The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 5, 1925, Page 6

} Ss aad uF went ann Page SIx Se Oe THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill. Phone Monroe 4712 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail (in Chicago only): By mail (outside of Chicago): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months | $6.00 per year $3.50 six months $2.50 three months $2.00 three months Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 1113 W. Washington Bivd., Chicago, Illinois J, LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F, DUNNE MORITZ J. LOEB. Entered as second-class mail September 21, 1923, at the post-office at Chi- cago, lil, under the act of March 3, 1879, Editors .Business Manager The A (Continueé from page 1) which is still to be attained. . This fact has caused much conftision and complication in the labor movement. It has created the basis of the false tradition-that the Negro, even when drawn into industrial labor, is a “na- tural” ally and reserve of capitalism. In industry the fact that any degree of modern wage slavery has represent- ed to the Negro an advance from his former serf-like status, taken in con- junction with the “labor-aristocratic” ep 290 Advertising rates on application, ey Green As a Moralist President Green of the American Federation of Labor, in a letter to the president of the National Association of Manufacturers and also to the president of the American Woolen company, declares that it is morally wrong for the manufacturers to “reduce the purchasing power of the workers—by force . . .” The manufacturers did not take down their_bibles to learn whether there was anything in that sacred collection of hokum against putting a ten per cent wage cut in operation. They simply cut the wages and allowed Green to go to the bible. ig During the Boer war, one of the Boer leaders often missed splendid opportunities of wiping out detachments of British. sol- diers, because the confounded general was a bible fanatic and flew to Job for comfort when he should have been administering to the wants of his cannon. The British, tho they subsidize preachers never let them interfere with the business of killing their enemies. They won the Boer war. The textile.barons also support missionaries, but if there is any- thing in the bible which prohibits the kind of robbery that the cap- italists are engaged in, they convenientlty ignore it. They “trust in god, but keep their powder dry.” William Green is also a bible student. But he served long enough in the miners’ union to know that the workers never won any of their battles with bibles or by taking a “high moral ground.” The power of labor and not quotations from scripture is what will im- press the textile barons. 2 In his letter to the mill owners, Green seems to hint that it was net the reduction in wages so much as the manner in which that reduction was enforced, that aroused his anger. “The reprehensible feature of it is that this is a forced reduction in wages. (Emphasis ours.) The workers have not been consulted regarding acceptance or rejection.” The obvious inference is that had the mill owners conferred with some reliable A. F. of L. labor leaders of the Tom Rickert type and convinced those leaders that the interests of the industry de- manded a wage cut, Green would not consider the blow at the “purchasing power of the workers” in so criminal a light. What the reactionary leaders cannot condone is the tendency on the part of the employers to treat their slaves as if the labor lieutenants did not exist. Green’s “solemn protest” against the ten per cent wage cut will not put any bread and butter in the larder of the/mill workers. They must learn to rely on their own “spiritual side” wer and not ‘on the sanctimonious appeals to the Deen coat em which appears to be the only weapon that faker “Green is willing to use. Self-Preservation Self-preservation is said to be the first law of nature. Like many other scientific conclusions it has been abused, but never more so than by reactionary labor leaders who have used the terms recently in connection with the action of the officialdom of the United Garment Workers in resorting to strikebreaking in an effort to maintain ‘a carricature of a labor organization which provides them with an easy living. The secretary of the Chicago Federation of Labor justified the role now being played by Thomas Rickert, on the ground that no man would surrender to others an organization that he helped to build up, whether thos others be the members of the union or their selected leaders. The law of self-preservation justified Rickert. And if the law of self-preservation is the first law of nature, then it is quite natural for Rickert to obey that law, and what is natural can- not be criminal. The law of self-preservation compels the capitalists to maintain armies and navies, spies and agents provocateurs, preachers and labor fakers to protect them in their usurped right to rob the workers. But the same law of self-preservation compels the workers to organize for the purpose of taking away from the capitalists the right to rob them. Incidentally in accomplishing that task the jworkers will dispose: