The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 1, 1928, Page 6

Page Six Baily SB Worker Central Organ of the Workers (Communist) Party Published by National Daily Worker Publishi As’n., Inc., Daily, Except Sunday, at 2 Union Square, New York, N. Y St esant 1696-7-8. Cable Address “Dai 28 hone, ee? Tele; ROBERT MINOR . Editor WM. F. DUNNE Hoover’s Pen Valet Surveys Nicaragua Hoover’s imperialist brigade now touring Latin American waters and occasionally, where there is a minimum of danger from hostile demonstrations against dollar des- potism, landing at well armed ports, did not dare venture to the Nicaraguan capitol. Con- fining their activity to entertainment at a | luncheon of assorted flunkeys including the hand-picked candidates of the fake election recently staged in Nicaragua under marine bayonets, they naturally had but little chance to get an inkling of the deep resentment that exists against the agents of the ruling class of this country. That fact, however, did not deter Hoover’s “biographer,” and chief pen valet, Will Irwin, from commenting upon the political situation of the entire country. Ac- cording to Irwin, the population is anxious to sing the praises of the beneficent role of the Coolidge-Hoover-Kellogg government and there is little opposition since the election. Says Hoover’s kept scribbler: “Whatever opposition remains is confined to Sandino’s 100 armed followers now hiding out in the jungle and a small radical minority in the towns.” ‘ Thus Will Irwin establishes himself as the | supreme political reporter of all time. The world has never before seen his like. It js doubtful if there ever will be another | whose attainments will equal his. He holds the record for high power, 100 per cent polit- ical reporting. While Hoover’s battleship, Maryland, stopped at port less than twelve hours Irwin, if his story is based on facts, accom- plished the following feats: (1) Attended a luncheon in honor of the chief guests, the puppet president of Nicaragua, the puppet president-elect, the defeated puppet candi- date for president. (2) Surveyed the sen- timent of all shadings of political opinion in the towns, with particular attention to the “small radical” minorities. (3) Plunged into the almost inaccessable jungle. (4) Located Sandino. (5) Counted all his “armed fol- lowers” and ascertained the fact that there are precisely 100, no more and no less. (6) Returned to the battleship. (7) Wrote the story and despatched it. It is obvious that his achievement has not yet been properly estimated by the capitalist journals that printed his story. In fact they did not seem to see anything unusual about it at all. None of them has even commented upon it in the slightest degree. Either the story of Irwin is true, which means that he did accomplish all the feats necessary to establish what he sets forth as facts. Or it is not true, in which case he is the modern Baron Munchausen and should, without an instant’s delay and without any competition, be appointed chairman of the Ananias Club. Probably Irwin will not receive his just dues because there are a whole flock of competing journalists all over the world who are engaged in doing precisely-the sort of plain and fancy lying in behalf of American imperialism, though his is more brazen than any others we have thus far read. That is possibly the reason Hoover chose him. An analysis of the one paragraph of Irwin’s article on Hoover's visit to Nicaragua ought to be sufficient to convince any worker of the utter foolishness of believing anything that ' appears in the columns of the capitalist press. Only One Reply to Rhode Island | Wage Cut | The only adequate answer to the announce- ment of a wage cut to be imposed upon some | 15,000 textile workers in the Blackstone and Pautucket valleys of Rhode Island is that of the National Textile Workers Union— STRIKE! As soon as they announced the wage cut the mill owners were aware of the danger of a strike. The workers formed in ominous groups and talked about resistance to the wage cut. There loomed before the slave- driving bosses the vision of the great strike that swept those valleys in 1922. Again the mill owners saw the determined lines of | marching men, women and children—the famous “iron batallions” that made the strike general throughout both valleys. Closely following the announcement of the wage cut another element came into the sit- uation—the corrupt, sinister, venal aggrega- tion of servants of the mill owners, the United Textile Workers Union, That organi- zation has assumed its traditional task of trying to aid the mill owners keep their work- ers chained to the mills by offering to “negotiate” the question of a wage cut. Such | ( cy SUBSCRIPTION RAT! By Mail (in New York only): $8 a year $4.50 six mos, $2.50 three mos. By Mail (outside of New York): $6 a year $3.50 six mos. $2.00 three mos. Address and mail all checks to The Daily Worker, 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. Y. a proposition is an insult to the already un- derpaid and horribly exploited workers of the textile valleys of that state. It should be met with the reception from the workers that such a palpable swindle justly deserves: There can be no thought of negotiating a wage cut. It must be resisted with all the collective power of the workers. He who tries to induce workers to remain in the mills after this most recent impudent and arrogant threat of the employers thereby aids the slave