_icy, a Press’ plight shown in end of N.Y. star NEW YORK. America’s “most famous liberal newspaper, the New York Star (formerly PM), ended its existence last week. Beset by financial diffi- culties since its birth in 1940, when it announced it would take no ad- vertising to avoid commercial pres- sure on policy, it did not do much better after it began to solicit ad- vertising last June. Marshall Field, millionaire owner of PM, withdrew his regular deficit-covering subsid- ies from the paper at that time, when the paper changed its name to the New York Star. Despite circulation increases dur- ing 1948, the Star found it impos- sible to continue without interest- ing more millionaires. It was the failure of negotiations to get such backing from a big western oil magnate that led to its end—at 10 minutes’ notice. The collapse of the Star leaves more than 100 editorial workers and 300 technical workers without employment. Liberal newsmen who wrote for it, and who may find difficulty in obtaining outlets in any other daily paper, include such internationally-known commientat- ors as I. F. Stone, Jennings Perry and Albert Deutsch. \ No better illustration of the plight of the press under capital- ism could be found—and the les- son will probably be taken to heart by many who have persist- ed. in believing that constitution- al provisions alone add up to drreedom of publication.” The Star itself, incidentally, was one of the chief contenders that this freedom really exists. Politically, the Star was what would be known in Europe as 4 “third force’ paper. It supported Truman in the last presidential elections. In fact, it was the only New York daily (apart from the Daily Worker) which did not cam- paign for Dewey for president. And since the election it has tried hard to shout down its own misgivings about Truman’s cold war course. It is*improbable that the Star will have any successor, even in the mildly liberal field. The history of American journalism since the rise of industrial and banking mon- opolies in the 1890’s has been one of mergers and reduction, not’ in- creases, in the number of news- papers.” Many American towns have only one paper. with all others kept out of the field by: prohibitive financial costs. * * It is significant that, just as the “third force’ Star caved in, the Communist Daily Worker has been celebrating its 25th anniversary. This paper has not tried to evade the constant and virulent attacks that have been directed at it from the start, attacks which of course included a total boycott by big ad- vertisers. It has sought no million- aire backers but has lived on sub-. seriptions and contributions from its readers. Its continued existence proves that, if there is to be @ democratic press in America, the people must support it directly.. There is no other way: ; One of the remaining possible channels for expression independ- ent of ‘the monopolies is the US. labor press, consisting of hundreds of union papers with a total cir- culation of perhaps 15 million cop- ies. This press, however, 15 affected by the plight of U.S. labor at this time. p Most of the unions, and conse quently their papers, have oe maintained that the function © labor is to work only within the |: présent system and to support that system, The mobilization of USS. union leadership on pehalf of the Truman doctrine and Marshall plan has turned most CIO and AFL papers into subsidiary mouthpieces of the government on foreign pol- which involves both the work- ers’ hope of peace and their hope of economie improvement. Until the rank and file changes union policies, the labor press will” re- main in this condition. Socialists’ anti-labor role repudiated TOKYO. Japanese Communists increased their parliamentary representation nine times in the national elections held here January 23, winning'35 seats as against only four in the last parliament. The popular vote for the Communists, contributed chiefly by labor, rose to 3,274,000 as against 1,400,000 last year. The Socialist party, which had 147 seats in the previous parlia- ment, dropped to 49. Ex-Premier Tetsu Katayama, leader of the Socialists, failed to win election in his own district, where he was defeated by Communist candid- ate Inosuke Nakanishi. : Socialist workers began to turn away from the Socialist party, for which most of them had previous- ly voted, after it participated in the notoriously anti-labor govern- ment of Premier Shigeru Yoshida. The elections as a whole were a right-wing victory. Yoshida is to remain as premier. The reaction- ary groups behind him, which mas- queraded as “liberal” or “democra- tic” in-the early days of U.S. oc- cupation, came out in their true colors. The right-wingers have the back- ing of General Douglas MacArthur, who initiated the national public service law. which deprives three million government - employed workers of, strike and collective bargaining rights. He has algo help- ed the revival of war guilty Japan- ese big business by repealing oc- cupation anti-trust decrees. The strikebreaking activities of the U.S. occupation and the Japan- ese government operating under its supervision are generally recog- Communists poll 3,000,000 votes in Japan nized as the chief cause for the strengthening of Japan’s Commun- ists, being more important in this regard than even the prestige gain- ed from Communist victories in neighboring China. Japanese labor leaders began to join the Communists immed- iately after the MacArthur anti- strike order against government employees. Nine top officials of the Congress of Industrial Unions ran for parliament on the Com- munist ticket. Many local Social- ist party groups have gone over to the Communists in a bloc. in hypocrisy Study Wearing their robes and masks, members of the Klu Klux Klan in Atlanta, Georgia, file into church for a special ceremony. Chile scored for holding — 500 in concentration camp —MEXICO CITY a oS ad . . . . . Labor federations in three Latin American countries have de- nounced the Chilean government for its year-long imprisonment of 500 unionists and pro-labor political figures in the isolated Pisagua con- centration camp. of 1947, have never been charged or tried. Many have died or become. ill from the privations to which they have been subjected. The Ecuadorian Federation of Labor (CTE) stated: “We demand in the name of de- mocracy that the concentration camps at Pisagua be abolished. We demand liberty for all those de- tained, immediate freedom for Bernardo Araya. president of the Chilean Federation of Labor.” The Bolivian Federation of