The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 13, 1934, Page 6

Page Six DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1934 Daily -QWorker (GBITRAL CO GAE COMNIUWIST PARTY BSA (SECTION OF COMMUSIST INTERLAMONAED “America’s Only Working Class Daily Newspaper” FOUNDED 1924 PUBLISHED DAILY, EXCEPT SUNDAY, BY THE COMPRODAILY PUBLISHING CO., ENC., 50 E. 13th Street, New York, N. ¥. ALgonquin 4- 7954. Telephone: JUNE 1 WEDNESDAY A. A. Members Should Demand Strike Action HE endless round of conferences on the steel strike situation, held during the past week in Washington, have proven the policy laid down by the Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union for preparations of the steel strike, to be entirely correct. As predicted by the S. M. W. I. U., the Roosevelt government, through General Johnson, offered the steel workers nothing but the company union in the most open and brazen form. Johnson spit upon the workers, treated them with contempt im real Hitler style. The Roosevelt administration went even further than the auto strike sell-out, p: sing only the “plan” of the Iron and Steel Institute as the N. R. A.’s own plan—that is a board of three to “ar- bitrate” through the company unions only. The declaration of the National Board of the 8. M. W. I. U., that the N. R. A. and the entire Roosevelt administration is following the policy of attempting to prevent the steel strike and to defeat the demands of the steel workers by “arbitration” achemes has been borne out to the letter. Mike Tighe, strikebreaking president of the Amal- gamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Work- ers (A. F. of L.) also remained true to his tra- ditional role of open strikebreaker. Tighe accepted the company union plan of the N. R. A. and the steel companies wholeheartedly and tried to force the steel workers to accept it. He has tried to con- fuse and split the steel workers, effectively delaying strike preparations while the steel companies were arming to the teeth. He tries to take leadership of the strike preparations in order to behead the strike. In this situation, the criticisms also levelled by the Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union at the Committee of Ten elected by the recent con- vention of the Amalgamated Association, has been fully justified by events. The Committee of Ten embraced Mike Tighe publicly in violation of their convention's instructions. At the same time the Committee of Ten rejected the proposals of the S. M. W. I. U. for united strike preparations and joint committees in the milis to prepare the strike. The Committee of Ten made no strike preparations, but lost valuable time staying in Washington, issuing statements praising Roose- velt and Tighe. They dropped the economic de- mands decided upon by the convention which elected them. They put forward only the demand for the right to collective bargaining under the N. R. A. They spread illusions that Roosevelt would help them and that the N. R. A—which was working to cram the company union down their throats, had their interests at heart. These district leaders of the Amalgamated As- sociation upon leaving Washington declared that they have no more faith in Roosevelt, that they @re disillusioned with the N. R. A. and are going back into the field to prepare for action. * * HE time has arrived now when these district leaders of the A. A. including the Committee of Ten, must take a stand either for or against the demands of the steel workers—either for or against immediate strike preparations. Mike Tighe has called a convention of the A. A. to take place this Thursday, June 14, two days be- fore the strike is scheduled to begin. Tighe has already invited Johnson to speak and take part in ths convention. There is no doubt that the strategy of the Tighe-Leonard machine, of the Roosevelt government and the steel companies will be to try to demoralize the ranks of the steel workers, to try to delay the strike, to lead the steel workers’ fight into the channels of government “arbitration,” and straight to the company union, to try to force the steel workers to drop their demands for better wages, better working conditions and union recognition. Roosevelt is being held in reserve to appeal per- sonally to the steel workers to abandon their de- mands and accept the fascist company: union ar- bitration. The time for shilly-shallying is past. Either the district leaders of the A. A. must prepare the strike, and organize the struggle for the steel workers, or betray the steel workers and continue to follow in the path of Tighe, Johnson, and the steel companies, The tasks of the rank and file delegates to the June 14 convention are to prepare the strike; to insist on putting forward the economic demands already voted on by the steel workers, to reject all arbitration by the government, which means to Teject company unionism, to prepare the steel strike on the basis of complete unity of all the steel work- ers, as proposed by the S. M. W. I. U. In order to carry out this task it is absolutely necessary to brush aside Mike Tighe and his ma- chine, to completely break with his treacherous policy of strikebreaking and company unionism. The Com- mittee of