The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 23, 1926, Page 5

ala News and Comment Labor Hducation Labor and Government Trade Union Politics TIMMERMAN SAYS EMPLOYERS RULE STATE ASSEMBLY By CHAS, S. ZIMMERMAN, Candidate for 65th Assembly, Bronx, and Vice-Chairman General Strike Committee, N. Y. Garment Workers. The issuance of the injunction against the International Ladies’ Gar- ment Workers brings forward again the need for independent working- class political action. Injunctions are being employed by the bosses on an ever-increasing scale. The right to strike and picket is a life and death necessity for the maintenance of union organization, The purpose of injunctions is to deal a death blow to the right to strike and picket. Workers must ex- ert their maximum effort in order to defeat the use of such methods in- tended to establish the open shop in industry, Present Assembly Anti-Labor. The New York state assembly has in the last year engaged in an orgy of reactionary legislation. It has turned down the very simple demands for labor legislation presented by the New York State Federation of Labor. It has defeated bills aimed at re- lieving the exploitation of women and children. On the other hand, reac- tionary measures in the interests of the manufacturers and trusts of New York state have been favored by the legislature. Employers Seek More Power. The proposals for the reorganization of the government, tho heralded as a plan for simplification of the govern- ment,. means that more injunctions and greater police power are put in the hands of employers interested in destroying unions and reducing the living standards of the workers. . The workers in this election must demonstrate their readiness to sup- Port proposals aimed at uniting their power, of bringing nearer the day when a labor party based upon the strength of organized labor can be established. j They must support the campaign conducted by the Workers’ Party, for improving the standards of life of the workers against militarism and war, against injunctions and measures to stifle the voice of labor, for the recog- nition of the Soviet Union, for social equality to the Negro and for all meas- ures that will build up the power of the working class. eda month to your shop-mate, Three important new pamphlets On the Road to Insurrection, by Lenin ..... Lenin as a Marxist, by N. Bucharin .. Russia's Path to Communism, by G. Zinovierv ..... The Daily Worker Pub. Co. 1113 W. Washington Bivd., Chicago, Ill, by Leon Trotsky , My Flight from Siberia A new edition of this splendid story, Teaorsnxy attractively board- Y DOUNA vessssssssenee$ 50 Whither Russia? ~ Cloth 4... enstloetiio BO Whither England? Cloth . ssssmemnansseenvevsersies BOC we 400 0c rsstssnnsngooee este BLTB Literature and Revolution at ‘The National Minority Movement, or revolutionary left wing of British) wing.—Rditor’s Note, e e (Continued from previous issue) Rank and File All Right. HE) general strike did not fail be- cause of any weakness or lack of courage, or unreadiness to act on the part of the rank and file. It failed because those upon whom responsibil- ity fell ‘at the time had no belief in the gendral strike; very few indeed of the members of the General Coun- cil have any real understanding of what is involved in the general strike, and those who claim to have a knowl- edge of it have spoken and written against it. Thus these persons temporarily supported the strike in order to make it a failure, holding themselves in readiness to frustrate and destroy its chances of success. They believe in and resort to the policy of class col- laboration to the serious detriment of the position of the workers. The leaders of the future must rest with those who— 1, Understand the real nature of the class struggle and are ever ready to take militant action to travel towards the workers’ control of industry. 2, Have a well-thought-out policy to meet the varying conditions on a na- tional and, international. scale. We declare that the National Minor- ity Movement has acted as a nucleus of such Jeadership and that the prin- ciples we have popularized and the policy we pursue are destined to revo- lutionize the movement, Capitalist Dictatorship. wi is necessary to make reference to the role played by the government during the period under review. .Prob- ably never in our history have we had such a clear demonstration of the truth of the statement of Karl Marx that under capitalism the government is the “executive committee of the capitalist class.” The government, by its daily behavior, has shown unmis- takably that it is ready to use all the powers of the state, not in the inter- ests of the people, but exclusively in the interests of the capitalists, The government