The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 3, 1929, Page 6

Central Organ of the Communist Party of the U. S. A. | * \ Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Sunday, at 26-28 Uni > New York ° a City, Telephone Stuyvesant 169 : “DAIWORK. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By Mail (in New York only): $4.50 six months $2.50 By Mail (outside of New York) $6.00 a year $3.50 six months $ Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, New York, N. Y. $8.00 a year three months 10 three months 28 Union Square, <., New Despite Everything! Wednesday’s marching millions shook the earth! The workers had to face enemies on many fronts to make their demonstrations effective. In Berlin with arms in hand the workers fought tl police on barricades for control of the center of the city! They were fired on by orders of the social-democratic chief of | police. In Paris three thousand workers were arrested, but the demonstrations took place! Hundreds of workers were arrested in Tokio by the royal guard who were defending feudal aristocracy and capitalist oppression symbolized by the idiot on the throne. In London the police had to rescue the students who tried to break up the proletarian demonstra- tions. In New York, for the first time since the war, a “red” May Day parade was carried through in the center of the city with 25,000 workers in line and 25,000 more partici- pating, while near the suburbs more than 20,000 packed the great Coliseum. In Chicago the McCormick Harvester plant, the cradle of the eight hour movement in 1886, as well as most of the large factories of the city were the scene of great demonstrations. In the evening the Carmen’s Auditorium was filled to overflowing. All over the United States gigantic meetings thundered revolutionary demands. In Shanghai, Bombay, and thruout the East the workers fought the police for the right to mobilize. The white terror in Europe, its hands already dripping with the blood of workers, carried through additional murders in Kovno, Lithuania, Sofia, Bul- garia, in Poland and Roumania. The shameless social-democrats held counter-demon- strations in practically all countries which aimed to make May Day a respectable holiday. In New York despite favor- able publicity in the capitalist press they held a poorly o: ganized meeting which was addressed by a group of lawy and business men headed by the preacher Norman Thoma The meeting was opened with the singing of the Stz Spangled Banner, the patriotic hymn of the bourgeoisie. other cities in the able. In J. S. their showing was even more miser- Only in the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics did the workers join in joyous, triumphant march without opposition of either the police or social-democrats. The Soviet govern- ment helped the millions of demonstrating workers by arrang- ing that considerable sections of the Red Army and prole- tarian militia might join in the parade. On this day the final aims of our struggles were stated and the masses repledged to them. The glorious sight of vast masses pledging in inspired tones to overthrow capitalism and establish a Proletarian Dictatorship made the bosses quake and the socialists whimper. The demonstrations under the lead of the Communist Parties throughout the world were a tremendous step for- ward for the working class. In the United States they were carried through in co-operation with the new militant national unions. The vitality of the unions was here well proven. The workers must now carry the work further and build the con- ferences for sending large delegations to the June first con- ference in Cleveland for the establishment of a new trade union center. In many places our comrades paid for their courage. Demonstrations were broken up; thousands of workers jailed, and scores killed and hundreds wounded. These are the skirmishes preceeding the open class war for the over- throw of capitalism. The working class will draw correct con- clusions from the lessons of May Day 1929. Our future demonstrations will be more effective because larger proletarian masses in marching forward must now join the Communist Party and be better organized. On the field of our battles we will build a monument to the martyred dead of May Day 1929—the monument of Proletarian Dictatorship. The bourgeoisie and social-democrats are fools! They believe the losses they inflict on our class can stay the World Revolution! They believe temporary defeats can prevent our marching forward. The working class knows no defeat! forward from defeat to defeat to victory! No police, no socialists, no labor betrayers can defeat We march ever + £ the organized power of a revolutionary working class! >We will win despite everything! Yankee Imperialism In China. Aviation Exploration, Inc., of New York, a Curtiss group, has received the contract to carry mail for the Nanking National Government in China, and Yankee imperialism es- tablishes a new foothold in the Orient and becomes an in- creasing factor in the war preparations against the Union of Soviet Republics. - Dr. Sun Fo, son of the late Sun Yat Sen, now an arch- reactionary, minister of railways, in the Nanking govern- ment, signed the contract with the American corporation that was represented by Major William B. Robertson, presi- dent of the Curtiss-Robertson Company of St. Louis and by Commander Rowland Riggs, legal representative of C. M. Keyes, president of the Trans-Continental Air Transport. The Nanking government professed reluctance over ‘ the handling of its mail in control of a foreign cor- ition. But this hesitancy was overcome by the organiza- tion of the China National Aviation