Tlii~NEW

A MONTHLY ORGAN OF REVOLUTIONARY MARXISM

I.NTERNAT
After Munich
Leon Trotsky:Czechoslovakias Independence Maurice Spector: The Popular Fronts Guilt The Editors: Notes on the 4~Power Pact
q

The qth InternationalCongress

By Mux Shachnan B. J. Widick: A New Stagein Labor Unity .
q

L. Rock:

The Arab~Jewish Conflict

q

The War Mobilization Plan in theUnited States

TWENTY CENTS NOVEMBER 1938

At Home
THE NEW INTERNATIONAL continues in a precariousfinancial situation, but not because of any slack in circulation. As a matter of fact, the October number was in great demand,ao that new orders and reordersresulted in a completesell-out of the October issue; not even, literally, a handfulare left in the N.I. office. So far, so good. But as this column is written, we cannot definitely say that the Novemberissue will be out on time, thoughwell try, because too many of the larger aceountein the United States are needlessly and inexcusably delinquent with their bundle payments. Till, also, they awakento their responsibilities to our Press, it is necessary to add to the list of Party Branches whose N.I. bundles are discontinued. These are Philadelphia,Pa., and the smaller Marysville, Calif. Branch. But we feel confidentthat the Party and Y.P.S.L. units will hearken to our letters and to the urgent pleas in other columns of the magazine, speed up bundle paymentsand plan SUBSCRIPTIONDRIVES. New York, both Party and Y.P. S.L., showed a little improvement with the Octoberissue. The Y.P.S.L. increasedtheir amountto 120 copies and the S.W.P. disposed of 360, besides the usual 125 for the Labor Book Shop.The Party is planninga subscription campaign, and the Youth are wakingup to the nesf to circulate the magazine. In Los Angeles, John Murphyis workinghard and expects that Los Angeles will show improvement. He writes that the literature departmentis running a Halloween Party to help liquidate its bills to the magazine. There were, as weve come to expect, new orders and also increases in bundleorders,namely: Cleveland, Paul Scott, agent, from 25 to 35 again. Clevelands ambitious now and has set a much wider circulation goal by Christmas. Good luck, Paul! Youveearned your spurs on much harder fields. Mildred Kahn, London, England, from 42 to 48 copies; South Bend, Ind., from 15 to 20; Bob Bircbmanis agent; Sydney, Australia, once again from 30 to 40. Comrade L. Short writes: The boys upbraidedme when they heardId reducedthe order; so send 40 in future. Group is on up and up and will soon be a significant force in Australianlabormovement. New Haven, Morris Gandelman, agent, ordered an extra five copies of Octobernumber. New Oro!ers: The Nations capitol, Washington,D.C., an order for 5 copies; Mary G., agent. Quite a few persons also subscribe there. Haifa and Jerusalem, Palestine, 8 copies. Ithaca, New York, an order for 20 copies by the Y.P.S.L. on the CornellUniv. Campus.Theresalive agent ther+Ed. Speyer. Indianapolis, Ind., 5 copies. East Oakland, Calif., E. M., agent, 10 copies. Many agents continue to work hard and do exceptionallywell with

THE NEW INTERNATIONAL nowreaches

THENEWINTERNATIONAL
A MONTHLY ORGANOF REVOLUTIONARYMARXISM
VOLUMEIV NOVEMBER1938 NUMBERI I (WholeNo.26) 116Untversis Place, Published monthly by the NW Intemat2mm2 Publlsblm C.mnWV, h-ew York, N. Y. Te4eDhone: AL@nw2n 4-8547. 24ubaaiDt200 rates 32.00 w Ye8f; hundlca: 14c for 5 cqden snd UD. Cads snd Fore&a: $2.50 xxx year; bundks 16c for 5 copies and up. Single CODY:20a Ent.smd M mcond-cl= UUtter Ds@mbsr 8. 198?,

at tie wmtCJOM &

EdkOfi*

NewYork, N. Y., under tbs actM M

3, 1879.

ad:

JAMES BURNHAM,MAX 2iHAcN7uAN, MAURICEatwmom BIUISSJ4Mmamr: MART4NABERN

TABLE OF CONTENTS The Editors Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 The 4th InternationalIs Launched, by Max Sha.ch.trnan 325 Social-Patriotic Sophistry,by Leon Trotsky. . . . . . . . . . 328 The Popular Fronts Guilt, by Maw-iceSpector. . . . . . . 329 Labor UnityANew Stage, by B. ./. Widick. . . . . . . . . 331 The Deserters and Munich. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334 The Jewish-ArabConflicL by L. Rock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 The War Mobilization Plan, by M. J. Mickuelsand Albert Gates 337 Stalinismand Fascismin Italy, by Z. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34o MahoneyBill and TodaysTasks, by The Editors and .lubs Geller 344
BOOKS:

The Story of the C.I.O., by B. J. Widtik. . . . . . . . . . . . . Toward a Decision, by Leon Trotsky. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Balabanoffs Memoir% by Max Skacktman.. . . . . . . . . . Mann in Uniform, by S. Stanley.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Correspondence,by A. J., Frank Dernby. . . . . . . . . . . . . Clippings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside Front Cover: At Home.
the magazine. Karl Shier, Chicago, we repeat sotto voice so that Karl wont swell, still does the best job of all. Ed. Fitmoy,London,England, writes that the Septemberissue was completely sold out, and that the fusion of the groupsthere has helped swell sales. . . . Frank Maitland, Edinburgh, Scotland,reportsthat the Scottish comradesare systematically canvassing for regular readers and expect success. A special circularhas been sent by the RevolutionarySocialist Party there to all its supporters to take THE NEW INTERNATIONAL.New York, too, Abe Miller informsus, will issue a special circular in connectionwith the sales and subscription drive. And Minneapolis, writes ChesterJohnson,regards the N.I. as a very valuable magazine and is taking steps to increase circulationin this area in line with your recent special circular letter. We are confident results will be forthcoming from there. John Murphy of Los Angeles got up a particularly fine circuIar on Literature with the object of increasing membership activity therein. St. Paul, Minn.,wherethe Partysrecent candidatefor Mayor,Jules Geller, is also the literature agent and a contributorto the columnsof the magazine, writes that the Branchis holding an entertainmentsoon for the benefitof the magazine.OtherLocals, please emulate. The Lynn, Mass., S.W.P. branch, Lee Colvin, agent, respondedwith a small donationto the OctoberN.Ls plea for contribu. tions. Imitationis also in orderhere. ManyBranchesand Y.P.S.L. units have succeededin placing the maga-

346 347 348 350 351 351

zine in additional bookstores and newsstands.These included Youngstown, Obio, M. Hess, agent; Baltimore, Md., Wm. Bowen, agent; Los Angeles; Chicago is concentrating on stand sales for next period; Worcester,Mass., Pauline T., agent; Pittsburgh, Pa., M. Krnpka, agent. In Akron, Ohio, Bob Ferguson has taken hold of the N.I. and literature department,and that means Akron will step along stilf faster with the magazine. q ** But, we must repeat and repeat, SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE THE FOUNDATION AND SECURITY FORTHENEWINTERNATIONAL Activity and campaigningfor subscriptionsis a firstMUST alwayson the agenda. It is possible to secure them throughorganizedefforts. The management will always assist Branchesand localities directly and specifically with suggestionsand advice. Constantpraise for the qual. ity of THE NEW INTERNATIONAL comes in greater amount from everywhere in the United States and throughout the worldfar, far too manyto think of publishing but a fragment of them on this page. But surely with snch a widespread, genuine and favorable sentiment for THE NEW the Party and Y.P. INTERNATIONAL, S.L. units can cash in with MORE SUBSCRIPTIONS,with a bit more of the old Red try. E. Fishier of Chicago has sent in a number of subscriptions in past weeks, and wevealreadyreportedon Tom Gaddiss work in Mpls., which he promises to continue. The Managerfeels pretty sure that

EVERY IMPORTANT COUNTRY in the world. Friend and foe alike must keep up with the finest and soundest thought of the period. Recently a number of subscriptions were received from the Japanese Consulatein New York and from a concernin Berlin, Germany.And Stalin & Co. have just had to sneak THE NEWINTERNATIONAL into the Soviet Union to learn better how the enlightened revolutionary workers, increasing in number, are fully wise to the betrayerof the worlds proletariat. Interesting, is it not, that in the same month,the Governmentsof the Mikado, Hitler and Stalin just have to make sure their satellit~ keep up with the times. Well, if the Devil wouldread. . . . THE NEW INTERNAmONAL, we agree with comradeC. of Fresno,is excellent and indispensable for Marxists. Its continuedexistence is absolutely essential to the Party. R.L.,New Castle,Pa., addsthat THE NEW INTERNATIONAL must be kept growingund it reaches thedistribution its eminence warrants.Hear, hear! But thats where every comrade enters into the pictureby helping to sell the magazine and really trying to obtain subscriptions. Can you picture what it wouldmean to the revolutionarymovement, to our Party, if THE NEW INTERNA. were to suspend publicatwn? TIONAL We can; it would he calamitous, and mustnotbe. Great was the role of THENEW INTERNATIONAL in the past; greater is its role today and in the future. This is recognized everywhere. H.M.v G., writing fromCape Town, South Africa, says: THE NEW INTERNATIONAL is just what the doctor ordered. AU the praise that has been heaped upon it from all parts of the world is not one bit exaggerated Comradeshere still cherish affectionatememoriesof the old Militant and THE NEW INTERNATIONAL issued by the Workers Party of the United States. These papers were the educators of the cadres of our movement here in South Africa. The new issue is a worthy successor, and each number is awaited with the greatest eagerness and keenest anticipation. To this in closing, we have onlyto add: this column is appreciativeof the cooperation and good work of the N.I. agents and assisting comrades, Party and Y.P.S.L., everywhere: San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, San Diego, Fresno, Portland, Boston, Newark, Allentown, Reading, Rochester, Quakertown, Fargo, Plentywood, Omaha,Toledo, Worcester, Detroit, St. Louis, Oakland, Hutchinson,Columbus,Evansville, and other U.S. cities; Toronto, Wimipeg, Vancouver, India, England, Scotland, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane,and the many other places where agents loyally do their work. We urge: Keep up the good work, and more of it. BUILD OUR PRESS! BUILD THE NEW INTERNATIONAL! BUILD OUR PRESS-the great organizerfor the Fourth International!
THE MANAGER

THE
A
VOLUME IV

NEW
ORGAN

IN TERNATI
OF REVOLUTIONARY
NOVEMBER 1938

O NAL
MARXISM
NUMBER 11

M O N THL Y

The

Editors

Comments
DILEMMA OF CHAMBERLAIN

THE FEAR OF WAR OF THE BOURGEOISIE

IS THE FEAR OF REVOLUTIONTHE

AND BRITISH IMPERIALISM CRITICAL DAYS AHEAD FOR CLASS GERMANYS VICTORY AS A SPRINGBOARD FOR DISASTROUS NET RESULT OF THE FIFTEEN YFARS THE KREMLIN SOUNDSOUT HITLER ABOUT HE INTERPRETATION of historyin terms of the moral Tcharacter and ability of individuals-the great man or devil theory of history has seldom been seen at less advantage than in its attemptedapplicationto the Munich agreement. How absurdlyfantasticit is, even on the face of it, to imaginethatwe can explain the agreement and its consequenceson the grounda thatChamberlainand Daladierare traitors,Hitler a madman, and Mussolinia bombasticmegalomaniac.Such explanations,of course, and the whole personalistic theory from which they spring, themselvesserve a social funqtion.They act to turn eyes awayfrom the true meaning of events and to fasten resentment and hopes not on the basic factor of the economic and political structure of society but on individual men scapegoats or saviors.The Munich agreementwasthus followedin the American press by a deluge of pictures, biographies,recollectionsand psychologicalstudiesof the four whomet at Munich. The actions of individualmen do, it is true, have their relevant effect on history, in specific instances can even be the decisive factor. But outstandinglyin the case of the Munich agreement, the four men who sat at the conference table had their significancenot because of individualidiosyncrasies,but because on that occasionthey spoke and decided as the responsible and authenticrepresentativesof their respective national states and of the English, French, German and Italian bourgeoisie whose statesthey are. To ask why the agreement was signed and whatmay be expected to follow from ik therefore, is not a problem in psychology,but an inquiry intothe needs, interests and perspectivesof the ruling class withinthe four nations. The Munich agreement was signed, first of all, because the bourgeoisie, in each of the nations,fears the war. They fear the war irrespective of the military problem, irrespective of the probabilitiesof victory or defeat. There can be no doubt that thisgeneral fear wasfar more crucial in the minds of the British ruling class than the more technical fear of the possible temporary superiorityof the Germanair force. The latterwasmuch more than compensatedby the enormousadvantage in every kind of materialresource possessedby an Anglo-French bloc certain of alliance with the Soviet Union and shortly with the United States.The fear wasnot of Hitlerin the long run, if the problem were merely a military one, Hitler would not have had a chance. The fear waspointedin anotherdirection: at the masses, who did not wantthe war. The ruling classesremembered 1917. They were afraidthat,whateverdegree of nationalunitymight be achieved at the outset with the aid of the treachery of the officiallabor leadership, it could not last. With the experiences of the lastwarnot altogetherforgotten,and withthe destructiveness of warten timesmultipliedsince then, the rulers feared that this time not three years but perhaps only a few months would pass before the massesturned againstthe war and againstthose whosewar it was.This fear wasnot peculiar to the democracies,

FRANCE, AND FOR ITS WORKING FURTHER ADVANCESTHE OF STALINIST REALISM A NEW ALLIANCE

but was shared also by the ruling class in Germany, which has consistentlyacted as a brake on the more irresponsibleimpulses of Hitler. It was the fear of internationalfinance-capital as a whole, and was finally expressed openly and publicly by the spokesmanof the most powerful of all the sectionsof financecapital: by Franklin Roosevel~in his cable to Hitler. The war, Rooseveltwarned his colleagues, was certain to overthrowthe socialand economicstructurein at leastseveralof the nations. The bourgeoisie of the four nationswere thus presented with a common problem: the preservationof their class domination. Faced with this, all else became secondary. The unbridgeable gulf betweenfascismand democracywasclosed in the twinkling of a phrase. The war lords of Italy and Germanybecame overnight the princes of peace. The sacrednessof treatieswasseen to be no more than a verbalism. The League was a joke: The
democratic rights of small nations dissolved into thin air. Solemn pacts went overboard without a ripple. For a brief historic moment, imperialist diplomacy could be seen in full nakedness, casting shams aside, a gang of cut-throats sitting down in shirt sleeves to draw up jointly a shameless, ruthless, bloody deal. The fears were justified. This the great crowds showed who wept and shouted for peace in London and Berlin and Paris and Rome and Munich and Naples. Chamberlain and Dalaclier and Hitler and Mussolini knew how little those tears and shouts were for them, they knew their real meaning: that they expressed the mighty though hidden will of the masses against the war. The Munich agreement was able, for the moment, to stop the war. But what did it solve? Did it bring to Europe a 1asting peace and re-stabilizatizon? There is no need for idle speculation in giving an answer. We can observe the replies of the participants in the agreement themselves.

ChamberlainDraws Conclusions
CHAMBERLAINTOOKABOUT forty-eighthours to make clear just whatkind of peace he believed Munich had guaranteed. It was, he explained to Parliament,a peace which would require the re-doublingand tripling of Great Britainsalready gigantic re-armament.Thousandsof new and faster planes, thousandsof new and deadlier anti-aircraftguns, hundreds of new warships. Already the preparationshave begun for a disguised form of conscription. MeanwhileEnglandssemi-formalcensorshipis tightened,and the restriction of civil rights gets under way. Information of miltary-strategic importance is withdrawnfrom the press at the suggestionof His MajestysGovernment; articles critical of friendly powersare politelyand firmly pressed intothe wastebasket. Just as Chamberlainspeace is built from guns and airplanes, so does he plan to compose his democracy out of the eliminationof democraticrights. Regiment after regiment moves into Palestine, bombing,

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slaughtering,wipingout entire villages,to protectthepipe line from Iraq and the route of the Suez Canal. Probably more clearly than that of any other nation, the Britishruling classknowsthatfrom its classpoint of viewthere cantbe and yet there must be war. There cant be, for the English ruling classhas everythingto lose, nothingto gain, from the war: its top-heavy Empire would immediately begin falling apart like a jerry-builttenemenb whatevervictories the armies might be winning,the people at home wouldrise quickly indeed after the firstseries of air raids and casualtylists.Yet there must he war, for only by fightingcan it keep its swollenpossessions out of the insatiablehands of the impoverishednationsor (with a glance over the shoulder) of the youngAmeric& colossusoverseas. It senses the blind alley into which it has entered; desperately and vainlyit strivesto gain time, hoping for a miracle, by buying otl the potentialimmediatethreatener, by trying to give him a sufficientoutletto the East and South. But, alas: at the imperialistbanquet-tablethere is not enough to go around. One or the other of the setsof guestsmustbe shovedout of their seats.

tionaryorganization, but as the agent of a foreign power whose friendship is no longer worthwhile.Daladier informs the workers in the munitions industries (and what industry cannot be classifiedunder that head?) that attemptsto enforce the fortyhour week will be considered crimes againstthe state,to be fol. lowedby instantdismissaland possible criminalprosecution. The workers will fight back. But they will fight under the deadeninghandicapof infinitebetrayalby their own parties, of the years of demoralization by the now dead Popular Frontism and the still living social-patriotism.Can they build their new party in time?

GermanyRampant
THERE WAS ONE smallkernel of truth thatrested, misused,in the intersticesof the Popular Front ideology: the truth that fascism cannotbe permanentlybought off and appeased.Fascism arises, driven by the overpoweringcompulsionof the inner conflicts of the given national capitalism. But it does not in the leastthrowoff that compulsionor solve the conflicts. It is their expression; indeed, more, it aggravates and irritates them, deepens and extends them. Its forced-draught economy and finance, its tense and burning demagogy, hover permanentlyat the verge of explosion.And so it will contbue to be. The successful taking over of Austria, a large enough morsel surely to last some years in the oId non-fascistdays, only corn. pelled Hitler to move even fastertowardSudetenland.How could over-industrialized Austriabring meat or eggs or grain or oil or markets or chances for satisfactoryinvestment? Nor does the Sudetenland,in spite of the great valueto Germanyof a number of itsresourcesand plants,slakeany of the major needs. And, as everyone knew, the Sudetens were only a small square in the picture. Even before Munich, the next phase was unfolding. During the past two years, German trade has been overhaulingFrance and England in one after the otherof thenationsin EuropesEast and South. Now WaltherFunk, Reich EconomicsMinister,completes a triumphant tour of Germanys new backyard. Trade agreements,loans whereby key raw materialswill be exchanged for Germanmanufacturedgoods,plans for capitalexpansion,all drop easilyinto Funks proffered hand. The nations,one by one, turn their politicalnoses towardBerlin. At the front of the pack cowers Czechoslovakia itself. Devo. tionto democracymeantnaturalIy,for the Czechbourgeoisie, the chancesfor larger profitsunder the wing of England and France and through the super-exploitationof the national minorities. These chancesgone throughthe withdrawal of their friends, who play for higher stakes,the Czech bourgeoisie crawlsbefore Hitler to beg permissionto retain a crust or two. Woe, then, to the Czech workersand peasants,who, on the advice of their reformist and Stalinistleaders, trusted their own bourgeoisie and ita governmentto defend democracy! In record time, totalitarianism fastensitsyoke upon them, while thousandsof their best die starvingin the open fields. Two young girls, report the New York Times, were found (near Pohrlicz) strickenwithinfluenza today. They were witboutmedical heIp, withoutbeds and little water. Czech and German authoritiesforbid the taking of food or waterto them. All this,however,is not enough. Volcanic Germanindustry,as advancedas any in the world,not merely in technicalproficiency but in monopoly development, strains intolerable against its barriers. The consolidationof the German-speakingterritories provides only a strategicbase for wider operations.The road openstowardoutrightcoloniesand protectorates.If they are not granted, they must be taken, either from those who have them, or by convertingsectionsof the Soviet Union into the orbit of German imperialism.

FrancesNext Year
THE PROBLEM FOR the French bourgeoisie is even sharper, more acute. Once the French bourgeoisie believ~dthat through Versailles it had given itseIf a permanent strangle-hold on Europe. How voraciouslyit squeezed! French capital iinanced the huge Skoda monopoly in Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia,Ru. mania,Poland,Hungary,Greece danced unhappilyto the strings pulled by the TwoHundred Families,sendingtheir heavytribute to swellFrench coffers. Cynicallythe League wasmaintainedas a pious front for Anglo-French imperialistdomination,and the pact for the statusquo wassigned withthe Kremlin. Now all is gone: the Continentalhegemony, the French controlledEntente, the League, the Russianpact. The French ruling class sees itself thrust desperatelyinto a comer, snarling to keep ita remaining bones to gnawon: its owncontinentalborders, and its oppressed and terrorizedpossessionsin Africa and Indo-China. Howhas it come about? To the French ruling class,prevented by their class positionfrom penetratinginto the real causes of capitalistdecay, an answer seems to be found when it looks acrossthe Rhine. Germanyis united; France a dangerouschaos of conflictingsocial groups. In Germanythe workers turn out goods and above all munitions on a sixty and sixty-fivehour weekbasis; in France the sociallawskeep the workweekdown to forty or forty-fivehours. Seeing this, Daladiertold&e Chamber of Deputies: wemustbe united,and wemustbe in a position to compete successfullywithothers.Translated: we must suppress the possibilitiesfor independentclass action,and we must smash the social laws. He underlined his wordsby breaking up the Popular Front, and by demanding and getting the decree powers. What this means is that the French bourgeoisie now sets its course directly towards fascism as the only solutionwhich can prevent it from losing idtogether even the bones that remain. Let there be no illusions. The French bourgeoisie must now resort, and in the shortestpossible time, to fascism.To achieve iron nationalunity and to cancel out the social laws, it must crush the resistanceof the working class; and this can be done only through fascism. Terrible days are ahead for the French workers,have already begunas in Germany,under the auspicesnot of the fascistsbut of the center: Daladier,who will quite probably be soon joined by Blum. Restrictionson assembly and on the revolutionary press, introduced during the war crisis, are continuing. The headquartersand leaders of militantworking-class organizations are under constantpolice surveillance. Postersdemand the outlawing of the CommunistPartynot, of course, as a revolu-

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Stalin Agonistes
THE COST OF STALINISM not simply to the workers of the world, but to the Soviet Union itself, becomes suddenly clearer after Munich. Munich, in its ownway,drew up a balance-sheet. Fifteen years of socialismin one country,of Stalinistrealism,of Stalinistmaneuvers and counter-maneuvers,of Stalinistdiplomacy, of the practical, wise and genial direction of the leader of the peoples,nettedthe SovietUnion: complete, utter and absOlute isolationwhen the crisis came, the scorn, contempt and entire disregard of every othernationin the globe. It is ridiculous to discuss whether Stalinspolicy has collapsed. It wouldbe like arguing whethera man were dead when the stink of his corpse had driven every living creature except the worms and buzzardsa mile away. Eueryone knows it has collapsed,from Chamberlainand Daladier (and Duranty) down to the errand-boyat the comer grocery. And the wholehouse has fallen, every wing and room and comer. The Popular Front met its officialdemise with the vote in the French Chamber; the phrase Popular Front M no longer even referred to, and is nowhere more absent than from the Stalinistpress itself. The Czechoslovak-Soviet treatyhas been publicly put to res~ though the announcementwas ludicrously superfluous. No one even bothers to comment on the burial of the Franco-SovietTreaty. As for collectivesecurity,the four at Munichput thatsufficiently out of the way. The Times openly jeered at the purge awaiting Litvinov. What,then, will the Kremlin do? There are still some dreamers, apparently,whoplay withthe ideathatit willhave learned its lesson, that now it will see the truth that only the workers of the world in struggle againsttheir own capitaliststatescan defend the SovietUnion, and will make a new turn to the revolutionary left. These dreamers imagine, evidently, that fifteen years of history can be wiped out in fact as readily as it is in their own heads. Stalin cannot make a revolutionaryturn, if for no other reason, because the first victim of such a turn if actuallymade would be himsslf. The parties of the Comintern cannot make such a turn, if for no other reason, because they are no longer politicalpartiesin the genuine sense of the term: they are merely

groups of agents of the foreign office and the G.P.U.. If *ey now begin to appear occasionally to jerk to the left, as in voting againstDaladier (and as will doubtlesshappen at other times in the period ahead in England and France, though not in he United States), this does not at all express a real politicalmovement towardthe left but the momentaryexigency of the counterrevolutionary foreign officeof the Kremlin. We do not interpreta momentaryprogressivevote by a stool-pigeonin a union as signifying that he is moving Ieftward; we know that it merely answersthe orders of his employer. The Kremlin has already made a preliminary sounding of whatit is going to try to do, through its mouthpieceDuranty.In an article given to the world press, Durantywrote in the most brutal prose thatthe era of Litvinovdiplomacywas finished, and that Stalin must now come to an agreement with Hitler. In an unbelievablycynical sentence, omittedfrom the version published in New York City but included elsewhere, Duranty reminded his readers-and unquestionablyabove all it was intended for his Nazi readers-that more Jews had been killed in the last two years in the Soviet Union than in all the years of Hitlers regime. There can be nothing startlingin such an attemptedorientation. It is a perfectly consistentdevelopment of the Stalinist course; indeed, in 1933 the Kremlin also attemptedbut failed to secure a rapprochement with the then young Nazi regime. Stalins aim is to preserve socialismin one country; i.e., to maintain Russias territorial boundaries; i.e., to keep himself and his gang in power. To serve this aim it wasproper to come to agreement withthe class enemy as.represented by the democratic imperialisms-this was the policy of the Popular Front. Then whynot, whenthatfails, by agreementwiththe classenemy as representedby the fascistimperialisms?And, in po@ of fact, there is no fundamentaldifference betweenthe twotactics. To try is not, as the world goes, thereby to succeed. Hitlers price will be high, very high. If not outrightcessionsof territory and mandates,then atthe leasta modification of the monopoly of foreign trade, to permit German goods and German capital to enter the Soviet market. This means: to reach agreement with Hitler Stalin must destroy the last remaining conquest of the OctoberRevolution,the nationalizedeconomy.

