The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 29, 1926, Page 6

Page Six _ ‘THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill. SUBSCRIPTION RATES Sy mail (in Chicago only): By mail (outside of Chicago): f $8.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.00 per year $3.60 six months/ $2.50 three months $2.00 three months \ ee Address all mafl and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chloago, Ill, | 8 Solvdideanilielihadele J. LOUIS. WILLIAM / BERT MILLER .. usiness Manager SEES EEE EE EE ERE EE EES red % Entered as second-class mail September 21, 1923, at the post-office at Chi- } cago, Ill, under the act of March 3, 1879. <i 200 So Advertising rates on application, Se President Green’s Estimate of Labor’s Siatus in the New Year Three sentences stand out in the statement on prospects for thé new year issued by President Green of the American Federation of Labor. They are as follows: i} 1. Many of our made real progress im developing production policies and methods that sustain pros- perity. 2, The wage increases for the conductors and trainmen on the eastern roads and the shopmen on the Baltimore and Ohio and the Canadian National Railroad may reasonably be regarded as indicative of what is to be eapected in 1927. 3. Another favorable indication is the halt that has been called in Communist activities in New York City. So completely have Communist methods been discredited that it will be less easy to impose upon workers in the coming year. industries have Let us take these statements one by one—statements made by the official leader of the American labor movement. The first refers to “our” industries—it is a labor leader speaking possessively of in- dustries which the new ‘wave of concentration and trustification have removed farther than ever from control by the masses. The “policies and methods that sustain prosperity” refer to the “worker- employer co-operation” doctrine and its practical application as a means of speeding up production. The second sentence calls attention, not to the progress that aas been made for the first time in 12 years in’ unionizing an unor- ganized industry as Was done in Pass the outstanding success of the labor movement in the past year, but to the operation of the Wat- son-Parker law and the Baltimore and Ohio plan and the granting of miserable insurance to workers. The Canadian National Rail- road is mentioned because the A. I’. of L. has succeeded in extend- ing its worker-employer policy to Canada in line with the increasing dominance of American capitalism in that former colony of Great Britain. The third statement pictures the drive against the Communists and the left wing—the most conscious and resolute section of the labor movement real achievement for the working class, whereas, if successful, it would mean the beginning of a period of still more open control of the unions by the bosses. Hy Rarely has the paralyzing program of the official trade union E. hip been expressed in_so few werds, Its meaning is that in | the new year there will be an intensified effort by the agents of im- i perialism in the unions to placate the capitalists by an extension of t “pfliciency unionism” and renewed warfare on workers who advocate the preservation of the trade unions as weapons of the working class. A Timely Exposure in the New York *- ‘ Labor Movement While the right wing in the needle trades, especially in the New York section of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, is making war upon all members who support a militant policy as against the official policy of worker-employer co-oper- ation, the officials of the Electrical Workers’ Union in New York, one of the chief bulwarks’of reaction in the labor movement of that city, are confronted with charges in the form of detailed affidavits which reveal the fact that for a long period of time they have been selling the union to the bosses. Affidavits procured, not by so-called “reds” but by one of the accredited officials of the International Brotherhood of Elec- trical Workers, charge categorically that 17 officials of the New York local have systematically taken money from bosses in re- turn for allowing their work to be done by non-union men. Jobs have been bought and sold in a fashion which would make an employment shark turn green with envy. Known sluggers and gangsters, who never worked at the trade in their lives, were taken into the union to terrorize the opposition to the official caste. bd Here we have a classic example of the conduct of a union under “constructive” leadership—the kind of leadership lauded 7. continually by labor ee and by the capitalist press; the kind of leadership which the New York Times supports in its war on the Communists and the left wing. Gangsterism, bribery, graft and corruption of all kinds, the . complete absence of anything of a sound working class character, a united front with the political parties of American capitalism, denunciation of all working class elements demanding a policy that savors at least of common honesty, deliberate