THE UNITED FRONT

...It is rather strange, however, to find the Menshewiks among the parties favoring the united front To be sure, not all Menshewiks take this position...

...At various times, in devious ways and "under manifold guises the Communists have tried to worm their way into the labor movement, and always with the one objective of either subjecting the organizations of labor to the will of Moscodw or of splitting them...

...The world demand for armaments and Mussolini's war requirements were the impulses of world industry, for there can be no doubt that industry is over-capitalized and that no real demand for Industrial investment can be the cause of...

...But the reform is of no significance whatever as regards political democracy affecting the life of the Btate as a whole...

...in Italy, 16% and 20%, and in the United States, 159c and 17...

...Dutch Trade Unions Against United Front A recent issue of De Strijd, organ of the Dutch National Trade Union Center, had an editorial note on a report of unity in France...

...But unity only in a free labor movement.' No fake unity-no "unity" which leads only to discord and dissention...

...Any united front having this for its purpose would, ef necessity, have to be directed, first and foremost, to the purpose of restoring sad preserving democracy...

...In a recent issue of Zeitschrift fiir Sozidlismus we find an article by Solomon Schwarz on this question...

...Five of these parties are today essentially parties of exiles...

...That organization also tried to bring about the union of the Communist and Socialist Internationals, and was shattered in the attempt...

...Creation of employment, as it was Introduced, remained a palliative, often enough failing even as that, and there was no organic revival of industry...

...In Gateshead and elsewhere it was seised upon by the Tory press, which vigorously headlined it in the newspapers in order to misrepresent the Labor Party's position...

...On the basis of this remark, the Communist Party wrote to the I Dutch National Center askijig for a conference to get all classconscious sections of the...

...It would not be practicable to limit the | purpose of .the united front to the preservation of peace...

...and the colossal ignorance about Russia upon which the Soviet rulers count in their efforts to ieceive...

...While entirely alienating ^,tSJ^j»l vote and not pleasing trade unionists, there is no evidence that it did anything to rally the unemployed vote...

...Japan's output of pig iron increased by 14% and of steel by 24% (half-yearly figures...

...Much more important and urgent would be a united front for the restoration and strengthening of democracy...

...It will depend on the rate and success of this process whether the world will find its feet again without having to go through the calvary of another World War...

...A great deal could be said on this question, but space forbids, It is not this question that moves us to discuss Bauer's article but his complaint against the opposition being shown against the united front by the majority of Socialist parties affiliated with the International...

...which was referred to, contemptuously as "the second and a half international...

...In the last nine months of this year the production of pig iron and steel has increased as against the same period in 1934...

...The primary demand of the international trade union movement which was at the same time a positive proposal for overcoming the crisis, was for the planned creation of employment...

...In the years since then he has served his party in various ways as speaker, organizer, Jimmie Higgins, and candidate for mayor, governor and congressman...

...The in' fluence of these forces is obstructec* 1 and hamstrung by the attitude o' ' those Socialists abroad who whilf ' not joining in the deification of ! Stalin continue, nevertheless, tc iustify him, and consider the dictatorship as having been necessary heretofore...

...The efforts now being made for a united front may easily lead to the rise of another International, similar to the Vienna International of 1920...

...In spite of years of propaganda by the trade unions, it was not generally recognized that no real economic revival is possible while the wages and standard of Irving of the great masses of the people remain at rock bottom At the end, of the year it was only too evident that the millions oi money expended by the world for the creation of employment havt scarcely succeeded in' giving work again to one million unemployed throughout the whole world...

...o weaken their influence by enter ing into a united front with s party which because of its meth ods has met everywhere with mis3rable failure, and they are nol ?oing to help this party attain an influence it does not possess, t party representing a small minority in all civilized countries...

...The committee is headed by I. A. Anderson, active trade unionist, as chairman, and M. V. Halushka, former Chicago Director of the Young Circle League, as acting secretary...

...The attitude of the Dutch trade unions reflects the position of the overwhelming majority of organized labor throughout the world...

...They tell the worker that if he toils beyond endurance, he does so for himself, for "he is the state...

...That Stakanoffism has not been without its onerous penalty on the workers is indicated by rumblings of revolt and s u m m a r y disciplining of antiStakanof fists...

