es = 6 Indian Union Congrers Leads Mobilization For National Defense By KRISHNA RAO BOMBAY. AM the present political confusion in India — caused, in the opinion of labor officials, by the continued: imprisonment of National Congress leaders, the refusal of British au- thorities to grant national government to the people, and the disruptive activities of Fittn Columnists—the All-India Trades Union Congress has taken the lead in mobilizing the na- tion for defense against its deadliest enemy: Japanese and German fascism. More than a year ago, the AITUC declared: “The defeat of Axis fascism has become the pre-condition for the achievement of independence and complete democracy for India.” Pointing out that the policy of the “struggle wallas” (those who advocate strikes and sabotage against the British as a means of achieving national freedom) must inevitably lead to surrender of the nation to Japanese fascism, trade union leaders call for: © Alj-out production of war materials; ® Unity on a national scale between Hindus and Muslims (the trade union movement sets a good example in this, since it cuts across religious and racial lines) ; ; @ Training in arms for the common people, as a means of enlarging the regular Indian army and building up Voilun- teer Defense Corps; e Improvement in the stan- dard of living of the workers and peasants through strict ra- tioning and price contro], im- prisonment of profiteers and hoarders, and wage increases; ® An end to imperialist poli- cies. which prevent industrializ- ation and full use of the na- tion’s yast economic resources; ® Rapid organization of the workers into trade unions. ee ¢ e OREMOST among those striy- ing to carry out this policy are the railway workers of India, numbering more than 700,000. Members of the Pare] Railway- men’s Union, an affiliate of the All-India Railwaymen’s Federa- tion, reflected the views of all Indian railwaymen when they re- cently declared: “The railway workers of our country have a great and proud role to play, next in importance only to their brother railwaymen in the Soviet Union and China. They occupy a strategic position in the defense of the country. They hold the nerve centre of our eountry’s defense system. Whe- ther transporting war materials to our fighters at the front or necessities for the people in the rear, it is they who can make or mar the destiny and life of our nation. By the weight of their importance and the strength of their numbers, they can play a decisive role in organizing the national defense of our mother- land and in co-ordinating nation- al production.” To enable the railwaymen to play their full part in the war effort, the Parel Union demanded that the government give union officials free traveling passes to all stations on the railway “‘so they can inspire workers to play their vital role in national de fense”; train all railway work- ers in the use of arms; set up labor-management committees lo- cally and nationally; abolish “in- vidious distinction between Brit- ish and Indians’; remove six British supervisors “who tail the workers wherever they go and unceasingly provoke them”; \pro- vide full Dearness Allowance (cost-of-living bonus) and acci- dent compensation. Reports from all over India show that the trade unions are more and more becoming the pro- tectors of the living standards, not only of their own members, but of all the common people. In Madura, southern textile cen- tre, there were until recently only two kerosene distributing depots to serve a population of more than 200,000. .People had to wait in line for days to get only half a bottle of kerosene. A mass dem- onstration of 30,000 workers, led’ by members of the Textile Work- ers’ Union, forced the magistrate to set up 30 depots throughout the city. During the demonstra- tion, 20,000 signatures were -ob- tained for a petiiton to the Brit- ish government demanding the release of Congress leaders. ee © e@ EMBERS of the Tannery Workers’ Union in Cawnpore forced a general reduction in the price of grain by picketing the carts of profiteering merchants. In Cochin the Tolly (palm tree) Tappers’ Union, despite arrest of 130 of its members, rallied th= people to demand adequate de- fense or Cochin Harhbcr, strategic southwest base now vulnerable ot the Japanese. In Giridih, coal mining centra in Bihar province, the Minework ers’ Union succeeded in setting up a People’s Food Council io deal with the terrible fa:nine caused by hoarding and pro- fiteering. Represented on the Council, besides the miners’ union were the municipal government and the three leading Indian parties: Muslim League, National Congress and Communist Party. Because the trade unions are fighting for the interests of the whole nation, their membership is growing fast. The All-India Trades Union Congress is expected shortly to have more than one million members (the total num- ber of industrial workers in India is less than 6 millions). With the exception of the small Ahmedabad Textile Union (con- trolled by Gandhi) and the All- India Wederation of Labor (a small group led by M. N. Roy which split away from the TUG in July, 1941), all of India’s trade unions are affiliated with the AITUC. It top leaders are V. V. Giri, president; H. Khedgikar, vice-president; and N. M. Joshi, general secretary. Britain’s Ne Work Plan A& A result of experience gained during the Produc | for-Africa week, organized last month by workers in x” war factories, a new type of joint production committee — ‘been set up in Britain; a committee covering a group of fa’ jes making engines, propellors, airframes and parts fj particular type of bombing plane. Production spurts in | tain factories during Africa Week were found to be null’ because of failure of other plants to supply them witt ereased stocks of materials. Describing how the new com- mittee came to be formed, Dick Massey, shop stewards’ chairman in a large London aircraft plant, said: “Qur particular factory is,< as it were, a link in a chain of factories, so that when we make @ special spurt, we out-run the materials we receive from other plants. At the same time we dump an unexpectedly large out- put on the factory to which our products go. Much of the value of our spurt is therefore lost. “We took this problem up in our Shop Stewards Committee, and reached the obvious concilu- sion that production drive would be much more effective if it were organized by all factories making parts for the same plane. Accordingly we went to the Management with the proposal