The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 6, 1929, Page 6

Page Six = DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6,:1929 Baily S- Worker THE WALL STREET HOOK-UP Central Organ of the Workers (Communist) Party Published by the National Daily Worker Publishing Association, Inc. Daily, Except Sunday, at 26-28 Union Square, New York, Telephone, Stuyvesant Cable: “DAIWORK.” SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By Mail (in New York only): $8.00 a r $4.50 six months 0 three months By Mail (outside of New York): 56.00 a year 0 six months $2.00 three months N. . 1696-7-8, =>: ROBERT MINOR WM. F, DUNNE Address and mail all The Daily Worker, Square, New Yor! checks to Ass, Editor Attend the I. L. D. Bazaar The annual bazaar of the New York District of the International Labor Defense, opening tonight in New Star Casino, is of the greatest significance for all class-conscious workers. This is not merely a social event where worker: | will gather for a “good time” and to make purchases; it is an event of paramount political importance. The bazaar of the International Labor Defense will pro- vide those funds without which the workers would be at the mercy of the capitalist courts. It will provide those weapons which are indispensable to the revolutionary workingclass | in smashing the frame-ups and terrorism of the capitalist | legal machinery, | The I. L. D. bazaar this year comes at a specially per- tinent time. The convention of the Workers (Communist) Party is now in session, formulating the program ‘which in this period of intensified class struggle will guide the Amer- ican workingclass in the struggle against imperialist war, in the mobilization for the defense of the Soviet Union, in the steadily: sharpening fight against the capitalist class and its social-reformist lackeys. In these great struggles of the American workers the International Labor Defense is de- stined to play an all-important role. The strengthening of the I. L. D. means the strengthening of the mighty right arm of the militant workingclass. All class-conscious workers, all proletarian fighters must attend the big I. L. D. bazaar and actively support its work. Six hundred and sixty-two textile strikers are being tried in New Bedford, seven fur workers have been framed up in the Mineola case, Mooney and Billings and many other valiant | fighters are still in jail. Attend the I. L. D. bazaar and help | break the stronghold of the capitalists on these heroes of | | your class! Describes Conditions in Riffian War, Nicaragua By R. M. NEY. 1 The uthor, a member of the Riffian army of independence | which for years defeated Spanish | forces outnumbering it 200 to 1, | and held the French army at bay for months, yesterday criticized | Comrade Nearing for saying that U.S. vincible in Latin America. He com- pares the better conditions San- dino has with those the Riffians had. The article is continued be- low. imperialist armies are in- | i, His treachery became evident to! us, the foreigners and the Riffian/ professionals, when he removed three of us from the war-council, to which we had been appointed by the rank and file as advisors. Many | opportunities to rout the Spaniards | were let go by; again and again we| had victory within our grasp, but Rai-Suli would not act. He was like a typical American Federation of Labor leader—while the people were fighting, he was bargaining for a price to sell the fight. At the battle of Selalem the writer and a German comrade pre- vailed upon the villagers of Buharat to make an encircling movement and | attack right and rear of the Spanish | line. At the same time Sadi Mo-| hamet was to attack the center and left. The movement was beautifully executed, but at the moment in which we attacked the right and rear, and drove the Spaniards from their line of retreat, Rai-Suli or- dered Sidi-Mohamet to withdraw, thus allowing the Spaniards to es- cape, But nothing can better illustrate thé power of a. resolute people to fight against oppression, however mighty, than the battle of Taza- Rut. Let pessimists chant their dirges, the everlasting: truth is that where there is a will there is a way. On the evening of the 22nd of May we learned in our battered camp of Taza-Rut that the Span- iards were going to attack the city the next day. The city itself was deserted, as it had been subjected to aerial bombardment twice a day for the past three weeks. The women, children, old men, and house- hold property had been sent to the mountain of Ab-Selam since the first day the aeroplanes attacked. And let me say here that the popu- lar belief about the power of aero- planes to destroy everything is nothing but an illusion. For twenty- - one days Taza-Rut was bombarded «wice a day with high-powered in- cendfary. bombs.