The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 20, 1929, Page 6

Page Six { DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 1929 f ! { Baily 35 Worker Central Organ of the Commufist Party of the U. S. A. Published $8.00 a year three months $6.00 a year Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, New York, N. ¥ thre |" THE “W..GES” ‘The Communist Party of the U. S. A., Section | of the Communist International k There is great significance in the fact that the Sixth National Congress of the Workers (Communist) Party changed the name of the Party to become “The Communist Party of the United States of America, Section of the Com- munist International.” 6 It is an expression of the present period through which our Party is passing, “from a propagandist organization, uniting chiefly immigrant workers and having an insignifi- cant influence «mong native workers,” to “a mass Party of political action guiding the political and economic actions of the most advantéed and the most mii ican proletariat’”—to quote from the Open Letter addressed to the Party Congress by the Comintern. It was ten years ago that the Communist elements be- gan definitely to. crystallize in organizational form within the socialist party. Our party was born, as all Communist Parties, in the struggle against social reformism. Communist Leagues and proletarian groups had begun to appear. Then the “National Left Wing” came into existence. There was always significance to the names adopted, and the changing name of the Party, since it was first organized in September, 1919, has been indicative of the difficult spots on the road along which our Party has continually made progress. The word “Communist” appeared fenerally in the first of the Party names adopted jn our young American Com- munist movement, such as the “Communist Party,” the “Communist Labor Party” and the “United Communist. Party.” Of course it was at all times in fact precisely the Communist Party of the United States of America and noth- ing else, and only the exigencies of the time caused vari- ations in the official name. The name “Workers Party” was adopted in December, 1921, as the title of an organization created as an open expression of the Communist Party, which was then underground, having been declared by the United States government to be an illegal organization. The program of what was then called the Workers Party was not a full statement of the program of the Communist Party, the curtailment being necessary to the purpose fer which the open organization had been brought into existence: Only the illegal Party was the American section of the Communist International. . One of the most instructive pages of Party history centers around the government raid on the Communist Party Convention at Bridgeman, Michigan, in August 1922, when practically the entire Party leadership was arrested and prosecutions began which resulted in a heavy prison sentence for our leader, C. E. Ruthenberg. The police attack was so well answered by the Party’s appeals for working class sup- port that it became possible to bring the illegalized Party out into the open as the legal Party. At the beginning of 1923, in connection with the defense campaign among the workers, the Communist Party and the Workers Party were merged and the Workers Party became the American section of the Comintern, with a full Communist program. In the 1925 convention the word “Communist” was inserted and the transitional name “Workers (Communist) Party” adopted. The question of still further changing the name of the Party has often been on the agenda during the half dozen years since 1923. The Party with its full program was before the masses during this important period, during which broad campaigns were waged, for the Labor Party, through various forms of action in the carrying out of the United Front tactic; the Left Wing was built up in the trade unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and the campaign in- augurated for the organization of the unorganized, while the Party itself was reorganized so as to be based upon shop and street nuclei in place of the old geographical divisions that prevailed within the socialist party, with its foreign language federation autonomy. Thus the change of name from “Workers (Communist) Party” to Communist Party, as made in our latest conven- tion, coming at a certain stage in a process of development, has a significance aside from a mere technical change in name. The Party itself is growing into a Bolshevik organi- zation of Leninism, “acting with increasing frequency as the stalwart leader of the mass actions of the American proletar- iat and has increased its influence among the native workers.” Under its new name, the Party