SS Upring the dictatorship the acente Gomez. ‘ae elimination of the eiest the Communists was 7 weecifie reform demand- Tae ecently-concluded gen- bership meeting of the ane Party, the need for | eaiversal and direct vot- pel Citizeus is also being Oh 0 ~ie present icitizens over 21 years #2 are able to read and f vote for members to bE mal councils and the stures.. The municipal y select deputies to the Sind they in turn elect Ge 5. @he deputies and napose 2 president every tution places no limit wimany times the presi- ‘be re-elected, which Sble an indefinite term Noe has the backing of Ogi senators. { @eificant that these pro- isfjie from the Demo- S i, which is one of a Wait parties that have 'S#! support behind the of President Me- Gia 3 (Mm suggested by the ‘SGeParty would grant di- h@eorivileges to all sexes, ier f illiteracy. ae at at, : 4s or Democracy a figo, Vicente Toledano, me the Confederation of Mcan Workers issued ig ca labor informs me stine arms shipments @=2 to Costa Rica; des- *oups plotting a rising | pea het = 1g electoral guard parties, representing the liberal coalition, will be inaugur. ated in May. : Toledano hailed the election as “a great triumph for progressive and democratic forces’ JAPAN = Victory Through Defeat 4 pee military defeat of Japan by the United Nations “is a Short cut to victory for the J. ap- anese people,” declared Shushumu Okano, anti-faseist Japanese lead- er now in China, in a_ recently- issued proclamation to the people of Japan. “What we want now is het the military victory of the Japanese government but its de- feat, because the so-calleq East Asia war is a war of the militarists and their associates and not our War, and its failure will be the failure of the militarists and their associates and not our failure. Their collapse will furnish a good opportunity for us to establish a people’s government and build a new Japan.” a : These democratic objectives of the Japanese people could not now be realized by peaceful petitions and other legal procedures, Okano Stated, but only by the pressure of a mass movement. Pointing out that this movement could best be organized by democrats working within existing fascist _ organiza- tions, he said: “All the liberal and progressive mass organizations of the past have been dissolved by the militarists, and the present organizations are all militarist-controlled”“ and ‘patri- otic’ in character. We do not ap- FS ss tj’ closeup of the Anzio-Nettuno beachhead where the "Mh Army is now consolidating its position for the fave on Rome. e Be sovernment of Presi- on Guardia. A ship P tly from Mexico to a ith arms bought and “vith the complicity of *erican company which = investor in Central nae Qas been aiding tne ne Flate.” eae2dano did not name ae, others did, and they a@ as the United Fruit ie dominant commer- st in the small Central se teS, 2° SS digver coup was being wwe supporters of pro- sslential candidate Cor- of labor’s vigilance - had O@more difficult of ac- on et, even if the danger i removed. And in the a) Clections last week, ade, candidate of in- esident Rafael Cald- aia, defeated Cortes 341 votes to 42,646. silO Was Supported by an and Popular Van- prove of these organizations, but Since they are the only ones that can legally exist now and most of their members joined only he- eause they were compelled to, we must utilize these bodies, work from within them, grasp tightly the dissatisfaction, agony-and de- mands of the people and turn them against the reactionary propa- ganda and activities of their lead- -ers, se as to isclate:and expel them frem these organizations. “Through such activities we can lead the struggle, create antogon- ism between the masses and the leaders who have been set over them, and finally destroy the reac- tionary erganizations altogether.” At the same time, Okano call- ed upon all groups to reestablish ‘secretly at first, the old organ- izations of which they had been deprived. “We must summon the workers to restore their trade unions, the peasants their peasants’ organiza- tions, the students their students’ unions and the independent in- dustrialists and businessmen their Own organiations. The soldiers should form soldiers’ committees. “While each organiation will be autonomous, a federation of all must be formed. each group should fight for its own demands and with its own weapons: work- ers with the strike, peasants with pressure on their warlords. busi- ness groups with protests to the government and soldiers with mass organiation within the army against their officers. All should organize and hold demonstrations under the slogan of the general movement.” ie Besides separate, class and group organizations, Okano joint territorial organizations — “peoples assemblies of all grades, from the village assembly to the national assembly.’ As a nucleus of the movement, he said, a strong revolutionary party was essential: Okano also called attention to the existence of a political und- erground movement in Japan which “is still weak and small but has won the sympathy of the workers and the support of our people for its program and policies, as was openly acknowl- edged by high officials at the spring 1943 session of the Diet.” The Japanese fear the conse- quences of defeat. Okano cut through these fears boldly by tell- ing them that they must regard the Wnited Nations forces as their own allies in their fight for liber- ation. Said he: “Favorable conditions for realization of our aims are rapidly growing, internationally as well as internally. The power of the Allies is overwhelmingly su- perior to that of the Axis. After Hitler’s defeat, the United Nations will turm to vanquish the Japan- ese militarists. “Consider these statistics: Next year the number of airplanes produced by America and Bri- tain will be about 150,000, as against Japan’s maximum, even at a liberal calculation, of 14,000; and the tonnage of their ships will be 12,500,000, as. against Japan’s 1,000,060. What- chance have the*% Japanese militarists against this mighty United Na- tions’ production?” Describing the present situation inside Japan, Okano made these pertinent points: ® Exhaustion of economic pow- er has reached its climax. @® The people’s living standards, never high, have been reduced to an unprecedentedly low level. @ International conflicts within the ruling class were reflected in the provisional assembly of June 1943. There is disunity within the Yokusan Sejikai. The Tojo cabinet is tottering... @® The spirit of the people is changing. Weariness, dissatis- faction, pessimism and hatred of the war prevails The Jap- anese people are awakening to their deception by the mili- tarists and are beginning to express their revolt through mass