The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 23, 1927, Page 4

¢ : 1 mba OY ROMER mes Page Four THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 1927 THE DAILY WORKER NegroProblems Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. Daily, Except Sunda: 83 First Street, New York, N. Y. SUBSCRIPTI9O) By mail (in New York only): . Phone, Orchard 1680 RATES By mail (outside of New York): i ths $8.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.00 per year $3.50 six mont $2.50 three months $2.00 three months Address all mail and out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 Fi J. LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F. DUNNE BERT MILLER... AR nce wa DR ER REET Entered as second-class mail at the post-office at New York, N. Y¥., under/ Street, New York, N. Y¥. the act of March 3, 1879. =>: quired gratis. . Advertising rates on application. Politics is a science and an art that did not come down from heaven and is not ac- . . If the proletariat wishes | to defeat the bourgeoisie, it must train from) these capitalists see before them is to among its ranks its own proletarian “class | Stop this exodus by all means at their politicians” who shouldn’t be inferior to the bourgeois politicians. —LENIN. On Lenin’s Birthday. | (Bactetary of Committee for Work and Tasks By ALEX BITTELMAN Among Negroes of W. (C.) P. of A.) Fapesi migration of Negroes from the south to the west, north and east presents a complex of problems not only to the southern white capita- list, but also to the Negro masses themselves. With particular urgency these problems impose themselves upon those Negro organizations which sincerely strive to represent and work for the interests of the Negro masses as against those of the | small group of Negro capitalists and against the ramified powers of the white capitalists, | R the capitalist interests of the south, the exodus of large masses of Negroes creates the serious prob- lem of labor shortage. Employers of labor in the south, agrarian as well |as industrial, are actually alarmed of |the situation. They are becoming | frantic at the mere thought that the | inexhaustible supply of cheap, unor- ganized and docile labor is being seri- ously interfered with, The task that }command, By persuasion and cajoling |if possible; by force if necessary. T° the Negro workers, to the far- mers, and to all militant fighters for the liberation of the race, the | situation presents a different com- |plex of problems, These are all re-| jlated, of course, to the fundamental | | conditions of Negro life in the United | States. They can find their complete solution only in the light of such patlgpacleny bo ch crigaal apeistnuc cig A c Today, April 23, is the birthday of Vladimir llyitch Ulianov Lenin, the greatest leader of the working class in all history, whose death called forth the most widespread and profound sor- row among the masses ever displayed. Wherever workers and farmers are robbed by the capitalist class and their agents, rivers of tears were shed for Lenin. In the Soviet Union, where the rfiasses rule thru their Russian Commun- ist Party, millions marched past his bier in the piercing cold of a Russian winter. Lenin left two great and indestructible achievements, which have become monuments to his genius and courage and fortresses of the class struggle—the Soviet Union, ruled by workers and peasants, a living source of strength and inspiration to the op- pressed masses, and the Communist International, the organizer | and leader of the proletarian revolution. Today the steady march of millions of workers and farmers toward liberation, the gigantic mass struggles which, as in China, are shaking world imperialism to its foundations and making a ghastly farce of its boasted “stabilization,” bear out the state- ments of Lenin that this period is the “epoch of wars and revo- jutions’’—-the twilight of capitalism. The official labor movement of imperialist America hates the | very name of Lenin, but thousands of workers love it. The labor | officialdom, which makes no protest against the invasion of Nica-| ragua, remains silent as the imperialist piot against Mexico un- folds itself, which watches either approvingly or passively the) rapid preparations for war on the Chinese trade unions, the peas- ant organizations and the masses in general, sees in the name of | Lenin the symbol of the revolt against their continual betrayals, which is in the making. On Lenin’s birthday the Communists of the United States renew their pledge to follow the line of Leninism in the American class struggle and to show by their loyalty to their class, their energy in the class struggle and their unfaltering devotion to the interests of the masses that our dead leader’s example and teach-| ings have found deep roots in the most powerful imperialist nation in the world. On Lenin’s birthday we take up anew the challenge of Amer- ican imperialism and its agents in the ranks of the labor move- ment. } What Difference Is There Between Mussolini and Green? All intelligent trade unionists, reading the despicable decrees | of Mussolini’s “fascist charter of labor,” would view with alarm the effort to enforce similar conditions upon the American work-} ing class. Mussolini is known to all the world as a blackguard despot, who has deprived labor in Italy of every gain it made throngh the long years of bitter struggle previous to the fascist usurpation of governmental power. From him no one expects anything but oppressive decrees for labor. He is the incarnation of capitalist despotism, the head of a brigand band of the very scum of Italy