The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 23, 1935, Page 4

Page 4 DAIL Y WORKER, YEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23. 193 5 ‘NEW’ NRA PROPOSES SHARPER ANTI-LABOR DRIVE BY WALL ST, Communists aw Clea rly Through NRA’ Revealed Its Harsh Wall Street Aim from Beginning Comm Pa did not the slightest doubt about the meant hat it workers rogram was an- 1 form about the weeks of rl Browder, laid down in of the A pro- two or three Browder, speaking for the Com Party, gave the American | class a guide to action he NRA. | garding the effect that the codes would have on the concentra- | tion of monopoly Wall Street cap- | werking out of the codes even ital, Browder ed, what later was | clearer description; emphasizing all to be confirmed by actual events | the time the trend toward fascism Trustification: “Under the mask of | inherent in the NRA-New Deal. the ‘radical’ slogan of ‘control pro-| The NRA and the industrial duction,’ @he Industrial Recovery| codes have served further to en- Act has greatly speeded up and cen-| rich the capitalists by establishing tralized the pro: of trustification xed monopoly prices. which has long been the dominant | trustification, and ueezing out feature of American economy. There | the smaller capitalists and inde- is now being carried out a cleanup | pendent producers. of all the little fellows. They are| “The labor provisions of the fo: to come under the codes| NRA, which were hailed by the A. formulated by the trust which will] of L. and Socialist leaders as have the force of the 1 Th ir} “a new charter for labor,’ ‘have doom is sealed, and they are busy|turned out in reality to be new the best terms possible for| chains for labor. The fixing of luntary’ assimilation before they | (1e so-called minimum wage, at are destroved. below starvation levels, has turned “Capitalist price fixing is given the force of law, and the profits of the great trusts are guaranteed by the government the word of an administration sman that ‘competition is not eliminated; it is only raised to a higher plane.’ “The further strengthening of the monopoly is intensifying all of the chaos, the antagonisms, the dispro- portions in American economy. ‘con- trolled production’ impossible on the basis of capitalist private prop- erty. There is only the growth of the power of the big czpitali: the intensification of ail si economic contradictions.” On the vital question of wages, while ever ngie group of Ameri- ean capitalis' opinion was sing hymns to the rising wage | that would mirac- ulously appear out of the NRA codes, Browder drove home the Commu- nist analysis that NRA would smash wage levels, hit the trade unions and the right to strike and introduce a reactiona military tyranny against the work Certainly the events of the past two years have borne out completely the Communist analysis made in the | Same speech; delivered when Roose- velt’s signature on the NRA bill was hardly dry: “The provisions of the Industrial Recovery Act regarding labor pro- vide a much more large-scale effort at indirect militarization of labor, though in a different form from the forced labor camps. In the indus- tries the effort is to establish a semi- y regime under vi t Zes, compulsory of all disputes wi bitrato, ike and of independent orzani zation of the workers. These thi are to be achieved through t dustrial codes’ worked out by the employers and given the force of law by the signature of Roosevelt, and supported when and where neces- sary by the A. F. of L. and the Socialist Party who have already en- tered wholeheartedly into this pretty scheme. “In the labor section of the ‘New Deal’ program is to be seen the clearest examples of the tendencies ernment & 2. 3 2 + @ i a $ to fascism. ‘This is an American version of 1 olini’s ‘corporate st Special state-controlled labor unions closely tied un with and un- der the direction of the employers. | “For the working class, the In- dustrial Recovery Act is truly an industrial slavery act. It is one of the stens towards the militariza- tion of labor. It is a forerunner of American fascism,” That was how the Communist Party sized up the NRA from the This razor-like accuracy Mere guess-work, It was the triumphant applica- tion of the Marxist-Leninist theory, based on Stalin’s speeches and the analyses of the Communist Inter- national. A year latex when the Commu- nist Party met again in its Eight National Convention in April, 1934, its resolution again hammered home the lesson that the NRA had always been the program of Wall Street, and that its actual work- ing out could only be in the inter- ests of Wall Street. “What has havnened with the ‘New Deal’? Has it failed? Many workers, in the first stages of dis- illusionment, come to that conclu- sion. They are disillusioned with the result, but still believe in the intention. The S. P. and A. F. of L, leaders try to keep them in this Stage. But