The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 21, 1929, Page 6

Page Six Baily Central Orgayi of the Communist Party of the U. S. A. Da three months ) three months 8 Union Si The Murder of Negro Workers One of the most cold-blooded acts of white ruling-class ainst the Negro workers was perpetrated a few terrorism age : : : , as reported in the Daily W ork- days ago at Marion, Arkansa) er of Tuesday. Two Negro farm workers, William James and T. B. Robertson, protesting against the particularly brutal and intensive exploitation to which Negro farm workers and ten- ant farmers are subjected in the South, and demanding of a white plantation owner that he live up to his promis and pay the wages due them, were framed up by the law—the law which operates against Negro workers in the South even as it operates against the workers of the North, only more openly and cynically. For no other reason than that the wife of the white plantation owner projected herself into the argument over the unpaid wages of these slave , James and Robertson were arrested on a charge of “attac ing a white woman,” the charge carrying the insinuation of intention of rape. : The white planters of the district knew that these men would get heavy jail sentences in spite of the fact—or rather because of the fact that their “offense” was simply and solely a demand to be paid their wages. white planters knew that their courts would see to that. That is what their courts are for. But even the prospect of stiff jail sentences for two innocent men failed to satisfy the white planters. They desired some more graphic means of demonstrating their power, some more terrifying and brutal way of intimidating the Negro farm workers. Any display of manhood, any ap- pearance of a spirit of revolt among their Negro victims, must be ruthlessly crushed. So they “took away” the two Negro workers from the officers of the law (who, as always, were most obliging) and proceeded to have a typical South- ern ruling-class holiday, forcing their victims to run the gauntlet of revolver and shotgun fire, the while they regis- tered their fiendish glee “with cheers and shouts of laughter.” It is not always that the class basis of white terrorism against the Negro workers is as clearly brought out as in this instance. That it is always there, however, is certain. The Negro is made‘the object of race discrimination and race hatred and the victim of organized mob attacks because the capitalist class finds it profitable to maintain the caste sys- tem, which deprives an entire race of even the fake “rights” with which the white workers are deluded. Keeping the Negro as a slave class at the bottom of capitalist society not only enables the capitalist class to coin super profits out of the blood and suffering of Negro workers, but because a caste system, with its base of race hatred and prejudice, militates against the essential unity of the work- ing class, the subjugation of the Negro workers helps the exploiters to stifle every serious movement of workers. The system makes it possible for employers to utilize Negroes as scabs against white workers on strike for better eonditions, as it also makes possible the use of white workers as scabs against Negroes on strike against intolerable conditions. * The answer to these tactics of the capitalist class is working class solidarity—the unity of all workers, black and white, against the common class oppressor. The answer to white ruling class terrorism against the Negro workers is the organization of inter-racial defense bodies which, in sup- porting the Negro in his right to self-defense, will greet with arms in hand the attacks upon his life and person. Only by meeting force with force, can the murder of Negro workers be stopped. Only by fighting side by side with the Negro worker against the onslaughts of the white ruling class, can the white worker protect himself against the same terror which, directed today against the Negro worker, will be di- rected against the white worker tomorrow, unless the white worker joins hands now with the Negro worker to crush this terror. We are not among those so-called “friends of the Negro” who argue that the reason for the organization of the Negroes is “to keep them from scabbing against the white workers.” We do not propose to organize the Negro merely for the benefit of the white worker. That sort of diluted white chauvinism can be left to the socialist party fakers and the so-called “progressive” apologists for the A. F. of L. bureaucrats. We propose to organize the Negro masses for the strengthening of the working class cause as a whole, and for the emancipation of the Negro masses them- selves in the first place. For the Communist Party stands for the unity of the working class, but everywhere and always for the most exploited section of the proletariat first of all. The most dangerous poison to be found in the working class is the ideology of the “labor