The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 11, 1930, Page 4

eee eemecne can ' Page Four New York City, N Square Ad Teleph THE COLLAPSE OF THE NAVAL CONFERENCE Disarmament Phrases Exposed BRAUN, By PAUI HE which w the imper The rats are al The American } convenient a for taking his gation, headed by Only the d turned to Pari ger of a Thre Power Agreement between England, Am and Japan could cause the French gove to order Briand back to Lo possibility becom day, it may be safely assumed government will not even att of the Conference. MacDc forts to save the Conferer with an success. The London a ready sung th declares that the C only a miracle can save i ernment organ, th striving to awal that M. Briand’s has given rise to new fear: ence may simply fade out, it states: “Mr. MacDonald is, however, determined that this shall not happen, and he is equally determined that the present deadlock shall not be permitted to drag on indefinitely. “If within a reasonable period it has still proved impossible to find any basis for Franco-Italian agreement, or if the chief French delegates still insist on waiting in Paris for some new Italian offer which is not forthcoming, he will, as chairman of the Conference summon a Plenary Session to report progress or lack of progress. . . .. The French and Italians would then have the two possibilities—of responding to the ap- peal or of declaring themselves unable to reach an agreement. “If the latter, then it may be taken that there will be no Five-Power Agreemert at all i. ss “Therefore if France and Italy fail even under the stimulus of a Plenary Session, to agree, the Five-Power Conference must end. Nor will there be any doubt whose is the responsibility for its failure.” This attempt of the “Daily Herald” to fix responsibility for a possible failure of the con- ference, is the sure sign of the end. There can be no doubt that the Naval Conference is in its death throes, There remains nothing more for it to do but to die “a beautiful death.” What were the tasks and purpose of the conference, and why was it bound to fail? The chief aim of the Five Powers who sent to London was, in view y and threatening nearness of a new, world-embracing imperialist conflict, to improve their own military and_ political situation at the cost of their rivals. Not dis- armament, but extension of armaments, that was the real content of the London negotiations. The securing of naval supremacy, that wa: and is the chief aim of American and English naval policy. The American delegation came to London with the task to make use of the conference for a political action on a grand seale. The Kellogg Pact and the slogan of “freedom of the seas” were its chief weapons. World hegemony of American imperialism was, however, the aim. Therefore it was only at the first moment that the naval program which Stimson brought to London could meet with apparent approval by England. Behind the modest demand of naval parity with England, the English naval experts discovered only too soon the secret dreams of naval hegemony cherished by their American ri . For naval parity with Eng- land would, in view of the scattered nature of the British colonial possessions and spheres of influence and the peculiar naval strategi situation of British imperialism, be imm ly converted into a dangerous superio of America. The recognition of the principle of “freedom of the seas” demanded by America, would in the event of a war mean for England a blockade, the cutting off from its sources of raw material. England, in face of the Amer- ican pressure, declared itself ready to grant certain concessions, which however, lost their value, the more clearly the Anglo-American antagonisms became apparent during the cours: ‘al diate- of the negotiations. The proposal made by the | English government regarding the prolonga- tion of the life of the large ships of the line and the future limitation of their maximum tonnage—proposals which do not affect Eng- land at all, as it possesses the largest hips of the line fleet in the world, but which d ectly hit America’s building program—met with the flat rejection by the American delegation. The Anglo-American “friendship” is now showing its true countenance. The Anglo-American antagonism was the deadly germ which right from the beginning doomed the London negotiations. It has now sealed the fate of the conference. In the Anglo-American conflict in London there is reflected the general agpravation of the imperialist antagonisms between the United States and England, which is an immediate re- sult of the approaching world crisis of capital- ism. The antagonisms in London are themselves Mest concentrated expression of the strug- Workers! Join the Party of Your Class! Communist Party U. S. A. 43 East 125th Street, New York City. I, the undersigned, want to join the Commu- nist Party. Send me more information. Name .... SNEED iss 0s soc