GREEK WAR HERO TO DIE

UN newsmen protest

uM” > SAKE SUCCESS, SLY.

The United Nations correspondents’ association, representing
newsmen covering the UN, has demanded that the royalist Greek
8overnment abrogate its death sentence against Greek anti-fascist

editor Manolis Glezos, a Second World War hero. Similar de-

mands have been made by the staffs of major British
and 22 members of the British parliament.

newspapers

Glezos, a leader of wartime anti-Nazi resistance, is only 27
years old. He was once caught by the Germans and sentenced

to be shot,

His outstanding wartime exploit was single-handedly

‘Tipping the Nazi flag off the Acropolis, Greek cultural shrine.

General Lin Piao
sees new stage

of war in China

' _PEIPING |

“The Communist party and the People’s Liberation army with
the close support of the people of the whole country are fully able
to realize Mao Tse-tung’s eight peace conditions within a short time
and Sweep away all the reactionaries in China,’’ General Lin Piao,

‘ommander of the Northeast Peo-
Ples’ Liberation army, told a re-
fent mass meeting held here to

Welcome democratic leaders from
all China,

“The question the Chinese people
Want to solve today is not a ques-
tion of whether peace is wanted or
Rot, but a question of a genuine
Peace or false peace and how that
Senuine peace can be attained,” he
ne Kuomintang reactionaries are

ay juggling with “peace” because

Practically all their armies in their
_ Counter - revolutionary war have

Met their doom,

_ TWo years and eight months
“8, with the backing of American
“™Perialism the Kuomintang
launched the present war heedless
of the hopes for .peace of the Chi-

€se Communist party and all the
People,

‘sae result of that war has been
SS of about 5,000,000 troops by
eh Kuomintang which has been
€d all along the line north of

he Yangtze River. It cannot or-
Sanize any new strategic battle-
ae It is already without the
i *ssary strength’ to conduct
8e scale war,

4

‘In fact, it can be said that the
© of a nationwide, large-scale
‘is now over.”

ui, Jong ago stated that the
i ere must lose the war,
a © speed of their defeat has
beyona our expectations.
ag the Kuomintang is already
fins offensive strength. It is
omi § apart politically and econ-

er : ‘ ; : :
_the direction of American im-

Perjay;.
ea ar it puts on the cloak of
ace,” ;

A Piao said that the Kuomin-
x aa attempting to throw dust
hatt eyes of the people so as to
€ People’s Liberation army’s

Pe South of the Yangtze, win
eere to regroup its forces and
i ‘ Counter-attack. It was also
Shieh to organize a so-called
ing on group” so as to under-
forces

advan
a Yes
Sta.

Att

a ‘The Pea
"Mand is a
* Peace wit

Ce which all the people
People’s peace and not
Unda h the Yangtze as the
Dle's Taye iner” he said, “The Peo-
ors ration army is fully able

; e
“88 Within

away all the reactionar-
& short period. But to re-

duce the destruction of war and to
preserve the manpower and mate-
rial wealth of the people we are
adopting the method of peaceful
settlement. A successful, example
of this method is the peaceful
settlement at Peiping.

“We warmly welcome the Peip-
ing type of peace. We cannot but
resort to the Tientsin method of
settlement with those who are un-
willing to accept the Peiping
method,

General strike in Italy
if Atlantic Pact signed

ROME ;

The Italian General Federation
of Labor (CGIL) has announced
that it regards the U.S.-sponsored
Atlantic pact as a menace to peace
and that it will call a nationwide
general strike if the Italian gov-
ernment signs the treaty. :

_-Workers’ demonstrations against
the pact have taken place in many
cities throughout Italy. °A giant
Rome demonstration was attacked
with great brutality by police who
made “jeep charges” at 50 miles an
hour and swung their clubs so in-.
discriminately that they also hurt
two U.S. news cameramen, Walter
J. Green and James Pringle of the
Associated Press. The demonstrat-
ors did not disperse but moved
from one section of the city to an-
other from noon till evening.

In parliament on the same day,
the pact Was denounced by Socialist
as well as Communist members.
Socialist leader Pietro Nenni said
the proposed treaty was “a pact of
aggressive war against the country
that in Stalingrad shed its blood
in our defense as well as its own.”
Nenni charged’ the Italian govern-
ment with plotting to put Italian
ports and airfields at the disposal
of U.S. forces planning to attack
Russia and “putting the blood of
Italian youth at the service of a
foreign state in the defense of in-
terests that are not ours.”

A Communist speaker accused
U.S. government quarters of quick-
ening war preparations because
they did not want to solve their
Own economic difficulties by wage
increases and peace production in
America itself. He said that Italians
have .no intention of committing
suicide by going to war to prevent
an economic crisis in the U.S.”,
and that'“no Italian worthy of the
name will fight for the Truman
doctrine.”

Even right-wing Socialists in

PALMIRO TOGLIATTI

Italian Communists and Social-
ists are united against the At-
lantic pact,

Italy are opposing the country’s
participation in the Atlatnic pact.
This fact emerged after the right-
wing Socialist executive committee
voted down support for the pact
voiced by its own leader, Guiseppe
Saragat. ‘

Despite the fact that Saragat
holds the post of deputy prime min-
ister in the government of Premier
Alcide Gasperi (Christian Demo-
crat), the right-wing Socialist ex-
ecutve also passed a_ resolution
condemning government violence
against Italian labor.

