STALIN STILL HITLER VASSAL, WRITES TROTSKY TRADE UNION WAGES ON ALL DEFENSE WORK!
Official Weekly Organ of the Socialist Workers Party, Section of the Fourth International VOL. IV No. 32.
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 1940 FIVE (5) CENTS (The following statement was issued by Leon Trotsky to the United Press. Molotov latest speech confirms that the Kremlin continues to be a satellite of Berlin and Rome. The Communist leaders in various countries have calmed their parties with promises that tomorrow if not today Moscow will turn towards the democracies. Molotov speech belies these promises. Five years of anti fascist Peoples Fronts are definitely unmasked as charlatanism. Moscow foreign policy is determined by power politics and not by political principles.
Molotov, it is true, tried to cover the present Kremlin policy with anti imperialist phraseology. But its falseness strikes one eyes, Molotov unmasked England wish to retain her colonies. But he kept silent about Germany and Italy wish to take them. He spoke about the imperialism of Japan and the United States but he didn find a word of condemnation for Hitler banditry and Mussolini jackal politics. Even more, he underlined for the first time that the German Soviet pact assured free hands to Hitler. This unilateral and thoroughly sham light against imperialism only reveals that Moscow politics is not independent but serves the interests of one imperialism against the other.
An increase in population of 23, 000, 000 doesn solve the problem of the security of the USSR. The victory of HitlerMussolini over Great Britain would immediately place the move towards the east on the order of the day for German imperialism. It would at once become clear that in following the line of Icast resistance the Kremlin oligarchy only accumulated difficulties and dangers.
Coyoacan, August 2, 1940 CONSCRIPTION DEBATE OPENS LABOR VOICE STILL UNHEARD Our Own Kind of Military Training! CIO and AFL Merely Echo Demagogues Like Wheeler.
Proposed Alternative of Voluntary Enlistment Is No Better Than Conscription; Workers Want Neither SUP Head Fights Conscription Bill UNIO4 SAN FRANCISCO Faced with of retired army men and Indusnew reverses in West Coast mart trial big shots in Washington, time unions, the local Stalinists two weeks ago.
last week jumped off the deep Contacted at New Orleans.
end, launching against Harry Lundeberg immediately denied the Lundeberg a slander campaign of ridiculous charge.
such farfetched stupidity that it The moronic slander of the is making them the laughing Voice continued: stock of the waterfront Lundeberg appointment to Specifically, the Voice of the the committee was made July 25th Pederation, organ of the Stalinist from Washington, where controlled Bridges machine, he has been for the past several charged the militant leader of the weeks, ostensibly on union busisailors with backing the Burke ness.
Wadsworth conscription bill: Also serving on the local comIn the most barefaced double mittee with Landebers will be column libel imaginable, the Voice Major General Leonard Wood declared that Lundeberg was ap and other army and industrial pointed to a local committee to leaders Beek passage of the bill, with Ro. But the discovery that Roger ser Lapham of the shipowners Laphant is being boosted for the and head of the American Hawat chairmanship of the committee fan Steamship Co, is the probable was made only after a conversa.
committco chairman.
tion with Mack Lilienthal, local Instantly. dented and readily organizer of the comuter En disproved, this charge serves only enthal is a Montgomery street to spotlight the desperation of the broker with offices in the swank Stalinist waterfront machine. The Russ building.
case provides a matchless example The Voice quoted Lilienthal of the depths to which these po secretary saying: Mr. Lundeberg litical bankrupts have been driven. is serving on the committee to Tossing to the winds the last help pass the Burke Wadsworth Vestige of sanity, the Voice de 01.
clared: When the time for retractions Harry Lundeberg is one of the comes, the Stalinist hacks will hackers of the Burke Wadsworth discover a little mistaken identiconscription bill, which would ty, with the phone book full of draft thousands of maritime work. Lundebergs, or some such hokusers into the army at wages of pokus. 21 a month.
The fact of the matter remains Lundeberg was named to a lo that these stooges bannerlined a cal committee to urge passage of Lundeberg Sell Out which did the bill after a secret conference not and could not exist.
LOCAL 23. Military Training. Behind the Lines Under Union Control Debate opens in Congress on the question of There is no real debate. There will be some conscription. It is a great, historie moment. Amid speeches in Congress, but it will be a sham the tumult and the shouting, the line ups be battle.
come clear.
And where is the labor movement in this? It The dominant sections of the ruling class appears in the picture only as an appendage to want conscription and, accordingly, the parties the Wheeler Vandenburg opposition. For the of the capitalist class, the Republicans and De CIO, John Lewis announces himself in full mocrats, are obediently supporting the Burke agreement with Senator Wheeler on this thing.
Wadsworth comseription bill. That was already William Green statement for the AFL wasn symbolized by the bi partisan sponsorship of the issued until Monday of this week a little late bill by Burke (Democrat) and Wadsworth (Reto be rallying the AFL membership. and was publican. That is now underlined by the 13 as milk and watery as it could be.
vote for the bill by the Senate Military Affairs Committee.
