Workers Of The World Unite!
Socialist Appeal For The Fourth International!
OFFICIAL WEEKLY ORGAN OF THE SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY VOL. II No. 29 Saturday, July 16, 1938 375 Five Cents per Copy Stalin Murders Foreign Poor Little Belgium Communists Who Sought Refuge In The First Year of China War Shows Japanese Imperialism Doomed CHINA STRUGGLE ESS 701Communist shot or the THE HITLER PURGE THE STALIN PURGE SIT IN STAGED BY STRIKERS IN PLANT Czechoslovakia. Another Watch for Spain Article Next Week Next week marks the second anniversary of the outbreak of the civil war in Spain. The significance of the The entire liberal and labor press drools with chauvinistic struggle, the lessons to be do rived from it, and an analysis enthusiasm at the very mention of the name of Czechoslovakia of the present position of the The socialist New Leader and the communist Daily Worker war and prospects of its termination, will be dealt with to say nothing of their brethren of the Nation and the New Rein a detailed study in our next public outshout the capitalist press in acclaiming brave little Writer Gives Grim List of Victims Shot or Imprisoned by Issue to mark the anniversary.
Czechoslovakia and the resistance she is prepared to offer any Without Semblance of a Trial The article will be written by Hitlerite intervention.
Max Shachtman. Watch for it!
All the editorial writers are, of course, devout adherents of Army Victories Not Effective Beyond EDITORIAL NOTE The rePeace. Like Roosevelt, they hate war. Whatever conflicts they may Soldiers Bayonet Points; Japan cent Imprisonment In Moscow of have among themselves, each puts forward his policy with the the head of the Hungarian Com Plunges Toward Bankruptcy assurance that its acceptance will guarantee both peace and munist Party, Bela Kun, lifted a small corner of the curtain be cracy hind hundreds of HungaYet the case of Czechoslovakia shows that all of them are rian, German, Polish, Greek, Romanian, Esthonlan, Latvian and prepared for war. Not only that, but they have already made up other communists sojourning In their minds as to which side of the coming war they will call Russia, have been murdered or By LO SEN Imprisoned by the withTo attempt to strike a balance of the Sino Japanese war as its upon the workers to lay down their lives for out even the semblance of a trial.
As in 1914, the trenches are to be piled high with corpses first year draws to a close is like trying to pass judgment on a play We print below a sensational for the loftiest oh, the very loftiest. ideals: for Democracy, list of some of the leaders of the after viewing the prologue.
German and Polish for the Independence of the Small Nations.
parties who have be Titanic struggles have been fought on Chinese battlefields.
This time, however, it is not Little Serbia, or Little Belgium, jalled by Stalin in recent times.
Nearly one million men have lost their lives. Millions of men, but Little Czechoslovakia. But while the country involved is dif. The article, hy comrade X, is women, and children have been plunged into the direst misery.
translated from the May June, As in Spain, only on an infinite ferent, the trick is not 1988, Issue of the Bulletin of the ly larger scale, the world has Japan attempt to establish its Opposition, organ of the RusIssue Is Not Self Determination sian Bolshevik Leninists abroad been treated to ghastly advance imperialist domination over Chtshowing of the horrors of the na by force of arms has already The conflict between Hitlerite Germany is not over the right coming imperialist war. For that been proved, in this first year, to of self determination of national minorities or of small peoples. Poland is what this war has been, for all be an adventure hopelessly It is not democracy that is at stake. Whoever says it is, is deliber Arrests and shootings of Po its magnitudo, for all its cost doomed to defeat. China vastately lying lish communists began in the prelude, the curtain raising ness, Japan frailty, and When Hitler seeks to incorporate the 3, 000, 000 Sudeten year 1933, after many Ukrainian scene of a drama that has still struggle for power among the to be played out. Its theme is great imperialist nations of the Germans into Greater Germany, it is not because he is animated and White Russian communists the fate and the future of civili world, all spell defeat for the by the great principle of allowing all peoples to determine their had already been arrested and zation.
ambitious robber who is seekown governmental forms and allegiances. If he were, he would executed. Even prior to the mass ing, belatedly, to imitate his not simultaneously demand that millions of Negro peoples in arrests, in 1929, the Comintern, older imperialist brothers in the England African colonies be turned over to the control, oppresgame of conquest.
with the assistance of the Not even from the military sion and exploitation of Germany regardless of the wishes of the adjudged the controversy be point of view can Japan boast of natives.
tween the Right grouping in the any important achievement in On the other side, there is absolutely nothing democratic Central Committee of the Polish this year of warfare, especially about compelling the Sudeten minority to remain under the rule Varsky, Kostrzeva and when we consider the inferiority others) and the Left grouping of the Czech bourgeoisie, especially when this minority has made of Chinese military equipment and the even more important amply clear its desire to join Germany. Under present circum. of Lensky) by sending the mafact that the present bourgeois stances, no revolutionist would advocate the incorporation of the jority of the Rights into exile.
