For Unity of Action Between the Socialist and Communist Masses
Feigenbaum, William M.
By William M. Feigenbaum For Unity of Action Between the Socialists and Communist Masses Leaden of German Social Democracy A p p e a 1 to Workers to Unite in Face of Fascist Danger. U/lTH the...
...In a leading article in that paper, the editor, Jaroslav Koudelka, points out that "Soviet Russia has recently concluded pacts of non-aggression with Poland and France, and now contemplates a similar pact with Roumania...
...Not only do they get their jobs back, but they also get back pay...
...As an answer to the threat of Fascist rule implied by a' government headed by the anti-Semitic boss of the Nazis, the Socialists of Berlin staged a vast demonstration last Sunday at the Lustgarten, the huge plaza in front of tht former Imperial palace...
...And then...
...Just as American newspapers overplayed Gen...
...For the first time in many years Puerto Rico's trade with the United States recently exceed Cuba'a...
...The economic program of the people according to our plans will he carefully discussed in another article...
...And the editorial writer of one of the popular tabloids joins the goose-stepping herd and asks, "What's got into the Boy Scouts...
...In the elections of July 81st the Socialists and Communists shared 13,229,339 votes,, as against 13,732,799 for the Hitlerites, following the wildest and most energetic campaign of all in which they confidently expected to win full power...
...Now he is clearly lined up with the worst enemies of the workers...
...It will clear the air for many who have folowed Hitler because of the hope he would bring some kind of socialism...
...The police stool pigeon who named the two officers as his confederates is also dead, and so a lurid chapter closes in a manner typical of our cynical, indifferent and more than slightly cock-eyed city and time...
...The victory of the Coalition signifies a complete change which will serve during the next four years to conquer the creative means of a new justice, of a rehabilitated state of life for the workingmen, which should be favored and undertaken by the Legislature of Puerto Rico and the Congress of the United States...
...Kunstler declared: "The day ma* come—indeed, it is perhaps not far distant—when the Berlin proletariat can decide the fate of Germany...
...Why, then, does not Soviet Russia apply the tactics that it has adopted in relation to capitalist states also to interna* tional Social Democracy...
...The day is coming when the reactionary forces of today will be swept away as by a storm, just as they were in November, 1918...
...Such a pact of non-aggression— let us call it the Stalin-Vandervelde Pact—would have the advantage that closer political relations between the Soviets and other states could be brought about by a simultaneous coming together of the workers belonging to the two great groups...
...At present better Spanish is spoken than in the past...
...Boys, let them worry I" And don't be afraid when they call you sissie...
...Siegfried Lipschitz, representative in America of the German Social Democratic press service...
...and they have not lost anything of the Spanish language...
...Notwithstanding the wonderful progress of the last thirty-two years, there can be no doubt that economic and social conditions of the workers sre in many respects deplorable...
...I will, however, combat all that will tend to diminish Rs prestige as a people that aspires to a democratic and loyally sincere civilisation as an iutegral part of the people of the United States...
...J"IIK Boy Scout movement has gone completely antimilitarist to the distress of those people who, while giving lip service to the cause of peace, are deeply jingoistic at heart...
...But no Puerto Rican Government or Legislature can take steps needed," an editorial said, "without well-planned cooperation from the Congress of the United States and the Federal Government...
...Learn to take It...
...In no city were there tival and hostile demonstration...
...The main elements of the program required aeem fairly plain...
...You're going to get plenty of abuse...
...The children come from school and enjoy talking English with their parents...
...That's what is worrying them...
...On November 6th the Nazis polled 11,705,256, as against a combined Socialist and Communist vote of 13,208,000...
...GERMAN WORKERS WILL WELCOME THE NEW ELECTIONS HITLER is not a Mussolini, Germany is not Italy and Germany has not gone Fascist...
...von Schleicher as a man of iron when he was shown to be a man of tin, they are overplaying Hitler's taking the chancellorship...
...That is, he is chancellor with a vote of three in a cabinet of 10—a long way from dictatorship...
...The reference in the Kunstler speech to the foreign policies of Moscow as an argument for an honest (not a "tactical") united front follows a similar line of argument in a recent issue of Pravo Lidu, the Socialist daily of Prague, Czechoslovakia...
...In cities other than Berlin demonstrations were also held, and it is noticeable that some were under Socialist, some under Communist direction...
...of medals for target p r a c tice, marksman ship, trap - hunting, and m 11 i t ary drill, Boy Scouts will, in the future, be a w a r ded merit badges for such tasks as repairing furniture, white washling .ceilings, replacing fuse plugs, waxing floors, cleaning out sink traps, hanging pictures and curtains, and seventeen other similar jobs...
...The presence of uniformed and drilled detachments of the Reichsbanner the unofficial Socialist militia, sworn to defend the Republic, and their defiance of an order prohibiting them from marching, lent weight to Kflnstler's warnings...