The 4th InternationalIs Launched

HE DRAMATIC AND TRAGIC political events of the last T month in Europe were characteristicof the sitautionwhich dictatedto the thirty delegateswho came from eleven countries to attendthe world conference of the revolutionaryMarxistsin Switzerlandon September 3 the decisionto found and organize the Fourth InternationalWorld Party of the Socialist Revolution. These even~ served to underscore heavily the fact that the workingclass,the toilingmassesin general, have at their head a leadershipin the form of the twoold Internationals whichis not only incapable of organizingtheir resistanceto the most monstrousof all the productsof capitalismtotalitarian warbutis actuallythe most vigorous force at work in the ranks of labor itself mobilizingthe massesfor enthusiasticsupport of the war. The period in which we live is preeminently the period of world economy and world politics, in which any form of selfenclosed existence-be it autarchy,isolationism, or socialism-inone-country-is either an illusion or dupery. The last quarter of a centuryhas strikinglyemphasizedthe indispensability of internationalorganization, leadershipand strategyfor the proletarian movement.The workingclasscan no more do withoutthem than individualarmycorps can dispensewitha directinggeneral staff. When the old general staffsof the workingclass,the traditional Internationals,have proved themselvesto be not merely bankrupt but a direct obstacleto the further progress of the labor movement,it is imperativethat no time be lost in restoring the world revolutionaryorganization, How blind one wouldhaveto be not to see the reactionaryr61e played by the Second and Third Internationals during the critical September month when Europe see-sawedover the brink of war, a rtde neither unexpected nor accidental,but analyzedand forecastby us years in advance! What a contrastthey presented even to the Second International on the eve of the war of 1914-1918. As is known, all the importantparties of the International turned patrioticand chau. vinistic,and formed a civil peace withtheir respectivecapitalist class once the war actuallybroke out. But in the terror-filled weeksbefore the beginning of August 1914, they at leastmade an effort to appear before the massesas opponentsof the imminent holocaust.The InternationalSocialistBureau met in Brusselsto discussverydespondentlyand withoutmuch conviction,it is tru~what could be done to mobilize the workers againstthe war-mongers.The rafters of Brussels largesthall rang withthe voices of thousandsof workersechoing Jaures eloquent denunciation of the ruling class of all Europe. Similar scenes were repeated in most of the other European capitalsand important populationcenters.

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Even these impressive,if ineffectual,gestures were, however, everywhereabsentin the crisis moments of 1938, when, a bare twentyyears after the end of the lastWar to End All Wars, the world seemed to be catapultingto a new and infinitelymore horrible disaster. What passes for the leadershipof the Second International its world Bureaudid not even consider it necessaryto hold a meeting for the purpose of appraisingthe situation and issuinga declarationthat would guide the workers of all the countries who are affiliated to it. How could it meet? What could it say? Its policy is determinedin each countrynot by proletarianinternationalistconsiderations,but by the policy of its respective nationalbourgeoisie, or, as in the case of the exiled Germansocial democracy,the bourgeoisieof anothernationwhichhas given it asylum, and which it considersat leastfor the time being as its very owntheFrench. With whatfelicity the social democracy followedthe methods of its nationalruling classesdown to the minutestdetail! Just as Chamberlainconsulted with Daladier, withoutbothering to ask for the opinions of the Czech bourgeoisie, so did a delegationof the British Labour Party, headed by Sr Walter Citrine, consult in September with the leaders of the French Socialist Party without bothering to ask for the of the German opinionsof their comrades-of-the-kternational and Czech social democracies. When Chamberlain, just before leaving for Munich, finally condescended to inform the great and democraticBritish Parliamentof his policy and decisions, the leader of the BritishLabour Party,MajorAtlee, could sayno more thanhis colleagueson the other benches: he too wishedthe Prime MinisterGodspeed! It wastoo solemn a moment for His MajestysLoyal Oppositionto put forward its own independent positionon the war question,which is symbolizedby its attacks on the Tory governmentfor failure to speed up the production of military airplanes. That the parties of the Second International have been voting with religious monotony for the war budget in every countrywhere they are still allowedto vote, is too well knownto need comment.1 The parties of the Third Internationaldiffered from the Second only in their more rabid patrioticzeal, in their unrestrained agitationfor an immediateholy war of the Democraciesagainst the Dictatorships. Daladier, in his statementto the Chambers military commissiondefending the abrogation of the 40-hour week in the interestsof nationaldefense, was able to refer good-humoredlyto the antics of his Stalinistsfriends who demanded of him that he play the part of Don Quixoteriding to the defense of imperiled civilization. Throughoutthe period of the Chamberlain-Hitler negotiations,the Stalinistpress in England, France, Belgium and Czechoslovakia carried on an unbridled campaign of chauvinismwhich put even the outright reactionariesto shame. Shifting awayfrom Daladierin France, the Kremlin hirelings frantically applauded the saber-rattling speeches of Henri de Kerillis, spokesmanfor the fascistsin the Chamber. In England, the only demonstrations organizedby the Stalinistswere thosethatcondemnedChamberlainfor not immediately launching a war against Hitler; British honor and Englands interests-these were the mouth-fillingshibboleths of the Stalinistmanifestations.Unbelievableas it soundsyet, what is unbelievable about Stalinism nowadays ?the communistsin Dublin, where the writerhappened to be on the eve of the Munich agreement,ran up and downthe city calling upon
The organ of the American c.ection of the Second International, the SociaEJt Caff, ha$ an ingenious formula for dealing with the treachery of the Second International to which it in afiliated: it just ignores it, or else deliberately conceals its infamy by referring with pious horror to the equally infamous position of the Third International. A typicfd fmstmce is its i.sue of October 1, 1938. It proudly announce. on its first page that French Socialists Fight War and that tbere has been formed a World Workers Front Against War. The first refera to an anti-war manifesto of the Workers and Peasants Socialist Party, hut delicately refrains from mentioning the fact that this group was recently expel fed from the patriotic party of L&on BlumFrench section of Thomas international Tho second refer, to a conference of the London Bureau, composed of groups which are alm outside of the Second International. And is there no news at all ahout what the parties of the Thomaa International are doing in the war crisis? Indeed there is, hut why talk ahout it? It is not for nothins that the Sociafi.t Call oonaiders itself the atout proponent of sincerity, honesty snd morality in the fahor movement.

all good Irishmenand true to rally to the defense of thatinstitution so deeply beloved by Erin-British Democracy. It is this complete absence of a revolutionaryinternational leadershipthatcompelledthe conference of the Bolshevik-Leninists not only to reaffirmtheir view that the two existing Internationalshad become counter-revolutionary, but to found the new International. Properly speaking,the struggle for the new Internationaldates back to the seizure of power by Hitler in 1933 and the lamentable capitulationof the communist and social-democratic parties, which retired from the field of battle withouteven firing a shot. It wasthen thatthe world movement thathad developedaroundthe struggle of the so-calledTrotskyist Opposition in the CommunistInternational,announcedthe abandonmentof its ten-year-oldposition of concentrationupon reforming this International. It issued the call for a new communistInternational and new communistpartiesto replace those thathad collapsedso ingloriously. In the period of intensediscussionand ferment that followed in the radicalmovementafter the German events,the movement for the Fourth International gained strengthin one countryafter another. In 1934, the famous Pact of Four in favor of the new International wassigned by the International CommunistLeague, the Independent SocialistParty of Holland and the Revolutionary SocialistPartyof Holland (the twolast-named organizations were soon to fuse into one), and the SocialistWorkers Party of Germany. If the new Internationalwas not actually founded until four years later, it wasonly in order to allowfor the elapse of a necessaryperiod in which the fundamentaldiscussionsand the clarification and takingup of positionscould occur. This was necessary, even if to a much smaller measure, for the International CommunistLeague as well as for the numerous groups which were breaking or had already broken awayfrom the old Internationals. In this respec~ the last four-fiveyears have been among the most instructiveand fruitful in our century. To the superficial observer, they appear to have constituteda period of chaos, of endless unificationsand an even greater number of splits, of pointless academic disputes and meretricious personal recriminationall largely incomprehensible and leading to nothing more positivethan the constantchurning up of stagnantwater. The more careful observer,however,could discern both meaning and purpose in the developmentsof this period. Out of chaos comes the star, said the philosopher; and whatappears to many to have been the chaos of these last five years wasin realitythe all-important period of gestationof the new internationalrevolutionarymovement. Every movementthat seeks to adapt itself intelligentlyto an importantturn in history, finds almostinvariablythatthere are elements in its ranks who, either because of forces and ideas latentin them or because of the conservatizing influenceof yesterdays tactic, are unable to adjust themselvesto the requirementsof the new situationand, consequently,fly off at a tangent. In the pasthalf-decadeof the InternationalCommunistLeagues evolution,this phenomenontookthe form of variousultra-leftist groups which in substance resisted the determinationof our movementto become the effective leadership of the revolutionary vanguard.The struggle againstthese groups had only had a profound educational effect upon our movement, helping to inoculateit more deeply againstinfantileradicalismin its senile stage, but served to dissipatethe legend injudiciouslydisseminated by our adversaries that there was something innately sectarian about the Trotskyistmovement. In the course of the struggle, which was often sharp and ahnost as often led to splits in our movement,the contendingcurrents were subjected to decisive tests. Everywhere, and withoutexception, the ultra-leftists, who soon revealed that they were really imbued with a deep-rooted conservatism,stagnatedand then began to decomposeto the pointwheremany of them disappearedintothe politi-

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cal void. No less telling is the fact that in this whole period those that succeeded in maintaininga vegetable existence never managed to establish any serious internationalrelationships among themselves; that is, none of them succeeded in rising abovethe level of a purely nationalexistence.While our movement continuedto move forwardto deeper solidityand influence, Weisbord, Field, Oehler, Bauer, Eiffel, Vitte, Lasterade, Vereecken, Ridley, etc., etc., havingnothing left but wind-blown d6bris to showthatat one time they were living groups. As for those who scoffed disdainfully at our allegedly permanent process of schism, and who travelled light under the banner of Unity, they have not a very encouraging balancesheetto show.They not only did not succeed in avertingsplits they have had littleelse but splitsto record in the past period but they did not learn anythingfrom their splitsand subsequent disintegration.The world is strewn with once large organizationswhich,under the sloganof unitywitheverybodyin an allinclusive party, ended up reduced to the smallest and least effectual of sects. The ItalianMaximalistparty of Balabanova, which tried to hold together the incompatibleextremes of communism and social democracy in one party, which continuesto bewail to the present day the arbitrary splittingof the united Italianparty by Lenin and Trotskysome twodecades ago, has become the tiniestof all Italiangroups, a hazymyth around the head of its traditionalspokesman. The tens of thousands of members of BritainsIndependent Labour Party, whose leaders talkedall the more aboutthe virtues of unity in order to talk all the less about revolutionaryprinciple, have been reduced to less than two thousandefIective metnbers-outnumbered today in the decisive London area by the despised sectariansof the unified BritishBolshevik-Leninist organization. An even crueler fate overtook the German Socialist Workers Party (S.A.P.). Whathappenedto the all-inclusiveness of the NormanThomas party in this country should be no less instructiveto those still capable of learning from life. Of all the currents and movementsin the irttemationaI working class, only the Fourth International can boldly and honestly claim the heritage of the great principles and traditionsof revolutionaryMarxism and its past protagonists.The movementfor which it speaks has demonstratedthe consistency,virility and Iifeworthiness, determination and capacity, to mobilize the masses once again for the conclusive victory over exploitation and class rule. The two old Internationals have long ceased to pretend that they are our revolutionaryrivals; they are only reactionaryobstaclesto the working class which it will sweep aside in its forward march. The groups outside the two Internationals still inimical to our movement-the disintegrating London Bureau and the disintegratedBrandler-Lovestone International (what, by the way, has happened to it? It would be interestingto read an officialaccounting!)find thattheir revolutionarypretenseshave become quite transparent. The road is left free to the Fourth International! The future belongs to it! Beside constituting the Fourth International, and adoptingthe statutes thatcorrespondto a serious,centralizedworld party,the main job of the international conference wasthe adoptionof the RevolutionaryTransitionalProgram of the IntemationaI-the program of immediatedemands for the period in which we are fighting. The importanceof this program cannot be overrated. Not only and not so much because of the thoroughgoinganalysis it makes of the present period, for that analysishas been made before, but because of the rounded and concrete program it presents to the working class, the peasantry and the colottial peoples of the world for immediateaction on all the pressing problems of life and struggle thatnow confront them. The program-it has already appeared in full in the internationalconference number of the Socialist Appeal and will shortly be printed as a separate pamphlet+orresponds maxificently to

the requirementsfor such a documentlaid downby RosaLuxemburg some twogenerationsago:

In actualityour whole programwouldbe a miserablescrap of paperif it were not capable of serving us for all eventualities and in every moment of the struggle, and to serve us by virtue of its being practisedand not by its being sbelved. If our programis the formulationof the historicaldevelopment of society from capitalism to socialism, then obviously it must formulatealso all the transitionalphases of this development,it must contain them in tbeir fundamentalfeatures,and thereforealso be able to indicate to the proletariatthe corresponding attitude in the sense of approaching closer to socialism in every given moment. From this it follows that for the proletariatthere cannot, in general, be a single momentwhen it wouldbe compelledto leave its programin the lurch, or in which it muld be left in the lurch by this program.

Our internationalprogram of action, which will be read and re-read as one of the classic documents of Marxism, does not confine itself to the demand for the socialistrepublic, nor to general and abstract denunciationsof the danger of war and fascismand the offensiveof capitalistreaction. On the contrary, it is a documentthat indicatesthe line of action that must and can be takenby the proletariattoday,now, in light of the corttradiction between the objectivelyrevolutionarysituationand the ideological backwardnessof the working class itself. It is a powerful weaponfor cuttingthe bonds of politicalenslavement which fetter the internationallabor movement and at the same time a means of leading it into battlewithslogansand demands that correspond to its aspirationsand interestsand to objective reality. Throughout it is permeated with the determination repressed or suppressedby all other sectionsof the labor movementto restore the chz.ssindependence 0/ the workers, that indispensableprerequisite to effective struggle; and it indicates the concrete practical steps by means of which this will be accomplished It will indeed be accomplished! The Fourth Internationalis inspired by an irrepressible confidence in the resourcefulness, the initiative,the powers of recuperation, the invincibilityand final triumphof the proletariat.If we are curt and contemptuous towards whimperers, people who have retired from the class strugglewithdespondentsighs, short-sighted people who identify a period of reaction, however black with the conclusive defeat of the revolution,people who ascribe their own weakness,irtdecision and blundering to the proletariat-it is only because we have no patience with anyone who standsto any extent in the wayof the seriousmovemetthatis resolvedto continuethe work of mobilizing the masses for the decisive assaults upon the enemy. Better that all these gentlemen stand aside and do their wailing and contemplatingin private, before they are moved aside in a less politeway. We go ahead under the banner of the Fourth International, with our old convictions, our tested principles, and with no doubts as to the final outcome. Max SHACHTMAN

ArgentineansIssue Another Magazine

A SECONDMAGAZINEin support of the Fourth International has been issued in the Spanish language by a group of Fourth Internationalists in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The publicationis called Inicia.1 and copies of the firstnumber recently reachedthe Well printed and of excellent officeof THE NEWINTERNATIONAL. contenhIniciulhas alreadymade a place for itself amongArgentinean workers. Last month we announced the publication of Nuevo Curse. Nowtwoorgansof the Fourth International movement are carrying the message of revolutionaryMarxism to the workers and peasantsin the Argentine. Congratulations,corn. radee of in.fcid and long life!

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Socia-Patriotic Sophistry
The Questionof the Defense of Czechoslovakias National Independence
CRITICAL WEEK in September,we have been DURINGTHE told, voices were heard even at the left flank of socialism maintainingthat in case of single combat between Czmhoslovakiaand Germany, the proletariatshould help Czechoslo. vakiaand saveits nationalindependenceeven in alliancewith Benes. This hypothetical case did not occurthe heroes of Czechoslovakian independence, as was to be expected, capitu. lated withouta struggle. However,in the interestsof the future we must here point out the grave and mostdangerousmistakeof these untimelytheoreticiansof nationalindependence. Even irrespectiveof its international ties Czechoslovakia con. stitutesa thoroughlyimperialiststate. Economically,monopoly caiptalismreigns there. Politically,the Czech bourgeoisiedomi. nates (perhaps soon we will have to say, dominated!) several oppressednationalities.Such a war, even on the part of isolated Czechoslovakia wouldthus have been carried on not for national independencebut for the maintenanceand if possible the extension of the borders of imperialistexploitation. It is impermissibleto consider a war betweenCzechoslovakia and Germany, even if other imperialiststateswere not immediatelyinvolved,outaideof that entanglementof European and world imperialist relations from which the war might have broken out as an episode.A monthor twolaterthe Czech-German warif the Czech bourgeoisiecould fight and wantedto fight would almost inevitablyhave involved other states. It would therefore be the greatestmistakefor a Marxistto definehis position on the basis of temporary conjunctural diplomatic and militarygroupings, rather than on the basis of the general character of the socialforces standingbehind this war. We have repeated hundreds of times the priceless thesis of Clausewitz that war is but the continuationof politics by other means. In order to determine in each concrete case the historic and socialcharacterof the warwe mustbe guidednot by impressions and speculationsbut by a scientificanalysisof the politics which preceded the war and determined it. These politics from the very first day of the creation of Czechoslovakia had an imperialistcharacter. One can saythatbesidesthe partitionof the Sudeten Germans, Hungarians,Poles, and possiblythe Slovakstoo, Hitler will not stop before the enslavementof the Czechsthemselvesand thatin this case their struggle for independence will have every claim upon the supportof the proletariat.To pose the questionin this manner is nothing but social-patriotic sophistry.What concrete roads further developmentof imperialistantagonismswill take we do not know. Completedestructionof Czechoslovakia is possible, of course. But it is also possible thatbefore this destruction willhave been accomplisheda European war will break out and Czechoslovakia will find itself on the side of the victorsand participatein a new dismembermentof Germany. Is the r61e of a revolutionary partythen thatof nurse of the victimized gangsters of imperialism? It is absolutelyclear that the proletariatmust construct its policy on the basis of the given war as it is, i.e., as it has been determined by the whole preceding course of developmentand not on hypotheticalspeculationover a possible strategicresult of the war. In such speculationseveryonewill inevitablychoose thatvariantwhich correspondsbest to his own desires, national sympathiesand antipathies. It is clear that such a policy does not have a Marxistbut a subjective,not an internationalist but a chauvinistcharacter. An imperialistwar,no matterfrom whatcomer it begins, will be carried on not for nationalindependence but for the division of the world in the intereatsof separatecliques of finance capital.This does not exclude thatin passingthe imperialistwar could improve or worsenthe conditionof this or that nation, or, more exactly, of one nationat the expense of another.Thus, the Versailles peace treaty dismembered Germany.A new peace treaty may dismember France. Social-patriots utilize precisely this possible nationaldanger of the future in order to support their imperialistbanditsof the present. Czechoslovakia does not represent any exception from this rule. In reality all speculative arguments of this kind and the frightening of people over future national calamitiesfor the sake of the support of this or that imperialistbourgeoisie flow from tacit rejec$ion of revolutionaryperspective and revolutioruzry policy. Naturallyif a new war ends in the militaryvictory of this or thatimperialistcamp; if a warcalls forth neither a revolutionaryuprising nor a victory of the proletariat; if a new imperialistpeace more terrible than the Versailles treaty places new chains for decades upon the people; i/ unfortunate humanity bears all this in silence and submission-not only Czechoslovakia or Belgium but also France can be hurled back into the positionof an oppressed nation (the same supposition may be made in regard to Germany). In this eventualitythe further frightful decomposition of capitalism will cast all hmanity back for many decades.Of course in the realizationof this perspective,that is, a perspective of passivity,capitulation, defeat, and decline, oppressed classes and entire peoples must then climb on all fours in sweatand in blood over the historic road already once traversed. Is such an outlookexcluded? Zf the proletariat suffers without end the leadership of socialimperialists and communist-chauvinists; if the Fourth Interna. tional is unable to find a road to the masses; if the terrors of war do not push the workersand soldiers on the road to rebellion; if the colonial peoples bleed patientlyin the interestsof the slaveholders,under these conditionsthe level of civilization will inevitablybe lowered and the general retrogression and decompositionmay again place nationalwars O; the order of the day for Europe. Even then we, or rather our sons, will have to determinethe policy in regard to future wars on the basis of the new situation. But today we proceed not from the perspective
of decline but from the perspective of revolution; we are defeatists at the expense of imperialists and not at the expense of the proletariat. We do not link the question of the fate of the Czechs, Belgians, French, and Germans as nations with conjunctural shifts of military fronts during a new brawl of the imperialists but with the uprising of the proletariat and its victory over all the imperialists. The proa~am of the Fourth International states that the freedom of all European nations, both large and small, can be secured only within the frame of the Socialist United States of Europe. We look ahead and not backward! Leon TROTSKY COYOACAN, D. F., October14, 1938

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The Popular Fronts Guilt

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HE PREREQUISITE of sound revolutionarypolicy is to see things as they are. No little part of the victoriousadvance of Hitler is the gift of his opponentsinabilityto give a straight account of reality. How little these illusions have served the cause of effectivestruggleagainstfascism! When the Nazimovement appeared, clever liberals said Germanywasnot Italy. The Munich beer.hall putsch they thought very funny, very funny, whatwithLudendorfffalling downflaton his stomachand Hitler landing up in jail. The social crisis and with it the Nazi movement grew. Hitler lost two million votes and the German communists proclaimed that fascism was finished. The Rote Ftdtnevociferatedthatthe proletariatwasready to strike at the commandof the CommunistParty. Hitler took power withlittle more resistancethen a couple of street fights. The social democrats, h~ded by @to Wels, and trade unionistsled by Leipart hoped thatby declaringtheir loyaltyto the Nazistate,they would be allowedto function as a legal opposition. Hitler destroyed the entire Germanfree trade union movementand put its leaders into concentration camps.Undeterredby any prejudice for trub the Stalinistskept telling their followers that all was not yet over; the revolutionwouldbreak out any day. The countrywas allegedlyhoneycombedwithred cells end Storm Troopers were preparing to transfer their allegiance. But the German proletariatkept paying the price of capitulation.The next self.deception of these tragi-comicpoliticianswasin Germanysisolation. Hitler was surrounded by the democracies. The Reichswehr generals were in opposition. Hitler, however, had taken the measure of the democracies. He occupied the Rhinelandand introduced conscription. He made a deal with the Poles and Mussolini. Austria was taken. Czechoslovakia was hemmed in. The gallantCzech people would fight, the world wasnext told. The French army wasthe best in Europe. The Russianshad the deadliest air fleet and could drop whole regiments behind the enemys lines by the parachuteroute. But the ramshackleedifice of the Popular Front and collectivesecurity,put to the tes~ CO1. lapsed like a pricked balloon. The fact is thatthe Munich accord is the greatestvictorythat German fascismhas carried off since 1933. Hitler standsat the head of a totalitarian stateof 80 million Germans,more powerful than Bismarck,or perhaps Napoleon. Munich wasthe final smash-upof the Versaillesbalanceof power.The map of Central Europe is now redrawn. Economic and politicaldominationof SoutheasternEurope goes to Nazi Germany.The Little Entente is dissolved.The Czech alliancewiththe U.S.S.R. is broken. The Franco-Soviet pact is dead.The Balticcountriesare whippedinto the orbit of either Germanyor Poland. Hungary will be a satellite and nobody takes the military power of Carols Rumanian dictatorshipseriously. In the last war von Mackensen romped throughthe gallantRumanianarmy in the matterof a couple of weeks,if our memory serves us. The remnant of Czechoslovakia has become totalitarian. The French have appointedan ambassador to Rome. Chamberlainand Mussolini are preparing to liquidate Spain. Barcelona can be transformed into a fascist set-upas rapidly as Prague. The SovietUnion is isolatedand to all intents and purposes the German army is encamped on the borders of the Ukraine. Fascism bestridesthe continent; it is idle to deny it. Munich was the grand pay-off for two decades of defeat of the proletarian revolution. In 1918 the German Social Democracycould have chosen an eastern orientation,a bloc with revolutionary agrarian Russia.The Bolsheviksproposed such a bloc. Europe was still in a stateof post-warrevolutionaryferment. A union of Russia and Germany would have put an end to capitalist dominationand led to a United States of Europe. It was the most natural alliance for both parties. The bourgeois Germany of Rathenaufound it necessaryto conclude the RappalloTreaty and foster trade relations.The GermanReichswehrfound it necessary to seek collaborationwith the General Staff of the Red Army. But the Social Democracy contemptuouslyrejected the Bolshevikadvancesand embarkedon a Westernorientation. They decided to fulfil the impossibleterms of the Treaty of Versailles, taking on themselvesan odium that was to cost them dearly in the future, the odium for the degradationand humiliationof a once West power. But no matter how loyally the Weimar Republic kowtowedto the Versailles powers, they were always kept humbly waitingon the door-stepof the servantsentrance. OttoBauer preferred the same policy for Austria. In 1923 and again in 1933, social democratic and communistparties evacuated all their positions, surrendered all the social gains of decades to fascism without a struggle. The Austrian workers fought, proving that the rank end file was made of different mettlethanthe phliamentary leadership. But it wastoo late. The tide of revolutionaryunrest end the will to combat fascism rose high againin the French labor movementin 1934. The combined efforts of the Socialistsand Stalinistssucceeded in divertingthe revolutionaryferment intothe channels of popular frontism. Social-patriotism and class collaborationwere sweetened in the interestsof the Sovietbureaucracywhichhad entered into an alliancewiththe imperialistdemocracies.To this aHiance the revolutionarycause of the Spanish workers was sacrificed. The struggle of the Spanishworkersfor their socialliberation was prohibited by the united threats and pressure of the democraciesand Moscow.To all protestsof the militants,to all the warningsof revolutionary Marxiststhe Second and Third Internationalsreplied that the Popular Front was the way to fightfascismat home, and collectivesecuritythe wayto hold the fascistpowersin check abroad.This wasthe struggle for peace and democracy. A revolutionarypolicy, a policy of the class struggle wouldwe were told open the road to fascistaggression; it would weakenthe democracies and encourage the aggressor. The Internationals of Social Democracyand Stalinismthus became the most ardent defenders of the capitaliststatusquo and of the Versailles set-up. To Hitlerthesepoliciesof the Cominternand Social Democracy were worthany number of army corps. He no longer had to fear the effect that a revolutionaryworkingclass in the democratic countries would have on the workers of the fascist countries. The Popular Fronts acceptanceof the statusquo as its point of departureenabledHitler to representhis opponentsas the people whowantedto perpetuatethe Peace Treaty of 1919. On the other hand despite all the propaganda for the democracy of brave littleCzechoslovakia, the eventhas shownthatthe French workers were little impressed. Millions of workersin both England and France must have had an uneasy feeling thatthey wouldbe fightingto maintainthree million Germansunder Czech rule. There must have been many in France who recalled thatwhen a proposalwasmade in the French Chamberin 1933 to join in the celebration,of the fifteenth amiversary of the Czech republic, the StalinistPeri got up to oppose it on the ground that our sympathygoes to the workingclasses of Czechoslovakia and the minoritiesoppressed by the central power in Prague. He proceeded to accuseBenes of preparing concentration campson the model of Hitlers Germany. In the debates in the Socialist party, Paul Faure recently reminded his colleaguesthat at the moment when the Sudeten Germans were cededto Czechoslovakia,the Socialistparty took a positionin favor of the Sudetens. When it came to the point the French worker proved unwillingto fight for the rotten fruits of the Versailles Peace.

