C.G.T. Failure to Rally Wide Support Shows Need for French Labor Party
C.G.T. Failure to Rally Wide Support Shows Need for French Labor Party Must Enter Political Field to Recoup Power By G. E. MODIGLIANI TpAKlS.—The-New Leader, aa a * newspaper of organized...
...Striking used to be prohibited, therefore, until labor contracts came into being...
...It has espoused all demagogic phraseology (particularly that of the Communists...
...As it has been theorised first in France and later in Italy (the first to introduce it in France was Aristide Briand...
...Berlin received a detachment of 8,000, Vienna had 10,000 assigned, Munich got 4,000, and Hamburg 7,000...
...but it should put its own delegates in those assemblies...
...By Dick Reynard Workers Abroad HlktktLER LOOMS AS HITLER RIVAL |7ARLY one wintery morning, as December faded out of Europe, *-* three S.S...
...Although nominally governed by the rebel Spaniards, the vital Melilla airdrome is under Italian and German supervision...
...STRIKE FAILS HTHE general strike declared in * France On November 30 was born of the ^entirely Latin ideology that a general strike should be absolutely self-sufficient...
...But these event's in themselves have not fundamentally changed the political situation...
...Goering's bellowing finally resulted in promised trips to Rome and Libya—but even now it's indefinite whether hell go...
...I do not accept this explanation, for...
...It would be absurd to deny that worry -about the morrow did not play a part in-the failure of the public utilities' general strike...
...Because it is unwilling and unable to be, at the same time, the labor organization of the country and its Labor Party, the General Confederation of Labor does not dominate the political life of the masses...
...rA the opinion of some, the railroad, postal-telegraph, the arm and munition strikes were crippled because of the issuing of militaristic "requisition" decrees...
...Hess...
...On one point, however, I have no doubts: The French labor movement must renounce its archaic dirorcs from political life...
...117HAT were those arguments...
...This rebel-held Spanish colony, which borders on French Morocco, is rapidly becoming a bristling fort and air base to be used as a jumping-off place for Italian attacks on French colonies...
...See defense in all the parts of Spanish Morocco is undertaken by Italian motor torpedo-boats...
...It is a pity that the Party is not permitted to go on with consistent ordered work...
...What is the point is that there is ample evidence that the Left Book Club movement through its groups has become a political movement with substantial money behind it, and that one of its main activities is in the direction of manipulating and controlling local Labor Parties...
...After accompanying them in a car to the Bois de Boulogne, he became suspecious and shouted for help...
...and in this lies their justification...
...The failure is too onportant an event to ignore...
...Because Loyalist Spain resists, Hitler had to compromise with Colonel Beck of Poland...
...Many of us thought, therefore, that the controversy about the Popular Front which had tended to make domestic difficulties for the Labor Party had been stilled, particularly as the Popular Front policy was rejected by the Cooperative Congress, despite the unauthorized agitation in its favor conducted by the Co-operative Sunday newspaper...
...the Fascist Powers have continued their mischievous activities...
...Paillard Was "arrested" on Wednesday by two men who said they were police officers...
...Bat what they really wanted to do and decided upon was a political general strife...
...The failure of November 30 was certainly due to the actions and internal conditions of the French labor movement, but was also due to the deep-rooted ideals of the French people: Peace and liberty are the two great aspirations of the French people—two aspirations which have reaffirmed themselves in France, and which totalitarianism and imperialism would destroy...
...Lhott is known as a trafficker in arms and, with companion also involved in the munitions discovery, is connected with the hooded Cagoulards...
...The very variety of its composition would be a source of weakness...
...It will be- fatal to the Party if it is manipulated into abnormal political situations by wire-pullers and outside organizations...
...Actually the drive into Catalonia, which has given Barcelona's troops the chance to go crashing through to invaluable lead, silver and coal mines in the Estremadura sector, was inspired by the Reich, with Italy tagging along as usual...
...no one can make me believe-,that.-these hundreds of thousands of ¦ workers (almost two million) .were frightened by the threat of being brought to trial, because they knew that if such a move had been carried out, it would have paralyzed all public utilities...
...II Duce knows that dead Italian boys in muddy Spanish fields mean heartbroken parents and growing hatred at home for the Rome regime...
...I* H time that the French labor r...
...smaller units were sent to less troublesome centers...
...These corporations have built large modern iwses at which new personnel are constantly arriving from Italy and Germany...
...Conclusive reasons should be forthcoming to cause the Labor Party to abandon its political independence and its living Socialist faith...
