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From Labor Action, Vol. 10 No. 41, 14 October 1946, p. 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
A plea has been addressed to the workers of the world by the Central Committee of the Internationalist Communist Party of Greece (Trotskyists) for aid against the terrible terror loosed by the Greek government on, the people of Greece. Their plea provokes a burning indignation.
“Our country,” they write, “has been transformed into a horrible hell ... Those houses that were spared by the war ... are today being burned by the hordes of the monarchist government. Extraordinary courts-martial are functioning without pause. Every day death sentences are pronounced and the firing squads execute by the dozens the most heroic sons of the laboring people. Dragnets, raids and patrols by the police keep the working class quarters in unceasing anguish and terror. The Slavo-Macedonians are literally exterminated by fire and sword. All through the country mass arrests are being carried out.
“In unhealthy prisons, workers and poor peasants ... are piled together in an unbreathable atmosphere ... Those who are arrested, if they are not assassinated outright, are submitted to a torture which makes one shudder.
“The trade unions are practically dissolved, their offices forcibly occupied by police and provocateurs. Labor printshops are daily attacked by the savages. The labor newspapers are hit by the unbridled repressions of the state and fascist gangs.”
They conclude their plea with the words:
“Workers brothers, in the name of international class solidarity, in the name of socialism, take up the defense of the workers of our country.
“Show that working-class solidarity is not an empty word.
“Show that the working class is all powerful.
“Long live the world working class!
“Long live worldwide working-class solidarity!”
This is a plea that cannot go unheeded. It is necessary that we rouse a storm of protest. The Workers Party is planning a campaign in behalf of our terrorized Greek brothers, and further details on this will appear soon in Labor Action. We ask you to consider this in your clubs and organizations – picket the Greek and British consulates where possible, cable protests, demand an end to the terror.
James Carmichael, running for the Independent Labor Party, has won the Bridgeton seat in Parliament vacated by the death of ILP Leader James Maxton. Carmichael had strong opposition in a five-cornered fight. The vote is of considerable significance. Although the ILP is extremely confused in its socialist politics, although its political line may be described as muddle-headed centrism, embracing a variety of opinions and attitudes, it does seek to appear before the English working class as an internationalist socialist organization. Its Bridgeton vote, predominantly working class, was therefore a clear vote for socialist politics.
The name of the newly-elected general secretary of the French Internationalist Communist Party (Fourth International) unfortunately appeared garbled in last week’s issue. The name of the new secretary is Yvon Craipeau. A Workers Party bulletin will shortly appear reporting the French party convention in greater detail. Interested readers can obtain a copy by sending 25 cents to the Workers Party office.
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