2 SOCIALIST APPEAL OCTOBER 26, 1940 TROTSKY MEMORIAL FUND TWORKERS FORUM SWP Candidate On United Front to Minneapolis Radio Defend in Calif. Is Asked Programs Provided Food Store Men Strike Chains In Four States Lynn. 100. 00 Boston.
Detroit 00 Penn. Joads Are Victorious In Blitz Strike The total pledged to the Trotsky Memorial Fund rose this week to 3, 345, with the following branches still to be heard from: AllenMORRISVILLE, Pa Led town, New Haven, Omaha, Quakertown, Rochester. St. Louis and by a group of youth ranting Funds for Radio in age from 16 to 22, a blitz.
Texas. Upward revision of branch pledges is still on the agenda in strike of several hundred several places.
Pennsylvania Jords employed Socialist Workers The first payments on pledges came in this week, amounting on the vast Starkey Farms to 312. That a good start, but it will have to be equalled every Write to us lell us what going on in your part of the hear here, won them com By Friends Party Offers Aid week to fulfill the pledges by the end of the year. Here the score.
labor movement what are the workers thinking about? tell plete victory in 48 hours.
board: us what the bosses are up to and the men and the local cops As a result of the workers Quota In Fighting Ban Amount Paid Paid and the Stalinists send ses that story the capitalist press didn action wages were increased MINNEAPOLIS. Oet. 21 The Rockville. 00 00 100 print and that story they buried or distorted our pages are open 25 percent and more. Though Socialist Workers Party of Min.
75. 00 75 to you. Letters must carry name and address, but indicate if you the new wages range only from nesota candidate for United Chicago and Ind. Harbor 150. 00 65. 07 LOS ANGELESA letter ha: 43 do not want your name printed.
25 30 cents an hour, that rep. States Senator, Dr. Grace Carl. 20, 000 Butchers and been sent to over 250 rank an San Francisco. 100. 00 35. 00 35 resents a great gain for. sen, will speak over Radio Sta.
Toledo 50. 00 15. 00 30 group of workers who have tion WLOL on Monday evenings and jammed the new contract Clerks Have Closed branch of the Socialist Worker: 100. 00 EDITOR: been accustomed to 17 21 27. 00 27 October 21, October 28 and NoWe workers in the dye shops down our throats.
cent rates and 80 to 90 hour Party. appealing to them to pu vember at 10:00 Newark 150. 00 40, 00 here in Paterson are just waking But we are beginning to under weeks.
Down Their Shops pressure on their leadership to Flint 150. 00 25. 00 17 The many contributions which up to the royal trimming we have stand what was behind this whole Only a few had been in on undertake a united front action 200. 00 25. 00 13 have come in to the campaign received at the hands of Sidney sell out und why Hillman person. the plans or had advance with the SWP to secure the re Akron 10. 00 00. 00 00 Hillman and Co.
ally intervened in what is really Leadquarters from comrades and warning, but not a single peal of the ban against the Com TRENTON, Oet. 18. Over munist Party on the Californis Baltimore 10. 00 sympathizers, eager to have the 00. 00 00 When our last contract expiroda secondary labor dispute in a worker scabbed, as the strik Cleveland 70. 00 party program reach the people 20, 000 workers employed in 1100 00. 00 00 we were confronted with a de secondary industry.
caught the Starkey Farms Co stores of the great P chain ballot.
of Minnesota. have made the Los Angeles 150. 00 00. 00 mand of the bosses for the elimi This action was taken after the Local 1733 has been the mili00 by surprise in the midst of a the American Stores, and the nation from the contract of the tant back bone of the whole labor Milwaukee purchase of this radio time pos Food Hair chain are out on strike Stalinist leadership had ignored 00 00. 00 rush to get vegetables picke 00 clause limiting the work lond. movement in this area. It was sible.
Minneapolis and St. Paul 1000. 00 00. 00 for the metropolitan markets The workers here suffered a formed from a yhting spontane Jubilant over their success the Along with senatorial and con. In a four state area composed of two previous appeals for a united New York.
00. 00. 1000. 00 00 Pennsylvania, Southern New Jer front and had concealed them lot of broken heads in 1933 and ous walk out of the dyers in 1933, gressional candidates of other posey, Delaware, and Maryland.
farm laborers, many of whom from their membership.