moves forward, making its first steps along the new path. There is much to be done in rooting the Party deep in the basic industries of steel, coal, metal, transportation, and also automobile, ‘oil, rubber | and chemicals. That is the Party’s great organizational task, for which an excellent beginning was made by the Sixth Party Convention in the proletarianization of the leading Party committees, 50 per cent of the membership of the Central Executive Committee now consisting of workers now at work in the shops, mills and factories, especially from heavy industry, and who continue at their work while serving as leaders of the Party. The drawing of more Negro workers into the leading committees is an indication that the Party is learning to master its duty in relation to the millions of the Negro proletariat and peasantry. Development of work among women and youth labor in the mills and factories is to be found among the important tasks that must receive increasing attention. It is the correct application of the decisions of the Sixth Congress of the Comintern, the Fourth Congress of the Profintern and the Open Letter of the Com- intern to our own Sixth Party Congress, that will keep the Communist Party of the United States of America on the Bolshevik path that lies before it, hardening it in the strug- gle, disciplining its membership, centralizing its forces, and closely linking it up with the masses. Thus the Communist Party of the United States becomes more than ever in fact the vanguard of the American work- ing class, drawing into its ranks an increasing number of the best, most class conscious, most active, and most courageous members of our class. It becomes better than ever equipped to achieve its historic mission, the victory of the dictatorship of the proletariat in this country, the starting point for the building of a Communist society. There is’ much to be criticized to be sure. The Party must give greater attention to the agrarian population, learn- ing how better to coordinate and lead the struggles of the agricultural workers and poor farmers with the industrial oroletariat. Unity with the workers of Latin Ameica in the itant ranks of the-Amer- | | | Cokerel. OF NEGRO WORKERS Willie Jathes and T. D. Robinson, Negro workers on a farm near Turrell, Ark., demanded their full wages from their employer A. L. For this they were riddled with bullets. The German Party Discussion 1 | (Today the Daily Worker prints | the third instalment of the article by D. Manuilsky on “The Dis- cugsion in the German Communist Party.” The last instalment will be published tombrrow.) + * By D. MANUILSKY. 2, The Stabilization of Capitalism. The basic question of our differ- ences with the Right wing elemen and the group of conciliants in the ranks of the Comintern, is that of the character of the capitalist sta- bilization. Upon the answer to this question depends the tactical atti- tude determined upon by the Sixth World Congress of the Comintern for the carrying out of the ta: facing the Communist movement. The differences which have arisen in this question show that it is no bonger sufficient to copy the decisions of the Sixth World Congress word for word and incorporate them in resolutions at Party Congresses (see the resolution adopted by the Con- gress of the Communist Party of Great Britain), but that it is neces- sary to return a positive answer to the question, what is the character oi capitalist stabilization. | In its analysis of the present stage of capitalist stabilization, the Sixth World Congress of the C. I. men- tioned two main factors of this sta- bilization. The first was the fact that in recent years capitalism has | exceeded its pre-war level. In point- ing out this fact, the Sixth Congress also stressed the importance of the technical-progress made by the capi- talist economic system (the progress of electrification and of the chemical industries, etc.) which, together with the repulsing of the revolutionary wave of 1918-23 in Europe, made the question of capitalist rationalization a practical proposition fer the bour- geoisie. The formation of powerful concerns, trusts and syndicates has resulted in a strengthening of the process of the concentration of capi- tal. At the same time, however, the Sixth Congress mentioned a second factor in its resolution, namely that all these elements of stabilization simultaneously prepared the basis for the growth of antagonisms which would not only be deeper than those preceding the war, but even deeper and more enduring than those of the jrevolutionary post-war period. This \second great factor of capitalist sta- \bilization is deliberately ignored by all the opportunists in their strug- jgle for the revision of the decisions jof the Sixth