Ten must now take a definite stand — either for or against unity. Either for or against the strike, either for or against the economic de- mands of the steel workers, either for or against the company union arbitration. The steel workers are watching these district leaders of the A. A. closely. The rank and file in the A. A. must take the strike preparations at once into their own hands. They should elect their united front strike committees in every mill. They should brush aside the Tighe-Leonard machine at the June 14 convention, and brush aside any dis- trict leaders who lay the treacherous game of Tighe, of delay and sabotage of the strike preparations. The steel workers know that only by a fight can they win their demands. They will support those local leaders who prepare the strike and depose all traitors and waverers, . 5 tao Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union has the task of preparing and leading the strike im each mill where it has sufficient organization. ‘The S. M. W. I. U, takes the lead in each mill where 4 4 ’ ‘Sailors and Class Struggle it has a local in establishing the unity of all the steel workers in a united elected strike committee. The practical, immediate task of the steel workers in every mill is the organization of united committees of action. These United Action Com- mittees, composed of the members of the S. M. W. I. U,, the rank and file members of the A. A. | and the unorganized workers should take the lead- ership of the struggle in each mill into their own | hands. ‘The rank and file inside the A. A. must guaran- | tee this unity of all the steel workers in the strike. | preparations by organizing their opposition to | the corrupt Tighe-Leonard machine and against any | of those leaders supporting this machine. | All workers in the United States should help the steel workers in their fight. The fight of the steel | workers is the fight of the entire working class. | Support the struggle of the steel workers! | Not the path of Mike Tighe, of company union arbitration, but the path of the fighting workers of Toledo and Minneapolis will win the fight of the steel workers, E ARE glad today to print a special page devoted to letters by sailors in | the U. S. fleet, and articles of special in- terest to the men, sons of workers and farmers, in Wall Street’s Navy. The Daily Worker, central organ of the Communist Party, the revolutionary po- litical party of the working class, urges all sailors to read these articles on what the men in the fleet say about conditions in the navy. From these letters we learn that the sailors are also suffering wage cuts, as are their brothers on land, in the factories of the capitalists. The same Roosevelt “economy” program that can find billions of dollars for battleships forces a pay eut for the sailors along with a slash in relief for the starving unemployed millions. Foremost among the complaints of the sailors are their low, miserable wages; the difficult duties of incessant and heavy war maneuvers, the long hours on watch, enforced to keep the navy ready to fight for new plunder for the rich bosses of this country; the sometimes poor and always monotonous food, and the sickening, lying ballyhoo about what a good time the sallors are having on leave in New York. Many of the sailors who were forced by lack of jobs or rotten conditions at home, due to un- employment and threatening starvation, to join the navy know that they have not escaped from these things. Every day they read about strikes throughout the country. There are increasing at- | tacks made by the bosses and their government against striking workers, and in some places troops have been used by the capitalists to drive the workers back into the shops with starvation pay. | We can see from these facts that the employers | use the armed forces, the Army, Navy, militia, not | | only in preparation for a new imperialist war, but | | for use against the working class at home, as the | struggles grow sharper, as the resistance to Roose- | velt’s increasingly fascist measures grow in force. As one marine in San Diego, whose letter we publish today, says, when the marines were ordered out against a workers’ demonstration: “My parents are on the county welfare and are plenty sore at, their short rations and treatment by the welfare | | department.” | * * * Noz only are the sailors connected by ties of blood and class to the workers suffering wage- cuts, starvation conditions, unemployment, fighting on the picket line against the armed thugs of the bosses, but they themselves in the navy feel this attack against their own conditions. The same people who through the N.R.A., the strikebreaking National Labor Board, grind down the workers at home, are responsible for the wage cuts, and rotten conditions of the men in the fleet. The big trusts and their owners, the Morgans, Rockefellers, Fords, Mellons, who profit by lower wages for all workers, are the ones who profit when the fleet is sent to war to protect the investments of the American billionaires. These people, and the others of their class, made hundreds of mil- lions in the last world war. They want another war to swell their profits at the expense of slaugh- tering the