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4 UNITED AUTOMOBILE WORKER R. J. THOMAS GEORGE F. ADDES President • Secretary-Treasurer RICHARD T. FRANKENSTEEN and WALTER P. REUTHER * Vice-Presidents International Executive Board Members: ARNOLD ATWOOD PERCY LLEWELLYN MELVIN BISHOP WILLIAM McAULAY WILLIAM BLAKELY JOSEPH MATTSON GEORGE BURT LEW MICHENER ARNOLD COXHILL PAUL MILEY RICHARD GOSSER RICHARD E. REISINGER CHARLES KERRIGAN THOMAS STARLING LEO LAMOTTE WILLIAM STEVENSON JOHN W. LIVINGSTON CARL SWANSON tfKX I " EDWARD LEVINSON, Editor (pA&AicbwJtl L Column, By R. J. THOMAS President, UAW-CIO Nineteen hundred and forty-four will be the year of destiny for the peoples of the world. This year we must finally and completely defeat the Axis powers. It is within the realm of possibility that the armed forces of the United Nations can defeat the Nazi armies this year. That will release our energies and re sources for a crushing, many-sided offensive against the * war machine of the Nipponese. Our task here at home will be to continue to turn out the tools of warfare. Every day the war can be shortened will mean the saving of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of American lives. It will bring closer the day when our people can once again turn from the business of destruc tion to the work of peace. MILITARY BATTLES NOT ALL Nineteen hundred and forty-four will hold the des tiny of generations to come not only by what develops on the battlefronts, paramount as the military conflict will be. With peace and victory coming closer we must watch with greater diligence than ever the work of the peace makers, the diplomatic conferences all too frequently held behind closed doors. It has happened before that a people have won a war and lost a peace. We must not let it hap pen again. It is not premature for the United Nations to take their peoples into their confidence. A free people have a right to know what they are dying for. There is a case, of course, for secrecy about military operations. There is no case whatever for secret diplo macy on post-war readjustments. The peace must be dictated by common sense and justice. I am not preaching tolerance for Hitler and his numerous servants, the willing, aggressive tools of Nazi ferocity. For them I prescribe the firing squads, without delay and without bloody public demonstrations. But for the defeated peoples, most of them dragooned without their consent into the war, there must be an effort to fit them into a world-wide economy from which all nations, victor and vanquished, may take a feeling of security. OUR OWN NAZIS Our job in getting a decent peace is going to be made harder by some forces we have to contend with at home. There are some men in Congress who would more fittingly wear the collar of the Hitler stooges. They are the men who have obstructed the war bv appeals to race-hatred and by stirring up of bitterness against labor. Their latest outrage is the effort to insure their re-election by depriv ing some ten million soldiers of the right to vote. It would be a tragedy for which our soldier dead would accuse us if these native Nazis should take control of the nation during the critical years ahead. OUR FIRST JOB IS POLITICAL The prevent this outrage to our hero dead, we must bend every effort to make the November, 1944, elections, a triumph for the democratic, progressive elements in our nation. The election must be fought out around the single issue: shall the lofty promises made us in war-time be fulfilled? §hall we establish a world in which there will be no more wars? Shall we develop a domestic economy which will assure employment for all? Or shall our military victories be followed by more wars abroad and by unem ployment and deprivation at home? These questions will be answered by the outcome of the November elections. We must do our share to see to it that the answers are those which will assure peace and security both in international and in domestic affairs. OFFICIAL PUBLICATION, International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft & Agricul tural Implement Workers of America, affiliated with the ClO—Published semi-monthly; yearly subscription to members 60c, to nonmembers $1 —Entered as 2nd class matter April 26, 1937 at the postoffice at Detroit, Mich, under the act of Aug. 24, 1912. Publication Office: 411 West Milwaukee, Detroit TRinity 1-6600 UNITED AUTOMOBILE WORKER DETROIT MICHIGAN JANUARY 1 1944 L. „„ w *owi i, —,—, is ms what wt mm rot! Badoglio Aided, Democrats Slapped by United Nations Heads in Italy Military representatives of the United Nations have com pelled spokesmen for Italian democratic and labor parties to withdraw and apologize for a statement which criticized allied support of the Badoglio “government” with its mon archal and Fascist tendencies. After having rebuked and humbled the leaders of Italian democratic opinion, the spokes men of the United Nations recom ended to Gen. Dwight D. Eisen hower that rule of most of South ern Italy, Sardinia and Sicily be turned over to Badoglio. A RECENT CONVERT Badoglio was Mussolini’s chief war lord. Since the United Na tions’ invasion has driven Mus solini from Italy, Badoglio’s apol ogists have played him up as a man who made occasional (secert) “gestures” of “opposition” to Fasc ism. However, Italian laborites and liberals who fought Mussolini openly have not been impressed. Nor have they been impressed with Badoglio’s sudden “conver sion.” They view it as a move to save his skin, and, if possible, that of King Victor Emmanuel who was