exclusion of workers so that a job trust can be set up—these are the charac- teristics of American trade unionism under the banner of the of- ‘ficial exponents of worker-employer co-operation. The exposure of crookedness and treachery in the Electrical Workers’ Union could not have been more timely, It occurs simultaneously with the height of the drive against a fighting policy for the unions amd we are sure that when the full story is told that thousands of workers who have been deceived by the virtuous protestations of labor officialdom and its capitalist friends will tell these leaders very plainly that, especially in the labor movement, the advocates of purification thru expulsion of militant workers, no matter what their political beliefs may be, must come before the court of labor with hands reasonably clean of the filth and corruption now clinging to them. The real issue in the labor movement is clearer than ever be- fore and there is going to be little success secured by the panting patriots who are trying desperately to cover up their crimes against the working class by prating of the menace of Com- munism. i = Phone Monroe 4712) * f (By SEMAOEN (East Indies), i. HE insurrection in Indonesia is of a very serious character, Many of *the insurgents are armed with rifles | and revolvers, They have attempted to storm the prisons and have suc- ceeded in temporarily occupying sev- eral telephone premises. In many places the railway lines have been torn up. The house of the Dutch gov- ernor-general has been destroyed. Barricades have been erected; many »vernment officials, policemen and/ oidiers have been killed. Tho numerous rebels have likewife been killed or arrested, the revolt con- tinues to spread in the small towns of Bantam and has now also infected the | central region of Java. / The official reports.state that the | immediate cause of the movement was | the prohibition of assemblies—presum- | ably in connection with the festivities |of November 7. As is well known, | the proletariat of the Dutch Hast In- dies regularly celebrates the 7th of November and the 1st of May thruout the country. 4 rn Motive, /\rVHE real motive of the rebellion, however, lies deeper. The rich st Indian archipelago, half way be- Jeween India and China, arouses the lesires of many imperialists. There- fore, the Dutch imperialists, who rule these parts, have determined to ob- serve the so-called “open-door” policy in regard to foreign capital. But, as a natural consequence, the Dutch gov- ernment ig obliged to guarantee the international] capitalists the possibility of exploiting the toiling masses in the Dutch East Indies, and this the Dutch authorities have actually done. / About 30 per cent of the population consists of workers, i. e., railway men, transport workers, miners and work- ers on the sugar, coffee, tea, rubber/ and cocoa plantations. These work ers receive wages which do not suffice’ to satisfy the barest minimum require- ments of their families, Some 50 per cent of the inhabitants, the peasants, groan under the weight of heavy taxes which must be rendered either in gold or in the form of labor. The balance THE DAILY WORKER coy of the population, i. e., small mer-, chants, the intellectualg,,etc., are pre-}ton army, which have strengthened ; vented trom expanding their opera-| the confidence of the Indonesian pop- tions, and their wish to see an eman- | ulation in their own power. }cipation of the people is in vain, The | Dutch authorities have attempted with | jall their power to prevent the rise of a native bourgeoisie, which is, indeed, practically non-existant. Public health and public education are almost wholly neglected by the Dutch government. Secondary and | high schools are relatively even fewer than in other eastern countries. circumstances a violent revolution- ary movement was bound to develop |among the workers, the peasants, the intelligentsia, and th®! petty bour- geoisie. The revolutidnary movement | gathered round the Cémimunist Party jof the Dutch East Itidies, the “red” trade unions, and the ‘ational party know as Sarekat Rayaf. Ever since their incéption the Dutch government has attempted to suppress these organizations, and the stronger they grew the stronger became the reaction. //Since the emd of the year | 1925 theAwhite terror has hindered the | activity of these organizations, many | thousands of whose members and lead- ers have been killed,» arrested or ex- iled. Any movement “aiming. at an amnesty was answered -by rifle bullets. Every strike was suppressed, the lead- ers and even the strikers themselves being thrown into prison, The editors lot East Indian newspapers were con- |demned to many years’ imprisonment |for any utterance in criticism of the government. All channels were closed, even for | the expression of a demand for ame- |lioration of the conditions of living. The demands of the masses cannot even be formulated without incurring ishment, : Having no legitimate means of hold- ing assemblies, publishing newspapers and forming organizations, the people were finally