Prices In Sweden Kept at Low Level As Co-ops Crack Whip on Trust Chiefs
HEDBERG, ANDERS
Prices In Sweden Kept at Low Level As Co-ops Crack Whip on Trust Chiefs By ANDERS HEDBERG Secretary of the Cooperative International. . HpOSSlBLY it is futile to speak of culture and democracy in...
...There were those in the labor movement even as far back as the eighties who recognized the basic struggle and sought to bring into some alignment this seeming dichotomy...
...Soldiers...
...THE Swedish co-ops decided to intervene, and I personally was in charge of the discussion with the international trust...
...We in Sweden believe in education, in thinking, as the basis for social progress...
...Unions are to be prosecuted: if...
...Our strategy-taught Hitler—"is to crush the enemy inside, to make him defeat himself...
...The result is thai in a number of cases the mere threat from the co-ops to enter a. certain industry has been sufficient to break any monopolistic tendencies...
...give Hitler at the present stage of the war...
...hesitation of Hitler," about the "strange" character of tins war "without military action" on the Western Front...
...Be' Skeptical...
...It is worth nothing, absolutely nothing...
...Democracy had gained a victory...
...Nevertheless Stalin's task was a very difficult one, but he succeeded...
...This entire* consumer cooperative ? movement works to lower the cost i'-of Irving,, through applying effi-icjent methods of distribution in its .thousands of retail stores and fac^tories...
...T"HE purpose of the statute was clear: to pre-¦*• vent too great concentration of economic power with the inevitable injury to the consumer due to his lack of weapons to combat such power...
...The struggle of Stalinists against Hitler in Germany has been reduced to nothing...
...In Bedford Cut Stone Co...
...Bit Y this time labor once more had its crown of thorns and it became the work of another : decade to regain what was thought to have been t?o victory of the Clayton Act I? however, we , say that the Sherman Act did have application to labor unions...
...Please doubt...
...But income is only one part of his economic GHfej expenditure is just as important...
...anti-Nazi preaching is usually interlaced with anti-capitalism, but capitalism figures here as the original source of all that is bad, whereas Nazism is only shown here as a by-product...
...Buck Stove and Rang* Co, only served to lend fuel to the flame of labor's "Bill of Grievances.'' , , -J...
...quarantine stations, and at the SDE's 78 offices...
...A legend has been created and stubbornly maintained (more in personal conversations than in the press)—a legend about Stalin's complicated game, the sharp edge of which is directed primarily against Hitler...
...The systematic "cleaning" of the lending apparatus of the Communist parties in recent years as in France, now appears in a new light...
...wore «?gime method*, Where is the borderline of exploitation, or speedup methods...
...Hundreds of his articles have appeared in leaned journals throughout the world...
...1 ---- ¦ Its public policy is forcefully stated: • "It is necessary that he (the fworker) have full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of lis own cboos, ing, to negotiate the terms and conditions of bis employment, and that he shall be free from the . interference, restraint or coercion of employers of labor, or their agents, in the designation of such representatives or in self-organization or -in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection...
...I have done a good deal of lecturing myself, and I often say to my - ««?^oc^ "l>9 aot vsanplyj beHcvs what I tell you...
...These facts were disclosed this week bj Nathan Straus...
...Nieolaievsky's statements nave been earrshs rated by the cooperation between the German occupation officialdom and> the Norwegian Communist Party, which k now urging the population in and about Oslo to accept Nasi domination, yield without further armed resistance, halt.all sabotage, tarn stool pigeon and inform on companions who are night-sniping at German soldiers, and in genera] present a picture to the niirilde world of calm, peaceful, and protective Gemas administration...
...I am often asked by American friends why the Swedish cooperatives have been so successful...
...AT PRESENT we can consider the preparatory work for the change of front of world A Stalinism almost finished...
...A DUL.T education in Sweden has not come from above: it has grown out of the need which the people themselves have felt...
...expand into greater and greater pmisrtfjSM.Comintern Apparatus Now Part of Berlin's "5th Column" Ministry Directed to Crack Allied Unity, Morale By BORIS NICOIEVSKY (Author of "Karl Marx" and "Aseef the Spy") ALMOST eight months have passed since the first Stalin-Hitler pact was signed, almost fire months since the beginning of warfare in Finland, but there is discussion of the real role of Stalin in the present war...
