STALIN NEW PURGE. The First Account Published Anywhere Purges the Majority of Trade Unions Officials Socialist Appeal Kremlin Henchmen, Living Like An Upper Class, Have Been Devouring Workers Funds For Their Own Purposes Official Weekly Organ of the Socialist Workers Party, Section of the Fourth International FLINT AUTO WORKERS TAKING STRIKE VOTE Plenum. Conference Fisher Body Fight Opens Friday in Chicago Is For Showdown Natalia Letter To Cardenas By JOHN WRIGHT held a month previously, which it turned Stalin is now in the midst of a new mass out, demanded in the name of the Soviet VOL. IV No. 38 NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1940 FIVE (5) CENTS purge.
trade unionists the passage of the new antiThe first to suffer are the Komsomol (Russian labor legislation, but which was called, said the Communist Youth) and the Trade Unions. Al announcement, to consider The Question of the ready purged, according to official statistics, aze Hour Day. The style is the regime.
137, 637. Of this number 29, 637 are Komsomol The members of the Plenum were graciously officials (out of a reported total of 45, 580, that greeted on July 27 with a special editorial in is, the purge has hit a 65 per cent majority of Pravda addressed to the Plenum and entitled: the Komsomol apparatus. and a somewhat more You Must Attract Broad Masses to Active Trade modest majority of 58 per cent of the Trade Union Work.
Union apparatus, 108, 000 officials out of a re After an innocent and ritualistic introduction ported total of 208, 821. major operation, even in which homage was paid to the achievements for Stalin.
and importance of Trade Unions in Socialist So.
Whereas previous man hunts were ostensibly ciety and after affirming that without their parconducted against wreckers, diversionists, sa ticipation not a single serious economic or politiboteurs, traitors, agents of the Mikado, agents eal measure is carried out, the editorial suddenof the Gestapo, agents of French, English and ly interposed an ominous BUT.
other imperialisms, etc. in word, against Trotskyites. this man hunt is termed one What the Trade Unions against darmoyedniki (scoundrels who eat bread Really Are that they haven carned) and bezdelniki (rascals who idle away their time. But, srarled PRAVDA, many leading In their milder moments, and of course under workers in the Trade Unions forget the main their breath, the Soviet massey must have doubtthing; they forget mass work; they forget to maintain constant contact with the masses; less applied these homely and colloquial epithets of darmoyednik and bezdelnik to many a bureauthey take to the road of functioning in an office bureaucratie manner through an enorcrat. But to have used these terms in public meant an invitation to the cellars of the GPU mous paid apparatus; and not infrequently and a bullet in the back of the head. Stalin is they transform the trade union into a poorly now, however, compelled to apply them, if not functioning departmental bureau. These defito the whole bureaucracy, at least to the purged ciencies are glaringly revealed in countless plenary session of the National Committee of the Social FRIDAY, Sept. 27 Bection instances of a swollen paid trade union apparatus in individual enterprises, in departist Workers Party will be held, jointly with an active workers 2:00 Session of the NaStalin Must Expose tional Committee.
ments as well as in regional committees and conference of delegates from all branches, in Chicago, SeptemBut Company Maneuvers to Push AFL CIO ber 27 29.
8:00 A Mass Meeting to His Imitators in Central Committees of the Trade Unions.
The Plenum Conference will serve as the mobilization of the greet the National (PRAVDA, July 27. Fight Into Foreground and to Shove the Stalin today finds it necessary, as we shall party to give reality to Comrade Iteon Trotsky last words: Committee and the To its horror and indignation, Pravda had delegates, at the Medescribe, to reveal the true visage of his hench. suddenly discovered that the Moscow Auto Plant International. Go forward. Please tell our friends am sure of the victory of the Fourth dical and Dental Really Basic Issues Out of the Picture mcn, their arbitrary rule, their parasitism, their alone supports 931 paid trade union officials. The The principal question under discussion will be the Arts Buliding, 185 vast padded staffs, embezzlements, petty grafts Gorki Auto Plant is in an equally insufferable fundamental task of party policy Wabash Avenue.
