The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 16, 1928, Page 6

f THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK Published by National D. We SUBSCRIPTION RATES eee s By Mail (in New York only) New ¥ N.Y. 17 $8.a year .50 six mos. 0 three mos. 5 le of New York) ROBERT MINOR Editor $6 a year -50 six mos. 0 ite oe : Address and mail out checks to The Daily Worker, WM..F. DUNNE Assistant Editor 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. Y. For the Workers! VOTE COMMUNIST! For Vice-President BENJAMIN GITLOW eee A) %| WORKERS (COMMUNIST) PARTY For the Party of the Class Struggle! ea WILLIAM Z. FOSTER Statement of the Communist Party Against Capitalist Terror. To the Members of the Workers (Communist) Party of America: To all Working Men and Working Women: Terroristic actions of the official and “unofficial” organs and organiza- tions of the master class are following each other in an ominous way. Every militant struggle of the working class and the Communist Party is answered by the capitalist class and its state power with increasingly ruthless brutality. The bosses are carrying out their offensive against the workers on the whole front. The convention of the new National Miners’ Union was at- tacked by the police and by the thugs of the labor bureaucrats. Every sort of terror was used against the striking textile workers in New Bedford., Not less than 800 textile workers have to appear before court under appeals dur- ing November. Election campaign meetings of the Communist Party have been broken up during the last few weeks in Ohio and West Virginia. The capitalist machine has been working overtime to keep our Party off the bal- lot in Nebraska, Montana, and Washington. The Young Workers League office in Los Angeles was raided, their documents seized, and a number of young workers arrested. In Detroit Fascist gangsters killed and wounded militant Italian workers. In Philadelphia, in Pittsburgh, in New York, elec- tion meetings, of the Workers (Communist) Party are being broken up by the police. Everywhere Communists and workers are jailed. The latest chapter of official and unofficial gangsterism of the boss class are the events in Phoenix, Arizona, and Houston, Texas. The election meetings of the Communist Party in Phoenix and Houston were raided, our comrades arrested. The capitalist press reveals a sinister plot, concocted by the various organizations of the capitalists with the participation of gov- ernment organs and reactionary officials of the trade unions to kidnap Ben- jamin Gitlow, the vice-presidential candidate of the Workers (Communist) Party of America. The vile conspiracy failed. The official and unofficial ter- rorists were not able to get hold of our Comrade Gitlow, were not able to earry out their infamous machinations. The plot failed, but it was not their fault. It was due to the vigilance of our comrades and to mere accident. The reactionary plot in Arizona, a state notorious throughout the whole world for the outrageous Bisbee case, where more than 1,200 workers were driven into the desert was revealed by the brazenly frank editorial of the Arizona Gazette, organ of the copper barons’ terrorism, expressing the true class nature of the conspiracy and all factors of sham American democracy: “Citizens of Phoenix, labor union, city officials and the police depart- ment made it very plain to Benjamin Gitlow, Communist candidate for the vice-presidency that Phoenix was too American to permit the revolu- tionary creed of Red Russia to be preached in Phoenix. ... If a Commu- nist was ever elected, he would utilize the legislative bodies as a forum to mobilize the working class for militant struggle to abolish the present econ- omic and political order.” : All factors of capitalist reaction, all “respectable” pillars of the present capitalist society united against the Communist election campaign, “in re- fusing a place to spread the gospel of World Revolution.” The Ku Klux Klan, which has as its first aim the perpetuation of the mastery of the white capitalists and plantation-owners ef the South over the Negro masses, took part in the conspiracy, because the Workers (Commu- nist) Party is the fearless champion of struggle against the oppression of the Negro race. The American Legion, that notorious American variety of Fascism which preaches 100 per cent patriotism and spreads the poison of military prepared- ness, was the organizer of the plot, because it wanted to hit, in the person of Gitlow, the Communist Party, which is the party of true internationalism and carries on a relentless struggle against imperialist war. The American Federation of Labor bureaucrats, who are the cham- pions of class collaboration with the bosses, gave a helping hand to the out- rageous plot, because the Communist Party is the Party of class struggle, stands for the organization of the vast millions of unorganized workers and is the fearless leader of all strike struggles. The “citizens” of Phoenix, members of the boss class who defend wage slavery, exploitation and oppression of the workers, co-operated in the vile conspiracy, because they kaow the Communist Party is the deadly enemy of capitalist society and fights for the emancipation of all toilers from wage slavery. The Police Department of Phoenix, the state authorities of Arizona, the so-called “liberal” governor, Hunt; the Department of Justice at Washing- ton, are all part of the united front of the bosses, the American Legion, the Ku Klux Klan and the American Federation of Labor officials, against Com- munism, because the sole purpose of capitalist state power is the defense of the interests of the bosses against the working class. All forces of capitalism are united against the workers. All forces of the working class must unite to defend the stalwart leader of the struggles of the working class—the Workers (Communist) Party of America. Workers, comrades! You must understand the Communist Party is at- tacked only because it fights for the interests of the workers. The govern- ment is breaking up our election meetirfigs. The small czars of the reaction- ary states are trying to keep our Party off the ballot because we Communists are exposing the true nature of capitalist democracy, because in the present tense international situation we are fighting the war plans of the United States government, because we denounce and fight U. S. military interven- tion in Nicaragua. ; Comrades, workers, we must draw the lessons from the concentrated at- tack of the capitalist class and its government against the workers, against the Communists. The breaking up of the Communist election campaign, the cutting off of the propaganda for the platform of the only working-class yty of this country means throwing overboard the last pretext of the much- we 1 reeenien a doa ate lorcet Against the Capitalists! AUER oNRsaNMUNMWOR a UESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1928 SIGMAN,:-THE AUCTIONEER but exert little Although there are in Canada labor more than 3,000,000 workers, only }290,000 are organized in trade mions. There are four main trade Junion groups. The largest group ‘consists of the so-called “interna- tional” craft unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and the railway brotherhoods in the United States, with a total of 180,- 755 members. The second largest consists of independent Canadian \unions, unaffiliated with any group jin the United States States, with |80,127 members. In addition there | trades councils. Thus the majority ‘are the catholic unions, with 25,000|of Canadian trade unionists are |members and the I. W. W. with 4,-|subject to the control of the Ameri- |400 members. can Federation of Labor and the The I. W. W. and the catholic} American railway unions, while the unions play minor roles in the Can-| largest single aggregation are sub- |adian labor movement. The catho-| ject to the reactionary Trades and lie unions are confined almost en-|Labor Congress. This body, per- |tirely to the province of Quebec; |meated with craft ideology, follows |they are dominated by the catholic |the same policies in: Canada as the | clergy and exist by the sufferance| A. F. of L. in the United States, and | |of the employers. They resemble the | often drectly adopts A. F. of L.|as Canadian movement as whole. Reactionary Groups. jand the Soviet Union. The two leading trade union or- ganizations in Canada are Trades and Labor Council of Cana- da and the All-Canadian Congress of Labor. Of the 180,755 Canadian workers claimed by the craft unions affiliated with United States groups, 105,847 are affiliated with the for- ment. sive body. bers of local Canadian unions and Canadian body. vaunted capitalist democracy of thé bosses, exposes this democracy in its whole shameless nakedness as a capitalist dictatorship. Comrades, the capitalists and their government are fighting the Com- munist Party, because our party is growing, is sinking its roots deep among the masses, and is becoming a serious factor in the political life of the country. The break-up of our election meetings, the attempts to keep our ticket off the ballot, the plot against our vice-presidential candidate is the answer of capitalist reaction to Passaic, to the miners’ strike, to the heroic struggle in New Bedford, to the world-wide Sacco and Vanzetti campaign, to the organi- zation of the new militant trade unions, to our national nominating conven- tion, to our platform of the class struggle, to our uncompromising election campaign. The organ of the copper-barons’ terrorism,:“The Arizona Gazette,” is right when it states: “If a Communist was ever elected he would utilize the _ legislative bodies as a forum to mobilize the working class for a militant | struggle to abolish the present economic and political order. | Our whole election campaign serves only one aim: mobilization of the working class for militant struggles! The capitalist newspaper is right; All of our struggles aim to achieve only one goal; the abolition of the present capitalist economic and _ political order of exploitation and oppression! Members of the Communist Party ! Close your ranks! Wage the elec- master class with intensified election struggle by the Communist Party. More than ever we have to carry on the most energetic struggle against an imperialist war! More than ever we have to fight tooth and nail for free speech, propa- ganda and assemblage for the working class! We must resist the organized terrorism of the American Legion and the Ku Klux Klan with the organized defense of the working class. The Workers (Communist) Party of America calls upon all Party mem- bers and the working class as a whole to organize for self-defense, to build .a powerful organization of “workers’ defense corps” for the purpose of protect- ing our rights of speech and assembly. ‘ We state boldly and frankly: We will fight for these rights at all’ costs. mediately not less than ten thousand dollars to intensify the election strug- gle, to fight against capitalist reaction; to organize and spread everywhere .