Corporation, evidently fictitious outfit that sublets to the American company. _ With the various strategic airways to be established in control, the starting of American aviation schools in Shina, the taking over of the transportation of passengers and freight on its own account, in addition to the.handling mail, and also the manufacture of planes and equipment in China, American interests become more than ever an ally the Nanking government, dominating its airforces that will be used at any moment it is necessary to turn this ngth against the Union of Soviet Republics, and against e heroic struggles of the Chinese masses. In the campaign exposing the war danger, a part of the tional May Day Campaign to arouse labor in this to all the dangers that threaten it, these facts cannot ignored. American labor must be won for the defense f the Soviet Union, in support of the revolutionary struggle workers and peasants of China. RIVE wioHe a The Me By BERTRAM D. WOLFE. EWS dispatches from Mexico re- port that the reactionary upri: ing has been unsuccessful and is drawing to a close. Of course guer- | rilla warfare will continue for a long time, and the rebels still have or- ganized armies of considerable size in the field, but it seems clear that | the backbone of the latest counter- revolution is broken. Although in- formation, particularly as to the de- gree and manner of participation of the organizations of the masses is still lacking, it is already possible to draw a tentative “balance sheet” of the uprising and the perspectives of future development in Mexico. U. S. Imperialism Intervenes. For ihe second time in the his- tory of the Calles-Obregon-Portes Gil regime, American imperialism intervened on behalf of the Central government. This time the inter- vention was open, swift and of great | importance in determining the out- come of the revolt. The first action of the new Hoover government was a decision to sell and deliver to the Mexican army 10,000 Enfield rifles, 10,000,000 rounds of ammunition and 25 airplanes. At the same time, an embargo was placed on shipment of arms, ammunition or planes to the rebels, and the war department announced that it was prepared to deliver to the Mexican government an additional supply of rifles and RE LE RES By Wm. Gropper B | ip f xican Revolution “Ends” U. S. Imperialism Intervenes Again for Calles- | Obregon-Portes Gil Regime - out, Portes Gil issued a long declara-| suing an independent program, and tion ringing with radical phrases, | calling upon the workers and peas- calling upon the masses to defend | ants to fight the reaction independ- “not the government but the gains ently of the government, organize | of the revolution.” | their own “fighting squads against | At the same time the government) the reaction,” arm themselves, seize jissued a brief declaration concern-| the land, organize workers and peas- |ing the unusually large number of ants committees to carry out a pro- Joil concessions granted in recent|gram of elementary demands and months, and its intentions and|lay the basis for a workers and achievements in payment of the and peasants government® which funded debt instalments to the in-| alone is capable of destroying the | ternational bankers, The petty bour- | forces of reaction, fighting imperial- geois government, fearing to lose ism and realizing the aims and in- the mass support which once swept) terests of the masses. This declara- it into power and which to a consid-| tion, in spite of shortcomings of a erable extent it still retains, flirted fairly serious character, represent a with the idea of creating an armed big advance over previous declara- base among the masses, without for | tions of the Party in similar com- a moment trying to break up or! Plicated situations. “ even weaken the professional mili-| The workers and peasants bloc,| tary machine. At the same time it) although largely under Communist | threw itself more unreservedly than | influence, appears to have differen-| ever into the hands of Yankee im-/ tiated itself much less, and the Peas- | perialism. ants League, also largely influenced So soon as it began to be clear, by Communists, seems to have pre- that the masses were in the main | Served very little independence from against the counter-revolution and|the government in fighting the re- ‘that the counter-revolution would | action. (However, this judgment is not triumph, the government hastily based on very meager information declared that it needed no more vol-| and may very well require modifica- unteers and would furnish no more tion when all the facts are avail- bullets up to any desired quantity.| arms to peasant contingents, | Ambassador Morrow and the Amer- | Masses Active. ican consuls in Mexico acted as pub-! Tp spite of the reluctance of the licity agents for the victories of the| petty bourgeois government to un-| government. Washington announced | chain forces which it cannot control, | that it would give help in crushing} it was forced by the nature of the rebellion because “the existing | things to seek mass support and to government is disposed to observe! promote the activity and political! its international obligations and/ development of the workers and therefore deserves assistance.” peasants. To what extent the masses British Hopes. intervened in the struggle between British imperialism looked long- the two sections of the army (rebel | ingly on, while the rebellion on and “loyal’)»is not yet clear, but which it had the right to set hopes, was swiftly crushed. British news- papers openly deplored the defeat of the rebellion and the interven- tion of the United States, but Brit- ain did not