- But no one had been killed or wounded, only two houses had been partially destroyed, and four damaged. Strange, is it not? No, it is not strange at all. We had two machine guns, which kept the Spanish airmen kissing the clouds. One day one ventured to come a little too low; we killed the observer and damaged the machine 80 badly that they never ventured to fly low again. We had only one hundred fifty men in Taza-Rut. Some villagers came during the night, bringing our total strength to about two hundred thirty, With this handful of men we gave battle the next day to eight thousand Spaniards. About six the next morning the Spaniards set their forces on the march, Aeroplanes flew overhead, cavalry in the van, and long lines of infantry, artillery, and machine stretched to rear 2¢ far! the eye could see @hey advanced 7) in three columns, commanded by the best officers in the Spanish army, and the whole commanded by General Berenguer, the king’s lieu- tenant in Morocco. One column ad- vanced toward the north, on the city, the left column toward a range | of hills on the southwest of the city, jand the right column toward an- | other height on the southeast. Our plan was very simple—to use jevery rock and tree as a point of defense, and when opportunity of- |fered to attack any exposed section of the Spanish line. We could not use the machine gun as we had no ammunition for it, there being bare- ly enough to supply -about seventy rounds per man, The Spaniards had one regiment of field artillery and four batteries of mountain artillery (about eighty Pieces), plus five companies of ma- chine guns, forty-eight machines, three squadrons of cavalry, and one squadron of aeroplanes. The battle began shortly after the Spaniards began their advance. Our well-aimed volley drove their cavalry off the field, as we occupied all the vantage-points. About twelve o’clock the Spaniards, in spite of their ar- tillery, machine guns, and over- one mile and a half. From rock to rock, from tree to tree, now here, now there, we fought and held the! Spanish left, center, or right in| check, and picked off their officers | and men in threes and fours. Their} artillery roared and thundered, their machine guns rattled, but never | were we farther than sixty or sev-| enty yards from their front line,| firing one shot or volley now and then. But every one of our shots or volleys told in their ranks. At about three o’clock we began to retreat because our ammunition was running short. Some of us, in- cluding the writer, had about ten cartridges left. We withdrew to be- hind the city and here again we faced about and checked the ad- vance of the right wing of the |Spaniards. This column was com- posed of about fifteen hundred men. Twenty-two of us faced it. As the day waned a squall came on and we decided to utilize it and make a last attack on the Spaniards and do as much as our scanty am- munition would allow. We managed to get to the right and rear of the Spanish column and attacked it. Lieutenant Tablas Pregando, two captains, and a major, were our re- ward. They fell before our last vol- ley, together with six other men. The entire column was driven from the field but we had no ammuni- tion with which to pursue them. Those who believe that strength is all will not know what to think of what I have written, but let these persons know that psychologically where there is a will, there is a way and in the will to fight there is also the will and seed of victory. And, materially, the unknown factor is a constant in warfare, In battle, the invader never knows what is the strength of his enemy and conse- quently he has to proceed very cau- tiously. Sandino could do more in Nica- ragua than he is doing. He is ina better position to wage war against the American invader than we were in the Riff war, to wage war against the Spaniards first, and later against the Spanish and French combined. Let him learn from the Riffian cam- naigns, and carry on the more reso- whelming odds, had advanced about| By N. M. ROY. |_ The happenings at Colombo and {Bombay are not isolated events. |Nor are they the outburst of “re- igious fanaticism,” as the imperial- jist news service depicts them to be. They are the culmination of a long j Series of events taking place during the last year which indicate the ap- |Pearance of the proletariat as the |driving and leading force of the In- dian Revolution. Growing out of a hitter and protracted economic |struggle, the happenings of Bom- bay are of the greatest significance, \involving not only a local industrial issue; they represent a stormy de- velopment of the entire political sit- vation of the country into the higher plane of revolutionary mass action. First, a few words akout the jevents at Colombo, They did not jlast so long as the struggle in Bom- |bay. But they are none the less |important. The movement was so | broad and so deep that for nearly a week the government abdicated its |functions to the popular leader, |Gunasinha. The city was practi- jcally under the rule of the trade junions. Uniformed labor guards paraded the city and replaced the |police, which had to be completely |withdrawn on the demand of the \proletariat. The situation was so lintense and such an’ atmosphere of panic prevailed that a British mem- |ber of the government was obliged to make an apologetic statement in |the parliament, on behaif of the |governor, contradicting the charge |of the imperialist press that the | Jemshedpur; and, 3, the lock-out cf nearly 200,000 textile