The rightwing Socialists are a
minority of the Italian Socialist
party which split off on the issue
of- collaboration with Communists.
The main Socialist group, led by
Petro Nenni, has been allied to the
Communists in elections and in
votes in parliament. The latest
vote by the right-wing Socialist
executive shows that even this

body, which is violently anti-Com-
munist in domestic politics, regards
Italy’s entry into the Atlantie pact
as directed against both world
peace and the interests of Italian

labor.

French organize
peace plebiscite

—PARIS

A nationwide plebiscite is being
launched by the Conseil National
de Combattants de la Liberte et
de la Paix (National Counsel of
Fighters for Liberty and Peace).

This is the progressive organiza-
tion that recently addressed a let-
ter to President Truman pledging
to “keep our territory free’ from
any foreign base or garrison” and
declaring that the French people
would never consent to a war of

aggression against the Soviet
Union.

Former Minister Yves Farge an-
nounced at a press. conference
that French men and women “who
really chose freedom—and fought
for it” had constituted themselves
into a national] vigilance committee
to prevent the horrors of another
war which would devastate France.

“That’s why they are organizing
a plebiscite on the determination
to preserve peace, and will ask
people in every factory, workshop,
Office, village and farm throughout
France what they think about the
treaty the government is about to
sign,” he said.

Millions of signatures are sure
to be collected, and lists bearing
the original signatures will be
forwarded to Washington,

Sally. In such’ a situation? un-

the unity of the democratic |

STRIKE-BREAKING ACTIONS SHOCK UNIONISTS

rips up Catholic arguments

C d in. l
By GEORGE MORRIS
NEW YORK
One of the graves in New York's
Calvary cemetery, dug by scabs

under the watchful eye of Francis
Cardinal Spellman, should have a

tombstone over it with the follow- |

ing:

“Here lies the Association of
Catholic Trade Unionists, condemn-
ed to death by its godfather, Fran-
cis Cardinal Spellman.”

ES

Sissons

SS
Here Francis Cardinal

SES BS = Ss

Spellman, Roman Catholic
of New York, is shown supervising religious students he called

' out to act as strikebreakers against New York cemetery workers.

That is what the story of Cal-
vary cemetery will add up to in the
ists grasp the full significance of
long run as American trade union-
what happened there.

The ACTU has long claimed that
the Papal encyclicals on labor and
the . so-called ‘industry council”
plan are the answer .to all prob-
lems in the field of collective bar-
gaining. \

The first charity-at-home oppor-
tunity offered itself in the strike
of 240 CIO workers of two ceme-

SS

archbishop

SSS

teries operated by St. Patrick’s
Cathedral.

The strike of United Cemetery
Workers, Local 293, for a reduction
of their work week from 48 to 40
hours without reduction in their
$59.40 weekly wage, holds an im-
portant lesson for trade unionists
because it is being conducted by
Catholic church - going workers,
guided by the ACTU, against the
largest and richest Catholic institu-
tion in the country—the New York
archdiocese.

The workers are picketing the
cemetery gates while from 100 to
200 students for the priesthood at
St. Joseph's seminary, and their in-
structors under the foremanship
of the Cardinal, do a daily turn at
gravedigging. Concern is for the
dead, not the living.

In an attempt to placate Cardinal
Spellman, the workers adopted a
resolution requesting Local 293,
which has cemeteries with 1,100
employees under contract, to disaf-
filiate from the Food, Tobacco and
Agricultural Workers (CIO). Then
they solemnly avowed:

“We here as Catholic gentlemen
solemnly declare that we are op-
posed to Communism and all it
means in all walks of life. Be it re-
corded, however, that Communism
is not the issue here.”

But their resolution also con-
demned union-busting tactics “of
any employers, including the
Catholic Church when it acts as
an employer.”

They were not treated like
gentlemen. Spellman’s comment
was, “They are getting repentent
kind of late.” He added: .. .. ..

‘I admit to the accusation of
strikebreaker. I am proud of it.”
This statement, a shock to the
strikers and other Catholic work-
ers, stripped the arguments so

long used by the Association of
Catholic Trade Unionists.

“It was our impression,” said
John Sheehan, ACTU attorney and
leader, “that any penitent who re-
pents, no matter how late, should
be welcomed into the fold.”

Sheehan was forced to condemn
Cardinal Spellman as a strikebreak-
er. Spellman, he asserted, was fol-
lowing a policy “suggestive of the
tactics used by anti-union employ-
ers ten years ago.” Sheehan, him-
self a vociferous red-baiter, also
charged Spellman with using the
autonomous cemetery workers’
union affiliation with the FTAW
as a “red herring.”

Spellman remained adamant. He
was not prepared to welcome the
strikers back on any but his own
terms. Mrs. Sigmund Czack, spokes-
man for a committee which inter-
viewed him, reported that the com-
mittee was “discouraged and dis-
gusted” by his attitude.

“The Cardinal promised nothing
except that the strikers could re-
turn with a small increase, but not
as union men,” she said. “He wants
no part of the union.”

Spellman declared: “They had
nothing to offer me and I had no-
thing to offer them.” E

Honest Catholic workers in the
Association of Catholic Trade Un-
jonists now face this choice:
—Either to accept the authority of

the Cardinal and commit them-
selves to his open shop, company
union, strikebreaking policy as
one for Catholic workers to fol-
ow

—Or to recognize that the interest
of Catholic workers is bound up
with the fighting progressive la-
bor movement.

Either course leads to the grave-
yard for the ACTU as an influence
in the labor movement.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 25, 1949 — PAGE 3