has been utterly re- gardless of the millions of workers and has listened only to the voices of its financial overlords, the Federation of British Industries and the Mining Association of Great Britain. By means of the emergency power act it wipes out the constitution and carries on a ruthless and tyrannical crisade against- those who do not kow-tow to its dictatorship. Never in our history has this country been under such a ruthless capitalist: dic- Send The DAILY WORKER for onaj ‘atorship as now. 6 State Employees to Be Bulldozed. cr is just over a hundred years since our fathers won for us the right to organize. This carried with it the right to link up with fellow workers; now at this time of day the govern- ment is beginning a new attack to prohibit Sympathetic strikes, and de- manding the disafMfiliation of civil ser- vants from the Trades Union Con- gress and the labor party. The government is not against all trade unionism, It Is only against that trade unionism which is strong enough and directed by those who are capable enough to achieve some- thing of value to the workers. The attack on the civil service trade unions {is very significant. In the gen- eral strike, railway clerical workers were out with manual workers, This is essential. for complete success. Solidarity with those who wield the pen and all others who work is the object we aim at. If-we examine the Position to understand -what the gov- ernment is after it presents itself in three ways: 1. An attempt to make unity be- tween clerical and manual workers im- Possible. 2. An attempt to clear oitt of gov- ernment service all other than reac- tlonaries, thereby making the workers in the state departments 100 per cent safe for capitalism, 3. Attempt to entrench reactionary elements in government service in order to enable capitalists to sabotage a labor government. The attack on the civil service ts made under the ery, “the civil service is @ neutral body, it must be free from Politics.” This is similar to the parrot cry of “the army is a neutral body, it must be tree from politics.” This shows how inextricably mixed in- dustrial with political questions. We have in this present government Several of the most bitter and intol- erant reactionaries this country has ever produced; in this list I pla Lord Birkenhead and Winston Chureh- ill, These members “of the present government are the most unscrupu- lous viliflers of the workers that have ever filled public position, uo at ee leadership : easily able to deal effective); with: these and all their kind, i ‘Tho entire government is subserih-, ‘ing to the slogan “the community i hy gu trade unionism, recently held its third annual conference at Battersea Town Hall in London, The DAILY WORKER gives below the address of Tom Mann, chairman of the N, M. M., veteran Jabor leader of Great Britain, as an in- teresting and graphio picture of the scope and purposes of tha British left ee °@ what they really stand for ts “our own class,” 1 .@, the robber class, the exploiting class, which class is not more than 1 per cent of the com- munity, but which always battens on the community. Woe of the worker class, the entire producing class, the creators of the wealth of the country, must now see to it that there shall be no more wast- ing of time and energy and the lives of the people. We must demand and insist on loyalty to our class by those who wish to speak in our name. The Miners’ Fight. be! miners’ lockout is still on. The whole working class is st{ll suffering. Baldwin's assertion that only the miners are being attacked is utterly untrue, the policy pursued fits exactly with the statement of Baldwin when he said: “All wages must come down.” The coming Trades Union Congress should decide to call for a levy on all the unions to help the miners and con- ter with the executives of the unions as to the best means of applying it. It is still possible for the workers of this country to do something much more substantial to help the miners financially. A resolution passed at congress authorizing the General Council to act in conjunction with the union executives could get going quickly, It’s War We Are In. E are fully conscious of the dif- ficulties in getting in good results with conditions as they are, yet it is the case that if the miners should lose, then the general rank and file will lose many times more than the cost now of helping the miners to win. Even now there is time to apply an effective embargo on all coal, the will to act would make this possible in one day, and it should be done. And I solemnly declare that we who realize that it’s war we are in should have no scruples in calling out the safety men from the miners, To carefully take scrupulous care of the property of the enemy