The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 25, 1929, Page 3

DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1929 PARTY PRE-CON The comrade who writes these articles, for reasons relating to his work, cannot sign his real name, However, he is one of the Negro comrades who, in a recent membership meeting at Los An- political power. And yet, that is} izer and his aides, every vestige of ;of the Farty, are now hitter per-| Patronage has been the order of VENTION DISCUSSION SECTION Factionalism and Chauvinism in California jdesperate. From one end of the state of California to the other, there is chaos; demoralization of the Party is complete, And now, as the once proud and agreeable district |American methods of inoculation |Negro comrades who are-held in| organizer arrives at national Party geles, was attacked by Emanuel Levin, former district organizer in California as being a black chauvinist. * | what has. happened in District 13|Communism has been swept aside|sunal cnemies. These same com-|the day, particularly in the dealings (California). |by the rising tide of incompetency,|rades are accusing and counter-| with the non-white comrades. Those | The methods and practices of the | ignorance, bigotry and downright) accusing each other of all manner | who accept what is told them with- |functionaries in this district would| White chauvinism of the lowest or-| of personal wrong-doing that has out protest are tolerated and at any make the high-handed methods of|der. And now, en the eve of the absolutely no bearing on the issues | gathering they are singled out and | the Bourbon and lily-white South Convention, the district | involved. |made much of. But woe to those are resorted to; that is to say, to pit one Negro against the other. The method used is to first. win the confidence of the Negro whom they wish to use in their factionalism jand then play up everything that | esteem by such white chauvinist | headquarters, accompanied by his tire’ of such treatment and take | staff of supporters, it might not be exception to this manifestation of out of place to relate some of the race prejudice and make complaint, | underlying facts that have brought * they are browbeaten and made the | about this demcralized state of af- National PART I. |pale into insignificance if all the By A. BUSCH. It. seems incredible, to say the least, that the functionaries of any branch or district of the Workers (Communist) Party, however re- motely situated from Party head- quarters, would resort to the usual American custom of mud-slinging and_ berating those whom they wish to crush beneath their feet in order | to elevate themselves to supreme that was once a growing, progres- \facts were known. sive, loyal, and above all, an active Suffice it to say that net a stone has been left unturned; nothing too low on the scale of underhanded dealings, backhanded stabs in the dark and a thousand underhanded tricks has been left out by the Op- position. Factional Degeneration. Thanks to the cunning and re-| sourcefulness of the district organ-' | stronghold of Communism, has now degenerated into a big family feud, so to speak, with comrades resort- ing to personalities that are entirely foreign to Communism or to the ma- jor political problems of the Amer-| ican Party. Comrades who less than a year ago were working together har- moniously for the common welfare | who refuse to accept the orders of goat., This is only one example of | fairs and place the blarae where it jquently resort to actual fighting. The fight has become so bitter \that the units of the Young Work- ers and the Young Pioneers have become infected. The Young Work- ers League members pass each other on the streets without spe: jing. Even the Young Pioneers in the Los Angeles sub-district fre- | They and no one else seem to know! | what it’s all about. Patronage of Negro Comrades. | the superior white comrades who are the court of last resort when it comes to a question of knowing what the darker peoples need, par- ticularly the Negroes. For, it is this latter group who refuse to be Uncle Toms or yes-men, whom all the venom of white chauvinism is heaped upon, In their practice of white chauv- inism and factionalism, the usual | with impunity. been made in the California District. | prostrate, suffering from a thous-|justment made so as to forever pre- | they can think of against the Negro | white chauvinism <in District Thir- they hate or fear. As a fina) they induce the Negro of their selec- | of white-chauyinism in this. district: | tion to openly denounce the hated is the complete ignoring of a Negro | personalities for the mere sake of Negro. If they succeed in such un-|comrade whose ability equals that | personal revenge or hatred. Rather, |derhand methods, such whites feel |of the best informed functionary in |we feel that it is our duty to tell that they can heap all the abuses step|teen. The most flagrant evidence | the entire district for a period of they wish upon the hated Negro|more than four years. Such attempt has| District Thirteen is now lying jand stabs.. Not stabs of outside jenemies, but of enemies from with- On the other hand, when those'in. The condition of this district is White Chauvinism Rampant. belongs and that is the purpose of these articles. We have no desire to resort to Jin a straightforward way the facts jas they appeared to us. And above all, it is our desire to see un ad- jvent a recurrence of this awful |condition that now exists in Cali- | fornia. The Plus and Minus of Shop Work Since Last Party Convention By GERTRUDE HAESSLER, (The following is the first of a short series of articles dealing with the Party’s shop paper work throughout the country during the period since the last convention. It is of a general nature, cover- ing various phases of the work. Those to follow will deal in de- tail with the political content of the papers, their trade union line, their technical make-up, and a con- cluding article will cover various | miscelleanous matters and sum | up.—EDITOR.) * In making a general review of the Party’s shop paper work during the period between the two conventions, one finds that in spite of some very serious shortcomings still existing in this important phase of Party work, much progress has been made. It is extremely important and ex- tremely exacting work. It embodies many important slogans which the Party has put forth—‘Face to the Masses,” “Proletarianization,” “Building of Shop Nuclei,” “Roots in Industry,” ete. “Every work- Cee shop is a fortress of the working | class,” wrote Lenin. The shop paper is an effective offensive weapon in our steady bombardment to capture these fortresses for the working class. Shop Papers in Past Year. What do we find in the general shop paper work throughout the country since the last convention? There has been an appreciable in- | crease in the number of papers, as ;gives a total increase of nearly 60} In heavy or basic industry we |and consistent ideological campaign the following table will show: NUMBER OF SHOP PAPERS, August 1927 to February 1929. 5 2% St 25 5a a ; & [gh #f 8, 88 ;s . e s @a B oS Ga Se g4 |\A 24 O88 Bee oe | 1 1 ) 0 o* 2 1 0 ie 6 8 0 0 3 B 4 1 0 2 2 5 1 1 4 5 | 6 6 3 4 1 1% 6 5 0 5 8 1 1 4 4 9 3 4 1 is |10 4 1 2 3 \12 0 0 0 0 13 0 0 1 a 15 0 0 1 1 24 12 29 39 * No report from this district and figure may be inaccurate. During this period 12 papers} which had been existing before the last convention have lapsed. Two papers which were started during} the period have also fallen by the sides making up for the 50 per cent ‘loss of last convention’s | papers, EMERGENCY FUND (Continued from Page One) Section 1, I, New York City, Collected by Peter Labowit, Stoniski, $1.00, 25c, Straznick 50c; Collected by Wm. Ryby, Andrew Strifetz, $1.00; M. Wilchynski, $2.00; J. Uclyck, $2.00; Collected by N. Tar- nowsky, F. S., $1.00; John Trufyu, $1.00; Barynis, $1.00; N. Tarnowsky, 2.00; Col- lected by Section 1, II; P. Bayko, $1.00; M. Karpo, $1.00; O. Averyz, $1.00; A. Zyvaryez,. $1.00; Nahirny 50c; J. Bethornoly, $1.00; D. Ryg- giel, $1.00; W. Mandruk, $1.00; H. Chenoris, $3.50. ..$21.50 Sent in by L. Berger, Balti- more, Md.: Dilny, $2; Giser, $1; S. Bograd, $2; J. Buck- man, $2; J. Katz, $1; D. Caplan, $1; Freiheit Singing Society, $1.85; G. Millie, $1; Pearlman, $1; M. Weiner, $2; Gollout, $1; Sifehitz, $1; Fields, 25¢ oe Collected by (5 dich, | Yukon, Pa.: Collected at the meeting of C.F,U.A., Her- minie, Pa., $9.15; M. W. Brajdich, $1; M. Mance, $1; I. Mlovac, 25¢; J. Milovac, 50c; M. Ferich, $1; Friend, 26ce; Friend, 25c¢; J. Barto- vik, 25¢; M. Toponjok, 25c; M. Sepec, 50c; T. Loponyak, 50e .. . Collected by cleus 3, Chicago, Ill: K, Mozeika, $1.25; O. Mociu- kenies, 50c; J. Itevalis, 25c; J. Levuliute, $1; R. Laponte, 50c; J. Nahorski, 25c¢; A Friend, 25c; A. Mikelionis, $1; A. Pasiowetz, $1; K. Maz and I. P. Kuetis, $3; A. Litwin, $1; A. Nelson, $1; C. L, Greyson, $1 ..... Section 1, Nucleus 16, AGO, Tl. ceesccsccese sores Sent in by E. P. Cush, Pitts- 16.60 14.06 12.00 fis 11.00 Ica y The Daily Worker, 26-28 After reading the appeal for aid in the Daily Worker I am ing yeu the enclosed amount, $... Name cecccsscceccccsevesesseees Address