The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 27, 1929, Page 6

bacon cans lan eae ane | i Page Six DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1929 Worker Published by the National Daily SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By Mail (in New York only): $8.00 a year $4.50 six months $2.50 three months By Mail (outside of New York): $3.50 six months Worker Publishing Association, Daily, Except S Union Square, Telephone, Stuyvesant Cable: “DAIWORK.” $6.00 a year $2.00 three months Address and mail all checks to The Daily Worker, 26-28 Union , Square, New York, N. Y. ROBERT MINOR . WM. F. DUNNE ..... ++ Editor Ass. Bditor Trotsky Carries His Case to the Bourgeoisie To those who understand the meaning of Trotskyism it is not at all strange to see some of the biggest capitalist newspapers now featuring as their new expert writer on the horrors of Bolshevism and the crimes of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics and of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union—none other than Mr. Leon Trotsky! Nor is it strange that Trotsky in explaining his ejection from the Workers’ Republic, opens the first instalment of his series with a quotation from M. Bidel Fauzpas, the former chief of the political police of France: “C’est la marche des evenements.” (“It is the course of events.’’) The quoted words of Bidel Fauxpas were spoken when he, the former chief of the French political police, who had been the active force in the expulsion of revolutionaries from France, was himself captured by the revolutionary govern- ment as an agent of French imperialism on the territory of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. The police agent explained the reversed situation by saying, “it is the course of events.” ‘And it is the very logical “course of events” when Trotsky writes as he does in the capitalist press, not alone with the most amazing puffed-up egotism of a petty-bour- | geois scribbler, but with such words as can only come from aman friendly to the imperialist governments now engaged in encirclement of and planning war against the Soviet government. Trotsky addresses himself plainly to the bourgeoisie— to “the public,” to “informed people”, and not in the least to | the working class. The first instalment of his series con- | tains not one word of criticism of the capitalist governments now feverishly preparing imperialist war and feverishly watching for every opportunity to strike a blow at the work- ers’ state which is the fortress’ of the proletarian revolu- | tion. No—all of what Mr. Trotsky has to say is a sharp, | underhanded, pro-imperialist attack against the Union of | Socialist Soviet Republics, against the Communist Party | of the Soviet Union and against the Communist International. The counter-revolutionary activities of Trotsky and his | handful of followers in the Soviet Union, their characteri- — zation of the proletarian dictatorship as a capitalist regime and their efforts to organize counter-revolutionary move- ments to the point of civil war against the Soviet State, gave | the workers’ government only a narrow field of alternatives | —and the Soviet government chose the least harsh way of | dealing with Trotsky that remained within the limits of their duty to the workers’ revolutionary cause. The alternatives for a revolutionary government in dealing with counter-revo- lutionists extend to the point of execution. Other leaders of counter-revolution—not only monarchists, but also Men- sheviks and “socialist-revolutionaries’’—have been déalt with by the People’s Revolutionary Tribunals with the necessary severity which removed them permanently from the path of the revolution. Trotsky has openly espoused the same slo- gans of struggle and the same methods of counter-revolu- tionary struggle against the Soviet power that are character- istic of the entire school of agents of capitalist reaction—the mensheviks. Trotskyism has degenerated into open, counter- revolutionary menshevism no less menacing than that of any other mensheviks, and has passed from the sphere of men- shevik theorizing and menshevik slander against the workers’ | power into the sphere of menshevik counter-revolutionary action. | The line of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to that small portion of its membership which sympathizes with Trotsky is to demand that they sever all connection with the | Trotsky organization. The party endeavors to convince con- fused workers of the counter-revolutionary character of Trot- skyism. This is not a difficult task in view of the recent developments. Those who continue their Trotskyist con- nections are expelled. Trotskyism in the United States, as elsewhere, is a counter-revolutionary force. The social democrats know this. Trotskyism in America can be fought best by proving this to workers (and it is not difficult) and by calling upon all honest but confused elements to break decisively with the Trotskyist-' Cannon grouping in the United States. Trotskyism in the United States, after its flare-up under the leadership of a group of renegades from the Communist Party who