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India Swept By Wave

Of Strikes

Workers Protest Arrest Of Leaders: Wemen Are Active

, LONDON, Eng. — Sweeping india is a wave of strikes and Agitation — the greatest for Miserable wages, ‘ong hours, ruthless attacks on organizations

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order prohibiting meetings.

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Vilia’s right to independence are | neeting with a resistance which

is setting the whole country in a ferment. Among the latest arrests re is that of R. S. Nimbkar, secretary of the Girni Kamegar union, who has been di-

p srecting the Bombay textile work- pers! general strike.

He is reported to be charged with a breach of the

It is now known that Jai Pra- kash Narain, one of the leaders of the Congress Socialist party, has been sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment for an anti-war speech.

Women are taking an import- ant part in the struggle, and in Bombay, center of the current wave of strikes and agitation, 52,000 women have signed a pe- tition for release of arrested workers’ leaders.

Recent developments include: One day strike in protest against

i arrests has been proposed by the

Bombay Trade Union Committee

H to the committee of 32 organiza- » tions representing many thousands

of workers.

Fifty-eight arrests took place 35,000 workers struck in Bombay. Police attacked°a meet- ing of 75,000 workers and 13 were

> injured.

Qne-day hunger strike was or- ganized in Bombay by 500 textile workers against arrests of strikers and their ieaders. ;

Calcutta Electrical Workers have struck against the dismissal of workers. Here again women are reported to be active.

Waziristan workers against dismissals.

In India not only are wages low, but there is no unemployment in- surance, no old age pensions and few of the social services known to Britain and the dominions...

A skilled workers’ average wage before the war was is. 6d. a day; an unskilled worker got 10d. a day; women workers about 6d. a day, and a child about 2d. or 3d. Some- times wages were even lower —

have struck

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laborers in Bombay who were only getting 2d. a day. Since the war slight increases have been gained by working class action.

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Bread Rations

MADRID, Spain — A _ decree halving the daily ration of bread Spaniards may buy was last week issued by the Franco fascist re- gime. The decree, reducing the Gaily bread ration from 250 to 125 grams, permits bakeries to sell bread only on alternate days.

There is also a shortage of chick peas and red beans, two staple foods. There is plenty of fruit and green yegetables, but a strict ra- tioning of sugar, olive oil, pota- toes, milk, chick peas and beans. is available about once a

ys Australian Labor Leader

A STRIKE called by International Longshoremen’s ass

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n (AFL) against Great Lakes Towing company tied these tugs up at Cleveland docks. National Maritime union (CIO) gave full support to the strikers.

Soviets Must Be Prepared. Marshall Voroshiloff Warns

MOSCOW, USSR.—Across Moscow’s Red square in an inspiring two-hour demonstration, one and a half million workers and tens of thousands of soldiers marched on May Day, while overhead in perfect formation flew crack-squadrons of the Soviet air fleet.

Banners reflected the steady economic progress of the USSR, the workers’ pride in their socialist advance and, above all, the Soviet people’s desire for peace and their determination

to guard their achievements.

(Prominent was the slogan of the nerheim line on which, he said,

Communist International, ‘Workers of the World, Unite,’ earlier under- lined by the international’s May Day amnifesto which, warning that the end of the war was not in sight, that its extension to the Bal- kans, the Near East and the Paci- fic, urged workers to unite under the banner of communism against the war.

A portrait of Ernst Thaelmann, German Communist leader impri- soned without trial for the past seven years, was carried in the par- ade.

In a brief May Day address to the Red army, Klementi E. Voro- Shiloff declared:

“The Russian people are grateful for the blessings of peace and are happy not to be involved in the imperialist war. We must exercise the utmost vigilance and strength- en our Red army and our Red fleet.

“Bloodshed is growing. War- mongers will try to drag us into the war and then attack one or another part of our territory. We must double our vigilance, in- crease tenfold our preparedness, while further strengthening our military might.”

In his order of the day to the army, Voroshiloff praised the army for its feat in destroying the Man-

“the imperialist states’ best special- ists, engineers and troops” had worked to prepare a base for at- tack on the USSR.

Declaring that the Finnish cam- paign had enriched the Red Army’s experience, he said:

“We must draw from it every possible deduction, quickly elimin-

ate and do away with all short-'

comings revealed in the course of hostilities, strengthen and continue improving all positive features brought to light in the course of War operations.”

