$A This OTS PAINT TT Week A REVIEW OF WORLD EVENTS EERE aN UT eS LO LES AST a LN ALAA Tk SORA AUTEN TH = United States State Department Blocked Mission ACK in New York this week, after signing on as an able sea- men in order to visit British, So- viet and other ports on a union mission for which the State Depart- ment refused him a passport, Jos- eph Curran, president of the Na- tional Maritime Union, charged the State Department with “doing everything possible to block the ac- complishment of my mission, un- dertaken at the request of the NMU membership, to visit Britain, North Africa and the Soviet Union and investigate conditions of NMU members in foreign ports. After the State Department stalled on request for a passport he shipped out on his seamen’s passport, he said. “When we arrived in a North Af- rican port, every crew member was fiven shore leave, with one ex- ception—Joseph Curran. I was in- formed that I was not permitted to go ashore on orders from the State Department I was told that if I descended the gangplank I would be shot—and there were sol- diers with tommy guns there ready to do the shooting.” Curran said that despite this, “I was able to accomplish part of my union mission. Delegations of sea- men from every ship in the har- bor visited me aboard ship and dis- cussed questions relating to the welfare of seamen and their role in the war effort “1 Jearned enough to know that merchant seamen are not being treated as they should be, al- though they are delivering the goods under war conditions. | plan to go to Washington in the near future to bring to the at- tention of government agencies those shocking conditions which demand immediate correction in the interests of an efficient mer- chant marine.” Curran added that because the purpose of his mission was “also to establish ties with the marine unions of Britain, the Soviet Union and other United Nations, it is clear that the same reactionary forces which prevented me from investigated conditions abroad also oppose the achievement of inter- national labor unity, which is ab- solutely necessary for speedy win- ning of the war and a people's peace.” Soviet Union Soviet Trade Unionist Answers Nagler ae assertion that “the Soviet trade unions are not free but are organizations of the state,” made by Isidore Nagler, AFL fra- ternal delegate to the British Trades Union Congress convention held in Southport last month, was strongly denied this week by Niko- lai Alexeyev, spokesman for the All-Union Council of Soviet Trade Unions. Declaring that Nagler expressed the views of “such reactionary AFL labor leaders as Matthew Woll, David Dubinsky and William Hutcheson, as well as of John L. Lewis,” Alexeyey said: “Nagler’s speech not only expressed emnity for the Soviet trade unions, but also deliberately atteinpted to dis- rupt their efforts to draw into the orbit of the Anglo-Soviet trade union committee the trade unions of North and Ssuth America, Aus- tralia and the workers of the oc- cupied territories of Europe.” In answer to Nagler, Alexeyey asks: “Tf, as Nagler said, it is true that the Soviet trade unions are not democratic but merely state organ- izations, how can one explain the fact that they have stood the sev- erest tests in the war? How can one explain the fact that the Soviet trade unions have done enormous work in mobilizing and organizing the war effort of the Soviet people, who have been inflicting resound- ing blows upon Hitler’s war ma- chine? If the Soviet trade unions did not enjoy the confidence and sup- port of their members, how could they have headed the mass move- ment of labor emulation? How could they have done so much to meet the daily material and cul- tural needs of the workers under the difficult conditions of wartime? The Soviet trade unions have been able to cope with their mani- fold and difficult tasks only be- cause they enjoy the support and initiative of their 28,000,000 mem- bers. “Needless to say, all Soviet - trade union organizations are built up on the democractic principle of elections by secret ballot. From top to bottom they are subjected to close check-ups, since all trade union bodies must regularly make reports to the rank and file. When trade union leaders fail to justify the confi- dence placed in them, they may be removed by the membership. Moreover, every case of flagrant bureaucracy and indifference to the needs of the membership is mercilessly criticized at trade union meetings, at trade union conferences and in the press. Lifetime jobs do not exist in the Soviet trade union organizations.” Referring -to Nagler’s statement that the AFL objects to CIO par- ticipation in international labor unity negotiations on the grounds that this “would cause a split in the American labor movement,” Alexeyev said. “Simple logic shows that participation of the CIO to- gether with the AFL in the work of the Anglo-Soviet trade union