The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 4, 1928, Page 8

: Page Eight THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1928 THE DAILY WORKER Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS’N, Inc. Wh Daily, Except Sunday $3 Ficst Street, New York, N. Y. Cable Address: Phone, Orchard 1680 “Datwork” sii Senne SUBSCRIPTION RATES _ By Mail (in New York only): By Mail (outside of New York): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.00 per year $3.50 six months sl $2.50 three months. $2.00 three months. ‘Addrest and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. ROBERT MINOR .WM. F. DUNNE @ntered as second-class mail at the post-office at New York, N. ¥., under the act of March 3, 1879. 31 Organize the Unemployed! The labor movement is faced today with the urgent necessity to organize the unemployed workers whose numbers are constantly mounting into a tremendous total, Unemployed demonstrations in Cleveland where the workers are suffering from the effects of “rationalization” of the steel industry, are followed by the demonstration in New York City. The chief task at this time is to devote energy to creating councils of the unemployed to raise demands in city, state and nation, for the relief of these millions of workers and their fam- ilies who are now being forced to tramp the highways and by- ways of the country denied even the chance to obtain a crust of bread. The meeting on Thursday in New York is the start of a drive to organize here the unemployed workers. Officials of the New York State Federation of Labor and the Central Trades of New York City who are part of the Tammany Hall machine will have a difficult time explaining the action of the police department in refusing to permit unemployed workers to march to the city hall and place their demands for relief before the administration. The ban of the Tammany police department | was based upon the excuse that no permit for a parade had been | issued to the unemployed. The real reason was the desire to sup- press facts regarding widespread unemployment and to shield the} , capitalist rulers from having openly to confess that it will do nothing for these masses of workers and their families. Night after night thousands of unemployed men stand in breadlines in the cold damp streets of the lower East Side anxious to get even crusts of bread that dogs would refuse to eat. So long as they remain in the Bowery and adjacent streets, under the shadows of the elevated structures, they may assemble in as large numbers as they like and no one interferes with them. But the} moment these victims of capitalism assemble in halls and become audible, hordes of patrolmen, mounted police and the strike-break- ing bomb squad get in action as they did Thursday afternoon at the. Manhattan Lyceum meeting under‘ the auspices of the New York Council of the Unemployed. This action of Al Smith’s Tammany Hall police, with the un- questioned approval of the political machine, would call forth the fiercest denunciation on the part of the official leaders of the labor movement were they not also semi-official representatives of the employing class that is taking advantage of the widespread unemployment to reduce wages, lengthen hours and destroy union sonditions in al] industry. Industrial depression has not yet reached the trough of its downward curve. Indications are that the paralysis of industry is only in its first stages and that conditions will become much worse in the next few weeks or months. This widespread unemployment gives the lie to those labor agents of capitalism, the Greens, Wolls and other exponents of ‘the new wage policy of the A. F. of L.” based upon the illusion that the way to increase wages is to increase production. Pro- duction was increased, but instead of aiding the workers its ef- fect has been to throw millions of them out of employment and to enable the employers to enforce wage cuts against those still in industry. In various cities Councils of the Unemployed are being cre- ated with the avowed purpose of organizing the unemployed into fighting units to demand, not beg, of the employing class and its governmental bodies—federal, state and municipal—immediate and permanent relief. Combined with powerful organizations of unemployed workers, the fight should also be carried directly into the Central Labor bodies and on to the floor of the local unions and demands made upon the traitorous labor officials who play the | game of old party politics that they break their crooked ties with | the politicians and put up a fight for once in their lives for the} glementary demands of the workers. Their refusal to take up such a fight will only expose them to ever larger masses of the labor movement and prepare the way for a drive for a class party | of labor, separate from and opposed to the old parties and their political agents who parade as union official In every struggle of the working class in the past few years the Workers (Communist) Party has come to the fore as the real organizer and leader of the masses and as the vanguard of the working class it is only logical that in the campaigns to organize! the unemployed the Communists have been the motivating force. Payments in Hard Cash | The New York federal reserve bank, following the action of federal reserves in Chicago and Richmond, on Friday morning, restored the 4 per cent rediscount rate. The rate had been re- ‘duced to 3! per cent last August, just before the reports of indus- trial depression began to cause concern among the speculators. The reduction at that time did not reflect the then existing eco- nomic condition of the country, but rather was based upon the previous long period of prosperity, and was calculated to encour- age investments of United States capital in those foreign markets which had a higher rate. , That reduction in the rediscount rate was followed by heavy foreign investments, a raise in British sterling and a marked shipment of gold to Europe. 