The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 8, 1929, Page 6

DAILY WORKER, 'W YORK, TUESD. JANUARY 8, . ie 1929 Page Eight Published by National Daily Worker Publishing Ass’n,, Inc., Daily, Except Sunday, at 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. Y. Telephone, Stuyvesant 1696-7-8. Cable Address “Daitvork” Editor ROBERT MINOR WM. F. DUNNE........++++++4 Assistant Editor White Chauvinism An incident, apparently. very mall,” serves as a means of emphasizing again what was said at the last Plenum of the Central Executive Committee of the Workers (Com- munist) Party in regard to “white chauvin- ism” in the Party and especially the corrup- tion of certain sections of the Party in the southern states with this disease. “White chauvinism” is a corruption of the minds of white workers with an attitude of racial “superiority” toward Negroes. This attitude is of course not based upon any justification in science, reason or fact. From : the scientific point of view it is stupid and untrue. The historical sources of this cor- ruption are easily understood. In the past, the source is slavery. In the present, the source of this attituda is the system of double exploitation of Negro in this country and the double exploitation of colonial and semi-col- onial peoples—the system of imperialist capi- talism. Equally it involves the corruption of | a white “labor aristocracy” of the imperial- ist countries, where the whole culture of powerful capitalist societies is bent to service in saturating the minds of entire “white” populations with the idea of their own racial “superiority” and the racial “inferiority” of, say, the Mexican or other Latin American workers and peasants (as “Greasers”), the Chinese workers and peasants (as “China- men”), of Filipinos (as “Bolos”) and of Neg- roes, whom the multimillionaire trust-mag- nates wish to exploit with an even h hand than that with which they exploit the average of workers at home. In order to cor- rupt the dumb white worker of this country so that he will agree to the murder of thous- ands of Nicaraguans, Mexicans and Chinese for the benefit of the American ruling class, it is one of the prime necessities of United States capitalism to maintain a whole system of lies and a whole code of “Jim Crow” laws, “white superiority” and the “inferiority” of “darker races.” “It is literally true that one of the basic needs for sustaining the criminal capitalist system in this country is to keep the masses of white workers poisoned with the filthy corruption of mind which makes them re- gard the Negro race as “inferior.” Lynching will never be abolished by the American capi- talist class, because lynching is a necessary Daily 345 Central Organ of the Workers (Communist) Party part of the Jim Crow system of practice and .| ideology, which keeps the ranks of the toiling Masses divided, enabling exploiters to enslave the Negro masses at longer hours and lower pay, using the white workers’ racial chauvin- ism to keep the Negro workers out of the trade unions, and using either race at will in breaking actual or potential strikes of the other. of the Commu- ectly said: The Sixth World Congr: nist International very co “One of the most important tasks of the Communist Party consists in the struggle for a complete and real equality of the Negroes, for the abolition of all kinds of social and political inequalities. It is the duty of the Communist Party to carry on the most ener- getic struggle against any exhibition of white chauvinism, to organize active resistance to lynching . . .,” ete. The Workers (Communist) Party in its recent national election campaign for the first time penetrated with the red banner of proletarian revolution into the southern states. This penetration of the south was an action of greatest historical importance. It begins a process that will continue until the million-fold masses of toiling Negroes of the southern states and the proletarian Negro masses of the northern cities alike, are mar- shalled as a mighty army against the mur- derous, lynching, stake-burning, jim-crow capitalist system. Of course no party can do this—no party can “stir up” the Negro masses and strug- gle for their social equality—except a party which faces the implications of this complete social overturn. That means, of course, only the party of social revolution, the party fighting for the rule of the exploited masses, the working class—over the exploiters. Of course no mere reformist party could face these implications; the socialist party must necessarily be on the other side of the fight; only the revolutionary Workers (Commu- mist) Party engages in this “indiscreet” work. But in the penetration of the south, our Party absorbed into its ranks some members, pften of the petty-bourgeois class, that are netly poisoned with the capitalist “white emacy” culture which is even more viru- in the south than in the north. These | ar members are not the only mem- Wor SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By Mail (in New York only): $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. 