SOCIALIST APPEAL APRIL 6, 1940 Page The GM Elections SOCIALIST APPEAL Vol. IV, No. 14 Saturday, April 6, 1940 Published Weekly by the SOCIALIST APPEAL PUBLISHING ASS at 116 University Place, New York, NY.
Telephone: Algonquin 8547 Japan Puppet Wang Reflects Master Plight UNIONS TRUSTS Editors: FELIX MORROW MAX SHACHTMAN General Manager: GEORGE CLARKE 18 Subscriptions: 00 per year: 00 for six months Foreign. 53. 00 per year, 50 for six months. Bundle orders: cents per copy in the United States: centa per copy in all foreign countries. Single coples: cente. Reentered as second cla matter December Act oft Maphostomes at New York, under the JUNIONS TRUSTS FIGHT WITH THE SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY FOR: 1. job and a decent living for every worker. Open the Idle factories operate them under workers control. Twenty Bulion dollar Federal public works and housing program.
Thirty thirty 80 weekly minimum wage 80hour weekly maximum for all workers on all Jobs. Thirty dollar weekly old age and disability pension. Expropriate the Sixty Families. All war funds to the unemployed. people referendum on any and all wars. No secret diplomacy.
10. An Independent Labor Party 11. Workers Defense Guards against vigilante and Fascist attacks.
12. Full social, political and economic equality for the Negro poople.
In the World of Labor Roosevelt War Plans The whole policy of the Roosevelt government since the outbreak of war in Europe has made this country a virtual non combatant belligerent on the side of the Allies. Roosevelt has publicly declared a policy of backing the Allies to the hilt and although his favorite phrase is measures short of war there is no doubt whatever that he would and will plunge this country into war when the time is ripe.
That is why Nazi publication of Polish official documents, quoting William Bullitt, ambassador to Paris as saying that this country would get into the war later on, created only a minor sensation.
In Washington the documents were promptly denounced as forgeries. This would be a natural accusation, since all the big boss governments have in their time used proved forgeries to serve political ends. Correspondents in Berlin who viewed the documents, however, were, in the words of the New York Times dispatch, inclined to accept them as genuine.
The documents consisted mainly of reports by Polish envoys abroad on conversations with American diplomats. Count Potocki, Polish ambassador in Washington, reporting a talk he had with Bullitt in 1938, quoted him as saying: If war were to break out, we certainly would not participate in the beginning but we will in the finish. Joseph Kennedy, ambassador at London, was credited with taking part in securing the British guarantee to Poland. Roosevelt himseli was quoted indirectly as urging the Western powers to abandon the Munich policy of compromise with Hitler.
Obviously it needed no documents issued at Berlin, forged or otherwise, to establish these well known facts. As the Herald Tribune remarked on March 31: The remarks in the German White Paper could be forgeries from beginning to end and still reflect his (Roosevelt s)
true sentiments accurately. The Tribune hastended to say that it agreed with Roosevelt objectives in foreign policy but deplored his methods.
The Republican and isolationist opposition to Roosevelt has kept hands off the Nazi White Paper because it sees no political capital to be gained from quoting Nazi sponsored documents against Roosevelt. And the Republicans, on their part, are no less pro Ally in the war than Roosevelt, and the War Deal would like nothing better than a chance to tar its domestic opponents with the Nazi brush.
But the essential fact needs no Nazi documents, authentic or false, to serve as proof. The Washington administration is trying to commit the country to a virtual belligerent position in the war. Under the screen of promises to keep us out Roosevelt is planning to drag us in.
That Phoney Masked Marvel ANTI TRUST The Socialist Workers Party is wholeheartedPROSECUTIONS ly in favor of the CIO in the NLRB elections in the General Motors plants on April 17. The CIO is the only progressive force in the industry, the genuine representative of the workers in By GEORGE STERN After nearly three years of costly and exhausting and in the auto industry generally. The union warfare and a dozen false starts, the Japanese imof William Green and Homer Martin in auto has perialists have finally set up a puppet government to rule the territory they have conquered in China.
no real existence outside the swank hotel rooms Shaded in on a map, this territory appears to comof the AFL organizers. It is a power only for prise about one quarter of China all the main industrial centers, all the railroads, virtually the entire disruption and for dirty deals with the motor coastline, the principal fertile valleys with a populabarons. vote for the CIO is a vote for an auto tion estimated at about 185, 000, 000.
