The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 9, 1928, Page 6

‘THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, APRIL 9, 1928 THE DAILY WORKER Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'N, Inc. | Daily, Except Sunday ¥. Address 83 First Street, New York, Phone, Orchard 1680 Cab “Daiwork SUSSCR-PTION RATES ; o- York only) By Mail (outside of New York): 0 six mon $6.50 per year $2.00 three months. New $4 (in ye per $2.50 to ess and 1 out che WORKER, 33 First Street, THE DAILY New York, N. Y a ..ROBERT MINOR ..WM. F. DUNNE 2 as second-class mail at the post-of y York, N. ¥., under the of March 3, Hoover, Smith and Labor on technical employee of big corpora- | act Hoover, tions, 1 Alfred E. h, life --long political servant of the big financiers “within their own home” in New York state—these two are far ahead at the present stage of the run for republican and de smocratic nominations for the presidency. ¥ arkable ree of exactness Smith and Hoover, from parties and from opposite kinds of employment, | opposite pc represent > financial and industrial magnates. Of course it would be rid us to contend, under the conditions of today, that a governor of New York who is universally held “in esteem” | by all of the organs of capitalism in the great financial center, is | other than a eecured representative of the topmost group of finance capital represented in Wall Street. ridiculous to contend that a member of the Coolidge-Mellon cab- inet who is now publicly supported by three of Coolidge’s cabinet and semi-publicly by Coolidge (as a choice second to himself), is not a favored representative of the financial oligarchy which finds political expression in the present administration. A victory for either Smith or Hoover would be the continua- A victory for Smith | tion of the same control over governmert. would mean a change in the personnel of the bureaucracy through which the oligarchy now in power would continue to rule. Throughout a series of years the backers of Al Smith have carried on intensive and well studied efforts to build for the Tam- many servant of Wall Street a “labor” reputation. Tammany Hall has become the “New Tammany” which reacts without friction as ammany.’ But through the old cadre of corrupt labor bureau- ‘er the effort to hold the official trade union movement tied to the tail of the capitalist class is intensified. At this moment the political situation in the United States presents to the eyes of the world the most singular anomaly. The labor movement of the country is in the biggest crisis of its en-| , big capital, to the most extreme degree | tire life. The attack by bound up ina unity of mer gers and of political accord, developes into the most gigantic drive for the destruction of trade unions. = et at this same moment the trade union movement through its | il leaders is being hog-tied and prevented from forming its | political mass movement—and even delivered as an active -e to strengthen the political machines of the biggest finance- th every political power, the whole power of government, yn into the scales for the destruction of the trade unions and ablishment of the universal scab shop, the trade union ucracy is still able to influence the organized workers rfully toward the direct support of that candidate of finance- ul and the open shop, Al Smith, or that other candidate of | the same basic interests, Herbert Hoover. These trade union bureaucrats are even divided as between tical parties of the biggest capital. others toward the democratic party of Al Smith. party of Hillquit and Berger, to the extent of its , does its part by sabotaging the formation of a labor , spreading the illusions of capitalist “democracy,” ions it has already trained a large part of its mem- te logically to accept Al Smith instead of Hillquit. n point of treason of the trade union bureaucracy cannot permanently be maintained. The pressure for independent political action of the working ss comes from the masses who are most severely suffering from the anti-labor offens. away from their betrayers, the Greens, the Wolls, the Lewises, will come like an avalanche when it comes. The treason of the trade union bureaucracy in using every device to hold the workers in political bondage to the forces which are destroying the trade unions,—only makes sharper and clearer the f. Workers (Communist) Party is the one political force fi g for the interests of the working class today. T ‘ (Communist) Party is the revolutiona: g class. such it represents the future of expr and leads the struggle through | class in alliance with the exploited farmers ruling cl: and will create a new and higher Also as such, it fights every step of the way of the working class in the day-to-day struggle party of the wor the which will order for the inter with the capital of the coal miners. It is this party which throws itself to the front now more than ever to lead the fight to draw the working class away from the political parties of its enemies, to form the m labor party. | The Workers (Communist) Party will stand out in the 1928! elections in sharp relief as the only champion and leader of the! workers against the parties of big capital. This will be true! whether or not the crystalization of the labor party can be ac-| complished before the 1928 elections. become of To David Gordon Once more! the heavy mailed fist Of capitalism, enraged, Strikes! adds another to the list