CBS SS PL ae a a Se eee et ee

ter Deutscher Gevw-
si, central labor or-
Germany. Under his
» Ruhr miners were
hit against the young
alist movement. In
ed a group of newly
is in an armed up-

ections were held in
said Sobottka. The
onvinced that three
fitlerism would be
sure the election of
®rs while giving the
se workers had been
jemonstrate ‘legally
*e in the new regime.
site the terror, it was
at no Nazi or Hitler
m eiected. That was
the Nazis to take the
y set about smash-
unions. confiscating
¢ their proyerty. In
Friedrich Guzeman,
fie central committee
nion of Coal Miners
by the Gestapo. I

“2 tmany years. Dozens

n well and worked

of our best unionists such as Funk,
Reseman, Jacobs were murdered,
tortured and thrown into concen-
tration Camps.”

Four years after the unions had
been abolished, the miners’ work-
ing day was officially increased
to eight and a half hours. This was
later followed by a ruling that pre-
yented any worker leaving the
mine until he had fifilled-a-set
daily norm which was so high that,
in actual fact, the work day aver-
aged ten hours. The effects of the
Ieng working hours, low wages and
insufficient food were soon eyvi-
dent.

Many of the war prisoners in-
terviewed by Sobottka talked bit-
terly of the empty promises made
to them by the Nazis. Instead of
a speedy victory, the citizens of
the Reich find themselves with
reduced. rations, and unlimited

_ work hours. With Hitler's recent
order for all-out mobilization the
last ounce of energy is being
Squeezed out of the workers and
the miners are among the worst

~to suffer. Despite the fact that
death is the penalty for even the
mildest protest, the workers of
Germany are finding their own
ways of fighting back against their
oppressors.

Franz Kahler, a building worker
in a mine near Essen, told how
he perticipated in what he and
his co-workers call a “veiled strike.”
The habit of chewing tobaeco had

be
UO

the stark
d planning
ity, cables
will build

just once have been.
the Square of the
5s, overlooking the
dd see the outlines
isome Red Army
ich only the walls
auins of the Intour-

© of other big apart-
md public buildings
seen—all suited by
ire. ;

lanted in the square
parks and gardens
* so lovingly by ail
ve green even now,
vy are broken and
> a tall opelisk, a
the heroes who fell
are a number of
there lie buried the
battle of Stalingrac.
ese sraves that Jo-
on behalf of Presi-
it and the peopie of
States,. placed a
wers on May 18. No
you pass this place
ish flowers on the
jien of the love and
me people for their

*, a representative
= council who walked
entire downiown dis-
that evening, point-
© of the more import-
+ to us.- “That was
Palace, that was a
M901, that was the
' House,” he would
'h deep feeling he
ia, how much labor
# been pui into the
hand care of these

is the only word that
© describe the heaps
escribe the heaps of
ticks and twisted
nin Street we stop-
luge crater about 10

Better

“Specialists will be rebuilt here,”

tat, a department —

feet deep, made by a two-ton
bomb which fell in the center of
a three-story house. “Here will be
a big -park; a new railway station
will stand there: the House of

he would continue. You will have ©
to look a long time before you

find a house standing intact. But

nichevo — never mind — we will

built a better Stalingrad.”

WN all the terrible and colossal

ruins of Stalingrad, in the hus-
tle and bustle of activity and con-
struction, the thing that stands
out most is the people who have
undergone such trials and yet
who continue to work with such
energy and enthusiasm. Ali the
more So since a great number of
them wear the coveted Stalingrad
medal, received for their active
participation in the defense of
the city, for their.fighting in the
streets and buildings of Stalin-
grad with fearlessness and skill
that even today beggars descrip-
tion.

I have met hardly a person who
has sot lost someone at the front.
in the mass bombings or during
the crossing of the Volga during
the difficult August and Septem-
ber days. But not even the loss
of loved ones nor the fact that
the average perscn in Stalingrad
has lost his home and all his
personal belongings and has only
the shirt he wears; not even the
fact that they are living under-
ground, that water in many cases
must be carried from the Volga;
nor the fact that they are work-
ing ten and twelve hours a day
jncluding voluntary work on Sun-
Gays, can dampen their spirits.

The most striking psychological
factor that stands out aboye the
ruins and construction work is the
feeling of determination and of
eonfidence in rebuilding a “better
and more beautiful Stalingrad,”
as the people themselves put it.
And this psychological factor
seryes as a symbol of the dignity
and glory of man who has passed
through the supreme ordeal and
who is capable of reaching new
undreamed-of heights when he is
marching forward with history.

become yery widespread among the
workers and peasants in the Ruhr
district. In the spring of this year,
the chewing tobacco ration was cut.
in protest the miners went to the
pits but refused to work until the
original -ration had been restored.

