ndictiatzction In Cale Wl Be
A\ided By |_abor's Proposals

SANTIAGO DE CHILE.

OLLOWING Chile’s recent decision to break with the Axis, labor lost no time in rallying
behind President Rios’ declaration that the decision “may drive us to days of sacrifice
and trial. We shall face them with the strong temper of Chilean character and the certitude

that (they) are the price of the defense of democrac

As part of labor's campaign to
Speed the industrialization of
Chile, the Industrial Federation of
Metal Workers has presented the
government with a list of recom-
mended projects which, if carried
out, would both strengthen Chile’s
war effort and also constitute the
first step toward freeing the na-
tional economy from dependence
on the big North American min-
ing companies.

Among the projects recommend-
ed by the Metal Workers are:
@ Construction of a hydro-elec-

tric plant at Huilo Huilo in
South Chile to supply electric
Power for the dockyards of
Valdivia and the blast furnaces
of the Alto Corral. The union
estimates that such a plant
would cut steel costs by 50
percent and would prevent
fuel shortages at Alto Corral,
which now depends on char-
eoal. Chile’s charcoal supply is
rapidly dwindling because of
the absence of planned refor-
estation.

® Building of a floating drydock
in Puerto Montt to replace the
one recently sunk in a temp-
est in Valparaiso. The new
dock would permit repairs to
Chilean merchant vessels now
repaired abroad.

@ Completion of the second Sie-
mens Martin blast furnace in
Corral. The two Corral blast
furnaces could supply Chile
with 75 percent of its annual
pig-iron requirements: 30,000
tons of ingots and 20,000 tons
of bars.

The Third Congress of the Fed-
eration of Metal Workers, which
will take place shortly, is expect-
ed to ask the government to na-
Gionalize Chile’s iron ore de
posits. It will also urge the es-
tablishment of a munitions indus-
try, pointing to the example of
Brazil, where, after Brazil’s dec-
larations of war, the trend to-
ward industrislization was enor-
mously speeded up with U.S. fi-
nancial assistance.

Chile’s limited industrialization
is strikingly illustrated by figures
recently published giving the com-
position of the Confederation of
Chilean Workers. The Metal
Workers Federation, composed of
iron and steel workers as well
aS workers in metal-fabricating
plants, has only 15,000 members.
Of the 300,000 members of the
CTCh, almost a third are miners:
some 40,000 in copper, 25,000 in
hitrate and 20,000 in coal.

The local miners’ unions are
united in the National Miners’
Federation, whose general secre-
tary, Jose Diaz Iturrieta, is a
deputy in the Chilean Chamber.
The “country’s largest unions are
the Union of Coal Miners of Lota,
with 9,000 members, and the
Union of Copper Miners of Chu-
quicamata, with 8,000.

° e e

HE Confederation of Chilean

workers (CTCh) recently ac-

cused executives of the Braden

Copper Company, subsidiary of

Kennecott Copper Company, of

attempting to provoke a strike

among the 6,000 anti-Axis miners
in the rich El Teniente fields in

O'Higgins Province in disregard

of the United Wations’ need for

copper.

The O'Higgins Provincial Coun-
cil of the CTCh revesied that
Braden Copper had rejected de-
mands by the workers for labor-
management-government commit-
tees to increase production and
had refused to raise wages more

British Signalman

A gunner with a twin bren

of the British Royal Corps of

craft. On these men rests
rapid army communications

than three pesos daily (12c) de-
spite rapid increases in the cost
of living.

“Organized labor, conscious of
the war emergency, is seeking a
peaceful issue of the conflict,” a
manifesto issued by the council
Says. “We do not wish to put
difficulties in the way of the cop-
per output so much needed by
the United States and its allies,
but the Braden Copper Go. is
waging war against our unions.”