were tired of the struggle against the bourgeoisie, has been de- cisively rejected by the Communist workers. Nevertheless the fight against Trotskyism is essential a fight against a form of bourgeois corruption afnong the masses. The facts of life itself show that the line of Trotsky internationally and the line of Mr. J. P. Cannon, his henchman, is the line of attack upon the proletarian dictatorship and the Soviet Union, the line of struggle against the Communist Interna- tional and its American section, and is therefore a line toward unity with the sinister forces of the social-democracy in pre- cisely the period when world imperialism is gathering its forces for a new offensive against the Soviet Union and the world’s working class—at a time when the social-democracy constitutes imperialism’s chief bulwark against the rising tide of the class struggle in the capitalist countries and the |which have a minimum of |Bloc, it not only leads the new rade | union. | THE SAME OLD DANCE By ALBERT WEISBORD. | ’ The Communist Party of Mexico stands at the cross-roads of its his- | tory. Like the Communist Party of the United States, only more so, it is in a transition period, having shed Communist Party of Mexico The Main Campaign of the Party; | The Agrarian Revolt its cloak of isolation on the one} hand, and on the olher hand having} (3) A rigorous and adequate or- not yet become a truly mass organ- Zanizational preparation for the ization. Yet within the past year|coming and open sharp. struggles the C. P. already has made astound- |ihat face the Mexican people at the ing progress. Considering the mem- | Present time. bership figures alone, last C. P. had 1,005 members, t the Party has 2,500 member: year the Pariy had 19 districts, this | year it has 61 districts. Of the membership 65 per cent are ind trial workers in the basic } custries (railwaymien, workers, etc.), ¢ agrarian toilers, of are agricultural worke per ceni therefore are inf workers. From these figures can see the basically sound compo: tion of the Mexican Parcy and it great growth. Party Perspectives. The Pa has the following per- spective, as given in its thesis:— “10. The armed conflict between the different bourgeois groups will unch in the fight the. agrarian ef asses who will want to seize the , |land. We foresee that the conflict between the groups will conduce later on to a conflict between these groups and the agrarian masses, irst, and later with the working es. The role of the Party is to unite those discontented and to te the fight of the masses in or- der to reach a united front against the bourgeoisie and imperi m, “11, The first task of the Party must consist in separating the work- Main Campaigns of the Party. The chief campaigns of the Party are::— ing and agrarian masses from the (1) Political campaign. leadership of the bourgeoisie and (2) The trade union campaign. | the small pouees ‘The ecu 5 Fa eS , to organize these masses within one ay, MoPE_ (international Red | wanization which will unify them | action. This task the Party must | In all these car e up with full energy. | has been singula “The Comintern at our April con- fact of the mattér is th has ‘taken the initiative and leads all mass movements have described in my severz icles, published before, mo fixed the nization. The method is a which could mark ar |clearly the difference of the objec- * tives between the bourgeoisie and ference | y |the org actual adherents. The Party only leads the Workers and Agi rian Toilers Permanent Pol not movements in Mexico, but when matters come to more direct | and open clashes with the govern- | mental and imperialistic forces, when the matter takes the form of; Children’s Town in Odessa is an a civil war, the Mexican C. P. with- | experiment in the creation of a great out a doubt will be in the leadership | children’s commune, the laboratory as well. |of a new social order and new laws method and | The Mexican Party has one news paper, El Machete, with a paid cir culation of 15,000. However, this | of living. | The town consists of dainty cot- ages scattered in gardens and along |whom are not Communists. |United States alone there are 1,000 | circulation by no means reflects the |Shady alleys and streets planted influence of the paper, since 5,000 | with chestrit trees and acacia. It papers go lo 5,000 separate com- is kept in model order and spotless munes, where al] the workers to-|cleanliness by the youthful inhabi- gether chip in to subscribe to the | tants themselves. paper (since no worker has enough Own Industry. money to pay for the paper him- | self) and where the paper is read | duty may begseen sweeping the side- aloud to all the people in the com- \ rate atl prc se Cit refuse in mune. Thus actually the cireuation | cans, while other children are hur- is closer to 175,000 than 15,009. | ring hither and. thither with With bee paper there correspond | wheelbarrows, bags and baskets. In regularly almost 400 workers and | the gardens before the cottages agrarian correspondents. The paper groups of children through with their has over 400 agents, the majority of ‘work are lying on the grass, play- In the | ing, reading books and pottering in ¢ ; the flower beds. paid subscribers to Ei Machete. | The town counts a population of Simultaneously with the growth | 2,100 and there are five local schools, of the Party, the Young Communist |including one with a seven-year League of Mexico also has grown.