2 $8 a year bers of the Party thus affected, but they show in some cases grosser aspects. In the issue of the Daily Worker of Jan- uary 1 appeared two “workers’ correspond- ence” letters signed “Doc and Lou.” The let- ters came from Jacksonville, Florida, and they dealt with the treatment of the Negro work- ers in the south. The writers of these two letters seem to have the idea that they are Communists; and the worst of it is that they seem to think that the Workers (Communist) Party is—like the organizations of the labor aristocracy—an organization of white work- ers, which graciously permits the humble Negro to run along behind, hat in hand, to support it as an inferior. For one of these correspondents (evidently not a worker, but an employer of labor) writes as follows: I had the following conversation with a Negro worker here: “Say, Mr. Lou, can’t you give me a job?” “W Jack, I thought you were working for Mr. Higgins.” “I was, Mr. Lou, but I only made $2.50 last week.” . . « “Of course he gives you your meals?” sir, Mr. Lou, and that’s why I came to you. I hayen’t had no work for two days, and I am hungry.” ek The other letter is supposed to describe the “Communist” election activities of “Mr. Lou,” the employer, who talks down to a Negro worker, in telling him how to vote: “Well, listen Moses, let me tell you what to do. You vote for the Workers Party can- didate. The Workers (Communist) Party is the only Party that’s working for the interest of the workers, regardless of their color. There is no discrimination against the Negro. Here, take this card; it has a list of the names of our candidates. You put your cross in front of their names on your ballot and you'll make no mistake.” Three weeks later: “Hello, Moses.” “Hello, Mr. Lou.” “Well, did you vote like I told you to on election day?” “Say, Mr. Lou, I mést certainly did.” DOC & LOU. It is clear that “Mr. Lou” is not a Com- munist, not a man who can be a comrade with those Negro workers who must be the strong backbone of the Communist Party and of its leadership in Florida. Our Party is first of all the Party of the most exploited workers. Not “Mr. Lou,” but the strong black workers whom he so patronizingly writes about at as “Mose” and “Jack,” and such white workers as can be equal comrades with them, are those who can be depended upon to build up and lead the revolutionary Party of the working class—against the employers and their class. The appearance of these letters in the Daily Worker brought to us the following letter from Comrade Cyril Briggs, editor of the Negro Champion, organ of the American Negro Labor Congress: Editor, Daily Worker: I want to enter an emphatic protest against publication in the Daily Worker of articles like the enclosed, which are in decidedly bad (Communist) taste, to say nothing of being an exhibition of innate white chauvinism in the mind of the writer. Why in hell the “Mr. Lou” for the white worker and the “Jack” for the Negro worker? Eyen if the thing is actually happening in the South where the Negro workers have been terrorized for decades, is this servile custom one that should be given encouragement: this attitude of master and slave, of superior and inferior? Is it a custom that should be par- aded before the eyes of Negro workers in the North and in the columns of a Communist paper? I have seen similar things in the capitalist press, but never thought I would live to see the day when such stuff would be published in the columns of a Communist paper. Surely this stuff must have got through without your notice. I suggest you advise your correspondent to stick to the usual news form or correspondence in the presentation of his facts, cut the cheap comedy, change his mental attitude towards the Negro or get to hell out of the Workers (Communist) Party. Fraternally yours, CYRIL BRIGGS. We agree 100 per cent with the letter of Comrade Briggs, and he is correct in guess- ing that this stuff “got through without the editor’s notice,’—although this is not enough excuse, for such things must not happen. Comrade Briggs is especially right in saying that those who try to import into our Party this attitude of master and slave will have to “get to hell out of the Workers (Com- munist) Party.” We are the Party of the Negro workers equally with the white. | munist International. SYNOPSIS In previous parts, Haywood wrote of his pioneer parents set- of the future labor leader there tling at Salt Lake City; the birth in 1869; the “Mountain Meadow Massacre;” the family moves to | Ophir, a rough Utah mining camp; his first