forced to reply to the white terror by rebellion. That the revolt should-occur just at this time is doubtless to’ be attributed in no mean degree ‘to’ the powerful effect produced by ‘the recent events aerrrees T is only natural that under such | in China and the victories of the Can- th. HE outbreak of the rebellion in western Java came as a surprise, but was not wholly unexpected. It was not unexpected, since the reaction carried on by the government under the lead of Governor-General Fock forced the native population to resort |to defensive measures. The new _ governor-general, De raaff, who wished to initiate a policy aiming at restoring the confidence of the natives, is no longer in a position to bring about a change in the mood of the people. All elements of the population are now directing their en- ergy towards an emancipation of the natives from Dutch dominion. Extermination, HE governor-general hag declared that he will exterminate the Com- munists, But he is unaware of the relations between the Communists and the population. He does not know that the Fock regime, under the mask of “combatting Communism,” was out to suppress all such endeavors of the natives to improve their position as would have impaired the profits of Dutch capitalists. He does not seem to know that the Sarekat Rayat, the only strong national organization of the people, is an organization of peas- ants, workers, petty bourgeois and in- tellectuals. The composition of this organization determines its national character. It is by no means a Com- munist organization, tho it is led by Communists. This shows that the per- secution of the Communists and the prohibition issued against the Sarekat Rayat constitute a declaration of war on the most active part of the native population. The trades unions, which strove for an improvement of the lot of what was certainly the most exploited proleta- riat of the world (the workers in the Dutch East Indies receive even less wages than the Chinese laborer), were prohibited on the grounds that they were led by Communists; but this does not mean that all native work- Article I. By MAIJU NURMI. AS in all other preceding confer- ences, the qifestion of our youths’ class education was one of impor- tance, only now the discussion was based more than ever on practical ex- perience. Our efforts in this work taught us many lessons. ~We have Jearned to use many different means to wrest the workers’ children from the clutches of bourgeois ideals and capitalist propaganda, The Finnish churches have had a strong hold on |the Finnish workers’ children. They | have arranged Finnish summer schools | all over, and even many socialist par- ‘ents have sent their children to them, \“to learn Finnish,” as they say. When we arranged our summer. school we had to conduct them in Finnish to get | the sympathy of Finnish parents. | Our schools have been quite suc- jcessful. Our children have enjoyed them so much better than the church schools that many parents, tho not even sympathizers, have sent their children to us—“to learn Finnish.” We realize that the children would understand the teaching better in Eng- lish, but two languages are better than one, Besides, there has been only few teachers who could teach in both Finnish and English. The de- {mand all over for these childrens’ |summer schools is so great that we | must have more teachers. | The conference decided that courses will be arranged to educate teachers and organizers for the summer schools and junior groups. Until recently we have had only few junior groups in action, One reason for this has been the lack of organizers, Many parents resent the dues and many do not un- derstand the necessity and importance of childrens’ organizations and there- fore the junior groups have received less support than they should from many elders. The conference decided that special lessons at the teachers’ courses shall be given on jun; TOUD work, Experience has taught us that the young folks can be easily interested in athletics, games and fun, and that thru such ubtivities they can be drawn in large numbers under the influence of our propaganda, Many boys and |sirls are so antagonistic and poisoned | by capitalist propaganda against the | workers’ movement that they cannot |be forced even by their parents to join the Young Workers’ League, but the’same young folks will join an ath- letic club, The young workers also are inter- ted in athletics as well as Commu- nist propaganda. But athletic clubs need organizers and directors. The women’s sections of Superior, Vaino, Iron River, Maple and Wentworth ar- ranged and financed a three weeks’ athletic course last August for young boys and girls. The courses were an unexpected success, even financially. Many delegates stated from expe- rience that by athletics we can es- range the young folks from tough moonshine” parties and other similar degrading influences that follow in the trail of this vicious bootlegging trade, We must be able to give the light-utinded young folks something they will enjoy and by which we can t FINNISH