The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 22, 1926, Page 13

determination of the sixteen thousand Passaic strikers to main- tain the fight for the improvement of their conditions to a victorious end has not flagged, and the failure of the mill owners to break the backbone of their “slaves,” after a desperate cam- paign of twelve weeks, is now obvious to all. Applying all methods within thelr power, such as police, arrest, clubbing, jails and the press, church and the American Legion, the situa- tion in Passaic and in the vicinity of the striking areas assumed a different Aspect. Mayor Burke, of Garfield, who is in the employment of the Botany mills, where six thousand workers are out on strike, dug out an old, anti- quated law, which was passed in the state of New Jersey in 1861 during the Civil War, prohibiting demonstra: tions, meetings, public, assemblages, etc., etc, and authorizing a county aheriff to disperse, arrest and shoot anyone who fails to obey any of these provisions one hour after the reading of the riot act by the county sheriff. On Monday, April 12th, Mayor Burke of Garfield imvited Sheriff Nimmo of Bergen county to read the riot act before the strikers and thus to break up their meetings, arrest the leaders, prohibit picketing in what- ever form and proclaim martial kw. Uader that law the strikers would not be allowed to assemble, which would mean losing contact with one another. In the meanwhile the gates of the mills would be thrown open and in due time all the workers would return to work at their oki conditions, losing faith in the union and its leaders. Then the workers would submit to the will of the employers without protest, and perhaps another reduction in wages to make up for the losses su- tained during the strike. And Hurrah! for the American flag, which flies and embraces so many wonderful people who are willing and ready to do any- thing to protect the profits of big. business, such were the beliefs and contentions:-of: the; .big,and powerful owners and their servants. Right after the invitation, Sheriff Nimmo, who presumably knew of the plans of Mayor Burke, immediately appeared with one hundred and fifty sworn-in plain clothes men, armed with riot guns, at a big meeting, which was held at Belmont Park Hall, where over three thousand strikers were lis- tening to the speakers discussing the arrest of their leader, Weisbord, and the atrocities and brutality with which the police dispersed and broke up the demonstration of the children of the strikers on Saturday. The sheriff jumped up on the platform, read the riot act and ordered the peaceful gath- ering to clear the hall. In the mean- time the guerillas took advantage of their power, which was intrusted to them, and cracked a few skulls of the strikers with their nightsticks, while the police were busy arresting the speakers and the most active strikers. Two days after martial law was pro- claimed and the riot act read a friend of mine and myself made our way to Passaic to see how the authorities of Bergen county were enforcing “law and order.” At the headquarters of the union we met several people, among them mem- bers of the Civil Liberties Union and @ number of the League for Indus- trial Democracy, including Norman Thomas. The ladies and gentlemen of the respective organizations came to test out their rights as free American citizens, not to violate the law and order, oh no, but merely to see whether it was possible to be arrested speaking to people who came yol- untarily to listen and to discuss con- stitutional rights in the great and free democratic America, At the office of the union there pre- yailed a strenuous and nervous ten- sion as @ raid was expected any min- ute. bi All the leaders were practically fm jail under heavy bail, all meeting halls were closed by the police; there was no contact possible with the masses, yet those of the more fortu- mate strikers who were still in the office and not in jail were far from pessimistic. On the contrary, in spite the last few weeks they strengthened their will power, tightened the ranks, tospired all with their enthusiasm and ‘were determined to fight fearlessly, In the afternoon an open meeting was arranged by the Civil Liberties Union and the League for Industrial Democracy with Norman Thomas as speaker. Coming to the place where the meeting was supposed to take place, we found the meeting over and Norman Thomas arrested and taken to jail as soon as he mentioned the name of Weisbord and that the entire meeting lasted not more than a few minutes. While we were standing and listening to the story of our kind in- formant, we noticed mounted ' police On motorcycles with side cars, auto- mobiles, trucks filled with plain clothes men carrying shotguns in their hands ready for action, rushing in our direction. Seeing that, the crowd in- stantaneously separated, moving in all directions. My friend and I as- sumed a dignified pose, walking as tho we knew nothing about the entire affair. But it seems our “disguise” did not help us much, as a motorcycle with a police-captain im the side car turned around toward us, commanding we obeyed his “gentle request.” He Nae How I Was “Deported” - jumped out of his car, and here I thought that that short, stocky fellow with a loud and authoritative voica to stop. Having no choice in the matter, with smail piercing eyes and an excep- tionally heavy jaw moving from one side to another, a big revolver pro- trading from under his belt, and a huge nightstick in his hand, was ready to kill us first and arrest us after- wards. “Where do you come from you sons of b——, and what in hell are you doing here?” poured forth from his “lady-like” mouth. Learning that we were from New York, his vocabu- lary began to choke the air: “You god-damned Communist coming here to disturb our peaceful and law-abid- ing community. . . You better get to hell out of here as fast as light- ning, or you'll be landing in a hospital, you sons of ——., and never come back to this town, or you'll stay here for good” (meaning the cemetery). Fortunately, a bus bound for Pas- saic was approaching and we hopped on, thinking we finally got rid of them. But we noticed, as we turned around, Who Is Pilsudsky? “ besser PILSUDSKI got