The New Deal Santa Claus Passes His Gifts Around
Feigenbaum, William M.
The New Deal Santa Claus Passes His Gifts Around Cudahy Finds a Big Plum in His Stocking, but a Lot of Other Folks Find Nothing but Higher Prices By William M. Feigenbaum W7HILE we are on the...
...potatoes 64.3 per cent Got enough, or can you stand a few more figures...
...bacon 3.6 per cent...
...Steel buying is rapidly increasing, and whereas a few weeks ago plants were working at 26.2 per cent of capacity, it now looks as if they will now work at 81.6 per cent Steel payrolls are increasing slightly, due to the scarcity of skilled labor...
...prunes 20.8 per cent That will give yon the idea...
...H. A. Gibbs* three pamphlets—"Socialism and Universal Peace," "Socialism and Industrial Peace," and "Socialism, What Is It...
...It waa the job of the Socialist to "avoid bureaucracy even if it haa renounced capitalism" and to raise the slogan of real proletarian democracy...
...canned salmon 6.6 per cent...
...That's where the fight must be waged...
...There are reports of increasing business activity everywhere...
...The Cudahy Packing Company, in its annual-report just made public, shows net profit for the depression year ended October 28, 1933, of $1,813,766, after deducting expenses, depreciation, income taxes, and other fixed charges...
...It cant be waged by good-hearted, benevolent capitalists...
...He re-emphasised the fact that the workers did not want dictatorship today...
...flour 60 per cent...
...business in St Louis Is above the 1932 level...
...And it won't be waged by statesmen representing parties that uphold and are the spokesmen of that system...
...Suet fratricidal warfare weakened th< forces of the workers in the fact of an onrushlng Fascist attack...
...those who do the world's work, and receive the dregs...
...cabbage 56.6 per cent (and 12.5 per cent more in the last two weeks...
...Join us in that battle...
...Nearing attempted to answei Thomas' question as to how th« Communist overthrow would comt in America...
...But the brainy business men knew how to increase profits...
...One way was to cut wages and fire employees right and left...
...Thomas differentiated sharply between a real proletarian government whose policies rest upon the freely expressed will of the broadcast masses of workers of hand and brain and the "present dictatorship in Russia" which "was not one of the working class but of a bureaucracy" as Trotsky points out Thomas also tended to agree with Trotsky that it was folly to throw away the slogan of democracy, since it has real worth among the workers...
...Thomas and Nearing in Debate On Socialism and Communism By Gus Tyler 1UORMAN THOMAS and Scott * " Nearing met once more in debate on "Socialism or Communism" at the Brooklyn Forum last Sunday evening...
...Globs' Pamphlets Wonted The Rand School Library (7 East 15th St., New York) would be glad to hear from anyone who will donate copies of Dr...
...At the Very best if the New Deal works 100 per cent according to plans, If everything claimed for it Is true, it etill doss not touch the one thing that is the matter, the profit system...
...In attempting to organize a revolutionary movement we must realize that people want things here and now and it is possible for an audience to applaud the most revolutionary phrases and then vote for LaGuardia, for a Communist union to organize on the most revolutionary basis and then employ the tactics and pursue the policies of any A. F. of L. union, for such a communist union to call for revolution and then offer codes underbidding those of conservative trade unions...
...In the remaining two minute he asserted that capitalism could not be overthrown by legal methods...
...In the same period total sales declined from $133,313,687 to $124,278,387, or about nine million dollars...
...He said that it was not wise to shed too many tears over or tc take too much advise from Trotsky who opposed Socialist construction- in Russia, who was "kicked out" for it, and who deserves what he is getting...
...The New Deal Santa Claus Passes His Gifts Around Cudahy Finds a Big Plum in His Stocking, but a Lot of Other Folks Find Nothing but Higher Prices By William M. Feigenbaum W7HILE we are on the general subject of the " New Deal, let's take a look at some Aggers...