workers ir. Bombay for five months. As far as immediate economic demands are concerned, the workers iost oftener than they won in those innumerable battles. But taking a longer view of things, they all contributed to the final triumph of the proletariat. The net result of those struggles is: 1, development of the fighting power of the working class; 2, increase of their will to fight: 3, liberation of the labor movement from the agents of the nationalist bourgeoisie; 4, de- feat and discredit of the reformist leaders; 5, rise of revolutionary leaders from the ranks of the pro- jetariat; 6, political independence of the proletariat in the struggle for national freedom; and, 7, rapid growth of the influence of the Com- munists and other revolutionary ele- {ments close to them. By superior forces at the com- mand of the imperialist state, and |by close collaboration between this jand native capitalist interests the | workers were forced to accept star- vation wages and wretched labor |conditions. But inasmuch as the above victories accrued to the pro- letariat from the experience of the struggie, their power and will to jresist capitalist attack grew. Badly |organized, treacherously led, cultur- ally backward, materially unequipped as \these rules or not.” the workers were no longer.a mass of semi-human animals to be:driven by capitalist whip. They had to be met as a class, conscious of. their class interests and determined to defend and further these interests under revolutionary leadership. Hue and cry were raised ‘against the Communist leaders, whose: ‘blood was, of course, demanded. The cap- italist_ press in a chorus deplored the fact that the workers have fallen for the Communist propaganda of class-war, Neither the British im- perialists nor the Indian capitalists had been accustomed to see work- | ers from .the mills appear before | the Strike Inquiry Committee, not apologizing for their existence, but after exposing the plans of veiled wage-cut. to declare: “It is for the capitalists to make’ whatever rules they like and impose them upen the workers, But it is for us to obey The implica- tion of such statement: is clear enough. ‘It is declaration of class- war. Not only were the employers | wlarmed by such development of the situation. Not a few of the self- appointed reformist labor leaders, who had been disowned and de- nounced by the workers in course of the struggle, publicly deplored the | ways the labor movement was tak- ing, and practically appealed for "By Fred Ellis Heroic Struggle of the Indian Proletariat “The Indian Daily Mail” (Dec. 19), wrote: “Violent counsel seems to be gaining ground among the work- ers, and there has recently been an outbreak which is unprecedented in the history of Bombay industry.” But. ali these threats failed to frighten the workers, who persis- tently resisted the attack upon their already very low standard of }iving. Obviously, in consultation with the government, the employers then devised another means of fighting the. workers. Suddenly therc ap- peared ia. Bombay swarms of strike- breakers from the distant northern parts of the country. These men have never had any connection with modern industry. They are inhabi- tants of very backward hilly tracts. Consequently they are religious and less: susceptible to the revolutionary propaganda of class-struggle. Com- ing from the regions of primitive agriculture they arc used to a much lower standard of living. Indus- irial weges, even at the reduced rate, were a great inducement for them. ‘The introduction of this new factor in the situation was a provo- cation for the workers. They bit- terly resented it; and, instead of submitting, as was expected by the government and the employers, went ahead forging new weapons of combat to meet the new situation. Under Communist leadership the irade unions began ‘Workers’ Squads,” which in a few days enrolled thousands of deter- mined fighters. The ysituation be- came acute when the religious fan- aticism of the strikebreakers was fanned by a hidden hand. The re- to organize | yovernment had abdicated in favor |for a revolutionary struggle, of the trade unions. Not only the |they were Indian proletariat, never- police, but even troops could not theless, ceased to be the submissive face the strikers and the mass dem-| “dumb millions” who could be coer- onstrations organized in their sup- |Ced by demonstration of brute force port. The situation could be kept |r deceived by counter-revolutionary. under control, avoiding a general |hypocrisy of a Ghandi. This trans- measures arresting such unwelcome cevelopment. Reviewing the situa- tion, one of them said: sult is the outbreak which demon- |strates what a tremendous power and determination to fight the Indian |proletariat has acquired during the last two years of incessant struggle. \!t demonstrates the immense poten- tiality of mass action organized and “These strikes (on the railways, in the iron and steel industry and in Bombay) are the outcome of the policy of direct action advo- outbreak and unlimited bloodshed, only with the help of the popular leader, Gunasinha, For many sons, the movement cannot be