The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 26, 1928, Page 4

THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 26, 1928 Fhe following is a draft for the ition platform of the Workers mmunist) Party propused by the Committee to the convention. Mar draft failed to include some dments considered acceptable but @ for lack of time. . * American Imperialism esident Coolidge said to the big ikers and manufactur in Ph elphia: ‘“‘We hold a great treasure Fhich must-be protected.” In the name ‘of the working c nd the exploited farmers of thi the WORK- ERS (Commun PARTY raises the question: Who owns the ‘great treas- ure,’ in whose interests must it be protected, and who’ bears the burden ction? And our answer reat treasure’ is owned by @ handful of powerful bankers, man- ufacturers, and railroad nate The only share of it the workers and working farmers receive is exploita- tion and poverty, and all the burden of defense of the * t re’ of American Imper n s on the shoulders of the in eultural workers. America is today the most power- ful country in the wor America’s wealth, the “ tr ” mounts up to 400 billion d the gold of the wo possession of the United but seven per cent of total population bulk of the world cent of the world’s c of the oil produced, 5: 100 tons of steel, 60 per cent of the cotton and corn, half of world’s rail r and pig iron A gigantic tion and centration of ca } total amount of bank deposits is no’ over 56 billion dollars. These a ever 1,000 factories in America ploying more than 1,000 wo with a total 2 eac! million of about 2 workers. Of all wage-e: ufacturing over 56 p : those 10,000 factories each of which ¢arn out annually products to the amount of a million dollars or over. Trustitication is asserting itself with irresistible power. Consolidations big combines and mer- in all industries are the order of the day. The United States Steel Corporation has ‘a éapital of 1.4 bil- lion dollars. A food trust is at- tempting to put 2 billion dollars into one powerful corporation. The recent consolidation of the Brooklyn Edison Company and the Consolidated Gas Company of New York resulted in a merger of over one billion dollars. Five powerful companies control al- most half of the whole national out- put of water power, and eleven groups control 80 per cent. Hight companies control three-fourths of the anthra- cite coal. Two companies exercise control over half of the copper re- sources of the country. i A process of centralization similar to that in production is going on in the field of distribution. T are today 3,893 chain store organi: ons controlling 101,536 retail outlets in thirty merchandise fields. These @hains realized in 1927 a volume Dusiness estimated at almost si Tion dollars or 16 r cent of total retail business of the countr The anti-trust laws function today not as instruments of “tr ting” but as a means of trustific: The United States is the leading country in respect to capitalist ra- tionalization. The productive power of American industries has increased tremendously. In a decad luc- tivity per empl wifacturing h cost of manage per cent, but wag duction inc cent. Over-developr productive basic features of Amer ism. Finance capital is almighty today. Banks and industries are merged. The climax of this “development was marked by the fact that J. P. Mor- gan, head of American finance capi- tal, became the head cf the United States Steel Corporation, the coun- try’s biggest industrial. company. Hand in hand with the trustification of industry goes the tr ication of te power. The Government of the United States is today an administra- tion of finance capital. The identity the dominating personnel in fin- “ance capital and government admin- “stration is complete. Winance capi- tal sends its direct representatives to the Cabinet as well as ambassadors to foreign countries. Trustification, high tariff, monop- oly, merger of trusts and State pow- @r, growing export of capital—this ‘is the picture of American Imperial- bi ism. today. _ The stabilization of European in- ‘dustries, and the decline of British imperialism have increased competi- jon on a world scale. The United tes imperialism is in a growing jeasure dependent on the world mar- and it struggles for world hege- n in every corner of the world— from Latin America to China. It is : in murdexpus competition for | Russian market as well as for . markets of the British Empire. competition, increased th +| workers, struggle for the resources of raw ma- terial and for the export of capital, high tariff walls, and ever-larger arm nd navies create a growing menace of war. A second world war is inevitable. Wars on a smaller |scale are going on today in a periog which the spokesmen of Imperialism | call the era of ‘“‘world peace.” Ameri- can Imperialism is conducting a war of extermination against Nicaragua, is participating in interventions in China, and