venture to intervene ‘openly. It is likely that certain British funds found their way into from the meager information avail-| able here it seems certain that they | | did so to a greater extent than ever | before. The uprising in the state of | Vera Cruz was defeated, judging from reports, not so much by pro-| fessional troops as by armed bands| | of peasants and workers. For the | the hands of the rebels. Certainly, | first time, there was street fight-| British hopes tended to rest upon! ing in the streets of the Port of them. | Vera Cruz. The rebels were har- The Mexican government, after a assed everywhere by rearguard ac- “Left-ward” zigzag, on the eve of | tions of the hostile peasant popula- the revolt (distribution of lands and arms and ammunition to peasants to insure mass support in the face of \the uprising) hastily “righted” its course a moment later to assure wholehearted support of American imperialism. When the revolt broke The Bloody May Days of Tsarist Russia (Continued) | In 1900, demonstrations were held ‘in Kharkov, Warsaw, Dombrovo, | Vilna, Kresslavka, and Minsk, Nu- 'merous May Day leaflets were cir- culated and in many towns meetings were organized, some of which as for instance in Tiflis and Lodz, were attended by great multitudes. The most conspicuous celebration was that of Kharkov. In the morning of |May 1 the’ railroad workers formu- [lated their demands, raised the red ‘banner, and embarked on a proces- sion toe meet the demonstration of the machine construction workers. |The police endeavored to stop them, but the demonstration took a dif- ferent road and on its way it stopped trom work the workers in the Ber- jgenheim factory. The cossacks ap- peared and about 400 people were urrested. Learning of the experi- ences of the railroad workers, the | tion, C. P. Militant Program. The Communist Party issued a | statement branding the uprising as reactionary, sharply criticizing “at the same time the treacherous ecadneh of the government and is- able.) Independent Mass Action. The importance of independent ac- tion of the masses under Communist leadership for their own program, is thus summed up in an editorial |in the Daily Worker of March 19: “The toiling masses of Mexico. are placed in such a position that, barring their own revolutionary activity in the civil war, any out- come will mean their deeper en- slavement. If the fascist uprising were to win, it would certainly mean no freedom for the workers and peasants. If the present up- rising is suppressed by the Portes Gil government with the help and practical superintendence of the United States government—and without any intervening mass ac- tivity of the workers and peasants —then Mexico will come out of the civil war bound hand and foot tighter than ever before by the Wall Street government. The Mex- ican workers and peasants must fight as a force independent of the cowardly petty bourgeois gov- ernment of Portes Gil and the ‘Governor-General Morrow’.” That the Mexican Communist Party has understood this, in a situ- ation similar to that in which more | experienced Parties have failed (cf. Stambulinsky government) indicates |the growing ripeness of the Mexican Party. What is not yet clear is how far it has succeeded in making this | clear to organizations actually or nominally under its influence. The events of the March 1929 up- rising seem likely to prove a turn- |ing point in Mexican development. | On the one pole American imperial- |ism comes out with its hold on the Mexican government and resources strengthened. On the other, the Communist Party and the mass or- | ganizations of the workers and peas- | | ants come stronger out of the strug-| gle. Simultaneous strengthening on} both ends is a sign of the growing polarization, the growing class dif-| | ferentiation and sharpening of the| revolutionary situation in Mexico. A decisive section of the new bour- ‘goisie and capitalist landowning | \class created by the revolutionary events of the last two decades in Mexico (the Sonora group—‘“men of the revolution”) has gone over to an alliance with the semi-feudal, clerical landowning reaction. The petty-bourgeois government remains typically petty-bourgeois in its zig- zag occasioned by steady surrender to American imperiailsm and the necessity of retaining as much mass support as possible. More and more will the Party’s struggle be a “fight !on two fronts,” against government |and anti-government forces at once,| | as it already has been in the present | struggle. , Paths of Counter-Revolution. Today it is clear that there are two paths open to counter-revolu- | tion—the path of the armed upris- ing such as was attempted by the recent rebellion, and the path of fur-| ther evolution of the present goyern-| ment along the line of its present; development, as a more fitting tool| of American imperialism and inter-| nal capitalist and agrarian reaction. | | At the same time, the consciousness of the masses grows, the Communist | Party ripens rapidly towards a mass | party equal to its complicated and |enormous tasks, the revolutionary | forces of the partially armed and | partially awakened workers and peasants crystallize ever more inde- pendent of a government that began | by failing to carry out the tasks | of the revolution that swept it into power and has ended by openly be- traying these tasks. stand before the dilemma of the victory of the counter-revolution or the establishment of their own in- dependent revolutionary power, the government of the workers and peas- ants. There can be no doubt how the stirring masses will choose. The masses entire machine “construction factory struck. The railroad workers broke