Few Open Fights Expected as CIO Opens Fifth Convention
LORING, EDWARD
Few Open Fights Expected as CIO Opens Fifth Convention Leaders Keep Faction Fights From Floor By EDWARD LORING Special Correspondence to The New Leader BOSTON'.—With John L. Lewie out of the...
...During the coming two years, every sort of attack will be utilized...
...The party has not shown so much power since the hey-day of the LaFollette brothers...
...Will Rogers, Jr.'s, campaign had been harnessed by the Culbert Olson forces, Earl Warren's narrow margin which sent him to the state capital might have been cut down and eliminated...
...This is a sacred duty...
...Million8 of soldiers were _ far from voting-booths, and millions of workers had arrived too lately in munition centers to exercise their electoral privilege...
...The tide 'went out before the start of the campaign...
...The party was asking citizens to cast their ballots against the advice of Roosevelt and Lehman...
...What does it mean...
...Important CIO leaders were grim in their warning that any such effort would be fought "even if it meant letting the public in on what is happening in CIO today...
...For these reasons, interest in the great issues of the time must be sharpened...
...The least powerful of the group is union president Thomas, against whom a coalition of Reuther and Addes may be in the making...
...Oos . rationing...
...Signs are T»Ultiplying that French workers are preparing Wid resistance to help Allied strategy this win-*>r- German occupation of all France may...
...An Allied invasion cannot come too soon for them...
...The likelihood U that all will be quiet...
...The second front resolution is considered important to the left-wingers today because of the growing offensive in North Africa, it was said...
...James Carey, secretary...
...The.enemy is already in the field...
...It is only in tbe period of the next few months that we will really he able to make out the basic directions in American political life...
...Another fight is expected over the leftists' efforts to put CIO on record in favor of an immediate second front in Europe...
...More reasonable and intelligent Is the suggestion that ton many liberals hove tu ken the call for an end to Po...
...What positions it will take on many issues will be better known when the ennvOasiea is called to order by President Murray, the first CIO convention without the familiar ewegtj ¦ burly sight of John L. Lewis...
...Senator George W. Norrie, after 40 years of liberal achievement in Congress, ran a bad third in Nebraska...
...and others...
...There appear to be no other issues over which the enmity between the left-wing groups and the Murray bloc will break into a fight on the floor...
...This would mean further dispersal of German forces and the complete alienation of lukewarm Petainists...
...Dewey and Mr...
...French workers are also watching the African campaign...
...Interest was at the lowest ebb in the memory of the oldest citizen...
...Others will deal with ways and means for strengthening our organisation and extending its activities...
...There is much preparatory work to be done in order to make this gathering a fruitful one...
...when the time comes...
...It is reported that Addea is seeking such a deal...
...Polish Council Asks Exclusion of Jews The strength of reactionary, anti-Semitic and totalitarian elements in the Polish National Council—told in last week's New Leader—is demonstrated anew in virtual demands made recently by this group that the future Peace Conference exclude Jews from Poland and establish a Jewish State, where all Jews scattered throughout the world should be settled...
...By order of the National Executive Committee: August Claessens, Acting Natl Secretary...
...Bozek, in a speech stated: ". . . We shall need in the New Poland all the hands that can help to build it...
...Comrades: We can do great things if we have confidence in ourselves and toe old spirit of devotion to the cause...
...In fact, the most reactionary and internationally illiterate candidates had to promise active aupport of the Roosevelt war policies in order to be elected...
...But the Democratic majority is still large...
...And certain high-circle GOP psHtl—a gsbsed new support for 1944...
...It took courage for the leaders of tbe ALP to strike out in this State campaign with an independent ticket ahd a New Deal platform...
...President Roosevelt's leadership is unchallenged...
...Harold Hassen, with one eye on the White House and the other set Tom Dewey in Albany (and far ? time one foot in Nebraska in tbe anti-Nerris rnanpaten), was re-elected Minnesota governor...