| workers’ defense corps. Down with the Fascism of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Legion! Pewn, with the treacherous officials of the American Federation of La- bor! Struggle against imperialist war! The answer of the working class to the onslaught of the capitalists must be a big Communist vote! } Workers, rally round the Communist Party. attack! Workers, vote Communist! Vote and fight for the Party of your own Beat back the capitalist tion campaign with redoubled energy! We have to answer the terror of the ideology and reactionary aims, but| 0. plan of class collaboration; it has influence on the | expelled Communists; and it has re- a jected resolutions for the resumption of trade relations between Canada Thus, the | Trades and Labor Congress may be the | Said to represent the extreme right wing of the Canadian labor move- The All-Canadian Congress of La- bor is in many ways a more progres- It was organized in 1927 by twelve Canadian trade “union mer, in addition to some 8,000 mem-| groups not affiliated with the A. F. of L. The announced purpose of the new federation was to unite all Canadian labor unions in a strictly | All-Canadian Congress of Labor are The new organiza-|the Canadian Brotherhood of Rail- tion was the result of agitation) road Employees with about 14,000 which has been going on for several; members; the Canadian Federation years to throw off the domination | of Labor with about 10,000 mem- of the A. F. of L. This agitation | bers, and the Mine Workers of has been supported on the one hand A. F. of L. unions in their craft’ policies. It has approved the B. & other by left elements who object Sasa are ee a eee ence OSE Sen ne: | |form when the A. F. of L. called a Today we need money and we need it immediately! Our Party must have im-. . class! ‘ : CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE WORKERS (COMMUN IST) PARTY OF AMERICA. 4’ ‘i tL i The Canadian Trade Unions to the reactionary character of the A. F. of L. Of the 80,127 members of inde- pendent Canadian unions, 46,279 are affiliated with the All-Canadian Congress of Labor. The largest union within this body is the One Big Union with a membership of 17,000 organized. along industrial lines. This group was itself formed in 1919 by a group of unions seced- ing from the A. F. of L. It pub- lishes a weekly, the “One Big Union,” which agitates for indus- trial,@as against craft, unionism. | Other unions affiliated with the Canada, with about 65,00 members. The All-Canadian Congress of by Canadian patriots who look upon | Tabor carries on a sharp struggle | the connection with the A. F. of L.| against the A. F. of L., and conse- foreign interference, and on the quently against the Canadian | Trades and Labor Congress. Last | fall this struggle assumed a sharp strike of its carpenters local in Tor- onto, Canada, in order to destri _the Amalgamated. Carpenters of Canada, affiliated with the All- |Canadian Congress. The strike failed, however, and both unions continue to exist, though the A. F. of L. union continues to regard the Amalgamated as an “outlaw” dual organization. . The growth of the Canadian unions affiliated with the A. F. of L. and the American brotherhoods has not kent pace with the general progress of the Can- |adian labor movement. In 1911 | these unions had 119,415 members, |or about 90 per cent of all the or- | ganized Canadian workers; now | their membership totals 180,755. | This is a gain of 51 per cent in membership, but constitutes only 62 per cent of the total membership of Canadian trade unions. Leftward Tendencies. The attitude of the All-Canadian Congress of Labor toward the A. F. of L. and its branches in Canada was recently appeared in its official or- |gan under the heading “The A. F. of L. and American Imperialism.” The article makes tHe following points in emphatic language: a small fraction of America’s work- ers, but the unorganized workers contain the germ “of the new labor movement that will grow up in the (2) Today the A. F. of L. exists for the benefit of its bureaucracy, and is steadily headirig toward dis- integration. (3) The A. F. of L. bureaucracy supports the imperialist policies of the United States government. Be- cause the U. S. government stands aloof from European alliances, the A. F. of L. stays out of the Amster- dam International; and because the United States government boycotts ie League of Nations, the A. F. of i Boycotts the League’s labor de- partment. “We have no illusions concerning the Amsterdam Interna- tional and the League of Nations,” the article adds, “but this is another matter.” (4) The A. F. of L. did not pro- test against American invasion of Nicaragua, and instead endorses the armament and war program of the American government. The Canadian Communists are ac- tive in both the All-Canadian Con- gress of Labor and the Canadian Trades and Labor Congress. They have been persecuted in the latter and tolerated in the former, but everywhere