me he i ak

respects world ties

By ISRAEL.

Abraham Lincolnwonce said: ““The strongest bond of human sym-
outside the family relation, should be one uniting all working

pathy,
people, of all nations and tepgues an

he said: ‘All that harms labor is

These principles of labor solidar-
ity and common democracy were
once accepted by unions the world
over, which extended them to com-
‘mon action against all economic,
racial and national oppression for
the benefit of the money power. In
the English-speaking nations, they
led to the British strikes of 1918-
20 against military action to stop
Russia’s revolution, and to Ameri-
can labor picketing of big business
oi] and iron shipments to Japan
when she invaded China in 1937. In
an example this year, British sea-
men aboard the Queen Elizabeth,
walked off the ship rather than sail
to strikebound New York docks.

The present action of the Aus-
tralian Seamen’s Union and Water-
side Workers Federation in boycot-
ting all Dutch ships supplying the
war against Indonesia shows that
the spirit of labor solidarity is not
wholly dead in the English-speak-
ing world. Australian labor’s record
in this regard, indeed, shows that
at least in one place it is very much
alive.

Even in wartime, Australian
workers were vigilant toward re-
vivals of fascism and hints of re-
newed colonial oppression. In 1942
the million-strong Australasian
Council of Trade Unions demanded
that Britain release the Indian
liberation leader, Mahatma Gandhi.
It protested British government
freeing of the “fascist Sir Oswald
Mosley. :

At the war’s end, Australian
labor fought suppression of la-
bor, colonial and people’s move-
ments by victorious allied forces.
In December 1944 the New South
Wales Council and Australian
Seamen’s Union assailed “British
betrayal of Greeks whose heroic
resistance helped overthrow the
fascist invaders.” Australian
dockers and seamen still refuse.

~ to provide service or crews for

Greek ships.

* *

The first ban by Australian un-
ions on Dutch shipping to Indon-
esia was imposed in September
1945 and lasted for two years. After
a brief interval, the boycott was

*

their

Ce

EPSTEIN

d kindreds.’’ On another occasion
treason.”

resumed when the Dutch broke
truce undertakings. Arms
ships were also tied up when Bri-
tain smashed unions in Malaya,

‘Franco Spain, recognized — as
an enemy by Australia’s workers
in the thirties, has been afraid
to send ships to that country
ever since. All trade with Spain
is under a union ban, Australian
longshoremen refused to load a
cargo of wool for Spain slipped
aboard one vessel in February
1947.

Australian boilermakers’, clerks’,
shoemakers’, blacksmiths’ and ac-
tors’ unions demanded in :Novem-
ber 1946 that their government
urge United Nations action to
force an’ end to U.S. intervention
in the internal affairs of China.
When Chinese seamen in Austral-
ian ports struck for equal wages
and. treatment with white mari-
time workers, Aussie longshore-
men and sailors raised a large
fund to support their walkout.

* x *

Australian unions have demand-
ed abolition of the atom bomb. In
1947 they boycotted construction of
an experimental rocket range in
central Australia because it cre-
ated danger to natives and diverted
material from peacetime housing.

Australian labor, including un-
jons under strong anti-Communist
leadership, has always defended:
the civil rights of Communists be-
cause, as Labor party Foreign Min-
ister H. V. Evatt said, “trade union
rights come next.”

The Queensland Trades and La-
por Council, which includes rail-
road, mine, maritime and other un-
ions, has asked the United Nations
to intervene in trials of 12 Ameri-
can Communist leaders and ap-
pealed to CIO President Philip
Murray “to do everything in his
power” to help defend them.

At home in Australia, national
railway, seamen’s and longshore-
men’s unions imposed a full boy-
cott on the state of Victoria, cut-
ting it off for weeks from con-
tact with other areas, when it
tried to force through anti-labor
and ant! Communist laws.

U.S. LARGEST IN AUSTRALIA

stations in the world.
The file section, which keeps

a

imported from the U.S.

Liberal Party
privilege for sr
ot ithe smallest in Canberra,

filing system.
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador
Australia’s wartime ally,
foot in Australia, now stumps
of Yankee “free enterprise.”

