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Dhe Great PAN-AMERICAN HIGHWAY SYSTEM

and Projected Connections

Te Birr rus : oe Vow CTV

f The Pan-American Highway system, parts of which is already

in operation, will do much to overcome the present isolation between North and South American countries and assist in developing greater cooperation for freedom and democracy

between the two peoples.

British, US Labor Press 2nd Front

London

Te great Second Front rally in Tra- falgar Square two weeks ago, at- tended by 50,000 London workers from

700 union locals and production committees, has touched off a campaign in war factories from one end of the country

to the other.

“Tf we're not ready for a sec- ond front now, when will we be?” workers in the big Garrett Engi- neering Works have wired Prime Minister Churchill. “Knowing full well that there are friends of fas- cism in this country, we pledge to support you in any measure you take to prevent them from betraying Britain as they betray- ed France. We cannot allow Ger- many to recover from the Red Army’s blows before we strike in the West.”

Workers in the Vickers_Arm- strong plant in the northwest England are holding meetings at the end of each shift to plan ways of increasing production for the offensive. Similar meetings are being held daily during the lunch hour by shop stewards in the Wapier Aircraft Works.

“Britain’s 700,000 miners want a second front now, not just to help Russia, but to bring about

New York

the destruction of Hitlerism in 1943," declares Arthur Horner, president of the South Wales Min- ers Federation. “It is in the in- terest of the whole working class that victory be won in the short- est time possible.”

Rising out of the Trafalgar Square meeting, March 23 was designated as ‘Second Front Day” and on that date special meetings on this question were ealled in all London factories and boroughs. The meetings were s0 organized as to not interfere with production. In the eyening depu- tations from the meetings called on members of parliament with resolutions stressing that “the time to invade France is now, when enemy divisions are being withdrawn for the Russian front and those left behind are having to grapple with the rising resist- ance of the French people.”

N URGENT plea for a second front in Europe—to crush

the Nazis while they are being

forced to withdraw troops from France to fight on the Eastern front—was made this week by the United Automobile and Aircraft Workers (CIO), largest union in the United States.

George F. Addes, UAW secretary- treasurer, announced this week that the union’s membership has now reached 845,099.

“To bring Hitler and his Japa- nese allies to quick disaster, this international union considers it imperative that the decisions of the recent Casablanca conference be immediately carried out,” the UAW executive board declared. “Now, with Hitler staggering under the blows of our Soviet ally, invasion of Hurope to bring about the unconditional surrender of the Axis is imperative. But against this program of victory, sinister forces have moved into action. Anti-labor and quisling groups are carrying forward a feverish campaign to block the decisions of the Casablanca con- ference—to hamper and hold back invasion of Hitler-dominated Eur- ope, to bring about a ‘peace’ by negotiating with the mad dogs of fascism.”

Those elements within the Imited States who desire a ne- gotiated peace with Hitler are “echoing Herr Goebbels’ gospel of the Communist menace,” the

UAW says. “Again, as at Munich, Hitler is being portrayed as the world’s protector against the ‘red danger,’ as the provider of a ‘pro- tection’ which entails the accept- ance of Nazism by America. The program of Casablanca, to which our President has subserrbed, must and sill be made to prevail over that of the fifth columnists.”

Chapayevw’s Sons

MOSCOW. The sons of the celebrated Soviet military leader, Vasili Chapayev, of Civil War fame,

have distinguished themselves in the present war. The elder son, Alexander, a lieutenant-colonel of artillery, has been decorated with the Order of the Red Banner. Alexander’s regiment, which won distinction at Stalingrad, was also one of the first to enter Khar- kovy. In battle Alexander Chapayev carries the revolver which al- ways accompanied his father dur- ing the Civil War campaigns.

CTAL-- Spokesman For Latin America

MEXICO CITY. —

pe Confederacion de Trabajadores de la America Latina (CTAL) was established at a constituent convention in Mexico City Sept. 5-8, 1938. Now, with more than four mil- lion members, it represents every Latin American labor or- ganization except small anarchist bodies in Chile and Ar- gentina. Largest CTAL affiliates are Mexican Confederation of Workers (CTM), 1,000,000 members; the Cuban Confed- eration of Workers, 500,000; the General Confederation of

Workers of Argentina, 400,000, and the Chilean Confederation of Workers, 350,000. Vicente Lom- bardo Toledano, formerly secre- tary of the CTM, was elected CTAL president and re-elected three years later at the First Congress in Mexico City. Because of the poverty of Latin American workers, labor organiza- tions in Latin America differ strikingly from those in the US. “Anyone who expects to find unions with elaborate headquart- ers, a stable dues-paying mem- bership and well-paid business agents will be disappointed,’ Al- lied Labor News was told at CTAL headquarters here. “In some countries like Peru and Bolivia labor operates in semi-_ legality; in others, like Paraguay and Brazil, it is completely under- ground.

