The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 9, 1929, Page 6

Pag. Baily S25 Worker Central Organ of the Workers (Communist) Party Published by the N Worker Publish By ice $8.00 a three months e of New York): six months nonths all to checks § Union Xs Editor Ass. Editor Another Imperialist Murder The news that another fighter against imperialism and its native lackeys, Hilario Montenegro, a Venezuelan, has been murdered by the agents of “president” Gomez of Vene- zuela, emphasizes the fact that assassination is now a settled policy of American imperialism in its attempt to stifle its most vital Latin-American opposition—the organized work- ers and peasants—just as American imperialism was and is the chief inciter of the horrible massacres of thousands of Chinese workers and peasants of China by the Kuomintang butchers. Like Julio Mella who was shot down by the agents of President Machado of Cuba less than a month before, Hilario Montenegro fell as a refugee from the white terror in his homeland. Mella fell, shot in the back, in the streets of Mexico City. Montenegro was stabbed to death at Curacao, an island of the Dutch West Indies about 100 miles off the Venezuelan coast. Machado, the “president” of Cuba, who murdered Mella, is completely a creature of U. S. imperialism. Gomez, the “president” of Venezuela, is a venal degenerate who sells out to the highest bidder, and at present U. S. imperialism en- joys more paid popularity with the Gomez cabal of assassins than British imperialism, with whom it is contending for control of the enormous wealth of Venezuela’s oil fields. Both are usurpers of the office of president. Both are dictators. Both are consciously murderers. Both are bosom friends of the U. S. government. Both are lick-spittles of Wall Street bankers and corporations. We must note this connection between the murderers of Latin-American workers, and the exploiters and murderers of workers here in the United States. American corporations and bankers which cut your wages right here in the United States in order to make more profits, use those profits to in- vest in Latin-America, to exploit Latin-American workers and peasants, to corrupt the Machados and the Gomezes, the Leguias and Bornos, and pay assassins they direct to hunt down and murder those who resist. Deep as our indignation may be against these crimes and criminals, indignation alone is not an effective weapon against them. We must not only call for an alliance between the revolutionary workers of the United States and the workers and peasants of Latin-America, but we must step forward and make that alliance an organizational fact, and advance still further in putting it into effect by concrete action. Much remains to be done before we reach the accomplish- ment of effective action. In the United States we must chal- lenge imperialism concretely in the labor movement, and against the imperialist lackeys of the American Federation of Labor we must organize the masses of unorganized and worst exploited into new and militant unions which must be internationally minded enough to see their common interest against a common foe in a united struggle against U. S. im- perialism. Only by the Communist Party can such masses be organized, and an advance has been made in that direction. Only by the Communist Party, also, can the leadership of the struggle against the imperialist bureaucracy in the old unions be continued and co-ordinated with the building of new unions. We must carry this forward unhesitatingly and definitely form the desired alliance with Latin-American workers. Again a step has been made in the Solidarity Pact between the Trade Union Educational League and the Unitary Con- federation of Trade Unions of Mexico. It will be carried + still further when the Latin-American trade unions them- selves unite in the Latin-American Trade Union Confedera- ‘tion which will be formed at the coming congress in May at Montevideo. The imperialists think to stop the rise of Latin-Ameri- can workers and peasants by murder of their leaders. But for every one they murder a thousand rise up to carry for- ward the banner of revolutionary struggle. But the fight will proceed ‘and become effective, not by rhetoric, but by joint revolutionary action, organized and persistent, of the workers and peasants of Latin-America with the revolu- tionary masses of the United States. United Front of Pseudo-Revolutionists The One Big Union Bulletin, organ of the nearly extinct | 0. B. U. of Canada, contains in a recent number a symphony of slanders upon the Workers (Communist Party. These slanders are taken from the Weekly People, journal of the equally puny socialist labor party, and from the Jewish Daily Forward, the socialist party paper that forms a center for the thugs used by Sigman and Woll in their attempt to crush the needle trades workers. Stories reprinted are the Weekly People’s condemnation of Communist anti-imperialist work, and the lie about an al- leged “use of detectives” to organize the new miners’ union. This last story was reprinted in type in the Bulletin, but more canny than the Forward, the Bulletin did not use the Forward’s cut of the “letter” on which the whole story »was based, because the crudity of this forgery makes it recog- ‘nizable to even a casual inspection. The lie about the use of detectives has also been abund- tly exposed in the Coal Digger, organ of the National Miners Union, and in the Daily Worker. 