The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 19, 1929, Page 6

\ i } Baily Page Six DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 1929 lorker Central Organ of the Workers (Communist) Party SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By Mail (in New York only): Published by the National Daily Worker Publishing Association, Daily, Except S $8.00 a year $4.50 six months $2.50 three months By Mail (outside of New York): Union Square, Telephone, 2 “DATWORK.” Cable: 96: $6.00 a year $3.50 six months — $2.00 three months 1 ieee Address and mail all checks to ROBERT MINOR .. Battor | Address and mae 26-28 Union WM. F, DUNNE ..... Ass. Editor Square, New York, N What Outcome to the Civil War in Mexico? For nearly twenty years the workers and peasants of Mexico have gone through almost constant civil war. From the movement, beginning in 1910, which overthrew the auto- erat, Porfirio Diaz, they have gone through revolution after | revolution, through counter-revolution after counter-revolu- tion, and have repeatedly faced intervention by the bullying Dollar Imperialism of the North., Now again civil war is raging in Mexico. But the pre- sent civil war occurs under circumstances not precisely the same as those of the past. First of all, the world situation makes Mexico more than ever before a strategic point in a struggle that is not confined to Mexican territory. The pre- sent world situation is a network of imperialist intrigue lead- ing rapidly to world war. The decisive element in all of the im- perialist intrigue in the world at this time is the struggle between the imperialist United States and the imperialist British Empire. It is largely a struggle between the two imperialist powers for colonies. All of Latin America is a coveted colonial prize in the eyes of both. Is it possible that the present fighting in Mexico is a thing separate and apart from the strugglé between the United States and Great Britain? would think so. President Hoover, as did Coolidge before him, maintains today in Mexico an ambassador who assumes the authority of a “governor general” over Mexico for the U.S. government. This is, of course, at the expense of the masses of Mexico. But it is also at the expense of British imperialism. The United States capitalist system, swollen in its enormous capacity for production and feverishly search- ing for wider markets and colonies for exploitation, is en- gaged in a bitter struggle to obtain undisputed rule through- out all of Latin America. Hoover's first act after his elec- . tion, his “imperial tour” of the Latin American countries, was not an idle,pleasure trip. Every inch of ground touched by his feet was considered by him and his government as colonial territory. From the Rio Grande southward to the tip of South America is one vast territory looked upon by the Hoover government as its own colonial domain. The Monroe Doctrine as it is applied today is the imperialist charter of Wall Street in claiming title to this territary. But the world of today is not an unlimited field. Today the struggle of imperialism is not only against the intended victim-nations, but is also complicated by the rivalry between one imperialist power and another imperialist power for the right to enslave the victim. Only a few years’ago the dom- inant imperialist influence in Latin America was that of the British Empire. The situation, taking Latin America as a whole, is one in which the two imperialist powers are nearly evenly balanced, with the United States pushing hard to drive the British out. The recent warfare between the armies of Bolivia and Paraguay was in facta war Initiated by the United States in this struggle. No matter what’ may have been the direct initiating force behind the present uprising in Mexico, it is necessarily a part of the struggle between imperialist Washington and imperialist London as well as a struggle against the masses of Mexico. And the outcome of it cannot do otherwise than carry the strained relations between the two imperialist pow-s ers to a further stage. It is not accidental that the Portes Gil government boasts of its “support” by “all foreign pow ers,” altiougn tie slavish boast is faise. * The Portes Gil government, faced by this revolt of feudal- clerical elements, does not maintain the course of an inde- pendent state, but rushes headlong into closer embrace in the arms of Hoover. If one could dismiss the possibility of @ mass movement of workers and peasants arising out of the civil war, the conclusion would have to be that the Mexican state is practically sure to emerge from this crisis more than sha before the helpless flunkey of the United States Imperi- alism. r) Thus the toiling masses of Mexico are placed in such a position that, barring their own active revolutionary inter- vention in the civil war, any outcome will mean their deeper enslavement. If the fascist uprising were to® win, it would certainly mean no freedom for the workers and peasants. On the