...Even after years of sniping and slander against the Socialists had discouraged and disgusted millions and had driven masses of dissatisfied workers into the Hitler movevent instead of into their own party, the Social Democracy stands solid with seven and a half million votes, which together with the Communists far surpasses Hitler's following...
...For hours the Socialist-led masses tramped through the streets of the working class sections of the city chanting: "Berlin bleibt rot"—"Berlin remains red...
...Similarly, there was a recent article in Gessllschaft (Society), the official monthly theoretical publication of the German Socialists, following the same line, and Otto Wels, Rudolf Hilferding and other leading German Socialists have taken the same line...
...It is known that for some time the German Socialists have been seeking same formula that would enable them to appeal to the Communist rank and ftle tor actual working unity, I was in Berlin last summer and I inquired of party spokesmen what the situation was...
...The response to the appeal was tremendous cheering, and the chanting of the Socialist rallying cry: "Freihett...
...These boys may not be ready to jump to arms the next time the bankers, the editors and the dollara-year men think it's time for another little war...
...In fact American newspapers arc getting much too excited about Hitler's becoming chancellor, although it is • serious business for German workers, according to Dr...
...Enforcement of the land laws against monopolistic holdings, the systematic multiplication of small farms, and the diversification of agriculture...
...He is assisting the hated monocle cabinet, the baron exchancellor, von Papen, is his vicechancellor, he is cooperating with Hugenberg—in other words he is branded before the whole working class as the chieftain of reactionary capitalism...
...FreiheitI FreiheitI" For Unity Kunstler declared, in the course of an address that is believed to represent the official policy of the Social Democracy, that since the Soviet government had found it possible to negotiate non-aggression pacts with capitalist governments like Poland, Japan and Roumania, there should be no reason for the Communist masses of workers to find it impossible to work with the Socialists and trade unionists for common aims...
...To the Boy Scouts I'd like to say, "Boys, these' people who are calling you sissies, the editorial writers who are being smartalecky about 'housemaid's knee' aren't really worried about you becoming soft...
...School and at the Amalgamated Houses in the Bronx under the capable leadership of Esther Friedman and August Claessena are designed especially to accommodate them...
...That was their high-water mark...
...I've never had anything to do with women's sections of anything, chiefly because my only time for party activity has always been in the evening...
...AND THEN WE WILL MAKE GOOP THE SINS OF OMISSION WHICH WE COMMITTED AT THAT OTHER TIME...
...It is better off than some of its Caribbean neighbors, even sovereign nations, but far below what we like to call the American standard...
...In his speech Kunstler said, to the accompaniment of wild cheering, that despite mistakes made in the past "we will make amends in the not far distant future...
...They would cry sadly if they could not attend...
...it has now reached $200,000,000...
...If there's any job that's crying to be done it's giving boys a new set of values...
...It was noted that many Communists marched with the Socialists, and there was particular Interest in the speech of Deputy Frans Kunstler, designated by the party as orator of the occasion, who called upon the Communist masses to unite with the Socialists on the basis of their common aims and their common opposition to Fascism and reaction...
...The editorial winds up with the familiar taunt of the overgrown bully— "sissie...
...Every one of these items will meet opposition from powerful interests In the Island, and American corporations will oppose enforcement of the law against holdings of more than 500 seres...
...I was given the interesting reply that the one obstacle to such unity of the masses was (and apparently still is) the uncompromisingly hostile attitude of the Communist leadership, under direction from Moscow...
...Tragic Divisions It is a fact that if it were not for division and dissention among the workers fomented by the Communists, Hitler's crazy hodgepodge anti-Semitic Fascism could never have reached first base...
...Woe to the working class if that diy finds it divided...
...When a large, powerful and popular organization like the Boy Scouts lines up...
...IINDER the autonomous regime of the Spanish monarchy, Puerto Rico had an external commerce of $23,000,000...
...When boys in large numbers are taught that there are glories other than military glories, when they will be encouraged to feel proud over having done well, some simple, useful task—yes, even bathing the baby, why not?—we will have taken a long step upward out of the jungle...
...They're afraid the boys who are going to be trained for peace-time usefulness, for building rather than for destroying, for jobs that may help them earn a livelihood, will not make good material for cannon food...
...If we could be sure that all the gentlemen, who from the vantage point of their virile and perilous jobs writing editorials, would be the first to leap into the front line trenches in the event of another war, we wouldn't give a darn...
...In September, 1930, when the Nazis scored-their first big gains, their vote was 6,401,016, against 8,672,016 for the Socialists and 4,687,798 for the Communists—a total of 18,169,719...
...More Schools Needed The children today go to the schools of Puerto Rico happy and cheerfully...
...The Island suffers from miserable wages, unemployment bad housing, tuberculosis, malaria and illiteracy...
