The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 14, 1928, Page 3

_ DAIL Y WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1928 South Wales Miners Fighting Wage Cuts COOK CALLS FOR NITED STRUGGLE: AGAINST ATTACK Coneiliation 1 Board to Try Softening LONDON, (By Mail).—The de-| mand of the South Wales mine operators that wages be even further | reduced and the subsistence wage be | lowered has aroused a wave of| anger among the rank and file miners, most of whom have been un- employed for the last two years. The Conciliation Board in the coal industry is shortly to take up the two proposals of the South Wales Miners’ Federation, which are as follows: 1. The South Wales Miners for him and his fellow capitalists. of the oil wells in Chaco. Rockefeller’s idea, die for this parasite. His Business Agent Is in Latin ‘America While John D, Rockefeller, Sr., is owt wacking golf balls down in Balmy Florida, Hoover is down in Latin America making deals wins it would mean that he and Mellon would make more profits out Have the workers of these two countries let their blood flow so that oil can flow better for Wall Street, is But revolutionary workers know better than to If Bolivia fights Paraguay and TORTURE IN FASCIST JAILS IN BULGARIA Letter to Red Aid Tells| Story } (Red Aid Press Service) | BERLIN, (By Mail).—A few |days ago the Red Aid of Germany received a letter from a_ political prisoner in the prison of Sliwen in |Bulgaria. The letter follows: | “In January I received a letter transmitted by you with the sum of DETROIT IN BIG ‘DAILY’ CAMPAIGN: n the percentage addition to base | cates from the present $7 to $7.90, |Red Tea “Parties Will injunction against the Piano Organ| potter will demand an increase and the raising of the subsistence | rate from $2 to $2.50 per shift. reduction of the subsistence wage to $1 a shift, and that in future the su tence wage shall apply only to married men. The ruthlessness of the employers’ demands has sent a wave of anger thru the South Wales valleys, and the rank and file reply everywhere is, “We will fight.” A. J. Cook, the leader of the mili- tant rank and file of the miners, summed up the demands of the em- ployers and the resulting militancy among the workers as follows: “The attempt will be resisted with all the miners’ might, and the fight will be carried on to secure the in- yerease which the miners are demand- ing. And let me add that the fight will be ours if we only act together ‘in 100 per cent united organization.” RECORD SLIGHT EARTHQU A slight earthquake was recorded late yesterday on the seismograph| of Frederick Odenbach, at John Car- roll University, he reported today. unist) Party ation of the fights for the ors: unorganized workers. KE CLEVELAND, OHIO, Dec. 13.—j| | Spread Paper 2. The coal owners will demand | reduction of the percentage to $5, | Continued from Page One bership of the Workers Party is be- ing mobilized to canvass shops, fac- tories, workers’ organizations and sympathizers for greetings. Big Distribution of “Daily.” Special efforts are being made to | reach the viciously exploited work- | ers in the automobile plants of this, the biggst auto city in the world. Thousands of these workers will re- | ceive the special fifth anniversary | edition of the Daily Worker in a huge mass distribution throughout the city. Many of these auto work- | ‘ers will learn for the first time of | the newspaper that is fighting their battles. being elected for this mass distribu- tion, which will concentrate par- | ticularly on the workers employed in the plants of the two giant rivals, General Motors and Ford. The Fifth Anniversary Circula- tion Drivé in Detroit will conclude | with the fifth anniversary mass ban- | quet on Sunday evening, Jan. 6, at | \hood of Carpenters and Joiners of | | fascist terror. Workers’ Auditorium, 1343 Ferry | St. Detroit is going strong towards ‘this goal and intends to make it the celebration of a real achievement. Committees are aiready | Organ Company Fails to Get Writ, Will Ge \It in the Higher Court ‘he ruling of the lower court, sect The Aeolian Company an} jand Musical Instrument Workers ; Union, was affirmed yesterday by two judges of the U. S. Circuit Court, the third writing a dissent- | jing opinion. The Aeolian Company, | who with five other joined in apply-| | ing for the injunction, will probably appeal to the higher courts—and it | is believed—get it there. Because union musicians refused to work on organs that were i stalled by non-union labor, the in- [will und was applied for. The case will undoubtedly be brought to high- jer courts since the Sherman and | Clayton anti-trust laws are being linvoked against the union. These laws, now used against workers on strike, were enthusiastically sup- ported by the officialdom of the American Federation of Labor when they were up for adoption before congress. Funeral of Deceased | Unionist Tomorrow Heinrich Rix, a member of Local | Union 2090 of the United Brother- | America, died Tuesday night. His | funeral will