ex- |pected to go any farther in the near |future; but the proletariat comes out of it decidedly victorious. The weakness of an alien government has been revealed in this trial of strength with the revolutionary | masses. | | | In Bombay, the movement devel- eped into a regular barricade fight owing to several reasons. Firstly, the movement there is more mature, being the culmination of a year-long industrial dispute; secondly, the government forces there are much too powerful to be so easily cowed down as at Colombo; thirdly, the im- perialist government and the native bourgeoisie jointly provoked the precipitation of events in order to justify new repressive laws. Al- though the heroic action of the Bom- bay proletariat indicates revoluticn- ary maturing of the entire situation of the country, it cannot be expected to develop directly into a general national outbreak. It is oniy a pre- lude to what is coming. ‘Its his- toric significance can be understood end the perspectives opened by it clearly seen when one visualizes the general political situation which provides it the background. . The last two years have been a period of developing class struggle evidenced by great strikes and lock- outs which usually developed into mass activities of enormous dimen- sions. During the Jast year the sit- uation became so acute that prac- lly all the important industries were affected. ‘The main events of this period were: 1, the great rail- way strikes lasting for months, in- volving hundreds of thousands of workers and frequently resulting in pitched battles between state forces and the strikers; 2, the strikes in the Tata Iron and Steel Works of formation was evidenced particu- |larly by the resistance of the Bom- hay textile workers to accept a fur- ther wage-cut “to help the premier national industry out of depression.” Thanks to the services of nationalist iabor leaders, two successive cuts, amounting to nearly 80 per cent of the starvation wages, had previously been enforced annulling the raise granted during the period of boom |caused by the war. The net, profit made during that period of several years was more than double the to- tal capital invested in the entire in- dustry. Nevertheless, when the in- evitable depression came the. work- ers were attacked. The final de- termination and ability of the work- ers to put up a stubborn resistance to this capitalist greed created the situation which was bound to de- velop into the present. barricade fight in Bombay and is bound to de- velop further. The power and will of the prole- tariat to fight, evidenced during the bitter struggle lasting for months and months, frightened the bour- geoisie, who clamored for repres- sive measures,. After five months the lock-out was ended on condition that wages ana labor conditions should not be altered pending the inquiry by an “imperial commit- tee.” This was a decisive victory for the workers, who urgently need- ed a respite in the bitter struggle with superior forces of the enemy. But the employers broke the truce no sooner than it was made. Lower wages and worse working conditions were introduced in individual mills, The employers thought that the workers were exhausted, and tried to take advantage of this exhaus- tion to beat them down. They were, however, mistaken. Determined re- sistance was put up from all sides, and the entire industry was thrown into a chronic state of chaos and idleness. In the course of the in- quiry it became further evident that cated by the Communists, who be- lieve in strike as the first step for the redress of economic-griev- ances; settlement is only sought ‘after. the strike is declared. They. also believe in the policy of class- war or the promotion of hatred between the workers and the cap- italists.” (F. J. Ginwaila, in an article in the organ’ of Boinbay mill-owners, “The India. Daily Mail,” Dec. 20.) Another, B. Shiva Rao, protege of the British “Independent Labor ‘Party, entrusted with the organiza- tion in India of a branch of the La-. bor Bureau of the League of Na- tions, observed: f “It is no use disguising the fact that Communist’ elements’ are gaining influence and aim to cap- ture the movement. Genuine trade . unionism does not believe ‘in strikes as a means for building: it up, and wholly disapproves;the policy of promoting ‘class-con- sciousness by fomenting « indus- trial unrest. The. Indian Trade Union Congress is being exploited in the name of the workers by a few interested groups, ‘and must be radically reorganized’ to. pre- vent the movement from going in- to. wrong hands.” *. * Sit Encouraged by. such frankly anti- Communist pronoungements. of the reformist ieaders, the Bombay mill- owners openly demanded the’ sup- pression of the labor movement. The Bombay Chamber of Commerce, in a memorial’ to’ the. government, asked for speedy enactment of the Trades Dispute Bill, which is the Indian replica of the British Trades Union Act. A deputation of the Millowners’ Association waited upon the governor to draw: his attention “to the alarming outlook and to. urge timely measures.” Justifying these open demands of the cotton led. by a revolutionary vanguard. It