In Britain -A Report by Mark Starr
STARR, MARK
Labor Politics and Trade Unionism In Britain —A Report by Mark Starr By Mark Starr POMFARED to what 1 found in Ersglaod in.^939, the community at. iaW'1. British Labor in particular are full of...
...mediate implementation of the Butler report * I found little fear cf the phrases Sow»W public ownership and government i uluJSj'"5* owing to the increasing participation "J^K government in industry...
...The deal made with Anglo-American generals and diplomats did not compel Badoglio to go to war—it was the Italian .people inspired by Communists and the Red Army victories, according to Bates...
...Their escape rould have been impossible without the full .nd eager help of the Danish people and Danish ifficials...
...They have been found work st fan* and in hospitals...
...They orfsas** several People's Conventions in which the in perialhit war was denounced—coupled, of eesna with the exploitation of legitimate mdmtrf grievances felt by the workers in the...
...in whict Georgt Ps4*»jJ Bob Edwards, W G Cove...
...and there can similarly be little doubt that ?he German General Staff would not hesitate to take over Spain if they thought it would he in their interest to do so...
...Both Great Britain and the United States,have allowed precious opportunities of rescue for the hunted to be lost Thus, as early as February of this year, the Swedish press reported that the Jews in the Italian-held parts of France and the Balkans would face extermination if German occupation followed capitulation by the Italians, and if the Allies did not make an effort to rescue the Jews during the interregnum...
...The first advances the thesis that as fascist nations approach defeat, palace revolutions will take place such as that which overthrew Mussolini...
...The Germans -immediately imposed total occupation on France, and refused to set the children go...
...and Creech Jones MP The FaDiansnasf waa running summer schools anc nshbassl pamphlets and books...
...Henrik de Kaufmann, )anish Minister to the United States, reckons hat some 5,000 are Jewish...
...Bui what the Free German Committee aad German Officers' Club in Moscow propose with ike Kremlin'* blessing is precisely a palace reeobu tion in Germany...
...When I took these criticisms to the officers of the Labor Party and t© |2 men as Jimmy Middle ton, its secretary, they rejected them...
...from an imperialist to an anti-fascist war, and by the same token, if Russian diplomats sign s deal with a Darlsn, it is only s maramver to defeat him...
...lbs...
...Conservative journals like 7" *i e Osoerrer and The Economist as well as Conservative M-P's (Boothby...
...The Jews m these two countries are therefore eonfrcmtSd wttB a very real and very grim danger...
...Then, however, a combination of circumstances led to some relaxation of Swedish restrictions...
...We do, however, deeply regret -that there was not even one expression of anguish over the fste of fellow human beings and that the conference did not seem disturbed by the possibility that Hitler may not wait until his defeat to destroy every Jew now in his power, or who may at some time in the future, snd before his subsequent defeat, come into his power...
...Soso Dughashveli never reveals his twisting line to' his stooges— hence Bates denounced the suggestion that the Comintern should be dissolved just before Stalin "dissolved" it...
...They said that « blackout, overtime snd fire-watching sure all a big hindrance to running meetings in pre-war fashion...
...In the Labor Phfc they alleged, life was running very slowly and all too little propaganda vor\ hs* done...
...Democracy as the Villain MOW that Russia has an equal voice on the Allied Mediterranean Commission Stalin's mouthpieces urge a united front behind Badoglio...
...History is replete with instances of deals between Bolsheviks snd rear tionaries...
...Communication between the Iberian peninsula and United Nations territories is easy...
...Then came the landing of American troops in North Africa, before the transfer of the children had been accomplished...
...They put him in the same category as Louk Fischer, Harry Ward, and Ralph Bates, all fellow-txnwaWs who didn't hsve the guts to join the part...
...one in the October issue of The Protestant and the other in The Nation of October 23...
...The psychologists would say that such things usually go together...
...There are signs that the intense community of interest created by DunkifV k beginning to weaken a* various sections fall back to the older identity of interests bet wean member* of the same economic groups...
...I talked with quite a number of them and found that they had gained considerable insight and experience...
...Minister of Aircraft Pi •¦"»* tkm...
...The Escape of the Jews —Sweden's Example Shames Allied Powers fy MAX GOTTSCHALK [Dr...