sons of the workers in the armed forces. To resist the lowering of their standards of living the workers are organizing their trade unions, battling for their rignt to organize and strike. ’ * * IN THE navy the sailors should discuss their con- ditions, organize their committees to work out demands, to express their opinions as men, and to refuse to be the human tools of the imperialist war mongers. Imperialist war will benefit only the rich, the exploiters of their brothers, their fathers, their sisters, their buddies on land. When the son of a worker or farmer goes into the navy, when he dons a uniform, he does not cast aside his class connections. When he comes out of the navy he faces the breadlines or the starvation conditions in the factories. In the navy he should act as an intelligent, class-conscious member of the working class. He should discuss the reason why he is sent on war maneuvers, what the war preparations are all about, who will benefit from them, and what he can do, along with his mates to fight against capitalist war- We urge every sailor who reads this paper to take it up with his mates. Discuss the issues raised by the sailor correspondents. Talk over the ques- tion of organization, and the fight against imperial- ist war. Send us letters on conditions in the navy, questions, discussion, the views of the men in the fleet on strikes, on the Roosevelt policy, on war preparations and the fight against them. The Communist Party, the party of the work- ing class, the party which puts as its central aim the establishment of a workers government, sup- ports the sailors in their fight for the restoration of pay cuts and clothing allowance; for increase in the base pay to $30 a month, and return of “shipping-over” allowance: We say to the sailors —all workers, whether in uniform or not, must stick together, Organize and fight against all capitalist wars! Defend the Soviet Union and Soviet China! Forward to a workers’ and farmers’ government in this country! Join the Communist Party 35 EAST 12TH STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y. Piease send me more information on the Ccommu- nist Party, | “Ride Herd” | L. union were driven for days | vestigation” of reports that state | tions in China are being planned by | cover of the Kuramoto affair. | day Foreign Minister Koki Hirota, | With the Cabinet’s consent, was au- | | Marines would be landed, and more On Strikers In California Workers Beaten andl Driven from County To County SAN FRANCISCO, June 12—| Like herded cattle, corralled in| pens, beaten and slugged, 200) striking cannery and fruit work-| ers, men, women and children, | were driven from county to county | because they dared to strike for a} living wage. | The attack was conducted by| | California ranchers, aided by state Police and local sheriffs. It was | | directed not only against the Fruit | | and Cannery Workers Industrial Union, a militant class-struggle union, but also against the work- ers of the A. FP. of L. Cannery’) Workers Union. While the workers of the A. F. of around the country by armed, mounted thugs, the leaders of the A. F. of L. reposed quietly in jail at Martinez. Thirteen of the A. F. of L, leaders were picked out and the 200 workers were then attacked by the ranchers, sheriffs and state police. The workers were driven into the corrals and then 100 officials “rode herd” on them as though they were steers. Driven from country t@ country, fed haphaz- ardly, forced to keep moving by the thugs on horses, the workers suffered terribly. Governor Merriam, who took of- fice recently, upon the death of Governor Rolph, ordered an “in- police, whose sole duty is to care for traffic, participated in the bru- tal torturing of the workers. But, | said Merriam, the right to picket is “no business of the governor.” That is “up to the local authori- ties.” Warships Back Up Japan Threats in Consul “Mystery” “Disappearance” Like One Just Before the Manchuria Drive TOKIO, June 12.—New depreda- the To- Japanese imperialism under thorized to inform Chir that the disappearance of Eimei ur Mi Japanese Consular Se. at Nanking, “was a serious affai~, | Last Friday Kuramoto saw the Consul-General off at the railway station and he has not been heard from or seen since. The Japanese have ordered a battleship to Nanking, and are beginning to demand some new concessions from the Nanking government on the basis of the Kuramoto “disappearance.” Tokio newspapers interpreted the action of the foreign minister to mean that if Kuramoto was not found within a few days, Japanese warships sent to Nanking. This “disappearing” trick has been used before by Japanese imperialism in China, as it is one of the most con- venient excuses for diplomatic pres- sure and for concentration of armed forces at a desired spot. In Nanking the Kuramoto inci- dent is compared to the Captain Nakamura case which preceded the invasion of Manchuria. Nakamura, @ Japanese miiltary spy, sent into} Mongolia to prepare for the inva- | sion of Japanese imperialists also “disappeared.” It was claimed that Chinese soldiers, discovering his spying activities, shot him, This was used as one of the excuses for the invasion of Manchuria by Jap- anese imperialism. NEW BELGIAN CABINET BRUSSELS, June 12—The new Cabinet will be constituted tomor- row, Count Charles de Broqueville announced today. It will be com- posed. of seven Catholics headed by Premier de Broqueville and Henri Jasper, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and six liberals, |st.