Chiang cannot win even with US
aid, says North China army chief

By ANNA LOUISE STRONG

YENAN —Gen. Chu Teh, cotmmmander-in -chief of the Chinese Communist armies, sat
in his faded, baggy gray-blue uniform, lean ing back in a canvas chair on the hard clay
terrace in front of his Yenan cave. Smoking interminable cigarettes, he discussed with me

the Chinese civil war.

“Chiang Kai-shek cannot pos-
sibly win,’’ he said. “There are
hundreds of millions of people in
China. You can’t suppress them.

“If they don’t get democracy they
will keep rising up. We Com-
yjnunists’' have fought for 20 years
already. We long for peace, which
all the Chinese people need. But
if need be, we can fight for an-
other 20.” :

“tow big is the civil war?” I
asked Chu Teh. “They say in
Ameriea that there are only
skirmishes.”

“That's Chiang’s propaganda,”
he laughed. “If he wins, he wants
it to seem automatic; if he loses,
he wants never to have tried.
Also, he fears to risk the Ameri-
Gan loan by his fighting. Actu-
ally, 80 percent of all his forces
are mobilized, 193 divisions out
of 253. He has 15 more divisions
in Sinkiang suppressing the na-
tional minorities; he needs the
remaining 45 in South, China lest
the people or the local warlords
revolt.” :

When Chu Teh commented
that Chiang has superior arms,
¥ asked him whether the Com-
Faunists got any arms from
the Russians. “None at ail,” he
replied. “They didn’t even let
us take Japanese arms from
the cities they held. Gur Com-
munist forces disarmed a lot
vf Japs in smaller places that
the Russians didn’t bother with;
we got these arms. We could
have taken planes and tanks

but we lacked gasoline and
equipment for then” 3

“We have three or four Am-
erican-equipped divisions,” he

added, grinning. “We took the
arms from CGChiang’s troops that
we beat in Manchuria last May.”

Asked what tactics the Com-

munists use against Chiang’s su-
perior arms, Chu Teh said: “We
rely on the Chinese people. I
Chiang comes with superior
forces, we let him take the
cities. Then the peasants flow
arounagd and break his communi-
cations. In the battle for Juko,
just north of the Yangtze, Chi-
ang got the city but he had to
use planes to provision it after-
wards, for the peasants cut him
off. -

“The deeper they penetrate,
the harder it is for them
to get supplies. An American-
equipped army needs a lot of
supplies. We wait until Chi-
anp’s forces spread out in rur-
al areas, then we chop them
off. When we chop them enough,
we take the cities back”
“How long can Chiang keep it

up in your opinion?” I asked.

“As long as he gets American

help,” Chu Teh replied. “He could
not have started without Ameri-
can assistance. With his present
arms, he can fight perhaps six
months.” :

GENERAL CHU TEH
- - . now the people have
tasted democracy .. -”

“

MAG TSH-TUNG
. the despots can never
Win . = -”

Chu Teh thought, however, that
Chiang might fight only two or
three months at present, take
as many cities as possible and
then “agree with Marshall” for a
truce. “He will use Marshall te
try to stabilize his conquests be-
fore our slower Communist tac-
tics can teke the cities back,”
Chu Teh explained.

‘Will he succeed?” I asked.

Ghu Teh leaned back in his
chair and looked at the moon-
light on the Yenan hills. Then

he said: “Hor thousands of years
the Chinese people have been
ruled by despots. But now they

have tasted democracy over all
North China. Now the despots
can never win.”

Hitler used a
similar method

CARACAS — American business
men in Wenezuela have aroused
great .indignation in the Tabor
movement here- by asking the
U.S. government to take “ener-
getic measures” against what they
term “the alarming danger of
communism” in Venezuela. Bit-
terly criticizing this outright call
for foreign intervention in Vene-
zuela’s affairs, a labor spokesman
pointed out that “the danger of
communism” was used by the
Wazis in preparing for World
War It, and is being used today
“by reactionaries 7
destroy the unity of the peoples
that was forged during the same
world war.”

who want to]

anti-Soviet movements.

