The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 28, 1925, Page 14

Save the Workers’ Children from the Claws of the Capitalists! ——— T is sald that the Turks of the middle ages would never kM any young Christian boys who happened by any chance to fall into their hands. Nor would they condemn them to the slavery otf the ordinary kind. These lads of the enemy faith would be kept separate and be given a carefully planned upbringing and education calculated to instil in them the most extreme fanaticism for the Moslen cause and most bitter hatred of the christian world. From these original- ly christian youths the Turks would recruit their best and fiercest troops —those that prided themselves parti- cularly on their devotioon to their Mussulmen masters the Janisseries. And the whole christian world admit- ted that the greatest force it had to meet, the greatest obstacle it was up against, were these converted christ- ian, Janisseries. Enémies Within the Workers’ Ranks SITUATION like this, only a thousand-fold worse, exists right before our eyes to-day and yet most of us pay no attention to it. When the workers are slowly and painfully try- ing to organize themselves so as to be able to offer a stronger front to their enemy, the boss, they often meet with those who refuse to be organ- ized, who refuse to join a union of any sort, because it is “un-American” to try to use “force” or the “threat of force” (a strike, etc.) against the boss. Who are these people? They are workers! Whom do they serve and fight for? The bosses. The Janis- series, at least, were fighting for their own interests which were at one with those of their Turkish masters, but these misguided workers are serving the capitalists directly against every interest of their own.. When “patriot-| ic” workers who do tot. “believe” in strikes: scab on, their fellow .workers and break the strike, they are doing the same thing on a greater scale. Who are the soldiers and policemen that fire at striking workers at the command of the boss spoken thru the government? Are they not work- ers or the sons of workers? And yet they are serving as the Janisseries, as the tools of their bitterest foes, the capitalists who grow fat on the labor of their fellow workers. When, year in and year out, workers go to the polls and vote to keep in office this or that politician who is nothing but a puppet manipulated by the House of Morgan or by the Rockefeller’s when these same workers are deaf to the call of the more far-sighted of their brethern to break with the boss’ parties and strike out in a party em- bracing all labor—are they not fight- ing blindly for the cause of their enemies? This is the situation: The workers and the bosses stand opposed as two separate classes with different and antagonistic aims and interests as two armies constantly engaged in some form or another of struggle. Yet the strongest support the capital- ists have consists in the masses of mislead workers who do not see their position in the struggle and who, con- trary to their own interests, strike out blindly in defense of the masters that enslave them. “Give Us the Young and We Have the Future!” OW can such a remarkable situa- tion come about? Let us turn to the little story about the Janisseries for an answer. The Janisseries were turned into crack fighters for the Turks because the Turks got hold of them young and trained them for that purpose.: It was one of the most fun- damental principles of the Jesuits: “Giye us the young, and we have the future.” The capitalists go on the same principles. If they can only get hold of the working class children when they are young and their minds are unformed, then trust it to them and their learned and trained servants to make these children grow up into workers cut out on quite a capitalist model—into a strikebreakers, scabs, patriots, blind supporters of the bos- ses, Workers’ Children—Victims of Bosses, ND get hold of them young the bosses certainly do, When the child is Just old enough to begin form- ing more or less permanent social conceptions, he is sent fo the public schools. Now even the more honest capitalist “educators” themselves will hardly deny that the fundamental pur- pose of the school is to train the “youth” (that means, of course, the working youth). into good, patriotic, and law-abiding citizens, “adapted” to the society in which they live, What. is a “good” citizen? One who swéars ten times a day that America and all T is now over two years that a new force first made its appear- ‘ance on the scene of the working S movement of New York. It is now over two years that the milit- ant workers of New York began to grow accustomed to find conscious and spirited proletarian children coming to their mass meetings and demonstrations, taking part in their everyday struggles against the cap- italists and against the forces of capitalism, and in every way living up to their role as comrades in the struggle of the whole working class. It is now over two years that the agents of the bourgeoisie, the police and the school authorities, suddenly awoke to the existence of a deter- mined and active organizations of Communist children. intent. upon fighting the® class “struggle in’ the schools and in winning away the masses of workers’ children from the influence of capitalism and for the working class. It is now over two years that the Young Pioneers of America—then known as the Junior Section of the Young Work- ers League—made its appearance as a factor in the working class movement of New York. Pioneers First Convention. Now the Young Pioneers of the New York district are preparing for their first district convention! This is an event of historic importance in the revolutionary movement of New York City and its surroundings as well as of the whole country. The first district convention is a living symbol of the two years of activity and struggle on the part of the Young Pioneers and the Young Workers League that have resulted in a fine, conscious, active and spir- ited Communist children’s organiza- HAIL FIRST DISTRICT CONVENTION OF NEW YORK YOUN PIONEERS loafers and “un-American” if they go out on strike? Who fills them full of the most poisonous patriotic venom and hate for the workers of other countries? Who lauds every brutal act of the government designed to seat the bosses a little more firmly in the saddle or squeeze a little more profit out of the workers? Who ap- plauds the policemen when they break strikers’ heads or the militiamen when they slaughter and cripple hundreds of workmen? Who urges the workers’ children to stick to and trust the cap- italist parties and who keeps any thought of the party of labor from their heads? There is but One answer. The tion, participating in the struggles of the whole working class, carrying on the struggle in the schools, fight- ing tooth and nail to save the work- ing class children from the claws of the capitalists. The first district convention