Workers Hailed to leadership in China has not Sudeten territory into the Third Reich, any more than he advo Lensky group the partisans of dared to draw on the real rocated the swallowing up of the Saar by Hitler. But the fact the general line remained in Court After Cops sources that lie in the Chinese masses for resistance and counremains that the Czechs are holding the German minority against leadership up to the end of 1937.
Evict Them In 1933 arrests among the its will ter attack. Superficially regarded, Japan has scored an impressive Similarly, there is no regard for democracy or the right of Rights began, and in 1938 they made arrests among Lensky NEW YORK. When trucks ar pled most of seven provinces, or series of triumphs. It has occu.
self determination by the Czech ruling class when it keeps artigroup rived to move machinery of the nearly a third of China proper.
ficially and forcibly under its domination the millions of Hun The Rights. Accused Sagamore Metal Goods Corporat controls all but one or two garians, Poles, Slovaks, Ruthenians and other national minorities The Rights were accused of aswhom the Allied victors of 1918 arbitrarily compelled to submit sisting agents of Pilsudski to town, last week, wolle: ports and all but one of the im portant railroads.
worm their way into the leaderers, on strike for ten weeks, barto Masaryk, Benes and Co ship of the party, and main ricaded themselves behind steel But its control over this vast Furthermore, Hitler doesn give a hoot in hell about the taining contacts with the nationfireproof doors in a desperate at area is of the most tenuous kind, democratic or racial feelings of his Sudeten blood brothers. If he alist elements in Polish Ukraine tempt to prevent the concern All kinds of correspondents, in and White Russia, and of having Catching Up And Outstripping.
intervenes in Czechoslovakia, it will not be to liberate the Sufrom moving.
cluding even the notoriously prodeten Germans (God help them. but to take over the vast and supported Trotsky in 1923 24.
More than 300 employees, mem Japanese Hallett Abend of the beginning made with the bers of the United Electrical Ra New York Times, have testified powerful Skoda munitions works, and to complete his dominaexecution of Zharsky and his ship and was elected by the Com Polish military organization. To Party, had joined the dio and Machine Workers Union, that Japan control extends littion of Central and Southern Europe.
wife, Matseyevskaya. Zharsky munist Party to the Sejm. Both gether with them, Sokhataky party. All of them also confessed have been striking for a untonte farther than the points of French Imperialism Decisive Factor was a member of the party from of them confessed that in 1919 (Bratkovsky Communist deputy that they gave false information contract and a 20 per cent wage its bayonets in the occupied The Czech bourgeoisie, however, will resist Hitler not for was a member of the left wing the party on the instructions of leader of the revolutionary peasternal relations within Pilsudski the move to a new plant in New slong the Yangtze River roult the sake of democracy or self determination, but in its capacity of the Polish Socialist Party. he the Polish counter espionage sys ant movement in Poland (organ camp, as a consequence of which Jerney as a means of evading the in the capture of Hankow, the (Continued on page 3)
demands of the strikers.
provisional Chinese capital, this of faithful vassal of French imperialism, of the French munitions participated in the party leader tem and the Pilsudski sizer of the Independent Peasant Police Force Doors fundamental fact will not be magnates, Schneider and Creuzot, who control the Skoda works Jacob Morrison, president of changed. Across every Japanese and other industries and financial enterprises of Czechoslavakia.
the corporation, and three office victory falls the shadow of ultimate defeat.
