The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 17, 1926, Page 8

yuueemscere > By Morris Backall. HE Jewish workers who migrated to the United States in recent times were class conscious and social-, istically inclined. They built institu- tions and organized into unions and developed newspapers and put their confidence and their ideals into these institutions. They came from coun- tries of the old Russian empires, where the labor movement and the socialist organizations spread all over the towns and cities of the Jewish ghetto. The brought their class con- sciousness here, they fought in strikes and in demonstrations, they organized in the economic and political field. But the organizations and institu- tions the Jewish workers built be- came financially solid and economi- cally independent, and they developed into reactionary instruments of class collaboration. At the time of the world war, when the Jewish workers were strongly anti-militaristic, when the feeling against imperialism grew from day to day, the Jewish Daily Forward, then the only Jewish social- ist paper in this country, betrayed the masses and became pro-war, while the official heads of the large Jewish unions, such as the International La- dies’ Garment Workers, the Amalga- mated Clothing Workers and the Fur- riers, united with the capitalist class in the capitalist propaganda of pro- war sentiment. Then came the Russian revolution. The break of class solidarity that took place in-the hard and reaction- ary years of war became more vivid. The contradiction was expressed on the one hand in the relation of the Jewish workers towards the social revolution of the Russian workers and peasants, and on the other hand by the attitude of the official leaders and publications of the Jewish labor move- ment. , At the beginning of the Russian revolution the leaders of the Jewish labor movement in the United States and its publications could not do oth- erwise than maintain an attitude of friendliness toward the revolutionary workers’ and peasants’ republic, Their “friendship” was only in order that they could keep their hold on the Jewish workers. But among the Jew- ish workers of the United States many became conscious of the fact that the tactics of class collaboration and class peace which the social dem- ocratic leaders declared in the years of war and in the beginning of the revolutionary wave over the entire world was treason and betrayal of the class struggle. The Jewish work- ers began to look toward the tactics of the Communist Party of Russia and the program of the Third Interna- tional as the only possible and neces- sary tactics and program for the work- ers all over the world. Then the Jew- ish Daily Forward and the official leaders of the Jewish labor movement revealed their real nature. They not only openly opposed the Communist International but they became ene- mies of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics and wrote and spoke the same as the capitalistic press and counter revolutionary speakers did The more class-conscious Jewish workers came to the Workers (Com munist) Party, forming the Jewish section of the Workers’ Party. They also very legically founded a daily newspaper, the Jewish Daily Freiheit, as their organ of struggle in the field of the Jewish labor movement. It ig hard to. understand the strug- gle and also the accomplishment of the Jewish Daily .Fretheit, unless we picture to ourselves the organized field of the Jewish labor movement. Here the machine of tle venal bu- reaucracy became probably as strong as anywhere else in opposition noi only to Communism, but to any new element that challenged its rule and control. For these bureaucrats it was not merely a matter of principles and of ideas and ideals. To people like Abraham Cahan, editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, to Schlesinger or Sig- man, the successive presidents of the International Ladies’ Garment Work ers; to Hillman or Viadeck, it was more a question of personal position and power. In the earlier stages there was a certain period when rivalries between groups of bureaucrats in the needle trades caused the Hillman group of leaders of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers to make a gesture of support of the left wing, in the effort to utilize the vitality of the left wing for its own group struggle for wider power. But that period passed. There is now no more bitter or ruthless enemy of the workers in the needle trades than Hillman him- self. To fight with people like Cahan, Sigman, Hillman or Vladeck is like fighting with the mythical devil come into reality. You could never know what their answer would be and in what way their tactics woyld be ex- pressed, because to them every strug- gle was viewed as a personal struggle and in personal fights anything is permissible. When the Fretheit was organized its financial resources were not only lim- ited but somewhat’ of art impossible nature. It may be told that the first manager of the Jewish Daily. Frei- heit had something like $85 dollars to start the publication of the daily. Even the most intimate friends could not conceive that the life of the daily