The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 1, 1925, Page 10

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. erate light; think, fs destined to serve as a revo- CONGRESS OF ALL SOVIET NATIONS SET FOR MAY 8 Each Nation to Hold Own Convention First MOSCOW.—(By Resta.)—The pres!- dium of the the central executive com- mittee of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republice hae summoned for May 8 next the Third Cengr ef Soviets of the Union ef Soviet Socialist Re Publics. This congress Is to be pre- ceded by congresses of the various Union Republics, In particular the XIl. Congress of Soviets of the Rus sian Socialist Federative Soviet Re- public being set for May 2. On the agenda of the coming Union Congress of Soviets, the presidium of the central executive committee, there are included: the question of the Turkmen and the Usbek Republics joining the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; the report of the government of the Union; the appropriate measures devised to con- solidate the peasant economy, such as agricultural credit, handicraft indus- try, agricultural co-operation, and so s drawn up by/| THE DALEY. WORKER _Seontal International May Day Editon) By MAX BEDACHT UR HUNDRED years have gone down in the unfathomable ocean of the past since the fields and hills of central and southern Germany were filled with the echo of the bat- tles of the historic peasants’ war. Feudalism was already permeated with the disease which caused its de- mise in the revolutionary upheavals of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The long drawn ‘death agony of feudalism increased the bur dens of the exploiteti class of this order, the serfs and peasants. In an heroic uprising in 1525 this class at- tempted to break its fetters and to establish a society of economic equals. Historic development, however, did not lie In the direction of che aims of the rebellious peasants. Feudalism did not fall victim to the just wrath of an infuriated peasantry, but was defeated more than a century later by a new class, the bourgeoisie. HE invention of gun powder had ended the invincibleness of the strong castles of the feudal barons. At the same time it also broke the monopoly of the-steel-armored knights as warriors. Highway robbery, hither- to the noble profession of a large por- tion of the aristocracy, became more and more dangerous. The merchant transports were convoyed by guards forth; the report on the people's com- SPOKESMEN FOR FRENCH IN THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND OUR F Cachin, Doriot, Marti and Semar. armed with shooting instruments WORKERS RENCH COMMUNIST DAILY 20 Centines missariat of finance; the report of the! against which the armor of the knight red army; the nomination of the cen- tral executive committee of the Union of Sotriet Socialist Republics, namely, the elaction of the Union Council and the confirmation of the members of the council of nationalities. (In ac- cordance with the constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics the council of nationalities forms as it were a second house or chamber of the central executive committee; the council consists of representatives— five from each—of thé Soviet Union Republics and the autonomous re- did not afford secure protection. Since this class could no longer satisfy the excessive needs of an idle and luxurious life from the proceeds of robbing merchants on the high- ways they began robbing the peas- ants and their homes and villages. | Tithes were increased to unbelievable proportions. Communal pastures and fields were stolen outright. The peas- ants were reduced to the state of un- derfed farm animals. The feudal lords were the ruling publics.) SPOKESMEN FOR GERMAN class. Any accusation against the thefteof the peasants’ rights or prop- WORKERS IN THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND OUR G ERMAN COMMUNIST DAILY 8 oe / RB Be wey Die Note 2. see = sae wentOees han eeees Ruth Fischer, Thaelmann, Ur ‘Bite. 4. tebrece ieee abne eae bans, Clara Zetkin, Geschke. erty had to be submitted to the thief or to other members of his caste who committed the same crimes in their own domain. This expropriation of the peasantry was not only carried on by the nobil- ity, the knights and barons, but also by the church. The “princes” of the church, the bishops and the abbots, were surrounded by luxurious courts with courtiers and courtesans. This life cost money, and the church got this money out of its subordinated peasants. Forgery of documents or outright theft were tne methods em- ployed by these “holy” men to satisfy their unlimited need for money and wealth. The exploited, miserable and starv- ing peasantry was dominated. by the ; Teligious ideology of its time and look for relief to religion. But their hopes were not pinned so much on the hereafter. They looked for salvation here in this world. Communist ideas appeared as theories of the millenium, promised in the bible, a free society of free and happy people. r this atmosphere developed the Reformation. Appearing in the form of a religious reform it was in reality a revolutionary movement directed toward a hetterment of the economic conditions of the masses. The bible was scanned carefully for words and sentences that would prove that the extreme exploitation of the masses was ungodly. Economic de- mands under the disguise of biblical sentences. Revolutionary propaganda speeches were delivered in the form of religious sermons. Especially one of the leaders of that period, Thomas Muenzer, was master in the art of clothing very material demands in ecclesiastical language. Thomas Muenzer was a revolution- ary genius. His never wavering de- votion to and his indefatigable activ- ities for the exploited masses of his time deserve for him that the revolu- tionary proletariat of today devote some thought to the memory and hon- or of this man. Thomas Muenzer was born as the son of poor parents about 1490. His father fell victim to the murderous mood of a tyrannical baron. The in- telligent boy was educated as a pries< Muenzer's