The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 29, 1924, Page 9

5 " 4 FASCISM; A: LETTER FROM ITALY T the Conference held on ‘De- cember 19th under the direct auspices and in the presence of the Prime Minister Mussolini, between the leaders of Italian industry and the principal leaders of the Fascist Trade Unions, the complete failure of the programs and the practice of Fascism in the spheres of Trade Un- ionism had to be recognized. The feverish attempts made by Fascism, before and after having ob- tained power, to create a trade union movement which would be at its service, are well known. It is also knaqwn, how these attempts, while succeeding to a rather considerable degree in the agrarian field, have failed almost completely in the in- dustrial sphere. It was easy for the Fascisti, in view of the life and working conditions of the poor peas- ants, and of the rural workers dis- persed in a great number of villages with feeble ties between the Trade Unions, to destroy the Socialist or- ganizations of the land workers and to force the rural masses by means of physical terror and of the eco- nomic ' boycott, to enter into their corporations. It was otherwise in the industrial sphere, except with the railway employes, amongst whom much can be obtained by state coer- cion and by the ever threatening menace of discharge, and also with the dockers who had already their strictly guild-like organization deter- mined by the conditions in the traf- fic at the Italian ports which is de- veloping very spasmodically, in rela- tion to the preponderance of exports and imports and to the seasonal ac- tivities for grain, coals and coffee, Made Up of Criminal Elements, ‘ In the large industrial towns, the Fascists only succeeded in gathering inconsiderable groups, consisting - nearly everywhere of unemployed and of criminal elements, who, by means of the Fascist 1 ticket ob tain impunity for sabotage, theft in work-shops and personal violenco against foremen. And yet it was necessary for Fascist politics to win the masses at any price. The Fascist Government can only maintain power so far as it renders life impossible to other organizations which are not Fascist. Mussolini bases his power .on large strata of the petty bourgeoisie, which (since they have no function in the pro- ductive life and hence do not fecl the antagonisms and the contradic- tions resulting from it), in fact be- lieve the class struggle to be a dia- bolical invention of the socialists and communists. The entire so-called hierarchic conception of Fascism is dependent upon that fact. It is in- dispensible for this conception that no independent organization of a typical class character exist and thet the modern social life be organized in a series of petty corporations sub- ject to and controlled by the Fascist elite, being the concentrated expres- sion of all the prejudices and utopian visions of the petty bourgeoisie. Hence the necessity for Integral Trade Unionism, which is a revised conception of the Christian demo- cratic Trade Unionism, substituting the deified nation for the religious idea. Opposed by Industrials. This program was resolutely op- posed by the industrials, who refused to enter the Fascist corporation, to allow themselves to be controlled by Rossoni and his like. The Fascists, some months ago, in face of the re- pulses by the industrials, began a d ¢ fight, which went so far as their announcing and propagating in great style a general strike of the metallurgical and textile workers. The cam against the industrials culmina immediately after the visit paid by Mussolini to the Fiat Fiat, Senator Giovanni Agnelli. The situation became very serious for the ;industrials as well as for the Gov- ernment. Communist Opposition Voiced. The Communist Trade Unions Committee intervened in the agita- tion, inviting the working masses to take part in the struggle against the industrials in order to enlarge the movement, even tho the struggle had been engaged in by the Fascists. The agitation was stifled by the cen- tral leaders of the Fascisti, and the Conference held on the 19th of De- cember was convened. In the speech Mussolini delivered there, he recog- nized, that it is impossible to organ- ize workers and industrials in one and the same trade union. Integral Trade Unionism, according to Mus- solini may be applied, only in the sphere of agrarian production. The Faseists have to respect the organ- izatory independence of the indus- trials and have to work only in order 1o avoid the outbreak of class con- flicts. The meaning of these words is clear. The Fascists abandon even the keeping up of the appearance, not only of a struggle against the in- dustrials, but also of any attempt to equilibrate, under their arbitrary control, the interests of the classes and they have only the confessed task of organizing the workers to surrender them to the capitalists bound hand and foot. This is the beginning of the end of the Tascist Trade Unionism. Immediately after, the conference, slecnesiihieianietg enasaa eA Cae many land owners protested loudly against the discriminating treatment shown by Fascism to industry and to agriculture. They denounced the vio- lence which they said the Fascist Trade Union Organizers exercised to the detriment of the land owners’ in- terests, by compelling them to re- spect labor contracts, which of course declare to be absurd and opposed to the interests of the nation, and they claim to be allowed to reconstitute the General Confederation of Agri- culture which had been absorbed by the Fascist corporations. At Parma the agrarians have placed themselves in direct opposition to Fascism, pro- voking a whole series of incidents and conflicts. At