4 The interest in the O. B. U. attack consists merely in the istration of a united front of the reformists and pseudo- lutionary sects, the socialist party, the S. L. P., and the B. U., theoretically opposed to each other, but united the real miners’ union and united against the Work- munist) Party, the only party which really fights i and works for a real labor movement, of unions- sem | “COMING!” | The working class must and will save the Daily Worker, the militant organ of class struggle in its present crisis! help the Daily Worker would Tighten Class Fight in Mexico MEXICO CITY, Mex., (By Mail). DAILY WORKEP UE RK, SATURDAY. die. BRUARY 1929 —The conference for the formation’ New, United Trade Union Confederation; the of a new, united confederation of trade unions on class lines for the workers of Mexico has started. It meets in an interesting political | situation which involves the attitude toward labor of various conflicting groups and organizations. The political lines which fell into confusion with the assassination of | President-elect Alvaro Obregon last | June, still remain undefined, though various new tendencies are begin- |ning to be drawn more clearly. The | political crisis precipitated within | less than a week after the provision- al President Portes Gil took office, developed into a rupture between |the C. R. O. M. (Mexican Labor |Confederation) and the new admin- | istration. | As a result large sections of the \C. R. O. M. disintegrated, causing | the definite withdrawal of ex-Presi- dent Plutarco Elias Calles from polities. In a general way the as- sassination of Obregon caused the break-up of the Obregon forces into the militarists of the North, and | the Agrarian leaders of the National | Agrarian Party of the Center and | South, headed by Soto y Gama. | Complicated Groupings. This meant a definite alienation |of the remnants of the Sonora mili- | Revolutionary National Peasants’ League |didacy of Aaron Saenz, ex-minister of foreign affairs and former man- | ager of the Obrecon campaign, and closely identified with the Calles’ | policies. Bureaucratic Party. The G, P. N. R. (Grand National | Revolutionary Party), from which \Calles has now resigned, was brand- jed from the outset as an official bureaucratic organization with petit bourgeois tendencies. It was a cou- sin of the various political parties | which have formed and reformed in |the shadow of the executive power | during the revolutionary epoch: The | Liberal Party of Madero; the Liber- | | al Constitutional Party of Carranza; | the Co-operatist Party of the first | period of Alvaro Obregon; iliance of Socialist Parties of the | Party, Manrique and Soto y Gama,| Republic formed to support Obre-| both from the central key state of) |gon’s second candidacy. The Mex- ican Labor Party (P. M. L.), which | supported Calles in 1924, is the only ‘one of these parties which has not |been predominantly official* and | bureaucratic. Thus Aaron Saenz came forth as a candidate representing the Obre- |eould be made. Calles was forced into an untenable position and with- drew from the scene of action. At) the same time Aaron Saenz is left | with a purely military and bureau- jeratic support of a reactionary na- |ture. It is being pointed out that | while governor of Nuevo Leon, he |did not distribute any lands, and opposed labor organizations. | Valenzuela. The most powerful competitor of Saenz at present is Gilberto Valen- ,2uela, former minister of interior and recently ambassador to England. Valenzuela steps forth as represent- ing a return of the Sonora elements ‘which broke with the Sonora leader, ex-President Calles. The agrarian the Al-|leaders of the National Agrarian) |San Luis Potosi, and the latter, in | addition an ex-Zapatista, (i.e., fol- |lower of the agrarian rebel of the }south) have rejoined the jals Topete and Manzo, and have |come out for Valenzuela. Thus the candidacy of Valenzuela, tary dictatorship of Obregon and| gon Party, and at the same time a/not only has a military basis, but Calles away from Calles and a shift of political power toward the center and the Gulf states. Ex-president Calles, before a shift) \of alignments caused his definite] retirement from the political scene, | | undoubtedly hoped to shape the af- \friendly compromise with the Calles | elements. By making a bargain with | addition, definitely anti-C. R. O. M.,| the breach between! and left the Calles cabinet early in| |the C. R. O. M., \has strong peasant roots. He is, in Sonora | militarists of the northwest, Gener-| the two forces would be largely|the administration, because Calles | healed, the remaining disgruntled