...Puerto Rice has,been America's biggest customer south of the United States and has purchased more than all Central America combined...
...Should Hitler overstep the bounds of the constitution, the German workers will arise and crush him...
...Non-Aggression Pacta If then the Soviet government concludes pacts with states that it itself regards as reactionary, why does it not conclude such a pact within the circle of the international workers' movement and the international working class...
...There is, therefore, no reason why a pact of nonaggression between the two Internationals could not be concluded...
...But I can see where it is vital to our movement to get those women organized and working who have leisure during the day and who perhaps would not And it convenient to get away in the evening at all...
...Inst ead...
...Germany is not Fascist...
...t Coincident with the close of the Hofstadter investigation we hava the restoration to duty of the two officers of the vice squad whoso arrest on charges of framing women led to the first of the Seabury investigations...
...with the constructive, anti-war forces of the country, it's something to be glad about...
...And remember it's better to be a boy, even with chronic housemaid's knee, than a bundle of rags and quivering flesh tangled up on a barbed wire fence, praying for death...
...By Santiago Iglesias Conditions in Puerto Rico Are Still Quite Deplorable Socialist Representative Prepares to Battle for Improvement for the Masses...
...Te Amend Constitution The Island and the Constitution of its people should be amended progressively, aslng all the sympathy which the producers of the country may summon up in the United States for success...
...These changes will be Obtained only by legislative measures and the organisation of the workingmen...
...In an important Czechoslovak union, following an address by Chairman Hampl of the Social Democratic Party of that country, a resolution was adopted declaring that, "while the Soviet govern* ment is concluding pacts of nonaggression with capitalist states, the Third International is declaring Implacable war against Social Democracy...
...Such a pact would not involve any abandonment of political and social ideas, as the Litvinoff Pact does, for the Social Democratic Party has the same objective as the Third International, differing from it only on the question of the methods to be used in carrying on the struggle...
...And it's better to be the mother of a boy whose medals are all for painting furniture and repairing fuses than a mother with a gold star in the window...
...Itit:cr promised everything to everybody...
...The forces of organized labor will be strengthened and should elections take plsce, they will be welcomed by the workers...
...It has two elements, Hitler's and Hugenberg's, each trying- to expose the weakness of the other, to deflate each otiivr...
...This would be the most appropriate way of giving effect to the idea of the United Front, which would cease to be an empty slogan and be brought nearer to practical realization...
...The Women's Section is clamoring for attention and deserves it...
...Why isn't bathing the baby or cooking dinner included...
...The Fascist-Nationalist cabinet is not likely to last...
...That was possible so long as he was out of the government but now that he is in, he is definitely marked...
...Everything which will tend to aggrandize and create welfare and justice among the producing people of Puerto Rico will have my support and constant work...
...And what happens if the poor fellow gets housemaid's knees...
...Classes in the Rand...
...But they won't...
...Labor is not frightened by this new move...
...It ii not at all impossible that the consummation of Hitler's years of plotting, intriguing, violence and assassination will have the effect of throwing the masses of German workers together sgaln, despite the policy of the Communist leadership...
...By Gertrude Weil Klein A WomaiVs Point of View Boy Scouts Go "Sissy," and So What?—Building for the Future —The Women's Section...
...Hugcnberg stands for monarchism, pre-war reaction and the utmo3t of capitalism...
...It seems that of the chief witness against them, two have disappeared and another died in Bellevue Hospital...
...It must be remembered that littler has only taken now what It could have had six months p.» and refused because he wanted dictatorial power," Dr...
...More than 100,000 attended the rally...
...Then he visioned more power and would not stoop to the place he now accepts...
...It is unfortunate that we stiM have 200,000 children who do not go to school because there is no place for them...
...U/lTH the danger—since" realw ized —that Adolf Hitler would be called to head the German government, the So-j cialists of that sorely troubled country redoubled their efforts to re-unite the entire working class in a solid mass in defense of the Republic and of the interests of the proletariat...
...Puerto Rico stood ninth in the world volume of purchases from the United States during 1931 and seventh as a supplier of products, while the island's combined purchases from sales to the United States totaling $148,549,000 were exceeded only by the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and Japan...
...And now, after the recent election victory, the coalition of the Socialist Party and the Union Republicans has before it the great problem of undertaking fundamental changes in economic, political and industrial conditions, In accordance with the prevailing situation...
...Following a line of action apparently determined upon by the Socialist parties of the continent of Europe, leaders of the German Social Democracy are appealing di, rectly to the Communist masses over the heads of their leaders for actual, ^bona-fide unity of action...
...It's the job that such organizations as Pioneer Yoqth of America, the Red Falcons and some of the modern schools are trying to do...
...Lipschlts said...
...The English language amuses them and they learn it easily...
Vol. 15 • February 1933 • No. 5
