The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 28, 1927, Page 9

Struggle of Czecho-Slovian Miners = = © for long past feelings have been running high in the Czecho-Slovakian mining industry. This has been due to the general marketing crisis exper- ienced by the whole Czecho-Slovakian industry, ow- ing to the contracted internal market and the ever- growing difficulties in the field of export. During the past 5 years coal production decreased and this resulted in 40% of the miners being permanently unemployed. During these 5 years there were temporary flourishes in the coal industry (during the Ruhr occupation of 1923, and during the two British miners’ strikes of 1921 and 1926), but it was clearly observed that after each short-lived boom, caused exclusively by objective conditions, the Czecho- Slovakian coal-industry fell still deeper in the mire of the marketing crisis. During these 5 years the position of the Czecho-Slovakian miners became steatily worse. Wages fell, productivity rose, and the mineowners reaped their profits of hundreds of millions of Czecho-Slovakian crowns. However, with every new slump the coal owners commenced their attack on the miners, driving at lowering their standards. e This move of the mineowners was especially mark- ed during the British miners’ strike of 1926. The strikebreaking possibilities during that year enabled the mineowners to enhance their profits by many millions on increased productivity of labor alone, not taking into consideration the profits reap- ed on increased pric®s of coal. Directly the slump set in, the coal-owners immediately came out in a united front against the miners, who demanded a 20% wage-increase. The treachery of the Czecho-Slovakian reformists cannot be passed over. During the trade boom they did not support the struggle of the revolutionary trade unions to increase wages. They thereby aided the coal-owners to make full use of the strikebreak- ing possibilities that were presented. Very. characteristic of the reformists are the excuses they give for rejecting the struggle for in- creased wages. As one excuse for their treachery, they claimed the unemployed miners had been starv- ing for long past, that the miners needed a breath- ing spell, if only by receiving temporary work and, therefore, no struggle for increased wages should be undertaken during the favorable marketing period that had set in. This unparalleled and insipid argument of the reformists not only renounced international work- ~ ing class solidarity in respect to the British miners, but was the worst kind of demagogy. It was known to everybody and no less to the reformists that the mineowners got increased output not by engag- ing more labor, but almost exclusively by increasing "the productivity of the men employed. Thanks to the treachery of the reformists, the miners let a very favorable moment slip by. When the British miners’ strike was lost, the mine-owners, despite the united front that had been formed of : all miners’ unions, categorically rejected not only the demand for a 20% wage-increase, but bluntly refused to pay the high cost of living bonus. After the insolent reply of the coal-owners, the reformists again commenced to suppress the revolutionary fervor of the miners and took all possible action to undermine the struggle for increased wages which was then commencing. Utilizing the treacherous activities of the reform- ists in dividing the ranks of the miners, the coal- owners and the government prepared a new attack on the miners. This time the government and the owners concen- trated their attack on miners’ insurance. In Czecho- Slovakia, the old system of miners’ independent in- surance dates from the year 1854, Under the Fra- ternal Insurance Fund the wives and children of the miners‘ are also insured, the widows and orphans having the right to receive pensions. This in- surance fund, (at the present time 33 Czech crowns monthly are paid for insurance against convales- cence and old age, and 16 crowns for insurance against illness) contributed to monthly by both employers and miners alike, a difficult financial situation. It has a monthly deficit of 3 millions and has no reserve funds to cover relief issued to working miners. The financial crisis of this institute has its root- cause in the war when the number of persons re- ceiving relief greatly increased. To,save the in- stitute a subsidy of about 3 billion Czech crowns were necessary. The government, encouraged by the vietory of the mineowners, now intend to com- « pletely abolish this institute and transfer the miners to the general insurance system. This intention of the government aroused a storm of indignation among the widest masses of miners: at present 150,000 miners, 40,000 miners’ families receiving re- lief, 20,000 widows and 12,000 orphans are affected. * On the initiative of the Miners’ Section of One Big Union, affiliated to R. I. L, U., mass meetings of protest were organized throughout the coal dis- tricts and under pressure of the masses the reform- ists were forced to convene a joint meeting of all miners’ trade union organizations including also the O, B. U. Miners’ Section, which passed a decision —Drawing by William Gropper. to uefend the miners’ insurance. Revolutionary trade unions at this meeting stated clearly that the institute of miners’ insurance must be re-established