Actually, the reality is much less impressive. The workers union and against the anti labor corpower of the puppet government is measured by the poration thin line of Japanese guns and bayonets guarding the long lines of communication that thread the conThe union must win in order to exist, and in quered territory. Within those lines that power has winning the election as sole bargaining reprenot yet been able to assert itself unchallenged. Beyond those lines the main Chinese armies, still strong sentative it will be in a much stronger position to and intact, continue to resist the Japanese conquest.
make the corporation live up to its agreements.
The puppet government emerges from a situation of military stalemate. The Japanese army command Yet the biggest problem will not be solved by has, indeed, already announced that it intends to adthe election it will only be brought into the vance further. But even its attempts to broaden foreground. Immediately after the voting negothe foothold it won with great difficulty around Canton and Nanning in the Southwest have proved fruittiations will begin for a new agreement. In these less. Again and again sizeable expeditionary forces have been forced to return ignominiously to their negotiations the union must come face to face bases at Nanning, Swatow, and Amoy, after finding with the most vital issues, just as it confronted the interior impenetrable.
them in Briggs, Chrysler and other auto corporA Japanese Admission of Defeat ations in the past period.
What the Japanese militarists really hope for out In both Briggs and Chrysler, the UAW CIO of the new Nanking regime is a bridge to peace with Chiang Kai shek. They have abandoned all their loudcarried the NLRB vote by sweeping majorities.
ly proclaimed intentions to wipe out every vestige Still these powerful locals were compelled by the of the Kuomintang. Instead, the puppet government is launched with all the Kuomintang trappings. It obstinate attitude of the corporations to strike takes the same name as the Kuomintang government. in Briggs even before the NLRB electionthe same general form, the same flag, the same titles and labels. Wang Ching wel, puppet in chief, assumes in order to obtain an agreement which in any the title of acting president. pending the return way satisfied the needs of the workers. The of the official president, Lin Sen, from Chungking.
This amounts to a Japanese admission of defeat.
strikes were militantly conducted by the Briggs The Japanese now want the cheapest and quickest and Chrysler workers and ended in agreeway out of the quagmire. The European war is already casting its shadow into the Pacific and the ments that seemed to bring victories to the Japanese realize that they have to preserve their union men. The victories were not durable or By Paul Stevens military strength for the greater tests that lie ahead. They can throw their weight around in warbasic. The union had not struck for demands able to introduce real socialism, the socialism of time diplomatic and military political maneuvers liberty.
that would relieve unemployment and insecurity. Heavy Sentences for the Revolutionary Anti War Fighters so long as they remain bogged down in China.
As a result the Briggs local is today lost in a We have just received the January number of Resolution of the Belgian Through their puppet government they hope, therefore, to re establish some kind of peace in China hopeless maze of seniority problems and the Etincelle, the illegal organ of our Fourth Inter Revolutionary Socialist Party through a deal with Chiang Kai shek or some of We have just received a resolution on the same Chrysler workers are questioning the advisability nationalist comrades in France. The regularity his Kuomintang associates at Chungking. Secondly, with which this little sheet is appearing, under subject from the Revolutionary Socialist Party they hope to use it as a diplomatic lever in their of the long tie up.
the most harrowing conditions of government (PSR. the Belgian section of the Fourth Inter relations with France, Britain, and the United States, The strikes were necessary and justified. The persecution, is truly amazing.
national. Excerpts follow: especially in the intricate bargaining that is going The of the campaign launched by intermistake lay in the failure to cope with the main the paper of the pacifist Paul Faure to that of on to determine Japan precise position in the war, national finance capital around Stalin aggres its position toward Germany, and its position toward e fascist Colonel La Rocque, has been calling the Soviet Union.
problems of unemployment, insecurity and the sion in Finland is clear: to realize an imperialist for a clean up campaign. The radio blares its united front against the USSR and to attempt low annual wage. Until an attempt is made to threats against our comrades daily. Recently, the thus to save the capitalist regime undermined by Wang Ching wei Record its own contraditions.
grapple with these problems, the UAW motor renegade socialist Frossard now a minister Meanwhile, to head their miserable little puppet The real crime of Stalin. We are not among government, the Japanese Imperialists have accepted will operate only on one cylinder. Yet no one in the Reynaud cabinet made a speech in parHament, calling for more drastic government acthose who approve Stalin action in Finland.
the services of the onetime leading leftist of the need look into a crystal bowl for the answer. Hetion against the Fourth International From the first day we have said that this aggres Kuomintang. Wang Ching wei.