...They said that labor was now securing immense prestige due to the fset that its representatives were serving in positions of great importance from the Cabinet down to local administrative committees, Instead of labor being unprepared, they said, the official party pledge was that a conferer :e would be called immediately upon the cessation of hostilities and then the Party could decide, through its accredited representatives, whether or not they should join with Churchill in s program of social reform, and a possible "coupon election," or whether they should appeal directly to the country and refuse to participate in any coalition...
...When the questions of the high cost of socisl security, improved education and higher standard of living were discussed, along with other controversial matters, the usual comment was: "Well, they found money for the war, didn't they...
...have been treated wkk care There so been no attempt to force them iatc the amy and hence no notoriety of martyrdoa give* n them...
...His only real complaint is that Russia did not participate as an equal in the consummation of the Darlar, and Badogolio deals...
...If Labor wins the pnat a si election, then will come the crucial teat...
...While I was is sSPM the Picture Pott (the English equivahan % Lift) ran a big picture spread dealing who . Fsbkn Summer School...
...From tin* » time, hundreds of executives, siaaaiot*, anV nieians, skilled craftsmen and shop stewards ap called together to discuss ways and sans* a increasing output Just as here, some of those committasj a» productive of good suggestions, is other s> stances they exist only on paper, psrttcnlshy h sreas which suffer from s hangover ef <g dustrial bitterness...
...In the army study groups visited, there was a widespread cynicism about the sincerity of politicians and their promises...
...Atthe present tffne it is estimated that there ar^ C^JOOO refugees on Swiss soil, of whom 20,000 are Jews who have almost all entered "illegally...
...Outstanding, of course, is the work of Ernest Bevin as Minister of Labor and National Service and the work of Herbert Morrison as the Home Secretary...
...Yet the...
...GottscrMthYik* director of the Research Institute on Peace and Postwar Problems of The Amerispsr Jewish Committee...
...Thu ssfisas,J| many instances, were able to rtport loss sf nw put dus to improper planning if the *fursnbif| In the week ending September 2...
...In two short weeks Sweden opened her doors o more than twice as many Jewish refugees as tad been admitted since the black year of 1933...
...their grievances...
...How many are still living today ? At the prespnj, time it is conservatively estimated that there are sepieSJXIO Jewish refugees in the Iberian peninsula...
...Even the best-intenfibned authorities are not always able to act sb generously as they would like...
...regularly called both sides together ¦ order to step up productivity...
...Moreover they gave me a big collection of pamphlets to show their plans and' to Indicate the research which had already been done...
...The Common Wealth group receives a disproportionate amount of its income from two rich men who have tried to found a new social order, advocated in moral terms...
...Herbert Morrison's published speeches on education and the .'-tare control of industry mark him out as the future leader of the Labor Party...
...Their evil conspiracies are defeated only by the democratic people's movements acting in cooperation with the Soviet Union...
...Given the fact-finding aad preparation, the or ran nation activity and the propaganda, aad the development of tke will te psweiv hsber can make the earning peace its great opportunity My final word k the bepe that we m the United 'States can keep step with British labor ia ear internal pringress and cooperate unwary.in onmbinod operations on a worldwide scale...
...i00 othei refugees, mostly Norkaguui...
...Use Comintern utilized the services of those writers, but despised them as cowards and confused leftliberals unwilling to undergo discipline and sacrifice for the cause, and not to be trustee At any time they might turn and attack the CP.—as F*ischer has done since, as Bates did, briefly, over the Stalin-Hitler pact...
...Nevertheless, the Swissi authorities, with the enthusiastic support and encouragement of the Swiss people, have received them in as generous a manner as possible, in view of the decided food difficulties of a country cut off from the sea and entirely surrounded by Nasi territory...
...Ralph Bates Plays Sancfco Panza to Stalin's Don Quixote Remission to Moscow By USTON M. OAK PROPAGANDISTS have a familiar trick—to * force facts, half-truths, and lies into simple, pat formulae...
...British Labor in particular are full of hope and vigor...
...Bates has had only one serious quarrel with the Kremlin in his long-career as a Soviet propagandist...
...I checked with some of the en*-** miners in Penrhiwceiber, GisroorgsasUhP...