cccssccomeccss UitYssseceeee MeMRCUpAHON 20... cece ee sees ALC cca es Mail this to the Central Office, Communist , 43 East 125th St.. New York, N.Y, t ne of these two power the domination of t Numerous ev ecurred in the wing to call to mind the Hague negotiations, the fight for the control of th kk of Intern: E Settlement,” the tr dard Oil Company wi Napk Trust, which pu peace between the Amer! and the fierce cof in India. ive inter- pproaching th Ame > backgre this de igonism and of the all imperialist gle. The French gov- ims with brutal und of antago! on a stage of open strug put ernment forward its ¢ candor in London, It demands double the naval quota granted to it in Washington in 1923, Fi I ds naval y with France, with an idea to extorting territorial and colonial concessions from France. Japan, too, is demanding a considerable increase of its naval qu (from 60 to 70 per cent), and is t the same time endeavoring to make use of the antagonism between America and England in order to strengthen its own position. When the conflict with America found open expression, the MacDonald government even thought of renewing the Entente with France and, by granting considerable concessions in and armaments and of the to purchase France’s help against n attempt which was torpedoed by Ed ervist America, the Amer delegation. Nothing can more drastical trate the acuteness of the an- tagonis: than this desperate maneuver on the part of the English. Pertinax, the very well-informed correspon- dent of the io de Pi even some da before the departure of the French delega ion from London, spoke of a severe conflict within | the English government, Snowden, the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer, attacked MacDonald in the sharpest manner on account of the issue of the Naval Conference. He reproached him with having prevented a postponement of the negotiation in good time, and thereby—apart from the fiasco—sharpened all antagonisms to the extreme. “Another such conference,” he shouted in the face of his chief, “and we shall have war!” There is no doubt that Snowden, even if un- iously, has hit the right nail on the head. If the London Conference has any result at all, it will only be the same result as the Wash- ington Conference had. It will tremendously accelerate the pace of imperialist competition in armaments, and before all the war prepara- tions against the Soviet Union. Never were the hypocritical phrases regard- ing disarmament so thoroughly exposed as they have been in the last eight weeks. The last illusions are collapsing like soap bubbles. In this respect the issue of the London Conference will be the severest disappointment for the imperialist war-mongers. Workers Defense The first preliminary conference organization of a Workers Defense Corps in Los Angeles held on April 1 adopted a resolution which declares in part: for the CAS the victories of the workers over capital- n approaches, as ever wider sections of workers are taking up the struggle of the working class against the capitalist system, the need grows ever greater for organized defense organizations of workers for the protection of the working class. The machinery:of the capi- alist ¢! does not protéct the workers. It organizes all forms of “legal” and extra legal attacks and unscrupulously even with re: to the cap laws emplo; the workers. The worke tion from capitalist state or capitalist courts. The workers must defend themselves. The conference therefore, whole-heartedly approves the first orts for the organization of work- ers defense “Workers defense must be organized on a mass basis. The success of workers defense depends upon the ability of the working class and its organization to draw hundreds and thousands of workers in defense. The confer- ence therefore, calls upon workers in every shop, in every union, in all fraternal and aux- iliary organizations, workers groups, sport or- ganizations, minority groups in the American Federation of Labor, etc., youth organizations, women organizations, ete., to form groups for the purpose of defense, these groups to become “a part of-the general defense organization. “The workers defense organization shall in- clude all workers regardless of race, color, or nationality, who recognize the need of militant struggle and the necessity of self defense for the working class. Both men and women as well as youth shall be included. The confer- ence endorses the election of a provisional committee representative of various organiza- tions. It instructs this committee to act until such a* time as another conference will elect a permanent committee for the organization. “The conference instructs *the provisional committee to call another conference in the month of May, this conference to be as broad as possible and should have a substantial rep- resentation of defense groups from shops as well as from other working class organizations