The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 21, 1928, Page 8

ee oe Pa CON i n not oa An nd ak hg i ate ak aeRO Re Page Kignt THE DAILY WORKER Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'N, Ine, Daily, Except Sunday $3 First Street, New York, N. Y. Ca Aad SUBSCRIPTION RAT Ma’ nionths $6.50 per y $2.09 th Phone, Orchard 1680 s: “Daiwork" e of New York): £3.50 six months months. By* Mai! (in £8.00 per year New addr il out checks t DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, } ROBERT MINOR .WM. F. DUNNE at New York, N. ¥., under 879 York, N. Y. THE bnteread as second-class mail at the post-offi the act of March 3, “The CommunistsAre In It” ‘he garmenf manufacturers‘of Néw York, Chicago and other centers are engaged in a drive for thé destruction of the standards and wages the workers in the needle trades had won in many | e right wing bureaucracy of the va- years of hard struggle. T rious Unions in the fur and ing trades, being thorough but has lent a hand to the women’s wear trades and men’s cloth- y corrupt, has offered no resistance, bosses in their efforts to reduce the wages and conditions of the workers, practically consenting to a demobilization of the Unions in the face of the attack. The attitude of the right wing union officials during the re- cent strenuous years in the needle trades, an attitude which has just now reached its final theoretical expression in the socialist party convention with its elimination of all reference to the class struggle from its constitution, faced the needle trades workers with the choice between fight or destruction. In the Furri in the Amalgamated Clothing Workers’ Un- ion, in the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, the bureaucracy has fortified its control of the organization by a sys- tem of “rotten borough” representation and by gangster-rule in the locals. in the teeth of the trade union bureaucrats, in eomplete defianc the workers in the needle trades to maintain their Unions and living standar The rank file has been able to do so in spite of expulsions, | sell-outs s, gangsterism and gunmen rule against the| members! e condition developed until the militant needle trades wi s have by tens of thousands been outlawed by the International bureau Where the bureaucracies could, op-| (position was broken by ction of the Union. Throughout the | y needle trades gene y in the big population-centers, the militant workers have developed their own leadership and are maintain- | inf their Unions, and conducting the struggle against both the bosses and their trade union agents. The rank and file is overwhelmingly opposed to the corrupt International officials. Militant local unions, representing the masses of the membership, outlawed by the International officers, is the typical needle trades condition of today. The enemies of the workers say “the Communists are in it.” Similarly the members of the largest, strongest, and in every way most important trade union in the Amreican Federation of Labor,, the United Mine Workers’ Union, witnessed their Union being destroyed. Having lost forty percent of the union member- ship, having lost control of the major portion of.former Union territory, with the Union facing the biggest operators’ offensive in its history, the Mine Workers were forced to fight or sur- render. The bureaucracy headed by Lewis would not fight the eperators; its fight was directed only against the mine workers. Today in the biggest battles with the bosses, the mine work- ers find Lewis’ whole machine busy strikebreaking, and find it necessary to fight Lewis as a “coal operator” among the coal op- erators. Hundreds of thousands of unorganized miners must be led into the struggle. Expelled units of the organization must be led into the fight, relief must be organized, picketing carried on. To lead the struggle the militant mine workers were forced to organize their own forms; the Save-the-Union committees working over the heads of the corrupt machine of alliance between Lewis and bosses is such an instrument. The enemies of the workers look at the Save-the-Union com- mittees and say “the Communists are in it.” The situation in the textile towns of New England has brought the workers en masses out of the mills. The burdens imposed on the mill wrkers had been borne until the breaking point, with the officials of the various textile unions acting always to hold the camel bound while straw upon straw until the “last” was piled on its back. The unions no longer pretended to organize any but a few hundred skilled workers, while the so-called unskilled tex- tile slaves, by tens of thousands, were left unorganized and forced to remain pa: » while reactionary trade union leaders of the small skilled ur did all in their power to stretch the enduring powers of the workers The only po means of breaking through was adopted by the masses, of textile workers in New Bedford. Mill committees were organized in shop after