the inspira- tion to become a polish edition of Napoleon and Mussolini at the same time. He is well known to us in this role. Joseph Pilsudski comes from the polish nobility. He is himself the owner of an estate in the Vilna dis- trict. Today he is the ruler of a large part of Poland with the ambi- tion to rule the whole of Poland and to carry his ambitions even further. His dream of dreams is to “unite” Poland with the Ukraine, where the workers and peasants are now living freely, having gotten rid of the land- lord and capitalists, many of whom were of polish nationality. He dreams of-a Poland “from sea to sea,” from the Baltic to the Black Sea, .:. Pilsudski’s progfath ‘is’ his Own "per- sonality, the army, the general staff, and war. He looks upon the people as a butcher does upon a poor lamb. He is a militarist and imperialist much of the type of the 18th century. He tries to give birth to Polish romantic- ism; to revive old Polish glory. Whom does Pilsudski represent? First, the petty bourgeoisie, the in- telligenzia, part of the rich peasantry and those of the military who are looking for victories on the battle- fields. Pilsudski is the inspiration of militant, middle-class nationalism. On the international field Pilsudski believes that there is hope for him there. England would be glad to have a man like him in Poland, because, when she decides to wage war against the Soviet Union, Pilsudski would be Teady to serve. Pilsudski is dream- ing of war against the Soviet Union. He is a militarist who believes he has Many grievances against the terrible bolsheviks, He wants “glory” for Poland. In his latest lecture he says: “The chief of the army must produce victories in order to raise the prestige of his coun- try.” This is Pilsudski’s program. ’ He came into prominence from the Polish socialist party, which he joined early in his youth, in 1892. Im 1894 he became the editor in chief of the central organ of the Polish Socialist (P. P. S.) “Robotnik,” in which he propagated not Marxism or Socialism, but “unity of the Polish nation against the czar.” He was arrested and ex- fled to Siberia for five years. Fol- lowing that he was again arrested and spent some months in the famous tenth pavilion in the Warsaw fortress. There the simulated insanity and was sent to Petersburg to an asylum, from where he escaped with the aid of a friendly doctor. In the revolution of 1905 Pilsudski, for the first time, showed what he was really fighting for. He went to Tokio to ask the Mikado of Japan for financial assistance to organize the By Harry Tarr that a motorcycle was speeding, tok lowing our bus. In ite sidecar a guer- villa, rifle in hand, was pointing in our direction. The ride to Passaic seemed rather a long one, as he stopped practically at every point-the bus halted. We surely thought that we would be dragged from the car and put either in jail or hospital, as we were ceaselessly watching the moves and actions of our “guardians.” To confess, the journey was not a very pleasant one, tho we pretended to be quite happy and gay, making casual remarks to our neighbors about our royal departure from Garfield. Finally we reached the border line of Passaic and as soon as we crossed to the other side of Passaic our watch- ful and “respectable” citizens of Ber- gen county halted, waited a few min- utes and then turned back with a sat- isfied broad smile on their faces say- ing: “Well, we got rid of two terrible agitators, now everything will be quiet and peaceful.” But the struggle ts going on. By K. Gebert Pan Pilsudski Imitating Senor Mussolini. had mo confidence in him. Pilsudski always fought against the unity of the Polish workers with the Russian revo- lutionary organizations, After the revolution of 1905 Pilsud- ski went to Galicia, Austria. There he sought, with the aid of the govern- ment of Francis Joseph, to organize a “Polish army” for future war against the czar. He succeeded in this and fought in the world war under the imperialist flags of the central Euro- pean powers, With the birth of the Polish repub- lic Pilsudski became the head of the “people’s government.” This govern- ment, composed of reformist-socialists (Moraczewski, leader of the P. P. &., ‘was premier) and rich peasant party leaders, first of all, turned against the workers, The then existing Workers’ Councils were outlawed. The work- ers’ press was suppressed. The “peo- ple’s” militia fired on workers’ demon- strations. Workers were dragged to jail. The strike of the railroad work- ers was answered by the militariza- tion of the railroads. The mission of struggle in Poland against the czar. |the Soviet Red Cross, then in Poland, On the day he reached Japan the Pol- {sh Socialist Party organized a pro- test against participation in the Rus- sian war against Japan. Pilsudski failed to get support from the Japan- ese government because the latter headed by Bronislay Wesolowski, prominent leader of the revolutionary socialists in Poland, together with his comrades, were murdered by the Pil- sudski-Moraczewski political police. Many other revolutionists who re- turned to “free Poland” met the same fate. When Paderewski succeeded Mora- czewski to the premiership, ° Pilsudgki remained the marshal of Poland and head of the army, ‘ : In 1920 Pilsudski led the War against the Soviet Republic, Pilsudski’s present revolt must be looked upon as an attempt to estab- lish a military dictatorship of left wing fascism. Pilsudski is fighting the right wing fascist element headed by General Haller, also a famous butcher of the Polish workers and peasants, who is supported by the big landlords. His headquarters are in Posen, formerly the German part of Poland. Pilsudskf's revolution has nothing in common with the workers. On the contrary, Pilsudski’s uprising was made for the purpose of preventing a workers’ revolution, which is fast ma- turing in Poland. The workers will take power in their hands, not with Pilsudski, but against him, against his colleagues from the right wing of the Polish Socialist Party and the go- called Workers’ National Party, The workers will establish their rule un-, der the leadership of the Communist Party of Poland in alliance with the poor peasantry and the oppressed na- tional minorities, ’ foe