Declaring that the company’s
rejection of the workers’ wage
demands is particularly indefens-
ible in the light of its 1941 profits,
the council says: “We wish to
emphasize again that our main
task is to win the war against
fascism. We are ready to do our
best to reach a solution, but the
company must refrain from offer-
ing an increase which only males
a mockery of Chilean workers.”

The manifesto concludes with
an appeal to Braden Copper to
imitate the example of those en-
terprises in the U.S. which have
created Production Committees
jointly with their workers and
government officials.

With the increased need for dis-
ciplined action, the four miners’
unions in Sewell, Mina, Rancagua
and Coyay Caletones, the nation-
al officers of the CTCh and the
Chilean Miners’ Federation
(which ineludes almost 100,000.
coal, nitrate and copper miners)
have formed a united command.

Luis Sandoval and Oscar Astu-
dillo, former heads of the miners’
unions at Sewell and Mina and
now members of the CTCh execu-
tive committee, have put the
workers’ case before the Minister
of Labor and named the follow-
ing Braden executives, among
them several North Americans, as
opposing production committees:
Cassarotto, Brooks, Manriquez,
Cabanas, Graham and Olivares.

“The company,’ said Astudillo,
“apparently does not realize that
the output of copper is essential
to the future of our country, civ-
ilization and the entire copper

y and the future of the country’s honor.”

se

mounting guards cable layers
Signals in event of enemy air-
responsibility for keeping up
at all costs.

industry. This North American
company is foing against the de-
clared policy of the United
States.”

JRERNARDO IBANEZ, general
Secretary of the Confedera-
tion of Chilean Workers, and Sal-

vador Ocampo, its sub-secretary,
have appealed to all Chilean
unions to maintain unity in the
face of last week’s division in the
Socialist Party, which is import-
ant to labor because a majority
of CTCh executive committee
members are Socialists.

At last week's Socialist Party
convention in Rancagua; ex-secre-
tary Marmaduke Grove and a
numbers of delegates left the hall
after a dispute over maintaining
unity with other anti-fascist par-
ties. Three Socialist ministers re-

signed from the Cabinet this
week,
This development follows the

action of Gabriel Celedoh, a So-
eialist and secretary of the CTCh
Departmental Council in Los An-
des, in signing a manifesto in de-
fense of a pro-Nazi industrialist
named Felix Zienelewe, who was
recently put on the U.S. black-
list. The Los Andes Union of
Building Trades Workers has ex-
pelled several of its members who
Signed the manifesto, and the
Building Trades Workers Nation-
al Federation has petitioned the
CTCh executive committee to re-
move Geledon.

On the CTCh executive commit-
tee, Esterfio Silva is attempting
to supplant Ibanez as CTCh gen-

eral secretary. A few months ago*

Silva issued a circular opposing
Socialist cooperation with other
parties in the CTCh. This posi-
tion is by no means shared by
other Socialists on the executive
committee, but the resuliimg dis-
sension has lessened the CTCh's
effectiveness in recent months.
The CIO and AFL have invited
Ibanez to visit the U.S. on be-
half of Chilean labor.

Unions

Axis Break |

C@REES action in breaking relations with the Axis, leavi |
Argentina the only Latin American country where Ge |

Ask jh

BUENOS AIRES |

man, Italian and Japanese consulates are still allowed a4

flourish, has intensified labor’s campaign to reverse the ©
Axis policies of President Castillo. _ a

Recent declarations by union leaders point out that Ay
gentina’s continued dealings with the Axis not only repr
sents a threat of the security of the United Nations but al
to the economic interests of Argentine workers.

Muzio Girardi, general secretary
of the Metal Workers, told the
executive committee of his union

recently: “Argentina’s ever-in-
ereasing lack of industrial raw
materials is the direct conse-

quence of our disastrous foreign
policy. There is grave danger that
this will lead to mass unemploy-
ment and the collapse of whole
industries. To keep metal factor-
ies from shutting down, to de-
fend the living standards of the
metal workers, we must establish
unity among all democratic or-
ganizations and defeat the pro—
fascists who determine our for-
eign policy.”