...these reactionaries will be supported by British and American imperialists (again, not F.D.R...
...The latest such deal is with de Gaulle, product of the ultrs-resctionsry school of St Cyr, ex-monarchist, authoritarian megalosxanical opportunist cloaked himself in magaiftcieace, striking s heroic pose as the fihrer of the French people— all of them from the Crois de Feu to the Communist Party...
...SiM»n...
...ever, this was neither very evident rr the p**& prints nor in any organised mc»etnoit Tfc consciestious objectors, compered wrth tht ia| war...
...Apparently clsuns for sum mum wages had been disregarded and repanfj delays had created irritations which resuHsd f sn unofficial strike...
...Of all countries, Switzerland has probably been most consistently humane, for it has never ceased serving as a haven of refuge for those wh^would otherwjee face swift or slow murder...
...Thus the majority if the estimated 8,000 Jews in Denmark just wfore total German occupation—6,000 native ifid 2,000 refugees — have been rescued by Iweden.' As a Scandinavian country, Sweden was at trjst1 interested in the safety of the Danish Jews, iut all Jews fleeing Denmark, both native and efugee, were welcomed...
...Most hopeful was the rejuveratien *f A Fabian Society under men like Jobs Px-to M.P., G. D. Cole, Harold J. Laaki, Jim Grift*) PP...
...7"key urge a deal with fferman Junker*, Prussian officer*, big indwsfs alibis and banker*, who are willing te eoQahsmu under Communist rommutart rn the eet+bluf ment of a pro-Russian regime te 1 siWUsW not Germany, rn dose alliance with the USSR- This the Kremlin offers a* the alternative to Wnoanditional surrender, disarmament, and dissasmberment...
...TUB general attitude of our politicians and publicists in the United States to Great Britain is a very strange combination of cocksoreness and infei'hnity...
...Laval was willing to have them leave...
...The Danish Jewish community, although 300 years oM, was relatively small...
...editor of The Tribune, and to the Cn*LWealth group—they said that labor had kmt its soul...
...A party in sight of power must be responsible and careful in making promises...
...Just now it is trying to build a new Socialist International...
...It waa difficult uojiSai consistent story about labors future prospects...
...Niels Bohr, the great atomic physicist and Nobel Prize winner, is one of the Danish Jews who found safety in Sweden via rowbost The history of the Danish Jewish community abounds in many other names hardly less illustrious...
...She gives no such credit to the strstegy of Roosevelt and ChurchilL Bruce Bliven of the New Republic likewise reflects this portrayal of the western democracies as the villains of the plot, while the totalitarian state plays the heroic role of savior of democracy...
...Stun nved ia England and worked m the British Labor movement until 1*15 He »i» ia London when wsr wss decUroa a Ills He was seat as s voluntary speeiter t» st sorts of meetings, to viait wasteless urn < education...
...In, those years the countries into which persecuted Jews were most readily admitted, with Jfittle reference to existing immigration statutes and quotas, were Belgium, France, Holland, ¦ Luxembourg and Switzerland...
...Russia plays the.game of power politics verymuch as other nations play it...
...In their eyes, Russia "changed the character of the war...
...The workers are ssspssse* that something smart will be pulled resensns| company unions...
...It k true that the Fabian Society has issued a book on the American saber movement but thk has not been widely circulated...
...Y ? and ithar er3 of the Labor Party write—all do "*'—^ 3 rational work but have little numerical ftrsssS They repeat the pattern of the g-eet mtm2 of small groups exercised in Br tain by 2 S.L.P, I.L.P., Fabian Society, and the \a:a*g Guide League...
...How many of the Jews that could have been, rescued, but were not, have been able to avoid death at the hands of the Nazis...
...OWED EN and Switzerland, while neutral in the military fight against Nazism, have unequivocally manifested their solidarity with its victims...
...zee cesei movement was that in the early stages, seam June 1941, the opposition to the wet was is a* control of the Communist Party...
...You should read Sir Richard Acland's Unter Kampf (Penguin special) for details...
...At the conference it was incessantly-repeated that rescue of the Jews of Europe can be accomplished only through the defeat of Hitler...