aristocracy” which wishes to keep the relatively favored few of skilled workers separated from and disloyal to the great mass of the working class and especially separated from the Negro workers. White workers and Negro workers alike have one enemy. That enemy is the capitalist class. The class which exploits them and oppresses them that the few may live in riotous luxury at the expense of the many. Against that enemy we must all unite. Against that enemy the united workers of all lands, black, white, brown and yellow, must wage a cease- less and relentless’struggle—for the overthrow of capitalism, for the establishment of workers and peasants governments. J. B. ASKEW 'Y the death of J, B. Askew, which took place recently, the revolu- tionary labor movement loses an old champion. Comrade Askew came from a well-to-do British bourgeois family. | The study of social sciences, above all of the theory of Marx and Engels, made him a socialist in his early years and caused him to join the most - Left wing organization of British socialism existing at that time. He had a thorough knowledge of historical materialism, which he endeay- ored to popularize in a great number of articles and writings. In the years before the war Comrade Askew lived for a long time in Germany, where he made a thorough investigation of the social _ democratic and trade union movement and wrote numerous articles and contributions for the socialist press of Great Britain. As he had friendly relations with Rosa Luxemburg,,Julian Marchlevsky and other Polish comrades, he also wrote a good deal for the social democratic organs of Poland and Lithuania. 4 On the other hand he published reports in some Left organs ‘of *German social democracy on social conditions in Great Britain and ‘the activity of the British socialist parties and trade unions. He also translated a number of Marxist articles and pamphlets from German into English. _ Driven out of Germany by the outbreak of the world war, he con- revolutionary propaganda in Great Britain, which resulted in his being arrested and later interned in a concentration camp, He joined the Communist Party of Great Britain with great en- DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1929 _ The German Party Discussion (The last installment of, the ar- ticle by D. Manuilsky on “The Discussion in the German Com- munist Party” follows. The pre- vious three installments have been published in the three previous is- sues of the Daily Worker.) gx ® By D. MANUILSKY. The question of the general crisis cf capitalism and the question of the capitalist stabilization will not bei settled in connection with this or that isolated victory or isolated de- feat of the proletariat, but in con- nection with a whole series of con- ditions in which a partial victory or a partial’ defeat of the proletariat cannot play the final role. Whoever connects the question of the stabili- ization of. capitalism, even when it ‘only takeS the character of an epis- jode, with isolated “victories” of the bourgeoisie or defeats of the prole- tariat, replaces a serious. Marxist economic analysis of the world situa- ition by the policy of impressionism. | The temporary defeat of the Chi nese workers and peasants was a heavy blow to the whole internation- , “OVER 100 WHITES DEAD—NEGROES NOT COUNTED”), . | | | ithe overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the victory of the proletarian revo- ition, is a “defeat” of the proletariat hich in its result strengthens the bourgeoisie. Comrade Humbert-Droz does not See. Such a war would be of its very nature a civil war righ‘ from the From the repulse of the first wave day of its outbreak, for thé Soviet jot the proletarian revolution in the State was, is and always will be a years 1918-19 up to its final victory ‘crystallizing point for insurrections over capitalism, the proletariat has of the workers. One must first have experienced and will continue to ex- Jost all belief in the working class, perience a series. of gigantic strug- all belief in the possibility of the pro- gles on various sections of the in- Jetarian revolution, in order to be- ternational front. It may suffer a/lieve that a war against the Soviet |series of defeats, but to draw the | Union would be nothing but a system conclusion from these defeats that of operations carried out by regular he bourgeoisie and capitalism will be armies with a peaceful capitalist strengthened in consequence, means hinterland, as was the case in the to see history only from its reverse world war of 1914-18. \side and to minimize the revolution-| The standpoint of Humbert-Droz ary significance of these struggles. |is particularly dangerous because it | The logic of the conciliators should represents utter hopelessness. It is ad them to seek to diminish the/a sign of the times, it shows the de- evolutionary energy of the prole-|pression of certain elements who tariat and to fight against any revo-|have become