The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 14, 1925, Page 11

% COMMUN ISM IS ‘CATCHING’ @ (Gontinndd trom trom page 1) drawn only lately into the class strug- gle, with the more experienced work- ers swinging ever more. to. the Com- munistledleft. wing, so in. the,Ameri- can trade unions the support of the official tools of capital comes from that section of the organized workers whose viewpoint is purely middle class and who, have never before ‘been’ reached by any major question ‘of trade union policy. ‘O those who are inclined to mini- mize the influence of the Com- Mmunists in the trade unions it is hard , to. understand the combined ferocity ; and hysteria that characterizes the Offensive against the “reds.” (There- fore it is well to say here that altho ‘the American trade union official is the most timid creature in the world politically, with a vision of a dozen , different kinds of bogeymen constant- ly obsessing him, the present panic in | official labor circles ha’ a very tangi- ' bid ‘reason behind 4a oO” ‘of these reasons is tundoubt- _ edly the 66,000 votes cast for three members of the Workers (Com- munist) Party who headed the left wing slate in the United Mine Work- ers of America and the militant pro- gram on which the campaign was made—a campaign that consisted only of the distribution of the pro- gram itself, that was fought without money and that had as its spokesman rank and file minerf# known well only -in their own districts. In these respects the campaign and the huge vote polled was the most re- markable in the history of the Ameri- . can trade union movement for two things: a T was achieved after the best or- ganized attack on the Communists made by any union officialdom in Am- erica and it showed that in the big- gest union in the American Federa- tion of Labor 66,000 members have reached @ degree of militancy where ’ they, will yote for programs and not for individuals. On so large a scale this is an unheard of thing in the Am- ericanlabor movement. T must not be forgotten in estimat- ing the full meaning of the vote and its effect on the bureaucrats that the election machinery is entirely in the hands of the union officials. Let us not forget either that trade union bureaucrats have been counting Com- munist left wing votes for three years now and undoubtedly have a_ better idea than we ourselves of the extent ' of the prevailing dissastisfaction with their policies. T is not the purpose of this article to argue that the suppresive meas- ures used against the Communists are a good thing for us and that we should encourage them. It IS our purpose, however, to point out that with the limited press and trade union mater- ial, that we have at our disposal it is undoubtedly. true that. the conflicts have. steeled. our. membership in the struggle, spurred them, on to greater endeavors and brot into the conflicts large masses of workers who, tho now skeptical and suspicious of us, must become our supporters by the march of capitalist development coupled with growing familiarity with the Commun-' ist program. With this prospect confrotning them what are the labor fakers to do? HEY will continue the policy of ex- pulsions, sluggings and denuncia- tion. They are creatures of the capi- talist class, they have learned their methods from the capitalist class and they know no other. They might, if they were as well-informed and cun- ning as the labor bureaucrats of other capitalist nations, begin a campaign of “education” of their followers but the American labor faker fears more than anything else—unless it be the loss of his fat job, with which he senses such a program would be inti- mately connected—a discussion of the Communist program. They have no program except the acceptance of cap- italism now and forever, amen. They dare not debate the issue. NY group of organized workers in cial influence, will listen to and agree with a Communist speech the first time they hear one provided it is de- livered in language they can under- stand, I recall one very interesting instance which substantiates. this as- sertion; N St. Louis two years ago I. was given’ the floor’ in «an Electrical Workers’ Union for ten minutes, with much misgiving on the part. of the chairman who warned me to-say n6th- ing radical, to talk on Soviet: Russia. The union is known thruout ‘the labor movement as one of the most con- servative in the building trades but I talked for an hour and twenty min- utes without -interruption—altho it was a special meeting on a - wage agreement—and when I asked if they had heard enough there were shouts of “Go ahead!” trom all over the hall. O, the labor fakers will not per- mit open discnsion in the unions. Heavier blows than any yet received