4 The present restoration of the 4 per cent rediscount rate will cause this movement of investments and credit to Europe to slow ‘up. ‘ ? The raise of the money rate at this time cannot be separated from the industrial depression that is now gripping the country. As the movement of commodities slows up it requires ever more money to be thrown into circulation, hence in face of a crisis the banking system must take measures to assure itself ample money for circulation and means of payment. At the beginning of every period of industrial depression we see vindicated the observation of Karl Marx: “Whenever there is a general and extensive disturbance of the economic mechanism, no matter what its cause, money becomes suddenly and immediately transformed, from its merely ideal shape of money of account, into hard cash.” The checking of the movement of foreign investments is not to be regarded as a move of the American Wall Street against any specific country so much as it is a preparatory move for the time when payments in hard cash only will suffice. It is not at all im- probable that the mongy rate will rise higher before the reverse + ot sets in. THE CRISIS COMES! | 1 | Stagnation in industry, unemployment, and starvation face the workers of capitalist America! the unemployed! Organize to meet the crisis! By Fred Ellis. Organize The Labor Bureaucrats, Call to “Action” By WILLIAM W. WEINSTONE The article published here is very timely in view of the meeting called by the American Federation of La- bor at Cooper Union next Sunday. Weinstone’s article outlines a pro- gram for this meeting and the atti- tude to be adopted by militant workers toward the A. F. of L. bill on the injunction to be introduced in the New York Legislature-—Kdi- tor’s Note. * * . HE officials of the New York State Federation ‘of Labor have iniro- duced a bill providing that no injunc- tion shall be issued in labor disputes until both sides have had an oppor- tunity to be heard by the courts. This bill is intended to “correct” the prac- tice of the courts in. issuing injunc- tions upon the mere application of employers. Around this bill the la- vor officials of the American Federa- tion of Labor announce that they are taking up the struggle against the deadly menace of injunctions. Demagogic Phrases. These officials of the New York State Federation of Labor with a great flourish of trumpets, begin the “tight.” In a statement issued the other day they announce that: “The first offensive in organized labor’s promised war on injunc- tions, company unions and yellow- dog contracts will be a mass meet- ting for all union members and sympathizers to be held in Cooper Union Sunday afternoon, February 5th, at which President William Green and speakers of national prominence in the fields of industry and economics will have places on the program.” Commenting on the meeting, Presi~ dent Sullivan of the State Federation says: “A situation that is fraught with Booming S- the greatest danger to all (sic) so- ciety is rapidly developing in this country. Our employers in Ameri- ca are aspiring to a power over the lives of men unknown in the civil- ized world since the days of feudal- ism. We must arouse not only the rank and file of the labor movement but the public generally to a reali- zation of the outrageous conspiracy that is afoot.... I speak ad- visedly when I make that statement. That is why organized labor is going to spare no effort to halt this un- American exploitation program right now. We know we are up against the real thing in the union- busting line. It is a matter of life or death for the movement. All disputes and political differences within the labor movement are be- ing forgotten in the face of this great common danger.” (Emphasis ours, W. W. W.) An Alarming Situation. Mr. Sullivan is saying nothing new regarding the injunction’ evil. The Communists have for the past few years pointed out that the widespread use of injunciions against labor is part of the union-destroying cam- paign of the open-shoppers, but the bureaucrats did nothing about it ex- cept to resort to little backdoor negotiations with the capitalist par- ties from which they have gotten nothing. How seriously are the words of Sullivan to be taken now? There is no doubt that the situation is more alarming than ever before. Each day sees a new injunction issued agains. Labor. The United Mine Workers otf America are engaged in a life and death battle for the maintenance of their union and injunctions are a heavy club used by the employers to destroy this once-powerful organiza- tion. Defeat the iain of the Labor Movement At the mass meeting of union members and sympathizers called for Sunday at Cooper Union as “part of a comprehensive ; boost Tammany Hall, campaign to promote legislation” against injunctions and “yellow dog” contracts, President Sullivan and other officials of the State Federation of Labor, as well as the Green machine at the head of the American Federation of Labor, evidently intend to indulge in theatricals over the injunctions and to talk dramatically about the threats to the very existence of organized labor. But if such servants of the employing class have their way at this meeting, absolutely nothing will be done to aid the unions against these sledge-hammer blows of the employers. All New York workers interested in preventing such a be- trayal should attend the meeting at Cooper Union Sunday and speak up for a real program of action against injunctions, yellow dog contracts—-and “labor” fakers. ’ At this late date, the bureaucrats arrange to take up these content with the treacherous official policy will bring to the front a new leadership of the masses of labor, a leadership of the rank and file and responsive to the rank and file. The Cooper Union meeting should be taken advantage of by the rank and file to turn it into a real drive to mobilize the whole labor movement against the injunctions, the yellow-dog contracts and the anti-labor drives of the capitalist politicians in control of the machinery of the state and nation. Instead of relying upon the futile gestures of the labor fakers who play the game of old party politics and try to prevent