The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 28, 1925, Page 7

“The idea becomes power when it pene- trates the masses.” -—Karl Marx. By A. G. BOSSE, HE NATION’S editorial “Ramsay MacDonald’s Achievement” in the issue of Oct. 22 is a strange admix- ture of insufficient knowledge, half- truths, and inglorious: admissions. Its enthusiasm at the record of the labor government accords very poorly with the latter’s day by day record of bro- ken pledges,. compromises, and even betrayals of principlé. Liberalism in excelsis! Let us follow the Nation’s outline of this “amazingly impressive record.” Foreign Policy. 1; ~~ MacDonaldism ~ Sold: the: German workers to allied fin- ; Keheaws: ‘thru-the Dawes plan The 10-12 hour day, reduced wages, in- creased ‘unemployment (as in the case of the German railwaymen, 143,000 of whom are to be sacked), increased taxes on the workers, who now pay 90 per cent of the taxes, etc., are Ger- many’s share. For England the fol- lowing threatens: “the grave danger to British industry and increased un employment, which may result from the Dawes report being put into op- eration” is called to parliament’s at- tention by the national union of manu facturers. EGARDING Poincare, MacDonald astonished him with “determine: friendliness” just as the election in France was coming on. The French liberals were also astonished at such friendliness at such a time. The -Franco-British breach was temporarily “healed, but the was the Amer. ~i¢an bankers’ compulsion, not MacDon! ald. This “massive achievement” (the forcing of the Dawes plan on Germany, ete.) . was a Colossal betraya’ of MacDonald’s election pledges on the Versailles treaty, on pacifism, and on nationalization (MacDonald dena- tionalized the German railways in his support of the Dawes plan.) On Russia, the facts were these: " When the negotiations nearly broke up, it was MacDonald (and Snowden) who ordered the rupture, against Ponsonby’s wishes. He (Mac- Donald) was compelled to “climb down” by prominent trade union lead. ers and labor M. P.s who threatened to expose him to the labor move- ment. MacDonald insisted on full compensation to bondholders despite the fact. that the £40,000,000 of rail- ‘way and harbor bonds were to a great extent bought by speculators at 1-10 to 1-100 of*their value; that many ports are now Latvia’s and Esthon- ia’s; that British intervention smashed much of the Russian railways. Mac. Donald’s own party showed up the falseness of British claims in “Rus- sia’s Counter-claims” by W. P. Coates, published by leading labor M. P.s. MacDonald stood completely on Bald win’s and Lloyd George’s claims, de spite his election pledges of full rec- ognition, peace on a working basis, extensive credits, etc. Since he Was to be defeated on the Russian treaty he could at least have remained true to his position as a laborite and a so- cialist. If you are to be defeated any way, why not at least retain the con- fidence of the workers? But that is not the way of a yellow socialist. _As for disarmament, we can * quickly dispose of great achieve- ments there. Building five cruisers ; when -the liberals were opposed to it was not quite the acme of pacifism and disarmament... The specious excuse of replacement éould not do away with the real fact that they are a new type, as the Obseryer, said, as complete a revolution as dreadnoughts were eight. een years ago: “practically the whole of our present cruisers will be rendered obsolete” (and then Mac- ‘foremost the needs of the navy.” SPECIAL MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT February 28, 1928 Donald would “replace” more cruis: ers and destroyers). Snowden said the employment of 15,000 -men was the excuse. Ammon. (navy dept.) gave this away when hé said there |was “no warrant for any such: sug- gestion.” He continued with the real reason, “We have placed “first and N6 “blah” about giving employment. And a tory was heard to say, ‘Well, we’ve no need to turn thése. fellows. out.” Walsh {war minister) considered the army. “a non-party question,” and an nounced there would be “no policy of further reduction ‘in the arms.” This pacifist disarmer urged employers to let their men off “to join the territorial army.” Thomp son (minister of air) had an attitude “toward the development of the air service which is decidedly sympathe- tic’(London Times). He was accelerat ing work on war planes and engines and following out Baldwin’s policy in this: intensifying anti-aircraft train ing; speling $15,000,000 more on air forces than was spent by the bour- geois government in 1922-23. The labor ministers refused to di- vulge any ‘information in regard to explosives, the “mystery towers” at Littlechampton, relati aircraft strength, etc. Munitions being made in Australian state factories under the council of ambassadors were none of parliament’s business. The pacifist government would take care of that in time for the next war. As the garding the French left Uloc, ‘they wanted “reformism without reforms and pacifism without peace.” MPERIALIST POLICY. 