The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 31, 1925, Page 13

{Purcell Replies to Abramovich By MAX BEDACHT. AFAEL ABRAMOVICH, the men- shevik emissary, who is at pres- ent rehashing all the old lies: abont Soviet Russia in order to show the dangers of American recognition of Soviet Russia, has as one of his pet subjects the “Bolshevik outrage” com- mitted in Georgia. ‘ He pictures the Georgian workers and peasants as ardent adherents of the menshevik brand of socialism, for which the Georgian masses are per- secuted by the Bolshevist authorities. A regime of blood and iron alone can keep the workers and peasants of the Soviet Republic of Georgia from over- throwing the Bolshevist yoke and em- bracing the blessings of menshevist rule for English oil capital. Altho these lies have been dealt with repeatedly we take them up again and again. The paid scribes and so- cialist mercenaries of capitalism, such as Abramovich, insist on rehashing old lies in the hope of reaching a new audience that has not yet been made immune against their poison by a knowledge of the truth. T® meet these campaigns we have no choice but must repeat again anc. again that the “reports” of Abramo- vich and his menshevist disciples are poisoned arrows directed against th: first workers’ and peasants’ goverr ment; that these reports are no les: damnable attacks on the exisi- ence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics than the poisoned bullet was, that a disciple of the Abramo- viches fired into the body of Lenin in the Soviet Republie’s darkest hour. As against the Hes of the Abramo- viches it is interesting to learn what unbiased observers have to say abeut the Soviet Republic of Georgia. At the session of the® Enlarged Trade Union Council of Georgia, held on Dec. 2, last year, Comrade A. A. Purcell, on behalf of the English trade union delegation in Georgia, conveyed the fraternal greetings of the English proletariat and said: “It is our task to annihiliate that abominable .campaign of lies against the Soviet Union and that net of lies which entangles the working class of the whole world. The working class demands a final solution of the ques- tion of the unity of the labor move ment. I believe that the self-sacrifice, the discipline and the steadfastness of the working class of the Soviet Un- ion will help to realize this unity in erder to conduct the fight against world capitalism with-mnited forces.” Comrade Ben Tillet declared: “When the delegation set out for Georgia, some of my nearest friends said that Georgia at present presents a picture of anarchy and murder, that 500,000 members of the Red Army are suppressing the liberty. of Georgia threatening women and children with the bayonet, and that as a result al Georgia is seething with discontent. “After having become acquainted with the situation in Georgia on the spot, we became convinced that the bourgeois lies emanate from white guardist sources. “For Curzon and Churchill the Rus- sian revolution is an outrage. They represent the Bolsheviki as brute beasts. But we found them to be hu man beings. Instead of the ‘national. ization of women,’ we find that no- where is the woman so protected and nowhere does she enjoy such rights ar in the Soviet Union. The Russian pro- letariat is engaged in such a work of reconstruction as we have never been able to find outside the frontiers o’ the Red republics. The Russian tradc _ union movement is full of life ané energy. The great solidarity upon which your work is based will con- quer the whole world.” On Dec. 3, the English trade union delegation had an interview with a group of former mensheviki, amonr “MacDonald, Snowden, Tom Shaw, Vandervelde and others in 1920, and afterwards.” Thereupon Bromley de- clared: “Neither MacDonald, nor Snowden nor Shaw were representatives of the English workers, they were rep- resentatives of the Second In- ternational. Therefore the English How We Live and Work workers cannot accept any responsi- bity for what they said. We, however, are the representatives of these work. ers, representatives of their trade un- ions, and declare that we are for sup- porting the Soviet power.” To the question of Comrade Purcelh Farinev replied that in 1920 the Georgian mensheviki paid their last British Trade Unionists in Russia Ly) Sditor’s Note: —This paper is printed fer the workers, poor farmers and those who work’‘and sweat under the present system of society. It is a paper of the workers, by the workers and for the workers. We want to reach every corner of this co — We want AILY WORKER. In order to make try where labor is being exploited for private gains, for © workers and farmers all over the country to read the it more interesting and be able better to refiect the life of the wide laboring masses, WE WANT OUR READERS TO WRITE TO US. This new department “HOW WE LIVE AND WORK” will appear as often as there will be sufficient letters from our readers about the life and working make the letters interesting bringing ot in other sections * &* of the country. Try conditions under which our masses struggle. Try to out facts which may not be known to te make them short and to the THE NEW BIG INITIATIVE. The Second Conference of the Workers’ Correspondents of the “Pravda.” 