Philadelphia 30. 00 00. 00 1934 successfully striking for that the first to protest against the tical parties, Comrade Carlson The SWP letter urged the StalThe strike was initiated by the are children as young as ter Portland 10. 00 00. 00 00 clause. Without it, the bosses low wage standards fixed under years of age, are going about addressed a meeting of the SaturReading 00 00. 00 00 day Lunch Club on October 19. Butchers Union (AFI) and it has inist workers to continue the could put us o a stretch out, ell. the setting up a permanent or.
Youngstown 50. 00 00. 00 She emphasized the fact that WAR received the full support of the struggle against the attempts of 00 minate a lot of workers and sweat It was necessary to smother us ganization to protect their Retail Clerks Union. Teamsters the California boss class to de us until our tongues hang out. at all costs, not because of our gains.
is the central issue of the eles Union, and the Philadelphia Cen prive them as workers, of thel TOTAL 3345. 00 312. 07 To our surprise, when the quesown demands on the bosses, but tion of the contract came up, our because it was feared that we ity of the candidates to meet the tral Labor Union, all of the AFL political rights, and described the own officers put the heat on us, would plant the seeds in a more problems posed by the War is the the cooperation of these unions lan as merely the beginning of has caused the strike to be 100 a wave of persecution against the the International officers pounded fertile. spot the national defense basic measure of their fitness for successful with all the stores in entire labor movement in prepara Fire Prevention us, and the men were driven into industries.
the leadership of the workers and volved shut down tighter than a tion for war time suppressions bargain with the bosses that a Our fighting example had begun LARRY MURPHY farmers.
drum.
There is but one way too: Teachers Made year ago no one would have had to contaminate the huge Wright Our Military Policy John Kelly, local strike leader, pose this persecution the United the nerve even to mention in the Aeronautical Corporation planı of the Retail Clerks Union, has Front of all forces in the labor union.
Contrasting the proletarian mi here, employing 15, 000 workers, Joseph Knapik, one of our own and now the chief Industry in Larry Murphy, 21. militant Etary polley of the Socialist announced that his international movement, stated the letter. No Quite Bonfire!
local boys who made good and Paterson Encouraged by our fighter in the Federal Work Worker Party with the paint nation wide strike, if necessary to there exist between us, a United became president of the Dyers stand against the bosses, the work ers Section of General Drivers policy of the Communist Party back up the demands of the work. Front can be made on this spe JERSEY CITY, Mayo Lectures for the Federation of America with which ers in this key plant were begin anti war ers in the four state area.
Local 544 of Minneapolis, died and other so called cific issue. All workers would be Bague. the Jersey City Hitler.
Local 1733 is affiliated, did a good ning to organize. The bosses be last week as a result of injur groups, Comrade Carlson created tremendously inspired and encour recently did his bit for Fire Pro Coming Week bit of the dirty work.
came panic stricken.
a sensation when she insisted that new contract to replace one which aged by the organization of Unit. vention Week by sending his euThe open ies in an automobile acident How Hegel Behind the scenes Jurked Hulshop condition at the Wright near Delano, Minn.
serious workers take advantage of expired Oct. 1, is asking a reduced Front committees to combat tenants around to every local fac man himself, dragging into line plant is the dryest sort of fuel Larry, seriously injured. was the compulsory military training tion in working hours from 51 raids on political freedom. This tory to advise the workers to be Revolutionized Logic the local officers.
to catch fire from any struggle refused admission to a hospiprogram in order to prepare to to 48 a week. Wage increases for the parpose of the offer of the on the look out for ifth column. Monday 7:10 to 8:40 What surprised us was that the in this area.
tal for more than eight hours take over the power from the capital st war makers. To a Citizen managers of one man stores are loited Front is the classic method it might have been more suitSocialist Workers Party. Theists who might try to start fires, Lecturer: William Warde drive against us was more vicious That why Hillman moved to while officials argued over Alliance member who charged also being sought, along with two of working class organizations able to have delivered these Fire than even forcing us into the besmash us! That why we have which hospital had to take Trotsky Theory of the hind a phoney contract seemed to been robbed of the conditions him. The injured boy had that this policy was vicious and weeks vacation with pay, instead with different programs to meet Prevention lectures belor Ha Russian Revolution require. It had all the earmarks which we won in seven years of inhuman, she retorted: joined the State Militia a of one common danger.
of an attempt to crush the local bloody battles! That why our wue henchmen had made bon When the truck drivers of The letter further adds, with thes of the evidence which a ran.
