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HIS WEEK: A Roundup

. The

War

Softening Europe by Air

The lightning-swift occupation of Pantelleria and Lampe-
dusa, coupled with the terrific air assault unleashed against

German industries, is bearing
has done since the beginning of
the war. The enemy has been
shocked. His supposedly impreg-
nable positions are being destroy-
ed. The stepping stones to Europe
have fallen in a fraction of the
time formery thought necessary to
reduce them. Mussolini is in a
panic of despair. His newspapers
speak forebodingly of the great
power of the Allied armies.

But it would be a mistake to
believe that aerial bombardment
can do the job of defeating the
enemy. An analysis of accomplish-
ments will prove this conclusively.
What have the Allied air forces ac-
complished in the Mediterranean
in the past two weeks? With naval
aid they have reduced Pantellera,
Lampedusa and MLinosa, blasted

Sicilian cities and airports and
softened this island for an in-
yasion. The big accomplishment

here has been to clear the sea lane
from Gibraltar to the Suez But
from the point of view of engag-
ing enemy forces not a great deal
has been done as yet.

What have recent aerial assaults
against the “fortress of Burope”’
accomplished? They have wreak-—
ed havoc with German industry in

fruit as no other aerial assault
the Rubr, disrupted German rail-
way communications, increased
popular tension in the country. But
the assaults have also proven that
Germany has succeeded in moving
much of -her industry to regions
jess subject or not subject at all
to bombardment. ‘There is little
doubt that aid power will weaken
German but not defeat her. Air
power can serve, as it does, to clear
the way to invasion, for the land
troops that will engage not thous-
ands but millions of the enemy.
There is reason to believe that
although enthusiasts think that
airpower alone can win the war,
cosler military heads, among
whom Churchill is one, understand
that the airforce can only succeed
if it works in complete tactical
unity with the ground and sea
forces. The reorganization of the
Royal Air Force into a tactical
air force cooperating with the
army® and navy is proof of this.
It is also proof of the fact that the

air force is now changing from a

weapon of aerial attack under con-
ditions of no immediate land ac-
tion into a weapon of “aerial ac-
tivity’ to clear the way for in-
vading troops.

Hitler’s Defeat Becomes Certain

The second anniversary of the German invasion of the Soviet

Union, June 22, will be observe
‘man power is waning, when
stronger, when victory against the
Axis is becoming a certainty. Hard
fighting is still ahead. Hitler Ger-
many and the Axis satellites are
fighting for their very existence
and haye expressed a determina-
tion to bring Europe to destruction
in the event of certain defeat.
This summer everything can be
expected from the Hitlerite mur-
derers—including poison gas. For

Nazis Rain Death on English Children

Ce ed

d this year at a time when Ger-
the Allied power is becoming
they have no other chance of sur-
vival. They know it and the Allies
know it.

On the great Eastern Front the
lull continues. The Nazi attempts
win mastery of the air in the Ku-
ban area, in front of Taganrog, at
Kursk and near Orel has been re-
pulsed. The enemy is reeling under
the terrific losses of aircraft and
men imposed by the Red Air Force,

3:

'

Removing debris from a bombed Sunday Senna Anil Church

in the southwest of England,
frantically for trapped but still
killed.

soldiers and civilians search
living children. Fifteen were

which is apparently coming to the
peak of its power and efficiency
and has not yet reached it

A German attack had been ex
pected in the end of May, then
the first days of June. It has not
come! Every day brings new evi-
dence that the Germans are des-
perately seeking for a weak spot
put are unable to find it As day
passes day, the chances of an all-
out offensive grow more difficult
for the Axis is forced to deviate
more troops and more supplies to
the west to guard against an Al-
lied invasion.

Events on the Eastern front of-
fer many indications that the Red
Army, too, is preparing a summer
offensive; or better said, has pre-
pared it and is waiting for the
signal, which probably will be the
Allied invasien of Western Europe.

The stream of supplies to the
Soviet Union is growing in volume

and this has helped to strengthen
the Soviet front, In Iran, the rail-
way from Teheran to the Soviet
border has been completed and
lend-lease goods from America
and Britain now can be shipped
directly by railway and highway
from the Persian Gulf to the Cau-
casus.

Supplies to Archangel and Mur-
mansk are arriving in greater safe-
ty now that the submarine men
ace has been reduced, although
losses are _ still comparatively
heavy.

The Germans know that they
are unable to stop this flow. They
are intensifying their attacks
against Soviet armament centers
such as Gorky and Yaroslavl.
Damage has probably been caused,
but the main centers of Soviet
arms production are in the Urals
and Siberia, out of reach of the
enemy.

US Labor

The Ku Klux Klan Revives

A series of apparently isolated incidents in war plants
throughout the US have added up to the most serious threat
to war production since John L. Lewis was forced by united

opposition from the. labor moye-
ment, the government and public
opinion to call off the coal strike.
In Alabama, Michigan, California
and New Jersey, white workers re-
fused to work beside Negroes, who
have been taken into industry in
increasing numbers in the last year
and who are now being upgraded
to skilled jobs. Whether these
anti-Negro strikes were actually
spontaneous and unassociated with
organized Nazi activities is now
being determined by the Federal
Bureau of Investigation.