1 Capital- ism has not in the least been modified by the labor government. On the contrary, it has if anything benefited greatly by it. A tory gov- ernment would have had to spend much more money on housing, un- employment, and the like than Mac- Donald has. The British bourgeoisie has “got away with murder” thru MacDonald. The labor cavieinai also sent * armored cars, machine guns, and troops into Ireland to fight against a republic. The labor government “honorably” insisted on carrying out every treaty made by a capitalist gov- ernment preceding it, except when such treaty promised self-determina- tion, dominion government, or a simi- lar small measure of freedom, Exam- ples of this will be given in items 3, 4, and 5. J. H. Thomas insisted that the Irish question was closed and that his government would give no consideration to complete na- tional freedom thru a republic to Ire- land, at that time or in the future. Irish politieal prisoners imprisone¢ by previous governments, and now held in Halloway and Wormwood Scrubs prisons were kept there de- spite pretests to MacDonald and Hen- derson. Only Georgia wrings their hearts, To call the Nation’s account of India an “achievement” is rather strange. MacDonald’s bullying and imperialistic ultimatum to India when a word of friendliness was ex- pected could have been sent by Cur- zon or Churchill. To say that he kept the Indian question in “sus pense” is to be absolutely without knowledge of the situation. Agnes Smedley’s article in the Nation on the Akali Sikhs some months ago is one instance of “suspense” in tur. moil, Thousands of peasants are ro ting in jail stili, some as a result of the 1921 Moplah uprising, some ar political prisoners, after a mockery of a trial or none at all, fighting, French Communist Cachin said: re-| = The labor government more fiercely accentuated persecution in India than Any previous government since the war began. Bombay strikers were refused the right to form a trade un- ion, under the labor government. Po- jiticals were jailed for trying to form @ labor. party. Hundreds of strikers were shot and jailed for» strikin; when their pay was held back eigh weeks and they Were starving, as hap. pened in the Cawnpore and Bombay mills: Police spies were the sole wit nesses at the Communist Cawnpor: trial, where the defendants -were sen- tenced ‘to four years’ at-hard labor for doing what is- perfectly legal in England—forming a labor party. In Beghar, 111 poor peasants were ar rested and a complete press censor- ship resulted, with the labor govern ment absolutely silent until exposed. OYS and girls were murdered at Jaito in February, while Sidney Webb expounded British ”Kultur:” “Tie believed that the British race had its mission in the world.” Richards (under secy. for India) said the Sikh jathas “were disposed of peacefully,” and it took a tory to bring out that they were “peacefully. passed into jail;” Mr. Richards made no answer. The grim massacre of Jaito and the 72 peasants sentenced to death in Chauri-Chaura, the shooting of un- armed workers from armored cars in Bombay, and the Cawnpore Commun- ist trial which illegalized a workers’ and peasants’ party—-all these were MaeDonald’s*measures to insure the peaceful imposition of. a big wage cut by the employers of India. And this with wages at ten to twenty cents a day, while profits averaged 63 per cent (Indian Year Book: “profit works out at 63 per cent”). Otherwise the Indian question was in suspense un- der the labor government. Egypt and the Sudan. Along * with MacDonald’s taking the bis- cuit, one might mention this fact: MacDonald continued the govern- ment subsidy to Asquith’s Sudan Plantations Syndicate, which makes only 35 per cent profit; and by a strange coincident, MacDonald found his government supported by As- quith. I dont say that there is any relation between these facts. I simply mention them together. Brit- ish contractors were making fortunes building danis and railroads and tak- ing the land away from the Sudanese peasants. Military planes shot Su- danese