shop, a network was spread over the whole textile area of New Bedford and Taunton. These mill committees, free from the dead weight of bureaucracy and bosses’ influence, unlike the small aristocratic skilled unions, have almost at one stroke drawn the entire mass of workers in the textile mills into organized and militant ranks, inspired by the needs of the unskilled and aided by the organizational experience of the unionized skilled workers. Here mill committees became the medium. Mill committees are acting as the organizing medium which makes a struggle for the protection of the workers possible. Over the heads > of these agents of the bosses, is it possible for } THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1928 THE MAN IN THE BROWN DERBY ™ ‘ : The Ku Klux Klan may be a little dumb, but knows a good fellow when it sees him. Or, rather, Wall Street capital can put over Al Smith on the “Southern democracy”—brown derby, booze, pope, Tammany and all,—when the business interests of’ the South begin to feel the influence of Wall Street investments in the South, and the politicians smell a chance at democratic federal jobs. There is no pope before Wall Street. e Build Foreign Born Workers’ Aid in West (By a Worker Correspondent) LOS ANGELES, Cal. (By Mail). —The principal spokeswoman for the foreign-born workers is in this city for a few weeks. She is Nina Samo- rodin of New York, executive secre- tary of the National Council for the Protection of Foreign-born Workers. A local branch of this organization is now in the makinga, The purposes of the new organiza- tion are opposition to anti-alien leg- islation and the promotion of naturali- zation among America’s 8,000,000 un- naturalized residents, the visitor stated. This work is of vital import- ance to all Americans, natives as well ag foreign-born, she declared. Regardless of differences of opin- jon concerning immigration “quotas,” broad-minded persons should all be opposed, she believes, to bills such as the national council has fought be- fore the congress at Washington, D. c. Some of these bills proposed com- pulsory registration of aliens, finger- printing and compulsory nationaliza- tion. The Holyday bill, 1926, which passed in the lower house, provided for the deportation not merely of a person convicted of a crime involving |“moral turpitude,” but of anyone serving sentences totaling 18 months. This measure, Nina Samorodin point- ed out, could easily be used against trade unionists arrested in a strike, Legislation providing for compul- sory registration, she declared, would set up a system of federal espionage which would keep the foreign-born elements of this land in perpetual turmoil. —L. P. RINDAL. WORKERS BURIED ALIVE. Two workers were killed and two jothers injured when. caught in a cave- jin at Broadway and 174th St. The men were working in the excavation |when one side of the cut gave away‘ and tons of rock and dirt poured down on them. Class Justice in the Sam Bonita Sentence By HERBERT BENJAMIN. Sam Bonita is innocent, but he must nevertheless spend from six to twelve years of his life in prison! This is the sentence of the judge in the re- c€ntly concluded trial of the militant miner and president of Local 1703— the local which has become known as the center of the struggle against the contractor system and the corrupt Cappelini machine in District 1 of the United Mine Workers. Railroad Bonita. Formally, the jury after deliberat- ing forty-three hours, brought in a verdict of manslaughter with a rec- ommendation of extreme mercy. Just how much mercy Judge McLean would show was already evidenced in the fact that he rejected the first verdict of the jury. This first verdict which more nearly expressed the opinion of | the jury, a verdict of “fnvoluntary manslaughter” would have carried with it a sentence of from one to two years. In sending the jury back for further deliberation and to find an- other verdict, Judge McLean demon- strated his disappointment when he/ learned that he would be unable to send Bonita to the electric chair. If this sentence is allowed to stand, if the astounding procedure of Judge} McLean proving conclusively his prejudice against the defendant is not challenged or is sustained, Bonita will be robbed of twelve years of his life to gratify thesbitter hatred of al corporation-controlled judge who is} anxious to serve the operators, the contractors and their agents within the miners’ union—the Lewis-Cap- pelini machine. For over forty hours the simple men on the jury who thought that their verdict must be based on the actual facts in the case, argued with those who had been slipped in by the murder and frame-up gang who seek to eliminiate by means of assassina- tion and “legal” murder all those who fight against the betrayal of the mine workers. When the agents of the miner’s enemies on the jury tired and agreed to content themselves with a verdict that would remove . Bonita from the struggle for “only” a year or two, they were told by Judge Mc- Lean that this was not enough. That they must make it possible to send Bonita to prison for an extended pe- riod of years, so that if he could not be killed, he could at least be com- pletely broken! Persecute Militants. The results of the Bonita trial prove once again that workers who fight! for the slightest advancement of the| interests of their class, can expect only the most bitter persecution at the hands of capitalist courts and the whole machinery of the capitalist state. Bonita shot in self-defense; shot after he had been struck by the| personal body-guard of Cappelini, the gunman and bully Agati. Bonita shot | only after he had been missed by a bullet fired at him by his assailant. | Thirty-three witnesses, all of whom were characteristically enough, either | officials on the payroll of the Lewis- Cappelini machine or police officers, were brought forward by the prose- eution. Not a single one of these witnesses produced a single fact to disprove this claim. But in the eyes of a capitalist,court it is a crime for a worker to defend his life against a murderous attack by an agent of the ruling class. The capitalists prefer to write hypocritical obituaries for militant workers shot down in cold blood without the op- portunity to defend themselves. They would rather have Bonita counted among the victims of hired assassins as Tom Lillis, “Big Sam” Grecio, Alex Campbell and Peter Reilly, all of whom have been shot down for daring to resist the will of the opera- tors, the contractors and their agents within the union. The capitalist prosecutors and judges who permit distorted and manufactured “facts” to be intro- duced against workers on trial even though these facts have no relation to the charges that: are intended only to create prejudice against the work- er on trial, deliberately stifle and tule out of court every fact that would strengthen the defense of a militant worker. The attorneys for Bonita sought to prove that it was highly probable that Agati would not hesitate to kill Bonita, State Aids Lewis Machine. They sought to introduce evidence to prove that violence and murder has become an established method of the Cappelini machine for dealing with those who opposed them. But \the judge cooperating with the attor- neys for the state rushed to the de- fense of the bureaucrats every time that the defense attorneys attempted to bring forward the evidence of the murderous methods of the Lewis- Cappelini machine. In the Sacco-Vanzetti case convic- tion was based upon evidence to prove a “state of mind,” a consciousness of guilt. In the Bonita case, conviction was facilitated by preventing expos- ure of a state of war—the murderous war of the operators, contractors and corrupt union officialdom against the rank and file of the miners. Thus, even if the jury had been entirely composed of workers instead of be- ing composed of a few workers and a miscellaneous collection of business men, a justice of the peace and a mine superintendent (!) it would have been little short of miraculous had the jury brought a true verdict—a verdict of innocence. But, try as they may, the capital- ists cannot hide the facts altogether The workers’ press may be weak and inadequate; the arrangement of mass meetings may be interfered with and involve other difficulties, but, the workers must and will learn the truth that Bonita is innocent! That he is one more martyr in the struggle of the workers against a ruthless, bru- tal ruling class—the American capi- talist-imperialist class and its agents in the ranks of labor; that he is one more victim of the infamous frame-up system which has been developed as a science by! the employers of Amer- jica and their lackeys in the courts, The hundreds of thousands of work- ‘ers throughout America who have al- ready been informed of the facts in the Bonita case, through the vigorous efforts of the National Bonita, Mo- leski, Mendola Defense Committee which was formed by the most ad- vanced workers in the anthracite im- mediately after the arrest of Bonita and his comrades, are already con- vinced of the innocence of B-nita. Due to the prompt and able work of the defense committee, assisted by the International Labor Defense, the lives of Bonita and his comrades have been saved. They have been snatched from the hands of the executioner. The partial success of the Defense Committee may be said to have found dramatic reflection in the divided jury. But, whereas the jurors who were convinced of the innocence of | Bonita weakened and brought in a |compromise yerdict, the workers throughout the country must be firm and uncompromising! Defense Committee to Fight. Bonita, Moleski and Mendola aro jinnocent! We must not permit these splendid champions of the rank and file in the miners’ union to suffer years of torture in the prison cells of the capitalist class, The Defense Committee has deter- mined to seek complete liberation for Bonita