SOCIALIST APPBAL AUGUST 20, 1938 Pinning em Down THINGS MIGHT BE WORSE 1938 IMPROVEMENT DUE ANY DAY 1936 NEW DEAL AND BRIGHT PROSPECTS 1932 PROSPERITY 1928 Spotlight on Capitalist Justice in Harlan The New York Daily News, claiming to have Still Spieling.
SOCIALIST APPEAL a story from a person whose identity we are Vol. II No. 84 Saturday, August 20, 1938 not at liberty to reveal asserts that Cardenas is Trotsky cat paw for the furtherance of Published every week by the Trotsky hoped for World Communist Revolu.
SOCIALIST APPEAL PUBLISHING ASS at 116 University Place, New York, NY. tion. The Daily News obviously thinks the best By JAMES CASEY Telephone: National Office: Algonquin 8547 method to prepare the American people for intervention in Mexico to protect the interests of HOW TO BE AN HONEST LIBERAL Subscriptions: 00 per year; 00 for six the oil operators is to raise the bugaboo of a Paul Kern, head of New York Civil Service Commission, remonths. Foreign: 50 per year. Bundle order centa per copy. Single copies cents. Trotskyist Communist neighbor on the southports with unconcealed satisfaction that most of the municipal All checks and money orders should be made ern border.
employes have been freed from obligations to politicians of all shades out to the Socialist Appeal.
No intelligent American worker will believe and parties. The spolls system, says Mr. Kern, has been eliminated.
Entered as second class matter September 1, such an absurd charge. There is a very clear difWhen one reflects how, for decades, the truckling to Democratic 1987, at the post office at New York, New York, ference between the role of Cardenas and that and Republican district leaders bred and encouraged graft, bribery under the Act of March 3, 1870.
of Trotsky. The former is a progressive bourand other forms of corruption in public office, the Commission service in behalf of the city employes may be considered a welcome MAX SHACHTMAN geois democrat; the latter, a revolutionary and important reform. Inasmuch as Mr. Kern is of the belief that Editor Marxist questionable political entanglements are harmful to those in the HAROLD ROBERTS GEORGE CLARKE Naturally, Trotsky, like every other revolumunicipality employ, we suggest that the rule applied to the rank Associate Editors and fle be extended to embrace the higher ups and why not?
tionary Socialist, sympathizes with and fully STANLEY supports the Cardenas regime in depriving the By that we mean that Mr. Kern should dissociate himself imBusiness Manager American and British capitalists of an oppormediately and completely from the American League for Peace and Democracy.
tunity to exploit Mexican people. But the Any Communist Party fraction worker could inform the Reaction in the Northwest responsibility and credit for expropriating the oil Commissioner that the league favors only a special kind of industry belongs to the Mexican people and not pence while, with velled phrases, It advocates a special kind of On the extreme northwest horizon of the Trotsky war. The democracy part of the league program, the same United States a serious threat against the rights The answer of the American workers to the worker. could enlighten Mr. Kern, is to countenance terrorism of the working class is now showing. This threat campaign of the reactionaries should be: 1)
against Stalinist opponents and give uncrítical approval to the wholesale murders of internationally known labor leaders.
is not yet receiving the national interest which While it is immaterial who is responsible for In short, Commissioner Kern cannot honestly style himself it so profoundly deserves.
the expropriation, the charge that Trotsky is beliberal 19 ono opposed to political skullduggery so long as he In the State of Oregon and this will almost hind it is false. 2) We, Trotsky, will defend 19 entangled, even slightly with an affliate of the Stalin lynch certainly occur also in Washington there has the right of the Mexican government to take and frame up machine.
been placed on the November ballot a measure the oil belonging to the Mexican people away which, if passed and enforced, would virtually from the British and American capitalists.
HIZZONER IS BUSY.
destroy genuine trade unionism in that territory Mayor LaGuardia spends much of his time, almost every day, The proposed bill would require all unions to greeting Hollywood screen stars, transatlantic Allers, Barbara Huttons and other celebrities of native and foreign make. He also lops incorporate, would prohibit ail sympathy Sabotaging the Anti. Fascist off hours from his executive duties to attend ball games at the strikes, would eliminate mass picketing, and Yankee Stadium, In Philadelphia and other places.
hamstring union organization.
