People’s gov’t controls half of Ch

When the Liberation armies have cleared th
Nanking-Shanghai-Hangchow triangle, the new
of roughly half of China, including Manchuri
Of the half of-the country still under

gime, vast regions like Tibet and Sinkiang, which
together comprise. a quarter of China’s total 4,314,-
7 square miles, are largely undeveloped and of-

fer Chiang Kai-shek neither manpower nor resources
or a new base. Even in south China, which Chiang still represents (for
ercign Consumption) as the base for aynew Kuomintang offensive, his

mulitary resources are limited. Canton is the

left in hi

is hands.

Eas
Liberation armies last. fall
Fesistance by the Kuomintang south
oe AE

Soviet wage
buys twice
1948 level

—MOSCOW
ae Wage of the average Soviet
ast €r buys twice as much today
sili Sat Jast year, Chairman Vas-

uznetsov reported to the Con-
ee of Soviet Trade Unions here.
UsgR ing of real wages in the
one Was a result of several fac-
ae Kuznetosoy said. Direct pay
Ses in money. terms have follow-
So rise in per-man produc-
“ane resulting from increasing
meth zation and better working
viet ‘ae (the overall output of So-
his ndustry is 23 percent higher
sepa year than last, according to
2S pe erely: issued figures). Last
the eS Currency reform increased
aod @lue of Soviet money, saving
SS consumers over 71 billion
acke 32° nation-wide price roll-
wa in 1948-49 supplemented the
*ency reform. While prices fell
wages in rubles continued
ase,

menor from these direct improve-
Ae Kuznetsov said, Soviet gov-
ape €xpenditures for free so-
; ine vices were upped sharply,
bu dect UP 30 percent of the current
eq oe ~1e€ government, he point-
Much San Spending five times as

© pr °r social services during
the fer ot 5-year plan as it did in
Put ¢ and second 5-year plans
; °8ether, °

UE goes for
Wage boost

- Fir : —NEW YORK
a mare bid for wage increases by
tha shee U.S. union has come from
Machined Electrical Radio and

€ Worke ir
oO Union. rs, third largest

The

65
Manufact
Producin

§
Seay,
War ed to

bercent of the electrical
uring industry that is
€avy equipment and is

Worker otam, is prospering. ° Its
Wee, > 2re still on the 40-hour
Vertim q, in many instances, on
depressig However, a full-fledged
the ing on has hit that section of
trj ustry which produces elec-
Sume, *PPliances and other con-
*r goods,

ic)
90,099 he union’s 600,000 members,
Maro een laid off as of
Nie more large-scale lay-
r reported imminent. An-

gereent of the UE mem-
are? are working part-time.
i heat are packed with wash-
Ps, y, nes, radio sets, refriger-
Consy, cal Cleaners and other
roducts urchasin

Windles, 20, Pe
UNion’s

strategy -collective bargain-
e i

will be to emphasize
tan in those companies
© still working full-time
ang frine & shorter work week
Sion , Be benefits, for the depres-
all tarpep 22 of the industry. Over-
lent re Of the union is the equiv-
pechRa ce Cia St 0 annual wage in-
of its members.

for each

last of China’s great cities

Chang. Teh-piao, Chinese military expert, writing for the Far
1 Bulletin in Hongkong; stated that the victories won by the
“precluded any further organized effective

of the (Yangtse) river.”

Chang asserted that the Libera-
tion armies had no need to put
their full force into the drive
southward, having pitted one mil-
lion men against the Kuomintang’s
600,000 along a 1000-mile front.

Liberation of Shanghai, with a
population of 6,000,000, will give
the Communists control over the
country’s commercial and indus-
trial capital. This key port city
is in Kiangsu province, which has
a population of 36 millions in an
area, of 41,000 square miles, mak-
ing it the most densely populated
region in the world. Important in-
dustrial plants utilizing the rich
resources of the Yangtse river area
which, as in Peiping and other
cities, the workers will strive to
protect’ for the new government,
will be added to those already in
Communist hands.

Last year Rutgers University
Press published a report listing the
industrial plants, returned after de-
feat of Japan, in Manchuria, the
provinces of Kiangsu, Chekiang,

Anhwei, Hopeh, Chahar, Jehol and
Suiyan, and the island of Taiwan.
All these territories except Che-
kiang and Taiwan, have already
been liberated.

The plants listed were:

Smelting, 24; machine making,
103; metalware, 33; electric ap-
pliances, 18; chemical, 291; tex-
tile, 135; clothing, 7; foodstuffs,
99; paper and printing, 22.

China’s oil industry is centered
in south Manchuria and Kansu, a
province in western China not yet

liberated. In 1947, it produced
8,744,000 gallons of gasoline.
~Plans are already under way to
harness the waters of the Yangtze
and to construct 11 power plants,
the largest with an output of 8,000,-
000 kilowatts.

Steel and iron centers in Man-
churia and North China, develop-
ed by the Japanese to supply -
their war industries, are now be-
ing enlarged to make posisble the
peaceful construction of the new
China. :

Plans to rehabilitate, modernize
and extend the 15,000 miles of rail-
ways, most of which are in liber-
ated territory, are already~ being
carried out. \ : i

Thus, €ven while the Liberation
armies are still fighting to free all
Chinese territory and to bring
peace to a country which has
not known it for three decades, the
work of building for the future and
utilizing China’s vast resources for
her people is proceeding at an un-
believable pace. ‘

British railwaymen

. e
seek wage increase
P ; _ —LONDON

The 450,000-strong National Union
of Railwaymen is seeking a $2
basic weekly wage raise through-
out the industry.