take place today at 9:30 ia m. from the Engels Funeral Home, 815 E. 88rd St. '650 lei (about $4). The letter was not given to me, but I received the money. The contents of your letter jis also unknown to me. We also re- lceived a letter addressed to Com- rade K., but we received only the | money and know nothing of the con- |tents of the letter. We divided the | money among ourselves. ... “The prison of Sliwen where we | |are is a sort of dungeon. There are here 120 political prisoners from all parts of the land, sentenced on the ground of the “state martial law.” Among the prisoners are 86 Commu- nists, 22 anarchists and 12 members lof the peasants’ league. The sen- tences are as follows: | To death: 2 (The death sentence | has until now not been lifted), 10-15 years prison: 33. 5-10 years prison: 12. 1-5 years prison: 4, “On account of the tremendous fines, which were given at the same time, the property of the sentenced |workers was expropriated by the istate, and was sold. “The regime in the prison is very hard. In the morning and afternoon we are supposed to have one hour of walking, but 20 minutes are al- ways stolen from us. The rest of tee time we spend in narrow cells holding up’ to 6 persons. In larger jcells as high as 20 persons are held. iit is forbidden to read newspapers. if a paper or an article is found on |a prisoner he is severely punished. Correspondence is very carefully watched. Above all we feel the All are filled with the thought that the day must come | when the fighting proletariat will free its class fighters. | “With warm brotherly greetings.” Simons, Opposition Leader, Drops Opp Opposition Continued from Page One Comintern received full support from the social democrats and im- perialist elements generally thru- out the world. The culmination of the Trotsky opposition fight came with charges, of degenera- tion against the Party and the } Soviet Union and the Comintern (Thermidor), the Clemenceau thesis, asserting the “revolution- ary” right to overthrow the Soviet government in the face of the im- perialist enemy, and the open demonstration against the Soviet Union in the streets of Moscow on November 7, 1927. Trotskyism an internatjonal phenomenon ¥ fought by the Comintern and defeated decisively. Even in those countries the fight must be continued. Before its de- feat, Trotsk n was the main danger. win the Comintern generally, the open, opportunist right wing errors are the -main danger. But just as it is pos- sible for American imperialism to | be on the upgrade, within a fall- | ing world capitalist system, so it is possible that in cne countr s in The United States, Trotskyism is the greatest danger to the Larty. Trotskyism raised its head in America, as a force fighting openly against the Party and the Comintern, with official ovgans, aided by other renegades from the Communist movement, with praise from social democratic and capi- talist papers. Cannon, Abern and Schachtman, the latest converts to Trotskyism,” following Lore and Eastman, were pessimistic as to the work in the Party, their pol- icy being to worship at the shrine of auxiliary organizations, and participating hardly at all in the work of the leading Party com- mittees of which they were mem- bers. They showed a lack of faith in the Party making headway as the leader of the masses in this period, They over-estimated the strength of American imperialism, and under-estimated the vir’ and appeal of the Party. This is without doubt a right error. Not putting forward policies for the Party, and determined to oust the leadership by hook or by crook, an appeal was made to the Comin- tern, since the membership sup- » ported the C. E. C. When the Comintern failed to agree with the characterization of the C. E. C. leadership as a right wing group, this led logically to the next step, charging that the Comintern leadership made de- cisions because of personal at- tachments and friendship wi certain Americar. leaders, that t’ Comintern was in connivance wit" the Lovestone leadership again- the best interests of the Party This, in turn, made necessary : fight against the Comintern, e~ who was fighting the Cominter en an international scale? T’ Trotsky Opposition. The conc!’ sion? Joining the Trotsky for- for a fight against the Comint: and against the American Tar 'y. It should be mentioned that | Some of us in the former Cannon | group were opposed to the failure | of Cannon to act as a Party lead- | er during the past two years, and | expressed our opposition. Characterizing the CEC as a right wing group is an attempt on Cannon’s part to appear as the real revolutionary in America. But this is not so. Trotsky in 1924 employed a_ similar maneuver, charging the Comintern with hav- ing a right wing leadership. At that time, Zinoviey defended the Comintern against this unfounded charge. Cannon will undoubtedly continue his policy of covering up his lack of faith in the proletarian revolution in the United States, by using left phrases, by demanding action fit for more revolutionary