this conclusion is en- tirely too simple. The ‘new deal’ has not impzoved conditions for the workers and exnloited masscs. “But that was never its real aim; that was only ballyhoo; that was only bait with which to catch suckers. “In its first and chief aim, the ‘new deal’ succeeded; that aim was, to bridge over the most difficult situation for the capitalists, and to launch a new attack upon the workers with the help of their lead- ers, to keen the workers from gen- eral resistance, to bezin to restore the profits ef finance capital.” And the resolution adopted by the Convention gave the actual was no | As for ‘controlled production,’ we out in reality to be a big effort to drive the maximum -wage down to this point, “The so-called guarantee of the right to organize and colle bargaining has turned out in real- ity to be the establishment of com- pany unions. “The last remaining rights of the workers they now propose to take jaway by establishing compulsory | arbitration under the Wagner Bill, camouflaged as an attemnt to gu: ntee workers’ rights. Roose- velt has given cfticial governmental status to the company unions, in the infamous ‘settlement’ in the auto industr This new step toward fascism is announced ‘new course’ to apply to all dustries. “All these domestic policies are openly recognized as identical in their content with the measures of the professed fascist governments.” | It was in this way that the Com- munist Party bared the real char- acter of the NRA in order to show the workers how to fight its hunger policy. No other group in the country was able to provide American lar bor with so sure and true a guide. Today the Communist Party car- ries forward its fight against the NRA for the interests of the w ing class and the whole toiling pop- ulation. in- Jimerow Drive Spreads in U.S. SEATTLE, Wash., Feb. 22.—The introduction cf a bill by Represen- tative Dorian E. Todd of King County forbidding inter-racial mar- | riages has evoked a storm of pro- test from the Negro people and or- ganizations representing Negro and white workers, liberal and religious groups here, NORFOLK, Va., Feb. 22.—A “Free | Johnson Committee” was set up at @ mass meeting here called to pro- | test railroading to life imprisonment | of Robert Lee Johnson, Negro work- er. Johnson was pulled out of his bed las New Year's night and charged with the killing of Patrolman Ben- jamin H. Butts. PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 22.— The jim-crow drive against Negroes has taken a leap to medieval Ghetto practices here. A huge gate has been set up at the entrance of the alley in the rear of 423 Fitzwater Street leading to shacks occupied by Neero ten- ants. At six o'clock each evening the gate is securely locked, forcing those tenants who are not yet at streets, and preventing those inside from going out. | Demand for St The N. R. A. which greatly in- creased the profits of the employers, and thus lowered the whole living ctandord of the workers, failed to gusnch the growing strike wave of the workers. The biggest strikes in the history of the country took pla: under the N. R, A, It was under N, R. A. that the great general textile strike of half a million workers took place, as well as the San Francisco general strike of over one hundred thousand workers. ‘The N. R. A. and its Labor Boards set up by Roosevelt defeated some of | these strikes, and prevented others, | The steel strike and auto strike | which were prepared by the workers |a year ago, were prevented by | Roosevelt and his N. R. A. arbitra- tion beards, but only with the as-| | sistance of William Green and the Jother national leaders of PAn ey of Li, Other strikes which the N. R. A. beards could not prevent, were de- | feated by the Roosevelt boards, al with the aid of Green and his } tenants. In such strikes as the tex- | tile strike, the aluminum strike and the! Part of the gang of one thousand hired gunmen attacking the steel workers in the Ambridge strike in 1933 as they struck against the conditions under the codes. U. 8. Economic Reports Show Profits Rose, Wages Dropped speeding uv Associated Negro Press and Amsterdam News At- have fostered company unionism, tempt to Hide Lead The Communist Party, analyzing the Wall Street purposes behind the N. R. A. declared that if not re- sisted by the workers in militant strike struggle, the codes would lower wages, make conditions of | work harder, in order to fatten the profits of Wall Street. The economic results of the last eighteen months have confirmed the Communist analysis, showing a tremendous concentration of capital in the hands of the Wall Street monopolies. The textile code, for example, a typical code, as shown by t':e fol- lowing data from the recent U. 5. Bureau of Labor Statistics report, made life more miserable for the textile workers: Low earnings: “The most obvious fact developed in subsequent pages the low earnings of workers