'HE delegates had come to the conference from all parts of Russia; from sunny Georgia with its eternal summer, from far-off Siberia, from the Caucasus, from the Ural and Taschkent,—over 300 men, the representatives of 60,000 workers’ and village correspondents. “Last year only a few dozen were assembled here,” said Maria Iliynitch- na in her. speech of welcome. And comrade Katayama, as if he wished to continue her line of thought, added in the name of the young revo- lutionary journalists of Japan: “You indicate the way and we follow.” Comrade Hesse, the representative of the C. P. of Germany hastened to rejoice our workers’ correspondents with the successes of their brothers in this time of black social democratic reaction. : “I am glad to be able to inform you,” be said, “that we already pos- sess 600 factory nuclei which already issue a kind of wall newspaper; with us, however, they are newspapers which are passed from hand to hand.” All speeches of welcome were short but they came from sincere and warm hearts and were full of revolutionary zeal, full of fighting spirit, full of pro- + up to the farthest corner of Russia, from Germany, Japan, France, Eng- land, from the east and the west, they are all endeared to the proletar- fan Pravda of Lenin. A pile of letters—a heap of pres- énts. which have been lovingly fa: shioned by the workers in the various factories and workshops in their lei- sure hours. The conference of the workers and village correspondents which was convened by the Pravda undoubted- ly constitutes a very important stage in the development of the workers and village correspondents movement. A whole year has elapsed since the first conference. But in this year the movement has grown and has ob- tained a sure and firm foothold. It has created the basis of its organiza- tion, attained international impor- tance and found a response in a whole number of countries. There has not only begun an ex- change of information between our workers and their comrades abroad, some parties are already following our footsteps. - membership contribution to the Sec- ond International. In 1918, Zeretell: and two other mensheviki were elect- ed as representatives to the Second International. It is clear that their mandates have long since expired. Jordania was only sent to the league of nations by a small group of mem- bers of the central committee. The English comrades still showed interest for a number of economic and political questions. The interview made a profound impression upon the delegation. Bromley declared: “I bow to your courage. You have perceived your errors and have cour ageously and honestly come over to the side of the working class.” After his departure from Georgia, Pureell sent the following telegram to the Tiflis paper, Sarja Wostoka (The Dawn of the Bast): “We are tremendously sorry to hare to leave Georgia, but at the same time we greatly rejoice that we are able to express our exceedingly great and enthusiastic satisfaction over the So viet discipline and over the great de votion of the population to Soviet Georgia which we have witnessed. The efforts of Soviet Georgia for eco nomic reconstruction testify to a pro fownd belief in the final victory of the Seviet system. The result of these efforts also proves the great capabil- ity of the working class to administer the state, when it has succeeded in capturing state power. “With fraternal greeting in the name of the delegation, “A. A. Purcell, “Chairman of the Delegation.” As against the fictitious fabrications of the Abramoviches, concocted in Paris, London and Berlin, here is the testimony of non-bolshevist represent- atives of the English workers, who in- vestigated the conditions in Georgia, not in London, but in the Soviet Re- public of Georgia itself. Their testi- mony belies statements of Abramo- vich. The American workers will let Abramovich know what they think of him and the likes of him. LLAMA LLL Ce tm this way the movement is al- veady capturing international pesi- tions. The experiences of a whole year rave, before all, fully and completely justified the attitude of the first con- ‘erence regarding organizatory ques- tions. The non-binding character of the decisions, the fact that the corre- spondents must not be elected or ap- pointed, the non-recognition of the correspondents, the peculiarity of the organizatory form as the best guar- antee against officialism and bureau- cracy—all these principles have stood the severe test of practice. The conference has now continued the line laid down: organizatory con- nection with the newspapers, leader- ship of the workers’ correspondents movement by the party newspap..;s and by the editors; immediate spe- cific party political education (his- tory of the party, program and sta- tutes, tactics, Leninism, etc.); exact definition of the functions of party political work, and of the work by the newspapers; detailing of the organ- izatery mutual relations in the diree- tion indicated by the first conference, The situation is different with the village correspondents, .Here the first steps have yet to be taken. All the participants in the conference, all comrades have thoroughly understood what enormous and general political importance the village correspondents will bave in the future. All have rec- ognized the general political impor- tance of the problem at the present moment, And therefore they have proceeded with such deliberation and such caution to the laying of founda- tion stones for the village correspond- ents’ organization. Beside the question of the workers, the village and the army correspond- ents, the question of the youth corre- spondents was also dealt with. The new form of organization, which has proved itself to be sufficiently elastic in order to serve new cultural aims, is proceeding to’ victory.