The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 5, 1926, Page 13

| Peonizing the Foreign Born The Exploited Immigrant Proletariat—Their Brave Struggles—The Attack of the Masters— The Anti-Alien Bills-The Washington Conference—Black Days By Thurber Lewis. V¥ industry in the United States depends on the foreign- born worker, ‘The Italian, Slav, Hun- garian, Pole—these nationalities, with a lesser number of other countries— all workers born im alien lands, make up a majority of those who run the steel mills, the mines, the heavy in- dustries of the country. America as a capitalist nation has become rich and world powerful be- cause of her enormous resources, yes, but chiefly because there were work- ers to build these resources into in- dustries—and profits. In this epic of pyramided wealth the foreign-born worker has had a heavy role. The millions of foreign-born work- ers who are in this country now and the millions more who came here and died in the harness have not had an easy time of it. Along with the Negro, these immigrants are the most ex- ploited workers én the country. They are the poorest paid, they work the longest hours, they do the hardest work, Foreign Workers Are Handicapped. HE foreign-born worker has been handicapped in the matter of his own protection. He has no political Tights; outside the coal fields unfons are weak or do not exist at all in the industries in which he predominates; there are discriminatory laws in many states against him; racial and lan- guage divisions make unity of action difficult. Indeed, it hag been one of the weapons of his exploiters to fos- ter these differences. Yet the rank and file of some of the largest and bravest struggles re- corded in the history of the American labor movement were foreign-born workers. Homestead, Lawrence, Lud- low, the steel strike of 1919—and foe forget the BArte°SE Passaic rag- ing now-—these mames stand as a tribute to the fighting spirit of the foreign-born worker in America. Brave Struggles Drowned in Blood. HAT happened to these achieve- ments? Without exception they have been drowned tn brutality and blood. Cossacks, militia, stool-pig- eons, industrial spies, the blacklist, are some of the things the foreign- born worker is up against. The industrial serfs of America, the foreign-born workers, number the bet- ter part of the foreign-born popula- tion of the country—fourteen million. This polyglot mass of ‘wage slaves has never achieved the unity of de- fense that the attacks of their ex- ploiters upon them both justify and make necessary. It is only in time of strike, when small sections of them are objects of economic offensive, that they manage to unite—as workers— for their common defense. Mass Attack on Workers. UT NOW THE WHOLE FOREIGN- BORN WORKING POPULATION OF THE COUNTRY IS FACED WITH AN UNPRECEDENTED POLITICAL ONSLAUGHT. It is not enough for them to be helots. It is not enough for their strikes to be broken by sheer military assault. It is not enough for them to be preyed upon in every way by the industrial overlords. They must now be registered, catalogued, held under constant surveillance and, if need be, deported or jailed. Proposed legislation now pending in the United States Congress makes provision for this. Tremendous forces are at work to make these bills into laws. i Thus comes unity. For the first time in the history of the country, NATIONALLY, ferences before an attack directed not against this race or that but against @ class, The Washington Conference. N the 15th and 16th of May 150 del- egates representing more than a half million workers, mostly foreign- THE CAPITALISTKeep these foreigners and Bolsheviks out. Wm, Gropper. We caf now make good use of the Negroes and the bankrupt farmers. fight against anti-alien bills before con- gress. Foreign-born workers, aided by American-born workers who realize that the attack is not merely upon the immigrant worker, but upon the whole working class, met in national conven- tion for united, mutual protection against further enslavement. This fact is historical. Nineteen unions, thirty fraternal or- ganizations, the Polish Catholic Union (150,000 members), twelve local coun- cils for the Protection of the Foreign- Born and six miscellaneous. organiza- tions were represented. A permanent national body was created. A na- tional executive committee of seven- teen was chosen. The immediate purpose of the or- ganization is to conduct a campaign against the Aswell, McClintic, Hayden and Taylor and a dozen other bills be- fore congress that constitute an open and dangerous menace to the foreign- born workers in the United States. What are these bills? A Reduced Living Standard. N general, they are part of a cam- paign to reduce the standard of liv- ing of the American working class. This may seem far-fetched. It is not. Intensified competition in foreign mar- kets will make this reduction neces- sary for American capitalism. It means that the whole working class is the object of attack. What part of an army does an enemy attack first? The weakest, of course. Which part of the American working class is the weakest, the most amenable to at- tack, the least able to defend itself, without political rights, and the most enslaved? Those who came here from other lands. In particular, these bills mean the setting up of a national industrial, OFFICIAL blacklist system with the full legal authority of the United States government to enforce it. It is.a, black-passport system that will bind and gag the immigrant worker and deliver him, helpless, tothe most insufferable exploitation. The