The AFL CIO statements offer nothing more The minority sections of the capitalist class than the Wheeler Vandenburg position. Neither of these great labor organizations even demanded oppose the bill. One section, for whom Lindbergh is speaking, do not so much oppose the the right that its own spokesmen appear at the Senate committee hearings on the conscription bill as utilize this occasion to propose a different bill! Presumably Anaconda Wheeler and Henry foreign policy. Instead of a war against Ger Ford Vandenburg were considered to be the many, for control of the world, the Lindbergh spokesmen of the trade unions!
group wants to collaborate with Germany in ruling the world. Though a relatively small group That reveals the cold truth: Lewis and Green today, this one has powerful financial backing: and the other top officials of the APL and CIO and at a later stage of developments may soek are just going through the motions of registering to dictate the foreign policy of the country.
their opposition to conscription. Their opposition The other position groupe represented by is no more serious than that of Wheeler and Vandenburg.
such figuros as Senators Wheeler, Norris and Vandenburg, is a heterogeneous affair. Norris If the CIO and AFL leadership were serious speaks for Mid west business and the more prosin their opposition to conscription, they would perous farmers the elements which, though rebe proposing a more firm alternative to conscrip.
actionary themselves, are resentful of the Wall tion than voluntary enlistment. They are say.
Street and Eastern interests who are dictating ing that mass enlistments will provide the numWashington policy. How anti war Norris is, is ber of men required. If enough pressure can be shown by his votes for the armament bills and gotten up to push that many men into the army for sending the National Guard into active serby enlistment, what the difference between the vice. Wheeler of Montana, tool of Anaconda two methods of swelling the army by the addicopper, and Vandenburg of Michigan, a vicious tion of millions of young workers. anti labor figure, are playing a demagogic game, Real Labor Alternative!
exploiting for what it worth the popular opposition to conscription, and prepared to give way real working class program would not agree to conscription quickly enough.
to creating such an army. program which really considered the interests of the labor moveWheeler Agrees To Compromise ment would seek a working class alternative to That is already evident from Wheeler an conscription by the capitalist state.
nouncement that he will support Senator Ma There is such an alternative. It has nothing honey proposed compromise. a bill providing in common with the whining pacifists who are for a gigantic drive for mass enlistments and, also calling for enlistment as an alternative to after a certain date within a few months, if the conscription. It is based on a realistic underfarmers than conscription, for either way enlistment drive has not secured the required standing of the fact that, in this epoch of milithey ll end up in the army.
number of soldiers, the automatic enactment into tarism and war the working class must learn all law at that time of the conscription system. there is to know about military science.
The genuine opponents of conscription The Mahoney bill is not a compromise at all; But to master the military alts does not have must, therefore, find a real alternative to it is the conscription bill plus a face saving de to be done under control of the capitalist state vice for the opposition. Yet it has already been and its reactionary army officer caste. Military There is one. It is COMPULSORY MILI endorsed by practically all the Senators and training? Yes. But under control of the trada unions!
TARY TRAINING UNDER THE DIRECT Congressmen who have labelled themselves CONTROL OF THE TRADE UNIONS. anti conscription. That should be the basis of the opposition to In reality, therefore, the entire capitalist class the Burke Wadsworth conscription bill and any Not in the anti democratic atmosphere of and its political agents are all in favor of the other bill the capitalist parties may offer for the barracks, but in the workers atmosphere principle of conscription.
military training!
of his trade union, is the place for a worker to undergo military training, put down with brusque finality. worker should learn the military arts Then the vote was taken and direction the Orange slate swept through.
For Krambers. Stalinist fraction leader, who was one of those runof a boss minded army officer who breathed ning. it was the first defeat for in hatred of the workers as part of his West any position in the union.
Point schooling Communist Party strategy in low up its success in electing the the unions hit a new low when new president, William Kinchelor the non citizen issue is that the not so strange sidelight on Let the federal government provide the the Stalinist fraction in the cate with the election of its slate of object of the Stalinist attack, necessary funds, facilities and technical in: CAFL) raised the astounding ery ressive Group Leader. Jose Garcia since breaking with the Stalinists structors, but let the unions keep firm control of alien against a leading mill of the Spanish Workers Club, and ly harassed by immigration au WO years ago, has been frequentof the actual military training program. tant at the general membership Stanley Mesevich, younger brother horities.
of the former president, to whon.
Men who have been outstanding in the meeting July 29.
