The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 19, 1924, Page 9

(Centinued From Page Four) If you make a purchase at a private trader’s store you lose your “divi.” It operates like a fine. Educational Work. In my experience the fight put up by the advanced elements has not been so much as to the amount of the “divi” to be declared as to the fate of the remaining 50 per cent of the profits available. I grew up in a town where we had a big “co-op,” which spent a great deal of money on its education committee. The local branch of the Social-Democratic Fed- eration, of which I was a member, fought and obtained seats in this com- mittee and largely controlled it. There had previously been a scholar- ship system whereby a few children of co-operative parents, who were clever enough to win the prizes, were sent to the Secondary (High) School and the Universities. This system they opposed and they succeeded in having the co-operative lectures, great events in a community of about 50,000 people and held in the town hall, de- livered by Socialist orators. In earlier years, before there was any public library, this same com- mittee conducted the only library in which one could get books on econom- ics or political questions, these sub- jects being rigorously ruled out of Ithey refused. thereby not only giving very material help to the strikers, and to the working class as a whole, by breaking the price ring, but they most effectnally the coal bayons. Facts like these have greatly helped to create a de- mand for socialism of some kind in the working class, which has resulted in the rise of the Labor Party; and altho Communists may— nay, cer- tainly will—have to criticize Ramsay Mac¢Donald’s government in many ways, there is no denying that its ex- istence is the clearest proof of a de- mand on the part of the working class which will have to be satisfied some- how, and if not in MacDonald’s way, then eventually in a way less palat- able to the governing classes. Another spectacular instance of beneficent aid given to the militant WE exposed the methods of! working class movement by the co- operative movement was the sending of the food ships to Dublin, where the transport workers, under the leader- ship of Connolly and Larkin, were engaged in one of the bitterest strug- gles in Irish industrial history. But for this move the strikers would in- evitably have been starved into sub- mission. It was done at the request of the Parliamentary Committee of the Trade Union Congress, who pledged their word that the trade union movement would pay for the goods. Needless to say, no capitalist concern would take action of that kind merely because a committee of labor union officials passed a resolu- tion asking them to do so. Fancy a parallel situation in the little old U. 8S. A.:!. Some thousands of the poorest paid workers belonging to a What Is the Co-operative Movement? radical union are on strike. The union funds are exhausted, the lead- ers in prison, the strike seems prdc- tically broken. Mr. Samuel Gompers and his brethren of the A. F. of L. pass a resolution asking some big grocery distributing concern (which in this country would have to be a capitalist one) kindly to send them all the food they need, and the A. F. of L. is sure labor unions, when they get around to it, will see that the goods are paid for. And the goodd¢ are sent! And the workers win the strike. Yet this is exactly what hap- pened in the Dublin Transport strike. Of course there are many criticisms to be passed against the “co-ops.” Criticisms coming from us, however, should be constructive. They should also be made from inside the socie- ties, and for their benefit. Se MMMM MU UM MM UT THE DICTATORSHIP OF HUNGER} IN GERMANY forces German’ workers to labor long hours et ere the Sunday school libraries, practical- ly the only other libraries available. I owe not a little to that library my- self, and to the “co-op” news rooms, where I read papers and magazines I never could have afforded to buy. Strikes—Wage Disputes. Much emphasis was laid, in the dis- cussion and resolution at the Comin- tern, on the part played by such or- ganizations in the class struggle in recent years, as well as upon the val- uable part they play in the transition to a Communist state of society. In ordinary times the “co-ops” will not give credit to members, but at the time of a strike they have often done so when supplies of food and other necessaries could not elsewhere be obtained; Just previous to the war, when I was in England, there were two notable instances of this. Dur- ing the great national coal strike, one of the biggest things of its kind in Labor’s history, there was a move to alienate the sympathy of the vast body of the public, including the workers, from the striking miners by a combination of coal dealers to put up prices and blame the miners for the increase. In this country, need- less to say, they would have got away with a little thing like that and the whole country would have been at their mercy. But in Britain they had to reckon with the co-operative move- ment. The “co-ops” were invited to join the price raising movement, but ; The Poor Fish says he don’t blame young men for being against war but that the bankers and bosses are al- ways too old and some one has to do the fighting. : ORGANIZATIONS, ATTENTION! NEW YORK CITY, April 17.— District No. 2, Workers* Party, has arranged a grand excursion and moonlight dance on the Hud- son river for Saturday, June 28th. The commodious steamer Cler- mont, having a capacity of 3,000, has been chartered for this occa- sion. Friendly organizations are urged to keep this date in mind and not arrange for any affairs that week. for small pay. 7Y2 hours in Germany. duce cheaply. wages to the German level. Three American Soup Kitchens supported by the Committee for International Workers’ Aid: No. 1—Petersburger Platz No. 3, Berlin No. 2—Aachenerstrasse, Wilmer- dorf No. 3—“New York”, Emdener- strasse 23, Berlin = AHU0UU0UUENSONUONAUUOUOOEAUOUONOAOOOETOOOOOOOOTNEUUUUOOONOOOOOOUUOOOOEOUOUEONOMEONOOUONONOOOOUOGOOORENOOUOMANOGOEOOOOOOSAOUEIOGOQ OGRE OOQREEUOOOOOSOOUASUOLOQOREEUOOEOGOOEEOOOOOGOUEUUOUOOGGOGUUUEAOOOOOOOROOGOEOREOEOOOOOEOGGEE AGERE A. skilful machinist must work for the same amount of nourishment 2 hours in the United States This enables German Big Business to pro- To meet German low prices in the world market, Big Business in other countries must sacrifice profits or reduce the scale of A Defeated Working Class of Germany Is A Menace to the Working Class of America COMMITTEE FOR INTERNATIONAL WORKERS’. AID HUAATAGAUUGEEDEAADEREOUAGOOUCOONUOOOREAOOOGNAOUCEAAUAGDUUEGUOUGAOAAOAUAOSUOOONGGOUSNOUOGOOULSAONGLUOOUGNAGUOSUSOUOUNESOOOEONOOUSGOLOOQAUUSOUOOEOUUNOOQUUOLONOOOUUUONOONOENOOUEONOQGEOUOLONNOOUENNOLUAL) Tu UNCLE WIGGLY’S TRICKS 7 forces German working” mothers to give away their children. A want ad in a Ger- man paper reads: “Will give away baby immediately after its birth. Necessary clothing available. Offers to be made by letter. Address L. Z. 2172, Agency of Sulz.” : Another reads: “Will give away forever little daughter aged nine months. No compensation expected. Offers to be sent to B. H. 1390, Agency of Lindenthal.” Committee for International Workers’ Aid, 32 South Wabash Ave., Chicago, III. Enclosed find $ toward the support of American Soup Kitchen No. ........... I pledge §..........0000 monthly toward the support of this kitchen, Onn eareneneesedeeereseerensoescoerossses 00 teeeeneeacenensonsansssreose ADDRESS i .scccccseisccsccecessssssoive acdsdanpesenssbeqsscsesbsaeaks tnetecosbedbaecebesooge i Sane seveesens: eneee A LAUGH FOR THE CHILDREN