Struggle The other day a group of crippled children from one of the city The problem of defeating the bill is one for institutions were taken to City Hall to meet the Little Flower. The the workers of the entire country. The decision For the workers of Spain, for the workers of children came in buses and managed to struggle into the old masthe whole world, there is nothing more impormust not be allowed to go locally by default.
sive, grey structure. Lined up inside the building, their little hearts It is, of course, the pressure of the crisis tant at the present moment than to defeat the beat faster from anticipation of being received by the executive of which is the general background for the atSpanish, German and Italian fascists. For that the nation greatest metropolis. At last they were to meet, face to tempt to put this bill across. The bosses, especialnot only is it necessary to have the utmost unity face, Florello LaGuardia, the poor man friend, of whom they had heard and read so much.
ly those in the hard hit lumber and shipping of the working class but also correct policies.
They were told the Mayor had arrived in his office. In fact a industries which are the mainstays of Oregon There are those who do not see the overwhelmfew of the unfortunate invalids actually saw His Honor as he and Washington, feel that they have got to ing importance of correct policy but demand marched by them and into his magic sanctum. The great moment smash unionism in order to keep up profits.
unity. We ask them to consider: who is rehad arrived! And then, the great disappointment! One of the Two special factors, however, stimulated the sponsible for breaking the unity of the work Who Owns the Courts?
Mayor secretaries strutted out of the office to tell the crippled appearance of the bill at this time. One is the ing class in the face of fascist attack?
youngsters, all pent up with excitement, that the Mayor was busy. too busy to see them. o. of split, which has led in these To jail the most valiant fighters against fasQuietly the children were sent packing back into the buses that two states to incredibly bitter internecine struggle, cism, those who drove the fascists out of Barbrought them to City Hall for the thrill of a lifetime.
turning the workers against each other, weakencelona in July, 1936; to accuse them of being Election time that period in a politician life when he goes ing the workers in their struggle against the fascist spies is to break the unity of the working about kissing the cheeks of little children is still some weeks away.
bosses, and driving away support from the mid masses, to bring demoralization into their ranks dle classes which a strong and successful workand to prepare the ground for the victory of the ON THE INNOCENTS LIST ers united front would have held.
fascists.
Charles Krumbein, New York State secretary of the Communist Second is the criminal political tactics fol That is what the Loyalist government, under By ALBERT GOLDMAN lowed in these States by the officials of both tatorship. Even fascism must at a caso in not impossible, it is cer Party, has an article in a recent issue of Party Organizer, official the prodding of the Stalinists, has done. About It would indeed have been sur times try to create the impression tainly highly improbable.
Krumbein takes pain to stress directives for fraction work by on. the and the of Not merely have three thousand of the most heroic fighters prising had the Federal govern that it protects the workers Tt is generally recognized that Stalinists in the American Labor Party and other mass organizathe officials failed, as elsewhere, to advance in against fascism are in the jails of Barcelona ment obtained a conviction in the against the employers. Much defendants have less chance of dependent working class politics; they have tions. Thus the Labor Party is now openly referred to in the Stalinanarchists, left wing socialists, members of the case against the coal bosses of more so does capitalist democracy obtaining an acquittal in the Harian and their thugs charged function in a manner so as to Federal courts than in state ist organ as Just another mass organization of the played the game of the most corrupt and reac Party of Marxist Unification (P. with conspiracy to violate the confuse and deceive the masses courts. That is true not only be That being the case, Are Dubinsky, Antonini, Hillman, Rose tionary bourgeois political machines.
