All-China labor body _ plans Chiang defeat HARBIN, Manchuria—A the formation of the All-China Federation of Labor uniting workers in Kuomintang and Communist-led areas, was adopted by the sixth all-China labor congress at its concluding sessions here. At the first nationwide labor congress in 20 years, 500 delegates representing 2,850,000 workers agreed that the chief aims of the ACFL shall be to unite and pro- tect the interests of all Chinese working people, to fight for Chi- na’s liberation by driving out dic- tator Chiang Kai-Shek and the U.S. intervention that props him up and to. safeguard world peace and de- mocracy in alliance with the work- ers of the whole world. All unions indorsing the constitution are in- vited to affiliate with the federa- tion, which elected an executive committee representative of all participating unions to conduct ACFL affairs between bi-annual congresses, : A dramatic note was. struck when delegates from Kuomintang areas, who had to travel under- ground through Chiang Kai-Shek’s battle lines to attend the confer- ence, pledged that when Commun- ist-led armies drive deeper into Chiang’s territory, the workers there will be prepared to protect industrial machinery from sabo- tage by Chiang’s retreating forces, and to keep essential public ser- vices in operation. One delegate from Kuomintang held China brought cheers when he said: “I guarantee that the railways will run, In 24 hours | you will have electric power, telephones and tram Cars. We shall carry out all decisions _ of the congress.” Highlighting the reports of bitter struggle and torture of workers in Kuomintang areas, internationally No wage increases but---‘have a coke’ HAVANA — Two hundred work- ers were tossed out of their jobs when the Coco Cola Co. closed its bottling plant here in answer to union wage demands. Plant Manager Gaetano Todaro ‘admitted that the plant was _be- ing shut to punish the union for seeking “more money for less work”. Wage boosts demanded by the union were based on increased living costs, t Meanwhile Coco-Cola Interna- tional Corporation scooped up a net income of $5,766,040 in 1946, and topped that with $7,010,060 in 1947! For the first three months of 1948 “Coke” coupon-clippers pocketed a quarterly dividend of $15.07 for every $5.00 they invested, ‘While these exhorbitant profits are being. raked in annually, Coco-Cola workers are being “punished” for demanding wage increases. . new constitution, formalizing prominent labor leader Chu Hsueh- fan described how the Chinese As- sociation of Labor had been driven underground by the Kuomintang and replaced with a compulsory, government - run “Federation of Trade Unions.” Chu, a right wing unionist, long known as a staunch support- er of the Kuomintang, gave his unreserved ‘support to all con- gress decisions, calling upon all Chinese workers to unite for the nation’s liberation through over- throw of Chiang Kai-Shek. Chu has been in virtual exile from Kuomintang China _ since last year, when his opposition to Kuomintang ivi} war policies - led to sper ake a attempts on his life. Messages of solidarity were. re- ceived by the Congress from the official union bodies of France, the Soviet Union and other coun- tries and from a number of union leaders in the U.S. Heil Wall Street on wan rials ; \ Nazi financier Hjalmar Schacht has been declared innocent of war crimes by a U.S.-controlled German court. Commenting on this disgraceful insult to millions of war dead, U.S. occupation chiefs cynically declared the Schacht exoneration “purely a Ger- man matter.” American imperialism needs the Schachts in the promotion of its war adventures in Western Germany, just as it found a read Bathenlndiates use for the services of the head of the I. G. (Hitler’s armament machine), also recently de- clared “innocent” by a U.S. military tribunal. Well might the ghost of Hitler say, “maybe I won the war after all!” U.S. election race warming up, Wallace party ‘pulls no punches’ By ISRAEL EPSTEIN NEW YORK—The U.S. Presidential campaign got under way in earnest after Labor Day, September 6, which marked the official end of the summer vacation .season. The Republicans are still supremely confident that they will win the Presidency for the candi- date, Thomas E. Dewey, today is virtually undivided in its support of the Republican party, rivalry between different groups having been confined to the — gle for the Re- publican nomin- ation, now set- tled in Dewey’s favor, The los- ng Republican contenders such as Harold Stas- sen, have now been integrated as faithful lieu- tenants jn the Dewey cam- paign. Israel Epstein Enjoying this favored position, the Republicans are employing little social demogogy. They come out frankly for the rule of the Businessman, for the voiding of all government controls on capital- ist monopoly and for ever more stringent controls over unions, which they call “labor monopolies.” Advocating a “get tougher” pol- icy toward the Soviet Union, the national Longshoremen’s, that workers of France and Italy are displeased with and - opposed to the Marshall plan. “We have become con- _vinced,” said the delegation member Donald Brown, “that the living standard of the workers in France and Italy has declined of late. The Mar- shall plan does not assist in the recovery of Europe. We had the opportunity to com- pare the situation. of the working people in the count- ries which have rejected the Marshall plan the position of the people is far better than in the so-called western de- mocracies.” The. delegates, who toured France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Trade union estimate of ERP MOSCOW-—Rank-and-file delegates and Warehousemen’s (CIO), currently touring Europe to obtain a first-hand report for ILWU members, told a press conference here. of the Inter- Union Czechoslovakia and Poland be- fore arriving in the USSR, stressed that their first-hand findings differed sharply from what they had read in the U.S. press. They cited the fact that the U.S. press continually says Soviet trade unions are govern- ment-controlled. In contrast, delegates asserted, they found that Soviet labor enjoys more freedom than does the labor movement of any other country they saw and rank-and-file Sov- iet workers have full freedom of criticism, Delegates plan to move on to Finland, Norway, Sweden, Hol- land, Belgium and England be- favorite of the Rockefeller fore returning home. financial interests. U.S. big business national liberation movements of Asia. ‘and even the right - - wing Social