The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 3, 1928, Page 6

rece... feed THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1928 ‘ THE DAILY WORKER Published hy th- NATIONAL BMEYLY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'N, Ine. | Pail 2xcept Sunday dew YR. £. Cable Address: $3 First Str Phone, Orchard 1680 | “Daiwork" SRIPTION RATES | yi By Mail (outside New York): months $6.00 per y six months | e months. | By Mail’ (in New Ye $8.00 per yer is KER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. -ROBERT M | WM. F. DUNNE | © at New York, N. ¥., under | 1879. ggle Which the Official Labor | I Deserted | face to face with the - 1928 Is to Be a Year of Leaders 1928 opens with the working clas | worst unemployment since the sharp depr yn in 1923 and with | reports from all important industries showing a downward ten-| dency. | The prosperity bubble has been pricked. The section of mS capitalist press which speaks for big capital admits that industrial | activity is slowng down and that there is no immediate prospect | for substantial improvement. The price levels of stocks remain high but this is no longer a sign of high production levels. Commenting on t phenomenon | and others which tend to give a false view of the serious slacken- | ing of industry. The ‘“Annalist” for December 16 said: | “Another source of confusion is the ‘prosperity talk’ which} emanates from persons and organizations who for political and | other reasons desire the continuance of a high rate of industrial activity. In no other period have there been so many misleading | and in many instances contrary-to-fact ‘analyses’ of the business | situation by government officials. A recent example may be found | in the annual report of the secretary of the treasury, which | contained the statement that the present recession in business | had brought activities more nearly in line with the normal growth | S tole f=} wo of the country. This is true of some industries, such as tex- | tiles, and boots and shoes; but in iron and steel, which are obvi- ously the most basic of basic industries, output is now from 15 to 20 per cent below normal, allowing as conservatively as possible for the secular trend of the industry, which, incidentally, shows a considerably slower annual increment than in the pre- war period.” (Our emphasis.) Freight car loadings, always a very sensitive measure of business activity, show a decrease of 1,000,000 or more as against 1926, according to the statement of the chairman of the demo- crat congressional committee. One can make the necessary pote that the purpose of this statement is to embarrass the republican party leadership but facts nevertheless remain facts. The open shop drive which accompanies every period of in- dustrial depression and unemployment is seen in operation at a flirious pace in the coal fields as 1928 begins. It is clear that ns and the government are stopping at nothing in pt to destroy the United Mine Workers of America and establish the same “yellow dog” contract and gunman s tem in Pennsylvania and Ohio which prevails in West Virginia. t important union in the labor movement is being eces—the coal miners are fighting with their backs to The r seut to pi the wall : Injunctions issued by state and federal courts, the most vie‘ous of them already upheld by the supreme court, strangle the labor movement and make illegal even organization and re- lief work. There is not the slightest ‘doubt that the drive on the miners’ union will be extended to other unions early in 1928 as unemploy- ment increases. The official leadership of the labor movement has surrend- SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK f (Artcile III in the series on the Opposition in SF a sn SS WS DORE cose owe WO SO BH HH- By Fred Ellis The Problems Facing the Soviet Union > the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.) revolutionary army that is sweeping everything before it. When the revolution rushes from success to success, it is easy to be a revolutionary. Two Types of Leaders. Leaders may be divided into two types in this respect. One is the dynamic generator of revolutionary energy. | By BERTRAM WOLFE. | REVOLUTIONARY leaders are most {®* severly tested in periods of diffi- | culty. | It is far more difficult to retreat or to mave very slowly, to take defeat |and not be demoralized, to face diffi- |eulties and not give way to despair, |than it is to move at the head of a | oa ae ; —w | Further “Pacification” of Nicaragua | The systematic slaughter of the heroic Nicaraguans who re- |fused to abandon -hope of maintaining an independent national |existence goes steadily on. When Nicaraguans, under the leader- |ship of the mine worker, Sandino, are murdered wholesale it is scarcely news in the kept press of the United States, but when jany of the deluded fools, playing the role of gunmen of imperial- ism, bite the dust before the resistance of the Nicaraguans the |headlines madly screech that outlaws have murdered American heroes. In the heaviest engagement in which American forces have participated since the world war, five marines are reported to have been killed and thirty wounded in an engagement with the |forces of Sandino. | available, but their casualties are said to have been heavier than | those of the marines, because of inferior fighting equipment. | One fact, however, stands out in the reports of this latest at- | tack of the imperialist bandits and that is the heavy damage ad- ered. Basing its whole anti-injunction program on the request)! minisered the United States forces. for anti-injunction legislation in congress the executive council’ of the A. F. of L. is not even waging a militant