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CollectiveSecurityproved to be a colossalswindle.Whathappened at Munich was a more grandiose repetition of the sanctions farce during the Italo-Ethiopian war. The Munich accord writes finis to the successive hoaxes of the Covenant of the League, the Kellogg Pact to outlawwar, the Nine-PowerTreaty to safeguardChina and all the rest of the legalisticskullduggery thatwasto lull the peoples intothe illusionthatpowerpolitics had given wayto the reign of law, but wasin reality a means of sanctifying the existing partition of the world among the powers on the basis of their relationof forces in 1918. All that the collectivesecuritytalk did wasto blunt the edge of the revolutionary struggle againstwar and militarism inside the mass movement and thereby enable Hitler, with the acquiescence of the democraticimperialismsto advancehis interestsin Central Europe and effect a new equilibrium. CollectiveSecurity was as little capable of stoppingHitler as sanctionsstoppedMussolini. Munich enables us to drawa fresh balance of the conditionof democracy. Severalyears of the Popular Front have issuedin the growthof reaction.The Mwu+z.ester Guardianscorrespondent confirms this. The internal consequencesof Munich in France are still incalculable. The idea of building up a tremendous defence machine has gained ground and with it all sorts of theories aboutan authoritarian regime, a militarydictatorship,a totalitarian iinancialsystem. A hopeful sign is the report that among the workingclass, on the other hand, there is profound disgustwiththe Republicanregime as it has functionedin the last few monthsand a great loss of loyaltyto democracy.The danger is that in default of revolutionaryleadership, this same disgustwithdemocracymay easilywindup in the channels of fascism. Frank Hanighen in the New Republic reports much in the samevein: . . . disquietingresultsare now back of the relief at demobilization and peace, one can discern amongthe workers not only a disgustwiththeir clumsy governmentbut also a disillusionwithsuch slogansas democracy,front againstfascism, etc. Such darlings of the Left as Kerillis are calling for an authoritarianrepublic. The mystique of the Popular Front is gone. The role of the U.S.S.R. those weeksof crisis wasa complete reflection of the impotence and degeneration of the Soviet bureaucracy. Nobody has yet explained how the destructionof the politicaland spiritualcapitalof the Russianrevolutioncould possibly enhance the authorityof the U.S.S.R. in international diplomacy.When Eden wastoastingStalin in Moscowand LitvinoffwastoastingHis Majesty,when Barthouand Herriot were negotiating for Russias entrance into the League, and the Franco-Sovietpact appeared in outline, it looked like a diplomatic triumph for the Stalinistregime, particularly after the accessionof Hitler in Germany. But all this was a pretentious facade. The completeisolationof the U.S.S.R. during the Berchesgaden-Godesberg-Munich negotiationsis the pay-off. While Chamberlainand Hitler talked,Litvinoffsatin the charnel-house of Geneva.At no time wasthe voice of the Soviet Union heard clearly. Litvinoffmumbled something,Maiskymumbled something. Poland was warnednot to take Teschen (which she proceeded to do nevertheless). It appears thatthe real explanation for SovietparalysiswasColonelLindbergh. Againstthe colonel, Stalinordered full mobilization(of verbal batteries) and warto the knife. Lindbergh destroyed the Popular Fronb Lindbergh overthrewcollectivesecurityand Lindbergh is the mortalenemy of democracy. Anyone familiarwithStalinsrecord of diplomaticsucceswx cannot be surprised by the addition of Munich. The famous Anglo-Russian Committeeexperiment woundup in the Scotland Yard raid on Arcos. The famous strategyof Stalin in the Kuomintang ended with the slaughter of Russian functionaries in Shanghai and Borodin and Galen taking to their heels with ChiangKai Sheksmen in hotpursuit.WhenHitlercarnetopower Trotskyssuggestionthatthe Red Army mobilizewasdenounced

as adventurism(despite the acknowledgedfact that the Reichswehr wasnot prepared to resisthad the French marched during the occupation of the Rhineland much later). Instead Stalin hurried to conclude a trade treatywithHitler. When the workers of all other countrieswere demonstrating in protestagainstHitlers terrorism, only the Soviet workerswere ordered to remain silent. Loudly demandingthe applicationof sanctionsduring the Italo-Ethiopianwar, the Stalinist bureaucracy itself steadily maintainedits oil shipments to Mussolini. When the Spanish civil war broke OULStalin did intervene-to keep the working class harnessed to the Popular Front and bourgeois democracy. But the sabotageand ruinationof the revolutionarymovement abroad means the increasing isolation of the October revolution. The fear of the gatheringvolume of politicaland social discontentin the Soviet Union forces Stalin to his preventive purges, which undermine the strength and morale of the army, the navy, the schools, and every institutionin the country. The one shortage that Stalinist Russia escapes is executions. The imperialistpowershave naturallydrawntheir conclusions,Daladier and Chamberlainignore the U.S.S.R. in their calculations, and Hitler speculateson the stateof mind of the Ukrainianpeasantandno doubtalsoreceivesreportson the outlookof fascism amongthe sovietbureaucrats. The European crisis has strikingly revealed the horror that the masses entertainfor modem war. This is confirmed on all hands. The Pariscorrespondent of the New Republic writes: the mobilization insteadof revivingnationalist brio among the people, had an almost reverse effect. If anything more was needed the sense of relief that swept Europe after the Munich conference is sufficientevidence of the desire for peace. Yet in this situation,where the massesare helpless withoutleadership, the Stalinists,laboritesand socialdemocratswere out in the forefront as vociferouswarmongers.The Social Democracyof 1914 cannot be said to have actuallyassumedthe initiativeof agitating for war. The Cominternof 1938 did. The massesdrifted, in the clutch of the diplomacy of their governments.As an organized internationalforce and as a political factor, the working class were therefore absent.The Britsh Labor party on account of itspro-warstandis committedto the heavier rearmamentprogram of Chamberlain. Their leaders like Lord Strabolgi have already come out for a measure of compulsoryNationalService thatis to say, conscription. In sharp contrastwiththe chauvinistincitementsof the Laborite and Stalinistorganizations was the fervent peace sentiment manifestedby the masses. More than ever that peace sentiment becomes a progressivefactorthatintelligentrevolutionary socialist policy must reckon with.The struggle for peace which the MoscowCominternproclaimedas its guiding light at its Seventh Congres%and which ostensiblyjustifiedthe Franco-Sovietpact and U.S.S.R. entry into the League of Nations,turned in reality into a struggle for imperialistwar. The American League foi Peace and Democracy (erstwhileLeague AgainstWar and Fascism) became the leading exponentsof collectivesecurity for the imperialiststatusquo. The crisis made clear that the pacifism of the masses,repeatedlyevidencedin the United Statesby the figures of the Gallup poll and the support of the Ludlow Amendment, is well nigh universal. Even in France when the workers were brought face to face with the impending catastrophe of war, Stalinistpropagandarapidly lost influence. The atruggle for peace must become one of the cornerstonesof our policy. But we must convincethe massesthatthe way to peace lies as little in isolationas in collective security and certainly does not lie in huge programs of rearmament.We must prove that the struggle for peace can be victoriousonly as a struggle for socialism, that it can be secured not by congressional resolutions or constitutionalamendments, but by the workingclassconquestof power. MauriceSPECTOR

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Labor UnityA New Stage

d
OHN L. LEWIS recently offered to resign as chairmanof the providedthatWilliam .J Committeefor IndustrialOrganization Green as president of the American Federation of Labor would do likewise.It then may be possible, declared Lewis, for the remainingleaders of the Federationof Labor and the remaining leaders of the C.I.O. to conclude a peace pact, in whicheventthe contributionmade by Mr. Green and myself would be of some value. That wai a gesture the importanceof which lies not in the fact that if carried into action Green would become merely anotherunemployedmember of the musiciansunion whileLewis still retained.power in the C.I.O., but that it symbolizesthe tremendous and basic changes in the labor movement during the past year under the impactof the social crisis. Perhaps even more strikingwas the attitudewhich Daniel J. Tobin, president of the teamstersunion, largest and most powerful A.F. of L. affiliate, tookat the A.F. of L. conventionthis year. One may well ask, whatis really happening in the labor movement thata 66-year-oldfellow-traveler of the A.F. of L. executive council looms as the leader of a progressive revolt within the A.F. of L. against the reactionary policies advocated by that board, on the questionof labor unity? And above all, one asks, will there be unity? On what basis and to whose advantage? These are the problems that concern the militant and revolutionaryworkers. In their answerlies the future of the Ame~can labor movement. It wasno secret thatthe huge lay-oflsin mass productionindustries cut deeply into the dues-paying membership of the C.I.O., while the A.F. of L. appearedto be prospering, relatively speaking.The membership figures released at the A.F. of L. conventionwere imposing enough: over 3,600,000 dues-payingand 1,400,000 unemployedmembers. A totalmembership of 5,000,000 comparedto a very generous estimateof 4,000,000 dues and non-duespaying C.I.O. unionists.The bitier struggleswithinthe C.I.O.such as appeared in the autoworkers union and elsewhere promised a stormy future. Newspaperswere filled with talk of disintegrationof the C.I.O. The action of the International Ladies GarmentWorkers Union, 400,000 strong, in refusing to participate in the formation of C.I.O. councils tended to give credence to those pessimisticviewsof the C.I.O.Sfuture. Would the C.LO. unions be forced to make peace, one by one, withthe A.F. of L. executivecouncil? Yet precisely at the moment when things looked dark for the C.I.O., the edifice of the A.F. of L. cracked wide-openat the convention,showingthatthe perennial dominationof the aristocracyof labor over the industrialproletariatwas doomed. In the past two years the A.F. of L. itself had been forced as a defensivemeasure to organizemany plants on an industrialbasis. In marked contrastto previous depressions,no wave of wage cuts have swept across the industrial scene this last yeara remarkable tribute to the power the proletariat has found in organizing industrially under the banner of the C.I.O. The A.F. of L. registered 800,000 new members in this same critical year. But most outstandingwas the signing of a pact covering 250,000 drivers with substantialwage increases. This was the achievementof the teamstersunion, under the progressive influence of the Minneapolis labor movement. Superficially, the gains of the teamstersunion, tended to reaffirmthe hegemony of the A.F. of L. in the entire labor movement.Actuallyit wasa victory for the movement of industrial workers, and this was strikingly brought out at the A.F. of L. convention.While the collapse in building activity seriously crippled the building trades departmentof the A.F. of L., heart of the die-hardcraftunionists,the gains of the teamsterseffected a si~ificant shift in the very socialbase of the A.F. of L. It is reflectedin the fact thatthe teamstershave taken control of the Central Labor unions from the building trades unions in such key centers as Akron, Cleveland, Minneapolis,San Francisco, Seattle, among others. By the very nature of their work the truck drivers serve as a powerful buffer force betweenC.I.O. and A.F. of L. unions. When 350,000 truckdriverssay they will not fight the C.LO. but fight for labor unity, the die-hard cIique in the A.F. of L. becomes a general staffwithoutan effective army. Monthsago, an officialC.I.O.-A.F.of L. coordinating committee representing the Industrial Union Council and the Central Trades and Labor Assemblywasset up in Akron, Ohio, withoutunfavorableactionfrom top A.F. of L. leaders, although that wasfeared. Further evidence of the change within the structure of the A.F. of L., and the effect of the social crisisj is the defeat of MathewWell, John P. Frey, and the other bureaucrats of the executivecouncil whentheir demandthatthe conventionendorse an attack on the New Deal (from the reactionary viewpoint) wasrejected. That expressed in distortedform the desires of the rank and file A.F. of L. for a solutionto their problems along more progressive lines. The socialismof the New Deal over whichWell shudderedwasexactlythe only aspectwhichattracts the workers,even thoughthey are dangerouslydeceived. One year ago we pointedout thatthe cost of civil warbetween the C.I.O. and the A.F. of L. would soon worktowardsthe direction of unity. The suicidal strife between Dave Beck, Seattle teamstersunion czar, and Harry Bridges, Stalinistdirector of the West Coast C.I.O. was then at the height of its fury. The lossesin wages,the arrestsand imprisonmentof leaders on both sides, the passageof strike-breaking and union-smashing legislation, coupkd withthe blowsof the social crisis, forced a change in that disastrouspolicy. Beck recently urged an economic united front withthe C.I.O.despite politicaldifferences. When Akron, Ohio, cops broke a mass picket line in May at the Goodyear plants, sending hundreds of C.I.O. workersto hospitalsfor treatment against tear-gassing and clubbing, labor mobilized under a United Labor Defense Committeecomposed of all A.F. of L. and C.I.O. unions in that area. Well be next if the cops get awaywithit: the A.F. of L. unionistsrealized. The committee has been pIaced on a permanent basis now. Similar stories of united action can be repeated in many cities. Fear of wage cuts, fear of growing reaction, and the obvious need for labor solidarityin these criticaltimeshave intensifiedthe sentimentfor unity in the rank and file of the A.F. of L. and the C.I.O. This burning desire has forced its way into the highest ranks of the labor bureaucrats. The independent railroad brotherhoods of nearly 2,000,000 members face the most serious challenge of many years in their negotiationswith management.Already a strike vote has been taken by 1,000,000 members against acceptance of a proposed 15$%wagecut. Onlythe unitedstrengthof the entire labor movement can give the railroad workers effective support against governmentor managementtreachery. It is of the utmostconcern to the A.F. of L. andthe C.I.O. to preventa wagecut in this basic industryso thatthe example might not become a contagiousone to the employers.This situationimpels the brotherhoodstowards desiring and becoming a part of the united labor movement. Tke begemony oj tke industrialworkersin the American labor movementand the vitalneeds of tkis decisiveforce are bringing a rapid shift in the directwn of unity. There are no longer any fundamentalreasonsthatjustify the separationof the A.F. of L. and the C.I.O. This is evidentto the rank and file workersin both sections.The leadership are on the spot. Perhapsunitywill take the form, in terms of leadership, of a DanTobin-JohnL. Lewis-

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George M. Harrison combination. For over a year we have heard reports in high C.I.O. circles thatTobin wouldbe Lewiss candidate for president of a united labor movement. David Dubinsky,presidentof the I.L.G.W.U., is very anxiousto emerge in the labor mov~ent. But these as, the great compromiser considerations are secondary. It is the contentanil not the form of labor unity that is decisive. The question no longer is proC.I.O. or pro-A.F. of L. Industrialunionismis a fact.

Act carried on mainly by the C.I.O. unions is therefore a progressive one and it must be supported. Roosevelt views labor unity as a step vital to national unity in war-time. Counterpoised to this is our concept of labor unity against national unity in labors struggle to block another world imperialist slaughter. The recent war crisis also served to expose clearly the role which the union bureaucracy will play more openly in the future. William Green, speaking on Czechoslovakia sounded like an editorial from the DaiZyWorker. He has already publicly an-

Roosevelt and LaborUnity

The message of PresidentRooseveltto the A.F. of L. convention urging unity of the labor movement was hailed in many sectionsof the labor movementas a powerful factor in bringing about peace. It is undeniable thatRooseveltwantslabor unity. The questions&at must be answered,however, is whatkind of unity? This summer a Roosevelt-appointed commission went abroad to studythe BritishLabor DisputesAct, and the Swedish Corarbitrationsystem. Why? Surely the Brain Trust twins, cmran and Cohen, know the provisionsof those laws. The New York Times carried a complete analysis of them.What was desired by Rooseveltwaspublicity for the idea of arbitration, for the idea of peaceful settlement of the disputes between unions end management. Rooseveltis looking for a legislative method of takingawaythe right of labor to strike.And this idea is carefully being built up. Simultaneously withthismaneuver,anotherRooseveltcommission went into action. It was the MaritimeCommissionwhose aims are (1) to build up a powerful merchant marine through huge subsidies,(2) to smashmaritimeunions. Bothare essential pointsin Rooseveltswarplans. Maritimelabor is to be crushed by takingawaythe unionsvitalright of control of hiring halls, and by the creation of training schools for seamen, i.e., for

nounced support of Rooseveltswar plans. John L. Lewis in Mexico Citydid his part to try to swingLatin American workers
behind the aims and needs of American imperialism. The never-ending poison of nationalism which the Stalinists feed their members and the labor movement is a guarantee that no matter
has in the next war, the patriotismof the what opponentAmerica C.P. is assured. Its special role in wartime will be the hounding

of all progressives and revolutionists. Against this entire scheme of chaining the American labor movement to Roosevelts war machine stands an ever increasing section of the unions. The strong anti-imperialist war resolutions paseed by the Minneapolis A.F. of L. and the Lynn, Mass., C.I.O. unions is a signof

thisdevelopment.The fight against the Hill$hepard or May Bill is another indication. Real supby the entirelabor movement port for the originalLudlowwar referendum bill also came only the S.W.O.C. and the United Autofrom the labor movement; mobile Workers of America are two of the major unions which
endorsed the war referendum proposal.

Future of the C.I.O.

The key to a tkorough understandingof $/w CJ.O. lies in recognizingthatd is primarily a social movementreflectingthe needs, desires and aspirdms oj the COIZSCWUS and decisivesection O!the industrialproletariat. It expresses itself on the economic front through industrial unions. Its political arm is Labors Non-PartisanLeague. It represents a historical break with the traditionsof conservatismin the A.F. of L. And it is inevitablethat, under the limitationsof purely economic struggles in an epoch of social crisis, the workers will turn more stronglyin the direction of politicalaction. Labors Non-Patiisan League of today must necessarily become the basis of a serious Labor Party developmentof tomorrowunless war or a not impossible temporary upswing in industrial and business activitypostponesit. The vital importance of the C.I.O. movementto the progressiveand revolutionaryworkersrests in understandingthis conception. The convention of the C.I.O. called for November marks a milestonein its history. Here the conflicts,contradictions,preeent and future of the C.LO. will be decided one way or another. It faces three major problems requiring urgent solution.Every recent developmentwithinthe C.LO. indicatesthat it will stand ready to negotiateits differences with the A.F. of L. and unite. The rubberworkers conventionand the New Jersey C.I.O. conventions took clear and progressive positions on this question recently. So have many other C.I.O. unions. The presence of delegatesfrom the International Ladies GarmentWorkersUnion, 400,000 strong, at the C.I.O. convention would virtually guarantee a proper policy on labor unity. Indirectly, the I.L.G.W.U. exerts great pressure. Its refusal to accept the Lewis leadership unqualifiedly, and its withdrawal from C.I.O. council building moves helped curb the C.I.O. zealots. Now, a tactical change in policy for a drive within the C.I.O. would be a great impetus for labor unity, as was Tobins action at the A.F. of L. convention. Which course the I.L.G.W.U. adopts, remains to be seen. Its executive board is meeting a few days prior to the date of the C.I.O. convention. Two events in the C.I.O. served to bring out its most serious weakness and internal menace, i.e., the Stalinists. It took the

strike-breakers. Government fink halls instead of union halls. The progressive role of the Sailors Union of the Pacific lies precisely in its intransigent fight against this government strikebreaking. The war crisis in Europe caused Roosevelt to accelerate his activities to curb any independent and militant tendencies in the labor movement. Hence his message to the A.F. of L. convention. Less than six months ago he refused to make such a state. ment, according to a revelation of Dan Tracy, president of the A.F. of L. electrical workers union. But the war crisis forced Roosevelt to discard his usual caution in avoiding stepping on anyones toes. Outright passage of a HiH-Shepard Bill or a similar measure which would break the back of the labor movement in war time has proven too dificult at this stage. A more gradual build-up is necessary from Roosevelts point of view. Commissions to deal with specific problems. That is the way. Perhaps we shall even see a commission on labor unity. And even more important, the controversy over the Wagner Labor Disputes Act offers another wedge for the Roosevelt administration to foist union-controlling legislation on the labor movement. The A.F. of L. executive council was voted power by the convention to seek amendments to the Wagner Act. Its criticism of the Act was primarily reactionary. It helped the C.I.O., i.e., the industrial proletariat, in its organizing campaigns, the council declared. The Act, or rather the interpretation of it by the National Labor Relations Board, hurt a few A.F. of L. unions. It made a few unjust decsions. Of any real criticism, that the Act and the N.L.R.B. didnt help labor enough, we heard not a word from the A.F. of L. So a campaign to modify it has begun. It so happens that this is precisely the program of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Here lies Roosevelts opportunity. Pretending to succumb to the pressure of the A.F. of L. and of the Chamber of Commerce, he will announce or permit modification of the Wagner Actand slip in provisions similar to those contained in the British Disputes Act. And another chain in binding labor during war will have been forged! The fight against altering the Wagner

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acute crisis in the autoworkersunion and the division in the WestCoastC.LO. to warn the entire labor movementof the disastrousconsequencesof the Stalinistrule or ruin policy. Serv. ing only the interests of the Soviet bureaucracy, the Stalinists opened up a reckless campaignto smash Homer Martin, president of the autoworkerunions, mainly because he opposed their war-mongeringcollective security program. Harry Bridges, StalinistWestCoastC.I.O:director,alienatedthe A.F. ofL. movement by his raiding, he split the Maritime Federation of the Pacific in an effort to obtain dictatorialcontrol over the,,maritime workers,and drove the S.U.P. back into the A.F. of L. by his rule or ruin tactics.All this wasdone withthe objectiveof chainingthe militantmaritimeworkersto Rooseveltswar plans. And on the East Coast,the NationalMaritimeUnion, Staliuistdominated,accepts the governmentfink halls for the same reason. In every union, and many C.LO. unions are controlledby them, the Stalinistsframe-up militants,engage in an orgy of red-baitingagainstprogressives, trample on union democracy, and ignore the mostelementaryuniontasksnecessaryto preserve the unions. Withinthe C.LO. itself the reply to those ruinous policies was not long in forthcoming. The Los Angeles Progressive Trade Union conference, dealtBridges and the Stalinistsa heavy blow whenthey proclaimedpublicly their oppositionto that reactionary clique. They issued a 60-page booklet giving a detailed accountof the Stalinistwreckingactivities in the WestCoastC.I.O. They demanded that Lewis remove Bridges from his appointed post! The six-pointprogram of the Los Angeles progressivesoffers a real weaponin fightingthe Stalinistunion wreckers and their bureaucraticallies. (1) Labor solidarityin the struggle for better conditionsof employed and unemployedalike. We offer aid to any union, A.F. of L., C.LO. or railroadbrotherhoodwhichis engaged in such a struggle. (2) Organizethe unorganized. (3) Industrialunionismin the industriesfor which it is suited. No raids on existing organizations.(4) An actualdemocracyin the trade union movement. (5) Struggle againstanti-laborlegislation and governmentinterference whetherthrough use of courts, the NationalGuard,the police or otherwise.For the enforcement and extensionof workersrights. (6) For independentpolitical actionto supplementthe trade union struggle. Around this program of actionthe C.I.O. can have a progressivefuture. Insofar as this program findsexpressionat the C.I.O. conventionwill the conventionhave a progressive character. Against this platform will be rallied the Stalinistsand other reactionariesin the C.LO. For supportingthe Stalinistsin the autoworkersunion, and for appointingBridges as West Coast Director, John L. Lewis bears responsibilityto the C.I.O. membership. The temporary successesof the Stalinistsin the C.I.O. are largely due to Lewis assentto their rule or ruin policy. Yet the defeat of the Stalinists restsnot merely in a change of policy on Lewispart. Quite the contrary. Only where the C.I.O. rank and file unites behind the Los Angeles program will a really serious struggle against the Stalinistsbe possible. The Lovestonite theory of using one bureaucracyto fightanotherrevealed itself bankruptin the auto union crisis. Martin, in the autoworkersunion, answeredthe Stalinistattackwith an essentiallyprogressive program, unfortunatelyapplied in a bureaucraticfashion. It wasthis weakness that played directly into the hands of the Stalinists,and along with the interventionof John L. Lewis, won for them, at least temporarily. The subsequent dismissal of militant organizers knownas oppositionists to the Stalinist wreckerscastsan ominous shadowon the future course of the union. The third questionbefore the coming C.I.O. conventionis the future course of LaborsNon-Partisan League. The C.I.O. leadership apparentlyhas learned nothing from the bitter experiences suffered by the policy of supportingDemocraticor Republican friends of labor. Martin L. Davey was elected governor of

Ohio withC.I.O. support. He used the NationalGuardto break the Little Steel strike. Now the C.I.O. is supporting Charles Sawyer, in Ohio. He is a millionaire corporation lawyer, described two years ago by the C.I.O. leaders as a reactionary capitalist. In Pennsylvania,the L.N.P.L. again endorses Governor Earle for reelection after a public break in the primaries. In NewJersey, the Hague machine controlsthe Democraticparty and holds a stronginfluenceover the Republicans,and the C.I.O. workers wont swalloweither. Yet the C.LO. leaders quietly ignored the mandateof a special statewideconventionlast winter to set up a Labor Party. This was done by a simple device. The executive committeeelected at the Labor Party convention later reconstituteditself as the executive committeefor Labors Non-Partisan League. Now it refuses to run independentcandidates when this is the only course left outsideof boycottingthe elections or supportingthe Hague machine.