that is fighting you to the death is @ queer way of fighting that enemy. International Unity. j bide ala eY lea unity proved to be more than talk in the case of Russia, who set the example to the world by her prompt and substantia) monetary help to the British miners. Had we but had world-wide .relations of such a character we should have won long ago. If the unions on the continent associated with Amsterdam had done half as much as Russia has done the situation financially would have been more controllable. We must again deal with Interna- tional Trade Union unity. It is really of the greatest importance that we shall be able to act on a world scale. Governments are deliberately foment- ing strife calculated to again precipi- tate a world war. We must not be dumb whilst this goes on; therefore, this will be on the agenda and will, I am sure, have most careful considera: tion, The Anglo-Russian relations have been strained, but are cementing again, and to this we must also give full consideration, We are meeting a week in front of the Trades Union Congress, and it is announced that the General Council does not intend to have the question of more power to the General Council discussed at congress, because this will bring up the whole subject of the general strike. The movement cannot wait another year before the matter shall be dealth with, the whole thing is exceedingly urgent to those who sense the situation aright. In any case we must (as far as time admits) deal with these fateful ques- tions, every phase of the labor 'prob- fem comes within our puryiew. The delegates present at this minority conference have already done much; after our consultations here we shall go to our respective districts, not to forget what we met for, but to carry on our work with redoubled energy, in the fullest confidence that we are en- gaged in fighting the most successful battles of our class, for the overthrow of capitalism and establishing the workers in full control of all industry. Success to the workers of all coun- tries! Success to the speedy overthrow of capitalism and the tull realization of socialism, “Prolet-Tribune”, Russ Living Paper, Gets Good Reception In spite of the warm weather a good crowd attended the eleventh issue of Prolet-Tribune, the Russian living nowepaper, last Saturday night at the Workers’ House. It was the first in- door issue after the summer season. The crowd cheered the greetings from the Novy Mir worker corres- pondents to the Vilnis Lithuanian the first issue of which appear- issue of Protet-Tribune ol THE DAICY WORKER Page rive Organized Labor—Trade Union Activities Irom MANN, VETERAN LEADER OF BRITISH LABOR, SPEAKS TO THE NATIONAL MINORITY CONFERENCE Policies and Programs The Trade Union Press Strikes—Injunctions Labor and Imperialism FOR A UNITED WHY A LOCAL HEL Workers Party stands commit- ted to the use of all its energies for the building ,of an American Labor Party on a national scale, Neverthe- less, the instructions of the Central Executive Committee to the districts in the 1926 campaign declared: “There will ba three forms in which the party will go into the elections: 1, Thru existing farmer,and labor parties. 2. Thru placing united front lator tickets on the ballot, 3. By placing Workers (Communist) Party tickets on the bal- lot.” The question naturally arises: Why this flexibility of tactics? Why this variety of forms? MERICAN, political conditions, un- like those of England, are such that a national labor party tends to come into being by the foundation various local and state labor parties, gradually converging towards an American labor party and finally crys- tallizing when the national sentiment for their unification and for the crea- tion of a single labor party on a na- tional scale is powerful enough. Sane In Va., Insane In N. Y. Economically the United States is a single unit, but because of the federal system of government, the states have widely divergent laws and distinct ad- ministrations. Thus, in extreme cases, men have been known to be divorced by the laws of one state and yet, mar- rying again, bigamists by the laws of another, There have even been cases, as the Chalone case, where a man was insane in New York and sane in Vir- ginia. t We the,interests of big business require it, “state rights” are promptly forgotten and ‘by all sorts of legal fictions,,a unified national law in a given field 1s put across. Con- versely, when.capital wishes to block a national law, the theory of state rights is zealously upheld and the law is nullified and declared unconstitu: tional as anpinterference with state sovereignty,..dn this manner, every child labor thus far put on the Statute books has been set aside. The constitution. of the United States prohibits the