also a Mussolini stooge. Stories about Badoglio lining up the “Italian army” for the United Nations are open to question, since there is a widespread belief that there is not much left of the “Italian army” either in numbers or morale. CIVIL RIGHTS CURBED Badoglio’s civilian following is also apparently nil, except for the hangers-on, the royal family, and the recently “converted” Fascists. A few weeks ago Badoglio asked the United Nations military au thorities to raise the daily rations for Italian civilians to ten ounces of bread plus two ounces of flour. “With this,” said Badoglio, “I can quiet even political argu ments.” Badoglio’s encroachment on civ ilian government which would not be possible without consent of the United Nations, has also been il- Testimonial Dinner to Thomas Friday, Jan. 28, in Detroit January, 1944, marks comple tion by R. J. Thomas, president of the UAW-CIO, of his fifth year at the head of the union. In that short-span of years, the union has grown from less than 90,000 dues paying members to more than 1,200,000. On the anniversary of this great achievement, leaders of the CIO and of Detroit civic life have or ganized to give Thomas a testi monial dinner. The dinner will be held Friday evening, January 28th, at the Book - Cadillac Hotel, Detroit. Sponsors of the dinner are: Philip Murray, honorary chair man; August Scholle, chairman; and George F. Addes, Tracy Dell, Councilman George Edwards (on Future Ruler ? H., -■* Reports from Italy sav that when and if the United Nations get around to giving King Vic tor Emmanuel the boot, he may be succeeded by the Prince of Naples, six year-old grandson of the feeble old king. The “prince” is a son of Crown Prince Umberto. His accession to the throne under a regency would be what is known in diplomatic parlance as main taining the continuity of govern ment. lustrated by the case of Gen. Antonio Basso, another recently “converted” Italian general. Basso has recently been placed in charge of the Italian police. The Italian democrats complain also of the lack of civil liberties in the occupied territories. They maintain that this prevents the development o f representative government. Public meetings and free newspapers are banned ex cept by special permission. CONVENTION BANNED The resentment against Badog lio and the grants of authority given him by the allied govern ments reached a boiling point leave with the U. S. army), Jack Ellstein, Richard T. Frankensteen, John Gibson, Judge Ira W. Jayne, Walter P. Reuther, Roy Scroggins, Tom Shane and C. Patrick Quinn. The arrangements committee consists of Scholle, chairman; Paul Silve;-, secretary; Ben Probe, treasurer; and A 1 Barbour, Ernest Bennett, Mort Furay and Tucker P. Smith. Reservations are $3.30 per plate, including Federal tax. Organiza tions and individuals desiring res ervations should make them at once with the R. J. Thomas Testi monial Dinner Committee, Room 506, Hofmann Bldg., Detroit 1, Michigan. Murray will head the list of speakers at the dinner. Adventures of Kid Salvage during the week ending December 18th. The Italian Committee of National Liberation, speaking for six democratic parties, declared in a leUer that the Allied military government, had become the “tools of neo-Fi eism” in Italy. It pro tested also (gainst the prohibi tion of a convention of progres sive and democratic elements which had been planned for Naples. Benedetto Croce, Italian phil osopher and one of the leaders of the democratic forces, with others, presented the letter at the office of the Allied Military Gov ernment. They asked that it be forwarded to President Roosevelt, to Churchill and to Stalin. The Associated Press reports: “As soon as Signor Arangio- Ruiz, president of the commit tee, had read the letter, l.ieut.- Col. Carl Kraege, of Burlington, Kansas, demanded an explana tion of the accusation that the AMG had become ‘the tools of neo-Fascism.' A long debate fol lowed at the end of which the letter was withdrawn with apol ogies.*’ PROTEST RENEWED The spokesmen for the Italian democratic parties, however, re fused to beat a complete retreat. They returned a few hours later with an amended statement pro testing the refusal of AMG to permit holding of the scheduled conference of their organizations. They again requested that their letter be forwarded to Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. The following day, the Allied Advisory Committee for Italy recommended that additional powers.be turned over to Badog lio. “Conditions” were attached; nevertheless, Badoglio is made an agent of the United Nations. The recommendations were made by representatives of the United States, British and Russian gov ernments, and the French com mittee. A FEW QUESTIONS The “conditions” attached to the extension of Badoglio’s powers are that he is to appoint civilian officials of “proven faith and Allied sympathies,” and that there is to be no commitment to Badog lio’s government that will be bind ing after the capture of Rome. These conditions sound reassur ing. but the questions inevitably arise: Why should Badoglio be even the temporary recipient of United Nations recognition? It it is intended to encourage creation of r democratic regime in Italy, why not permit the develop ment of democratic and repub lican parties? Observing the ease with which Badoglio has switched from a Fascist general to a favored son of the United Nations, the question might also be asked: How foolish it was for Mussolini himself not to have declared him self a “co-belligerent” of the United Nations? E. L.