school; boyhood among the Mormons; Haywood’s first strike. Now go on reading. —Editor. s * * Copyright, 1929, by Interna- tional Publishers Co., Inc. All rights reserved. Republication for- biden except by permission, By WILLIAM D. HAYWOOD PART III. My next job was working for Mr: | Paxton, who had a small store. I {ran errands and chopped kindling |wood which she sold in packages. | |Her son, Clem Horseley, was chief |usher in the Salt Lake Theater, jand he added a little to the small | wage of a dollar and a half a week | that I was getting from his mother fifty cents a night when there were shows at the theater. Besides show- ing people to their seats, we also jacted as claquers, starting or in- |creasing the applause at the end of ecech act. This job gave me an op- portunity to see many plays that I should otherwise have missed. I be- came interested in the plays and tragedies of Shakespeare, as Booth and Barrett appeared in Salt Lake City while I was ‘working in the theater, I later became an ardent |veader of Shakespeare. All sorts | |I saw everything from home talent |to the stars that stopped over on their way to the coast. There were opera companies, oriental jugglers, and boxing exhibitions given here, although the theater was the prop- lerty of the Mormon Church. Then I got a job with John C. Cutler. He was a good man to work \for. His store was a fruit commis- sion house. He was a fine, red- By CLEMENT DUTT \(From the London Sunday Worker) | Turkestan, which lies centre of scientific investigation. hara, Bokhara under its Amirs was one of Tsarist colonial possessions. attached to the mosques, it did not possess a single or hospitals were unknown. changed. There are many native schols both for boys and girls, there Ly giving me a job as’ an usher at! |of shows were given at this theater; | directly north of Afghanistan, is the last place one would expect to find a Yet this was my experience in visit- ing Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bok- of the most backward and oppressed Apart from a few madressahs or institutions for religious teachings Mohammedan schools both for boys and girls, there Under Soviet rule all this has ‘TODAY: A Child Worker, Wage $1.50 a Week; | Interested in Shakespeare; a Lynching; Horrified by Racial Prejudice. Capitalists interested in exploiting and terrorizing the Negro workers, will never abolish lynching. “.. . It is the duty of the Communist Party ... to organize active resistance to lynching . ..””—Decision of Sixth Congress of the Com- | | BILL HAYWOOD'S BOOK | s00d-tempered and genial, who had |inany eld cronies who visited him |in the store. I once heard them dis- cussing their different marital rela- jtions, Old man Cutler had two wives. The older one, the mother of four prominent Mormons of} Utah, lived in Salt Lake City, the |younger one in South Cottonwood. |He remarked that he had yet another wife, a buxom lass who had a fine |haby, bat, he added: “I don’t know | where she is now.” Why he laughed when he said this, I never did under- | {stand. This old man would occa- |sionally get stuck with consignments | of grapes, bananas or other perish- | able fruit. He would turn these in} |to the tithing cffice of the church, | where I would deliver them. Once | in a while he would say to me,/ |“William, do you think you can sell |that fruit?” Once he sold me ten) jor twelve bunches of bananas at| twenty-five cents a bunch, which I} l|avickly disposed of at a dollar and |a half a bunch; ancther time it was |tomatoes at. twenty-five cents a bushel; of these my mother and other women in the neighborhood made ketchup. I used to go swimming with Joe} end Heber Cutler in the Jordan River. I was caught with a cramp | once and would have drowned if} | Joe had not come to my aid. I tried | |to repay this one night, when a warehouse back “of John Cutler’s | store caught fire. I knew the boys jwere sleeping in the store, and a |tumor was going through the crowd |that there was powder in the ware- house. I ran up the street to rout them out, when I heard the explo- sion. The broken glass dropped out |of.the windows of the stores like a} waterfall, but I got through unin- jured, The Cutler boys had been awekened and had already escaped is a fine higher technical institute for teachers just opposite the newly- built People’s House, where the first Congress of Soviets of Usbekistan was held, and just outside the mud} walls of the old town one comes on’ a splendid stone building—the new Hospital and Institute of Tropical Science, an establishment which can vie with any similar scientific sta- tion in the world. It has well-equipped laboratories, where original research into tropical diseases is being conducted. It has a museum, a fine display of colored postérs and drawings for popular education in tropical hygiene, and a