the development of a real mass movement, the workers at the Cooper Union meeting must take the movement out of the hands of the Sullivans and other servants of the rotten, anti-labor Tammany Hall, and must establish a mili- |tant, fighting leadership that will wage a fight for independent political action of the workers, through creation of a Labor Party, against the old parties of capitalism and their injunction judges. Despite the fakers who called the meeting, the real truth Ishould be heard at 104 03 Union Sunday. assaults against labor only because they fear the widespread dis-| oo is every cause for alarm for the labor movement, for organ- izing the most powerful resistance of the masses and for establishing a united front of the trade unions and all workers’ political parties in order that a real struggle may be made. Must Not Be Fooled By Bureaucrats. But the workers would be living in a fool’s paradise if they expected that these bureaucrats would conduct such a struggle. The declaration of Mr. Sullivan is only a pose to fool the rank and file of labor. It is a con- cession in phrases made to the work- ers who are aware of the menace of the injunctions, of the extensive use of police violence, the denial of the right of freedom of speech, the con- centration of the state power, etc. Workers Want Action. These bureaucrats realize that the workers will tind leaders in the mili- tants to take up this battle and that it will mean the undoing of these mis- leaders if they keep quiet in the face of such an open and direct challenge by the employing class of this coun- try. It is to quiet this unrest of the rank and file, to keep the movement against injunctions in the official channels of the bureaucracy, to sabo- tage the movement and to evade a real struggle and at the same time to that these bureaucrats are resorting to this “brave” language and to this’ ap- parently challenging tone in the declaration quoted above. Nor must the workers be fooled by what Sulli- van means by the statement that “political differences will be set aside in the struggle against the common enemy.” A Deceptive Bill. AMINE the bill. It is a feebler measure than that demanded by these same bureaucrats at the conven- tion of the A. F. of L. which declared against the injunction entirely. It is the most harmless that could be con- ceived by Labor. It means in reality an abandonment of the fight against the injunctions. How will hearings prevent the issuance of injunctions? Does it do away with the capitalist judges who are subservient to every whim of the big employers? Noth- ing but the demand for the complete prohibtion of the issuance of anv in- junctions by the courts against Labor, nothing but an attack against the class character of the state and of the courts could make the struggle against injunctions victorious. Only thru mass violations and the mobili- zation of the political power of the workers as a class and by the estab- lishment of a Labor Party can a seri- ous step be taken to put a stop to in- junctions and io make the employers and courts hesitate before they re- sort so extensively to the issuance of injunctions. Bureaucrats Opposed to Class i Struggle. But these bureaucrats are opposed |to the class struggle. Sullivan and O’Hanlon agreed with the statement | of the chairman of the Industrial Sur- | vey Commission when, at the hear- ‘ing on the injunction bill on January 21, he stated that “they know of no class war in New York State.” These bureaucrats surely cannot ex- pect to get more from the Siate As- sembly than such a feeble and de- ceptive measure when they keep La- bor tied to Tammany Hall politics ana keep the masses within the frame- work of these capitalist parties. Re- fusing to organize a Labor Party and break with the capitalist parties, these labor officials do not wish to and cannot organize for any real struggle against the injunctions. Bureaucrats Against Mass Resistance} injunctions wherever injunctions are! the fight. 4 mith Under Guise of Fighting Injunctions Do they wish to organize the masses? Their appeals to the rank and file are only again a gesture to deceive the masses. The bureaucrats that have schooled themselves in the demagogy of Tammany Hall are try- ing to make up in noise and in poses for what is lacking in substance in this bill. Who can take seriously their statement that “no political differ- ences should stand in the way of a common front against the common enemy?” These smug hypocrites re- sort to this phrase-mongering in order to conceal their criminal re- sponsibility for dividing the workers. They introduced political differences as a basis for destroying the Cloak- makers’ Union. These Tammany henchmen demoralized the rank and file by their expulsion policy against the militant workers on the alleged ground that the Communists were dividing the labor movement accord- ing to political opinions. Supporting Tammany Hall. F THHSE bureaucrats mean seri- ously to conduct a war against the employers, why do they not call off their war against the left wing? But these worthies and lackeys of the employers will do nothing of the kind. They continue their fight against the left wing. They announce that there will be no strike on the LR.T., thus throwing away the battle against the Interborough Kapid Tran- sit Company before it has even be- gun. At Miami they endorsed their “non-partisan policies” of supporting capitalist candidates. And it was also at Miami that this meeting was de- cided upon with the object of boom- ing the nomination of Smith as the Democratic candidate for President in 1928, The Tammany Hall hench- men will be on hand in goodly num- bers, to be sure, and the most fulsome praise poured out for Smith. It is in the guise of a struggle against the injunction and company-union menace that these officials are carrying for- ward their boom for Smith. Bureaucrats Will Not Fight. Only the militants can lead the fight against the injunctions. Only -he class-conscious workers can rally the masses of labor for a fight to the finish against the terror of the capi- talist