FLINT, Mich. Sept. 16 mass turnout of members of Fisher even their complete isolation from the masses. position with 648. It is instructive, continues toward the militarization of the will be presented by their dele SATURDAY. Sept. 28 Body Local No. 581, UAW. CIO voted unanimously yesterday at an The bugcaucratic summits of the Kremlin Stalin official organ, that the paid staff of United States. An unfinished gates to the Conference 10:00 Opening of the Con emergency membership meeting to take a strike vote in order to find it now necessary to indict the lesser and certain trade unions does not decrease but on article by Trotsky on this basic Branches are being informed ference.
demonstrate to General Motors the union determination to put lower bureaucratic ranks for those very crimes the contrary is increasing from year to year. question was on his desk await direetly of arrangements for SUNDAY, Sept. 29 For example. the State Trade Workers Union in completion when the assassin horse per valiolle mure the banquet 10:00 Continuation of the corporation on frame up charges.
and abominations which flourish below only as a back to work the 19 key union militants suspended last week by the pale reflection of the monstrosities at the top. had 2, 807 officials in 1938; it was then split up struck him. discussion on this question may be made by writing to Room The majority of the Komsomol and the Trade The company attempt to kick these key union men out of the into six independent unions and the paid staff has been going on for some time 308, 160 North Wells Street, Chi 8:30 Banquet closing Fisher Body plant is the culmina.
Union officialdom has been charged with and has in the party branches, on the cago, or by telephone at Dean the plenum at the tion of a long corporation campaion against the union and were (naturally) pleaded guilty to: 1) lack of contact basis of a resolution drafted by born 7562 Epicurean Restau paign of provocation and intimi ready once and for all to put a with the masses; 2) absence of a democratic re Squandering the the National Committee. The The schedule for the Plenumrant, 316 South Wab dation which has aroused the stop to the company arrogant gime; 3) failure to call not only membership Workers Dues fruits of the branch discussions Conference is as follows: ash Avenue.
fighting spirit of the cal. canipaign against conditions in meetings, but even committee meetings; 4) the The struggle which was climax the plant.
Pravda immediately trumps that by citing no upkeep of swollen apparatus by diversion of less instructive Tristattres optio cultural ederek membership dues and even sums allotted to inLAY ESTINTE intonses began tast Monday, Sept. Cold Water Reutheric tional work is carried on. The workers in the 9, when AFL members still hang.
In this first flush of enthudustry; 5) padding the payrolls with darmoyedniki and bexdelniki and of similar practices, laMoscow Auto Plant, it appears, got together and ing on to the defunct Martin out siastic militance the Fisher Body belled, in the official double taik, as deficiencies.
organized a chorus and a dramatic circle. No fit, which was so thoroughly de workers were met by Walter sooner did the Trade Union learn of this than it feated in the NLRB polls through. Reuther and Thomas, Inter.
Cabled Stories Suppressed appointed: One Chorus Leader, sulary 800 Covers GPU Trail out GM, provoked CIO members national Board representatives, by Stalin roubles; one Assistant Chorus Leader, salary 500 into fights in the plant. Imme who laid the blame for the crisis diately the company accused cIo not on the company but on the roubles; one Art Director, 1, 000 roubles; one By Refusing to men of rioting and brawling and union men themselves!
No correspondent has been permitted to cable Chief Concertmaster, 600 roubles; one Theatre Answer Questions closed the North and South FishThis scissorbill line of Reuther this story from the Soviet Union as, likewise, the Manager, 750 roubles. Pravda cuts its descriper units down.
Thomas did not go over with the story of Stalin new anti lsbor legislation which tion of this pay roll short with a modest though MEXICO CITY, Sept. 13 and by your aid in our days of Fisher boys. They voted at that described last week. Even the provisions of the letter sent by Natalia TrotHides Real Issues mysterious Etcetera and goes on: difficulty, which were so fremeeting to give the International new laws against labor, which of course were Facts of this kind, and they are by no MEXICO CITY. Sept. 13 sky yesterday, thanking Preit was obviously an attempt by Board instructions to get down quent. In Norway. we found Judge Carranca Trujillo conduct sident Cardenas for a personal ourselves imminently menaced the company to provoke the union to serious business at once to get published in Pravda for the information of the means isolated ones, bear witness to the fact ed further questioning of the as visit he and Mrs. Cardenas with death, and not a single membership, and to cover up the the suspended men back to work, bureaucrats, were deleted from press dispatches, that many trade unions are squandering the had made, was released today sassin of Trotsky, Jackson, this as Gedye of the New York Times has just recountry in the world ventured real issues which had already and backed this demand up with income of of the trade unions, maintaining at the afternoon at the hospital where by the Presidential Palace and to aid the disinherited. The ex. created a tense situation in many evidence that this suspension was ported upon leaving the Soviet Union. Moreover, expense of this income a swollen paid ap Jackson is in bed because of published in the press.
ception came from legendary GM plants. By dealing with AFL just part of the corporation offor months at a time it is impossible to secure paratus, in some cases, plain DARMOYED. stomach trouble.
The text of the letter fol.
Mexico, with its generous committeemen, and then following lensive against the union. Reuth.
abroad copies of Soviet newspapers. We are now, NIKI and BEZDELNIKI.
