In the World of Labor Their Government Fascist Cops Leon Sedoff The Anti Lynch Bill SOCIALIST APPEAL FEBRUARY 17, 1940 Steel operations for the week were scheduled SOCIALIST APPEAL at 68. per cent of capacity, the fifth consecutive decline of the year, a drop of 200 per cent of heir by James Burnham VOL. IV, NO. SATURDAY, FEB. 17, 1940 capacity during the five week period.
Published Weekly by the We re headed for a deepening of the economic By Paul Stevens SOCIALIST APPEAL PUBLISHING ASSEN.
crisis. These jobs in private industry that Rooseat 116 University Place, New York, of Leon Jouhaux, social patriotic leader of the Telephone: Algonquin 8547 velt promised on January 5, when he brought in Purge in the Mexican General Confederation of Labor (C. in the the budget with WPA slashes and PWA wiped Communist Party last war. Jouhaux was not only dressed up as a The Mexican Communist Party is to hold an out, haven come into existence. Instead, more militant fighter but feasted as a staunch friend FDR Is Thinking Editors. extraordinary convention next month. This of Soviet Russia, in Moscow no less than in VELIX MORROW MAX SHACHTMAN men are being fired each week.
convention is being called for the purpose of un Paris.
Of Next November General Manager: Assistant Manager: And the same Democratic and Republican con dertaking a thorough going purge of the present But there is no gratitude in Jouhaux heart at GEORGE CLARKE SHERMAN STANLEY all. No sooner had the war broken out than he gressmen who are bent on passing Roosevelt leadership of the organization.
In the theses for the convention, entitled took up his old post as French imperialism chief starvation budget, have the gall to appropriate The National and International Situation and war booster in the ranks of labor. Of course his It is a key principle of realistic political analysis Subscriptions: 00 per year: 00 for six months money for poor little Finland. the Tasks of the Party we begin to get an denounced Soviet Russia and supports that the foreign and domestic policies of governments inkling as to the why and wherefore of the purge.
Foreign. 00 per year. 50 for six months. Bundle Daladier campaign against it. That in itself is orders: cents per copy in the United States; cents are inseparably linked, that they are, in fact, for the While the situation has been extremely favorable what was to be expected from the first. But the most part simply two phases of the same policy. It per copy in all foreign countries. Single copies: cents.
for growth, the theses say, it has not been and all other press agencies as well is could hardly be otherwise. The basic problem for each taken advantage of because of the sectarian able to announce now that the French General government is to run the state institutions, which it Reentered as second class matter December 4, opportunist (sic) line of the leadership of the Confederation of Labor which for years has had administers, in the interests of the ruling class of the 1939, at the post office at New York, under the Act of March 1879.
party which did not have sufficient vision to a pronounced left wiog tendency bitterly de given nation; to uphold against all enemies the social After Mayor La Guardia had indignantly de grasp the development of the revolutionary move nounced Russia as well as Germany today. structure upon which the power of the ruling class nied a number of times during the past year the ing a mass party of the proletariat.
ment in our country and the possibilities of formThe pronounced left wing tendency. that is rests. This problem confronts the the gilding of Jouhaux by Stalin popular front on the domestic and the international arena. Foreign government equally persistent report that a large number of New What is involved, obviously, is the sacrificing FIGHT WITH THE SOCIALIST policy. His denunciation of the Soviet Union is policy (including war) is the attempt to solve this York policemen were members Coughlin of a number of scapegoats in the leadership for only the fruit of that policy.
problem as it is posed externally, just a domestic WORKERS PARTY FOR: fascist Christian Front, pressure finally made it carrying out the pro democratie line which the Kremlin has now thrown overboard. From anpolicy is the attempt to solve the same problem innecessary to investigate. Police Commissioner other paragraph in the document we are given German Socialists in the ternally job and a decent living for every worker.
