The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 18, 1929, Page 6

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Central Organ of the Communist Party of the U. S. A. Inc. Published by the Sunday, at Telephone lishing Co., Daily, except x N.Y. k City, } ALWORK.” $8.00 a year three months 00 three months 6-28 Union Square, $6.00 a year Adéress and mailall chec The Class Struggle Trade Union Center. Class struggle industrial unionism as opposed to “class peace” craft unionism will be crystallized into organizational form in the New York district at the Metropolitan Area Trade Union Educational League Conference which opens today at Irving Plaza Hall. The trade union center of the left wing grows inevitably out of the radicalization of the toiling masses in the nation’s metropolis. This process goes on as part of a similar develop- ment throughout the United States. It is an integral part of the world phenomena in the ranks of labor in the third period since the world war, the period that inevitably leads through the further development of the contradictions of capitalist stabilization, “to capitalist stabilization becoming still more precarious and to the severe intensification of the general crisis of capitalism.” Thus the growing favorable results being achieved for the class trade union center in New York City, which will be registered at the conference today, and which prepares for the Cleveland Trade Union Unity Conference, June 1, cannot be separated from the intensification of the revolutionary | struggle in India, the heroic resistance of the Chinese workers and peasants to imperialist intervention and the treachery of their own national bourgeoisie, the courageous struggle of the Lodz, Poland, textile workers; the mighty battles of the metal workers, coal miners and other sections of the German proletariat in the Ruhr, finding a sequel in the militant chal- lenge of Berlin labor to the social-democratic effort to out- law May Day this year. Today’s conference, lifting the standards of class resis- tance to capitalist oppression, will greet the rapid tempo of the industrialization process in the Union of Soviet Republics, calling for the defense of the Soviet Union, the very existence of which in the present period contributes in great part to the precarious position in which world imperialism now finds it- self. The American Federation of Labor nationally, and its New York affiliation, the Central Labor Union, are the craft centers of the old and reactionary unionism that not only col- laborates with the employers, once more clearly revealed in the building trades situation, but’as a very definite part of the capitalist regime openly supports the profit takers’ gov- ernment. ; The American Federation of Labor, the supporter of the war preparations of Yankee imperialism, is the enemy of the Union of Soviet Republics, and of the revolutionary move- ments in China, India, Nicaragua, and other colonial and | semi-colonial countries, as well as in capitalist countries, thus extending to an international scale its treachery to the work- ing class in the homeland of the Wall Street tyranny. ~ The announcement of the delegations for today’s con- ference reveals the substance out of which the new center will be organized. There will be representatives from almost every important industry in New York and vicinity, reveal- ing the thoroughgoing nature of the radicalization process. It is not confined alone to the needle trades, an industry that has already seen the struggle for the new left wing indus- trial unionism waged over a period of many years. Great siginificance attaches to the fact that the building trades left wing, not only facing but developing a stubborn struggle against the corrupt A. F. of L. officialdom, will be strongly represented. With the smashing of the old coal miners’ union, the United Mine Workers of America, the building trades unions remain the sole center of dwindling strength possessed by the A.-F. of L. . It is not an accident that at the very moment the confer- ence gathers today, the commissioner of New York City, “Gorgeous Grover” Whalen, announces that he is using the full strength of the police against strikers. Militancy means struggle, and working class struggles face the oppression of the employers’ government at every turn. Every struggle now being waged in New York City and vicinity is under the i { A CHALLENGE # The Young Pioneer Convention of District Two (New York) opened last night. DATLY WORKER, The British General Elections | By J. R. CAMPBELL (London) | For the first time in its history the Communist Party of Great Br ain will enter a General Election under its own revolutionary banner, with