The assassin was shaved, his lows: people, expansive and indepen. up with this attempt to focus aller was given one week to take however, able to tell the story.
After this discovery. Pravda is ready to tell hair has started to grow back in Mr. President: Permit me dent. You prolonged the life attention on an AFL CIO light. up the suspensions with the man.
On July 26 Pravda carried an innocuous notice the Plenum just how to attract the masses: and he is beginning to look as he to offer to your wife and your of Leon Trotsky for 43 the corporation secks to sidetrack agement, and to report back to months. carry in my heart did before the crime. He refused self my most profound apprethe real issues at stake.
to the effect that the Tenth Plenum of the Allthe membership. This situation in no longer be tolerated.
Union Central Council of Trade Unions (C.
ciation for your visit, for your my gratitude for those 43 These issues are the corporaThe main portion of the funds aceruing from to let the press take his picture sincere sentiments, for your months. Not only I, but hun tion flagrant violation of the GM Men Determined Stand would convene on the next day, with only one membership dues must be expended not on the front of his face, and refused to unalterable conviction in the dreds of thousands of incor. Il contract, wage decreases by means point on the agenda: The Elimination of CerAt yesterday meeting Reuther upkeep of a paid apparatus but to provide cul talk until the photographers had honor of Leon Trotsky and for ruptible fighters, who struggle of reclassification of jobs, speed made his report. From all indi.
tain Deficiencies in the Trade Union Apparatus tural educational service to union members and been sent from the room. the contempt manifested by for the emancipation of hu. up. etc, cations he is having difficulty and the Improvement of the Functioning of the to render them material aid.
Judge Trujillo permitted Alyou toward calumny and lie. manity.
At the membership meeting of getting satisfaction from the con Trade Union Organs. In point of understatement The Tenth Trade Union Plenum was well at bert Goldman, Trotsky attorney, Calumny and lie are not weap Your tender attention sus Fisher Body Workers of the cio pany.
this notice can be matched only by the wording tended by the Chairmen and Secretaries of the to put a series of questions to ons sufficient to assure a dethe day following the lockout, the The militant Fisher men then tained us in the sorrowful mo.
Jackson. To most of the questhose who of the announcement of the Ninth Plenum of the finitive victory ments of the loss of our son (Continued on Page 4)
Fisher workers showed a militant unanimously passed the motion to are using them. My meeting in February, 1938. And again determined spirit Lions Jackson said he didn know All were con take strike vote at once. The with you on August 24th conor he didn remember. He didn you came to help us after the sclous of the company long cam. Continued on Page 2)
stitutes for me a moral supperfidious attack remember any part of the con.
our enetents of his false Canadian passport for the rest of my life. mies against our house on port, and no amount of question There has never been in May 21. Saturday (August 24)
ing could get him to recall any.
history an epochas overonce more you proved your thing in it except the name of shadowed by lie, calumny, activity in favor of him who Jackson. He had burned the passcrime and inhumanity. as that port along with his other papers today. Honorable fighters fall of living on Mexican soil. PerMINNEAPOLIS The Minne paign terature w!! be circulated mit precisely in order to cover up as victims. Their memory, Mr. President, to re: sota Section of the Socialist during the campaign.
any trail that might lead investinevertheless, will be eternal. peat here the expression of Workers Party, together with its For Union Control of Military sators to his GPU superiors. Unfortunately my husband my deepest gratitude to the hundreds of friends and sympaFLINT. Sept. 16 Two strikes Stores, 902 Broadway. New York, Training could not know you personally.
thizers, swung into action this people of Mexico, to its govTalkative About Nothing Our life, despite that, was ernment and to you particu.
are already in progress in Flint. to bargain with its employees, and The twelve point platform of week behind the candidacy of the Trotskyist Anti War Party while the Fisher Body fight to to raise the miserable wages from It is characteristic of Jackson linked with yours by the bonds reinstate 19 unionists suspended 12. 50 weekly to a living wager Comrade Grace Carlson for Unit: opposes imperialist war, truscism testimony that whenever non es of your generous disposition NATALIA TROTSKY by the company is reaching a deed States Senator. Because sentials are involved, he is very cisive phase.
legal obstacles, the name of the and totalitarian dictatorship. It DETROIT The Diesel Division calls for universal military train talkative and precise. For exam The entire bus (street car) of General Motors went on strike Socialist Workers Party cannot ple. on June 13 he had sent a suitsystem has been effectively par this week, and pickets have been appear on the ballot. Dr. Carlson ing under trade union control. It case with some 25 items of cloth but you simply remember the gu and murder Stalin! He thought alyzed by a strike of the bus covering the plant sates since will therefore appear on the bal calls for trade union wages in the ing to New York. He named every disillusionment?