...While I was in Britain, Common Wealth announced that it would run Tom Wintringham—tall, bald, military expert and ex-Communist—at the St...
...Unfortunately, thst solidarity esnaot be said to have always characterized the actions of Great Britain and the United States, powers in the forefront of the life-and-death straggle with Nazism...
...Explaining Russian acceptance of the Bsdoglio regime as s co-belligerent, she says that "while Stalin formally acquiesces in the status quo, he is helping to prepare the way for its ultimate collapse...
...It was won against the will of the Anglo-American enemiesof-democracy...
...Nations forces is an invitation for the Germans to occupy Portugal itself if they can...
...He is far more dsngeroos than that old-fashioned militarist snd monarchist, Giraud...
...The Tribune group, said to be financed by G. S. Strauss MP, are regarded as brilliant but unreliable gadflies...
...They enouraged- jkbose in danger to rind refuge on wedisji^ao'i...
...The deportaion ship* were' waiting in Copenhagen harbor, nd iijtmSxl?n.t*>h nth was preferable to Poland, 'hen showhWedHih government and people perjrmt'i a»-act of which they and their fellow len may..long continue to be proud...
...The strategy of coalition political and military warfare will not be vastly different from Anglo-American strategy...
...Sweden's present action is therefore in rather t sharp contrast to her practice of the 1930's...
...Yesterday's "reactionaries" will be tomorrow's "progressive heroes...
...beginning in 1918—too msny to summarize...
...Ralph Bates, novelist, critic, political theoretician, is particularly persuasive...
...The employers era afraMOm their managerial control will be ondersnhsl However, in the vital aircraft prodiMEja ¦» Stafford Cripps...
...with no thought given to the great Langer involved...
...1938 was- marked by Herschel GTynszpa'n's shooting of yom Rath in Paris, and the subsequent "spontaneous retaliation" against 'the Jews in Germany...
...About 6,000 persons secretly and erilqusjy made thejr way across the waters eparating Denmark and Sweden in every kind f boat that they found available...
...and was * cans* eshshr* bJk sprin gsnd summer when his apsemtsMSt ss adult educational director tar KewTsfk City was stopped by resetionsries -Os the Board of Edbcstien...
...Communists and fellow-travelers are clever at this form of deception...
...ansa (The Peace Mobilisation campaani v»» * Amer equivalent...
...Bates is a not-so-innocent agent of a foreign power—and one who is scorned by hk master...
...However for the Labor movement in both countries there are definite constructive lines for co-operative action...
...The Allies did not make that effort...
...Labor men are to be found in most of the government offices...
...Churchill had iaboriiS pocket and would ditch it for his Tories when the convenient moment a-os* i critics said thst labor was not preparing any plans for peace...
...I tried hard to find the strength «f to pacifists in wartime Britain...
...Aneurin Bevan...
...In his article in The Protestant, Bates, writes that the palace revolution is a device Intended to defeat impending people's revolutions...
...It has frowned upon independent candidates at elections, even supporting the Tories upon such occasions...
...IN April, 1943, in response to the demands of * public opinion in Great Britain and this country, the British and American governments sent delegates to consider the refugee problem st a Bermuda Conference...
...Transatlantka JLj A B K *** STARR, far 7 weeks in A ¦ g a s t and September, was part of the intellectual lendlease carried en by the I. S. Office ef Wsr.IafeiWtisa...
...b» 17 factories were visited, and !«rnsi Interviews were arranged...
...life He spok* st 53 leeetipg...
...As in the United States since the middle of 1941 the Communist Party has been asking for full support for all-out war effort and for the Labor Party...
...Hogg) recognise the need for coniinued government controls...
...to get an interchange of the administrators and sduoalun of the cooperative movement carrying on a twoway traffic: to set up workers' summer schools which will be international in their scops, so far as their student body goes, and to have courses specifically dealing with the history, tactics and problems of the unions in their respective countries...
...as Bates himself says...
...and British Tories gleefully make deals with Darlans, Badoglios, not only as military expedience and political opportunism, but because they plan to keep such ex-fascists in power to crush revolutions...
...but doubtless there wan sthk individuals less well known...
...There is a germ of truth in this theory to give it plausibility...