of the capitalists. The fact that the law of self-preservatio works equally well in both cases has no more effect on the struggl than has the religion of a real estate shark on his willingness to fleece all comers regardless of religion. When the individual interests of a labor leader clash with the interests of thousands of workers, he must go, no matter how many excuses -he may dig up to justify his actions. The self-preservation of millions of workers and poor farmers all over the world demands that the capitalist system be abolished and the individual interests of a small group of parasites must not be allowed to stand in the way: ; Premature Rejoicing When the newspapers published a statement attributed to Frank Hodges, sceretaty of the Miners’ International, that in the event of # coal strike in Britain the United Mine Workers of America, thru their officials, had promised to take any action called for by their British fellow workers, none rejoiced sooner than American radicals, They assumed that Hodges was quoted-correctly and that John L. Lewis actually had done the decent thing in offering the support of his organization to the embattled British mine workers. But the rejoicing was short lived. Any doubts as to the nor- malty of the officials of the United Mine Workers.of America, were quickly dispelled when Secretary-Treasurer Kennedy and Vice-Presi- dent Phil. Murray repudiated the statement attributed to Frank Hodges and declared that they knew not what he was talking about. Lewis, when questioned on the matter, rubbed his eyes, yawned and said he was sleepy and would go to bed. This was on the day before the British strike was scheduled to start. The officials of the U. M. W. of A. have no more conception of international solidarity than so many Australian bushmen, They are putting on a fake show with the operators in Atlantic City and en- joying the bathing beauties and the balmy ocean breezes while the “operators are pulling the guts out, of the organizatiof#i. Tho hope eternal springs in the human breast, it would ho a! hopeful Cites in- deed who would harbor the expectation that Lewis and company will prove by word or act that the struggles of labor in Europe mean any- thing to them. § Mita ou neinaten tons eA one atmene amcmnmitbmnran meni: aa attitude of the trade union bureau- cracy, has given birth to the- false tradition that the Negro is a strike- breaker. The, basis of that tradition has been undermined in the tumultuous changes of the world war. The present is an epoch in which the industrialized Ne- gro proletarian, and also the agricul- tural proletariat, moves into a posi- tion-with the general working class. The Negro Industrial Worker. HE tremendous _ transformation among the Negro masses resulting from the world war and after war con- ditions, with the heavy migration of Negro agricultural laborers and ten- ant farmers into the cities and indus- trial districts, has placed the Negro definitely in a new position in rela- tion to the American labor movement, From being a sectional question, the Negro problem became a_ national question. From being a secondary factor in industrial labor, the Negro moves into the position of a great mass employed in basic industries, and already in notable strikes in the coal fields, etc., he has shown him- self eminently fitted for the front ranks of militant organized labor. The question of the full and unstinting ad- mission of the Negro to the trade unions is placed more sharply than ever before at the door of the trade unions. ( The constitutions of many of the trade unions exclude the Negro from the unions. In the case of those unions which have no such provision in their constitution the Negro is nevertheless discriminated against. The increasing pressure of the Ne- gro worker for admittance into the trade ‘unions is an instrument for profound revolutionary change in the labor movement. It is no accident that the “Gompers” bureaucracy op- Poses the entry of the newly indus- trialized Negro proletarians into the trade unions. As an important and growing part of the most exploited section of the proletariat which does not share in the miserable bribes with which imperialism poisons the upper section of the working class, the mass of the Negro industrial work- ers is objectively and potentioally a part of the left wing of the labor movement. In those unions into which the’ Negroes are being admitted, for instance the coal mining unions, the teamsters, longshormeen, building la- borers, janitors, etc., the Negro plays an important part in strengthening the militant section of the working class. The obstinate failure to organ- ize the general mass of unskilled DEo- letarians, whose entry into the labor movement would serve as a further basis for proletarianizing the ideology of the trade unions and revitalizing the class struggle, is a part of the general service which the trade union bureaucracy contributes to its cap- italist masters, And the failure to make a clean sweep of all obstacles to the Negroes’ entry into the unions is an especially significant part of this service to capitalist reaction, for race Prejudice of the white worker against the black worker is today