in the service of the big industrialists and bankers of that unfortunate country. But are the workers in the United States free from fascist tyranny’? Between Mussolini’s decrees as reported in the press today and the well-known utterances of William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, there is little to choose, as} a comparison will readily reveal. Here are the principles (?) of these two agents of the capitalist class set side by side: } MUSSOLINI GREEN “The fascist charter of labor em- “Under,various systems of union- bodies the fundamental principles management co-operation workers of the fascist state, which is based have” felt a responsibility and a primarily upon the theory of re- partnership in industry which has placing the class struggle by fruit- brot substantial benefits to the in- ful co-operation between capital dustry. Prevention of waste, sav- and labor, establishing equality of ing of materials, better production rights and duties between them, methods, even inventions of machin- raising the standard of production ery to increase efficiency have been and climinating waste in industry. part of the workers’ contribution. Both labor and capital must carry The workers’ demands under this out their tasks for the common system of co-operation have been good.” restrained by better understanding of the facts of production.” The only difference between Mussolini and Green is that the fascist state enforces its decrees through its political power, while Green tries to enforce it by turning the unions into agencies for increasing production. If Green can succeed in enforcing his policy of co-operation with the employers upon American labor | they will need no Mussolini at the head of the state; the right} wing officialdom. of the American labor movement will answer the purpose equally as well. However, there is one factor that will eventually deprive Green and his cohorts, Woll, McGrady, Lewis, Sigman, of their fascist roles in the American labor movement and that is the rank and file of the labor movement that, in spite of the shame- ful alliance between the right wing officialdom, the employers, social and political changes as will bring about the full emancipation of the Negro race. But at the same time tasks must be formulated which could be successfully applied in the immediate situation. And it is with can successfully dispute, yet the fact of the matter is that the bulk of the American Negro race, its most ex- ploited and persecuted section, con- tinues to live and suffer in the south. Does this fact carry any meaning at all to the Negro emancipation move- some of these tasks that the present article proposes to deal, * * * IT occurs to me that of late the |" Negro of the south has been some- what neglected. Is this so, or not? If it is so, then a serious mistake is being committed. For after évery- thing has been said about the tremen- dous economic, political and cultural importance of the new Negro centers ment, to Negro labor and to Negro farmers? If it does not, it should. It would be a grave injustice to the millions of Negroes in thg south and would be a fatal politi®al mistake from the point of view of the libera- tion struggles of the American Negroes as a whole to hang the fate of the race on migration from the south and the upbuilding of new cen- ters in New York, Chicago, etc. Not of the trade unions, are more and more coming to understand the role of the labor faker and will soon challenge their rule in every union just as they are today being challenged in the needle trades in New York. Just as it is the task of the Italian workers to settle accounts with their fascist oppressors so it is the task of American labor to settle accounts with the Greens, Wolls, Lewises and other would-be Mussolinis of this country. Stop War on the Chinese Labor Movement and the People’s Government in Hankow! The dispatch of 1,500 marines to Hankow, as stated by Paris dispatches (altho “denied” by Washington thru the transparent deceptive method of stating that they will be “under the com- mand of Admiral Williams”), the adoption of a hostile policy towards Hankow by France under British pressure, the more men- acing tone of the Japanese government spokesmen, the continual additions of American gunboats and those of other important imperialist nations to the fleet in front of Hankow—all show that open joint warfare on this great industrial center and its working class is contemplated. The imperialist powers are going to strike at the center of the Chinese labor movement in the iron and steel industry, they will try to drown the unions, the leaders of the liberation strug- gle, in their own blood. n The plan is clear. Chiang Kai Shek, in return for his ruth- less slaughter of labor union officials and members and his ruth- less suppression of the workers, will be given some form of recog- nition.. Thru Chiang Kai Shek world imperialism hopes to estab- lish itself more firmly than ever in China, to ride more securely than ever upon the backs of the toiling masses in the cities and countryside. The trade unions and the peasant organizations and the Com- munist Party which has taken the lead in building them, are the sole obstacles in the way of militarist-imperialist domination of China. It is around these organizations that the mass libera- tion has been built. Their destruction therefore is equivalent to the destruction of the liberation movement itself. Against this damnable imperialist conspiracy the working class of the imperialist nations must set its face like flint and act so determinedly that world imperialism will not dare