in \the indus ry, even where there is special curtailment and even the scale of wage increases provided for and generally observed under the code.” aN Tie “Minimum is maximum”: “The feeling is that the code actually provides for a wage of $12 a week in the Seuth and $13 in the North is widespread, though erroneous. Actually these are the maximum weekly earnings possible to those working at the prescribed minimum wages of 30 to 322 cents an hour. In no week since the adoption of | the code has the industry averaged jmore than 26.5 hours per {though 40 hours are nece: attain the ‘minimum’ weekly earn- jings. ...” RSH BOSS “.. . The code refers to the main- tenance of the amount of differ- ences existing prior to July 17, 1933, between the wage rates paid various classes of employees and then by limitation of t rase defines the in a man- yed the dif- the skilled and ferential between unskilled workers.” In August, 1934, “42 per cent of the females in Northern cotton tex- tile mills were receiving as mush as $13 a week. ...In the South 37 per cent of the males were earning as much as $12; only 17 per cent of the females earned $12.” ew Real wages cut: “The gains in real weekly earnings, which oc- curred at first under the codes... have been reduced . . . through de- crerses in the number of hours of work available and through in- creases in the cost of goods pur- chased.” German Communists Lead Fight on Nazis, Hitler Official Admits BERLIN, Fe). 22—The Commu- | nist Party of Germany has in the last two years been conducting such active propaganda that, in the words of a Hitler official, “even Storm | Troop organizations contain a large | percentage of Communists.” others, the demands of the workers were lost because the A. F. of L. leaders betrayed the strikes to the compulsory arbitration boards of Roosevelt, which were set up and acted in the interests of the ém- ployers. At first the workers took some stock in the promises of Roosevelt that the N. R. A. would recognize erilective kargaining, increase pay, shorten hours, and increase employ- . But soon they saw that the R. A. codes and “Labor” boards ‘2 instruments of the employers, They found that under Roosevelt company unions have been strength- u and legalized by these employ- ers’ boards. All of the demands of the workers were blocked by Roose- velt and his N. R. A. The dsmand c. thirty-hour week was denied. Real wages went down, due to the great increase in living costs. Unemploy- ment increased and now more than seventeen million are jobless and millions more on part time. Recog- nition of the union was won oniy when strike or threat of strike forced the employers and their labor A.F.L. Heads | | Echoed NRA | | Ballyhoo 'Green Helped to Put | Wall Street Codes Into Effect | In helping to put over the N.R.A.,| | Which Wall Street needed as the means to intensify its grip on in-| | dustry, drive out the small com-| | petitors and lower wages, the top| leaders of the American Federation | of Lebor played an important part. | ad | It #7 s necessary for Roosevelt and | |the employers to get the workers | believe that the N.R.A. would bring ~* | them benefits. If they could get the | | workers to believe this, then the| _ employers could go ahead with their attack against labor, while labor| was still hoping for gains, and not | preparing to struggle. | | A list of the statements of Wil- liam Green and other prominent | A. F. of L. leaders shows how will- ingly they supported the prop-) | aganda for the N.R.A. codes (which they, of course, attack today, now | the workers have leared what they mean), | Today we know that the codes | have attempted to transform the right to strike into compulsory ar- | its problems, never secure for itself a secure life and real political Organize Against NR A! OOSEVELT has announced a “new” N. R. A, an N. R. A. that will “fight monopoly.” The N. R. A. has been in operation for almost two years. What has become of the rosy promises of Roosevelt? What has become of the promises of William Green, of Norman Thomas, of all the whole chorus which saw in the N. R. A. a new era for American labor? Facts have confirmed the analysis and warning of the Communist Party. Do not rely on the N. R. A., the Communists told the workers. It is a trap. It is a Wall Street weapon to smash the unions and drive down wages, disguised by hypocritical phrases, the Communists said. Organize powerful unions and strike for better conditions, the Com- munists advised. Do not rely on the labor boards. They will cheat and betray you. | Events have confirmed the Communists. | Now Roosevelt promises a “new” N. R. A. But all that will be new | about it will be the forms and the methods. The purpose will remain exactly the same as before—to help Wall Street monopoly in its profit- | grabbing and domination of the country’s life. Out of Roosevelt's N. R. A., new or old, is growing fascist reaction against