maturity fell into the peri- od of Luther’s quarrel with Pope Pius X., whose pompous extravagance forced him to* turn everything into money, from worthless and fraudulent relics to reserved seats in heaven. Muenzer welcomed the reform move- ment of Luther. Luther was driven by a revolutionary situation much fur- ther than he ever foresaw or intended to go. The restlessness of the masses A NEW LIGHT IS Pp the revolutionary movement of the United States, a new fire is burning. Some fires are used to gen- | some to make heat; oth- | ers to create, still other to destroy. Fire in the revolutionary symbolism May mean any of these and ail of them. The Little Red Library, I lutionary fire in the broadest sense. the 1919 days when the left wing first broke away from the whackles which bound it to the re- formism and sterility of the socialist the propaganda and agitation the Communists has been conduct: | ed almost solely by means of struggle. The spoken word replaced the writ- ten; class struggle in the field re-| Placed the study class. It has been a five-year period {n which the Com- munists have been educating them- selvés by action and fixing the atten- tion of the working class upon thom gi aa ete be od busy in the actual struggle, we were too much taken up with our daily | tasks to give proper attention to read- ing and education. I¥E years is not a long time in the life of an individual, but in the life of a party,’ particularly a new party, it 1s a whole epoch. We did not de- sert the study class because we spurned it back in 1919, but neverthe- less the Workers Party has grown up in its tradition of a party of action without any tradition as a party of study and research, We are not quite an illiterate party, our press has saved us from that, but we have been fairly on the way to being a party without a literature of its own and a party which has not set down in writing |for sober study the experiences and lessons it has learned on the field of action, Simultaneously we have been allowing ourselves, the mass of the party membership, to become a group to which the book and the pamphlet of the class struggle is almost a stranger, to which the printed word a4 & Weapon of the olass struggle has been largely forgotten, | A Little Revolution Is Brewing. | HE Little Red Library has been established. It marks the begin- ning of a revolution within the ranks of American Communists. It marks a@ turning point in the growth of the American Communist movement, a growth which will continue not in action alone, but in the harmonious combination ‘of activity with study, of leadership of working class by means of deeds and with education of the working class by means of books, The Little Red Library did not cre- ate this new revolution. The means do not create the need. The Little |Red Library was brought into being because of the imperative need of our movement for literary expression and study, the imperative need of the working class for revolutionary education as well as revolutionary ex- ample. | What Is The Little Red Library? te ia @ permanent library of the rov- olutionary working elass of Ameri BURNING ca. It gathers together the important materials of the life, the struggles, the needs, the lessons, of American workers and makes these available in inexpensive, yet attractive and con- venient form, so as to come within the means of every working man and woman in America. The Little Red Library serves a threefold purpose; it provides a medium of expression, in permanent form, for ‘Communist thought, it provides for the education of the party membership, it provides a new and wonderful medium for agi- tation among the masses. Problems of the political and industrial strug- gle, essays of Communist theory and practice; the old classics of Commun- ism, fiction, poetry and art of the Communist movement; all these come within its scope. To describe the vol- umes which have already been pub- lished and which are now in prepara- tion would require an article in itself, much longer than this article may be. But the titles and authors themselves give some idea of the fleld already covered: hl 6 tl Ans Rally to the First of May! Big Battles Four Hundred Years Ago ers. Muenzer preached, wrote and fought. In his sermons he covered a revolutionary atheism with a theologi- cal language. The heaven that his “religion” promised was a better so- ciety and the-method to get into his veaven was to fight against existing hell and its imps, the parasitical and exploiting ecclesiastical and secular princes. Thomas Muenzer died the death of a rebel. Defeated in battle he was made prisoner, was tortured and finally beheaded in the latter part of May, 1525. The revolts of the followers of Muenzer, the miners and the workers in hand industry, were the most revo- lutionary occurrences: inthe great event of the peasants’ war. The revo- lutionary peasants could not conquer the world because their aims were conditions of a period already over- come by society. Muenzer and his revolutionary workers could not win because their aims lay in a historical period for which society of the six- teenth century was not yet ripe and because the only class that can achieve these aims in revolutionary struggles, the proletariat, was yet too weak and undeveloped. The revolutionary proletariat of to- day has taken over the revolutionary inheritance of Muenzer and his vali- ant hosts, The society of free and equal humans, the aim fought for so bitterly, enthusiastically and self-sac- 1525. The ruling class of today has its heavy hand upon them and the sweat of the farmer congeals into profit only in the hands vf the bank- ers, the large landowners and the grain speculators. .Any complaint that the farmers may have against the banker, the absentee landlord or the grain speculator he must lodge with the government of the self sai bankers, landlords and grain specula- tors, And now, as then, the solution of the small and poor farmers’ prob- lems lies forward and not backward. ft fs not the re-establishment of a past condition that will solve the poor farmers’ problem but the