| course and a separate vocational Last year 900 members were in the | school, as well as five workshops: Y. C. L., this year there are 1,500 @ tailor shop, a carpentry shop, a members. A monthly paper is put locksmith’s shop, a shoemakers’ out with a circulation already of shop, and a bindery. Thé bindery 5,500, and already is becoming anjis famous in Odessa for its neat Little street cleaners on regular’ influential factor among the toiling youth in Mexico, The tasks of the C.P. in the pres- ent period must be:— (1) Greatest concentration on attacking the Mexican government as agent of American imperialism, (2) Greatest clarification of growing movements for national liberation in the colonial countries, / deere, oil elass lines so that definitely the in- dustrial proletariat has the hege- mony. work and is always kept busy with orders. The town’s requirements are very well provided by its own bak- ers, tailors and locksmiths. Truck Garden, ‘There is an irrigated truck gar- | den of 27 acres, sowed and tilled by | the children themselves, and there is also a seed-grain farm with a live-stock breeding division. _Two hurdred children work steadily from 4 |the proletariat and the agrarian jmfasses. The organization is the | Workers and Agrarian Bloc. Agrarian Revolt. | “12, The perspective which the Party has is the following: On the initiation of the fight between the |different bourgeois factions begin- ning with the military group in the north, to develop the agrarian re- bellion. In this, whether due to the disorganization of the workers and agrarian elements, the Right wing obtains a military victory and in this case the organizations will fall into illegality with all its conse- jauences (disorganization, terror, ete.) or whether the elements of the Left organize themselves and adopt a clear program which takes jin all of the large worker and agra- |vian masses, in spite of momentary jmilitary victories, the rebellion of the large masses will extend. “13. This last perspective is the one which the Mexican C. P. must see in ail its magnitude and in all its consequences. The position of Mexico permits a fight of ample historical perspectives. A revolu- |tion of a proletarian and anti-im- perialist character can susiain itself oriously in Mexico with the ac- tive collaboration of the working masses in Latin America, and with the solidarity of the American work- ers and agrarian toilers. Whole : Children’s Town of Odessa, | Where Youth Is the Ruler day to day on the 1,200 acre farm under the guidance of an agrono- mist, develop the production of high- grade seed for the neighboring peas- ants, and breed pure strain hogs and poultry. The economic enter- prises of the town bring in an an- nual revenue of 20,000 to 25,000 rubles. Farmers come to it from long distances for selected seed. The Children’s Town has an ex- cellently organized system of self- | government with an Executive Com- mittee at its head. Numerous sub- divisions of this committee are at werk on all branches of life inside and outside of the houses. Each cuitage has its own council or soviet. Cultural life in the community goes forward in a healthy and vig- orous manner. In addition to what may be called a central municipal club, there are local clubs and each house has its own “Red Corner” and Jilibvard newspaper. Take a Lesson. The «.‘cen city is shady and flowery. The plots bef+rc the houses are colorful with blossoms and well cultivated by the little town inhabi- tants. The town possesses a library of 17,000 volumes, which is assiduously utilized by the inhabitants. Relations between the children and the adult teaching personnel are splendid. A healthful community discipline prevails. The older peo- ple are almost never heard or seen and, nevertheless, there are neither squabbles, nor quarrels, nor din. In this regard “grown-up” cities might profitably take a lesson from Chil- dren’s Town. By Fred Ellis —s Copyright, 1929, by International Publishers Co., Inc. BILL HAYWOOD’S BOOK All rights reserved. Republica- tion forbidden except by permission, | | jregions will fall into the hands of | |the national bourgeoisie and of the | imperialists, but the central regions, | naturally protected, can grow the necessary cereals for its nourish- |ment where they can also work the sdactories’ They can sustain them- | Ives under a workers’ and agra- rian government. Party Must Grow. place if the Mexican C. P. does not increase its organization and does ynot convert itself to a mass Party } and does not fizht with surety and. energy on each of its two large | fronts, in the workers’ movement and in the agrarian movement. In| either case, with one or the other | |of the perspectives, the Party must | take the necessary organizational | steps in order to place this in a} state of being able to undertake the | tasks and keep