the labor movement. More and more, Roosevelt's spokesmen | talk of getting rid of the trade unions, of instituting wide open shop | everywhere. More and more, violence is growing against the workers. | Roosevelt is carrying out the orders of the National Association of | Manufacturers and big business. | | The Communist Party once again warns against this new Roosevelt fraud, the “new” N. R. A. It calls for a powerful labor movement, | a mass Labor Party built on the unions, waging a fight against capital | in the interests of the workers and all toilers. The Communist Party points to the fact that labor can never solve democracy as long as the means of production and the government are in the hands of a few, the Wall Street monopolists. e Out of the Roosevelt program grows fascism and war. ing Role of I. L. D. ‘For a family with a single wage- earner at average weekly earnings prevailing in July, 1933, the cost of | goods purchased rose from June, 1933, to August, 1934, by 9 per cent and by 12 per cent to October, 1934.” eat ee “The real income of approxi- mately the best-paid two-thirds of the male wage earners in the North was smaller than if had been in July, 1933, The upper 10 per cent had real incomes 8 per cent smaller | than in July, 1933.” * a “The real income in August, 1934, | " of about the upper three-fifths of the male wage earners in the South - was less than it had been in July, 1933. The upper 10th had 10 per cent less real income than in July, 1933,” A similar comparison made be- ' tween August, 1933, the month with the largest average real earnings after the code, and August, 1934, showed that “in the North the pur- chasing power of the average worker was 15 per cent less in August, 1934, than in August, 1933. In the South it was at least 25 per cent less.” es ae These results are typical in mine, coal, steel and auto, . +* . The N. R. A. intensified speed-up | and production per man, thus giv- | ing more profits to the employers | and reducing their costs per com- modity. This is shown by the fact | that whereas at the end of 1934 em- | ployment was only 65 as compared | with 103 in 1929, and production | was only 92 as compared with 127, | the output per worker had jumped | to 142 as compared with 123 in} 1929! | Less wages for more work done | Tesistance to the growing misery} is what the N. R. A, accomplished for the employers. | a a Unemployment remained unsolved by the N. R. A. What it did was to spread work, thus cutting wages, for about two to three million work- ers, who were given temporary work. The A. F. of L. had to report in its latest bulletins that almost. | 15,000,000 still remain without jobs lor any hope of jobs, after two years of the N. R. A. eee nee. « As a result of this misery among bitration and have lowered the real wages of the entire American work- ing class. While the Communist Party was warning the workers against these results, William Green played his nart, as did Norman Thomas and Louis Waldman, in selling the codes to American labor. Green, speaking over a national radio network ar- ranged for this purpose, echoed the promises of Roosevelt and coun- solled American laber to fold its arms. He said of the N.R.A.: “A wider distribution of work is being made through a reduction of the hours of labor. For obvious reasons, the wages must also be in- creased as the hours of labor are reduced. “Labor is expected to do its part. The nation is enlisting men and women in a creat war against | powerful forces.” This year. on January 29, almost two vears after the codes had been in effect. Woll, vice-president of the A. F. of L.. continued to repeat the early promises of the codes, Flout- ing the experience of the whole Ja- bor movement. which had seen its Day envelop? shrunk7n by the work- ing out of the codes, Woll declared: “The princinle of higher wages | underlies the N.R.A. and the en- | tire recovery program ... the very moment a recovery nrogram was formulated in Washington the high wage principle was made a basic fertvre and was definitely embodied in the N.R.A.” The leadership of the A, F. of L. | Was especially anxious to block any strike movements of the American workers. falling in completely with the desires of Wall Street industry. In September 1933. Green, writing in the American Federationist, counselled the workers against any resulting from the codes. “We are facing a crisis in our | effort to save our national institn- tions.” he wrote, “and it is wise to avoid interferences with work if | possible,” It was with such propaganda, of | which can be found innumerable ex amples in the speeches and writing: of the A. F. of L. tov leadership during this period, that William | Green and his colleagues performed | their service to the employers. Today, as with the Socialist Party leadership, the A. F, of L, leaders lare sending a barrage of criticism labor for the| | the workers, Wall Street in one