(German | tims, reports here show. By Burck Murray Tells Aims of Irish Workers in Fight on Fascism NEW YORK.—“To smash O’Duf- fy’s Irish fascists demands a fight also against the fascism of Hitler and Mussolini. To force the free- dom of republican and anti-fascist fighters in Ireland demands a fight for the freedom of Ernst Thael- mann,” This was the stirring spirit of Sean Murray’s speech on Ireland’s Path to Free- 43 dom before the ¢ Bronx Irish § Workers’ Club at 306 E. 149th Workers’ Home) Monday night. The interna- tional sweep of she anti-fascist struggle was splendidly e x- pressed by many German work- ers present, who were anxious to O’DUFFY learn and fight against the Hit- ler’s and Goerings of Ireland. “This German-Irish alliance is nothing new in Irish national poli- tics,” Murray said. “In 1916 we had a tragic example of German im- perialist power pretending to be- friend Irish freedom. Actually Kaiser Germany was cynically trifling with the Irish, using Ire- land as a weapon against England, deserting Ireland—Casement has told us the story in his memoirs— at the last moment. “Today we are building a new kind of alliance with friends in Germany. The fascist chief of Ire- land, O'Duffy, borrows the shirt and the foulest imperialist ideas from Hitler. The Irish people, the revolutionary working ciass small farmers, many. “But our friends there,” Murray continued amidst stermy ap- plause, “are not the Hitlers, they are the revolutionary working- men and women of Germany and their leader, Ernst Thaelmann, the Jim Connolly of Germany. Standing together against this shirt menace, Irish and German workers, with the workers of all lands, can drive the Hitiers and O’Duffys off the face of the earth from | and rescue the Thaelmanns fr | Cow! Heil United Front!” the executioner’s axe.” Telegrams demanding Thael- mann’s immediate release were sent to Hitler and his U. S. agent, Ambassador Luther. Hurricane, Storms Kill 3,000 inCentralAmerica TAMPICO, Mexico, June 12.— @urious storms and __ hurricanes sweeping over Central America and Mexico have claimed over 3,000 vic- Most of the deaths occurred in El Salvador and Honduras. The storm is now passing over Mexico, headed for Texas. In Salvador, airplane ob- servers reported that 2,000 deaths occurred in the stricken areas in that small country. STORM TROOPS, STAHLHELM CLASH MAGDEBURG, June 12. — The Nazi battle with the Stahlhelm pro- duced riots at Schoenebeck near here yesterday. Franz Seldte, Minister of Labor and a Stahlhelm leader, was abused by Nazis when his car was stopped enroute from Buggingen, where the government paid widows and. chil- dren in words and music for the death of 87 miners who were trap- ped in a potash mine fire on May 7th, to Schoenebeck on the Elbe where he was to speak. He reached the town and spoke, however, but fighting broke out be- tween the Stahlhelm and the Storm Troops immediately after. JAPAN’S FASTEST AIR FLEET LONDON, June 12—The fastest fieet of military planes in the world has just been delivered to the Jap- anese Government, the Evening News declared yesterday. Japanese designed and built in Kobe, they are 800 h.p. monoplanes capable of 250 miles per hour, a speed attainable by some planes in other services but not by a whole fleet as in the case of these new planes. and | also look to Ger-| FOREIGN BRIEFS TROOPS ORDERED OUT IN SPAIN MADRID, June 12—Troops were rushed to the province of Jaen Sat- urday as virtual civil war broke out against the governmental attempts to suppress the outlawed farm strike. Civil guards killed a striker at Arjona in Jaen, and 33 were ar- rested at Coroni in Sevilla where 200 were arrested on June 6, the second day of the strike which af- fects three million workers. Police closed the People’s House at Osuna. FORCE AIR DEFENSE DRILLS PARIS, June 12.—Fine and im- prisonment would be meted out to those who refused to participate in so-called “air-defense” drills ac- cording to the terms of a bill pro- posed by Minister of the Interior Albert Sarraut. HEIL UNITED FRONT! MAGDEBURG, June12.—A worker was sentenced to six weeks im- prisonment for shouting, “Heil Mos- BULGARIA ARMS SEARCH SOFIA, June 12.—Police broke into homes throughout Bulgaria last week in a search for arms. It was reported from Petrich, Razlog and Bansko that every house had been entered. JUST PUBLISHED The Communist, June, 1934, Vol. XII, No. 6; 96 pages. Twenty cents. Contests—Editorial: “The Les- sons of May Day”; Jack Stachel, “Some problems in Our Trade Union Work”; Martin Young, “What Is to Be Expected of the Socialist Party Convention?”; Marina Lopez, “The Imperialist Scramble. in the Colombian - Peruvian Conflict”; G. M., “Japan Bares Its Imperialist Sword”; H. Puro, “The Farmers Are Getting Ready for Revolu- tionary Struggles”; James Allen, “The Black Belt; Area of Negro Majority”; Labor Research Assn., “Figures on the Amer.