through the lines of the cossacks and joined the workers of the ma- chine factory and the others, In that demonstration, about 10,000 people participated, The workers marched to the jail and demanded the liberation of their comrades. The next day they refused to go to work, and they forced the governor to sat- isfy their demands and free the ar- rested comrades, The May Day demonstrations and strikes were still more widespread in 1901, First of all, we should mention the demonstration of 3,000 workers in Tiflis, It ended by a drawn sabres attack on the part of the cossacks, Twenty-four people were wounded and 40 were arrested. In St. Petersburg 15 per cent of the |Obukhov factory did not come to work—about 1,500 people. When the director of the factory wanted to discharge the most undesirable ones for participating in that dem- 4 onstration, all workers struck and formulated the demand for the eight-hour. working day and the re- instatement of the discharged workers. The administration refused to meet the demands and the work- ers marched out en masse to Shlisl- berg, where they were met by armed squadrons of gendarmes, two squads of soldiers and a whole regiment of police. The workers barricaded the factory gates and defended them- selves with bricks and stones. “The Obukhov defense” lasted nine hours. The workers’ wives and children participated in it. A few workers were killed, many wounded, and thousands arrested. Brought before the bar, 29 workers were sentenced to hard labor and exile. A great demonstration was also organized in Warsaw, in which abgut 10,000 to 1£,000 workers participated, and in Lodz a meeting of about 30,000 workers was heid. “In 1902, May Day celebrations as- sumed a still wider aspect. The most momentous events took place in Saratov, Sormov, Nizhni-Nov- gorod ard Vilna. The demonstra- tions in Saratov ended by the beat- ing up of the demonstrators by the Black Hundreds and the police forces dressed in civil attire. Many of the beaten up workers were. ar- rested. Some of the arrested, such as for instance, A, E. Rykov, man- aged to escape, while the others were exiled. The Nizhni-Novgorod poiice acted in a similar manner and most brutal of all were the police in Vilna. When, in spite of the most energetic measures taken by the police and the gendarmeries, under the leader- ship of Governor von-Wal, a demon- stration took place in Vilna, some of the most active demonstrators were beaten up and one was killed. In the evening, proclamations were circulated in the town theatre, The next day, von Wal ordered the ar- rested to be punished by the rod. (To Be Continued) woe, Copyright, Publishers Co., Ine. 1929, by Internationad HAYWOOD'’S' All rights rese,ved. Republica- tion forbidden except by permission, BOOK No Evidence of German Money at I, W. W. Trial; Defense Tells of the Class Struggle, Speculator, Bisbee Haywood has told of his quarter century of revolutionary strug- gle, during which he led the most militant labor unions in America, the Western Federation of Mincrs and the I.W.W. In the last chap- ter he told of the opening arguments in the trial of himself with numerous other Wobblies, for sedition, in Chicago, 1917, Now read on. Pia eee, 2 By WILLIAM D. HAYWOOD. PART 101. i first witnesses for the government were the stenographers, filing clerk and bookkeeper from the office of the General Headquarters, and the official accountants of the government who had investigated the finances and books, and who testified that the accounts were well kept and that there was no German money ever received by the Indus- trial Workers of the World. Their next witnesses were sheriffs and gunmen from the coal fields of Pennsylvania who testified to the arrests of members and to the fact that they had disrupted meetings of the I.W.W. without authority, sometimes at the request of the United Mine Workers of America and again on a verbal order from the court. There were other sheriffs and gunmen as wit- nesses from different parts of Arizona, Montana and Washington. There were some farmers who told of working their employees sixteen hours a day, lumber bosses, mine owners and one or two renegade mem- bers, with a horde of secret service agents. It was developed that the company for which one witness was superintendent had raised the price of spruce lumber from $33 a thou-. sand to $110 a thousand. With other witnesses of similar character, Nebeker finally turned to the judge and said: “Your Honor, the government rests.” eB EORGE VANDERVEER, chief counsel for the defense, a lawyer of exceptional ability, began the opening statement for the defense in a cool, calm manner, but before he had proceeded far, his eyes were blazing as he told the jury about the class struggle: “This case is unusual. It is supposed to be a case against William D. Haywood, James P. Thompson, John Foss, and a great number of other men whom you never heard of before, but—it is a charge of “conspiracy” wherein the prosecution claims these defendants have con- spired to violate certain laws of the United States and for which al- leged crime the prosecution here purposes to send these defendants to prison. Yet in reality, it is the purpose of the prosecution to destroy the organization with which these men are connected and to break the ideal for which their organization stands. “You are told that this case is of great importance to the nation; yet it involves more than the nation—it involves the whole social order. | There are five counts in the indictment white recites numerous “overt acts” supposedly committed in furtherance of the “conspiracy”; one of these acts is the circulation of the Preamble of the