...Schwarz himself points 6ut how insignificant this innovation would be, saying that "it bears :he character of a plebiscitary rather than a democratic" measure...

...While, however, the idea of creation of employment has been applied in nearly every country, there is a striking lack of success, since where such measures were adopted, they were primarily introduced to alleviate the position of the unemployed and not as a real measure of economic planning which would bays resulted in a permanent measure of recovery...

...4) tb/e Communists frankly recognize the deleterious effects of the trade "union policy pursued by them up until now, as expressed in the agitation for strikes outside the trade unions, for disputes in the creation of employment and in the propagation of such- slogans as "our own strike leadership" and "open up sll treasuries," every Communist could be a member of the free trade unions and remain one, thus making unity no more of a problem...

...The logical application of both these janiands, systematically coupled, would not only have reduced world unemployment considerably, but would also have given a permanent impulse to the wfiole of industry...

...But the worker, growing cynical, begins to wonder where his gain lies if he exchanges one master for another...

...And that route, we may add, is also in accord with the American temperament...

...They do not wis...

...Socialist aim, they would nave been hailed joyfully and crowned with success...

...Public works and rearmament—both measures of State creation of employment—cannot go on forever without nations going bankrupt or war openly breaking out...

...In Russia no man dares to proclaim himself publicly a Menshewik without certain peril to his life and liberty...

...However, Schwarz expects to see the crystallization of social '. forces in Russia which will eventu' ally, sometime in the indefinite future, make possible the demo' cratization of the entire system and force a modification of the ' dictatorship* Any such positive phenomena insofar as they may develop, should ' not, of course, leave the Labor and \ Socialist International indifferent...

...Turning to other economic spheres, we see the currency war continuing—deflation, devaluation and artificial means being adopted to meet allegedly 'national necessities' in the way of currency expedients— and although every politician likes to talk about currency stabilization and says he is really in favor of it, it seems to be just as far awsy, if not further off, than ever before...

...This is to be the road to democ , racy, Bauer tells us...

...I ad | mit that there is no other road lef • to us if there is to be a uniter front between the Communist am Labor and Socialist Internationale It is very unlikely that the ma i iority of the Labor and Socialis' International will follow this road The majority of the parties affiliated with it have already rejectee" the united front...

...in Russia, 21% and> 30...

...To move th< iictatorship to abolish itself, Baue' ieclares, Socialists should "reeog lize Stalin's historic achievements.' , and "admit as necessary those in =truments of dictatorship whicl are still justified by the presen itage of the Soviet Union's devel opment...

...Its task in Russia must be concentrated, however, upon lend in r ' moral support to those forces tha* ' may be at work there in the direction of compelling "a democratize' tion of the entire system," to use ' Schwarz's formulation...

...t?Baw right the League Committee was can be demonstrated by a single example, which is at the same time a warning against regarding the capitalist curve of production as a measure of victory over the crisis...

...Two routes confront Labor with the need for choice...

...An Elastic Interpretation Are there any indications of any such change of attitude in the ruling circles of Soviet Russia...

...Neither the electors nor the elected are to receive thereby any additional freedom of movement or influence in the state...

...Even under Czarism there was more basis for democracy (Zemstvos...

...We quote: "After a year of barely perceptible improvement in the economic position, the question arises of whether next year will see the fulfillment of the hopes which have been sadly buried at the end of each of the last six years...

...Commenting upon the results of such support in some places in the recent parliamentary election, "Labour" says: '""test, support, where conspicuously in evidence, should be listed as an important contributory factor to defeat...

...In other words, in order to make the idea of democracy palatable to the Russian dictator we are advised to sacrifice tfa< , lives of those Socialists in Rossi r who do not pay homage to Stalin 'or it must be remembered tha" Stalin's terror is now being direct id primarily against Social Demo ?rats, Social Revolutionists, Tol ?toyans, anarchists and dissiden' Communists...

...It is this that makes them welcome any prospect, however illusory, of a change in the political situation in their country that would make it possible for them to return home and resume political activity among their own people...

