The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 20, 1931, Page 4

gn CE Published by the Compredally Publishing C 14th Street, New York City. Address and mail all che Page Four N. ¥. Telephone 4 7956-7. Cable @aily except Sunday, at 50 East to the Daily Worker, 50 Hast 13th Street, New York. N. ¥. “DALWORK.” Daily Slavery in Harlan, Kentucky | BARBARA RAND. |ARLAN COUNTY, Ke s a feudal king- dom, Nothing neither paper, letter nor vis- {tor can come in or Harlan unless the the post office for Even a man’s own end a night in his nt’s written per- mp in the county By job. father and mission, in practice And this slavery are what the miners are strik according to the delegation from Kentucky to the Natior National Con- ference which opens in Pittsburgh Wednesday morning. “When a man lives in ou house,” Jack Dick- inson, general manager he Allison and Ma- han Coal Co. in Stanfield, summed it up, “he votes and does like we want A mine forced to swea he'll “die if nece: never join a unic s yer j a union, his card must be royed in the s1 intendent’s presence before he is hired. In H lan, there is no prete of “democracy a feudal kingdom. “I reckon there's any county that haven't ever one delegate said. since Ihave. Whe At the R. C. Ty bs closed in by a high wall. N or out without a special permit night when the two gunmen go home, the gate is locked. If you put up a fight when you're cheated on weight on the tipple, or complain when the little you're supposed to get held back for fake charges, or if you happen to be suspected of joining a union, you get 30 minutes to clear out of camp But if you aren't married, 10 minutes notice is considered sufficie If you owe anything to the company store—and what miner does not?— furniture is withheld The old debtor's law that flourished in Eng- land before America was settled, is enforced today in Kentucky. By firing a man who hi been allowed credit, the coal company han down a verdict for a jail term if they wish to prosecute. And it happened many times. The yellow dog contract has grown into a tremendous document in Kentucky. In Llewel- lyn, the Cornet and Lewis Coal Co. hands you a yellow dog contract almost a yard long. Min- ers must not congregate in groups to talk to- gether. Nobody may visit them without special permits. To get a job, the miners say, they must first sign themselves into slavery. Where the miners were starved back to work, or forced back with the help of the militia, con- ditions are worse than before the strike, and far worse than even the Pennsylvania miners knew, the delegates say “The hours?. they never from Leggat “The work begins at 5 o’clock in the morning, and you can’t quit until 6 or 7 ovclock at night. And it ain’t unusual for you to double back, to be forced to go right back to work at night shift, after putting in a hard mber of people in the seen American money is allowed in end,” one delegate day. Even then, if your kids are hungry and you ask for credit, you've got to get special orders | signed by the superintendent. Many times they refuse credit at night after you've put in a full days wor practically lives are made family The biscuits r and@ water. Lard and ‘o the biscuit batter, but they Potatoes or beans occasion- ally va But frequently there is no flour d that means literally starvation. “Out in Leggat,” one miner said, “they tried to force us send the children to school. But it was no use until they collected $86 and bought tennis shoes and overalls. That’s how the kids got to go to school through the snow, in canvas hoes that got soaked through in a couple of minutes. ‘any of us wouldn’t let our children go then either. Yes, against starvation just “And I reckon it’s le worse with The U. M. W. has not bite of relief since the strike began. They've got plenty money to make the big organizers rich, but not a penny to keep the from being starved b: We know better than be fooled by them anymore! “There's still 3,500 of us out. And if we got just a little relief, the rest would be out quick as anything. The militia tries to run the lead- out of the state, but we're sticking. Do you m militiamen wake up the mniers and em right to the pit mouth! Like Animals, Not Kentucky Miners! ‘Say did you hear about what they done to Ed Miller? He was striking with us. One night he disappeared and for about 18 days nobody could find him. Then we discovered him hang- ing—up on Ivy Hill. They used barbed wire to hang poor Miller. and they tried to make out that he was a “snitcher” and we done it. But when they couldn't get evidence and pin it on us, they thought up a en wone. They said he'd gone crazy and hanged himself. But anyone could see that it was too high to do it himself. We knew who did it—” Speaking about the warfare in Evarts, the min- ers were resentful of the story spread in the capitalist press that they ambushed the militia when they came up the mountains to “get” the so-called “snipers” “No sir! What happened was that we met them when they were coming up. And we were standing right in the middle of the road too. We took their guns and munitions away from them —disarming them boys was the only thing to do with fellers coming up like they was to do some killing. I guess lots were disarmed. Plenty of machine guns and high powered rifles and about 300 Ibs. of munitions had to be