to carry out its bloody scheme. We can be sure that a war on the People’s Government at Hankow will be but a prelude to a new world war. If the Chinese liberation movement is suppressed even temporarily the imperial- ist rivalries will flare up into a conflagration which oceans of the blood of workers and farmers will not serve to quench. We stand face to face with war today. Let no one be fooled by the lies of imperialism’s puppets in Washington. AMERICAN GOVERNMENT IS PREPARING FOR WAR! Will the American masses allow tlymselves to become the executioners of the Chinese liberation muvement? low themselves to be marshalled as cannon-fodder for Wall Street? Do they want their corpses and mangled bodies to be strewn over the globe so that fat robbers can become still fatter? We do not think so. But if there is not organized a mass movement of such dimensions that the rulers will be afraid to disregard its protests, all these things will happen as surely as the sun sinks in the west. American labor officialdom must be made to speak out against the war plans of the Coolidges and Kelloggs. In every local union, every co-operative society, évery fra- ternal and benefit organization, in every central labor council resolutions denouncing the presence of American forces in China should be introduced and passed and the IMMEDIATE WITH- DRAWAL OF TROOPS AND WARSHIPS DEMANDED. Stop war on the Chinese labor movement—stop war on the the police and the courts created to destroy the militant elements 74 NHN Aha sD pit 1 EN (OE (Wi rein! £ 4 People’s Government! Will they al-! SROOND, the mere leaving of the another section of the country solves only part of the problem even for those. who migrate. | | NIN | {that these latter developments are in |any way harmful to the Negro! masses. Far be it from us * enter- | tain any such views. The point we! are trying to make is that the exodus from the south and the upbuilding of new Negro centers elsewhere, | taken by themselves, do not offer a| complete solution to the Negro pfob- lem in the United States. | eee ae | | HY is it so? | First, because not all the Ne-} |groes are migrating from the south. | Though the forces creating migration | are still operating very intensely, yet | the probabilities are that the bulk of | the race will continue in the south. The overwhelming majority is still) there. Even a cursory glance at con-| ditions will show that the scope of} Negro migratién from the south is| bound to become smaller. There are at present several powerful factors | working in that direction. poe one thing, the industrialization of the south. While some of the earlier features of the industrializa- | tion of that section of the country| may have contributed to aggravating | Negro conditions in the south, thus| swelling migration, yet the further | this process proceeds the more will | it operate, up to a certain point, as a force keeping the Negro masses in the South instead of driving them out | of there. Negroes will undoubtedly | continue to move from plantations | and farms to cities and industrial cen-| ters, the same as whites do, and for | pretty nearly the same reasons, | Negroes will also continue to migrate | north, east and west, prompted. by | the same forces as whites are, But mass exodus from the south alto-| gether, the recent phase of which has | undoubtedly been accelerated by the cotton crisis, is bound to diminish | considerably. * * * PARTICULARLY so, when some of the later attendant features of in-| dustrialization begin to manifest themselves. Trade union organiza- | tion, for instance, which, if it develops | in the south along modern and mili- | tant lines, will give the Negro| workers there, same as the whites, a| certain feeling of independence and a weapon for struggle to protect io interests. Pyogressively closer | contact with organized white workers, consequent upon industrialization, will certainly give the Negro worker al deeper feeling of self-confidence and | a larger sense of power against: his exploiters than he has at present. | Which by itself will make the south | look more desirable in the eyes of} the Negroe masses than it does now. | LSO cultural opportunities are | bound to increase for the Negro! masses in the south with the develop-| ment there of a modern labor move- ment. The entire ideologigal level of the masses will be raised to a higher | | Plane and most of the medieval fea-: j tures of the typical south will dis-| | 8Ppear as a result of the development | 'and intensification of the class strug- gle and the building up of labor and! |farmer organizations, These strug: | gles are also-bound to produce econ-' nomie opportunities in the matter of! employment, wages, and working con- | ditions generally at least as good, or) bad, as in other sections of the.coun-| try. Thus the present urge among} the Negroes from the south else- | where will inevitably be weakened | to a very low point and migration | will assume more or less normal | proportions, This is one reason why.one can- not hank the solution of the Negro | problem on mass migration from the south. But there is also another reason, and here we come to— Lark, Baal * south and taking up residence in, Because im- mediately as they set foot on new A numerable new problems. Suffice it to enumerate only the following: employment, wages, residence, union affiliation, education for the children, recreation, etc. These are no small matters as every Negro who has mi- grated from the south can testify, Negro life in New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh or Philadelphia may be more interesting, and the