year, 1934, of the N. R. A. increased | 22!nst the codes, feeling the ris- |ing resentment of the workers in | $202 0,000 eee “3430 Lame | the unions. | workers. ernment forces. No less than a |last year! ike But. as in the case of the So-| “Presumably, as a guarantee | dozen workers have been Killed in cialist leadership. this criticism is never directed at the princinle of the codes nor at the Roosevelt gov- The discipline and organization | thorities confessed today, defied the | the current criticism by Green, Police and agents provocateurs, In| N.R.A.. concealing in this way the | its leadership of the anti-fascist | salient lesson which the Communist | movement the Communist Party was | Party had been admitted to have such broad in- throughout the past two years—that to speak of “mass revolt” as a near was achieving in driving down the realty. | wage levels of the workers. rike Action Against Results of N. R. A. Grows in Unions , boards to grant it. | business and now being put through Therefore the workers became by Roosevelt. rapidly disillusioned with the rosy| Roosevelt's reorganized N.R. A. promises of Roosevelt that N. R. A. means still bigger profits for the would solve their problems. It be- bosses, and still lower living stand- came increasingly difficult for the ards and suppression of their rights, government to quell the growing for the workers. strike wave, and to ignore the de- But the workers will not stand for mand of the masses for the passage this suppression of their unions. of a real unemployment insurance They are striking in increasing bill—the ,Workers’ Bill. numbers against the decisions of Roosevelt more and more used the N.R.A, and their employers’ open strikebreaking terror, in- boards. creased fascist measures, to stifle, Strikes have occurred in re- the mounting strike wave. National cent days among the building |guards were called out in many service workers, teamsters and | strikes, Dozens of workers were longshoremen in New York, the killed on picket lines—in Minneapo- shoe workers of New England, the ‘lis, Toledo, Milwaukee, the textile | cotton garment and textile work- towns, in San Francisco, in Bir- ers, the truck drivers of Chicago, | mingham, the workers struck in all the coal miners in the captive mines basic industries in the face of this textile workers in the South. Thou- government terror. sands are already striking in Today, in asking for extension of | scattered strikes in many industries, N.R.A., Roosevelt would “reorganize” | Twelve thousand anthracite miners the N.R.A, so as to more brazenly | are now on strike, enforce the dictatorship of the m= In many basic industries, mem- ployers and their boards, to more (bers of the A. F. of L. unions have openly legelize the company unions, |already voted in their local union to prepare the wage cutting, union | meetings for the preparation of im- smashing drive demanded by big | mediate strikes. The United Mine A \no relief to Negroes or to many | the most brutal suppression, includ- | other categories of |ageinst such results of industrial | recent strikes combination, labor was given in miners and auto workers. Section 7 (a) of the National In- | of the Communists, government au-| ernment which enforced thein. In| dustrial Recovery Act the right to | its class character as an attempt of his | collective bargaining through rep- the capitalist to find a ‘way out slightest attempt of infiltrating their | attacks persistently directed against | resentatives of its own choosing, |of the crisis’ by passing the burden ranks with members of the Secret | what he calls “the betraval” of the (Step by step that section has been | onto the shoulders of the masses of ivehicle for employers to forcejworkers and farmers. The N.R.A. through compulsory arbitration and | reflects the inability of the so-called emphasazing company unionism. lof the notorious “merit” clause in|a ‘planned economy’ to improve fluence over the masses of workers | the N.R.A, had ag its central pur-| the automobile code, together with | the living standards of the masses. that the Nazi officialdom has begun pose precisely the results which it | later official interpretations of Sec- | Its development day by day reveals | tion 7 (a) legalized the open shop. | more clearly a marked trend toward Workers of America local unions in The Communist Party declared in its last convention resolution: “There is no possible way out of the crisis in the interest of the masses except by breaking the control of the State power now in the hands of this small monopolist capitalist class. There is no way out except by establishing a new government of the workers in alliance | with the poor farmers, the Negro people, and the impoverished middle | | class, | “There is no way out except by the creation of a revolutionary | democracy of the toilers, which is at the same time a stern dictator- ship against the capitalists