Most liberals and reformists try to obscure the link Valentine ordered each policeman to fill out a the impression that this number is going to be Open the idlo factories operate them under Service of Imperial France between foreign and domestic policy. Up until recentworkers control.
questionnaire. New York papers carried on quite large. Right now. there is proceding a cleansing, ly some of them used to tell us that they approved We have become quite used to the abominable Tuesday unofficial and incomplete returns. at from the top to the bottom, of our own ranks, Twenty Bullion dollar Federal public works Roosevelt New Deal (his domestie policy) but disand housing program.
least 1, 000 of the 19, 000 men in the Police De eliminating from its midst all (underlined in the patriotic antics of the social democratic politic agreed with his aggressive foreign policy. Now ians of England, France, etc. They act no dif many of them are reversing. They say that they ob4. Thirty thirty 80 weekly minimum wage 30hour weekly maximum for all workers on all Jobs partment were self admitted members of the original) the wavering and alien elements from ferently than they did in the last war. Only the ject to his internal measures (cutting down of relief, the party, who because of the false political line Christian Front. And for every one that admitGerman social democracy does not repeat its drive against civil rights, prosecution labor un8. Thirty dollar weekly old age and disability and the lack of revolutionary vigilance have inted it, how many were members bat didn admit Altrated its ranks.
performance of 1914. But that is not through any ions. but are in accord with his peace and netpension.
change of heart on its part. Hitler has simply reAmong the leaders to be purged, we are intrality program in external affairs Expropriate the Sixty Familles.
it? And for every member, how many were symformed, are Vicente Guerra, Arturo Ramirez and fused to give it a chance to do its part.
Social patriotic support of wars is often founded All war funds to the unemployed.
pathizers of the fascist storm troops. Manuel Lobato, all members of the Central Com Somewhat ludicrously, the German social dem upon a pretended separation between foreign and people referendum on any and all wars.
Yet, we are told, in the struggle between fasc mittee. Guerra was a member of the all powerful ocrats do manage, nevertheless, to be true to domestie policy. During peace, the social patriot eriticizes the government, even calls for oasting it and No secret diplomacy.
color. They have remained social patriots but ism and the labor movement, we should look secretariat and Lobato an alternate to it. Ramirare now on the side of the Erbfeind, the heredi putting 10.
labor government in its place. Internally, An Independent Labor Party ez is the leader of the Mexico City district organ for protection to. these policemen!
ization which forms the core of the party. They tary foe they helped fight in the last war. From they admit, the government (Daladier s, for example!
11. Workers Defense Guards against vigilante and The labor movement will build its own work are charged with any number of crimes in the France issues their miserable propaganda for a run by bourgeois parties acts for the bankers and Fascist attacks.
socialism that is to be introduced into Ger the industrialists, and against the masses of the peo12. Full social, political and economie equality for ers Defense Guards and smash the fascist gangs usual stalinist fashion from facilitating and many on the bayonets of French imperialism. In ple. But beyond the borders the government changes the Negro people.
wherever they raise their heads or it will go the organization to making pacts with the Right turn, they print at the masthead of their official its spots: there it acts as the representative of the down under the boots of the storm troopers. Wing presidential candidate General Almazan.
organ, the Neue Vorwaerts, an inscription in entire nation. Consequently (as in France and EngEven a group of free masons was allegedly under large type: Journal Anti Hitlerien. Daladier an land today) the social patriotic parties vote unanitheir wing. But their gravest crime, it seems, is ti Hitlerism, it appears, is just as acceptable to mously for the government when it comes to prosean opportunist capitulation to President Carden them as their socialism is to Daladier. They cuting a war.
as.
have become, to use the phrase of one of our New Deal and War Deal of all the charges made, the last one mention German comrades, social patriots in reverse.
