Danes accuse U.S.

COPENHAGEN — Concern has
been aroused here over the be-

Nef that the US.
maintaining an espionage system
to probe the private lives of
Danish citizens. The belief emer-
Pe “Say circumstances surround-

delay in granting an
American visa to Henning Friis,
high Danish official whwo was en-
gaged to lecture at an American
university. The visa was delayed,
it was disclosed, because Friis, a
moderate Social Democrat, was in
the Young Communist League for
a few months 18 years ago. The
U.S. consul general here told Al-
ied Labor News that the em:
does not keep a file of all Danish
citizens but has at its disposal!
“certain sources.” »

Devaluation opposed

only domestic and foreign
business interests in France.

U.S. bolsters trusts

bill

Tun local candidates under their
Own banners while supporting co-
alition candidates nationally.

_ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1943

embassy is

aay Shipbuilding hit

| economic affairs, said the cut was

Wallace supporter

Eugene Connolly, New York
city councilman( American Labor
Party) stands in Times Square
Seeking signatures on pledge
cards supporting the third party
candidacy of Henry A. Wallace.

by Marshall plan

By WILLIAM TAIT

LONDON—“We only work when
there is a war,’ has been the
cynical reflection of British ship-
yard workers for more than a

The battle started when
car and bus workers. for a 40-
hour week in five days, as ordered
by the arbitration court. The
board, with government approval,
fixed a 6-day schedule.
Transport workers replied by
striking. They were ordered back
to work on the board's terms by
the state conciliation service,
When they held out, Victorian
Premier Tom  Hollway * rushed
through a bill to commandeer
transport and to impose fines on
unions and individual union mem-
bers who struck without first
holding a secret ballot.

Australian workers force gov't
to withdraw anti-strike law

SYDNEY—Fighting spirit among unionists in the state of Victoria has forced the big
business-dominated state administration to withdraw

a proposed anti-strike law and to
retreat on several other. scores.

Melbourne board of transportation refused to schedule street-

As soon as the bill was an-
nounced, seamen cut off steam on
the waterfront, paralizing ports.
Building trades workers, engineers
and others walked out, placing
the state on the verge of a gener-
al ‘strike.

Within two hours powerhouse
workers were called back for
emergencies and the government
announced it would grant trans-
port workers the 5-day week and
abandon the anti-strike proposal.

generation. Now, the announce-
ment of 20 percent cut in steel
for shipbuilding -has dashed the
hopes of many that there would
be a change with a Labor govern-
ment in power.

Sir Stafford Cripps, minister for

necessary because shipbuilding had
obtained 20 percent more steel in
1947 than was scheduled for it.
He did not mention that the extra
steel had been obtained on a
hand-to-mouth basis, leaving work-
ers unemployed for sporadic peri-
ods throughout last year.

affected by the steel cuts, the
chairman of :

one worker in every five,

On the Clyde, as in Belfast,
there is little alternative industry
to absorb those laid off. The
Same is true of the two import-
ant shipbuilding centers on the
Tyne and Mersey.

Pe eka has denied that the
cision to cut steel supplies for
Shipbuilding was made under
American pressure, But the

Shipyard workers are skeptical.
Before Cripps’

the American
gram of

Selves.

After the First World War,
British Shipbuilding enjoyed a
short period of prosperity which
changed to the blackest posperity
the industry had ever known, In
1930, ‘because of British heavy
industry’s general policy of keep-
ing profits up while failing to
adopt modern techniques, ship-
owners were even buying ships
abroad. Result for the workers
was prolonged unemployment,
lasting for five to seven years for

liners them-

many.
It is too early to predict the
Political ences of. fhe

ancy has won it the popular

of a snowball in hell.”

of
the Democratic Party, with its

background.

CIO debates third party

After a nine-hour debate, the CIO executive board recently
voted “against the establishment of a third political party.” The
vote was 33-11, with two abstentions. Loudest supports of the
resolution was the United Auto
Reuther, who indulged in a typical
“Tne Heds are up to their old trick
Harry Bridges, International Longshoremen’s leader, cut to the
heart of the issue with his retort, “There’s nothing for labor to
do but back Wallace. The Democratic Party hasn't the chance

And whatever they might Say and do, the majority leaders
the CIO executive board knew that Bridges was right. Neither

dark administrative record, nor the Republican Party, with its
open “get tough with labor” policy, represented the aspirations
of the ramk-and-file of American
restricted by anti-labor legislation,

' Here, CIO President Philip Murray (left) talks with CIO
Secretary James E. Carey. President Emil Rieve of the Textile
Workers and President Joseph Curran of the Nationa] Maritime
Union, who voted with the majority, are shown seated in the

Workers’ new president, Walter

red-baiting tirade claiming,
of creating confusion.”

bright promises to labor and its

labor, squeezed by inflation and

No evidence
aid to Greek

‘T have it on high Anglo-Ameri-

can authority,” says the reporter,

“that no guerrilla has, in fact,
been seen by independent wit-
nesses actually in the process of
crossing a frontier. . . . All pris-
oners captured in the Konitsa
battle were Greeks... -°. There
was no sign of an International
brigade.

