TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 1939 SOCIALIST APPEAL By Dwight Macdonald Wall St. Cracks Whip Hunger, Fear, Misery. That is SPARKS IN THE NEWS At Democracy? Meet All Capitalism Has to offer Us In discussing Guerin book in this column two weeks ago. made some remarks on an article in Harper by Gunther Reimann, Doing Business in Germany. This article seemed to me to be trying to prove the well worn thesis of bourgeois journalism: the business man as well as the workers gets in the neck under Hitler. Mr. Reimann, however, writes in and protests that misunderstood and misinterpreted his article. In general, you indicate that do not think fascism is a class phenomenon. he writes. want to state that regard fascism as the deepest stage of capitalist decay and a class phenomenon, and that did not say anything contrary to this opinion in that article. The decay of capitalism produces new features which have to be studied and one of these features is the destruction of the sanctity of private property and private property rights by fascism. am glad Mr. Reimann is not deceived as to the nature of fascism, and agree that its violation of private property rights is something worth much attention. But must still mainlain that an article devoted only to this point and printed in a magazine like Harper gives the reader who is not familiar with Mr. Rei.
mann political stand in general (as was 3ot) the impression that he is trying to dem.
onstrate the anti capitalist nature of fascism.
Especially when its concluding sentence is. To Germany business men, harassed by the Party, dogged by State Commissars at every move, insecure, worried about present and future, the Nazi economists can only toss the slogan Live Dangerously! am glad to be able to clear up Mr. Reimann position on fascism. only wish he had made it equally clear in the pages of Harper France and the Refugees The best news account have read on one of the most shocking and scandalous horror stories of all time, is the recent story in Time on France treatment of the 450. 000 Spanish refugees who fled over the Catalan border a month ago. After pointing out that the United States has offered to take in just 352 of the 450, 000 and the Soviet Union has opened its gates to only a few big Loyalist leaders the story gets down to the meat and very maggotty meat it is, too. think the details are worth quoting. Stuck with the refugees. French authorities adopted methods calculated to help persuade them that they would be better off almost anywhere else. Typical rations were one loaf of bread for six men, a sack rice for 400 men. Sanitation has been non existent.
Open latrines have been dug in the camp sand and all modesty about nature functions has long ago disappeared. The largest camps are situated on a tree.
less sandy beach just North of the border near Argeles sur Mer and St. Cyprian They are enclosed by barbed wire, guarded every 20 feet by a Senegalese soldier. Inside the wire the camps are like some fantastically roots over their heads: the great majority dig holes in the sand and cover themselves with ad Where Will the Draw Line on Freedom to Speak. Yankee Imperialism Rides High As Lickspittles dirty sheets, blankets or coats. Many sleep in the open, rain or shine. Icy sea winds blow Work Zealously for Roosevelt Policy of the fear and insecurity American to the slow starva Only one American in 16 Astrikingly vivid disclosure edge closeness of the average to the middle class.
the sands continually. Most of the refugees which haunt the different section of relief or charity, and thinks of himself as a member have developed conjunctivitis. Fuel in the (cial to Silit AB)
large camps is scarce. Cooking is done ex BUENOS AIRES, Mar. 28.
It is true that the Apristas tons of the working class in the hopelessness of ever find of the lower class the Gala read clusively in tin cans. At one camp men and with the most distinguished made their reservations con America has been made public ing security under capitalism. lup poll should have women at first stood in line all day waiting to left wing prima donnas of cerning Yankee imperialism. Public Opinion, of which Dr. erty, psychologically the aver another one in sixteen describes age American working man bimself as belonging to the upother the only water available. and it is cluding the Chief of the Nazi raise their voices against that President Roosevelt power fails to recognize his member per class.
brackish is obtained from pumps driven into Party of Chile. Gonzalez von imperalism and against the rests almost entirely on the ship in the class to which he The Way Out Confederation. but they also fear, insecurity, and destitution belongs economically II it were written in fire it mated that 60 of the refugees or 250, 000 styled Congress of American This psychological condition, could not be plainer than the. have dysentery.