that a group production commit- tee be organized. After a long delay, the plan was accepted. The group committee has already ar- Soviet Trade Unions Will Control All Retail Trade KUIBYSHEV. FRO ONIN the close connection between workers’ standards of living and production, the Council of De- fense (war cabinet) has given the trade unions the job of supervising all retail trade, restaurants and workers’ housing in industrial cities, Nikolai Shvernik, general secretary of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (AUCCTU), an- nounced to a conference of trade union heads in Moscow last week. “Now as never before,” Shver- nik said, “the trade unions are called upon to intensify their care for the welfare of ~ industrial workers and office employees. Our organizations must see that the supply of food and manufac- tured goods is increased and that government prices are strictly observed.” Public inspectors, with power to correct inefficiencies in the work of local branches of the Commissariat of Trade, will be elected in every Soviet office and factory by the end of February. “There have been defects in the work of the trading organiza- tions,’ Shvyernik said. “The needs of the consumers have sometimes been - neglected. Officials have brushed aside objections, using the war as an excuse. The men and women elected as inspectors must be conscientious and intelli- gent workers, enjoying the confi- dence of the public and acquaint- ed with economie problems so they can do away with the short- comings of the trading organiza- tions quickly and efficiently.” Early in the war Soviet trade unions established Departments of Workers’ Supply to supervise factory conditions, particularly factory dining halls where most Soviet workers eat their meals. Union supervision, Shvernik said, will now be extended to stores and dining halls serving the gen- eral public. es se e £ UR second most important job,” Shvernik said, “is to care for the families of men and commanders in the armed forces. The government has taken many steps to keep our-front-line men from worrying about their fam- ilies. In the last nineteen months several billion rubles have been appropriated [$1 is equal to ap- proximately five rubles] for al- lowances to soldiers’ and sailors’ dependents. The families of Red Army men are given special priv- ileges in taxes, food supplies and tuition at universities schools, “Not all trade union organiza~- tions realize that caring for the families of Red Army men {s half the job of caring for the Red Army. We must help their wives to get jobs and acquire skill and proficiency so they can increase their earnings; we must provide their children with nurseries and kindergartens; we must supply land and equipment for vegetable gardens. This task is inseparable from the primary task of the en- and ~ tire Soviet people: to clear our Soviet soil of Germans.” Last week’s Moscow conference, held in the House of the Trade Unions and attended by all mem- bers of the executive committee of the AUCCTU, chairman of re gional and district committees of eyery important national union and the heads of the factory com- mittees in all leading Moscow plants, was the culmination of a two months’ discussion of work- ers’ welfare, begun at a joint meeting early in December be- tween the AUCCTU executive committee and the Moscow City Soviet (city council). Millions of men and women (more than 38,000,000, according te recent official figures), were evacuated last year from regions occupied by the Nazis, and at first they had to be housed in tents or flimsy barracks in con- ditions of extreme hardship, with inadequate supplies of food, fuel and clothing. Until recently all Soviet authorities concentrated on converting peacetime industry to war production and on getting the evacuated factories back into operation, e e ) 4h results of last year’s nationwide Socialist competi- tions proved that labor produc- tivity could be expanded to an enormous extent by releasing the natural ingenuity of ordinary in- dustrial workers. In the last few months, however, recurring edi- torilals in the trade union press have emphasized that labor pro- ductivity is determined not only by what workers do at their machines, but by what they eat " mittees, ranged for one of our assoc. factories to begin a produ } drive next week, and we have ours the first weel_ March.” : The newly-formed trade 1 District Production Commi consisting of representative * each of the unions in the plants in a certain area, ca be regarded as substitutes foi industry-wide committees, sey said. The trade union mittees, he pointed out, 1. Playing an invaluable role in Seneral co-ordination and st lation of production, canno expected to deal adequately — the special problems of a ¢ of associated factories, since represent unions in several ! ferent industries. More than 50 District Pre’ tion Committees have now set up by the trade union Britain’s industrial centers. IT committees work closely witk government’s eleven Ree Production Boards, on whict three representatives of I: three of management, and gional officers of the Minis of Production, Supply, Labor, eraft Production, Board of T and Admiralty. Labor-management commii in individual plants, Massey - ed, have a job of co-ordinge similar to that of the group: “A production spur workers in department A wasted unless it is co-ordin’ with production in deparim B and C,” he said. “Also plants where some workers on time-rates and _ others piece-rates, unco-ordinated ou drives create a multitude of — ficult. wage problems.” and where they live. Question workers’ welfare, which were in the background during turmoil and upheavals of the year of the war, are now ther important questions before trade unions, “Care for the workers’ li needs is not a luxury, as Ss bureaucrats think,” a leat editorial in Pravda said month, “but an inseparable ] of our struggle for victory. N more than ever before, care the working people’s needs result in increased output of a and ammunition. The worker arrives late at the factory cause transport is poor, or 7 cannot get proper rest becé his lodgings are dirty or not p erly heated, cannot give his | to his job. “The primary responsibility caring for the working pe rests on local Soviets and trade unions. Trade union offic must be concerned not only 1 the place where the worker his job, but with the place wl he lives and sleeps. The eye: the trade unions must be ev where—on the warehouse, on larder, on the saucepan in kitchen.”