The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 3, 1935, Page 6

Page 6 DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1935 Daily .QWorker STAAL ORGAN COMMUNIST PARTY U.S.A. (SECTION OF COMMUMIST INTERNATIONAL} ‘America’s Only Working Class Daily Newspaper” FOUNDED 1924 PUBLISHED DAILY, EXCEPT SUNDAY, BY THE COMPRODAILY PUBLISHING CO., INC., 50 E. 13th Street, New York, N. Y. Telephone: ALgonquin 4-795 4. Cable Address: New York, N. Y. iwork,” Washington Room 954, National Pres ner ith aca P Si ‘sshington, D. C. Telephon 1 Midwess Bureau: 101 South Wells St., Room 705, Chicago, Mi Teleprone: Dearborn 3931, Subseription Rates: By Mail: (except Manhattan and Bronx), 1 year, $6.00; 6 months, $3.50; 3 months, $2.90; 1 month, 0.75 cents. Manhattan, Bronx, Foreign and Canada: 1 $9.00 6 months, $5.00: 3 months, $3.00. By Carrier: Weekly, 18 cents; monthly, 75 cents Saturday Edition: By mail, 1 year, $1.50; 6 months, 78 cents HURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1935 Much Perplexity HE beginning of the new year finds the capitalists in a more troubled mood than they were a year ago. They no longer shout that recovery is around the corner. In- stead their forecasts for 1935 reflect the lack of assurance and the instability that char- acterize the economic picture. The Herald Tribune speaks of “limited recovery”; the Times confesses to “much perplexity,” and to a future that is “obscure.” In fact, all of the usual optimistic assertions about the coming year are care- fully tempered by admissions that in many respects the situation is worse today than last year, In the first place, unemployment is greater than which figures. a year ago, even according to the A. F. of L. consistently underestimates the Heavy industry is still stagnant whole is far below “normal.” In the last six months of 1934 the business index of the Federal Reserve Board averaged only 73 per cent of the period from 1923-1925, while Roosevelt in his budget message last year predicted the level would be 98 per cent. There has been no new capital investment such as heralds the approach of a boom. The banks have reduced their business loans by $625,000,000 and, despite all efforts to loosen the frozen money market, money continues to pile up in the banks as the capitalists see no prospects for profitable private investments. To weather the economic storm the capitalists took many energetic measures which introduced pro- found changes in our economic life. But the New Deal and the N.R.A., while they enabled the capital- ists to improve their position at the expense of the living standards of the workers, accentuated all the contradictions which brought on the economic The New Deal did not lead to a new boom On the contrary as the financial editor of the Times admits every upward movement is followed by “abrupt reaction and falling markets.” American’ capitalism is in the midst of what Stalin called “a depression of a special kind.” It has made enormous profits through speedup, the infla- tionary rise in prices, and the continued impover- ishment of the poor and middle farmers. But although the economic curve is above the low point of the . it shows no signs of rising to boom levels. The “special depression” is interwoven with the genera! crisis of capitalism, and every measure employed by the capitalists only deepens this gen- eral crisis. As the thirteenth plenum of the Communist In- ternational pointed out, the capitalists in their frantic efforts to find a way out will resort to moves that will “lead to a still greater disturbance of the state finances and to a still further intensification of the general crisis of capitalism.” The correctness of this analysis is borne out by the events of the past year. At the end of 1934 the government debt was $28,500,000,000 (twenty- eight and a half billions) plus contingent liabilities amounting to another three billions. This mounting debt, the greatest in the history of the country, must sooner or later lead to new inflationary moves as the government maneuvers to find funds to meet its expenditures. The New Deal has therefore not ‘solved the crisis. It has strengthened the vower of the monopolies ‘and enormously increased the profits of the capital- ists, but reduced the living standards of the masses. ‘The bourgeoisie by their own admission see no way out of the crisis. Why they can find no way out will be shown by the Daily Worker in subsequent issues. It will analyze the annual summaries of the capitalist economists, and show that these prove that for the workers there is but one real solution for the crisis—the Communist way out. Proof Piles Up On Kirov’s Assassins MERICAN newspaper correspondents in Moscow have discovered the name of the consul