The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 24, 1926, Page 13

By T. J. O'FLAHERTY HERE were the Communists dur ing the general strike? What were they doing? “That reminds me of a etory” as an.old 8. L. P. speaker was in the habit of saying when his audience showed signs of restlessness after the first three hours. Really it is more like an excerpt from a St, Patrick’s day patrictic speech than an anec- dote. But I think it is good. | During the battle of Fredericks- burg,—this was in Civil War daye—an Irish soldier was anxious to die with the Irish Brigade, if death was to be his lot on that day. He shouted: “Where is the Irish Brigade?” And he was answered above the din of battle, Iam afraid by a fellow country- man: “Where is the Irish Brigade? Where the battle rages loudest; where the leaden hail pours thickest; where steel meats steel with the sharpest clang—there the sons of Erin fight and bleed.” And while the use of superlatives and military terms in this article may be only justified were I to resort to verse—as the British general strike did not develop leaden showers or the din of clashing steel—yet in this great struggle the Communists were in the front of the fight leading it in some places and taking orders as the case may be, in full, performing their duty as a part of the army of labor. A few words on the boasted freedom allowed by the British government to its subjects. Even American radicals suffered from the delusion that the British ruling classes were “different” from their crude imitators in the United States and in other countries, in allowing the workers to blow off steam in Hyde Park and say things about the realm that would land an American agitator behind the.bars. Those glassy-eyed radicals ignored the fact, that where real danger faced the empire, where action.-was lable to follow’ talk, where conversation be- tween radicals did not run into futile discussions on the evolution of the human being into such a perfect crea- ture that he would grow a wart on the back of his neck to render unneces- sary tha presence of a collar button, and incidentally put the collar button trust out of business, in those imper- fal real estate subdivisions, the hand that was gloved in Hyde Park wore knuckle dusters. There was no dan- ger of immediate trouble for the Brit- ish ruling classes from their factory slaves, who filled their ekins with food and drink, such as it was, partly at the expense of the still more ex- Ploited slaves in the colonies. Br thosa happy days of British imperialism ere gone forever, The British worker has changed. The colonial slaves are champing on the imperial bit and they have seen too many bloody bayonets in tha world war to be frightened even by an Am- ritsar massacre, A threatened revolt in the heart of the empire ig the inevitabla conse- quence of the loss of British trade to its dearly beloved rival, the United States (such love is indeed rara be- tween pals) and to the reduced spoils from the colonies, protectorates, de- pendencies, and mandatories, The British wofker can no longer fill his belly with stale beerand chips and the imperialists can no longer take enuf from the Hindoo-Hgyptian Peter to soothe the temper of the skilled British craftsman Paul, and leave the fat man enuf to live in his customary style. Action is lable to follow words now in Merrie England and the velvet glove is now deposited in the British historical museuma while the mailed fist is brot into play. It is the operation of the law of self- preservation and as sure as a cat will jump at a mouse the capitalist class, sauve or surly, plebian or aristocratic, will all do the game thing in much the Same way to their natural enemies when necessity arises. Freedom of speech, of the press and of assem- blage is as dead today in England as it is in Passaic, New Jersey or in Boston, Massachusetts, the home of the dried and srered codfish and the birthplace of Paul Revere. few government has been sniping at the British Communist Party for several years. Tho the party is small in numbers, it has considerable ‘influ- ence among the workers. The greater part of its membership are in the trade unions and many of them oc- cupy leading positions in the unions. Tho there is a constant theoretical war on between the Communists and all other workingclass political par- ties, nevertheless, many local labor parties, and I. L, P. branches invite Communists to speak at their meet- ings and look upon the party as their Political guide. g The Minority Movement, which is led by such well known trade union- ists as Harry Pollitt, Nat Watkins, Tom Manh, George Hardy and sup Ported by A. J. Cook, Gossi and other prominent Jeft wing cg Soe? was given its program by the Communist militants in the trade unions, Its most active spirits are Communists and hundreds of thousands of work- ers follow its lead, Many of the slo- gans that it issued were reluctantly adopted by the trade union leaders who wera in charge during ‘the gon- eral strike. This was tho driving force inside the trade unions which the government feared might eventu- ally put an end to the twaddle of the Tight wing and “left” wing leaders, that the strike was an economic strug- gle and not a political fight, while millions of workers took their orders from the T, U. ©. in Hecleston Square and told the tory government at Down- ing street, in effect, to go to hell, Therefore it was not surprising that the government decided to outlaw all organizations in which the Commu- nists had a footing. Detectives from Scotland Yard and amateurs from the university kept close watch on the headquarters of organizations that were labeled “Communist.” Four of those dicks ambled up and down the sidewalk in front of the Minority Movement headquarters on Groat Or- mond Street and e padlocked the place, The officlals of the move- ment escaped arregt, at the moment, and were obliged to keep on the move, A SCOTLAND YARD detail was on party were under constant survellance and some of those dicks who stood on corner near the ©, P, headquar. watching everybody who entered eft are sorry-looking specimens, ait; New Days in Old England The Role of the Communists in the General Strike had just cause for complaint. When the strike broke the govern- ment publicity organs had soft words for the right wing labor leaders but the Communists were given to under- stand that their movements would be watched. They were blamed for bringing the strike “disaster” on the dear “public.” The right wing lead- ers thru their organ the Daily Herald covertly charged