...as a weapon against the people and against the democratic policies of Russia...
...The Labor Party and the ^"fl Union Congress, despite some imli'hlsul pM tests inside their ranks, have refused ts P*| petuate the inefficiency of denominational **2 and demand, as ir the case of BeverlJhwV...
...Mew ef ah time there was spent in workshop csasnan snd in army cssap...
...institutions, sad to ssjp*si ' representative* of British pehurai 1ST soda...
...Any deal that the joint Advisory Council or other commission may find expedient will be okay by Browder and Bates —by virtue of Russia's participation...
...Again, in the early months of 1942, the United States Committee for the Care of European Children was atteropting to bring 5,000 Jewish children from unoccupied France to the United States...
...The tabloid Sunday Pictorial urged Bevin to nationalise the mines...
...One need not defend AngloAmerican Tories in atticking Stalinist hypocrisy...
...His themesong runs: the American State Department (not F.D.R...
...Against these vile plots stands Stalin, a knight in shining armor, inspiring the underground heroes in their fight for democracy...
...That was over the Stalin-Hitler deal...
...Georg Bnmdes, that monumental ¦ figure in nineteenth century literary crili' cism,' hsd Cohen for one of his middle names...
...One fact Li omitted altogether — the Kremlin is ready, no less than Washington and London, to do business with whstever elements in enemy countries are useful, to help win the wsr speedily, gain state controt, avoid eaaea, prevent starvation and civil war...
...The only wen-knows prenpnent advocate of a negotiated J. Chivies MP...
...Of these 6,000, Mr...
...500 Jews still reAtam in danger spots frolft wmaTtffey* could readily be removed...
...Albans by-election on the issues of the second front, Arj?k>Soviet collaboration in war and peace, and the failure to encourage a people's revolution in Italy...
...One reason why there wss no organ...
...Freds Kirchwey in The Sation of October 30 echoes Bates' serene fsith in the Great Democrat, Stalin...
...I . P"AKLY- in Ootobec, 1943, the entire Jewish population of Denmark was desperately -listing about for ways to flee deportation to 'oland^at the hands of the Nazis...
...There were varying estimates of Britain's role in the post-war world...
...It.k true that owing to the Scab Charter and apathy on the part of some unions, only two million union member* pay the political levy, hat thai k now receiving attention...
...But it is because we feel that too often unimaginative''and cold bureaucratic decisions have prevailed over the commands of genuine human feeling that we have thought it desirable to cite the recent attitudes and acts of the peoples of Denmark and, in particular, of Sweden...
...Already the Daily Worker is singing a new tune and Bates will join in the chorus...
...This theory-pattern appears in two recent articles by Bates...
...The slsrtnoal trues was particularly unfair to Labor for over million popular votes in 1936 only gave it lid MP's as compared with 387 MP's secured by the Conservatives for a little loss than 10H million votes...
...Waf imposes grim necessities on everyone...
...Perhaps he might not have condemned that infamous pact if Pal Joey had taken him into confidence and shown him that it really was only a clever maneuver to deal a death blow to Hitlerism...
...Borp in s Welsh coal town, Mr...
...The Vatican will cooperate with them...
...Portugal's temporary cession of the Azores to the Unites...
...The ABC A and NFS discussions in which I participated did not go far in implementing either the improvement of exkting organisations or the creation of new ones...
...Nevertheless, some of the Danish who have contributed most to the culture of the world ' and 'the glory of their country have been Jewish...
...Unfortunately for Ralph...
...The cure for thk k, for example, to get the research man working for the American unions to meet rf archer* employed by the Brtkh unions...
...Their purpose, in Germany, will be to save themselves from total defeat and punishment for their crimes...
...The English workers know iittie at all about the New Deal and the great strength and recognition won by Labor...
...but in order to enter these two countries the refugee, when he has succeeded in entering, has always had to wait for long and eeatplicated formalities to be resolved...
...THE Independent Labor Party, led by Brock* way, has suffered continually from internal divisions, and as it has decreased in size, ha* increased its revolutionary fervor for turning the war into a war against the capitalists...
...When I talked to the ex^renwfl —for example...
...reaortao big undertone of discontent against mHturj discipline and a deep longing for peace lap...