...Results Show Liberals Snatch Imp't Victories in GOP Sweep By MATTHEW LOW With a few exceptions, notably the election of Hamilton Fish in New York and the high Michigan write-in vote for Gerald L. K. Smith, the election contests involving special interests and stakes held by various liberal, progressive and labor groups throughout the country showed a heartening strength against the conservative and reactionary sweep in America...
...Some of these will bear on vital questions of policy on which your National Executive Committee wishes to elicit an opinion of the membership...
...Chicago almost turned back Stephen Day and C. Wayland Brooks, but down-state forces shifted the tide...
...In Michigan, Harry« Kelley was sent to the state capital and Homer Ferguson to the U. S. Senate...
...National Office, S.D.F...
...cried the Big Money...
...To the members of this party, to the campaign workers under the leadership of Mr...
...If some of the vigor and real political drive that went into Lieut...
...Why should the people be so mad at meT" N orris asked...
...It has attained far mere than a bargaining position...
...The pro-Communists were known to have planned to increase their second front activities in the event of a successful offensive anywhere but Northern France...
...In tbe Connecticut ? ace...
...We mutt do these things, and we must do them now...
...He spoke for the great masses of people in this country who want * continuing and expanding New Deal...
...we shall need the Jews then as we needed them centuries ago...
...made a lively showing...
...For now it is quite deaf, however, that the elections had no such principled Character as the GOP—claiming "protest of the war conduct"—likes to make out...
...Another member of the Polish National Council, Mr...
...But there can be no doubt over the growing differences which are being emphasized now that Lewis, the common enemy, has left the CIO to dabble in A FL politics...
...Strong influence is being exerted on Murray by leaders of the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists, the interests of which are not exactly compatible with those of the leftists...
...He second front...
...Tbe political lines for a freer, more progressive America, and a freer,' more democratic, world have to be drawn sharper, dearer, more linmli takaste...
...The jtay-at-home vote deserves a good deal of whatever credit or blame is to be allotted...
...John Green, head of the Shipbuilders, and R. J. Thomas an hopeful they can keep the public from becoming aware of internal squabbling...
...Altogether, the Republicans gained ? seats in the House and obtained 9 more in the Senate, in addition to electing a numhei' ef (tnvernors in more or less key states...
...The pro-Communist unions, which are numerically abundant but weak in votes because their memberships have decreased sharply, were expected today to lose in any contest with Murray...
...Crazy propaganda stunts...
...A post-war Poland, where political, cultural and economic democracy will prevail, will also provide the means of solving the problems of the Jewish population of Poland...
...Elections by the pesple Will then teh another story...
...tries...
...It has become an independen t power with a future limited only by its courage and . its imagination...
...And for governor...
...Bennett conducted a contest that was a perfect example of conventional political vacuity...
...They expressed their confidence in A« recent strikes which shook the Laval government and compelled the Nazis to withdraw fteir demand for a French manpower conscrip-apn program for German industry...
...In Pennsylvania, Governor-elect Edward Martin vowed "to maintain an .undying hostility against the dangerous doctrines of the New Deal...
...Reuther, prominent, popular and capable, appears to be in control of 40 per cent of the U.A.W...
...Alex Rose, to Dean Alfange, the candidate for Governor, and to the other candidates all the way down the line, the people of this state owe a great debt of gratitude...
...It is up to labor groups, liberal groups, forward-looking and intelligent groups everywhere to take one look at what happened in New York and organise for action...
...Those leaders privileged to speak for CIO command strong influence in government, industrial and political circles throughout the country —but especially ?? Tike highly intfuetrySrnW centers and in Washington...
...The most powerful forces of reaction are unlimbering to take the nation over...
...It was a lining up of.men and women with positive purposes and a definite idea of what they wanted and how to get it...
...The faith in the voters was justified by the results...
...This was something far different from garnering votes for Roosevelt, Lehman and LaGuardia...
...ALP Success Points Way for independent Political Action THE most inept word used in description of Tuesday's election is tidal wave...
...In New York more than 400,000 voters turned out to register an independent third-party' vote for the American Labor Party's Dean Alfange, snubbing Thomas Dewey, and directly rejecting Farley's man Friday, John Bennett...