from a capitalist country who aided the assassins of our Comrade Kirov, He happens to be George Bissenieks, Lat- vian Consul General, who since the exposure made by the Soviet government (though his name was not menticned), has left the country. Latvia is ruled by a Fascist regime, in which German Nazis play a role. Bissenieks actually turned money over to Nicholaev—and he alone knows how many other terrorists against the work- ers’ fatherland—to carry on work of murder, spying and sabotage in preparation for war against the USSR. A few facts about Bissenieks are worth mention- ing, as it is clear Latvia alone would not undertake War against the Soviet Union. Bissenieks’ training jwas gained in London at the Court of St. James, where the British imperialist rulers consider the Baltic countries mainly as a future military road to the Soviet Union. Bissenieks’ wife is British, de- scribed as “of the upper class.” Besides, the gentieman in his youth was a mem- ber of the Social Revolutionaries, some of whom after the October revolution came over to the Bol- sheviks and others, to the last, stood on the side of capitalism and reaction. It was a Social-Revolu- tionary who attempted to assassinate Lenin. The links in the chain of the terrorists’ connec- tions from the fascists down to the rats in the Zino- viev-Trotzky faction become clearer. Both the British die-hards and German fascism worked through the Latvian “Social Revolutionary,” who _ in turn could best helo his imperialist friends by his preliminary experience and connections with pseudo- of course, piles un more proof of the char- + of those involved in the assassination of Kirov, pof were needed. capitalist press in this country, meanwhile, red to a new dungheap for its dirtslinging the Soviet Union. Not ig * with raising correct And business as a is a hypocritical howl about th Ss and their pals, the N. Y, Times, and the “So- cialist” Forward, for instance, resort to lies out of the whole cloth about imaginary anti-Jewish fights in Leningrad That not an iota of proof is published by the press who got the story from the Warsaw cesspool of propaganda makes no difference with the For- ward. It makes no difference with them, either, that the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in London, which has correspondents both in Moscow and Len- ingrad, could not find the slightest confirmation of the basis for this cannard. The clearer the situation becomes the more des- perate the efforts of the lie-factories of the capital- ists around the Soviet Union. Textile Profits HE first report of the Federal Trade Commission of its “investigation” of profits in the textile industry is an attempt to hide the tremendous profits wrung out of the textile workers and to justify the speed-up and low wages which made these profits Possible. The report was ordered by Roosevelt following the sell-out of the September general textile strike. When Francis Gorman, leader of the United Tex- tile Workers, sent the 500,000 strikers back to work without winning any of their demands, Gorman told them that as a result of the “investigations” the textile workers would win their demands. He hailed the calling of these “investigations” as a “victory” for the strikers. assas- Now the textile workers can see how they were fooled. In order to justify the low wages, the in- tensifying speed-up, the union smashing of the em- ployers, the Federal Trade Commission attempts to show that in the two months before the strike the textile mills operated at a loss. The Daily Worker of Jan. 1 gave figures show- ing that even in this two months period Before the strike many mills made substantial profits. The Federal Trade Commission admits that its report is based on questionnaires answered by 765 employers, There was much room for doctoring of figures in this method of “investigating.” But even taking the Federal Trade Commission report at its face value, even granting the correct- ness of the report, the figures given by the employers themselves prove that out of the sweat and blood of the textile workers the employers ground millions in profits. The Federal Trade Commission claims that in the two months before the strike the 765 companies lost a total of $4.667,578 on investment. BUT THE COMMISSION ADMITS THAT THESE SAME MILLS MADE A TOTAL OF $98,039,990 PROFITS | IN THE YEAR AND A HALF FROM JAN. 1, 1933 TO JUNE, 1934. EVEN SUBTRACTING THE LOSS CLAIMED DURING THE TWO MONTHS PRE- CEDING THE STRIKE, THE EMPLOYERS GOT NINETY-THREE AND A HALF MILLION DOL- | LARS PROFIT IN THE YEAR AND EIGHT MONTHS PRECEDING THE STRIKE. This does not include the millions in exorbitant salaries and | other means of hiding huge profits. The Federal Trade Commission, of course, harps | only on the two months before the strike. But its own figures are an indictment against the speed-up, the low wages, the rotten conditions imposed on the textile workers to make these hig profits possible. The textile workers can now see that they must build the rank and file movement in the United Textile Workers’ Union, and throw overboard the no- strike policies of Gorman. Not by relying on the blood-sucking employers, | but by struggle, can the textile workers win their demands. The Hauptmann Trial HE trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann for the murder of Charles Lindbergh’s son happens to be a well-nigh perfect sym- bol of the deep-going corruption and hypoc- risy of a system in which the death of a | rich man’s child is given literally thousands of times | more importance than the slow, tortured death from malnutrition and starvation of tens of thou- | sands of unemployed workers every year in the United States. The millions of words which will flow from Flemington, N. J., to the capitalist papers will serve | very nicely, of course, to distract the attention of | the masses of Americans from their more imme- | diate problems: from the slow starvation which has | almost a third of the American people in its grip; from the danger of an imperialist war which will | throw hundreds of thousands of workers into the | maws of cannons belching death and injury; from the N. R. A., which is driving their wages downto coolie levels while it breeds new crops of million- aires and doubles the profits of existing million- aires; from the achievements of socialism in the Soviet Union, where the kidnaping and murder of a Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., would be as un- thinkable as the flood of noxious gas from Flem- ington which will all but inundate the readers of the capitalist newspapers. But there are other reasons, too, for the gigan- tic mobilization of capitalist newspapers for the Hauptmann trial. There is the subtle whipping up of patriotism in the glorification of the adventurer, now a Colonel in the National Guard, who carried the Stars and Stripes over the Atlantic to a perfect landing in Paris, there is the continuation of the fable that fame and fortune still await any Ameri- can youth with courage and imagination, and finally, there is the attempt to make millions of mothers forget the sufferings of their own chil- dren in the tears they will shed as they read the details of the kidnapping and murder of the Lind- bergh baby. The real political ramifications of the Haupt- mann trial will not be dealt with by the capitalist press. The support which the Nazis are reputedly extending to Hauptmann, the gangsterism which occasionally breeks out of the framework of police protection and results in one of the exploiters’ families becoming the victim of a kidnapping or murder, all these and more are taboo with a capi- talist press, which has the primary purpose to sup- port the insanities of capitalism and prevent the masses from getting an insight into how the sys- tem works. The Daily Worker will undertake to present the workers’ angle of the Hauptmann trial. Join the Communist Party 35 EAST 12TH STREET, NEW YORK. N, Y. Please send me more information on the Com- munist Party. ADDRESS | laxity with an honest program. To ea pean ae Party Life The Red Fighting Fund and Methods To Build It Up IOMRADE KRUMBEIN’S eloquent plea for greater support of the Red Fighting Fund should be seri- ously considered by every comrade. Indeed, the problem of financial | support for work in the event of illegality is rapidly becoming one of | the central problems. | The task of soliciting funds for} | this purpose is an easy one, Every | comrade has several friends or ac- quaintances who are Communist sympathizers but who, for one reason or another, either will not) or cannot join the Party. This is the | type to contact for the Red Fund. | Visit them but keep your stamp | book in your pocket. Approach them as follows: “Comrade X, you say| you are wholeheartedly in support of the Communist Party, is that| right? Yet, outside of occasional | contributions, you are doing nothing positive’ to advance the work of| the Party. Don’t you feel that, in view of your convictions, it is your duty to do something to compen- sate for the fact that you are not | a member? Well, here is your op-| portunity. As you know, there is no telling when the Party may be) driven underground. To prepare in| advance for such an event, we are building up a Red Fund to finance | activities under illegal conditions. | We ask You to pledge yourself to | contribute a certain sum of money to the fund every two months, from | now on. Imagine how you would feel if you knew that your money was