ed seems to be most significant. The contradictThe general rule that foreign and domestic policies (Statement of the National Committee, ory character of the charges is quite in line with are linked applies, of course, to the Roosevelt governTomorrow will be the second anniversary of But they are not alone in the ranks of social Socialist Workers Party)
Stalinist pfactices and it is always necessary to ment. Roosevelt was not a Dr. Jekyll when proposing patriots in reverse. Among them are to be the death of Leon Sedoff. To this day the cirNew Deal laws to Congress and a Mr. Hyde when Once more the question of a federal anti wade through all the verbiage of these allegafound also the heroes of the centrist Ger sending a note to Japan or intervening in Mexico. In cumstances of his death remain a mystery. He lynching law is before the Senate. The House of the real purpose. In this case it is quite apparman Labor Party. the erstwhile pride of the both types of action, he proceeded from the same had gone to the hospital for a comparatively 80 called London Bureau and Willie Munzenof Representatives has already passed the bill ent that all else outside of capitulation to Carpremise in the effort to solve the same problem.
berg, for a long time a pillar of German Stalinminor operation. Then he was dead, under exThe transition from New Deal to War Deal, which and now the Senators from the South are predenas is just the usual dressing. In a pending ism and its foremost Trotsky baiter.
tremely suspicious circumstances. All efforts to break with Cardenas lies the essence of the purge.
began in October, 1937, swung into high a year ago pared to filibuster it to death.
Until long after the Moscow trials, Willie con and will be completed with the entry of the country find out what had happened ran up against the Apparently, a large number of functionaries of It is not because the bill in and of itself is so tinued to condone every atrocity committed by the Mexican has been resisting the change directly into the war, can be understood as a shift in resistance of the democratic French governthe Kremlin butchers. It was only after Moscow emphasis. During the New Deal the emphasis, the dangerous to the rule of the white aristocracy of line in consideration of the rather comfortable cut off financial support and invited him for one ment; it was then still in the hey day of the weighting, was on internal measures as the primary in the South that the southern Senators are de positions that the backing of Cardenas and his of those visits cost cores other Franco Soviet pact.
man mechanism for solving the problems of American pro democratic orientation has afforded them. So termined to kill it. Its provisions are not so Stalinists their lives, that Munzenberg became a capitalism; the War Deal means the realization that that in reality, the convention will be a sort of a violent anti Stalinist. But Willie apparently the internal measures have failed, and the consequent As Ignace Reiss, before being murdered by serious, even if enforced, to strike terror into showdown between the pro Cardenas and the pro knows how to make anti Stalinism pay just as shifting of relative emphasis to external measures.
the Stalinist GPU in Switzerland, had revealed, the hearts of the lynchers and prevent all lynch Moscow functionaries.
well as he knew in the old days how to work the The shift is symbolized by the difference in the the GPU was out to murder Sedoff. They suc ings.
It is not excluded, however, that in the rank Moscow racket. Now he publishes a paper in way that Roosevelt is looked upon by most people.
ceeded, we believe, and succeeded, thanks to Paris called Die Zukunft (The Future. as the Until a year ago he appeared primarily as a national organ of the Franco German Union. It goes But the representatives of the southern ruling stellen of the party a movement to break with reformer on the home front. More and more he now their relations with the French government, in class, anxious to keep the Negroes under com op as a result of this situation.
without saying that the paper line is such as figures as the bearer of the country destiny on the blocking any investigation of their crime. plete subjection, refuse to give up one particle Fruits of the People to gain only plaudits from the French general international scene.
staff. Collaborators on it include half a dozen However, the linkage between domestic and forOur youth movement remembers Sedoff par of their rights to do everything and anything Front in France other German ex Stalinists, old wheelhorses in eign affairs does not stop merely because of the shift ticularly as their first great contribution to the to the Negro masses. They are determined to Among the lesser crimes of the People the Munzenberg publishing schemes.
of emphasis. Major stress on external measures came retain those rights at all costs, including that Front in France was the Stalinist rehabilitation Business as usual, seems to be his slogan.
adult movement. He was, indeed, still a young about as a result of the breakdown of preceding in man 33 at death. His father, Leon Trotsky, of lynching the Negroes whenever they see fit.
ternal measures; similarly the current external measures react upon the internal situation.
has commemorated him in an unforgettable An anti lynching bill might constitute the first This is true for American society as a whole, and in pamphlet. But Sedoff, with his own brain and opening in the wall which the Southern ruling relation to the government basic problem of upholdclass has erected against any tampering with heart, built the monument by which he will be ing capitalist rule. It is true also for Roosevelt nar best remembered: the Bulletin of the Russian their right to exploit rower problem as head of the governmental bureaucNegro masses. Should racy, as party politician and as an individual.