The Communist International’s general secretary, Georgi Dimi- troff, wrote in a May Day article in Pravda that “the United States is feverishly preparing for war” while Italy awaited only the stra- tepic moment to enter it, declared:

“The American bourgeoisie awaits the exhaustion of belliger- ents and at the last moment will try to impose its will to reap the greatest profit in the revision of the world. Meanwhile the United States is imposing its yoke on Mexico and crowding out its rivals in Latin America.”

45,000 Mareh Im Mexico City

MEXICO CITY, DEF — Twenty thousand men and women in neat

Union Opens Trail Offices

TRAIL, BC.—Symbolizing the growth and development of union consciousness in this company-dominated town Trail and District Smeltermen’s union (CIO) this week opened offices on the main street of the downtown section. The new premises will also serve as a recreational center for its mem- bers. By establishing its offices the union has broken through an official boycott by property owners who refused to rent their premises. Breakdown of this boycott is a sign of the changing attitude of the community toward the union, a rec- ognition that a union is in Trail to stay.

skyblue uniforms — the workers’ Militia organized by the Confeder- ation of Mexican Workers (CTM) to guard the workers’ gains against brewing fascist rebellion—marched in Mexico Citys May Day parade, while with them paraded another 25,000 workers in civilian clothes.

Despite provocative attempts to disrupt the demonstration by sup- porters of the reactionary presiden- tial candidate, General Juan An dreu Almazan, the parade was a convincing demonstration of the people’s support for General Avila Camacho, the government's candi- date for the presidency.

Cubans Denounce US Imperialism

HAVANA, Cuba — Denunciation of United States imperialism was a keynote of May Day addresses here following a pared in which 40,000 workers, members of -the Confederation of Cuban Workers, participated.

Throughout Cuba all business was suspended by the day as work- ers poured into the streets to cele- brate.

Lazaro Pena, Cuban Communist leader, declared in his speech that the policy of the United States was “to get control of all the countries of the Americas,” and said that Guban workers were solidly behind the Mexican people in their “fight against the attempt of the United States to impose its will on that country in the petroleum contro- versy.”

Clause Approved

HAVANA, Cuba—The Constitu- ent Assembly, which must complete the new constitution by June 7, has approved a clause stipulating that all Cubans are equal before the law and declaring “illegal and punish- able any. discrimination for reason of sex, race, color or class.”

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Soviet-Finn Peace Lauded By Heads Of Trade Unions

SYDNEY, Australia—(By Mail) —“I am dealing with at fairs involving the Soviet Union because I believe that the future welfare of the workers in this and other lands is dependent upon the continued existence of the Soviet Socialist Republics. |

“T hope that the workers of Australia will realize that behind the barrage of abuse and falsehood directed towards the Soviet Union lies the undying hatred of the capi- talist class for a country that offers happiness and economic security to all its peoples.”

“So much of our own future welfare depends on the attitude of the workers outside Russia to that country that I think too much time cannot be given by any working class organization to a discussion of Soviet affairs in relation to the present world stuation.”

This statement, made by Presi- dent T. Moroney, of the Australian Railways union, at a meeting of the union’s federal council last month, is indicative of sentiment among organized labor in Aus- tralia, where 650,000 of 750,000 trade unionists have, through their elect- ed delegates, declared against the war,

Defending the mnon-agegression pact between the USSR and Ger- many and the Red army’s occupa- tion of former Polish territory af- ter the flight of the Beck govern- ment, Moroney said the Soviet Union’s military action against Finland was necessitated by the Same considerations which led to its occupation of former Poland.

“I am compelled to recognize that the uncertainty of the present posi- tion imposed a duty on the Soviet leaders to take immediate steps to ensure the security of their own country,” he stated.

“These men can surely be trusted to know what is required to pro- tect the interests of the Soviet Union as a Socialist country sur-= rounded by capitalist foes.

The facts that make Soviet Rus- Sia the most feared and hated among the capitalist class rulers of other countries should give plea- Sure and satisfaction to us of the labor movement in Australia—in- cluding the Australian Labor party.”

Similar statements have been Made by other Australian trade union leaders, particularly in hail- ing the Soviet-Finnish peace pact.

