The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 16, 1924, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY WORKER | Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO., 1118 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill. (Phone: Monroe 4712) SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mall: $3.60....6 months $2.00....3 monthe By mall (in Chicago only): $4.50....6 months $2.50....3 montas $6.00 per year $8.00 per year Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER 1118 W. Washington Bivd. Chicago, lilinois J. LOUIS BNGDAHL ) WILLIAM F. DUNNE) MORITZ J. LOEB... Entered as second-class mail Sept. 21, 1923 at the Post- Office at Chicago, Ill, under the act of March 3, 1879. = Editors usiness Manager Advertising rates on application. “Not to Crown a King” The great gathering at St. Paul, opening tomor- Yrew morning, marks a crisis in the development of the working class of the United States. A decision must be made that will vitally affect the labor movement for years to come. Whether the labor movement shall continue a tool in the hands of capitalist and middle-class politicians, or if it shall cut its enslaving ties by launching a class party of its own in co-operation with the exploited farmers—that is the issue at St. Paul tomorrow. The vast majority of the delegates will arrive with the determination to found a class party of the workers. Because they have found it impossible to break down the determination of the workers and farm- ers by a direct attack, the enemies of the Farmer- THE DAILY WORKER In a Bottomless Cesspool Now that the smoke of the battle that was not fought and the clang of the armor that was not used at the Republican convention have been dis- pelled, it is appropriate to estimate the meaning of the quadrennial gathering. First of all, the roll-call of the delegates was only a roll-call of official administration henchmen. The howling and applause, the cheering and hissing, all came from a mass of petty capitalist bureau- crats and agents that have made government and employing class corruption synonymous. The fundamental issues confronting the working and farming classes of this country were not at all considered. The imperialist lackey. who was in charge of the resolutions adopted by the conven- tion lived up to his notorious reputation of being a skillful evader of paramount problems. The per- sonnel of the “Old Guard” was replaced for the “public’s sake” with a group of Coolidge’s pral- torian guardsters, who were not in on the ground floor of the Harding-Daugherty Ohio gang, in order to enable the reactionary clique dominating the party to run away from the responsibility for, the Teapot Dome scandal and the rottenness of the department of justice. No one can blink the fact that the party of the elephant has been dragged thru a bottomless cess pool in the last six months. It has been exposed in all its naked ugliness as a hopelessly condemned agency of the blackest section of the exploiting class. Yet, the Republican convention not only attempted to pose as innocent but even had the gall to slam the door of guilt in the face of all those who, directly or indirectly, had anything at all to do with the recent exposures. These maneuvers on the part of the Republican party will fool no one. It was expected by all that Labor party movement, open and secret, have com- such would be the strategy of the discredited sery- bined in an effort to confuse it, to break up its solidarity, to divide it so that it can be defeated piecemeal. ants of high finance and industry. The conven- tion’s pretending to be ignorant of and adopting a contemptuous attitude towards the disclosures of the last congressional sessions will only serye to That is the meaning of LaFollette’s attack/emphasize the fact that the gigantic orgy of ex- against the St.Paul convention. The senator from| ploitation and corruption extends far and wide Wisconsin has joined the enemies of the Farmer- thru every department and layer of the government Labor party movement. He has purchased sup- from President Coolidge down. The poor farmers‘have been kicked in the face port in his personal campaign, from the reaction: by the Coolidge‘junta priding itself on having a ary trade union officialdom and middle-class ele-| program which is a hundred per cent loyal to the ments, by his denunciation of the only gathering] interests of, the biggest bosses. The industrial pledged to organize the workers’ political forces.| workers aré convicted by the millions and con- The attack upon the Communists is an attac' upon the principle of an organized party. LaFol- | demned to/starvation wages and the open shop thru the nomination of the strikebreaker-general, “Hell’n Maria” Dawes as the running mate of lette is against the St. Paul convention, not be-| strikebreaker Coolidge. Every word, every line, eae of the presence of the Communists, but be-| every crossed t and every dotted i of the program ~“gause He does not want to be-controtied by-organ-| is a challdnge and a warning to the working and ized workers and farmers. He wants to run things! farming masses. Our capitalists are getting ready with the help of his hand-picked assistants. He is afraid of the “radicalism” of the bankrupt farmers their onslanght at home. for a flyer|in world conquests and mean to begin oe the results of the convention will go and class-conscious workers. Therefore he tries to| , jong way|towards putting the Republican party break up their organization. Communism has been picked out for the attack because the Communists are the most tireless fighters for the principle of organization, for a real party, for giving power into the hands of the men and women who toil, for controlling the political representatives of. the workers and farmers thru a class party. ’ The issues have been joined. Those who are for a strong party of workers and farmers, will dis- regard