Montana labor news., 1945-05-31
LABOR HAD BIG PART
IN LIBERATION
OF YUC0SLAVIA
By MIRIAM KOLKIN

SAN FRANCISCO. - (F'P) - Although
industrial workers total less than l5%
of Yugoslavia's population, they anc
their leaders in the organized labor
movement played a major part in freeing
that nation from Nazi occupation long
before any United Nations army was III
a position to help.
1t col. vladimir Dedier a Yugoslay
delegate to the United Nations confer
ence here. can tell you about it. A mem
her of that inferior Slavic race which
Adolf Hitler once vowed his supermen
would wipe off the earth, Dedier IS mere
TO help build lasting peace structure
for his people while Hitler lies in the
smoldering ruins of Berlin.
A former lawyer and foreign cores
oondent for Politika, largest Belgrade
newspaper, Dedier also translated many
books from English into Yugoslav before
the DAYS he joined Marshal Tito's parti-
sans. Yugoslavs first knew Mark Twain
pearl Buck and John Galsworthy, among
others through his translations.
Long before the Nazis invaded in April
l941. he says, the Yugoslay unions had
been forced to exist underground be-
cause of the native dictatorship. After
the Nazis came many of them joined the
liberation movement at the very outset.
Many outstanding labor leaders, incluo-
ing Alexander RanlSovic, needle traces
worker from Belgrade, were members OF
the National Committee Of Liberation
throughout its 31s years of existence.
Another was Toni Fifjar, head of the
Christian Socialist Union, who recently
attended the London World Trade Union
Conference on behalf of the now free
Yugoslav labor movement.
The Nazis paid the strength OF the
labor movement an ironic tribute by
striking first at the workers. The first
mass murder they organized was at
Kragujevac. an industrial town in Ser
bia. On Oct %, 194l, troops under the
leadership of Gen. Milan Neditch, Yugo-
slav quisling, killed $500 people there,
most of them workers from the big
armament plant. The people were taken
out into the fields in patches OF 10 and
20 and moved down with machineguns.
Within a few days two more such in
cidents took place. OF Kralievo in Ser
bia the Nazis slaughtered 2,700 people,
the majority of whom were aircraft and
railroad workers. In Nish, an industrial
town besieged by the partisans, the
Nazis rounded up 1,7OO people and shot
them.
But this Nazi terror only increased
acts Of sabotage by workers in the cities.
Dedier recalled with particular pride how
the railroad workers on the Lublyana
front smuggled out food, clothes and
supplies to the partisans. Railwaymen
in Kraljevo once calmly loaded four
freight cars full of ammunition, hitched
them to an engine and took them to
the partisans who we're waiting right
outside the town.
A heroic part was also played by the
fishermen on the Adriatic coast who
succeeded in keeping many Of the stra-
tegic harbors free. other workers have
risen to high positions in the govern
ment. The leader of the longshoremen
of Split, Vitko Crstulovic-"our own
Harry Bridges" said Dedier-is now
minister of the interior in Croatia The
longshore leaders protection of the
churches endeared him to the people,
Dedier said, adding And of course
there's a metal worker named Tito who
made pretty good record for himself,
too"
The future of Yugoslavia looks bright
and hopeful to Dedier For the first
time there is a free and independent
labor movemnt and the unity of all po-
litical parties and the Creations and
Serbs, which was the secret Of Tito's
success, is an established fact. OF Gen.
Mikhailovitch, who for a short time sue
ceeded in masquerading as an enemy of
the Nazis, Dedier said: There is not
one persons in our country who doubts
that Mikhailovitch is a traitor. 1t never
was an issue with us because we saw
from the beginning with our own eyes
how his Chetniks helped the Nazis and
fought the people" The Yugoslavs have
reserved fourth place for Afikhailovich
on their war criminal list.
Firmly established, too, is Yugoslavia's S
friendship with the Soviet Union, and
Dedier gave me an example of why. OF
all the atrocities the Nazis committed,
one of the worst was at Mt Kozara,
where 1000 partisans and 10000 civilians
were cut off by the enemy. Thousands
of Yugoslavs were killed in that battle
and about $4,000 were taken prisoner
and put in concentration camps or
brothels or used as slave labor The
people said at the time: THE Russians
will come one day and avenge US" And
they did Kith Kozara survivors a
brigade from Stalingrad met outside
fought the same Nazi who
committed the Kozara atrocities, and in
six days captured Belgrade, putting 3d.
900 Nazis to death.