situations, denying Party achieve- ments, and belittling them. Thus Swabeck insisted before the recént National Elections, that unless the Party received 150,000 votes (of- ficial capitalist figures) the Pazty had not done its duty. The recruiting ground for Can- non is in thé main among those elements who have become pessi- mistic in this period, who dropped out .f Party work, and who take this means of excusing their oWn desertion of the movement, by hurling thunderbolts at the Party and the Comintern, Others find it more comfortable fighting the Party, than fighting the capitalist class. The present outbreak of Trotskism means bringing to life, to increased activity, enemies of our Party. There is a danger of the Party losing many wholesome rank and file elements, who have been raised in the factional atmosphere of the Party in,recent years, who have been fed on factivnal opposi- tion to the CEC, who have heard | one side of the story embellishtd. They have been so imbued with the need for a “holy war” on the CEC that nothing can change them. They have lost faith in the CEC leadership; when they lose faith in the Comintern leadership because it does not remove the present leadership of the Party, there is a grave danger that they will follow in the footsteps of | Cannon, This is a grave Wee | scatonk There is a danger that: our work in the trade unions and in other mass organizations may be seriously hindered through re- fusal of former sympathetic ele- ments to unite with us for strug- gle against treacherous leaders. The attack of Cannon gives strength and courage to those elements who began a fight against the Communists in pro- gressive groups within the old unions. A machinist, a progres- sive, saw clearly this danger, when referring’to another machin- ist who had begun to fight the Party influence among the union members, he said: “This paper of Cannon's will have a bad effect on | our friend. It is unfortunate that this paper comes out now. It will hurt our work inside of the union.” A progressive worker immediately saw this danger, but many Party members minimize this danger. The appeal of Cannon against the Party as having degenerated, with a right wing leadership, will poison the minds of some workers | against cooperating in joint strug- gles with the Party. This is a real danger and must be com- batted. In the face of these dan- gers, a comrade the other day vather naively remarked that the menace of Trotskyism would be over when the Party Convention finishes its work in February. This is gross underestimation of the danger of Trotskyism. The | Party, to the working class. The Party must be united to smash the Trotskyist Opposition. Trot- skyism must be recognized as the, main danger to the Party at the present time. I pledge my support to the CEC in its struggle against Trotsky- ism, On Sunday, Dec. 2, at the icago Workers School Open m during a discussion on Trot- skyism, I openly repudiated it in a short speech, characterizing it | as above. Immediately the issue of Trotskyism was raised by Can- non, voiced my opposition to it in the Chicago District Executive Committee, but characterized it then merely as a leftist deviation. | This was based on a momentary Chamberlain in Secret. a Stresemannand | Parley at Lugano Meet . | LUGANO, Switzerland, Dec. 13.— ; After Aristide Briand, foreign secre- itary of France, and Gustave Strese- | ‘mann, foreign minister-of Germany, had engaged in a one hour ani 35 minutes secret conversation yester-| day in the apartment of the latter, | Briand immediately went into secret conferen® with Austen Chamber-| ‘ain, foreign minister of Britain. So much care was taken to keep he conversations secret that the lace of meeting was not mentioned n’ the’ corresnondence between the ninisters which led to confusion as to the place the conversations were |to take place, They were, however, 2 Workers Killed, 1 Hurt in Truck Crash | Louis Bangenstein, 48, and Wil- ‘Nam Hutchinson, 30, were killed and | Joseph O’Connor, 37, was seriously injured yesterday when their truck, analysis of Trotsky’s views. A | study of the proceedings of the 15th Congress of the CPSU, and | variqus plenums of the ECCI has | convinced me of the true nature of Trotskyism. Even in thy speech at the DEC meeting where I made the wrong characterization, I stated that I realized full well the harmful effect of Cannon’s propa- ganda among non-Party elements. Since then, this danger has loomed larger and larger/ This is my statement in reply to your request for my views on the Trotsky question. It is in no sense a complete analysis of Trot- sky’s' views, but it does express my characterization of it, the dan- ger it presents to the Party and the need for united action by the Party against it. The question of Trotskyism has been presented to the Party tied up with the pre- convention period discussion, I weserve for a later time a complete statement on the inner Part situation and the Party prob- lems. Briefly my views are: 1. Agreement with the thesis of the Sixth World Congress on the world situation and tasks, except that on the question of radicaliza- tion of the American working masses there is nothing in the thesis that can be called a deci- sion on this question. With re- gard to the upward trend of American imperialism and the re- jection of the charge of “right wing group” against the CEC leadership, I'am in agreement. 