Democratic parties of Eu- rope which the Truman adminis- tration has utilized as chan- nels for its foreign policy, the Re- publicans boast that their mission is to preserve and restore ‘“‘Ameri- can type” capitalism everywhere. While Repubilean campaign statements are thus baldly forth- right, the job of deafening voters until they believe that these things are good for themselves and all mankind is left to the supposedly impartial U.S. press. Undivided backing by big business means un- divided backing by major news- papers, which are owned by the great monopolies. Thus, a survey compiled by the industry magazine Editor & Publisher shows 68.8% of daily papers, with 70.4% of total national circulation already sup- porting Dewey. This is 10% more than the editorial opposition four years ago to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was re-elected in spite of it. The Democratic party, also big ‘business controlled, seems to have been slated for a_ post-election “loyal opposition” role. The cam- paign tactics of Democratic politi- cians, unwilling to reconcile them- selves to this secondary, position, ajim; ‘at capturing enough of a popular vote through social demo- gogy to make themselves once more useful instruments for the masters of Wall Street. The demogogy, as shown in Tru- man’s recent speeches, is com- pletely unbridled and does not stop at sharp verbal attacks on Wall Street itself. Since such “radical” statements are coupled with a sharp anti-Soviet position in for- eign affairs, big business does not worry too much about them, Ra- ther it relies on them to keep la- bor, Negro and other minority votes from going to Wallace. The Progressive party of Henry Wallace is distinguished from both Republicans and Democrats by its peace-seeking foreign pol- icy and its genuine fight, as dis- tinct from cynical lip service, in the sphere of domestic reforms. It is the only opposition to Wall Street, pulling no punches, mak- ing no “deals”, and clarifying the real issues for voters. The Progressive party is ham- pered by numerous specially-devis- ed legal hurdles, a unanimous chor- us of red-baiting by 99% of the press, lack of any source of cam- paign funds other than its own rank-and-file, newness and incom- pleteness of organization and wav- ering by some spokesmen, " All these obstacles, however, have not impeded a steady rise of popu- lar support for Wallace among Ne- groes, rank-and-file labor union- ists, national minorities and lower middle class groups. The relative smallness of this support in na- tionwide terms is due chiefly to the difficulty of reaching voters without any big circulation pa- pers, radio programs, etc. Tens of millions of Americans have liter- ally never heard, from its own mouth, what the Progressive party stands for. But if 10% of the elec- torate votes for Wallace, as is ‘highly possible, the Wall Street drive for domestic reaction and foreign war will have to reckon with a new and substantial ob- stacle. Parley sought on Italian colonies LONDON—The Soviet Union * has proposed that the Big Four Council of Foreign Min- isters meet before September 15 to consider disposition of the former Italian colonies, Moscow Radio said last week. George Zarubin, Soviet Ambassa- dor to Britain, urged the meeting Aug. 31 at a conference of the for- eign ministers’ deputies, who have been trying unsuccessfully to agree on the future of the Italian colonies in a series of discussions in London, Moscow radio said. Under terms of the Italian peace treaty, if the Big Four foreign min- isters are unable to settle the ques- tion by Sept. 15, the whole issue will go before the United Nations. The Soviet Union has favored establishment of a UN trusteeship, under Italian administration, for the colonies. Under the UN charter, Italy would then be charged with pre- paring the former colonies for speedy nationhood and to report annually to UN on the progress made, The U.S. and British governments have plans of keeping the terri- tories in a colonial status and es- tablishing their hegemony over them. Disposal of the Italian colonies in favor of Italy was also part of U.S. pre-election propaganda sup- porting the de Gasperi government in the recent Italian elections. Bricks and--medals MARGATE, England—The faces of some leaders of the British Trades Union Con- gress turned red during the opening day of the TUC’s annual conference here when observers noted two seeming- ly contradictory actions. The tivities of Communists in un-— ions. Later the conference — awarded a gold medal for to Rose Carr—a Communist. | Farben officials’ acquittal blasted BERLIN — The Committee of Former Inmates of Osweicim Con- — centration Camp has vigorously — protested the recent acquittals and | mild sentences given to 23 I. G. Farben officials by an American | military tribunal. . The men and women who work- ‘ed in slave labor camps under the control of I, G. Farben, giant Nazi chemical trust, assailed the ver- dicts and demanded a new trial. “We can well recall that thou- sands of prisoners from Oswie- cim concentration camp worked until they were utterly exhaust- ed in I. G. Farben plants,” the committee wrote, “and then end- ed up in gas chambers.” Former Nazi SS troops serving in Arab Legion PRAGUE—Israel Army Intelligence has identified about a 3,000 German §.S. men who volunteered for the Arab I gion and were taken prisoner during the Palestine fighting, ac- cording to a report in the newspaper Svobodno Slovo. S.S. men held at the Chaub prisoner-of-war camp, near Tel Aviv, said that they volunteered for the Arab Legion as early as the winter of 1946, when British and Arab recruiting officers visited their internment camp near Han- over. One hundred and fifty S. S. men volunteered from the Han- over camp, They were taken to Italy, where they received uni- forms, and then to Egypt for eight months’ military training. Later, they joined regular units of the Arab Legion in Syrian garrisons. Svodbodno Slovo recounts the case of an Israel interrogator who identified one Arab Legion prison-_ er as the man who had hanged his_ parents. The “Arab” was Stefan Barabas, a Hungarian Nazi and former commander of a concentra- tion camp near Budapest, and the interrogator was Tibor Kollmann, a lieutenant in the Israel Army and formerly an epee of that concen- rs tration camp. : Special courts, says | Svobodno Slovo, will be set up to try S.S. war criminals taken prisoner on the _ Palestine fronts. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 1i, 1948_-PAGE 3