The Czech bourgeosie are not fighting to retain the inde workers were forced to remain in pendence of the couatry, for the simple reason that Czechslovakia, the plant as the 24 men held off Already Crumbling the trucking crews. An emer This is from its inception, has been nothing but a pawn of imperialist DEWEY COMMISSION ISSUES EXHAUSTIVE REPORT OF ITS INVESTIGATION gency squad police used crow because with the greater part of true, in the first place, France and anything but independent.
bars to pry open the heavy steel its task still lying ahead, JapaIn the general world war that would follow instantly upon INTO THE MOSCOW TRIALS, FINDS CRIMINALS IN THE KREMLIN doors and then forced their way nese imperialism already a German Czech conflict, the question of independence would through the improvised barri crumbling at home. Japan capicades.
disappear as completely as did the question of Belgian indetal resources are already seripendence in the last world war.
NOT GUILTY. Not Guilty! which is the title given to its report by the Retallation by the courts ously depleted. At the end of its That is the verdict reached in the report of the Commission The workers of Czechoslovakia would march to war against Commission taken together with its companion volume, The against the bold efforts of the fiscal year in April the national strikers to save their jobs and debt had swelled Case of Leon Trotsky (the stenographic record of the hearings of Inquiry into the Charges against Leon Trotsky at the Moscow Hitlerite Germany in a just cause only on one condition: that the 13, 000, 000, 000 Hvellhood appeared imminent as yen, a huge sum for small Japan, Trials, which has just been made public in an impressive volume in Mexico. are historical documents of imperishable importance.
workers were masters of the country! To give an ounce of supthe 24 were arraigned in Felony and in the current year this debt issued under the imprint of Harpers Brothers, and already briefly port now to Benes and Hodza means to sacrifice the life and inde The reader will not find in them the dreary, dry rot of the ordi Court on charges of unlawful en is scheduled to increase by 50 reviewed in our last issue.
nary legal brief. He will find, instead, a cool, dispassionate but try, damage to pendence of the labor movement, and of the workers and peasants and de per cent. country already ao in uniform, for the greater glory of French imperialism nothing From the very beginning, the composition of the Commis. highly exciting analysis of every single one of the important taining the corporation presleheavily drained has been unable dent and his three clerks against to meet the new demands placed sion was a guarantee that the Moscow Trials would be examined charges leveled at Leon Trotsky, the late Leon Sedoff and the more their will upon it. Tax returns in some of The latter could wish for nothing better than to mobilize with the thoroughness, the intellectual integrity, and the deter other defendants in the two big Moscow Trials. And for this Meanwhile, trucks carried the the newly Imposed categories mination to get at the truth behind the official charges, which was cannon fodder behind it on the basis of the war cry of national analysis, the entire labor movement owes deep gratitude to the plant machinery across the have proved to be less than half made so essential by the confusion and doubt aroused by the trials Commission as a whole and in particular to its tireless, devoted, Hudson to New Jersey, enabling those expected and counted upon independence, democracy, freedom of the small nations. The the company to permanently dis In 1937, some 60 per cent of new Second and Third Internationals are cold bloodedly throwing throughout the world.
keen minded secretary, Suzanne LaFollette.
place the striking 300. Continued on page 3)
their meat hooks into the working class to provide france with The Composition of the Commission Murderous Indictment of Stalinism her cannon fodder. That is the significance of the social demo Every one of the Commission members has been associated cratic and Stalinist campaign for Poor Little Czechoslovakia! prominently with the radical, labor or progressive movements for the of years. John Dewey, philosopher, educator, and progressive, long known for his sympathy with the Soviet Union, was chairman Minnesota Socialists Reject Party informative chapter to the famous historical connections of the of the Commission Suzanne LaFollette, former editor of The Prosecuting Attorney. It not only absolves the defendants in the OMAHA, Nebraska. The cam have plainly implied that even a Of Norman Thomas, Join the Freeman, and mainly responsible for the actual writing of the Trials of guilt of crimes they never committed, but it is a murpaign of the Omaha police against working driver is guilty of vagmagnificent final report, was the Commission secretary.
derous, unassailable indictment of the Stalinist frame up regime.
the organized teamaters met with raney, for Russell, by a vote of vigorous opposition when General the membership at a regular The following letter, sent to Socialist Party expelled the revo Its members included the well known labor journalist, Ben Roy Burt, executive secretary lutionary socialists from your Stolberg; the anarchist leader, Carlo Tresca; the critic, John The Stalinists, their press and their respectable hirelings Drivers Local 564 challenged the meeting, was given a salary ap cannot answer the Commission Report, and it is certain that they cops llegal seizure of the per proximating the wage of a workof Norman Thomas Socialist party, and then Instituted Chamberlain; the famous attorney of Tom Mooney (and Earl Party, speaks sonal property and corresponding driver. If the cops and their will not even make the attempt. If they do not try to kill it Itself. We hall vicious gag law in the party.