...And victory it was, for the strength of the liberal-labor independent political voter, it is clearly apparent to all, can not be neglected with impunity...
...Sniped Brooks: "The people will not stand for the President's destruction of the Four Freedoms at home...
...We face bitter years of war and the arduous tasks of post-war reconstruction...
...The United Automobile Union is typical...
...Bennett...
...Disputes have arisen over the enmity of the left wing towards James Carey...
...David ? an sell polled some fifteen thousand votes...
...Dean Alfange, Charles Poletti, Joseph- O'Leary...
...Look at New York...
...It is obvious that the pro-fascist and anti-Semitic elements which form so large a bloc in the Polish government-in-exile are not to be swerved from their reactionary views...
...With ten or eleven million members on their rolls, they have stood by while some of their best friends were defeated and their worst enemies were elected...
...The Mine., Mill and Smelter Workers is split wide open by an election campaign which threatens the contrd of Reid Robinson...
...The election of 1944 will be one of those supreme struggles in which* destinies are determined...
...Balkan Guerillas Await Invasion, And British Campaigns By S. L. SOLON \Speeul Cable to The New Leader LONDON, England, November 4.—Our guerrilla allies in the Balkans are striking hajrf against Axis occupation troops and Bulgarian mercenaries, according to reports reaching here...
...T*HESE are portentous times...
...With a candidate who s t a r te d from scratch, it enrolled nearly half a million followers for a dynamic and unfolding New Deal...
...the present regime...
...Military leaders '•Wit remember that our forces are waiting to join them on the mainland, so that we too must be counted as part of their strategy...
...But for every such member, there are scores of earnest sympathizers and hundreds of persons who, though strangers to our movement, are independently thinking their way towards our position...
...Whatever tide there was observable ran away from politics...
...The majority, of the Polish National Council, headed by its President Stanyslaw Grabsky, were activated by their anti-Semitic viewpoint that all Jews, including those whose families have lived in Poland for many centuries, are foreigners and must be ousted, Polish democratic elements charged...
...With the young men in absentia and large numbers of workers disfranchised, the Republicans increased their number of Governors, Representatives and Senator^ Some of the worst men were returned to Congress and some of the best were defeated...
...With this in view, your National Executive Committee is calling a National Conference, to meet in New York City, Friday to Sunday, January 22 to 24, 1943...
...The most strategic union of oil, Sidney ? ill man's Amalgamated Clothing Workers, is now the most stable and influential is CIO...
...What Would happen to Hitler's troops in France then *ould parallel the situation of Napoleon's forces ni Moscow—there would be a loss of military *»n, and they would become, in Tolstoy's phrase, "neither soldiers nor civilians but uneasy marauders...
...Though hungry they have prepared for their role...
...Torn four ways by supporters of the Communists, backers of Walter Reuther...
...Alfange brought into the discussion ideas and convictions...
...In a year — in two years — it may attract a million...
...Harry Bridges baa began Ms long threatened drive to move east and attempt to invade the jurisdiction of the Brte.il and · Wholesale workers...
...Howard Murray, political science professor at the University, was effectively aided by the Union for Democratic Action campaign...
...who two years ago received, only 18,000 Votes, came back this election with mors than thirty thousand...
...The fact that a majority of the Polish National Council could be persuaded tb vcftfe for a motion introduced by an anti-Semitic party member, a motion whose object is to exclude Jews from post-war Poland, confirms the charges made in last week's New Leader regarding a threat to a democratic post-war Poland...
...Reports will be submitted accompanied by drafts of resolutions to serve as a basis of discussion and action...
...Such leaders as Philip Murray, president...
...I am firmly convinced that the Jews of Poland are not homeless...
...They can learn an important lesson from what has happened here...
...In the curious swing away throughout the country from the Administration Democratic incumbents, a whole series of reactionary cliques found their opportunity...
...Our first task is to draw these sympathizers into our organization and to carry its message to the masses who are prepared to receive it...
...Socialist Jasper McLevy...