passage of laws Umiting .or .g@bridging freedom of speech, press, or assemblage, or limit- ing the right.of, every citizen to bear arms, But the,.constitution has been so interpreted that any state may free- ly adopt criminal syndicalist laws, laws forbidding the carrying of arms, laws forbidding mass picketing and other forms of free asemblage. Nevertheless, when the war broke out, a national “espionage” act was effectively used on a national scale along with the numerous criminal syn- dicalist and criminal anarchy acts of the various states. Brakes on Progress. HE courts of the United States have been one of the chief instruments for blocking legislation which ex- presses the needs of the working class. They have always appealed to prece- dents established IN a period when there was no working class and no modern industry, Thus Professor Com- mons, who can scarcely be accused of radicalism declares: “The courts blocking the way of a new agressive class with precedents created to protect a dominant class, have had, in this country, a high authority unknown in‘other lands. By vetoing laws which labor in its polit- ical struggles has heen able to secure, the courts, joined to divergent state policies, have excluded or delayed la- bor from legislative acts.” (History of Labor in the United States, Vol. I, P. 9.) ABOR protéction measures, child labor laws, regulations of the length of the work day, minimum wage measures, social insurance, etc., have been construed by the capitalist courts as state matters and not na- tional ones, therefore the labor move- ment has had to fight in each state parately for’ the passage of such ws and consequently, labor political activities tend to be of a local nature. It is only wién such laws are finally passed in a givén state that the state supreme court’ ‘steps in and declares them unconstitutional, and, as a last resort, if the bosses lose, they appeal to the nationdl’ supreme court whicb gives the final death blow to the measure in question. The Central Labor Union, Acar, the natural basis for political activity tends to be the local Cen- tral Labor Council in municipal m ters and the State Federation of Labor in state matters. These bodies are much closer to the rank and file (par- ticularly the former of them) than is the executive council and the national convention of the American Federa- tion of Labor. Consequently, tt 16 in the Central La- bor Council that the demands of labor for independent political action first makes itself feltrand most strongly so. N& only isthe character of the la- bor movement greatly diversified ARTICLE VIL. By Bertram D. Wolfe. %! nim and it 1s then that he thinks most | WCFL Radio Program | TONIGHT. | 6:00 p. m—Chieago Federation of Labor | talks and bulletins. 6:16 to 6:30—Fable Lady—Storles for children. 6:30—The Florentine String Trios Vivian Lawrence, Little Joe Warner, John Reddington, Hickey and Johnsons 9:00—Alamo Cafe Dance Orchestra. 41:00—Alamo Entertainers, LABOR TICKET (Copyright, 1926, by Upton Sinclair) That made Dad rather warm, because he had been reading this news for three or four months and believing every word of it. He wanted to know if Paul didn’t believe there had been.any killing of the rich classes in Russia. Paul said he didn’t doubt there had been some, because he had read about the French revolution. What you had to remember was the way the Rt people had been treated by their ruling classes and the kind of government they were used to; you had to judge their revolution by their standards and not by ours. Paul smiled and added that it was a mistake for an American employer who had tried to give his men a square deal, to identify himself with those mas- ters in Russia who had beaten their men with knouts and turned them over to the Cossacks if they attempted any protest. That pacified Dad a little, but he said the way it seemed to him, these Bolshevikis were jist so many German agents. He told about the train that had carried Lenin—Dad called him Lee- nyne—through Germany. But Paul asked whether he had -watch- ed the news that had come from the peace negotiations; the Ger- | closures and expulsion from the land,| Mans had apparently been as much afraid of the Russians as we |while the corn belt may be having| were. These Bolsheviks were fighting the ruling classes of both |bumper crops and bumper prices, or| sides, and the Germans might find the peace they had made more |vice versa. Yet the farmer 1s most| dangerous to them than the fighting; the revolutionary propa- militant in periods in which the/ panda might spread in their armies and even to the Western banker and usurer are foreclosing on Front. | tvity. There was no use expecting Dad to see anything so compli- Gait or eraicciid au. sisleabreniiored