INDUSTRIES WAR

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 13013, 3 December 1942, Page 3

INDUSTRIES WAR

I p|POKTAKI^“ FRONT '’ Behind »[ Armies r aC tory Pitted Against * Factory , the 'SIS facing each lDd So viet battlefield is an- (* rOB (he front of industries. I into "front” and “rear” in this war in which i' :?illCSP fine runs through the | V f ;°“ T he aircraft factory con- | at the field aerodrome. ] rt 'tr D and fighter stand in one line, D. ZaSlaVSky 111 ‘ <SoViet Wai J^'"i S pitted against tank on the I T ;t, d Tank factory is pitted r - Hank factory. Air battles are 1 only by »<•*“ «» 4 crews ' p.L by designers, engineers, \IL and workers. Outwardly r o f factories is not so dramaThe enemies are separated fiom n other. But here, too, victories Lon and battles lost I "vet only the German soldier, but German worker, too, has hitherto i'ea hallowed by a legend. The L propagandists boosted his skill : 3d belittled the Soviet wprker. They Le r even admitted the possibility L ffe might win, if it came to a struggle between the German and Soviet war industries. ‘ At the same time the world was told that with the German seizure of lie Donbas nearly the whole of the iorlet iron and steel industry had teen destroyed, and that the siege of Leningrad had brought the destruction of one of the biggest Russian enterprises, the Kirov factory.

It is so typical of the Nazis to Ira? that the Germans are best at anything: the German is the best solllier ; the German is the best 'raftsman, the German is the best Worker.

German Workers Exterminated

. Who will deny that German induslryhas and skilled workers? But l! 'll becomes the Nazis to boast of !. is ‘ In the course of eight years 3e 5 have cruelly manhandled Gers working class. They have terminated, imprisoned and exiled 115 finest representatives. Before Hitler’s advent to power 8 ovenv helming majority of Gers working class supported the ommunists or the Social Democrats. ~' e n ' oi,t active and intelligent workMembers of those parties, j,]”' lad achieved a high level not of p °Htical consciousness, but ,lso of skill.

* Uer as exterminated hundreds C USa “ dS of these workers. The S ovi 6 blitzkrieg” against the Hons f. ll lias cost Germany mil!isl 0t killed and wounded. To fill ap f s 011 the military front mili raw 0 Workers have been withSkiii * om ” ldus * :r y’ and sent east. I) 6 '* turners antf mechanics !l nkm eC ° me untra lned riflemen and To the gaps in the kav 6 J 5 ' Vonien and foreign workers [° re i^ u driy en into industry and iaan actoides chained to the GerT J ar machine. °f the Nazi army with to p ole lsn soldiers, who have hitler J, CUlar inclinati °n to die for of that" 38 n °*’ * mproved the quality Itstfy . army> Similarly foreign inU n° t ’j ,° rced to Produce for Hitler, tiJIM . eiest ed in strengthening its Sovi PreSSor * the ' ndus try, quite as much as H , Army > ha s surprised the a chiq e -. Urned out that complex g S • es * gned and built by tQ §lneers were tar superior in Sovi et h° German counterparts. M « a ' y tanks, Soviet bombers We p rQ ers ’ Soviet machine-guns %11 5 ar ° Vecl their value. German ?r ade ?° against the highBmi * tanks. We .. ° n has the Germans found 5 Instead of factories. All

the equipment, together with the workers and engineers, had been withdrawn in good order to the east. The Germans shelled Leningrad! thinking they would destroy the Kirov works. But to their chagrin the Kirov plant still thrives, far away in the Urals. That was a kind of miracle, incomprehensible to those who preferred illusions to facts accessible to everybody. The new Soviet industry beyond the Volga and in the Urals was widely regarded as a ‘“miracle.” In France a vassal newspaper wrote: “It was discovered that many newindustrial cities and whole branches of industry existed in the Urals and beyond, about which the Germans had no information whatever, and which had never been indicated on any maps. This fact has strongly impressed the German general staff.” Like a mighty wall, Soviet industry, old and new, backs the Red Army and Navy. War production in the U.S.S.R. is growing month by month. Plans for the output of aircraft, tanks, guns, ammunition and other war materials, as well as of food, are being systematically exceeded. Low Productivity Under Nazis German production is declining. Nazi plans fall short of fulfilment. The exhaustion of raw materials is not enough to account of this. Inferior w-ork in the factories is also an essential factor. The Nazi press shouts of sabotage. But sabotage alone is not responsible. The w-orker is not interested in good w-ork in the Fascist penitentiary called industry in Germany. . The German soldier sees no sense in dying at the front. The German w r orker sees no sense in exhausting himself in the rear. Soviet industry is experiencing an

unprecedented upsurge. Red banners of honour wave over the foremost factories. To fall short of the production plan in a Soviet factory is to disgrace oneself and one’s enterprise. Anyone who lags behind is helped by his fellow-workers.

A factory producing aeroplane parts recently had 23 workers who lagged behind the quota. The next month the number had dropped to eight, and the month after to three.

But in a Bremen aircraft factory a German foreman beat French workers who did not fulfil their quota. Thereupon the workers declared a strike, which culminated in a clash with Storm Troopers, arrests and clubbings. The factory was idle for several days.

In Soviet factories there is Socialist Emulation, rising output, overfulfilment of quotas, patriotic enthusiasm. In German factories there is slavery, forced labour, dissatisfaction, declining labour productivity, declining output. In the war of machines all the advantages are on the side of the Soviet people of the Red Army.