The Daily Worker

Latin American Briefs

By ALBERT MOREAU.

Socialists Betray General Strike in Rosario.

The general strike in Rosario was an indication of the resistance of the workers against capitalist offensive. It started with the flat refusal of the mill workers of La Metal and Minetti to accept the proposed cut in wages and open shop by the mill owners. The dock workers of Santa Fe, port of Rosario, refused the shipment of cereals unless the bosses dropped their proposals. The port was completely tied up. The railroad workers followed. The situation became acute when all the workers on strike joined forces and formed "Committees of Action." It became particularly menacing to the bourgeois order when the workers in Buenos Aires were preparing to extend the general strike over the Republic.

In Rosario, the strike took on a genuine class character. The Communist Party, true to its class program, came out unreservedly in support of the strike. It was a struggle against capitalist offensive which is threatening to extend over Argentine. It tended not only to lower the living standard of the workers, but also to break their spinal column: the trade unions, especially in the docks with a 100 per cent organized labor.

On the day after the agreement, police terror was begun under the direct orders of President Irigoyen—raids, persecutions against the militant leaders of the Committees of Action. The workers were forced to return to work. The bourgeois and socialist press centered their fire upon the Communists who were the driving force behind the strike.

The general strike in Rosario marked a new epoch for the combined power of the workers against the capitalist offensive. It also taught the workers that the socialist leaders do not hesitate to join the enemy.

The capitalists of Argentine have won a temporary victory. The workers have made a tremendous stride forward: it was the first time that 100,000 workers paralyzed Rosario. Workers, irrespective of their trade, were conducting their struggle under the leadership of the Committees of Action. Furthermore, the treachery of the reformist leaders will never be forgotten by the workers. This treachery will compel them to reckon with the "inside enemies" when the next battle comes.