ontod as that. The declared that if the Russians had really HE greatest stimulus to the forma}wanted to help the cause of peace and justice they should have tion of a labor party is the use of/ stood by the allies until the Kaiser was put out of business. Then the ‘courts, police and other govern-| Paul asked whether Mr. Ross had read the secret treaties of the mental agencies as strikebreaker. Yet,| ajjies, and Dad was obliged to confess that he had never even Serene ims basic sige - ae heard of them. Paul explained how the Soviets, after demand- ss eer 9 pg ae ST | jing that the allies should make known their war aims and having fs the local or state courts and the |no attention paid to the request, had revealed to the world all the local police or the state constabulary | secret agreements which the allies had made with the Tsar, for and the local and state governmental | dividing up the territories they meant to take from the Germans agencies generally that do the strike-/ and Austrians and Turks. Paul declared that the text of these breaking. Consequently, again the|treaties, the most important news of the day, had been sup- pi Shon facut ed en ilar eo pressed by the American newspapers. If we were going into this ependent political action is aimed at ae = the local government which is used |War blindfolded, to help Great Britain and France and Italy and against him and makes a demand that/|Japan in their imperialist aims, then our people were being de- a workers’ government be set up in|ceived and some day they would have a bitter awakening. the city and state. | Dad’s answer to that was simple: Paul might rest assured, Thus, because of the great extent of | those secret treaties would turn out to be Bolshevik forgeries. territory of the United States (it is/| é : ‘ as if all the countries of Europe were | Had not our government already given out a lot of documents it fused into one), because of the aiversi. | had obtained in Russia, proving the Bolshevik leaders to be Ger- | fled industries, because of the division|man agents? ‘Those were the true documents, and Paul would into states containing industrial cen-| find it out some day, and be ashamed of having doubted our ters, because of the diversified nature | allies, How could he suppose that President Wilson would let of the farm industry, because of| ys, pe jockeyed? divergent laws in each state and the :; : tats anh od coats. with eek Bunny sat, taking in every word of this discussion. It was junctions, and because it is generally | Puzzling, and hard to be sure about, but it seemed to him that the local police and the local govern-| Dad was right, what could a good American do, in war-time like ment rather than the United) States|this, but trust his government? Bunny was a little shocked to army and the national government) hear a man wearing the uniform of the army sit there and ex- that have been used against strikes, / press doubts about his superiors, and he considered it his duty and because of the doctrine of state!+, set Paul off by himself and tell him some of the things the rights and the innumerably separate p 4 K v4 state legiglatures, and finally because four minute men had said in school and try to inspire him with a the government of the United States} more intense patriotism. But Paul only laughed and patted Bunny on the back, saying that they got any quantity of propa- has only recently become a central- ized government and still is not near- ganda here in the training camp. Il ly so centralized as are the govern- e' ie all eae points = eae ane Nheootl One evening they all went to hear Eli; in a great tent such also that local labor councils are most| as would hold a three-ring circus, with thousands of cars parked responsive to the needs and desires! in the fields about and sawdust strewn in the aisles and hundreds of the rank and file, that the natural] of wooden benches crowded with soldier boys and ranchers and mode of formation of a labor party) their wives and children. There was a platform with the evan- in American is thru the formation of A various local labor and farmer-labor| 8@list, wearing a white robe with a golden star on his bosom, for parties, at least in the state most] all the world like some Persian magus; and there was a “silver favorably disposed, as a preliminary| band,” with trumpets and bass-tubes gleaming so that they put to the formation of a national labor| your eyes out: When those big blarers started a hymn of glory, party. and the audience started to rock and shout, “Praise the Lord!” HERE are times, however, such @8/ the top of that tent would bulge out! Ps ng “aah bangs Eli preached against the Hun, telling how the Holy Spirit had Larne sd Beara pois Was As, in pel revealed to him that the enemy was to be routed before the year period mentioned, to the open use of} Was by and promising eternal salvation to all who died in this the national government as a strike-! cause of the Lord—provided, of course, that they had not rejected breaker in the case of the railroad,| their chance to be saved by Eli. In the middle of the stage was nae pov ead a age hel a tank constructed, with steps descending into it and the com eee oe oe verts sitting in rows on the platform, garbed in white nighties; vetdieel a arama aactiseiac sh when that stage of the ceremonies arrived, Eli descended into the The Task Before Us. ..