...Greeks and Yugoslavs by the tens of thou-»ands are ready for this step...
...For New York State the American Labor Party has laid the basis for success in this crucial struggle...
...If we had had an American Labor Party in every industrial state, the Wednesday morning story would have been a different one...
...Activity is most intense throughout Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania and the Greek mountains...
...Shsv^eiaat^oi Jrsstiss Brown, New Deal stalwart, is being gloated over...
...Soc/?/ Democrats Issue Call for Nat'l Convention The following call for a national convention was issued this week by the Social Democratic Federation: To Social Democratic Groups and Individual Members: Although we American Social Democrats have not, and at this time cannot have, a national political party in the strict sense of the term, we have a function to perform, we have an organization and we have a public which shares our views and objectives...
...If any effective steps are to be taken, it must be done now...
...The National Maritime Union is split by a quarrel between two Communist leaders...
...rtics-as-usual as an easj way out of the heated strife of New Deal days...
...The .".0-odd thousand which Gerald Smith picked up in the Brown - Ferguson race was a grim reminder of how close to the prospect of Senator Gerald L. ? Smith America had been when Smith lost out in the primaries...
...snapped the general-store pundits...
...One of Congress' most bitter anti-labor leaders was removed in the California defeat of Leland S. Ford...
...This will not be a formal delegate convention...
...But individual Social Democrats will also be welcome, especially those who live tw unorganized places...
...The most encouraging^fact about the ALP vote was fits consistessb...
...Since control ef CIO's opinions has become no mean) prise, the many factions here are lining up for a fiffct on many issues...
...And in Wisconsin election day saw the abrupt end of Lewis Thill's reactionary career in Congress...
...Even experienced observers are unaware of the growing ACTU influence in CIO . Many of the leaders here are too harassed by internal power politics in their own unions to worry too jfiuch over CIO routine affairs...
...I am not an anti-Semite, never was and never shall be...
...Murray has told intimates he would make an open battle agajnst such a resolution...
...For the labor and liberal part of the population—for the citizens who want to apply intelligence to the government and to the conduct of the war—the lesson of this plebiscite is so dear that it can not be dimmed out by the repetition of platitudes...
...The Transport Workers Union membership has fallen sharply...
...The forces that were Moving and shaping the tides in and out of office can not yet be made out...
...R. J. Thomas and George Addes, the union is the scene of bitter quarreling for power...
...Individuals who hope to attend and participate are also requested to write this office without delay...
...One prominent Greek told me: "The sooner an incision comes the better because if we have to IWe much longer under Axis starvation we will ·* too physically devitalized to play a fighting ?1...
...With leadership and organization they can play a decisive part in tbe continuing struggle, of which this election was little more than a curtain-raiser...
...7 East ISth Street, New York City BUY WAR BONDS AMD STAMPS...
...The trade unions were for the meat part notably ineffective in this contest...
...To the New York ALP must go enormous credit for putting significance into a campaign which would otherwise have been nothing more than a long drawn-out stupidity...
...State and local organizations end Women's Committees of the Social Democratic Federation are urged to choose delegates at once and notify the Acting National Secretary...
...The Democratic headquarters were steeped in gloom, and as the tally of 409,000 came in, Alfange commented pointedly, "We have won our victory...
...Unless the left-wing unions agree to abandon their position a scrap appears inevitable...
...The Albanian risings against Italy are another sign that the Balkan crisis is boiling over: Albanians are attacking the Fascist forces of occupation under fighting leaders like Muslim Pexa,,' Mouhiirrem Bayerkters, former police chief -igif?.Albania, Ibrahim Barci...
...The Axis policy of burning Mosques with wor-»hippers inside has aroused bitter hatred among Muslims and now former religious feuds between Mohammedans and Christians have vanished in the common fight against the Fascists...
...He represented all of us who see in this war something more than a fight for mere self-preservation...
...It is hoped that every organized group in the country will send at least one accredited delegate...
...The course of events at home and abroad has verified our theories...