Democracies was held recent paid tribute to Roosevelt and come groups of America, ac we add is a direct reflection facts disclosed by this Gallup his Good Neighbor policy, as cording to the nation wide surThe ly in the city of Montevideo.
refugees have been classified as 220. 000 of the lack of a large revolu poll that American capitalism militiamen, 40. 000 able bodied civilian men. much publicized What was the purpose of this did the Mexican delegates. ticute. It is the menace of States and direct proof of grave, that it can offer nothing tionary party in the United is staggering at the edge of its gathering members of the Party vey just completed by the In 10, 000 wounded, 180, 000 women and children Apparently to fight for the ident Cardenas.
Hospital facilities are limited and primitive inadequate relief, of starvation the need to spread more widely but hunger, fear, desolation, preservation of democracy Many men with weeks old wounds covered by in the Western Hemisphere. Ingress were shameless on which gives Roosevelt his in the transitional program of the misery. shameful death upon The resolutions of the filthy dressings are still unattended. The fact, however, it was to proCollab fluence over the voters despite Socialist Workers Party in or foreign battlefield over some refugees have become a danger to the general claim the unconditional sur bankers encouraging orations with the Wall Street the unpopularity of many der to bridge the gap between stockholder income. Amerihealth of adjacent communities. Marseilles render of Latin America to loans, urging the tightening of their measures sponsored by him. the working man mental out can capitalism is shot with degangsters, always in need of women for the Yankee imperialism.
The masses are stalemated look and his economic condi cay from top to bottom. It rests white slave traffic which supplies Africa and good imperialism which is United States and loyal con lave not yet found another the commercial relations with the in Roosevelt blind alley and tion, upon nothing but the misconSouth American countries with prostitutes, going to defend our countries sideration for its investments, road to escape from the inse cross section of persons in all that he is a member of a class From carefully selected ception of the working man were reporte circulating in the camps look from Nazi imperialism, that all of which made one wonder curity of the capitalist system. parts of the United States ex: that has become almost noning for new personnel bad imperialism which what it all had to do with the Class Unrecognized cluding entirely farmers and existent.
the huge human tide approaching, the French vour us according to these Congress of Time adds (1) Although amply warned of threatens us and seeks to de defense of democracy. states the survey in one of its Institute determined that 35 offers the only escape from The Psychologically at least, persons actually on relief the The construction of socialism Government made few advance arrangements spokesmen of Wall Street.
to receive the refugees 21 The chances There is nothing to marvel to outdo the Lima Congress, as average American considers work in America, would be when the workers Whemetlen cording to its sponsors, aspired most significant sections, the per cent of those who do the fear, poverty, and insecurity.
are that France in the end will not be out one at, then that gathered together an expression of support to the himself a member of the mid compelled to apply for relief realize this fact. when they long time by expropriating the treasures the gress of Montevideo should outdid it as an expression spite the ever widening gap be sooner if they lost their pres from believing they can make Loyalists deposited and shipped to France have resulted in a fiesta of of shamelessness. submission. Iween the working class and ent Jobs. This group added to good as wolves in the fight for months ago.
high sounding phrases. of and blind servility.
praises to the democracy of the capitalist class, the razor the 17 per cent now on relie! profits to the understanding constitutes more than half of that only collective action for our countries, of cheers for the what Dr. Gallup classifies as socialism can win security, But let it not be thought the refugees hud. tion for great President Roose a the working population of then they will swear loyalty to the United States.
dled in their holes on the beaches of St. Cyp veltof shameless prostration their own class, the great and Insecurity Main Factor powerful working class, and rien are altogether friendless. The North before Wall Street.