contact with the | masses. The Plenum instructs the | C. C. of the Party to take all the| necessary measures in order to look | after our organization and contacts. | 5. The Plenum instructs the | \. C. to give special attention to | the agrarian question. Without or- ganization of our Party from be-| \low among the agrarian masses it | lis impossible to have a real ard ef- | fective influence among the ma: es | of main importance to the revolu- | | tion.” | }In conclusion I may say that an adequate estimate of the C. P. of | Mexico shows that it has made tre- |mendous progress within the past few years. It is no longer a propa- | jganda sect. It is now the most im- | |portant factor in a big revolution- | ary movement. It has definitely be--! hind it one-half million adherents. | It is in control of the most import- ant revolutionary movements in Mexico. The very ripe situation opens up gigantic opportunities to the Mexican Party. This places the | Mexican Party today in a very crit- Hical situation, since it must solve |problems never solved before, and | lead the masses in the revolutionary movement. But there is every indi- eation that the C. P. and the Y. C. L. of Mexico will tive up to these his- toric tasks. Peclehive et Ae DISPATCHERS WIN INCREASE. ATLANTA, Ga., (By Mail)—Train? dispatchers of the Seaboard Air Line have won an increase of $12 a month, CIExhibit NeedsCopy of Lenin’s “Infantile Sickness,” CP Papers Any comrade who has a copy of Lenin’s “Infantile Sickness of Leftism,” in the edition published by the Contemporary Publishing Association in 1920, is asked to send it at once to the National Office, to Comrade Max Bedacht, for forwarding to the Exhibition of the 10th Anniversary of the Comintern, to be held in connec- tion with the coming Plenum of the ©. I. i i This material will be used for a permanent exhibition in connec- tion with the Revolutionary Mu- seum in Moscow. Also comrades who have copies or files of the Revolutionary Age, The Communist, ete, etc, are asked to send them in for the Comintern exhibition and the 10th “14.But these fights cannot take | The Publicity Flight of the Mine Owners | and Counter Attack by. the Union; U. S. Senate Used by Both In previous chapters Haywood told of his early life in Utah, Nevada and Idaho as cowboy, homesteader and miner; of the years earning by practical daily leadership in the Idaho mines his advance- ment to the head of the Western Federation of Miners; of the W. F. M, battles with the mine owners and militia of Colorado. He has been telling of the great Cripple Creek strike of 1908. He is now speaking of how Senator Patterson, undoubtedly with an eye to keep- ing popular with the miners, brought their case to the U. S. Senate. Now go on reading. * PART XLVIL A NEWSPAPER writer came to Colorado to write about the industrial war, made several visits to the W. F. M, office, and seemed to be friendly to the organization. He gave me the proof sheets of the “Red Book,” a pamphlet that was being issued by the Mine Owners’ Association, containing the so-called “Criminal Record of the Western Federation of Miners.” I at once started to prepare a counter document, the “Cate- gory of Crime of the Mine Owners’ Association,” which we called the “Green Book.” We hurried this up so that it was ready: for distribution before the Red Book was’ off the press. In his concluding articles this writer said that the Federation was “unclean,” and that we dared not permit a committee from the American Federation Labor to audit our books. When this appeared in the Chicago paper, Ed Nockels, secretary of the Chicago Federation of Labor, telegraphed me asking if we would’ allow a vom- mittee of the A. F. of L, to audit the accounts of the Western Federa- tion of Miners. To this I replied by wire that we would be glad to have this done, and that we would pay all expenses that might be entailed. The newspaperman’s challenge was such a boomerang that he lost his job and has never been heard of as a correspondent since. o # * NE of the owners of the Strong mine at Cripple Creek was Senator Scott of West Virginia. It was to him that the mine owners ap- pealed to have a statement’ introduced in the United States Senate, viciously condemning the Western Federation of Miners. I quote a part of this statement of the mine owners, signed by C. C. Hamlin, and introduced by the senator: During” all these years an alleged labor organization known as the Western Federation of Miners has been endeavoring, with considerable success, to obtain a hold on this particular industry through the union- ization of these mines, and the history of this campaign, with its record of murder, arson, dynamiting and riot, to say nothing of the more petty crimes, such as assaults, intimidation, threats and personal abuse, all committed for the purpose of intimidating and coercing men engaged in earning a livelihood, is enough to shock humanity. . . . When an executive has been found big enough and brave enough and patriotic enough to rise above political exvediency and take a firm stand in favor of law and order and the vreservation of those rights guaranteed by