they have affected the Canadian labor movement. railway | clearly expressed in an article which | (1) The A. F. of L. contains only, United States in the course of time.” | Thugs, Spies | Serve Bosses, _ Labor Fakers The press reports an attack made by the police and 200 fascists on the Conference of miners in Pittsburgh. | a ee Boeke the war, street dealers and railway stalls in the cities of Europe sold small volumes with gaily colored bindings: “The Ad- ventures of the Famous American | Detective Pinkerton.” These “adventures” had of course |nothing in common with truth. But | the “famous detective” himself did jexist. He died in 1924, but his dis- ciples still live. The “Business” of Police. The activities of Pinkerton and his followers are strikingly and de- finitely characteristic of contemp- orary America, or, more strictly (speaking, of the United States of |North America. In the United | States, where “money making” is |the object of everything, the police’ too form a kind of branch of indus- try. Numerous police undertakings (so- |ealled offices), on the same footing as the police, are engaged, not by any means in the investigation of criminal cases, as we are made to believe of Pinkerton in his “adven- tures” but form one of the main pillars supporting the American | bourgeoisie in its combat against the labor movement. | ers with agents and provocateurs for spying on “suspicious” workers in their factories. They undertake the |murder of the revolutionists most |dangerous to the capitalists: the workers’ leaders. When _ great. strikes break out, they provide thé employers with bands of armed men, drawn from the hooligan class; jand ready to commit deeds of the jutmost violence against the strik- jers. These same offices organize special bands of armed roughs for |breaking up meetings, workers’ | gatherings, and conferences. Hooligan “Democracy.” It was precisely by means of adventurers” of this kind, “great |deeds” for the express benefit of | the capitalists, that the Pinkerton | office became famous. It is pre= cisely this unpunished robbery and |murder on the part of Pinkerton’s ruffians which forms the real char- jacter of American “democracy.” |The force which the revolutionary | mass movement in the United States encounters, even in its very earliest |stages, is precisely this open brig= |andage of the Pinkerton men, and not by any means “democratic lib= | erty.” bs The miners’ conference at Pitts- | burgh (capital of the state of Penn- sylyania), which was broken up in }a characteristically piratical man- ner only recently, was an important turning point in the movement. | In the Vanguard. | The coal industry of the United | States, like that of England, is pass- \ing through a severe crisis. In both countries alike the employers seek to overcome the crisis by a blow at |the miners’ standard of living. This is the reason why, in America as in England, the front rank of the fight- | ing proletariat is formed by the min- jers. The last one and a half years have witnessed heroic strike move- ments among the American miners. The miners’ strike in Colorado, last- |ing almost a year, and the recently ended strikes in the states of Penn- |sylvania and Ohio, were of far- reaching political significance, for they drew for the first time a clear dividing line between the trade unionist masses and the compromise- | loving leaders of the miners’ unions. The obstinate struggle carried on against the strikers by the union president and fascist Lewis, and his open collaboration with the employ- ers, have at last opened the eyes of the miners to the profoundly treach- erous nature of the policy pursued |by their trade union leaders. : | It is only to be expected that the | movement for the organization of a revolutionary trade union, and no less the growing influence of the Communist Party among the miners (especially in Pennsylvania), are arousing the anxiety of not onl; the bourgeoisie and the authorities, but of Lewis. ures.” He adopted the methods of the bourgeoisie. He fell back on Pinkerton—that is, he let loose a band of paid robbers and murderers. Mysterious murders of revolution- ary miners’ leaders are reported with increasing frequency. The mur- derers attack their victims in motor- cars, shoot them down with machine guns; but there is “no trace” of thé criminals—naturally enough, when the state police and the murderers have made common cause. Some time ago Frank Bonita, one of the most active revolutionary leaders, was murdered in Pittsburgh, Many delegates yon their way to Pittsburgh were attacked by bandits and injured. The conference itself was dispersed by the police with the aid of Lewis’ paid ruffians. = This unusually open alliance bé- tween the advocates of compromise and the bourgeoisie, on a common basis of fascisto-Pinkerton combat against the revolutionary movement, is not an exclusively American phenomenon at the present time. It is becoming international. = But however ciose the alliance between the social reformists arf the bourgeoisie, no band of paid ruf- fians can ever retard the develop- ment of the revolutionary conscious+ ness and the revolutionary activity of the proletariat. Despite the brig- andage of a Lewis, the new miners’ union has been formed at Pitts burgh. 4 Me | gies. aes. ¢ < = These offices furnish the employ-" Lewis “took meas- _