The ‘last mile’ look. Realizing that their hour of doom
is approaching, Goering, Hess and Ribbentrop, cream
of the Nazi herrenfolk, stare hopelessly at the floor. One
consolation is left them—the realization that Anglo-U-S.
policies in Europe are saving the skins of thousands of
similar scum, through whom they hope to build new

First year of achievement shows

WFIU making big gains for unity

NEW YORK.—When leaders of the World Federation of Trade Unions meet in Wash-
ington on Sept. 20, it will mark one year—-almost to the day—since delegates from 69
countries gathered in Paris te form an organization dedicated to the final defeat of
fascism, to lasting peace and to the establishment of a high standard of living for workers

in every corner of the world.

The record before the dele-
gates in Washington, when they
sit down to assess the work done
during the past year, will show
that the WETU played a major
part in mobilizing popular dem-
onstrations against the Hranco
dictatorship in Spain; that it
waged a vigorous fight for world
labor’s voice to be heard in the
councils of the United Nations;
that it stepped forward to help
guarantee genuine de-Nazification
in Germany; that the bonds be-
tween workers in various coun-
tries were strengthened by the
progress eStablishing internation-
al trade departments,

However, it will also show that
Franco is still in power, that the
WETU has not received real
recognition from the United Na-
tions and that fascism is still
alive in Germany. These are the
problems that the Washington
meeting will face, and from its
deliberations it is expected that
a new program of action will
emerge.

Action is also expected on issues
in Iran, Greece and China. Dele-
gates will hear a report on fran
from general secretary Louis Sail-
lant who visited there in July
and found conditions far below
the decent living standards for

Secretary, All-India Trade Union
Congress fears fascist trends

BOMBAY.—A strong possibility exists that India’s new Congress government may
move toward fascism, according to Narayan Malhar Joshi, veteran labor leader and gen-

By REX IVES

eral secretary of the All-India Trades Union Congress.

In an interview with ALN,
Joshi, a non-party man for all
the 35 years he has worked in
the labor movement, said the
growing political consciousness of
Indian labor may call forth re-
pressive measures from the new
government. In charge of Home
Affairs, he pointed out, is V-
Patel, a spokesman for big busi-
ness interests.

First target of an anti-labor
drive, Joshi said, will be~ the
Gemmunists, who are in the lead-

ership of a large section of the
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 2

trade union movement. The
small but influential group of
Indian businessmen and  land-

owners, he stated, are frightened
by the fact that an ever larger
number of workers and landless
feasants are. showing sympathy
for the economic system of the
Soviet Union.

Confirming Johi’s view are
reports of aconcerted anti-la-
bor campaign in every province
where the Congress party holds
office. Im Madres, where rail-
Waymen are on strike, the sec-

retary and vice-president of
the railwaymen’s uDion have
been arrested along with three
members of the strike commit-
tee,

In Amaliner, where textile work-
ers are striking, the police fired
on the workers and killed the
general secretary of the focal
union. The local government
clamped down on strike activity
by prohibiting the assembly of
more than five persons. Similar
incidents have been reported

which the WETU is fighting.
French labor leader Leon Jouhaux
will report on his visit to Greece,
where he witnessed the arrest of
elected trade union officials and
other anti-labor terror.

From China, world labor has
received an appeal for help from
the Chinese Association of Labor,
whose. officials were arrested and
property seized by the Kuomin-
tang government as part of its
civil war drive. 2

With the admission of six new

trade union centers, the WETU
now represents about 70,000,000

workers. [Its affiliates include
virtually every labor organization
in the world, the AFI being
the sole major exception.

Two men who played major
roles*in the formation of the
WETU will be absent from this
session: CIO leader Sidney MHili-
man who died last July and Brit-
ish labor leader Baron Walter
Citrine, who has accepted a govy-
ernment job in the direction of
nationalized coal mines. A succes-
sor to Citrine, who was WETU
president, will be chosen by the
Washington meeting,

Union of the

from other areas. L

This picket line in New York is typical of many that
have completely tied up’: American shipping, Having wen
their strike demands with CIO assistance, the Sailors’
Pacific and the
Union (both AFL) now respect CIO picket lines to se-
cure for the CIO National Maritime Union the same

Seafarers’ International

wage scales as won by the AFL. (See story on page 6:)

- FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1946