...could be made a mobile force to deal with any possible unrest...
...As Hitler's dreams become more fanatic, unrest grows—and Himmler, who has his ears to the ground, knows of the growing unpopularity...
...In my opinion, it is even permissible to think that in that very moment Moscow would have advised prudence anyway, in view of the arrival in Paris of Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop...
...and the British Government has stuck to its evil~policy...
...After the first day's stories, the censor clamped down and no one knows what was said by the men threatened by the axe...
...POR myself, I do not take the view that this prevents the Labor *^ Party from being adaptable in relation to the merits of exceptional by-elections...
...A MONG the determining causes of the failure of the general strike was the calumny (of governmental origin) that the Confederation of Labor allowed itself to be ruled by people who proposed opposing the policy of' European appeasement which the Daladier cabinet is pursuing in the manner now familiar to everyone...
...The Cagoulard member lives at the Villa la Minaudiere at Auteuil, approximately 30 miles from Paris...
...The late Codraanu cost Hitler millions of dollars—and Hitler just hates to be deprived of interest on an investment...
...If it continues, those responsible for it will also be responsible for the further disciplinary action on the part of the Labor Party which will inevitably follow...
...There's a Major Lagenheim directing the Germans, most of whom have recently been working on the Siegfried Line in the Rhineland...
...and it would tend to crack up if and when the lords of finance made trouble...
...In addition, it suffers from the dissension among them much more than it might benefit from its help...
...Goering, according to reports, declared open warfare on the Goebbels crowd and immediately was warned by Von Ribbentrop, who cancelled the Field Marshal's trips to London and Paris...
...It is a task for the Executive and not for individuals or outside bodies...
...Several units were oganized and sent to different cities immediately...
...That cannot be tolerated...
...So of late Herr Himmler has been busy organizing a new terror army—the "S.S...
...fii|OREOVER, if there is to be anti-Executive organisation in the British Labor Party nationally or in London, then the Executives themselves and those loyal to the Party and its policy will be driven to counter-organisation...
...troops...
...Moreover, everybody knows that in the provinces the strike was a general success...
...Daladier's Munich policy is coming home to roost...
...For the first time in the Third Reich, a man other than Hitler combines supreme political, military, espionage power...
...The car collided with another and Marcel Pessin, one of the kidnappers, was arrested...
...T«., the fall of the Daladier cabinet before the start of the battle on November 30...
...His power is enormous, but it rests more than ever on the Gestapo and the SJ5__into which of late has seeped the same unrest which grips the general public...
...Even its critics of the Liberal Press, whilst not agreeing with its conclusions, paid tributes to its reasonable character...
...My sympathies would be for the second solution...
...And much to his chagrin, II Duce found himself committed to permitting Franco to use Italian divisions in the front line offensives...
...By forming this inner ring, Himmler becomes second in power only to Hitler and is consulted before any decisions are made for military and economic action...
...even the Liberals would have difficulty in mobilizing behind it a solid vote: the Communists would be a source of embarrassment...
...That is hot the point...
...The regrettable defeat of the Duchess of Atholl shows that the mere withdrawal of the Liberal candidate does not settle things...
...indeed, unless there is a serious break-up among the Government supporters inside and outside Parliament, Labor and the Popular Front is a difficult statement to make a case against...
...the general,strike does not neces-• sarily imply a revolt...
...Even now it is more in a state of flux than'in a state of organic Stability...
...The naval commission immediately set itself up' in permanent, amply equipped headquarters and opened branches in various sections of Morocco...
...But it is only necessary to know that more than 100,000 strikers1 were -discharged in an attempt to punish - the "instigators.*** "And if the "instigators" were so- many, how many more were the "instigated...
...But since then reports from underground sources have reto it than the mere story of a man and anvealed that the "beating" might have^more .other chap's wife, -j Almost secretly, an unprecedented trial of 21 ex-Nazis—extremists all—has been going on in the Reich's most important treason court...
...at least theoretically...
...The paralyzing effect of these other factors is the great lesson of November 30...
...Those who are responsible for the various little games that are going on, including the Left Book Club people, will be wise to reconsider things, otherwise it will be they rather than the official element who will be responsible for any further so-called heresy-hunting that will develop...
...Goebbels and Ribbentrop, the extremists crowd has in recent months stepped sway from the army-linked, mere conservative Goering...
...On the surface it appears that Franco has staked his prestige, millions of dollars in munitions, tanks, planes, and an extremely limited supply of man-power to crush the fiercely resisting Loyalists before Chamberlain deserts his Roman holiday...