and their agents. There is no way out except by seizing from the capitalists the industries, the banks and all of the economic institutions, and transforming them into the com- mon property of all under the direction of the revolutionary govern- ment. There is no way out, in short, except by the abolition of the capitalist system and the establishment of a Socialist society.” The Communist Party organizes the fight for the Workers’ Bill, for | unemployment insurance to be paid for by the government and the employers, no matter what this does to capitalist profit. The Communist Party organizes for the right to strike, to picket, for the closed shop, for the defense of the trade unions and all workers’ organizations. In its daily fight against Roosevelt’s war program, the Communist Party strives to develop a mass struggle against reaction and the men- ace of fascism, always carrying the fight higher and higher against the whole capitalist system and the capitalist government. Darrow NRA Report Revealed Monopoly — Drive Against Labor ‘Government Survey Showed Hollowness of NRA’ “Right to Organize” With Company Unions and Compulsory Arbitration Growing Regarding the effect the codes , representatives of workers’ own | | had on smashing wages, increasing choosing was further nullified by | | Speed-uv, and fostering company N.R.A. interpretations of Section unions, the Thompson report,/7 (a) as not precluding company | issued to Roosevelt by Darrow's as- unions, Compulsory arbitration un- sociate in the investigation of the | der various forms of “labor boards,” | N.R.A. was as folows: the National Labor Board, industrial | “The actual result of N.R.A. codes (relations boards, the Automobile | has been merely a continuation of | Labor Board, etc., have deprived la- he stagger system under which | bor of its only effective weapon in ore workers are attached to the | enforcing collective bargaining—the | | Payroll but all are receiving wholly | strike. In Gallup, N. M.; Imperial | inadequate earnings, The minimum | Valley, Calif.; Birmingham, Ala., wages established under the codes | and Toledo, when workers struck to have tended to become the maxi- enforce collective bargaining their | mum, thus dragging down the gen- | civil rights as American workers | |eral average of all wages. Even have been violated by martial law, | ‘these minimum wages have given sweeping injunctions, arrests and lower-paid ing murder, by employers’ and goy- | of longshoremen, “Thus the N.LR.A. clearly reflects The inclusion |‘enlightened capitalism’ to operate “Collective bargaining through | fascism in the United States.” bor measures, has made sharp criti- cism of N.R.A. codes, has spoken of |dinary advice to working class: | throughout the country, Pennsylvania have voted, in many cases, to prepare strike for April 1, against the scab N.R.A. agree- ment signed by John L. Lewis. In the auto industry most of the A. F. of L. local unions have voted for the preparation of immediate | strikes. In. the steel industry, the | Amalgamated Association local unions have launched an organiza- tion drive and are preparing for strike. In rubber, textile and many other industries, the workers are Preparing strike struggles. The anti-labor ‘drive of Roosevelt | has come out in the open so clearly that even William Green has been forced to change his tone towards the N.R.A, The wage cutting works’ bill of Rocsevelt, the extension of the anti-labor auto-code with its merit clause, the support Roosevelt gave the strikebreaking Auto Labor 'Board, his signature to the slave \cigarette ccde, all of these anti- |labor acts of Roosevelt have stirred the workers with strike sentiment. Green, feeling this mass pressure, \tinkering with the N.R.A. He con- an organization drive in the auto and steel industry. But Green has not acted to pre- pare the coming struggles. Instead, Green has watched Mike Tighe and John L. Lewis continue their split- ting “red scare” drive against mil- itant workers who are organizing and strengthening the A. F. of L. steel and coal unions. Green is hold- ing back the workers from action, and so far has proposed only a little tinues to laud Roosevelt as a “friend” of labor, at the very mo- ment when Reosevelt is heading the open shop drive. The membership in the A. F. of L. unions ere disillusioned with Roose- velt and N.R.A. They are demand- ing strike. They can now see that the only remedy for starvation, the only way they can win their de- mands, is to build their unions, in spite of Green and Co., into mass \pare for the big strike struggles which lie just ahead against the in order to maintain his leadership, |has spoken sgainst these anti-la- Y vanti-union N.R.A, (fighting unions, and thus to pre-) ‘Themas Saw ‘Socialist’ Trend In NRA “No More Wage Cuts,” S. P. Paper Said Hailing NRA While the Communist Party from the yery inception of the N. R. A, exposed its capitalist