S | @ f 3 ; -
vote on pain only first step = sOUnAaUX
ge all member nations to withdraw the heads of their diplomatic missions from Eranco
g unless it is followed by economic sanctions, French delegate Leon Jouhaux told Allied Labor News.

-president of the World Federation of Trade Unions,
mn Hrenchunionist, who spent a good part of the war in a

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y.—The United Nations decision to ur
Spain is only a first step that will have little meanin
Jouhaux, co-general secretary of the French Gene
labor leader attending the UN general “assembly

Nazi concentration camp,

a firm decision by UN
Hranco. The adopted resolution
was finally accepted as a com-=
promise after the U.S. proposed
that the general assembly con-
fine itself to a declaration call-
ing on the Spanish people to take
the initiative in ridding them-
Selves of the dictatorship.

The final resolution, passed by
a 34 to 6 vote after an impassion-
ed speech by Jouhaux in which
he stressed that he spoke not
only -as a Erenchman but as a
representative of the WETU’s 71
million members; bars the Franco
regime from any participation in
the UN and asks the’ security
council to reconsider the issue if
Hranco is not replaced within a
reasonable time by a government
“which derives its authority from
the consent of the governed.”

Though it is felt this action
may exert some moral pressure
on Hranco, the practical effects
will be very slight. Britain is the
only one of the Big Four with an
ambassador in Spain. Even if the
ambassador were withdrawn un-
‘der the UN: resolution, Britain
could maintain her first and sec-
ond secretaries, who have the job
of dealing with commerce. The
U.S. has an embassy secretary
and a commercial attache in
Spain, whose withdrawal is not
necessary to comply with the UN
resolution. Bet

As Joubaux explained it, the
Spanish dictatorship is actually
being buttressed by its foreign

2

diplomatic

ral Confederation of Labor and a vice
meeting here as a full delegate. The vetera
has emerged from this UN session as the recognized leader in the
fight to end the Hitler-sponsoreq Spanish regime. During weeks of debate he battled for

members to sever all and

is the only

economic relations with

trade, mainly with the U.S. and
Britain, Without this economic
support the Franco government
could not withstand the pressure
ef the Spanish people, 100,000 of
whom are now in jail for op-
posing Franco. :

The possibility still exists that
the WETU, many of whose affili-
ates have already declared boy-
ecotts against goods moving to or
from Spain, will call on its mem-
bers-in all 56 countries to take
Similar action. ‘

Polish labor federation
gives gov't full support

By RUTH BARTLEY

WARSAW-—The tweé million-strong Polish labor union
federation will support the progressive electoral bloc in the
january national elections, Pres.
the Central Committee of Trade Unions announced here.

Asked whether this means a
sure vote of two million for the
block, Witaszewski answered
smilingly: “No. We shall have
at least four milion votes since
€ach union member will influ-
ence at least one member of his
family.” The unions are not or-
ganized politically but the two
main workers’ parties are in the
bloc.

Answering foreign newspaper-
men’s questions on the Polish
unions, Witaszewski stressed that

Polish workers have not aband-

Feudalism vs. democracy
a r a : Sa. C4
is issue in [ran strife

In Iran, world trouble spot where civil war has been
taging intermittently, the fight is one between a feudalistic
central government and the democratic local administration

of Azerbaijan province, which has historically spearheaded
the country’s progress and cultural development.

Azerbaijan’s three million peo-
ple are of Turkish, not Iranian,
stock. They have more schools,
industries and unions than any
other part of Iran.

Since Iran lies at the cross-
roads of Anglo-American and So-
viet influence in the Near East,
the flare-ups have in the past,
and may again, be discussed by
the United Nations.

But the issue that is being
fought out has a long internal
history. .The Azerbaijanis, who
installed the first printing press
in Iran as long ago as 1818, start-
ed the first daily newspaper in
all Asia in the same year and
produced fIran’s first modern lit-
erature in the 1850’s, have always
been in the forefront of demo-
cratic resistance to Teheran des-
potism.

In 1896 they headed the movye-
ment that gave Iran its consti-
tution. In 1908, when the Shah
(king) suppressed parliament,
they marched on the capital and
forced him to “put the constitu-
tion back into effect.

The Tranian union movement
was also started in Azerbaijan
by men who had had contact with
Russian unionists while working
in the Baku oil wells in czarist
times. Baku is now the capital
of the Soviet Azerbaijan ~epublic,
where people of the same descent
live and the same language is
spoken.

The people of Iranian Azerbai-
jan, however, are not fighting to
join the Soviet Union. What they
want is a better life and the
right to use their own language
in Iran itself.

Contrary to charges levelled
against them, the Azerbaijans
have no contact or aid from
Moscow. American correspond-
ents recently confirmed this by
stating, after investigation, that
the whole Azerbaijan armed
force has six tanks, as opposed

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 2

to the Teheran government
which has large numbers of both
tanks and planes supplied by
Britain and the US.