estab- lishment of a new system, a new s0- clety. And the architect of this new society isthe proletariat, the working class. The poor and exploited farm- ers must follow the path that is being blasted by the working class. They must follow the standard which an alllance of the poor peasants with the workers has raised over the great country of Soviet Russia, the banner that symbolizes the alliance ‘n a unity of hammer and sickle. Under this banner the class broth- ers of those revolutionary lighters of the peasant war of four hundred years ago—the exploited farmers of today —will win their battles. In a work ers’ and farmers’ government in which the interests of the tolling masses are the only deciding considerations a monument will be erected to the mem- ory of all those that fell in the service of their cause. Only then will the valiant fighters of four centuries come into their own. SPOKESMEN FOR BRITISH WORKERS IN THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND OUR ENGLISH COMMUNIST WEEKLY saw in the theological revolt of Lu- ther the beginning of a revolt against | the hated, exploiting and torturing | authorities. But the more real the revolt became the more was Luther anxious to confine his differences with the pope, and later with the catholic church, to the field of theology. The revolutionary situation and the re- volting masses had saved Luther from the fate of Johan Hus. Luther repaid his debt to the revolutionary masses by denouncing them to their enemies, the princes, 8's EUNZER went the opposite road. He turned the theological dis- pute into a fevolutionary struggle against the ruling powers. He con- |demned Luther’s treachery and was jin turn denounced by Luther as satan incarnate. Meunzer had a surprisirgly clear revolutionary instinct. He built his propaganda mainly upon the proleta- riat such as it then existed. In Thur- ingia and in Saxony he found a com- paratively highly developed mining and textile industry. It was among theh miners, and the weavers and spinners that he formed his revolu- tionary circles. He was driven from city to city, welcomed almost every- where by the suffering and exploited, Harry Pollitt, Stewart, MacManus, and Tom Mann. rificingly in those struggles four hun- dred years ago will be achieved by the revolutionists of today. But while the peasants of 1525 hoped to equalize by division, the revolutionists of today will equalize by concentration; while the revolutionary peasant of 1525 could only equalize poverty, the revo- lution of today shall equalize the rich- es that a well-organized society will be able to provide for all of its use- ful members. see The peasantry of today, the small }and poor farmer, is confronted with the same problems in another form than that faced by the peasant of i es? 3EE if silt 4 : bjt E we but persecuted and exiled by the rul- [~Aresay Published. Already Published. oy No. 1—The American Trade Union Movement—Foster, Cannon and Browder. No. 2—Cl. Struggle vs. Class Col- laboration—Earl R. Browder, | Ready by May 1. | ————— No, 3—Worker Correspondents — William F. Dunne, No. 4—Engel’s First Draft of the Communist Manifesto—Translat- ed by Max Bedacht. | To Appear Shortly. ——————— | Short History of the Workers Party—Alexander Bittelman, Concentration of American Capital— Earl R. Browder. Shop Committees and Factory Coun- cils—J. W. Johnstone. Negro in American tndustry—Wil- liam F, Dunne, How Wall St, Subjugates the World —Manuel Gomez, Martare ef the Gommuniet Move ment—-Photos and biographical sketches. Four Short Stories—Translated from the Russian of the new revolution- ary school. 4 bes Little Red Library is not mere- ly a set of books. It is a medium by which'the thoughts and actions of the revolutionary movement is to be expressed in a permanent literature, It is more than that;, it is a mani- festation of the change in the Work» ers Party from a party of action only, to a party which combines action with sober thought and study. —————E————— [a Vicious Circle Has Been Broken T used to be said in way of ex- cuse that the Communist movement in America could not undertake any consistent publishing projects because American workers were no longer steady readers, This was true, par- tially because of the flux in the move- ment and partly also because very fow books and pamphlets were being published. The party could not pub- lish because there were none who Rebecca Grecht Will Speak at Yonkers, N. Y., : May Day Celebration YONKERS, New York. — Rebeo ca Grecht will be the principal speak- er at she Yonkers May Day celebra tion to be held Sunday, May 8, af 4 Dp. m., at 28 Palisade Ave., Yonkers, Comrades get busy distributing liter ature, talk to your shop mates and your friends of the meeting. Bring them along! Let's make this celebra tion the best held in Yonkers. SPOKESMEN FOR ITALIAN WORKERS IN THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND OUR ITALIAN COMMUNIST DAILY T. Terraccini and Maffi. By Moritz J. Loeb read because thére was no stimuls tion given to reading. That vicious circle has now been broken, The party has begun to publish and a new wealth of literature is being poured forth, The working class and par ticularly the Communists are begin. ning to read because it is their nature to do so and moreover because they know that they must read or degene- rate, JN the early days of the party there was the highest premium on m{h- tancy and activity. Increasingly now the need is for the development of studious militants who can follow the general evolution of the party by com- bining action with correct theoretical and practical understanding. Last May the DAILY WORKER burned tb light the mind and inflame the spirit of the American working class. In the year that has pasded the light has not diminished but burns ever more brightly. This year The Little Red Library shows its small light which twelve months from now with scores of titles and thousands of copies will roar of the progress and Would puy;, the workers could pot | coming victory of the working claay ——_ (J

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