...Is the prosecution of Capone on income tax violation to excuse the failure of enforcement of criminal laws more directly applicable...
...We said, "Thank you...
...American Federation of Labor and in t Gompers vs...
...So long as Hitler's military might exists Stalin cannot and is unwilling to break off with him...
...All aspects of Scandinavian democracy—all their striving for justice, common sense, and peace—may be crushed for the time being...
...We plan will hit the AF by sorting the real jobs from the Assorted Farmer phonies, and preventing the estobttshment of huge "¦her surpluses for exploitation by the fruit growers...
...It would be very interesting to trace this whole operation in detail but it would lead too far afield...
...A flood of false telegrams and lying articles was manufactured and distributed so cleverly that often even honest and informed people fell into the trap...
...For example, va-prious rubber factories had made ¦ *r*» agreement whereby they were j I «hargfng such prices for shoes, au-, I tomobile tires, and similar prod-g °*te that many of them bad been put beyond the reach of the small man...
...The result has been that study circles exist all over the country and have hundreds of thousands of members...
...We recognize it now: 7s the principle of a capitalist society based upon private property, profits, and exploitation of various sorts consistent with the operation of political democracy1 The search for a middle ground answer is the problem of this generation...
...they are both chained to the same log...
...Over 225.000 American families have re» quested loans with which to take themselves from the alums that "shelter" them now, and move to new dwellings...
...Theodore Roosevelt had been waving the "big stick" over the heads of large corporations and "trust busting" became a colloquialism...
...becatjse it is inefficeatly run then ithe cooperative wholesale society can pound the table and say, "Now you behave, or we, who ^represent hundreds of thousands "j' of organized consumers, and who j i are financially strong, will start a ! factory oi our own...
...Collective "bargaining between chosen representatives of employer and workers was the accepted method...
...The trust did not do that, of course...
...Stone Cotters Association, Justice Stone quite forcefully declared that as an original proposition be would...
...Whatever may have been the doubts on Congressional intent in the case of the Sherman ¦ Act, there should have been little question -o...
...They win stay in files pera» it—fly if no new funds are forthcoming...
...What can Stali...
...The war is now conducted not only at the front but also in the rear, and a victory in the rear is sometimes more important than a victory at the front...
...One phase, however, is necessary to note: the important role played by the legend about Stalin's "complicated maneuver," the legend already mentioned...
...The .farmers of neighboring states flock to the fields—and the surplus labor on hand, AF employers push wages down tar below subsistence levels...
...Hitler knows the character of the Red Army...
...The requests have been filed by, the United States Hsnaisig Authority...
...He undoubtedly lost a considerable part'of the masses following him all over the world, but he succeeded in bringing over the Comintern apparatus as well as the apparatus of the separate Communist parties to the new socio-political camp into which he himself had moved...
...One can . find not one article, not one notice against j Nazism in any of the many German Communist journals...
...Arid besides, in this case, the capacity of the linoleum factories already in existence in the country were sufficient...
...There certainly exists be- ¦ tween Stalin and Hitler a far reaching alliance concerning the joint fight against the Western European democracies...
...Who invests the prosecutor with such capacity to determine one of the most vital factors in the economic war engendered by technology...
...The study circles and discussion clubs are in effect the basis of modern progressive democracy in Sweden...
...These guarantees are most real...
...Looking around, after knowing these opinions of Hitler, we can easily understand how naive is...
...I suppose this means cross-picketing or disestablishment of company unions...
...3) For being parties to and enforcing graft and extortion...
...central organ of the Stalinists-'in German, forgot the existence of Germany...
...He defends .his income through 'i&te trade union and collective bargaining...
...HPHE present war^is not merely a "continua-* tion of policies,* only by military means...
...The almost complete supplanting of individual by corporate, responsibility in the economic arena rendered such protective statutory measures essential to the survival of democracy...
...Hitler, meanwhile, does not need Stalin's help on the Western European front...
...V ? When we recall the sweeping language of the...