wholly at the expense of the government and the coalowners. The executive of the O. B. U. drew up a project of reviving the Institute of Miners’ Insurance. The following demands were made. 1) That indepen- dence of miners’ insurance be maintained until gen- eral social insurance is improved to such an extent as to guarantee the miners the same amount of re- lief permitted by independent miners’ insurance; 2) That the existing rules and amount of relief be pre- served also for miners at work; 3%) That miners’ insurance be improved at expense of the employers and the state. These demands met with wide sympathy among the masses.» The miners understand that the pro- posals of the O. B. U. are fully justified as the mineowners have shown in their yearly balance- sheets tremendous profits. At the same time the “government improved its financial situation at the expense of the mining industry by the increased amount of taxes on coal. The coal tax received by the government during 1920 was 918,408,094 Czech crowns; 1921 was 1,099,137,646 Czech crowns; 1922 was 1,510,141,187 Czech crowns; 1923 was 534,- 925,605 Czech crowns; 1924 was 829,877,191 Czech crowns; 1925 was 315,228,160 Czech crowns; 1926 was 248,324,200 Cech crowns. Only under pressure of the masses were the re- formists forced to side up with this movement and obviously with the intention of betraying it at the first convenient moment. ‘ Revolutionary trade unions and the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia demand that a congress of mine committees be called to ascertain the feeling and militancy among the masses and to work out a program of action for the co-ordinated struggle of the miners not only to preserve miners’ insur- ance, but to increase wages also. The reformists are again evading the issue. They are endeavoring to “head the movement only to be- head it later.’ This is an old and well tried policy of the reformists. However, the militant spirit of the miners forced the reformists to temporarily dis- card their usual tactics and they duly announced a one day strike of protest for the 24th of March. This 24-hour strike was completely successful. More than 100,000 miners participated. THE GLASS By LEBARBE. 5 aa Glass was a drab soured thing, familiar— used by everyone in Mrs. O’Rourke’s rooming TRANSIENT—BY THE WEEK, MONTH OR YEAR. Used by everyone in the rooming house: 4 anyhow, 5 maybe, for she was never quite sure house: about the back room. Sometimes there were 2 voices in the back room, men’s. Sometimes only one man’s cough. Sometimes one man’s voice and the thin snuggling laugh of a woman. The old woman in the front room used The Glass more than anyone else. The old woman with in- digestion. So It often had a chemical crystallized on Its clouded sides and tasted of soda (for the old woman’s indigestion). No amount of hot water could ever quite clean out the taste of soda and toothpastes and what have you. She had tried and failed. The Glass was always to be found in’ the rusted wire container hung on the wall in the bathroom, on the left side of the wash basin next to the hot water spigot. (To make the spigot work you had to push the thing you turn the water on with, tight against the fixture). She hated The Glass. It was the mark of her station—the badge of her necessity—the altar on which she had to bow to the bosses. It had the taste of many mouths in It: the taste of degrada- tion, hopelessness, standardization. Well, why didn’t she buy one for herself then? Well, that meant 10 cents and they were always getting broken. And her landlady would think she was getting snooty— too good for her house. It was a good house wasn’t” it? No kids. No dogs. Hot water usually. Clean linen every 10 days. That sort of thing. . She was afraid of this Glass. The old woman's indigestion. Yes, and always the chance of some- thing viler from the indiscriminate mouthings of the other roomers. You never can tell. They are always changing, the roomers, Usually about the first of the month. So she scalded The Glass out often. Tried to keep It clean. But she didn’t have any luck, The Glass began to haunt her. She began to dream of It. Always the sodden brown taste of tobacco, soda for the old woman, many lips. One night she looked into It and saw many years ahead. Years ahead of slaving for this boss or that boss. Years of stale tastes and soda tastes in The Glass. Along the rim the taste of mouths. The Glass was an adulter- = thing. She decided to go without drinking of- ener. (And so one night when the flat voice of a wo- man giggled and snuggled in the back room and the old woman belched in the front room, she made up her mind. . .Then she went out and bought some deep purple iodine crystals. . .Then she locked her- self in the bathroom. . .Took a look in the mirror . .Straightened her hair with tired pats on. the right, on the left, and a lifting caress in the back . . .Then she scalded The Glass till It looked clean when the cold water was turned in full force. . Turned a little warm water into It now. . .Added a couple of the purple crystals and watched the color spread. . .Waited till the water turned grape purple—And drank the grape of her release. . . (But before she lost consciousness, she replaced The Glass in: Its wire container, went to her room and lay down on her bed where there would be clean linen in 3 days more. . .)