specified above. “In the meantime the conference instructs the provisional committee to arrange all regu- lar meetings for defense groups, these meet- ings to take place once a week. The provisional committee must draw up a plan of organization for workers defense groups. The provisional committee must arrange for an outing on Sun- day, April 13 and must make this a mass af- fai “Workers defense groups shall be used for the defense of all militant struggles, organiza- tions, demonstrations, etc., of the working clas Particularly does the conference of April 1 greet the coming first of May. The confer- ence wholeheartedly endorses the May firs demonstration and pledges all in its power to protect this demonstration from reactionary at- tacks of the fascists and the state apparatus, The conference pledges to build np 8 powerfnl Waily = Central Organ of the Communist { MAY FIRST! MASS] Poutiticar Irigoyen’s “Sore Throat” | _ By HARRY GANNES. EVERAL weeks ago, when telephonic com- munications, under Wall Street control had been established with Argentina, President Hoover developed a longing to hear the Gaucho accent of President Hypolite Irigoyen of Ar- gentina. Hoover was denied a “hello” from Irigoyen because the Argentinian president had suddenly developed a “sore throat.” A poli- tico-economie germ, traceable to the raging Anglo-American conflict in Latin America, was the cause of this “sore throat.” In Argentina, more than anywhere else in Latin America, can we see the bitter struggle between the United States and Great Britain, for control of this valuable foreign market and source of raw materials 5 “Good Will” Business. As if to trace the course that the efforts of the American imperialists were to take in Latin America, very soon after his election in 192: the South American continent. This was a direct challenge to British im- perialism. The challenge was not left unan swered. Early in 1929 a commission was ap- pointed by the British Board of Trade to study “the relations, industrial, commercial and fin- ancial, of Great Britain with both countries (Argentina and Brazil) with a view to their development in the general interests.” This “good will” commission was headed by Viscount d’Abernon, of the Dominions Ro; Trade Commission, former advisor to the Egyptian Government, and an imperialist of extensive experience—somewhat on the order of Hoover himself. The d’Abernon commission was buttressed by a whole crew of leading ex- ploiters of Great Britain. < Irigoyen’s throat was in the pink of condi- tion when it came to speaking to d’Abernon There was no beating about the bush. In the battle for the Argentinian market between British and American imperialism, Irigoyen favors British imperialism. They discussed the fact that whereas British trade with Argentina had increased 34.96 per cent between 1913- 1927, in the same period American trade had increased 168.75 per cent. ‘ Wall Street investments in Argentina had | increased from $40,000,000 in 1913 to $611 474,750 in 1929—or 1,528 per cent, while Brit- | ish investments in the same period increased 15 per cent—ftom $1,860,700,000 to $2,140,- 104,000. . A credit and trade compact was signed be- tween Irigoyen and the d’Abernon commission whereby Argentina was to reduce duties or British rayon and textiles 50 per cent, in com- batting American imports of the same class. In return Argentina was to buy $40,000,009 worth of British manufactured goods. British Competition, When d’Abernon and his commission return- ed to London they addressed a communication to the “labor” foreign secretary, Arthur Hen- derson, containing recommendations for the British imperialists in. their struggle against American imperialism in Latin America. While MacDonald mouths phrases about “parity” in naval armaments, and works with the British imperialists in arming for war, Henderson la- bors with the d’Abernon commission for a battle for the Latin American markets. A United Press dispatch from London, Feb. | | Hoover made a “good will” tour around | ods of production (rationalization), adver- *tising, marketing and selling directed against American penetration in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. (2) Removal of the two per cent stamp duty on foreign loans floated in Great Bri- tain, to encourage Argentina to do its fi- nancing in London instead of New York. (3) Removal of the British customs duty on Brazilian coffee in return for some con- cession by Brazil in favor of Britain. (4) Avoidance of any actions incom- patible with full development of Britain and the Argentine as complementary economic units. The two leading imperialist bandit nations RATES: 1 everywhere: One year $6; six months an and Bronx, New York City, and foreign, which a ; two months $1; excepting Boroughs of re: One year $8; six months $4.5 STRUGGLE OF THE INDIAN RAILWAY WORKERS World Proletariat Must Aid By M. ALI. are inevitable