...The basic answer is: adult education...
...From the military standpoint it is an absolute zero...
...Please think* for yourself...
...The Swedish cooperative whole-?ttk society can also be said to act jpas a' type of police force in keeptoa pr?vate industry in order...
...This alliance was concluded by Stalin in all seriousness and for a long time...
...Try to place this element in Rauschning's stories of Hitler's almost frenzied revelations and you will understand what limitless perspectives'" were open before the latter when he thought of arousing and disuniting the enemy's rear, accordingly directing the "work" of his agents and Stalin's...
...In all neutral countries Stalinites and Hitlerites are going side by side...
...unnecessary to consider whether the restraint, wholly intrastate, operated upon interstate commerce...
...These" do not pass resolutions and are certainly not rabble-rousers...
...Nice-, htievsky, perhaps more, than any other individual, is the historian of European Socialism...
...Its officers laughed at me—and a cooperative factory m Stockholm, Sweden was built...
...I; * * * - j j 'H'rllS &as happened in a number i j > of industries...
...The monopoly was broken...
...But the question of Stalin's military participation in tiie present War is not so pressingly important...
...This adult education trains the people ta think for themselves and makes them less apt to follow a leader blindly...
...Use CP, Agents To Get at Workers of transferring the Communist cadres into the camp of Nazism...
...News reaches us showing certain connections between small groups of Stalinists and the center of Hitler's espionage...
...We don't mind if you give the Swedish public the lamps gratis and put a silver dollar in each one of them...
...bey ha/ye nothing to do with poHP tics or social Class...
...Everyone in Sweden gained...
...the purpose of the Clayton Act amendments...
...Here the first time is a comprehensive analysis of the purposes of this symbiosis the world thought impossible...
...Such an agreement already exists and Hitler has ail the guarantees of its fulfillment by Stal(n...
...On August 11, 1939, during the days when they were deciding to announce*the conclusion of a mutual agreement, Hitler said to his former chief commissar of Danzig: "I know the Red Army well...
...Yes, we believe in these values, and so do the other Scandinavian peoples...
...The co-ops could not persuade this corporation "to behave...
...Clayton Act amendments, we can understand labor's resentment against a judicial veto which ' is not even constitutionally well-founded...
...The union's conduct in refusing to work on products of non-union labor, being wholly reasonable action, should not be distorted by hyperlegalistic magic into an unreasonable re- ' straint under the Sherman Act...
...As pointed out by Justice Brand?is, it wat...
...be can refuse nothing to Hitler...
...True, looking over the old Bolshevist literature of agitational character, one can easily fina ambiguous notes...
...Building another factory would have been a social waste...
...The apt -• plication of the Sherman Act to bar the use of ¦ "unfair lists" boycotts in Buck Steve and Range Co...
...He described in detail (questions which he had studied with great care) how it would be possible to intensify the conflicts in the camp of the enemy, to provoke and inflame social and national antagonisms, to incite one group of the population against the other...
...They came as the answer to labor's incessant demand for clarification of the Sherman Act in . relation to unions...
...Politically Stalin has already burned his ships...
...Stalin is - pursuing bis own interests—here opinions are divided as to -what they are—and in the name of these interests he cannot only break with Hitler but even join the other camp...
...i*HE experience of the first eight months Of * war proved that Stalin really undertook the ignominious task of fulfilling this work only with an honesty unnatural to him but with great skill...
...People like to fool themselves—otherwise it would be difficult to understand withr what tenacity they dutch at any straw irr order to convince themselves and others that there is no genuine alliance between Stalin and i Hitler...
...They therefore entered into production themselves...
...Everybody belongs to them...
...If -U a. certain firm ghows monopolistic f'tendencies—or charges too high * i"9...
...They hanre a central cooperative i wholesale society, in whicrr all the : local onits concentrate their power...
...Yet it soon became obvious that the inequality of economic and social position made necessary the use of labor's greater potential political power to develop a set of Marquis of Queensbury rules under which the battles would be fought...
...Stalin brought him a whole army of agents who are active in other social spheres, in shops, factories, stores and offices...
...Saving Slums TIE USHA is flat broke...