the Constitution, as. did Governor Steunenberg in Idaho in 1899, and as Governor Peabody is doing in Colorado today, protests such as that embodied in the resolution under consideration have gone up from certain quarters, either inspired by sympathy with the acts and purposes of this organization or with the hope of obtaining some , political advantages through them, or, as we trust is the case with the present resolution, by ignorance of the facts which have engendered the condition. .. . In 1901 the Sntuggler-Union ‘mine, at Telluride, Colorado, became involved in trouble with the Western. Federation. The mine was using what is known as the contract system, i. e., the miners were paid ac- cording to the ground broken instead of by the day. It was admitted that a man who was willing to do a fair day’s work could earn the union scale, which means a minimum of three dollars a day for eight hours’ work, but nevertheless the Federation demanded that system dis- continued. The management refused to abandon the contract system and the strike followed. Some non-union men were put to work, and on July third an armed bedy of union men attacked the mine, killed and wounded several persons, dislodged the non-union men, and took possession of the property. The non-union men were driven into the hills, and with their wounded companions were compelled to find their way on foot to places of safety. .. . eee ioe 'O that it will be seen that in all these strikes the Western Federation of Miners has not only indulged in coercion, picketing, threats and intimidation, but has resorted to riot, arson, bloodshed and general dis- * * | order as well, and in all of these localities, in times of outward auict as- | saults, intimidation and even murder have been committed for the purpose of forcing men into the union. There can be no individual freedom where this organization gains a foothold. .. . During the past few months the Cripple Creek district has been the center of the disorders generated by the Western Federation, both be- cause it employs more labor than any other mining camp in the state, | and because the Federation looked upon it as one of its strongholds and the best place to strike.a decisive blow... . . es + 8 Tee speech at the sec$nd session of the fifty-eighth Congress got the publicity that the mine owners were looking for, and they prob- ably did not expect a reply, x As soon as I saw Senator Scott’s statement, I telegraphed to Sen- ator Patterson of Colorado and asked him if he would introduce a reply in the Senate. I got an immediate request to send on our reply at once. We wrote an answer of twenty-seven thousand words, which we sent to Senator Patterson. When he received it, he telegraphed me asking if he might change one word. I told him to make any change necessary. The senator explained to me later that the change he made was where we had called John Campion, a miné manager of Leadville, a liar. He said that Campjon was a friend of his and he had no desire to apply that epithet to him. With this single change in the document he intro- duced it in the Senate and then telegraphed me to haye the entire statement published in the following Sunday issue of his paper, the Rocky Mountain News. iy I took the telegram and the statement at once to the editor, Mc- Kenna, When he Jooked at the bulky document, he said to me: “Haywood, this is a physical impossibility! It can’t be set up om time.” “Well,” I said, “we may be able to help you out on that. We have it set up in type now to run in the next issue of the Miners’ Magazine, and we'll be glad to lend you the type, though it’s a little larger than what you use.” “Just wait a minute. I’ll.go down and see the foreman.” ’ * * ° HEN he returned, he told me: % “Yes, we can use your type. We can set this up and tear it down next week.” This referred to the union rule that everything used in the paper must be actually set.up, torn down and distributed in the shop that prihted it. I expressed an opinion about this “dummy work” that may not have been entirely complimentary to the typographical union. \ The article ran to more than seven newspaper pages. The mine owners were so mad that they could have bitten the back of their necks when they read this statement of ours, introduced by Senator Patterson, in which we called upon the United States government for an investiga- tion of the Colorado strikes, and offered to furnish all the assistance this, Walter, B. Palmer did make an investigation of the “Colorado Labor Disturbances,” which was published over the name of Carrol D. Wright, U. S, Commissioner of Labor, but there was never any action on the part of the government. 7 * In the next instalment ‘Haywood writes of the issues of the Colorado mine war as presented by both the mine owners and the union, in the form of what the owners claimed and what the union demanded. Readers who wish to get the life of “Big Bill’ Haywood within our power. , Some time after Anniversary of the American Sommunist Party. 2 in an attractive bound: volwme, regular book size, may obtain it free with a yearly subscription, renewal or extension to the Daily Worker.