The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 21, 1927, Page 7

a ; a Where the Red Flag Flies By J, LOUIS ENGDAHL : | we are, about 80 miles from Moscow, to the South, as Philadelphia is from New York, or Milwaukee from Chicago, Kolomna is one of the oldest towns in the Moscow Province. It is mentioned for the first time in 1177; this town being the last fortified place on the south of Moscow. It played an important part during the — between Moscow’s grand dukes and the Tar- ars. : “The Guide to the Soviet Union” tells us that the walls of the Kremlin crowned by pinnacles were erected by Italian architects in 1585; that the Pyat- nitzkiye Gate and the Marinkina Corner Tower are in a specially good condition. It is also declared that the ancient Voskressensky (Resurrection) Church, built about the 13-14th century, and the Uspensky (Assumption) Cathedral, dating with its belfry from 1672, are also worth noticing, But what we are most interested in is the fact that the Red Flag of the Social Revolution flies over the City Hall (the House of the Soviets); that the Local Committee of the Communist Party is holding its meeting this Saturday afternoon, IN THE CITY HALL, and that the local Communist newspaper, a bi-weekly, The Kolomna Worker, with 4,000 circulation, also has its offices IN THE CITY HALL. Kolomna will always be memorable to me as the place’ where I met for the first time a Communist mayor in a city of the Soviet Union. It is the place where I first saw a lower unit of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union at work. We had stopped off at Kolomna on our way to Ozery for a May Day meeting on this Saturday night, the eve of May Day. In little more than three hours we had made the distance by auto from the Comintern Building in Mokhovaya Street, in Moscow, first stopping at the beautiful building housing the financial department of the Moscow Province to pick up its chief, Alexser Vaseilevitch Nikolaev, also a member of the Pro- vincial Executive Committee of the Soviets, who was coming along to make the main address in Russian. I was to speak in English for the Com#:unist Inter- national and the Workers (Communist) Party of America, and Comrade Gerish, a deportee from America, came along as translator. The chauffeur completed the party. It feels good to ride in an auto in the Soviet Union. It symbolizes to a great extent the succcess- ful struggle of the Russian masses to get off their knees where czarism tried to hold them, and stand erect. The plodding horse with his meager load to market is being supplanted on the road, just as the tractor is lifting the burden of toil on the land. The district thru which we sped was the truck garden and the dairy country of Moscow. Witn the coming of May Day here spring is coming into its own and everything is turning green. In the meadows frequently as we passed were great herds of cows, with greater flocks of sheep. The hills rolled lazily toward the horizon, with the woods everywhere plentiful, The peasant still likes to build his home with logs, and there 2re many indica- tions that the peasant’s son likes to follow after him. The buildings of the summer resorts of the Mos- cow workers are more modern, setting an example for the peasantry. They are to be found in the hilly and woody country along the Valley of the Mos- cow River. We discussed the agriculture of the Soviet Union, its forestry problems, the relations between the city workers and the peasantry, the development of ani- mal husbandry, the housing problem in city and village; the recovery of industry and many other questions as the auto kept up a steady pace of from 40 to 50 miles an hour over a road that was an ex- ceeding revelation to me, who had been told that the highways of the Soviet Union were “no good.” It was thus that we came to Kolomna, passing a huge farm implement manufacturing plant on its outskirts as we entered the gates of the city. The plant was probably-not as large as the McCormick or International Harvester Plants in Chicago, but its size was, nevertheless, impressive. The population of Kolomaa is set down as 25,000 for 1928. It is claimed that it now has at least 35,- 000. It boasts a huge machine works, founded in the 60’s of the 19th century, where 11,000 workers are now employed. : We stepped out of the car into October Revolu- tion Street before the City Hall that faces a large public park across the highway. We were first greeted by the Commandant of the city. Inside the City Halt we met the assistant mayor and then Comrade Gruschin, the Mayor. He escorted us to the méeting of the Party Committee in the Party’s own headquarters on the second floor. On the walls are pictures of Karl Marx, and of the Second Con- gress of the Communist International and a banner given the party by the trade unions of the city on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, 1898-1923. An organizer was making a report on the condition of the party nucleus in a