library with all the latest scientific publications, On one wall is a huge map of Bokhara and its surroundings, show- ing the numerous marshy afrea which |the street and saw a crowd gather- |tion of its former dimensions. | | cheeked old man with a white beard, | from the store, and the fire was | soon extinguished. When I was about twelve I ran a}. fruit stand on Elephant Corner for old man Reese. Around dinner time one day I heard some shooting down ing in front of Griggs’ restaurant. I ran down to see what the trouble was. Two policemen were bringing a Negro out of the restaurant. From what the crowd said I understood | that he had killed one policeman | and the watermaster, and ha wounded another policeman. The policemen, with the crowd| following, started toward Second} South Street. I wondered why they did not go the shortest way to the| jail; the route they took was nearly| a block longer. As they went along| Second South Street, a grocer left his store and joined the crowd, fold- ing up his apron and tucking it into his belt as he walked along. This man, whose name I did not know, shouted: “Get a rope!” I thought to myself, “What do they want with a rope? The police have got him fast.” The crowd was increasing and} getting more excited at every step. The added distance increased the number of the mob. As the jail was reached, I could see the pris- oner and the policemen on the steps that led up to the door. It seemed to me that the policemen, instead of pushing the Negro into the prison, pushed him into the hands of the mob¢ I did not see him again until I had erowded in under the arms of the mob, which was then standing hushed as though stricken with awe. Then I saw the Negro hanging by the neck in the wagon shed. His face was ghastly, and although he was light colored, it was turning blue, with the eyes and | they done—what have they done—” BILL HAYWOOD looked at the swinging figure and thought over and over, “What have It was as though a weight of cold lead settled in my stomach. The leaders of the mob were not satisfied with the death of the man. Some one cried out: “Drag him out and quarter him! Hang him to a} telegraph pole!” They dragged the limp body by the neck to the corner of the street, where Mayor Wells drove up and read the riot act, or- dering them to return the body at once to the jail. This was my first realization of what the insane cruel- ty of a mob could mean. I learned then, too, that the mob was not com- posed only of those who would be willing themselves to do the dread- ful deed that was done, but many| what was going to be done. Each one there lent the strength of his presence to the leaders. I don’t think more than three or four men there really wanted to kill that man. (To Be Continued.) In the next instalment, Hay- wood writes of his life as a child worker in Salt Lake City, what a messenger boy learns of scan- dals among the Mormon and other politicians. The last term at school. As a bell-boy he meets tongue sticking out horribly. I ~ Communism Brings Science to Turkestan are regularly patrolled and inspected | |for the prevention of malaria. This scourge has been reduced to a frac-| Another example of the interest taken in scientific work is the Turk-| estan Plant Breeding Station out- | side Tashkent. Cotton is the most important crop in Turkestan, After almost total de- struction during the civil war, cot-| ton cultivation has increased by one! and a half million acres. It is now well above the pre-war level. A number of special stations have been established in Central Asia for seed selectidn, testing of new vari- eties, ete. The chief station near Tashkent has cotton plants from all parts of the world, and its experi- ments have led to a great increase in yields, } | |springing up in this once backward famous people. At fifteen he leaves for work in a Nevada mine. Very interesting experiments in| crossing are conducted and demon- | strations given to the peasants of improved methods, such as rotation of cotton with the monkey-nut; | which serves the same purpose in| enriching the soil as clover does in| this country. pi | Needless to say, the workers at the Tashkent station, numbering} over 100, both Russian and Usbek, are enthusiastic supporters of the Soviet regime. They have a fine co-| operative dining-hall and store, an open-air theatre and clubrogm, and new dwelling-houses are being built. Such buildings are the invariable | accompaniment of all the new fac-| tories and other institutions that are | groes. were there out of curiosity to see| GOVERNOR BILBO DOESN'T HAVE TO INVESTIGATE—HE KNOWS. By Fred Ellis. "The Negro and Trade Unions in United States By OTTO HUISWOOD. (Reprinted from “The Communist,” Dec., 1928.) ‘At the close of the Civil War, the Negroes who had just been freed from chattel slavery, were con- fronted