It is this nation wide insecur Roosevelt and the whole reAmerican Committee to Aid Spanish Democ Packed Affair ity of the workers which pro gime he represents will vanish Not one word was uttered racy still exists, and the other day received tangible proof of this: a large formal invita against these liberal and left There is no doubt that the fine, liberal man.
vides the impetus behind the like a horrible dream.
for old age pen tion, the most elegant type faces, request wing lies and almost all the Civil Liberties Union of Amer. And so on March 7, the Los movement ing the pleasure of my company at a dinner at resolutions were passed by ac ica belleves in freedom of Angeles arranged a celsions for loans to homeown New Courses Open the Hotel Commodore to welcome Vincent clamation by the crowd of dele speech. And that a good ebration to honor the 150th an and for large public works In School Sheean, who has just returned from Spain. sates, intoxicated with de thing. We, too. are all for free niversary of the Bill of Rights the Institute states that it is battery of Distinguished Foreign Corres mocracy and good neighbor speech, and more of it. Unfor with Judge Yankwich as one of this insecurity which will act pondents and Writers, including Dorothy liness.
The Karl Liebknecht School tunately for the how the principal speakers. To cap as the decisive factor on the of the Young People SocialBerkers OCON PEACT ANSCUITISH INTERNA that the masses of workers criminate in its beliet for work, tant as well as to Graham the forms, and parties in the com point, plans to expand its pro TIONAL SIGNIFICANCE.
gram of activities.
and Patronesses took four impressive evident indifference and suspl the Nazi right to spread their Wirin, the attorney whom columns. Let the refugees take heart! They cion: little did it matter that poisonous filth is, for example, the has provided to de The survey shows that out of new course will be added every five persons interviewed, next week to the two courses have some very high class friends. so power the Uruguayan President Bal notorious. It might just as well lend Graham.
ful and respectable, indeed, that it seems domir, answered the telegrams defend the rights of a scab the Graham protested the insult one would have to apply for now running. It will consist of hardly possible, with such support, that the of support that came to him two are on the same plane. in a telegram to Roger Bald. relief within a month time or three lectures, on the Russian Spanish Republic is now at its last gasp. But from the United States (pro. Now, through the columns of win, national head of the even sooner if he should lose Revolution of 1917, the German let the refugees not be downcast so long as claiming him the Protector of the anarchist Journal, Man, we Baldwin replied that disere his job tomorrow. If all such Revolution of 1918 23, and the 1925 27.
their cause is the cause of Mr. Frankiin Puberty of speech) and demon learn of another instance of the tion in such matters rests in persons lost their jobs, points Chinese Revolution Adams and Miss Ilka Chase and Mr. Mal strated what kind of democ vicious lengths to which the the hands of the local commit out the Institute, it would mean Comrade Felix Morrow, Assoeditor of the Socialist colm Cowley and Mrs. Muriel Draper and the racy exists in Latin America. will go in according tees. Far from shifting the redoubling the nation present relief load by May Appeal will lead this course.
Rockwend Kent and a miss Freda Kirchwey and the gag of laws that limited enemies, to the point where it ganization, Baldwin telegram ing ndhehe survey. Ubuid Chola cational Director of the pop Congress under freedom of speech to labor sponsibility of the national or Mr. and Mrs. Henry Goddard Leach and Dr. and made fictitious all liberty utterly disregards working only sharpens it.
out for a period between one is giving the course in Max Lerner and Bishop Francis McConnell of speech: little did it matter class sensibilities. By inviting and Dr. Thomas Mann and Mr. Frederick that while the delegates were Judge Yankwich Marcus Graham was arrest month and six months if they the Elements of Marxism.
Comrade Miller, FinanMarch and Col. William Jay Schleffelin and burning Incense to President recent Los Angeles meeting it ed in April, 1919 charged with were to lose their jobs imme diately.