the Communists with being disrupters and enemies on the inside—the same kind of twaddle that William Green, head of the A. F. of L. or his friend, founder and ex- ploiter of that flourishing business known as the Loyal Order of the Moose, James J. Davis, who works the department of labor as a side- line, throw up here in America, ERE is a little tid bit that I have not seen published: On the morn- ing of the etrike the Daily Herald car- ried a ewb-editorial entitled, “Trust Your Leaders.” A perfectly proper title under certain circumstances! But the title was used as a cloak for a libel on the active militants in the unions who knew that Thomas was the logical successor to Judas Iscariot ‘and was as certain to betray the workers whenever he saw a golden opportunity as a poisoned rat ig sure to take to drinking water, “Do you know the reason for this?” I was asked by a known left wing jour list. He proceeded to inform me, A series of articles appeared in the Sunday Worker by William Paul, edi- tor of that paper, explaining the aims of the left wing in the trade unions. Paul threw his harpoon: into J. H. Thomas and the right wing leaders. This angered the Daily Herald and it attacked the Sunday Worker vicious- ly. Tho the Herald is supported by the trade union movement as a whole, and tho its best friends are in the left wing, it seems to feel that its mission is to sneeze every time J. H, Thomas, Snowden or MacDonald A. J. Cook, who is a genuine left winger, a man whose head has not been turned by his election to the sec- retaryship of the miners’ federation, one of the most powerful labor unions in the world, resented this attack on the Sunday Worker and phoned his complaint to the Daily Herald. He in- formed the editor that he intended to reply to the attack in the columns of the Herali. “But I may not publish ft” replied the voice over the phone, “But perhaps.you may be compelled to publish tt,” replied Cook. For a little while a series of gurg- ling sounds came over the wire, Cook suspected for a moment that the un- seen conversationalist was swallowing a pill, Then there was a resumption of speech, “Why, do you know that you are speaking to Mr. Hamilton Fyfe?” “Oh, yes,” answered Cook, “and per- haps Mr. Hamilton Fyfe might be in- terested to know that he is speaking to the secretary of an organization that 4s subsidizing the paper he edits,” OOK also informed the managers of the Henald that unless their tight wing friends watched their step the Sunday Worker might have a “Watch Your Leaders!" editorial such as might be remembered by the heroes of Black Friday, 1921, Whether OCdok was able to get his reply into the Daily Herald I do not know but the front page of the Sunday Worker carried a spirited article from his pen, And the editorial “Trust Your Leaders!" was the Herald answer to Cook’s telephone conversation, And yet when the government held up the paper supply of the Victoria Publishing Company which published the Herald until stopped by the print- ems’ walkout and afterwards the Brit- {sh Worker which was issued by the T., U, ©, during the strike, the Sun- day Worker placed its entire supply of print paper at the disposition of the British Worker, ‘The charge of disruption hurled at the Communists and the genuine left wing elements by the conservative leaders fell to the ground during the general étrike and HARRY POLLITT, CE hundreds of thousands of trade union- ists who prior to the great struggle be- lieved the fairytales toki by the labor imperialists about the radicals, saw for themselves that the disrupters were not red but yellow, and that the maligned reds constituted the steel backbone of the struggle. When the general strike was called, every active Communist whose pres- ence was not urgently required at or near headquarters was assigned to a district to engage actively in helping the local trade union leaders to con- duct the fight with the utmost effict- ency. Wherever councils of action were organized, wherever the move- ment to build workers’ defense corps was pushed vigorously it was almost a certainty that the Communists were on the job. It was not surpris- ing therefore that the government or dered its agents to round up the Communists and if the general strike had not come to an end on May 12, tt is more than likely that every active member of the party in Britain would be locked up, provided ¢here were enough jails, As it was, even after the general strike was called off hun- dreds of Communists were arested on fitmsy charges and many of them given jail sentences. Any local trade union leader who did not devote his energies to singing hymns or prayitig | for success was also subject to per secution and arrest, “dress rehearsal” ended as ft started—suddenly. It is folly to consider {t @ victory, in view of what it could have been. Looking at the incident in @ historically objective sense it must be admitted that it was an event that marks a tall milestone in the march of world labor towards complete emancipation from wage slavery. ' The British Empire is on the tobog- gan, Her political bagmen still put up @ bold front and say, “We will pull thru.” But despair is beginning to seize them, The economic situation at home fs only one of the empire's worries. A General Bying muffs the imperial ball in Canada and rumbles of rebellion are heard with the dollar magician Uncle Sam watching the drama: Egypt is hanging to the am- pire by a wig, and the silence that is hanging temporarily over the teeming millions of India is not the silence of peace; John Bull’s wares are as popular in China as the rattle of a snake; Japan fs now engaged in an open diplomatic war with the British drummers for Chinese trade, And the growing power of Red Rus- sia ,with its far flung frontiers in dengerous proximity to India is caus- ing the proud ruling class of England uneasy dreams, Why, on the eve of the general strike, when news of the Russo-German treaty was made pub- lic, a near-panic prevailed in Downing Street and British papers devoted more space to that event than tothe birth of an heir to the Duke and Duchess of York, Still the king and queen entertained royally and abundantly; the guards at Buckingham Palace and the horses at the Horse Guards performed their tricks as usual; American tourists watched them and said: “Aren't they too cute for anything.” Other Amer- icans were received in atidience by the king and queen, very likely in consideration of a donation to the tory treasury—all those things were taking place while the empire hung on the brink of a debacle, te”