Arizona republican., 1921-04-25
REPRESENTATIVES, SAY
 REDS PERSECUTNG
 RUSSIAN WORKERS

WASHINGTON. April 24.-Russian industrial workers are living through an unexampled tragedy" according to a report made to the International Metal Workers Federation by rep resentatives of the Menshevist organ izations of metal workers in Soviet Russia, which was made public here today by the American Federation of Labor.
 This report, which was translated and sent to this country for the in formation of American workmen by the secretariat of the Metal Workers Federation, at Berne, Switzerland, described at length alleged furious persecution" of organized labor in Russia by the bolshevist authorities.
 l. B. Strumillo, member of the board of the Perm Metal Workers union, who with l. G. Oopovaloff, president of the Metal Workers union in Vodkinski (UraD compiled the document, is now in the United States as delegate from his union. com missioned to inform the organized workers of this country as to con- d1tfons under the Soviet regime in Russia.
 The coup d'etat of November 1917. put the bolshevists in power" said the document, ''and from that time on the terrible fratricidal struggle con- tinued- Those very men who only yesterday called themselves the friends of the workers, now began the furious persecution of those workers by wholesale arrests, atrocities and murder, melted by demagogism, cal umnies and lies.
 Under the camouflage of com munism, acting in the name of the working classes, using the language and battlecrfes of socialism, the com munist government commenced its work of destruction. In order to clear their own way. the communists de- clared that freedom of speech, unions, strikes and meetings was a super stition of the bourgeoisis' and con- demned all who demanded political rights as counter r-revolutionists.' Many comrades perished in prison. were sentenced to hard labor or even shot. for the crimes of asking for freedom
 Free Speech rhrottled
 The Russian workmen. the report added, are forced to suffer under these conditions because they are obliged to remain silent, as they are disbelieved when they speak against those who fa1laciously and insolently Cdil luGIlSeiNeS tle TepIeSeUldllNeS OI the people, and who are so afraid of the workers that in practice they have abolished the right of voting and of free speech"
 "The whole policy of the communist soviet government towards the Rus sian working classes and their or ganizations" declared the document, can be summed up as follows:
 The freedom of the unions is abolished. The unions are established and work under the control of soviet authorities: and can only act in the way prescribed by the societ authori- ties
 Freedom of meetings is abolished. decree has been issued in accord ance with which meetings can only be arranged by permission of the soviet authorities.
 Freedom of speech is abolished. It is a crime to utter a word against the communists.
 Strikes are declared counter-revo- lutionary acts. Workmen who go on strike are punished with a brutality unheard of in western countries. Strikers are not only imprisoned but deprived of their rations.
 Almost all branches of industry are under martial law. Workers can not CndnSe rom one factory or OCCu- patton to another. They are forcibly enlisted in so-called labor armies and overtime is compulsory.
 Unions Subordinated
 Trade unions do not exist as in dependent bodies: they are subor- dinated to a central organization and thus converted into a compulsory ap- paratus.
 As a result of this policy. the Rus sian Industrial Workers, being put into a desperate position, and unable to obtain help from their own or . tcoptjnued o1 Page Tvo1