The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 27, 1926, Page 7

\Suplimet + THE DAILY WORKER. ALEX. BITTELMAN, Editor. Second Section: This Magazine Section Appears Every Saturday in The DAILY WORKER. In the Wake CCORDING to press dispatches, the British min- ers’ strike has been Officially called off.. The miners have been instructed by the executive of the federation to enter into negotiations with the operators on the basis of district agreements. Thus the operators have won a victory despite the heroic struggle waged by the miners. But the operators’ victory will prove Phyrric. It was won thru the treachery of the reactionary leadership of the Brit- ish trade union movement and the failure of world labor, outside of the Soviet Union, to come to the miners’ assistance. It is very doubtful if there is recorded in the annals of labor history a more shocking instance of betrayal than the story of how the miners were let down by the officials of the Trade Union Congress and of the Labor Party. HERE is a deep-rooted belief that the action of Thomas, MacDonald, Bevin and Pugh was not due to objection to a general strike on principle, but that those men are conscious agents of the British government and that they considered their duty to the crown higher than their duty to the trade union movement. It is significant that J. H. Thomas, when he sued the official organ of the British Com- munist Party for libel a few years ago, admitted on the witness stand that when he took the oath as member of the privy council that he bound him- self to advise the government of any information that might come into his possession of movements * that in his opinion might be prejudicial to the inter ests of the royal family, = is no doubt that the general strike was a strike against the government and was a decided menace to British capitalism which is the essence of British rule, the royal family being merely the figleaf. The government correctly estimated the strike as a threat and acted accordingly. The labor feaders continued to groan that it was only an in- dustrial struggle. The government was relicyed of considerable worry thru the knowledge that its agents on the inside, namely Thomas, MacDonald, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1926 of the News Bevin, Pugh and company, would do everything pos- sible to prevent the strike from getting out of bounds. They fulfilled their obligations to the em- pire quite faithfully, A VICTORY for the miners was a certainty when the general strike was called off. The government would be obliged to declare general martial law or else quit office. This would seem to be MacDonald’s long-awaited opportunity to walk into office again with his Labor Party. But at this moment the right wingers were not thinking about anything else but the preservation of the empire. Instead of rallying the masses nationally and internationally to the aid of the miners they opened a guerilla war on Cook and Smith, the miriers’ leaders, and finally pulled the underpinning from beneath them. Wher the work of betrayal was finished and the miners were left fighting a rear-guard action, alone, J. H. Thomas went to cheer up the drooping spirit of. the imperialists in Canada, Ramsay MacDonald went for a trip to Africa for his health and Ernest Bevin, generalissimo of the general strike, accompanied a delegation of British manufacturers to the United States to learn how our bosses manage to keep their slaves contented. es @ @ & |S pene the entire struggle only the Communist Party proved to be the steadfast friend of the miners, always taking the blows in front and giving encouragement and direction to the strikers. The right wing leaders noting the gains made by the Communists in recruiting members as a result of their conduct during the strike, opened a new war on the revolutionary elements. One faker who spent a few weeks in the United States collecting money ~he did not collect’ enough to pay his passage— charged ‘the American Communists with withhold- ing money they had collected for the miners, This was.a falsehood. He did not mention the $5,000,000 that the Russian workers under Communist leader- ship contributed to the strike fund whfle wealthy America only sent about $50,000. As a result of the 1 Ow ee re - ‘By T. J. O'Flaherty strike the British workingclass seé@ clearly that tix government, supposed to be of all the people, is but a tool of the master-class. Millions of them now see that the reactionary leaders are agents of the government and of tha capitalists. This is @ gain from the struggle. The miners will rise again with better leadership and greater experience. The miners have been defeated. But the class hatred that has been engendered during the long battle will steel them to victory in the fuiure. . S #8. & OW did the capitalists fare? What have they gained from the war? The president of the British Board of Trade estimated the losses at from $1,250,000,000 to $1,500,000,000. But those are only the direct losses he was careful to emphasize. The indirect losses, such as dislocation of trade and loss of markets are enormous. The total income of Great Britain is estimated at $18,000,000,000 yearly. At last a sum equal to onefourth of this was what the luxury of defeating the miners cost the British ruling classes. In addition to other troubles the strike delivered a blow to British imperialism from which few believe it will ever recover, ee @ @ @ yr Benito Mussolini has been the author of most of the attempts on his life that have oo curred with such monotonous regularity during the past years is no longer in doubt. The arrest of a member of the Garibaldi family, who was in the pay of the fascisti while posing as an anti-fascist, revealed a story of intrigue and duplicity unequalled in the annals of provocation. The French police, | for reasons of their own, saw fit to expose Musso linf’s conspiracies. It appears that the Italian police, with Mussolini’s knowledge pulled off fake plots against the duce’s life in order to keep the popular mind inflamed against the enemies of fas- clam. oe See @ ® neurotic Violet Gibson, sister of the eccen- tric Lord Ashbourne, was given a toy pistol with blank cartridges and told by a fascist spy to let it (Continued on page 2)