2. Need for greater clarification of the Party membership on the Trotsky question. The CEC state- ment of Nov. 16 failed in this re- spect, and the statement of Dec. 7 adds but little more. 3. Need of the CEC to criticize its own followers for right errors, com- mitted by them, and not merely self-criticize the minority com- rades. 4, A sincere attempt to establish a unified leadership of the Party, consisting of the most capable comrades. 5. Raising the ideological level of the member- ship, through discussion of Party tasks and duties, thus removing political differences as sources of factionalism. Access of the mem- bership to.a summary of speeches at Plenums and Conventions, in printed form, so that the mem- bers can judge for themselves as to policies advocated, and not have to accept garbled, factional inter- pretations. These are some of the points that I believe should be given at- tention. They are not at all in- tended as an exhaustive list, the {Xo avoid another, crashed into a, main tasks of the Party being laid store front here. The men were all from Yonkers. |The truck belonged to Massello| | Brothers there, |gotten under way, and among the matters discussed, it is believed, were the Franco-British naval pact and United States naval armaments; | the question of war debts and evac- | jvation of the Rhineland; and the ‘question of the resumption of trade | ‘relations between Germany and the ‘Soviet Union, siti aon 2 down by Plenums of our Party and by the Sixth World Congress. On these points, I propose at a later date, to express my views at greater length, criticizing past shortcomings and possibly propos- | ing some measures, I may also | say that with regard to the appeal of the CEC for a joint thesis for the convention, based on the Sixth Congress decisions, I am in hearty agreement, Fraternally yours, igned) William Simons. i Arrests Dungeons Extend Your Hand Thru Prison Bars and HELP! THE CHRISTMAS SEASON MUST MEAN BUT ONE THING TO YOU: THIS YEAR. of comradeship thru the prison bars of Walla Walla, San Quentin, Sing Sing, Folsom, Leavenworth, Columbus, Moundsville and a dozen other dungeons. YOU MUST GIVE PROOF OF YOUR SOLIDARITY WITH ALL CLASS WAR PRISONERS WHO SUFFER BECAUSE THEY FOUGHT OUR BATTLES. Free Mooney and Billings - Free the Centralia Victims - - Unlock the Prison Gates for Everyone You must extend the hand The key for every jail in which there are class war prisoners The mass power of the workingclas every dungeon door. Join us in a nation-wide mobilization to release our jailbirds. Their prison-paled faces have looked out at you from behind steel bars for many years—WAITING FOR YOU TO ACT! Dungeon Doors Stand Open Wide to Swallow 1,100 Workingclass Defendants rests in your hand. can open Shall the bosses and the bosses’ courts close prison gates upon another thousand workers? Do nothing and you yote YES! Help defend these workers and you vote NO! And comrades, the NO VOTE must be unanimous, must echo and re-echo from New York to Frisco, from Chicago to-New Orleans. Textile Strikers 662; Miners 125; Cheswick defendants 24; Boston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Columbus, Wyoming, New York— big cities, small cities, everywhere—the claws of the capitalist courts seek to throttle the organization of the unorganized work- ers, the building of the labor movement. Deportations, persecu- tion of Negro workers—and how about the 15,000 labor prisoners in other lands? And Who Supports the Wives and Children of Those Behind the Bars? Maybe you would like to help. “We say—YOU MUST, and. gladly and all the time. This becomes a DUTY of the workingclass, of every worker—YOUR DUTY. send a little money to the many class war prisoners as well, for comforts, books and whatever else may cheer their lives as their days and years in prison pass. AND NOW - TO WORK - AT ONCE JOIN OUR CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGN FOR FUNDS Sell One, Sell Two $5.00 Christmas Campaign Coupon Books! Induce Your Organization to Make a Contribution! Ask the Members of Your Organization to Give! Enlist In Our Nation- Wide House-to-House and Shop Collection, December 22, 23, 24 and 25! Visit Sympathetic Organizations for Funds! Collect from Everybody! All the Time, Everywhere, to Free, to Defond Our Labor Prisoners and to Support Their Families! Mooney and Billings Sentenced to Life Imprisonment! - - 12 Years Served! And we must The Centralia Victims Sentenced to 20 Years! 9 Years Served! You Are FREE! - You Must GIVE! The International Labor Defense 80 East 11th Street - Room 402 - New York City Join the I. L. D. - Subscribe to the Labor Defender Persecutions