taken away from them. “No, the newspapers didn’t tell all there was to 13 gunmen were killed and one of our fel- that man!” The delegates re . Evart lens Cre‘ Kaywood, Chev: Elcombs, Sun- shine, Kitts, Enfield, Mollus, Verdy. Coxton, Dra- per, Leggat, Stanfield, Woods, Yancy, Harlan Gas and East Harlan. like yo mous 2 know tote t tell. lers. Musteism in West Virginia Against the Unity of the Miners This is the second of a saries of three arti- cles. The last article will appear tomorrow. * (A reply to Edmund Wilson’s New Republic Article of July 8) By BILL DUNNE Article 11 cE has already been pointed out above that while Wilson is of the opinion that “the fu- ture of the country depends upon the succes: of a “spontaneous native labor movement with trained native left-wing leadership” such as he claims the southern West Virginia miners’ move- ment to be, that he is in favor of this movement being mulched with Musteite manure so that its natural militancy can be guided into the chan- nels of “worker management co-operation” for which the Musteites stand, and which as the concrete expression of its policy of class peace as against class struggle, is the unbreakable link binding it to the A. F. L., and consequently, in the case of southern West Virginia, to the Lewis machine. As in Elizabethton, Tenn., where the Musteites put over a blacklist system in the form of a “personnel director” and aided the mill bosses to improve their speed-up system, and called it a victory for the workers, as in Danville, Va., where they appealed to the mill owner to allow them to reorganize the production system and increase output at the expense of the workers, so in West Virginia the Musteites are preparing another betrayal which they attempt to disguise hk very rentlemanly criticism of the Lewis ma- chine. Just as Wilson does not mention the fact that Pinchot sent state troopers to prevent min- ers carrying through further mass picketing of the injunction—protected Wildwood mine after one miner had been shot to death and a score wounded by special deputies, so also does he say nothing of the whole series of actual sell-outs of the miners by Lewis, from 1922 to the present time. Wilson leaves the door open for a return to the Lewis U. M. W. A. and he must be very angry indeed because the National Miners Union—and the Communist Party, Mr. Wilson—has already taken steps to prevent the West Virginia miners being led blindfold down that road to betrayal by a campaign for unity on the national scale against the coal operators and U. M. W. A. strike- breaking. The Musteites can unite with Keeney because he is against unity of the rank and file based on democratic elections and adoption of a com- mon program of demands and action. The Wilson article with its diatribes against the Com- munists and the National Miners Union, who are fighting for just this kind of unity, his care- ful avoidance of the whole question of the united front of all miners against Lewis and the oper- ators, is alone sujcient proof that the Musteites, with Keeney, who is simply a defeated U. M. W. A. official, wants to preserve the mine fields of southern West Virginia, with their thousands of half-starved miners, women and children, as a Musteite playground where they can maneuver et the expense of the miners for a return to Lewis, for an organic alliance of social fascism in the coal fields. The Musteite conception of unity is the American Federation of Labor and, knowing that Green, Lewis and Co. need a Mus- teite mantle of Brookwood College phrases, they believe they can be induced to accept it if borne hy the hands of several thousand betrayed work- ’ ers delivered as evidence of good faith. They want to be able to say in the coal industry as they have already been able to say in textiles; “Look, you foolish old labor leaders, we have sold out miners as you do—but we do it much more skilfully. Raise hell about the profit sys- tem, even go so far as to call it the capitalist system, tell the wor! much while it lasts, but that it's toWstrong to overthrow—and you can make much more profit for the bosses while arousing less opposition from the workers whose untutored minds are only too ready now to belief Communists who tell them you are not to be trusted and should be kicked out.” This explains also the tender manner in which John the Baptist Wilson pours the purifying waters of the Musteite Jordan over the tarnished record of Keeney, Frank the savior emerges scoured and shining with an effulgence which must surely dazzle the interested but not too lib- eral readers of the “ow Ponnblic and coax many a reluctant dollar from their pockets. Fortunately there are 15,000 Communists, some thousands of miners among them, in this country, who have gazed too long and steadily into the fiery furnace of the class struggle to have our eyes blinded by the artificial radiance of this new gaseous nebula in the Musteite milk- and-waterw: Wilson touches lightly the ac- tivities of Frank Keeney for the decade 1920-30 in the following paragraph: “In March, 1930, the Illinois district held a national convention and tried to set up a re- | organized union. In the meantime, the West Virginia leaders of the 1920 days had settled | down by 1924, when the union had completely expired, as ordinary citizens of Charleston. Frank Keeney