The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 8, 1928, Page 6

N Page Six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, FEB. 8, 1928 THE DAILY WORKER THEY READ THE CAPITALIST PRESS Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'N, Ine, Daily, Except Sunday 63 First Street, New York, N. Y. Cable Address: 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 $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 Phone, Orchard 1680 | “Daiwork” ze 21 Editor. . Assistani Entered as second-class mail the post-office at New York, N. ¥., under the act of March 3, 1879. The New Assault Against the Daily Worker a Tribute to Its Power With the official leadership of the labor movement aiding the fierce drive of imperialist reaction against the American labor 1zavement, with all forces of tyranny combined 'to chain the whole working class to the policies of the war-mongers, with the grow- ing unemployment.aiding this fight against labor, it is inevitable that the revolutionary workers’ paper should be singled out for renewed attacks. The history of capitalist attacks against the labor movement follow a certain well-defined course, beginning with attempts to crush the most advanced section of the working class. This was | characterized by the drive in the unions against the Communists and the left wing in the present period of reaction by the combina- tion of employers, the capitalist government agencies and the labor lieutenants of capitalism at the head of the unions. The DAILY ; WORKER, as the official organ of the Workers (Communist) | Party, as the collective agitator and propagandist as well as the collective organizer of the working class—as the “face” of the revolutionary party-—was sentenced to death by the reaction. But, in spite of all the assaults upon our paper, our base in the working class v so strong, our supporters so loyal, so determined that they would defend our paper to the limit of their ability, that all attempts thus far to destroy us have failed. The mere fact of the existence of the workers’ fighting paper in face of this persecution goads to fury the ruling class, the state; | hence the attack is renewed, Again editorial personnel and busi- ness management face the courts and the threat of imprisonment ; our paper again must fight for its life before the strongest of imperialist despotisms. | Against this latest attack must be hurled the full power of our Workers (Communist) Party and its sympathizers. The one voice in the English language that is carrying on the fight in defense of the elementary demands of the working class and for the proletarian revolution must not be silenced. Let every reader of The DAILY WORKER rally at once to the defense of our paper in order that this, the latest of a series of -'+acks against us, will be defeated and the paper live to carry on : ' Training Revolutionary Leaders aight there will be held at Irving Plaza, Irving Place and cu street, at the close of the plenum of the Workers (Commun- ic) Party a reception to the students who are beginning a ten weeks’ intensive training course in the Workers School. The stu- dents attending this special course represent every district of the country. Of several score applications only eighteen were selected. Only the most active comrades were chosen—those with long records in Party work and pledged to devote their lives to the revolutionary movement, The fact that such a course is required is a tribute to the growth of the Communist movement in this country and to the realization on the part of the Central Committee of the Party of the magnitude of the tremendous tasks before the working class at the present historical moment. It also indicates an apprecia- tion of the increasing role of the Communist Party in the strug- gles in the United States, as the official leadership of the labor movement repeatedly betrays the working class in face of the war danger, aids the employers in the ferocious drive against the unions, and tries to help the imperialists prepare the masses for mere vassals and cannon fodder in the next world war. The present leading cadre of the Party is all too small. There are many posts to be filled in the leadership of the revolutionary vanguard of the working class. New districts and important sub-districts are to be opened up, and this special training course will prepare the students to take up these responsibilities when | they are trained for that work. Every branch of revolutionary theory and practice will be dealt with, so that the students who complete the course will be equipped to solve most of the problems that confront them. When these eighteen have completed their training course, preparations will be made to select other comrades for future courses, so that the Party will be able to train in a short period of time a powerful revolutionary leadership that will be able ‘to fulfill its historical role of leading the working class of this coun- try to victory over the mightiest imperialist power the world has ever seen, Letter Describes N. Y. Church Institute Editor, The DAILY WORKER: In the Seamen’s Church Institute you can’t sleep there whether you have bought a ticket or not. ..WM. F. DUNNE | © THE RUSS By WILLIAM Z. FOSTER. c was inevitable that the struggle in the Russian Communist Party should lead, as it has, to the expulsion of Trotsky, Zinoviev, and other Op- position ieaders from the Party, Their policies show that they have departed from the fundamental Leninism of the Party; their factional methods of struggle aimed to shatter Party unity. Their further remaining