Goldman question was a trap drivers, members of the Trans Priday, September 13th. When Jot as the candidate of the Trot military forces Other platform planks include: item to the judge and did so pre A: remember the subject and tried to differentiate between port Workers Union, CIO.
skyist Anti war Party.
members of the Mechanical Edu.
Trade union wages and hours cisely and volubly. Isn it pecuand the disillusionment. re what Goldman said and what he. The bus strike. now in its Arthcational Society of America, an The first stage of the campaign on all defense and public works liar that you could easily recollect member the dishonest proposi Jackson had said: then, really day. is the result of the firing of independent union, struck the will be marked by the drive to all the contents of your suitcases Lion which Trotsky made to me in his mistake, he retreated to the union president by the complant.
programs. For the 30 hour obtain the necessary 2, 000 or so week. Take over without comand remember nothing at all that go to the Soviet Union his usual don remember. pany. Company officials have re The strike was the result of signatures to insure placing our 71 pensation the national defense about your passport? Goldman and carry out acts of sabotage, This came out in this interest, fused to meet with the union, but company refusal to grant pày candidate on the ballot for the industry.
asked. The assassin was silent.
and so forth and so forth, as ins way: parleys are expected today. The raises to tool and boiler room em general election November In For the defense and exten Dr. GRACE CARLSON don remember was his have declared and written in Q: Do you remember what union las organized the bus driv ployees, and the failure of the the very first day of the signa sion of civil liberties and work tional labor party based upon and answer to all questions concern the letter which was found on you said about this (Trotsky ers 100 and thus far no al company to provide vacation pay.
ture campaign, over two hun ers rights. Against the perse controlled by the trade unions:sations as he had with Trotsky ing the subjects of such convers me.
orders to assassinate Stalin tempts to run busses with scale Matthew Smith. general secredred yoters enthusiastically sign. cution of aliens.
for the defense of the Soviet Un. after first meeting Trotsky at the Q: Was it during that con and others) in your letter? have been made.
tary of the announced ed. With anti war sentiment run. Genuine economic and social ion against imperialism and Stal end of May. This phase of the versation that Trotsky pro A: don remember.
The five and ten cent girls of Monday that no meetings with ning extremely high among the equality for women. Full social, inism: and for a Socialist United questioning led to: posed you assassinate Stalin?
Q: Do you refuse to answer the Grand Silver store here have the corporation were yet arranged masses of this state, little din political and economie equality States and a Socialist world.
A: Trotsky did not propose culty is anticiputed in fulfilling for the Negro people. Job opin the general election Dr. Carl Q: Then you mean to say exactly that assassinate Stalmy questions because you do turned out to be million dollar for.
not remember what you said in pickcts, as they marched out of the press of Detroit and vietu the quota.
portunities at union wages for son will contront the incumbent that you do not remember the in.
the scab open shop firm and esity is raising a fuss about the your letter?
Campaign headquarters have the youth.
Henrik Shipstead. renegade Farm subjects of the various conver Q: What precisely did Trot.
tablisbed a picket line on the bus strike. with plenty of faked patri.
A: This is a tendentious jest street in town.
been established at 919 Marquette Good Farm Plank er Laborite who recently deserted sations but you only remember otic fervor as an excuse to at sky propose?
avenue. Minneapolis, and at 138 The farm plank calls for the to the Republican party, and ex that you were disillusioned. question and won answer it.
A: don remember. few moments later came this The girls are organized in tback the workers, since the plant East 6th Street, St. Paul. Ten cancellation of feed and seed governor Elmer Benson, Stalinist A: Yes.
In other words, the assassin is amazing exchange: United Retail and Wholesale Em is at work on engines for subthousand copies of campaign oans to the farmers, the cancel stooge who won the nomination Q: And you mean to say fur beginning to forget the precise ployees, affiliated with the Ciomarines.
leaflet setting forth the platform lation of farm mortgages, and in the Farmer Labor primaries Q: Will you answer these ther, that you do not remember formulations of the GPU letter.
The won the Naquestions that ask you, if The girls are striking in order upon which Dr. Carlson will run Land to those who till it. September 10. The Democratic the particular subject which in whicb it was categorically to force the company, part of the tional Labor Board election in the have been printed, and other cam. Dr. Carlson will call for a na candidate is John Regan. caused your disillusionment, stated that Trotsky told him to (Continued on Page 3) multi million dollar Green Diesel Division of SENATORIAL CANDIDATE IN MINNESOTA IS GRACE CARLSON MINOR STRIKES IN AUTO TOWNS had from you the possibility SHOW THE POT IS SIMMERING Jarly.