LaborAgainst Fascism
IncipientAmericanfascismfound its leadingvocal expression in I am the LawFrank Hague, mayor of Jersey City, and member of the nationalcommitteeof the DemocraticParty. His ruthless crushing of C.I.0, organizingdrives,his expulsionsof outside agitatorsfrom the city through vigilante force, his redbaiting,and aboveall, his tremendouspoliticalpowermake him a serious challenge to the labor movement. It is a sad commentary on the stateof the A.F. of L. movementin New Jersey that many prominent A.F. of L. leaders endorse Hague. One central union council even passed a resolution to that effect. Hague is out to protect the sweatshopsof his area from unionism. He has fought the efforts of the C.I.O. to organizethose exploited workers by thuggery and by clever demagogy. The C.I.O. record againsthim is deplorable. Staliniststooges,weakkneed liberal congressmen,fake Stalinistcivil libertiescommittees,Sir Galahadsof the Norman Thomas stripe, have tilted withthe effect of a Don Quixoteagainstthe Hague menace. Surrounded by Stalinists,W. J. Camey, militantNew Jersey C.LO. director, has found himself swampedby the resolution-passers while the courageous S.W.O.C. workers at the Crucible steel lodge in Jersey City find themselvesalone in a successful fight for unionismagainstHague. In the fact that the steel workers district council of New Jersey adopted a militant program of action for organizingin Hagues domain-the best way to fight him-lies the hope of smashingHagueism. It should hardly be necessary to add that the Stalinistsspend most of their time fightingthe steel workerspolicies. Elsewhere in America a similar accelerationin the growthof vigilantemovementsdirected primarily againstthe union movement was witnessedthis pastyear. The terror againstthe C.I.O. in New Orleans; the vigilante attack on the C.I.O. workers in Westwood, California; the kidnaping and beating of union organizers everywhere; these are cumulativemanifestationsof the growthof reaction. Rev. Gerald K. Smith again finds audiences for his gospel of fascism.The Silver shirts,the Bund and a score of other fascist groupings take on a new lease in life. What is the answer? A United Labor Defense Committeewith special squads in Akron is a partial solution. Union Defense Squads in Minneapoliswasthe quick answerof the labor movement to threats by the Silver Shirts that they would raid the unionheadquartersand run the union leaders outof town.Extension of the idea of Workers Defense Squadsin this alone is there a safeguardagainstfascistattacks.. There is anotherdanger. Divisionof the workersand farmers is a major point in the strategyof the bosses. Wealthierfarmers organizeintoAssociatedFarmers, Inc. on the WestCoastand the Middlewest. They recruit vigilantes and propagandizeagainst the unions. In reply, the unions in Minneapolis, Omaha,the West Coast,and the rubberworkersin Ohio,unite withthe lower strataof farmers. They cooperatawiththe farmers in obtaining

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equitable prices. The C.I.O. has a national tie-up with the Farmers Union. Unity against the common enemy, Americas Sixty Families, has been the only effective slogan for rallying the farmers to the worker. Labor is rapidly learningthatit must give leadershipand supportto the sharecroppers,the lowerstxata of farmers, and the agriculturalworkers. Otherwise,a valuable ally can easily be turned iuto a foe.

The Unemployed
Around 15,000,000 unemployed suffer in misery from conditions brought by the social crisis of American capitalism which offers starvation as the only permanent prospect for the working class, under this system. Of these, less than 100,000 pay dues into the Stalinist-controlled Workers Alliance, although it claims 400,000 membership. For the first time in its history, the A.F. of L. took note of its unemployed members in convention reports. They number 1,400,000. The C.I.O. has at least that many. Of great importance is the new attitude towards its unemployed members. Unemployment is considered as the problem of the union movement. The idea of a comp~etely independent organization for the unemployed hasnt worked out in the last decade, whatever the reasons may be. The only permanent and really successfulin obtaining concessions from the governmentnnemployed organizations have been those allied directly to the union movement. This has been the experience of the Federal Workers Section of 544, in Minneapolis. It has been followed in Salem, Ohio, in Lynn, #ass. and has begun in Akron. The autoworkers in Detroit, steel lodges in the middlewest: in fact, in many sections of the C.LO., the union movement retains the unemployed as members in good standing, and takes up the problems. It gives the unemployed much greater power and prestige in fighting against present relief conditions when direct union af61iation has been retained. It unites more closely the employed and unemployed. The recent national convention of the Workers Alliance consummated the final rites over this once large organization and turned it completely into another Stalinist stooge outfit. The progressive section in New York City broke away from the national organization. Other defections are on their way elsewhere. The Stalinists have but one hope left of covering up their criminal irresponsibility and actions in the Alliance that crippled it for life. For a year DavidLasser, head of the Alliance, has been begging John L. Lewis for a C,I.O. charter. Against this maneuver and its ruinous consequences,hundreds of C.I.O. unions have writtento the nationrdoffice urging the C.I.O. to coordinateits unemployed work on a nationalscale and itself form a C.I.0, unemployedunion, along industriallines. Such a step would clearly be progressive, if the Stalinistwreckers are isolatedand kept from capturingthe proposed set-up.The question is coming before the nationalC.I.O. convention. It mustbe noted, that the A.F. of L. has been able to maintainhigh wage levels for its members on W.P.A. projects, and is talking about organizingthe unemployed.This much is certain for the future, no matter what particular organizationalforms emerge. The trade unionmovementin America must definitelyand to an ever increasingdegree concern itself withthe unemploymentquestion.

shocks of mass unemployment,the 1abormovement steadieditself. American workersare groping around for an answerto the crisis thathas brought such increasedmisery and insecurityfor them. Proposals for $30 every Thursday, for an annual guaranteed wage, for a 30-hour week, for unemploymentinsurance, and a hundred other phms are advancedand experimented with by the labor movement. There exists a certain inner cohesionin all these events.Inexorably, the American workersare moving towardsclass solidar. ity r@ected in the trend towardsunity in the labor movement. Dissatisfactionwith capitalism is revealed in every proposal, good or bad, thatthe labor movementacceptsagainsta continuation of the statusquo. It is precisely this situationthat offers unparalleled opportunitiesfor the revolutionarymovement. A program of transitionaldemandsthat express the desires of the workers in terms of tomorrow, a program that acceleratesthe developmentof class solidarity,a progra& that gives a better answer for today and prepares the workers for revolutionary advancestomorrow: This is a tremendous weapon held by the S.W.P. The prospect of immediate world war in the recent European
crisis threatened to cut short the opportunities of the revolutionary movement. The American labor movement would have been unprepared to meet that fundamental question except to fall victim to social patriotism. In the respite from war, history has given time as an ally to the revolutionary movement. Its agitation for a sliding scale of wages, for a 30-hour week, for turning over idle plants to workers, in a word, its program of transitional demands is on the order of the day. And war will not interrupt immediately. Our opportunity to cultivate the slender roots we have planted in the labor movement into a solid and broad base of the revolutionarymovementis here now.

B. J. WIDICK

The Deserters and Munich

THE FRENCH Syndicalism review, La R&mlutwnPro&u.r&mne (Oct. 10, 1938) prints the followinginterestingnews, whichhas not appeared anywhere else to our knowledge, and which we publish for the informationof our readers: From the informationthatwe now have on the conference at Munich and especially from the speech of Chamberlain, it appearsthat it is Mussoliniwho, by takingthe initiativein proposing different conditionsfrom those containedin the memorandum of Hitler, made it possible for the conference to take place and to reach a conclusion; it is he who savedthe peace. Why did he do it? On September 6, during the first days of the diplomatictension, a company of Italianbersaglieri crossed the French frontier in the region of St.-Martin-V6subie (Maritime Alps) with arms and baggage, their officers at the head and mule-packs at the end, to surrender to the French authorities. The fact was denied, the following day, by the semi-official newspaper of the Prefecture [police], the Petit-Nigois, but too

Summary
In the midstof an epoch of triumphantworld reactionmarked by the ascendancyof fascism, the American workers made remarkable advances. The brilliant wave of sit-downstrikes of 1936-37 shook American capitalismto its foundations. It established industrialunionismpermanently. Young, inexperienced, and barely organized,the C.I.O.carried on thoughit wasplunged into the depths of a severe social crisis. And the American Federation of Labor found itself hammered by the blows of this same crisis. Yet, todaythe labor movementhaaheld its own. In some respects it has made organizational gairm After the first

many people sawthe Italian soldiers in the streets of Nice and in the courtyardof the barracksfor the thing not to he certain. During the weeks that followed, the desertions of this sort multiplied,increasing,accordingto the informationsupplied by comradesliving on the spot, to several thousandsof Italiansol. diers on the frontier of Savoy.The French governmentholds all the newspaper and informationservices so tightly in its hands thatnothing waspublished aboutthis. But Mussolinidid know about it, And that is why we can understandwhy he did rwt wa.ruwar. The Italiandeserters prevented, in September, the European war, like the Russiandeserters prevented, in August, the RussoJapanese war.

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The Jewish-ArabConflict
ARAB ECONOMY
is for the most part feudal. Even its capitalist elements are to a considerable extent tied up with the feudal mode of exploitation (usury) or are feudal in origin, functioning both as landlord and capitalism Alongside of this development has arisen a new stratum, the intellectuals who are connected with the upper classes (free professions, government officials). For the present it is these upper classes that exercise a dominant influence over the Arab masses. It is capitalist development in Palestine as well as English imperialist oppression of the Arab people which created the conditions for the rise of the Arab nationalist movement under the present leadership of the feudal and semi-capitalist classes. These classes see in the imperialist domination of the country a superfluous and alien guardianship in the political control over the masses. Since, however, there is no fundamental social and economic antagonism between these classes and imperialism, the conflict is not too profound. On the other hand there does exist a conflict between the Arab upper classes and the Jewish population. Not because the latter is an element for the support of British imperialism but because it is a means for the development of Jewish capitalist economy. This conflict arises because the feudal elements among the Arabs fear the modernization of Palestinian society by the Jews and their own destruction. The Arab capitalist elements take part in this struggle mainly because of their exclusivist tendencies and their competition with the Jews. The Arab ruling classes, aiming to settle the conflict with the Jews in their own favor, are always ready to strike a compromise with British imperialism at the expense of the Jews. Thus, for example, Djemal al Husseini, one of the outstanding leaders of the nationalist movement declared that the Supreme Arab Committee was agreed that Palestine should become a British crown colony, provided that Jewish immigration was halted. Another leader, Hassan Sidky Dajani, wrote in an open letter to the High Commissioner: England is mistaken if she believes that we have risen against her . . . we recognize the power of her troops-a word from you, a word which England will not have to pay for too greatly would suffice to restore the situation to normal. At the same time a basic conflict exists between the interests of the national and social emancipation of the Arab masses and British imperialism. This conflict can only be solved through the abolition of imperialist rule and the establishment of political independrmce. Meanwhile, there exists, objectively, a conflict between the Arab masses and the Zionist aspirations towards exclusivist and maintenance of British rule. This conflict can only be solved to the extent that Jewish masses in Palestine renounce Zionist exclusivist. While the opposition of the Arab upper classes to the Jews is reactionary, the struggle of the Arab masses against Zionism is absolutely progressive. The upper classes are today successful in diverting the national struggle of the masses into auti-Jewish channels by means of the fact that the predominant majority of the Jewish population is Zionist. The anti-Jewish terror has only increased the influence of Zionism on the Palestinian Jewish masses and diverts their bitterness from the struggle against imperialism. All this leads to a situation where today a great part of the Arab masses believe that through their struggle against the Jews they are furthering their own national liberation whereas in fact they are only making their struggle more diflicult to the extent that they are strengthening the positions of imperialism, Zionism and the feudal Arab leadership.

Aspects of Arab Nationalism

The entire development of the Arab nationalist movement in Palestine manifests a twofold aspect. On the one hand a feudal semi-bourgeois leadership which leads the movement into antiJewish channels without touching imperiali~ on the other hand the Arab masses whose will to national liberation becomes increasingly stronger in so far as it crystallizes into anti-imperialist hatred. Only an international leadership can resolve this dual aspect. It is interesting and useful to consider the various stages through which Arab nationalism has passed. In the degree that the nationalist movement gained strength, the leaders proceeded to change the slogans, giving them an anti-Jewish twist. In 1921 the main argument of the feudal leaders was that the Jews wanted to gain possession of the holy places and secondarily, that the Jews were importing bolshevism. Dehite statements were made that the movement was directed not against England but against Zionism. A couple of years before the pogroms of 1929 religious arguments were used for anti-Jewish agitation. But with the development of the nationalist movement and the unity of the Arabs, Christians and Moslems, the religious argument was soft-pedaled and the question of the influence of Jewish immi~ation on the ecoonmic situation was stressed. The Arab leaders began to carry on propaganda using the slogan, The Jews buy land and drive out the Arab peasants; the condition of the Arab peasants is so hard because of Jewish immigration; Arab industry sufTers because of the development of Jewish industry; the Jews are to blame for the difficult financial condition of the government treasury and therefore you must fight the Jewish immigration and settlement. The economic exclusivist of the Jews under the influence of Zionism (boycott of Arab workers and goods, etc.) enabled this agitation to find a widespread response among the Arab masses. Then came the years of prosperity, 1932-35, in which despite Zionist exclusivist the income and the living standards of the Arab masses arose in consequence of Jewish immigration. The economic arguments of the Arab leaders against the Jews lost their, point. The national consciousness among the Arabs gained in step with the capitalist development of the country and of the nationalist liberation movements in the surrounding countries of the Near East. The question of the political set-up became a central problem around which the Arab nationalist movements concentrated. In the same period the Zionist chauvinist tendencies among the Jews became stronger with the decline of the international working-class movement. The chauvinist Zionist slogans among the Jews struck a responsive note with the greater political tension in the Mediterranean and the resulting need of British policy to create a considerable Zionist power in Palestine. Instead of the former slogan of the Zionist organization Palestine a bi-national state, Zionist policy came out openly with the slogan of The Jewish state. The Arab feudal and semi-capitalist leaders who were afraid that the nationalist movement would develop along independent and consistently antiimperialist lines now raised the cry, The Jews want to build a Jewish state in Palestine which will oppress the Arab minority while serving as a means of oppression in the hands of IImglish imperialism. The present Arab nationalist movement, permeated with an exclusivist spirit in the struggle against the Jews, is fertile soil

for chauvinistfascist and particularly anti-Jewishideas. The in fascist powers send propagandistsand money to Palestine order to strengthen this ideologicalreactionary influenceand so gaincontrolof thenationalist movement.In themeasure thatthe Comintern end the SecondInternational play the role more and

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more of political gendarmes against the movement of liberation in the colonies and to the extent that the international labor movement finds itself in a state of decline, the influence of chauvinist, anti-Jewish ideologies becomes stronger. Fascism succeeds more and more in making use of Arab nationalism in its own interests.

The ZionistMovement
It is our conviction that Zionism is a nationalist reactionary conception because it builds its hopes not on the class struggle of the international working class but on the continuation of world reaction and its consolidation. The Zionist movement has been fighting for years to realize the slogan: One hundred percent Jewish labor, one hundred percent Jewish production, etc. Pickets of Jewish workers were organized against Arab workers who held jobs in Jewish enterprises. Among these pickets there were to be found all kinds of people, from the right fascist wing of the Zionist movement to representatives of the Haschomer-Hazair (afiliated with the London Bureau). Haschomer-Hazair does not demand one hundred percent Jewish labor but Jewish labor only in Jewish enterprise with the exception of localities where the Arab workers have been engaged for many years (only 18~o of the Arab workers in Jewish enterprise belong to this category). while therefore the Zionist movement generally demands 100% Jewish labor the Haschomer-Hazair demands 82Y0 Jewishlabor. Thereis still amother small Zionist party divided into two wings which is against this picketing, the Left Peale-Zion. This system of the conquest of labor leads to a situation where only in periods of economic crisis and the decline of wages of the Jewish workers, only in periods of political reaction can its aim be achieved, the penetration of Jewish workers by the eviction of the Arabs. In periods of the development of the Jewish and Arab working classes, of increased immigration, of rising living standards, the system of the conquest of labor is thwarted and the Jewish worker 1eaves the industry which was the bone of contention of the chauvinist struggle. The following table gives the figures for four difTerent periods: 1) September 1933, beginning of prosperity in Palestine; 2) September 1935, high-water mark of prosperity; 3) June 1936, one month after the bloody events and the economic crisis; 4) September 1936, one and a half years after the beginning of the latest sharp crisis. The figures show the number of workers in six of the largest and most important Jewish colonies: Jewish Workers Arab Workers 1,687 2,433 September 1933 1,804 3,009 September 1935 June 1936 2,739 1,271
896 3,818 September 1936 The business of picketing for Jewish labor only increases the damage which the working class Jewish as well as Arab, suffers from the unrestricted national competition of the workers of both peoples. The Arab workers, too, begin to set up pickets against Jewish labor, for example, in public works. The consequence is that the upper classes gain in influence. The government, too, knows how to exploit the situation. It plays the role of arbitrator and declares picketing illegal when it is on account of race, religion or language. This enables Jewish employers to avail themselves in any real conflict of Arab strikebreakers and likewise gives the Arab employer his chance to use Jewish strikebreakers. The system of the conquest of labor with its picketing weakens the working class and strengthens the position of both employers and British imperialism. We should like to touch on the question of the relation of Zionism to imperialism. The Zionist movement is against the independence of Palestine and against every form of democracy (as long as the Jews are a minority). The extreme right wing of Zionism, the Revisionists, who have their separate organiza-

tion, have for years been demanding the establishment of the Jewish state on the basis of an understanding between the Jewish legions and the strategic interests of British imperialism. Other sections of the Zionist bourgeoisie headed by Dr. Weizmann once declared that Palestine will remain as Jewish as England is English. Later they declared that Palestine would be bi-national and that the mandate must be upheld at all costs. Today they support the partition plan and the setting up of a Jewish state as an ally of British imperialism. The Zionist ref~ist party (Mapei) calls for cooperation with the government and for the most part supports the idea of partition. Ha-schmer-Hazaircalls for the struggle to preserve the mandate. The Peale-Zion party are for an anti-imperialist struggle but does not indicate what form of political regime is its immediate aim so that their slogans remain empty. Like the other Zionist parties they are against the democratization of the political system in the country. In consequence of their opposition to the immediate independence of Palestine a section of their supporters have rallied to the partition plan. The whole Zionist movement with all its wings, therefore, supports British rule in Palestine in one form or another.

The Jews and British Imperialism

There are two opinions about the relation between the Jews in Palestine and British imperialism. The one views them as an integral part of the imperialist camp (this is the idea of the extreme Arab nationalists and their lackeys in the camp of the Stalinists) ; the second looks upon the Jews as an integral part of the Palestinian population and as such anti-imperialist. Neither of these views is correct. The former is wrong because the Jews are no thin, privileged stratum representing the exploiting interests of the Motherland. Simple comparison between the whites in South Africa and of the Jews in Palestine shows how wrong this view is. The reformist leaders of the Jewish labor movement have drawn this comparison as an argument against the international organization of workers in Palestine. The Communist Party of Palestine (Stalinist) has naturally seized on this analogy in order to expose the imperialist role of the Jews. In the first place, hoyever, the Jewish working population makes up more than half of the entire working class of Palestine whereas in Eouth Africa, the whites are only one fifth of the working population. The South African white workers are for the most part the skilled element, and the natives are common laborers. In Palestine, categories of all kinds of labor are represented in both the Jewish and Arab sections. The South African whites are a thin aristocratic upper crust, who get about five times the pay of the natives. In Palestine the Jewish workers constitute not a thin crust but a class, In South Africa the whites enjoy ample political rights (democratic legislation, progressive labor legislation, etc. ) whereas the Negroes are suppressed colonial slaves. In Palestine, both Jews and Arabs are oppressed by an alien government and are deprived of any kind of democratic rights. Furthermore, take the fact that in Palestine there are two cities of mixed population where the Jews are in the majority, Jerusa. Iem and Haifa. In both places, nevertheless, in accordance with the decrees and appointments of the government, the Mayors are Arab. The Jews are as little privileged in the matter of budget expenditures as of municipal administration. The Jews contribute 63 percent of the government income whereas in return they receive merely 14 percent (1934-35) of the government expenditures on education, only 34 percent of the public works expenditures, etc. Nor are they privileged in the matter of labor legislation. If the Jews were an integral part of the imperialist camp, if their existence depended upon the exploitation and oppression of the Arab masses, it would be the duty of every revolutionary socialist to fight against the growth of the Jewish population.

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But the position is quite otherwise. On the other hand, the view that compares Jewish immigration into Palestine with Jewish immigration in America is equally unreal. The Jews in America are a part of the general economic system and entertain no chauvinist aspirations such as the boycott of foreign goods and labor or the establishment of a national state. The Jewish population in Palestine does strive to become a majority and determines its political road in accordance with this perspective, building up a relatively closed national economy and boycotting Arab labor and goods. Influenced by imperialism and Zionism both, this population is against every attempt to obtain the democratization and independence of the country. If the Jewish population were an integral part of the Palestinian, it would be the duty of the revolutionary socialist to support the increase of this population element in all its forms as part of the anti-imperialist struggle. But to support all forms of the extension of the Jewish element (e.g., to be against democratization for fear that it would hold up the growth of the Jews) would be to sharpen the Jewish-Arab conflict, diminish the class differences inside the Arab population, and strengthen the Zionist tendency among the Jews. 1

The Jewish-ArabConflict
What are the causes of this conflict? Two answers are advanced in Palestine. The Zionist groups say that the conflict is simply the collision of feudalism and reaction with the progressive forces of capitalism. The Arab nationalists and their Stalinist supporters, claimthatthe collision is between the Arab liberationmovementand Zionism. But the first explanationis wrong becausethe fact of the conflictbetweenfeudalismand capitalismdoes not explain the

Arab nationalmovementin Palestine.There are parallel manifestations of nationalism in the adjacent countries (Syria, Egypt). Moreoverit does not explainhow a clique of effendis succeededin gettingcontrol over a militantnationalmovement of hundredsof thousands.It is clear thatthe basisof the antagonismof theArab massesto theJewishpopulationdoesnot arise from the fact thatthe latterhavebroughtin a higherstandard of living and have createda modern labor movement.Their principal oppositionarisesfrom the fact thatthey see in the Jewish populationthe bearersof Zionism, that political systembased upon nationalexclusivti and hostilityto the aspirations of the Arab massesto independence and democratization of the political regime. The secondview,theclaim of theArab nationalists, is likewise erroneous.It doesnot takeinto consideration thattherereally is a conflict betweenfeudalism and capitalist development,secondlythatinsidethenationalist movement thereis an Arab bourgeoisiewhich in competitionwith the closed Jewish economy developsexclusivist Arab tendencies, andthirdly,thattheJewish populationis no integralpart of the imperialistcamp. Whatfollows thereforeis thatthe collision in theArab-Jewish conflictis betweentwo nationalexclusivistmovements(b&tween Zionism and the feudal, semi-bourgeois Arab leadershipon the one hand, and on the other the struggle of the Arab masses againstZionism. The consistentstrugglefor the easing up of this conflictis thereforeonly possibleon the basis of the struggle againstZionism,against Arab nationalexclusivist, and antiJewishactions,aaginstimperialism, for the democratization of
the country and its political independence.

Jerusalem.

L. ROCK

The War MobilizationPlan

ETHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS in the modes of proTduction have revolutionizedthe instruments of warfare as well as of peace. The rifle, the bayonetand the man have lost much of their importance. In their place havebeen substituted heavyartillery,machineguns,airplanes,tanksand gases,all of whichmustbe constantly replenished and fed witha continuous supply of munitions,and which,of course,requiresa high rate of production on the part of industry.Throughout,and even before the war, industrymust be organizedand mobilized for thispurpose. Trotsky has described this problem in an article entitled, Disarmament andthe UnitedStatesof Europe, (The Mi2itu@ December7, 1929) in the following words:
The issue (the outcome of the next war) will be determinedby the respectivepowersof productionof the two camps.This meansthat the war fleets of the powers will not only be supplementedand renewed but in great measure crated in the very course of the war. . . . We have seen how Englandand Americain the very course of the war created gigantic new armies and armamentsinfinitely superior to the old armies of the EuropeanContinent.It follows that the soldiers, sailors, cruisers, cannons, tanks and airplanes,existing at the outbreakof hostilities only constitute a point of departure.The decisive problemwill depend upon the measure in which the given countrywill be ahle to create uuder the enemies fire cruisers, cannous,soldiers and sailors. . . . It thus becomes evident that the arena of modern warfare extends from the battlefield to the industrial centers of the warring nations with every factory engaged in the production of war materials a sector of the battle front and every worker a soldier. For these reasons the United States, with its vast industrial superiority over all other nations, has realized since the World War that it was better prepared for the next than any of the others. It could, at disarmamentconferences, complacently agreeto scrapmanywar shipswhichit had built duringthe last severaldecadesand to limit the numberwhich it would build, knowingthat it could rebuild its fleetsin a shorterperiod of time than its rivals. False too, is the notion propoundedby Washingtonthat Americas peaceful intentionsare confirmed by the smallnessof its standingarmy.As a matterof fact, it is technicallybetter preparedthan any other nation to produce almostinstantaneously vastquantities of cannon,tank% airplanes, machinegunsand munitions.The army is maintained at a high standardof technicalequipmentat all times.A large standing army during peacetime,in the absence of frontier problems, wouldat presentbe an unnecessary burdenon the capitalistclass and would not materiallyadvancewar preparations.Moreover, American man power has become well-trainedby its highly developedindustries to makethemostefficient use of mechanized war equipment.Mobilizationof troops for the war is not the most important phaseof the preparations. With thesethingsin mind the UnitedStatesquietlybegan its preparations on the industrialfront as far back as 1921. Since then.,under the professedaim of takingthe profit out of war, the War Department has been continuouslyengagedin perfecting an industrial mobilizationplan.At varioustimestheseplans havebeenpublicly announced. And at thetime of thesinkingof the Panay by the Japanese,when war feeling had been stirred up by the Rooseveltadministration to suchan extentas to insure the passageof the billion and a quarterdollar navy bill. The Shepard-Hill bill whichhad been pendingin Congressfor some considerabletime, becam e the subject of congressionalinterest and nationwide discussion.As the war scare subsidedpublic interestin the bill also subsided. Nevertheless, the bill as well

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as the entireindustrialMobilizationPlan lies ready for immediate enactment and applicationwhen war becomes imminent, and they thereforedeservethe most careful consideration of the labor movement.

