The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-08-07
On the
World Front
Argentina and the Chaco War
Manchester Rats
BY HARRY CANNES

Manchester Rats
DY WAY of Argentina we
- learn that the Communist
Party of Paraguay is about to
hold its first national conven.
ton in the midst of a war
that has already cost over
10000 lives.
The main problem before
the convention is how to transform
the war now being waged in tbs
interest of the native landowners.
the British and Argentinian bour-
geoisie, into a civil war for national
emancipation, for the agrarian,
anti-imperiahst revolution.
While Standard Oil and the
American tin and banking inter-
ests in Bolivia directly goad that
country in the slaughter over the
Gran Chaco, the British maneuver
with Paraguay mainly through
their puppets in the Argentine
government. The General Justo
regime is not averse to playing the
intermediary for British imperial-
ism. For the General is the owner
of a large slice of land in Gran
Chaco which would be greatly in-
creased in value if Paraguay won
the war and the spoils.
NESPITE Roosevelt's embargo
y (Which the General accepted
Fin principle" as all capitalist pow.
ers accept disarmament and peace,
provisions, arms, equipment and
uniforms are transported to Para
quay through Argentine ports and
over Argentine railroads.
The Mehanovich Co., an Argen-
tine concern, has put all its boats
on the River La Plata at the dis
posal of the Paraguayan govern
ment.
In Missiones and Alto Parana,
the Argentinian authorities shang-
hal the peon slaves on the planta~
tons and ship them over the from
tier into the Paraguayan armies ia
supply cannon fodder.
BECAUSE of the anti-war and
- anti-fascist agitation of the
Communist Party of Argentina,
the Justo government has set up
a special police department on the
order of the Fascist Gestapo, or tbs
LaGuardia strike breaking rifle
squads. 1t Is called the Special
Section Against Communism.
Raids, murders, third degrees, slug
gings are conducted regularly. Over
40 of our comrades have been
packed into the Rosario Jail, with
only enough standing ROOM and
many of them are on the verge
of death.
At the same time, the Argentine
government permits the Fascist
gangs to arm, to maintain barracks,
and to train for civil war against
the working class.
When some 1000 defenSeless and
unarmed Indians fled from the hor-
rors OF war in Bolivia into the
neutral country of Argentina,
General Justo's troops fired on
them, killing many and driving the
rest back into the war inferno.
I Attest reports from Manchester
u that the British cotton mill
owners have refused any further
shipments ON credit to Germany,
even though it means the shutting
down of British mills and the
throwing of 10000 more British
workers out of employment, are of
the greatest significance. These
shrewd Manchester expIoiters know
when rats should desert a sinking
ship.
Not only is the economic catas-
trophe in Germany becoming worse,
but the cancer is spreading on tbs
already badly weakened body Of
world capitalism.
The Manchester bosses know, for
instance, that the German State
Statistical Department. recently re-
ported that the total amount owed
by Germany on all foreign debts
amounts to 5.00O,00o,000 marks,
which Is something over $25 ,000,-
100000.
WHAT is more, 10 per cent of II
F" is in short term notes, which
means that payment falls due on
and interest at very short
intervals.
Now with sources Of new foreign
loans drying up quicker than the
Kansas wheat fields, with winter
OF famine speeding ahead, with the
growing instability Of the Hitler
financial crash is
in Germany which will
make 1923 initiation look like an
amateur dress rehearsal. Then in
about four months the Young and
Dawes loan moratoriums come up
again.
OF course, on Mussolini's theory
that humanity hasn't begun to app
preciate its capacity for suffering
lower living standards, Hitler will
still further smash down the toilers'
wages. In other words, the capital
ist press talk about '1eftward"
move of Hitlerism in Germany 10
the sheerest poppycock.
pRIOR to the rupture Of japanese
negotiations with the Soviet
Union over the sale of the Chinese
Eastern Railway, the Manchukuo
authorities prepared the ground by