WOMEN IN MINNESOTA get them into some organization where we will be in position to in- fluence them by our propaganda. The conference decidéd’© that several youths’ athletic cowses will be ar- ranged during next sutimer, In order to finance_all these courses and schools and teachers, the sections pledged to arrange yeral socials to get the needed funds. Usually the women’s sections haye always done more than their duty in financing our workers. Instead of*aving only one secretary, as hithert6;‘the conference elected a committee'to assist the sec- retary in conducting the work of the sections, = The last and perhaps the most im- portant question of the conference was the financing }6f The DAILY WORKER and propaganda among other nationalities, including Ameri- cans. The youth was thought of first, now also. What are the means by which be can get into contact with them? The youth courses such as we have held in Vaino these last two summers were thought to be the best way we can educate organizers of youth. Also by organizing athletic clubs and other young folks’ societies we can get the youth of other nation- alities under the influence of the Com- munist movement. Other means by which we can reach the adult workers were discussed, such as distributing the co-operative monthly, the Pyra- mid. Builder, and of course The DAILY WORKER. The financing of The DAILY WORKER-was established permanently as one of the duties of Finnish women's seéttions: A few years ago this issue would have been received rather coldly, but this de- cision proved that We have already made considreable “progress. The DAILY WORKER issue was accepted with a spirit that befits a class con- scious worker; it was#ecepted as one of our very own problems. The con- ference resolved that each section organize a ‘sewing ciféle which works and gathers funds only for our DAILY WORKER. al ‘These circles shall Strange as many socials as they can, at least one each year, for this purpose. First of all, each section shall arrange a social in the nearest date posible for the ben- efit of The DAILY WORKER. Also the conference adoptéd a resolution that the capitalist dailies and week- lies in the workers* homes be re- placed by The DAILY’ WORKER. The foreign-born workers who cannot read The DAILY WORKHR them- selyes should get it for their chil- dren instead of the bourgeoisie pa- pers. This conference was very educat- ing and inspiring, [t proved that the revolutionary spirit is. clear and alive among the Finnish working vomen and that the message of Com- unism has found a fertile soil in heir minds. A few more years of uch progress as the last four years sf the existence of our sections have been and there will pot be even any backwoods Finnish glocality where there isn't a group of revolutionary women in action, Nurmi, Secretary the Finnish Women's Sect of Minn. Dist, arin cece’ ¥ “ CURRENT EVENTS (Continued from page 1) could help it. And perhaps some such fluence wielded by Edward Nockels at police headquarters. When a labor official can command a squad of policemen to break up a union meet- ing at which a progressive trade unionist is scheduled to speak it looks as if that labor leader was part of the city administration, a a ‘HAT is good for the employer is good for the employe! Is that so? If. it is, then trade unionism is doom- ed and the workers will swallow class collaboration or worker-employer co-operation hook, line and sinker. The workers are not concerned with ethical concepts of an ideal existence, as much as with more roast goose on their plates, more gas in their whip- pets and more wool in their over- coats, They will exchange those tan- gible assets for a ton of Omar Kay- yam’s dreams of bliss anytime. For enough of life’s necessities, according to their standards, they will tolerate a chain provided it does not gall too much, If they can be convinced that they can get more out of the cap- italists by co-operating with them in the process of production, than by waging war against them, they will adopt the former policy. What of it if trades unionism was built up on a policy of struggle? “There is a new situation,” the labor leagers will an- swer. “We are not worshippers of the dead past” they will retort. #8 ORKERS are not anxious to strike. They have families to sup- port and the butcher and grocery man may be looking forward to a trip to Europe on the difference be- tween what they pay the wholesaler for stock, the landlord for rent and help, if any, and what they receive from the workers for pork chops, coffee, cabbage and potatoes, Striking workers must have credit, Workers strike only to protect their existing standard of living or to better it. Here is where the employer, aided by the conservative labor leader drives in the thin end of the wedge. Thru company papers, benevolent company associations, hiking clubs, social clubs, insurance schemes, welifare plans and pensions, they carry on a persistent and clever propaganda, de- signed to convince the employe that his interests are bound up with the boss’ interests that strikes