in the Party became impossible. All roads led straight to the expulsion climax. Between the Central Committee and the Opposition the head-on collision is over the most fundamental ques- tion, the perspective of the revolu- tion. The Trotsky Opposition, agree- ing in substance with the Mensheviks and grossly underestimating the revo- lutionary power of the Russian work- ers, contend in effect that the build- ing of socialism in Russia is impos- torious proletarian revolution in Euro- pean countries. The Stalin Central Committee majority, in the true spirit of Lenin, base their policy on the thesis that barring the overthrow of the Soviet government by the inter- national bourgeoisie, the Russian workers can and will build socialism in the Soviet Union. From these two basically different conceptions flow two general policies, covering every phase of Russian economic and poli- tical life, domestic and foreign, and conflicting at a hundred points. | Peasant Question. One of Trotsky’s basic weaknesses, which displays his Menshevist ten- dencies, is in the peasant question. Lenin laid down the great strategy of co-operation between the workers and the middle and lower sections of the peasantry against the capitalists and the rich farmers in the building of socialism. Lenin understood the nec- essity and possibility of such a work- ing together. Such an alliance is es- pecially vital in a country so strongly agricultural as Russia. To promote it Committee. But Trotsky would de- part from this basic strategy. He looks upon the peasantry, not only ithe “kulaks,” but also the middle pea- sants, as inevitable enemies of the revolution, The peasantry generally, sible without the assistance of a vic-, is the policy of the Stalin Central | Trotsky’s policy, despite his asser- tions that it is directed only against’ the “kulaks,” would inevitably strike hardest at the middle peasantry and line-them up against the workers. Some of his followers, Smyrnov in particular, frankly admit this inevi- tability and accept the idea of a break with the middle peasantry. Their es- sential position is that this alliance, which they claim is based on the “kulaks,” is poisoning the Party with a Thermidorian, counter-revolutionary spirit. They pin their hopes on early revolutionary moverhents in Europe to offset the increased peasant Oppo- sition which would flow from their policy. But such a break, produced by strong anti-peasant policies, would in reality enormously increase the forces of reaction by laying the basis for peasant revolts, by reducing agri- cultural and industrial production, by encouraging capitalist nations to at- tack the weakened workers’ govern- ment. It would expose the revolu- ‘tion to the gravest danger. The pres- ent central committee fights the kulaks and the Nepmen successfuily. Trotsky’s policy would give them the victory over the workers. Position Familiar. The position of Trotsky, accepted | opportunistically by Zinoviev and |Kameney, is the familiar one of the |Mensheviks that socialism cannot be built in Russia alone. Hence, Trot- sky must argue that socialism is not being built now in Soviet Russia. The outlook of the Opposition is ultra- pessimistic. They see panic and de- feat on every side. Where the facts do not justify their pessimism they “interpret” them to suit. Although every visitor, whether capitalist or worker, that visits Soviet Russia marvels at the great advances being made in industrial development and in raising the workers’ standards, the Opposition sees no progress and often actual retrogression. It is character- istic that Trotsky has cried panic and failure at every fresh difficulty in the building of Soviet Russia. The ac- ceptance of Trotskyism by the Rus- sian workers would mean to lose faith jin their own efforts, to be over- whelmed by pessimism and demorali- zation. Trotsky’s general policies are wrong; likewise his methods for win- nf New York, where the seamen stay| or pay for their lodgings nightly | workers are being abused right along| ny the officers in the place. Last night I saw them beat up a worker| into insensibility, and knocked three teeth from his mouth. That’s the con- ditions that exist on the waterfront. I myself was barred from the In- stitute only this morning. I was com- ing in for my mail; I was grabbed and taken upstairs to their private police department on the third floor nd asked all kinds of questions— ‘whether I was a seaman or not. They treated me as if I was a criminal. ‘They have beds there from thirty- five cents to a dollar a night. And 're not in by ral o'clock, —A SEAMAN. International Seamen’s », New York City. * * Editor, The DAILY WORKER: Enclosed find a money order for five dollars, a donation to The DAILY WORKER from the Working Women’s Educational Club of Lake County, In- diana. We held a Tenth Anniversary af- fair in East Chicago on Nov. 5, at which a little profit was made, and at our last meeting all returns were collected and $5 was voted to the Daily, while $20 was sent to the Colorado miners and their families. —BERTHA GARNER, Financial Secretary. * one of the more frank spokesmen of |ning support for them. Crying out the Opposition, Preobrazhensky, says, ‘for the rapid industrialization of are not elements to be co-operated | Soviet Russia at all costs, even at the with, under the workers’ lead, but expense of a break with the middle “colonies” which the workers have to | peasantry, Trotsky laid down as a systematically exploit, through maxi-|basic condition for industrialization mum high taxes, high prices,“and|and high production the rapid and