had an orange-drink stand and then speculated in gas and oil... But when the Illinois convention was called they went to it and came back to West Virginia to reorganize their union.” There are two big gaps, and some very neces- sary explanation is missing in the Wilsonian Historical record of his hero, reminiscent of the method of the more illustrious President Doctor Wilson who also could conveniently forget to fill gaps with material that would be damaging to his main thesis. These gaps—from 1921 to 1924 and from 1924 to 1930—we can fill quite easily from the records of the class struggle in the UMWA and the AF of L and in the coal fields, in these periods. Following the march of 1921, (not 1920, Mr. Wilson) and the armed struggle of the Kanawha miners, which Keeney stopped on the eve of vic- tory in return for a hypocritical promise of “con- stitutional rights” for the miners in the forti- fied company towns of the southern counties, the heavy hand of the state descended upon the miners and about 110 were jailed and chazged with everything from murder to carrying con- cealed weapons and resisting arrest Keeney is personally courageous, as any leader of miners has to be, but he is an infant politi- cally and consequently a political coward. In- stead of appealing to the more advanced sec- tions of the working class and uniting them for a national campaign in defense of the miners, he placed all his faith in high priced lawyers and purely legal court-room methods of defense. The Lewis machine furnished money for this purpose—after having betrayed the strike—but in a ided and received the liguidation of . Wal- | rs they cannot hope for | | | a common accord.” Control Ondo Yorker: Porty U.S.A SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, New York Ctly. Foreign: one year, $8+ six months, $4.50, Forging By M. L IN a debate in the House of Commons re- cently Winston Churchill said that “it was not in the immediate interest of European peace that the French Army should be seriously weakened... The French Army was at present the stabilizing factor of Europe. Any weak- ening of that factor might open the flood gates of Europe.” (Quoted from the London Times, June 30). The Times Parliamentary corres- pondent says further, “he thought (that is, Churchill) they ought to recognize the dangers which came from Russia, which were at the root of the fgilure of disarmament in Europe The Manchester Guardian Weekly of July 3 comments upon Churchill remarks thus, “Mr. Churchill went so far as to say that it was not in the interests of Europe that the French Army—the bulwark against Bolshevism—should be seriously weakened or that we should press unreasonably for its reduction.” Carlisle MacDonald, Paris correspondent of the New York Times, in a despatch to his paper from Paris on February 20, reports that offi- cials of Rumania, Poland, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Bulgaria will meet with Briand to discuss the best possible way out of the present agricul- tural crisis. MacDonald said, “Monday’s meet- ing of Rumanian, Polish, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Yugoslavian officials with the father of the European federation scheme (i.e. Briand) may be regarded as the first practical attempts to give life and body to Continental unity... Mr. Briand has been quick to use the present severe drepression to further the subject closest to his heart (ie. an anti-Soviet front). A clever plan has been drawn up—one which is destined to do much to smooth out the obstacles in the path om unity... They (ie. these states mentioned above) must have capital...... but first of all they must have A new international credit institution was proposed and it “would lend money to the European states for the purpose of strengthening their military positions as to be better able to overcome communistic tendencies “In the realization of these schemes France looms large, for without the backing of the nation’s present large credit resources the proposed bank might not succeed. But France has other interests involved besides purely eco- nomic ones. Rumania, Poland and Yugoslavia are all military allies and the stronger they are the strongers becomes the French position in Europe. Then there is the spectre of Bolshe- vism and the need for maintaining Eastern Eu- rope as a bulwark against Communism.” Writing about this same conference Jules Sauerwein in the Paris “Matin” says that this grain conference is not only to help these states (ie. Poland, Rumania, etc.) but also of protecting them from Communist propaganda, still more dangerous than dumping. The real work of the conference was to make the vast agricultural territories of Eastern Europe impermeable to the Bolsheviks (Manchester Guardian Weekly, Feb- ruary 27 1931). On March 19th MacDonald wrote from Paris that France signed a loan with Rumania for $26,000,000. On March 13th MacDonald wrote that France had loaned Poland 40 million dollars. He said that “the Polish loan has a strategic as well as economic importance. According to an anounce- ment the money will be used chiefly for the completion of a railway line from Upper Silesia to a new Polish port of Gdynia. A glance at the map shows the potential military value of such a line.. The International Digest for June 1931 prints an abridged translation of an article which ap- peared in the Paris “La Revue das Vivants” by Henry De Jouvenel, former editor of “Matin” and ex-minister of Public Instruction, now a | senator. He starts off like this, “is Germany in danger of being devoured by Russia,..... 