La- bor (CTB) noted that Pisagua “re- sembles the sinister concentration camps of Germany under Hitler.” The Cuban Federation of Labor (CTB) informed UN secretary gen- eral Trygve Lie that the Pisagua concentration camp “is a shameful fact clearly in contradiction with the democratic principles the Chil- The Pisagua inmates, seized after the coal strikes Nazi SS men enter Australia as DP’s SYDNEY. When the Netherlands liner “Volendam” docked here from ‘Europe, several Dutch passengers i said they had identified 12 immi- grants to Australia, who were also aboard, as former Nazi SS men. The Nazis were going to Australia in the guise of “dis- placed persons.” : The Dutch passengers contact- ed an Australian immigration official who said he knew “noth- ing about the matter’ and ad- ean government declares that it up- holds on a world scale,” mitted the Nazis. to save itself by cunning. Chiang troops to defend it. powerless subordinates play at peace negotiations with the advan- cing peoples armies to gain time only to seek new forces in South China. Chiang’s personal guard units were ordered to withdraw without battle from their hopeless positions ‘in front of Nanking and Shanghai for the same purpose — so they could serve as a nucleus for a new war base. While Chiang draws up new plans and dickers with local war- lords to keep at least part of China. he is concentrating his remaining military supplies on the island of Formosa, which is far enough from the mainland to be tempor- arily safe from the Chinese Com- munists—who have no navy. In fact, the only navy cruising around Formosa is American. U.S. companies such as Reynolds Metals are making a good thing out of the island’s resources. With American support, which may offset the dis- gruntlement of Formosans who have already rebelled against his government on one’ occasion, Chiang hopes to be all set for a new round of blood-letting. Per- haps his chief difficulty at the mo- ment is to convince the U.S. that such support is worthwhile, after all the failures of the past. This activity, veiled by the more: spectacular news of the moment, is what has decided the people’s armies to press their campaign to the end, peace talks or no peace talks. Determination to frustrate it is what made the - Chinese Communists insist that. Chiang be arrested and handed to them before negotiations pro- ceed further. . Other anti-Chiang groups in China—the Kuomintang Revolu- tionary Committee, the Democratic League and even the Chinese Free- masons—have declared full backing for this demand. The reason is not far to seek. ‘Most Chinese are now convinced. as 55 of their prominent non-Com- : d HONG KONG. One reason why the crumbling anti-labor Chinese government of Chiang Kai-shek is encoun- tering difficulties in its plan to ing wave of labor activity along South China’s railways. | ; _ Workers of the Hankow-Can- ton-Hong Kong line, along which the government hoped to evacu- ate its remaining troops and wealth, struck for higher pay from January 5 to 12, when the railway administration granted them increased wages and food flee to South China is the grow-- ~ Chiang hampered by railway strike allowances, A thousand strikers lay down on the tracks along different parts of the road to prevent attempts to move trains with outside personnel. Workers of the other main South China railway, the Hunan-Kwangsi line, walked out in sympathy. South China’s railwaymen, who have hitherto been kept down by Kuomintang military intimidation, have many scores to settle with the regional rail- way administration and its dir- ector, Tu Chen-yuan, Constant refusals by Tu to raise wages to strike, Tu made a shopping trip keep pace with inflation of Kuo- mintang currency have cut workers’ purchasing power al- most 90 percent. While their own families starved, the railwaymen say, Tu has wallowed in luxury, diverting funds to build himself a new mansion in Canton and to buy two fine houses which he has used to entertain prominent Kuomintang officials. During the ml to Hong Kong and spent $1,500 in American dollars to buy 2 billiard table as a gift for his daughter. : i PACIFIC TRIBUNE Chiang seeks time to establish new South China base _ By ISRAEL EPSTEIN The old order in China, faced with military defeat, is now trying Kai-shek, who still holds nominal authority in almost half the country, no longer has enough combat He “‘retired”’ from threatened Nanking, where munist writers, educators, and pub- lic figures wrote recently, that “the revolution must be carried on to the very end.” . Compromises with reaction wrecked the initial promise of two previous gigantic efforts of the Chinese people to free themselves, in 1911 and 1927, In each case for- eign support gave the reactionaries the strength they lacked in them- selves, the people were enslaved anew, and more civil war followed when they sought to shake off the yoke all over again. The effort made by the Chinese people to throw off the backward domestic social system of two thou- sand years, and the colonial status born of a century of foreign ag-' gression, has been truly gigantic. It would have been infinitely less costly—cheaper at least by the three million Chinese lives lost since V-J day—if the Americans and Canadians had prevented their governments from pouring billions of dollars in war supplies to sup- port Chiang. Now the people’s armies are vic- torious, and have demonstrated that they have majority support, in every area they touch. They can smash any further resistance by reaction, but will not forgive new American maneuvers that prolong it at the cost of more Chinese blood. All China will regard it as an act of war if the U.S. supports the comeback efforts of a rejected des- potism, based on an off-shore island which U.S. brass hats have virtual- ly pocketed already. Right Laborites try to bar ‘rebels’ —LONDON Fearing to take direct disciplin- ary action against recent Labor “rebels” on peace and foreign pol- icy issues, the most recent of which was the revolt ageinst Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin's policy on Israel, Transport House has been tringing indirect pressure to bear on local organizations. A campaign is aow afoot to dis- courage divisional organization of the Labor party from selecting — left-wingers as parliaicentary can- didates for the 1950 election. This fact adds importance to the recent unanimous adoption of Konni Zilliacus, best known of tne Labor party’s. left-wingers, as Trosvective parliamentary carndi- date for East Gateshead. ; — FEBRUARY 4, 1949 — PAGE 3 \