is an active accomplice |of the capitalist conspiracy against the Soviet Russia. | Two main antagonisms lead today |towards a world conflagration. One \is the chief capitalist antagonism be- tween British and American Imperi- |alism, which has taken the place of | the pre-war British-German rivalry. |The other one is the general capi- talist conspiracy against the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. Although British Imperialism is to- day the most reactionary force in world politics, American Imperialism is the leading power and represents the most dangerous, most aggressive foree of world capitalism. There is an ever-clearer crystallization of the two poles; on the one hand, the coun- ter-revolutionary pole to defend cap- italism against the growing revolt of the colonial peoples and the working masses of the capitalist countries un- der the leadership of the United States; on the other hand, the revo- lutionary pole under the leadership of Soviet Russia, around which all the oppressed peoples of the colonies d all the expoited workers of the world rally. Wealth and Poverty | -| The United States is in the richest | | country in the world. “Uncle Shy- | lock” is the creditor of all countries. The world owes the United States today not less than 23% billion dol- lars. The number of millionaires is growing fast. In 1919 there were ly 65 incomes over a million; in 26 there were already 228. In 1919 there were only 189 incomes between $500,000 and $1,000,000; in 1926 the number was already 465. In his 1926 address to Congress President Coolidge said: “The wealth of our country is not public wealth but private wealth. It does not be- long to the Government; it belongs to the people.” The prodigious wealth of the country is private wealth, but the “people” who own it are not the workers and exploited farmers. They are the few millionaires. The country is growing richer, but the share of the millions of working people in the wealth of the country is decreasing and the share of the few powerfu! millionaires is increasing with amaz- ing speed. One per cent of all re- cipients of any income in this coun- try receive not less than 20 per cent of the whole national income and get not less than 86.2 per cent of all corporate dividends. One per cent of the population possesses today not less than 33 per cent of all wealth; 10 per cent own 64 per cent; and the poorest 25 per cent possess only 3% per cent. The overwhelming major- ity of the “people” to whom Presi- f}dent Coolidge refers are born poor The Federal Trade Commission states that about one per cent of the estimated number of de- cedents owned about 59 per cent of the estimated wealth, and more than 30 per cent was owned by about 13 per cent of the decedents.” The accumulated wealth is not dis- tributed equally. Hand in hand with the growing fortunes of the few mil- lionaires goes the growing exploita- on and poverty of the unskilled Negroes, and exploited far- Even President Coolidge was 1 to admit in his Hammond de- ion speech that there is a “con- siderable class of unskilled workers who have not come into full partici- pation in the wealth of the nation.” The share of the wage-earners in the national income has decreased. The manufacturing wage-earners re- ceived only 40.1 per cent of the “value product” in 1925 as against 44.8 per cent in 1921. The wages of the shamelessly exploited four mil- lion agricultural workers amounted in 1920 to 2.8 per cent of the na- |tional income and in 1926 to only 1.4 per cent. The “democratization” \of wealth is only a capitalist myth, Bankers and industrial magnates own the big corporations. The workers do not possess more than one per cent of all stocks and bonds. “High Amer- ican wages” is today the most pop- ular publicity stunt of American and international capitalism but high wages embrace only a thin aristo- cratic stratum of the working class, The overwhelming majority of wage- earners is not able to earn even suf- ficient to fulfill the most elementary needs of a decent life. In the middle of the most advertised prosperity, in the summer of 1926, the Federal Bu- reau of Labor statistics estimated that the average wages for “common labor” were 43.6 cents an hour. The United States Department of. Labor was forced to admit that many mil- lions of workers are receiving wages of only $10.34 a week, President Coolidge made the bold declaration that “the people are prosperous,” but reality shows that people work on starvation wages, that id. die poor. ers, the overwhelming majority of the nearly 60 per cent of the workers still work more than 48 hours a week, that women and children, Negro and foreign-born unskilled workers are ex- ploited at least as mercilessly as the most exploited strata of the Euro- pean working class. The prosperity of the “people” is best illustrated by the miserable shacks of the Southern cotton fields and