The daily worker., 1934-11-02
World Front
BY HARRY CANNES -
British Elections
c. P. United Front Fight
Mass Arrests in Spain


I take place in Britain in
November. Though the vot-
ing will be for borough and
county candidates, these elec-
tions have national signifi-
cance because they are con-
sidered preparatory. to the national
elections. Municipal and county
elections take place on Nov. in
England, and Nov. 7 in Scotland,
The Communist Party, while en-
tering the election with its own
candidates on a wide front, is pro-
posing united front actions to de-
feat the National governments
fascist proposals. The Communist
candidates are fighting under the
slogan: Forward to Soviet
Britain" Everywhere, they are
emphasizing the fact that inside
and outside the Borough Councils
the workers can achieve success
only by mass action.
THE main immediate demands are
l against the starvation of the un-
employed, against the relief econo-
mics of the National government,
for a vast public works program Of
restoration of towns and villages,
new sanitation works, construction
of schools, hospitals, clinics and
Fairgrounds.
On the eve of the nominations
for the municipal candidates, the
Communist Party of Great Britain
issued statement withdrawing
some of its candidates, in order to
strengthen the united front strug-
gle.
Drawing attention to the situa-
ton in Spain and Austria, the
statement says:
1T is clear that these events
necessitate the building up of
workers united front, and this is
now the paramount urgent consid-
Grafton overriding every other ques-
ton facing the working class"
Municipal elections" the state
ment points out, "are not Some-
thing apart from the class struggle,
having only a passing significance;
they occur at the very moment
when the British working class can
show it has learned from Germany,
Austria and Spain, when they can
give mighty demonstration to the
workers of the world that they are
also building unity in action and
taking steps to organize their forces
for an advance against the capital
ist enemy"
DOINTING out that the fight
L against capitalism can best be
carried on by the return of Com
munist candidates, the statement
declares that the Communist Party
is prepared to wholehear edly SUP
port and work for the return Of
Labor candidates in places where
there are no Communist candidates,
providing that such candidates will
pledge themselves to fight on such
questions as forced labor schemes,
for lower rents, refusal to opera
the means test, extra winter relief,
withdrawal of the Sedition Bill, the
fight against the unemployment act,
and for the united front against
war and fascism.
Proposals were made to the In
dependent Labor Party for with
drawal of Communist candidates or
I. L. P. candidates in places where
both are now running, in order to
strengthen the possibility of victory
of one or the other, wherever such
arrangements can be made on the
basis of a united front program.
THE Communist Party proposed
1 the calling of conferences of the
Labor Party, the I. L. P. and the
c. P. to select one candidate on the
basis of the united front program.
The statement makes it clear
that the C. P. still holds to its criti-
cism of the Labor Party program,
and that no change in the political
line is involved-Class against class
still remains the order of the day.
The new move is dictated solely by
desire to help toward united &C
ton of the workers.
MASS arrests of Communists, So
in cialists and Syndicalists are be-
ing made all over Spain. The thou-
sands of revolutionary workers, in
tellectuals and soldiers imprisoned
in the bull-ring in Madrid are suf-
fering frightfully from the icy cold
nights Madrid is situated on q
high plateau, and notorious for the
extreme difference of temperature
day and night).
The fact that the Socialist leader
Largo Caballero has been taken to
hospital has caused the populace to
conclude that he was maltreated by
the police when arrested. His ar
rest is en-, irely illegal, for the i'm
munity of the Deputies has not
been cancelled by any law, and can
not be.
In Gijon the Socialist Deputy
Teodomiro Menendez was arrested.
Mass arrests are being made con-
tinually in every part of the whole
Province of Oviedo, in the places
occupied by the government ,roops.
Conditions are indescribable in the
overcrowded prisons. The Cata-
lonian Deputy Augustin Casade-
munt has been arrested in a village
in Catalonia. In Bilbao over 900
persons have been arrested. In the
Province of Cordoba work is stated