The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 18, 1926, Page 4

Page Four Organization Meetings |Workers (Communist): Party THE DAILY WORK Social Affaire Resolutions sarge Shall We Join the Reactionary Unions? By ©. A. HATHAWAY. Shall we join the unions? This is still a question be- fore the Workers (Communist) Party. On the basis of his experience as the leader of the working class, Com- rade Lenin answered, “Yes.” On the other hand, with practically no revolutionary experience, many comrades in our party, by their ac- tions at least, say, “No,” This answer is given in two ways. A few comrades refuse to join the aions because they are “leftists a tar larger group fail to join because they reflect the general indifference of the workers as a whole toward anionism. Both underestimate the role that our party must play in the imions. One comrade, speaking at a recent neeting in Chicago called for the yurpose of urging unorganized party nembers to join the union, boasted of he fact that he had been a member wf the party since its organization in 919. He said that he had always ween active in the work of the party, mt emphatically declared that he vould not join or pay dues into a reac- fonary, A. F. of L. union. By his ttitude, as well as by his statements, e implied that, by having these jews, he was proving himself to be | good Communist. “Leftists” Aid Bourgeoisie. Comrade Lenin, replying to similar tatements made by the German left” Communists, in his pamphlet, Left Communism,” page 34, say “The struggle with the ‘labor aris- yeracy’ we carry on in the name of ie working masses and for the pur- yse of winning the masses over to ir side. This struggle with the so- al-chauvinist and opportunist lead-'are not playing our revolutionary role | being carried out by this leadership. Reorganization in Philadelphia District | By ALEX BAIL. The reorganization of the party in r district is of utmost significance 4 of importance for the party as a wole. The anthracite and soft coal lds of Pennsylvania employing hun- eds of thousands of workers, the sel industry, the automobile, textile d clothing industries afford to the rty an approach to huge masses of wkers as yet not reached by our ganization. 36me*of us doubted whether our ‘mbership would grasp the funda- mtal problems of reorganization to » extent of making reorganization ssible without any significant loss proletarian elements. It is signi- amt that of opproximately 800 mem- *s which we addressed during reor- aization, only one comrade raised : issue of inadequate ideological pre- vation, Another fact should be ed, In every center in our district number of comrades who register- far exceeded the average number dues paying members. With such ponse a successful reorganization 3 assured. Some Experiences. ‘he Philadelphia, Baltimore, East- Washington, Richmond and Wil- igton organizations, comprising 90 cent of the membership, are now etically completely reorganized » experiences shori during the reactionary | ers must be carried on in order to at- tract the working class to us. It would be sheer folly to ignore this {most elementary and self evident truth, And it is precisely this folly that is being committed by the “left” German Communists, who, because of the reactionary and counter-revolu- tionary character of the leaders of the | withdraw from the unions, refusing to | work within them; evolving new and | fantastic forms of labor organizations, |In persisting in this unpardonable | folly, the Communists are rendering the greatest ‘service to: the bour- geoisie.” Of course, the overwhelming major- ity of our members do not express the j extreme “left” view of our” erring comrade, In fact, at the meeting | gbove referred to after the part that {our party must play had been empha- sized by leading comrades in the frac- tion, eighteen out of twenty present, unions, are now being assigned to the various Chicago locals of the craft of which this meeting was composed. What Is Our Job? almost seven years after the tion of our party, only 32 per cent of our membership is in the unions. Of course, some of our mem- | bers are ineligible for union member- ship and can still do effective work, {in many \ways, for Communism, but those who are in the industries must be made to realize the necessity of j joining the unions. Indifference to- | ward the trade union movement, such jas prevails amgng the bulk of our |membership, is as dangerous to our party as “leftism.” In either case, we Today, organi’ trade unions, jump at conclusions and? Of this number 3,000,000 are organ- expressed