its own revolutionary program in opposition to the three capitalist parties, Liberal, Labor and Conser- vative. The Party appreciates the heavy struggle which lies in front of it. The two open capitalist par- ties have millions of pounds and a powerful press at their disposal. The Labor Party still retains the allegiance of millions of workers who in spite of its complete surrender to capitalism while in opposition are still of opinion that it should be} |given an opportunity of becoming the government; the whole strength of trade union discipline has been perverted to Labor Party purposes, |and in no country in the world are | parliamentary illusions so strong. | (That these illusions were weakened by the General Strike is true, but \they are still relatively speaking Communist Party to Enter-With Own Revolu-| tionary Program; Opposes 3 Capitalist Parties Communist Party will therefore be] the only party in the election ex-| plaining to the workers the meaning | of the capitalist rationalization of- | fensive, seeking to mobilize the| rs for a counter offensive, and| linking up the immediate struggle| of the workers against rationaliza- | it will continue to keep its candidate | before the workers even if his name | not on the official voting list, and| will expose the fraudulent electoral system constructed in the interests | of capitalism. | The Party will go into the election Labor members of the Indian Com-| With the slogan of class against mission and will strive to get the|¢lass. It will show that the funda- workers in other constituencies rep-|™ental political division is between resented by the members of the com-| the capitalist parties, which stand mission to put up candidates against | for the perpetuation of the dictator- them. ship of capitalism, and the workers The gréat issue of the election, | and the Communist Party, which ie., the question of the coming im- | Stands for a workers’ dictatorship which holds down those classes hos- tion with our ultimate goal of the) perialist war, will not be mentioned revolutionary seizure of power and/|by any of the capitalist parties. If the setting up of a Workers’ Govern-| the Communist Party was not ap-| ment, | pearing in the election as an inde-| “Empire” Bunk. |pendent force this question would} All three capitalist parties will|not be discussed at all. The Party | have much to say about the empire. | will be able, however, to put before | ‘h will strive to conceal the real|the electorate the proof that the} cter of the empire as a ma-|capitalist class is preparing war, ne for the brutal repression of|that the program of all three par- tile to working class emancipation until the realization of the complete social order eliminates classes alto- gether. The Party will therefore ex- pose the electoral struggle of the three capitalist parties as a sham fight between parties all of which stand for capitalist rationalization, empire and war, all of which are in a tacit coalition against the workers | the colonial peoples and will strive to represent it as a federation of self-governing nations, or at least a | structure which is in the process of | The principal issue of the election’ development towards such a federa- |from the point of view of the three tion. All of them will expressly re- | very strong.) capitalist parties hinges around the| pudiate the charges made by their | ties eonsists in supporting the capi- talist policy which renders war in-| and the colonial peoples. evitable, and will describe to the It follows that the Communist economic crisis and its solution. In slightly different ways the three parties of capitalism are putting for- ward programs for the state stimula- tion of rationalization as a means bof solving the economic cri There is so little fundamental differences between the parties that the Con- servative Party has just put into operation a measure of rating re- lief for the large capitalists which had previously, in its essentials (if not in quite the same form), been advocated by both the Labor and Liberal parties, while the Liberal and Labor parties are frantically quarreling over the question as to, which party first suggested the measures for the state stimulation) of rationalization which are to be ‘found in the programs of both. The opponents that they are in any way against the empire. The strangling of Egyptian nationalism, the at- tempt to suppress the working class movement in India by the most bru-| tal methods—those things will be| concealed from the electorate by the| three capitalist parties of empire.