other hand, it is clear that if the present uprising is sup- pressed by the Portes Gil government with the help and prac- tical superintendence of the United States government—and without any intervening mass activity of the workers and peasants—then Mexico will come out of the civil war bound hand and food tighter than ever before by the Wall Stréet government. The Mexican workers and peasants, standing at the crossroads of an international war situation, must fight as a force independent from the cowardly petty:bourgeois goy- ernment of Portes Gil and the “governor-general,” Morrow. Neither enslavement to British imperialism nor enslavement to United States imperialism can be accepted by the Mexican masses. And in the class nature of the Portes Gil govern- ment it can be nothing more than a prostitute to one or the other imperialism. The Mexican workers and peasants must be armed! Only the victory of the armed workers and peasants can be the defeat of the feudal-clerical uprising! Necessarily the industrial working clags must take over the hegemony of the movement if it is to have effect—and this can be only if the Communist Party of Mexico becomes the accepted leader of the workers in this situation. The program should be: 1. Expropriation without compensation and the handing over of a part of the big plantations and latifundia to the col- lective cultivation of the agricultural workers, and the distrib- ution of the other portion between the peasants, tenant farmers and colonists. +2, Confiscation of foreign enterprises (mines, industrial enter- prises, banks, etc.), and of the big enterprises of the national bourgeoisie and big landlords, * '8. The repudiation of State debts, and the liquidation of any kind of control over the country on the part of imperialism. 4. The introduction of the 8-hour working day and the ‘stamping out of semi-slave-like conditions of labour. 5. The arming of the workers and peasants and the con- version of the army into a workers’ and peasants’ militia. _ 6. The establishment of the Soviet power of the workers, pe its and soldiers, in place of the class rule of the big land- jo and of the church. The central place in Communist agita- ,tion must be occupied by the slogan of a workers’ and peasants’ “deaperagn in contradiction to the so-called “revolutionary” gov- fi of the military dictatorship of the petty bourgeoisie. 4 : None but the most naive | aes | THE SLAVES OF “HAPPY VALLEY” By Fred Ellis “Happy Valley,” Tennessee, where 5,000 rayon workers are threatened with state militia for daring to strike against wages which make existence almost impossible. The German Party Discussion (The second installment of the | article by D. Manui y on “4 Discussion in the German Com- | munist Party” follows. A third | instailment will be printed in the | Daily Worker tomorrow.) eS aes By 0. MANUILSKY. The wavering attitude of the Po- litical Bureau of the Swiss C. P. must also be reckoned to these rem- nants of Brandlerism. In an official document addressed to the E.C.C.1. referring to the “German Question,” the Swiss Polbureau adopted an at- titude approximately half-way be-| tween the position of the Brandler- ist Right wing and that of the Ewert group of conciliators. It often hap- pens that these important questions ‘in the practice of the parties are lvaised in connection with perfectly ‘fortuitous or quite incidental mat- ters. It is quite clear that the “German question” is becoming the crystalliz- ing point for all the tendencies in- side the Comintern after the Sixth World Congress. Those tendencies which were in a more or less em- bryonic stage at the Sixth Congress, are ripening today to the extent of factional platforms, i.e., the plat- form of the Right wingers around Brandler and the platform of the conciliators around Ewert. This is the new element in the life of the Comintern since the Sixth World Congress, and all s2ctions of the C. I. must take it into consideration. No single section of the C. I. may remain indifferent to the discussion in the erman C. P., for the open rebellion ainst the de ms of the Sixth Congress of the Comintern and the Fourth Congr of the Red Inter- national of Labor Unions on the part of the German Right wingers, and the peculiar interpretation given to these decisions by the. group of the }gree than any other of the imperial- its powers. German — imperialism Thorough Clarity On Situation In German acts In the League of Nation lite Party Needed for All C. I. Sections with the whole Brandler theory of “development into the revolution,” which is represented in another form within the ranks of the German C. P. The second reason which formed the basis for the attack of the Right |by the social democratic theory of wing in Germany, lies in the objec- |the development into Socialism via|tive conditions of the development of | democracy. »|German capitalism in recent years. This lesson, which is connected|We know. that Germany, which lay with history of Right -wing devia- prostrate