Eight thousand people held a rally in Tokyo recently in

protest against the supreme

kawa case and opposition to the revision of the Japan-U:S.
Photo from Hsinhua News Agency
shows the participants holding a demonstration after the

“security treaty.”

meeting.

court decision on the Suna-

U.S. Communists united
on policy, line, direction

NEW YORK—The Communist Party of the United
States ended its 17th national convention here last month
united in “one policy, one line,-one direction,” in the words
of Gus Hall, its newly elected general secretary.

Hall said:: ‘Our party has
travelled a difficult path—and
this not only since the 16th
convention. The enemy has
thrown wave after wave, both
internally and externally,
against us now for 10 years.
We can say with just pride
that the Communist Party of
the U.S.A. has come through
the fires battered but intact.

We have suffered defeats, but}
in an overall sense we have!.

matured, become steeled and
tempered.” j

He called on the party to
make the sfruggle for peace
the “central issue of our day.”

The Camp David talks of
President Eisenhower and
Premier. Khrushchev, Hall
said, represents a “break” in
direction of U.S. foreign
policy.

“How fast or how far it will
go in this new direction de-
pends on the American people
and on the pressure they exert.

“It is to this that we must
apply ourselves with all the
energy, skill and ingenuity at
our command,”

Hall’s report ‘was ieceintel

enthusiastically by the more

than 200 at. the convention.
Among them were 133 regular
delegates, 27 alternate dele-
gates, 20 fraternal delegates,
and several score visitors.

The convention was also
united on the ability of the
party to move forward along
the lines chartered. The dele-
gates expressed their confi-
dence and, determination in
‘resolutions to increase the
‘membership of the party by 10
percent by May 1, to support
publication of a mid-west edi-
tion of The Worker by the
same date, and support re-
sumption of publication of the
Daily Worker within a year.

Messages were received from
scores of Communist and work-

ers parties in all parts of the|-

world, including the Com-
munist parties of the Soviet
Union, China; several Latin
American countries, and from
Hungary.

Greetings from the Co mu-
nist Party -of Canada were
given by Tim Buck, head of
the party; ina recorded mies-
sage which was played to the
delegates.

The best for 1960

Hearly New Year Greetings

from ~-

COMMERCIAL HOTEL

340 ‘Cambie Street

wt

Press conference reflects thaw

ILWU envoys report on Russia:
found unions have independence”

By AL RICHMOND

SAN FRANCISCO—As good a barometer as any of the change in international
climate was the contrast between the press conference at the International Longshore-
men’s and Warehousemen’s Union headquarters last week and one last March.

On both occasions ILWU
representatives tried. to con-
vey to newsmen their impres-
sion of the Soviet Union.

In March it was ILWU pres-
ident Harry Bridges, who had
just returned from a six-week
tour of Europe and the Middle
East, including a four-day stay
in the Soviet Union. Last week
it was a three-man delegation
—the’ first official American
trade union delegation to visit
the Soviet Union in more than
a decade.

Bridges was given the cold
war needle; the-questions were
barbed. His three associates
were subjected to some search-
ing questions, but in the inter-
vening eight months the barbs
had worn off.

Oddly enough, some of the

things that Bridges said heja

saw in the Soviet Union did
not fully impress his col-
leagues until they saw for
themselves.
ILWU. secretary treasurer
Louis Goldblatt, for example,
said things were not quite
what he had anticipated they
would be. The measure of
authority and the degree of
independence enjoyed by. So-
viet trade unions (a point that
had been stressed by Bridges)
far exceeded ‘his expectations.
Goldblatt was accompanied
on the 17 day tour of Soviet
port installations by L. B. Tho-
mas, member of the coast labor
relations committee, and Mike
Samaduroff, chief dispatcher at

the longshoré hiring “hall in

San Francisco.

The ILWU delegation was in-
vited to the Soviet Union by
the Sea and River Workers’
Union and the Merchant Ma-
rine Ministry, as a consequence
of the hospitality extended to
Premier Khrushchev during
his visit to San Francisco’s
longshore hiring hall.

Goldblatt said that among
the questions on his mind be-
fore he left was: “Are the un-
ions there just adjuncts of the
government?”

After carefully surveying the
operations of the Sea and
River Workers Union from the
dock to national headquarters
the ILWU delegates formally
concluded:

“Without a doubt the ‘Sea
and River Workers’ Union is
genuine, effective and: effici-
ent trade union organization.
The delegation was impressed
with the widening scope of the
union’s authority and respon-
sibility ...

“We found the local, region-
al and national officers sensi-
tive and responsive to the rank
and. file. Changes in composi-
tion’ of executive bodies are
quite common, and executives
made it plain that failure to
satisfy the membership would
mean a change in officers at
the next election or by recall.”

Thomas rated’ productivity
of Soviet longshoremen as
‘Just about the same” as on
Pacific Coast docks. Lenin-
grad’s port facilities were de-
stroyed by the Nazis during
the. war, and the rebuilt port

Builders of the Liuchia Gorge project in Kansu province,
China, are transporting stones, grass and earth on light

to all our patrons!

rails to the site. along the river. where barring of the
Yellow River will soon take place.

is on the whole more modern
than U.S. Pacific Coast ports.
Baku, on the other hand, was
behind in technique, while
Odessa ranged somewhere in
between.

Both Goldblatt and Thomas
were much impressed by the
difference in the Soviet long-
shoremen’s attitude toward
mechanization.

Thomas said Soviet workers
were far ahead in sharing the
benefits of mechanization.
“They see the machine as the
way to a higher standard of
living,”” Goldblatt remarked. °

Overall, Goldblatt said, the
delegation was most impressed
by the confidence of the Soviet
workers in their own ability to
get the job done and advance
their living standards, and by
their pride in their country and
their social security program.

“Another thing,” he said, “is
no matter where you went the
words ‘peace and friendship’
brought the house down.”

Finally, there was education
—‘‘their’ secret weapon,” Gold-
blatt said. In one port instal-
lation near Odessa, for ex-
ample, fully 30 percent of the
longshoremen are going to
school.

The ILWU men discussed the .
trade potential with the All-
Union. Board of Trade. The
Soviet Far East, the biggest in-
dustrial boom area in the
world today, they were told,
offered virtually unlimited pos-
sibilities of trade with U.S.
Pacific Coast ports — if U.S.
credits were available, and if

‘government -imposed discrim-

ination and. restrictions .were
removed.
In a one-hour session with
Khrushchev the Soviet premier
repeatedly emphasized the
improvement in international -
relations.
Khrushchev said, Goldblatt
reported, that the Soviet Un-
ion had accumulated all the
means necessary for defense,
that the question of armaments
was past the crucial point, and
that they were considering
plans for disarmament to div-

\ert more resources for the

benefit of the people.
“We will report in full on

‘| our visit and believe the facts
about Soviet trade unions will
{be of genuine interest to trade

unionisis throughout the USA.
We will urge the widest ex-
change of trade unionists—an
exchange which is io over-
due.”

January 8, 1960—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 2