World Congress. The technical progress made by ithe capitalist economic system revo- jlutionizes the old conditions of pro- |duction, founds new branches of in- idustry, and causes trises and decay \in a number of old branches of capi- |talist industry, for instance, the iworld crisis in the coal mining indus- ‘try. Under the conditions of capi- talist society, the technigal “revolu- ition” condemns millions of people to privations and impoverishment in the \period where power is compelled to leave old and dying branches of in- ‘dustry to find employment in new and prosperous industries. The conditions of living of the working class are revolutionized, the old places of domicile have to be given up, peaceful and petty-bour- geois customs are broken down, etc. \ increasing its numbers. “World Is Approaching New Revolutionary Crisis .... of World Character” |the “Third Period” spoken of in the jresolution of the Sixth World Con- gress. The stabilization of capital- ism referred to in the theses of the |Sixth Congress can be interpreted jonly within the framework of this ° Copyright, 1929, by Internationat Publishers Co., Inc.> BILL = HAYWOOD’S BOOK All rights reserved. Republica- tion forbidden except by permission. Borah in 1907; Haywood’s Summer Home in the Idaho Jail; the I, W. W. Split; Seymour Stedman, “Socialist” In previous chapers Haywood told of his early life in the Old West; his years as union man in the mines of Idaho; his election as head of the Western Federation of Miners; its great strikes in Idaho an@ Colorado; the formation of the I.W.W. in 1905; his kidnapping in Denver and transport to Idaho on a charge of murdering ex-Governor Steuenberg. He is relating events that occurred while he was awaiting trial in the Idaho jail. No go on reading. - 8 By WILLIAM D HAYWOOD. PART 64, ik ‘ NN 1907, during the financial crisis, the gold mining companies of Nevada attemptéd to pay off their men with clearing house checks, James Kirwan, who was acting as secretary-treasurer of the W.F'.M., wrote asking me to get out some sort of circular on the fake money that the mining companies were trying to impose on the miners. The | workers were producing gold, and expressed their willirfgness to accept part. of the product in return for * their labor. I got out a draft of a circular for the, campaign, The miners succeeded in getting their pay general sis of capitalism and its} The capitalist rationalization revo-|pation from the yoke of imperialism basis. | litionizes 3 relations, also (in reased exploitation of the prole- apitalists to abolish the gains d by the workers in years 01 hard struggle, etc.). At the same time, the working class itself is structurally revolutionized. The aris- toeracy of labor loses its basis of existence and a ‘tremendous perman- ent mass of unemployed workers is created, much larger than in the past. The transfer of the main weights of the world economic sys- tem from Europe to the Unjted States of America revolutionizes the mutual relations of individual sec- tions of this system and intensifies to a great extent the law of the unequal development of capitalism. This alteration revolutionizes the re- lhtions between the capitalist Great Powers on the international field, as exemplified in the growing aggres- siveness of U. S. A. imperialism and the developing world conflict for economic dominance between the U. S. A. and Great Britain, etc. At the same time the growth of the productive forces of capitalism, y hich intensifies the problem of mar- kets and demands an increasing supply of raw materials, revolution: izes the relations of the mother coun- tries towards the colonies. The increased exploitation of the colonies by imperialism produces a |situation in which in case of new im- altogether. p| And finally, the growth of the stem of the Soviet Union disor-| ganizes the system of world capital-| ism no less than all the other fac-| tors together in this situation. All} these contradicticns intensify the general crisis of capitalism to a far greater extent than did the contra- dictions which accumulated in for-| It is because this stabilization of} |capitalism has taken place under the | , the depression of its standard eements of socialism in the economic 'conditions of a general crisis of capi-| ig, and the continuous efforts 's talism, that the stabilization can only be ‘relative and partial. Those| who deny the relativity and incom-} pleteness of the present stage: of} capitalist stabilization, as for in- stance Comrade Humbert-Droz and the representatives of the concilia-| tors in Germany, only show that they mer periods and which firfally led to yegard the capitalist stabilization, the revolutionary explosions in Eur- iwhich in reality is only an episode of