insisted on imposing a Labor Party) Obregon forces broken into frag-| candidate in the state of Mexico. He) ments and a strong bloc formed. Pro-| has just branded the G. P. N. R. as} a factional and official organization, | wal By Fred Ellis | | | | | | Without | In addition, there are the forces controlled by the administration. Portes Gil controls, through Marte Gomez and ex-Minister of Agricul- | ture Ramon P. de Negri, large blocs ‘of peasants and workers. He has, as yet, shown no indication of where he will throw official support. The C. R. O. M. leaders, now largely isolated, nevertheless repre- sent a weight in the political scale. | Their probable course of action still remains uncertain, and they may, in spite of the anti-C. R. O. M. attitude of the canidates Villareal and Vas- \concelos, seek a rapproachement with |the Anti-Re-electionists. The Real Labor and Peasants’ Groups. | Finally there are the real labor |and peasant elements, controlling the state labor organizations of Ja- iliseo, Durango, Nayarit, much of | Coahuila, Tamaulipas (though here} might come a tug-of-war with Por- | |tes Gil), and large blocs in Vera| Cruz, Puebla and Oaxaca. | Here also is the National Peasant | League, headed by Ursulo Galvan, | rooted deep in 15 states. All of these revolutionary ele- ments, joined with the Railwaymen’s Politieal Party and the Communist Party, are now closing their con- vention with the formation of a Labor and Peasant Bloc, with a pro- gram calling for the democratic dic- tatorship of the workers and peas- ants, land to the peasants, nation- alization of industry with workers’ control, the arming of the masses, destruction of the present state ap- paratus and establishment of work- ers’ and peasants’ councils. | fifty cents a day wages, men working for four dol- fairs of the nation as a power be-|visional President. Portes Gil would ‘hind the throne. The new govern-|be unlikely, it seemed, to oppose ment of Portes Gil retained’ Calles’ | followers in key positions; but al-) ready Portes Gil is gradually shift- ing these or eliminating them. In addition, Calles, by founding the new Grand National Revolution- ary Party, supposedly to embrace the entire “revolutionary family,” made a move further to divide the Obregon militarists of the north, and to prepare the way for the can- Working Women to the Fore in U.S.S.R. HE Second Congress of working and peasant. women members of | Soviets, which took place last year, showed what an increase there had been in the numerical strength of lernment of the Soviet Union. | At present 153,600 women work- ers and the peasant women are con- | nected with the work of urban and | village Soviets. The percentage of | women workers in the Soviets has |advanced from 5.7 to 21.4.per cent, | while the proportion of peasant wo- men in these bodies has risen from 1 to 11.8, The trade unions include | 2,569,000 women, or, 26.1 per cent |of the total membership. Female |workers now hold 8.6 per cent of | the posts in the directing organs of the trade union movement, as .|against only 4 per cent in 1923, | The percentage of women in factory committees has already reached 19. More Become Skilled. The number of women engaged in production has also increased \ steadily. The large scale industries employ 770,742 women, equivalent to 29.1 per cent of their total force. Important progress has been made in raising women workers ike more the women taking part in the gov-| such a combination. But the C. R. O. M. leaders were disgruntled by their lack of favored position under the new administration. They had old scores with some of the leaders of the P. G. N. R. And so in the Ninth Convention of the C. R. 0. M., Morones upset the balance, launching attacks upon Portes Gil and Perez Tervino of the G. P. N. R. After this no alliance | entirely belying its claims to repre- |sent all revolutionary factions. Anti-Re-election Group. The third significant formation is the Anti-Re-election group. This group is largely composed of the “outs” of past regimes; and it in- cludes all the anti-Obregon forces, as its name indicates. It supported the rebel candidates Arnulfo Gomez and Francisco Serrano, who were executed last year, |year alone 5,000 female workers se- cured shigher classification. In re- cent years thousands of girls have gone through the vocational schools and courses. The feminine enroll- ment now constitutes 34 per cent of all the students in the factory schools, ‘ : About 3,000,000 working and peas- ant women, including housewives, are connected with the co-operative movement, Cultural Growth. The reports of thestwenty thou- sand women worker and peasant cor- respondents also bear witnes| the great cultural and political growth achieved by the female population. This progress is also confirmed by the increase of working and peasant women’s newspapers, which now have a combined circulation of 700,- The increase of female member- ship in the Communist Party like- wise points to a considerable expan- sion in the cultural and political ac- tivity of mass of