2 Everything seems to point to such a catastrophe tadod . The inevitable conclusion appears to be that Germany will have difficulty in saving her- selg by her own efforts alone. She must be com- peed and assisted to save- herself from Russia te eees ‘This assistance is essential for it is not at all impossible that she would be overwhelmed and her fall would entail the fall of European civilization. Like the majority of Frenchmen, | I would like to see a Franco-German reap- proachment but I can’t see the possibility of one until the time when Europe will have under- taken a common policy with regard to Russia | and will have persuaded Germany to join with the rest in that policy.” An editorial in the Berlin “Zeitschrift fur Geo-Politik” (Int'l Digest June 1931) says that the War Front Against the Soviet Union “today the group of western powers begins to see in Russia its chief adversary....,.” Hoover's moratontum announcement is a de- finite step in this direction. The visit of Mellon and now Stimson to Europe is a campaign to line up the European countries against the USSR Listen to what the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, June 22 has to say about Hoover’s mor- atorium. “It is at least conceivable that behind the newest plan for dealing with the sore prob- lem of the war debts is a new sense on the part of European statesmen of the folly they have followed since the end of the war. It is plain to everyone who is not a statesman that western Europe must be somehow reintegrated for a common political, social and economic purpose to survive the savabe economic and political pressure of Russian Communism......It seems useless at the moment to wrangle over ques- tions of war guilt. The important fact is that, both Germany and Austria are in desperate straits and that Germany has beén more than once in a mood to collapse into Communism... . A moratorium might help largely to hold Europe together to preserve the traditional forms of its civilization.” The Hoover moratorium has not helped Germany one bit. Germany is now in a worse crisis than before it and is bringing into a maelstrom of chaos al lof Central Europe A revolution in Germany would be used as a pretext for an imperialist attack on the Soviet Union. “After the Hoover moratorium, what?” So wrote Simms, foreign editor for the Scripps- Howard syndicate in the World-Telegram of June 26tth. “Unless some definite international program can be agreed upon leaders warn fascism or Communism will sweep Europe. Therefore the U.S. and the great powers today are on the eve of the most critical period since the war. Thus Secretary Stimson’s visit to Germany, Eng- land, Italy and France begins to assume an un- expected (?) importance.” An imperialist attack on the Soviet Union is not a thing of the future merely but an imme- diate possibility. Against this war preparation to attack the Soviet Union, every worker must enter the dem- onstration oneAugust Ist. Defeat the interna- tional war moves against the workers’ republic. Demand the war funds be turned over to the unemployed as unemployment relief! PARTY LIFE | Conducted by the Org. Dept. Central Com- mittee, Communist Party, U. S. A. Notes from the Chicazo District Org Letter Against Seasonal “Communists” See comrades think that the class struggle stops in summer—or else we must examine their whole political understanding. since they practically want to abandon work because it is summer and hot. But it is not too hot for 40,000 miners to strike and fight in Pennsyl- vania or 2,200 in Orient, So. Illinois. Neither is it “too hot” for the bourgeoisie to push forward energetically, via Hoover the Moratorium Plan, the war preparations against the Soviet Union. As Communists we must continue our work in all seasons. Only “tired radicals” will use the weather as an excuse. The same people in winter will find rain or snow also an excuse. We have more campaigns and activity than ever before, because the class struggle is sharpening and we must keep all members active. We serve notice on all Section or Unit leaders— no leaving the city for the summer. See point “e” under Party Structure ir this letter for rules re “Vacation.” Factory Work An examination of the minutes of the Sec- tion Committees shows an almost complete ne- glect of factory work. This is a fundamental weakness, which can only mean our separation from the working class, since this must be one of our most important methods of contact and organization. Each Section set itself tasks to organize grievan-e committees in specific shops. The failure to carry this thru, should be of the greatest concern—instead we seem to follow an ostrich policy of thinking if we ignore it, we can get away frem it. This question of face tory work is the real yardstick to test our Bol- shevik qualities and we show ourselves so far incapable of successfully tackling this organiza- tional job. Here is what Comrade Kapsukas in “Lenin on Organization” has to say: “But the Bolshevik Party always concen- trated its attention on the work in the fac- tories, and