Embassy spies on

The U.S. government’s Canberra embassy,
gest in Australia, will soon become one of the

is being considerably enlarged and
and receiving radio is being augmented by

members who repeatedly use parliamentary

smears about the size of the

have not raised a peep about the
inva cowth of the American embassy.

oes peak aes said a word about the infiltration of Yankee

labor spy and FBI Gestapo methods which will follow com-

pletion of the embassy’s radio station and extension of its

broken the diplomatic code of ethics by a. broadcast smear of
the Soviet Union,
the country preaching the glgries

labor

—CANBERRA

already the big-
largest diplomatic

tabs on Australian left-wingers,

the powerful transmitting
special equipment

Soviet legation, one

“Myron Melvin Cowen, having

as soon as he set

Sy

Haven for Horthy
—MILAN

Admiral Nicholas Horthy, war-
time Hungarian dictator who is
sought for war crimes by some Al-
lied countries, has left the U.S.
zone of Germany and is now on his
way to Brazil.

Horthy is the man who sup-
pressed Hungarian unions and par-
liamentary government, and ex-
ecuted thousands of workers by fir-
ing squads in the early 1920’s. Dur-
ing the Second World War his gov-
ernment took measures which re-
sulted in the killing of tens of
thousands of Jews.

Stopping in Milan on his way to
South America, ‘he saw the press
long enough to endorse Cardinal
Josef Mindszenty, Catholic prelate
arrested for seeking overthrow of
Hungary’s present government, as
“a, really strong man who was
burning with love of freedom.”

Plot to split
world labor

—LONDON
Further moves by British and
American right-wing labor leaders

to split the international unity of
the working class are reported
here, to be in the making.

Maurice Healey, chief of the in-
ternational department of the Brit-
ish Labor party, it is learned here,
is to launch a Foreign Office-in-
spired offensive to split the Italian
Socialist party, led by Pietro Nenni,

by calling a conference of the Sara-;

gat break-away Socialists in Milan
early this year.

The conference, which will be
packed by the largest foreign. re-
presentation that can be obtained,
drawn from right-wing Social De-
mocrats from several European
countries, will have the proclaimed
aim of uniting the Socialist forces
in Italy.

‘It is clear, however, that the
object of its British sponsors is
to smash the strong leftled So-
cialist party by engineering a new
breakaway by a right Socialist
splinter group. '

From Paris it is reported that
the American AFL representative
in Europe, Irving Brown, declared

{only true

Be NN eS:

see victory

“As the old year ended, the

ma ean w wer we wea

s |
in 4
—LONDON

Democratic government of Greece

has issued a proclamation to the Greek people on its first anniversary.
The Free Greek regime was formed December 23, 1947. ae
“We can and must make 1949 the year of victory,”’ said the

“In the Far East,
with their
the road to

proclamation.
the Chinese people
triumphs show us
glory.

“Today, one year after the for-
mation of the Provisional Demo-
cratic government, the People’s
army, united around its govern-

ment, is marching ahead with
greater confidence toward speedy
victory, which will be the cul-

mination of long years of heroic
struggle, struggle worthy of the
Greek people.

The proclamation declares that
while Greece’s enemies, domestic
and foreign, tried to belittle the
importance of the formation of
the Democratic government, the
Greek people, both in the liber-
ated and occupied areas, received
it with joy, since they felt that
“at last they had a government
of their own which would lead
them steadily, assuredly to liberty.”

“During the past year,” says
the proclamation, “while the de-
spicable Athens traitors com-
pleted Greece’s subjugation to
Anglo-American imperialism, the
Greek people built up an uncon-
querable popular movement.

“Today after a full year of diffi-
culties and sacrifices and heroism,
a regular People’s revolutionary
army has been created which is
stronger in numbers, quality and
equipment than a year ago.”

The proclamation stresses the

large scale participation of wo-
men in the liberation struggle,
which “proves better than any-

thing else how popular our strug-
gle is.” :

“Abroac, democratic people and
their leaders are looking toward
a democratic government with
confidénce, recognizing it as the
government of Greece.
The UN delegation of our great
friend, the USSR, together with
the delegations of the people’s de-
mocracies, havé warmly defended
the rights of our martyred people
at UN.”

In conclusion, the proclamation
calls on soldiers and honest offi-
cers jin the monarcho-fascist army
to accept the hand of fraterniza-
tion and to join the People’s army.
It thanks the democratic peoples
for their support.

The Free Greece radio, com-
menting on the successes scored
by the Third Division of the
People’s army in the Pelopon-
esus in the past year, revealed
that 300,000 people live in the
area already liberated. The area
comprises, apart from more
than 300 villages, a large num-
ber of townships in Andritsena
and Laggardia. A total of 314
People’s Courts are functioning
in Free Pelopennesus, and 13
Appeals Courts.