ope in the years 1918-23. the general development of the crisis The new wave of revolution will of capitalism, as an “entity in itself,” | be much more powerful thén that of torn out of relation with the back- the years 1917-18, the years of the | ground against which it is taking first attacks by the workers upon place. capitalist society; it wil shake the| ‘The difference between the second foundations of the capitalist order/and the third periods of the situa- much more powerfully, and will lead tion of capitalism in the post-war to much more bitter conflicts than |period is by no means that, whereas those which we have previously seen the stabilization of capitalism in the | \in the history of the international ‘second period was relative and par-| working class movement. The new (tial, it has become in the third pe- |wave of revolution will be greater in /riod the organic and normal state s extent because it will sr the ‘of capitalism, that the capitalist sys- giants of capitalism, Great Britain tem has experienced a general conval and the U. S, A. in the gevolutionary /escence; the difference between these | crisis, it wil bring the masses of the two periods is that in the third pe- people in Asia and Africa into move-|riod the contradictions fo the pre- |ment, and is already bringing them |war period and the crisis of capital- into movement. The world is approaching a new war, are reinforced, in ‘consequence jism which resulted from the world} \revolutionary crisis which will be ‘not only of a European, but of a world character. The strikes of 1918, 19, the revolutionary outbreaks in Cermany and Austria-Hungary, the |of the progress of stabilization, by new and_ gigantic contradictions | which exceed all our expectations and | lall our previous experiences. Although the stabilization of capi- perialist wars, the colonies will not /struggles of the Spartakists, ete., only play the passive role of booty to'|will appear miniature in comparison be divided between the victorious|with the international struggles countries, as in the world war of |which all our Communist Parties are 1914-18, but also an active role of e>proaching. This factor of the ripen- countries fighting for their emanci- DESCRIBES By W. KOLAROW. (Dobrogeanu Gherea has been on hunger and thirst strike since Jan. 26th.) At the general elections the new regime assured itself an absolute majority by winning the greater part of the election machinery for its own men. In spite of all this jit can be seen that the Bratianu regime, which was supposed to have fallen, continues. The promise to abolish the stage of siege has proven to be a lie. The martial courts and special tribunal still function and pass heavy prison sentences against revolutionary workers and peasants. The terror suppresses every attempt |to express dissatisfaction and pro- test, which was roused by the be- trayal and treachery of the national Zaranist leaders. The Maniu government has not yet complied with the wide demands for amnesty, but instead has filled the jails with new victims. Its whole at- titude leads to the conclusion that even if an amnesty is granted by . e strengthened. More attention to the colonies of Wall Street, including the Philippines, where a Communist Party is strug- gling to life and a militant trade union movement is steadily It is the successful carrying out of the fundamental tasks of Communist strategy and tactics, that makes our Party not only Communist in name but Communist in fact, capable of successfully combatting social reformism in all its guises, overcoming the Right danger and conciliatory tendencies, eradicating Trotskyism and thus preparing itself | as one section of the Communist International for its im- portant role in the face of the threatening imperialist war. Down with dollar imperialism! Long live the Communist Party of the United States of America! Long live the Com- munist International! Hail the World Revolution! ing contradictions is the “soul” of TRIAL OF DOBROGEANU GHEREA the government, that will also be a bluff. e A proof of this is the trial of Stefanov, who was arrested by the Bratianu regime and was sentenced by the Maniu regime. The latest proof is the process against Dobrogeanu Gherea. This relentless enemy of the capitalist power and true friend of* the cause of the workers, peasants and of- pressed national minorities, who after a long and stormy prison life and after mdny heroic hunger of his persecutors, is now again in the prison of Jilava. While the Maniu crowd was fighting Bratianu, they declared that the processes against Stefanov, Dobrogeanu and many others were prejudiced politi- cally. But now, in power, they fol- low the steps of their predecessors. ‘Dobrogeanu, Stefanov and others ‘were