marks the beginnings of the reorganization of the Pioneer League on the basis of school nuclei of the consolidation of the organiza- tion into a real league, of the real struggle against child labor and child misery, of the systematization and development of the school struggle—in a word, of what may be called without any sentimental- ism, the bolshevization of the Young Pioneers of America! For this reason, since the de- velopment of a militant revolution- ary organization of proletarian chil- dren~is of the greatest importance not only for. the children of the workers but for the widest masses of the proletariat and the proletar- ian youth, the whole of the revolu- tionary working class must consider the first district convention of the New York Young Pioneers as an event of the greatest significance for them in their struggle. Greetings to the first district con- _ vention of Dist. No, 2 of the Young Pioneers of America! Long live the struggle for the win- ning of the masses of proletarian children from the clutches of cap- italism! Long live the Young Pioneers of America! Central Executive Committee Workers (Communist) Party of America. “ Cc. E, Ruthenberg, Gen. Sec'y. National Executive Committee Young Workers (Communist) . League of America. Herbert Zam, Secretary. its institutions are just perfect and need only to be.maintained in their “pristine virtue.” What is a “patriot- ic” citizen? One who goes to war cheerfully and gets butchered or crip- pled fighting for the greater profit of his boss all the while believing that he is fighting “for the greater good of humanity.” One who scabs on his fellow workers and breaks their strikes because it is not in accord with “American traditions” to go on strike. What is a law-abiding citizen? One who believes that the words com- ing from congress or from the courts both of which are simply the mega- phone of the bosses, are the sacred edicts of “abstract justice” falling with equal weight on the rich and the poor. Who is “adapted” to the condi- tions in which he lives? The abject slave, who is horrified at the very thought of freedom, and who thanks god that he is “permitted” to nibble his crust in “peace.” Public Schools—Poison Factories. This is the mission of the public school and that this mission is carried we see every day around us in actual life, Who incites the children to look upon their fathers as criminals and ee ey a public school—the factory where anti- labor, pro-capitalist poison is manu- factured and injected into the work- ers’ children. School Not Alone. A VERY institution in capitalist so- ciety in turned toward the “holy” purpose of corrupting the minds. of the children of the workers. The movies, the newspapers, the children’s books, the general run of boys and girls clubs, etc.—all can be shown to be consciously directed to that end. Above all the boy and girl scouts! Supported’ morally and financially by the biggest capitalists of this country, organized and administered upon the plans laid down by these finance lords, the boy scouts aim at rendering the children “loyal to god and coun- try,” at “preparing them for service to their country in peace (strikebreak- ing, scabbing,« murdering strikers, etc.) and in war (slaughtering foreign fellow workers for the benefit of the bosses.)” Is there any wonder now why the large majority of working class children grow up into enemies of their own class, into reserves for the capitalists to be used against their own class fellows, perhaps against their own fathers and mothers, Is there any wonder? The Problem—Save the Children. There is no wonder: But there is a sore problem for every worker who has the good of his class at heart, who cannot bear see his own children grow up into his enemies, into the Janisseries of his boss, There is a sore problem for every militant work- er who, as the days go by, sees his children grow more and more estrang- ed. from him, from his ideals, his hopes, his dreams, from his elags. There is: a. sore problem for every worker who fights bitterly, devotedly, for the victory of his élass—for how can his clas§~conquer .when most of .. it take their stand on the other side: — Fo all thése ‘the answer is! We & must save our childrem from thé © fate that the capitalists have in store for them: We must make our chil- dren into clear and militant working class fighters! Our children belong to our class—the bosses must not be allowed to corrupt them! Young Pioneers of America. The militant working class children of this country have already set up an organization that is out to fight the poison of the bosses and to draw in all workers children into the class struggle at the side of their fathers and brothers. This organization, the Young Pioneers of America, hag al- ready spread all over this country and there is hardly a city or town in the United States whereit has not yet reached. ‘It aims to root out the cap- italist anti-labor poison from the minds of the workers’ children and to bring them up in the spirit of the proletarian class struggle. It aims to show the children that their place is side by side with their parents and brothers and sisters in the ranks of the working class. Of course, the oy lighter sides of their, activity, suck. as ~ }- games, singing, plays, and®dramatiés + —are not neglected, but it is all direct- ed to one aim, it is all animated by one common purpose—to help the children of the workers develop so as to be able to take the place that is properly theirs in the ranks of labor. Every Workers’ Child a Pioneer. ot worker who understands what fate the capitalists are hold- ing out for his children and who wants to save his children from that fate, every worker who wants his children to grow up loyal to the work- ing class | and its ideals—every such worker must see that his children join the Young Pioneers of America, There is an organization in every town, in your also; if you don’t know anything about it, write to the nation- al office of the Young Pioneers of Am- erica, 1113 West Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill. You will receive all de- ; sired information there. Every work- ers’ child in the Young Pioneers of America! The Young Comrade! The Young Pioneers of American publish a monthly paper called The Young Comrade, This paper is gotten out for the working class by the work- ing children. It is full-of interesting stories, news, poems, pictures, etc. showing the truth about the world we live in and explaining the duty of. the workers’ children. Every workers’ child should read it! It costs only 5c. an issue and the subscription rates for a whole year are only 5c. Let your children have the Young Comrade! It will help to combat the poison instil- led by the capitalist schools. Every workers’ child a subscriber to the Young Comrade! Join the Young Pioneers of America! The Walden Book Shop 307 Plymouth Court (Between State and Dearborn Just South of Jackson) CHICAGO ai. aa