local factory that turns out military uniforms. There are 150 party members in the factory and the fact that 13 had failed to report in a re-registration was considered a calamity. Only %60 per cent was taking advantage of Marxian lee- ture courses, which was not considered sufficient. This, however, would be considered an exceedingly high percentage in the United States.. We could only remain for a few moments because we had to catch our train for Ozery. But Our Mayor, Comrade Gruschin, got time to point out that the beautiful park across the way had come into existence since the revolution, that the electric and water system in the city were new, and that other important improvements were under consideration. The city owns a fleet of modern auto-buses to transperi the workers from their homes to their workshops. Across* the street from the City Hall was the Soviet Hotel, where we got a bite to cat. Cn another corner was the local branch of the Moscow Bank. Then there was a branch of the Sewing Machine Government Trust, announcing that it was a part of the All-Union Councit of National Economy. On the way to the station we saw the new housing program in action. It had been started in 1925. Some build- ings, each housing eight families, had already been completed. Others were under course of construc- tion. Thus Kolomna, more than 15 centuries old, was energetically contributing its share toward the building of the new social order on May Day, 1927. A Heart Cry from Amsterdam fae position of workers in Bulgaria under the pres- ent dominating military fascist clique is painted in the blackest of colors-by a press notice published in the “Bulletin of the Amsterdam International,” of March 15. Regulation of labor conditions does not exist; the enterprises are unsanitary through- out; the state gives no relief to the unemployed, who number more than one hundred thousand; trade union organizations are persecuted relentlessly. In a word, “the general economic and political reaction is becoming more intolerable.” All this and much more is true: During the past four years, when police repressiens, arrests and mur- derous treatment in the police stations had been unable to smother thé revolutionary labor move- ment, wholesale massacres were resorted to. Many of the foremost workers have been killed off; scores of the best trade union workers have been beaten up among whom was a secretary of the Revolution- ary Trade Union Centre—-Comrade Jeke Dimitrov. The Amsterdamers write in their Bulletin that the reformist unions in Bulgaria (numerically weak) carried on a resolute’ struggle against the military- fascist reaction and were subjected to police persecu- tions. This is an insolent and shameless lie. The _whole world knows that the Bulgarian reformists actively supported the fascists during the coup d’etat of 1923, The well-known reformist trade union leader and member of the Central Committee of the So- cial-Democratic Party, Kasasov, became a minister” in the fascist government. Gregory Danov, another leader and seeretary of the reformist trade union centre besides the other thirty socialist deputies en- tered parliament on a general fascist ticket. a res r Moreover reformist leaders did not even refrain front personal participation in torturing and killing revolutionary trade union leaders. In Plovdive, Com- rade St. Kiradjiev, the secretary of the Tobacco Workers’ Union, who was very popular among the revolutionary workers, was killed by the reformists. In Tatar Pasardjik, Ivan Hiev, the well-known theo- retician of the reformist trade union movement him- self directed the torturing and killing of hundreds of revolutionary workers and peasants in the Sep- tember days of 1923. All this the Amsterdam lead- ers know perfectly well. Last year when the reformists organized the so- called Balkan Conference in Sofia, the Bulgarian workers through their independent trade unions de- manded that the question of the White Terror in the Balkans be included in the agenda of the con- ferenee. Sassenbach and Martens who were direct- ing the conference, bluntly rejected this demand, stating that it could not be expected to oecupy itself with political questions, referring to the internal. affairs of other countries. With the fascist reac- tion in Bulgaria and all over the Balkan countries, ‘the refusal to discuss this question was paramount to a silent approval. And now we have the edifying spectacle of Amsterdam shedding crocodile tears over the sufferings of the Bulgarian workers, The assertion of the “Bulletin” that Bulgarian workers are entering fascist organizations is also untrue. In the terrible conditions that have prevailea since the April 1925 massacres, when the Red Trade Unions were destroyed, the Bulgarian workers have begun to organize their own independent class trade unions, and, despite all obstacles, the laboring masses of Bulgaria are entering and supporting them today. ak Bic GLIMPSES OF FREEDOM IN AMERICA obbtt n0S.