The NUR demand has been pre-
sented to the Labor’ government,
which nationalized British trans-
port some time ago. Nationaliza-
tion has long been» demanded by
the workers and formed part of
the platform on which the Labor
party was elected in 1945, but
British workers feel increasingly
that the right-wing led party has
distorted its meaning. Compensa-
tion to bought-out owners and
shareholders in nationalized in-
dustries has been extremely liberal
but promises of better wage stan-
dards and substantial union par-
ticipation in management have not
been carried out.

e

e last of Chiang Kai-shek’s beaten troops from the
Chinese People’s Democratic Republic will be in control
a, and three-fifths of the populated industrial coastal area.
the nominal control of the disintegrating Kuomintang re-

Kuomintang debacle

Wounded soldiers of the Kuomintang
munist-led Liberation troops entered the ci
Kai-shek’s beaten and demoralized troops off

capital, now shifted to Canton.

armies are shown passing through Nanking as Com-
ty from the north in their sweep to Shanghai. Chiang
ered little resistance to occupation of the Kuomintang

Unity of world’s workers

can prevent war--WFTU

—PARIS

An appeal to the working class movements of all coutries to join in ‘‘a world front in the struggle
for peace” featured the May Day message of the World Federation of Trade Unions, sent to labor organ-

izations round the globe. ‘We must organize our efforts and fight with
“If the workers clearly express their determination to

the message stated.
their will to establish the necessary
organization and unity, war can
be avoided.”

The world today was overshad-
owed by threats of economic crisis
and war, the message continued.
Both these threats were the re-
sult of the same social and econo-
mic fact—the domination of mon-
opoly capitalism. The full weight
of the crisis would fall oh the
workers unless they succeeded in
preventing it by organized, united
effort, the WFTU warned.

In the view of the monopol-
ists, the WETU stated, war
would be “less costly” than the
approaching economic crisis. “For
the workers,” it said, “war repre-
sents suffering, hunger and mis-
ery, while for the monopoly cap-

italists it represents profits and .

the hope of establishing their
uncontested domination over the
whole world. War profiteers are
already extracting huge profits
from the armament race and the
war hysteria they are stirring up.”

The best weapon the workers had
for combatting depression and war
was unity’ the WFTU declared.
Much of the present disunity, the
result of the efforts of big business
reactionaries to tame and ‘crush
the labor movement by a policy of
“divide and rule.”

The WETU message strongly
criticized the CIO and British
Trades Union Congress for follow-
ing the lead of their governments
in trying to destroy the world or-
ganization. The two federations
“took this action without consult_
ing their own workers, and know-
ing that there are no reasons for
animosity between the workers of
England, France, China, the Soviet
Union or any other country,” the
WFTU charged.

Attacking assertions that the
WFTU is a “Communist organiz-
ation” and efforts to create a
new “non-Communist” world lIa-
bor group the message warned
against dividing the labor move-
ment into two camps based on

all our resources for peace,”
prevent war, and demonstrate

politics. “Trade unions are not

political parties. The principle of
trade unionism is to unite work-
ers irrespective of their opin-
ions,” it asserts. “There are no
Communist or ‘non-Communist
trade unions.” :

Despite the efforts of splitters,
the WFTU was growing stronger,
the declaration Stated, noting that
it was giving assistance to grow-
ing labor movements in colonial
Asia, Latin America and Africa,
defending the interests of the
workers in the United Nations and
other international bodies, protect-
ing union rights and liberties, the
principle of equal pay for equal
work, fighting discrimination and
defending the persecuted.

“The forces of democracy are in-
finitely greater than the forces of
reaction, and the most important
issue for alk humanity today is
the unity and reinforcement of
the democratic forces,” the mes-
sage concluded, calling on the
labor unjons to unite now for
peace and social progress every-
where.

Pacific pact
plan opposed

—TOKYO

The Japanese Congress of In-
dustrial Unions which, with 1,200,
000 members, most of them in the
basic industries, is the largest
labor federation in the country,
has come out for world peace in a
sharply worded statement holding
that “the unity of the workers of
the entire world; crystallized in
the World Federation of Trade
Unions, is the best guarantee of

world peace.”

The CIU statement levelled
serious charges against the present
Japanese government. “The Yo-
shida cabinet seeks to draw Japan
into another war by preparing the
way for a new’ fascism,” it said.
“To that end it is imposing upon
the people low wages, mass dis-
charge of workers and heavy tax-
ation, and is sabotaging national
industries conductive to peace.”

GREEK UNIONISTS EXECUTED

Security Committee.

rule Langenhove.

“Gavel has cost two lives’

Two Greek union leaders whose case
United Nations General Assembly,
Elefteriadis have been’ executed by the
regard of UN Assembly President Herbert V. Evatt’s unofficial
plea for re-examination of their sentences.
shot was revealed here April 26 by Polish delegate Julius Katz-
Suchy. Katz-Suchy’s motion for official intervention by the UN
~in the case of the two men had

order by Chairman F. van Lagenhove of the UN Political and.
cur A majority that included the U.S. and
Britain voted ‘down the subsequent Polish-Soviet move to over-
“The chairman’s gavel has cost two lives,”
Katz-Suchy said bitterly, reporting the execution of the Greeks.

—LAKE SUCCESS
was brought before the
George Dimitriu and Vasili
Greek government in dis-

That the men had been

previously been ruled out of

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MAY 6, 1949 — PAGE 3