Sylvia Sidney and Mr. George Soule and Roosevelt, the working masses showed a signal disrespect for possessing anarchist literature cial Director of the DiviMr. Franchot Tone and Mr. Oswald Garrison of Latin America continued Marcus Graham, editor of and ordered deporter to Cana: These two groups plus those slon, is leading the lectures on Villard. read the invitation but groaning under the yoke of the Man, who for 19 years has been da which refused to admit him now on relief constitute 52 per Organizational Problems. didn Yankee exploiters and that hounded because of his views. Since 1919, Graham has been cent of the working population Because of the demand of Puerto Rico continued shed and who, most recently, was repeatedly arrested, and on in the United States.
members of the and ding its blood in the search sentenced to months impris one occasion brutally maltreatThe greatest relative inse friends of the League for a or independence onment by the very same ed. Arrested again 1937 hecurity exists among skilled change of date, the Liebknecht Confederation. for Judge Yankwich for refusing to was charged with being the end unskilled laborers. One school wil hold sessions on present testimony against him. editor of Man. On January 14, third of those questioned stated Saturday, beginning with April The vlle Stalinist betrayers, self on a 19 year old deporta. 1938 Judge Yankwichsen that they would have to apply 15. The following is the time socialists. Apristas and tion order.
tenced Graham to months for for relief within one month. Schedule for the school. revolutionaries accomplished Insult Working Class refusing to testify against him But the insecurity line, shows their mission with zeal and in periongly close P. P. Elements of closing the Congress voted by require any organization that reversed by the Circuit Court for many who a great majority the creation presumes so muchas obxina osebe the lower court to defice workers, etc.
a of Appeals which remanded the white collar class clerks, of P. P. Organizational Problems.
By EMANUEL GARRETT ican Democracies under the class rights to show nothing but cide upon which questions are Class Listings P. P. The Three shelter of Roosevelt and with contempt for a Judge Yank self incriminating. Graham is the. have so and the brave mots Revolutions.
The classes are being held at protect the interest of labor, read the preamble, We have lawfully constituted this democrats of Latin America, though the judge has done a Yankwich on May 8, and it is has been steadily widening 51 East 7th st. basement. assembly, and in using this power of or the bloody dictators: Getulio little free speech suppressing almost a forgone conclusion states the Gallup poll, yet New York City, the headquarganized effort and cooperation, we but imi Vargas, Benavides, Batista, himself, it turns out that he is that the sentence will be re out of 10 considered themselves ters of the Sedov Unit of the tate the example of capital heretofore set in Ibanez, etc.
otherwise and after all, a very newed.
upon questioning as belonging numberless instances. However, We mean no conflict with legitimate enterprise, no antagonism to necessary capital. Those evils of the social order which were beyond correccorrected by education and legislation, from (Continued from Page 1)
Lessons of Last War underway. The sea service bu ing that it was all a plot. In panic. They had the impuwhich a cooperative commonweath would fuse to accept the fink book in The outbreak of the last warreaus of 19 stablished anewhall by helping it to function, cation to the stating halls addition to fighting the fink dence to address a communieventually emerge.
the first place.
found the American merchant have been Anti Secrecy Faction Wins The fink book was defeated marine in a deplorable state. together with training ships, the Stalinist stalwarts in the that only those picket lines by their determined resistance. The number of ships were in and a labor policy is being ad leadership of the en approved by the Maritime Though Stephens had carried the day on although the defection of the adequate to meet the require vanced which is designed to dorsed the training ship pro Federation of the Pacific on secrecy at the first national assembly, the re Communist Party. controlled ments of the war machine and reduce the seamen to the gram, much to the gratifica this gayernment hiring hall isation against it mounted constantly. First, the East Coast seamen resulted in those in service were for the status of servile automatons tion of the admiral in charge sue will be kepogulised.
under Navy discipline and to who complimented them on In eftect the ultimatum the organized workers in the United States mepartial defeat for the sea. most part obsolete.