class against the trade unions. These bureaucrats will not and can- not conduct a serious struggle. They can conduct only sham battles and will betray the workers in their fight against this menace to the life of the labor movement. The Rank and File Must Act. wat shall be the policy of the rank and file of Labor regarding this injunction bill?) The trade union workers must demand a real law and a real fight against the in- junctions. The rank and file of Labor must demand a bill to completely pro- hibit injunctions. In order to achieve this they must call for the mobiliza- tion of the political power of the workingclass. This means breaking completely with the capitalist parties and the establishment of a Labor Party. »These bureaucrats say that polit- Heal differences shall not stand in the way. The workers must force these labor bureaucrats to join in a real united front of Labor, including the trade unions and workers’ political parties, which will hold mass meet- ings not in Cooper Union alone but in Madison Square Garden, to which the rank and file of Labor in the en- tire city will be called, which will hold labor parades and conduct real demonstrations. Demand of the labor officials and have the local unions go on record that the labor movement issue the slogan for mass violation of SPARKS from. the NEWS PEPSENT COOLIDGE has now and then come out against the de- mands of certain sections of the house for big naval appropriations. We have always maintained that this is that much camouflage on the part of the president in order to hide the imperialist threat of the American ruling class. In his speech on the bude get, the president made another at- tempt in this direction to picture the! United States as a lily-white apostler of peace. The president declared that” he would construct warships “as fasti as possible” and also if the conditions of the treasury balances permit. \ This is very simplé. America is in a period in which it is able to manu- facture and work fast. Secondly, to- day the United States treasury is in good shape and the outlook is that for a few years it will continue so. Thus we note that the two obstacles placed by the president to hide the war plans of the Yankee imperialists are not really obstacles but;are forces of tre- mendous strength for the building of a navy second to none. No.. Neither the president nor his cabinet nor congress nor even the press and the church can hide the im- perialist steps being taken by Wall Street. The president can talk about economy and can talk about other limitations but neither his eloquence nor silence can change the facts. The race between Great Britain and America for the supremacy of the seas is only a phase of the fight for imperialist domination between these two capitalist giants. There lies the danger! This is what the workers must take note of. This is what the workers must fight against with all weapons at their disposal and with those that should be at their disposal, which they must secure thru organ- izing their class power. s * * Te workers should begin te save their pennies to contribute to a monument to be set up to Mr. Matthew Woll. Mr. Woll, who is a corporation lawyer, is laboring overtime to hit the workingmen daily. Mr. Woll is treated as an idealist. He is now at- tacking those who are carrying on commercial relations with the Soviet Union. He says that they are selling themselves out. Mr. Woll ought to know; he has plenty of experience in selling out workingmen. Apparently he is not objecting to selling out on principle. It is only the question as to who sells out and to whom the sell-out is made. We have no doubt as to the fact that the commercial institutions in the United States or anywhere else that are doifig business with the Sov- jet Union, are acting in order to get profits. But why is Mr. Woll so en- ergetically opposed to this? He cer- tainly is not opposed on principle to profits. There is only one reason. Such commercial transactions with the Soviet Union indicate the grow- ing strength of the Soviet Union. Any indication of the growing strength of the Soviet Union will have an. effect of stimulating and strengthening the constructive, pro- gressive forces in the labor movement of the world. Such strengthening means that all pus, germs, bacilli, infesting the labor movement, will be destroyed. Mr. Woll is fighting for his life. Mr. Woll is not fighting against any sell-outs by the American capitalists of their “ideals.” First of all, their ideals are to smash labor and against such a sell-out, Mr. Woll is certainly not tignting in this instance. See- ondly, there is oniy cold cash im- volved here. Certainly Mr. Woll is not unduly excited about that. He is used to that. Mr. Woil is an enemy of the Soviet Union because he is an enemy of the American workers. —JAY LOVESTONE, ——S issued against the trade unions. Pro- pose to the Central Trades, the New xork State Federation of Labor and in the trade unions that rank and file commit.ees be formed ‘in each labor bedy to fight the injunction, and the hoiding of a conterence of these com- mittees which will embrace the entire trade union movement of the city and draw the workers direcily into. the struggle. This must be the program of the Cooper Union meeting, and must be the slogans for the fight against the injunction. An end to non-partisan politics! Such a pro- gram and such slogans would show -hat the unions are really going to fight against the injunction. Such a conference embracing the trade unions and workers’ political parties would really show that no political differences are standing in the way of the fight against the common enemy. The bureaucrats will not carry out this program. They will not put an end to their non-partisan politics, They will not stop their fight against the left wing. On the contrary, with every new attack from the employers . they will intensify this struggl@ against the left wing. They will only fool the masses with sham battles and demagogic phrases. The mili- tants alone can carry forward this program and it is up to them to make a