all personalities and middle-class dictators. behind the Bolted and barred doors of a dark past. Send in that Subscription Today. Make the Officials Fight Reports that officials of the Ipternational Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union are dragging out negotiations with the employers in the New York market, altho the union demands have been re- fused point-blank, show that the workers must be on their guard against another betrayal. For years the rank and file, inspired and led by “This convention is not called to crown a king,|the\left wing militants, have been demanding re- but to found a party.” Send In that Subscription Today! “Back Where You Came From” Michael Bilokumsky is a Russian worker who came to America to escape the persecutions of the Crarist government. But Michael found that he had jumped from the frying pan into the fire. He talked about his disillusion. Dep “tment of Labor, under the Hon. J. J. Davis,|™ ordered that he be sent back where he came from. So he was deported on the 8S. 8. Leviathian on May 27th. So the 100 per cent| finally won, ductions in working hours, wage increases, unem- ployment insurance, a guaranteed period _of employment, and regulation of the work in outside shops. They have finally forced the reactionary officials to recognize their demands. But the officials are interested only in making peace with the bosses, not in winning the union demands forced upon them by the left wing. The officials will not fight unless they are forced to do so by the membership. And when the struggle is these agents of the capitalist class ithin the union will do their best to sabotage it. Garment workers will do well to attend their meetings, demand accounting, forée the struggle for the ten demands, and keep their eyes on Sigman But here’s the rub! Onur glorious government, & Co. not having recognized Soviet Russia, will have no truck with here even for deportation purposes. And so, according to the information of the Nation- al Defense secretary in New York, Bilokumsky is tobe dropped off in Roumania or Poland, where men like Bilokumsky are imprisoned or shot. He was told to “go back where you came from,” but the Department of Labor changed the destination. An appeal to Secretary of State Hughes has been made by the Defense Committee to stop the out- rage. "The moral of this for our 100 per centers would seem to be: “Recognize Soviet Russia so we can deport the Russian reds.” Send in that Subscription Today. Send in that Subscription Today. Sharp decline in the production of pig iron, more drastic than at any time since the steel strike of 1919, points to the approaching industrial crisis. Iron production is probably the most reliable in- dicator of the course of industry generally. Labor must gather its forces together to resist the in- evitable assaults upon wages and hours that will accompany the depression. ‘ Send in that Subscription Today. That chief of police in Berlin who raided the offices of the Soviet Russian Embassy has lost his job. ‘Twas not so long ago that a stunt like this brought promotion to the lickspittles who carry “When in doubt of the temper of the workers,|/them out. But today, Soviet Russia is, again a prepare for a foreign war,” is a good working rule| powerful factor in the world market. So now it’s for exploiting governments. counts for the studied efforts of the jingo press and congressmen to stir up the Japanese scare at this time. It may be needed in the election. Three rousing whispers for Coolidge! Even the Which partially ac-| different! Police chiefs take notice! Send in that Subscription Today. Versailles Treaty, being as dead as its most millions of capitalism’s political war-chest cannot| idealistic framer and advocate, another American - purchase any enthusiasm for the cold and canny|00d and true springs to the rescue of tottering “Cal.” f Send in that Subscription Teday. . capitalism. The Dawes report, framed under the direct supervision of Morgan, has become the cen- ter of gravity of Huropean politica. TRADE UNION ACTION Note: — The (Editor's documents on the tradé union ques- tion in Germany are of more than or- dinary interest to American revolu- following tionaries. Facing a deep crisis in the labor movement, and an almost com- plete change in the leading body of the party, the German Communists were in danger of giving way to “in- fantile left” conceptions of solving the trade union problem. The follow- ing documents show how the Commun- ist International set the feet of our German comrades firmly upon the Communist line of action. The poli- cies laid down in these letters were adopted almost unanimously by the Conference.) The Frankfort Conference of the Communist Party of Germany. Letter of the Executive Committee to the Party Conference on the Trade Union Question. Dear Comrades: The extreme importance of the Trade Union Question induces us to deal with it in a special létter. What is at stake is not only and not so much the fate of the trade union movement, but the fate of the German Commun- ist Party ftself, and consequently, the fate of the German proletarian revolu- tion. It is a question of whether the German Communist Party is really go- ing to be a proletarian mass party or not! . At the end of January, 1924, we sub- jected the trade union question to a most detailed and thoro discussion, participated in by a delegation au- thoritative for the whole German Left, as represented by comrades Maslov, Ruth, Fischer, Thalmann, Konig, Hesse, and Scholem. We debated the question from every point of view, and then unanimously adopted the fol- lowing resolution, which has already been published in No. 1 of the Berlin periodical “Der Funke”: ‘The Work of the Party in the Trade Union Movement. The Unity of the Trade Union Movement. The Communist Party of Germany, which holds the emancipation of the proletarian masses from the influence of reformism