...and the policy would increase rather than decrease divisions in the Labor Movement...
...Gollancz...
...REBEL-HELD MOROCCO BECOMING DUCE FORTRESS AS the Matthews-Carney civil war rages in the New York Times, the real story behind Insurgent General Franco's "Chamberlain drive" remains untold...
...In any case, the government slander d i d have some effect, not only in the already anti-Bolshevist right-wingers, but also on those who are a priori distrustful of anything which seems to lay obstacles in the way of European appeasement...
...Lhott is still at large...
...Lhott's activities were exposed last week when police searched his bouse in connection with the attempted kidnapping of M. Roger Paillard, French businessman...
...Many Liberal votes at W. Perth must have gone for Chamberlain...
...The other was identified as Lhott, whose home was then searched in the raid that led to the discovery of the arms cache...
...FRENCH TEAR WCTATORSHIP ¦¦¦Hfci fact that within two years * organised . French labor increased from a membership of a little more than one million to much more tharl five mifftori is more plethoric than solid...
...A special uniform has not yet been devised for the men, but they wear badges which make them easily recognisable...
...They were that it was very doubtful whether a miscellaneous combination of Socialists, Trade Unionists, Co-operators, Conservatives, Liberals, and Communists would impress the country as a political combination out of which a strong Government could be made, capable of leading the country through its international and domestic troubles and the building of a peaceful and'prosperous world...
...rmrnt does not limit itself simply to theorising and to seeking vindications, but rather to improving itself in order to carry out proposed solutions...
...The essential arguments of Labor and the Popular Front, against which no reasoned case has so far "been made, are, it seems to me, still sound...
...I do not think that its theori-ticians have- ever denied that it might become the first step of an actual revolt...
...And these contracts should arise, from agreement rather than from coercion...
...but strating outside the parliamentarian institutions, it seemed to be a threat against them...
...This could happen in two ways: Either by coming to a political and legislative understanding with the left-wing parties, or by creating a Labor Party—after the British or Belgian pattern-— which would be supported not only by organized labor, but also by those who are devoted to the cause of labor, and who do not fall under the sphere of organized labor as such...
...and the government, which rose up against the La bo rites, appeared as the defender of free public institutions...
...And if such a political combination disintegrated and ended in confusion we should have increased rather than decreased the risks of some form of Fascism...
...It seems to me, therefore, that the case against the Popular Front is as unanswerable today as it was when Labor and the Popular Front was issued, and that there is no case for dropping or subordinating that Socialism which will remove the economic causes of war and which will also remove the economic causes of Fascism...
...e ¦ .* * TWO MILLION OUT...
...Desiring only tho 6Vfen«e of prerogatives, the 'jon ¦¦—.•A Strike was pointed out as a threat of dictatorship...
...With all eyes on the interior of Spain, Italian sad German influence in rebel-held Spanish Morocco has been' heavily bolstered by huge contingents of Nasi technicians, fascist troops and fascist war material...
...Last week an Italian naval mission, headed by Commander V are S3, arrived at Ceuta, reports the observant Tangier correspondent of the Laborite London Daily Herald...
...but in the technical elaborations of the new theories and in the formulation of new programs, it has not achieved the degree of maturity of other European labor movements...
...To tell my American readers that all they have just read is good for them would be to offend them, because it is only too clear that the labor movement on the other side of the Atlantic seems to be heading towards a goal much different from the surviving traditionalism of French labor, and will certainly 'not be fooled by the miraculous myths which traditionalism breeds and extols...
...but if this is to be done it must be done out of its strength and not because of its weakness...
...There is the well-financed, widespread political activities of the Left Book Club, the political policy of which is either pro-Liberal or pro-Communist in tendency and is openly directed towards the Popular Front policy...
...There were other preoccupations much less obvious and not jkeken seriously enough by the,labor leaders...
...and now, striking is prohibited by fascism, which is a return to the earlier method of forcing the workers to submit to whatever labor regulations were decided upon by the employers...
...There were those who continued to labor under this delusion until the eve- on...
...Millions of Germans who live in the western provinces feel that Munich was only a short reprieve from death and'that Hitler will in 1939 force war by reaching for Switzerland, sections of Denmark, Danzig, the Polish Corridor, and Memel...
...its spokesmen would find it difficult to speak in the . same voice, and its opponents would be quick to exploit these considerations and to point the moral of the breakup of the Popular Front in France...