bills, if they become laws, will make trade unions among the foreign-born work- ers an impossibility. The first sign of rebellion will be met by jail or de- portation. The Insidious Aswell Bill. the Aswell bill. It is entitled: “For the registration of aliens and for other purposes.” It provides that foreign-born, unnaturalized residents in this country shall register once every calendar year. The execution of the bill means that every foreign- born worker will, upon demand, be re- quired to produce a registration card, stamped to date, giving his complete identification. For the privilege of be- ing permitted to enter this great na- tional rogue’s gallery, the alien af- fected by the statute will be required to pay the government $10 for the initial registration and $5 for each subsequent registration. Whenever an alien moves he must report the circumstances to the near- est postoffice within two days. When- ever his features or physical appear- ance change he must report that also. If he is arrested in a strike for pick- eting, for violating an injunction or as the result of the many frame-ups commonly engineered by the bosses, it becomes part of his record. Fancy his chance of getting a job in one of Gary’s mills with an item like that listed on his registration card. Fancy organizing a union in one of Gary’s or any other mill under such circum- stances. The punishment provided in this iniquitous proposal is $5,000 fine, im- prisonment for two years or both for violating in any way its exacting spec- ifications. Seven million . workers would be affected by this law. Revival of Palmer Days. HE McClintic bill is a deportation measure. It gives the United States department of labor unlimited power over aliens in this country. It allows the department of labor, aye, it urges the department to out-do Palmer at his best and pack to the bulwarks as many “Bufords” as it cares to send out of harbor. The bill declares that all aliens who have been in the country for five years and have not become citizens are liable to de- portation within six months after the bill becomes a law. Well, why can’t all aliens take out papers? Why, in- deed! Try to get them. It’s no easy job. And is it strange that all the de- portation bills pending make not even a gesture at rendering naturalization easier? The other bills are variations on the theme. Some of them appear very harmless and innocent. But they are sinister. They are all part of the same scheme—the compléte” énslavé- ment of the foreign-born workers and the wrecking of the labor movement. The American Federation of Labor has recognized this. It is fighting the bills. Labor councils and local unions by the hundreds have condemned them. The labor movement as a whole is becoming alive to their mean- ing. The Washington conference for the Protection of the Foreign-Born will soon be followed by another confer- ence to carry the fight thru the next session of congress. Black Days If They Pass. NLY a few of the less poisonous bills have been reported out of committee this session of congress. These are bills that are directed against “smuggled” aliens, those who have returned to the country follow- ing deportation and “criminals.” They are the beginning. Never fear that the others have been abandoned. If they go thru it will mean black days for the American® workers! The Italian Workers Have Lost a Great Leader ERRATI is dead, He breathed his last on May 12, born, met in the Playhouse at Wash-j| while out on a walk in the outskirts ington, D, 0, It was the National Con-|of Rome, He was quite well upon ference for the Protection of Foreign- | leaving his home that day, but began Born Workers. He fainted, and died a few minutes afterwards. Italian labor has lost a great leader. The honest, sincere and devoted servant of the cause of the working class, is no more. A Socialist Veteran and Revolutionist, ERRATI was born in 1862 into a family of middle class people. His father was a follower and co-worker of Mazzini and Garibaldi, the two great fighters for the liberation and independence of Italy. The revolu- “| tionary traditions of Serrati’s family have left a deep impression on his later views and activities. The dead leader of the Italian work- ers was a representative of the earbier generation of Italian socialists, Al- ready in his youth Serrati became subject to persecutions for his social- ist views. He had joined the Socialist Party at its inception in 1892, in Geneva, In 1893 Serrati was delegated by his party to the world congress of the Second (socialist) International in Zurich, Switzerland, Because of Its object was tol|to feel week while ascending a hill.| persecutions, Serrati was compelled to spend a good deal of his life abroad. Takes Mussolini’s Place in Socialist Party. OLLOWING the expulsion of Mus- solin{, the present fascist dictator of Italy, from the Socialist Party, in 1914, Serrati became the editor of “Avanti!”, the central organ of the Socialist Party. During the world im- perialist war Serrati was waging_a consistent struggle against the war and for international working class solidarity. He lacked, however, the revolutionary clearness of the follow- ers of Lenin to realize that the strug- gle against imperialist wars means a struggle against capitalist rule and for the dictatorship of the proletariat. Serrati—A Communist FTER much wavering and hesita- tion Serrati became a trusted and active member of the Communist In- ternational. With the death of Serrati there went out of our midst an honest Com- munist who has given his entire life for the proletariat, » ter er ee eer