charged by the state gvith “con- spiracy against the security of. the state,” Dobrogeanu was santanoed to 8 years’ ‘prison, which means a slow. death in the infamous prison holes and jails of Rumania. The sentence roused the protest of the Rumanian workers and peasants, who from day to day are being freed of their illu- sions in regard to the Maniu regime. They see that the Maniu regime is the clique of the capitalists and the rich peasants, which they hide under the cloak of the “National Peasant Government.” They are just as trusty watchers of the existing re- gime of mass persecutjons and of national suppression as the earlier government cliques. Just as these, it is preparing the country for war against the Soviet Union and deals with the Communists and revolution- ary fighters as “criminals,” * |talism disposed to a certain extent |of the effects of the world war upon} \the same time laid the bi \eontradictions which, in connection |with the still unsolved contradictions |f¥m former periods, condition the relative and partial nature of the stabilization no less in the third than in the second period. | The underestimation of the general jcrisis of capitalism represents the jconciliators and of Comrade Hum- jbert-Droz. It is chiefly this error jwhich joins them with the attitude ‘of the Right wing Brandler group ‘for which the whole post-war situa- tion of capitalism is divided into two periods: the period of post-war crisis, and the period of stabilization, ‘ie, of the consolidation and conval- escence of capitalism. The conciliatory revisionists of the decisions of the Sixth World Con- gress are only more afraid in the question of the stabilization of capi- talism than the Brandler group is; the former group cannot pluck up strikes was wrenched from the hands*enough courage to follow their own standpoint to its logical conclusions. The conciliators wish to revise the der the pretense of defending them. In words this group recognizes the general crisis of capitalism, the in- tensification of the contradictions and the “Third Period,” but in deeds, in its tactical attitude, this group shows that it overestimates the sta- bilization of capitalism. In the his- tory of the working class movement there are dozens of instances where the opportunist tendenc’ss of this or ‘that group of revolutionary Marxists had to be peeled out of asservation of loyality to the fundamental prin- ciples of Marxism. y Not all revisionists possess the sor- ry courage of Bernstein in the Sec- ond Intenational, or of Brandler in’ the Third International. Comrade Humbert-Droz for instance, exposes his real attitude in the question of ‘capitalist stabilization only when he uses the collapse of the British Gen- eral Strike and the defeat of the Chinese Revolution as argume=‘s to prove that capitalism in 1928 was more consolidated than it was in 1926, To see only a defeat of the prole- . the capitalist economic system, it at} sis for new | fundamental error of the group of} decisions of the Sixth Congress un- |’ tariat and a consolidation of capi- tariat could contribute to the stabili- Xion ¥ home, a! in money every month, but this exaction engendered Co hard feelings between them and the companies. g s 8 % ILLIAM E. BORAH was at this time attorney for 6 the Barbour Lumber Company, the president of BY which was in the Add County jail. It seems that the M lumber company had beén fraudulently locating tim- ber claims. It was intimated at fhe time that Borah would likewise be indicted, but the case blew over, When the president z of the company was leaving the prison, he passed a window where L fe was standing and said, “I wish you luck!” th “Thank you,” I replied, “I’d rather be where I am than where 0 you-are, although you afe leaving the jail.” sf se 8 . bi Tsroban the inch-square holes of the flat-barred windows of our day cell I could look out on the broad Jawn where dandelions were 4 scattered about like pieces of miser’s gold on. a.green cloth, shaded i d near the fence by a giant maple tree. In the cell the setting sun cast | zi checkered shadows on the floor. i si One night whilessitting in my cell I saw a tiny curved strip of e silver at one of the small winglows high up near the roof. I could te not think what it was. It kept growing bigger and at last I realized di that it was the moon. It soon covered the entire window. It wat th the first time I had seen the moon in fifteen months. ir eeu Me F N one side of the Caldwéll court house and jail were sixteen 1¢se a bushes. These afforded me much pleasure the first summer I was . there. When I went out for exercise, I would walk up and down ariong t these bushes and pick off all the roses whose petals were about to fall. ‘ Every day I carried a quantity into