| Summary: | Bemerkungen: [] = Absatzmarken im Volltext des Originals;
ARE YOU [] against dictatorship of any color? [] for freedom from aggression? [] for true economic and political democracy? [] IF SO, [] listen to what Democratic Socialists have to say. [] Come to the [] MAY DAY CELEBRATION [] PROMINENT SPEAKERS - MUSIC [] ADMISSION FREE [] Sunday, May 1, 1949,2 P. M. [] Franklin D. Roosevelt Auditorium [] FOURTH AVENUE AND 17th STREET [] NEW YORK, N. Y. [] Auspices [] SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC FEDERATION [] JEWISH SOCIALIST VERBAND [] WORKMEN'S CIRCLE [] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS [] UNION LABEL TRADES COUNCIL ALLIED PRINTING NEW YORK [] 345 [] MAY DAY MANIFESTO [] DEMOCRACY AND INTERNATIONAL LAW VS. TOTALITARIANISM AND AGGRESSION IS THE MAIN ISSUE FACED BY MANKIND TODAY. May Day 1949 again takes place in a world haunted by the specters of barbaric totalitarianism and atomic warfare. Human rights have to be saved today from Stalinism, as yesterday from Hitlerism. Only international solidarity and collective defense can avoid further expansion of the most horrifying tyranny and worldwide massacre. [] A POLICY OF ISOLATIONISM AND/OR APPEASEMENT WOULD BE THE SUREST WAY TO WAR. But for the American economic and military committments [!] in Europe, but for the American military preparedness, Soviet Russia would already have overrun Western Europe and would be threatening our very shores. Feeding the monster only increases his appetite. [] MANKIND MUST UNITE AGAINST AGGRESSIVE TOTALITARIANISM! An ever-expanding international policy of mutual economic and military support of the democratic, anti-totalitarian governments and forces in the World is essential. In this drive for international democratic solidarity the power and prestige of the United States enable and command them to play the leading role. Only by such a policy can a final military conflict be avoided or made shorter and more localized. The North Atlantic Defense Pact represents a decisive step forward in this direction. [] THE SURVIVAL OF CIVILIZATION DEPENDS ON INTERNATIONAL LAW. Beyond the present immediate danger, the fight against aggression and war as recurrent diseases of mankind is paramount in the atomic age. The collective defense agreements should therefore have a permanent anti-aggression character. The ultimate aim should be the automatic enforcement of international law and decisions democratically arrived at. National military preparedness, essential now, will thus be gradually substituted by a supra-national police force, progressively reduced in size as actual or potential aggressors come into the fold of international law and control. The tremendous burden of armaments will then be gradually taken off the peoples' shoulders, releasing labor for useful production. [] DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM IS THE ANSWER TO THE BASIC ECONOMIC PROBLEMS OF MODERN SOCIETY. While the world is in an unprecedented state of danger from the forces of barbarism and from the technological means of destruction, while millions are being subjected to the worst form of exploitation and slavery, the peoples enjoying democratic self-government have the means of materially and morally reforming their social structure. Increasingly, all over the world, wherever there is democracy, social and socialistic reforms and mental attitudes are establishing themselves. Except in the United States, in all democracies powerful social -democratic movements exert increasing influence within and without the governments; they are the greatest barrier to communist conquest from within. In Great Britain, the social-democratic Labor Government is gradually and successfully introducing socialism. [] The capitalist system, which is being propagandized in this country under the misleading label of "free enterprise", is only the freedom of a few to exploit the many. The great mass of people do not enjoy freedom of enterprise; their economic status is kept low and insecure by an unjust and anarchist economic system driven by conflicting private interests. Boom and bust, insecurity and exploitation, can be abolished by a planned economy, bent on full production, democratically controlled and guided by the interests of the workers-consumers. [] THE LIBERAL FORCES MUST PRESS FOR SOCIAL REFORMS! The program of the "fair deal", on which the present Democratic Administration was elected, shows that also in this country there is a popular awakening to the fact that the ultimate responsibility for essential production, services, and distribution of income must lie with government and cannot be left to the caprices of private interests. But powerful pressure within and without the government is preventing or delaying the most urgent reforms. All progressive forces in this country must fight the manoeuvers of the reaction by pressing upon Washington the enactment of the most essential legislation promised by the Democratic platform. We must fight for the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Law, for civil rights, public housing, health insurance, expanded social security, increased taxation of high income, and legislation for economic stabilization. The ultimate aim of American social progress, like that of other democratic countries, must be the socialization of the essential means of production and distribution. [] YOU AND YOU AND YOU [] join the fight for your political freedom, your civil rights, your freedom from want, your freedom from fear, your freedom from aggression. join the fight against totalitarianism of any color, against exploitation, against insecurity. [] YOU CAN DO IT by propaganda, by organization, and by pressure on your elected officials for international democratic solidarity, for collective defense, for social progress, for democratic socialism. [] SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC FEDERATION OF AMERICA [] 7 EAST 15th STREET [] NEW YORK 3, N.Y. [] WRITE FOR LITERATURE, VISIT US, JOIN US
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