a wilingness to join the union, These eighteen comrades, who had been indifferent toward the} of winning the trade unions for the] class struggle. | Or as Lenin put it, “We must re-| | main in the reactionary unigns, work} | there, conjure the masses, Mine out | | the leaders and turn the unions into | organs of the revolution.” | In the United States there are ap- | proximately $2,000,000 wage workers. ized in the A, F. of L. and in the in- dependent unions, With very few ex- | ceptions the leadership of the unions s in the hands of reactionaries, lead- | ers who serve the interests of Amer- | ican imperialism, rather than the in- terests of the workers. This leader- ship betrays the workers in every struggle, an example of which is the present betrayal of the anthracite miners by Lewis. Organizationally, the laor move- ment of this country is very weak and will continue to be so as long as the present leadership is in control. The basic industries,—the steel industry, the iron mines, the automobile indus- try, the packing houses, as well as the |food industry generally, are almost completely withoyt union organiza- tion. Politically, the trade unions are still supporting the capitalist parties. The policy of rewarding its “friends” in these parties reflects the degree of {class consciousness of large sections of the movement. In the every day field of work, the unions are following a policy of class | collaboration instead of one of class | struggle; a policy of surrendering to | the bosses instead of fighting the bosses for improved conditions. The “B, and O. plan” of Johnston and the “Nash Agreement” of Hillman are ex- amples of the extent of the betrayals been won. Unions Must Be Won. In spite of these and many other in- dictments that might be made against the unions under the present leader- ship, they must be won for our party. It is and will continue to be impossi- ble to conquer political power until the struggle against “these agents of capitalism in the labor movement has ‘ Our membership must respond to the slogan of the party: “Into the unions.” Going into the unions'is in itself not enuf. Our members in‘ every local union, as well as in all other units of the labor movement, must form party fractions as explained. in the state- ment of the organization department. In these fractions they must study the problems of the industry in which they work and the problems of the workers generally. On ‘the basis of these studies, they must put forth a program which will tend to build the labor movement and improve the con- ditions of the workers. In this manner our comrades will win the confidence of the masses. As the betrayals f the leaders arouse greater and greater resent- ment among the workers, more of them will stand up in the unions and oppose these policies. We must co-op- erate with the Trade Union Educa- tional League in organizing these } more progressive and opposition ele- ments into its ranks to more effective- ly combat the officialdom. By going into the unions, by or- ganizing our Communist fractions, we can more effectively organize the pro- gressive elements and more quickly succeed in driving the present reac- tionary leadership out and in turning the American unions into organs of the class struggle. time in which the new units are func- tioning, are not very extensive; still there are experiences which are in- dicative of the renewed and intensi- fied activity, which are of interest and of value. I will give just a few such instances. In Automobile Plants. Report from a nucleus in a large factory, employing 3,000 workers: “Practically no party activity was car- ried on before we organized the nu- cleus altho all the comrades were scattered thru the shop. The shop works on the Ford system. You've got to keep going if you want to stay there. We carefully considered the problems of the shop and also carried out sé¢veral systematic distributions of party material. But we have now im- proved on our plan of distribution. This will enable our distribution of material without being spotted. The j auto parts are carried along on mov- ing tables from one worker to the other in the same department. We now place a bunch of Ieaflets in*the auto part and in a very short time every single worker has received his paper or leaflet and has carefully cucked it away in his pocket. Dur- ing the lunch hour groups of workers thruout the shop may be seen reading ind discussing the questions raised in he leaflet, By mixing with the work- rs we learn their reactions and will ‘ollow up the sympathetic workers in DANCE FORGET