ALERT!
ALERT! Dedicated to an expose of all totalitarian enemies of democracy The WFTU and Slave Labor By Robert J. Watt A. f. ol /.. International Representative IT it nearly two yearn nince the...
...In fact, I would urge that wherever work camps are being utilized for the employment of political prisoners, inter, national supervision should be used to determine that humanitarian conditions are in effect...
...However, it was not so illogical as It might sof-m because the three controlled most of the voting power anyway...
...Chen Tu-hsiu, its leader nntil 1928, waa also a member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International...
...I propose that labor unions participate actively in such international supervision...
...It will be a great surprise if this suggestion is adopted by the WFTU, and even greater if the WFTU proposal brings action in all ths countries to which it is addressed...
...The material for refutation is voluminous, hut a particularly well-informed and cogent analysis of the role of the Chinese CP is furnished by Bertram 1...
...Even (hough the war was Mill raging in Europe and Asia, the long-delayed but much-heralded meeting brought together some good, tough-minded trade unionists and also the labor representatives of international Communism...
...This forced march to the Russisn border it what is described by White and Jacoby [editor't nvtr: In their recent book Thunder Out of China] at a virtual 'severing of ties' with Moscow I...
...Under Paragraph 11 of that report, the representatives of the Russian labor organization, the British TUC and other participating organizations declared: "In the view of this world conference, the employment of German labor if used in restoration work must be placed under international supervision "with trade union participation in the determination of labor standards in a way thut will not reduce the standards of other workers...
...Labor everywhere matt fc« troe' out of tuch a conglomeration merely by wishful thinking...
...They contend that any organisation which purports to represent 70,000,000 workers is LUtomatically a splendid institution...
...The American Federation of Labor Insisted that slave labor should never ba used, and that the employment of slave labor for reparations would have the effect of punishing those least guilty for the tint of those who had held them enslaved for the past dozen years...
...Thus the Canton uprisings of 1928 was directed by the Russian (Georgian) Ix>minadze, the German Heinz Neumann, and the onetime Hungarian Minister of War, Pogany (pseudonym: John Pepper...
...the Communists fled to Central China...
...To prevent a complete blowup - or blowout—-at the beginning, the procedure was established whereby, in effect, agreement of these three war required liefora the delegates would met their votes...
...which were supposed to represent the considered judgment of the Inst and most progressive leaders present...
...All of the Party's leaders have been, and still are, commuters between Moscow anil China...
...were included...
...No one could deny that the WFTU, on at least this occasion, would be an influence for good if it followed Its London declaration and caused each of its members to comply or show cause why not...
...After its formation in 1921, Moscow slloted it a monthly subsidy of 112,000 American...
...The Soviet love for the WFTU has all the earmarks of the fierce affection of a proud parent...
...Much store was set at Ihe London and I'aris meetings of 1046 and at I hi longdrawn-out efforts to draft ¦ fixed constitution concerning the need for tome means whereby the WFTU decisions would be put into effect by" all Ihe ton•tituent unions...
...The Russians wanted to have WFTU decisions binding on all members...
...Both were removed on Stalin's order in 1928, and replaced by the present leader, Mao-Tse-tung...
...Wolfe explains why the Chinese CP became an "agrarian Communist" party...
...Some people had thought the issue might break up the London meeting...
...COMMUNISTS IN CHINA Jt has often been asserted by journalists flnd political analysts who have glossed over the political loyalties that bind the Chinese Communists to the Soviet Union that the Chmese Communist Party is an independent political movement, with roots deeplylaid in the bowels of Mother China...
...The major avowed purpose was to hasten the defeat of Nazism ami, ar a means to that end, the conferees- decided io have a second meeting at which to establish a continuing Federation...
...From this city also came the directions for their promotions and purges...
...Furthermore, this convention was held in Moscow, under the personal supervision of Stalin...
...Since then the WFTU has used the energies previously directed against Argentina to whip up indignation against the recently elected Creek Government...
...Chen was expelled and Li Li-san was kept in exile in Moscow for over fifteen years...
...I propose it bo applied to any country where prisoner of war labor is being used—whether in the USA, the United Kingdom or the USSR, and whether it involves German, Italian, Bulgarian, Finnish, Rumanian or Japanese labor...
...the British TUC wanted national autonomy to continue unimpaired...
...They also adopted certain resolution...
...The American Federation of Labor doubted that an international trade union movement could actually be built ROBERT J. WATT...
...The WFTU and Slave Labor \t concern i eluve labor...
...Do they practice terror and one-party dictatorship where they rule...
...The reverse-wTs to be noted...
...Surely, after two years, it is timt to implement the decisions on behalf of J.000,000 to 3,000,000 Germans, 10,000,000 to 15,000,000 Russians and nearly 1,000,000 Japanese unless the WFTU merely raises the old, old buttla cry that the other fellow should set his slaves free while its clients protect their own slaves from the hardships of f reerlom...
...All of which leads to a humble suggestion...