comniittee would only draw these two American labor organizations closer together, promote mutual un- derstanding between them and Red Army The boundless joy « evacuated before th forests to join the the Nazis or drivenc in this photo radi children greet the li the recaptured city. many cities and in! past three months back from Soviet ¢ thus clear the way for unity in the American labor movement. “The road to collaboration and unity has already been chosen by some local and CIO organizations. If the leaders of the AFL sincerely fear a split in the American labor movement, they have—to say the least—chosen a queer way to pre- vent it, if Nagler may be believed.” Recalling the conference of rep- resentatives of the AFL and British TUC held in Miami, Florida, last January, at which Matthew Woll based his opposition to the Soviet trade unions upon the assertion that they “were not free workers’ organizations in the democratic sense, but state organizations,” Alexeyev declared: “Nagler’s speech shows that the position of certain leaders of the AFL has not changed and that they are dogged- ly opposing the unification of all forces of labor, se essential to hast- ening the defeat of Hitlerism and dealing with post-war problems.” ing. mine ‘Fascists In fficers of two of Br est unions, the A Engineering Union and Federation, have char; of unofficial strikes in and aircraft industries erately impairing the y Referring to the co: Cardowan, Scotland, 2 president of the Sco Workers Union, declare | “The so-called ‘milit who are leading this merely fascists in she The 8,000 miner are victims of deliber. ned attempts not only the trade unions but the war efic © The Balkans HE Balkans will soon be ablaze. The Axis Will Blaze When Allied Arm By Michael Pader Small wonder that, with only such inade- disaster in Sicily, the sudden collapse of Mussolini, and the Red Army’s drive to the Dnieper River, cannot fail to have important, if not decisive, repercussions in Southeastern Europe within the next few weeks. Until now, Hitler’s Balkan fortress was guarded mainly by some 30 Italian divisions: These can no longer be relied upon as a fight- ing force. The Germans themselves, according to re- liable reports, have between 15 and 18 di- visions in the Balkans, stationed almost en- tirely in Crete, the Dodecanese and southern Greece. In addition, there is the Bulgarian Army, consisting of 20 to 25 divisions, Of these, eight are “keeping law and order” in Mace- donia and Northern Greece, two, or possibly four, have been sent to Serbia in small de- tachments under a German command, and the remainder are massed along the Turko- Bulgarian frontier. The Rumanians, after their crippling casu- alties on the Eastern Front, are not likely to be willing to fight any more of Germany’s battles. quate forces to defend the Balkans, the Ger- mans are displaying signs of anxiety. But the Germans have more than just a military headache. The most important as- pect of the situation today is the Balkan revolution. In fact, the Balkans have never been com- pletely occupied. They have never paused in their fight against Germany and Ger- many's agents. And it is this fight, organ- ized on revolutionary bases, that will con- tribute most of all to the downfall of the hated Balkan “New Order.” It is only after the war that the full story of this anti-Nazi struggle in the Balkans may be told. In Yugoslavia, last autumn, the People’s Liberation armies freed almost the whole of western Serbia. They have now an executive committee to act as an administrat- ive body, a popular parliament (anti-fascist council), and their high command issues daily war communiques. By relentless warfare the People’s Libera- tion armies have pinned down many Axis divisions. Their strength, however, is some- thing more than the strength of their arms: they are a revolutionary force with a po- litical program of definite, popular and demo- eratic aims. They stand for a federal and democratic Yugoslavia, and in this they en- joy the support of all South Slav peoples. 6 T°? THE south, the Greek guerrillas are carrying on the fight. The Greek Lib- eration front is, like the People’s Army in Yugoslavia, a revolutionary movement, and is bound to have great influence on the . shape of things to come in Greece, for it draws its strength from the very soul of the Greek people, one of the most freedom-loving and democratically minded peoples in the world. There is no doubt that when the Allies set foot on Balkan soil the entire Greek nation will rise up to greet them and to claim the freedom in whose defence it suffered so much. To the north of Greece is Bulgaria. In the last twenty years there is hardly a political movement in Europe that has been as sav- agely and brutally persecuted as the Bul- garian workers’ movement, every member of which was a dangerous “communist” in the eyes of the country’s rulers.