...This undoubtedly served as a preparation to the transfer of the Communist parties from the "anti-Nazi front" to the "anti-capitalist" front which is at present binding the Stalinists and the Hitlerites tighter together...
...Go ahead...
...The antitrust laws were the first serious political efforts to check the malignant growth of the corporate power and by control to minimize its threat to political democracy...
...We have no reason to enter an industry if private business, working for profit, is rea-sonaly managed...
...Hitler understood that the' most dangerous thing for him during a war is the national unity in the camp of the adversary...
...Politically he-is rn friij jasard—-*1t— Hitler...
...but it had to adopt reasonable prices...
...And we in the cooperative movement, on the other hand, were well pleased to be able to persuade the manufacturers...
...have thought the Clayton Act had provided union exemption from the anti-trust law, but because of the rejection of that view so recently in the Duplex case, he had gone along with the Supreme Court majority's verdict against the j unions...
...r lY Comrades In Armr #\NE result of the many startling dream-^¦'stances this war has wrought is the successful coordination of the widely ramified and detailedly constructed international Communist apparatus into the propaganda machinery of the Third Reich...
...I have been watching it for a long time...
...Hitler has plenty of his own...
...Rauschning, in his last book, relates how the present war appeared to Hitler at the time he was preparing for it...
...1 |N THE LIGHT of all this it is possible to * answer the general question of Stalin's role in the present war...
...They hold discussions, study, and attain a higher degree of understanding, with respect to the fundamental social and economic problems of everyday life...
...It is a sad day when prosecution cannot stop this by means' of criminal and penal . statutes...
...It is written by Boris Nieolaievsky, who for decades collaborated with Karl Kautsky...
...And the New York World called corporation taxes on a different basis from personal taxes a "aovel aggression of sandhill radicalism upon corporation and capital...
...Had Stalin come out at once, in August of last year, as a direct ally of Hitler, his maneuver would have suffered a complete defeat The legend of "complicated maneuver" served as a brake on a steep decline...
...Judging by their-actions it would be strange to think that they start on the road on which they are now going without foreseeing at least the principal lines of their conduct in the military sphere...
...Undoubtedly Hitler had more than a few agents of his own in the countries against whom he is now at war...
...et al vs...
...there is no leadership and no discipline...
...Facts will be ¦•ted with respect to counties, districts, and employers in need *f help, and the knowledge of employment opportunities will be ••Med on through three central headquarters, at California's bor...
...Thus far I have refrained from reference to the specific pronouncement of the Department of Justice recently because it is better judged in the-light of the background of |the anti-trust laws and their case-law evolution...
...After the war in Finland, this should be evident...
...Certainly when enacted, despite its general language, the evidence does not disclose any intended applicability to labor anions...
...It is not true that Stalin is free to maneuver...
...At present, AF stooges spread lavish circulars throughout • the South and Southwest de«laring that jobs are plentiful in the fruit-picking fields of CaU-fornla...
...Having had judicial legislation, are we now to have executive legislation...
...he lost bis freedom when, in the argument with . Hitler in the division of Poland, he established a land border between Germany and USSR: Stalin is unable to fight Germany...
...But these were mostly agents influential in so-called "high society," salons, business clubs, in the editorial departments of the reactionary press, etc...
...According to der fuehrer's conception this war was to be of an entirely new type, without mass attacks, without needless sacrifice of soldiers...
...1) For concerted efforts to prevent use of Jfas\Wt9r1alt or...
...if BUT labor's efforts to undo the damage of the " last-mentioned decision carried on...
...v.jg-cs;.: But this is not all...
...The result was that the industry showed huge profits, but...
...That was the case, for example, with linoleum...
...The American Law Review proclaimed ". . . it was perfectly clear that the . . . movement was rank Communism," This was 1875...
...it js necessary to apply all means and methods of combat, military as well as'non-military...
...When need will arise in the military operations" \n ' secondary places, where even an "army that is worth absolutely nothing" can be of use, then Stalin even will go on this road...
...Labor unions had reached sizable proportions and labor corporation was a. weapon forcefully at work both in the economic and political field, by the first deeade of this century...
...he knew that in order to attain victory he must first of all destroy that unity...