...It is indeed sound proof that the workers' Stapes•!• can show the way out of the crisis and mass misery, that H is just in those countries with democratic governments under Labor leadership or with decisive Labor participation, that there are real signs ef the crisis being overcome...

...Bolshevik Policies From the very beginning of their activities, the Bolsheviks have beer an element of dissention and weakening in the labor movement...

...the boom in the heavy, industries...

...On this point, the Report of the Second Committee of the League of Nations in September, 1035, hits the nail on the head when it says that in many cases economic recovery is linked up directly or indirectly with the production of material of war and the organization of the defense forces, and that, this being so, it is superfluous to go in detail Int^'thi economically doubtful and psychologically depressing character of such recovery...

...In Germany the increases for pig iron and Steel were 44% and 35<7r, respectively...

...labcxr movement to work together...

...There is no other...

...That is the reason why so many Socialist emigres cling to the idea of the united front...

...This applies also to the disappointments of 1935 let us, therefore, examine objectively how far the solutions proposed by the workers have been realized...

...Under these circumstances, how is it possible for the Menshewiks to make a united front for the establishment of democracy with its brutal, uncompromising enemies...

...To be sure, there is quite a difference between .the Soviet Union and the other dictatorial countries...

...The relations between Socialists and Communists in Switzerland are by no means without friction...

...This is also the hope of Otto Bauer...

...There are some who say there are...

...but if this highly doubtful advantage is deducted, the fact remains that the obstacles provided by clearing procedure-— long ago proved unworkable—quota policy and the still more doubtful policy of economic self-sufficiency have been enough to keep world trade on the whole at the same place as it was last year...

...Although we thus agree in principle with the view of the Director of the International Labor Office, as given in his Report to the-Nineteenth International Labor Conference, in which he described the economic 'recovery* as a superficial phenomenon without any depth, ft should not be forgotten that the unpleasant picture which world trade as a whole presents is softened by the clearly visible signs of recovery in some countries...

...To the many misdeeds they have committed since their coup d'etat of November 1917, misdeeds that have resulted in the splitting and crippling of the working elass, another will be added: the tearing as sunder of the Labor and Socialist International...

...That route is in accord with the British temperament...

...Socialists in the Soviet Union expect that an alliance between Socialists and Communists might lead to a softening of the dictatorship...

...IV T H A T a general, enduring, international united front between Social Democrats and Communists is impossible has jeen amply demonstrated by the efforts made heretofore to bring it about...

...He points out that there is a considerable flirtation with the idea of democracy now taking place in Soviet Russia...

...Whether he is driven by the Czar, by a machine or by some dictatorship allegedly symbolizing "himself," it is all likely to sum up to a burdensome existence...

...It spells progress toward the goal of plenty and resultant improvement in the Russian standard of living...

...Positive virtues may be readily discovered in Stakanoffism...

...The harmonious ' cooperation of different tendencies in the labor movement is possible only on the basis of democracy...

...The Soviet dictatorship has as little to fear from the small i measure of democracy in the collectives as had the Cssr from the . democracy of the "mir" in the Russian villages...

...It counts, in many constituencies, as a dead loss...

...He believes that it would be highly desirable to oring about the cooperation of Socialists and Communists on all fields, but admits that there are obstacles in the way of 'such cooperation...

...British labor rejects not only the united front but finds the hypocritical support" given to labor in individual constituencies by the Communists positively ruinous...

...State-promoted creation of employment has, speaking generally, merely transferred to the state the risks formerly borne by private enterprise, without any fresh initiative bstag shown...

...His fellow trade unionists have honored him by re-electing him numerous times president of Machinists' Lodge 478...

...One is the announcement by the Soviet Government last February of intention to introduce the direct and secret ballot...

...The fact is, however, that the Soviet regime cannot be modified merely by any such alliance...

...Russia welcomed Stakanoffism, not only because it accelerated production, but because it dramatized and exalted manual labor, which had been sinking rapidly in national popularity...

...2) the Communist opposition movement in dissolved and the bonds broken with the Red International of Labor Unions...

...This was pointed out as early as 1806 by Hexthausen in his book en- Russian land ownership, and by Friedrich Engels in • 1875 "In his polemic against the 1 Bakuninist-Blanquist Tkatshoff...