struggle in the congressional corridors and committees. No serious attempt is being made by these leaders to rally the labor movement for the fight that must be made. Afraid that the mobilization of the unions for an uncompromising struggle against the injunction menace will bring a rise of militancy and create trouble for their capitalist friends in the democrat and republican parties, the of- ficial leadership of the labor movement prefers to see the labor movement crippled and outlawed. The whole labor movement is in danger. Its greatest weak- ness is the fact that its leadership will not fight or lead a fight —that the Greens, Wolls and Lewises are in the camp of the enemy. The New Year statement of President William Green is noth ing more or izss than an offer of further concessions to capitalism and a request to be allowed to make the labor movement an in- strument of the capitalists. 7 Green says: “We welcome the opportunity of giving our colle training and technique to the development of industrial and in- dividual efficienc Following his ste ent that labor offici capitalists to “cooperate with it in the esta tenance of sound economic conditiens and Green’s phrase, “industrial and individual effi only that the drive on the United Mine Workers and terrorization of 250,000 men, women and children in the coa fields, has not kindled one single spark of determination for any- ei thing except further surrender. Even tho Green had made no posi of effi cy unionism, the fact that the New Year’s statement of the president of the American Federation of Labor does not ‘nenuion specifically the life and death struggle of the most im- yor tant un.on, ard does not call for mass support for this struggle, clive skill, aldom wants the hment and main- industria! peace,” ncy,” can mean , the starvation ve statements in favor ix evidence of treason and cowardice for which there are few be rsons 2 ( and the organized left wing in the unions face a rey e—a year in which all signs.point to a rapid increase in the intensity of the class struggle. 3 is a pres:dential year and every fight of the masses s ay on in the presidential campaign. The strug- gle against unemployment, the fight to save the unions, the struggle for a Jabor party, the fight against imperialist war— all must be connected and crystallized into organized and deter- . mined resistance to American imperialism. The official labor leadership has surrendered. It is trying to drag the American working class into slavery—to rivet the rulers’ chains still more tightly upon the masses. To organize and lead the fight against this open reaction is our task for 1928. 1 i iS The first engagement in which marines were killed resulted in the death of but two, while 300 Nacaraguans were killed and 100 wounded. After that mass murder last July 16, the Mellon- Coolidge-Kellogg administration announced that Nicaragua had been pacified, that Sandino’s forces were dispersed and that the policy of Henry L. Stimson, which was the Coolidge-Wall Street policy, would be put into effect without further disturbances. After the mass murder of July the subservient government of the Wall Street puppet Diaz, (placed in office and maintained in power by the armed forces of the United States against the will of the majority of the inhabitants of Nicaragua) began the organization of a national militia, under command-of-marine officers. This was considered necessary because the vandalism of the American troops exposed to the world the hypocritical spread-eagle orators’ | boast that “civilization follows the flag,” and aroused political an- tagonism at home and abroad. The native militia was to be sub- ituted for the marines in order to create the fiction that the | warfare in Nicaragua was a domestic quarrel instead of a Wall Street war against the independence of Nicaragua. But the defenders of Nicaraguan independence were evidently able to maintain themselves in the*field and even improve their equipment so that the native forces were unable to cope with them. | Hence the marines are continuing their murderous role against |Sandino’s forces. This latest engagement proves that, in spite of |the claims of Stimson and Kellogg, Nicaragua is not yet com- pletely subdued. Before the conquest of that country is complete hundreds, perhaps thousands, of natives and American soldiers will be ‘slaughtered in order that American imperialism may become mightier than ever. : Nicaragua subdued means free sailing for American imperi- |alism to build a second inter-ocean canal, connecting the Atlantic jand the Pacific, as a part of its general world policy of imperial- ‘ism, and to enable it to subdue all Latin America. | Nicaragua is only the beginning of the conquest of that sec- |tion of Latin America. If successful in Nicaragua the armed | forces of the United States will proceed to crushing other southern \republics. It will initiate a policy of armed conquest that will continue for years. The time to stop this wholesale slaughter is | now. ; i Let the workers and impoverished farmers in the United States, themselves victims of the most vicious ruling class that ever existed, organize politically to place in the pillory the mur- derous Wall Street government at Washington. | Parents and relatives of the dupes who joined the armed forces to “see the world,” and “secure an education” and other benefits advertised in the recruiting posters designed to attract unemployed workers, should not aid the murderers of these young men by joining in the Wall Street clamor against the Nicaraguans, but should denounce the predatory government at Washington for using them as cannon fodder and demand that all American forces be instantly