ccsccsccesssesseveeseees '. N ‘DAILY’ SURVIVE? unds Vital if Our Press is to Live Respond immediately to the appeal of the Daily Worker for aid in its present crisis. Names of contributors will be pul wayside (Dist. 2 and 8). Thus, be-} per cent. Compared with the size of our country and the extent of \its industry, 89 papers is far too |few, but compared with the status ,|of the shop paper work at the time of the last convention, the increase is not discouraging. Industries With Shop Papers. Besides what we can strictly call shop papers, we have two neighbor- hood papers, ‘The Challenge,” issued in the Negro section of New York |City, and “The Mission Worker” | (unfortunate name), issued in the |Mission District of San Francisco. The 39 actual shop papers are in the following industries: Industry Automobile .. Baking . Bridge Docks Electric . Kodak Machine Mine ... Munitions .. Needle .. Packing Pencil .. Railroad Razor .. Roller Bearings .. Sanitary Appliances ON SARs Steel and Iron. Tin No. of Papers HOH Hoh Hh webb o& 39 |have, therefore 30 papers. We still lay too much stress on small-scale industry, as Comrade Arnold Zieg- jler has already ably pointed out in |his article on the Draft Theses on Organization. In it he points to the great efforts being devoted to fac- tories of a size which we do not jus- tify the effort. We might add that |much is also spent on factories which jdo not warrant the effort due to |the type of industry. But beggars |cannot be choosers, If, in order to get the work started, it is a choice jof tackling a small factory or a | light industry or not issuing a paper Jat all, then every bit of effort ex- | pended is just so much to the good |in gaining experience in the work, in stimulating interest in the work. Had the New York District, for in- stance, stopped at issuing papers be- cause its only possibilities for near- |ly two years were two shops each jemploying only about 500 workers, |then New York would still have |no shop papers at all, whereas now jit has 6, with several new ones in |view, and every possibility of re- viving the two it has lost during this | period. Colonization. | Comrade Ziegler in the same ar- \ticle suggests the correct solution |—the more scientific distribution of |the forces of the Party. Deliberate | colonization into the basic and heavy | industries—this is a question which |requires not only the attention of tour leading comrades, but a long burgh, Pa.: Ukrainian Toil- ers Organization Mothers Lezgue of New Eng- land, Brockton, Mass. ...... I. L. D, Local, Portland, Ore. J. M. A, Spence, Hollywood, Calif. V. Mannisto, Chisholm, Minn, Friedberg Dress Shop, City. | Slavik Fraction Workers Par- ty; CREO lols tevieww sas: ; Collected by Unit 7F, 2A, New York City: Forman, $3; Wright, $1; Selepolus, $1; Karavasile, $1; Ancher, $1; Tselepec, $1; Comodicos, 50¢ | Ukrainian Women’s Educa- | tional Society, Phila., Pa... |E, Fialko, Warren, Ohio .... {Sent in by Finnish S. T. Yhdistys, West Frankfort, Il: V. Kortes, 7c; E. Hen- drickson, 25c; K, Deppanen, $1; T, Haka, $1; J. Walley, $1; A. Wriitanen, 50c; W. Maki, 25c; A. Lahti, 50c; E. Tkanen, 50c; E. Herronw, 25c; J Hakkaranen, 25c; C. Yuntune, 25¢ .....50.6+ Sent in by Geo. Simon, York- ville, Ohio—E. Sisamis, $1; N. Piliatis, $1; M. Rigas, $1; J. Piperis, 50c; M. Frangos, 50c; G. Sisamis, 50 c; B. Lignos, 50c; J. Majikos, 50c . Alex. Yashon and two com- rades, Chicago, Ill.. Collected by Felix Clement, Lutz, Fla.—Felix Clement, $1.25; Mrs. F. Clement, $1; Y. Clement, $1; L. Clement, Sr., 50c; L., Clement, Jr., Tbe; A. Ovarlet, 50c...... J.H, Seitz, Willoughby, Ohio Seattle Unit, Young Workers League, Seattle, Wash.... West Side Camp Comm., Chi- cago, Ill, Prolab, City Wm. Podolin, City.. eeeceecee 11.50 10,00 10.00 10.00 10.00 10.00 10.00 8.50 8.00 7.50 | 6.50 5.50 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.50 5.00 3.00 Collected by.Mike Dogrowol. Union Square, New York. end- One e ee eee eer eeeereseneeeseceesoes blished in the “Daily” without ski, Mich.—M. Dobrowol- ski, $1; S. Sendrowitez, 25¢;.S. Manchop, 25c; Chai- kourki, 25¢; N. Swiecskow- ska, 2Ce; J. Lomako, 50c; M. Patrick, 25c; D. Kremis, 25c; H. Holexa, 25¢; C. Pokley, 25c¢ .... Frank Hish, Bronx Collected by B. Petroff, Flint, Mich.