The recent general strike here in protest against the Nazi war veterans who were expected to disembark when the Monte Olivia arrived from Hamburg by way of Montevideo can hardly be called an expression of Jewish feeling against the importation of Nazi propaganda. It was, rather, a manifestation of the determined anti-Fascist stand which characterizes all organized labor, much of the professional class, and most of the student organizations both here and in Uruguay, which is supporting the strike.
While there were various demands on the part of the Jewish population that the protest against the Nazis take some organized form, the Jews took no definite step in that direction. The strike was called by the syndicalist and anarchist organizations. Chauffeurs, metal, ship and dock-workers, municipal workers, car barn mechanics and similar types of labor all belong to the syndicalist groups. A number of unions and student federations joined forces with these when the strike was proclaimed.
NOT NAZIS, THEY SAY
Several attempts to stem the tide of indignation against the Nazi visitors were made by the press, which denied that they were propagandists and insisted sentimentally that they were merely coming for a rest and were therefore entitled to the usual South American hospitality. Official circles, too, alarmed by the strike proclamation, negotiated an official declaration from the Hamburg senate, which said that the war veterans were not Nazis and had at no time been members of the National Socialist party.
This communication, instead of pacifying the labor elements, aroused them still further. One group of syndicalists sent a delegation asking that all public Nazi demonstrations, such as the wearing or carrying of Nazi insignia, be prohibited. Dr. Melo, Minister of the Interior, made promises and the organization agreed to withdraw from the strike.
However, when the German envoys arrived in Montevideo they all wore the Nazi cross—on their hats, sleeves and tie-pins. The ex-soldiers had been described by a United Press correspondent in Hamburg as being, many of them, armless or legless. When they appeared in Montevideo they were seen by a correspondent of a Buenos Aires newspaper, who described them as being typical beer-faced Germans.
HISSES AND HOOTS
When they disembarked at Montevideo they were greeted by hisses and hoots. They were to have arrived here yesterday, but either because they were themselves afraid of the strike and other demonstrations here, or because local officials demanded, they did not arrive. They may have been landed somewhere during the night.
While yesterday’s walkout was not in any sense a complete general strike, it is indicative of the unified feeling among the workers. Critica, a local evening newspaper, reports that the most important working groups, of which there were thirty-two, joined the strike unanimously.
The strike, which was less apparent in Jewish quarters than in business streets, has shown conclusively that strike and boycott are much stronger weapons in the fight against the spread of Nazi “venom” than any protest of parades and speeches, of demands for mercy and justice. And if indeed the Nazis are less insistent about spreading their doctrine, it will be because of the united action by Argentine labor, which has incidentally, proved that it is free of anti-Semitism and not responsible for anti-Jewish incidents that occur here.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