as long as capital- imperialism last . Our struggle is against italism and imperialism. Workers of the G. I. Rail you are fighting as vanguard of all the railway work- ers of India.” Thus writes the “Railway- man,” the organ of the G. P. I. (Great-Indian Peninsula) Railwaymen’s Union, which is lead- ing the present strike of the 125,000 G. P. I. Railway workers. GQTRIKE ism and This estimation of the present railwa: ke gives a true picture of the situation in the contemporary working class movement of In- dia, The Indian proletariat is carrying on a heroic struggle against its class enemies, the British imperialists and their allies, the In- dian capitalists. That is why the Bombay workers raised aloft their red banner on the 26th of January last, when the bourgeoisie had staged a scene of their “independence day” while ready to sell themselves and betray their “independence” for “very simple but vital needs” of the Indian bourgeoisie as for example, reduction of the rupee ratio, pro- tection to their cotton and shipping industries, ete., the demands put forward recently by Gandhi. The Bombay workers declared that “the Congress Flag could never be the real flag of independence,” it was a flag of betray- al, of compromise with British imperialism, That is why the Meerut trial was started by the Tory imperialists and carried out by “la- bor” imperialists. That is why the Indian bourgeoisie refused to help the Meerut pris- oners legally and materially. On March 20th, a year has elapsed, since 32 leaders of the In- dian working class were arrested and thrown into the prison of Meerut, a small and remote town in the North. The farce of a trial is not yet finished. The class justice awaits them in the form of a heavy sentence of conviction with hard labor. At Meerut is being tried by British imper- ialism not only the working class movement in India, but the international proletarian move- ment, standing for the overthrow of capitalism and imperialism. The chief accused in the trial is the Communist International. Faced by the revolt of the Colonial slaves British imperialism attacks the Communist In- ternational, arrests and subjects to cruel tor- ture the leaders of the working class move- ment, with a view to check its growth. But in spite of depriving the working class of its leaders by repeated arrests, the movement is going forward. New leaders are springing up to take the place of those who fall victims as prisoners in the class war. The strike of the 125,000 G. I. P. railway workers carried on in face of terrorization by imperialist armed forces, treacherous tactics of the nationalists and social-reformists shows that. The strikers are being arrested, the volun- teers who picket the railway lines are terror- ized by the police, the workers are being forci- bly ejected from their quarters, their water upply is being cut off, their meetings are for- | bidden and convicts from prisons are being | used as scabs. All this is being done by the Anglo-Indian Government, the owner of the Railway, under the instruction of Mac- Donald’s Labor Government. The agent of the railway has declared that all those on strike should consider themselves to be dis- missed from work. Scabs are paid double wages to replace the strikers. | The treacherous nationalist and social- reformists are helping MacDonald’s agents to break this strike. A reformist union, com- posed of the superior grade employees of the G.LP. railway has refused to join the strike. At the head of this union stands, as president, Mr. Jammadas Mehta, who along with Jawa- harlal Nehru and Subbas Bose is a leader of the “Independence League.” The workers are rejecting all efforts of com- promise and conciliation with the capitalist | The All-India Trade Union Congress, now under the militant leadership of the Left Wingers, of the Red Flag’s Union, stands at the back of the strikers. Appeals are being made by them to all the railway workers to declare sympathetic strikes with their com- rades. They are closely watching ‘the situa- tion in order to see that the strikers are not deserted and betrayed by some of the pseudo left leaders, as the president of the GLP. Railwaymen’s Union, who has been showing such signs. Thus, a bulletin issued by’ the Workers and Peasants Party, of Bombay,-lead by the leaders of the Red Flag Union of Bom- bay, says: “The Workers of the G.LP. railway must see that Mr. Ruikar (President of the I.P. Railwaymen’s Union) stands by the e and does not begin to retreat. Mr. Ruikar has sent a cable to MacDonald. It is very wrong again for him to appeal to the imperialist premier to use the strike- breaking machinery of the Trade Disputes Act... . The G. I, P. men should go to the B. B. & C. I. (Bombay-Baroda and Cen- tral India) Railwaymen and appeal to them to join the struggle. Men on the B. B. & C. I. line your conditions are as bad as those of your comrades on the G.LP. line, Your