Thus Secretary J. EF: Chapple, of the Australian Railways union de- clared that the Soviet “has proved by its peace terms that it seeks nothing more than to secure its Leningrad front against the real and growing threats of aggression by other world powers,” while Na- tional Secretary E. Thornton, of the Federated Ironworkers Associ- ation, stated:

“The fact that peace terms have now been agreed to at a time when the Finnish army was powerless to prevent complete defeat shows that the Soviet Un- ion did not propose at any time to destroy Finnish independence.

“What other nation would have acted with such generosity to a beaten foe?

“The Soviet Union has once again shown the tremendous difference between Soviet policy and capital- ist policy.”’

National President Charles Nel- Son of the Miners’ Federation and the Combined Mining Unions, said:

“It is pleasing to know that a lasting peace has been Signed be- tween the two countries, and that the Soviet Union has achieved the necessary defensive positions against Franco-British encroach- ments and against the ultimate mo- tives of Nazism.

“Socialism has made a further advanec.”

And MWational Secretary Jim Healy of the Waterside Workers’ Federation commented:

“The victory shows the strength of socialism and proves that the Soviet Union is capable of resist- ing any attacks by capitalist reac- tionaries.”

MILITANCY FEARED.

Such statements as these from the leaders of Australia’s most powerful trade unions, represent- ing tens of thousands of organized workers, have alarmed big busi- ness, which fears the militancy of the workers as expressed in the strike of nearly 30,000 coal min- ers.

The trade unions have become the target of reactionary demands for repressive action, with the sharpest attacks directed at the Communist party.

Attorney-General T. M. Hughes,

Labor Goy't Bears Down

On Workers

Arrest Communists, Sentence Pacifists In New Zealand

WELLINGTON, New Zea- land—As the Labor govern- ment of Prime Minister Peter Fraser moved last month to implement its new regulations designed to suppress all Op- position to the war, H. G. Lyttle, young Christian paci- fist, was sentenced in police court here to three months hard labor on a charge of ob- structing the police.

A police witness, §lving evidence against Lyttle, charged that he made statements detrimental to re- cruiting in the course of a street meeting.

Lyttle, conducting his own de- fense, asserted he was being de- nied freedom to preach Christian- ity. He told the court that he had tried to read g Pamphlet entitled ‘The Words of Our Lord Jesus Christ Call Uz to Peace,, contain- ing extracts from the Bible, with- Out adding his own comment.

: “Does this mean that the bible is now a subversive book?” he asked. “If things go on like this it simply means that religion is becoming subordinate te the State, and that freedom to ex- press religious belief is sup- Pressed in this country. When I was told to stop because it was against the law to preach Christ- lanity, I had no alternative but to refuse.”

: Magistrate J. L. Stout, in pass- ing sentence, said, “There are peo- Ple getting restive about the anti- recruiting carried on by your soci- ety under the guise of Christian pacifism,” added, ‘I think the time has come not to deal with you with kid gloves.’

A few days after this case came before the court, Rev. O. E. Bur- ton was similarly sentenced to three months hard labor on 2 charge of obstructing the police.

Charges of having published Subversive material have now been preferred against three leading members of the New Gould, editor of the People’s Voice; W. Ashton, secretary of the Auckland committee of the party, and W. Dickinson, exec- utive member of the Auckland committee.

Under the new regulations a maximum Sentence Of one year’s imprisonment can be imposed,

This action against working class and pacifist organizations follows widespread apposition to conscrip- tion as evidenced at many public meetings and the go-slow tactics adopted by Wellington and Auck- land waterside workers in protest against the policies of the Labor government and employers.

Autsralia’s prime minister during the first world war, referred to these unions as ‘white ant unions.” Prime Minister T. G. Menzies ex- pressed the hope before a United Australia party meeting that at the next election voters would show the world that “Australia is still British and neither Russian nor piebald.”

Replying to attacks on the trade unions, ARU President T. Moroney declared:

“There are people today who are launching an attack on the Soviet Union and who are using that at- tack to strike at individuals in the labor movement.

“There are a lot of people way- ing flags and shoutmg for the defeat of Nazism, yet there is building up in Australia a fasc- ist state without a word of pro- test from these people.”

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