Reggio Emilia, the deputy Corgini, former under-secre- tary of state to the government of Mussolini, has been expelled from the Fasci and leads a raging cam- paign in favor of’ the organizatory independence of the land owners. Tt is to be remarked how great a suceess was obtained by the tactics applied by our Party, in order te unmask before the masses the Fas- cist Trade Union leaders who had raised such a hubbub against the industrialists. It is true, these tac- tics procured to the Fascists the sat- isfaction of having meetings attend- ed by many thousands of workers, but they led also to forcing the Fas- cists to the wall, to causing them to eat their words and to discrediting them even in the eyes of the most By G. MASCI backward portion of the working masses. Disintegration of Fascism, If these tactics were generalized and also extended to the agrarian field, it would be possible to acceler- ate in a high degree the disintegra- tion of Fascism and hence the reor- ganization of the revolutionary forces. But against this there are the reformist socalists as well as the maximalist socialists who still have control over the Trade Union Cen- trals and of the only periodicals of a proletarian character still published in Italy. Thus they demonstrate once more that they do not really intend to fight against Fascism. It is true, they risk much if they attack Fas- cism in order to contend with it, within its own Trade Unions or in the agitations sometimes got up by i, for control and leadership of the masses entering the movement. On the other hand, it is certain that large strata, not only of rural work- ers, but also of factory workers whe have no other chance 6f fighting against the bourgeoisie are drawn to these agitations by the Fascist demagogy, hoping thus to wring some- thing from their employers. The in- transigeance shown by the reformist and maximalist gentry, is in fact ne intransigeance against Fascism, but against the poorest and most back- ward portion of the workers. More- over, it is never true to itself and makes many concessions to the Fas- cists who are governing. “The Story of John Brown” This ig “The Story of John Brown,” / Michael Gold. _ Pub- lished by the DAILY WORKER thru arrangement with Haldeman- Julius Company, of Girard, Kans. Copyrighted, 1924, by Haldeman- Julius Company. a ee ee The Border Ruffians Hold an Election. N? FAIR-MINDED reader of history can doubt, in. glancing over the records of that time, that the South took the first bloody and brutal offensive in their at- tempt to force slavery on Kansas. Later, the Free State men from the North, under leaders like John yy — Lane = Captain James Montgomery, nn Aalee, too, and defended them- selves bravely; but iat first, they were victims of the South’s deter- mination to carry its ‘point. Stealing the Elections. The Southerners began the at- tack by stealing the elections for the territorial legislature. Thous- andg of Missourians, on horseback and in wagons, with guns, bowie knives, revolvers and plenty of whisky, poured over the line in November, 1854, and encamped near the polling places. The ballot boxes . were extravagantly, even humorously, stuffed; the elections were carried for the South. There was nothing concealed about the affair; in fact, the Missouri news- papers had gaily whipped up re- cruits for the raid. Many of these men, Border Ruf- fians, as the North called them, were hired for the work. Others ET zs Fs if 8 that would have that effect. The mere woicing of a belief that slavery was illegal in Kan- sas was made a grave crime. Any person who said in public that slavery was wrong, or any person who even “introduced inte the territory, any book, papers maga- zine, pamphlet or circular’—say- ing this, was to be punished by imprisonment at hard. labor for a term of not less than five years. This notorious Clause 12 was obviously aimed at the New York Tribune and other anti-slavery —— and was preys to = whisper ee speec’ And it did not work. bd ah somata tee tase oF wo’ not reco e legality of. the legislature, and held an elec- ism, and about the mad, desper- ate butcheries and burnings begun by the Southerners, when they saw they could not cow the North- erners into submission. Troops Against Free State. President Pierce, wno es = slavery, sent a message ss in which he sided with the udulent legislature and its code, declaring it legal, and threatening the Free State men, whom he called traitors, insurrectionists, and seditionists against the Unit- ed States government, In all the Kansas conflict, he threw federal troops and federal politicians against the Free State men. The South rejoiced at his -gtand, but the Free State men went on with their work. And John Brown and his sons took a leading position in the fight. (To Be Continued Monday.) (The Sack of Lawrence.) (From the book “Cane”, by ission of Boni and Liveright, permission publishers, New York) @ reaper whose muscles set at sundown, All my oats are cradled. I But I am too chilled, and too fatigued te bind them, And I hunger. a grain between my teeth. I do not taste it. been in the fields all day. My throat is dry. I hunger. It would be good to see them . . . crook’d, split, and iron-ring’d handles of me are It would be good to see them, dust-caked and blind. (Dusk is a strange fear’d sheath their blades are dul!’d in.) My throat is dry. And should I call, a cracked grain like the oats .. . echo— corn? I have been in the fields all day. I fear knowledge of my hunger. caked with dust I fear I could of oatfields at harvest-time. I am a deaf man who strains to hear the calls of other harvesters whose fear to call. What should they hear me, and offer me their grain, oats, ‘or wheat Me