In Mobile, Alabama, when four-
teen Negroes were promoted to
jobs as skilled workers in the Pin-
to Island yards of the Alabama
Drydock and Shipbuilding Co. a
gang of white workers roamed
through the yards, beating up Ne-
groes with pipes and wrenches.
The next day the 2,000 Negroes
employed in the yards failed to re-
port for work and the yards shut

down. Many Negroes fled from
Mobile.

Responsibility for the riot has

been placed on workers recently
recruited by the company—as part
of its diehard anti-Negro policy—
from bigoted rural communities in
the interior of Mississppi.

The worst of the anti-Negro out-
breaks occurred in the Packard
plant in Detroit, where production
of torpedo boats and Rolls Royce
airplane engines was halted for
three days. Recently imported
Southern workers, bringing with
them the prejudices of that section
of the country, have concentrated
in the Packard plant, and as a re-
sult Packard. has been a battlefield
for more than a year between pro-
gressive union workers and fascist
groups which have made Michigan
their central headquarters.

The nortorious Ku Klux Klan,

which was revived suddenly last
year with large amounts of money
from unexplained sources, became
active at Packard; a union elec-

tion between Kilansmen and pro-
gressives was won by the progres-
sives and several Klansmen were
expelled from the plant.

Under the present union leader-
ship, Packard established virtually
the only functioning labor-manage-
ment production committee in the
entire automotive industry, adopt-
ed an incentive pay system and pro-
duced almost a third of the indi-
vidual winners of national produc-
tion awards. But the KKK’s activi-
ties did not diminish. Last week’s
walkout was the culmination of
many months of calcuated disrup-
tion by a small and active minority
which fomented department-wide
stoppages and spread anti-Negro
rumors.

A few days before the strike R.
J. Thomas, international president
of the United Automobile Workers,
demanded the discharge of a vice
president of the company and two
foreman for ‘“prometing racial dis-
crimination and encouraging work-
ers to refuse to work with Ne-
eToes.”

“These officials,” he said, “urged
the white workers to ignore the
position of the local union and the
international officers. They said
the white workers did not have to
work with the upgraded Negroes
if they did not choose.”

During the strike Thomas charged
that he had secured documentary
evidence, in the form of a letter
signed by the Michigan Grand
Cyclops, of the KKK’s step-by-step
campaign to disrupt Detroit pro-
duction. Known members of the
Klan threw a picket line across
the plant entrances to keep out
the patriotic workers. When the
strike ended 29 of the Klansmen,
including the foreman mentioned
by Thomas, were fired, but the

army had been deprived of several

hundred airplane engines.
US labor this week marked the
lesson.

CIO Plants High in Productivity
A CIO survey this month disclosed that 67 percent of the

factories

which have received Army-Navy

‘’ (for Excellence)

pennants in the past year are organized by the CIO. Consider-

able research was required to re-
veal this figure, as the Army and
the Navy follow a policy of not
mentioning unions when they an-
mounce production awards.

The high proportion of CIO plants
is due partly to the prominence of
the CIO in war industry, and part-

ly to the fact that production is
often disorganized and chaotic in
factories where the workers have
no union to represent them. There
are cases on record where union
organization of an open-shop fac-
tory has more than doubled pro-
duction.

*

The Old G

The old guard k
cessful in preventing ©
British Isles this ¥
conference voted by
712,000 against pe
Communist Party to
only completely §
favoring the Commun
from the powerful Min:
Federation, which cast
proving ballots. :

Chief spokesman aga
unity were Home Secri |
pert Morrison and the i
leader who went over
on the Beveridge Plan 1
George -Ridley, executiv —
both of whom were 65]
ter against the Commu
and urged that it folloy
intern example and disso —

By their action, the L
hierarchy voted against |
years the membership 6
has been going downh @&
fluence declining amo
workers. On the other
port for the Communist

_ grown tremendously, 4
the past two years it .
itself the main unif; -
within the trade union
cal party. By many th
ists were adjudged the
capable, if affiliated, ¢
the spirit and driving i i
Labor Party and of ®
lions of disillusioned fo —
bers behind that move:

Main reason for thi ©
small yote for Comm
tion lies in the fact tha

_ Trades Disput Act of
unions had to “contract”
their members’ dues & |
Party; that is, instea
matically paying dues { ~
for their members, @
forbidden to pay withat |
bers’ consent. This mé .
erally millions of t
members, long disgust’ —
bor Party leaders’ pol ©
to go to-the trouble o ©
ing-in,’ particularly the
big unions such as se

1 hcnonemeniey

Little has been sé |
Krutikov, chairman —

a conference which ou
little to offer but vague
and still vaguer agreet
what could be done §
the distant future.

While other deleg
eussed food problems
were much too general
delegates, and to some
British, got down to !
pointed out that the
was, called because of
crisis, emphasized the
that all will come righ!
was definitely misl=
stated in no uncertain
it is necessaray now te
the need for coordinat
against the probable
on post-war needs of #
countries which have
ed by the war and
occupation, The So
warned that the ~

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