grievances are the same. Join the struggle.” The G. I. P. railway workers are carrying on the struggle for the cause for which the Meerut prisoners fought. Their cause is the cause of the international proletariat, the over- throw of capitalism and imperialism. They are fighting against odds, the colonial regime of MacDonald, aided by its Indian agents, the reformists. Their victory or defeat is the vic- | tory or defeat of the international proletariat. The international proletariat, therefore, should come to their aid. By helping them they-will be helping the Meerut prisoners and the cause of the revolutionary workers of the world, fighting against capitalism, capitaligt ration- alization, fascism and the imperialist prepara- tion for war. . The Bank of International have girded themselves for a gigantic battle |Gettlements and the Interna- for the Latin American markets, and especially for those of Argentina, Brazil, Chile. With the present sharpening world crisis, and the tremendous drop in foreign trade both in the United States and Great Britain, the battle for these markets becomes more frantic. A booklet issued by the Department of Com- merce on “United States Trade with Latin America in 1928,” points out that Latin Amer- ica absorbed 20.7 per cent of the total U. S. exports. Wall Street Penetration. “This tremendous increase in inter-American trade has resulted in a steady growth of Amer- ican investments in the Southern republics,” writes O. P. Hopkins, acting director of the bureau of foreign and domestic commerce. “In 1928 these investments are estimated to have been between $4,652,000,000 and $5,552,000,000. . + + The active attempts of éur European competitors (particularly Great Britain) to obtain a greater share of the market were par- ticularly noticeable during the year.” A cable to the New York Times (April 6, 1930) shows the importance of the Argentine market to U. S. imperialism, and the frantic struggle being waged there between the im- perialist robbers: . “The United States Department of Com- merce representatives here expect some de- cline in the importation of products from the United States, even in the event that general business conditions improve. United States exports to Argentina have increased 17 per cent since 1926. “Automobile shipments to Argentina last year were $53,000,000, compared with $26,- 000,000 in 1926; agricultural machinery $35,- 000,000, compared with $20,000,000 in 1926, and other major items increased proportion- ately. “It is believed that this rate of increase cannot continue indefinitely, even if the gen- eral business situation improves. There ap- pears to be no reason for fearing, however, that the United States will lose its pre- dominant position in the immediate future despite the frantic efforts of European com- petitors to regain their lost ground.” Thus the battle for the Latin American markets is officially admitted, despite the Hoo- ver “good will” slop. New developments have taken place since Lord d’Abernon’s visit to Argentina. Irigoyen proposes but the grow- ing economic crisis in Argentina disposes. For a long time, Irigoyen, as an expres- . sion of his antagonism to American imperial- 27, 1930, characterized the d’Abernon report , as “a call for sharper competition against the United States in trading with South America.” Here are some of d’Abernon’s recommenda- tions: ; 1) Thorough revision of British meth- mass defense organization which will receive its first test in the coming first of May demon- strations and will be tempered and steeled thru its participation in working class struggles into an even more powerful instrument of the militant working class, ism, and his espousal of the British, refused to appoint an ambassador to Washington. He has changed his mind—or rather the rapid drop of the value of Argentina money has forced | him to face slightly Wall Streetwards, Horaco | Oyhanarte, present foreign minister, was ap- pointed as ambassador to Washington with the special mission of negotiating a loan of $100,- 000,000 “with which the government hopes to correct the low exchange value of Argentine currency.” Another loan of $50,000,000 is now being floated in Wall Street for the City of Buenos Ayres. Undoubtedly, for some reason, this money could not be obtained in London at tional Cooperative Alliance HE general secretary of the International Co- operative Alliance, H. J. May, has approach- ed the managers of the bank branches of the biggest cooperative organizations affiliated to the International Cooperative Alliance regard- ing their views about the attitude to be taken up to the Bank for International Settlements. One can see by the replies which have been re- ceived, that the managers of the financial in- stitutions of the cooperatives of the German workers through the Bank for International Settlements, but are even endeavoring to take an active part in this