the poverty-stricken slums of the Eastern cities. In his 1926 address to Congress President Coolidge said: “The power of the purse is the power over liberty.” A handful of millionaires exercise pow- er over the purse, and they exercise power over the liberty of the over- whelming majority of the United States. A handful of powerful mil- lionaires own all the means of pro- duction—the factories, machinery, mines, railroads, water power—of this country, and are thus in a position to force the overwhelming majority of the people into wage slavery. The wealth of the few is the poverty of the many; the liberty of the few is the bondage of the masses. Indictment of American Capitalism Overproduction and __ starvation, overtime and unemployment, accumu- lation of wealth and accumulation of poverty—these are the features of capitalist prosperity for the workers and working farmers. The very fact that there can be such a thing as overproduction as long as the needs of every member of society are still unsatisfied is the most terrible in- dictment against capitalist economy. Capitalist society is unable to control its own forces of production. As the President of the United States Cham- ber of Commerce put it in his speech of May 10, 1928: “there has been an economic thunderbolt of increasing production unloosed by industry.” Unemployment is a permanent phe- nomenon in capitalist society. There is at any time 1% million unem- ployed. The constant industrial re- serve army is one of the props of capitalist society. The present de- pression with its 4 or 5 million un- employed workers brings untold mis- ery. The labor of millions of chil- dren is one of the basic institutions of capitalism. Peonage no better than chattel slavery, Jim Crowism, and lynching are acknowledged sources of present day capitalist prosperity. The shameless exploitation of the un- skilled foreign-born workers and the oppression of the whole races are parts of the capitalist system. The modern industrial serfdom of com- pany towns is in existence to the glory of the “freest” constitution in the world. Capitalist industry con- ducts in the form of industrial acci- dents extermination against the working class. The infamous speed- up system causes the workers to gge prematurely. Old workers are thrown away like slack, like useless by-prod- ucts. Not less than 1,800,000 old peo- ple are forced to live the life of “de pendents.” Sickness and early death are the punishment for poverty. The United States Public Health Service states: “Both sickness and death are much more frequent among those with low incomes than among those with incomes adequate to comfortable liv- ing.” Capitalist decency and morality is symbolized by almshouses, brothels, slums, and bootleg saloons. Prostitu- tion of science, literature, and art is on the same level as prostitution of women, There is a crusade against the “crime move,” against petty lar- ceny by the poot, conducted by those who are guilty of large-scale corrup- tion and lobbying. With the excep- tion of backward and impoverished China and India the powerful and rich znd civilized United States is the only country which does not have any social legislation. Jingoism, militar- ism, robber wars against Nicaragua and China— these are the results of American capitalism, President Coolidge summed up in the following way his picture of Am- erican capitalism: “Those are some of the economic results which have acerued from the American _princi- ples of reliance upon the initiative and the freedom of the individual. It is the very antithesis éf Communism.” And President Coolidge is right. American capitalism as it is—with all its economic, political, and moral re- sults—is the very antithesis of Com- munism. There is no other alterna- tive. The issue is capitalism or Com. munism. The Workers Communist Party of America declares itself the deadly enemy of capitalism. It has as its aim the overthrow of capital- ism, the establishment of a workers’ and farmers’ government, the estab- lishment of a Communist society in which the means of production will not be the private property of the few, a society which will not be based on vo but on labor, which will not be fouhded on class divisions, which will eradicate imperialist wars as well as class wars, which will be able to eliminate poverty. The Parties of Big and Small Business With the exception of the Workers (Communist) Party all political par- ties and groups are defenders of the present capitalist society, twin brothers in the expression of the|ance, trade-union capitalism is noth- interests of the bosses. The Republican Party, which in the interests of the then revolutionary capitalism conducted a war against chattel slayery, is today working in the interests of the new counter-re- volutionary capitalism for the per- petuation of wage slavery. The Re- publican Party of today is nothing but the party of