on establishing nuclei in them... The Party Committees knew precisely how many workers there were employed at a par- ticular factory, what were their conditions, how many members of each Party in shop and their sympathizers. It was in the factories that the Bolsheviks conducted their work prin- cipally.” Every Section must examine this and take the most drastic steps to put this work in motion. the militant West Virginia miners’ movement. Furthermore, Lewis and Green, and Murray. demanded and received the abject surrender of Frank Keeney and Fred Mooney—the secretary of the district at that time. So abject was this surrender that Fred Mooney, one of the UMWA delegation to the Portland convention of the A. F. of L. in Portland, 1923, acted as a witness for the prosecution when I was unseated as the delegate from the Butte (Mont.) Central Labor Council on the two charges of being a member of the Communist Party end of having slan- dered the officials of the UMWA. The depths to.which the once militant lead- ers of the West Virginia miners had sunk can be best estimated when it is stated that the “slander” consisted of having published ac editor of the Butte Bulletin, at that time the official organ of the Montana Federation of Labor and the Butte Central Labor Council, the signed statements of Lewis and Farrington accusing each other of receiving a hundred thousand dol- lars in one instance, and seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars in another, for selling out the Illinois and West Virginia miners! (These documents are still in existence and if anyone wonders why these vultures indulge in such dan- gerous quarrels the explanation is to be found in the fact that these palace struggles are simply the reflection of the fight between certain groups of operators for control of markets. and the UMWA. This is the key to all the internal struggles in the UMWA up to the time of the rise of the militant left wing led by the Trade Union Educational League.) >. {To be continued) Nr cl ct ai at. mgt | By ALBERT MOREAU ORE than half year passed since Olaya Her- rera, the “adopted child” of Yankee im- perialism assumed the presidency of the Colom- bian Republic. The promises made by him to | the people of Colombia and the workers in par- ticular are still fresh in our mind. Olaya Her- rera, candidate of the Liberal Party, had em-- barked from the United States to occupy the presidential chair of Colombia on a promised plan for the re-organization of the country, car- rying with him the experiences of “Yankee cap- italist prosperity.” The Liberal perty with its army of corrupt local and national politicians, its press and a wing of the Conservative party, were all chant- ing to the oppressed masses the Halleluya of the oncoming prosperity. order and good and clean government. The truth of the matter is that the fraudulent presidential elections of last year took place in an atmosphere of civil war, in local armed skir- mishes amongst the factions of the dominant classes, and of rising revolts of ruined peasants and starving agricultural workers. To what extent this Wall Street President ful- filled his promises can be seen by the unpre- cedented strike wave now taking place through- out the country. The economic crisis which was already acute previous to Herrera’s ascendency to power has been further deepened. More- over, the attempt of the governme=+ to put into execution Mr. Kemmerer's recon nendations made in the early part of this year and ac- cepted by the Colombian Congress is finding a strong opponent: the working class and the poor peasantry. The economic struggles of the Colombian pro- letariat are of great significance, not only for the working class of that country, but also for the wage workers of Latin America. This is why we must make a serious analysis of the class battles now being waged, the outstanding facts of which are pregnant with rich experi- ences and lessons for the furthering of the in- dependent struggles of the workers against cap- italist-imperialist exploitation in the city and countryside. ‘The strikes of the suburban bus workers in Bogota, the miners of San Vincente and the Cauca, occurred in March of this year, were merely the prelude for bigger struggles in May affecting the sore spot of the lackey govern- ment. These are the strikes of the railroad workers of Girardot y Tolima and the coffee plantation workers in Viota. In order t# understand the importance of these strikes, we must closely follow the events leading to them and derive the. lessons which we know our comrades will use in the future strike actions. We must first remember that one of the fmportant recommendations made by Mr. Kemmerer and finally endorsed by Olaya’s Congress was the proper “control and autonom- ous handling of the national railroads.” This on fh of the plan opened the way for Amer- ican investments in the railroads of the coun- try. It is based upon the provision that the government cut the wages of the workers, in- crease their working day and in general adopt the rationalization system of speed up and lay offs. “ The railroad workers have already suffered a wage cut of from $1.20 to $0.70 per day. They work 10 and more hours a day. There has been a constant lay off, particularly of those work- ers who protested against the further wage