YOUR TROUBLES FOR ONE NIGHT. COME IN COSTUME TO THE SECOND ANNUAL PHILADELPHIA Daily Worker Ball (A MASQUERADE) FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 8 P. M. at Mercantile Hall, Broad and Master St. VALUABLE PRIZES ill be offered for original—beautiful—comiec and other costumes, Join Philly workers in the biggest event of the year, $1.00 Admission Includes Free Subscription to Wardrobe and a - The Daily Worker. et LIENS AE ELLE TL OLE ET ERNE SOE EEL NTE IRIE NEL OE EN TNE TT an effort to line them up. We have issued one small mimeographed leaf- let and are now gathering material for a shop bulletin.” Working in a Shipyard. Report from a nucleus in a large shipyard: “Comrades, you know what a hell of a. job we have to get our comrades into the unions. Well, at our last meeting we found four mem- bers who are not union members. We discussed this question for quite some time and finally all four promised to sign up. We are also distributing li- terature and have discussed shop problems extensively. We will soon issue a Shop Bulletin.” How We Win the Shops. Report from a nucleus in a clothing shop employing several hundred workers: “We sell all our party liter- ature and papers openly because it is a union shop, A collection for The DAILY WORKER was also done open- ly—even the foreman contributed a dollar, We are getting one new mem- ber at every meeting of the nucleus. When the shop elections came we called a meeting of the nucleus, made all our plans and carried the elec- tions. Our comrades now lead the shop. Due to our activity the work- ers in the shop are taking a greater interest in union work and also in general political work. We mobilize them for local union meetings and for party mass meetings such as Len- in memorial meetings and others, At- ter our group had functioned only two weeks we organized a nucleus of the Youtig’ Workers (Communist) League. The two nuclei in the shop are working together well.” New Life in Our Ranks. From Easton comes a yery enthusi-, astic report from a shop nucleus in a silk mill: “We started with a small group and doubled the membership at the first meeting of the nucleus. Most of our comrades do not speak fnglish very well but we are trying hard to learn and to approach the workers in the shop. We noticed some workers reading the Hungarian paper Elore and after a short talk with them got them to join the nucléus. We have some very good prospects for future work, Our next job is to get several of the members into the union. Thru our efforts we now have material for a nucleus in a neigh- boring silk mill. We also have organ- ized fractions in a literature society, beneficial society, in the union, in a women’s organization and in one or two others. In all these organizations our comrades have quite an influ- ence.” The attempt to develop new forms of activity is true not only in the shop nucléi but also in the street nu- cle, One comrade reports: “Our nu- cleus consists almost exclusively of Jewish comrades. A motion was made that we do not notify the non-Jewish omrades so that we may be able to conduct the meeting in Jewish. Of course, we did not even constfer this motion, How can we talk to the Eng- lish speaking workers if we do not Jearn to speak their language.” From another nucleus, “Our meet- ings are very short. Where a Rus- sian or Lithuanian comrade would make a long speech in his old branch, he gets up at the meeting of the nu- cleus, talks for two or three minutes, and his vocabulary being exhausted, he sits down. He is greatly satis- fied having expressed his opinion— and in English at that’ The rest of the meeting we devote to educational work. There should be more direc- tion from the agitprop.” Finnish Comrades. Lead Way. In Baltimore we saw, a characteris- tic example of the spirit in which our comrades are tackling tht problems of reorganization. Half they membership of the organization is Finnish. We were surprised to see the Finnish comrades taking the lead in this work. ER DETROIT LOCAL OPENS CAMPAIGN IN HAMTRAMCK Communists to Wage Active Fight for Toilers (Special to The Daily Worker) | DETROIT, Mich., Feb, 15 — Ham- tramck, a city surrounded by Detroit, is about to enter into a municipal elec- tion that promises to be the hottest in the history of the city, This town is the seat of the huge Dodge Bros. auto factories which employ about 40,000 workers,’ The Briggs plant, known among auto workers as the “slaughter house” is located here. General Motors has its Chevrolet gear and axle, and its G, M. truck plants located-here. L. A, Young industries, American