Of workers who are caged “America’—Misery for workers! Unrelenting—the hand of the class court Mowing the militants down Throwing them into the prison fort Rebel’s voices—trying to drown “America”—Dictatorship of the bosses! Courage, Comrade! time is fleeting Your voice will yet sound the call To the youth—the revolutionary greeting O’er dead capitalism—and its Fall “America”—Belongs to the workers! P —James Ross. Pe $3.50 six months} It would be equally | Some will pull! the upper strata of the working class toward the re-| The breaking of the working class | s, as for instance in the present titanic struggle | THE LION AND THE MOUSE | | i} EDITOR’S NOTE—The follow- ing declaration of Comrade Pia- takov, of which we have already | published a telegraphic summary, is of great political significance. The declaration of Comrade Pia- takoy is the commencement of the decay of the Trotzkyist Opposition.‘ | As is known, the Opposition represented a bloc of the Trotskyist and the Zinoviev-Kamenevy Group. After the XV. Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet union the kernel of the last group capitulated to the Party. The Trotz- kyist Opposition, however, persisted in its former standpoint. The fol- | lowers of Trotzky circulated abroad inflated rumors regarding their unity. Political upstarts of the type of Maslov had the impudence to explain the defection of the Zino- viev group from the Trotzkyists by the fact that the former were afraid | of the “cold of Siberia.” The Declaration of Piatakov shat- ters these assertions. It is precisely | interesting owing to the fact that it raises the question of capitulation as a question of principle. “The answer,” he writes, “depends upon | how one politically estimates the Power existing in the Soviet Union, the Communist International and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.” The Declaration of Piata- kov shatters the last shope of the “European” allies of the Trotzky- ists upon the unity of the Trotzky- ist Opposition. Piatakov Prominent Figure Piatakoy was for many years one of the pillars of Trotzkyism. Since the trade union discussion of the years 1920-21, when Piatakov took the side of Trotzky, he has remained one of the most prominent figures in the Trotzkyist Opposition. Piata- kov was, in addition, one of the firmest supporters of the principle | of Trotzkyism, as even before the | trade union discussion he defended, as a “Left Communist, are closely allied to Trotzkyism. Therefore Piatakov’s defection is a symptom of the fact that the | Trotzkyist Opposition is beginning to disintegrate. Piatakov’s declara- tion will, as he himself writes, urge a number of other Trotzkists on the road to capitulation to the Party. | We recommend every honest prole- a number of other Trotzkyists on the Trotzkyist calumniators to think carefully over Piatakov’s letter. | (Continued from Last Issue.) | Luxury Above. | I just mentioned the hardships of |the 500 who were living below decks. | While we were hungry for better and more food—just ten feet above us men and women were eating the best o! | foods and plenty. They had Filipinc and Negro sailor servants, the bes of cooks and large spacious dining j We are on deck often so close | room. |that it was impossible to avoid spill- jing our food on one another with the | tossing of the ship. The contrast of |there luxury and life of ease com- pared with our hardships and misery |was so apparent. Quite a bit of the conversation, among the men was |based on the marked difference— while a lot of the conversation dwelled on analyzing the rights of the upper deck people. It seemed that most of the sailors could not understand why and for what reason these people had such ease and plenty. Surely none of them cleaned or help tg run the ship. rl Sailor Corres Text of the Declaration of Piatakov. To the Chairman of the Central Control Commission of the Commu- nist Party of the Soviet Union. Copy to the Secretary of the Central Com- mittee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. New difficulties have arisen before the Party. The Party is working in- defatigably to overcome them. An obstinate and hard fight is approach- ing. This circumstance places before every expelled member the question of the necessity of returning to the Party. Together with the whole combined Opposition I conducted the fight against the majority under the as- sumption that this fight would help the Party to find the correct path in that complicated and confused situa- tion in which it was compelled to work. In this fight we followed the path of fraction struggle. The frac- tional organization and the fractional struggle led us to such acts which openly weakened the Party as the bearer of the proletarian dictatorship. Such fighting methods I can in no wise recognize as being correct. As a result of this struggle I was, along with the whole Opposition, excluded from the Party. Exclusion from the Party was bound to confront every member of the Opposition with the question: “What further?” I, too, was bound to put this question to my- self, with us is designated in a conditional sense as “Thermidor,” then my reply to the above questions would have been: To remain outside the Party, to combat politically the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the State led by it. In this case I should have said without hesitation, that a new legal or illegal Party must be set up. What is essential