“We did not go out on strike.” said
Kahler, “for that would have been
tantamount to sentencing ourselves
to death. We simply said the habit
of chewing tobacco had become so
strong that we could not work
without it.”

Britain

Aireraft Program ‘Bungled’

HE ministry of aircraft produc-

tion, headed by Sir Stafford
Ctipps, was charged last week by
the British Trades Union Congrass
with “large-scale bungling in its ex-
pansion program.” Claiming that
the transfer of workers was result-
ing in serious waste of labor, the
TUC declared:

“We have warned Sir Stafford
Cripps that the unions cannot
agree to further transfers of work
ers to places where there is not
proper billeting accommodation and
where men and women are work-
ing less than the fifty-four hour
week.”’ * :

Pointing out that many workers
in the aircraft industry are being
transferred to districts where the
work week is only forty-seven
hours, an Amalgamated Engineer-
ing union official told Allied Labor
News:

“We do not consider that the 54-
hour week is excessive under pres-
ent wartime conditions. Until ali
the workers in a given -district are
employed this number of hours, we

_~ feel that no attempt should be made
to bring workers from other areas
into places that are already suffer-
ing from insufficient housing ac-
ecommodation and a serious trans-
port problem.”

The AEU’s third report on pro-
duction, issued in December 1942,
noted:

“Transport _difficulties  _are
known to play a large—if not the
largest part—in latecoming and
even absenteeism for many work-
ers. This is particularly so in

factories where the half-day

‘lock-out for three minutes’ late-

ness iS in force in which case

workers often give up coming al-
together if they are unable to
catch a certain bus.

“Investigating the position of
transferred workers, it was found
that a great majority of these were
billeted at some distance from their
place of work, Those who could
bought bicycles but very large
numbers relied on local transport.
In the home counties where even
greater numbers of war workers
are employed, the situation is ap-
palling. Labor is recruited from
excessive distances and so far there
is little evidence that special trans-
port facilities are being generally
provided. This is a particularly
serious deterent to potential part-
time workers for whom long jour-
neys are, of ccurse, prohibitive. In
terms of health and capacity to sus-
tain fhe intensified production ef-
fort required of them, full time
workers’ travelling facilities are of
extreme importance.”

It was recently computed that
250,000 houses in Britain had been
Jost due to enemy bombing, plus a
further 1,250,000 that would have
been built during the past four
years had it nd6t been for the war.
Between the outbreak of hostilities
and the end of 1943, it was esti-
mated that five million persons
changed their homes, some of them
several times. Deterioration, lack

of building materials and shortage’

of Jabor are additional causes for
the housing problem.

Gallacher Urges Second Front

HE Communist Party through
its MP for Fife West, William
Gallacher, has placed its latest
views before the war cabinet in
the form of a letter from Gallacher
to Prime Minister Churchill.
This letter draws the conclusion
that the time never was better
for embarkation on greater opera-

tions, and urges:
“The immediate opening of the

SE

second front in western Europe.
“Full political support to the anti-
Fascist forces in Italy.
“Recognition of the French Na-
tional Committee, and unification
of Allies’ policy im relation to the
anti-fascist forces in Germany-
“Coordination of the military
and political strategy of the

United Nations with a view to
the speediest joint victory over
fascism.”

Red Army Sweeps West

W. Gallacher, MP

Britons this week heard Mrs.
Winston Churchill, in a radio ad-
dress from Quebec heard only in
Britain, call upon them to make
aid-to-Russia “flas days,” starting
in London this week, “the occasion
of a thank-offering to Russia—Rus-
Sia, who stood in the breach while
we and America were building up
our armies and armadas.”

“She needs all that we can give
and she has earned the right to
our help,’ said Mrs. Churchill.

For more than two years, Russia
has kept more than 220 enemy di-
visions pinned on the eastern front.
The Russian people had fought for
their own survival but in doing so
they had also fought for Britain,
Mrs. Churchill said.

Red Army men entering Orel, are greeted by joyful citizens. Now locked in crucial battle
along the right bank of the Vorskla River, the Red Army is less than 20 miles north of Pol-
tava, Ukrainian bastion guarding the approaches to the Dneiper River, and an imminent
threat. to the entire German position.

eh;

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