the cell, spread papers and dried ] the petals in the shade. Pkept on doing this until I had a pile cf rose ti leaves Jarge enough to make a cushion. Then I had Mrs. Moyer get s me a cushion cover; she chose one of silk with roses embroidered on it. ¢ T had here buy me a little attar of roses to sprinkle over the leaves. I filled the cushion and sent it to my wife. She treasured it as her favorite keepsake. > Pettibone spent much of his time doing Hyeopranhy, or burat wood k work. He made some very fine specintens, uSing the tops and bottoms ys of cigar boxes for mateyial. ae F f Moyer devoted most of his time to reading. . ' y ae Se ! yi ee Te socialist party of Colorado nominated me as candidate for gov- ¢ ernor in the election of 1906. It was a most’ unusual procceding, q to nominate a man who was in prison in another state. I wrote a I letter of acceptance, but I might remark that I didn’t run; I just ‘ marked time. Still, after the elections the returns showed that I had something over sixteen thousand votes, which was not a bad enderse- I ment in a state where the vote was as small as that of Colorado. In this election I ran neck-and-neck with Judge Ben Lindsey, the reformer who conducted the children’s court in Denver. e 4 We thought that Judge Lindsey was inclined to be friendly to the c W.F.M. but we had had occasion at one time to take exception to his { method of giving the children who came before him vacations. He had t | suggested that they should be sent out to work in the beet-fields, O’Neill t | wrote a strong article in the Miners’ Magazine against this proposal ( to work the children in the fields, and told Judge Lindsey that it would r look better on his part if he would try to arrange real vacations for t the children in pleasant places in the mountains. This suggestion was received favorably by the judge, who tried to put it ipto effect. + #8 | Te second convention of the Industrial Workers gf the World was held in Chicago in September, 1906. Acrimony developed in this convention between Charles Mahoney, then vice president of the W.F.M. and Vincent St. John, who had also come to the convention as a delegate, This feeling arose partially over St. John’s antagonism to Charles Sherman, the president of the I.W.W. Sherman was deposed and the office of president was abolished. Sherman had proved incapable, and if not actually dishonest, he had used an enormous amount of the funds for unnecessary purposes. Ma- honey had joined forces with the metal workers, and St. John had the locals, formerly of the American Labor Union, behind him, as well as the few members of DeLeon’s Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance who had joined the I.W.W. The St.John forces controlled the convention, but Sherman and Mahoney took possession of the office. __ Two factions of the I.W.W. were established, the St. John faction { with Trautmann as secretary, and the Mahoney-Sherman faction which { | ' had elected a man by théname of Hanneman. The last named faction | | soon liquidated for want of members. Through the manipulations of a socialist Jawyer, Seymour Stedman, the socialist party came into possession of the office fixtures, safes, desks, and so on. The W.F.M. stood aloof from both elements. While this bitter fight was going on we were behind the bars, powerless to do anything. Nt ‘ ac In the next instdingnt Haywood writes of the split in the IL.W.W< at its second convention; of the St. John-Trautman faction and «% Sherman-Mahoney faction and its echo in the W.F.M. Reader, have you gotten your free copy of Bill Haywood’s book? If not, send in a yearly subscription for yourself or another and get it without extra cost. a er ane a ac a cee ES tlist stabilization inthe British Gen-|zation of capitalism. eral Strike and in the Chinese Revo-| To extract alone the defeat of the lution, and to close ones eyes to the pworking class from the whole tre- fact that these two great historical §mendous significance of these events events resulted above all from the|for the cause of the proletarian revo- deep crisis of capitalism, means to|Jution, and to ignore in all social adopt Brandler’s estimation of the relations the revolutionary effects of stabilization of capitalism. the Chinese Revolution and the Brit- The “defeated” British General|ish General Strike, that means to Strike and the “defeated” Chinese|cease to be supporter of the Marx- Revolution contributed in their ef-|ist dialectic and to replace the latter fect as a whole in all phases of de-|method of analyzing important velopment far more to the generallevents by the impressionism of a disorganization of the capitalist sys-|man who lets himself be swayed by tem, than the defeat of the prole-|momentary.considerati "¢ * *