-Economic Crisis.” “Daily Herald” Recetves! Fascisis’ Thanks for War Support British Labor Party (the So- cialist Party of Great Britain) is now beginning to support openly the imperialist foreign policy of the MacDonald “national government,” the core of which today is frank support of German fascism and re- arming the latter for war against the Soviet Union. The social-fascist leadership of the Labor Party did not dare to confess at the very beginning that it too stood unconditionally behind its own bourgeoisie in the question of Germany's rearmament, because there was and is mass sentiment in England against German fas- cism, which has been intensified in fact during the past few weeks. The admission of unconditional support of this foreign policy was prepared for slowly and now is culminated in the publication of a major ar- ticle on the situation in Germany by the foreign editor in the “Daily Herald,” the central daily organ of the British Labor Party. This edi- tor, W. H. Ewer, poses as a par- ticularly “left” radical, such as is only required for such jobs. Mr. Ewer's article “Germany Arms for War—But .. .” in the “Daily Herald” of May 25 says: “We must take it for Sates that Germany is re-arming tod: At any rate, Great Britain pert Italy have agreed that Germany has the right to re-arm if the other powers do not disarm... . It is difficult to estimate how far its re-armament has progressed already. I doubt whether many of the ‘prohibited’ arms are already in its possession insofar as actual war material is concerned. . . . But on the other hand—with regard to troop con- tingents—there is no doubt that ex- tensive military training is going on, .. . Bu aside from the elite guards and some special detach- ments of the storm troops who are to be incorporated in the Reichs- wehr later on, I do not believe that this training is of great importance from the military standpoint. I suspect that they are guided by the idea rather of inculcating discipline rather than training soldiers... . “The question then arises: Why all this if Germany does not ‘honestly want a war?’ There are two reasons which one cannot help realizing if one does any traveling in Germany at all. The first is the passionate desire for ‘equality be- fore the law.’ Second, there is the indisputable fact that Germany is actually without protection and surrounded by heavily armed neigh- bors. It would be useless to say, ‘but nobody will attack you.’ No other government recognizes such an argument. What British govern- ment would be ready to disarm to the level of Germany while the other countries round about remain ee [This evidently means—a third “labor” government, which the Labor party is aiming at today will, of course, not disarm. — Editor's note.) “There is no doubt that Ger- many’s nervousness regarding pos- sible air attacks is genuine. Is there @ government in the world as it is today that wouldn’t be nervous un- der such conditions, especially since its neighbors have brusquely refused during the last few years to give up their air bombers, their big tanks, and other offensive weapons against which Germany’s defensive equip- ment is powerless? “But isn’t tremendous propaganda being carried on for a war of re- venge, for re-conquest? That is possible. But if there is such prop- aganda it must be carried on so secretly, so discreetly that it cannot be very effective. I have looked for this propaganda and found— nothing. ...No. I have found not a trace of such inciting and chau- vinist war propaganda.” Che rns 'S our English social-fascist as- sures us: (1) There are no “pro- hibited” arms in Germany, in otgpr words, German atmament corres- ponds to the British arms memor- andum; (2) The training of the storm troopers and elite guard (S. S.) is almost “wholly unmilitary’— only such noble sentiments as dis- cipline are to be promoted within the storm troops; (3) The argument of German imperialism that its neighbors do not disarm either is taken as fully justified; (4) The ohauvinistic wave artificially stimu- British Labor Party Paper Aids Nazi Arms Plans {Backs Policy of British Imperialism for * War Alliances lated by German fascism is pictured as spontaneous reaction of the population; “the ‘nervousness is genuine”; (5) incitement, to war is out of the question—the German fascists are pictured as “almost” as peace-loving as the British social- fascists; (6) and here is where the social-fascist services for British imperialism appear most nakedly and unashamed. German re-armament must not be looked upon as a “purely Ger- man problem” but as a European, as a, world problem. This is a dema- gogic paraphrase for the statement that German armmaent must be considered from the standpoint of gaining Germany as an ally for Britain’s imperialist policy in Eu- rope and throughout the world. And the policy that Britain pursues to- day in Europe and throughout the world is the winning of allies for war against the Soviet Union. The fascist German press imme- diately reprinted this declaration of British social-fascism, the Berlin “Boersenzeitung” of May 27th, giv- ing the Labor Party high praise. The headline over the reprint of the “Daily Herald” report reads: “The Will to Truth—the ‘Daily Herald’ on Germany's Desire for Peace.” On the World Front