The Nature of the MobilizationPlan

The IndustrialMobilizationPlan known as the preparation for M-Day (the War Department designation for the day of the outbreakof hostilitieswhenthe mobilizationof all the national resourcesis to takeplace), consistsof severalparts. In the field of legislationthereis the Shepard-Hill Bill introducedinto the Senateand the May Bill introducedin the House of the last
congress. There has also been prepared by the War Department a bill for drafting men which is ready for introduction in Congress whenever war is considered imminent. In addition, there

is a detailedplan for the mobilizationof industrywhich has beenworkedout by the War Department and is officiallyknown as the IndustrialMobilizationPlan. Finally, there are a great many ordersand regulations whichhave alreadybeen prepared by the War Department and they will become effectiveimmediatelyuponthe outbreak of hostilities. , THE SHEPARD-HILL BILL AND THE MAY BILL. For all practicalpurposesthesebills are essentially the same,differing only in the methodof taxing war profits.The former proposes a tax of 95Y0of all profitsabovethe precedingthree-year average, whilethelatterproposesin generaltermsthattaxesduring the war shall absorball profi}sabovea fair normalreturnto be fixedby Congress. The bills are the resultof intensive studyand preparationby various committeesand commissionsworking in conjunction with and most likely underthe dominationof the War Department.They provide the legal basis and generalframeworkfor the applicationof the War Departments Industrial Mobilization Plan and are sufficiently innocenton their face to permittheir introduction in Congressanda public discussion evenbefore the outbreakof war,whereas the War Departments Industrial MobilizationPlan, althoughnot entirelya secret,is not designedfor public consumption. Upon the declarationby Congressof the existenceof war or a national emergency,the bills delegateto the presidentcomplete authorityto do the following: to regulateprices; to proclaim control.over the materialresources,public servicesand industrialorganizations;to licensepractically all business;to determine prioritiesof various industriesand businesses in the resourcesof the nation; to registerall personsengagedin the management and control of industryand place themin the government service; to reorganize, if necessary, all executive branchesof governmentand createthe necessaryagenciesand commissions,and finally, to draft into the military serviceall malesbetweenthe agesof 21 and 31.

may be exerted to the contrary. The War Department, to excuse its inability to curb excessive profits during the last war, has given the following reasons: a) the personnel which is to regulate prices comes from big business, owns stocks in the leading corporations and is inextricably interwoven with the owners of industry; b) accurate information as to costs lies largely in the hands of these industrialists and financiers; c) Capital had gone on strike and refused to invest in war industries unless it obtained the exorbitant prices it demanded, and d) the practical difficulty of auditing the books of all the companies whose prices must be regulated, is almost insurmountable. The experience of the ne~,war will no doubt be the same and these alibis, already manufactured in advance, will again be used to excuse huge profits. But price control will be rigidly exercised in relation to wages. Although the bills do not expressly give the president the authority to fix wages they could easily be construed to contain that power under the authority to fix rates, compensation, and the compensation for services. In addition thereto, the numerous war industries boards, arbitration boards and labor boards, together with the restrictions on the freedom of the labor movement which have been planned by the War Department and which we shall discuss later, will act as effective brakes on the rise of wages. The cost of living will undoubtedly rise in the course of the war. Wages will also rise slightly, but by no means as rapidly or in proportion to the rise of the cost of living. During the last war the government made some attempts to regulate wages but its power to do so was not as firmly fixed as is true in the case of the present bills. Nevertheless, we found the cost of living

rising much faster than wages, and real wages rising only slightly. For example,by 1918,althoughthe cost of living had risenby 70~0over 1914, wagesrose only 63~0. It is reasonable to expectthatin thenextwarthiswill be trueto an evenWeater extentbecausethe war will be more expensiveand American capitalismwill be 1sssable to pay the costs of the war thanit wasin 1917,so thattheworkerswill haveto bear anevengreater shareof the burden.

The Draft and the Unorganized Militia

No matter how great the hysteria created by the war propaganda machines, the masses do not respond in sufficient numbers to appeals for enlistment in the armed forces. To overcome this condition, bourgeois governments resort to compulsory draft acts. Although the bills with apparent innocence authorize the president to draft into the military service males between the ages of 21 and 31, the actual draft law which has been prepared, is much more drastic. It provides a), for the registration of all males over the age of eighteen; b), that all registrants between eighteen and forty-five be subject to military service and become automatically members of the unorganized militia; c), that the president may defer the military service of any registrant whose continued employment is essential to the national interests, and, d), that the president may, when in his discretion the national interests require it, call into the armed forces any registrant liable to service, no matter how classified. Under the bills no male between the ages of eighteen and forty-five is exempt from military service. It is even likely, in the event of a long war, that the maximum age limit would be raised substantially above forty-five as was true in many countries during the last war and is also true for some countries at the present time. Instead of exemptions there are only defer-

War Profits
By giving the presidentthe power to control prices it is claimedthatwarprofiteering will be eliminated and theburdens of thewarwill be equallydistributed between capitaland labor! Even if war profiteeringcould be eliminatedhe burdensof a capitalist warcouldneverbe equallysharedby capitalandlabor. The workersactuallypay withtheirlives and bodiesat the front end by a more intenseexploitationin the war industries. Aside from this,however,is it true,as the proponents of thebills maintain,thatwarprofiteering canbe eliminated throughthe control of prices? The experiences of the last war in whichthe government also attempted to control prices to some extent,particularlyin the establishment of governmentcontractsfor war materials,have shownthe utterimpossibilityof preventing profiteering through the control of prices. The tremendous fortunesamassedin the last wardemonstrate thisto be the fact despiteauy eflort which

ments, which may be canceled at any time if the individual should cease to be continually and usefully employed. This methodof cancelingdeferments from the draft has been devised as a substitute for the conscriptionof labor and its full implicationswill be more thoroughlydiscussed below. The extentto which the governmentintendsto go in marshaling the forma of industryaridbusinessis demonstrated in

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the licensing provisions. Practically all business, with the possible exception of newspapers, will be subject to being licensed. The governments power to regulate and prescribe the terms under which business shall operate is virtually unlimited. Only the veto of the Supreme Court seems to limit this absolute power and the likelihood of such a veto in a period of war, as our experience in the last war showed, is remote. A war bureaucracy will be organized on a basis which may prove to be permanent. The reorganizations will make possible the constant surveillance of labor, business and military bodies, to insure the carrying out of the governments war acts and to unify the country in pursuit of victory. These essential provisions of the bills appear to represent the normal preparations of a capitalist government for war. They are however, as we have already indicated, the legal covering for the more drastic plans of the War Department. The full extent of the danger to the working class and its organizations becomes apparent only when considered in conjunction with the War Departments Industrial Mobilization Plan.

Naturally,the applicationwill not be as forthrightas we have indicated.Otherdivisionsof the War Labor Administration have beenprovidedto help realizetheseaims. For example,the Public Relations Division will have the task of manufacturing patriotism,war hysteriaand atrocitiesstories.The employment service,unlikethe employmentagenciesin peacetime,considers itstaskthatof distributing workersinto placesin industryrather thanmakingplacesavailableto workerswhichthey may accept or reject. The War Department has alreadystatedthat in war time it is not possible to permit workers free movementand choice. Themethodwill in effect be thatof assimment.Cancellation of deferment from military service will ~lso be a method used to induce the worker to take and keep a job. The War Department has devised a fairly clever scheme to insure that labor will fulfill its tasks in the prosecution of the war. In the last war several of the Euro~ean countries found it . necessary, at least to some extent, to conscript labor. The Ameri-

The IndustrialMobilizationPIan
Theparamount aimof thePlanis to insurean adequate supply of labor duringthewar. By an adequatesupply, is, of course, meantthecontinuous andloyal employment of workersin industry throughoutthe durationof hostilitiesand the stiflingof the naturalanti-war sentiment of the masses-to preventits expression in an organizedoppositionto the war. How is this to be realized? The instrumentality designedis the War Labor Administration, to be directedby an outstanding industrial leader, known
as the War Labor Administrator, and appointed by the president. Labor is to be represented only in an advisory capacity, by four out of ten members of the Advisory Council. They are to be selected by the president, not by labor and are to meet only when directed by the War Labor Administrator. The type of outstanding industrial leader to be selected by the president can easily be imagined, and, although he cannot be named in advance, there can be no doubt that he will represent only the interests of the American ruling class. The War Department says he should be an outstanding citizen who is thoroughly familiar with the problems entering into the relationship between employer and employee and who is capable of dispassionate (!) judgment in their solution. This formula has often beenusedin

can pla~ for thenextwar finds~is a littlet~o crudeand wholly unnecessary.In place of conscription of labor the plan calls for a systemof cancellations of deferments from militaryservice. In essenceit wilI o~erateas follows: As a rmeliminarv alI . males from the ages of 18 to 45 are madepart of the unorganized militia by the draft law, whichwe have alreadydiscussed. This immediately subjectsthemto militaryserviceat the call of the presidentspeakingthroughthe various draft boards. However, all suchmales cannotimmediately be takeninto the military service,first,becausethis would too greatlydisruptindustry and production and second, they would not be required immediatelyfor military purposes. Nevertheless, no provision is madefor anyexemptions from militaryserviceas wasthecase in the lastwar. Insteadthe Plan providesthatanyonesliability to militarv servicemav be deferredbv the draftauthorities on the basisof their ne~dsto industry, b usiness or government .1 .

agencies. This defermen~ however, is subject to cardlation whenever an individual ceases to be continually and usefully employed. The War Department has stated, A deferment once

the pastto sell the workingclassa gold brick. The functionsof the War Labor Administrator in the subtle languageof theplan are: a) To determine labor requirements; b) To fill the requirements of bringingtogetherthe job and the worker,and c) To keeptogetherthe job and the worker. There is no doubt thatthe War Department has alreadysubstantiallyperformedthe firstof thesefunctionsby havingmade a more or less completesurvey of labor requirements for war industries, determining the numberof workersnecessa~ in the chief industries, theskillrequired, theirlocationandtheirwages, hours and conditions of employment.As war becomes more imminent, the surveywill becomemore completeandtheW.L.A. wiIl havethetaskof completingand usingthe information. The secondfunction,thatof bringingtogetherthe job and the worker,embracesthe idea of the registrationof all labor and virtual assignment to the variousindustries.The provisions of the draft law wherebyall males over the age of eighteen(with no maximumagelimitation)shallbe registered alreadyprovides the W.I.A. with its industrialcensus. Using these records, togetherwith the survey of the War Department as to labor requirements,the W.L.A. will be in a position to make its assignments. And, lastly,the W.L.A. will regiment theworkersby keeping the job and the workertogether.This meansthat the worker will be restricted from changingjobs, industryor location.

madeis not final . . . and anvman can be reclassified and called . whencircumstances recrnire. The bourgeoisiean~their government requirea stateof class peace in war time to insure the prosecutionof the imperialist war and the continuouswar production in industry.Any outbreak of class struggle,strikes,sit-downs,or stoppages,tending to impedetheprogressof thewarmustbe avoidedby anymeans at hand. Cancellation of defermentis thereforeheld as a threat over theheadsof militantworkersas individualsor as members of revolutionary organizations.

Controlof Public Opinion

For the purpose of enlistingmass supportto the Industrial MobilizationPlan and the War, the Plan setsup a Public Relations Administration.Without going into the details of the methodswhich this Administration will use, it would be sufficientto recall the massof propagandaissuedby the infamous Creel Committee.organizedbv to . . the Wilson Administration obtainnationwidesupportto Americasentry and participation in the World War. The press,themovies,the radio, the schools, the churchesand every othermediumof propagandaat the disposal of the capitaliststatewill be chainedto the war machine. As in the lastw-ar, thebourgeoismess will be askedto assume a voluntarycensorshipof its publications.But a rigid censorship will be enforced upon all revolutionaryand labor press. Antiwar propaganda,of course, will not be tolerated,and will be prosecuted by Espionageand Seditionlaws. Whatwill be the natureof the capitaliststatein theperiod of the war? Will it be democratic; fascist; militarydictatorship; or perhapssomenewform of state? Regardlessof the name ascribedto such a government,the generalcharacterof the regimeand the methodsit will employ
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have already been described. It will strictly control all labor organizations, deprive labor of its elementary democratic rights and at the same time exercise a certain degree of control over industry itself. In these respects, it will closely resemble the totalitarian states as we now know them. In fact, the strain of the war on the economic system and the necessity of the ruling class to maintain its power, already dictates the r6gimes nature. 1~ the final analysis, however, the outcome of the struggle between the classes will determine the nature of the regime. As the war becomes extended the opposition of the masses to the war must lead to organized revolt of the proletariat against the

bourgeoisie itself in order to end the war. The tempo, the sharpness and the strength of this revolt will depend upon the power and program of the revolutionary organizations in the leadership of the working class. As such revolutionary organizations gain strength of their own and the following of the majority of the working class, despite the restrictions and repressions by the government during the war, the conflict must sharply take the form of a struggle for the workers state and socialism against fascism and capitalism. Thus the period of the totalitarian regime will be defined by this struggle. M. J. MICHAELS and Albert GATES

Stalinism andFascism in Italy

TALINISMPRESENTSITSELFthroughout the entireworld as the only force which strugglesin a determined and consistent manneragainstfascism.Whoeveris not disposedto admit this claim, whoeverdoes not submitto its declarations, whoever is bold enoughto pull away its maskand presentStalinismto themassesin itstrueform revealingits repugnant depravityand duplicity,whoeverdaresdo thisfalls inexorablyundertheblows of its limitlesshate and its impudentcalumnies.One is faced immediately withthe threatof being machine-gunned passinga streetcorner, or being kidnappedby one of the innumerable bandsof the G.P.U.,to disappearcompletely. Yet facts are stubbornthings.And more andmore it is becoming evidentthat Stalinismwith its ideology, its policies, its gangsterism which reachesinto everydomain,its habits,provocations and assassinations, far from constitutinga barrier to fascismfacilitatesits ascendancy over themassesandbecomesin fact an aid in its marchto victory. It would be idle to recall the contributionwhich Stalinism madeto fascismwithits policy whichled to the crushingof the Chinese revolutionin 1927. Futilealso to recall the role played by thecriminalStalinist policy in theriseandtriumphof fascism in Germany. Today it is clear to the wholeworld thattheshameful capitulationof the GermanStalinists before Hitler, without a struggle,formed part of the political plan of Stalin who, withthe geniuswhichdistinguishes him,thoughtthatin thisway he would securethe allianceof a greatlystrengthened Germany againstAnglo-Frenchimperialism.Justas in 1927he offeredto ChiangKai-shek the head of the Chineserevolutionto maintain him as an ally, so in 1932he sacrificedtheGermanrevolutionin order to buy an alliancewithHitler. It is primarilyas a resultof thepolicy followedby the Stalinists in China and in Germanythat fascism representsat the presentmomenta mortal dangerin all countriesof the world. Equallyclear is the real significance of the PopularFrontadvocated by the Stalinistsin France,in Spain, and elsewhere. The struggIeagainstfascism,however,hasbeen and is nothingbut a pretext.The real aim of the Stalinistpolicy is quitedifferent:it consistsof an attemptto find new allies for the Sovietbureaucracy. It matterslittle if theseallies are democrats,oi downright reactionaries, or fascists. In point of fact, the real line of demarcation established by the Stalinists betweenfriends and enemiesis not at all the line whichseparates fascistsand antifascists. Still less is this demarcation based on the criteria of class. No, the friends are those who acceptinthe largestsense of the wordthe policies of the Moscow government.The enemies are those who refuse to accept it. The former are respectfullytreatedas the friends of peace, as upright and honestmen, even when they are reactionariesor fascists.The latterare termedbandits, spies, and fascists, even if by all the actions of their whole Iivcs-and sometimeseven their

deaths-they have shown themselvesthe most bitter enemies of fascism. Lord Cecil, for example, who declared peremptorilyto an eminentFrenchpersonagethathe favoredthe victory of Franco in Spain, but that he was opposed to Germany and Japan, remainsfor the Stalinistsa great friend, a striking illustration of the British people and policy. Frenchreactionaries who favor the maintenance of the Franco-Soviet pact are either sparedfrom criticismor are praisedextravagantly. On the occasion of his visit to Paris,MarshalSmigIy-Rydzwas greetedby Thorezin termsof unprecedented servilityalthoughthe blood of Polish strikersand peasants killed by his bulletswas still fresh on his hands.And in contrast,revolutionaryworkerswho, for example,at the outbreakof hostilitiesin Spainwerethe firstto manthebarricadesandhurl themselves into thetrenchesagainst Franco and to fight for the triumphof socialism; those who in fact wantedto fight againstbourgeois exploitation; those who are unwilling to offer their skins spontaneouslyfor the next imperialistbutchery in the camp of the democracies-are called thieves,spies,agentsof the Gestapo,whomit is neeessaryto exterminate like mad dogs. Thispolicy whichis anti-fascist in nameonly (and sometimes, as will be shownin the following, eventhenameis abandoned) and whichin practicerendersthe greatest servic= to fascism,is manifestedwith strikingclarity amongstthe Italian Stalinists. To showthis,we shall limitourselvesto presenting certaintypical factsandattitudes in whichis concentrated to a certainextent and summarized the policy of ItalianStalinism. q q *

The EthiopianWar
The Ethiopianwar,by its clearly imperialist character,by the particularlyodious mannerin which it was preparedand Conducted,by the shadydealswhichit fosteredbefore, duringand aftersanctions,and finallyby the effectsit would have on the toiling massesin Italy, offered-after the Matteoti crisis of 1924-a uniqueopportunityfor the Italianproletariatto crush the fascistregimeand open the way to thetriumphof the proletarianrevolutionin the Peninsula.A party whoseleaderswere anythingbut bureaucratsrotten to the very marrow of their bones, cowardsand traitors,and which had not trampledupon the elementary teachingsof Bolshevism with an intensity which amountedto pure sadism,wouId have been able withoutgreat difficultyto becomethe determining factor in the Italian sitnation. It would have been able to summonmillions of proletariansand the great masses from the fields and cities to hurl themselvesin powerful waves against the bourgeois-fascist regimeof Italy, evento the point of dismantling it and destroying it. But two conditionswere necessaryto achievethis: firs&to showtheItalianpeopleby a fiercelyinternationalist attitude that

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the struggleagaiustthe Abyssinianwar had nothingin common with an attemptto shield the colonial spoils of Anglo-French imperialism,and that, on the contrary,the struggleagainstthe savageryof fascismwas at the sametime the surestmeansof splinteringthe bases of Anglo-Frenchimperialism; and, secondly, to develop by all means available the class struggle withinItaly. Realizationof this secondcondition,it is evident, wouldhaveresultedas a directconsequence of the first. Butthe ItalianStalinists not only did nothingto furtherthese sirns, instead they did everythingpossible to prevent their realization. Beyondthe boundariesof Italy, all their activitywas based upon and carried out under the patronageof the League of Nations,thatis, the interests of Anglo-Frenchimperialism.The disastrousmasqueradesof the Anti-F=cist Congresses,~e all stagedwith Stalinistgoldthepress delegations at Geneva campaigns, all werecarriedon for the purposeof assuringBritish and French iinperialismthat their only guarantyfor the pacific exploitationof theirdominionsand colonieswas the victory of anti-fascism. FascistItaly-more precisely,the Italy directedby Mussolini -constituted a danger for the conquestsof the Anglo-French imperialists, while an Italy freed of Mussoliniwould be a guar. antyfor thefleihpotsof themagnates of Londonand Paris.This was the thesi%sometimes masked,sometimesopen, but always real, of the Stalinists and of the officialItaliananti-fascists. It was preciselythis thesiswhich Mussolinineededin order to disqualifywitha strokeof the pen all anti-fascismbeyond the frontiersandto bind aroundhimselfthe Italianmasses.You see, saidthe fascistpress,theseanti-fascist gentlemenwho live abroadandpridethemselves on being Italians,just look at them. They oppose our conquestof empire,but breatheneverso much as a word againstthe empireof thosewho eat five times a day and rule overhundredsof millions of colonial subjects.And not only that:theygo so far as to place themselves in the serviceof therich imperialists, urgingthemto act againstus who are poor, who have only colonies of sand and who are merely struggling to attainfor ourselvesour rightfulplace in the sun. The influence of anti-fascism wasliquidated. Mussoliniobtainedan enormousvictory. The Stalinistpolicy succeededin cementingthe massesaround him insteadof, as was imperative, mobilizingthemto fighthim. The skillful policy of the Stalinists and of all officialantifascismwithinItalywas,if possible,evenmore stupidthanthat it was merely the practicedbeyond the borders. Furthermore, inevitableextensionof that policy. It found its highestexpression in theAnti-Fascist Congressconvokedat Brussels in 1936 in the midst of the Genevasanctions, summedup in the two formulas: Via Mussoti. dw! Governo (Mussoliniout of the government) ; and Do nothingwhichmightfrightenthe Italian (and the Britishand the French) bourgeoisie. With the first formula the Stalinistsand the official anti-fascistsdeclared openly thattheir immediateaim was not the overthrowof the fascistregime,but only the removalof Mussolini!And withthe secondtheysaidto the masses:Attention! Demandthe removal of Mussolinifrom the government~. but . . . do not t~e any activestepsfor, otherwise, you will force the bourgeoisieto run to him againfor protection! Translatedinto simple language,thesetwo formulas signify the following: You, the monarchy,the Vatican,the bourgeoisie, the landlords,if you remainattached to this adventurer Mussolini-will be lost. Dismisshim, then,and in exchangewe will permityou to enjoy trunquillity-and we alreadygive you our pledge. Thusthe skillful formula of the Stalinists which was to mobilize all the layers of the Italian people againstthe adventurer Mussolini, was nothing but a straight-jacket clampeddown upon the proletariatand the workingmassesof Italy to presentthemf~m swinginginto action.

It was,in fact, a repetition,word for word, of the policy followedby LAventinin 1924duringtheMatteoticrisis. Butwithout a parliamentary split, withoutthe agitationof the masses, and carried on not at Rome, but in Brussels! The policy of LAventinservedandconsolidated fascism.Thatof theStalinists, carried out duringthe Abyssinianwar, servedand consolidated it twice over. It does not strainthe imaginationto guessthat Mussolini,readingthe speeches and resolutions of Brussels must have been convulsedwith greatroars of laughter.The masses will demand. . . whileremaining tranquil! Then, no strikes, no defeatism,no sabotage,no seisureof the land, no refusal to pay taxes. In a word, no civil war in Italy. Empty phrases, nothingmore, servingmerelyto justify the appointment of the bureaucrats. But if the massesremaintranquil,if they do not listen to the demagogy of the Trotskyistprovocateurs (for once again at the Anti-FascistCongressat Brusselsthis was theirlanguage)thenthoughtMussolini,themonarchy,the Vatican,thebourgeoisie, thelargeproprietors,and tutti quanti,quite correctly, the masseseven if they wish (whichj moreover,was far from being true) will be completely incapable of leading anydisturbance! Mussoliniapplauded. He had won a secondbattle.