...This statement is characteristic of the rather elastic interpretation placed nowadays upon the idea of demooracy as well as of the enormous brazenness with which Soviet officials try to deceive the woild...

...Such is the effect of dictatorship...

...This is hov we are to destroy fascism...

...The whip ,pf Stakanoffism, if such it is permitted to become, may yet suggest to the Russian people that oppression by any other name is still oppression...

...Unity of the working cuss—yes...

...This note, which put the whole positioji clearly and concisely, stated that "if the Communist Party Bees to it that (1) no more cell and f(action formation is carried on within the trade unions...

...The innovation is too young to enable us to determine its significance, but it is possible that it may prove of practical importance, but in the economic rather than political sense...

...The reform is essential to the efficiency of the collectives and their very ability to exist if they are not to succumb hopelessly to the deadly effects of a most odious and paralyzing bureaucracy...

...The other is the route of preaching Socialism as the hope for the twentieth century in the same fashion as political democracy was the hope and achievement of the nineteenth century, and of explaining the economic democracy of Socialism as the legitimate heir of that political democracy...

...He adds, however, that there is one sphere requiring immediate action — world politics — and that the united front is urgently necessary because of the existing threat to world peace...

...From the mine pits Stakanoffism spread throughout Russian industry...

...Schwarz cites a statement by Stetzki, an adviser Df Stalin's, who declared a year ago that "the Soviet state is characterized by the widest possible democracy for the toilers, a democracy sueh as no other state in the world knows or ever knew...

...Russian newspapers shrill the praises of Stakanoff to drown out complainings...

...World trade has certainly profited from the armaments boom and war requirements...

...Objectively, it may be the route to Communism, but it is the route to Communism through an epoch I of fascist terror...

...We find, however, tha"t all such efforts are meeting with the greatest difficulties...

...They easily mistake the wish for the reality...

...Alexie Stakanoff showed Russia how to increase production in its mines...

...It is the route to power for Socialism neither within the limits of the parliamentary system nor outside it...

...Like a drowning man they clutch at a straw...

...municipal self-government, etc) than is now available in the coHectives under the Communist dictatorship...

...This is the concluding article of a eerie* by Kautsky on Socialism, Bolshevism and the united front...

...The greatest enemies of peace are the fascist regimes...

...A contemporary of 'Gene Debs, Victor L. Berger, Morris Hillquit, Barney Berlyn, Jim Maurer, John M. Work and Seymour Stedman, he was one of the founders and one of the earliest national organizers of the Socialist Party...

...Review for 1935 Shows—Planning and Reduction inHoursCalledOnly Solution By John Powers |%US readers will be interested in the following brief review of the ^w world economic situation as it presented itself at the close of the year just past, taken from a special economic supplement of the Buletin of the International Federation of Trade Unions...

...The split between Social Democrats and Communists is the .east important factor in this situation...

...A strong minority is against it...

...It shows also that the Soviet dictatorship is eager to utilize for its own purposes the power of attraction of the word "democracy," but it fails to reveal whether behind the Soviet professions there is only demagogy oi serious intention to give the Russian people at least some freedom of movement Schwarz calls attention to two facts which may perhaps be interpreted as indications pointing in the latter direction...

...The visible signs of the crisis being overcome are in direct proportion to the progress made in individual countries by ideas of economic planning, and recovery in industry will take place at the same rate as planning ideas conquer the world...

...The Farm Collectives Of greater i m p o r t a n c e , as Schwarz sees it, is the grant of self-government to the agricultural collectives...

...The Coffins' 45th Anniversary Banquet will be held Sunday, March 8th, at 6 P. M. Reservations should be sent to the Collins Banquet Committee, 3239 West Potomac Ave., Chicago...

...Inherent in Stakanoffism is the speeding up of the workers' pace...

...By such an alliance the Menshewiks hope to win the good will of the Communist dictatorship and, finally, freedom of action...

...To assure peace it is necessary to bring about the downfall of these regimes and the restoration of democracy...

...This was inevitable...

...This is to be explained only by the desperate situation in which the emigres find themselves...

...Stakanoffism as a national movement recently mobilized a congress of 2,500 delegates...

