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
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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.