has merely to read the proceedings of the last group of sixteen French Trotskyists. Now we sion is a crime. But wherein does Stalin crime There is a rich subject here for the student of polie? Is it in the employment of military force, litical personality. Wang is a man who in his time has UAW convention one year ago in Cleveland. learn from our French paper that two comrades in the violation of frontiers. No. These are the professed to accept the most radical of political propreviously arrested, the youth leaders Bourdois At that convention, the delegates unanimously and Chuvin of Marseilles, have been sentenced to criteria upon which the social democrats, the grams and who for a period of years was regarded as anarchists and the petty bourgeois base their the chief spokesman of the radical petty bourgeoisie went on record favoring the 30. hour week at 40 two years each. Comrade Lucien Weitz, the nacondemnation of Stalin. What gives the ag of the country. He was swept along the crest of gression of Stalin its reactionary and criminal the great mass movement of workers and peasants hours pay. That demand is the only logical and tional secretary of the Workers and Peasants character is the fact that it has been launched which almost succeeded in bringing about the revolupractical answer to the problems of the auto arrested before the outbreak of the war itself without the least regard for the sentiments of tionary transformation of China ffteen years ago.
the Finnish workers and of the world proletariat. In 1927 he became the most reliable ally of Joseph workers, especially the auto workers in General. has had an additional sentence of four years. By his high handed manner, his cynicism, Stalin.
Motors. By cutting down the hours, thousands Recently the leaders of even the moderate his contempt for the conscience the workers, When Chiang Kai shek, then another of Stalin of auto workers will be re employed, the most which had purged itself shortly before of the Stalin is weakening the USSR and the proletarian revolutionary luminaries, turned on the mass movecause, throwing the masses of workers into conment and crushed it. Wang, after a brief period of difficult seniority knots untangled, greater secur revolutionary Minority (including Lucien Weitz, fusion. In doing so, he plays into the hands of the bourgeoisie.
clinging to lesser generals, finally crawled like the ity for those employed will be obtained and the Daniel Guerin and the Trotskyists have been proverbial whipped cur into Chiang camp. Side by seized by the government. Precisely by the example of Belgium we see side with Chiang from 1932 to 1937 with a few brief danger of degeneration of the unemployed into a however, with what facility formal neutrality intervals of exile decreed by his master Wang took Revolutionists Break with gives way to a system of imperialist pacts and part in the brutal regime of terror and repression scab army will be reduced to a minimum.
how a war for national defense is turned in and bloodsucking which ruled as the Kuomintang govBy the solemn decision of the convention, the Join Forces with 4th International The arrest of the PSOP leaders is, in a sense, evitably into a peace with annexations (the an ernment at Nanking.
delegates of hundreds of thousands of auto ironical. For the latter, a combination of free nexation of Eupen and Malmedy as well as of When Chiang and some of the other generals finally the former German colonies. That does not took up arms to resist the Japanese invaders who workers instructed their leaders to act in favor of masons and pacifists, refused to prepare for illemean that we approve of the annexation of Finthreatened their own power, Wang deserted again land by Stalin. On the contrary, we are opposed the 30 hour week at 40 hours pay. But the leader sal work and insisted on carrying on as if the war had not broken out and as if no dictatorial to it. We are for the independence of Finland, but and crawled this time. to the Japanese, for his final and crowning act of capitulation ship did not act for the 30 hour week, it did not reglme had been installed. In fact, they had voted of a Soviet Finland. To be for the independence As a political force, Wang has long since been mobilize the union to fight for the 30 hour week, Minority, demanding that the party carry out in of bourgeois Finland at the same time as one is for the revolution in Finland that is a contraspent. He lived off the capital of his 1927 radicalism it did not demand the 30 hour week from the action its resolution for revolutionary struggle dictory position. The victory of the bourgeois until his entry in Chiang Kai shek camp lost him the little genuine prestige he had left, even among corporations. It did not carry out the mandate of at the last convention of the PSOP, had pointed Finnish army would inevitably signify the strenout that such action was possible only by illegal gthening of the capitalist regime in Finland his petty bourgeois associates. Even his new masters, the Japanese, hold him in supreme contempt. When the convention.
and the dictatorship of Mannerheim.
means and had proceeded in the localities where and if they make their deal with Chiang Kai shek, Now the leadership of the UAW will soon it was in control to act accordingly. Even the The ideal thing for the Finnish workers to do Wang will complete the final cycle of his career by would be to get rid of the Finnish bourgeoisie being kicked away again. By that time there will be have its opportunity again to meet in a room with expulsion of the revolutionary defeatists and all the legalism of the free mason leaders of the and at the sametime to escape Stalinist anenxano causes left for him betray.
tion and the bureaucratic oppression which will the management of General Motors. It will be PSOP could not save them from Daladier axe.
result from it. But since this aim is hardly realfaced in that room with a choice that may make PSOP Minority, under the The revolution Guerin best known in izable by virtue of the unfavorable relationship of leadership of HORROR ITEM even strong hearts waver. Yet it must make the America for his brilliant work, Fascism and forces, they must choose the lesser of two evils: Senator Vandenburg. Mich. says that a the victory of the Red Army. It goes without decision, there is no escape.