Reports are current that leading members of rights of the miners under the And it is not necessary to attri cause judges in a Federal court et al aware of what became of the Anti Imperialist League, the Emboldened by the divisions, weaknesses and the last mentioned organization are to be placed Wagner Act. To those who fati bute to all the acts of a liberal have much more extensive powers League of Struggle for Negro Rights, the Workers Ex Serviceoften downright corruption in the camp of the on trial (or have they already been tried. The men League, the Workers International Relief, the United Roosevelt regime, the case in it Roosevelt regime, an intention to let the jury know how they feel Front Supporters and a dozen other mass organizations, workers, the bosses find the time ripe for a real Loyalist government has not seen fit to give the self is surprising. Starting from deceive. It can simply be said about the case, but also because whose names we now barely remember?
onslaught.
world definite information about the arrest and No bureaucratic interests can be allowed to the correct promise that the that the sincerity of a liberal of there is, to certain extent, less trial of these working class fighters.
Roosevelt government is a capltleer will, in the long run, be in politics and more preparation on FEDERAL CHATTELS AND FIRESIDE CHAT stand in the way of a united resistance. And it The failure of the Loyalist government to talist government, It seems pecu effective and will serve merely to the part of the prosecution.
liar that capitalists should be create greater illusions.
But the case in Harlan was must above all be kept in mind that defeat of Postmaster General James Farley reveals in the current Issue state when and where the defendants will be dragged into court for violating Don Convict Bosses not one against ordinary crimi of The American Magazine that the Roosevelt administration is prethe bill in November is only a small and temtried is a highly suspicious circumstance. It is labor rights.
At any rate the Harlan trlal nals nor against workers prose paring to start an unemployment crials, all its own. Federal employes porary step in the defense. The firm, organized in fact, proof that the methods of the Moscow Il capitalist democracy would serves the purpose of proving that cuted for their activities on be in the lower and higher brackets are to be fired by the hundreds strength of the workers in their every activity at all times function openly in capitalist courts are not designed half of labor. The prisoners at and thousands.
trials are being transferred to Spain. Otherwise Farley is to be believed, they will be replaced by the interests of every individual for convicting employers charged the bar were respected and lead 100 per cent yes men of the Rooseveltian New Deal, Being Chairwill alone guarantee the preservation of workthe Loyalist government would reveal its inten capitalist, it would not be half so with violating the rights of eming members of the community, man of the Democratic National Committee as well as chlet disers rights.
tions, and it would invite investigation on the difficult to convince the workers ployees. While under certain cir and those who were not so re penser of Federal patronage, he certainly must know whereof ho part of working class organizations.
that it is in reality capitalist die Tcumstances conviction in such spected did the dirty work for speaks.
Every indication points to the conclusion that those who were.
This disclosure lends welghted significance to Roosevelt Trotsky and Cardenas there will be (or was) a Moscow trial in Swindlers Sometimes Sacrificed perfervid appeals to the populace to vote for my friends, said It frequently happens that im friends being those Senators and Representatives who have Spain.
Anxious to discredit, in the eyes of the Amerdemonstrated their complete moral and intellectual surrender to portant figures of the capitalist Every worker is in duty bound to prevent a ican people, the bold act of the Cardenas gov.
world, when caught red handed, the man in the saddle.
hideous frame up against loyal proletarian revowill be prosecuted and convicted ernment in expropriating the foreign owned With a Congress in a state of abject servility, with thousands lutionists.
for swindling thousands of gul of executives taking commands from a little clique in the White Mexican oil industry, reactionaries have hit lible people. To ward off the House roost and passing on the orders to more thousands of subupon the scheme of placing the responsibilty Demand a public trial for the accused! De wrath of the small business peoordinates in addition to droves of Federal job dispensers scattered for the expropriation on Leon Trotsky. The mand the right to have an impartial commis(Continued from page 1)
ple, a swindling banker or throughout the nation, Roosevelt would enjoy a centralization of budding American Nazis, by the way, are using sion present at the trial with an opportunity to crooked politician will at times power surpassed not too much by the established trio of dictators.
this method to discredit Roosevelt. They are examine defendants and witnesses.
the French cop grinning with admiration while Mussolini cutbe offered as a sacrifice.