...this includes, of course, big salaries for executives...
...For the New Deal has not touched the crux of the trouble at all...
...Here's what the New Deal means to them: In the past year pork chops went up ten per cent in price...
...fresh milk 4.7 per cent, and evaporated milk 13.3 per cent Lard went up 12.6 per cent...
...After analyzing the various techniques open to the Communists, such as insurrection, coup d'etat, civil war, or seizure of power after defeat in international war, Thomas ^maintained that all would be either 'entirely futile or so completely destructive as to annihilate the technical and cultural bases for Socialism, In conclusion, Thomas emphasized that the Communist tactic ol directing the main fire against the Socialists and the main body of organized labor in America is destructive both to the interests ol the working class and of tlx co-operative commonwealth...
...This means $2.64 profit on each share of common stock, as compared to 70 cents for the previous year...
...sugar 9.8 per cent...
...thus an extra profit of $888,818 was made to turn over to the men and women whose contribution to humsn welfare consists in the ownership of pieces of paper...
...And the same old cockeyed lack of balance is there...
...That battle is for the toilers themselves to wage...
...Moreover, argued Thomas, to talk of dictatorship to* day is suicidal in that it would place a powerful weapon, not in the hands of the workers but of re-aefcipn...
...Another was to buy in the open market quantities of the company's own common stock at "depression prices" and retire it...
...It is especially inaccurate at present to imply that the Communists are the sole possessors of an internationalist outlook, considering that the interests of the Comintern are being subordinated to the interests of Russia, that Stalin was as hasty to recognize Hitler as bourgeois America, that uitvir.off found it possible to travel directly from Roosevelt to Mussolini...
...Things are looking quite rosy—for some people...
...beans 80.4 per cent...
...He expected Fascism to come shortly, to see the working class movement driven underground ,and because of this to have the working class develop a capable revolutionary leadership which would know how to make the revolution, as happened in Russia...
...Chicago stores are adding clerks as purchasing goes up...
...Yes, indeed, things are looking up for owners of pieces of paper and the big, brainy executives they hire to make profits for them...
...those who create the wealth and are the first to be tossed en the scrap-heap...
...Thomas said thst the united front would be much nearer realization if the Communists did not attempt to use it to destroy not only the Fascists but the Socialists as well...
...Well, in the same year onions went up 80.8 per cent...
...Business is picking up...
...Purchasing power was affected by a depression you may have heard of...
...It might seem from Nearing's reiteration that a communist society must be international in character that the Socialists (since nothing had been said of their internationalism) were nationalist in outlook...
...there is s "buying wave" in Detroit sending sales up 10 per cent over the 1932 level...
...wheat bread 19.4 per cent...
...Other out-of-print pamphlets of the pre-war period would be welcomed...
...Thomas remarked that one might well "wonder what all the shooting was a bout...
...The negligible people who Just do the work and draw the wages (when they have jobs), or try to make a few dollars go a long way...
...Indeed, the issue of nationalism and internationalism is more legitimately an issue between Stalin and Trotsky than between Socialists and Communists...
...It is a battle of the workers organised in their unions and not yet organised, of the farmers and the white-collar workers, and of the jobless, of the Socialist Party...
...These are a few of the straws that show that Business (spelled with a capital B) has something to be optimistic about And the non-stock owning folks...
...canned tomatoes 11.4 per cent...
...If this were the point Nearing was trying to make by indirection, argued Thomas, then it was absolutely false...
...corn meal 11.1 per cent...
...rice 11.3 per cent...
...The second major point Thomas made was that the present policies of the Communists in Russia as well as an examination of radical movements in general show strongly the need for realism in action...
...More employment More people are getting wages, hard-working stockholders are beginning to get the reward of their long abstinence, money is circulating a little...
...Nearing devoted all but two minutes of his half-hour presentation to a general discussion of capitalism and Socialism which created no points of contention...
Vol. 16 • December 1933 • No. 26