...Feldjagerkorps"—selected men from the S.S...
...For example, in the absence of a Labor candidate at Bridgewater and at West Perth, I would favor the Party adopting an attitude of benevolence towards the candidate opposing the Government, but I.would not let this cause the Party to lose its independence, its initiative, and its electoral strength...
...but this, alone - would not have been enough...
...Only in this way will the French labor movement be able to save its autonomy and maintain its unity...
...They immediately become the most powerful, all-informed force in Europe, since Himmler calls their chiefs into conference regularly and discusses Gestapo reports, available to him alone...
...The complacent, fat Four-Tear Plan Commissar was enraged by the Goebbels' inspired pogroms of November 10 which destroyed millions of dollars of valuable plate glass, store fixtures, and thousands of inventories which could have been officially expropriated...
...It should not stop, as it dOes now, on the threshold of legislative assemblies...
...Look at the mixed type of Conservatives who are actively dissatisfied with the Government's policy...
...Failure to Rally Wide Support Shows Need for French Labor Party Must Enter Political Field to Recoup Power By G. E. MODIGLIANI TpAKlS.—The-New Leader, aa a * newspaper of organized labor, cannot disregard the French general strike which created such a fiasi ii on last November 30...
...Whilst we should be foolish if we declined to consider new political circumstances of importance in relation to Labor's electoral tactics, it is by no means obvious that such new circumstances have, in fact, come about...
...But the tru^h does not change: The primary reason for the failure of November 30-was the unexpectedly well-spreaa dislike of the people for anything that looked like the beginning of a dictatorship...
...Strachey to select my reading matter for me...
...that the Liberal vote in this country is not a vote that can be regimented by gentlemen in London...
...A few days later a Connecticut newspaper splashed the story of the beating of Goebbels in Barova's room...
...The general strike, then, is not essentially a means of labor struggle, but rather a means of political struggle...
...German artillery is constantly arriving in Melilla, an important Moroccan port, where coastal and anti-air craft are all from Krupp and are manned exclusively by Reichswehr gunners under the command of Major Holg...
...The joke is that the people who were conducting right-wing conspiracies *to fuse Labor's electoral organization with people on the right of us were in some cases the Left Book Club people...
...It should participate fully, under the leadership of men of its own choosing, in the political life of the country...
...Thus the, more it insists upon remaining outside the political field, the more it comes to despise —the word is not too strong— the normal functioning of the democratic parliamentarian institutions, and to prefer to play a role of minor importance in them...
...British Labor Party Set to Fight "Popular Front" Drive Warns "Coalition"Propagandists Stooge Outfits Won't Be Tolerated By HERBERT MORRISON, M.P...
...The Labor Party has no right to tell its members how they shall buy books, nor which books they shall buy...
...note...
...men and a uniformed chauffeur carried a bloody and swollen Propaganda Minister of Public Enlightenment up the stairs of an exclusive Berlin hospital...
...Indeed, there are reasons why the Party should be capable of political adaptation in exceptional circumstances...
...On tb« Other hand, in the public utilities and the arm and munition factories the strike was a failure...
...Perhaps the reason for its announcement so many days.before (this was their technical-error) was that there were some among them who believed that a miracle could be wrought...
...Although there is no effectively centralized underground movement, the opposition to the regime is rapidly crystallizing...
...Conservative support would be limited...
...The leaders of the French General Confederation of Labor were careful to -limit its duration to only 24 hours and to give it the appearance' of a demonstration rather than that of a revolt...
...It is regrettable that some of its prominent members should be injuring the movement by affirming that Labor cannot win an election...
...These signs of resistance in Eastern Europe ar annoying the Berlin Foreign Office—especially st this time, when they must support Italy in Spain and Northern Africa—and Hitler wants the Spanish Civil War ended with all possible speed so he can turn to Central Europe during this year...
...in-nrr*--sion...
...Leader of the London County Council LONDON.—Some months ago the National Executive of the British Labor Party published a reasoned statement on Labor and the Popular Front...
...The general strike instead-even when it serves* the cause of labor—does not have as its aim the defense of labor contracts...
...On behalf of the Club it has been stated that the groups "are becoming centres of active and energetic work for a Popular Front in their localities...
...German agents ia the Arab quarters are forming s new political party, which is providing the Arabs with an all-German ideology...
...The airport is loaded with Ala Littoria and Lufthansa—Italian and German—company planes...
...German technicians are in charge of the Spanish prisoners from the mainland—some thousands of them—who are building fortifications along the frontier of Spanish and French Morocco...
