The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 10, 1927, Page 5

. ~ Tue New MacGaZINE Section of The DAILY WORKER SATURDAY, SEPT. 10, 1927 This Magazine Section Appears Every Saturday in The, DAILY WORKER ALEX BITTEL™ World Imperialism and the Soviet Unicon AS the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the Soviet Union approaches it is becoming clearer day by day that the imperialist powers are collecting their forces for another attempt to crush the Workers Republic, the fatherland of the workers of the world. At the head of this conspiracy stands Great Britain, the oldest and most far-flung of modern im- perialist powers even tho second in power to the new imperialist giant of the western hemisphere, the United States of America. Since the Russian workers and peasants under the leadership of the Communist Party seized power in November, 1917, and toppled the rotten capitalist- feudal regime of Czarism into the dust, the imperial- ists havé never let up for a moment in their efforts to affect the destruction of the Soviet regime. Since the signing of the Brest-Litovsk treaty with Germany in the early part of 1918, until the defeat of the last formidable Czarist counter-revolution in 1921, there was a world concert of powers engaged in active military campaigns against Russia. But the heroic defense of the workers and peasants of Russia threw back the foreign invader and crushed the counter-revolutionary white guardists who sought to strangle the economic life of the country by sabotage and to rob the government of its best leaders thru assassination. Left with an inheritance of graft and inefficiency from Czarist days and faced with ag economic and financial boycott by the capitalist powers the Soviet administration was faced with a task more difficult than ever confronted a revolutionary government in the known history of man. Feeble tho the assistance rendered the new Work- ers’ Republic by the working class of other coun- tries was, it nevertheless shackled the efforts of the imperialist conspirators and the sympathy aroused among broad sections of the populations of all coun- tries bolstered up the morale of the hard-pressed revolutionary masses of the Soviet Republic. For several years after the heaviest part of the fighting ended, the new government faced an even more difficult task in the beginning of the construction of socialism from the wreckage caused by the civil war. Expecting that disaster would crown their efforts, the imperialists stacked their guns for a time. They believed it was only a question of time when the Soviet regime would crack and the bour- geoisie would return to power opening up to the financiers and industrial capitalists of the world vistas of profitable exploitation as great as ever brought the dew of greed from the teeth of the profit-mongering class. But the miracle happened, the Soviet regime arose from the ashes of Czarism with the vigor of a young giant until today it is so strong that the imperialists feel another offensive must be started against it if their own ruin is to be averted. Having failed to smash the Soviet Union by frontal attack, more subtle methods were employed. Several big capitalist powers recognized the new Russia. The war left them shaky in the economic region, unemployment was rife and the possibility of making profit out of trade with the Workers’ Republic was too glittering to be resisted by the business men of Great Britain, Italy, Germany, France and other countries whose trade was seri- ously affected by the ravages of the World War. “When the devil is sick, the devil a saint will be; when the devil is well, the devil a saint is he’ When the capitalist powers were on crutches convalescing from the world blood debauch they confined their public manifestations of hostility to the Workers’ Republic tc the peevish ravings of irritable pa- tients. But when they began to recover and noted the ‘giant strides being made by the young prole- tarian republic that stretched its giant limbs over one-sixth of the earth’s surface, they began to grow fearful lest the young giant might crush them if allowed to develop. They look on the Soviet Union as a poisonous weed in the capitalist garden. To pluck it up by the roots would be the most desir- able and effective way to dispose of the peril, but this was a game that two could play at. And it is not a game for the sick. Tho all the capitalist powers“of the world look upon the Soviet Union with a jaundiced eye Great Britain at this moment is the leader in the aggres- sion, Great Britain stands more to lose than any other power from a revolution among Oriental peo- ples that would snap the imperialist chain, and the sympathy and enesuragement given to subject peo- ples as well as to exploited workers hy th» Soviet Union has increased the revolutionary ferment among the peoples of China, India and other sec- tions of the Far East, which are controlled and robbed by Great Britain, directly or indirectly. The loss in trade suffered by Great Britain dur- ing the war was followed by urrest and the spread of revolutionary sentiment among the Britisa masses. The revolutionization of the British work- ers forced the British ruling classes to go easy and Ramsay MacDonald was allowed to function at the head of a so-called Labor government while the process of bringing abeut some degree of stabiliza- tion was being developed. During this period, closer trade and diplomatic relations were established be- tween the Soviet Union and Great Britain and credit arrangements were on the point of completion when the Tories returned to power on a wave of hysteria ' caused by the publication of a fake “Zinoviev let- ter.” Since then the tory government has been increas- ing in its provocative acts against the Soviet Union, Its hand was held by the solidarity of the working masses with their comrades in Russia, a feeling to which the official labor leaders were forced te respond, On the continent the leaders of the So- cialist and Labor International and its side kick the International Federation of Trade Unions are the closest allies of the imperialists in their anti-Soviet campaign. Hitherto the British trade union ljeaders outside of a few outspoken monarchists like J. H Thomas, expressed strong sympathy with the Sovie' Union and declared that the workers would not per. mit a war on the U.S.S.R., that the fruits of. the Russian revolution must be conserved. But since the defeat of the General Strike thru the betrayal of the leaders, from the right to the so-called left, the lead: f ers have been growing progressively hostile unti’ today there is a solid reactionary line at the head of the trade union movement in England, at one in their hostility to the’ Communist movement and te the leaders of the Soviet government, tho they are careful yet to make a distinction between the leaders of the government and the leaders of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The passage of the trade Union Disputes Bill without an effective protest on the part of. the bureaucrats places the necessary legal instruments in the hands of the government which will enabk them to use ine forces cf the crown against the snions should they strike in protest against a wat on Russia. At the Edinburgh conference of the Trade Union Congress held this week, the leaders of the General Council jammed_thru a resolution which would disaffiliate any trades council or local union connected with the Minority Movement and ° (Continued on page 2) RELIEF FOR THE MINERS By JACK LEE SIX months’ strike without relief? What in- sanity is this, you say? Ah, that is because you do not understand the tactics of the official bu- reaucracy of the United Mine Workers of America. International Pres‘tent Lewis, International Vice- President Murray, District President Harry Fish- wick, District President Pat Fagin and their sort have many original methods of conducting a strike. Part of their policy is, while negotiating with the bosses, to assure them that they will not strike under any circumstances; part of -their policy is not to prepare in the slightest for a strike, either by accumulating a treasury, or organizing among the unorganized; part of their policy is to announce at the beginning of cessation of work that any unit, district, sub-district or local, can go back to work when it wants to without regard to the state of the strike in any other part of the field. And, of course, no relief. Or a little, perhaps, say $2 a week for one week to Some of the fam- ilies, for that much money can be spared from the local treasuries, bué no nation-wide call to labor everywhere to rally to the aid of over 150,000 coal miners, locked out now for six months—oh, no! Not that! For officialdom has decreed that that would be an admission of weakness! And the miner shall avoid any such admission, even though actu- ally weak with hunger. THE SICKLE AND HAMMER This is the sign of industry set free To build and reap. A symbol forged in flame To give the promise of a world to be, By workers reared in revolution’s name This is the sign so rugged and so bold That tells the toilers of a purpose truc: The sickle is to cut away the old, The mighty hammer is to build the new! —HENRY REICH, JR. Let us not enter here into the probable actual motives of the union “leaders” in this peculiar new strike strategy of theirs. That should be discussed. But the question now is relief. Miners are starving. They are leaving the country. They are driven by the hungry cries of children to enter other indus- tries in which they toil as unskilled workers, draw- ing low wages and glutting a labor market already too full. The, whole labor movement is imjured by this condition, not just the miners’ strike. And the whole labor movement, because of the solidarity of labor, without which nothing can be gained by any section of the working class, and because the mag- nitude of the strike directly affects other industries, and thus directly affects workers in them, is in- terested in seeing that the miners get relief and win their strike. Except, apparently, Lewis and company. 5 The rank and file miners, operating through the lower units of the organization, have practically been driven to seek relief through other channels than the officials. They have realized their rela- tion to other parts of the working class, and have just begun to create machinery for appealing di- rectly to union and fraternal organizations. The rank and file relief organizations center in Pennsylvania, though some progress has been made in Illinois. In western and central Pennsylvania, especially, conditions were bad. Not only was there inade-~- quate official relief, the payment being only $2 per destitute family per week, but this was not always paid in full. Only the amounts of money appropri- ated for relief work in each locality could be used for that purpose, according to official rulings, and frequently the amount provided was only a half or two-thirds of what had been promised by head- quarters. ; Not only that, but a part of the destitute families in each local union's territory got money through the local relief committee frohi each payment, and some other family got the money the next week. Relief was not only ‘nadequate, it was irregular. Since corruption sad machine rule is common (Coninued on page 8)