exploitation. Of the replies received from managers of cooperative banks and bank branches of the wholesale societies, we give the following as the most characteristic. The manager of the Frencn Cooperative Bank, the social-fascist Gaston Levy writes: “The cooperative movement cannot be in- different to a new form of credit, and it must endeavor to participate in this organization.” This participation is to take the following form: the national cooperative organizations must endeavor “to participate in the raising of the required capital, in order to secure in this manner a seat and a vote in the general meeting of the bank.” The manager of the bank of the English Wholesale Society, Davies, expresses himself somewhat more cautiously, as the financially strong cooperative movement of Great Britain would not willingly give up its strong position in the international cooperative movement, and is therefore frustrating the establishment of an international cooperative bank which has been, as everyone knows, for years in the pro- gram of the I.C.A., ad is also afraid of the eventual transference of international settle- ments to the B.I.S. Davies writes therefore: “If the cooperative banks of the individual countries open an account in the Bank of Inter- national Settlements, the experience gained through it and the volume of business transac- tions would probably provide a valuable dis- cussion basis for the problem of the proposed International Cooperative Bank.” These statements show that the cooperative bureaucrats of all countries far from repudiat- ing, on principle, participation in the exploita- tion of the German proletariat through the B.S. (through exclusive raising of loans on the one hand, and through extortion of interest on the other hand), are looking for ways and means of making palatable to the proletarian sections of the cooperative movement of their own countries participation in the spoliation of German workers under various pretexts (gain- ing experience, profitable investment of capi- tal, etc.). terms equal to those which Wall Street offered. Together with this $150,060,000 Joan will go not a little pressure to cure J throat.” At the same time the antagonisms and rival- ties become tenser, sharper, bitterer. q r A Workers Delegation to the U.S. S. R. The managing committee of the foresters | and agricultural laborers union of Norway, has decided to send. this. spring a delegation of active members .of the union to ‘the U:S.S.R. The delegation will consist of 15 members who will be elected at the workers’ general meet- ings. Recruits Mutiny in Poland (By Inprecorr Press Service) According to report from Vilna 300 Polish recruits on their way to join their regiments | in Vilna got out of hand and demonstrated | violently against the Polish fascist government and in particular against the preparations for war on the Soviet Union. At all stopping places | recruits made speeches against fascism» and | against war and in Byalistock where the train | halted for some time a mass meeting was held | outside the station to which workers ewarmed from all the surrounding streets. The police | tried unsuccessfully to soothe the recruits and persuade them to go back to their cartiages. They did not dare to attack them. A similar meeting also took place in Grodno, In the meantime the telephone wires had been humming frantically and when the train drew into Orany the recruits found a small army drawn up to receive them and machine guns trained onto the carriages. A large force of armed gendarmerie attempted to storm the carriages, but the recruits barricaded them- | selves in and energetically resisted arrest. Vol- leys of shots were fired and a number of per- sons killed and wounded. The railway carriages were devastated. In the end 37 recruits were | arrested and taken to prison in Orany while® | the remaining recruits as far as they were not killed or wounded, were taken on to Vilna un- der armed escort. . The Bolshevik Spring News is pouring in from the southern parts of the U.S.S.R. regarding the successful de- velopment of spring field labor. Members of collective farms go about their work enthusias- tically, they are disciplined and well organized. The spirit pervading the collective ‘farms is spreading to> the individual poor and middle peasant farms, which have not yet joined col- lective farms. In Karasan, a big Mennonite village in the Crimea, the peasants who have not joined the collective farm have decided to do their whole sowing in common. To the efforts of the kulaks to impede work on the fields, the collective farm members reply by extending considerably the sowing i area, | In the Guenitch district (Crimea) the collec- tive farms have already done their sowing, having exceeded the plan by 8 per cent. Inthe Stalingrad district (Lower Volga), the spring sowing area is being extended by 34 per cent compared with last year. Brel resent n @