} Only the Communist Party will show | the workers of Britain the import- ance of forming a united front with a genuinely revolutionary movement in the colonies for a joint struggle against the brutal imperialism which | is suppressing the workers in the/| Metropolis no less than the colonial | peoples. The Communist Party will champion the right of the colonies to complete independence, and as a proof of its intention to achieve this, | will run two candidates against the workers all the methods of struggle | Party cannot advise the workers in| which must be employed to prevent| those districts which are not being! war coming or to change the imperi- | contested by Communists to vote for alist war into a civil war should it} any of the candidates adhering to come in spite of our efforts to pre-| the program of any of the capitalist vent it, | parties. Where labor candidates are 26 Candidates. | prepared to abandon the capitalist In twenty-six different districts | program of their party and declare our Party will put forward its in-| their willingness to support a series | dependent candidates against the|/of elementary working-class de-| candidates of the three capitalist | mands, the Communists will be pre-| parties and will make an effort to in- | pared to advise support, but in no crease the number. The British elec-| other case. toral system is designed, however, to| The Party will of course link up aid wealthy parties, because it is alits electoral struggle against capi- regulation that no party can put for-| talist rationalization, against the ward a candidate unless it places a| empire and against war and for the deposit of £150 per candidate with | revolutionary Workers’ Government | the local authorities. This naturally | with the struggle to win the leader- diminishes the number of candidates | ship of the workers in the economic that a proletarian party can put for-| struggles which are pending, It wilt ward. The Party will, however, in a| by its electoral struggle recruit new number of additional districts put} members for the Party and open the forward candidates and seek to raise | way to the leadership of the British the £150. If it is unable to do so| working class. Murder of Karl banner of left wing unionism; in the food industry (the cafe- | teria workers and grocery clerks) ; in the shoe industry, as well as the needle and textile industries. These workers will be represented at today’s gathering, their delegates sitting sid by side with spokesmen from-workshops in important in- dustries, such as the Otis Elevator Co., Ford, Edison Electric, ‘Nichols Copper (copper refining), the Standard Oil Co., as well as the Singer Sewing Machine Co., of Elizabeth, N. J., and the Wright Aeroplane Co., of Paterson, N. J. The call for the conference reviewed the seething dis- content being registered in many small spontaneous, unor- ganized strikes breaking out in various sectors of the indus- trial front, with the workers fighting valiantly against wage cuts, the speed-up, for shorter hours and the right to organ- ize, including for instance the Bayonne oil workers, the Mill- | town rubber workers; the Perth Amboy copper workers, the New York City traction tojlers, to mention a few. As the conference convenes there is a significant strike struggle of unorganized workers in the printing industry. This whole situation calls for the most serious and care- ful action on the part of the New York conference today and similar gatherings to be held in the immediate future in various sections of the country. It is not sufficient to ride the waves ‘of discontent lashing with growing might and fury against exploitation in industry everywhere. This upheaval calls for the most careful organizational activities, This organization work must be fundamental in character, so that the class struggle centers of the new left wing in- dustrial unionism, nationally and locally, will be built on a foundation of adamant that will be able to stand against the full power of the exploiters that will inevitably be hurled against it. Thus the new center takes concrete steps to establish itself as the leader of every strike struggle, helping prepare for it and develop it. It will not appear, as is now some- times the case, only after the workers themselves have taken the initiative and launched their own battles. Labor in New York’s metropolitan area marches for- dy to greater efforts, toward new, historic achieve- By WILHELM PIECK (Berlin) “Public Prosecutor: ‘Had you taken any steps at this discus- of the investigation?’ “Landsberg: ‘I | v9 | steps’, took no * * It would seem to be an irony of sion to secure a better conduct} | | protect its “colleague” and to bring 'action for calumny against Born- | stein, the responsible editor of the publication, whose counsel was Dr. Liebknecht Irony of Fate Brings Up Case Almost Exactly Ten Years After Court-Martial Proceedings Again in Berlin Court ment organs in protection of the murderers. The Workers Will Judge! Bornstein and his counsel, Paul Levi, are fully aware of this, Levi himself having said as much in the jeolumns of the “Rote Fahne.” In court, however, they refrained from putting forward this evidence and from accusing Noske, Landsberg, Ebert, and the others. Was not Py derers, if only for the reason that this would have been tantamount to an admission of the crime of whieh Jorns was accused. The “officially” |fate that almost exactly ten years! Paul Levi. Herr Jorns appeared as after the court-martial proceedings | a witness and was admitted as an against the murderers of Karl “accessory plaintiff.” At the trial, | Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg the however, the weight of the evidence ‘ease should have been heard again | produced so transformed the individ- before a civil court in Berlin at the! ual roles, that even the Court of instigation of the Supreme Court of | Prosecution repeatedly addressed the | Prosecution, which is naturally not) “witness” as an accused. ieee, to recall those murders Murderers Present. to the memory of the working class. Greatly as the composition of the |The Supreme Court of Prosecution, | court and its audience differed from | however, obviously thought that the| the court-martial proceedings of intervening ten years had so far ef-| 1919, there was a certain parallel- faced the traces of the murderers|ism between the two proceedings. land of their mild treatment at the| Two of the murderers, Liepmann hands of the authorities, that an at- tempt could be made for the rehab- ilitation of the culprits and their accomplices. ' In the weekly “Das Tagebuch,” which inclines to the Left, an ar- \ticle appeared in March 1928, which l|once again established that Public | Prosecutor Jorns, who had been en- | trusted with the preliminary inves- tigation agairist the murderers, fa- | vored the latter by the manner ot |his cross-examination, veiled their | guilt, and assisted them to escape. Seeing that in the meantime Jorns had been advanced to the dignity of Chief Public Prosecutor by the Re- publican government in reward of his activity and is in this capacity and Rung, were present and sought to exonerate themselves. Liepmann has in the meantime become a bar- rister at a Potsdam court and was |addressed as “dear colleague” even \by the chairman, The court, the plaintiffs and the defendants, more- over, anxiously avoided the establish- ment of the real culprits in the mur- der. The chairman did his best speedily to remedy all situations which might have proved awkward for the real culprits and to help Jorns out of his plight, while feep- ing the basis of discussions and the treatment of the evidence within as narrow limits as possible. But un- der the weight of circumstances the one day set aside for the trial was \exercising a notorious role in the so-called “high-treason trials” (inj The “plaintiff,” the public prose- which connection the article in ques-| cutor, and the “Accessory plaintiff” tion was , written), the Supreme | Jorns could not reveal the true cul- Court of Prosecution was induced to! prits or their protection of the mur; - 2 = ‘ Se Regen ort lengthened into many days. accused and his counsel ought to have established this fact, but they too consciously avoided doing so and, by concentrating their attack on Jorns, became parties to the veiling of the murder and the protection of the murderers. It was merely cer- tain bits of evidence which made it possible to guess at the actual cul- prits, and that onfy momentarily. The revolutionary working class has long since established that the true culprits were the social-demo- cratic leaders, men like Ebert, Scheidemann, Noske, Landsberg and Noske .the personal friend and ally of Captain Pabst, the organizer of the gangs of murderers? Did not Heine openly reproach the members of the Executive Council of Workers deputies with refusing to carry on the farce of an investigation? Had not Landsberg to admit, in answer to a question put to him by the publie prosecutor (and not by Levi), that in his capacity as minister of justice he had done nothing to se- when informed of the protection afforded the murderers? Bornstein cure a proper investigation, not even | Heine. In those months following on the November revolution, their infamous agitation against Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg prepared the way for the assassina- tion of these two prominent Commu- nists; in their capacity as members of a “popularly elected” government, they sanctioned the open incitement to murder and