re- duction. Early in May, the Central Offices an- nounced a further wage cut of 12 to 20%. The “re-organization” of the national railways meant to the workers the nullification of the freé com- mutation to which they are entitled, the denial of medical assistance in case of accidents. A serious grievance of the workers has always been the inadequate medicinal supply against the tropical fevers, Before this situation, the Girardot railroad workers of whom a small number are organ- ized and are affiliated to the National Trade Union Committee (Committee for the organiza- { tion of a National Revolutionary Trade Union sugar workers of the Manuelita in Valle del — The Meaning of the Girardot Strike in Columbia Center in Colombia) went on strike. It was a spontaneous strike. The workers unanimously requested that the National Trade Union Com- mittee take the leadership. In the morning of May 9, armed forces of the government were occupying tbe raflroad st<tions in an attempt to demoralizé the elmikers and protect the strike-breakers. Thus the strike- breaking forces of the government quelled the strike, arrested the leaders Sabogal and Bernal. What were the positive and negative sides of this strike without which we cannot correctly learn our lessons and prevent our failures and shortcomings in the future struggles? The com- bativeness of the workers was tremendous. At the outset of the strike, the workers demanded the leadewship of the National Trade Union Committeg, being thus sure that they will not be betraged. The Trade Union of Girardot which immediately stepped into the situation had a membership of 200 and within a few days increased to 1,200. The influence of the comparatively high salaried railway shop work- ers who signed (140 of them) their adhesion against the strike, did not succeed to stifle the fighting mood of the workers. The sympathetic atmosphere in which the strike took place, ex- tended throughout the country. The workers of the other national railway lines began to prepare for a general strike. From the revolutionary working class press of Colombia, we gather that our comrades made a serious analysis of their shortcomings. Let us enumerate the important ones. The lack of preparation of the strike by the union itself. The popularization of the demands put up by the workers, a fundamental pre-requisite for the success of the strike, was lacking. The demands should have been made on the basis of a series of meetings with the workers, to hear their grievances before their final formulation. Before the formulation of the demands, the broadest possible number of workers, in the un- ion and outside of it, should have been ap- proached and consulted. ‘The comrades are absolutely correct to make special emphasis on the fact that the Strike Committee did not function. We gather from the reports that only one Strike Committee was crganed. This, of course, is a seilous mistake. The Strike Committees eles’ed by the workers themselves should have ieluded he greatest number of workers possible, among the organ- ized and unorganized in every locality and rail- way station. The pxrticipaton of the rank and file workers in the Stike Gemmittees is a power- ful weapon against the possible demovalization and it increases their combativeness during the strike. On the eve of the strike, the leading com- mittee made no effort to counteract the in- fluence of the Liberal party politicians who sent their agents to speak to the workers in groups. Our comrades estimate that if a general meet- ing were held on the eve of the strike, the workers would have felt confident of a strong and capable leadership being side by side with them. This is correct, 4 On the day of the strike, Comrade Sabogal was arrested. The Secretary of the Union, Com- rade Bernal, went to protest at the police station for the detention of Sabogal. Both were sent to Bogota and released after the strike was over. ‘What was the error committed? It appears that these two comrades were the outstanding leaders of the strike and, naturally, they were invested with great responsibilities. A leader- less strike is doomed. ‘The correct thing for Bernal to do wag to remain at his post, with the workers, mobilize them to demonstrate and de- mand the release of Sabogal. We cannot em- phasize enough the seriousness of such “heroic” acts so common in Latin America, They in- dicate the putchist methods of struggle, petty bourgeois methods of struggle so harmful to the working class. In fact, all the shortcomings above mentioned are the outcome of the still prevalent ideology of “revolutionary socialism” so typical of Latin America, particularly of Colombia. The spontaneity of the strike took the com- rades, especially the leadership by surprise, Yet 2 | By JORGE “Very Sorry” for Chang Anyone who has been in Japan will remem- ber that all Japanese officials, cops included, are always polite enough when they throw you into jail for having ::dangerous ideas” (yes, there’s a law against “dangerous ideas”), to assure you that they are “very sorry.” If they execute you, they are “very, very sorry,” but they execute you just the same. We thought of that when we read in the “Japanese American” of July 15, a Tokio dis- patch headed: “Manchurian Marshal's Illness Worries Japan; Chang Hsueh-liang’s Possible Demise