Though the golden volced radio artist highlights his talks throat band broke into the Ethiopian household and wrecked, In the Harlan case, however, with shafts against tories and economie royalists, by his program spreading the story that Roosevelt visited the To defeat the fascists we must fight for the he would outdo his kinsmen, the duPonts and their partners, killed and stole everything they could lay hands on. Then it was the defendants were not only South in order to confer with Trotsky. liberation of the anti fascists.
the turn of the British cop to hold the hands of the Spanish people leading lights of the community. the Morgans and Hearsts. They have set up dynasties in two or while the sluggers of Franco and Hitler and Mussolini pounded but the charge against them, was dustries. Roosevelt seems to be on the rampage to gobble up the them with every known weapon in their arsenals. And finally both some rights of their wage slaves. whole works and prove to his Republican rivals that It Can the British and the French cops stood around and whistled a sad These two factors combined made Happen Here.
tune while Hitler kicked Austria in line.
the odds all in favor of an acquitBy this time demoralization at any possible solution to war tal. And that, in spite of the tre judicial procedure that makes it Not far from Madison, in We reprint below excerpts from Washington newspapers that Equity. They introduced a speaker had spread so deep and far among the working class that the dipment, and in spite of the fact casy to get a conviction against Waukegan, Illinois, workers who the minutes of the June 30 meet morning contained a statement by from the Furriers Union whom ing of the executive board of Local Aubrey Williams announcing the our committee felt should not be lomats could knock the collective security ballyhoo into a workers and well nigh impossible were on strike were sentenced to 802, New York local of the Ameri new rules and regulations which represented on a Arts Pro cocked hat. The general assumption is that the masses have been ports, prepared the case well and to convict employers. The capi high as six months in jail and can Federation of Musicians, first would apply.
ject program fooled to a point where they believe that everything that could conducted it with skill. That five this courts are integral parts of were lined up to a thousand dolne the social system and the prevaillars for violating an injunction published in the union official have been done for peace has been done, and now the best thing viction is proof certain that the Before the conference opened journal of August.
An announcement was made ing relationships and attitudes against pleketing, Mr. Lasser of the Workers AlThe report deals with the flasco that Aubrey Williams would ad. is to prepare for waras if they hadn been preparing for it all evidence against the defendants are transferred to the courts, How easy for the oil compaliance reported to our commit dress the meeting and when Mr. along! So they came out into the open with the alliances they was overwhelming, and the case cloak of impartiality and equall small Anes. For the hypocritical nies and their officers to pay the staged by the Workers Alliance tee that conditions had been Williams aid appear, instead of last June when demonstration had made in secret long ago. The British and French democ clear is daylight, the average changed and that they had using the occasion to ascertain ty before the law.
was put on against wage cuts worker 500. 00 fine means a therefore decided that the meetracies began to criss cross in their hook ups with Hitlerite Gerwhy even a small cut was made, on projects cuts instiThe capitalist judicial system jail sentence for the simple reaing would be a victory celebra the meeting degenerated into a One can get an idea of the dirmany and Fascist Italy.
tuted by the darling of the Stalincannot readily ficulty involved in obtaining a be perverted, son that it is impossible for him of a protest demon political rally in which Mr. WII And that is the peace war racket in a nutshell. Big guns and ists, the Roosevelt administration tion ainst cuts. Our memstration conviction against the coal barons so that capitalists are convicted to raise such a sum of money.
llams solicited votes and comThe reactions of the Musicians floating coffins never made a war. You can build them for years, by imagining a trial, in the same for insisting on thelr inalienable bers objected to changing the mended the Workers Allance, We shall assume (a violent as Union to the wyrations of the but the real building begins after the war starts. The important Stalinist leaders of the Workers nature of the demonstration be David Lasser, Willis Morgan and cause they felt it was not a Mr. Benjamin for their fine efAlliance, who turned a thing is to make the people believe that peace is a pipe dreaming to organize the miners. Ona tion of capitallet courts is alto humption admit that in both protest complete victory, but since the forts. No mention was made as demonstration into an election that war is sure as the rising sun. Once this chloroform of resig.
Workers Alliance assumed com to what can be done in the nation is shot through the peoples, the imperialist racketeers can such a thing: It has actually happrivate property and in that is in case in Waukegan the judges rally for Roosevelt, reveal the dis cluded the prosecution of workers lowed the law. But what a differpened about six years ago. Ingust of all real union men when plete sponsorship of the meet future to rescind the small re put an army in the filed and turn it loose to make a shambles stead of the sleek looking, woll for violating the rights of em ence in the actual punluhment of confronted with the results of ing, they had no alternative but maining cut and williams did to participate in the same under not explain why It was made at out of Europe or Asia or the whole world and destroy itself in dressed, important people coming players.
the two sets of defendants!