The HonestIn;ere&s ;f Italian Imperialism

The assurances givenby the Stalinists to all layersof the Italian bourgeoisieabout the maintenance of social peace in Italy, were,nevertheless, consideredinsufhcient by the Stalinists themselves; the more so sincenone of thesebourgeoislayerswerein a hurry to respondto their appeal; and still more becausethe assurances given Anglo-Frenchimperialismabout the integrity of their colonial dominationdeprivedthe Italianbourgeoisieof all imperialistperspective. This obviouslywas unspeakably disagreeableto the latter. But the ItalianStalinistsare nothingif not resourceful.Thatis why overnightthey discoveredthe hanest interestsof Italy (imperialistandfascist) in CentralEurope ~ and the Balkans. Our government-that is, the government of whichMussoliniis the headwrote the Stalinistbureaucrats in their press, insteadof makingwar againstthe Abyssinian~insteadof seekingadventures in the Mediterranean, should organize and defend the just and honest interestsof Ituly (sic!) in Cen-d Europe and the Bai!kans.In so doing, they will work for pecme,~or civilizatim,for the honor of our well-lovedcauntry: Italy. As can be seen,the plan which the Italian Stalinistsoffered and offer-to fascist Italian imperialismis complete. It is true, they wantedto place a barrier in the directionof Africa andtheMediterranean, but solely to offer immediately thereafter animated solely on paperaninfinitelymore advantageous compensation beyond the Adriatic. For it was surelynecessary that Italianimperialismalso should find someway to secureits bread. Only our government- the fascistgovernment with Mussolini at its head!was not entirely of the same mind as the Stalinists. The government thoughtthatat themomentexpansion towardAfrica and the Mediterranean containedfewer risksthan the defense of the honest interestsindicatedby their enterprising collaborators. It is possible that they were wrongwe hope so with all our strengthand that they will end up by breakingtheir necks. But what is importantis that the Stalinists,withtheir plan, completelyerased all di#erence in principle betweenthem and fascism withregard to the imperialistexpanswn of Italian capitalism.The Stalinistplan did not envisage fightingItalianimperialism, butmerelystroveto offer it thebest meansof escapingfrom its impasse.The struggle betweenthe Stalinists and Mussoliniwas henceforthone to determine which of the two was to be the most perspicaciousservantof Italian

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imperialism.Thanksto the Stalinists,the proletariatand the workingmassesof Italywereno longercalled to choosebetween theirenslavement underimperialism andtheirliberation,as well as the liberationof peopleseverywhere, but betweentwodifierent directwns throughwhichthe imperialistpolicy could be assured: expansiontowardthe southeast, or expansiontowardthe northeast. Butonce again,if one confinesthe strugglewithintheselimit% thevictoryof fascismis certain,in thefirstplace becausefascism combinesat one and the sametimethe two directionsof Italian expansion.For it, thepathstowardthe southeast andtowardthe northeast arenot mutuallyexclusive,but complement eachother. It grabsto the right and to the Ieftnow leaningupon, and now blackmailing in turnthe democraciesand Hitlerism. And it is necesaryto admitthat up to the presentthe game has succeededquitewell. Thiswaspossiblebecausethe Stalinistplan bound the proletariatand the workingmassesof Italy socially, politically and morally to Italianimperialism.If our government (the fascist government headedby Mussolini!) is called upon to defend its just and honest interestsin any place whatever, it is necessary to supportit, not to fightagainstit. Moreover, if expansionbeyond the Adriatic is just and honest becauseit is in oppositionto Germany(whichhas no colonies), why would expansiontowardthe Mediterranean and Africa be dishonest and unjust? Becausepossiblyit comes into conflictwithGreatBritainand France? ButwhatItalianca/one would,be sufficiently naive to admitthis? Finally, confinedto theselimitations, the strugglewill alwaysend withthevictory of fascism, for any real mobilizationof the massesagainstit would be impossible. In fact, the masseswill neverunderstand the need for an insurrection whichhas as its aim not the overthrow of their exploiters,but ratherto force the exploitersto feed from themangeron theleft ratherthanfrom themangeron the right. They will understand the need still less if the premium of the insurrection is to be a reinforcement of the imperialist yoke aroundtheir necks. The one who gainsin all of thisonce againis Mussolini.
q q q

Brothersin Black Shirts

At the end of the Abyssinian war, there came out of Moscow, the philosophy that it was better to let the building burn in the desert (the building was Abyssinia) than to risk setting Europe on fire. The Italian Stalinist% always keen to sense the direction from which the wind is blowing, understood that truly the time of half-measures had passed. At last, one could speak out loudly and clearly. The ex-mice of the censorship service (that is the espionage service against revolutionary and discontented soldiers) during the world war; the ex-traffickers of the sacristy, the ex-subordinates of Mussolini in his treason and in his interventionism, all the band of cowards and slaves who actually direct the so-called Communist Party of Italy, could finally breathe freely. The insurmountable contradiction between the remains of the Bolshevik traditions which still lived in the party and their true nature, those who were prepared to sup royally at all tables, was henceforth at an end. It was a question, naturally, always of peace, democracy, and liberty. Before these three deities, any fresh hesitation would be a crime. It is true that heretofore the monarchy, the Vatican, the big bourgeoisie of the cities and the fields had turned a deaf ear. But Mussolini would certainly understand. Mussolini, said these former companions in treason, he is not a fossil. An adventurer, perhaps, but a man of politics. A realist. There is nothing to exclude the possibility that one can go along a short distance together with hh and wh,o know% with this Mussolini, there is really nothing to prevent us from traveling the entire road in each others company. Such was the plan! It was necessary to divert fascist Italy from its friendship with

Hitler and lead it to struggleon behalf of the democracies! To do this,our brothersin black shirtscan give us the greatest possiblesupport.Theenemyis no longerfascism,it is Hitlerism. Enough,then,of anti-fascism.In Italy thereare no longer fas. cistsand anti-fascists, just as in Stalinistdocuments thereare no longer proletarians,bourgeoisie,poor peasant%rich peasants, exploitedand exploiters. In Italy, there are now only Italians and anti-Italians.But these latter are hidden elsewherethan amongthe fascists. So, gentlemen,one liquidates.The ProletarianAnti-Fascist Committees are liquidated;the anti-fascist demagogy is liquidated;the very word anti-fascistis liquidated.The unfortunate militantsof therankand file who do not knowwhatis happeningandwho continueto declarethemselves anti-fascists havetheirearspulled,andif theystill do not understand,are quickly denouncedas anti-Italians, agentsof Hitler, spies of the Gestapo,etc., etc. . . . All Ituliam are brothers, proclaim the Stalinists, except,naturallythe Trotskyistswho wantto fight againstour brothersin black shirts,in order to play the gameof Hitlerwhoseagentstheyare! The Stalinistpressdaily discoversnew marvelsin Italy. Italy becomes once again the most beautifulgardenin the world. The fascisttrade unions are no longer hells in which the proletariatis muzzledand bound. That is a Trotskyistcalumny. The fascist syndicatesare the syndicates of Italian workers. The fascistinstitutions are transformed as if by magicinto institutionsof theItalianpeople.Amongthe sonsof thesamecountry theredid exist,unfortunately, misunderstandings and suspicions. Somewerecalled fascists,the otheranti-fascists. Lack of understandingwas common to both, certainly,but especially to the anti-fascists who did not appreciate as theyshouldthe greatlove of their black-shirtedbrothers for Italy. If the brothers in black shirtsalso sinned,it wasbecauseof an excessof love. So, one mustexcusethem. In any event,all thatwas naughtbut a sad nightmare of the past. Henceforth,generalcelebration,general embracing. No more anti-fascistinsigniawhich would be provocationsagainstour brothers. Our brothers, bmides, will readily understand thattheir insigniaalso no longer serve anypurpose.All sonsof the samefatherland, we will havebut a singleflag,the tricolor. Forward,againstHitler.. . . Scratchinghis head, the rankand file militantasked: What? What? The membersof the fascist gangswho killed, violated, mutilatedmembers of my owq family? Brothers in black shirts, replied the bureaucrats. The cops who in the cities and villages still swing their cudgels and createa reign of terror? Brothersin black shirts. The fascist bureaucratswho in the factories,in thetradeunions,everywhere spy on the workersand turnthemoverto thevengeance of theemployersandthepolice? Brothersin black shirts. The bassesof the large fascist corporations,the Rossoni,the Ciardi and Co.? Brothersin black shirts.But finally,demands the poor rank-and-filer, completely dumbfounded by surpriseat havingso manyunsuspected brothers: and Mussolini? Brother, brother in black shirt, reply imperturbably the Stalinist bureaucrats. We are not anti-fascists, thereforeMussolinialso is our brother. And so that this might be perfectly clear, the Stalinistpress publishedan officialdeclaration of the partyin whichthe Stalinists assertedthey were ready to march hand in hand with all fascists,whateverdegree they representedin the hierarchy o! A-e party o~the state.The invitation to the black-shirted brother,
Mussolini, could not have been more pointed. And all this orgy, all this debauchery of Stalinist fraternization with the fascists,

including Mussolini, took place at the end of and after the Abyssinianwar, when its disastrousconsequences were making themselvesfelt most widely and when it was still possible to rousethemassesagainst theregime. Once again the Stalinistsserved honorably thir fascist brothers.

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To the repeatedadvancesmade to him, Mussoliniresponded by interventionin Spain and by consolidationof the RomeBerlinaxis.Thesetwo facts considerablycooled the ardor of the philo-fascists, the Stalinistbureaucrats. Cooled their ardor, but did not extinguish it. One examplesuffices to prove this. At the timeof theoccupationof Austriaby theNazis,theStalinist press unleashedan unbridledcampaignagainstMussolinias responsible for havingplaced our dear Italy on its kneesbefore Hitler. Mussoliniis onceagain,then,in the culpritsseat. From a brother he has been transformedinto an evil soul. But the handstill remainsoutstretched towardthe fascists.Onecould go so far as to say that the resurrectionof a part of the antifascistphraseologyonly servedto cover up a policy evenmore fraternal thanever towardsthe fascists. As a matterof fact, if up to yesterdaythe Rome-Berlinaxis was only a perspective whichit was necessaryto preventat any price, today it has become a reality.The conclusionwhich the Stalinists drew from this was thatnow therewas once again on the order of the day in Italy the problem of the struggle/or natiaud independence.And this national independence could
be assured not by the outbreak of a civil war against the direct exploiters of the Italian people, but by the union of all classes against the tedeschi (in the Stalinist press the term tedeschi has the same connotation of contempt as the word boche for the French). That is why the leit rnotiv of all the Stalinist press is as follows: The Italian people are under the heel of Hitler and the tedeschi. Our journalists (that is, the fascist journalists) are obliged to write according to the dictates of the tedeschi agents. Italy has been invaded by the tedeschi who in the factories, the offices, editorial rooms, everywhere, exercise their terror against the Italian people. It is not the fascists and the Italian capitalists who oppress the Italian workers, but the tedeschi. Mussolini and a few other fascist leaders, as well as a half dozen or so of the influential members of trusts are obviously the filthy servants of Germany. They must be chased out. But Italian fascissn, as such, is free of guilt. The fire must be concentrated against the Germans, against the tedeschi. War, then, against the Tedeschi. Bastonetedesco lItaliunon doma (The club of the boche shall not dominate Italy )this is the refrain the most cherished by the Stalinists. And their fmcist

For some time,however,it has been a questionof something otherthanfolklore.A wholeseriesof factsandsymptoms demonstratethatthe ItalianStalinists are planningto go much farther. Alreadythe suppression of the anarchist leaderBerneri(he, too, is a Trotskyist) and of his comrade Barbieri at Barcelona show the mark of origin. It is amongthe ItalianStalinists that the electorsand the executorsof thesecowardly assassinations are to be found. The reactionof theStalinist pressto a statement which appearedin the socialist journal NUOVO Aventi on the deathof Berneriis a concession.But there is more. The Trotskyist who are in the prisons and Mussolinis islands of deportation in Italy are constantly the victims of aggressions during the day and during the night of the Stalinist mafia which has been constituted in those places Those who are at liberty are openly pointed out by the Stalinist press to the fascist Ovr~ to which

chauvinism goesevenfarther. It surpasses, probably all thatthe Hitlerpressresortedto againstthe Jews. As proof weneedbut one exampleof correspondence coming from Italy, publishedin the Stalinistorgan appearingin the from a wellItalianlanguagein Paris. In this correspcmdence, known literarypersonage,a prominentItaliananti-fascist,according to the journal, the Germanpeople (not the Hitlerites, but all the Germanpeople) were insulted outrageously.The entire content of the article had as its aim to show that the tedeschi (the boches) are nothingbut a pack of swine, and for the good of humanitytheymustbe treatedlike swin~have theirthroatsslit openwitha knife. Publicationof thistruly vile articlearouseda stormof protestsfrom Italianemigres,and this forced the editorsof the journal,afterthe articlehad been publishedand givenglaringpublicity,to expresshypocriticalreservationsin threelines! It is againstthe Trotskyist, however,thatthe Stalinist hate manifestsitself withoutcease. In this there is no interruption, no pause. Fascistscan become brothers, Hitleritescan be transformed into companions, but the Trotskyist always remainthenumberone enemyof the Stalinist bureaucrats. In no pressin the world, exceptthatin the U.S.S.R.,is the anti-Trotskyist folklore as abundantand as varied as in that of the Italianbureaucrats.It is not thatthe Italianscudgeltheirbrains more than their confreresin other countriesto find something original-far from itbut merely that they copy the Russian press with greaterabandon.They are hard put to i~ to justify their beefsteaks.

theycommunicate thenamesof theTrotskyist andthe addresses at whichtheymaybe found.The TrotskyistDamen(he wasin reality a Bordigist), veteranof Italian prisons becauseof his anti-fascistactivties,was again arrestedseveralmonthsago at Milan following minutely-detailed denunciations of the Stalinist informers. In emigration,whenever occasion presents itself, Trotskyistsare denounced,their last namesgiven, their first names,and their pseudonyms, so as to bring abouttheir expulsion at the handsof the police. Justrecently,following an incidentof a politicalnaturewhichoccurredin the Italiansectionof the Leaguefor the Rights of Man in Paris, the Stalinistpress distinguished itself in this vile work of acting as police spies. Entirelists of the namesand first namesof militantsreturning from the Spanishtrencheswerepublishedin the Stalinistpress. These militants,in general,find themselvesin France without papers and passports,and the police track themdown so as to throwthemout of the country.Thepublicationof thenamesand first namesof theseindividualshas as its aim to force themto be peaceful andnot to denouncethebeastliness perpetrated by the Stalinist bureaucrats in Spainagainstthe revolutionaries. As a follow up, the Trotskyists receive anonymousthreatening letters,with a deathshead drawnin the center.This is the same procedureformerly used by the brothers in black shirts in Italy to terrorizeproletarianmilitantsand especiallytheir families. Othersare charitably warnednot to returnlate at night if theywantto avoid surprises. Othersstill findthemselves spied upon by suspiciouslooking individuals.All this showsthatthe StalinistOvra existsalso on Italiansoil, that it is at work preparing itself for redoubledbIows. Why is all this done? Aside from the low, but nevertheless very real considerations of beefsteak andthe generaltaskswhich are assigned to themby the G.P.U., asidealso from motivesof a personal order, that is a biography filled with betrayalsand cowardiceof some of the bosseswho hold, or give the appearance of holding, the reins of the ItaIian StalinistParty, the underlyingcausesof the particularhate of the Italianbureaucratsfor the Trotskyistsare exposedabove. Our Italian comrades,to the greatestextentpossible within the extremelylimited means at their disposal, denouncethis incoherent andtraitorouspolicy. The Italianworkers,especially those who return from the trenches in Spain and from the U.S.S.R., turn their backs on these miserable charlatanswho play at juggling with their fascist brothers and who in all importantproblemshave played and continueto play the game of Mussolini. In Italy,in theprisonsand in the isles of deportation, if one excepts a few functionariespreoccupiedwith the support of their families and with their future positions,the revolt is general agaiost those who have been the shameless profiteersof theirsacrifices.The revolt is sufficient so thatthese bureaucrats withthe souls of slavesvow their eternalhatredof the Trotdcyists. This does not, however,preventour Italian comrades from accomplishingtheir revolutionarywork with firmness and withsuccess..

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d d the m-openingof the idle factoriesunderworkerscontrol. The HE PRESENT ARTICLE on the Mahoney Bill, by Jules truth is that if we accept the illusory aims esnbodiedin the Geller, was writtenin reply to the articleby David Cowles MahoneyBill we arenot furthering theprojectionof the workers whichwas publishedin our last issue. It has seemedto us well into struggleagainstcapitalism but divertingthem/rem struggle worthwhileto conductthisdiscussionof a problemwhichis not againstcapitalisminto fruitlessby-paths. merely of some importancein itself, but has an even greater ComradeGellerpointsout that,whatever the Bill may say, in interest as symptomaticof similar issues now arising, and the minds of the workersit represents an effort to open up the destinedto continueto arise,with increasingfrequencyon the idle factoriesandtherebyreduceunemployment.It is thiswhich Stateand nationalscene. indicates the specifictacticswhichwe shouldpursuewithrespect We agreewithcomradeGellerthatCowlesarticlewas defecto it. We naturaIIy agreewiththe sentiment for openingthe fac. tive from the point of view of its agitational approach. By a too tories and reducing unemployment. In discussions on the strainedconcern with the detailedand technicaldefects of the MahoneyBill, therefore,we should first of all make clear our MahoneyBill, he failed to give sufEcient recognitionto the unagreement and solidarity,and then go on to propose the major doubtedlyprogressiveaspectsof the mass responseto the Bill. amendments whichwould makethe MahoneyBill a vehicle for It is this response which dictates the agitational point of realizingthosepurposes.To disregardor simply opposethe Bill departure. wouldbe to withdraw from themassmovement whichhasgrown Nevertheless% we are convincedthat comradeCowles fundaaroundit. To support it in any less critical sensewould be to mentalanalysisis correct,andthatGellersanalysisis seriously succumbto an impermissible opportunism. at fault. In effe@ comrade Geller statesthat revolutionista The EDITORS shouldgiveenthusiastic supportto whatever proposalsexcitethe adherence of themore progressive workers.His criterionis altoHE MAHONEYSTATE INDUSTRIESBILL, endorsedby gether subjective, and is given quite badly: what determines the legislativecommittee of the St. Paul Tradesand Labor our choice in supportingor altogetherrejectingsuch legislative assembly,and referredfor actionat therecentconventionof the measures, should be an analysisof the Bills generalsubjective Minnesota StateFederation of Labor to the committeeon unem. effect on the workers. ployment,has arouseda lively discussionin wide circles of the This criterionseemsto us inadequate, and dangerous.In the labor movemen~ lightof it, employingeveryone of Gellersarguments, we should David Cowles In the last issue of THE NEW INTERNATIONM have declared for support of Rooseveltin the 1936 elections, took up the questionof revolutionarytactics toward the bill, and of the New Deal candidates in the currentelections.Or, to openinga discussion thatcan leadto a more thoroughand clear takeanotherlegislativemeasureas an example,we shouldhave understanding of the tasks of the revolutionarymovementin propagandized in favor of the objectivelyreactionaryExecutive the presentperiod of capitalistcollapse. Cowles general apReorganization Bill. proachto the Mahoneybill, whichis aimedat giving jobs to all Th~subjectivestandard is insufficient. Revolutionists can give the unemployedby meansof state-owned industries, revealsan support only where the subjectivepositive responsefrom the incorrect appraisal of the bills political worth to the labor progressiveworkersis linkedto an objectivelyprogressivepermovement in warch of a correctprogram. spective,only wherethe centraland explicit aims are consistent with the revolutionaryprogram. In this respect,the Mdomy Bill, along withits similarities, providesan instructive contrast to both the war referendumand the CaliforniaPensionPlan. It follows from a revolutionaryanalysisof the social conWiththe explicit aimsof theselatterademocraticreferendum sequences of the desperate straitsof capitalism thatthe primary on the issueof war, and an adequate pensionfor the agedwe task of a living and potent revolutionaryparty is to wage an are one hundredpercentin agreement, andwe thereforesupport intensive campaignof agitationarounda programof transitional thesemeasuresunambiguously.Evenhere, of ocurse, our supdemands. port is critical: we must explain the inadequacyof the means In the course of this agitation,we shall from time to time proposedfor the achievement of the aims,and we mustlink the makea choice in regardto specificmeasures broughtforwardby strugglefor theseaimsto a more adequate and militantgeneral the labor movement.Whatdetermines our choice in supporting program. or ahogetherrejecting such Legislative measures,should be an Butthe explicitaimsof theMahoneyBill are not at all of the analysisof the bills general subjectiveeffect on the workers. Can it serveas an effectiveagitational medium?Will discussion samecharacter:in part they are indeedthoroughlyreactionary. It is not merelya questionof inadequacyor unworkability of the bills mainpointshelp to close the gap betweenthe work-comrade Geller is quite right in pointing out that any proers backwardpoliticalideologyandtheneedsof theday andthe gram conceived in terms of a continuingcapitalismis inadeepoch? Will action,designed to put themeasure into effectbring quate,and in criticizingcomradeCowles for over-stressing the conflictwiththe very foundationsof capitalism? The Mahoney Bill more than meetsthe test. The economic detailsof the MahoneyBills ineffectiveness. The MahoneyBill, however,proposeswhatreally amountsto a dressedup kind of soundness of sucha bill or legislative proposalis secondary.For poor farm or work house. ComradeCowlesshowedthis by any proposal aimed at alleviatingthe economic crisis in any explainingthe meaningof its prohibitionsof the entry of the decisivedegreeis incompatiblewithcontemporary capitalism. The criterionby whichto form an opinion as to our position, productsof the Stateinstitutions into the generalmarketand its restrictionson the consumer-freedom of those working in the therefore,is not will thebill actuallyworkbuthow will it aid Stateinstitutions.Its statement thattheworkersshallreceivethe or deterthe progressive transitionof the workerspolitical ideolfull value of their collective product is not, as Geller interogy. This is the criterion which Cowlesfailed to apply in his prets it, a slap at the profit systm,but a revival of the same criticismof the MahoneyBill. If he had judged the bill by an utopiandemagogywhich Marx submittedto so devastating an analysisof its subjectiveeffect on the workers,and not merely attackin his.Critique of the GothaProgram. Such plans are by a cold and formal application of economic platitudes,he not at all whatrevolutionists have in mind when they demand would not havecometo the conclusionthatthe bill can only act

Mahoney Bill and Todays Tasks

Agitation, OurPrimary Task

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provesin his articlethatthe as a boomerang. He competently bilI is self-contradictoryand Utopian. But almost every demand thatarisestodayout of the angryandbitterranksof the working class, and which aims at the very simple goal of a decentliving for everyoneis Utopian, unworkable and full of contradictions.For theseare demands whichonly socialismcan answer. It is an unfortunate fact thatthe workershavenot yet learned that socialism offers the only solution to their plight. They express their discontent awkwardly and in half tones. The MahoneyStateIndustries Bill is one of theseclumsyexpressions of the workersdetermination to fihd a way to break through the
barriers of the system which condemns them to idleness and poverty in the midst of plenty. The Mahoney bill will no more provide jobs for the unem. ployed than a referendum on war will stop the next imperialist slaughter. But agitation around the bill will give voice to the workers demand for jobs, just as agitation around the question of a war referendum expresses the workers genuine anti-war feelings.

The BillsP1acein the LaborMovement

If it is progressive to arousethe workersto a consciousness of the bankruptcyof capitalism,thensupportof the MahoneyBill is progressive. Insteadof applying the microscopeto the bills most minuteprovisions,the labor movementin Minnesotahas beentestingits valuein life. The bill has alreadyaffordedrevolutionistsan opportunityto speakon the vital questionsof jobs for the unemployed, the opening of idle factories, workers control of industry, and the general stupidities of the profit system. The Mahoney Bill cannot be intelligently studied except in the light of its impact on the minds of workers, who are in search of a solution of the economic and social situation. Sides have already been taken. The most progressive workers, the most con-

sciousof theirclassrole, arefor thebill. The labor conservatives and the reactionarieshave lined up against the bill. It has broughtaboutthisfundamental rift, becauseit touchesupon the fundamental contradictions of our social order. To call up the ghost of Owenin refutingthis bill is to meet with contemptthe efforts of an awakeningworking class. We cannotbrand such efforts as escapism and find our place at the head of the masses. If thereis some similaritybetweenthe schemesof Owenand the MahoneyBill, thereis also a decisive and all-importantdifference.And the dtierence is in the era, and the political and social atmospherein which the bill has appeared. It is no insignificant fact thatthe MahoneyBill today is a live issuein the labor movement, and thatOwens Escapismnever managed to escape the milieu of thetea-table. And how do we explainthe fact thattwo or threeyearsago whenMahoneyintroducedhis bill it was dismissed as the schemeof a crackpot,and todayit is discussed in dozensof unions? The explanationof thesefacts is thatthe workingclass is on the move, propelled by the social crisis. When Mahoneyfirst introducedhis bill three or four years ago, he was met with uninterested toleranceby the labor movement. Workerswerestill mainlyinterested in wages,hoursandworkingconditions.Today they are strivingto reacha higherplane. In the drawingrooms of socialist intellectuals, whenMahoneysbill was firstmade public severalyearsago, it createda temporarysensation. Today thesesameintellectuals attackthe bill as impossible, dangerous, Utopian. This year the proposals embodiedin the Mahoneybill have struckhome to hundredsof workers,while it is viewed with alarm by the reactionarypress, the liberals and conservative leadersof labor. Oppositionto the bill is rapidly crystallizing amongtheseforces, and its defeatand burial is possibleif not probable.Whatwas not so long ago a harmlessdreamis today

a dangerous weapon in lining up the workers against the establishedorder. It is the developingclarity of social antag. onismsthathas conditionedthisturnaboutof opinion. The considerable supportthe bill hasreceivedin St. Paul and Minneapolistells volumes about the workers growing disillusionment, theirgraduallydevelopingunderstanding of thedecay of the profit system, and their willingnessto listen to new slogans,and to seeknew roads to a betterorder. In the discussions in various unions on the MahoneyBill the main points graspedby the progressive-minded workerare first,the proposal to supply jobs for all the unemployed,second,the opening of thedeadand deserted factories,andthirdthatthesefactoriesare to be ownedandoperated by thestatewithouta profit.The above generaIideashavesunkinto thetradeunionistsmind% Do we supportthesegeneraldemands? Of course. And we mustsupportthemas concretelyproposed in the MahoneyBill, for in the minds of workers,they are one and the same.At the same time, however,we must criticize the bills shortcomings. But our emphasismustnot be upon its mechanicaldetails,but upon its main objectives. No revolutionist who liveain themass movement could hesitatea momentin makinghis choice. No amountsof wagesare specified.Cowlescomplains.Quite true, the bill merely statesthat the workers shall receive the frill value of their collectiveproduct. This phraseis a slap at the profit system. The bill makesno provisionsoutsideof an intitialmillion dollars. Also true.Butthe bill lays downthe generalprinciple thatits aims are to provide jobs at productivelabor for all the unemployedin Minnesota, to put idle men to work in any and all idle factories,at everykind of industry,on a non-profitbasis. Thereare of coursequalifyingphrasesand shortcomings. But as a basisfor education,agitationand actionMe bill is valuable. It goes so far as to provide for workerscouncils in the stateowned factorie~ to ensuredemocraticcontrol of the factories. Manyquestions havebeenaskedaboutthispoint, and in a union wherea revolutionist is present,you may be surethe idea is not only supportedbut elaborated. For the first time in a ud;on, workerscouncils are discussed.How will they work? What is theirpurpose? A discussionof the MahoneyBill on the floor of a union affordsan opportunity to pressfor the most progressive principles. But we must give suppo~ in order to talk and be listenedto. It is not mere coincidencethat the most conservativelabor bureaucrats have attachedthemselves to argumentsagainstthe bill very much like the arguments presented by Cowles article. A trade unionistremarkedto me after readingCowles article thathe was going to studyit very closely in order to anticipate the arguments whichwould come from theright. It is diflicultfor a labor o5cial to come out flatlyagainstthe MahoneyBill. Yet its generalaimsare dangerousand radical. He thereforedescends to carpingaboutthe detailsof the bill, its language,its contradictory phrases. He prefacesall his remarks with the statementthat he is one hundred percent with the objectives,the spirit of the bill. Buthe somehowkeepsreferring it to committeefor study and rewriting. He goes throughthesemachinations becausehe sensesthatthe bill serves to arouseunion membersto the rottenand absurdinjusticeof the systemof privateindustry. We, however,cannotallow ourselvesto subjectthe bill to ari analysiswhich disregards the very effect whichthe conservative so correctlyfears. If we follow such a path, we shall completely
miss our opportunities, and our agitation will remain within the bounds of a stultified and sectarian Marxism. It is the task of bolsheviks to see these expressions of the workers discontent in relation to the dynamic forces of the class struggle, and to recognize what affords us a medium for a progressive agitation. We can set about proving to the satisfaction of scholars that

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nothing but socialism will work. But meanwhile the masses will have been set into motion by the slogans of fascism. It is our task to give the workers eyes with which to see the road. Properly utilized, the main principles of the Mahoney Bill can serve as signposts along the way. Can a revolutionist get up in a trade union meeting and in a discussion of the Mahoney Bill proclaim stentoriously that it will

Mahoney Bill affords such an opportunity. Vigilant, lest we support measures which do not lead along a progressive road. In the period we are entering all sorts of proposals, and demagogic appeals will be circulated among the masses. We must choose very carefully the measures which have real meaning for the labor movemen~ and which fit into the pattern of our slogans. The Cowles article supplies the vigil~ce. Buthis stressupon

not work, that it is self-contradictory? Workers to whom the mainprinciplesof thebill appealwill immediately askthequestion, Are you for it or against it? Are you for opening the idle factories or arent you? Are you for giving jobs to the unemployed or arent you? And if not why not? It seems obvious that a revolutionist must support the bill. The amendments suggested by Cowles are in general correct. At the proper time they should be brought forth and agitation on

thedetailsof theMahoneyBill, andhis completeunconcernwith its agitational possibilities, reveals that he is not aware of the
main tasks of the revolutionary movement, nor of the real meaning of social decay in the present period. The Socialist Workers Party, particularly in, Minnesota, has already taken a position on the Mahoney BiIl, and that is to support it, to extract from it the best and most fundamental slogans, and by carrying on an energetic agitation around these slogans,

thene~tsap higherwill be carriedon.In this period we must be alive and vigilant. Alive to the opportunitiesto bring forth our transitional slogans. The

to standat the head of the workersmovementtoward a clash withthe capitalistsystem.