An emergency building pro destroy the militant organizatheir statesmanship.
meant that only those picket opposed secrecy as being in conflict with their through the system of making gram was initiated under the tions which the seamen have But Seamen Fight religion. Second, the defeat of the railroad a certificate of identification direction of the Emergency built by heroic In the meantime, however, nist Party would be recognized.
lines approved by the Commustrikes of 1877 and the crushing of the Molly. not a continuous discharge Fleet Corporation to meet the At first the Maritime Com the seamen on the Pacific The Sailors Union struggle Rave the Maguires after the great mine strike actions record, but including finger need for additional tonnage. mission pursued cautious Coast carried on an unremit. Browder wrecking crew the of the middle 70 turned the tide sharply printing, etc. the only alterna Sea service bureaus were es policy. few fink halls were ting struggle against the com answer they deserved and in tablished to facilitate govern opened on the east coast. The mission open shop drive and a thorough exposure of the they would be accused of criminal activities Even this momentary retreatment control of personnel and east coast seamen were di gave notice that any attempt role of the Stalinists as unomif they continued their secret organization.
In 1879, Stephens resigned as Grand Master it soon returned to the attack, launched to train seamen to militant tradition of struggle halls on the West Coast would velt administration, told them by the government did not last. a training ship program was vided. They did not have the lo establish non union hiring cial hangmen for the RooseWorkman. He was succeeded to the leader early in 1937, when it set up man the vessels. Thousands of which characterized the growth result in a tie up of the entire to go plumb to hell!
ship of the Knights by Terrence Powderly who the United States Maritime raw youth were trained in and development of the Pacific coast.
as leader of the Catholic faction had been commission for the ostensible these schools. The emergency Coast seamen. The Stalinists since their success on the Fight to Finish challenging Stephen leadership. The oath purpose of rehabilitating the character of this program re were in the leadership of the East Coast was achieved with The West Coast seamen are and secrecy were expunged from the princi American merchant marine. sulted in a tremendous largest union, the National such case, the admirals grew fully alive to the threat of the ples of the Knights. new preamble was writ In the calculations of the ad of men and materials and Maritime Union, and by this bolder. Early in March of this open shop, union smashing proten. This new preamble pointed to the neces mirals, the American mer handicapped The then leaders of the sea Front had broadened out into nounced that vessels owned mission and will fight to the sity of checking wealth, which, unchecked, chant marine is considered an would lead to the pauperization of the work important adjunct of the Navy, men unions collaborated with the Democratic Front. There and operated by the Maritime end to maintain the integrity ing class.
In a recent radio address, Ad the government in promoting were now no more ardent sup organizations. The Under Powderly, the Knights reached its miral Land, chairman of the the war. It was their proud porters of Roosevelt and all of the dission would sail out of of their of on recently run, and that the hoisted the white flag of sur it reached its peak in membership numbers, it that the was already on the downgrade. Lack of mill chant thereckice and the Meer page or strike interfered with Browder and Co. And one of usual labor policy of the render over Madrid after stabunder which the conduct of the war. They Roosevelt prize creations was Maritime Commission would bing the Spanish workers in tancy in the conduct of strikes, its failure to our commission functions is were rewarded for this faith the United States Maritime prevail. Which meant that the the back with the treacherous lead strikes when necessary, cut into the in that the merchant marine is fuiness to the American capi Commission, admirals were preparing to in dagger of People Frontism talist class by having their Stalinists Aid Government vade the West Coast.
will not succeed in placing the militant action, Joined other and newer bodies. And in accord with this con unions smashed in 1921 by the While giving lip service to The reaction of the West hangman noose of DemoThen, with the organization of the American ception, the Maritime Com very machine they had helped the fight against the Commis Coast seamen was immediate. cratic Frontism around the Federation of Labor, the Knights had to con mission announced its labor to build, namely the sea ser: Sion fink halls, the stalinists The Sailors Union of the Pa. necks of the West Coast seatend with a young and vigorous rival, and on policy, the central point of vice bureaus. training ships. proceeded to fight the fink cific membership meeting at men. The majority of the sen a national scale.