after the last war, has lift-| tions, must be kept in mind in order |ed itself up under the conditions of |to mobilize our sections for the liqu® the Versailles Treaty and the Dawes | dation of these deviations from the plan literally from ruin and enslave-| ,line mapped out by the Sixth Con-:ment. It would be absurd to deny, lgress of the Comintern. In the pe-| that during the course of recent riod of the rising sew revolutionary|years German capitalism has made wave, in the period of coming bitter|certain progress. ‘“ collisions between the workers and| There is not a country in Europe the capitalists, vigilance with regard| which has recovered so quickly from to these deviations and theoretical |the consequences of the world war intolerance towards theth are a pre-|as Germany has recovered despite requisite for the Bolshevization of |the reparatiors and the naked rob- |the sections of the C. I. and for their|hery of the Entente. Only the prog- \preparation for the great role which ress made by rationalization in the they will be called upon to play." |industries of the United States can The circumstance that the Right |compare with the rationalization of |wing deviation and the conciliatory Germany's industries. It is no ex- attitude towards it in the Western/aggeration to say that the favor- European sections of the C. I. have able situation of German capitalism jdeveloped «mostly in Germany,-lead-|ig recent years has determined the jing to a Right wing crisis in the whole situation of the European eco- |German C. P., and the circumstances nomic system. |that these related tendencies in Ger-| This situation of German capital- |many have developed into a sort of|ism was above all calculated to lideological center towards which all|awakan an illusion in Germany of (other ideologically related tendencies |the permanence of capitalist stabili- in the Western European sections of |zation. The German social democ- the C. I. orientate themselves, are|racy fastened upon this - illusion, also to be explained by the special|which formed the basis of the whole conditions under which the'Commu-|policy of the trade union bureau- nist movement in Germany has de-|cragy, and represented the starting veloped. point of all Hilferding’s' theories of | The German C. P. has to work in|“economie democracy.” It. is there- a country possessing the strongest |fore not at all surprising that a sec- |and best organized social democracy, |tion of the German Communists has conciliators around Ewert in their/a social democracy which is more \platform, raise the discussion in the |closely connected with the bourgeois German C. P. to a matter of the state apparatus than any. other. The jutmost international importance. Today it is more necessary than) ever to’ obtain ideological clarity. | |Only widespread enlightenment work | \and the thorough discussion of the} \questions raised in the discussion in| the German C. P. can raise the ideo- ‘logical level of the membership of jall sections of the Comintern. This |is all the more necessary because to- iday the sections have to deal with a bad heritage from a’ past petiod in ‘the development of the Comintern which, had it been disposed of in the \past by the sections, would have saved them in the present repetition of the Right wing errors. We refer in particular to Radek’s utterances at the Third and especial- ly at the Fourth Congress of the |C. I. concerning the questions of the |workers government and of the con- |trol of production, which unfortun- ately received no effective rebuttal at the time and were responsible for the later errors of the Right wing group in the C, I. The definition given by Radek of the workers government was closely related to the definition advanced by Brandler at the Leipzig Party Con- gress. Radek’s definition contained the idea of “a coalition of all work- ing class parties” and the idea that the workers government was a stage towards the dictatorship of the pro- jletariat (“the ante-room”), and also the belief that the workers could force the social democratic leaders to conduct a revolutionary policy. The same is true of the slogan for the control of production. The inter- \pretation Radek gave to this slogan jat the time differs in nothing from \the standpoint which is now defend- ‘ed by the Brandler group.* Later on Radek defended the same ideas: in ‘\the collected material relating to the program of the Comintern. This pressure exerted by this social de- mocracy, which has the whole weight of the economic and pofitical ap- paratus of the bourgeoisie behind it, upon those elements in the German C. P. which are least capable of re- sisting in a revolutionary sense, is not less than the pressure exerted by the petty-bourgeois elements Pi the Soviet Union. i In countries like Austria, the pres- sure of the social democracy, which is numerically strong and powerful, mpon the Communist Party, which is numerically weak, leads to a pe- culiar form of Austro-Marxism with- in our own ranks, producing a»pes- simistic estimation of the role of the. Communist Party which con- demns our Party to follow in’ the wake of the social demoéracy and allots to it the modest propagandist tasks of an exclusive circle, instead of the tasks of a revolutionary in- dependent Communist Party (the group around Comrade Schlamm is the chief representative of this ten- dency). ° In a working class movement like that in Germany, where a bitter jstruggle is constantly proceeding be- tween our.