Jules GELLER quotation from Shakespeare. A plague on both your houses! Stolberg ignores the strike-breaking role of the federal government. Besides, who wired Governor Davey and gave him the excuse to bring in strikebreaking National Guards? John L. Lewis. Who turned back 3,000 rubberworkers from Akron marching to protect the picket lines in Youngstown and Canton? The C.I.!3. top leaders. The class.collaboration policy of the C.I.O. cost 70,000 steel workers a terrible defeat. Stolberg is too discreet on these questions. A comprehensive survey of vigilantism is one of the outstanding sections of this book. The author succinctly outlines the notorious Mohawk Valley Formula which broke the Remiugton-Rand strike and was used successfully in Little Steel. A thorough understanding of the dangers of vigilantism is indispensable to every revolutionary worker. Stolberg shows how vigilantism is the basis for American fascism but again, however, he fails to point out the short-comings of the C.I.O. Ieaders in fighting vigilantism. Brilliant campaigns in auto and rubber organized the workers, he writes. Vigilante forces were defeated in Akron, F1int, Anderson and elsewhere. It was precisely here that top C.I.O. leaders were not in direct charge, Why not explain how labor licked its enemies there?

BOO KS
The Story of the C.I.O.
THE STORY OF THE C.I.O. By BENJAMXN Viking Press. New York City. 1938. STOLSERG. $2.oO.294 pages.

Benjamin Stolberghas for altiost twenty years been reporting the labor scene for . leading newspapers and magazines. He knowshis subjectat firsthand; he expresses himself with clarity, and with such vigor that those who agree applaud vigorously andthosewhodisagree are ofteninfuriated. Although this introduction is reprinted from the jacket cover of his book, The Story of the C.I.O., it is substantially correct. Stolberghas writtena timely analysis of the most significant social movement in America since the Civil War. No progressiveunionistworthy of the name can claim knowledge of the labor movement unlesshe has digested the materialin Stolc bergswork.Itsspecificvirtueis itspolemic againstthe Stalinistunion-wreckers within the C.I.O. Stalinism is a danger in the C.I.O. For one thing,it is not interested in AmericanLabor as such; and for another thing, its violent red-baitingsabotagesall genuineradicalism,withoutwhich a progressive union movement cannot grow, Stolberg warns. Stolberg makes a pitiless analysis of A.F. of L. in theN.R.A. days.The Hutchesons and Whartons,the Freys and Tracys, who run the A.F. of L. hate industrial unionismfor exactlythe samereasonsthe comer grocer hatesthe A. &P. Industrial unionism would drive them out of business, Butindustrial unionismis a life and deathquestionto the greatmassesof workers in this epoch of monopoly capitalism based on large-scaleindustry.All the invective of which Stolberg is master is hurledat the black and treacherous record whichmarkedthe course of the A.F. of L. leaders in recent years. He does a good job, weakened only by his unduedelicacy in portrayingtherecordsof theC.I.O.lead-

ers, and JohnL. Lewis,in particular.Stolberg overestimates too, the role of those leadersin the fightfor industrialunionism within the A.F. of L. until the C.I.O. was formed in November 1935. The pressure of the rankand file in auto, steeland rubber was a heavy factor in changingLewis from a passive exponent of industrial unionismto a belligerentfighterfor it. The rnbberworker~and to a large extent,the autoworkers had rid themselves of the dead hand control of the A.F. of L. bureaucrats before the C.I.O. was founded. LittIe Steel Stolberg has one weakness. He is inclined to see the trade union movement mainlythroughthe eyes of the leadership. This is especially apparentwhen he discussesthe campaign of the S.W.O.C.in Big and Little Steel. Perhapsnothing reveals so Stolbergs position as the fact that he writes,withoutcrackinga smile,aboutthe S.W.O.C. convention in December 1937, the delegates expressed their complete confidencein the leadershipof the S.W. O.C., so much so thatno one eventhought of reorganizing the SteelWorkersOrganizing Committee into a nationalunion, tvriting its own constitutionand electing its own o~cers. It happensto be a matterof record thatvarioussteellodges introduced resolutionsprecisely on these points but Philip Murrayand the top C.I.O. officials were able to side-trackthem. The LittleSteel strikepeteredout, Stolberg points out. It was a set-backto the C.I.O. The strikewas lost becauseof overconfidence,the stupidity of Stalinistsecondaryleaders,theviciousness of the Girdler opposition,the strike-breaking of Governor Davey,GovernorEarle,etc. All this Stolberg explains. But not one word is mentioned abouta certainMr. FranklinD. Roosevelt,presidentof the United States, friend of labor who consoledthe widows of the Chicagomassacrewitha flourishing

Stalinist Factionalism Stolbergstumblesbadly whenhe essays the role of prophetwhileon the autosituation. The back of Stalinist factionalismin the unionhas probablybeenbroken. This was writtenshortly after the expulsion of the Stalinistclique in the executiveboard of the U.A.W.A. Subsequent events,however, show a contrarytrend. It is impossible, in the space of a book review, to take up the many questionsin the autoworkersunion fight. But Stolberg errs in his uncriticalsupportof the Martingroup, as when Homer Martin becomes, in his judgment, the symbol of the new progressivetrade union leader. In his sectionon factionalismandon the role of the Stalinists in various C.I.O. unions, Stolberg largely repeatswhat he said in the seriesof articlesthat appeared

November 1938
last spring in the Scripps-Howard press. They are polished up considerably, and the accumulated evidence against the C.P. is a powerful case against their nnion-wrecking activities. Harry Bridges, West Coast C.LO. director, is revealed in all his infamy. John Brophy is described, like the character in Dostoievskys Idiot, he is surprisingly wise and brilliant in flashes, but utterly child-like and naive in social politics. A perfect Stalinist stooge! Stolberg makes the same error in describing the East Coast Maritime situation that he did in discussing the auto union struggle. Joe Curran, Jack Lawrenson, Moe Byne and the other Stalinist coterie are well-exposed. But the revolt against this misleadership didnt crystallize in the form which Stolberg outlines. The Jerry King-Mariner club bloc has done nothing to live up to Stolbergs expectations. Quite the contrary. Heywood 13roun, president of the American Newspaper Guild, and his associates, JOhU Eddy and Carl Randau, are given a sizzling and well deserved ride by Stolberg. His portrayal of Broun as a Staliniststooge is a

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social-democracy the twin of fascism.This estimateof Trotskyismwas sharednot so long ago by quite a few functionariesof the Second International, among them by OttoBauer. Hereone shouldadd thatthe left social democrats beganto view us with benevolence beginning with the Third Period of happy memory,whenour Marxist criticism was directed in the main against theultra-leftgoat leapsof theComintern. But from the moment when the Comintern madewhatseemedat firstglance a sudden,in realityhowever,an absolutely inevitableturn to the basestopportunism, theleft social-democratic functionaries, not excepting the late Bauer, hastily became semi-Stalinists and thus turned hostilely againstthe FourthInternational. An analogouszig-zagwasmadeby Messrs. Walcher, FennerBrockway,and other left imita. tors of Otto Bauer. We do not doubt for a moment, continuesComradeCerny, that in the future also the Trotskyites will continueto make a very valuablecontribution to the process of revolutionizing the international proletarianmovementand in the re-creationof classic. its world organization. If the program. Opposition to the Stalinistsis coming mainlv from the C.I.O. rank and file. The DER ENTSCHEIDUNGENTGEGEN. By JARO- matic unity of the author and the Vanguard group with the Bolshevik-Leninists milita~tAmericanworkerwas profoundly SLAV cEaNY. Druck, PoIeusky and Coudek. can thereforebe considered as firmlyeatabstirredby thethirdMoscowtrial. He is bePraha XII. 1938. 191 pp. Iishedon all basic questions, the organizaginningto appreciatefrom his own expeUnder this title there has appearedin tional side of thematterappearsmuch less rience, that the Commuistparty ,is not a Brun,Czechoslovakia, a book of 191 pages clear. In this connectionthe authorwrites: radicalizingbut a red-baiting and reactionin the Germanlanguagedevotedto an an- We do not think,however,that it would ary force in American labor. And he is alysis of the world situation,the internal be correct to create a new Trotakyite repelledby its Machiavellianism and comcondition of Czechoslovakia and the prob. party. . . . The world revolutionaryproleplete disregardfor all union democracy. Iems of the world proletariat.The author tariat must create a new and therefore a In the Transport Workers Union, the NewspaperGuild,Fur WorkersUnion,the of thisbook, JaroslavCerny,whopublished Fourth International.However,it wili be this work on the assignment of the Van- creatednot outsidethe big proletarianorUnited Electrical Radio and Machine guard group, standsfully on thepositions ganizations,but throughthem and on the Workers,andto a lesserextentin theInterof revolutionaryMarxism. It is natural basis of them. In this view we differ from national Woodworkers Union which Thegreatpractical unionstotala membership of some270,000 thereforethathe is also a convincedparti- theofficialTrotskyites. -some oppositionis developingto Stalin- san of the FourthInternational.It is just significance of this statementneeds no ist tactics. Only four C.I.O. unions are as naturalthat the bourgeois,social-demo- proof. And precisely because of this we underthe completecontrol of Stalinistof- cratic,and Stalinistpressshouldcomplete- would wish a clearer,that is, a more con. work, deserving Creteformulation of the question. Cerny ficers.They are the AmericanCommunica- ly neglectthis outstanding of the most careful attention. and his group, as may be judged from the tionsAssociation;the Federation of ArchiThis note in no way pretends to takethe book, continueto remainin the Czechoslotects,Engineers, Chemists andTechnicians; the United Officeand ProfessionalWork- role of a critical article on Comrade vakian social-democracy.We have never ers; and the UnitedCannery,Agricultural, Cernysbook. To thistaskI hope to return been principled opponentsto the formaPackingand Allied Workers.Theseunions later. I wishto point out herethatI do not tion of fractions of the Fourth Internwithinreformistor centristparties; give ~emselves a total membership of agree in everythingwith the author.Thus ational of the lasteconomicrise seems on thecontrary,for manycountrieswe consome 185,000. In fact they have at most his estimate to me greatlyexaggerated.Butthis is just sideredthis stageunavoidable. The experisome 60,000 members. This is Stolbergs a questionof the analysisof the factual ment passed through in several countries summary of Stalinist control in the C.I.O. material,and now that the United States broughtundoubtedly positiveresults,which has again enteredinto a deep crisis it is nevertheless did not by far transformour much less difficultto judge the preceding sectionsinto mass parties. How long our can or shouldremaina fraction Whats ahead for the C.I.O.? Stolberg rise thanin the days whenComradeCerny co-thinkers social-democracy is believesthatif the C.I.O. holds its own in was writing his book. There are several of the Czechoslovakian the immediate futureit will be becausethe other partial questionswhich in my opin- a questionof concreteconditionsand posrankand file hasdriventhe Stalinists from ion require additionaltreatment. But all sibilitiesand not at all of principles.That officeand replacedthemwith progressives. these,after all, are only detailswhich do is why the motives which prompted the his group to the Shouldthe C.P. win withLewis aid, a de- not violate our basic solidarity with the author to counterpoise official Trotskyites are not clear to us. In cline of the C.I.O. is indicated.The C.I.O. authorof the study. However,thereis one questionof a timel- our opinion it can be only a questionof a is not, he thinks, gettingready for independentpoliticalactionin 1940, but insists y political naturewhichmustbe clarified divisionof labor, of a temporarydistribu. immediately.Cernywrites: So far as the tion of spheres of influencebut in n. that the future success of the C.I.O. partly are concerned, theyhaveshown case of counterpoising two organizational depends on its backing a labor party. If Trotskyites themselves in the last ten years to be the methods. the C.I.O. goes on organizing energetically, From the history of the Third Internaif it permits complete trade union democ- only Marxistcurrentwhich correctly estiracy everywhere and autonomy to its na- matedfascism,demandedin time a prole- tionalwe knowa casewherethe communist tional and international affiliates; if it tol- tarianunitedfront for struggleagainstit, fraction succeededin gainingthe majority whileStalinwasat thatperiod still calling of a socialistpartyandincludedit officially erates every kind of radical or revolutionary dissentexceptpolitical disruption;if it goesin for a labor partysoonerratherthan later; and if it plays a shrewd game of peace as against an indiscriminategame of war againsttheA.F. of L.thenIt Cant Happen Here. Otherwise-anything may happen. We mightadd, thattheseifs will only becomefactswhentheC.I.O.rankand file is cognizantof the need for carrying out this program and forces its adoption. Viking Press withstood an organized pressurecampaignof the Stalinists to prevent publicationof this book. Its appearance is anotherblow at theirmachinations withinthe tradeunions. It placestheir activitiesin the spotlightand they prefer to work in the dark. Even though Stolberg may sound much like Norman Thomas whentalkingaboutthe Trotskyites, and he bindshimselftoo closely withthetop leadership of the C.I.O. by glossing over unmistakealde faults, his book is definitelya contributionto the welfare of the labor movement. B. J. WIDICK

TowardA Decision

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in the Comintern; this was the case in France. Of coursesuch a case is theoreti. cally possiblein thebuildingof theFourth International.Does Cernywantto say that his closest co-thinkershave a chance of converting the Czechoslovakian socialdemocracy? From here, from afar, this perspectiveseemsto be more than doubtful. In any casetherecannotbe any question of extendingthis methodto all countries in the hope of building the Fourth Internationaldirectly on the basis of presentsocial-democratic or Stalinist,big proletarianorganizations. However,if Cernywantsto say thatrevolutionary Marxia@ those who make up independent sectionsof the FourthInternational as well as those who temporarily work as fractions within two other Internationals,are obliged to concentrate their main effort withinthe mass organizations, and in the first place in trade unions,we would be in full and unconditionalsolidaritywithhim on this. Those partisans of the FourthInternational who underone excuse or anotherremainoutsideof mass organizationscan only compromise the banner of the Fourth International.Our roads are not the same. The purpose of this note, we repeat is not to m-tellor give a criticalevaluation of the rich and valuablecontentof this book of ComradeCemy. We wishonly to draw the attentionof our sections and of all thinkingMarxistsin generalto this study. The secondpart of Cernysbook is wholly devotedto the problems of the working class movementin Czechoslovakia.The theoreticalorgans of our sectionsshould, in my opinion,bringthissecondpart,if in brief, before their readers. I recommend mostwarmlyCemys book to all Marxists, to all class-conscious workers who knowthe Germanlanguage.
Leon TROTSKY

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BalabanoffsMemoirs
MY LIFE AS A REBEL. By
BANOFF. ix+319 ANGELICA BALA-

pp.lllus.New York. Harper &

Brothers.$3.75.

The memoirs of Angelica Balabanoff makeup a sad book. Not because,like so many of her contemporaries in the radical movement, shehaslost interest in thestruggle or her socialistconvictions,for sheends her recollectionswitha staunqh re-affirmation of her ideals.My belief in the necessity for the social changesadvocatedby that [internationallabor] movementand for the realizationof its ideals has never been more completethan it is now when victory seemsso remote.... The experience of over forty yearshas only intensified my socialistconvictions, andif I hadmy life to live over again,I would dedicateit to the same objective. It is a sad book because. it revealsthatfor all thepassionately revolutionaryspirit that animatedher in four decades of activity in the working class movement, shedid not succeedin mastering the simplelessonthatLenintried to teach

her friend Serratiat the Second Congress her estimateof themforms, next to her evaluationof Mussolini,the bitterestpart of theComintern in 1920: ComradeSerratisaid: we have not yet invented of hervolumeof portraitsand judgmentsa sinc&omi%e-tbis is a new Freneh word which was inevitable; and the reason why re. means an instrument for measuring aincerity mains, to her, uncomprehended down to such an instrumenthas not yet been invented.We the presentday. There lies the nub of the do not evenneedsuchan instrument, but we al. tragedy of her political life and of her ready do have an instrument for judgmgten. dencies.It is a mistake on comradeSerratis part book. The torrentialsweepof the Russian I shouldlike to speak about this laterthat revolution sucked her into the Bolshevik he did not applythislongfamiliar inatrumen~ party,but only for a brief period of time. Looking back upon it in 1938, and sitting It is such a failur=r inability?-to replace subjective judgments, based on i lofty judgment on the Bolsheviks,she trifling personal incidents, by political explainsthe collapse of the Third Internajudgments,that broughther own political tional by the moral leprosy of Zinoviev life of the last two decadesparticularlyto symbol of all that to her was inherently such a tragically futile conclusion. The vicious in Bolshevism; the degeneration in therecenttrialswas developed samefailureresultsin a deepdiscoloration reflected underZinovievhimself and the frameups of the pagesof her memoirs. and confessionswere implicit in the deRebelliousdaughter of a wealthyand re- velopment of the Bolshevikmethod, the actionary Russian family, she left her Leniniststrategy,since the Revolution. . . nativeUkrainefor WesternEuropeto take the Bolshevikleaderswere capable o/ anyup studieswhich soon led her into active thing to achieve their own political and participation in the socialist movement. factionalends.. . . Moved by a genuinecompassion for the Both the analysis and verdict have alexploited and oppressed,and a powerful ready servedas the patheticthemefor respirit of indignation at all iniquity,shebe- views of the book in the petty bourgeois came; after joining the pre-war Italian press,in whichthedastardly immoralityof SocialistParty,one of itsmoststirringand the Bolsheviksis sanctimoniously and inpopular agitators. Her teachers, friends vidiously contrastedwith what Professor and associates werethe Old Guardof Ital- Douglas calls the fundamentalsincerity ian socialism-Antonio Labriola, Turati, of Balabanoff,one who believesthat the Treves,Modigliani,Lazzari,and later,Ser- meansas well as the ends of economic acrati andMussolini.Of the last-named, then tion areimportant. a neurotic bitter young exile in SwitzerTheexplanation lies,however,elsewhere. land, she becamethe patron, nursinghim Balabanoffsbook is astoundinglydevoid politically into leading positions in the of political characterizations;it is filled party, until he became a member of the with pictures of good men and bad men, CentralCommittee andeditorof theofficial honest men and crooks, blunderers and organ, Avanti! Her pictures of the later seers; and after the narrationof all her Duce,of his timorousness andbraggadocio, experiencesin various groups and movehis characterlessness and inspiredmedioc- ments, Balabanoff terminatesher book rity, are savageand telling. withoutinforming the reader of what are Masterof severallanguages-she was a her specific political program and her talentedtranslatorat international assem- political associations.Yet, while she does blieeand associateof the internationalist not apply political criteria to herself, it left wing which, with Mussolini as its does not follow that such criteria are not spokesman, effectedthe expulsionfrom the applicableto her. party of the patriotsin the period of the In international socialist politics, BalaTripolitanwar of 1912, she became,when banoffneverwasa communistbut rathera the World War broke out, a central figure representative of that wing of Menshevism in the movement to reconstruct the colled by Julius Martov. Its chief characterlapsed Second International. The Zimmer- isticwasa strongliteraryradicalism,which wald and Kienthal anti-war conferences of sometimeswent so far as to bring it into the internationalist socialists-she was sec. peripheral touch with Lenins thoroughretary of the Zimrnerwald International going Marxism,but which rarely went so Socialist Commission from its inception far as application in political life. The were to a large extent due to her perseverleadersof radicalcentrismcould charactering work. She joined the Bolsheviks on the ize the right wing with no lesseraccuracy eve of the revolution and in 1919 was thandid the Bolsheviks, but unlikethe latchosen by them as first secretary of the ter, who took seriously the proletarian Communist International. She broke with revolution and the politics and methods the Comintern, and sided with the Serrati leading to it, they could not bring themswing of the Italian Socialist Party, when elves to a radicalsuspension of collaborathe latter refused to adopt the famous 21 tion withthe right wing. That is why even points and to break with the reformists of the most radical of Mensheviks,Martov, the Turati-Treves-Modigliani group. For could agree 95 percent with the Bolshethe last 15 or more years,shehas beenthe viks,yet,taxthemwithbeing professional leaderof thattinyfractionof Italiansocial- splitters, and devote 95 percent of his ism which embracesall that is left of the blows at Lenin and 5 percentat the right once mighty Maximalist group, which wing withwhichhe scarcely agreedat all. its real leader, Serrati,abandonedbefore This is the reasonBalabanoff is not his deathto rejoin the CommunistInter- Martov,to be sure,but shesuffersfrom the national. samepolitical maladywhyshe could not Her breakwithLeninandthe Bolsheviks remainin the Comintern,and not the in-

November 1938
trigues,real or alleged, of Zinoviev. It is also the reason why her memoirs, even
where they deal with yersonalitiea-and they deal with little else-are, with all respect to Professor Douglas talk about fundamental sincerity, hopelessly onesided, splotched and distorted beyond balance and proportion. All the Bolsheviks are limned with splashes of black, shading off into blotches of mud; the social demo. crats, as a rule, are painted in nostalgic pastels. Knowing his notorious weaknesses, one cannot be the advocate of Zinoviev; yet, throughout the early period of the Russian Revolution and the Comintern, he was the man, next to Lenin and Trotsky, who restored revolutionary Marxism to its rightful place in the world labor movement and who helped train up a whole generation not excluding Balabanoff, for a tirne!-in and traditions. Yet he its principles emerges from her memoirs only as the most despicable individual I have ever met. On the other hand, however, Filippo Turati, leader of +e Italian right wing, whose socialism Benedetto Croce aptly characterized as that of a democrat ~ 10 Lombard, and who, by his politics, was more responsible than any other man in the movement for the paralysis of the Italian working class which made possible Mussolinis triumph, is very gently defended by Balabanoff. His approach was often misinterpreted in other countries because it was so typically Italian [ ! ]. Many Italian intellectuals like to appear sceptical of theoretical axioms even if they are not. . . . Thus it was that Turati came to be considered [ ! ] a theoretical sceptic and even [ ! ! ] an opportunist.The authors approach, at any rate, cannot be misinterpreted. . . . Her description of events suffers also, and to such an extent, from her biased approach, that stories calculated to be of telling significance about Bolshevik depravity end by having a significance only for evaluating her memoirs. In telling of the slowness of the Moscow courier in bringing her reports to Stockhohn, where she was Bolshevik propagandist in 1917, she quotes a letter from Lenin: Dear Comrade:The work you are doing is of the utmostimportanceand I imploreyou to go on with it. We look to you for our most effective support. Do not considerthe cost. Spendmillions, tens of millions, if necessary. There is plenty of moneyat our disposal.I understand from your lettersthat some of thecouriers do not deliver our paperson time. Pleasesendme theirnames. Thesesaboteurs shallbe shot. One gentleman-reviewer has alreadyexpressedhis outragedhorr%cation at this

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bloodthirsty despot who so lightly shot

couriers merely for delaying with their dispatches. But surely Balabanoff is quoting from memory, and when it is borne in mind that she quoted quite a different letter eleven years ago, the conclusion is reached that-how shall we say it?a political slant can play distressing tricks with ones memory. For in the German edition of her memoirs, Erinnerungen und Erlebnisse

(Berlin, 1927), the same incidentis more them,for political reasons on the one side innocently reported with the following let- and formal ones on the other. Disappointed and perhaps also enraged against me perter from Lenin, also in quotation marks: Bravo,bravo! Your work, dear comrade,de. sonally, comrade Zietz left Stockhohrt.. . . serves tbe highestrecognition. Please do not At the same time I received a letter that spareanymeans.That the material is furnisbed comrade Ledebour [leader of the Indeyouin suchan insufficient manner, is inexcusable. pendents] was not in agreement with the Pleasegive me the nameof the courierwho is mission that Luise Zietz had undertaken in guiltyof suchgross,inexcusable negligence. Stockholm in the name of the Independent If lettersare quotedfrom memory,it is Party. Immediately thereafter, however, came still customaryto omit quotation marks; and if they are quoted from a text at hand, the report that the Soviets had taken power. not even the elapse of a decade permits a Balabanoff decided to make the appeal writer to quote it so differently on a second public telegraphically. All the obstacles occasion as to include sentences about that had stood in the way of the publicatens of millions (no trifle that!) and the tion of the Zirnmerwald manifesto only a summary execution of negligent but inno- few hours ago, had now fallen away with the great historical deed. . . . That my colcent couriers (also no trifle!). Otherwise, the author runs the risk not only of shock- laborators in the International Socialist Commission would share my standpoint, of ing the sensibilities of bourgeois reviewers, but also of arousing the feeling that her that I had no doubt; hardly had morning themand obtained political objectives have, nolens volens, come thanI telephoned superseded her political objectivity,to say theircompleteconsent. And because the only member of the ennothingof objectivityof theordinarykind; and this is a failing which,we learn from larged Commission who opposed irnrne. the author, is the specific characteristic of diate publication was Rakovsky-not Balabanoff ! I must say that my personal rethe immoral Bolsheviks. The feeling is deepened by other, and lations to Rakovsky from that time on were just as typic~l, discrepancies between the no longer as friendly and spontaneous as authors memoirs of 1938 and those of before. Not less difficult to reconcile are the two 1927. According to the present edition, the distinctly different versions of the story Stokholmconferenceof theZirnrnerwaldersthat Trotsky complained about the difficuladopted a manifestocalling for a general ties put in the way of his return to Russia strike in support of the RussianRevolu- from the United States in 1917. In the Engtion, an app_eid which was not to be made lish edition, we learn that on his arrival in Russia, Trotsky was particularly bitter bepublic until endorsed by the constituent parties of the Allied countries. Radek, cause the Bolsheviks had tried to prevent or delay his return out of factional conhowever, typical Bolshevik, began to insist siderations, which would be just like the that Balabanoff publish the appeal forth. with; our mutual and unanimous under- Bolsheviks, wouldnt it? His interpretastanding, our pledges and promises, and tion seemedto me ratherimplausiblethen, my own enormous responsibility meant but after my own later experienceswith I was not so sure of this. nothing to Rad~ and throughout the the Bolsheviks, month of October he bombarded me with In the 1927 version, however, Trotsky wa~ protests and demands. Meanwhile, Luise it is true, just as bitter; but his feelings Zietz, representative of the German Inde- were directed then at Robert Grimm, the Swiss social democrat, to whom Trotsky pendents, came to Stockholm to prevent had turned with the request to have the the premature publication of the manifesto in view of the precarious position of her Swiss government agree to let him pass through on his way home; and because it party. Tom betweenthe threatened extermination of failed to grant Trotsky permissio% Trotleft wingsocialism in Germany andthe demands sky hinted that good will was lacking on of thosewbo spokein the nameof the Ruesian the part of Grimm or others. In 1928, Revolution, I wcs utterlymiserable, but I felt Grimm receives the pardon of silence. Numerous similar examples could be thattherewasordyonecourseto pursue-to keep my pledgeand obey the unanimous mandate of cited from the two conflicting sets of the Zimmerwald Commission. Shortly afterI had memoirs, and all of them pose the question givenRadekmy finaldecisionthe manifesto was of why an intervening decade of recollecpublished in the Finnish papercontrolled by the tions sharpens so severely all judgments of Bolsheviks.... Bolsheviks and moderates so charitably all Fortunatelyfor Radek and the Bolshe- judgments of social democrats, whose perviks, their moral turpitude does not stand fectly putrid rde during and after the war out so heinously if we go by . . . the 1927 the period of the authors greatest activversion of what happened. According to it, itymust surely have left a deep impresRadek did indeed insist upon the publicasion upon her. The answer is the one given by the late Henri Guilbeaux, who know her tion of the appeal in view of the terribly urgent situation in Russia and did threaten throughout the Zirnrnerwald period in to publish it on his own responsibility. . Switzerland: Zietz did indeed appeal, in a telegram to Eventhoughshe flatteredherself at beingabove Balabanoff and then at a meeting of the the battle of the revolutionaryRussian factions, Zirnmerwald Commission, against its pub- she had a very clear point of view. Belongingto lication. But, we read in 1927, however none of the factions, on the pretext of working weighty were the reasons which Luise Zietz for the restorationof unity, she was a Menshevik adduced, it was impossible for us to accept withall her soul.