more than ever a powerful weapon against the rity of the working class. fag cause of the Negro in the labor movement is essentially a left wing fight, and one which must energetic ally be championed by the Workers (Communist) Party. Our party must make itself the foremost spokesman for the real abolition of all discrimi- nations fagainst Negroes. in trade unions and for the organization? of the as ‘yet largely unorganized Negro workérs in the same unions with the white workers on the basis of equality of membership, equality of right t: employment in all branches of work and equality in pay, Our party shall bring pressure on the unions thru the activity of our Communist frac- tions among the Negroes already in the unions, getting them to fight mili- tantly for the abolition of the color |, line, and by the activity of the whole left wing forcing the abolition of all racial discrimination. Our party must work among the unorganized Negro workers destroying whatever preju- dice may exist against the trade unions which is being cultivated by the white capitalists, the Negro petty- bourgeoisie and the opposition of the reactionary bureaucracy as such, and must arouse them to demand and fight for admission. Our aim. must be to show to the white workers that only by complete solidarity of the races can any progress be made by either and to show to the Negro work- ers that in spite of the anti-Negro character of some unions that in those unjons where Negroes are admitted the racial question has been liquidated to the largest degree. Our demand is for the Inclusion of the Negro workers in thi jz unions against racial dual unionism. not permitted “white” trade unions, h egroes are the existing the duty of i merican Negro and the Proletarian Revolution THE DAILY WORKER in the formation of organizations of Negro workers declaring ‘in principle against dual unionism ‘an against racial separation, and declaring as a primary purpose the styuggle for ad- mission into the existing unions, but functioning as full-fledged Negro unions during the struggle. The Negro Tenant-Farmer ‘| and Agricultural Worker. pest million Negro agricultural workers, share croppers and ten- ant farmers live-in the southern states in a condition in’ somé™ réspects re- sembling the serfdom of Europe two hundred years ago, Agripultural la- borers are’ forcibly held in compul- sory labor under corporal punishment. Tenant and share farmers.are boun to the earth, by force p. ‘evented fro’ leaving a locality where, they are a judged to be in debt to Jandlords whi exercise the rights of feudal master: A racial caste system, remaining sy: tem, remaining from,, the chatt slave period, sharply divides the e Ploited masses into black and whit thus facilitating the most, cruel’ e: ploitation. Political rights are pra tically withheld from the Negro la’ borer and farmer. | schools and the right of Negro teach- ers to teach in all schools; equal rights of soldiers and sailors in army and nayy without segregation in col- ored regiments, the right to frequent all places of public resort without segregation (hotels, theatres, restau- rants, etc.) and the abolition of all anti-intermarriage laws. In the course of the struggle with such demands we will demonstrate thru experience that these aspirations can be realized only as a result of the successful class struggle against capitalism and with the establishment of the rule of the working class in the Soviet form, { American Negro Labor | Congress. UR work among the Negroes cen- ters now around the American Negro Labor Congress announced for Chicago, October 25. Our party recog- nizes and supports this congress as @ genuine expression of the Negro workers and farmers of the United States. It will be composed, according to the official call, of the following: Delegates from Negro and mixed trade unions. Delegates from Negro workers in factories and industries where large numbers of them are employed. A few Negro workers who are ’ i It is the “duty of our: part to take known for their activity in behalf of the initiative in organizing Negro agri- cultural workéfs into labor unions, to- gether with white ‘agricultural work- ers if possible, but separately if un- avoidable, and to bring such unions into the general labor movement. An- other supremely important duty of the party is to promote the organiza- tion of Negro tenant farmers, share- croppers and small farmers generally (together with white farmers of the same exploited class if possible), and to bring such organizations into co- operation as allies of the labor move- ment. The Negro and the’ Labor Party... o. ! oie task of the Communists among the Negro workers as:.elsewhere is in its first stage to: bring about class consciousness and :tocrystallize this in independent class political ac- tion against the capitalist »class.. The profound social changes; of the war and post-war period).’have already shown indications of a pappial exodus of Negro masses from thevrepublican party; and this represents a break with tradition, a visitie: evidence of the beginning» of: thecend ‘of the alli- ance of the Negro with the capitalist class., a psec The labor party) slogam and cam- paign possesses'a