which is: No discrimination etc. of the Emergency Fleet halls by ordering the mem headquarters (San Francisco) men are aware of who their Stephens completed his life almost entirely shall be made because of mem Corporation bership of the separated from the trade union movement. bership or non membership in e to pack adopted a unanimous resolut enemies are both without and Profiting by their experi the fink halls. Thus the ad tion calling for a secret referA pioneer in organizing American labor, the any organization on ships ence in the last war, the Amer mirals were assured of a endum strike vote in the event armed for a fight to the finish.
initiator of new methods of organization, he controlled by the commission. ican capitalist class under the plentiful supply of personnel to the Maritime Commission was nevertheless not the kind to catch the The usual formala of all open guidance of Roosevelt is deter man their ships. So diligent opened up fink halls on the LIVE! FIGHT! CONQUER!
imagination as Powderly did after him. He shop reactionaries!
mined to be fully prepared for were the lackeys of the Krem west coast.
and have a swell time didn flash across the country with the bril. In order to carry out this the coming war. The Emerlin in the application of their In the face of this militant with the liance of his oratory or his writing. But in the policy the commission opened gency Fleet Corporation, sea policy, that when west coast response of the Sailors, the General Fund creation of the Knights of Labor and the in its own hiring halls fink halls service bureaus, training ships. seamen in New York and Balti. Stalinists in control of the once SATURDAY, NITE, APRIL troduction of a new phase in labor organiza the sailors call them on the etc. are now being duplicated more threw a picket line powerful Pacific Coast Mariat the tion, he did leave behind him an important East Coast to supply person in advance of the actual out around the commission halls, time Federation. which now East Bx. Yipsel Headquarters record written across a large page of Amer nel for ships operated by the break of armed conflict. An the Stalinists ordered their includes neither the sailors nor 1339 Wilkins Ave. Bronx ican labor history.
commission extensive building program is men through the line, contend the firemen were seized with MEN AND WOMEN OF LABOR OUT OF THE PAST Marxism.
tailore WEST COAST SEAMEN FACE THREAT URIAH STEPHENS (Aug. 3, 1821 Feb. 13, 1882)
Had it not been for the Panic of 1837, it is quite possible that Uriah Stephens would have completed his training for the ministry.
As it was, he became a instead; and, through being a tailor, a worker, he became a leader of American trade unionism, the lounder of the Knights of Labor.
Like a good many trade unionists of his day, Stephens concerned himself with the general problems of working class welfare in addition to those of simple trade union interest. The trade union to Stephens was to be a lever for the execution of ideas which aimed at the revision of the social system along semi social istic lines. In fact, it has been claimed that Stephens was partly influenced by Marx, though there is no evidence to support the claim, either in facts or the specific nature of his ideas.
Dissatisfied with narrow craft organization, Stephens aimed at a brotherhood of all wage earners that would include all sexes, a11 creeds and all colors. This latter was of especial importance. Abolitionist sentiment was strong among the northern workers, but few unions were willing to accept Negroes as members as is the case with many trade unions to this day.
Secrecy a Cardinal Principle Building on the basis of the Garment Cutter Association of Philadelphia which he had helped organize in 1862. Stephens moved towards the construction of a labor organization modelted according to his aims. In 1869, the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor was formally founded.
Composed of only a few unions at its begin ning, limited to the east, the Knights gradually extended over the continent, to the point where, the most powerful labor organization of its day, it numbered million members in 1886 Secret ritual governed the activities of the organization at its inception. Names were never referred to publicly. Stephens for example signed his articles with five stars, and was so known in the organization. The Knights were not the only labor organization which went in for secrecy during the 70 Workers turned to secrecy as a reaction to the drive of the bosses against all unions, markeri by lockouts, disruption of unions and various kinds of discrimination against union men.
When the first national assembly of the Knights met in 1878, Stephens was still sufficiently powerful in the organization to write the principle of secrecy into the preamble.
Open and public association having failed after a struggle of centuries to advance or waste SO