struggles. @ The Japanese Army’s morale is als lower than it was two years ago. Suicides, desertion, surrender to the Chinese; are increasing. @ The Japanese underground is growing stronger and extend- ing its influence. @ Conditions in the occupied territories are deteriorating. Resistanee to Japanese rule is spreading among the peoples of Korea, Formosa, occupied Ghina, the Philippines, Java, Malaya, and MIndonesia gen- erally. SOVIET UNION Leningrad Rebuilt ORE than one-fifth of the city’s buildings were destroyed and thousands of others damaged by the more than 100,000 artillery shells and thousands of tons of pombs that fell during the twenty- advocated — seven-month-long siege of Lenin- grad. 2 But great as the damage is, Leningrad still remains a beauti- ful city. Its treasured palaces, churehes and other historical buildings suffered less damage and are, in the main, repairable. The art treasures lodged in form- er Czarist homes, which became museums under Soviet rule, were removed to safety before the Ger- man drive for Leningrad began. The citizens of Leningrad lived under shellfire virtually every day and every month, and the number of shells generally ran from 250 to 1,000 daily, reach- ing a peak of 2,500 or 2,600 on the heaviest days. The greatest damage was in the area around the Port of TLenin- grad. The famous Winter Palace, with its 1,100 rooms, received only Six artillery shell hits. But in the residential sections, damage ran high. For block after block buildings were hit both by artillery shells and bombings. Hundreds of buildings -were total wrecks. ‘Despite the destruction of the siege, work on plans for reha- bilitation of the city and, in fact, to improve it, began in Decem- ber 1942, and January 1943, two ef Leningrad’s darkest months, when the city was almost com- pletely blockaded and the popu- lation suffered from a shortage of food, power, fuel and water. In the future, Leningrad will be a more attractive and comfortable eity, with more parks, more space between buildings, larger addi- tional public squares and other improvements. Before the war Leningrad was densely populated, with an aver- age of 2,500 persons for each hec- tare (2.4 acres), while the city of the future, which will have double the acreage but retain its 2,500,000 pre-war population level, will have its- new sections built up to pro- vide for 600 persons for each hec- tare. POLAND Page from History PTLLUMINATING a page of past history, but also throwing a beam of light on the present Pol- ish government-in-exile, the French journalist Pertinax told the story Jast week of how the pre-war Polish government plotted with the Russian traitor, the late Mar- shal Tukhachevsky. In 1935-36, Tukhachevsky and his associates approached the Warsaw government, the direct an- cestor of the present government- in-exile, desiring to know whether Poland would remain “neutral” if a counter-revolution were carried out against the Soviet regime. The Same advances with the same questions were made to Hitler Ger- many also says Pertinax in the New York Times. The Polish government express- ed interest in the Russian traitor’s plans, but insisted that in case of the overthrow of Marshal Stal- in, the Ukrainian Soviet republic would exercise its right to secede from the USSR and in that way come under reactionary Polish in- fluence. Tukhachevsky agreed to this proposal, says Pertinax. But of course the scheme fell through when he, together with nine other Red Army generals, were caught in their conspiracies and executed as traitors in 1937. What the Hitler government's answer was, Pertinax does not Say, al- though it can be imagined. Pertinax comments that the Polish governments desire for an autonomous Ukraine are now being realized under circumstances quite’ different from what they expected. SE by OF Bill! Evans Memortatl ID you know “Siim” Evans? Do you know of any of the actual Sacrifices he made for the labor movement, right here in Vancouver? Do you know that he lost a house in Vancouver when he went to jail for helping the Princeton miners in their strike in 1932? There were more elab- orate houses. in Vancouver but there were none better. “Slim” built it himself. He was proud of his skill as a carpenter and he put the best he Knew into that house. He built it for his wite and little daughter Jean. A Vancouver alderman held a mortgage on that house and when “Slim,” in prison, was no longer able to meet the payments, the alderman got the home, “Slim” got a temporary home in Qakalla and Mrs. Evans and Jean. were thrown out on the street. Vancouver unemployed work- ers who got rid of the atrocious “gunny sack” method of relief. distribution through “Slim’s” leadership, picketed his home for months to prevent eviction, but the bailiff got it in the end. We were unable to prevent that at,the time. But can we make sure that it does not hap- pen again? Since he came back to Vancouver, Slim was working hard to build another home for Mrs. Evans and Jean. There is an indebtedness of about $1,200 on this home. If it is not paid, Mrs. Evans, who has shared all the sacrifices of her husband, will have a second experience of seeing someone else profit from them. Are we going to allow this to happen? No! The fund opened by The People will be used to pay up in medical and hospital bills. The owner of the death car did not carry insurance nor had “Slim” himself any insurance. I have been asked to become a member of a memorial fund committee which will assume the task of raising enough money to pay off the debts now standing against the house and provide some security for Mrs. Evans and Jean. I did not need much per- Suasion. I consider it a duty I owe to “Slim” Evans. I believe most of the men and women who worked with and knew him will think as I do. Here is what we propose. There will be ten active members on the committee. Each one of them will undertake to organize a committee of his own with ten members on it. Each of these will get a subscription list on which he will undertake to raise $10 or more. A few extras will counterbalance any that fall short. 2 We want to clear off this debt in about a month from now, which should not be very diffi- cult. And it will be but a small return for “Slim’s” contribution to our welfare. We all regret the manner of his death. A man of his ealiber should have gone out leading an army in the battle for freedom. But regrets will not help Ethel Evans and Jean who, as com- rades as well as wife and daugh- ter, went through the mill with Slim, any more than hopes will defeat the armed hordes of Hit- ler and Hirohito. What can you do? If you want to help, write to me immediate- ly at this office and I will send you a subscription list.