withdrawn from Nicaragua so that the people of that country may live an independent existence, free from the ravages lof the jackal pack of dollar despotism. Re Se \ i | — ay No report of the deaths of Nicaraguans is: The other is the passive absorber of such energy when it “permeates the atmosphere.” In the first there is an unshakable faith in the revolutionary power of the masses which shows more clearly the greater the difficulties to be over- come. In the second is a readiness to give way to despair in moment of de- feat and difficulty. Slow “undrama- tic” work, requiring patience, requir- ing “stubbornness” and determination, without prospect of immediate startl- ing successes and the immediate solu- tion of all difficulties—such work de- moralizes the second type of leader. Ultra-Leftism and Opportunism. When difficulties multiply he be- gins seeking desperately for “short cuts” that do not exist. He “jumps over” the difficulties, gets rid of them by denying their existence, develops an unrealistic program which sounds tremendously revolutionary but is out of all harmony with the real situation it is intended to fit and therefore dan- gerous to the success of the revolu- tionary movement. Or he tends to ex- aggerate the difficulties, to become panicky and to propose a retreat so rapid that it amounts to-rout or com- plete surrender and would lead to the complete demoralization of the revo- lutionary ranks. Usually, there is a mixture of both kinds of flight from the difficult situ- ation, denial of its existence and ex- aggeration of the difficulties, Ultra- leftism and opportunism go hand in hand. Difficulties Faced by the USSR. Te working class of the Soviet Union faces many difficulties in its path to socialism. They must build socialism in a land that is in- dustrially backward, that was eco- nomically dependent for capital and machinery upon other countries, that is surrounded by hostile capitalist na- tions. A conflict is approaching between the imperialist powers and the Soviet Union. In Western Europe capitalism has been temporarily stabilized. The revolutionary movements in- spired in Germany, Hungary, Finland, Italy, etc., by the example if the Rus- sian workers have resulted in tem- porary but decisive defeats. The has been delayed. The Soviet Union cannot count upon the “state aid” of the victorious pro- letariat of an advanced industrial na- tion. Nor can it expect anything but enmity and attack from the capitalist powers surrounding it. The Soviet Union must ‘build socialism out of its own resources on the basis of its own class forces. Getting Rid of Stabilization. dae prospect terrifies the opposi- tion, Trotsky has declared that the Soviet Union cannot build social- ism “without the state aid of success- ful revolutions in other countries.” The opposition has repeatedly denied that any progress in the direction of building socialism is being made. At the same time, it has proposed desper- ate “get-rich-quick” schemes, revolu- tionary “short-cuts” to socialism that avoid facing the hard realities and difficulties of the process. The stabilization of capitalism ter- rifies them and plunges them into despair. They propose revolutionary- sounding short cuts to the world re- volution, as in the case of the pro- posal to break the Anglo-Russian Un- ity Committee, to raise prematurely the slogan of “build Soviets” in China, and many other efforts to swing the Comintern and its various sections into the path of ultra-leftist adven-' turism, They suddenly revise the uni- ted front tactics or propose their abandonment, urge measures that would lead to the abandonment of work in the reactionary unions. longed-for “revolution in the West” Zinoviev went so far as to get rid of stabilization by the simple process of denying the existence of stabiliza- tion altogether, by declaring in pro- posed theses that the period of stab- ilization was at an end. Capitalism was again in complete collapse and the only thing preventing the rapid spread and victory of the world revo- lution was the opportunistic policies of the Comintern, that prevented the} revoluion from beginning. Progress Raises New Problems. Hae very progress that has taken place inside the Soviet Union dur- ing the last few years has only added to the pessimism of the opposition. And this is not an accident, for the progress in the rebuilding of indus- try has brought new problems to the fore and made them stand out more clearly.. The basic problem of the Soviet Union is the building of socialism. During the first few years after the revolution and the civil war, this was primarily a problem of rebuilding old industries. Now it is chiefly a matter of bulding new industries. “Reconstruction” Period Ended. The period which is loosely charac- terized as the period of reconstruc- tion is at an end. The broken down factories have been repaired, old ma- chinery replaced, closed factories re- opened, abandoned mines reoccupied, the pre-war level of production reach- ed and passed. While even in this period some ac- complishments and important ones, are to be recorded in the building up of new industries and in the putting of old industries on a new technical and economic-political basis, still the period remains predominantly a pe- riod of rebuilding and restoration. The Problem of Socialist Construction OW, however, there are no aban- doned factories and mines and rail- roads to be restored. It is no longer a question of repairing ruined. indus- try and getting it going again. Now the center of attention shifts to the construction of new industry. The pre-war level has been reached on a somewhat new and higher basis, but the Soviet Union remains predom- inantly agwarian. It