refrained from taking any steps against the murderous bandits; they made no attempt to deny the rumors of a government reward for the murderers; they brought the bands of assassins to Berlin, established their headquar- ters at the Eden Hotel, and openly encouraged them in the “Vorwarts.” And when the assassination had been and Levi, however, were just as in- active in failing to establish this fact in court. The true culprits have not yet been brought to book, with the exception of Jorns, a tool of the then social- democratic government. This task has been left for the working class to fulfil, The murder of Karl Lieb- knecht and Rosa Luxemburg will be brought into court a third time, but it will be into a revolutionary court that it will be brought. Not till then will truth triumph and all the cul- prits be called upon to answer for their guilt. But the present trial has served to bring to the minds of the workers the foul murder of two committed, they permitted all things possible to be done in favor of the murderers and helped ta camouflage their acts, doing nothing to impede of their very best leaders. At the same time, the veil has, after all, been slightly lifted, which on the occasion of the first trial was pur- posely drawn soe the murder and CEMENT 2'020! GLADKOY, Translated by A. S. Arthur and C. Ashleigh 4 All Rights Reserved—International Publishers, N. Y. Gleb Chumaloy, commander in the Red Army, returns to his town to find the great cement works all in ruins, his wife, Dasha, an active Communist with no time for household duties or love, and the factory committee wrangling uselessly. Gleb, a former worker in the cement plant, goes to report to the Party Committee to see about getting the factory going again. There he meets Shidky, the secretary of the committee; Shibis, the head of the Cheka; Comrade Shuk, a former comrade in arms, who is impatient with the slowness of the work, and Sukhara, secretary of the trade unions. yall * * * re E opened the door and went out without looking back. Shidky looked 42 at the door, smiling knowingly. “Don’t let’s argue, Comrade Chumalov. to get the factory working, but the organization of the masses. that right?” Shidky laughed and firmly pressed Gleb’s hand. “Will you give Shuk a little training, too, Comrade Chumalovf, He’s like a hungry rat without it.” s Gleb put his arm round Shuk’s shoulder, drawing him towards the door. In vain Shuk endeavored to embrace him. “Gleb, my dear comrade! But we'll make things go now, we'll move mountains and fill up craters!” Behind them they heard Shidky’s voice once more. “Comrade Chumalov, it wouldn’t hurt if you had a straight talk with Badin, chairman of the Executive Committee. And you ought to go and have a good row with Lukhava, so as to become good friends afterwards.” In the doorway Lukhava pressed Gleb’s elbow. There was fever in his eyes and in his words. “T heard about you from Dasha. We're going to consider your plan all together, and use it as the basis for our work. We must go to work on facts and not on words, The future is in our brains, but we must realize it with our muscles.” The two men regarded each other fixedly. Once more Gleb felt the other’s words and gaze were stabbing him deep. The main question is not Isn’t Dasha? Lukhava? Was Lukhava perhaps the answer to this confusing puzzle? * * * 3 THE WOMAN WITH THE CURLS (eee went back to Mekhova. He accidently leaned on the table and it boomed like a copper bugle. Mekhova, suppressing her laughter, looked at him in astonishment and without geniality. “Moderate your attack, Comrade Chumalov. This isn’t a heavy We're working here in peace-time surroundings.” “Sorry, I’ve got used to having space for my elbows, and here it’s narrow as a hen-coop.” “Well, get used to taking shorter steps. We'll soon put you in your place here, and you'll get your Soviet work to do; then you'll have to get going like everyone else with the monotonous hard work of the ad« ministrator. You'll soon forget the smell of powder and deeds of daring. You'll get soft and faded, Comrade. I believe they’ve appointed you secretary of the factory group. Well, we'll see how you manage that crowd. You can’t get near the women: they all stink of pigs, goats and dung. Every house is a little shop and a warehouse for stolen goods, In another six months the factory will have vanished bit by bit, And what a factory!” “Oh, and we're just thinking of setting the factory going again, We're starting the Desels and dynamos and we’re building ropeways to the top of the mountains for the transport of wood fuel.” “Oh, you all say the same thing. To hear you, you're all a lot of wonders, but in truth your whole idea is to make yourselves