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From Socialist Appeal, Vol. IV No. 26, 29 June 1940, p. 7.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Editor:
If any conscious Minnesota trade unionist was ever tempted to recommend a coalition between the democratic and Farmer-Labor parties as a solution to the workers’ political problems, he was certainly cured of this temptation if he attended the Olson Memorial Banquet on June 17th. The Banquet held in honor of Minnesota’s famous Farmer-Labor governor, Floyd B. Olson who died in 1936, was sponsored by the Railroad Brotherhoods, the Farmer-Labor Association, a large number of AFL and CIO – and the Democratic Party. Two thousand workers attended the Minneapolis banquet and other thousands of workers attended similar banquets in other parts of the state.
The Democratic program – or lack of program – prevailed in the speeches made at the banquets. No proposal was made for a way out for the workers from the danger of involvement in another bloody war. Rather, each speaker – with the exception of Senator Burton K. Wheeler – emphasized his faith in Roosevelt’s program for keeping us out of war. The only anti-Roosevelt, anti-war speech was made by farmer liberal, Senator Wheeler. However, even his mild attacks on the warmongers were wildly applauded by the workers who heard him. His very timid hint at the end of his speech that “a new and great liberal anti-war party will be created unless they (the Republican and Democratic parties) bind themselves in unmistakable terms to a program of keeping the U.S. out of the European war” brought the meeting to its feet.
It should be recorded that the Stalinist stooge, Elmer Benson, also criticized the Administration’s war position and pleaded for a stand by Farmer-Laborites against the growing war hysteria. Although his speech was roundly applauded, very few Farmer-Laborites, except the Stalinists, place any confidence in former Governor Benson as a consistent anti-war fighter. It is no secret to Minnesota workers that Elmer Benson is and was a Stalinist captive. Before the recent change in the Communist Party line, he was whooping it up for collective security and pleading with Roosevelt to place an embargo on the aggressors, etc., etc. If the Stalinists return to this position, Benson will again make an emotional demand for faith in our great leader, F.D.R.
No, there was no speaker at the Olson Banquet whom the workers could trust as a leader in the fight against war. Vince Day, John Devaney, Dewey Johnson, John McDonough, and even John Boscoe, the President of the Minneapolis Central Labor Union, all swore their allegiance to President Roosevelt, the “flag and the country for which it stands.” Old-line Farmer-Laborites shook their heads and said that they had never seen such a chauvinistic display at a Farmer-Labor gathering.
It is very clear that the coalition ticket of Democrats and Farmer-Laborites planned for this fall’s state election has already wiped out the traditional anti-war position of the Farmer-Labor movement, at least on the part of the present leaders of this movement. Rank and file delegates from the unions to the coming State Convention of the Farmer-Labor Party must try to write a bold, anti-war, anti-Roosevelt platform. If this fails, Minnesota workers will turn away from the Democratic-Farmer-Labor pro-war ticket this fall. Advanced workers must be on guard to. keep this wave of anti-war feeling of disillusioned Farmer-Laborites away from the equally pro-war Republican Party and on the path of independent working-class action.
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Last updated: 14 November 2020