problems different there than in the south, but the difficulties of life in the tor- mer are no less than in the latter. Undoutedly these questions are be- ing given serious thought by the Negroes and Negro organizations, But the question is, how correct is this thinking and what is its ef- fectiveness? In other words, what basic approach is being made toward the solution of these questions? OR it must be understood that the task of finding employment, the question of wages, residence, union affiliation, etc., in cities like Chicago, Pittsburgh or New York, present to the Negro an entirely different as- pect than they do to the white worker. In the attempt to solve his difficul- ties, the Negro comes up against the entire proposition which is known as the Negro problem. Hence, the ap- proach toward the solution of these difficulties must be made in a basic and radical manner. Every one of these questions must be considered in the light of the entire Negro situa- tion, north, east, south ad west, and policies formulated with it. There is no shorter or simpler way of handling effectively these questions. es 5 tbeminal are two dangers which the Negro masses must particularly guard against at present. One is the danger of adopting the attitude that mass migration from the south will do the job for them. The second danger, closely connected with the first one, is to accept and look upon the new Negro centers in the north, east and west as the haven of de- liverance and liberty towards which the hopes, ambitions and aspirations of every Negro must be directed. To fall into the first danger is to become fatalistic and passive. It is to make the fate of the Negro masses depend upon something which, by it- | self is neither good nor bad, and which} cannot under any circumstances solve | the Negro problem, To fall into the second danger is to ignore and neglect the suffering and the strug- gles of the basic part of the Negro race—the Negro masses of the south —as well as overlook the vital prac- tical tasks of the Negro masses in these same new centers, What is the correct approach? The correct approach to the pro- in accordance | Wilkes Barre Comrades | Send More Funds For Sustaining the Worker True to his promise Mike Borich, | organizer-secretary of the Wilkes Barre, Pa., group of the, Workers | (Communist) Party has sent in the | balance of the fund pledged for The | DAILY WORKER, totalling $43.00. | Less than a week ago a similar | amount was mailed in to the office, | with the promise that another con- | tribution would be forthcoming. The | workers in the anthracite realize the importance of maintaining The DAILY WORKER as the spokesman for the working class in its struggles against reaction in every form, | Entertainment and Dance, | Bronx Branch, International Labor | Defense is giving an entertainment | and dance, at 1347 Boston Road, Sun- | day evening, April 24, at 8:30 P. M. D. Benjamin will be the speaker of | the evening. A good musical pro- gram has been provided, There will be dancing and refreshments. Come and bring your friends along. |blems discussed here is‘to be found by adhering to the following prin- | ciples: One.—That all the individual pro- blems of the Negroes form an insep- arable part of one big problem—the Negro problem. Two.—That the Negro problem is |by its very nature a national pro- | blem, involving the Negro masses * | of all sections of the country, wheth- |er south, north, east or west, which must be considered from the point | of view of the struggles of the whole race for its complete emancipation. | Three.—That this struggle for the emancipation of the whole race in the United States forms an organic part of the struggle against Amer- ican imperialism and must be con- ducted jointly with the white workers and with all others, regardless of |color, creed or race, who are suf- | fering under the iron heel of Amer- ican capitalism, * . . c is by following the above prin- ciples, which underlie the activities of such Negro organizations as the American Negro Labor Congress, the Chicago Committee for the Promo- tion of Unionism among Negroes and similar organizations, and which begin to make themselves manifest also among the progressive elements, |of the old Garvey organization as well as among radical Negro intel- lectuals and farmers, that the present | day tasks of the Negro masses can | be correctly formulated and success- fully fought for. fr From every corner of the continent we are receiving words of encouragement and support in our fight against the employers’ patriotic organizations, which are seeking to destroy labor’s most courageous and ‘beloved organ, The DAILY WORKER. The workers recognize clearly the reason for the attack and the necessity for meeting it with all the resources at their command. But we must state that although the com- rades may recognize the danger in the situa- tion, they are not responding as they should. - Words alone will not help at this time, We -must have money to fight our case against the odds piled up agai We therefore call get on the job at on nst us. upon all comrades to ce in defense of The DAILY WORKER. Fail- ure to respond quickly ‘pany wonnen ff and effectively, with 3 Fes Street, money raised through | inctosed is my contributiga of donations and loans ...... dottars .... cents to the from every possibl source, will be welcomed petpasiogs Sustaining | Fund or a stronger and * better DAILY. WORKER and for the defense of our paper. I will pay e by the enemies of labor, who are seeking to crush the same amount regularly every ... 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