drivers. The principal reason the United Textile Workers Union enters the situation now is because the new National Textile Workers Union has had its organizers on the job in Rhode Island in contemplation of precisely such a move as the mill owners have now made. There have been many wage cuts dur- ing the past few years in the Blackstone and Pawtucket valleys, yet the United fakers have never even pretended to be concerned about them. Only now, when the employers are face to face with a real union that will fight in the interests of its members and the masses of textile workers does the United Textile Workers come on the scene in its role of strike breaker. The workers who are facing a wage cut should contemptuously ignore the agents of the United Textile Workers Union, who are only lackeys of the mill owners and should join the new fighting union, the National Textile Worker's Union. Not only should the 15,000 affected by this latest wage cut join the new union that was itself forged in the fire of the textile struggles of the past few years, but the tens of thousands of other tex- tile workers in the valleys who have suffered a whole seties of wage cuts should join the union and strike in order to establish their union firmly in the industry. Only through militant struggle can the textile workers hope to resist the tyranny of the mill owners. A Friendly Imperialist Quarrel Of the eight 10,000 ton battle cruisers au- thorized by congress in 1924 and now under construction, six have been named. They are called the Pensacola, Salt Lake City, | Chester, Chicago, Houston, and Augusta. A few days ago Secretary of the Navy Wilbur named a seventh. He called it the Nothampton, after the private residence of Coolidge. Now there is a quarrel over the naming of the eighth. The participants in the discussion are agreed that it should in some way be named after a town that claims Hoover. The ship is being built on Puget Sound off the coast of Washington state. Some want it named Palo Alto, after the California residence of Hoover. Others in- sist upon West Branch, in commemoration of Towa town in which Hoover was born. May we suggest that it be named after the birthplace of Captain Kidd, as indicative of piratical role it will play as a part of the United States navy in carrying the blight of American imperialism to other parts of the world, Burning Chain Stores The destruction by fire of the Montgomery Ward and Atlantic & Pacific chain stores in Pottsville, Pa., is interesting inasmuch as it reveals the desperate plight of the petty shop keepers in face of the competition of the gigantic trusts now invading the retail field. According to the capitalist press, the fires were of “mysterious origin.” But the repre- sentatives of the trustified retail stores claim that no great effort is being made to as- certain the real cause, and they darkly hint that respectable business men of the city, the pillars of society, the defenders of the sanctity of private property and, upholders of law and order have, under pressure of im- placable competition, become furtive “fire bugs.” It seems that heavy first shipments of chain store holiday goods were arriving and threatening the annual Xmas harvest of the local merchants. While possessing implicit faith in the ability of the savior to tide them over a bad holiday season, they probably thought he might be busy at the rush season of the year and come to their rescue a bit late. So they anticipated his wrath, and took time by the forelock. God helps those who help themselves. However, in spite of their efforts, they a in danger of losing this year’s holiday bus ness, for the simple reason that the chain ,stores are located as strategically as possible from the great warehouses maintained by the trusts, and new supplies of goods sufficient to stock a store can be rushed in to supply the shortage. re But even though the enterprising babbits might have been able to overcome their big competitors at the éurrent celebration of the anniversary of the birth of their savior they THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THE WEAKENING SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1 » 1928 “Sage DAM Reporting on the Sixth World Congress By BERTRAM D. WOLFE. 'HE message of the Sixth World Congress to its sections and the working class of the world may be summed up in the single senten et ready for war and gigantic uggle: The whole work of the congress centered around the grow- ing war danger. The congress under- took to adept a program for the struggle for Proletarian Dictator- ship on a world scale, to analyse the present international ion, and since its analysis led it to the con- clusion that the present interr tional situation is one of gigantic class struggles, growing colonial re- volutionary movements, arpening conflicts between the imperialist powers, completions of preparatiop si |for an attack upon the Soviet Union, | and the beginning of a new period of world war, the congress undertook to prepare the Communist Interna- tional and its sections for the war situation. Owing to the absorption of all the Party’s energies in the electoral campaign and mass struggles in the mining, textile and other fields, the Party was not immediately able to undertake a sufficiently widespread campaign for the popularization of the decisions of the Sixth World Congre Nevertheless in the midst of the election campaign, the Party undertook to begin this work by sending