The Seventh Congress of the
Confederation of Workers of Men-
doza Province pledged: (1) To
fight for the industrialization of
the country, the increased produc-
tion of oil, coal and minerals, the
construction of blast furnaces and
the expansion of the metalurgi-
eal industry. (2) To promote the
use of up-to-date farm equipment,
thus raising the farmers’ stand-
ard of living and creating an ex-
tensive farm-equipment industry.
(3) To organize national unity
and suppress the activities of the
Nazi-fascists and the Falangists.

Francisco Perez Leiros, vice-

Maritime Unions :

13

president of the Confederation §&
Latin American Workers, told § [7
meeting of the Municipal Wor ©
ers Union: “If workers. do n —
close their ranks and help uni @
the country, union meetings w-
be conducted in a concentratit fe i
camp. The critical situation of A &:
gentine foreign policy and the a ©
dacity of certain aspirants —
dictatorship justify this assum j “Zt
tion.” 3 tts.
Camilo Almarza, assistant S& (its
retary of the Confederation of A # i
gentitne Workers, said: “The GG © Se
wishes to express its determine es
intention to collaborate with 2%
other forces in defense of deme®
eratie institutions.” :
The national executive comm: @ =
tee of the Textile Workers Unig —
has addressed a memorial to th
CGT asking it to convoke a uni’
ed meeting of all unions and den
ocratic parties to consider the ei Fer
onomic questions before the cour &
try. iy"
“Many industries are collapsin le
because of the shortage of ra) #1
materials, fuel and indispensab jee
machinery,” the memorial say &
“There is danger of inflation fror f
the catastrophic rise in the cos (eH
of living and the unrestraine (iyi
speculations of the monopolie: & j

.

Fight U-Boat Threait

By GARRY ALLIGHAN

A

al l
LONDON. FE

PRACTICAL plan for overcoming the Nazi submariny
menace and insuring that enough supplies reach the Al §]

lied armies for their coming European offensive was adopte §

by a conference of maritime unions from 12 allied nations

ith

meeting here this week under the auspices of the Internationa §
Transport Workers Federation. The five-point program drawi 7%

up by the delegates calls for:

—A vigorous air and land of-
fensive against U-boat bases
and shipyards on the European
continent. Only by striking at the
actual nests of the raiders can
their destructive power be effec-
tively reduced, delegates stressed.

—Greater protection for Atlan-
tic convoys, especially by nav-
al aireraft. “Our men are still not
getting a fair deal,” Charles
Jarman, secretary of the British
Union of Seamen, declared. Re-
porting that he had just received
a letter from A. V. Alexander,
First Lord of the Admiralty, as-
suring that “the safety of Brit-
ain’s merchant ships and the gal-
lant men serving in them is re-
garded by the Admiralty as a
duty of supreme importance,”
Jarman stated. “TI still insist that
protection by escort vessels and
aircraft is far from adequate.”

—Vigilant supervision of ships
in port and strict limitation
of persons allowed to enter docks,

3h

—Organization of special con fa
voys for fast ships, which noy x
sail either alone or in slow-moy |
ing convoys. ;

—The immediate building 01 §&
highspeed ships, designed ex
eclusively for war purposes. r tt
6 e e i
yes last point, strongly em:
phasized by delegates, is |
aimed at those shipbuilding cor
porations which have persisted in
building slow vessels, economicai §j
in the use of fuel, because of their
prospective advantage in post-
war competition. Philip Runel- }+
man, shipping magnate, under-
scored this aspect of shipbuilding §}
policy in his presidential address
to the Chamber of Shipping last 9,
year.

“Tf we build ships for peace |!
Wwe must base our speeds upon the =
true economic needs of the trades :
in which we intend to partici 9
pate,’ he said. “If we build for ¥:
war, consideration of national se- §
curity would probably demand §
more speed than the needs of in-¥
dustry require, or indeed than in-
dustry can afford.” a

ies