working wom- Over Two and a Half Million in Trade Unions; Increase Communist Activities rollment has risen from 7.8 to 12.9. An enormous amount of work had to be done by the Party in order to give the women of the working and peasant classes confidence in their own strength and an understanding of the necessity for their participa- tion in the upbuilding of the new system. In this regard a vital role was played by the meetings of dele- gates, through which about two and a half million working women passed during the decade. This is the in- strumentality which unites the Party with the women, attracting them to the consideration of current prob- lems facing the country, teaching them the business of governing the nation, and the work of socialist construction. Fight Prejudice. The Party had to exert strenuous efforts to help the working and peasant women to make use of the rights which they had received as a result of the revolution. Backward- ness and ignorance still prevailing among considerable sections of the population even now hii ‘the com- plete carrying out of Soviet laws Their candidate for president is Pedro Rodriguez Tirana, a peasant revolutionary who was once a mili- tary commander under Madero, Villa and Zapata in turn. This movement has at least a half million organized adherents and will have wider sup- port. It faces, however, an immedi- ate and open conflict with the forces of reaction which are arising in fas- cist forms under the wing of the Portes Gil regime. concerning women not only in the rural districts, but even in the cities. The attention of the women’s sec- tions of the Party has always been, and for a long time to come will continue to be, focussed upon the struggle against traditional preju- dices and upon the efforts to lighten the heavy burdens imposed upon women by long-established customs of life. Particular difficulty has been! encountered in putting women’s leg- islation into effect in the eastern Soviet Republics and Autonomous Areas, which are the most backward economically and culturally. The Communist slogan of equal rights for Eastern women has met with stubborn opposition on the part of the rich farmers, the Mohammedan clergy and the “beys,” causing a great deal of trouble in the actual emancipation of these women. How- ever, in this sphere, too, very ex- tensive results have been attained. Already there are in the Eastern districts 50,000 women members of Soviets and 100,000 have passed through the delegate conventions. The number of literate Eastern wo- men is increasing. The men are be- ing imbued with the new attitude of comradeship toward the women. Along a wide front a determined battle is being fought for the re- moval of the veil, the abolition of purchase marri: mains of har¢m .e. Copyright, 1929, by Internat Publishers Co., Inc. BILL HAYWOOD.’ BOO! All rights reserved. Republica- tion forbidden except by permission. 'The Colorado Miners Battle for the Higt Hour Day by Direct Job Action; Militia at Telluride : In previous chapters Haywood wrote of his boyhood among th Mormons in Utah; of years as miners and cowboy in Nevada; minin in Idaho; his work in the Western Federation of Miners and rise i its Executive Secretary; the open shop Citizens’ Alliance in its figl against the efforts of the W. F. M. to enforce the eight hour da law by direct action on the job. Now go on reading. SJageieet nh By WILLIAM D. HAYWOOD. PART XXXII. HE annual convention of the San Juan District Union of the W. M, met on August first and passed a resolution demanding the cig! hour day for mill and smeltermen in its jurisdiction, to take effect r later than September first, 19038. A committee from the mill men the Telluride Miners’ Union was chosen, their demands formulated a presented to the Telluride Mining Association. The Association replied that some of the men included in the demand were under a contract that had more than a year to run, and that the scale submitted by the committee called for the same wage for an eight- hour day as was formerly paid for ten and twelve hours. A meeting of the union was called and the de- mands modified. All men under contract were to work as before. There was a general reduction of lars would get three fifty, and three fifty men would get three dollars. Three dollars a day was to constitute the minimu wage of the camps. A committee of the union met a committee fro the association composed of Bulkeley Wells, who had become manag: of the Smuggler-Union mine after the death of Arthur Collins; Coop: Anderson of the Nellie mine, and A. C. Koch of the Alta. Wells, actir as spokesman, said he would submit the demands to the associatio This committee seemed to think that a settlement could be reached « the terms submitted by the District Union. But no reply was ever r ceived and a few days later the San Juan Mining Association, includir all the mines of the district, was formed. * The mill men under the jurisdiction of Telluride Miners’ Unic decided to strike on September first. The miners were all laid o excepting a crew for the