US and Canadian unions in un- derpaid fields like migratory labor will best be able to appreciate the problems of MLatin American unions. Workers earning 15 cents a day in copper mines or oil fields, not enough to buy food for their families, do not pay dues. Al- though affiliates of the CTAL pay between two and eight hundredths of a cent (US) as their monthly per capita, actual receipts vary widely from month to month. At present, because of the US need for Latin America’s raw materi- als, the CTAL’s membership is its largest in history.” The union’s poverty has other results: some CTAL affiliates have no paid officials, others have only one or two; the labor press is limited, where it exists at all; except where labor is relatively well-established, there are no union offices.

Mobilization By Fear

Nazi Weakness Revealed

MOSCOW.

y | dee practical possibilities for total mobilization in Hitler Germany are very. limited,’ says Pravda in an article entitled “Total Mobilization and Total Bluff.” “Already as a result of the acute shortage of raw materials and fuel, non-war production has been reduced to the limit,

with the production of some 3,000 various commodities completely banned.

“Handicraft shops too have been working mainly on war orders. Few workers, chiefly women and old people, are employed in the enterprises still producing luxur- ies.

“The intelligentsia in MHitler Germany is very small and will hardly suffice for replenishing the losses on the front and the short- age of skilled labor in industry. As far back as a year ago 49 per-

cent of the tradesmen were over

50 years of age. Over ten million women have been drawn into German industry. The remaining mass of women have no experi- ence whatever and will avoid go ing to work by all means. “Thus total mobilization is re- vealed as the new bluff of the Hitler adventurers. Essentially there is nothing new except for the slogan of total mobilization. “The new measures planned constitute a new and desperate effort to ‘comb’ again the already repeatedly combed branches of the economy to drain them of addi-

Despite these handicaps | CTAL affiliates are genuine bodies. Elections are held re; ly; delegates to conventions ally held annually, are ren) file workers; and a mine who'is under the impressior | the union in his mines is - because it has no duesp

membership will discover dui strike that it is organize: percent. There has been vir no case of strike-breakin: Latin American workers in years.

Collective bargaining het workers and management ig different. Once a year the u present a petition for wag creases, Signed by ali } members; the employers us reject the petition and the then goes to the Ministe Labor. The prominence of go ment officials in wage ney tions has forced Latin Ame labor to take an interest in tics. In Chile, for example, a top leaders of the Confeder of Chilean Workers, inch Ibanez and Ocampo, are members of the Chambe; Deputies.

tional human reserves ané the yawning gap on the front in the war industry in the | resulting from the tremer

losses in men and material tained by the Hitler army o: Eastern Front. :

“The noise raised by the F propaganda around total mo ation,’ the article further rf “has two aims: to create tht pression abroad that the mans still have formidable serves which can easily be th onto the scales, and to su the fading hope of the Geli people for a favorable outcon the war.

“Tt is this that German pi ganda has set out to do at” ent. Total mobilization is a all mobilization by fear.

Industrial Unions Gain New Support In Britain.

LONDON, ENGLAND.

The growing trend in Britain toward industrial unionism— which will have a profound effect not only upon domestic labor policy but also on the attitude of British labor toward the international trade union movement—is further illustrated

by an editorial appearing in the current issue of the AEU Journal, official organ of the Amalgamated Engineering Union. The AEU, which started the war as a craft union with 350,000 members (mostly skilled mechanists), to- day has 760,000 members and ex- pects by the end of this year to have more than a million. The AEU is rapidly taking on an in- dustrial form.

Pointing out that in the engi-

neering (automotive and machine- building) industries there are no

less than 38 different unions with a total membership of one and a quarter million, and that in the iron and steel industry there are another 20 unions with a member- ship of 250,000, the Journal states:

“Tt would be completely con- sistent with the policy of our union if in the course of this year a strong effort could be made to bring together the unions in our proup of trades to consider the possibility of amalgamation. It does not seem to us to be beyond the capacity of trades union states-

manship to reduce these | groups of unions very consi ably by amalgamation. Nor we see any reason why the fort to achieve a greater de of unity need be deferred 1 after the war.” The 6,000,000 members of Trades Union Congress are t spread out among 2238 diffe unions only one of which, the! ers’ Federation, takes in all workers in an industry. In Br plants employing fewer than - workers it is common to fin many as 12 different unions. last year’s TUC convention 2 tion introduced by the rail men to consider reorganizatio trade union structure was feated by only 3,085,000 vote 2,153,000. :