-Party arid ‘the social de- mocracy for the leadership of the working masses, the penetration of our influence into the ranks of the social democratic workers has ‘its counterpart in the penetration of so- cial democratic influence into our own ranks. Although we have in the group “Hinheit” (“Unity”) in Ger- many a weapon for extending our influence to the best elements in the ranks of the social democratic work- ers, the social democrats have in the Brandler-Thalheimer group also a weapon for carrying demoralization, into the Communist ranks. The Brandler-Thalheimer group has be- come nothing more nor less than a circle of ideas is closely connected Left wing social democratic sroup become entangled in this idea, that this section sees the capitalist sta- bilization as the characteristic of the “Third Period.” The illusions concerning the estim- ation of the capitalist stabilization are closely connected with pacifist illusions with regard to international relations. Whoever attempts to base \the policy of the working class upon the assumption that capitalism has finally ‘stabilized. itself again, must certainly. underestimate the signific- ance of he intensifying international antagonisms wich are leading the capitalist world with inexorable logic to a new war. Germany is a country ‘where these pacifist illusions are nourished by the peculiar situation of German imperialism in the gen- eral gystem of the imperialist states. German imperialism has an economic basis at its disposal which is not in- ferior to that possessed by the im- perialist’ countries which were vic- torious in the world war. : Despite the limitations imposed b; the Vergailles Treaty and the Dawes plan, the growth of German industry in recent years has broadened this basis and facés German capitalism to an ‘increasing extent with the question of markets and the ques- tion of colonies as sources of raw materials.. The ‘fulfillment of the Dawes plan by: Germany is depend- ent upon the export possibilities of German capitalism. ‘These needs of post-war German iniperialism; how- ever, collide with the political frame- work of international relations es- tablished between Germany and the othet imperialist states as a result of the fact that Germany lost the war. (The occupation of the’ Rhine- ‘land,. the Dawes screw, the, limita- tion of armaments, the lack of col- onies, etc.). This contradiction between the eco- nomic basis and the “political super- structure” causes.German imperial- ism to use “pacifist” methods to cloak its plans to a much greater de- the “pacific” wolf whose fangs haye {not yet developed sufficiently. This exceptional situation of German im-} |perialism is exploited by the German ‘social democracy in order to spread |pacifist illusions amongst the Ger- man masses. If the German Right wingers around Brandler really believed in the prospett of a war, they would never have permitted themselves to come into such violent contradiction | to the organized Communist move-| ment, which is the only force which is fighting against war. If the group of conciliators around Ewert did not underestimate the danger of war, they would oppose the Right wing deviation without hesitation, for the fight against the Right wing devia- tion means the fight against the pa- cifist lies of the social democracy and a fight to prepare the working class for active resistance to war. The fourth and final factor which made possible and determined the open struggle of the Right wingers in Germany was the existence of the jRight wing Brandler group as a re- sult of the heroic situation in 1923** This. group, as a matter of fact, has never ceased to exist. It never capi- tulated before the decisions of the German Party congresses and the decisions of the E.C.C.I. and of the two congresses of the Comintern wh®h have taken place in the mean- times In consequence of the wrong and deleterious policy of Ruth |Fischer and Maslow, who replaced |the ideological struggle against the opportunist opinions of Brandler by jempty declamations against Brand- lerism, this Right wing group around Brandler was never put out of action ideologically after its collapse in 1923. This group was never assimil- ated by the Party and remained la- tent, many elements concealing them- selves for some time in the “legal” Party opposition of Comrade Meyer. The present leadership in the German \C. P. must do the work which was neglected by.the Ruth Fischer-Mas- low regime. The discussion of the questions which