Rariator, Russell Foundries, etc. ete., also find it congenial in this notorious open-shop town, The city is exclusively proletarian. Foreign- born workers, mostly, Polish and Ukrainian, make up fully 95 per cent of the population. They are, econom- ically and politically, at the mercy of as unscrupulous an aggregation of }brutal exploiters as ever turned ‘human energy into golden profits. Ruthless Suppression of Workers, Hamtramck city administrations have long been notorious for ‘their graft and corruption, The city boasts more blind pigs to the square inch than any other place in the United States. So corrupt have some of these administrations been that an almost equally corrupt state administration has found it expedient to send in the state cossacks to do police duty. As is usually the case in such a situation, any attempt on the part of the work- ers to express themselves publicly is ruthlessly suppressed. In Hamtramck the elections are non-partisan. They choose “good men” to administer the affairs of this city. These “good men” see to it that “radical agitators” who talk to the workers about their rights to organ» ize do not spread discontent among them. To these “good men” every union man is a radical and every radical a bolshevik and they maintain courts and jails to teach them law and order. ‘ Hamtramck Meeting Tonight. The Workers Party will participate in the election this year. Since the elections are non-partisan it cannot enter under its own name, As there is an almost total absence of organi- zation in the Hamtramck factories, Thru the campaign carried on by the central committee and the Finnish bureau there is not a‘single Finnish comrade in Baltimore sho is not a convinced supporter of reorganization. Several nuclei were organized. Of special importance is a;nucleus of 60 members in a steel mill employing 4,000 workers. There is, no doubt but that this nucleus will become an im- portant factor in the economic and political life of the workers in the shop. , Organizing Unorganized, Report from a small nucleus in a shoe factory: The bosses ordered a cut of five cents on each pair of shoes. Some 125 workers in one department were affected. Altho there was abso- lutely no organization in the shop the workers resented it. A shop meeting was called attended by about 75 work- ers, mostly Italian and Polish. The workers were helpless. On one side the inability to speak one language which all will understand and on the other fear of losing the job for speak- ing at the shop meetinge Our small group of comrades had met and had considered just such a possibility. One of our comrades took over the chair- manship of the meeting. Later it turned out that there was no one will- ing to act as secretary. One of the comrades of the nucléus was imme- diately elected to keep the records of the meeting. One Polish worker addressed the workers in Polish fol- lowed by the leading comrade in our nucleus in Italian. Both’ speakers urg- ed the workers to organize, A se- cret vote was taken and by a vote of 54 to 4 it was decided, to organize a local. It is significant that the Ital- ian workers, some 40 in number, vot- ed unanimously for the organization of a local, Application cards were distributed and the 54 workers im- mediately organized injo the local. The next day the boss withdrew the cut in wages, but the organization re- mains to fight for the demands of the workers in the shop. »Our little nu- cleus of three Italiam workers can claim quite a share in »this construc: tive activity in the shdp. I consider that as # splendid ex- ample of the functioning of our shop nuclei especially in unorganized shops, It is by such activity that our comrades will succeed in winning the confidence of the workers, FREE LITERATURE SUPPLIED, MILWAUKEE, Wis.--yFree copies of the YOUNG WORKER, Tribuna Robétnicza, Pravda, and Honor and Truth, can be secured from Frank Milder, $21 Clylesurn St., Milwaukee, Women's Day Celebration A in Chicago SATURDAY EVE., MARCH 6 at 4 NORTHWEST HALL Cor, North and Western Aves. t {3rd flooriy All friendly organi#ations are requested not to arfiange other affairs on that day,* there cannot be a labor party based upon the trade unions. The Workers Party, therefore, will give its endorse- ment to a slate of candidates known among the workers for their uncom- promising hostility to capitalism, A meeting will be held at Ukrainian Hall 2376 Grayling St., Tuesday, Feb. 16, at 8:00 p. m. At this time ‘steps will be taken to enter into the cam- paign, All members of the Workers Party and its sympathizers residing