here are not tac- tical considerations (how and when one should proceed to this step), but the principle of the question, whether we do or do not permit a separation from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and whether it is neces- sary to take up the fight against the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. On this point there must exist perfect clarity. If “Thermidor” ex- ists, then one must break with the Communist Party of the@ Soviet Union, one must endeavor to split off from it the best elements, one must begin to build up a new party which must take up the fight against the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the State led by it and for the proletarian dictatorship and Commu- nism, Rejects “Second Party.” Just because there do not exist the political presumptions for such a solu- tion of the question, I believe that it ‘is impossible, injurious and criminal to adopt the course of a second par-| ty. This path, the path of a second} jparty, I have rejected and do reject. By rejecting the path of a second party I also reject every kind of in- termediate solution the culmination of which would be that outside of the Party, in this or that form, there would be organized a political move- ment, not under the control and lead- ership of the Party, but contrary to its will and wishes. Such intermedi- ate solutions must inevitably lead either to the decision to create a sec- ond party or to the decision to liqui- date the special political organiza- tion and to return to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Every po- litical organization outside the bounds of the Party, every political organi- zation which is not under the leader- ship of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union inevitably becomes, under the conditions of the dictator- shi: Only 3 Replies Possible. To this question there can only be three replies: 1. To remain outside the Party and to continue the political fight; 2. to remain outside the Party and to cease the political fight; 3. to return to the Party in order to} take part in the common political fight and in the work of the Party. The answer depends upon how one politically estimates the power exist- ing in the Soviet Union, the Commu- nist International and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. If I were of the opinion that the Comintern and the Communist Par- ty of the Soviet Union had ceased to | be the political organization of the Communists and to carry out a Lenin- ist policy, were I of the opiniof that the Central Committee of the Com- munist Party of the Soviet Union had | ceased to represent the will and the | interests of the working class, were \r of the opinion that the present | Soviet State had ceased to be the or- | ganization of the proletarian dictator- ship, in short, were I of the opinion that there had come about that which (unless it disappears altogether) which fights against the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, that is. to say, in practice, against the dictator- ip of the proletariat. After a week or two at sea, the re- | Transfer to Huron. lationship between someone else’s| At Nagasaku, Japan we were trans- woman or someone else’s man be-|ferred to the U. S. S. Huron the flag- came clear that a general debauch |ship of the Asiatic fleet. The Huron was made of the whole trip. was coaling at the time—two larze of the proletariat, a second party pondent Tells of Brutality By Fred Ellis D. A. R. Faces ‘Investigation’ In the Senate WASHINGTON, April 8 (FP). — After officials at national headquar- ters of the Daughters of the Ameri- can Revolution kad refused to answer press inquiries_as to the conflict in Boston over their “blacklist” of| liberal, labor, pacifist, civil liberties, | and radical groups, Senator Brook- hart, of Iowa, announced that he would bring the matter to the at- tention of the senate. Brookhart had been in correspond- | ence with Mrs. Bailie, who is leading the fight within that organization against its inquisitional Brookhart’s name appeared in one of the blacklists issued by the D.A.R. in Massachusetts and it was after his name ‘was published in the press that {he decided to act. The “Blue Menace” is trying to suppress all speeches and publica- tions, so far as possible, favorable to a small navy, trade unionism; civil liberties guarantees, public owner- ship, social insurance and outlawry of war. KEEP BACK BLACKLIST. WASHINGTON, April 8. — The 27th continental congress of the Daughters of the American Revolu- tion will open on April 16. The speak- ers will include President Coolidge, three members of the cabinet and the British ambassador. It has been announced that the D. A. R. black- list of laborites and pacifists will not be on the regular order of business. ey Must Return to Communist Party. It is impossible to stick to inter- mediate solutions. Therefore I re- ject both the way of a second party and the way of any political organi- zation outside the Communist Party of the Soviet Union which does not stand under the control and the lead- ership of the latter. For a Bolshevik, the second answer is no answer at all. It is an evasion of the answer and a refusal to take part in the political fight of the working class. There remains therefore only one correct answer: to return to the ranks of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in order to take part in the common fight and