I.W.W. Constitution; and an editorial stating that “the present industrial system is useless and we mean to destroy it.” It is the function of the defense to explain this to you. We want you to notice especially that the purpose of this organization is not to destroy government but to control industry— | two things which ought to be separated. “It is manife&tly impossible for me, gentlemen, within the limit of time alloted to me to attempt it—to tell you all that these hundred or more defendants have said or done, and all that they have had in their minds, “They classify themselves, however, into two classes. Some have had something to do with strikes—not unlawful as such—and which become unlawful only when accompanied by a certain sinister, unlaw- ful purpose which is attributed to them in these various counts of the indictment. “Some of these men, again, have had no direct connection with any strike, but they have engaged during the period of supposed conspiracy in organizing men on various jobs—or have gone out as lecturers, or have carried the gospel of the organization in whatever manner to the workers. “TI am not clear, in my own mind, upon what theory counsel seekS to hold here men who have had nothing to do with strikes, men who had nothing to do with war activities. It may be counsel’s contention that their activities as members hecame unlawful by reason of the un- lawful character of the organization, Again the question whether or not it is lawful or unlawful in its character must be determined by its purpose, “Now, in every issue of Solidarity, about which you have heard a great deal here—on the top of the front,page you will find these words: ‘Education—Organization—Emancipation.’ What do they mean? What do they mean standing alone or taken in connection with other things which you will find states as part of the philosophy of the organization? “For instance, what do they mean in connection with the state- ment that the two classes in our society have nothing in common, the working class and the employing class? “I want to state to you what these men have said, what they have done, and what their intention has been in doing these things, “His Honor has struck out my reference to the Industrial Rela- tions Commission Report. I do not want to repeat. You will remem- ber—how the vast majority of our common laborers in the basic in- dustries from which this organization recruits its membership, are unable to earn the barest living for themselves and their families. It has been the function of these men to tell these facts to the working people, in order that, understanding their conditions, and the causes of their conditions, they may more intelligently and efficiently go out and find and apply the remedy. It is a sad commentary on our sys- tem that 79 per cent of the heads of our working class families are utterly unable to support their families and educate their children on a plane of civic decency. Nobody can right the wrongs of the past. All we can do is to concern ourselves with the future and prevent, if possible, further development and growth of a system which brings these things: about. . . . Why political action? This thing was not reared by law. It grew because some men by combining in trusts and corporations within industry got power to exploit labor. And it will quit growing just as soon as labor organizes and gets the power to stop its being exploited. ‘But you use sabotage,’ says counsel. Yet out of the thousands of lumber mills in Washington, he brings only two which had saws broken by something not proven and a few threshing machines out of hundreds testified about here by witnesses, We will bring witnesses—not the kind*you have seen here, I hope—but reputable farmers, who have been dealing with the I.W.W. for years in the places best organized by it, who will tell you they never had better workers than*the LW.W. . . .” 9 eo CeeNe to Butte and the Copper Trust, with its blacklist and reck- lessness of miners’ lives, Vanderveer told how the strike, which was charged against us as a crime, occurred: “On the 8th of June there was a fire, known as the Speculator fire, and if you have never seen a mine fire no man can picture it to you. It simply surpasses description, The people who went to this mine found the gates locked and the property barred. Wives and chil- dren could not go there to see whether or not their husbands and fathers were burned to death. The women went up on that hill with all the horror in their hearts that experience has taught all miners’ wives, crying and weeping. And finally the bodies came out; and with the men who had found them came the damnable story of how it hap- pened! These poor people saw the bodies lined up, 175 of them; 68 burned so black they were never identified. They were told that un- derground, in order to prevent the spread of fire which might do some damage to property, they had built concrete bulkheads without: a manhole, and there the bodies were found, piled in one charred heap. “Then there was another strike down in Arizona,” said Vanderveer, “on July 12, 1917, in Bisbee, 1186 men were taken at the point of ma-, chine guns, loaded into cattle cars six inches deep in manure; hauled out through a blistering Arizona desert to a place called Hermanas, shuffled back and forth between there and Columbus, New Mexico, where they were finally taken in charge by United States troops. But a curious thing happened that day; every man approached was asked, “Will you go to work or be deported?” While all this was going on, wives and children were left at home to starve, without money, without food, without anything in the world.” et a ccurmmpereertTT ET