...Campaigns have always disguised the real relation of forces rather than brine them into focus...
...The entire Balkans are following passionately ole fight now raging in the Egyptian desert, for they believe that once the Axis is vanquished there Allies can control the Mediterranean and open operations in the European Mainland, perhaps through Italy and Greece simultaneously...
...Few Open Fights Expected as CIO Opens Fifth Convention Leaders Keep Faction Fights From Floor By EDWARD LORING Special Correspondence to The New Leader BOSTON'.—With John L. Lewie out of the scene, CIO chiefs have been conferring in the Hotel Statler here for several days in an effort-to keep former allies from attacking each other on the floor of the fifth Annual CIO Convention, which opens here Monday...
...Wherever the New Deal labor and liberal voters were organized and courageously led, they got results...
...The motion was passed by the Polish National Council...
...More than four hundred thousand lined up, announced themselves aa Labor Party people, the core of an independent, permanent political army...
...throughout the country is a bewildering question, "rligh income taxes...
...A lot of the Hollywood and Industrial big money was backing Leland Ford, who had been a very "useful" man...
...Governor Julius Heil, a shrewd, reactionary politico, was heavily favored, and Loomis' Progressive plurality came in most cirles as a surprise...
...Through information received from the American Representation of the General Jewish Workers Union of Poland, it was learned that the sponsor of this motion was Mrs...
...Let us put our shoulders to the wheel one and all, and make our movement what it ought to be...
...Our Social Democratic Federation has only a few thousand members...
...complained the Sunday drivers...
...Perfunctory gesture* will be made towards labor peace, but little more, for no one is yet ready for that move...
...locale...
...in which Clare Booth Luce, of the Time-Life fortune, was sent to Congress...
...Here and there, independent lestaltet candidate...
...The present guerrilla campaign by the Greeks ? effectively assisting the British Eighth Army by hitting important Axis communication s between Salonika and Athens which are im-p ? r t a ? t for Marshal Rommel's supplies and reserves for his Afrika Korps...
...moaned the Communists...
...In Wisconsin the victory of Orland Loomis in the gubernatorial election is a signal triumph for the liberal forces...
...Adam Ciokosz, a member of the Council and prominent leader of the Polish Socialist movement, sta'ted: "From the analysis of the motion that was presented concerning the Polish Jews, reactionaries derive the following: "1—The Jews of Poland are a nation without a country, therefore a homeless nation...
...I would not want my country to be ashamed of its treatment of the Jews...
...The CIO today meets as a powerful organization of more than 5,000,000 members., virtually all of them in the nation's key defense indus...
...2—The problem of the Polish Jews can be solved only by settling them in their own country, bu establishing a Jewish State...
...Upsets w urban1 in their favor, too, as in the Oklahoma defeat of Senator Josh Lee, Administration sqppaitet...
...Tbe dangers and opportunities of political power must be dramatized...
...Statesmen and thinkers speaking for free peoples are now proclaiming ideals which have inspired us for decades...
...Alex Kahn— all of the state-wide candidates—drew their ten per cent of the entire number cast...
...This was no protest vote—no vote against Mr...
...Murray has not hidden his desire to rid CIO national headquarters of some left-wingers—NOT including Lee Pressman, however...
...Even now the New Deal program, the humanitarian ideals, the planning for better national and international life, are under vicious attack...
...Reports were persistent in Washington recently that the Communist-dominated unions were planning to "pang up on Carey...
...Their fatherland is oar Polish Republic...
...Where do we go from here...
...Zaleska, a member of the anti-Semitic Polish National Party...
...Ironically enough, the shortsighted AFL policy of regarding only labor records brought an endorsement of Day by William Green and the Illinois AFL...
...Look at Wisconsin...
...It is fortunate that tbe New York campaign attracted wide national attention...
...Tbe "why...
...However, it was also predicted here that they would attempt to push a second front resolution because of the intensity with which such a campaign is being directed by Communist circles here, in New York and in Washington...
...The Communists had supported Addes, but their own strength is weakening...
Vol. 25 • November 1942 • No. 45
