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-5- trade with China and other countries were opened up. Harry Bridges, President of the West Coast longshoremen's union, once estimated that some 3,000,000 more jobs in the United States would result if trade with China were established. Bethlehem Steel Company recently announced the merger of its two Brooklyn shipyards "because of the depressed state of ship repairing activities in New York Harbor." This merger involves the loss of many jobs unless they are absorbed somewhere else. Last winter Bethlehem as well as Todd shipyard officials in the New York-New Jersey area pointed to the "world shipping slump" as the cause of the layoffs at local shipyards. In August of this year our Party conducted a number of fine meetings on the subject of peace, and some leaflets were issued. But to the best of my knowledge none of these leaflets were directed to workers ---- unemployed or about to be unemployed ---- who would gain tangible benefits by world peace and world trade --- shipbuilding and waterfront workers. None of these leaflets, as far as I know, listed specific PEACE-TIME industries which would benefit in terms of more jobs if peaceful trade were expanded. None of these leaflets gave any hint of the thousands of jobs which would result on the waterfront if the huge surpluses of food now costing millions of dollars in storage fees were shipped out to a world which, it has been conservatively estimated, has two-thirds of its population ill-fed. Longshoremen would prefer shipping food and clothing and useful machinery and tools to the loading of dangerous explosives and other armaments. Shipyards workers would feel much happier were the ships they built and repaired destined for peaceful commerce, the tourist trade and the cultural, educational and scientific exchanges ---- the things that help create lasting peace. Communist Party Clubs and committees need to issue this type of leaflet. Workers desperately trying to rescue their jobs ultimately can be convinced that contracts for more war ships is not the solution for their employment problems. It is getting on toward the time when voters must not be boxed in at each primary test or at convention time with the choice of nominating a person who is not so bad as opposed to one who is bad. Sooner or later there have to be some candidates who can be supported for the simple reason that they are good candidates who will fight in the people's interest. However, that time will not be reached until Communists and other advanced workers in the political arena take some of the issues out by the nape of the neck, and place them where the voters can see them and measure the various candidates in relation to their stand on these issues. The issue on which there is quite universal agreement is peace, but there are few legislators who will be pinned down on exactly what they will do to achieve it. All candidates say they want full employment. Working people need both peace and job security. Our Communist Party must give leadership in the struggle of the people to achieve these ends. Here are a few suggestions which may help: * The Industrial Division of the New York State Communist Party to issue a four page educational folder containing the Party's program for peacetime jobs for shipyards and waterfront workers. * A Worker flyer by ace correspondents and reporters on what opening up of trade with China and other Socialist nations will mean in jobs for New York maritime workers; to show that peaceful foreign trade can actually mean more jobs than can contracts in war industries and the building and repair of war ships. * A Party County Committee could issue a leaflet calling upon the New York delegation in Congress to campaign for an honest-to-God Federal housing and school construction program. Workers in the ship-building trades can also build fine schools and low-rent housing projects. * Communist Party Clubs with the help of their County Committees to make sure there are weekly leaflets for the next several months ---- until primaries and nominating convention time ---- on the issue of foreign trade and peacetime jobs. All this will run up our printing and mimeographing bills, of course, but it will pay off in terms of a better informed electorate. I am quite sure it will stimulate some workers in their unions and in their shops and in their Assembly Districts to discuss alternatives to jobs in war industries. It may interest some of the more class conscious shipyards and waterfront workers in the full program of our Party.
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