Monday 8:50 to 10:20 month ago, but he was refused The companies have countered completely.
great local has been wrecked ano Minneapolis asked for only admission to the Veterans Lecturer: Felix Morrow the refusal of the leadership of atorial committee was seeking for the union demands with insist the to make publie our of its probe of election frauds in Every form of threat and inti demoralized!
Hospital on the grounds that 42c an hour, the Minneapolis ence that hours be increased from ter: with their refusal to reply Hudson County and elsewhere in The Materialist midation was used by Hillman I hope your paper will tell this bosses did not hesitate to use the Militia had not yet beetooges, not merely to gain ac story. hope you will help me vicious and inhuman action 51 to 53.
to our communications with their New Jersey, Conception of History ceptance of this new contract, but and my union brothers to spread come part of the regular army.
against them. The workers of He was also refused admission contemptuous disregard of the Tuesday 7:10 to 8:40 with the seeming intent of des the truth about this outrage. Tell the country must be prepared Lecturer: Murry Weiss right of the rank and file, who as to the county hospital, and stroying every vestige of our un them we have been betrayed, BUT with wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww far as we know are kept in ignor military training and POGO only after many hours he was 1on morale. They threatened to WE ARE NOT LICKED! We can Trade Union In NEWARK, ance of our offer and not con finally admitted to Minneapo.
equipment so as to beat back Just Opened! Just Opened!
pull our charter, warned us in still reorganize our ranks. We lis General Hospital. After the the attacks of the capitalists buy the APPEAL at: sulted in this matter, we have Leadership advance we would receive no can still draw on the memory and when the workers decide that one recourse to make our offer Armenian Restaurant long delay, it was too late to Tuesday 8:50 to 10:20 strike funds it we insisted on traditions and fighting courage of the time has come for them to Nerosstand, Broad public to the members and symfighting for the old terms, fright. our past to rebuild on stronger save his life.
Lecturer: Farrell Dobbs take over the control of all the Enjoy the best there is in!
pathizers of the Communist Party ened us with a threat of permit Foundations than ever. We will Although only 21, Larry had Wm. Sts.
To be held at factories.
in the hope that they can bring delicious Armenian food. Pric ting the bosses to move into other yet win back our conditions, yes taken his place in our ranks Cohen pressure to bear within their own number of meetings and cam IRVING PLAZA es consistent with the prolein the fight against opprestowns without interference by our and organize the Wright workers organization so that a necessary paign rallies have been scheduled Irving Place and 15th St.
tarian tastes and pockets of sister locals. Twice in huge mass and every other plant in this town Confectionary, sion. Minneapolis workers wil: unity of forces can be established for the last two weeks of the cam yourself and your friends.
New York City meetings we tore up these pro. It is necessary only that every long remember how bravely he paign. On Nov. an Election 11 SPRINGFIELD AVE in opposition to our capitalist opposals. But two days before the worker know what has happened. fought in the 1939 WPA strike.
Rally will be held in St. Paul, at near Court House.
CHARLES Dressors expiration of the contract, a lit Then Hillman and all his dirty Our last greetings to a fal the Odd Fellows IIall at which Dr or write for delivery Armenian Restaurant tle over a month ago, the Hinkind, all the bosses and their gov len comrade.
Carlson will speak; on Nov. 3d, to 137 East 27th St.
ernment will not stop us.
Join the Socialist Subscribe to the man machine packed a third meet she w! ll speak at an election rally P. 352, Newark, ins with every sort of illegal vote Paterson, New Jersey Between Lex, and 3rd Ave.
Workers Party Fourth International MARXIST SCHOOL in Duluth James Cannon Summary Speech on Military Policy the (The following is an excerpt from the speech by Comrade James Cannon, National Secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, summarizing the diseussion on Military Policy at the Sept. 27 29 Plenum Conference of the Party at Chicago. In summary, will take up the questions in reverse order of their importance. The Stalinist question is a question of tactics and is by far secondary to the main problem of our military policy. Nevertheless, it has considerable importance. The discussjon has shown one thing clearly, that there is in our ranks today very little misunderstanding of the fundamental aspects of the question of Stalinism. That is far different from the situation a year ago.