Opposition. He edited it and wrote for it and this bill pass, Negroes might be encouraged to by Dwight Macdonald The enormous, swollen bureaucracy (Federal, State saw to it that it hit its mark, reaching not only demand that they actually be given the right to and local. the Democratic party and Roosevelt as a paid no fine because they were let off with susperson have very important special interests of their Russian reading revolutionists throughout the vote, and that the provisions of the National Magistrates and Labor Laws pended sentences. One magistrate found guilty Among the states, New York is especially own, in addition to and sometimes in conflict with Labor Relations Act be applied in the South as world but penetrating also past the GPU into 46 employers in one session. He fined one of these the interests of the ruling class which they serve.
Stalin domain. Leon Sedoff fought Stalin and 20, two 10, three 5, and he let the remaining Roosevelt knows that, just as formerly these special well as in the North. They might also demand noted for its progressive labor legislation. In 1886 the first law regulating hours of work of the abolition of child labor in the South and the New York women employees was passed. In the 40 off scot free with suspended sentences.
paid for it with his life; but his work will put interests depended chiefly on the showing made in These are the same magistrates whose high ternally, so now they depend first of all on the showan end to Stalin and the darkness which Stalin right to receive an elementary education. The fifty three years since then, largely because of salaries and political corruption have been al ing made externally. Roosevelt knows that his own scandal for years, the same dispensers of jusspread over the land of the October Revolution. southern ruling class fears anything that might the pressure of the workers themselves, a structure of labor laws has been slowly built up laws political fate, and the fate of his wing of the Demoimprove the condition of the Negroes and con limiting the hours of work of women and minors, tice who daily hand out heavy fines and jail cratic party, and the jobs the bureaucratic apparasentences to strikers, pickets and left wing dem tus, are being decided by foreign affairs.
sequently opposes any bill which may have that laws providing for sanitary inspections of faconstrators. It is time the unions did something believe that this background must be kept in effect.
tories, laws providing for medical care and inabout the perversion of justice in the city Mag mind if we are to evaluate correctly many of the reThe Republicans and Democrats of the North surance benefits, at the boss expense, in case istrates Courts.
of industrial disease and accidents.
cent moves which Roosevelt has been making in forhave come out favor of nti lynch The laws are fine as far as they go, at least. The First Step eign affairs including his flirtations with the VatiThe hanging of Peter Barnes and James Rich Every Negro and every white worker should un But it appears that in New York City they are As this is written, the War Deal campaign handling met sovset mannser in which the has been ards, soldiers for Irish freedom, has been fol derstand that these Republicans and Democrats simply not enforced. The Consumers League of to lend Federal funds to poor little Finland Sumner Welles.
vote in favor of the bill only to use the Negroes Magistrates and the Labor Laws, which every (what about poor little WPA. now suffering lowed by a new heightening of the struggle If the war had not started, Roosevelt would, think, aggression without any Mannerheim Line to fall have been washed up by now. He took an almost unagainst the British overlords in Ireland, and that as a political football and not actually to protect trade union and labor organization should study. back on. seems to be on the verge of suc alloyed beating from the regular Congress last year, is as it should be. The best way to honor these the Negro against the rule of the southern This covers all labor cases heard in the city cess in Congress. The Nberal isolationist bloc is and from the opposition wing of his own party. But meeting this first real test by joining the eneIrish martyrs, and the long line of those who the war put him back on his feet. His rating in the whites. If the northern Democrats and Repub Magistrates Courts over a period of three and a half years (January, 1934 through June, 1937) my and whooping it up for war loans to Finland Gallup Poll made an unprecedented jump in Septemdied as they did at the hands of British imperiallicans were really anxious to give the Negro his Two out of every three of the employers who What is behind Roosevelt Poor Little Finland ber and October.
ist murderers, is to free Ireland.