| water himself, and grabbed his victims one by one by the backs This year, however, it is obvious| of their necks and in the name of the Father and the Son of the that no national labor party will be} Holy Ghost, he swung them forward, souse! into the water. oe age Biigisedrl it ro ras task| Thereby their sins were washed from the very = hair - fond of our districts according to local con-| hodies and if from thé holy water then contracted any of those pantalla brpigon Mesias diseases which are the penalty of sins, even among military local labor parties and the creation ot] Crusaders—well, all they had to do was to come back again and a sentiment for a national party, have themselves “healen” by the prophet of the Third Revelation. HERE are some states in which Next day the family drove home and how much they had to farmerlabor parties already exist! gossip about on the way and for weeks thereafter! Bunny was and the problem of the Communist ¢| jooking forward to living this camp-life the coming summer— to strengthen and broaden them.! xcept that, because of the preparation he was getting in school probe Sp pene re and also because of Dad’s influence, he was to be in an officer’s which a united labor ticket, as a first| training camp. He was full of consecration and working harder step toward a labor party, can be set| than ever at his duties. up. New York falls into this category Late in March began that long-dreaded onslaught on the and every effort must be made to set | western front; one of those battles to which the world had grown Soe caued aabor tlcket In) accustomed, extending over a hundred miles of front and last- lew York cam) in, *) It the various py ge the party ai | 28 all day and all night for several von pees bey bes over the country create the proper pre-| not named from a town or a city, but from a province; conditions from below, we can trust|the battle of Picardy. The German rush broke through the Brit- the government to create the proper |ish line and drove them back in rout for thirty or forty miles and conditions from above so that in 1928| captured a hundred thousand men and it seemed that Dad’s worst which is a national presidential cam- forebodings were to be realized. cin a ge a ah But neither the Germans nor the allies knew that in an ob- ne secure village amid the fruit orchards of ores wee het was exercising his magic on their behalf. It chane Auto-Body Makers on that Ell Watkins read : news item from the front, declaring that Strike Against Open the only thing which could save the British armies se ral ; and i i with he assembled his hosts of prayer, and all night long they Shop Drive 7 Jersey euiod caen teele knees and wrung their hands unto the Lord, ELIZABETH, N. J, Sept, 21, —|invoking storms in Picardy; and the Lord heard them, and the floodgates of heaven were opened and the rain descended and the feet of the Huns were stuck fast, yes, and their chariot wheels also and their might men at arms were downed in mud; but on the side where the hosts of the Lord were battling there fell no _ rain, but the ground was clean and reinforcements e up and the British line was saved and back. amid the California or ~ Nearly 600 workers at the Hays-Hunt Corporation have struck, according to chards the hosannas of the faithful shook the blossoms off the prune-trees, f LABOR PARTY? tcinds of industry are determining fac- tors) but the same {s also true of the farmer movements which are more or less linked up with the labor party! movement. Agriculture (differs greatly from state to state. In one part of the coun- try there is one type of crop and in another part an entirely different type; in some regions there 1s large |scalle farming and in other regions,| the small farm prevails. The cotton crop may be very bad jand the cotton areas in deep depres- |sion with resulting failures, fore- announcements by officers of Local 13, Upholsterers, ‘Trimmers and Body Makers’ Union. The strike came be- cause of alleged discriminations against union workers by the com- ny, Many more of the 2,500 men “aap tng in the plant are expected to (To bo continued.)