brings out the proletariat as the only.ciass capable of defying the armed forces of the state. The out- break in Bombay may be crushed by superior forces; but the spirit it represents will spread, and it has been demonstrated by it that when such outbreak will take place throughout the country there will he! no power to crush it. Their mar- tyrdom will be another proof that the proletariat is the only leader of the revolution. : The historic significance of the heroic struggle of the Bombay. pro- letariat’ becomes evident, when it is geen as the most characteristic in- dication of the whole situation. This struggle points out the driving force behind the radicalization of the na- tionalist. movement. A month be- fore the outbreak in Bombay, 25,000 workers of Calcutta marched into and occupied the pandal of the Na- tional Congress against the wishes of the bourgeois leaders. That was a symbolic demonstration which sugured the routing of. the bour- geoisie from the leadership of the national. revolution by the prole- tariat. As against the beggarly program of self-government within the British empire advocated by the nationalist bourgeoisie, the revolu- vionary proletariat raised the red banner of “The Independent Social- ist Republic of India.” The demon- ;stration of Calcutta can be com- pared with the Insurrection of June 2, 1793, when the Parisian prole- tariat forced the Jacobins to stiffen up their backs, and assume firmly the leadership of the revolution. ‘What: was accomplished in Paris has not been done in Calcutta; but ob- jectively the demonstration had sim- ilar significance. This is proved by the heroic action of the Bombay proletariat. The proletariat is prov- ing its fitness for the leadership it magnates for the su} sion of the, labor movement thelr: press organ, bid for through the Calcutta demon- tration. ‘ " Copyright, 1929, by Internationat Publishers Co., Inc. BILL HAYWOOD’S tion forbidden except by permission. ‘Vandalism, Deportation and Death to Union Men the Practice of the Open Shop in the Cripple Creek Strike In previous chapters Haywood told of his early life as miner, cow- boy and homesteader in the Old West; of his years as union man; how he finally became head of the Western Federation of Miners; the W. F. M. struggles in Colorado. He is now telling of the events of the great Cripple Creek strike of 1903, of the attacks on the union, its members and its properties, halls and cooperatives, by the Citizens’ Alliance, the “open shopp” of that day. A committee from the 1904 convention had visited the scene of capitalist terror. Now go on read- ing. ie, ae By WILLIAM D. HAYWOOD. PART 53 HE committee told with some feeling about the wrecking of the union stores at Anaconda, Goldfield, Victor and Cripple Creek. Tons of goods had been carried away by the scabs. The bankers and prominent citizens took part themselves in the riot, played the devil with every- thing in the stores, poured coal oil over vast quan- tities of flour, sugar, meat and other foodstuffs, smashed the cash registers, the computing scales, and did all the damage they could. ae The office of the. Victor Record was again in- vaded, this time by strong-arm men who arrested all the staff and put them in the bull-pen. They smashed the linotype machines with big hammers and broke the presses, destroying everything to such an extent that the subsequent issues of the paper were printed on the presses of the Cripple Creek Star. The pub- lisher of the Record had had an editorial calling on the W. F. M. to declare the strike off, the morning that the plant was wrecked. The Citizens’ Alliance probably thought that because of this people would think that union men had’ destroyed the plant. The publisher got four thousand dollars for the damage, and immedi- ately reversed his former friendly arenas to us. HE miners at the convention were a mad lot of men when they heard of these countless outrages. During the following days many mem- bers from Cripple Creek came to Denver, and all had the Same or worse stories to tell. The coroner’s jury found a verdict in which the officers of the W.F.M. were implicated in the riot, and informa- tions were filed against-Moyer, the members of the executive board, d about forty others. ‘ gears the Cripple Creek authorities came to Denver with warrants, I got news of their arrival and went to the home of Colonel Irby, sec- retary to the mayor of Denver. I stayed there for a day or two. Mean- while warrants had been served on Moyer and James Kilwin. They gave bail, but the authorities made no pater attempt to arrest me. HE marshal of Victor, Mike O’Connell who had deputized a hundred T miners to disperse the mob after the explosion, was one of the first fifty deported. A few days after his arrival, he fell or was pushed out of a window, and was found dead in the alley below. ae The militia closed down the Portland mine and a majority of the board of directors, over the protest of Jim Burns, decided to employ none but non-union men. However, to operate this big property, it was necessary to have many skilled engineers, _ The engineers refused to relinquish their cards in the