By HARRY GANNES Grenoble Shows the Way Reject General Strike What the Enemy Sees IRANCE, the country where class struggles have al« ways been fought out to their finish, is now witnessing tre« mendous developments in the fight against fascism. The central question is the united front of the workers against the fascist gangs and their aide-dee camps, the Doumergue government. It is in France now where we can see in the boldest relief the role of the Socialist leaders, the yellow trade union leaders, and of the ope portunist, factional Doriot in the Communist Party, in the fight against the united front. Last Sunday this struggle wag brought to a higher stage in two chief actions. In Grenoble, Social« ist rank and filers and Communists joined hands in a three-hour battle against a fascist meeting of Deputy Henriot. Henriot is the most brazen of the fascist speakers in France, having behind him the open supe port of the Doumergue government. Five hundred police and a heavy troop mobilization were gathered at the Grenoble meeting hall to insure Henriot the government’s protece tion. The Communist Party meme bers led the offensive on Henriot’s meeting place, which was heavily barricaded. The Socialist Party, members joined in enthusiastically, valiantly. Together they were forced to retreat to a church, barricaded themselves in and shouted slogans against fascism, fighting off the police, calling on the soldiers to join them, raising the slogan of a workers’ and peasants’ government, of Soviet power, . HIS was the united front achieved, the united front that is disturbing the capitalist govern- ment, offering definite resistance to fascism. This is the united front that is a model to all workers, re= gardless of party affiliation. This is the united front, which when translated to a national and inter= national scale, will defeat fascism and lead to the overthrow of capi- talism, But the Socialist leaders do not want such a united front, and behind them they have the support of the Trotzkyites and the Doriots, On the day when the Socialist Party members in Grenoble and other cities were shedding their blood along with Communists fight- ing the fascist hounds, the leaders of the revolutionary Unitary Con- federation of Labor proposed to the reformist, Socialisi-led Confedera- | tion that a general strike be called against the decree-laws of the Doumergue government. This was a@ repetition of the Communist united front proposals to extend the action against fascism, More than that, it was a definite, neces- sary action against the rapidly pro gressing fascist measures of the Doumergue government, measures similar to the Bruening and von Papen decrees in Germany that laid the basis for Hitler’s victory. The Socialist Party leaders def- initely refused the united front general strike because they want to protect and support the Dou- mergue government—on the theory again of the “lesser evil.” It was on the theory that the Socialist Party leaders in Ger- many rejected the united front general strike proposal of the Communist Party on July 22, 1932; it is the theory that led the Austrian Socialist leaders to sup- port Dollfuss as against the Nazis, only to nurture Dollfuss into the Austrian Hitler. Pie eae O obviously treacherous and against the interests of the united front of the French working class was the rejection of this pro- posal of the revolutionary trade unions of France, that the New York Herald Tribune correspondent in his news story comments as fol- lows: “Although Socialists and Come munists fought side by side in Grenoble today, the powerful Confederation General du Tra- vail, which is closely identified with the Socialists, refused to join the Unitary Federation, a Com- munist organization, in a ‘united front’ for general strike against Premier Doumergue’s decret-lois (decree-laws).” The relationship is obvious even to the enemy. Rank and file fight on the barricades. Socialist lead- ers reject the general strike in ac- tion against fascist decrees. What comes of the Socialist leaders’ talk of “general strike?” In Latvia the Socialist leaders were “for” the gen eral strike against fascism. Did they call it? Of course, not. They had control of the unions. General strikes, they know, arouse the works ers into action against fascism. They strengthen the bonds of unity from below. The Socialist leaders do not want that. They do not want to undermine or upset capi- talism. When the Trotzkyites yelp about united’ front “from aboye” they throw protective screens around these lickspittles of the “lesser evils,” the social-fascist bul- wark of capitalism. In France the issue is crystal clear. The united front, despite the sabotage of the Socialist leaders, despite the support given to them in their splitting tactics by Doriot, is being forged from below. More than a month ago the Secretary of the Communist Party of France, Comrade Thorez, could report, that against the wishes of the Socialist Party leadership 150 branches, and 10,000 members had joined with Communists in establishing a fighte ing anti-fascist united front. Grenoble and the action of the Socialist trede union leaders is a concrete answer to those who cneer pe ee resist the united front from low, t