trusts, of finance capital, of the biggest business inter- ests of the country. The Democratic Party was in the early stages of its history the party of slavery, against Northern capital- ism and in the interests of the South- ern plantation owners. Today, though many times masked with phrases of liberalism, it stands for the perpetu- ation of the peonage of Negroes in the South and for the maintenance of wage slavery throughout the country. There are no real political differ- ences between the two big political parties. Both are parties of capital- ism; both are the enemies of the working class. The very existence of the two-party system is the most re- actionary factor in American politics, is one of the factors which is re- sponsible for the lack of an indepen- dent mass political party of the work- ing class. Both capitalist parties try to put up the semblance of being de- fenders of the farmers, vying with each other in putting forward fake “farm relief” measures. The “strug- gle” between the Republican and De- mocratie parties is a staged fight, a mock struggle. There are no politi- cal issues between these two parties. On the question of tariff, prohibition, taxation, imperialist war, farm relief, League of Nations, and all other dis- cussed political issues there is much more division within each party than between the two parties. The main slogan of the Republican Party today is “Prosperity.” But reality shows depression and unem- ployment. The main slogan of the Democratic Party is: ‘Honesty in Government.” But reality shows at least as much corruption on the party of Democrats as on that of the Re- publicans. Tammany Hall can suc- cessfully compete in corruption with Teapot Dome. There are several classes combined in each of these parties. Both still mirror in many respects the old sec- tional and regional groupings of the country, but in both there is an out- spoken, decisive dominance of finance capital. Both are one of the basic issues: the oppression of the working class, the maintenance of the exploi- tation of the workers and working farmers, and the robber policies against the colonies and semi-colonies of American imperialism. The group of so-called Progressives is by-no means better than the Re- publican “Old Guard” of the Demo- cratic heroes of Tammany Hall and the “solid” South. In 1924 the bulk of the so-called progressive group supported the LaFollette movement, which betrayed the interests of the working class and the working far- mers and helped to lead into peace- ful channels the discontent of the masses. In 1926 the attitude of the so-called Progressives is still more cowardly. They have even deserted the idea of a third party, and have gone back meekly into the old capi- talist parties. Senator Wheeler came out openly in support of Al Smith who is the embodiment of the new Tammany Hail, who is the hero of the labor-smashing policies in the needle trades. Senators Borah and Norris and their Republican colleagues are equally untrustworthy. Borah’s emp- ty gesture of “outlawing” war serves only as a cover for Kellogg’s imperi- alist wars and war preparations. Sen- ator Shipstead, who still usurps the name of Farmer-Laborite, is betray- ing the interests of the workers and exploited farmers in the most shame- less way, is supporting the anti-labor injunction policies of the courts and the Nicaraguan war. These “progres- sive” Senators and Congressmen are in many respects more dangerous en- emies of the: workers and working farmers than the official spokesmen of big business, because they hide their capitalist face and create illu- sions in the minds of the masses. All these Progressives and semi-Progres- sives serve as a group of the pesent capitalist society and must be com- batted by all honest workers and far- mers. The official leadership of the trade unions, the whole bureaucracy of the American Federation of Labor, is to- day part and parcel of American im- perialism. Under the leadership of the most corrupt trade-union bureau- cracy in the world the A. F. of L. has become a mere organization of the la- bor aristocracy, an instrument of class collaboration with the bosses in- stead of a means of struggle against big business. ‘The capitalists are con- ducting the most murderous offensive of the open shop and wage cuts against the workers, The answer of the leaders of the A. F. of L. is a joint proposal with the American Bar Association for a Federal anti-strike law. The trade-union bureaucrats are today the partners of the bosses. They are trying to wrench the weapon of the strike from the hands of the The two old capitalist parties, the | workers. The whole infamous system Republican and Democratic, are the|of labor banks and trade-union insur- ing but the most elaborate system of class betraynl. The leadership of the A. F. of L. does not conduct any struggle against wage *cuts or for higher wages and shorter hours. The trade-union bureaucracy sabotages the great task of organizing the un- organized. The worthy heirs of Gom- per—-Green, Woll and Co.