“None of the weapons used by
the guerrillas can be shown de-
Cisively to have been supplied
recently from abroad. Indepen-
dent army observers here esti-
Mate that they used captured
Greek army material and weapons
that had been in their possession
since the German occupation.”
The guerrilla artillery used at
Konitsa, which Greek government
and foreign commentators cited
as intervention, actually consisted
of old Italian .75 field pieces,
which Greek partisans used
against the British during the up-

LONDON—There is not a shred of. real evidence of
foreign aid to Greek guerrillas during the recent Konsita
fighting, according to the Athens correspondent of the in-
‘dependent weekly, the New Statesman. :

of outside
guerillas

LONDON — Twenty-one former
British soldiers, including five
captains, have issued a declara-
tion here supporting -the disclos-
ure of Greek government atroci-
ties recently made public in the
British press by Corporal 8. H.
Starr.

First published in the Daily
Mirror, accompanied by pictures
showing Greek Royalist soldiers
displaying the severed heads of
guerrillas, Corporal Starr’s revela-
tions aroused widespread demand

here for the withdrawal of British
troops from Greece.

“Some of us,” says the declara-
tion made by the British ex-
soldiers, “have ourselves witness-
ed atrocities similar to those de-
scribed and we add our own testi-
mony to the manner.in which
Successive Greek governments
have suppressed political liberties

rising in Athens in December

name “Red Clyde.”

1944, says the correspondent, .

»

which we in this country regard

Labor must
get increases

—Wallace

NEW YORK—The way to halt
the inflation spiral is to strike
at its source: profiteering. This
is what Henry A. Wallace told
& recent lunch-hour meeting of
7,000 workers at the Singer Sew- °
ing Machine plant in Blizabeth,
N.J. ‘¢

“When inflation ceases to be
profitable, the American people
will be able to breathe easy

again,’ Wallace declared.

“It is an election necessity for
the Democrats and the Republi-
cans to do a good deal of talking
against inflation — like sin, they
are against it. But they take no
real steps to fight it. To the
contrary, they encourage it. They
make gestures, but they are equal-
ly futile gestures. They refuse
to tackle profiteering.”

The first step in meeting the
inflation crisis was to give sub-
stantial wage increases to the
workers, said Wallace. ‘These
increases could easily come out
of exorbitant corporation ‘profits
without raising prices. The in-
creased purchasing power of
workers would shore up the Am-
erican standard of living, Main-
taining their purchasing power
is essential to every farmer,
small businessman and profes
sional perso:

This need for a wage increase
was desperate. The U.S) Bureau
of Labor Statistics estimated that
in the middle of 1947 $62 a week
was necessary for a minimum
budget for a family of four. Since
that estimate was made it wouki
take an extra $4 a week to pur-
chase the same necessities. The
actual wage in the manufactur-
ing industries averaged roughly
$50 a week, and that inadequate
figure was higher than in most
other employment.

Labor’s share in the national
income had been cut drastically,
Wallace pointed out.

In the average pre-war. years,
1935-39, private business took 47
cents in profits for every dollar
paid out in wages and _ salaries.
In the first six months of 1947,
it took 68 cents in profits for
every dollar paid out in wages
and salaries. Current profiteering
had far outrun that of 1929, when
business took 52 cents in profits
for every wage dollar. |

“Wage increases for workers
are more than a cost-of-living
problem; they are a national

economic necessity,” Wallace as-
serted. :

“Since the war, productivity
has been rising sharply. In the

steel industry, for example, the |
average steel worker is turning
out more steel today in 40 hours
than he was turning out under
the pressures of war in 48 hours.
The American worker is entitled
to share, along with the rest of
the people, who should get lower
prices, in ‘the benefits of this
increased productivity.

“This increased productivity

must be devoted to raising the
living standards of the people.
The nation’s economy cannot af-
ford to let the profit from this
greater productivity flow unre
strained into the coffers of the
big corporations,
ing standards of the people are
crumbling.” .

while the liv-

Wallace charged that those who.

opposed wage increases, claiming
they were inflationary, were mot
really trying to defend the coun-
try against inflation. They were
preaching the need for a lowered

as a normal human right.”

American standard of living.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 2