Considered by Tokio.” Um.... When Tokio “considers his demise’ it sounds as if they were going to take him for a ride. Of course he is supposed to Be sick now, but the way the Japanese Government bumped off his dad (Chang Tso-lin) makes this present. reference to young Chang sound dark. Old’ Chang Tso-lin, who was Japan's man in Manchuria, got sassy about two years ago, and was “put on the spot.” When his all steel private train was passing under the tracks of the Jap- anese military-guarded South Manchurian line just out of Mukden, about 2,000 pounds of high- grade dynamite located on both sides of the train in the concrete supports of the ‘upper tracks, was set off by electric connection so neatly timed that it caught old Chang’s coach as it was on the move and crushed both it and Chang. Japanese news agencies at once said “the Reds did it,” and for a week even wouldn't make clear whether he was dead or just hurt. Added Proof was the fact that old Chang’s most loyal general, whose name we forget now, but who was in Peking, hearing that something had hap- pened, grabbed a special train and started for Mukden—but hasn’t got there yet! In fact, his train had to change from the Mukden Chinese line to the Japanese South Manchurian line, it got stuck for a week, with this general and young Chang. And the general entirely disappeared, while young Chang was allowed to get to Mukden only after making pub- lic statements of friendship for Japan. An added proof was the faet that old Chang's Japanese “advisers” who always were with him, found some excuse to get off and get “left be- hind” a few stations before the explosion. Now that Tokio is “considering the demise” of young Chang, we guess that it’s because-he has been playing too much with Nanking, which is American property. And our further guess is that the new militarist revolt against Nanking in the North has some Tokio backing, Don’t th: this is none of your affair, because these tricks in the Far East can make a war that will get you, too! “Christ Life” That is the name of “A devotional Magazine for Young and Old”, published in Pittsburgh, the July number of which has not a word on the miners’ strike, but a long list of anti-Com- munist, anti-Soviet articles, among ‘em some of the most awful drivel we've seen. Fish is out-Fished! Listen to this stuff, taken from an article headed: “Divine and Satanic Strategy in the Coming World Conflict”—which you will note is also preparing the dupes of the church for war: “Is it not true that the Church is largely ignorant of the influence that demons are playing i the world’s affairs? Many of the world’s greatest statesmen have said in the last few years that all our efforts seemed baffled and defeated. They have put forth every effort to bring order out of the present chaos, but as they go from one expedient to another, they see failure of each, until despair seems writ- ten everywhere. These demoniacal forces seem not only to be succeeding in overturning gov- ernments, but they seem to be as successful in bring confusion and disaster to the Church.” So, workers, if the Hoover Plan can’t “save” Germany, if 10,000,000 of you are thrown onto the street by your bosses to starve while said bosses are living on the fat of the land, “it's de- mons” that ore to blame! “Moreover, “Satan has a throne” somewhere, which the article first says—“I cannot help but believe that that throne is in Central Asia, probably Tibet.” Since nobody knows much about Tibet, he is safe in saying that Satan’s throne is there, It would be awkward to say that Satan's throne is located in Andy Mellon's bank or the headquarters of the Pittsburgh Coal Company, as the editor of “Christ Life” would have to ex- plain why te does nothing about it. He can’t be blamed if it’s in Tibet, so Tibet it must be... No, wait a minute, here further along in the article, we find that he has switched it over to Moscow! “Seated there, does it not seem that the / Soviet Republic is Gog preparing for Mazog, and Germany is Gomer. Does it not all seem Biblical?” It does! Also it seems ante-diluvian, pre- historic, but altogether the kind. of medieval superstition and darknes that capitalism needs now to stifle the revolutionary cry of the toil- ing mases who are arousing to destroy their slavery which they have too long endured. Let every worker understand that the Church is on the side of his enemies, on the side of the boss and the police! the very existence of the Girardot Railroad Workers Union was the basis for the strike to be organized. Had the everyday activities of the revolutionary workers within the Union been consistent and systematic, they would have awakened to the growing mood of the workers to strike, in the face of the unbearable conditions in which they live. . We are of the opinion that we are today living in a very favorable situation in Colombia for the further development of the independent strike actions of the working class. Before tlie rapid crystallization of the independent revolu- tionary unions such as the Bavaria Brewery Workers Union and the Germania Brewery Workers Union, the Banana Plantation Work- ers Union in the Magdalena region, etc. the National Trade Union Committee finds itself in the most favorable conditions for the organigae tion of mass trade unions in Colombia. ad am ata Sth oe \