helping to carry on under- ground work under those conditions. | Wouldn't that give you a thrill?” |In most cases approached in this | way, the worker will express his| | willingness to contribute. Only then | | should you bring out your stamp) | book, | |. In my opinion, the failure in col- j lections has been due to the fact| { | that the comrades have used the | |same approach that they use. for other collections, They have merely | asked for general contributions. | Comrades, the Red Fund requires |a selective approach. It requires |@ different technique. At the same time, it is easier to collect funds | for this purpose than for other | purposes. There is a more obvious | connection between such a collec- tion and the very existence of the} Party in the near future than there | is in the case of other funds. Stress this connection. Present the prob- | lem in dramatic terms. Picture the | Party fighting for its life under) illegal conditions. Capitalize the | feeling of guilt that every Commu- | nist sympathizer carries in his heart | because he is not a member of the} Party. | If you do this, comrades, the Red Fund will go over the top with a roar. Don’t delay. Sit down at once and draw up a list of Communist sympathizers whom you know. tt Unit 13, Sec. 17, Dist. 2. ear umes | Workers Expect Discipline in Party When a worker wants to keep-his | job, he makes sure to be on time every morning. When this same worker wants to work as a Party| member, he is also on time at his} meetings. When he fails to be on time, it shows that he does not want} very much to be active in the Party, or he would make it his business to be on time as he does at th factory or mill. No amount of explanation can convince an honest person that the said worker is sincere about his Party work, Many new recruits with factory discipline turn away from the Party | because they cannot reconcile time | them the Party resembles a social affair for Communists. The Communist Party cannot boast revolutionary discipline, when | it is impotent to rally its members on time. The Revolution must come, what matter if it is a little late? Ae ‘Thaelmann’ Signs on Sides | Of Nazi Ships LONDON, Jan. 2—The crews of German ships visiting European ports are constantly subjected to anti-fascist propaganda. The Nazi captains and officers of these ships seem at the end of their wits in their attempts to mect many new methods put to use by the marine workers and longshoremen in be- half of the anti-fascist movement. When the German battleships ‘Koenigsberg’ and ‘Leipzig’ visited Portsmouth recently, the crews were showered with leaflets de- manding the freedom of Thael- mann, Ossietski, Graef and other prisoners in Hitler's dungeons. The British admiralty complained to the House of Commons about this occurrence. Here the longshoremen printed “Free Thaelmann’ on the side of | the German freighter, ‘Leonhardt.’ | | The crew of this ship saw this ac- | | tion but did nothing. Only when) | the captain and the officers became! | aware of it, did they call the police. | In Antwerp the sides of the Ger- man freighter ‘Larsen’ and ‘Viadra’ | were painted with the slogan tet Thaelmann.” | ‘The longshoremen of Amsterdam | adopted a new method of anti-fes- | | cist agitation. While unloading a, German ship, each instruction pro- | ce7s Was answered by the long-! | shoremen with the salute “Free| Thaelmann” instead of with the usual maritime replies. When the haavsers were dropped and the boat departed, instead of shouting “all free” the longshoremen shou‘ed “Free Thaelmann,” Get a gresting from a frien? foday for the Daily Work Eleventh Anniversary! | sion of the future plans for socialist | strengthening will continue, though “PLL KEEP THIS TO GIVE YOU A GOOD FUNERAL” An Election Meeti o— By Vern Smith MOSCOW, US.S.R., Jan, 2.—One| | of the election meetings I saw here after voting started in Moscow, De-| cember 10, was that of 1,089 work- | ers, the afternoon shift in all de-{ partments of the “Red Rose” silk| mill, It elected almost unanimously, 1,069 to 20, the candidates for city and raion (ward) soviets proposed | by the Communist Party. It adopted | messages of greetings to Stalin and| the heads of government, pledged unswerving loyalty to the defense of the Soviet Union against danger of war and to defense against bands of terrorists sent in from abroad, such as the gang that murdered Kirov. It was, like all election meetings, a forum for the discus- | construction. But it was also one of the meet- | ings where the instructions to the newly elected deputies were dis- cussed right at the election. In many meetings, the instructions are adopted, after having been thor- oughly discussed by departmental | meetings, or even by mass meetings | of all the workers of the factory together, several days before elec- tion, Several of the speakers before the formal discussion of the instruc- tions had struck the same note in their remarks; in general it ran something like this: “In 1931 when we issued instructions at the elec- tion, we emphasized the necessity to build heavy industry and to build the Red Army, both to strengthen the defensive capacity of our Work- ers’ Fatherland, Now, we hope this we see by the fact that they have invited us to join the League of Nations and by other signs that we are pretty strong already. But the time has come to do something else: We want more housing space, we want more clubs, we want more) trolley busses and more subways, | etc.” Wants New Theatre One old woman said: “We produce | fine silks, cultural materials, and we are getting to be somewhat cul- tured ourselves. But we haven't| really enough room for it. Our theatre, for example, has only 600 seats—though about 6,000 work in| the mill. Why can’t we built a new, theatre in the vacant ground near Tolstoy’s house. We wouldn’t inter- fere with the museum.” [Tolstoy's Moscow residence is now a Tolstoy museum.] They hailed Kyrilov, chairman of the raion soviet of Frunze Raion,| who was present. Kyrilov was called to speak, and made explanations. The housing question, he said, was occupying much attention in the soviet. A doubling of the. forces of industrial workers during the First Five-Year Plan, an increase by almost 1,000,000 of the popula- tion of Moscow since last elections, | made it a big problem. He pledged) more houses, “and good ones.” Fur- thermore, the soviet had already found means for one new public bath house, capacity 650 per hour, for three new department stores, Saar Police Back Fascist Terror Drive SAARBRUECKEN, Jan. 2.—Lay- ing its terrorist course throughout all districts of the Saar, the savage | Nazi fore2s provided a foretaste of “Ordnungsdienst,” the “flying dis- ciplinary squad” of the Hitler agents in the territory, unlocsz even more desperate attacks upon the swelling ranks of the anti- fascist movement for the status quo, At Puettlingen six policemen were implicated as aiding the fascists in an attack on anti-fascists, which | bers are so great that in spite of | to organize lectures for them to | wife. saa tbe shooting of one man. oy t ng in Moscow and 134 other stores, in this raion to be built immediately. This program was voted on by the | material for an important construc- | meeting and accepted, “as progress,” | tion job, but would become a sta-| but then the meeting got to work! making other demands on its depu- | ties, 2,000 Suggestions It was reported that workers of | “Red Rose” plant had, in previous} meetings, offered 2,000 suggestions | to be entered into the instructions to the deputies. A committee going over them combined the duplicated ones, and turned over to the union those that could be settled merely | by being incorporated in the new contract. However, a great numbe! remained, which the meeting migh adopted as instructions to their) deputies to the Moscow city and} Frunze Raion Soviets. Among them | were the following proposals: | More care for children “out of| school.” The situation is this. For-| merly workers’ children had practi-| cally no schooling, therefore there | were no school buildings for them. Now all go to school, but their num- the building of hundreds and thou- sands of schools, some schools have to use the two shift method yet. When the children from the morn- ing shift come home, it may be that both their parents are still at work. The instructions call for the | government to build more children’s | clubs, or “Out of School Combi-| nates” such as those operating suc- | cessfully in some neighborhoods al- | ready. | Another motion was to order) militia who found children stealing | rides on the outside of street cars| teach them the dangers of this | practice. Articles of general use should be better co-ordinated with the seasons, read another. When cold weather) comes, the fur caps and felt boots should be ready in the stores, and white duck pants and smocks should be ready before the hot sum- | mer days. There was a demand to abolish certain old street names and re-| name in honor of heroes of the Revolution. Order Repairs There were several detailed reso- lutions for repair of certain houses | and building of new apartment houses at specified locations. A certain particular street must have a street car line at once. Other specified streets should be asphalted; trucks going over the present cobble stones make too much noise. More children’s literature. A certain church should be closed and a kino theatre opened. Various particular spots were cited at which