in Hamtramck are urged to attend_this meeting. The primary election will be held Wednesday, March 3, and the election will be Tuesday, April 6.) GHIGAGO I, L. D. WILL HOLD MANY MEETINGS _ DURING THIS WEEK An International Labor Defense Protest and Rally will be held in the Liberty Hall, 14tp and 49th Court, Ci- cero, Wednesday evening Feb. 17 at 8 o'clock. a ee The Irving Park Branch of the In- ternational Labor Defense will hold its meeting Thursday Feb. 18. A short talk on the Bimba Blasphemy Trial will be given. Bring your, friends to this meeting, at 4021 N. Drake Ave. Alex Reid will speak on the “Strug- gle of the Miners and their Persecu- tions.” . . The Karl Marx club will hold its meeting Thursday evening, Feb. 18, 8 o'clock at 2733 Hirsch Blvd. Read—Write—distribute The DAILY WORKER. « DAILY WORKER BUILDERS CONCERT AND BANQUET— BOTH COME OFF SUNDAY NEW YORK, Feb. 16.—New York is to-have cond DAILY WORK- ER Builders’ Concert. It will be held on Sunday, Feb, 21, at 2 p. m, at the Yorkville Casino, 86th street and Third avenue, At six in the evening of that same day in the banquet hall of the same building he DAILY WORKER Builders’ banquet will begin. Build- ers are coming from Boston, Phila- delphia and Washington to the ban- quet to which only builders are in- vited and for which no amount of money can buy a ticket, The banquet hall holds 500. The first 500 builders who have brot in $10 worth of subscriptions or dona- tions to The DAILY WORKER are entitled to tickets and should secure them at The DAILY WORKER of- fice as early as sible, J, Louis En editor of The DAILY WOR ‘is. coming from Chicago to spea' he concert and at the banquet. - issaye J. Olgin and Pascal Cosgrove will also speak at the concert, .. t i WIT THE Y, CONDUCTED - BY TH 4 By JOHN HARVEY. At the last meeting of our concen- tration group the first order of busi- ness was a report by Comrade L, on ganize a nucleus, Comrade L. first. explained to us how he had been fired because he re- fused to be transferred into a depart- ment in the big electrical shop where the men were out on strike, and then told us about canditions in’ the plant. When Comrade L. first applied at the X Blectric company: for a job, he had to give all kinds of references and prove that he had experience be- fore he could get a job. But as soon as he was hired he was given any kind of Work at the lowest of pay. Use Young Workers as Scabs. He had been working there some time, when the men in another build- ing who had joined the union with- out the boss knowing it, went on strike because some of them were fired. Soof after the strike started at this building, the bosses transferred Comrade L. and some other young workers to the office, and they had not been working there long before the boss ordered them to go into the struck plant as scabs. Comrade L. re- fused and was immediately fired be- cause he would not break the strike for the bosses. How They Get Scabs. While Comrade L. was in the office WORKERS UNG WORKERS LEAGUE HOW CONCENTRATION GROUPS WORK” A Chicago Group Sets Pace in Contribution to Exchange of Ex- periences, Shows-How Based ona Report the Group Is Set Into Motion with First Tasks. he had a good chance to see how the company obtained’ scabs, One-day a ex-soldier came in who was a good electrician and should have been able the shop. where we are trying to or-| Jo make a $1.50 an hour if he was in the union. The bosses told him they would give him a job at 60 cents an hour in the plant on strike, and made him all kinds of nice promises for the future. They said there was only a little trouble over personal questions, and said that if there was any real trouble they would have set- tled it right away rather than get in- to trouble. : Plan Organization. This is the way they fool a worker and get him to scab. After Comrade L. finished his report on the shop we had a discussion and agreed that he should try to get in touch with some of the young workers he knéw at the plant, as well as Comrade D,, who also worked in this shop once, We also appointed comrades to sell the Young Worker at the shop once a week, and Comrade L. promised to write a story for the next issue of the Young Worker so that the young workers at the X. Electric company plants will know that we fight for their interests. At the next meeting a of our concentration group we are going to discuss our economic trade union work and see that every mem- ber understands this work and is a member of the union. The Work Among the Jewish Speaking Working Youth Must Be Intensified The National Sub-Committee for Jewish