Iran has been a point of inter-
est to the U-S. and Britain both
because of its strategic importance
and because of its lucrative oil-
fields, largely controlled by the
British through the Anglo-Iranian
Oil Co.

Kzimierz Wiitaszewski of

vances the unions have achieved,

oned their right to strike. How-

ever, he said, those who adyo-
cate strikes now “are not work-
ing in our interests.

“The strike is the last weapon
of the working class in its
struggle for a new structure for
its social and economic life,” he

Denouncing Franco Spain, CIO pickets parade in Wash-

ington, D.C., to protest continued U.S. recognition of the
fascist government. Trade with the U.S. and Britain is
the main factor in keeping Franco in power, and his prime

said. “In Poland we have en-
tered a new era. We have no
great capitalism, no great land-.
owners. The influence and
Strength of the trade unions is
So great that we have no rea—
son to employ the last weapo.
—the strike.”

Deseribing some of the ad-
Witaszewski pointed out thatnew
social insurance laws protect every
worker from the hazards of old
age, accidents, Sickness and
death. Imsurance is paid entire-
ly by employers: “Hurtheremore,
workers are guaranteed annual
holidays which range from eight
days after a year to a month

after 10 years.

Although wages have risen 40
percent since May, 1945, pur-
chasing power still amounts te

only about 60 percent of the pre-
war level, Witaszewski explained,
because wartime destruction left
Poland an impoverished nation.
Chief aim of the 3-year plan now
in €ffect is to -achieve 100 per-
cents of prewar standards. “Then
after 1949” Witaskezski said “we
shall leave prewar levels far be-
hind.”

rocketed
support families,
only from $8 to $32 a month. They
say
month to
also asking for
$10 monthly bonus and of .their
full
been reduced 25 percent.

lever against the Spanish people.

Aussie, Indian seamen —
aid Chinese wage drive

SYDNEY—(By Airmail)—Australian and Indian union

Although the cost of living sky
in China, where they
these men draw.

they need at Ieast $72 a
keep going. They are
restoration of a

foog allowance, which has

Among the strikers here are 57

men from the Blue Funnel line
ship. Sarpedon.
in Hongkong and told they would
Sail to nearby Pacific ports. They
landed in
where they had to sign on for
Australia. -

They were hired

Glasgow, Scotland,

When the men protested to
the union after landing here,
the company cut off allowances
to their dependents in Hong-
kong and had the men jailed.
One of them said: “Conditions

ists are giving strong backing to Chinese seamen from Brit-
ish ships plying between England, Hongkong and Australia
who are on strike for a living wage. : ;

in prison are better than they
were on board.” Anyone who
has seen AuStralian jails knows
how bad the ship must have

been. :
A sympathy committee kere,
which includes the Waterside

Workers Federation, the Seamen’s —

Union of Australia and the In=
dian Seamen’s Union, has already
raised more than ,$2;000 at pay
gates and factory meetings for
the Chinese strikers.

One of the crews, from the
French vessel Gialong, has
charged French authorities with
forcing them to sign on at from
$8 to $28 monthly in violation of
the Intl Labor Organization’s
minimum of $54, to which snip-
Owners agreed. Erench unionists
have been asked to apply pres—
Sure in Paris to support the
strikers’ demands.

“White supremacy’ in UN ;

gets set-back in vote

By ISRAEL EPSTEIN

NEW YORK—The issue of white supremacy has become
so important in the United Nations that it is changing the

international balance of votes. Until recently, Russia seemed

to be in a permanent minority in every argument with the

Protesting the Allis-Chalmers’ refusal to arbitrate a 7-

month-old strike, 20,000 Milwaukee CIO members joined

the picket line of Local 248, United Auto Worker
UAW Vice-President R. J. Thomas,

charge of the strike, is carrying the picket sign.

s (CIO).

now in personal

U.S. and Britain. But in the cur-
rent UN general assembly session,
eight new countries backed the
Soviet stand. on colonies and race
discrimination. These were In-
dia, China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, the
Phillippines, Mexico and Guate-
mala. :

These nations defeated a move
by South Africa, which has the
worst Jimcrow laws in the world,
to annex Southwest Africa, which
she had previously run on behalf
ef the League of Nations.

But South Africa haq discrim-
inated against too many people,
including sizable Indian and Chi-
nese communities within her bor-
ders. The ruling white element, it=
self a tiny minority in South Af

rica, found that it was in a min-

e@

ority on a world scale too when
UN flatly rejected its bid.

The voting exploded the idea
that only left-wing governments
vote with Russia. China, Egypt,
Iran, Irac and the Philippines all
have rght-wing administrations.
India and the Latin American
countries are also far from com:
munist.

These countries voted with
Russia, which has made racial
discrimination 2
offense. They voted against Bri-
tain because of her treatment
of colonial peoples, which some
of them experienced firsthand as
parts of the British empire. The
U-S. was on the lesing side be-
cause of Jimcrow here.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1946

constitutional —