and Egyptians because Mac- Donald refused to return the Sudan to Egypt (which was coerced also by British control of the upper Nile); Labor’s premier continued to violate article 8 of the Anglo-Egyptian agree. ment. Serfdom and forced labor made British treatment of Sudan worse than under any previous re- gime. Egypt told the same story. Perse- cution of Communists, and leaders of the Confederation of Labor, police frame-ups, the Proposition to send 10,000 troops to ‘ ‘independent Egypt,” the absolute refusal to carry out prom- ises made by some sixty premiers since Gladstone to grant Egypt inde- pendence—this was only a small part of MacDonald's record. In the Social- ist Review for Feb., 1922, one may read some of the “bunk” MacDonald used to pour forth on Egypt: “Here, if the pledged word of England means anything, we went for purely tempor- ary purposes. . . the prime minis- ter. . . anxious to convince his alarmed reactionary colleagues that he had not altogether retained a radi- cal faith, decided to put his mailed boot down upon Egypt . . . and wrecked all hopes of a settlement.” THE DAILY WORKER. The Lessons of “MacDonaldism” SECOND SECTION This magazine supple- ment will appear every Saturday in The Daily Worker. This exactly characterized MacDon- ald’s actions in Egypt. 5 Item 5, as well as 4, is an admis- " sion of a great negative achieve- ment. Trak ig one of the sore spots of the empire. Its theft from Turkey has resulted in -Turkish incursions, and it will be a miracle if war .is avoided. Oil, and proposed cotton cultivation are the excuses for bomb- ing innocent tribesmen and peasants. Mr. Leach’s statement of no change in policy was honest, but very modest. His government treated Irak worse than Curzon,ever dared to.’ Goercion of the national assembly thru repris- als and gold failed to persuade even an assembly owned completely by England, until last minute military action. A labor protest forestalled a tory mandate over Irak, which Mac- Donald put across. Curzon and Churchill tried a trick in Persia which failed; MacDonald succeeded, as else- where. HE rest of the labor government's foreign policy can only indicated, for lack of space. Included in this record of achievements was: flog- ging, forced labor, and shooting of natives in New Guiena; broken pledges of self-determination for Cy- prus; fomenting revolution in Brazil; inciting insurrection in the Turcoman steppes, to discredit Russia and alarm Persia; doing the same in So viet Bokhara, and spending enor- mous sums on Afghan rebellions; sup- pressing. more Communist papers in the Cologne sé¢ than the fory * year; interfering with the so in Ruhr elections; deporting German workers from Cologne; falsely impris. oning Communists to 27 years in jail, prohibiting meetings of the Rhineland factory councils during the election campaign; answering, in March, a protest sent in January, with the re- ply that MacDonald “was obliged for the information;” attempting thru its ambassador on the Inter-allied Dan- ube Commission to make all strikes and lockouts illegal in Hungary when the Hungarian government, of bloody Horthy tried to make illegal only strikes in public service; upholding Mrs. Evans in Mexico when she ac- tually took up arms against the Mex- ican nationalization law, and sup- porting the oil agent, Cummins, there to the extent of breaking off relations with Mexico; interfering with gun- boats on the side of the Canton fas- cisti against the South China govern- ment of Sun Yat Sen; compelling Premier Theodore of the Queensland labor government to withdraw the just taxation of great estates; wel- coming the royal murderers of fascist Italy and Rumania; merciless slave driving in Kenya; etc., etc. If I’ve left out a few minor “achievements,” I think we can judge the situation from what has been presented. OMESTIC POLICY. 1. The mill- tary policy has been discussed under foreign policy, item 3. As to Singapore, it was chosen as a naval base, after the Washington agree- ment forbade such bases in the Pa- cific. Singapore is about 200 miles beyond the limits of the agreemet and is practically, if not secant A a violation of the agreement. The MacDonald government gave up the naval base project, ostensibly; but it was kept as an oil tankage station. Lord Haldane said of it that it “would be something of great offensive pos- sibility.” It will yet see a naval base, As to the budget, and the prom- " ise of a free breakfast table, it ts interesting to note that the taxes on a working man’s £2-10s. was equal (Continued on page 8)