are bad for both and that the worker profits as well as the boss, from the prosper- ity of the industry, ‘ es © M Baek 3 this propaganda has met with @ large degree of success is un- questionable, Every capitalist paper in the United States expounds it day by day, The officialdom of the A, F. of L, is for it and such independent unions as the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and the brotherhood unions, The socialists are for it, The only daily paper published in the Amer- ican language on this hemisphere that exposes the dangers of class collabo- ration to the working cl is The DAILY WORKER. A cirowlation 16,000 daily against # circulation millions! This ig wot @ situation (T he Rebellion in the Dutch East Indies ers who are members of the trades unions are Communists. Communists Lead. HH most characteristic feature of the Indonesian movement lies in the fact that the active part of the Dutch Hast Indies population is head- ed by the Communists, so that the Communists are also the champions of the national movement. The per- secution of the Communists, therefore, means the suppression of a national tendency, a step which was bound to; lead to friction involving) political at- tacks, ‘the throwing of bombs, and finally open revolt, The’ presen’ llion is being con- ducted by the broad masses of the peasants, workers, petty, bourgeois and intellectuals, It. has altogether the character of a general rising of the (Copyright, 1926, by Upton Sinclair.) EN. Bunny went to see the young law yer whom the oil workers’ union had engaged to defend the eight’ “political prisoners.” The union had since become practically extinet, and the young lawyer had been won dering where he was going to get’ his pay. When Bunny came t question him it was a great relief—* for surely this young oil prince would put up something for the’ defense of his friends! Or could it population. The developments ‘above described made it natural for the Com- munists to take the Jead.in this:move- ment, the general. popular nature of which is proved-bythe claims put forward by the insurgents: “Freedom of the. press, freedom for assemblies. and.. organizations. Amnesty for ail political . prisoners and exiles. A general change of the constitution, .giving the. people the right to govern themselves, A gen- eral revision of taxes, modification in the taxation of the. Indonesian masses. Labor legislation and labor protection, .Extension and improve- ment of education.” These demands are deeply rooted in the masses, who are determiyed to fight for their realization to the ut- most. The Dutch government will not accede to these demands; on the con- trary, its entire military resources are being mobilized to crush the rebellion and subjugate the native population yet further, © Become Wilder, (pres arasite measures taken by the Dutch government will only entail the revolt of ever broader masses of the natives. This is the beginning of the end of Dutch imperialist dominion is pleasant to.contemplate,. for those who .are: struggling - to. organize. the arrangement jis responsible for the in- | exploited masses against this system more convince their slaves with words that) we can make Communists out of them by talking abstractions over 50,000,000 of East Indians. The Indonesian revolution will be victotious, just as the Chinese revolu- tion will be victorious. , By J. O'FLAHERTY that breeds wars and blocks the on- ward march of the human race. But the. more disagreeable the fact the more resolutely must it be faced. eee are the capitalists of this country able to convince large sections of the working class that in- dustrial. cooperation is more remun- erative for both than a policy of strug- gle expressed thru strikes? Because for the moment American capitalism is sitting on.the top of the commer- cial world, occupying relatively the same position in world economy that Britain occupied since her rise as an imperialist power, almost up until the outbreak of the world war, England was able to pull the teeth of indus- trial unrest because her employing classes, who exacted toll from the subject peoples of the’ world, could afford to share the spoils with the workers at home, to keep them at the lathe and at the loom, while the em- ployers wrung three drops of sweat out of Hindoo and Chinese coolie for every crumb they threw to a British worker, But England cannot afford this generosity any more. Hence the comparatively revolutionary situation that exists in England today, ** . M bass American capitalists can no about the golden age to come when the last capitalist will have jumped into Lake Michigan or the Hudson river, . A sufficient “supply of almost every kind of raw, maferial needed in production, the latest and ntbst effi- cient machinery, plenty of gold and a navy strong enough to protect its for- eign markets and..a working class with a high speed tradition, an im- poverished Kurope from which it can draw a supply of skilled.or unskilled labor at will that. will sell its power for the European, standard of living, enable our masters