bewildered in the face \al working class movement, and no |lutionary activity on the part of the |»f the ‘capitalist stabilization and less serious was the defeat of the |working class. The political school |have lost all sense of proportion. | British proletariat brought about by cf the group around Maslow-Ruth| We Communists do notewant war, the betrayal of the General Strike. |Fischer was prepared at any mo- for we know that there is also an- But the “victory” of the bourgeoisie ment to proclaim every partial strike |other way leading to the interna- By Fred Ellis Publishers Co., Inc. BILL HAYWOOD’S BOOK, | Haywood Writes in Prison Waiting Trial While All rights rese-ved. Republica- tion forbidden except by permission. Traitors Split the I. W. W.; Moyer Shows His Colors «« In previous chapters Haywood has told a vivid story of his boy- hood in the Old West, where he was farmer, cowboy, and miner; his election to the head of the Western Federation of Miners; its great strikes in Idaho and Colorado; the organizing of the I.W.W.; his kid- napping and transfer to Idaho to be tried for the murder of ex-Gov- ernor Stuenenberg. In the last instalment he tells of hearing in his prison cell that the 1.W.W. was ready to hold its second general con- vention. The first president, Sherman, had violated his trust and tried to hold the headquarters by force and through an injunction against the rest of the members. Now read on. o/)8 58 By WILLIAM D HAYWOOD. PART 65. I wrote a letter to the convention,’ a part of which I quote from Bris- senden’ History of the 1.W.W., with Brissenden’s comments: “The jailing of Haywood, especially, one of the most aggressive | and influential organizers of the I.W.W., deeply affected the members of that body and really subtracted much from their strength. It was generally felt among laboring men and women that Moyer and Haywood were jailed be- cause they were members of the Industrial Workers of the World, or because they were socialists. A letter written by Haywood in the Ada County jail on the day that the second convention opened in Chicago indicates the active interest he continued to take in the organization even during his imprisonment. It is here given in part: “ ‘Ada County Jail, Boise, Idaho, Sept. 17, 1906. “To the Officers and Delegates of the Second !position of Comrade Koshtcheva. To- day however, Comrade Humbert- Conciliators Bewildered In Face of Capitalist Droz is attempting by his attitude Stabilization, Hopeless jtowards the “Third Period,” to gen- eralize this error and to extend it from Poland over the whole interna- " |tional situation. jagainst capitalism all over the world, | The contention of the conciliators | in the German C. P. that the major-) ity in the German Party reject the | Third Period” and that they wish} to revise the decisions of the Sixth | World Congress of the C, I. is noth- ing but an absurd attempt on the jpart of the conciliators to detract attention from their own errors. | It is true, a discussion did take place in the German delegation to the Sixth World Congress of the C. \I. concerning ‘the “Third Period,” but |this discussion was caused by the \fact that the majority of the delega- tion feared that the idea of the |“Third Period” might be interpreted | in the way in which the conciliators actually do interpret it today. Of} course,’ a deviation is theoretically | possible, which bases an estimation of the present situation of the world | economic system solely upon the | theses of the general crisis of capi-| talism and ignores the present stage | of the stabilization, It is a fact that the Weber group) in Germany completely ignored the could only be of an extremely rela- tive and temporary character, be- cause the bourgeoisie is a dying class doomed to decline by history. It would have been very ;different.if the workers in Great Britain or the | workers and peasants in China had won the victory, for then such a vic- tory would have radically changed the face of the world. : Such victories would have been the prelude to a final victory of the working class «2 an ihter. .tiona scale, for the proletariat is the in- evitable victor in the class struggle with the bourgeoisie. How is it pos- sible not to realize this fundamental d:fference in estimating the defeat of s the beginning of the end of the jtional proletarian revolution, but if apitalist stabilization. This school | eplaced serious analysis of the world economi tem by an accumulation of phrases, declaring that the stabili- | ation had become still more relative. and still more partial, and still more jtemporary. | This impressionism of the “Left |wing” has now its counterpart in the Right wing which strike which ends with a “victory” for capitalism, in order to declare tat the stabilization has become still 10re consolidated, still more perman- ent and is not rotten to the core, etc. In the chain of such bourgeois \“victories” there must inevitably exploits every | ithe capitalist world drags the work- ing masses into a counter-revolution- ary war against the Soviet Union, we jshall not stand aside and declare yesignedly that the war represents ,the victory of capitalist stabilization, jbut we shall do everything possible to make such a war the final end of the capitalist stabilization. Let us take the example of the coup detat in Yugoslavia. This coup, which has re-established abso- lute monarchy in the epoch of im- perialism and the ‘proletarian revo- Jution, is not mere?ythe insane ad-| venture of a mentally sick pervert | jwho is striving to turn back the the workers in Great Britain and of come a moment when the quantita-|wheel of history. The cop was or-| bilization when forming its po-| 1 platform. The nature of this error is the same as that contained | in Trotsky’s theory of the perman- | ent revolution. In both cases a line | for the final victory of the prole- tariat is laid down without attention | being paid to the concrete circum- | stances of the present period in| which the struggle of the working | class must take place. The result | with elements like Weber was that, instead of a factical line taking the | present conditions into account with- | out losing sight of the final aim,| there was a schematic arrangement cloaked in revolutionary phraseology. We must and do fight against such confusionists who ignoye the exist- the workers and peasants in China! Why is it necessary to glorify the 'tive become also the qualitative,|ganized and carried out with the when the conciliators must, unless knowledge and,assistance of the Lon- significance of the “victory” of the they wish their arguments to be re-|don and Paris Stock Exchanges. | bourgeoisie in this way, if not to jcuced to absurdity, come to the con-| The coup also represents a section \exagwerate the consolidation of capi- clusion that the capitalist stabiliza- of the general “capitalist stabiliza- talist stabilization? The fact’ which ‘tion has developed from a relative |tion,” it is a part of the preparations ‘our revisionists ignore, the fact that 'and partial one into the normal state for war, it aims at throttling the |the British General Strike and the |of capitalism which has thus com-|wworking class and suppressing the! 'Chinese Revolution promoted the de- |menced a period of convalescence, !national minorities in the interests | ling situation in which the working class must fight, who fail to take into account such factors as the sta- bilization of capitalism, who arbi- trarily shorten the historical stages through which the working class must pass and give the workers empty declamation instead of the moralization of capitalism, is con- ifirmed by the consequences which |these events had for the education of |the proletarian masses. | Are the prospects of an interna- \tional’ revolution after the British General Strike and the Chinese Revo- lution greater despite the defeats or lesser in consequence of them? Have |the working masses in China become . more conscious and stronger in a re- 'volutionary sense, have they attained ‘a firmer discipline, have they ap- proached nearef to the slogan of the \formation of Soviets after the ex- periences of the National-Revolution and its Kuomintang period, than was |the case in 1924-25? Has our young Chinese Communist |Party becorne more experienced, has it developed from a group of intel- |lectuals strongly under the influence jof Sun Yat-senism~into @n’ illegal |workers ‘party tried in the struggle jand rich in the experience of civil war? These factors of a subjective revolutionary ‘character must also ‘playa role in, the estimation of- the (capitalist. stabilization. | If the logic of the conciliators is followed to its inevitable conclusion, \then every revolutionary movement |which does not result immediately in from the ranks of the Communist | rade J. B. Askew, : that the world has developed from a ‘period of the general crisis of capi- italism into the epoch of “organized \capitalism.” Tendencies of this sort must inevitably lead to Hilferding. In dealing with the German ques- ‘tion Comrade Humbert-Droz asks in- credulously what the contention imeans that a war of the imperialists against the Soviet Union may open a revolutionary page in the history jof the working class ‘movement. For {kim such a war is obviously nothing lkut the expression of the political jconsolidation of the world reaction. In such a war he sees only the “vic- tory” of capitalist stabilization and the “disappearance” of all contradic- tions between the capitalist powers on the basis of a general struggle against the first workers state. That this counter-revolutionary ‘war would be nothing but a reflec- tion gf the general crisis of capital- ism, that it-would bring the class con 'tradictions to: boiling point, that it would release gigantic social con- flicts in all countries, that it would awaken millions and millions of workers, that the