laundries, baths, moving picture theatres, etc., should be built. A demand, supported by an argu- | ment by ,the Young Communist League Secretary at the mill, for the return to use of a stadium that had formerly been at the disposal of the youth of “Red Rose.” The raion soviet chairman took the floor | classless society. ~ {and stated that the stadium had | to be used for storage of building dium again and be turned over to to the use of the youth of “Red Rose” in 1935. Nevertheless the meeting adopted the instruction as previously read. ‘These are samples of the instruc- tions already compiled by the com- mittee in charge. But all during the meeting, workers were writing out their further suggestions on slips of paper distributed to every seat before the meeting opened. There was a constant stream of ittle folded slips going up to the stage. One, read out, was a demand for a new and really big club house. . To Build Club The committee answered that they had found out that building of such a club house would start in 1935, Loud applause from the meeting. A fierce argument raged over a demand to install automatic phones. | “We have them,” people said. But finally the proponent made it clear that what he wanted was more phone booths in the mill, and got his suggestion added to the instruc- tions. And no one who saw this elec- tion campaign in its preliminary stages would think for a mir ite that this “instructing” ust empty form. The instructiow.s are printed. A careful list is kept of the activities of every deputy in connection with each instruction. This list hangs over his head at all times, but’ particularly when he comes up for re-election again, if he hasn't been recalled in the course of his term for failing to carry out instructions. During the pre-elec- tion period each deputy has to stand wes | up before those who gave the in- structions and answer all charges that he failed to fulfill his trust, on each particular point of the in- structions. Of course, since he does not leave the plant when elected, but continues to work right in his department with those who in- | structed him, he is never given a chance to forget them, anyway. If he. fails to obey his instructions, his chance of filling out his term, or still more, his chance to be re- elected, is practically nothing. The Soviet Union worker runs his government. He really. has democracy, under the dictatorship of the proletariat—his own dicta- torship. Fuzthermore, all election meetings have adopted a set of “political instructions” dealing with national and international policies. These instructions cail for the carrying through of the Second Five Year Plan, commend the peace pol- icy of the government but demand the utmost care for the safety of | the country if capitalist govern- iments abroad launch war against jit, demand the severe supp:ession | of terrorist gangs sent by the class enemy to attack Soviet officials, and | instruct the deputies to fight, under the leadership of the Communist | Party, for the achievement of a A band of young Nazi hoodlums fired pistol shots through the win- dows of a house here, wounding a French mining er.gineer and his Destruction of property as an instrument of intimidation, as well as personal injury, is being widely practiced by the disguised Storm Troop emissaries of German fas- cism, as evidenced in the smashing up of several anti-Nazi cafes. A menacing threat issued by the what awaited the workers if the Saar is relinquished to Hit'er. All who do not expect to find them- selves suffering imprisonment - in concentration camps, or worse, must, join the “German Front” by Jan. 10, the Nazis bluntly stated. Saar- Janders with children in French But in spite of such’ threats, the anti-foscist United Front, in con- |cert with the Catholic organiza- | tions and trade-union grouns op- posed to Hitlerism, are conducting daily rallies for the status quo in every hemlet and town in the Saar. On the one hand, while the fascist division is fast losing its supporters. on the othcr, the membership of all anti-fascist forces is growing by leaps and bounds. Unprecedented preparations are going forward for the groatest anti-Nazi rally ever ceen in the Saar on Jan. 6, Bring uv the question of greet- ing the Daily Worker on its Eleventh Anniversary at the next organization. that your orzanization gets on. schools have received ugly warnings ta remove team hy Jan. 3 meeting of your _ Honor Roll ing by Limbach World Front ——By HARRY GANNES -—— Trade Union Unity in France Railroad Labor Merges 300 Centers Affected HE united front struggles ot the French workers are having a profound effect on ! the question of the unification of the trade unions. In the railroad unions we see this | process in its highest develope }ment. The revolutionary tradé | unions and the reformist organizae | tions are merging into one trade | union body, Thus far, the following steps have | been take: On December 1, in the South of France, 160 railroad unions united their forces into one solid trade union, At Tours on December 9 a unity congress of the P.