are in store for us but we know now that. we have a goodly portion of the organized workers with us—many more than we thought. Even in the Carpenters’ Union—a_ veritable cess- pool of reaction, ruled by Hutcheson whose reputation for autocracy is a Scandal even among his fellow-bureau- crats—we have developed an astound- ing strength, Read the list of unions that have en- dorsed the Michigan defense if more proof is needed that great numbers of organized workers have not been alto- gether terrorized. : HEN our activities, have begun to really shape trade union poli- cies thru the mags pressure we can exert, when these policies draw the unorganized workers into the unions,: EBERT T= DAILY WORKER begins in the next issue of the Magazine Section an exposure of the details of the betrayal of the German working class during and since the world war by the social-democrats. The articles will be composed almost entirely of copies of original documents, at the recent trial of Ebert. extracts from speeches and testimony given ‘the social-democratic president of Germany, The articles constitute the most damning indictment of the treachery of the social-democracy yet compiled, and the bulk of the evidence of treason to the working social-democratic leaders themselves in th class was furnished by their defense against a charge of “treason to the German Empire.” Do not miss a single one of these articles if- you wish to know from irrefutable evidence the reason for the failure of the the United States, free from offi-| German social revolution after the overthrow of the kaiser. when our shop committees draw masses of now unorganized workers into the gigantic struggles whose indi- cations can already be seen, we need worry very little about the antics of the labor’ officialdom. HE unorganized workers are ours —when the tyranny of capitalism forces them tomove—there is no pro- gram but that. of: the.Communists that holds any hope for them: They will be brot into the unions by our ac- tivity and their millions are the re- serve army, as yet untrained, of a powerful left wing movement ° that will sweep the heritage of Gomperism from the American labor movement. E can continue and intensify our revolutionary work in thé trade ‘unions with the satisfying knowledge, based on indisputable figurés; that we have within. three years established in. the organized . labor movement, where Communist work gives. the big. ; | gest resuits,.a solid proletarian. basis for a mass Communist party. in..the most powerful capitalist nation in the world, lsimieiae © HE united front from bélow, in- creased Communist actiyity in the daily battles of the workers, the connection of those struggles with the ceaseless warfare of the American government on the workers and their organizations, the merciless exposure of every sign of treachery on the part of the capitalism’s agents disguised as labor leaders, these are the policies and tactics that have returned results for the Workers (Communist) Party and these are the policies into which the major portion of the Party strength must be thrown. Our Readers Views Hears Red Baiter on Radio, To the DAILY WORKER: I heard @ lecture on Communism on my radio. A hero by the name of Mackenzie lec- tured on Communism and _ Russia. Communism, . he..saidy,: makes: two classes. It takes: these: classes: ana labels one “proletarian” and the other “bourgeois.” He said he feels very bad that the proletarian class has the power in the Soviet Republic of Rus- sia. It pains him awful bad that the nobles are suffering. The Commun- ists actually tell them to go to work. Also he says it hurts him when a priest in Leningrad receives ten years’ penitentiary for preaching the almigh- ty principles of capitalism. Now I wonder has Mr. Mackenzie some feelings left for the proletarian class which does all the work in our beautiful world. Maybe he feels that they ought to work harder yet. May- be he’ll make another speech on the radio some day and tell us that. The day will come when we Ameri- can workers will know that the priests and the Mackenzies are being paid by che nobles to cry for them. Then the workers will realize that there are two classes, one class liying on the other, And they will join up with the working class to rid themgelves of the class for whom they suffer war, misery and starvation. A good honest American working man writes this letter to our broad- casting station, our DAILY WORKER. W. Jaffe, New York. It's your paper—Build on it! IN DULUTH the Daily Worker and Workers PRS can be purchased at E Bus Station, 508 W. perior St. and at Incline Station 7th Ave. W. For all subscriptions and Communist literature see Local Agent Cari Lund, 20 N. 6th Ave. W., Duluth, SSS 8949445594988