The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-01-02

OLOA OSE Inc dHll-Cleflc2l
u forces in Mexico, who de-
Tended themselves against an
attack by Catholic fanatics,
whipped up to religious fren-
zy by the priests, wore red
shirts, the American capital
list press is trying to make it appear
they we're Communists.
For example, the New York
Times prints the headline: 81 Reds
Are Held in Mexican Killing. The
fact is that the Communist Party
OF Mexico has been vigorously ez-
posing the trickery of the Carde-
mas government. which not only
does not carry out an honest fight
against the feudal. reactionary ele-
ments hiding behind the Catholic
Church, but actually uses fake anti
clerical propaganda to conceal its
failure to solve the economic proc
lens confronting the workers and
peasants of Mexico.
The five fanatics were killed in
Coyoacan, suburb of Mexico CITY.
after a carefully prepared vicious
propaganda campaign in the United
States against the Mexican govern
ment. One of the leading forces in
this most poisonous campaign of
lies against the Mexican people was
none other than, Father Coughlin.
who took time out a week ago from
mis- pro-fascist propaganda here to
spit filth against the Mexican work
ers and peasants who do not relish
the idea of letting the church
shackle the Mexican people in ig-
norance and feudal exploitation.
FOR example, Coughlin told of the
humanitarian" priests who &C
companied the Conquistadors to
Mexico and Latin America in the
days of Cortez and Pizzaro.
Actually, these priests we're sent
over to help rob, rape and slaugh-
ter the native peoples who had
reached high stage of culture. The
brutalities, the wanton slaughter.
the unparalleled robbery. commit
ted by these priests, which have
stamped the history of Latin Amer
lea, are only now being initiated bv
the Nazis and fascist scum through
out the world. Prescott's book, The
Conquest of Mexico" tells how the
f1endS of the Catholic inquisition
implanted their system of brutal
ity, degradation and ignorance in
Mexico and Latin America in order
to help the Spanish grandees build
up huge feudal empires in Latin
America.
The Mexican people have been
struggling against these forces of
darkness and superstition and
trlghtful exploitation for centuries.
and have managed to make some
progress, despite the reactionarv
governments of Mexico. 1t is for
that reason that Cardenas TODAY.
in looking for an issue to arouse the
people of Mexico, brings up the
anti-clerical fight-not in order to
land final blow to the church. but
to divert the masses from a real
struggle against feudal-capitalist
relations which alone would for
ever wipe out the terrible traces of
the Catholic-landlord hierarchy.
THE Cardenas government realized
that this shadow boxing against
the church resctionaries wouldn't
hurt them much. Yet the American
Catholic leaders let loose a cam
paign of filth and abuse against
the Mexican government which was
deliberately designed to arouse ia
naticsl Catholics, some of whom are
armed and many Of whom are
bandits covering their banditry with
the sign of the cross. to take pro-
vocative measures.
That is precisely what occurred
at Coyoacan. The Red Shirts, a pro-
Cardenas youth organization, hav=
ing nothing to do with Comnlu-
nisnl, or the Reds. as designated in
the American capitalist press, held
an anti-clerical demonstration in
front of the Coyoacan Cathedral. !
The religious zealots, prepared by
their priests to become martyrs, as
saulted the Red Shirts. The Red
Shirts replied and five of the re-
ligiouS opium maddened gang were
killed. One Red Shirt had first been
beaten to a mass of bleeding flesh
and battered bones.
The Communist Party has time
and again pointed out here and in
Mexico that it is against any form
of individual violence, that these
tactics of the fascists-and particu-
larly the tactics of the Catholic
fascists in Spain, of the gentlemen
of the Order of Jesuits, whose chief
politician is Gil Robes, outstanding
Spanish fascist; they are the tao
tics of the Austrian Catholic fascist
regime.
Now the Cardenas government,
after it has reaped its distraction,
is publicly disavowing its own Gre
ation-the youthful Red Shirts.
These misled youths are to be sac
riflced by Cardenas to appease the
enraged paoal politicians in the
United States where the real power
and rule over Mexico resides in Wall
Street.
THE Catholic reactionaries, more
i than anyone else, welcome this
killing of few of their members
because it gives them an opportu-
nifty To hide the fundamental issues
Of the Church in Mexico. Every
revolutionary struggle of the people
of Mexico against feudal slavery has
of necessity always been at the same
time struggle against the church.
iThe Mexican people cannot stand