—B. Petroff, 51; M. Elieff, $1; J. George, $1 S. Evanoff, 50c... . J. T. Cannon, Sioux City, I Carl Nelson, St. Louis, Mo.. Leo Ars, Monroe Bridge, MBAR Sols esse sc skiesis'e cele W. Hastman, River Rouge, Miehe S505 we secceesesece Mike Puchaey, St. Louis, Mo. Isaac and Ben Berman, Bing- 3.45 8.00 : 8.50 2.00 2.00 2.50 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 50 25, Pete Thords, Bellaire, Ohio. Harry Broker, Chicago, Ill.. X, New York City. P. Minarik, Vaudergrift, Pa. The Siegel Family, Ont., Cal. G. Wysowski, Elmira, N. Y.. I. Abramson, Chicago, Walter P. Sukus, Chicag: Report Ecuador Soon to Assume Membership in League of Nations from Equez Baquerizo, minister of labor and statistics of Ecuador, no- tified the International Labor Office of the League of Nations, that Ecua- dor expects soon to assume its mem- bership in the League. Ecuador was cue of the “allied and associated powers” during the World War, and by the Treaty of Versailles was mentioned as an or- iginal member of the League. How- ever, it has never assumed member- ship. This will be something of a victory for British imperialism as against American imperialism in the Latin-American sector of their clash for world hegemony. * ¢ « Conflict With Yankee Banker, QUITO, Ecuador, Feb. 24.—After three postponements, the verbal hearing against the general super- intendent of banks, the Yankee, Harry Tompkins, has been held. A final verdict was not reached, it being agreed to submit the case to an arbitrator. Tompkins, who was charged with incompetency, insult- ing the minister of the treasury and general overbearing conduct, refused to accept a compromise suggested by the attorney general. He is in Ecuador under contract with New York bankers, and insists on the contract provisions as to his powers, SNOW SHOVELLERS STRIKE CREEDE, Colo, (By Mail)—Snow shovellers in this vicinity of south- west Colorado have gone cn strike against starvation wages and poor conditions, | GENEVA, Feb, 24. — A letter| BLOCKS PROBE OF FEDERAL JUDGE Blease Shields Winslow in Big Fraud Scandal WASHINGTON, Feb. 24.—Sena- tor Blease of South Carolina came to the rescue of Federal Judge Winslow of New York yesterday when he blocked with a technical parliamentary maneuver the attempt to vote thru the senate the house bill for the investigation of Wins- |low’s connection with a million dol- lar bankruptcy fraud ring. | The house had voted the investi/ | gation to take place during the con-| gressional recess, and it required) the assent of the senate and the signature of the president to start the probe. Blease stated that he had “inside information” that the charges against Winslow were “dictated by personal reasons.” He refused to give the sources of his “informa- tion.” Winslow was accused by Repre- sentative La Guardia of New York. He is said to have worked with a firm of New York lawyers, to whom he threw cases that came up in his court. It was generally understood among bankrupts that favorable treatment of their cases depended on their getting this firm as counsel, | | SCAFFCLD FALLS, KILLS WORK- ERS. LEICESTER, England, (By Mail). —Two workers were killed here when a scaffolding on which they were working collapsed at the cor- poration electrical generating sta- tion. They were riveters. | Read 43 East 125th Stree Pages from Party History by JAY LOVESTONE An examination of the growth and development of the Communist Party of the United States — — 10 CENTS (Postage Prepaid, 15 Cents) Workers Library Publishers |among our Party members to make jthem see the necessity of putting themselves at the disposal of the |Party for distribution. | If, with strenuous efforts on the |part of the District, we could not |persuade unemployed comrades in | New York City to go for jobs to Paterson, less than 20 miles away,| | when the life of the bulletin was at stake, and in a war industry at! that, then we can realize how much educational work must still be done among our members on this ques-| tion, | | On the whole, the political level | in general, although much room for | of the papers has improved, The | technical make-up also has improved | further progress still exists. Both these aspects of the work will be treated in detail later. Important | progress can be noted in the regu-| larity with which the papers now; come out. With few exceptions the papers are issued as regularly as| the clock, once a month. One of the | most flagrant offenders is “The Headlight” (Dist. 13), the first is- sue of which appeared in May 1928, the second in November 1928, and| none since as far as we know. | ‘All the progress mentioned above | can be directly traced to the in- creased interest and attention which the Party membership as a whole has devoted to this important phase of Party work. An ideological cam- paign on behalf of shop paper work | has been systematically carried out | in some of the Districts with the re- | sult that the work has improved | from every angle. This