...B The co-ops in Sweden are, how-*nrer, NOT a workers' movement...
...The evil can, aa I have indicated, be reached without applying this law to labor., (5) For destroying an established system <of lawful collective bargaining...
...Stalin, it ¦earns, intends to draw Hitler still deeper into the war to place him in a spot from which retreat is impossible...
...The bosses of the industry were intelligent enough to understand that it was to their advantage to alter their price policy drastically...
...Hitler is not strange...
...The large corporate interests breathed more freely when William Howard Taft took over the reins...
...When these involve a direct relationship to labor rates and hours, a close question-weighted on labor's side is presented...
...By Henry Epstein' Solicitor-General of N. Y. State •""THE great issue of our own and the next * generation begins to take shape...
...Farmers and the white-collar workers join hands With industrial laborers, The co-ops in Sweden comprise over j Ooe-*hird of the entire population...
...It is generally known in Sweden that the co-ops have sufficient money to do such things...
...conscience . . . and having done so they gradually became accustomed to the new situation...
...If Congress fails to act, the requests, totaling |l,OOC.90C.OO0 and forwarded from 81 eommu nities in 32 states, the District of Columbia...
...Will prosecutor now supplant the courts and become a new legislative authority...
...Stalin's present position is not a permanent one and as proof of this, reference is usually made to the absence of a military alliance between the two...
...if we assume that the Clayton ', Act did -not alter that doubtful legal thesis, what shall we say of the aims of the Norris-LaGuardia Act "of 1932...
...Or of Fritz Kuhn for petty larceny to cover the failure to prosecute a multitude of offenses against civil rights...
...Is this within the omniscience of an administrative official...
...Events move fast...
...When and if duly authorized by Congress, tins may in time become a proper field for an administrative tribunal carefully to survey before acting...
...Cannot these be left to the _ Wsgner Act, and is not that-their proper sphere...
...Should Stalin come cut tomorrow against Hitler his existence would be counted not by m?nths?but by days...
...Stalinism more and mote is ¦ openly coming out as an airy and supporter of Hitierism...
...The Swedish cooperatives alone can, of course, do little in fighting the big international monopolies, but in some cases we have been able to make the world-wide cartels behave—at least in Sweden...
...Talk about freedom to maneuver under these conditions is malicious mockery...
...Under the California SDE plan, information centers will be set up throughout the state in order to inform migrant workers with '•BPect to possible bonafide areas of employment...
...There are few vital archives affecting radical history abroad whkh he hasn't examined closely...
...Nicolaievsky is known to American readers for his biography "Karl Marx, Man and Fighter- asm the story ef «Aasf» the Spy...
...But now what is to become of it all...
...fa) For agreements to fix prices...
...The time is near when military operations' may take place in Turkestan and beyond the Caucasus...
...Z) For compelling the hiring of useless or unnecessary labor...
...This legend is not only a deceitful illusion— it is a dangerous fraud, f" * • i m T"HE assertion that the?e is no military alli-* anee between Stalin and Hitler is not true.-The only thing that can be stated definitely is that the official communication of the conclusion of such an alliance has not been made yet...
...We know that, secret diplomacy was not abolished by them and that only those . agreements are announced when such announcements suit their purpose...
...Paragraph 102...
...Cooperatives cannot be' run successfully by people who are illiterate -in economics, who do not even know the difference between bankruptcy and bank balance, or who do not understand what a , balance sheet is...
...Generations have worked for them...
...also, obviously, that production diminished and workers were discharged...
...Only then, when conditions develop into social shake-ups, when the enemy's country finds itself on the verge of revolution, only at that moment, according to Hitler's plan, will come the time for military action in tijfr-anrKTw flOH flt the word, in order to .destroy the enemy completely with one final, stroke...
...We believe the information not only because it is often mentioned in the . socialist press but also because such connections are only the logical consequence of the whole . political line of Stalinism...
...A Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court wrote that the restrictive control of private property because devoted to a public use "appears to me to destroy, for all useful purposes, the efficacy of the constitutional guaranty...
...The one-third will remain one-third, and If the national legislature remain* idle, wil...