...There is'a plan, under OWI auspices, for the interchange of four representative workers from wartime industries who will exchange their positions in the United States with those of their opposite number* in Britain...
...The American authorities, after long negotiations, had agreed to grant the necessary visas...
...Just ss after the heroism displayed in s mine disaster by manager and miners there comes the division ef interests about compensation for lives lost and injuries suffered...
...are at-present in Sweden ) * * * JEWISH refugees in substantial numbers did !r> twf begin to arrive in Sweden until late in 1968.- Before that time the Swedish immigration laws, as restrictive as those of any other country, had prevented the entry of large num•"bers-ef Jews...
...x...
...1*HE bold reorganisation of the school sysnOh * proposed by the Butler report i* criticised by the Catholics who wish W ssraaj government support for their parochial scssna| The Anglicans are willing to relegate daw™ tional teachings u voluntary eot-of agencies...
...But the facts are distorted by BaUs et al, over-simplified and exploited for Communist partisan purposes...
...were some 20,000 workers out on strike—MJ miners, 4,000 shipwrights snd 9JB*0 t* tUg machinists...
...Now that the three great powers have reached accord at the Moscow Conference, doubtless Bates will view such future deals in a different light...
...While dining at the Metropole in Moscow on November 7, 1936, with a group of American and Russian Communists of some important-* I was surprised at the vehemence with which the comrades castigated Maurice Hindus, who was at an adjoining table...
...The decisions actually arrived at have to this day not been made public, so we cannot pass fiaal judgment on the conference...
...As proof Bates cites the case of Badoglio, who tried to crush the impending Italian revolution and its demand for unconditional surrender and war against the Nazis...
...On the other hand, many American workers would benefit from a. closer contact with the ideas and methods of British Labor It will be tragic if the progressive forces in Britain are uninformed of the piogi—sU* tendencies here and continue to look upon Uncle Sam as' an imperialistic ogre in rivalry with outmoded John Bull...
...When Hitler atawki Stalin, that line, of course, was share* sad sn pacifist movement quickly disappeared A MONG the signs of wartime strain an tk unofficial strikes which continually hrsst out Of course the majority of the workart alt continuing their all-out effort and that M ¦ the United States is not news...
...Longs in the western governments, who fear democracy and socialism more than they hate fascism...
...The Left Sew*, organ of the Left Book Club (Victor Gollanz, Harold J Leski, John Straehey), the SocianWif*] guard Group and the Socialist Claris* Qg3 (publishing Letbe-r D^rw^i, Notes] ka3 journal cailed L*ft...
...In that year, too, Sweden^, participated in the Evian Conference, called aC •'President Roosevelt's suggestion to consider the 'refugtee problem, and in the Intergovernmental "'Committee on Refugees thereafter set up in ' London...
...of liberals...
...The influential London Time* fevered the continuance of regulation...
...These arrivals are also "illegal...
...But while Freda and Bruce are true innocents, displaying the persistent aarvet...
...From the point • of view of total numbers admitted, Palestine and...
...There are too many Vansittarts and Breckinridge...
...people like Badoglio will seize state power and negotiate peace...
...It is reported that an average of sixty Jews per day, braving the hardships of mountain crossings, are still arriving in Switzerland from France...
...When the British lamer Party drafts s report showing how they aril replace tke old world with the new society (and that report has been made available here to us by the League for Industrial Democracy), it dees so in the expectation that labor will Sana the next British government...
...Likewise, the abrogation of Vichy decrees in North Africa, the freeing of arui-fascists from conctntration camps, the inclusion of de Gaulle ii\ the French Committee of National Liberation, the ousting of Vichite traitors, in fact, all reform following the Darlan deal, is to be credited solely to the benign influence of Russia and the masses, this theory holds...
...The British Labor Movement has not only plans but power...
...Starr is educational director *f tbt ILGWU...
...It would help to hare labor attaches with a full status who could serve as a two-way traffic in information about what the Labor movement k thinking and doing in the United States and in Britain...
...the United States are the two most important...
...There mm m editor of s Northern labor paper vtio ttiS (*> that he was above the battle an...
...There can be no question of labor's high prestige at the present moment...
Vol. 26 • November 1943 • No. 45