...Because Loyalist Spain fights off the combined Italian-German expeditionary force, the Reich has been unable to do anything about King Carol's shooting of some 700 Rumanian Green-Shirted fascists...
...POLITICAL LABOR ACTION NEEDED THE French labortmovement is to some extent responsible for the failure .-of the methods hitherto adopted to combat the internal economic crisis...
...I am not friendly towards the policy of the Communists in general, and particularly of the French Communists...
...In emergencies they will have the authority to override all decisions of the police, army and civil authorities...
...But I must add at once that J do not have sufficient data to be qualified to give a well-founded suggestion...
...in fact, they have often maintained—in theory, at least—that*its crippling effect on a nation's' fife' may eventually force the adversary to come to terms...
...Their 2.000 horse-sower Fist motors speed them through me water st 50 m.p.h., sad they carry fear torpedo tabes...
...Wages are regulated by contracts...
...Therefore, unlike the other type of strike, it does not have the right to defend these contracts...
...Cases are known to "Head Office where the political organization of the Left Book Club has set itself out to "capture" local Labor Parties, sometimes for the purpose of restraining a militant electoral policy...
...The document was not seriously challenged in the Labor Movement...
...which the failure seemed definite...
...it is rather, or at least it intends to be, a substitute for revolt...
...it would find great difficulty in agreeing upon a domestic policy...
...Der Fuehrer is repaying II Duce for services rendered in the pre-Munich era...
...but the Moscow orders did not have any influence over the decisions of the Confederation...
...The official reports were an attempt to make people believe that almost no one went on strike November 30...
...That would be a pity, for it would tend to limit free decision and would spoil the atmosphere of discussion...
...The Feldjagerkorps were formed before the November pogroms, when Hitler called in Himmler and asked him to work out a scheme by which the S.S...
...it would have its difficulties if and when foreign affairs reached an acute stage...
...The people (especially those of the Latin 'countries) have accepted the' general strike as a means of political struggle because it is considered a modern substitute for revolt, which is so much leas'possible today, in the age of radio, machine guns, and tear gas...
...But while the extremists have come closer to Hitler, they have lost much of their popular support...
...The right of the-workers to strike implies also tie right to discuss labor contracts...
...Moreover, even if it were electorally successful, it is unlikely, as things are, that the resultant Government would really be a united, powerful affair...
...Laski, and Mr...
...In the long run, this does not give the desired result...
...Thus, the general strike was easily discredited because the government knew how to exploit thit...
...Moreover, Himmler wants a private army to back his clique's influence in foreign affairs, which accounts for Von Ribbentrop's recent success...
...Various efforts have been made recently, however, to revive the agitation...
...British Communist Innocent Front Organisation.—Ed...
...These men—the toughest and most ruthless Nazis—are to counter-balance the Goering influence in the army, which Himmler has been trying to win over for some time...
...Is this the state of mind which unfortunately had to resort to the general strike as an infallible means of doing away with Dala-dier*s abominable decree laws ? The general strike had to be limited in its duration and had to respect all human rights...
...I have no objection to people buying books through a book club, even though for myself I have too much mental self-respect to permit Mr...
...in the mines, in the -decks, in the shipyards...
...Let us not confuse the general Strike with the more common one for upholding or obtaining a labor contract...
...And only in t h i f way will French organized labor be able to return to the helm and again take the place which it has momentarily lost...
...These millions, living within biff-cannon shot of the French border, are restive—all know what Hitler thinks of France, and all know that Der Fuehrer despises the German people (tee the unexpurgated editions of Mein Kampf...
...You may smile or become indignant, depending on your temperament...
...Because of these insufficiencies, which had been present for a long time, there WasV need for something more positive than a protest, something which would attract public opinion more convincingly...
...Remember that the anti-Government Liberals are by no means a formidable or solid team...
...There have, of course, occurred events connected with Munich...
...For the first time in months, a huge Nazi shipment of munitions, artillery and tanks steamed into rebel harbors early last month...
...PARIS.—The "hooded men" who were set to seize Paris * last year as their opening step in a French fascist coup, cropped up again last week when a cache of Italian rifles and bayonets, German machine-gun chargers, and 6,000 Italian machine-gun cartridges were found in a secret store of M. Gaston Lhott...
...i But ia recent weeks Goebbels has been remarkably quiet as the straggle for power and Hitlers' support went on behind the scene's...
...Led by Himmler...
Vol. 22 • January 1939 • No. 2