CEC reporters, who were World Congress delegates, to all dis- trict headquarter cit and all in- dustrial centers where the Party has well-established organization. The | reactions of the membership in these headquarter cities to the report on the World Congress, their discussion | of same, and the resolutions adopted, | |Party is engaged in the biggest'reservation in a meeting of about give an interesting picture of some of the Party’s characteristics. Developing Internationalis ‘The first thing to be noted in con- nection with these membership meet- ings is the big growth of interna- tionalism and interest in the doings of the World Congre a. to previous congresses (the last World Congress was held four years ago when the Party was ideologi- cally and organizationally at a much lower level than it is today). In most cities these membership| meetings were the largest member ship meetings ever held to hear CEC reporters on any questions before This was markedly true York, Philadelphia, Pitts- burgh, Chicago, Cleveland, ‘Detroit and tle. The Denver meeting was average size, the meeting in Kansas City poorly attended, Min- neapo ancisco and Los An- geles, ditto. To Superior, Cleveland and Detroit, members came from fairly distant cities, traveling as much as sixty and seventy miles and more in order to hear the World Congress report. Comrades came to the Cleveland meeting from such dis- tant cities as Ashtabula and Youngs- town, to the Detroit meeting from cities thruout Michigan, and to the Superior meeting from the cities on the Iron Range, in the copper coun‘ try and the rural districts of North- ern Minnesota. The degree of enthusiasm and re- sponse to the reports is in some re- spects the barometer to measure the level of development of the Party. In general it was definitely notice- able that those regions where the as compared | with the reaction of the membership | [mass struggles, were precisely the, the same size and no abstentions.|the Rarty, altho the factory n lregions in which the response was|In Cleveland there were no reser-|and unskilled work generally is per-|is now on strik | vations. In Minneapolis there were| formed almost wholly by ¢ . | ‘The attitude of the various sec-| three. In Superior none; in Seattle; in Los Angeles and the surrounding | With the "|tions of the Party towards a CI|none; Kansas City none; Denver region. Negro work is almost en- turned greatest. Congress and its decisions is in part} measurable by the vote on a general resolution introduced into all meet- | ings summarizing the work of the| Sixth World Congress and express-| ing approval of its decisions and a’ determination to carry them out with{ energy. To prevent controversial discussions on the inner Party ques- tion during the election campaign, all reference to the American ques- tion was deliberately omitted from| the resolutions. Nevertheless, some comrades in opposition to the Cen- tral Committee and rejecting the line of the Sixth World Congress on the American question, were unwill- ing to vote éven for such a resolu- tion because it endorsed in general all of the degisions of the congress and proposed to execute them faith- fully and energetically. Few Reservationists. | Therefore, a limited number of comrades in most places made amendments to the resolution or statements of reservations when the vote was taken. In general, these amendments and statements of res- ervations declared that those adher- ing to them supported the decisions of the Sixth World Congress and in- tended to execute them, except that} | they had reservations concerning de- cisions on the American question. These statements and amendments ranged all the way from the crude remark of the lone reservationist in Detroit who declared, “I endorse the decisions of the Comintern for all other countries, but not for the United States,” to the much more elaborate statement by CEC mem- bets presented in the meeting of the Poleom where ‘the congress de- |cisions on America were read and signed by Cannon, Aronberg and | Costrell, which declared: “In line with the position taken by the delegates representing the opposition at the World Congress, we wish to place on record our dis- agreement with that section of the decision of the Political Secretariat of the ECCI which says the charges that the majority of the CEC fol- lowed a right line are unfounded. It is our opinion that the right line of the majority in the period prior to the departure of the delegation has been confirmed in its course since that’ time. “The section of the motion of the Political Secretariat of the ECCI, dealing with the question of faction- alism, especially during the election campaign, is in full accord with our ws. We demand an immediate cessation of the campaign of fac- tional discrimination, persecution and suppression of. the majority against the opposition.” But the political content of all these reservations were the same. The mere statistics of these reser- vations and votes are themselves an index of the condition of various dis- tricts and attitude prevalent towards the CI and its decisions. In New York there were 19 reservations and 20 abstentions, out of a general meeting of about 1,500. In Chicago there were five reservations in a meeting of about 400, with no ab- stentions. In Detroit there was c=2 could not hope to repeat th indefinitely. The time is rapidly approach- e performance none. In San Francisco there were) 82 reservations and