...And if, despite this, he concluded a pact with this "absolute zero" it is because in the present war an army is not the only necessity...
...Hawaii, and Puerto Rice, will go unanswered forever...
...When their products were placed on the market at reasonable figures, the trust had to adjust its prices to the cooperative level...
...It was Taft who years later as Chief Justice (in holding that "business" was "property,'* like land) wrote: "The Constitution was intended, its Very purpose was, to prevent experimentation -with the fundamental rights of the individuals...
...Hitler was captivated, at least for .the first period of the war, by Stalin's readiness to put the whole apparatus of the Comintern into the service of disuniting the enemy in the rear...
...His more courageous expressions since then in f such cases as Morehead vs...
...The present war is totalitarian...
...New generations will continue this fight for liberty Tzvisting Sherman Congress' Laws Voided by Arnold In'Anti-Monopoly'Drive on Union...
...There is no doubt about the "dowry" Stalin brought with him in .signing the pact...
...We are fighting for the interest of the consumer...
...His task was especially difficult because the followers of the Comintern were™ brought up to hate Nazism...
...A.F.CurbCACRAMEN TO.—Surplus la-bor—keynote of the Associated Farmer structure for the exploitation of America's Okies—will be tackled on a statewide basis under the plan of the California SUte Department of Employment...
...If it Were previously axiomatic that every Communist must also be a chekist, then tomorrow we will find ' in the new edition of rules of Communist moralityja new directive: every orthodox Stalinist mqst render all possible aid to the fiesta pc...
...If through his trade union he succeds in ratsing bis income, and the cost of Bring rises ten-per cent,-he has gained nothing...
...HpOSSlBLY it is futile to speak of culture and democracy in Scandinavia now How-Fever, let us look for a moment at a Swedish worker...
...True, this apparatus underwent many purgings but still it is amazing that in not one of the European Communist parties was there not a majority, or even a considerable minority that revolted against the change of the political line...
...This desire to think for themselves does not, however, lead the Swedes to rugged individualism...
...Adult education in Sweden does not consist simply of lectures by university people who pour something IriMn their jug of knowledge into the skulls of their listeners...
...This article was written to Paris just before the Nazis invaded Norway...
...The 'l?gUbif:^^ being kept up only in France where Communist agitators continue to convince MmuNkj ' listeners that Stalinism is preparing a j0??4*| si ve battle against Hitierism, In other conn- ? tries this "legend" has been thrown away as I useless rubbish...
...Understanding of economic problems teaches the small man that he must necessarily join and work cooperatively with his compatriots if he is to solve his social problems...
...Many who could not reconcile themselves with the sudden transition from the "foremost fighter against international Nazism" to the role of a political, agent of this totalitarianism grasped at the salutary legend, calming with it their alarmed...
...Only one Who believes that Stalin and Hitler have abolished secret diplomacy and immediately announce all their agreements to the, world can conclude from this that no such pact exists...
...But ideals of democracy, peace and progress, common to America and Scandinavia, simply cannot be destroyed...
...USHA administrator, who declared that so action could be taken until Congress authorises further funds...
...Tipaldo (minimum wage), would indicate that today he would be found on the other side...
...The trust threatened to dump lamps into Sweden...
...True, Stalin can still bargain with Hitler and even haggle some concessions be..raweaihfrffWnc nff- wsth^-Staljhr isTiotTto Hitler's advantage for any reasons...
...That product has now has been brought within the easy reach of the average Swede, although some years ago it was fantastically overpriced...
...all this talk about the...
...From the firsrdays of the signing of the pact both these organizations were put to work to spread and confirm this legend* such importance did Hitler and Stalin place apon 3E« 'maneuver Nazi Propagandist...
...Tus simple and sell-evident fjfnto has led Swedish workers to safeguard their expenditures...
...that they have the obvious desire to fight for the consumer, and that they have a management that can get things done...
...With the help of his own agencies he can incite the hatred of "upper" society against the lower and with the help of Stalin's "dowry" to poison the "lower strata" against the upper...
...The Bulletin of the International Federation of Transport Workers, in the last issue asks why the "Yell...
Vol. 23 • April 1940 • No. 17