peculiarousefulness in the work ‘of bringingsthe Negro workers into the economic as well as the political labor movement, We shall advance the idea of théNegro work- ers taking an initiatorywand leading part in the formation of the labor par- ty. With this in viewawe shall in every labor party action prominently raise the issues of - discrimination against the Negro politivally, indus- trially, and in public customs» The disfranchisement of the Negro. in the southern states. must be. made an especially urgent reason for the polit- ical organization of the Negro work- ers thru collective affiliatién with the labor party; and the winning of polit- ical rights for the Negro proletarians must be placed before both white and Negro workers as “an immediate objective of the labor party movement and a necessity for giving the work- ers’ political movement its full strength, Negro Membership in the Communist Party. © is absolutely essential that greater ‘numbers of. Negro work- ers capable of a’ ‘leading part in the struggl¢ be immediately drawn into the Workers (Communiet) Party. In all of our party, actions, all party units must make an especial effort to reach and enlist the jnost advanced Negro workers into ranks. In order to meet our problems it is necer- sary to draw these comrades into re- sponsible party wo A great sig- aificance of our wor! ong Negroes is that it will facilita e task of en- larging and establish: our party in the southern states, Which has be- come a prifle necessity, that can no longer be postponed, .., “Social Demants” of the Negroes. L slogans of eqifality which are current among the Negro masses, or which can be @ med among them, which express the aspirations for equal rights and equal treatment of Negroes in political and economic life and in public customs, are placed among the demands of the Workers (Communist) party, Such are the de- mand for political equality, the right to vote, social equality, “economic” equality, abolition ofe jim-crow laws and also jim-crow ¢ygtoms not writ- ten into law, right to serve on Juries, the abol ition of segregation in In the ae \. the race. Delegates. from Negro farmer or- ganizations. Representatives of Negro semi-intel- lectual and _semi-bourgeois organiza- tions who are sympathetic to the move- ment of the workers and farmers. The congress therefore will be basic- ally a gathering of Negro workers. The slogans of our party will be incorporated in resolutions and placed before the congress. At the congress a permanent organ- ization should be formed of groups thruout the United States composed predominantly of Negro workers be- longing to unions where possible. In cities. where this is not possible, the ‘control of the committees should nevertheless be inthe hands of dc- tual workers. In the agricultural communities similar committees composed of farm- ers and farm laborers should be formed. . The main object of the permanent organization should be to centralize the protests of the Negro workers and farmers, to stimulate the desire for organization, to secure admission to organizations of white workers,and farmers on an equal basis and to establish organic connection between the struggles of the Negro and white masses, The congress should connect the struggles of the Negro workers and farmers in the United States with the struggles of the Negro colonials in American possesions such as Haiti, ete, It should connect the struggles of the American Negroes with those of the African masses and finally with those of all colonial and semi-colonial peoples. It should address a manifesto to the Negroes of the world calling upon them to hold a world race congress, The congress should strive to develop a leadership for the Negro movement of the world for which the American Negroes, by their su- perior industrial and political train- ing are the best fitted. Our party fractions will work for the above program. In connection with the linking of the struggle of the American Negroes with those of their African comrades, the congress should point out the er- ror of holding up.Africa as a Negro Mecca, It must be made clear that the connection between the African and American Negro liberation move- ment is in the common struggle against world imperialism and that such schemes as migration, ete, are simply chimeras which serve only to gontuse and conceal the real issues. The congress should stand with Soviet Russia as the nation where a workers’ and farmers’ government has solved successfully all racial and na- tional problems. | Lynching and Race Riot: | F. is the duty of our party to meet the problem of lytiching and race riots, not merely with words of sym- pathy, but with concrete organization- al methods which can be effectively applied. The essence of the problem is to create a united class front of the working class. We shall endeavor to have established in localities where both Negro and white industrial work- racial labor committees against lynch- ing, against terrorization of Negro and white workers, against the ku klux klan, against the use of one race of workers against the other in strikes, against inequality of pay, against race discrimination in obtaining -employ- ment, for the full