for its most urgent task, ts decidedly opposed, now as before, to the slogan of withdrawal from the trade unions. The Communists, who are to be found at work everywhere where there are proletarian ses, are NOW setting up and estab! their Com- munist fractions within the trade un- ions with even greater energy than before, and, in. view of the disintegra- tion in the ranks of the Social Democ- racy, with greater prospects of suc- cess. These fractions form the cen- tral point of the broad movement of revolutionary trade union organiza- tion. ‘ At the present moment, whilst the party is suffering the disadvantage of illegality, and is obliged to strive for the utilization of every legal possibi- lity, this. is of special importance. The Communists, now as before, are opposed to a split, and will con- tinue to combat the schismatic policy of Social Democracy even if the lat- ter expels them from the trade un- ions. The preservation of unity in the trade union movement is of spe- cial importante during a period of capitalist offensive and growth of re- action. The Organization of Those Expelled, and of Others. Those who have been expelled from trade unions, and those workers who are not organized in trade un- ions, must be gathered together by the Communists, in each case in accord- ance with the concrete conditions ob- taining in each separate trade union. This implies the ability to apply many and multifarious metliods (factory councils, control committees, ~unem- ployed committees, parallel trade un- ions formed by the expelled, Union of Hand and Brain Workers, general workers’ committees, etc.), without thereby becoming permanently bound to any of these methods and forms of opposition. The joint workers’ com- mittee of the workers’ associations and of the Union of Hand and Brain Workers will co-operate with the Reich committee of the factory coun- cils. Under the given circumstances the party must devote especially care- ful, energetic, and systematic work towards the organization of the unor- ganized and non-partisan masses, in order that the scattering of labor forc- es desired by the employers and by the trade union bureaucracy may be prevented. The United Front from Below. The Communists must decline any negotiations with tbe-leaders of the reformist trade union movement, or with the leaders of Social Democracy, the actual allies of the bourgeoisie and Fascism and must succeed in forming the united front from below in the trade unions. They must in- duce the broad masses of those or- ganized in the trade unions, and of the proletariat which is not yet or- ganized, to join together for the daily struggle, and must gven call upon those strata of the working class which have not yet broken with So- cial Democracy to teke part in this common struggle. Negotiations and agreements made by the Communists with the local mass organizations of the trade unions (local groups, car- tels, etc.), in the interests of the strug- gle, are not only compatible with the united front from below, but in fact form an important weapon against trade union bureaucracy and reform- ism. In those cases in which the Com- munists are members of the same un- ions as the Social Democratic workers, and work along side of these in the factories and work shops, it must be the endeavor of the Communists to combine the co-ordination of their practical activity with the sharpest accentuation of their essential prin- ciples, and with a relentless criticism of the errors, the vacillation, the half measures, and the inconsistency of Social Democratic demands. Here the Communist Party must make it perfectly clear to the work- ers; 1. That the crisis being undergone by the trade unions arises from the whole history of the reformist trade, from their pursuance of the tactics and policy of civil peace; 2. That the present wretched eco- nomic condition of the working class is not to be overcome by the ordinary measures of trade union struggle, but solely by the overthrow of the power of the capitalists, by the dfetatorship of the proletariat. The party must not decline to utilize any workers’ mass organizations, es- pecially anti-reformist organizations, in the fight against reformism, The Weimar conference is to be regarded from this standpoint, for here it proved possible to gather together not inconsiderable strata of anti-reformist elements beneath the conimon banner of a definite program of action. This applies equally to the associations formed by the expelled, to the Union of Hand and Brain ‘Workers and others. The ‘slogan’ of “saye the trade un- ions,” as it has hitherto been inter- preted, is not right. The trade unions cannot be saved along the old lines. It is only possible to save them by means of a fundamental change in the trade unions, to be effectual by fac- tory nuclei aiming at organization ac- cording to industry and at the substi- tution of reformism by revolutionary activity. The Role of the Factory Councils. Thus the most important task set the Communists is the concentration of the whole of their forces upon work in the workshops and in the fac- tory councils, for the purpose of de- veloping the factory councils into the starting point and fulcrum’of the whole of the work being done by the. party among the masses, especially the work of opposing the reformist leaders. The shop stewards have a further important task to deal with, that of combining the accumulating. elemen- tary struggles of the masses organ- ized in the trade unions with those of the non-organized masses. This requires that the factory coun- cils be organizatorily connected with one another in industrial groups, that is, they must be associated locally and in regard to the technics of produc- tion, in districts and as a whole, as the pre-requisite and basis for the fu- ture organization of production. At the same time any subordination of the factory councils to the reform- ist trade unions