Large arid areas have been
made fertile in that territory by
irrigation schemes and other pro-
gressive agricultural measures. ;

3,000 are arrested

) —ATHENS
Unable to cope militarily with
the guerillas in the mountains,
who have increased from 15,000
to 25,000 in the past year, the
royalist Greek government is
once more striking at civilians
dissatisfied with its policies,

Three thousand persons, in-
cluding hundreds of unionists,
were arrested in the main Pelo-
ponessus area of Greece on De-
cember 28, on charges of being
“underground members of Com-
munist organizations.”

Communists
gain in Japan

-—-TOKYO

Every day news from different
parts of Japan indicates that more
labor leaders and unionists are re-
acting to anti-labor measures in-
troduced by Genéral Douglas Mac-
Arthur’s occupation headquarters
and the Japanese government by
joining the Communist party. The
cther traditional labor political
body, the Social Democratic party.
is losing ground because its mem-
bers still participate in a govern-
ment which all Japanese workers
dislike.

Over 20 prominent members of

the. Social. Democratic party in

Miyagi prefecture joined the Com-
munists in December. Among
them were local Social Democrat
youth director Shigeru Hakamada

and municipal councillor Koso
Sakaki. i
Labor leaders who announced

they had passed over to the Com- —
munists at a public meeting held
December
Zenzo Suzuki of the Miyagi Public

Service Workers Union, Executive

Secretary Yoshio Okawa cf the
county chapter of the right-wing —
National Federation of Labor and
Vice President Masao Sato of the
Miyagi Government Employees
Union.

Individual unionists who follow- ©
ed their lead included members of —
the Government Railway Workers
Union and the All-Japan Govern- ©
ment Communications Workers ©
Union, whose national president —
previously became a Communist —
party member with the approval —

‘cf his executive board.

Alaskan fishermen scorn

lame-duck smear charges

SEATTLE. @

Lame duck efforts of a U.S. House labor sub-committee to slander ¥

28 included President —

Some of Cowen’s utterances over the ABC have already

that “he hoped all non-Communist

the CIO International Fishermen’s and Allied Workers’ Alaska affili-

.

brought protests from Australians.

Homes for Australians are scarce and so
to build them, but the American embassy staff doesn’t suffer

on either score.
The Americans,
at Canberra, are

are the materials

: 4
who already occupy one 30-roomed house
building and equipping two more mansions and

six cottages to house the military experts and big business

carpet baggers who will be coming

Workers engaged

as “diplomats.”

on the project say there has never been

any hold-up in the work of enlarging the embassy building be-

cause of material shortages.
But the irony is that
living on the , Causeway, Canberra’s

the building workers themselves are

worst slum, in homes sup-

posed to be temporary when built nearly 80 years ago for the

workers who built Canberra, . They
for themselves.

can find no better housing

trade unions would form a new in-
ternational. federation” after the
CIO, the British TUC “and other
unions” disconnected themselves
from the WFTU.

Telepress Berlin correspondent
- reports that the British liaison of-
ficer to the German trade unions,
Hans Gottfurcht, speaking to the
breakaway yellow UGO union in
Berlin, declared that the British
TUC took the view that the
WETU “has ceased to exist in
practice.”

He suggested that the German
yellow unions would be asked to
join a “new trade union interna-

-|tional’ as equals.

t * 7S

ates by linking them with alleged territorial “‘espionage’’ were flayed
here by J. F. Jurich, union president.

Rep. C. J. Kersten, defeated in
November, headed the subcommit-
tee which asserted in a report that
the Westward Alaska Fisheries
Council, an‘ IFAWA-sponsored
trade union body, is “Communist-
dominated.”

Jurich said his union “rejects in
their entirety all red-baiting, slan-
der attacks by such people as Kers-
ten and J. Parnell Thomas — the
one repudiated at the polls by the
people of his own district, the other
under indictment for payroll-pad-
ding by a federal grand jury.

“Our members are putting in so

PACIFIC TRIBUNE —

many hours at arduous work in a

rugged industry they have no time —
for alleged ‘acts of espionage’,”
Jurich commented. acidly. .
Kersten’s report followed an Oc-_
tober quickie tour assertedly to
“probe Alaska defenses.”
Kersten who told a private Ger-
man-American Society banquet in |
New York on September 25 that
he favors shipping boatloads of

Nazi Germans to the territory for
settlement as a “Northwestern bas- —

tion of defense.” ;
JANUARY 7%, 1949 — PAGE 3

It was