...If joined the Kuomintang on KiiKnan ordert, tplit the Kuomintang in two on Rueeian ordere, withdrew from both tectione on Rutlian orders, attempted inturreetion in Shanghai and Canton Under the direct leadertkifi of Hiixxian and other Comintern agents...
...Finally defeated in Canton in 1928...
...Such labor must not be allowed to degenerate into slave labor...
...On no occasion yet, to the beat of my knowledge, has the WFTU ever expressed an opinion or taken" a policy to cause the Soviet Politburo to feel offended...
...I realize, of course, it would impose a great burden of supervision, even if the number of such prisoners in Russia is as low as ths generally accepted bottom figure of 10,000,000 people...
...That is why they became 'agrarian Communists,'' i.e., tried to set up peasants' instead of workers' soviet...
...I simply suggest that the WFTU seek to carry out one of the original decisions which was a major accomplishment of one of the top triumvirate of the 1945 WFTU...
...Wolfe, in an article iiv the January issue of The American Mercury...
...It has the added distinction of being an economic or social program, rather than a political one...
...Its leadership has always been Moscow-trained...
...The WFTU then is expected to check on the reasons given, in order that any necessary further action may be considered...
...Indeed, it is a philosophy which is the minimum that any bona fide trade union would require/ , I suggest it as the most convincing evidence that the World Federation, of which only the minority represebta free trade unionism, could nevertheless plsy a constructive part...
...When they could no longer hold out there, they fled to the Far Northwest, to be nearer to Russian-dominated Mongolia and Turkestan and the Russian border...
...Eventually a compromise was worked out whereby each affiliate is to put WFTU decisions into effect unless it notifies the WFTU within a stated period of its inability to do so...
...International Representative IT it nearly two yearn nince the socalled World Trade Union Congress met in London, England...
...Li Li-s»n was his chief assistant...
...Most of the energy since the first session, however, seems to have been expended in holding additional meetings and in thumping the drum against monopolistic capital or nationalistic imperialisms and Franco .Spain...
...We suspected that the trade union label was simply being utilized, as often be/ore, by Moscow and its minions to camouflage a major new Communist International...
...Wolfe's answer lies in an historical description of the activities of the Chinese Party...
...Now Peron Is a Peach LiAST YEAH Peron's Argentina was usually bracketed with Franco Spain, but Peron seemed to disappear as an issue around April or May, when a trade union mission fn>m Moscow found Peron worthy of a diplomatic embrace by the Soviet Union...
...The Chinese Communist Party was originally organized by Russian agents with Russian money (Vytinaky, Litnovsky, Matin, Borodin, and others...
...The military command of the insurrection was in the hands of a Russian officer, Vvtinsky...
...Setup Not to Be Stomached ThE Amei ican Federation of Labor declined to participate in that meeting because it was convened improperly by a single member of the then existing International Federation of Trade Unions and because dual union* and government-controlled labor organization...
...But most of the time the WFTU has been engaged in demanding a unique place as consultant or participant in the United Nations Assembly and the Economic and Social Council...
...All this is a matter of record...
...Whenever any new unit of the United Nations has its first meeting, the Soviet representative usually moves that the WFTU be invited to attend...
...It is one which is not revolutionary or counter-revolutionary...
...1 simply propose that the wftu ask its affiliated unions to assume responsibility for securing the support of their respective governments for the establishment of international supervision over German labor used in the work of restoration...
...The "decisions" taken since Paris are occasionally on some issue which is not predominantly a Communist party-line concoction...
...The author points out that the last time this "democratic" party held a congress was in 1928...
...We agreed that workers might properly be recruited for employment to rebuild devastated areas, provided the recruitment war free and compensated at the same standard as local labor...
...In 1845, beftrt the surrender of Germany, thtra was a great deal of discussion at to whether it would be pi ..per, after Germany's defeat, to exact reparations through the employment of Germans to rabitU4*¦*» Nasls had destroyed...
...It was ticklish business, but Sir Walter Citrine, British Trades Union Congress spokesman, evolved a masterpiece of diplomatic niceties which was accepted by the conference and embodied in a declaration on trade union attitude toward the peace settlement...
...For a number of years this party tried to base itself on the Chinese working class and to set up a proletarian dictatorship...
...Of course, the Communists end fellowtravelers have condemned the American Federation of Labor's refusal to enter the highly advertised new organization...
...Asks Wolfe: "Are the CJiinese Communists really Communists or something else...
...But the American Federation of Labor has simply bided its time, watching and listening as Ihe three-man directorate of this "democratic" institution puts it through its paces...
...Do they have an organic tie-up with Russia...
...The very cor* of any democratic trade union must 6t found in its com/>(vr« hoetility to any form s/ compnltory labor in which (At individual it virtually a slave...
...Are they a Russian fifth column for the d is integration of C h i na ? When they call for^the withd r a w a 1 of American troops, who are temporary and want no territory in China, do they also call for the withdrawal of Russian troops, who are permanent (ninety-nine years) and have taken territory...
Vol. 30 • February 1947 • No. 5