is to be combatted as harmful at the present time. The Economic Struggle. The decentralization arising inevit- ably from the existing situation (the unfavorable economic conditions, the reduction of produntion, the bank- ruptey of the reformist trade unions, etc.), and the elementary outbreaks of strikes among the workers (against the will of the trade unions and with- out the financial support of these), confront the Communists with the duty of undertaking the leadership of these strikes. Every concrete question “” scono- mic ap pacts orp as RE wowtt must be combined by the Commun- ists with the general historical task of the working clags, with the neces- sity of fighting for the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Communists must take ener- getic part in the organization of strike leadership and committees of action, and maintain the connection between these and the factories and shops. But the whole responsibility of the economic struggle must not be thrown exclusively upon the shoulders of the factory councils, for the fattory coun- cils form the foundation for the gen- eraP regrouping of the forces of the working class for its struggle. The factory councils must indict the trade unions and held them respon- sible for the increasing impoverish- ment of the working class. LINCOLN’S PARTY TODAY Monday, June 16, 1924 Bringing the German Revolution General Tactics in the Trade Unions. Trade union tactics, and the slogans issued in the trade unions will be de- cided by the Communists solely upon the basis of the general and concrete estimation of the tasks incumbent up on the working class and the Party and of the forces participating in the struggle.” (To be continued tomorrow.) AS WE SEE IT By T. J, O)FLAHERTY The Machinists’ Monthly Journal is the official organ of the International Association of Machinists. The presi- dent of that organization is William H. Johnstone, who has taken an ac- tive part in the Conference for Prog- people once thought might fina! wind up in favor of a labor party. fact, this bogus conference is st't fostering that illusion, George kL. Berry evidently does not take the pretensions of Mr. Johnstone \very seriously. He is not for a labor party. His immediate aim is to secure the vice-presidential nomination on the Democratic ticket. He is a notorious reactionary and strikebreaker, yet we find his picture in the current issue of the Machinists’ Monthly Journal’ ac- companied by an editorial eulogy and endorsement. . ae The readers of the Journal are in- formed that “George L. Berry needs no introduction.” Quite right. He is_as well known to union men as the Bald- win Felts’ thugs are to the miners of West Virginia and he generally plays the same role. We are told that Berry has every qualification for the vice-presidency. Perhaps, in view of the uselessness of that figure head, Berry might establish a precedent and set an example to his successors by making it his business to act as official strikebreaker. “George merits our support and he should get it,” says the paper controlled sby Mr. Johnstone who is expected by the Socialist party to help organize a Labor party on July 4th. Vain hope. son 8 When Dawes was seriously nomi- nated at the Cleveland convention of the G. O. P., the delegates began to yell. That is how they take the cuss- ing militarist. He is nothing but a big noise. Frank O. Lowden took a neat slam at him when he said that the vice presidency was no place for an active man and that he never read ~a-vice-president who eccomplished anything. Dawes~has tried to ape Mussolini in building up a Fascisti organization but his efforts have not been eminently successful. He shines better as head of the Central Trust Company than as a general. His fa- vorite pose is with pipe in hand, some- thing like ex-Premier Stanley Bald- win of Britain. Stanley became a poli- tical down and outer and the same destiny is mapped out for Dawes. A defeated president may be good for a Chatauqua circuit or publicity agent for a circus but what the devil can be done about a beaten vice-presi- dent? eee Warren S. Stone, grand chief of the Locomotive Engineers, addressed 2,000 bankers in New York recently, The only way to solve the railroad prob- lem, said Mr. Stone, is for the bankers and the railroad workers to get to- gether. He had already advised the workers to turn their money over to the bankers. Being relieved of that terrible burden, the slaves could then devote more thought to the task of making the railroads pay. This is what Stone calls capital and labor getting together. The brotherhoods are not in favor of government owner- ship, declared the notorious “progres- sive.” They have no quarrel with pri- vate ownership if such ownership can be administered with a genuit® trusteeship of the rights of the jr, lic, labor and the investor.” he bankers cheered Stone and declared him one of the gang. He is indeed a worthy backer of another alleged radical, Robert Marion LaFollette. » ‘It was to be expected that Oswald Garrison Villard would be pleased to learn that LaFollette had officially put one foot in the race for the pre dency on an indepéndent ticket. lara is in the habit of getting exci when a capitalist politician does some- does not object to the capitalist fs tem as such, but he does not like see it behaving so badly. always seeing dangers confronting liberties, In an article entitled Follette to the Front,” he says. one of the darkest hours the Repw thas known there is still one man fi political life who will not bow knee to Baal.” Perhaps not to Bas ‘but “Fighting Bob” rolled in the mud before Sam Gompers and war takers’ whose cash he needs to, amb’ his way into the White House.) far the fakers have the best of 1 bargain. They have got La) denunciation of the Communists * LaFollette hasn't got their dough yet, ‘thing half decent. It appears that he’ ressive Political Action, which bts 7 ay