W.F.M. The directors were compelled to allow the union engineers to work if they could get them. The dis- trict union wanted to retain a hold on the Portland mine, so decided that it would be best if the engineers remained at work. The Portland Mining Company filed suit against Governor Peabody for the damage they incurred when Adjutant Genéral Bell closed down the mine. But when Sherman Bell found that the engineers in the Portland had not quit the union,"he closed down the mine again. It was reopened shortly afterward under some agreement with the directors that they would make the changes in their for as aot me possible. For many months the vicious outrages continued. Martial law was ‘again declared and Adjutant General Sherman Bell appointed a super-court and a provost marshal for the district. Sixteen hundred men were arrested and put through the sweat box of the Citizens’ Alliance. Two hundred and fifty of them were ordered deported, and forty-two were held for-criminal trial. However, not a single mem- ber of the W.F.M, was convicted. The commission of the super-court stated that all who were or- dered deported were ore-thieves, gamblers and such-like bad characters. They knew that this report was a lie, as some of the best men in the district were among those deported. Many of them were men who owned their homes in Cripple Creek, and had lived and worked there for years. Their children had been born here in the mining camp. It was their home. Besides the miners there were some lawyers, a former attorney general of the state, a veteran of the Civil War, General Engley, and Frank Hangs, attorney for the W.F.M., who had lived a long time in the district; J. C. Cole, who had been county attorney; Judge Frost, and County Clerk Mannix. The Citizens’ Alliance took this opportunity to get rid not only of those active in the W.F.M., but also of any man they wanted to drive out of the district. Any scoundrel with an old score to settle could work through the Citizens’ Alliance to get even with any. ane, Ree General Bell by this time swelled up until he thought that he was an officer of the Russian Czar, and the free people of Colorado’ his serfs.. The orders he issued, exiling men from their homes to the adjoining states of Kansas and New Mexico, were carried out with the rigor of a despot. He said, ‘What steps I take as military commander concern nobody but myself and my commander-in-chief, the governor of the state. . . . I don’t want these men in Colorado.” Beginning as one of Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, he was affected with the same megalomania as his commander. He even had a habit of strutting around with his hand in the breast of his coat, like Napo- leon. This was a matter of such common jest that the Denver papers cartooned him in his queer attitudes and demanded his removal on the ground that his mind was affected. Harper, Parfet, Jenks and Hooten, the store managers of the dis- trict, had all been deported and came to Denver. Each of them was determined to return and open the stores again. When they went back to the district, Harper applied to General Bell for protection in opening the stores. Bell said’ that nothing would happen to them. It was but a short time afterward that the desperadoes invaded and robbed all the stores again. * * * Ts unions of Butte, Montana, were vitally interested in what was going on in Cripple Creek. They organized the Interstate Mercan- tile Company, sending two men from Butte to represent the organiza- tion and run the Cripple Creek stores. It was thought that a business incorporated in another state would not be interfered witn. When Hall and Heimerdinger arrived with their credentials I gay. them letters to the district union and the store managers. They went at once to Cripple Creek and took charge of our stores there. The stores were reopened and restocked, and commenced to do business under the name of the Interstate Mercantile Company. This, however, was not a protection, The stores were again demolished and robbed. But as it was now a “foreign company,” an injunction was sued out against Carlton, Hamlin, and many other prominent citizens of the district in the federal court of Denver. This was granted, and we suffered no further inconvenience except a boycott. I got in touch with as many of the deportees as I'could reach, and had them file personal claims against the state in sums ranging from five to ten thousand dollars. The aggregate amount was an enormous sum, to which we added a claim for. damages done to the stores in the riots and raids. From the last claim, I learned later, sixty thousand dollars had been recovered by the Federation. I never heard whether any of the personal claims were paid. In the next instalment Haywood writes more of the despotic and brutal rule of the Colorado militia at Cripple Creek; of the gold dis- covery in Nevada; what he thinks about union agreements, “yellow dog” agreements, big and little. Readers who wish to get Haywood's historic memoirs in book form, may obtain a cony free with each yearly subscription, rencwal or extension sent to the Daily Worker, Sub agents, take note, + wl