Big Business and Lucien Weitz, Republican victory this fall is inevitable unless Provwell as the Trotskyist comrades who entered that party a saying that they must utilize this victory profit idence has forsaken our country.
EITHER: Reuther, Thomas and the others year ago, have now joined in a body with the ably by pushing forward the expropriation of the Finnish landlords and capitalists, by getting close will accept any kind of agreement they can get committees vof the Fourth International for STATE OF THE NATION contact with the Soviet workers in order Stalinist buthemselves with them against the star to ally Twice convicted of nonfeasance and misfeasance, from the corporation, provided of course it joint work and for the building of a united party on the program of the Fourth International.
reaucracy.
president Dr. Charles Miler of Slippery Rock makes certain concessions in bargaining rights. Among the items carried by Etincelle is a (Penn. State Teachers College was sentenced to pay The future of humanity lies in the world orthe costs of the case by a judge who praised him and working conditions. And then they will at brief article on the war in Finland, from which ganization of production on the basis of socialthe following are pertinent excerpts: ized property and planning. In spite of Stalin, for developing the college and turning out an untempt to force it on the workers on the The situation is clear: once again the leaders defeated football team.
this acquisition of the October revolution sun grounds it was the best they could get under of the USSR have shown their disregard for the exists in the USSR and it is the absolute duty people and for their liberation. For years they of the Soviet workers as well as of the workers Peggy McEvoy, in her column That Hollywood, conditions where the union is weak. Following have practiced the politics suited to the imperi in the entire world to defend it. The overthrow reports the following: which they will come to the UAW convention on alist democracies. Now they are following a pollof Stalin and his clique undoubtedly remains an DUDE RANCH FOR DOGS cy which aids the Fascist countries. That shows imperious necessity for the Russian revolutionists, This institution offers the following allurements July 29 and demand to be re elected to the Ex that they are themselves becoming more and more imperious still because of this war which to owners of pampered canines. If your dog is a ecutive Board because of this great victory.
more a small minority cut off from the working places the USSR in an extremely dangerous po husky fellow, he ll enjoy every minute of the sportsmasses.
sition. But the Soviet revolutionists can carry if his vitality is low, see how quickly he ll respond to OR: they will take the bull by the horns. de The country which they are thus leading to out that task only by proving themselves the the invigorating mountain air and our marvelous food.
best defenders of the USSR. defeatist or just mand from General Motors that it grant the 30wards defeat or towards increased enslavement neverthelesss remains the country where the an indifferent attitude on their part can only re Dog Lovers are also finding some food for thought hour week at 40 hours pay and proceed to mo proletariat has chased out its capitalist oppress inforce the political positions of the bureauin this ominous query in a Tailwagger ad: Does your cracy.
bilize the union for the eventuality that the cor ors, as such it remains the butt of all the hate doggie have Doggy Odor. They arned: and greed of the imperialists. The Red Army, sup Almost without international contact and work is a monstrous setback to a dog personality.
poration refuses to come across.
ported by an as yet too feeble industry, does ing under the tremendous handicap of illegality The choice Reuther and Thomas make will de not suffice for its defense. Only a powerful and and censorship, our Belgian and French comrades free anti capitalist movement in the other counBrother John, picturesque figure on Los Angeles have reacted to the complicated events of the un skidrow, is taken to the police station after he was termine whether they are union leaders or just tries can save it. Once the people of the USSR folding war with the same clear revolutionary Seen giving money to his companions. m feeding office holders. But whatever they do, the last are freed of the menace of imperialist attack, attitude as our sections overseas. The Marxist the hungry, he said. m tired of having money.
word belongs to the rank and file in the they will be able to chase out their treacherous program, it is evident, is an indispensable guide wanted those hungry men on Main Street to be fed.
leaders and install their own dictatorship and, in stormy times and a guarantee for coordinated and the other local unions.
upon a revitalized technical base, they will be Naturally all right minded people thought the man revolutionary action.
was nuts.