must be indus- trialized, It must produce not only consumption goods but machinery it- self. It must develop heavy industry | into dominant industry. It must make itself economically independent, if need be, of the capitalist world. Paths of Industrialization. Bu how does a country industrial- ide itself? England industrialized itself by | ruthless exploitation of colonies for hundreds of years. The Soviet Union cannot exploit colonies. It is the enemy of colonial exploitation, Germany industrialized itself by a war of conquest in which it seized the iron and coal regions of Alsace Lor- }vaine and exacted billions of francs in “war reparations.” But the way of aggressive war and pillage of the defeated country is impossible to the workers and peasants of the Soviet Union. Old czarist Russia made such little progress as it did in industrialization by inviting imperialist finance capital to take over its resources through con- cessions) and to exploit the Russian masses mercilessly. This also is against the principles on which the Soviet Union is founded. The Problem of Socialist Accumulation, §° the problem is, where will the Soviet. Union get the funds (the “capital”) to build new industries, to industrialize the nation, to build so- cialism? It is around this question, of how to accumulate the funds®for _'the building of socialist industry, that Farmers See Borah Slip BISMARCK, N. D., Jan. 2.—In an editorial headed “Borah and Norris,” the latest issue of the United Farmer advises the farmers to “study the statements made by the so-called pro- gressives inside the old parties and follow their activities closely during the election campaign.” The United Farmer, organ of th* United Farmers’ Educational League has no illusions as to the ability oi willingness of the insurgents in con- gress to effectively lead the fight of the farmers against Wall Street. The editorial says: “We wish to point out that neither Borah nor Nor- ris has any idea of challenging the leadership of the Wall Street group controlling the republican party. Speaking of the policy of the so- called progressives in the republican party, the editorial states: “They have made their peace with the old republican guard long ago, So have the ‘progressive’ democrats with their old guard. The role of tha progressives in the old parties is to keep the farmers and the workers tied to these parties and thus to de- lay the formation of a party of pro- ducers, a farmer-labor or labor par- ty.” The United Farmer advocates the organization of a labor party and it: alliance with the farmers. eS LINDBERGH Oh, Lindbergh flew to Paris Upon a summer day. He braved the grim Atlantic And showed war-planes the way. To Mexico’s far borders Our peace-time hero went And carried “good-will” greetings On Wall Street’s mission bent. And so to other countries Our messenger would fly To spread the empire’s gospel And blaze across the sky. A threat to every nation Of what our country brings In war: the sudden terror That swoops on eagle’s wings! —HENRY REICH, JR. the basic controversies turn, thaf have been agitating the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. They are often summed up under the genera! term “the problem of socialist av- cumulation.” This general problem divides itseli into many subjects of controversy. 4 few typical ones are: 1. Can the workers and peasants of the Soviet Union build up sovialisihy ~ without the aid of foreign capital or successful revolutions in other coun- tries? To this question the opposition gen- erally answers in the negative. 2. Where will the funds come from for the building of new industries? To this question the oppositior makes many different and contradic- tory answers. Some of these are: a—Get the funds by exploiting the peasantry. b.—Get the funds by big increases in taxation of the peasantry. c.—Get them by raising wholesale prices. d—Get them by making very much bigger concessions to foreign capital than we have so far made. e—Withdraw the funds which the state has invested in coopera- tives. £—Withdraw the funds which the state has invested in trade. g.—Get them by the rapid build- ing up of agriculture and export of agricultural products with import of manufactured goods and machin- ery. h.—Get them by seizures of graix, ii—Get them from the Kulak, the Nepman, and the bureaucracy. j—Get them by loosening up the monopoly on foreign trade. k.—You can’t get them unler there are successful revolutions + other countries and dire¢t goverrz mental aid~from these proletarian states as they are set up. The proposals of the opposition un- der these various heads will be an- alyzed in subsequent articles, Is Soviet Russia Building Socialism? 3. Is Russia heading towards so- cialism or away from it? The opposi- tion gives various answers to this. In general the trend of their answers is “Russia is either standing still or de- generating and moving away from socialism.” Often their answer is that it is impossible for her to move; to- ward socialism without the aid of other countries. 4. Are the industries of the Soviet Union of such character that they can » be described as basically socialist basically capitalist? The opposit \ tends to describe the industries the Soviet Union as state capi under proletarian control. 5. Are the Kulaks and the Nep: men being overcome or outstrippéd by the development of socialist indus-_ try or are they growing faster than |, socialist industry? 5 6. Can the Soviet Union continue | to endure at all if capitalism remains in the saddle in the Western European countries ? 7. If it continues to endure, will it be able to build socialism, or will it degenerate and move back towards capitalism? (To Be Continued).