admission of Negro workers into the unions with equality of membership rights, for the com- plete organization of both Negro and white workers into the ie whions. It shall be our endeavor to have such By ARNE SWABECK. serve as a medium thru which the solidarity and‘ co-operation of the working class and all workers organ- izations can be obtained in times of crisis such as ‘strikes, race riots, at- tempted lynchings, etc,, to prevent conflicts between’ the workers of the two races and to prevent lynchings. a { The Negro and the Army. | ITH the world war and the con- ,*" scription of the Negro Youth, re- pentane of discrimination and other rutal treatment in the army and navy became a major, phenomenon among Negro toilers, ‘Out-of, this mass con- ception arise many).slogans and de- mands which: the: Workers (Commun- ist) Party must energetically cham- pion, and which:espeeially the Young Workers Leaguecan: well champion: the movement against segregation of Negroes in) “jim-crow” regiments; against discrimination in the kinds,of tasks assigned vto;.Negro troop units; against discrimination against indivi- dual Negro soldiers;.against the sharp and brutal punishment of whole groups of Negro troops, (“24th Negro Infantry” cage-v13-summarily hanged, 56 imprisoned); against ‘the principle of “white officers, for Negro troops” against Negro officers’ failure to de- fend the Negro troops from discrimi- nation, ete., é The customary. employment of Ne- gro troops in imperialistic aggression against weaker peoples (Spanish war; the Philippines, and Mexico in 1916), intensifies the duty of the Communists to awaken among the Negro masses a sense of their own relation to the class struggle in the United States, and their relation to the present world- awakening of the suppressed races; their relation to the new world-wide capitalist slogan of “white supremacy” (as in China); in short.an understand- ing of the international role of capital- ist governments and their own rdle in the revolutionary. epoch. ARTLY as 'a result of the internal transformation among the Negro Population in the United States and the West Indies, and also partly as a reaction to the war and the national liberation moyements thruout the world (especially.the colonial ferment in Africa, Asia,.the Philippines, Haiti, etc), a Negro race. movement center- ing in the United States has been stimulated, to large proportions. This movement first crystallized into organ- izational form.among West Indian working class immigrants in New York and other,United States seaports as well as the British West Indian pos- sessions, ‘but spread rapidly among the native American Negroes, mostly of the working class. Under the name of the Universat;Negro Improvement Association a fluctuating membership, at times approaching the half-million mark, was organized. At first it show- ed distinctly anti-imperialist tend- encies, with specific working class de- mands such as:the. demand for open- ing the trade unions to Negroes with equality of pay, etc., as shown in the 1920 program of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. At all times these demands have been confusedly mixed with Utopian conceptions. Ra- pidly, however, under the leadership of its principal founder, Marcus Gar- that the oppression of the Negro in America and the world could be re- medied by the building of a national Negro state in Africa, and that hence the struggle in this country is unne- cessary, has become the dominant note of the organization. The exploi- tation of the Negro!masses by dema- gogic leaders of this organization, who copy the arts of the Jewish Zionist movement, soliciting funds from white capitalists on the ground that they will teach the Negro toilers to submit to “white supremacy” (i. e. capitalist supremacy). in this country, while of- ficially denying but in fact cultivating the dreamof mass migration to Afri- ca, is one of the cruellest aspects of ers are employed, permanent inter-} mi inter-racial committees of workers(The guidance of this current into tile THE MAKERS AND MASTERS OF STEEL| of the betrayal to which, the black worker is jected,, ot 4 An intense:sympathy with the co- lonial revolts of the Chinese, the Rif- filans, Sudanese, Bast Indian, West Indian and:Javan, peoples against im- perialism, is, however, an almost uni-' versal phenomenon among American Negro workers. aggressive,jnon-pacifist form, not only among some ef;the rank and file of the before mentioned organization, but’ also widely beyond the limits of organizedform.:,This phenomenon is found in) its :jhighest development among Negro industrial workers who, completely repudiate the cult of sub-, ion in America and who conceive, their fate to,be» bound up with the, American: Jabor,movement. This ele-|, ment of industrial workers is exceptionally responsive to the Com- munist program in both its interna- tional and its domestic significance. Their interest in questions of colonial, imperialism (forced upon them by their own persecution as an “inferior” ace), increases the value of the con- tribution which this most exploited section of the proletariat Negro wor! ers can maké to the labor movemen( Workers Monthly | vey, the Utopian