development work on the Tomboy mine ar the Smuggler-Union property, which continued to operate the mill wit the office force and a few scabs. Manager Wells himself put on ove alls and took a place in the mills. A few days later the Federal Labc Union of the American Labor Union ordered out the cooks and waite: on the Smuggler-Union property. The miners were discharged and tl shutdown was complete. Discrimination continued in the Tomboy mine, so that a strike we declared against it on October twenty-first. Every man responde: Even the shift-bosses and foremen quit. Pickets to watch the min were placed at Conn’s store. Members of the Citizens’ Alliance an deputy sheriffs tried to provoke a ‘fight. They threw rocks at tt store and fired a shot at one of the pickets. Next day the pickets wer transferred to another store of Conn’s near the Smuggler-Union min The members of the Citizens’ Alliance got busy that night in Telluric and were standing on the principal street corners with shotguns an Winchesters. Bulkeley Wells came out of the Journal office with sack of five rifles. A number of homes were invaded and unidn me were disarmed. Many men were arrested and held on charge of tre: pass, for going over a road that had been in constant use for twenty five years. They were released on bond ranging as high as a thousan dollars. * * The mine managers called the strike a violation of a contrac that was entered into November twenty-eighth, 1901, and was not t expire until three years later. The union had already protested the the contract had been violated by the company; board had been raise from ninety cents to-a dollar a day, black-listing and discriminatio was the rule of the Tomboy company and the strike continued. Earl in October interviews were held in Denver between the managers an the miners’ representatives. Managers Chase, Wells, and Atchison cam to the office of John H. Murphy, attorney of the W. F. M., wher Miller, Murphy and myself went over the details of the strike wit them. The mine managers seemed willing to grant all that the unio demanded; we agreed that eight hours should constitute a day’s wor in the mills and mines, and that three dollars should be the minimur wage. Assistant Attorney General Melville, who was at this conferenc representing the governor, asked Bulkeley Wells if he was willing t pay the same money to a man on an eight-hour shift that he was payin. to a man on a twelve hour shift. Wells replied, “Certainly. I knov I can’t get my old mill men back for less than three fifty a day.” When this conference was ended, we felt that the strike at Tel luride had been definitely settled. But when the managers returne: to Telluride there was a meeting of the Citizens’ Alliance and thing were again upset, Wells said after the meeting that if the matter ha: been left to himself, Chase and Melville for the owners and Miller Murphy and Haywood for the miners, the whole thing could have bee) settled in an hour, but no such negotiations were attempted. The Citi zens’ Alliance sent a delegation of miner owners to the governor wit! a request for troops. Governor Peabody, who had been elected th: previous fall, immediately ordered the militia to Telluride. When w: heard of this it was like a clap of thunder from a clear sky. I wrot: to Oscar Carpenter, secretary of the Telluride Miners’ Union, that th: militia had been ordered there, and would arrive as quick as a specia train could carry them. I told him that the “tin soldiers” were irrespon sible and that great care would have to be taken to prevent an outbreak * * ° At once upon the arrival of the soldiers arrests began. Thirty eight men were arrested at one swoop on charge of vagrancy; eighteer men at another time. Among them were Oscar M. Carpenter, and J. C. Barnes of the Federal Labor Union. Carpenter had my letter in hi: pocket when he was arrested. He tore it up and swallowed it to pre vent its being read by the soldiers. I would rather they could have read the letter, as his destroying it made them think he had something to hide. These two were taken on a special train to Montrose and thrown in the jail there, -This much news we got by wire. Immediately there followed the proclamation of martial law, and the censorship of the press, telegrapt and telephone cut Telluride off from the outside world. The pres: correspondents were notified that they must submit their stories to the Citizens Alliance for approval. This order was naturally not popula) with the reporters and stories got through to the Denver papers. We sent J. C. Williams, vice-president, to Telluride to look after the finance: of the strike in the San Juan district, and General Engley, of Crippk Creek, a veteran of the Civil War, to defend the arrested strikers. ° * * In the next instalment Haywood writes of martial law by the Colorado militia at Telluride in 1908 and 1904; deportations of the miners; victory after fifteen months of battle—to include not only minere but baker., waitresses and dishwashers; the remarkable loyalty of the | ers to the union, © 8 ty