-O. railroad worke ers was held which fused 66 locals of the unitary or revolutionary trade unions and 96 locals of the reformist confederation, More than 50,000 railroad workers united their ranks into one union on the P. L. M, line on the 16th of December at a unity congress held at Lyons. There 100 locals of the revolutionary trade unions merged with 80 reformist locals. By January 1, 1935, it was exe pected that in 300 railroad centers the revolutionary and reformist trade unions would have massed their forces into one centralized trade union of the railroad workers, This unity took place on the basis of class struggle trade union- ism, to carry on a more effective battle against capitalism, and its |efforts to institute a fascist dice | tatorship. * + jt FACT, both the reformist and revolutionary delegates at these unity conventions condemned class colladoration formerly advocated by the leaders of the reformist rail- road trade unions who for a long time resisted the fusion of the railroad workers into one mighty or- ganization. The leaders of the C. G. T. (re- formist General Confederation of Labor) tried hard to get their fol- lowers to accept the principles of working along with the bosses’ idea, of harmony and peacefulness, in other words, class collaboration. These leaders fought hard against every step toward trade union unity, because this very idea itself went to defeat their efforts of not fighting the bosses. When the wish for unity of the trade unions made great advances among the masses of workers in the reformist unions, the leader who did not want united ranks put forward the slogan: “Yes, trade union unity, but within the C. G. T.” In France, that meant jthat the revolutionary trade unions, which were large mass or- ganizations, should just knuckle down to the former class collabora- tin policies of the C. G. T. leaders. In other words, these French Greens and Wolls did not want a genuine merger of forces, but de- sired the revolutionary trade unions to disperse their forces in the unchanged structure of the re- formist organization. IN France, they could not openly fight against the Communist pro- gram of trade union unity. The reformist leadership's idea of “unity,” as applied to the French trade unions, is being rejected by more and more tens of thousands of workers Who are uniting their forces on the basis of struggle for the defense of the workers’ condi- tions, against the encroachment of capital and against fascism. rary ICONOMIC conditions in France go from bad to worse. Entering the crisis later than other leading capitalist countries, France is now going to lower levels in the down- ward swing of its economy. Unem- ployment, for example, at the end of 1934 was 46 per cent higher than {in 1933. The latest charts and data pub- lished by the Conjuncture Eco- nomique, organ of the French Min- istry of Commerce, show produc tion is virtually stagnant in such basic industries as machinery, met- allurgy, building, textiles, leather, automobiles, rubber, coal and iron mining. Bankruptcies are increas- ing. The largest of these recently was the Citroen automobile com- pany, the Ford of France, the fore- most of the autombile plants in France. The peasants have been badly hit. The employers, in this situation of aggravating crisis, are opening up a greater offensive against the working class, which, in turn, is met by the greatest signs of resistance. The French workers, both politically and economically, are hitting back with united fists, Against wage cuts, strikes are grow ing, as, for example, the important textile strike now on. eee Ee slogan of unity of the trade unions, which in France means merging the large revolutionary trade union center, and its unions in almost every field of industry, with the reformist trade unions, on | the basis of real unity—that is dis- | cussion from: below, congresses, and the emerging of a united orzaniza- tion of struggle against the present | drive against French labor, The ‘program of unity is advocated and fought for by the Communist Party of France. It is put forward to strengthen the fighting ranks of the trade unions to meet the at- tacks against the toilers which be- comes sharper as the crisis inten=* fies in France, and will grow still sharper, as the crisis must go to still deeper levels. : Every class-conscious worker should be proud that the Daily Worker is now celebrating its & on.