Stalinist policy. Ed.
conditions set forth. Therefore all the process. That tragic mentality seemed near achievement when from their homes or clubs (since Hitler mobilized for war maneuvers.
they were out on ball) there the meeting was declared a vicNaive people reading the laws For a worker to recognize that tory Celebration and David LasThe youth movement present would probably appear unshaven, and not observing their actual apBro. Sterne reported on their We agree: peace is a pipe dream under capitalism. But 111 ted, badly clothed workers plication come to the conclusion the courts are not intended to all trip to Washington on June 27, ser was elected Chairman, who gave Williams a terrifle ovation 1938, when 47 musicians, three of addressed the delegation in that and when the recess was called, peace will be a reality under socialism. That is why we will never guarded by deputies. The judge that there is no discrimination him in his struggle for better ficers and two rank and Ale memcease crying aloud at those who are crushing the hopes and and prosecutor would look with But it should not be difficult to Does that mean that the courts vein.
Bro. Sterne told the musicians bers went on instructions of the Delegates Slurred that they should leave the meet strivings of the peoples of the world for peace by knifing the contempt and hatred upon the see that even where there is a should never be used by workers Executive Board to join a demon Mr. Sterne was then introduced ing and board their train. struggle for socialism. They are the Judases of the Second and spect that successful business formal conviction of capitalists, against capitalists or against stration which was eduled to as representing the super indivi Unlons Part Ignored Third Internationals. The guilt of Germany and Austria and Spain men and fellow club members de thelr actual punishment is noth racketeers in the union? Not at take place then in order to produalists of all organized workers, and tomorrow of Czechoslovakia is heavily upon them. They are serve.
ing in comparison to the punish all. There is no principle involved test against any cute in and although he did not expect to On arriving in New York it was ment meted out to workers who in using or not using the capitalEasy to Convict Workers salaries. Prior to the demonstra be called on, nor did he anticipate learned that the Sunday Dally guilty as sin and they do not cry out at the new war because are convicted.
ist courts. But if, under exception, a delegation of four members such an introduction, he compet Worker contained an article under they will do the dirty work for the General Staffs as they did in The jury composed of average tional circumstances, it is found of Local 77, Philadelphia, conently answered that point and de the date line, Washington, June 1914.
Penalties Compared mortals, subjected to all the propnecessary for workers, in their tacted our committee and objected scribed the thorough cooperation 20, 1988, and entitled Allance Czechoslovakia is a last warning. And the warning is writaganda supporting the social sys In a recent anti monopoly case struggle against the bosses, to to the composition of the dele, which the Local had given in the Wins WPA Pay Cut Fight with tem, would be tremendously at prosecuted by the Federal gov use the capitalist courts, their ten clearly: the road to peace is the road of the relentless strug.
gates which came to Washington campaign against wage cuts on no mention of Local 802 activ.
fected by the attitude of the pros vernment in Madison, Wis. limitations should be clearly recunder the auspices of the Work Several speakers followed ities. All of the newspaper pubgle for socialism. The Hitlers and Chamberlains and Roosevelts ecutor and the judge, and this judge found the defendanta, oli ognized and at times should erg Alliance, claiming that they and there were a few of licity gave credit to the Workers dread this day. They will quake with fear when the masses throw would be worth a thousand times corporations and their officers, be considered as auxiliary to the were immature and did not serve Locals represented, with the ex. Alliance and no credit to other more than the nature of the evt. guilty of violating the anti trust chief methhod of struggle, which off the drugs, tear up the maps and the secret treaties, and write as a representative body. The ception of Local 77, 802 and organizations was reported.
dence and the pleas of attorneys. act. Fines of five to ten thousand must always be the unity and their own peace in a free socialist world.
It isn any particular form of dollars were imposed. militancy of the workers.
It Might Have Happened!
FROM THE LABOR PRESS