other drastic measures, in order that |radical improvement of the workers’ they, the workers, can hasten the in- | conditions, This opened wide the doors dustrialization and socialization of the |for demagogic appeals to win over country. The reality is that such|the workers. The Opposition made measures can have only the result at tae strongest demands for far-reach- breaking the alliance with the middle |ing improvements in the wages, hours, and poorer peasantry, strengthening | working conditions, housing, culture, the kulaks, by throwing the middlejetc., of the workers, They declared peasantry into their arms, and pau-|that the Stalin Central Committee, perizing the poorer peasants and degenerated by kulakism and Nepism, weakening their resistance to the|was making great concessions to the kulaks, and thus undermining the |peasantry at the expense of the work- position of the workers at € They demanded in a thousand Ss. Mi ; S' CAS ROES NEWS OF Canc ING WHORES wens £0) USSR: “MINERS La Sso™. Sasa eee EVICTEO WE... = ee cara : sHor-ClUBBED mate’ BEATEN JAILED PROPOSES ANT iN Law CcoLoRADO- PITTS BURG . OHl0 By Fred Ellis keys that all this be changed, that these advantages be withdrawn from the peasants and that the fruits of the revolution should go to those to whom they properly belong, the work- ers. But the Russian workers were not deceived by this seductive approach. In the recent convention delegate elec- tions the Party rejected the Trotsky- Zinoviev program by a vote of over 99 to 1. The workers were almost unanimously against it. They realized that although their conditions ‘are still hard and many problems confront them, the way to improve them faster is not by the fatal way of war against the broad masses of peasantry but along the main lines of policy now being followed by the central com- mittee. To say, as Trotsky and many of his followers in America do, that there was no discussion of his gram is the lamest kind of an for their unprecedented defeat. fact is that for three years the sian Party and all its press has literally saturated with official and unofficial discussion of Trotsky’s poli- cies, Its answer to them is a rea- soned, categoric, and almost unani- mous “No.” The failure of the Opposition to accept the repeated Party decisions on the general question worked heav- ily against them, They threatened violently the unity and life of the Par- ty. They built groups throughout the Party and set up a disciplined dues-system and apparatus of their own. According to the astounding statements of Kusounikow, a former prominent Opposition leader, they ac- cepted the idea of an eventual split ‘and the formation of a new party and they were bending their course in that (direction. They ignored or openly jdisobeyed Party decisions; they re- |peatedly repudiated their peace “agree- |ments” with the “CEC”; they held | public mass meetings criticizing. the Party; they even, as for example organize strikes against the Party. Bucharin said, “In general we have here to do with all forms of fighting, with a single exception, that of the armed revolt.” The limit was reached, however, in the November 7th cele- brations of the 10 Anniversary of the revolution, when, calling upon non- Party elements to aid them, they tried to organize a mass demonstration against the Party. The masses re- jjected them and their demonstration was a pitiful fiasco. The Last Straw. This was the last straw. Manifest- ly the Trotsky Opposition no longer subscribed to the program or disci- pline of the Party, Their course was strengthening the counter-revolution- ary elements in Russia and elsewhere. Widespread demands were made for expulsion of the leaders and this was done, The Party had to defend it- self. The dictatorship of the prole- tariat can be carried through only by @ united party, not a party divided against itself. How serioup the i } Rakowsky in Karkoff, attempted to} situa- Me MAN OPPOSITION tion became was illustrated by Tom- ski, who said: “Comrades, it may be that under the dictatorship of the proletariat there will be two or three or four parties, but only under the single condition that one party has the power and all the others are in jail. Whoever does not understand that does not in the least understand what is the dictatorship of the prole- tariat and what is a Bolshevik party.” Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev and the others have played important roles in the revolution. All acknowledge that. It is a hard necessity that causes the split with them. But their policy no longer made for the revo- lution, but against it. And just as the Party had to break with Plec- hanov, Kautsky and many others who at one time performed revolutionary services of the highest value but fin- ally got in the way of the revolution, ;|so it has to break with Trotsky and the other Opposition leaders. One of the most striking proofs of how deep- ly these formerly widely popular ileaders have discredited themselves , with the Russian workers is that when they were expelled from the Party there were no strikes, no mass dem- onstrations of any character. The workers recognized the hard revolu- itionary necessity of their expulsion. Will the expelled intellectuals ever return to the Party? That depends primarily upon them, They will even- ‘tually be taken in provided that they accept the Party program and disci- pline, but not otherwise. Serious Problems. Before the Russian workers stand !a maze of terrific problems, in the {building of socialism. ‘These are com- |plicated and intensified by the rela- tively slow development of the prole- tarian revolution in Europe and by the mobilizing of world imperialist forces against the Soviet Union. To build and protect the Soviet Union is the now central task not only of the Russian workers but of the interna- of an alliance between the workers and the lower and middle peasantry is basically correct for maintaining and building socialism’ inSoviet Rus- sia.’ Stalin’s policy carries through this fundamental strategy. The work- ers are making real progress in in- dustrializing Soviet Russia; in im- proving their own ‘conditions. And with the passing of the years this progress, barring successful attacks from capitalist nations, will steadily increase its tempo. Child Labor * oxad ms 7 ae WASHINGTON, (FP)—The | Con- sumers’ League of the District of Columbia, in an appeal for the pend- ing bill to modernize child labor leg- islation in the district, points out that under existing law a child five years of age may be employed at selling papers or selling pies on the street at all hours of night; children of 14 may be employed at blasting operatings or at running elevators, where accidents are most likely. tional working class, Lenin’s strategy ; Negro Workers Political League By JAMES W. FORD Ee are (District Organizer, American Negro Labor Congress:7"~ MILWAUKEE, Wis. Feb. 7, — There has been organized 'n Milwau- kee, Wis., among the Negro and white workers, a working class league for united political action, called the Progressive Labor League. It is now occupied with the purpose of sending a Negro worker to the city council og Milwaukee upon a workers’ plat- form, Working Class Unity. There is a council for united po- | litical action to which is affiliated all the Negro working class organizations as well as white working class or- ganizations. Negro Congress Representative Talks. The Progressive Labor League held a mass meeting here recently. The district organizer of the American Negro Labor Congress spoke on “Workers’ Political Action.” He pointed out the industrial sig- nificance of Negro workers during and since the world war. He said that Negro workers as a consequence must pay more attention to the prop- er use of their political power. In shunning politics as a result of be- tfayal on the part of unscrupulous politicians our general conditions have become worse. He pointed out that the Negro race in America today is threatened with extermination, not as the Indians were exterminated with guns, but thru economic extermina- tion; the lowering of their social, eco- nomic and cultural standards. He pointed to the bad housing conditions not only in Milwaukee but in Chi- cago and in every large city of the country, with high death rates, con- sequent upon segregation and inabil-+ ity to meet the standards of a mods ern society because of inadequate wages and jobs. Negro Workers Used by Bosses to Lower Wages. While this extermination may not be a conscious effort (on the part of the K.K.K.), it is, however, said tho speaker, clearly the direct design of the exploiters of labor to keep © lower. group of workers to further reduce the standards of all workers, ’ as a result their conditions are kept down; they are given the lowest wages, worked under the worse con- ditions so that we become a ready supply of cheap labor at all times. ~ Must Organize. The speaker pointed out the need f - for union organization among Negro — workers and cooperation with white workers. He commended the league for linking its struggles with the op- pressed workers of the south. He further called for study and under- standing of the struggles of the ops pressed Nicaraguans and other op- pressed people of the world. Workers’ Platform. This movement is perhaps one of the most significant movements of workers, both Negro and white, in Wisconsin if not in the country at the present time. It is significant be- cause of its working class nature and the unity of Negro and white work- ers on this basis, as well as a signal for Negro and white workers every- where to unify on this common basis, Our platform includes these declara- tions: a . 1.—We have lost faith in the 6ld parties who have betrayed us. 5 2.—We seek and favor unity with other workers of other nationalities. Against Bad Houses, Segregation. 3.—The death rate among Negre workers is higher than otner eleménts because of bad housing and unhealthy conditions. This is brought about through their segregation into the most deplorable sections. We ar against segregation in the schools. ‘ 4.—We insist that there be no dis- crimination becausé of color in thé employment of city workers. We in- sist that we be admitted into the skilled trades on an equal basis with other workers for the same pay. We are cognizant that we are employed at lower wages in many trades than white af pled This intensifies racial fecling: cause it tends to lower the standards of all workers. Our struggle for equality is therefore a struggle to improve the conditions ef white workers as well as our own, In the Trade Unions. 5.—We insist on the abolition of barriers and other means of discrim- ination in the trade unions. We solidarity. We are inspired by the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters! We are against company unions, _ Interracial Solidarity. We know that racial discrimination is fostered by exploiters of lahor against the common interests of all workers. We are for joint action. We are for higher wages and better stan- dards. t Oppression in South. We will use our political: against the outrages practiced our brothers in the South lands: Crowism, discrimination and | h