Profoundly significant of the The meeting was about to elect the Orange Ticket threw its sup healthy temper of the union acunions as officers, shop stewards, active mili three delegates to the State Fedport when President Kincheloe Live membership was its utter distants these can be trained as officers in eration of Labor convention, the declined to run. The Stalin sts regard of the alien issue and Workers Plattsburgs. There are hundreds of state conference of culinary locals had nominated two of their neo ts election of the member in thousands of such men who can be named by and the Union Label Trades Con ple and, as a third delegate, had question.
the unions.
sress, all beng held at Niagara cleverly named President Kin Falls August 18 21.
cheloe; but the latter, stating that They, in turn, can act as officers in a Having recently lost to the he would not permit the simul AUTO WORKERS!
union controlled military training program (progressives a by election for the taneous absence of all general of CONVENTION STORY in the trade unions. In addition, the unions runner of certain defeat in the mated the Stalinist stratagem to IN NEXT ISSUE can attract millions of the youth, the unem regular elections for all offices in elect their nominees upon the ployed and the unorganized. who would not Desember, the Stalinists had made president prestige Whereupon, as a last resort, complete eyewitness reenlist in the army, but who would willingly their forces for the election of Shirley Fields, one of the Stal.
port and analysis of the Auto inist leaders, took the floor undergo military training under the trade delegates. Party members and Workers Union convention follow travelers employed on night to protest the candidacy of one which has just closed in St.
unions.
shifts were instructed to take the of the Orange Ticket on the Louis will appear in next This, then, should be Labor answer 10 dny off. Despite all efforts, howgrounds that he was a nonweek issue of the SOCIALconscription! It is a positive answer, a bold ever, the declining Stalinist forces citizen! President Kincheloe IST APPEAL.
answer, and a practical program.
were in a hopeless minority when ruled her out of order, but she Don miss this authoritathe meeting opened.
insisted on taking the floor to tive article on the most imIt should, it must, become the program of It was clear that the United elaborate upon her reactionary portant union in the country!
the trade union movement of this country! Orange Ticket was going to fol.
theme. Her second attempt was propose.
STALINISTS CRY ALIEN AT of fellow unionists, and not under the orders CAFETERIA LOCAL 302 MAN Change in Hitler TimeThere is today a great wave of popular opTable of Blitzkrieg position to the conscription bill now being debated in Congress.
by GEORGE STERN Despite the wishes of the many millioned The fact that Hitler has de to close any appreciable part of opponents, however, it is easy to predict with layed the invasion of England the gap between their armed certainty that they will be defeated, unless the has given rise to widespread spe strength and Germany s, but fight against conscription takes an entirely culation over whether the delay they have been enough, possibly, different form than the one given to it by does not mean an indefinite post for the British to marshal to best Senators Wheeler and Vandenburg, John ponement. Both the German and effect such means of defense as Italian press have in the last few they have.
Lewis and William Green.
weeks given strong indications of Thirdly, the delay in the inLet us ask ourselves: Why do millions of a postponement or at least have vasion has had effects of prime seemingly tried to encourage importance in this country.
workers and farmers oppose conscription? It that idea. This may simply be When France collapsed the adis not because they are pacifists. Pacifism has their way of trying to disorient ministration in Washington, never had a strong hold on any section of the the British and create the kind of like virtually everybody else, masses; it is too unreal, too cowardly a docconfusion which has turned out wrote Britain off. The plans in trine. Every worker who has been on strike really to be Hitler secret mid June to send planes and weapon.
destroyers to England were and on the picket line knows that pacifism However this may be, the very abandoned. The government won work.
fact that the invasion did not. embarked instead upon a proas expected, follow right on the gram based wholly on the handling a gun and learning the fundamentals Nor do the workers and farmers object to collapse of France, has had a promise of complete German number of important objective victory of military training. This country has millions results.
Now the picture has apparent upon millions of workers and farmers who First of all, the time factor ly changed. The chorus of those own their own guns, love to shoot, want to has become infinitely more im demanding return to the destroy learn more about it.
portant. Had Hitler struck in er plane idea is swelling. Leading mid June, he would have had newspapers like the Times Nor do these men take fright at the thought two and a half months time and Herald Tribune, and such that they might have to fight for their lives before the fogs and bad weath. figures as General Pershing, are against other armed men. They know the kind er set in over the English insisting with increasing volume of world we live in today. Many of them have Channel. This time has now that American aid to Britain now had to risk their lives on the picket line to been cut by more than half.
Unless Hitler has reason to ed at once. The feeling has rodefend their jobs. These men would be willing think he can do the trick in vived that Britain has a good not only to learn how to handle a gun, but less than a month or unless he chance to survive the summer to use that gun, in defense of their rights.
believes his war machine can and by that token, perhaps, to be indifferent to the coming survive the war itself by out.
So, when they oppose conscription, it beweather change, the strategic lasting the Germans.
cause they have no faith that the army they moment for the invasion has Should the Nazi invasion of will be conscripted into is going to fight for seemingly all but passed. England fail to eventuate this the interests of the workingmen and women of Secondly, it has given the Brit. summer the perspective of a long this country. They re not what you call radiish up to now nine additional war is automatically restored. In weeks to prepare for the blow. that event, the main theater of cals; but they know that Wall Street runs In June their army had just operations is certain to shift to the army and navy, and that Wall Street will come back reeling from Flanders, the Mediterranean and Africa be the beneficiary of the coming war and not was without equipment and no with an important sideshow go the people.
douit totally without organiza ing on in the Far East. In all tion. These weeks have assuredly three of those areas no quick de Wheeler counter proposal to conscription not been enough for the British cision is possible.
Tis, therefore, no better to the workers and Europe.