Labor - fusal of the British to permit homeless European Jews to live in Palestine, despite cas of many groups, has caused riot and revolt in. the count | the eAmerica carry through the ac-| |ed to take their strike ballot on gre ty. Here, policemen and stand guard with armored trucks, outside a bank in Tel-Aviv. = omposed of seven politi- ies, alone has a program .2rs this country any hope -2ry from the ravages ot _ British members of Par- + visiting here. questioned sym leaders about their _, the latter were unable any alternative. On the |, they declared their - for almost everything =: National Front stands -. their objéctions were f itirely upon. their asser- »at the Communists ex- ‘2 dominating influence ©» > new regime. -ugoslavia is by no means unist country-in the So- ise. With the exception ‘© properties which be- ' Germans, Italians and | ollaborators there has -) nationalization and in pect Yugoslavia is be- antries. like Czechoslova- even the British Labor program. There has been cstivization of agriculture; form has taken the form ing big estates into smal- among peasants. The 1 Front has concentrat- 1 rebuilding the country, Y railways, increasing al and agricultural out- id rebuilding damaged g a visit to the Croatian ns and the Dalmation ne of the worst devastat- is of Yugoslavia, I saw Svillages and towns com- + destroyed in the war, alf the population mass- # I spoke to peasants, : of whom said that they ligoslavs Overwhelmingly For 0; Reconstruction Goes Ahead LGRADE—The Yugoslav elections did more than demonstrate the. support -of erwhelming majority for parties in the National Front led by Marshal Tito. The also showed that opposition leaders like Milan Groll cannot command obedience f those who, for one reason or another, dislike the Tito regime. Today these op- on leaders are isolated. The Tito regime has come to stay ~ To Retain struck work for a 30-percent The second round will open when the 700,000 members of United Steel “Workers © of tion indicated in their strike bal- lot of last. week, which went overwhelmingly in support.of a walkout for a $2. a day wage boost. Still a. third group of workers—the 27,000 members of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers—are schedul- December 18. With other CIO unions totalling some four mil- lion members. directly linked with the 30 percent wage de- -mand, the situation was fast building up to the greatest labor Struggle in United States’ his- tory., roe fing That the fight was headed for a showdown was seén in General Motors’ flat rejection of a re- newed appeal by the United Au- tomobile “Workers of » America .for arbitration, and the almost simultaneous move by the Ford Motor Company closing its main River Rouge plant and subsidi- ary factories and _ laying-off because the Nafional some 40,000 workers. stand for Tito because they re- gard him as the liberator of their country from these hor- rers. and because the ‘National Front and the Partisans are achieving miracles in reconstruc- In the fight against the Nazis and fascists, the people willing- ly destroyed bridges, roads and railways used by the enemy and now, self-sacrifice, they are rebuild- ing what they and the enemy destroyed. In Kerk coal mines, for instance, they dug coal with bare hands because there were no tools.-John Platt Mills, Labor M.P., here with the parliamen- ‘ tary delegation, worked one day in a coal pit near Srem:to check on reports about labor enthusi- asm. He worked alongside min- ers who were barefooted, but de- termined to get more coal out. Travelling by road, I have ‘been amazed by the number of bridges rebuilt by patching- to- gether broken spans and the ameunt of work still going on with the erection of more per- manent concrete’ constructions. I could not help contrasting what I saw with the almost complete absence of such reconstruction in other parts of Europe. The contrast is most noticeable in the case of Greece, which re- ceived far more outside help than Yugoslavia but where the peo- ple’s will is paralyzed: by reac- tion. i oe HE journey through Serbia also gave me an insight into the real political situation in the (Continued on Page 12) See YUGOSLAVIA IC ADVOCATE — PAGE 9 with the same spirit of. t | Workers at a General Motors plant cheer as they take their place in the fight against dards. attacks on their living stan- 800 Women Internat’l Congress In Paris PARIS—Forty-three countries are represented by 800 delegates of all shades of political opinion and of the most diverse religious creeds in the first International Women’s Congress which opened here yesterday. Among the delegates are famous women from many lands: Anna Pauker, Romanian Communist leader; Yugoslavia’s finance minister; Nina Popova, hero of the USSR; Dolores Ib- arruri, the famed woman Jeader known as La Pasionaria during the Spanish civil war; Mme. Eu- Attend First genie Cotton, French scientist who heads the congress steering committee. Hindu saris and African bur- noose mingle with western garb (Continued on Page 12) See FIRST. CONGRESS General Motors’ Strike Heralds onopoly Showdown US Labor Starts Fight Pay Rates WASHINGTON, D.C.—The first round is on, and the second round is looming in the showdown fight between labor and monopoly in the United States, precipitated two weeks ago when the 350,000 employees of the General Motors Corporation plants from New York to California wage increase. - The Ford layoffs. were inter- preted in labor circles asthe possible start of an industry- wide lockout to break the GM strike, which is serving as the test. for both sides. Ford gave as its reason the fact-that a number of parts plants are strikebound and the lack of parts is hampering production. But the CIO’s interpretation’ of the move is given added cre- dence since Ford’s action was taken in the face of a strategy announced -by UAW vice-presi- dent, Walter. Reuther,: who had said publicly that the union in- tended to strike only one major company ot atime. This, Reu- ther -asserted,- would’. presume GM to settle because cars would be rolling off assembly lines at Chrysler and Ford. } ABILITY TO PAY |: ens The General Motors walkout, involving 103 plants, has brought the operations-of America’s big- gest single employer of labor to a complete standstill..But the strike was only called after 97 days of stalling by the corpora- tion, during : which the union of- fered to! arbitrate: the disputed issues with the . understanding that the arbitrators would have the right to inspect the com- pany’s books to determine | its ability to pay the increases. By rejecting this offer, in particu- lar ‘the proposal to open ‘its books, GM in effect admitted its ability to pay the 380 percent boost in pay, and knocked on ‘the head its own claim that a wage koost would have to be accom- panied by an increase in: car prices. The UAW, basing itself: on the company’s own published re- ports, maintains, for example, that wages can be raised 30 per- cent and the price of the Chev- rolet car reduced; and still give the giant corporation profits in excess of prewar levels. The CIO United Steel Work- ers of America, now preparing to strike the steel industry, has presented similar facts to the public to bolster its demand for the $2. a day general wage boost. PROFITS | Steel profits in the five years preceding the war were $186.5 _ million. Durirg the five war years profits jumped 276 per- cent to an all-time high of $700.4 million. During the same period the total assets of the steel in- dustry jumped from $4.7 billion to an even $6 billion. But if the auto and steel in- dustries topped all previous profit records, the rest of Am- erican industry did not do so badly . either. (Continued on Page 12) See GENERAL MOTORS FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1945