rights, they could find enough to do in the North. were brought into court charged with violation line is bluntly expressed in the Kiplinger WashAt first his advisers apparently thought that the The Socialist Workers Party is in favor of the labor laws got off without any punishment ington News Letter for January 27: Pressure United States would declare war within six or eight The British imperialists are trying to smear the enactment of the anti lynching bill and calls third averaged 18. In economic terms, the rewhatsoever. The fines imposed on the remaining for credits to Allies is increasing. Congress is months, and that he and his followers would ride back the movement for Irish freedom as instigated by sour on such credits now, but many sophisticated into office as the only adequate war leaders. With the Hitler. The great Irish revolutionary socialist, upon all the workers, especially the white work port notes; this means that the profits accruing Congressmen privately admit that the move to war developing as no one expected, they have become ers, to rally behind the movement in its favor. to violating employers were left virtually intact.
Jim Connolly, answered the same kind of slander expand Export Import Bank and lend to Finland puzzled. Will they campaign, in the party convention Workers should not depend upon the politicians; without even tine? Was it because they were Why did two thirds of the employers get off is a step towards some sort of financial aid to and the election, on a he kept us out of war platduring the last war, with an immortal slogan: the Allies at some later period.
form or with a unite to win the war slogan? They Neither King Nor Kaiser, and hung it across they should organize meetings, adopt resolutions found not guilty by the magistrate? No, most Poor Little Finland today means Poor Little can keep both roads open provided (1) the war inin the unions, and flood every Senator with let of them were found guilty as charged. But they British Empire tomorrow.
creases in seriousness and extent and (2) Roosevelt the Transport Workers Hall in Dublin. We can ters and telegrams, urging passage of the bill.
is made to seem the only man who can handle the war not think of an equally perfect slogan; but the The Socialist Workers Party declares, howcrisis, whether or not this country is formally a belthought, Neither Chamberlain nor Hitler, is ever, that the problem of the Negro in the South ANTI WAR ligerent.
MEETING The first condition will take care of itself, without clearly a part of the real revolutionary movement will not be solved by the enactment of an antiany pushing from Roosevelt. The fulfillment of the in Ireland today.
lynching law. There are no lynchings of Negroes second is a congenial task for so accomplished a demagogue as Roosevelt. He and his publicity staff conin the North and yet the Negro continues to live stantly reinforce the impression that he is indispensunder the most miserable conditions. The probable; his war moves and his peace moves are alike lems of the Negro workers, as well as of the Speakers: presented with that twist.
white workers, will be solved only when they Some of these moves, like the armament appropriations, the pressure on Japan, the drive in Latin join in a common struggle against the white capAmerica, the munitions sales to France and Britain, To pick up from where we left off, last week, italist rulers of this country and when they sucNat Secretary, Socialist Workers Party Former Yorkville leader are altogether serious parts of the general war prein our comments on the development of the new ceed in taking over governmental power and esparations and would be undertaken by any adminis recession. tration, Democratic or Republican. In the case of tablishing a socialist society which will guaranothers (the overtures to the Vatican, the trip of The New York Times business index showed tee equality and plenty for all, regardless of race AT O CLOCK Welles, and even the policy on Finland. we observe a last week an acceleration of the decline of pro or creed.
great gap between the grandiose words and the insigduction, dropping from 103. to 101.
nificant actions. With all the talk, Finland has got Until such a socialist society is established, YORKVILLE CASINO next to nothing that it needs from this country, and The index of Time magazine, which attempts the Negro and white workers should join in a 210 EAST 86th STREET, probably is never going to get much. It is reasonable to estimate long range factors rather than the struggle for every immediate gain. The antito suppose that in these latter moves, at least one of week production, was down below the figure lynching bill represents a step forward. Organize Admission: TWENTY FIVE CENTS Ausploes: Local New York, Roosevelt eyes and maybe half of the other is on next summer Chicago convention and November for the same time last year!
to demand its passage!
election day to follow SPARKS IN THE NEWS The Irish Martyrs How Close Are We to War?
Still Going Down JAMES CANNON and SARAH RICE Friday Eve. February 16, 1940