The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 11, 1926, Page 11

~ About Women 2 special effort of the New York Trade Union Committees Against Injunctions to get the house- wives and women relatives of the trade unionists to participate in the demonstration against injunctions ‘wag successful. The 60,000 workers who gathered @t Union Square on October 16th in demonstration egainst the injunction gotten out by the bosses; was thickly sprinkled with women. Altho the proletarian’ housewife is removed from @he industrial struggle, yet she is concerned with her husband’s pay check, She must be drawn closer to the trade union movement thru the organization ef women’s trade union auxiliaries. It is the task ef the trade union movement to make of the prole- tarlan housewife a closer ally of organized labor by making her understand why wages are low, why workers’ hours are attacked, the need for trade mions and the work of the trade unions, why.em- ployers lock out the workers and why workers ars eompelled to strike. These women’s auxiliaries can very splendidly assist striking workers on the prob- lem of relief, picketing and in combatting scabbing. In Mansfield the wives of the striking coal miners have set up street committees which control the work of picketing in the neighborhood. Every man, woman and child is a picket. Chosen pickets remain on duty day and night. Should a scab venture out on the street, signal is given and he is immediately “welcomed” by all his neighbors. This is an effec- tive method of organization by the women to help the miners win their demands, by getting the scab on his own door-step. The women have taught the ehildren to sing; “Don’t Go Down the Mine Daddy.” In a resolution sent to the wives of the striking British coal miners, the Red Women’s and Girls’ League of Germany gave their support especially in the fight’ to hinder the transportation of strike-break- ing coal from Germany to England. “Let not yourselves be captured by the bourgeoisie, who even now are attempting to incite the miners’ wives to attend demonstrations against the strike . . Demonstrate rather for the demands of your men which are also your demands,” stated the resolution in part. Among the Communists who were thrown into prison for long terms by the Hungarian government whose object is to strangle the labor movement in Hungary is a woman—Kathrina Haman—who receiv- ed a sentence of two years and 4 months at hard la- bor. Kathrina Haman is a worker in the chemical fadustry. Threats of prison sentence did not fright- en this courageous woman to relinquish her stand as a fighter in the ranks of the labor movement. Before the baurgeois judges, she said of the women in the factories of Hungary: “Thousands of working women perish in these fac- tories. These factories convert young women in the bloom of youth into wrecks. The working women im these factories have miscarriages and bring chil- dren into the world who are doomed to death at their vary birth. As a result of such experiences, I have in. the course of many years arrived at Com- - munist convictions for Which I now stand before ‘ the court. “q gtand here before the court with the knowledge A WORKING WOMAN that 1, with many thousands of my sisters, have traversed that path from the proletarian woman who speuds her life in the kitchen and in the house- hold, up to, the proletarian woman who takes her place in the ranks. of the class struggle. Have your lordships ever thought for a moment that the wives of the tens of thousands of unemployed, the many thousands of proletarian motherg must say some- thing to their ‘children when they cry for bread? Can you imagine what a mother must feel in such circumstances? I can tell you, these women have arrived at the point when they are ready to attack with their bare hands and nails. “{ await your judgment in the firm belief that we have not fought in vain. The entire proletariat, the working women and the young workere wil] car- teen odes tlanlene oe PARASITES -By Margaret Undjus ry on the struggle in common with the Communist Party.” Beautifully gowned ladies from about 40 countries eonvehed in Paris to tell each other that working women might have equal rights with men in indus- try. According to Miss Martha Foley (from U. 8. A. who was present at the conference), these ladies eonvened, committeed, receptioned and adjourned, without a single working Weman being there to lift up her voice. Lady after lady got up to say her little piece. But none said that they knew what they were talking about because they had worked. The women from Soviet Russia were not invited to this conference, The International Conference on Organizing Wo- men, held in Moscow resolved to carry thru three. major immediate tasks: (1) To induce women workers to take an active part in politics; (2) To win for Communism the women in the factories and trade unions; (3) To organize meetings of women’s delegates. Hertha Strum is the secretary of the Women’s Department of the Communist International, Out of 250,000 miners in Bengal, about 50,000 are women, Aliho these women are miserably paid, yet they decided to give one day’s pay for the purpose of organizing a strike in support of the British miners. According to the report of the Eye-Conservation Council of America the highest percentage with de- fective vision is among the finishers in the garment industry. Only about 26 per cent working less than five years in this trade had normal vision. Most of the finishers in the garment industry are women. These are the workers who at present are out fight- ing for a shorter work week, and against whom the New York City government has issued an injunc- tion prohibiting them from peaceful picketing. Because her husband, a laborer, is underpaid and there is a family of eight mouths to feed, Mrs. Josephine Drumbowski of Brooklyn, N. Y., was forced to steal $225 worth of clothing and jewelry which she later sold for $7.00. There are large numbers of children of the Passaic textile strikers, of the striking cloakmakers in New York, of the Williamantic textile workers, who if not would be in the same situation as the children of this mother who steals to get bread for them. At the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia there is on exhibition a picture with the title, “The Child Shall Be First.” The picture typifies America as a mother under whose care and protection chil- dren play calmly and joyfully. The bill for a 48-hour work week for women is again before the legislature in Albany. How about the Women’s Trade Union League working for an amendment to, this bill for a 40-hour week for wo- men? Surely it has been demonstrated especially by the furriers in New York City that a 40-hour week can be gottem by the workers who persistently seek it. al f9K 46 relief that the labor movement” iy giving ig siite Yew! qmse &