to. build churches and gymnasiums for, the unorganized workers and permits them to give or- ganized skilled workers a wage that keeps most of them thinking about flivvers and real estate, rather than about the Communist Manifesto, ‘ 7 e ‘T prosperity exists in the U. 8. is an undoubted fact, But the working class as a whole receive lit- tle of it, If the labor officialdom had not sold out bag and baggage to the capitalists they would organize the unorganized and compel the employ- ers to part with more of their swag. As it is, the bosses throw the great unorganized mass a few crumbs on occasion ‘and then turn around and Get three times the value of the crumbs out of them in increased pro- duction, Company unions, welfare schemes and such innovations are tricks designed to forestall the or- ganization of trade unions, Where unions already exist the capitalists generally, prefer to leaders and secure cognize ‘aluable aid out of the aicaae la the | gn be that he was sent as an emissary’ from the other side, to feel out the situation? This young Mr. Harrington talked ; freely about the case. The thing which the state was doing to these eight men was without precedent im our law, and if it could stand it meant the end of American justice. Every prisoner was supposed te know the charges against him, the specific acts he was alleged to have committed, But in all these “crim inal syndicalism” cases the state simply alleged violation of the law in its vague genera] terms, and that was all. How could you prepare a defense in such a case? What wit- nesses. would you summon—when you didn’t know the time, or the place, or the particular thing a man was alleged to have done, or said, or written, or published? You were taken into court blindfolded, bound and gagged. Yet so completely were the courts terrorized by the busi- ness crowd no judge would order the district attorney to make a de- tailed statement of the charges, Bunny went away, and in his des- peration played a dirty trick-on Ver- non Roscoe—he went to see Anna- belle Ames. Annabelle was kind and gentle, and he would wring her soul, and see if in that way he could not get under the hide of the old petroleum pachyderm! He told her about these boys, one by one, what they looked like, what they believed, what they were suffering in the jail. Annabelle listened, and the tears came into her eyes, and she said it was horrible that men could be so cruel. What could she do? Bunny told her that the strike was over, the spring lamb had been slaught- ered and eaten, and Verne ought to be willing to cry quits. It would be of no use for him to plead that he couldn’t do anything, that the law must take its course; that was all rubbish, because the district attor- ney had the right to ask for the dis- missal of the cases, and he would surely do it if Verne said the word. Well, Bunny got under the hide of the old petroleum pachyderm! The way Bunny heard about it, Dad came in in a terrible state, Verne had-jumped on him, Verne was mad as the very devil, Bunny sneaking into his home and plotting against his domestic peace! He wanted it understood, by Jees, if Dad couldn’t control his son, Verne would. Bunny wanted to know what Verne meant to do, spank him? Or have him locked up with the others? Bunny had made up his mind and stood his ground—he had a per- fect right to talk to Annabelle, she was a grown woman, and there was no way Verne could stop him. He was going to-do more talking before he got through—he was sorry enough to make his father unhappy, but here was the fact, if that case ever came to trial, he, Bunny Ross, was going to take the stand as a witness for the eight defendants, and not merely a character witness, but one with first-hand knowledge of the facts; he had sat in the Ras- cum cabin night after night, and heard them discuss the problems of the strike, and their own attitude to it, and he could testify that every man of them had agreed on work- ers’ solidarity as the way to victory, and acts of violence as a trap the operators would try to lure them into. If there was no other way to get money for the defense of these boys, Bunny would sell the car that Dad had given him—‘I suppose Verne won't have any right to keep me from walking to the university! Poor Dad, he couldn’t stand talk like that from his darling sen; he began to give way, and revealed thet he and Verne had discussed the pos- sibility of a compromise with the rebels, Would they agree to get out of the state, or at least to keep their hands off the oil ind ‘ And Bunny said, by God, if V Roscoe wanted to make any such proposition he could be his owm messenger boy! Bunny knew what Paul's answer would be—Paul hada right to try to organize oil workers, and he would never quit while he lived. Bunny wag‘sure the whole eight would respond with a unant- mous shout, they would rot in jail the rest of their lives before they would make such a bargain! (Continued tomorrow,) Tremor in California, * FRESNO, Cal., Dec, 27, ~ What was e to have been a slight | registered here at 1:80 | morning, The movement -_