It is important to remember in this connection that our fight with the petty bourgeois ideologist, Burnham, began over the question of the characterization of the Stalinists. It will be recalled that almost two years ago, at the time of the auto crisis, the first real clash with Burnham and his satellites was precipitated by their attitude toward the split in the auto union. Despite the fact that the great mass of the auto workers were going with the CIO and thereby at that time with the Stalinists Burnham wanted to divert our support to Martin, even in the direction of the AFL on the theory that the Stalinists were not really a part of the labor movement.
The thing came to a head again over the invasion of Poland when Burnham wanted the party to take an outright stand against the Red Army on the theory that the Soviet Union is imperialist. The issue grew sharper with the Finnish invasion.
Then, when Browder was indicted by the government on an obviously trumped up passport charge, Burnham opposed any defense of Browder on the ground that he did not represent any legitimate labor tendency. He overlooked the fact that as an agent of the Soviet bureaucracy. Browder indirectly represented the biggest labor organization in the world, that of the Soviet State.
Burnham in this case was fundamentally motivated by the pressure of democratic imperialism in the United States. The Stalinists were for the moment at loggerheads with the Roosevelt administration, and the intransigennce of the Burnham faction against the Stalinists simply represented a cheap and easy form of adaptation to the clamor of the bourgeois democrats. Their opinions were shaped against any kind of recognition of the as a tendency in the labor movement. We haven heard such an expression here today from anybody.
UNITED FRONTS WITH THE Comrade Morton gave us a speech here today which was very informative about his experiences in the CIO union of Elec.
trical and Radio Workers. He said something that we must heedthat the Stalinist rank and file in this union do not distinguish between us and the red baiters, that they tend to regard us as a part of the general reaction. If that is true, we must take heed and correct such an impression.
First of all in the press. Our press must have a more precire line, a line that cannot be misunderstood. On each and every important occasion it must be made clear to the readers of our press that, while we are irreconcilably hostile to Stalinism more now than ever before we recognize that it does represent a current in the international labor movement, and as such we defend it against the attacks of the red baiters. Our press is our most important medium of clarification. But the press campaign must be reinforced by united front proposals to the Stalinists on suitable occasions which provide us the possibility of approaching the Stalinist workers and advancing the revolutionary cause.
Of course we must not forget that the present line of the Stalinists is only a year old. will be very much surprised if it has another year to last. It was the opinion of Comrade Trotsky that Moscow is already turning in the direction of the Allies, and particularly in the direction of the The Soviet Union is caught in a vise between Japan on the one hand and Nazi Ger.
many on the other. If the Axis powers suffer military reverses, if American imperialism moves more aggressively against them, Stalin is very apt to shift over into the orbit of democratic imperialism led by the You can be sure, in this event, that the line of the Stalinists in this country will very soon change accordingly.
Such a prospect does not speak against approaching the Stalinists with united front proposals on the basis of their present line. The more deeply we penetrate their ranks on a united front basis in connection with their pseudo radical policy, the better possibility we will have to influence the workers against the swing back to bourgeois democracy and the Popular Front ballyhoo when the bureaucrats make the switch. Such an over night reversal policy will inevitably provoke a crisis in the We should strive to be in a good position to influence the revolting elements and this time they will be the best, not the worst in a revolutionary direction. Everything speaks in favor of a serious, carefully worked out, realistic and practical united front policy. It is obligatory that we devote a properly proportioned amount of our time and energy to the Stalinists.
UNITED FRONT IS NO PANACEA But let us not go crazy over this issue. One could notice a slight tendency in the discussion to overemphasize this secondary tactical question at the expense of our main business, that of ori.
onting the Party for a military policy which has nothing in com.
mon with the policy of the We must not begin to dance around this question like fitterbugs. We must not paint up the and make it appear to be something different than it is. We should correct our one sided policy of the past, but not over correct it. There is a danger of our making a sort of panacea of united fronts with the got a little bit scared today when heard some of the speeches. had a horrifle vision of the Party pacing back and forth and around in circles and so preoccupied with united fronts that we would not have anything else to do. Whiskey looks like tea but cannot be consumed so freely without bad effects. This business of united fronting with the is also a strong medicine. We must condition ourselves to the self control of the man who can take it or leave it alone. Don forget that Stalinism is an agency of imperialism no less than the bureaucracy of Green and Lewis. It is only another variety. Like the traitors of traditional reformism, the Stalinist bureaucracy also tries to defend its own interests against the imperialists. It is this contradiction in each case which opens the way for the united front tactic. But never forget that the main blows of Stalinism are directed against the international working class.