character and Wall St-eet purpose, the leadership of the Socialist Party, in its own special way, fell in completely with the propaganda of Roosevel. Whereas the leadership of the A, F. of L. gave its aid to the Wall Strest nrogram embodied in the N, R. A. by a complete acceptance of Roosevit’s program, the leadership of the Socialist Party tempered its acceptance with “criticism.” But despite all this criticism, the leadership of the Socialist Part. notably Norman Thomas and Louis Waldman, also aided in fasienic ; the codes on American labor by a long series of statements proclaim- ing the codes as essentially in the interests of the workers. The So- cialist Party leaders not only hailed the codes as giving immediate bene- fits to the workers and the labor movement, but went so far in their | ballyhoo for the Roosevelt program | that | elements in it. they discerned Socialist The first official expression of the Socialist Party on the N. R. A. was in the State Election Platform of New York, April, 1933, in which Morris Hillquit wrote: “The N. R. A. offers the working people of Ame- rica a great opportunity.” On June 10, Norman Thomas leaped into the campaign for the N. R. A. with the following extraor- the American “The labor clause (section 7a) of the N. R. A. if rightly used, will give the workers an enoz:mously powerful weapon for progress to- | wards genuine Socialism.” On June 22, with the Roosevelt propaganda machines whirring Norman Thomas once again gave his aid to this propaganda by writing in the New Leader that “collective bar- gaining and other rights guaranteed to labor in the N.R.A. have genuine value... .” And the Socialist Jewish Daily Forward on the following day June 23, joined this hymn to the Roose- velt program with the following jubilant promises to American labor: “The time of wage cuts has gone. .. American capitalists have come to | this conclusion and have declared themselves for higher wages. And Roosevelt also has come out for this program.” A few months later, when the Roosevelt propaganda was at its height and the Communist Party alone was hammering at the Roose velt, program, Nozman Thomas pro- claimed to the American workers that Roosevelt's codes were already ushering in the dawn of a new social order. To the American workers, already beginning to experience the harsh consequences of the New | Deal, Thomas stated: that the need for struggle was a thing of the past, for: “The New Deal has given hope and substantial advantages to farmers and workers”. . . “These things,” he said, “do not consti- tute Socialism, but State Capital- ism; but a kind of state capi- talism undoubtedly influenced by Socialist influence and agitation... Jt gives the workers a chance to go forward in an orderly fashion... The great hope of the N. R. A. is that it may make It easier a littie. .. to advance toward a truly Socialist society.” One may argue that perhaps no more accurate analysis could have been expected at so early a period in the N. R. A. But a year after the codes went into effect, in April 1934, after thousands of workers had taken the path of strike struggle against the yoke of the Codes, as they began to be felt in the shops and factories of tke land, Louis Waldman, Socialist Party leader, declared at the open hearing on the N. R. A. at Washing- ton: “We feel that the N. R. A. has been a distinct step forward and must be regarded in all candor and honesty as an important branch of social legislation.” Throughout the entire period of the N, R. A. until very recently, when it became no longer possible to do so, Norman Thomas consis- tently maintained that the active intervention of the Roosevelt gov- ernment in the regulation of the economic life of the country that constituted the socialist element in Roosevelt's program. Sharply contrasted with this was the position of the Communist Party, which insisted from the very beginning that the intervention of the Roosevelt government was far from Socialism, and, on the con- trary, was the active intervention of the capitalist state in the intezesis of the capitalist monopolies, The Communist Party based its analysis on the following theory of Lenin, who declared that whenever any capitalist state “regulated” ine dustry, it did so in the interests of the rich. “In America,” Lenin wrote, “as well as in Germany, the regulation of industry and economic life creates for the workers a military prison, and for the bankers and capitalists a paradise. The essence of this resulation is that it raises the bread basket of the workers higher out of their reach and guarantees (secretly, and in a re- actionary, bureaucratic way) higher profits to the capitalists.” This was the sharp divergence it the views of the Socialist leadert and the Communist Party as they both spoke to the American work ing class. It is now obvious whick was the surer guide for Americal labor in its struggle against capital \ f