Work Issues Call for the Immediate Return of Questionnaire Answers. The Jewish work must be pushed forward, With the reorgahization the task 6f reaching the young worker on every field where he is found must be intensified, Our agitation and pro- paganda must be carried on in all places where the working youth is found, the shops, trade unions, clubs and other youth organizations, We cannot afford to leave the‘Social life of the young working to, be in- fluenced by the capitalist class. The bourgeoisie makes use of all the so- cial and sports clubs, giving the young workers a good time in order to divert their attention from the class strug- gle. Our duty is to bring in those clubs our ideas and to show thé young workers therein the means. that the bourgeoisie is using. We must set these young workers into motion along class lines and thus draw them closer and finally into the league. How can it*be done? By approach- ing a young worker and telling him: Be a Communist! Or by hollering: Long live the revolution! Or rather by systematically propagandizing these young workers, by having a correct policy of approach. This pol- icy must be worked out nationally and must be best fitted to the physiol- ogy of the Jewish speaking working youth, The national office can base its work only on the information and help from the local units. Did you do “SHOPPING” your part? Did you answer the ques- tionaire of the sub-committee for Jewish work? If not, why? Don’t you know that by neglecting your duties you retard the work of the national office! If you have some information on the problem of the Jewish speak- ing working youth, send same to the national office and for publication in the paper. Chicago Member: Meet Sign of Start In- creased Work The Chicago Young Workers (Com- munist) League held the most success- ful membership meeting in many months Sunday when nearly 70 per cent of the membership was_present. The discussion at the meeting, was both constructive and instructive. The meeting was opened b ythe dis- trict organizer, Comrade Max Salz- man. Comrade Max Shachtman was elected chairman. In order to give a more collective direetion to the meet- ing a presidium was élected consist- ing of the chairman and Comrades Gilbert Greenberg and Al Glotzer. The agenda consisted of a report by the district organizer and Valeria Meltz, district industrial organizer. Comrade Salzman reported on the functions of the league. He dealt with Wie tasks of the concentration groups, showing that their ‘tasks’ were fundamentally to esteblish a nucleus in the shop around which the group is concentrated, As steps toward this end, the comrades were to make their groups work centers, Thru the con- centration groups the sales of the Young Workers are to be increased. The comrades must concentrate on the sales of the paper around the shop. The importance and the means of the distribution of shop bulletins was also emphasized, - The Pioneer movement is function- ing much better, it was pointed out. Then a short report on the leagues outside Chicago was given which showed the difficulties our comrades had to face, particularly in the coal fields, where,a reign of terror was being, conducted by the Farrington + machine, The speaker ended his re- Port by stressing the need for fac- tory activity. Comrade Meltz gave a report on the industrial activity of the league showing the necessity for our com- tades taking part in activity in the trade unions, and fighting for the de- mands of the working class youth. Interesting discussion followed both reports and comrades left the hall de- termined to build the league and bring our organization closer to the masses of young workers, RUN BENEFIT AFFAIR FOR EAST OHIO CONFERENCE. You are invited to attend the basket party and entertainment arranged by the Jewish branch of the Young Work- ers League. An interesting program consisting of musical and vocal solos, story telling, dancing‘and other features has been arranged, 4 Prizes will be given for the best baskets, Refreshments will be served free. The party will be given at our head- quarters, 5811 Woodland Ave. (Frei- heit Hall), Sunday, Feb, 21, at 5 p, m, —— A DON’T FORGET THE BIG EVENT —THE TRUMBULL YOUNG WORKER AFFAIR, The affair takes place on Sunday evening, March 7, at Imperial Hall, 2409 N, Halsted St., Chicago, Watch for more announcements, 4 BRONX CLASS IN FUNDAMENTALS NEW YORK CITY—The Bronx sec tion of the Y. W. L. has opened a class in “Fundamentals of Commun- ism,” held at 1347 Boston Rd., every Friday, 8 p, m. All young workers in’ vited. Free admission, ~ ©