in Los Angeles | 57. In San Francisco the vote was) 34 for the resolution endorsing the| World Congress decisions without | reservations and 32 with reserva-| tions. In Los Angeles the vote was 74 for the CI without reservations, and 57 with reservations and 7 ab- stentions. work xicans tirely neglected and in general work among factory workers of any sort. Attitude to Right Danger. Another interesting matter to re- view was the attitude of the various districts’ to the report on the right danger and measures to be taken against it. The districts which have presented the greatest number of right errors and demanding the ‘Misleaders in the American | Labor Unions STER B; WILLIAM %. FO! ch is one of the classi ‘ak the Conipers regime, He is as trn-reactionary, and a member of > Wederattov, Militia of | anc democratic party. He was the vufldes of the notorious Wahnetas,” tho inner circle organi- zation te: the International Typograpiiea: Unier. He was de- tented in hoped, permanently. ¢ from an oli pamphlet zea the pursued Jong labor union, let The foliov by Boris reactionar apaper Solicitors’ co in 1916 was a Logeet: talias dnily. 9 land t force of organi it publishers the union st fight to help and union con U. intended to Nkewise, it was Jim Lynch who rushed to and by threats of wit charter compelled union com- in and seab it on a the prog: 1927 (organ of gives the following item from the reactionary practices of the Lynch regi Np tiae same executive council i(hangover from Lynch’s time) that inst President c retrenchment, id of a Wahneia president, y to John McArdle, a New York mailer, $150,900 _in ch of ‘approximately $10,000 each. counting has even been made as to what this immense sum was used for and the reports, if any, were destroyed by order of the executive council.” [Howard's pe | | |strengthening of the position of world capitalism which found ex- It is interesting to inquire why) greatest amount of attention from) pression in the growth of the pro- California should present more res- the CEC in correcting such errors| ductive forees in a number of great ervations than the whole rest of the} country put together. The easiest explanation would be to point out| that the District Organizer has been | a member of the Party opposition, | but this is not a correct explanation, | as proved by the votes in District 10, are California and Minnesota. In California, the mention of the right danger and right errors provoked re- sistance and hostile reaction, Thus, comrades demanded to know of the reporter why the numerous errors of the California district were re- | capitalist countries on the basis of ‘capitalist rationalization with in- {creased exploitation of the working ‘class; and a simultaneous strength- | ening of the international forces hos- \tile to capitalism, above all by the | strengthening of the proletarian dic- where the DC also has been a mem-| ported and discussed before the Com-|tatorship in the Soviet Union and ber of the Party opposition, or the| vote in Chicago, which not so many years ago was an opposition strong-| hold. ie The results in California contrast | so sharply with the results in dis- tricts where the Party is engaged in big mass struggles and over- whelmingly proletarian in character, that one is immediately compelled to examine the composition of the mem- bership and character of the activi- ties of the Party in the district. So, as soon as this touchstone is ap- plied, the solution is clear. Non-Proletarian Composition. | According to the District Organ- izer’s report, only 40 per, cent of | the membership of the district are workers in industry in California. In the entire state there is only one shop nucleus and that is not func- tioning. The reporter’s plea to pre- pare the Party for war by digging roots into the factories met with open resistance (and this was the only district in the country where such resistance was manifested). The reporter was even heckled on this elementary point in his report by interruptions to the effect: ‘There intern, In spite of the fact that the CEC repeatedly directed the Cali- fornia‘ district to have a discussion in | the units of opportunist errors, such as the error made in the unemploy- ment leaflet and in various pacifist leaflets, the reporter found that no such discussion had been held. Com- vades complained that no discussion of these errors had been held, but that they were discussed over in Moscow. There was sharp resist- ance against any attempt to draw lessons from these errors at. the membership meeting. In Superior, the northern sub-dis trict of Minnesota, the reaction of the comrades to the discussion of the right danger was much more wholesome. The local comrades re- quested the privilege of “taking leadership” in the criticism of their own errors, and made an excellent job of it. Practically all leading com- rades and rank and filers as well who participated in the discussion analyzed in a Communist manner the errors that they had made in the Shipstead case, the Coolidge com- mittee, the Farmer-Labor Party, and the republican primary fight and declared that they recognized the \the National revolutionary move- |ment in colonial and semi-colonial jeountries. This capitalist stabiliza- tion of the third period of post-war imperialism was correctly estimated by the congress as .. ‘1lting in the enormous growth of contradition within the capitalist countries, the inereasing resistance of the working class