-—are the ad- voeates of the “Monroe Doctrine of Labor” are the spokesmen of a “la- bor imperialism.” They have come out openly for a policy of common exploitation of all Latin-American peoples by the capitalists and work- ers of the United States. The B. and O. plan, the Mitten plan, compulsory arbitration, the transformation of the trade unions into semi-Fascist and semi-company unions—is today the policy of the A. F. of L. These cor- rupt misleaders of labor are helping to keep the workers in the camp of the old capitalist parties by main- taining the sterile and treacherous policy of “reward your friends and punish your enemies” within the cap- italist parties. There cannot be a successful revolutionary mass move- ment of the working class in America without smashing the whole edifice of the labor aristocracy and its cor- rupt bureaucratic leadership. The Socialist Party of America, which still claims to be a working class party, is in fact a party of the lower middle class. Its leadership has become part of the bureaucracy of the A. F. of L. Its whole ambition is to inherit the traditions of the La Follette third-party movement. The militant spirit of Eugene Debs has been completely wiped out from the Socialist Party. In Wisconsin the Socialist Party is an official party of the capitalist admimistration. In New York the Socialist Party has substi- tuted the red-white and blue flag of patriotism for the red flag of revolu- tiony In Reading the city officials of the Socialist Party have pledged themselves to “understand that their responsibilities will be those of. capi- talist officials rather than of Social- ist Party members.” James H. Maur- er, one of the councilmen elected by the Socialists in Reading and Vice- presidential candidate’ of the Social- ist Party, declared: “We are going to give the workers a typical working class government, but if there is a strike in Reading while we are in power, the capitalist employer will have his property and life protected as never he had it before.” The Presidential candidate of the Socialist Party, Norman Thomas, i the worst kind of pacifist, a typical Preacher, who performs the greatest service for Mexican imperialism by creating illusions about the League of Nations, about the possibility of preventing wars by peaceful means. The Socialist Party today is an ad- vocate of the League of Nations, and is a supporter of the hypocritical “peace offensive” of Secretary of State Kellogg. The Socialist Party is uttering some critical phrases about the war in Nicaragua not be- cause it is an imperialist war in the interests of Wall Street but only be- cause it is “unauthorized and unsanc- tioned by the people or Congress.” The Socialist Party of today is for the protection of capitalist law and order, is against revolution, is against the working class government of So- viet Russia, and supports every meas- ure of the A. F. of L. bureaucracy for class collaboration. The Socialist Party has transformed its party or- ganization from a membership or- ganization into a ward organization of voters. It has shifted its class basis from a working class entirely and definitely to the lower middle class. The last national convention of the Socialist Party in April, 1928, went so far as to drop the class strag_ gle pledge that applicants for mem- bership had to sign in the past. The small sects, the Socialist Laker Party and the Proletarian Party have become completely fossilized, and do not play any role in the political life of the country or in any of the strug- gles of the working class. The Workers (Communist) Party is today the only real revolutionary working-class party. It is the sole party which has a program for the workers and working farmers. It is the only party which conducts a re- lentless struggle against capitalism, against the old parties of the bosses and against the corrupt labor bureau- eracy and the treacherous Socialist Party, i ‘The Workers Communist Party is the party of the class struggle. It is the deadly enemy of class collabora- tion because it is the deadly enemy of capitalism, The Workers Commu- nist Party is the champion of the in- terests of the working class and the working farmers. It is the advo- cate of the most exploited stratum of the working class, of the unskilled workers. It is the champion of the oppressed Negro race. It is the or- ganizer of the struggle against im- perialism, against imperialist wars. The Workers (Communist) Party is the only Party which fights for the interests of. the working class, working farmers, and the oppressed Negro race; and that is the very tea- son why all the forces of the old cap- italist parties, the bureaucrats of the A. F. of L. and the leaders of the Socialist Party are united against