increase of interest on the part of the members, while the direct cause of the prog- ress, is in itself an important achievement of the Party for the significance of this work, and if con- sistently carried out, cannot be exaggerated. Organizational Results. And that brings us to the point on which we are weakest—the ques- t New York City | » ,tion of reaping the harvest of the ed, with the resultant destruction of intense work that must necessarily the bulletin itself. paper. We are weakest on this pols | because we are only in the begin-| Getting out a shop paper is no ning stages of the work and while simple job. It requires the coordina- still trying to put the work itself on|tion of every department in the Dis- its feet, we haven't learned yet to trict, and close cooperation between capitalize the effects. In many cases|these departments and the unit get- bulletins were’ issued month after|ting out the paper. The Agitprop month without any increase in the | Department must be responsible for number of members in the nucleus, i the political line and to see that the without any apparent increase in in-|Shop material is linked up cleverly terest in trade union organization|With class struggle economics and among the workers, without gaining | With our current Party campaigns. the confidence of the workers suf-| The Industrial Department must ficiently to encourage them. to get|be responsible for the correct trade into contact with us, either by cor-|union line. It must be ready to fur- respondence or personally, without | nish information through an effici- any perceptible increase in the num- jent industrial registration of all of be put into the issuing of a shop Departmental Coordination. ber of “Daily Worker” readers, al-|our comrades on possibilities of issu-| though pushing the Daily has been|ing papers where none exist as yet. an ‘important phase of propaganda|We have yet to find so good an in almost every bulletin issued, ete, industrial registration that such im- One reason for this lack of con-|portant information is readily avail- crete results is the fact that in many able. cases (the “Wright Propeller,” in| The Industrial Department must Paterson, for example), we were so|cstablish contact between the unit weak numerically in the shop, that/issuing the paper and the trade we had to restrict our comrades to jpniea seach concerned, in order was, jy-|to handle trade union activity in ee eae or my aca |the shop effectively and correctly. ity in a concrete sense, would Lal ‘The Oriavizett D exposed them, and our source of in- Les fap PpSrEeny |must see that the unit in question formation would have been destroy- : that the tehnical work of getting )out the paper and its distribution is |done with the greatest care and ef- |ficiency possible. And as far as |reaping the results organizationally jis concerned—that is what not only |the units but also the District De- |paré ents in almost all cases have yet to learn. On the whole, therefore, we can point to progress, without ignoring the fact, however, jhat much still remains to be done before our shop paper work is on the same level of quality that some of our other Party work has attained. The increased in- terest shown by the general mem- bership of the Party will serve as a guarantee that this important work will get the attention and care it deserves during the coming period. In further articles, various phases of shop paper work will be treated in greater detaij, with concrete criti- cism of the papers existing during this period. The next article will deal with the political content of the shop | Papers issued throughout the coun- try during the period between the two conventions—the proportion of political material to other material, the linking up of political articles with shop conditions, and errors in political line, etc. Soviet Russia In 1928 — Thru the Land of Lenin FIRST SHOWING IN U. S. A. at the MASS OPENING - NATIONAL CONVENTION WORKERS (Communist) PARTY OF AMERICA at New Star Casino MARCH Ist 107TH STREET and PARK AVE. AT 8 P.M. ADMISSION 50c — TICKETS IN ADVANCE AT DISTRICT OFFICE, WORKERS CENTER, 26 UNION SQUARE AND NATIONAL OFFICE, 48 EAST 125TH STREET lis kept regularly at the work, and : ONY Sar ee READ NEW SERIAL oo Ao & & 4 “BILL HAYWOOD’S BOOK” (EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS TO REPUB- LISH BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT WITH THE INTERN. PUBLISHERS) vvvvvvv—vWvvvVv [Har absorbing story of the class struggle by one who has a distinet place in the American Labor Movement. 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