would be very long. But who thought of hesitating for lack of financial re- sources? We had a fight on hang We had to take the workers away from the influence of the yellow, treacherous Forward. We had to start a struggle to get rid of the cliques in the International Ladies’ Garment Workers that were ruining the union. .We had to challenge the tule of the Forward element which was fighting the class-conscious work- ers in the Workmen’s Circle. We had to answer to all lies spread against the Soviet Republic. And now, four years later, when we look at our successes, we can have an idea of what the Freiheit meant and means to the class-conscious Jewish HOW TO PAY THE WAR DEBTS. Uncle Sam must be paid by England, who must be paid by France, who must be paid by Germany, who “ain't got it.” Ff UNCLE CAPITALISM: “Go : : JEWISH DAILY FORWARD GANGSTER: “Yes sir, yes sir!” Fourth Birthday of the Jewish Daily Freiheit isy Wettuam Gropper get that Bolshevik!” workers in the labor movement of America, The Jewish workers in the unions know now the reactionary role of the Forward. The Forward is branded in their eyes as a counter-revolutionary organ which exists only because of the comfortable livelihood it provides its associates, strategically placed agents of the capitalist class. The Forward lost most of it power ‘in the Jewish labor movement. The International Ladies’ Garment Work- ers is in fact now led by the leaders of the left wing movement in Chicago and in New York. The joint boards and the largest and most powerful locals are led by comrades that be- lieve in the class struggle, that defend the interests of the rank and file and have confidence in the international solidarity of the workers all over the world. In the Workmen's Circle the Communist elements are the most lively, most energetic, and are leading the fight for recognition of the true principles of international class strug- ; gle. . ‘ The Fretheit itself is the expression and the reflection of all these activi- ties and struggles and ideals in the Jewish labor movement. Long live the Jewish Daily Freiheit! White Social-Democrats. ™ sociailst party of Poland has decided to stay in the coalition government. Only 3 votes out of 33 in the central executive committee were against it. Even the majority admitted that “in spite of the efforts of the socialist ministers” things have remained the same: Poland is gov- erned by the capitalists, despotism continues, the burden on the shoul- ders of the workers has not lessened, 20 reforms can be obtained. These -onfessions make the capitulations of the socialist leaders so much more ob- vious. Of course they have a “pro- gram.” Of course they have pious wishes. But the fact remains that they are responsible for the tyranni- cal oppression of the revolutionary workers’ movement. The Irak Question. remember how the league of nations decided to take the Mosul oil fields from Turkey and give them to England. The question be- fore the people in Irak was to go either with England against Turkey or with Turkey against British im- perialism. The exploiters of the peo- ple, the pashas and the begs, were for submission to British rule. But the masses of the people opposed this. There were stormy demonstrations in Kirkuk, Mosul and other places against the British. They could be suppressed only by force. (But of course the news of this was silenced by the British press.) There is also a parliament, so-called, in Irak. It con- sidered the question in closed session. The opponents were arrested and the gathering before the parliament was dispersed. Only then could the pashas ratify the “treaty.” But the national revolutionary movement is going on. Museum of Revolution The administration of the Revolution Museum of the So- viet Union has sent the follow- ing communication to the dele- gates of the session of the en- larged executive committee of the Communist International. EAR Comrades: The Revolution Museum of the Soviet Union, which is a center where are collected objects for exhibition of the history of the revolutionary move- ments, will in the near future begin to organize a Comintern department and applies to you with the following ~ quest: As it is impossible in the Soviet Union to collect documents on the his- | tory of the parties of other countries, an illustration of the work and ‘the his- . tory of the foreign parties will only be possible if you come to the assist- ance of the Revolution Museum by placing at its disposal all the neces- Sary material, as, for example, books, newspapers, factory newspapers, -re- ports, leaflets, appeals, posters, badges, flags, photographs, etc. The Revolution Museum is visited every month by 35,000 workers and it is necessary to render them ac- quainted with the Communist move- ment of all countries of the world, We request you to distribute this appeal among the comrades and to publish it in the party press. All material is to be sent either to the Revolution Museum of the Soviet Union, Moscow, Twerskaja 69 or to the agitprop department of the en- larged committee of the Communist International, Director of the Revolution Mu- seum: Mickevicz, leader of the Co- mintern department, Frumkin,