Page 350
It is, alas, this political reality that shapesand colors-more simply,misshapes and discolorsher memoirs, a tendency whichis only strengthened by her literary collaborationwitha duetof Mensheviks of California cultivation. But whatever its effectson the historicalvalue of the book in relationto the pointsraisedabove-and the effectsare disastrous-its value as an example of the dialectical interdependence of politics, morals, and the powers and tricksof memory,is not to be denied.

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andto ignorethe continuedrule of private propertyin the fascistnations. At a recentStalinist massmeetingfor the purpose of saving Czechoslovakia,Dr. Mann appearedas a militantcrusaderfor war. There is nothing surprisingin this. Every line of this book says as much. The war-mad Stalinistsattendingthe meeting put on a greatdemonstration at the end of humanist creeds. Democracy is timelessly his address.For severalminutesthe Garhuman; the idea (truth, freedom and den was a bedlam of sound as the crowd justice) will triumph over force; the cheered and clapped . . . (New York inalienable and indestructibledignity of Times). Hitler must fall. This and nothmankind;democracyrespects mansorig- ing else will preserve the peace. These Max SHACHTMAN inal sin,his spirituality or conscience; etc. were the words that set on fire the patriotic And how does democracy best express blood of the assembled friends of demoitself? Herr Mannis anti-democratic even cratic capitalism. Hitler must fall, yes, but in the classic sense of the word. For he through the revolutionary action of the THE COMINGVICTORY OF DEMOCRACY. makesit perfectlyclear thatto him democ- German masses. Manns method would lead By THOMAS MANN. 67 pp. Alfred A. Knopf. racy means the rule of an intellectual but to another and more stringent Ver$1.00. minority,an aristocracyof the mind pos- sailles treaty which, in turn, would yield an Before the conglomeration of platitudes, sessingaristocratic attributes and a special, even more aggressive Hitler. But Thomas outworn social theories and downright mysterious spiritual sense. The lower Mann, conservative democratic, will alfalsehoods in this little book one stands classes,saysMann,mustacceptthe leader- ways remain blind to this as likewise to the amazed. Can this be the thought of the ship of the better elements. Mob move- fact that the very democracy whose virtues man whose literary works, with their studies mentsare base, barbaric.When Mann ap- he praises, when and if it ever goes to war of human nature and psychology, have proachesthe concreteproblemsof modern against fascism, will not only ravish the made him one of the few great writers of democracy,it is merelyto endorsethe pro- few scraps of liberalism that remain but our age? The appalling ignorance of social gram of Social-Democracyand liberal re- become the image of what it is fighting crediblereferenceto Americaas theclassic land of democracywheredemocracyis an all-prevailingmatterof course. Even in the narrow sense-let alone the matterof truthor falsity!thisis incorrect,for England has alwaysbeenknownas the land of pioneer democracy. Mann offers us the time-honored,shallow definitionsof dem. ocracy which are characteristicof past

Mann in Uniform

thought and history revealed is only thinly formism. The Belgian Vandervelde is against. covered by the eloquence of its author quoted with approval. Blmn, Masayrk and S. STANLEY much as, we are forced to say, the fiery our own F.D.R. form an ideal triumvirate demagogy of a Hitler cloaks the reaction of aristocratic democrats. q and deceit underneath. Developing his argument, fascism In these days of feverish re-armament which to Mann is an emotional (human) Statement and war preparations, the noble crusaders tendencyhas this advantage over democStatement of the ownership, management, circulation, etc., tongue serves well in the task of deluding racy. It is youthful, novel, new, revolurequired by the Acts of Congress of August 24, 1912, and the masses of people who, through instinct tiorumy( !) It is dynamic, anti-traditional, Marcb 3, 1933, of T= NEW fNTItEXAT1ONAL published monthly at New York, N. Y., for Oct. 1, 1938. and experience fear from the debaucheries rule by the masses, aggressive and militant. State of New York, Connty of New York, 88.: of a new imperialist war. The spontaneous And to a man who is no sans-culotte, no Before me, a notary public in and for the State and counw reaction of the worlds masses to the sign- Jacobin, no revolutionary; whose whole aforesaid, personally appeared Martin Abern, who, bavinz been duly sworn according to law, deposee and saya that he ing of the Munich pact should have con- being is that of a conservative, all this is is the Business Manager of THE NBW INTERNATIONALand that vined the war-makers that only the utmost distasteful. Is it necessary to point out the following is, to the best of his knowledge and helief, a true statement of the ownersbip, management, etc., of the in the way of fraud and coercion will in- that each and every one of his objections aforesaid publication for the date sbown in the above caPduce humanity to march again. To this end to fascism could likewise be applied to tion, required by the Act of August 24, 1912, as amended by the Act of March 3, 1933, embodied in oection 537, Postal does Thomas Mann now work. If even socialism (bolshevism) ? Mann knows this Laws and Regulation, printed on the reverse of thin form, to wit: Mann, the pacifist, is for the war, it must be well, for part of his tirade against fascism 1. That the names and addresses of the publisher, editor, a good war! contains the statement that it is a bolmanaging editor, and bueiness managers are: Publislter, New International Publishing Co., 116 University In general, the approach of Dr. Mann to shevism of the ignoble! Place, New York City. all social problems is basically emotional Of the historic nature and source of fasEditors, James Burnham, Max Shachtman, Maurice Spector, and often borders on mere hysteria. He is cism, Mann cannot claim the slightest un- 116 University Pface, New York City. Managing Editor, None. apparently quite untainted by contemporderstanding. He can only utter subjective Business Manager, Martin Abern, 116 University Place, ary scientific method. It goes without say- truisms and empty rhetoric. Oppression is New York City. 2. That the owner is: New International publishing Co., ing that Marxism is equally foreign to not only the ultimate goal but the first prin116 University Place, New York City; Martin Aberu,116 him. We should not, however, neglect con- ciple of fascism. . . . Fascism in power is University Place,NewYorkCity;James Burnham, 116UniPlace,NewYorkCity; MnxShmhtm.m, 116 Univer. sideration of the more reactionary and dan- disgraceful, contemptible, honorless. . . . versity sity Place, New York City; Maurice Spector, 116 University gerous ideas presented by him. In more Pface, New York City. Its methods consist of a lust for human 3. That the known bondholder, mortgagees, and other vulgar form they have long been the stock- degradation. How close is all this to cur- aecurity holders owning or holding 1 per cent or more of in-trade of all pro-war agitators in the rent cheap-jack theories which make of total amount of bonds, mortgagee, or other securities are: democratic-imperialist nations. fascism a lunacy or abberation of the None. 4. That the two pamgmpha next above, gfving the namea That fascism threatens the democracies; mind ! How useful to the Stalinists and of tbe owners, stockholders, and security holders, if any, contain not only the list of stockholders and security holdem that fascism and democracy dwell on dif- other demagogues of the democratic war- as they appear upon the booka of the company but also, fn cases where the stockholder or security holder appears upon ferent planets and are unalterably op- camps and how remote from the scientific tbe booka of tbe company as trustee or in any otber fiduciary Marxist understanding of fascism as a form relation, tbe name of tbe person or corporation for whom posed; that collective security can work; trustee in acting, in given; I&O that the said two pare. that peoples frontism yields sufficient re- o~ capitalism,product of the lattersend- such graphs contain atatementa embracing affints full knowledge and belief as to the circumetancea and conditions mder which forms; these are his basic ideas now torn to lesscrisis! stockboldera and security holders who do not appear upon shreds by the Four-power pact. But their And whatis fascismeconomically? Step- the booka of the company as trustees, hold stock and secur. itiea in a capacity other than that of a bona fide owner: and advocacy is not new; we are familiar with ping out of-the prophetsrole for the mo- thia affiant has no reanon to believe that any other person, ment,Manninformsus thatit is practically association, or corporation has any interest direct or indirect their source. It is only his generalizations in the said stock, bond% or other *curitfes than aa no stated and asides on political and social theory; identicalwith bolshevism; that its aim is by him. (Signed) Martin Abern, ll~ness Manager. his definitions of basic ideologies; his final not to save capitalismbut to destroy it; and tremblingly vague pointing to a path thatitswar-economy is nothingbut a low Sworn to and subscribed before me this 20th day of Sep. 1938. (Seal) Ida Weinstein, Notary Puhlic, King# out that leads us to the complete edifice of form of socialism! Mann chooses to be tember, Co. Clk.s No. 147, Reg. No. 266; N. Y. Co. Clk.s No. 44o, Reg. No. O-W-274; Bronx Co. Clk. s N.J. 30, Reg. No. his thought. blind to the concentrated,monopolistic 98-W-40; Queena Co. Clk.n No. 527, Reg. No. 2444. ComThus, he opens his remarks with the in- capitalismexistingin Italy and Germany mission expires March 30, 1940.

November 1938

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Correspondence

and oppositionto conscription; also they pledgedthemselves to put the questionof war to a plebiscitebefore any action was taken.The Stalinistsare at presentcarry(Note: Comrade Dembyrecentlyreturned Their Morals and Ours ing on a campaignof infiltrationand disfrom a trip to Europe where he had an ruptionagainstthemwith a limitedmeasopportunity to observe the labor and revoure of successtheobject being to force A lady namedLillian Symeswho writesin lutionary movement.) the alterationof the peace platform in the theSocial. Call (July 23, 1938) and who 7 also in the labor movemenh directionof CollectiveSecuritythroughthe is intereste EVERY COMRADE in Europe, partisan declares: of the Fourth International or even bitter League of Nations. An original Ludlow Stung by these exposures of early Bolshevik amendmentin Australia would not be opponent (excluding, of course, Stalinists) morality (which does not, of course, excuse the who can read English, reads THE NEW nearly so utopianas in U.S.A. later variety), Trotsky recently undertook to snG. and myself do not agreewithTrotsky swer all these non-Stalinist critiea in a long article INTERNATIONAL and eagerlyawaitsthe next issue. What impressedme most was the on Morality. To the capitalistsas a class called Their Morals and Ours. It is an amazing universalacclaim with which THE NEW we do not conceive of the workersas hav- attempt to rationalise and defend the Kronstadt INTERNATIONAL is received.It is everywhere ing any moral responsibility; but to take massacre of 1921, the suppression of all non-Bolregardedas the outstanding Marxistjour- up a position to our fellow-workersof shevik revolutionaries, Lenins and his own slam nal in the world. The comrades read it moral superiorityof regarding them as dering of opponents and the wiping out of the from cover to cover and discuss its con- childrento be told anythingthat suits us Workers Opposition within the Bolshevik party. It is a typical Bolshevik performance which witl tents. In fact, issues are passed around at thetimeit suitsus-No. Thatis egotism impress no one but bis followers. Too much is On thispoint and from oneto the otherandputto greatserv- more fittingto Stalinism. nowknown on theae subjects. ice. I have seen comradesin most of the on the nature of the Russian State THE It is only on the ground that she knows is tendingtowardsa countriesof Europe go withoutmeals and NEW INTERNATIONAL too much aboutthe subjectthat one can very $angerous surrender to Stalinism. pool theirpenniesin orderto raiseenough At explain Miss Symes morality, which apmoney for a subscription to THE NEW That way wentZinovievand Karneneff. parentlypermitsattacksupon unreadartibestit can only confuse. For myself I have lNTERNAT1ON.4L. cles. For Trotskys Their Morals and had some twenty-five years activityin the Considering thenumberof comrades and Ours containsonly one (1) passingreferA.L.P. andtheVictorianTradeUnionsand sympathizerswho can read English, the ence to Kronstadt(For the same reason the problemhereis the need,withthe leftin circulationof THENEWINTERNATIONAL Phariseesof varioushues returnto Kronward tending workers, of exposing the Europe is certainlymuch higher than in of the revolutionaryclaims stadt and Makhno with such obstinthe UnitedStates. Actually,it has done far pseudo-nature acy. . .); no (0) referenceat all to the more for increasing the prestige of the of Stalinism. Some of the issuesof THE suppressionof all non-BolshevikrevoluNEW INTERNATIONAL you sent us we had S.W.P. than anything else we have done. tionaries;no (0) referenceat all to Lenins Further, THE NEW INTERNATIONAL k the had before, but althoughon order the per- andTrotskysslandering of opponents;and son supplyingus sold our latercopies elsebest organizer that the Fourth International justas little (0) reference to thewipingout has. Not only individual comrades, but in where. G. andmyselfhaveno organization of the Workers Opposition. The SPes apartfrom theA.L.P., but we are tryingto some cases, entire groups have been won disposeof thatwhichyou sendus through performance is also typical, but not of to the Fourth International on the basis of Bolsheviks. THE NEW INTERNATIONAL a copy of the our circle of friends, myself personally carryingany loss. magazine having found its way into their Yours in Unity, hands in some way or other. r only wish A. J. Randolph Book Store, 63 W. Randolph St., Cbicsgo, IIL that our own comrades would appreciate Cor. 57tb and Blackstorie, Chicago, 111. q THE NEWINTERNATIONAL as much as the Cor. 12th and Kedzle,Chicago,:11. UniversalNewsCo., 242 Bmadw8y,San Diego,Calff. European comradesdo, andasmuchas THE Mu. Andelmans, TremcmtBL (oPp.HotilBmdfoti), BOS@n, NEW INTERNATIONAL deserves. Whereto Buy THENEW INTERNATIONAL Feltis, Massachusetts Ave.at HarvardSquars, Csmbridge,Maia.

Clippings

IMendlyVariety, WarrenBt. (GroveHall), Boxbmy, Maw, S. W. P., 54 Centrsl sq., Rm.12, Lynn, Mass Sams Comer, Olympia Rq.,Lynn, Mass. Labor BookSbop, 919 MarquetteAre., Minneapolis,Mimi. S.W.P., 147 West fith St., Bt. Paul, Minm Shinder%,Sixth and Elennepin,Minneapolis,Mhm. Both ComradeG. and myself are memKromang,Fourth rmd NicoRet,Bfinneapolis, Minn. bers of theAustralian Labor Party,becomFoster Bwk Co., 410 Washington Blyd., St. LOU@ W. Forty-second St, at Fifth Ave., S.W.; at Stxtb An., S. E.; at The Bwk Nook,24A Meremac,Clayton,Mo. ing so after disillusionment withStalinism. LUxth Ave., S. W.; at SeventhAra, S.W.; oppositeStems; 103 W. Reitmans,cor. Broadand William E%.,Newark,N. J. 44tb St.; 46th St. and Broadway, S, E.: Times Bldg. New.sstsnd, The bulk of left wing elementshere and 42nd St. and Broadway;ColumbtaUniversityBmk Store; Bren- 433 No. Clinton St., Rochester,N. Y. 257 No. ClintonSt., Rw?he&tsr, N. Y. Bwk Stare; N. Y. U. Bwk StWS,1S WMhing@ pL; Stire, we believe throughoutAustralia disagree f.8110S Cor. Cumberland and CUntonSts., Bwhester,N. Y. 68 West Stb 6t. at Grandand AttorneySts.; Essexand DelaneeyS4s.: B@Qkstom withyour positionon theWorkersStatein Cor. East Ave. and Chestnut St., Bochwter,N. Y. Csndy Store, S.li 9tb St. and Second Ave.; BiedermansBcok S.E. WM. Main and Clirton St&, Rwhester, N. Y. Russiawe regardTrotskyas rationalisirtg Store, 12tb St. and SecondAve.; Wigersrm,145tb St. and Sk S.W. cm. Main and South Ave., Rochester,N. Y. llOtb St. and Columbus Ave. his reluctanceto recognise the nature of NicholasAve.; B. zsttlemeyer,637 Eamtlton St., Allentown,Pa. BRONX: Jerome Ave. and 170th St.; Jereme Am. and 18Ttb 1S06 No. Franklin St., Philadelphia,Pa. St. (oPP. L&ws Tbeatre); Borkin, 206tb St, and BatnbridgeAve.: the counter-revolutionary victory of an ap- Jeromeand BurnsideAves.; 160tb Rt. and ProspectAve.: AUerton Cor. 13tb and Market S:s. (N.W.), Philadelphia, Pa. paratuswhich has developedinto a joint Ave.Station: FreemanAm. and South- Boulevard:174th St. and Car. lltb and Market Sts. (N.W.), Philadelphia,Pa. BostonRoad. 40tb St. and GirrwdAve., Philadelphia,Pa. stock trust controlling a servile state. In BROOKLYN: Qr@nd and UnionAwa; Havemegsr Avs. and South 8tb St. and ArchAve., Philadelphia,Pa. 4tb St.; Marcy and Broadway:Pitkin and Dowlm Aws.: Rutt8r EssersNewsstand,Front and West Broad Rts., Qu8kertewn, Pa. Sydneythereis more activityof a left op- and Pitktn Avei. Nicks,Wick St. and Commerce, Youngstown, Ohio. Eckhart NewsAgency,102 WashingtonSt,, Seattle, Wash. positionnaturethan here. But there they OUTOF TOWN Both Cigar Store, 1407 1st Ave., Seattle, Wash. 5th St,, LW Angeles,Calif. have repeated the Stalinist line on the ModernBc+kBtors, 509% WYS4 &Wg$ik23&1M?o. Broadway,Bm. 312, MusicMS Bldg., LW AnABSOAD waterfront(the union to which I belong) B~k Store, 65-6tb St., San Franctsco.CaUf. ModernBsoks, Ltd., 12 cbUICbSt., CaPeTown,Seutb Afrtca amalgamation withthe strikebreakers of McDonalds Smith NewsStand. 5th and Main, Las Angeles,Cslif. Advance Bwk Shop, 10 CampbellSt., Sydney,N.S.W., Australt& Smith NewsService,6th and Hiil, Ims Angeles,CaliL Mrs M. Brcdney,BcokstsU,Trades Hall, Melbwrne, AustraUs. 1917and1928andthescabswhohavesince National NewsStsnd, 221 W. 5th St., Los Angeles,CaUL Wor~e&~~&~, Foster L8ne, OE Fost!r Street, Sydney,N.S.W., reinforcedthem.The WatersideFederation GeneralNewsSemtce,32S W. 5tb St., Los Angeles,CaUf. Crewnt NewsCo., 20S W. Stb St., Lw Angela, Cdtf. Clspbsm E%claltst Wk. 79 Bedford,S.W. 4, Lcmdon, England. is consolidating without the scabs. The UrdvSV! NewsStand, Hollywood Blvd. and Cahuenga,Hollywwd, W.I.N., 14A CbicbesterRd., Paddington,W. 2, London,Englsnd. Omr. ?& Johns, 7 Swtbwark St., London,S.E. 1, England. A.L.P. defeatedconscriptionin Australia Newsstand,7th and Washington,Oakland,CalIf. E. Fitmey, 45 AfghanRd., Battcrsea, S.W. 11, Laden, England. Newsstand,12tb St., bet. Bwayand Washington,Oakland,Calif. H. Cund,Bmk Shop, 1, St. HiIda St., Liverwl, England. in 1916 and againin 1917. In 1917 it de- Newsstand, T. Merser,BookShop, 52 AuldhoussRd., Glasgow, C, 3 Scotlan4. in AndrewWilliams Market, Oakland,CaUf. clared openly in favor of ending the war Newsstati, BwaYnear 19th, Oakland,Caitf. C/O P.O. BOX 2639, Johmnmsbutg, South Africa. A. Sinciair, PO. Box 38, So. Brisbane,Australia. .Frigate BookShop, How8rdnear Franklin, Balthnore, Md. and ever since has declaredits opposition NodelmansNewsstand,Church St., bet. Chapel and Centsr, New N. Gibson,286 DmmmordSt., Carlton, Melbourne,Awtrau& Pales. Praw Co., 119 AIIenbySt, Tel-Avtv,Palestins. Haven. Corm. to thiscountrytakingpartin anyotherwar. Yale R.S.L., 18 Thistle St., Edtnburgh,2, Scotland. Cooperative Corp., 300 YorkSt., NewHaven,Corm LeonSapire, 33 Stmthee.rnMrmsions, Cr. Breeand Wandererss4s., The last FederalElectionswere fought by Poet 06ieeNewsCo., 37 West Monm St, Cbicsgo,m. Johanne*urg, South Africa. S.W. P., 160 No. WellsSt., Bm. SOS, Cb@o, IIL N. M. Jatn, 21 Ddal St., Fort, Bomhsy,1, India. them very largely on the neutralityissue MbtwIw% Bwk Store, 2720 W. Dition St., Cbtcago,IIL

FrankDEMBY

NEWYORK CITY MANHATTAN: 3%urt8enthSt. at UntversttYPlace, S.E.; qt Broadway,S.E.; at Fcartb A?e., B.W.; at Fourth Ave., N.E.; at Fourth Ave., S+2. (1 and 2); at Tbtrd Ave., S.W.; at Third Ava, N.W.; ODD. JeEerwnTbeatrs; at SecondAte.,N.W.; at Sirth Ave., N. E.; Rand BookStore, 7 E 154ASt.: 12tb St. and Univemity PL, N.E.; CandyStore, 75 QrwnwichAve

Y. P. S. L. CONVENTIONGREETINGS
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Readers will be glad to learn that they can send $1 personal greetings to the Tenth National Convention of the Young Peoples Socialist League, which is being held in Chicago during the Thanksgiving weekend. This convention, designed to transform the Y. P.S.L. into a fighting mass revolutionary youth organization,needs and deserves the support of readers. Our sole means of financing our Convention will be the magnificenttwo-color printed program book, dedicated to the heroic martyrs of the Fourth International (Klement, Sedoff, Wolf, Reiss, Moulin and the hundreds of others who have laid down their lives in the struggle for the socialist emancipation of mankind). The dedication article is written by Max Shachtman. Outstanding among the other features of the program book are greetings from Leon Trotsky, in the form of an article entitled, The R61e of Revolutionary Youth, and greetings from our various sections in Europe now engaged in the daily life-and-death struggle against fascism and imperialistwar. You will want to own a copy of our program book. You can guaranteeyourself a copy and, at the same time, do your bit in assuring the success of our all-important Convention, by sending in your personal greetings NOW. We are still taking ads: full page, $10; half page, $5; quarter page, $3. But we are making a drive for $1 personal greetings, which will entitle you to a free copy of the program book and the inclusion of your name amongst the supporters of the revolutionary movement. Send all greetings to: National Convention Arrangements Committee, 160 N. Wells St., Rm. 308,
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The National convention ~=gement committee

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