the Communists. The Republicans, De- mocrats, Socialists, and labor bu- reaucrats have a common platform. That platform is Red-baiting, anti- Communist. In its 1928 election campaign the Workers (Communist) Party offers the following program against trusti- fied capital and in the interests of the working class, working farmers, and oppressed Negro race: The Curse of Unemployment. There is a heavy economic depres- sion over the country with a very heavy unemployment in its wake. Bread-lines are long. ‘ Hypocritical “charity” is in its flower. Even con- servative Senators estimate the num- ber of unemployed at four million. The curse of unemployment is the most terrible plight of the working class, The cyclical crises of capital- ist industry bring with them time and again the untold sufferings of mass unemployment. But there is unem- ployment not only at times of crises; it is here at all times. Unemploy- ment on a mass scale is a “normal” phenomenon of this glorious capital- ist society. The very technical progress—the development of new machinery, the increased productivity of labor—be- comes under capitalist conditions a source of growing unemployment. The introduction of new machines has decreased the number of workers. The opening up of new markets can- not keep pace with the speedy de- velopment of technique. The intro- duction of machinery makes the skill of the workers superfluous. Large masses of unskilled workers can take the place of the skilled. The time of apprenticeship is being greatly shortened. Young workers and even children can take the place of adults. A growing number of women are entering into industry. The introduction of machinery cre- ates the basis for mass production. Mass production with its murderous competition ruins the lower middle class and drives its members as workers into the industries. _Mono- poly capitalism ruins the farmers and forces them to sell their labor power as industrial workers in the cities. Mass production opens up hitherto backward agrarian regions industri- ally. A large-scale industriaJization of the South is taking place, and has driven ‘hundreds of thousands of Negroes into the industries. Despite all prohibition of immigration there is an annual influx of hundreds of thousands of workers from other countries, Under present capitalist conditions, it is inevitable that there be a con- stant industrial reserve army of jobless. Even in the best periods of prosperity, the number of jobless is estimated at one and a half million In 1927, the factories produced 26 rer cent more than in 1919. Dur- ing this same period, the number of wage-earners employed in manufac- turing decreased by not less than 980,000. Eleven per cent fewer wage-earners than in 1919 produced in manufacturing in 1927, 26 per cent more products. In other words, each worker produced 42 per cent more The same tendency manifests itself everywhere. The railways had in 1927 almost 200,000 less workers than in 1919. -The number of “superflu- ous” miners is near to a quarter of a million. In manufacturing, min- ing and railroading, there were al- most one and a half million fewer workers employed by the end of 1927 than in 1919. During the last few years, there has been a continuous movement of population from the farms to the cities In 1925, 834,- 600, in 1925, 1,020,000,’in 1927, 604,- 000 more persons left the farms for cities than the cities for the farms. A large proportion of these bankrupt and ruined farmers became industrial workers or rather tried to become industrial workers. Even Seeretary of Labor Davis has been forced to raise the question: “Is automatic machinery driven by relentless power going to leave cn our hands a state of chronic and increasing unemployment? Is the machinery that turns out our wealth also to create poverty? Is it giving us a permanent jobless class?” A capitalist writer characterizes the present unemployment as a “tech- nological unemployment, not cyclical --an “unemployment developing gradually, olmost unawares, like ereeping paralysis, in the midst of unprecedented prosperity, the by- product of improved technological ef. ficiency.” Unemployment is indeed the “creep. ing paralysis” of capitalist society. It represents the most vicious con- tradiction of the present economic order, The more machinery, the higher the productivity of labor, the more unemployed. Labor itself pro- duces unemployment, Unemployment of one part produces overtime for the other part of the working class, The pressure of unemployment forces wage-earners to accept jobs at lower wages and longer hours, The fear of unemployment is the most powerful chain which binds the workers to wage slavery. The fear of unemployment increases competition among the workers. Unemployment lowers the WORKERS PARTY DRAFT PLATFORM OF CLASS STRUGGLE All olitical Groups Except Communist Party Defend Capitalist Society” power of resistance