and his comrades. They are about to fight for a new trial. They are about to undertake a campaign throughout the country for support of the demand for liberation of Bo- nita. Every worker in America must rally behind, must support in every possible way the demand: Unconditional freedom for Bonita, Moleski and Mendola! : | Educational Work ithe U.S. S. R. Trade Unions of the corrupt bureaucracy the wave of the textile workers’ move- ment rises. The enemies of the workers look at the mill committee and say “the Communists are in it.” Yes, the Communi are in it! The militant workers engaged in these mighty struggles, look at the facts and say: “Yes, the Communists are in it. The Communists are in the front line in all of our struggles.” The workers will learn and understand a great deal from the fact that “the Communists are in it.” It is not an accident that not a single struggle for the rights, standards and wages of the workers has been fought during the past several years, that has ot heen denounced as “Communistic.” The United States is now in a period in which no longer can the bureaucracy of Green, Lewis and Sigman, nor of the “so- ” party appear before the workers in a role other than as , defenders of the capitalist system and opponents of the ands of the exploited masses. s a period in which the Workers (Communist) Party already functions and must function as the organizer of the work- ers and leader of their struggle. The organization of the’ unor- ganized workers necessarily places its heaviest burdens upon the Workers (Communist) Party. Trade unions, organized over the heads of ihe reactionary bureaucracy, must be a recurring fact of the immediate period, and the militant workers will see that, “The Communists are in it.” ; The working class will learn and profit from this insight. V9 ‘ ?! cialist enem dai s A at + (Continued). (EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is taken from Robert W. Dunn’s new book, “Soviet Trade Unions” to be published by the Vanguard Press, New York). r MeAcy sae Cireles in lower union organiza- tions and “red corners” numbered 51,931. Of these 48,741 reported a membership of 746,050, making a total membership in all reporting trade union circles of 1,329,480. Libraries in clubs numbered 3,234, while the subscribers for the 2,966 reporting numbered 1,180,455. Attached to lower trade union or- gans were 13,255 libraries. The 10,875 reporting gave tthe number ot subseribers as 874,605, making the total trade union libraries in the country 16,489 and the total numbe of subscribers over 2,000,000. “Red corners” numbered 26, Types of Class and Mass Work. The unions classify their educa- tional work roughly into political, trade union and technical education. The political work is carried on first in a “mass way,” which consists of various devices for reaching the largest number of workers with ma- terial on political subjects. The fre- quent reports of union leaders on the “international situation” or on the the largest number being in institu tions organized by the railroad, gov- ernment clerks, metal and food workers’ uniohs. There has been a tremendous increase in ‘red corners” in all the unions in the te two years. “domestic situation of the Soviet government” are a part of this pro- gram, together with lectures, discus- sions, “between-shift-meetings” and mass meetings dealing with a. wide variety of political and semi-political topics, There is also what they describe as the “artistic presentation” of the same material. This may take the form of theatrical productions, mo- tion pictures, “living papers” (the acting out on the stage of contem- porary news events), articles in the “wall newspapers” and __ posters, Political education is also carried on in circles and classes for the more advanced workers who flock to the courses on economics, Russian his- tory and “the theory and practice of Leninism.” So-called trade union education ‘deals with a narrower range of topics closely related to union work, Here the same methods are used. The mass education is, of course, intended to reach the rank and file. It does not deal with abstractions but with the daily needs and experiences of the average unionist. For example, in connection with the general and delegates’ meetings, held at the fac- tory during the period when collec tive agreements are under discussion, the union member learns the funda- mentals of collective bargaining. The worker who takes part in the collec- tion of dues acquires rudimentary Knowledge of union finanee. On all the various committees in the enter- prise, the workers increase their trade union understanding by carry- ing out some union task. But for the newcomer, the seasonal worker and the peasant fresh from the vil- lage, there will be also, before he reaches this stage of participation, plenty of literature and general or- ganization talks ‘on “Why join the union,” and “What the union can do to protect your interests.” *