with the problem of secur- ing the means of livelihood. Re- leased from bondage, illiterate, pos- sessing nothing but their brawn, they were suddenly thrust into the competitive labor market. Long ac- customed to forced plantation labor, it was not easy for them to adjust |themselves to the transition from | chattel slavery to wage slavery. |The promised “forty acres and @ |mule” were not forthcoming. The \ responsibility of securing their own food, clothing, and shelter rested upon them. They were left to shift for themselves. One of the most important fac- tors in the economic development of the south was the labor of the chat- tel slaves and that of the free Ne- The basis of the wealth of the south was created by the Negro masses. Not only was their con- tribution made in the field of agri- culture, but also in the skilled and semi-skilled occupations. The me- chanics of the plantations and the towns were recruited from the ranks of the slaves. Charles Wesley, “Ne- gro Labor in the U. §.,” says: “Among this group of skilled laborers there were the black- smith, the carpenter, the wheel- wright, the mason, the bricklayer, the weaver, the plasterer, the painter, the tanner, the miller, the shoemaker, the harnessmaker, the cooper.” Evidently, then, the Negro also contributed to the mechanical devel- opment of the south. Soon after the Civil War, the migratory movement of the Negroes from the south began. Gradually they moved into the border states of Maryland, Kentucky, Virginia, etc. As early as 1879, large numbers of Negroes migrated to the west. From then on, to the period of the World War, migration has proceed- ed uninterrupted, sometimes becom- ing sensational. These migrations brought tens of thousands of Negro workers into the border and north- ern states. They came seeking work and higher wages and to escape the brutal treatment which was their lot in the south, They did not find it easy sledding in the north. Com- peting for jobs, they met the open hostility of the white workers and the employers. The opposition to them manifested itself in various acts of prejudice, discrimination, and in race riots. ,However, on many occasions, Negro workers were hired in the place of white workers. The importation of colored caulkers from Virginia to Boston, Mass., dur- ing the struggle on the eight-hour |day question in 1866, caused the newly formed National Labor Union to pay some attention to the Negro workers. The workers were called upon to realize, “that there should be no distinction of race or nation- ality; that there is but one divid- ing line—that which separates man- kind into two great classes, the class that labors and the class that lives by others’ labor.” First Entrance Into Labor ment. The first appearance of Negro delegates to a labor body was at the National Labor Union Assembly jin Philadelphia, in August, 1869. There were nine Negro labor repre- sentatives present. They repre- | sented Negro workers’ organiza- Move- tions such as engineers, moulders, caulkers, painters and hod-carriers. Not only did the Negro workers par- ticipate in the trade unions nation- jally, but in 1870 the National Labor Union of the United States, an in- dependent Negro union, sent the first Negro delegate to the World Labor Congress in Paris. Race prejudice, discrimination, mistreatment of Negro workers, and disagreement between the black and white politicians, who tried to in- fluence the local labor organiza- tions, produced dissension and caused the formation af a separate national union by Negroes in Jan- uary, 1869. The first permanent Negro labor organization convened in December, 1870, in Washington, representing 23 states with 208 dele- gates, under the leadership of Isaac Meyers, the first * prominent Negro labor leader. After 1873 these unions began to disintegrate and like the white unions were broken up because the intriguing politicians tried to use them to further their own ambitions, This ends the first chapter in the history of trade unionism among Negroes, Changes Wrought by the World War. During the period of the World War, the migration of Negroes into the north was tremendous and over- shadowed all previous movements. Between the years of 1916 and 1923, hundreds of thousands of Negroes moved to the northern states. In the first period of migration, 1916- 18, the new war industries created a demand for thousands of Negro workers. The second wave of the migratory movement during the years 1921-23 was due mainly to the cutting off of European immigra- tion, Turning their backs to the op- pressive social conditions of the south, with its intense exploitation, low wages, long hours, and ‘espion- age system, the migrants flocked into the steel mills, coal mines, ce- ment factories, automobile factories, railroads and many other industries. region. To Ba Continued