the common work of the Party. That is just my answer to the question submitted above. With this reply I understand at the same time the observation of three indispensable conditions of member- ship of the Party: 1. I return to the Party not in order to renew the frac- tion fight, but to take part in the common work and the common strug- gle of the Party; 2. In regard to the question of the binding character of the decisions of the highest Party bodies there exists for me no vacilla- jtion; 8. My political standpoint is worthy of a member of the Commun- list Party of the Soviet Union. As regards the first two conditions, I do not need to repeat myself. All that I have stated above clearly shows that I have the intention to observe these two conditions fully and with- out reservations. In regard to the third condition, an appropriate explanation is necessary. What is decisive in this respect is how one estimates politically the Comintern, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Power. For me there exists no doubt that the Comintern, its sections and in particular the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is the sole and ‘only political organization of the Communists which conducts a Lenin- }ist policy; that the Soviet Power in the Soviet Union is the organization of the proletarian dictatorship, the defense and consolidation of which is one of the most important duties of every Communist, both in the Sov- iet Union and abroad, and that in the |Soviet Union the Soviet States and the trade unions, under the leader- ship of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, are building up social- ism. barges of coal were alongside ana looking over you could see a basket line formed from the barges up the side of the ship and down to the coal bunkers. This line was composed of At left is shown the U. S. battleship Texas, thoroughly equipped for coming imperialist wars. Photo on right shows a huge 149-ton, 12-inch gun, which will belch forth death for workers in the next impe- rialist war, being mounted on w U, S. battleship. Life on one of these a sailor correspondent in a letter to The DAILY Wena ,. | That is the fis#t thing. Secondly Piatakov Asks-Readmission Into Party an instrument of the highest finance-capital; and Al Smith is the | last and most complete expression of this development of “New| This starting point in the estima- tion determines the main line of con- duct. With such an estimation the differences in this or that question engaging the attention of the Party —such differences in the village (Ku- lak—middle peasant—village poor) overstep the bounds of differences of opinion between Party members. Under the concrete conditions of the fight of the dictatorship of the pro- letariat for existence and develop- ment in the Soviet Union, the recog- nition of the principle of the alliance of the workers and peasants as the fundamental law of development in the present stage is at the same time an indispensable condition for mem- bership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In’this respect too I do not have any doubts. I was afraid that the policy of the alliance of the workers and peasants could be converted into a policy of ignoring the class differences in the village (Kulak — middle peasant — village poor), which would have certainly meant a great danger to the dictator- ship. Now, however, it is clear that I was mistaken in this respect. That is my present attitude. Renounces Opposition. There clearly follows from all that I have said above that I do not now consider it right to defend the plat- form of the Opposition of September 8rd, 1927, which was set up by the Opposition as a chief weapon in the fight against the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Sov- iet Union. It is hardly necessary to say that I reject the “directives” which were published in the “Prav- da” of January 15th. (This refers to the letters of instructions of the Trotskyist Opposition which were printed in “Inprecorr” No. 8 of 19th of January, Ed.). I am completely in agreement with the criticism of these .directives expressed by Zino- viev and Kameney in their letter to the “Pravda” of 27th of January, 1928. For all these reasons I consider it necessary and possible to request the Central Control Commission to admit me again to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and I be- lieve that the comrades who took part with me in the fight of the Op- position and now share my stand- point, can and must be also readmit- ted to the Party. —G. PIATAKOV. Moscow, February 28, 1928. on the U. S. S. Henderson about 150 women—mostly young girls, many had there children on their backs. From early in the morning till late at night they were passing coal. The regular crew had been sent ashore while the women and children coaled the ship for 25 to 30 cents a day. This for women and this con- dition allowed on a U. S. battle ‘wagon—that is we Americans couldn’t tolerate such inhuman conditions to be imposed on women. Who said that? This incident of the “1881 Class” Henderson trip of 1922 is not an isolated case of debauchery, hypo- erisy and waste of money in naval circles, but is typical of the rule and standards set. The working class youth of the navy have the same prob- lems to contend with as workers in civilian life. There must be a joi together of the workers in the tary service with the workers civilian life, activities. | 5 | j