayAll workers centers ed its subsidiaries to expel the to decline Azana Invitation to be the only hope there still might have their own behalt, for thelr own reported practically the national convention, empower cialist ranks, which forced Prieto the whole Spanish working class. workers to Independent struggle in.
the trade union bureaucracy, issued Front government begins to reign were closed in Lebrija, the general lefts and outlawed the left wing pa come Premier; the speeches and ar been for the Maurin Nin group. In Spain today there is also a any strike call. The workers went in France, it is highly instructive strike there was declared ilegal, per, Claridad. When in response ticles intransigently attacking Az after their into action without and despite all of them.
to draw the balance sheet of the and the strike committee arrested Caballero demands a new election ana, by Javier Bueno, Socialist Front, breaking with, joining and stronte strike wave, involving 300, 000 Committee, that leader of the Asturian rebellion: breaking again, thus losing any seen the People Front in action at Not an industry was unaffected: regime of the Popular Front gov. All syndicalist centers have been of the National closed in Madrid, and sixty syndi august body responds with the dec the party program proposed by the serious standing as a firm political the next stage: the government of steel, coal, munitions, automobiles ernment in Spain.
After four months in power, the calfst leaders arrested, with the laration that Caballero proposal Madrid oganization which, despite tendency was in their correctly Cesares is carrying out repressive building, paper, press, department Spanish Popular Front covernment government threatening to continuent is an unparalleled violation of parts confusion (for example, it says estimating the epochal significance measures against working class or stores, trucking and transport. Ger reveals itself as completely bank the syndicalist led Confederation to discipline! The rightist leaders that the organ of the proletarian of the Socialist split. Now it is minating in sporadic strikes and rupt. As we predicted when it came of Labor st it did not conse its are howled down at meetings, and dictatorship iu be the socialist clear the parts of Marzlan Units ranizations and declaring strikes Is Fascism in France the price scattered plants throughout the to power, it has not made the strikes. And now the government their chief spokesman, Indalecio Party) is a revolutionary program. is a sterile, doomed sect; it has Some 60, 000 workers oceupled faction of the problems of the Spanish strike en remed that strikes for attempt to assassinate him. In a basic one, between reformists and apparently independent political world proletariat must pay and the tories on May 26. With a surge masses. The Menshevik perspec political demands are illegal, and tual fact, there are now two separ revolutionaries.
portunistic moves and gestures of those who preach Industrial peace, that came from the most profound tives of the Stalinists, who put for that it will shorty outlaw the strike ate Socialist parties in Spain.
Role of the Stalinists intransigence. Maurin, who holds a national security, class collabo depths of the working class, hun ward, among other absurdities, the as an instrument of the proletariat The Spanish Right Wing Socialists are hardly to be differentiated oughly reactionary role. They conThe Stalinists are playing a thor Arm majority in the organization, time stopped most of the key wheels solve the land question, has been! The demagogy of the republicans from the Left Republicans of the Itinue to support the government is like a little shopkeeper; he wiltration in the form of the People dreds of thousands in a few days idea that the government could altogether.
Front?
the exposed as demagogle fakery. The has worn thin. The government restripe who now govern Spain. Pri The Program of Victory Their conscious demands were electoral part of the People Front peats all the elaborate mumbo jum. eto has bitterly attacked the strikes wholeheartedly. Azana is a friend one moment, upon Caballero at of the Soviet Union and therefore another, he will do anything only The coming period in France simple: for a 40 hour week; for in included a specific repudiation by bo of the 1981 days: it draws up because they debilitate the country.
creases in starvation wages, now as the republicans of the proposal to elaborate plans for building Span He and his colleagues have a pennviolate. One need only look at let him keep his own little shop. must provide the answer. The confiscate the landed estates; and, ish economy, scolds the Catholica spective of decades of collaboration the detaliatest Ferested in any country The idea of independent political French workers, with their magnis little as three francs (180) a day to discover that they have yet to intervention by entry into the so cent strength, their reserves and for collective contracts; for vaca as the Stalinists themselves used for their unfriendliness to tbe Re with the republican bourgeoisletter a single word of criticism of cialist Party is alien to such minds, their readiness for the final strugtions with pay.
Crisis Wracks France days of 1981, it 18 Impossible for bates in which a furious verbal to form a coalition cabinet.
The Left Wing Socialists are an fact, the most conscious kind of with this sterile clique; but the de tionary way out, the Bolshevik Lention can go no further; it is, in Left Opposition has not broken them give it in favor of the revolubackward, Impoverished Spain to struggle goes on against religious But the unrealized Implication make even a stab at purchasing the education, etc. But this game can extremely heteroseneous combines collaboration with the bourgeoisie weloping split in the socialist Party inists of France in the present situunderlying the great strike wave estates. Even the 1981 regulations not be repeated again. More and concertainly Caballero, though for the bourgeoisie, you see is cuently salvanize all those ation are tirelessly advancing the upener får belyonate these demande esta tesi mouen ages for Tee peas more the government has to resort be rides the rest of its wave today for the League of Nations and pe whet are capable of thinking politi following demands: French capitalism is in acute crisis. antey have not been re instituted to the use of open force against the time at its beauthentic repescabaleto tronizingly praises Russia as a chi It has reached the end of its rope. The result is that the land workers masses. Immediate and full amThe promisIts government has been living from and peasants and in Spain twenty Crists in the Labor Movement declares that Lenin prediction ing Socialist youth movement is Regroupment Still Waits nesty.