the action of the Golden Valley The Golden Valley local, to a Browder. who acted in a legal capacity for the Commission, ence of Alfred Russell, 554 organ courts can sentence a paid union by silence, they will do no more than confine themselves to re izer.
organizer as a vagrant, what can (Minnesota) militants in repudiat comrade, has taken its stand with John Finerty; and such distinguished personalities of the labor peating the old calumnies, so painstakingly and conclusively an Dewey Hanson, an Omaha at the average employed worker exIng the moribund Socialist Party the Socialist Workers Party, the and revolutionary movements abroad as the former communist swered by the report, and to adding a few new samples of vitu torney, was retained by the union, pect, let alone the unemployed?
and warmly welcome them into only upholder and defender of Reichstag deputy and biographer of Kary Marx, Otto Ruehle; the revolutionary fighting ranks revolutionary Marxism in the peration and billingsgate.
and a suit for a writ of replevin the former member of the Executive Committees of the Commun The material found in Russell was Aled to force the police to of the Socialist Workers Party United States today. The Socialist nist International and the Red International of Labor Unions, Truth Is On the March!
return Russell property, seized apartment was used by the police Party, such as it is, has no claim Ed. in a raid on his apartment. The to promote a red scare. with the Roy Burt, on our records or funds. We are Alfred Rosmer; the leader of the conservative wing of Italian But the voice of the for mass murder is growing suit was Aled on the ground that intent of splitting the union. This Executive Secretary, functioning as a unit of the socialism, Modigliani; the noted Mexican revolutionist, Zamora; feebler as the voice of condemnation rings out louder and more Russell constitutional rights failed dismally when the memSocialist Party, Socialist Workers Party, and all firmly then ever before. Truth is on the march and nothing can and many others.
have been violated, thus leaving berahip voted overwhelmingly to Dear Sir: our efforts and money are devoted Your letters of June 15 and 16 to that party.
They Only Shrieked Insults stop it! The Dewey Commision report is proof of this. It is a the way open to carry the case to support the union leadership and the highest courts.
to carry the fight to the police.
inform the Golden Valley Local We wish also to strongly protest No wonder the Stalinist press and Ambassador Troyanovsky big part of the dramatic history of our times. It is a big contribuAppeal Vagrancy Sentence Another test on this issue came that the Socialist Party has can your sending a person who betion to the making of that history. It is a mighty weapon in the covered the Commission with abuse and insults from the very celed its charter, and you ask that longs neither to your party nor last week when reactionaries atThe union also fled notice of an tempted to bar Russell as a delhands of the revolutionists who are working to cleanse the system we at once return all records, to ours Mrs. Erickson to Golmoment of its creation! They knew only too well that it would appeal against the 90 day sentence egate to the central labor body, Ales, papers, monies of any kind den Valley to inquire as to our adhere rigorously to its task of penetrating the lies and frame ups of the labor movement from that most insidious and corrosive of by police court, which found Rus on the grounds that he is a Comin our possession to the national status, records, etc.
of the Stalinist murder gang and getting down to the truth. That all poisons. Stalinism.
sell guilty of vagrancy, although munist. The rest of the delegates office of the Socialist Party. hope this makes the position is why Troyanovsky, and the Communist Party and its best known Without this weapon, every worker will find himself but Your request amazes us. don of the Golden Valley Local crystal lawyer, Brodsky, refused the invitation extended them by the he is employed by the union and from Local 554, to a man, backed half equipped. Hence our job: to get a copy of this remarkable was working in the union office Russell right to alt as a delegate, have to remind you of the way in clear.
at the time of his arrest.
and the right of Local 654 to pick which yourself and the other willam Englebretaon, Secretary. Commission to appear before it to argue for the findings of the document into the hands of every man and woman in the labor In passing the sentence against its own union officials without democracy loving leaders of the Golden Valley Local, Moscow courts.
movement!
Russell, the police and the court interference.
STALIN FOUND GUILTY OF FRAME UPS The report will bring the reader through the labyrinth of Omaha Drivers Reply to Police deals with the direct legal aspects of the trial but devotes a most Attack On Union; Appeal Sentence