a little more comfortable and become Soviet bourgeois, Time passes very dully here. It’s livelier in the army. I wanted to join the army but they wouldn’t let me go. It’s only your wife that doesn’t feel the dullness: she finds something worth doing in every trifle.” { * * * 7 pAse4 standing by the wall, smiled chaffingly. She showed impatience in every movement. “I can’t understand your conversation, Comrades. about, and what’s the good of it? Clear out while you’re still safe!” And she smiled amusedly, “There, look at her! That’s a stern business-like woman!” “Tt’s true, Dasha sabotages her household pretty thoroughly.” Mekhova laughed, shaking her curls. “Doesn’t she carry out her wifely duties? What a disgrace! revolution has contpletely spoilt the woman.” Dasha burst out laughing, but it was not the charming laugh of his old sweetheart, All the women were laughing now. They had just pushed Shuk out into the corridor and were crying to him through the door: “Your mastery is finished, you shaven goats! You look like a lot of women since you shayed your beards off. And the women, look like men! You'll never get the good old times back.” Again Mekhova looked closely at Gleb, and it seemed to him as though she were greedily savoring him. “You haven’t really got acclimatised yet; you're still full of the war and the army. One would think you were going back to-morrow to re- join your regiment. Do tell me about your exploits. When did you re- ceive the Order of the Red Flag? If you only knew how I love the army! You know there was a time when I fought in the trenches, It was at Mannich.” She smiled, and her smile was not for Gleb, although he was look- ing at him. A partly concealed joy sparkled in her eyes. “Tt was wonderful! They were unforgettable days, like the October days in Moscow—for the whole of my life. Heroism? It is the fire of revolution.” “That is so, Comrade Mekhova. But here also on the industrial front we must also have heroism. A difficult’ situation: destruction, muddle, hunger. Right! The mountain has fallen, crushing man like a frog. Now, for a real big effort, shoulder to the wheel, and shove the mountain back into its place. Impossible? That’s precisely it. Heroism means doing the impossible.” She laughed again and her eyes sparkled more than ever. “Shoulder to the wheel? Yes! Splendid! You use the right words! With every fibre of one’s being. We must talk together about this, Com- rade Chumalov. I live inthe Soviet House.” Dasha smiled and looked curiously at Mekhova and Gleb. Then she went up to Gleb, turned him round by the shoulders and pushed him to- wards the door. & wt “Now be off from here, soldier! You've nothing to do’here.” Gee turned round, seized her in his arms and began to carry her out of the room. The women burst out laughing; Mekhova also laughed. This shameless caress before all these people made Dasha shriek out and she flung both her arms around him. For a moment Gleb felt the old loving heart of Dasha and heard her dear woman’s laugh, which cannot be defined, for it flows from the blood into the blood. “Comrade Chumalov, do you know. what your Dasha fs? Hasn’t she told you her adventures? She’s been through a great deal, perhaps more than you yourself have experienced.” Dasha started, then leapt out of Gleb’s arms. “I don’t want you to talk about me, Comrade Mekhova, whether good or bad. No more jesting, Comrade Mekhova, and leave me in peace.” “Oh, I didn’t know that this was a forbidden subject.” Why was she so startled? Why did she shut Mekhova’s mouth? Why, when everyone knew about her years without hirn, would she tell him nothing? Lukhava, standing in the doorway, gazed at Gleb with burning eyes. 2 Gleb passed him, trying not to jostle him, But Lukhava caught the sleeve of his tunic and stopped him. s “Comrade Chumalov, call a special meeting of the group. I want to come and make a report. Come and see me tomorrow at the Council of Trade Unions; we’ll lock ourselves in and discuss the whole matter. For a big plan one must have precise details. I’m not only speaking of the fuel, but also of the factory. I’ve been thinking about it, We're going to fight by all possible means. Do not forget that this will be a real struggle, calling for all our strength. And don’t forget that the time may seem inopportune. It’s a fight for the future, and therefore appears Utopian and absurd. Of course we know that only by audacity and strength can the future be made the present. So let’s get down to work.” “ He gribbed Gleb firmly by the hand and quickly passed through thé door of the Women ’s Section. gun. What’s it all Get out, soldier, you’re in our way, The

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