hand to mouth, on loans, on rev out of the twenty four millions live 40 hour week without pay The intensification of the class viet republic in Europe is about to nent stultification; its leaders were ish Revolution may be described, The present status of the Spanwrung from the meagre on the land are just as badly of struggle has created profound be realized and that he will not taken to Moscow for conferences, In short, as one in cuts, collective contracts, unemwages of its employees and its pen as ever.
ployment insurance.
which the crisis in the working class. The slonaries. The cost of living 18 As the masses realize that they syndicalists, terribly discredited for oppose the party collaboration in and come back to effect the entry masses have lost all faith in the Workers control of producprohibitive. The French monetary have been deluded, they are begin their retusal in most places to fon decided! He denounces the syndicalist youth. The very first doc broken the link between governthe government of the conventions of the Stalinist youth into the so government, and consequently have tion; nationalization of the big industries.
system is being strained beyond its capacity to endure. It was to change ning to fight back. The last two the October, 1834 revolt, and the realists for draining the energy of yment issued by the united youth ment and the main body of the so4. Fusion of all private banks all this, to win security for them. weeks have seen the greatest strike anarchistically negative attitude in the proletariat in aimless strikesme into one (the Bank of France in cluded. nationalization of credit of of the revolutionary workers of France have moved into reason why the syndicalists are Trotskyism. Fortunately, the cor groupment to be distributed by the State to pares to the present movernent of fascist regime, have now read able to lead the workers in such not prevented district organizations ership capable and ready to trans the political arena in the last two the masses. In Malaga provlace a much of their prestige tanks to strikes is that they do offer the from demanding a turn to struggle form the Spanish erleis into a youth leadership has forces has not yet produced a lead the workers, peasants and small merchants.
years.
struggle for power. Political rights for soldiers; ted by Abroad analogous trend of strike: Agrarian strikes are also Popular Front government by the whereas Caballero, who heads the against the government abolition of the year military The Maurin Nin Party the impoverlabed petty bourgeoisie, inces. The Asturian fron miners dicalists are now pressing their ad. vides no leadership at all.
He car. The Party of Marxian Unity. arising out of the ranks of the That leadership is in process of service; reduction of the war budget Arrest of the Fascist leadworking class parties into a united dozens of trades walking out. In all Socialist controlled Madrid; but Stalinists, who support the Popular ton with the Workers and Peas longer period in which to develop, ens; organization of Workers Ioading the workers from struggle there must be at least half a mil helt sporadic steles activity, comp Front Government no less than the ants Bloc led by Joaquin Maurin, that is more time is permitted it Militia; arming of the prolotariat led with no political perspective, to struggle against the bosses and llon out on strike today.
Prietos, and deludes the Spanish a movement hall Catalan national than 1s the case in France; for in Formation of mass commitThe Government Repression creating serious dissension in the their Fascist hired men, tacked ithas been caught entirely un Spain the forces of reaction are batees in shops, factories and local.
selt on to the liberal bourgeoisle and Unable to solve Spain economic syndicalist ranks and will undoubt workers with the slogan of unity dragged the workers into an all problems, the government is reedly lead to an explosion as soon of all workers organizations as aawares by the split in the Social sically very weak. But even in itles to carry out the workers panacea as a of ist ranks. What is infinitely worse, Spain the revolutionary leadership own program, ance with their own bittercet eneBorting more and more to the force become more apparent to change the which separate the two son of the splat, the May 22 issue of sts or reaction will triumph.
more indicative of the it now pooh poohs the significance must arise within a limited tme, The program of Bolshevik. of the workers and the The Leninists is a program for tle for their own lives, their own peasanta. week ago in Albacete cialist tendencies are the hundreds organ, La Batalla declaring that masses motion, they want Workers Peasants The Sput in the Government.
bread. The spontaneous struggles occurred a massacre of peasants by It demands a decisive break with of strikes led by Socialists; the all there is no baste difference between to fight to the end; but a long pertThe crials reveals itself most do Socialist tickets pat up in a num Left and Right Socialists and even od of sporadic, aimless at Brest and Toulon last August the Civil Guard, seventeen pensactivity the bourgeoiste and all its repre Hovealed their readiness to sweep ants being killed immediately, with clavely in the ranks of the mass ber of provinces during the Prest sinking so far as to say that if the will exhaust their vitality, and sentatives and lackeys in the their path clean of the bourgeois many others reported dying of party of Spanish Inbor, the Social dential election the occupation of split takes place it will lead to ter leave the way open for reaction Radical party and calls for the tate apparatus: Toulon and Breathwounds later. Deaths of workers Liste. The Right wing controlled estates by Socialist led peastinta rible conflicts between the two fac Thus Spain mirrors also the com odrens ve toward the worleans were denounced by the Socialista land peasants at the hands of Olvi National Committee has postponed the terride repercussions in the 80 tions with dreadful consequences for ing events in France.
power. BALANCE OF SPANISH PEOPLES? FRONT of enues