of the workers on the job, The working wage-earn- ers are forced to accept overtime. Overtime again makes new masses of Wwage-éarners superfluous. Unemploy- ment creates overtime, and overtime creates unemployment. The bigger the factories, the more expensive the machinery, the greater is the tendency of the capitalists to lengthen the working time instead of increasing the number of workers. Hand in hand with the increasing accumulation of capital goes a relative and today even an absolute decrease in the number of workers, The hypocritical advocates of cap- italism lament about the existence of unemployment and call it the “gfeat- est blot on our capitalist system” (Owen D. Young), but in fact the ex- istence of a constant industrial re- serve army is not a hindrance to capitalism. Quite the contrary. It is one of the basic conditions for the existence and maintenance of capital- ism, Technical development, new in- ventions, the introduction of new la- bor saving machinery, will not cease, The opening up of new markets will not go at the same speed as hereto- fore. The industrialization of the colonies, the increasing competition with Europe, the existence of aon- capitalistic Soviet Russia, and the re- volt of the colonial peoples are the narrowing limitations. The present depression is not an “accident.” It has been brought about by prosperity itself. Dispro- portion between production and con- sumption, which is a part of the gen- eral anarchy of capitalist production, 1s responsible for cyclical crises, Saturation of the automobile and building construction markets, over- production of oil, the world coal cri- sis, the migration of the textile in- dustry to the South, the limits of in- staliment buying, the restriction of the farmers’ market, the effects of American export of capital and of the stabilization of Europe, the in- creased competition with Europe— these are the basic features of the present economic depression. There is no cure for unemployment under capitalism, Shortening of the working day alone would not do away with unemploy- ment. A general shortening of the working day would result in general part-time work, in perpetual over- Production, would bring about a cri- sis in permanence, High wages alone cannot eure un- employment, It is futile to try to “convince” the capitalists to increase wages for the purpose of increasing the purchasing power of the work- ers. The capitalists will never sac- rifice a portion of their profits, by transforming it into wages for the purpose of broadening the home mar- ket. Just the opposite is the policy of imperialist capitalism. It is cut- ting wages everywhere, and trying to increase its exports f reign markets, 4 apheniis Neither can public works alone cure unemployment. _Publie works would tend to increase the forces of pro- duction, and would in the long run tend to reproduce unemployment on a larger scale, Higher wages, short- er hours, and public works would not Sheet ace but might bring about a certain limited viel and temporary Unemployment is a world phenom- enon today. The constant industrial reserve army has always been in ex- istence, but the present chronic un- MeL abs has assumed such pro- portions that it is no longer a of capitalism but an organic ackeek one of the basic sicknesses of post- war capitalism. Unemployment is a’ horrible curse upon the working class, It is the most powerful weapon in the hands of the bosses. It chains the worker to wage slavery, It brings tormenting uncertainty into the life of every wage-earner. It breaks up the family of the worker by driving the women and children into the fac- tories, It brings about moral degre- dation, creates a slum proletariat, There follows in its wake a grow- ing criminality. It is the foundation of prostitution. In other words, it embodies and sums up capitalism as a whole, i Demands. 1, Unemployment insurance. A federal system of unemployment in- surance should be established. A federal law must be enacted imme- diately by Congress providing for un- employment insurance for all wage- earners without ony exceptions or disqualifications. The amount of compensation shall be full wages for the entire period of unemployment, the maximum to be $30 per week. An unemployment insurance fund shall be created, fifty per cent to be con- tributed by the employers and fifty per cent by the state. The amount contributed by the state shall be raised by special taxes levied against inheritance, high income, and corpora- tion profits. The administration of unemployment insurance shall be car- ried by unemployment insurance com- missions, composed of representatives of trade unions, organizations of the unemployed, and factory committees. 2, Immediate enactment of a fed- eral law providing for a general 40- hour, 5-day week working time and forbidding all overtime... — : 3. A federal law should be providing for immediate emer;