which finds expression in the movement to the left of the work- ing masses, and in the consolidation jand the growth of the influence of |the Communists upon the working | class. “The World Congress correctly es- | timated the piesent world period as \a period of sharpening antagonisms leading to new wars and revolution- \ary crises, The congress rightly put lin the foreground of our immediate |task the most determined struggle against imperialist war, against the | traitorous pacifism of the social de- | moeracy and above all the dangerous activities of the so-called “left” so- |cial democrats. In view of the fact ) that we are at present in a new pe- | riod of world war this congress cor- |rectly insisted upon the necessity of tightening the Bolshevist discipline jof all Communist Parties, increasing are no big factories in California.”| need of further pressure from the their international activites, inereas- This is of course nonsense in a state | CEC and the Comintern and constant | ing internal democracy, removing which contains all the branch fac-| guidance to prevent the recurrence |fractional struggles, sharpening the tories for the west coast and Pacific of right errors and to develop:a Bol-| fight against the right dangers, and export trade of the biggest trusts|shevik line. The workers from the fostering a consistent struggle for in the country. The interruptions Iron Range and other parts of the a Bolshevist line and Bolshevist =~ proved that the Party in California | district greeted this self-critical dis-| ity. is still living in 1925 and not even) cussion with the greatest enthusiasm | |and the resolution endorsing the de-|the attention paid to the colonial “mentally” reorganized, The reporter had to point out to} the San Francisco membership under repeated heckling that the largest shipyards on the west coast (Val- lejo), largest sugar mills (Crockett), the largest canneries (Fresno), the biggest tractor company, canneries and agricultural machinery factories (Stockton), the Pullman — shops} (Richmond), etc., are all within easy striking distance of San Francisco, the district headquarters, and are all part of the heavily industrial San Francisco bay region. The fact that local comrades did not even know that they were in one of the big industrial centers of America proves that the Party has not even turned) its attention to the factories there. In Los Angeles, the Party compo- sition is much worse than in San) Francisco, with a surprisingly large | percentage of small business men, | shop keepers, etc., and actually even | a few petty employers of labor in the | Party. There is not one Mexican in ] themselves with the solemn thought that their fate had been predetermined by the | International cisions of the Sixth Congress of the Comintern was adopted unanimous- ly. A copy of the resolution adopted by the Superior, Detroit, district which is typical of the kind of reso- lution that was adopted in all meet- ings where there was a report on the Comintern Congress is printed below: “The general membership meeting of Detroit, after listening to the re- port of Comrade Wolfe on the Sixth World Congress of the Communist expresses its full agreement with all the work and decisions of the congress and pledges itself to carry out whole-heartedly the policies and instructions em- bodied in these decisions, “The membership meeting greets the adoption of the program of th Communist International which is a powerful Marxist-Leninist theoretical | weapon and which creates a firm bagis for struggle on a world scale for the realization of the dictator- ship of the proletariat. Correct Estimation. “The World Congress reviewed the work of the last four years of de- “The congress was noteworthy. for question and the broad participation ‘of colonial and semi-colonial eoun- |tries in the work of the congress. The membership meeting notes with special satisfaction the active par- ticipation of an increased number of |Negro comrades and of growing Communist Parties in Latin Amer- jica. The decisions of the congress 'will give a powerful stimulus to the \intensification of our struggle to or- _ganize the Negro masses and of our | struggle against American imperial- ism. | “The World Congress expressed the determined will of the working ‘class of the world to defend the | USSR and unanimous approval and ‘support of the brother parties for ‘the line and work of the heroic Com- _munist Party of the Soviet Union. It unanimously upheld the CPSU in its struggles to uproot and destroy jthe social democratic line of the Trotsky opposition. i | “The membership meeting of the d'-trict of Detroit pledges itself to jmake the decisions of the World Congress known to the broad masses and above all carry the program |of the Communist International to ing when they will join the ranks of those frustrated little merchants who have to seek jobs behind the counters of the trustified re- tail stores. Then they will have to console t ys capitalist god, or sink inio libertarianism, where they will be skeptical of everything and consider everything as impotent as the , class from which they sprang. velopment and struggle of the In-| the workers. ternational revolutionary movement) “Long Live the Communist Inter- and gave a correct Marxist-Leninst | national! Long Live the World Pro- analysis of the present world situa-|letarian Revolution! Long Live the ‘tion, The congress noted a certain Leadership of the Comintern!”