...The mere existence of a Menshewik to say nothing of agitation or organization by Menshewiks, is no more possible in Russia than in a fascist country...

...Czarism never felt itself threatened by these institutions, bet, on the contrary, regarded them as supports ef the regime...

...Had these efforts been directed with the purpose *of oringing about a working cooperation of two, free, self-governing working class parties having a common...

...There is no third route...

...Originally its keynote was cooperation and a highly developed division of labor, but it has evolved to represent also certain devices brought to capitalistic countries long ago by the efficiency expert...

...But the picture also carries blemishes...

...It represents idealism and devotion for workers to devise voluntarily new means for speeding the productive program on its way...

...Christian Science Monitor...

...Of special significance is the point made in the review that clearly visible signs of recovery are to be observed only in democratic countries— countries in which organized labor is able to exert strong influence in the direction of e more fundamental approach to the economic ntulilein through the avenue of social control...

...Note on Stakanoffism Stakanoffism, a relatively new word appearing with great frequency in reports from Russia, derives from the name of a young S o v i e t miner...

...British Labor Adamant in Stand Against United Front *be December issue of "Labour,'' organ of the British Labor Party, has some/very plain things to say about the united front...

...Only seven Socialist parties have expressed themselves in favor of the united front—those of France, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, the Russian Menshewiks and the Jewish "Bund" in Poland...

...Linked up with this and an important part of it was the demand for the statutory reduction of hours of work...

...Unless these attempts at artificial recovery are followed or accompanied by real economic revival, all hopes of finding a way out of the crisis are foredoomed to1 fsjfere...

...Veteran Socialist CHICAGO, 111.—Plans to honor ^ John M. Collins on the completion of forty-five years of devoted services in the Labor and Socialist movement are being comoleted by a committee representing the 7th Congress District of the Socialist Party and other affiliated organizations...

...How Agree With Enemy...

...Much more sober is the approach to this question by the Socialists of the free countries who are in a position to fight unhindered for our cause...

...Why this should be so is not quite clear...

...Our comrades must, therefore, be quite clear as to the character and purpose of the latent instrument of Salvation with which they are now being beguiled—the muted front...

...This country will go fascist before it goes Communist...

...Estimates from various sources all agree in showing that the army of unemployed at the end of 1935 is still between twenty-one and twenty-two millions, as against twenty-two tt^ twenty-three millions a year ago...

...To Honor John M . Collins...

...The hoped-for impetus to recovery was not given, because neither the wages nor the hours questions were properly dealt with and properly solved by the governments...

...The one is the route of the united front, not only for specific and temporary ends (which 'may well be legitimate, especially in the international field), but in electoral contests...

...In this attempt these newspapers were singularly successful...

...The Workers Abroad Democratic Countries Under Labor Inftuence Show Greatest Advances Toward Recovery, LF.T.U...

...Thus a Stakanoff agent entered a textile factory and ordered u woman worker to double the number of looms she was tending...

...3) the Communists S i v e up the idea of dictatorship and make democracy the guiding line oi their policy and action...

...It is precisely in this field where the Communists have sinned most...

...No person in his senses would suggest that the dictatorship in fascist countries could be weakened or abolished by an alliance between Socialists and fascists, but in the Soviet Union, we are asked to believe, a united front between Socialists and the dictators would lead to restoration of democracy...

...There is grave danger that the latest united front maneuver will have the same result and will lead to another weakening of the labor movement...

...It is indeed 'psychologically depressing,' since it is a measure of the approach of another world war...

...Obviously this can go to extremes It may become what labor in capitalistic countries calls "sweating' the worker...

...Policy ef Bauer Otto Bauer believes that the time is coming when it will bf [ necessary for the Bolsheviks to ac' , with caution, "to modify the die tatorship gradually"—not immedi ately!—to permit the dictatorship "to abolish itself...

...Although he regards it as an inadequate half-measure, he nevertheless looks upon it as "a beginning...

...The Dutch Center did not reply to this letter, following its old tradition of giving no reply at all to letters from the Communist Party or other Communist bodies, but rojerely noting them...

...Bauer makes this very point in his article, "The United Front in World Politics...