defensive war of the Soviet Union against the imperi- alist powers must develop into an ‘offensive of the revolutionary masses thusiasm when it was founded. He went to the Soviet Union to be present at the ten years’ celebration af the October Revolution as the guest of the Society of Old Bolsheviki. A true’ and. reliable, eager and thorough-going promoter of the revolutionary movement of the world proletariat has been removed International by the death of Com- of Pan-Serbian imperialism. One can jregard. the Serbian monarchistic jcoup as a “victory” for international capitalism, re-shuffling the relation lof forces in the Balkans to the ad- |vantage of the capitalist stabiliza- tion, i In reality, however, the coup d'etat in Yugoslavia is the beginning of the civil war commenced by the governing classes against the work- ing masses. Probably not more than |a few months will pass before we witness a wave of peasant revolts in Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia,’ etc. It is fairly obvious that such a civil war cannot be counted to the ele- ments making for capitalist stabili- zation! This civil war is a sign of the general crisis 6f greedy Yugo- slavian capitalism. te X Whoever remembers the discus- sion which ‘took: place in the E. C. C. I. concerning the Polish question after the coup d’etat of Pilsudski, knows that our criticism of the posi- tion taken up by the group around Comrade Koshtcheva was based upon the fact that this group saw nothing else in. Pilsudski’s coup than an at* tempt at capitalist stabilization with a resultant “rain of gold” from the United States to fructify the impov- erished Polish economic system, The authors of the theses of the Polish minority group refused to see that Pilsudski’s coup was-a convul- sion of Polish capitalism which sig- nified the inner rottenness of the Polish economic system. At the time there seemed no other voices in the Comintern prepared to defend the complicated strategy of the prole- |tarian struggle, who imagine that ‘capitalism can be abolished with re- volutionary gestures. A hysterical line of this sort can do nothing but bring the workers the bitterness of \defeat. An open-offensive theory ignoring \the real situation at the present time would do no more than nourish the \defeatist attitude of the Right wing- ‘ers and the conciliators. Although We must fight against such a devia- jtion when it shows itself im our ‘ranks, at the present time we must loppose with all the more ruthless- ness the other deviation which has already taken form within our ranks and which can see no farther than the present day, which clings to the perspective of capitalist stabilization like a prisoner chained to a wheel, which sees in every class collision only the expression of the offensive of capitdlism, which underestimates the powers of. resistance possessed by the working class, which under- estimates the radicalization of the working masses, and in this way threatens to disarm us ideologically in the face of reformism aa the so- cial democracy. The recent struggle in the Ruhr showed the danger of this deviation very clearly, In the Ruhr struggle this deviation exploited the passivity which remained to a certain extent in the ranks of the Communists from a former’ period, in order to develop this passivity into a theory. It is im- possible to abolish the remnants of Annual Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World. Comrades and Fellow Workers: “‘While you have been in convention today I have devoted the hours to a careful review of the’ proceedings of the initial convention of the I.W.W. and of the conference that issued the Manifesto leading up to the formation of the organization which has . . , rekindled the smoldering fire of ambition and hope in the breast of the working class of this continent . .. (quoting here from his own letter to the four- teenth convention of the Western Federation of Miners), Organized industrially, united politically, labor will assume grace and dignity, horny hand and busy brain will be the badge of distinction and honor, all humanity will be free from bondage, a fraternal brotherhood imbued with the spirit of independence and freedom, tempered with the senti- ment of justice and love of order; such will be . .. the goal (and) aspiration of the Industrial Workers of the World.’ “The message’ was received with boundless enthusiasm. It stimu- lated all to more determined efforts on behalf of the accused.” AD feeling grew between Moyer and myself, and for nearly a year we were not on speaking terms. To the following convention of the W.F.M, I wrote a letter in which I strongly condemned the methods that had been adopted by Mahoney, the manner in which he’ had handled the affair at Chicago, and his employing strong-arm men for the defense of the I.W.W. office, Mahoney having seized the office and held it by force against the St. John faction. This letter was addressed to James Kirwan, who was acting in my place as secretary- treasurer. I concluded it by saying “I can have no friends among your enemies.” I did not learn until a long time later that Kirwan red to the convention only that part of this letter of mine that referred to himself. He neglected to read the first part of the letter, in which I had criticized Mahoney. The letter, as he read it, appeared in the Proceedings of the W.F.M. convention. ‘ae action of St, John and his supporters at this time was wholly commendable, and upon them rests the entire credit for the con- tinuation of the Industrial Workers of the World. Brissenden outlines the reasons for the slow growth of. the I.W.W. at this time, and for the withdrawal of the W.F.M.: “Although the Moyer-Haywood trial and the final acquittal of the accused men made the I.W.W. somewhat more commonly known and understood among the working class throughout the country it was, on the whole, nothing less than a calamity for that organization. The I.W.W. did not even get publicity out of the Moyer-Haywood case. The Western Federation got all the advertising. It was a well-estab- lished labor organization. with an eventful—almost a lurid—history. Its early activities were more or less related to the Moyer-Haywood- Pettibone affair and the general public very naturally thought of the Western Federation when they thought of the Haywood deportation. The I.W.W. was not popularly associated with the Boise trial at all. The organization was obliged almost completely to suspend its vital work of organization to raise funds for the defense. But this was not the most serious result. The Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone deportation was unquestionably one of the causes operating to split off the Western Federation of Miners. The imprisonment of Haywood certainly weak- ened that element in the Western Federation which backed the I.W.W., and strengthened the hands of those who were opposed to continued incorporation with it. This combined with the deposition of President Sherman, which yet further weakened the forces of the miners who supported the I.W.W., finally gave the I.W.W. knockers in’ the Western Federation the upper hand. The result was, first a decision by referen- dum vote of the Western Federation of Miners not to pay dues to either the Shermanite or the anti-Shermanite factions in the I.W.W., and second, the formal withdrawal of the mining department and the re- establishment of an independent Western Federation of Miners in the Summer of 1907.”—Brissenden, History of the I.W.W., P. 175. It would be hard to describe my feelings at this time. I felt the work of a lifetime was being torn into shreds. The peace and quiet of the jail were dispelled. The poet who wrote “stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage,” was not like me, crowded with thoughts, with no chance for action. I was in prison, and. every letter, every article that I read bearing upon this disruption increased my restlessness under restraint. es 8 @ . MANY letters were coming to us from different organizations all over the country, with news of widespread demonstrations on our behalf. There had been a protest meeting on Boston Common, where it was estimated two hundred thousand people had gathered to voice their condemnation of our illegal arrest and kidnapping. Moyer-Hay- wood-Pettibone parades were being held everywhere. In Chicago fifty thousand union men and women marched in protest. In New York the parade was even larger. It was not hard fof me to imagine that T could hear the marching millions shouting aloud: “If Moyer, ‘Hay- oe de bad ate aie ule + workers will know the reason why!” gan “uni! ‘ront ad existed th i to the solidarity of the workers in our case. eae apne The workers of the little town of Boise were cooperating. One day we received a cake from a restaurant in Boise, and under the cake was a letter from the workers who had made it and other em- ployes of the restaurant, S . * @ F In the next instalment Haywood tells of Clarence Darrow’s despair over winning the trial, the attempt of te men waiting to be hanged to cheer up the lawyer who hated to lose a case, and relates the exten- sive preparations by the press to review the trial, and the selection of the jury. If you want a complete copy of Haywood’s book, you can have it free by aanding in one yearly subscription, either new or re- y newal, to the Daily Worker, opportunist tendencies of the Right |head-in-the-sand policy and remain in a comfortable “neutral” position, The differences have not been fab- jor wait inertiy in order not to-fall ‘wingers and the conciliators. ricated, they have been placed on the |into the minority. agenda of the Comintern by the course of events. It would be un- this passivity without exposing the ’ worthy of Communists to pursue a|they will be given. Copyright, 1929, by Internationa The answers must'be given to the questions which have arisen, and (THE END.)