Some comrades raised the question a little falsely, think, today. They asked: Who represents the main danger right now?
What is the main danger? Is it represented by the out and out patriots of the Green and Hillman type? or is it the And they came to the conclusion that it is the jingoes, not the That only shows that the is an even greater danger than we realize; its duplicity creates a little confusion even in our ranks. Stalinism is the greatest danger to the international revolutionary movement precisely because the Stalinists discredit the great Russian Revolution and sow confusion and demoraliza tion in the ranks of the proletarian vanguard which had rejected traditional reformism. momentary diplomatic maneuver of Stal.
in itself inspired by treachery must not create the impression in our ranks that perhaps the is not as great a danger today as it was yesterday. Stalinism is treacherous to the core. It is the main obstacle in the path of the proletarian revolution. Our attitude towards Stalinism is that of irreconcilable war. We can conceive of the united front only in the sense of a flank attack against our most perfidious enemy.
FIVE POINTS ON THE The crux of the Stalinism question can be summarized under these five points: FIRST, where is the main reservoir of future recruiting for the revolutionary party in this country? Is it in the ranks of the Or, is it in the ranks of the half awakened working class in this country that has not been defeated and that has not been corrupted? We consider it self evident that the main reservoir for recruiting is in the ranks of these non Stalinist workers. It is only incidental recruiting that can be expected out of the Stalinist party. This is also an important source, but it is not the most important. Every move we make in regard to Stalinism has to be weighed by the criterion whether it will help or harm our possibility of recruiting in the ranks of the young uneducated but militant proletariat.
SECOND, we have to be more careful, more precise and more militant in distinguishing our criticism of Stalinism from the attacks of the red baiting jingoes. We must begin in earnest to emphasize this difference in our press. We have to clarity the whole problem for our membership, for our readers, for the Stalinist workers who sometimes read our press. We must make it clear on every occasion, sharply and categorically, that we have nothing in common with red baiting attacks on the Staliniste by the capitalist newspapers, the old style labor skates and the social democrats The THIRD POINT: Our chief problem in the political field is neither blocs with the Stalinists against the progressive Jingoists nor blocs with the progressive ingoists against the Stalinists on incidental day to day problems in the unions. Our main problem is to bring forward and develop more clearly and precisely the Independent line of the revolutionary party.
The FOURTH POINT: In the course of development, we will look for and take advantage of suitable and practical opportu.
nities for united front actions directed toward the workers.
But this must not become the dominant eide of our activity with regard to them. We will write 99 attacks against the perfidies of the to one move that we will make in the direction of the united front with them. And even at the moment of approach ing them for a united front, we will never relax for a moment, nor allow any worker to get an idea for a moment, that this tactic signifies any kind of reconciliation, or any softening of our attitude towards treacherous murder machine of Stalinism.
The FIFTH POINT: am not as optimistic as some comrades about the number and quality of the recruits we will get from the There are some members in our organizationquite a few who came to us from the Stalinists in recent times and who have developed into good revolutionists. We ve also had the experience of recruiting Stalinists more than once more than ten times, who tried to become revolutionists, but who had become so demoralized, and to some extent so corrupted, by the that they were not assimilable. One of the greatest curses of Stalinism is the enormous demoralization, disorientation, and corruption of the minds of the advanced militant workers it has brought about THE MAIN QUESTION: MILITARY POLICY Now come to the decisive and basic question with which our party occupies itself, the question of military policy. During the discussion some comrades have asked: Was our old line wrong? Does the resolution represent a completely new departure and a reversal of the policy of the past? It is not quite correct to say that the old line was wrong. It was a program devised for the fight against war in time of peace. Our fight against war under conditions of peace was correct as far as it went. But it was not adequate. It must be extended. The old principles, which remain unchanged, must be applied concretely to the new conditions of permanent war and universal militarism. We didn visualize, ndSody visualized, a world situation in which whole countries would be conquered by fascist armies. The workers don want to be conquered by foreign invaders, above all by fascists.
They require a program of military struggle against foreign invaders which assures their class independence. That is the gist of the problem.
Many times in the past we were put at a certain disadvantage; the demagogy of the Social Democrats against us was effective to a certain extent. They said, You have no answer to the question of how to fight against Hitler, how to prevent Hitler from conquering France, Belgium, etc. or course their program was very simple the suspension of the class struggle and complete subor(Continued on page 3)