pacifist conception | ts in a. militant, |” ‘| farmers, connect them channel of the, labor movement and away ‘from Utopianism is a very high task of our party. It involves the need*of our party members working within: the Negro race movement. It involves the struggle for tle working’ class’ hegemony within. the mass organizations of the race movement, including the struggle against the Utopian leaders—agents of the bourgeoisie. It involves com- batting the ideology of concessions to. “white supremacy,” the insistence upon an uncompromising struggle against the ku klux klan, making these major issues against the react- ionary leadership. Within such organ- izations we must insist upon; the or- ganizations taking up the isenes of the class” struggle, constanly pointing te the Aailure of the leaders: to. attempt to protect the Negro toilers.from op: pression in America, hie ‘atcomplish this we should organ- - zg Communist fractions within the Universal’ Negro Improverhent “Asso- ciation which shall strive to surround themselves with the working class and poor farmer elements forthe purpose of carrying on the struggle :totrans- ‘form’ the organization into an organ- ization fighting for: the class interests of ithe Negro workers. in the United States, i ¥y In the Negro race movements and organizations it is necessary constant- ly to emphasize the colonial program of the Communist International, point: ing out that only with a united. world front of all the exploited—only wit the conjunction of the proletarian re: volution with the revolt of the colonial peoples, that victory cam ve attained. , We should encourage the Negro workers to take an interest in and support the movement for freedom of the suppressed colonial peoples. | Bt it is not permissible to encot the Utopian idea that the Negroes’ in this country can win their emancipation thru mass migration or thru the esta- blishment of a Negro nation in Africa. The reformist leaders (Garvey, etc.) do not have a program for the libera- tion of the Negro peoples thruout the world. The revolutionary movement headed by the Communist Interna- tional has a program which will liber- ate the peoples of Africa, Asta, etc., together with the proletariat of all countries. The Communist Intern::- tional and its American section is a friend of all liberation movements of oppressed peoples, and opposes only the misleaders and betrayers of the mass organizations of Negroes. Other Negro Race Move- ments. HE African Blood Brotherhood, with a program of class strugg. combined with a.militant champion- ing of the special demands of the Negro workers against racial discrimi- nation, is an organization which ‘has done a pioneer work of considerable value, in organizing a militant ad- vance-guard of Negro workers. Other- wise its chief successes have been in those cases when it has employed the united front tactics for enlarging its contact with and influence upon wider cireles. Our policy in relation to this organization is to have the local or- ganizations merge with the units of the American Negro Labor Congress. In the National Association forthe Advancement of Colored People, the Negro petty-bourgeoisie, together with. middle class white reformists and un- der the partial leadership of the big bourgeoisie (such as represented by Senator Burton, chairman of the last republican national convention) finds the chief medium for its reformist operations. Yet it is a singular para- dox, and a reflection of the now pas sing period of the patronizing of the Negro's cause by the capitalist clags, that this organization at its last con- vention appeared in the role of cham- Pioning, tho in a timid and “respect- able” way, Negro workers’ right to admittance in the trade unions, Eve in this organization, under present eir- cumstances, it is permissible and ne- cessary for selected Communist (net the party membership as’ a whole) to enter its conventions and to make Proposals calculated to enlighten the Negro masses under its, influence as to the nature and necessity. of the class struggle, the identity oftheir exploiters, and. their: leaders, in .the same persons and the. treacherous ‘atare of the reformist measures pro- posed. c ‘ However it 18 only’ * munist work is so bre and extended in the field of Negto move- ments as to make our party stand. ‘out as the only real champion of the Negro against lynching, all, diserimi- nating and all oppression and explott- ation that we.can successfully. combat the influence of such bourgeois move- y Vt Satoh ORR hog aim of our party in our work is rd Negro masses is to create powerful proletarian movenient which will fight andlead the struggle of the Negro race against exploitation and oppression in every form and which will be a militant part of the revolutionary movement of the whole American working class, to strengthen American revolutionary moy n by bringing into it the 11,500,000 tae ere en te Com: vement Negro workers and farmers in. the United States to broaden the struggles of the American Negro workers and with the strug: gles of the national minorities lal peoples of all ihe worth a8 by further the cause of the ric tion and the di ip of t } proletariat, =| | ' ; (