have taken place in the meantime. In consequence of the wrong overcome by the Right wing deviation with the least possible loss. ‘The discussion of these questions in the other sections of the Comintern will consolidate” our ranks and will cause all Party members to think over the tasks which ‘are placed be- fore the sections in the present stage of the development of the Comintern. *) At the Fourth Congress of the Comintern, Karl Radek made the fol- lowing statement: “In my opinion we must declare openly and clearly dur- ing the struggle for the united front, that if the social democratic working masses force their leaders to break with the bourgeoisie, then we will be prepared to take part in a work- ers’ government upon the one condi- tion that this government is an organ of the class struggle ... What is the relation of this tactic to the dic- tatorship of the proletariat and the civil war? ‘The relation is the same as the relation between the ante- room Jeadering into the main hall and the main hall itself.” Referring to the slogan of the con- trol of production, Karl Radek de- claved: “Our main slogan is that of the control of production, This slogan is necessary for the following reas- ons: it gives the workers a prospect, the prospect: of economic reconstruc- tion, it gives them a way out of the chaos ... The Communist Parties must therefore put forward this slogan of the control of production, not only from time to time in an ar- ticle or at a congress, but perma- nently. This slogan ‘must become the central point of their movement.” **) In the “International” of 15th December, 1928, Comrade Lenz ac- cuses the writer of these lines of having made a mistake in criticizing | the utterances of Comrade Schatzkin ard ‘Lominadse at the XV. congress of the C.P. of the USSR, who pointed out the Brandlerist right-wing danger. There is, however, little virtue in in- toning « funeral chant at a marriage | what I had observed about the law in Colorado and Copyright, 1929, by International Publishers Co., Inc. BILL | HAYWOOD'S BOOK When Habeas Corpus Wouldn’t Work At All; Gorky Brings. Russian Solidarity; “Undesirable Citizens” All rights reserved. Republica- tion forbidden except by permission. In previous chapters Haywood. told of his adventurous early life ‘in the Old West; of his years as union miner; his election to head of the Western Federation of Miners; its great strikes in Idaho and Colorado; his kidnapping in Denver and transport to Idaho to be tried for murder of ex-Governor Steuenberg. Now go on reading. * * * By WILLIAM D HAYWOOD. PART 63. PART ‘of the time I spent in the Ada County jail was the most A quiet, peaceful period of my life. I have never enjoyed myself bet- ter than the first months I was there. It was my first real oppor- tunity to read. There T went through Buckle’s History of Civilization, and extended my acquaintance with Voltaire. I read many. English ‘cldssics, Tristram Shandy, the Senti- mental Journey, Carlyle and others on the French Revolution, much’ revolutionary literature, Marx and Engels. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair kept me awake a whole night, I remember. *In addition to this I took a correspondence course in law, John Murphy having arranged this for me. Murphy was always anxious for me to become a law’ partner of his, but before I got out. of prison my experience there, added to {ously in Idaho, made me unwilling to become 5 Totged In a profession that was so crooked and so meaningless for the working class. os : We had applied to the United States Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus. Our attorney sent for the circumstances of our arrest, and that with the connivance of the governors of the two states we had been transported from Colorado to Idaho without extradition warrants; that we had had no opportunity to see counsel. Habeas Corpus means that the body of the arrested shall be brought into court. As it is to prevent secret and illegal arrest and detention itis supposed to be acted upon promptly. But we were in jail from February until the following December. When the decision was handed down at last, refusing the writ of habeas corpus, eight of the august judges voted jn favor of it. Judge McKenna being the lone dissenter. He declared that the kidnapping was a crime pure and simple, and said that ‘the states, through their offirers, were the offenders.” In his opinion this was not, as the majority tried to make out, a case of an individual kidnapping an individual. “No individual could have accomplished what the power of two states accomplished; no individual could have commanded the means and success; could have made two arrests of promirfent citizens by invading their homes; could have commanded the resources of jails; armed guards and special trains; could have suc- cessfully timed all acts to prevent inquiry and judicial interference.’ * WHEN we learned of this decision I got out another poster under the title of “Habeas Corpus be Damned; We'll give ’em post mortems.” Adjutant General Sherman Bell had said this when he and Captain Bulkele Wells had ignored the writ of habeas corpus that had been granted to Moyer and Telluride. They-had been fined five hundred dollars each for contempt of court, which they never paid. But here was the United States Supreme Court itself upholding their criminal action. On this poster. was printed the dissenting opinion of Judge McKenna. we Maxim Gorky came to New York from Russia, one of the first things he Russian” workers. I replied to this did was to send us a telegram of greetings from the telegram and told Gorky that our being in prison was an expression of the class struggle which was the same in America as in Russia and in all other capitalist countries. Immediately after this a howl went up against Gorky in regard to his wife, who had come from Russia with him. American moralists, among them Mark Twain, objected to the fact that Gorky had never been legally married to his wife, although they had lived together many years. It was strange that no one thought of this“objection until after Gorky had telegraphed to us in prison. He was thrown out of hotels, viciously attacked in the newspapers, and finally forced to leave the country. | ahs the 1906 convention of the received resolutions of encouragement. Western Federation of Miners we A new preamble to the con- stitution was adopted, which I quote here: 1. We hold that there is a class struggle in society and that this struggle.is caused by economic conditions. 2. We affirn the economic condition of the producer to be that he is exploited of the wealth’that he produces, being allowed to retain barely sufficient for his ‘elementary necessities, 8. We hold that the class etruggle will continue until the producer is recognized. as the sole master of his product. rs feast, or singing a comic song at a burial. At the timé of the XV. con- Gress of the C, P, of the Soviet Union, ' 4. We assert that the working class, and it alone, can and must achieve’ its own emancipation. 5. We hold, finally, that an industrial union and the concerted political action of all wage workers is the only method of attaining this end. 6. Therefore, we, the wage. slaves, employed in and around the mines, mills, smelters, tunnels, open pits and open cuts, have associated in the Western Federation of Miners. . Senator Patterson wrote an editorial, devoting an entire page of the Rocky Mountain News to criticism of the W.F.M. for having re- ferred to themselves as-“wage slaves.” a . * * PHEopore ROOSEVELT, then president of the United States, got into the game by declaring that we were “undesirable citizens.” I answered this statement briefly, calling to the president’s attention the fact that the laws of the country stated that we were to be considered innocent until proven guilty; that a man in his position should be the last to judge us until the case was decided in court. My statement had a wide circulation. Many people, and probably all the worker& agreed to what I had said, I often thought over this charge of Roosevelt’s and on the publie platform I have compared myself to this man who in his book about the battle of San Juan, Hill openly declared that he had shot a fleeing Spaniard in the back, adding: “It was not until the next day that I learned that my act was not unique, as a lieutenant had also killed an- other Spaniard in the same way.” * J ° . In the next instalment Haywood writes of what the present “em- inently respectable” Senator Borah, hero of American liberals, was. doing in 1907; something of Judge Lindsey of Denver; and the second convention of the I.W.W. If you wish to obtain a copy of Haywood’s book, you can get it absolutely free with a yearly subscription, renewal or extension to the Daily Worker, Send for one at once, the chief danger in Germany ‘was represented by the Trotskyist-Maslov group, at present happily allied to Brandler, but then maneuverin, feed the cover of a pretended strugg! against the right-wing danger, in o der to detract the attenti of the congress from the main ir. To- day, after the Sixth World Congress. of the C.gl, the chief danger in Ger- many is represented by, the. right wing Brandler group ‘which is striv- ing to detract the attention of th masses from the main Ler ped by di claring that the pee of the Party iene Be bankrupt strategy at the time of the XV. Party Congress. The I¢gic of Fomrade Lenz and the logic Com- rade Ewert are as alike as two peas, If it should happen that in ‘one or ¢wo years time the main danger in the German C. P. becomes an “ultras left” danger, then, with exactly the same justification as Comrade Lenz .Ewert might nacctse the writer of these lines of attaching less importance to the ultra-left th to .that of. Brandle: fention is fairly simpl is “ultra-left”. fandler group is being supporte this by the Froup, of ‘conellintors. aneund Ewe oe hoped that Comrad st as Maslov rece e. miseul - support of Com: nz for h (To Be Continued)