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

Sunday, at Union Telephone Stu $8.00 a year $6.00 a year Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co. Inc.,. Daily, except vesant 169 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By Mail (in New York only): $4.50 six months 1 (outside of New York): 3.50 six months Adéress and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 26-28 Union Square, New “WATLY WORKER, NEW YORK, TUESDAY, MAY 21, 1929 ial pe jorker ‘of the U. S.A. 4 Square, Ne 8, Cabl ork City, “DAIWORK, $2.50 three months $2.00 three months York, N. ¥ >: Greetings to the All-Union Soviet Congress. Complete unity of the workers and peasants of the many races and nationalities living peacefully over the far-flung territories of the Union of Soviet Republics. This is an out- standing characteristic of the All-Union Soviet Congress that assembled yesterday in Moscow, reflecting the situation over the entire Soviet Union. This unity is the nightmare of world imperialism. It is an inspiration to the toiling masses oppressed under capitalist rule. The slightest disagreement as to policy within the Soviet Union has been joyously hailed by the capitalist world as a sign of disintegration. For this purpose differences of opinion manifesting themselves have been exaggerated to grotesque proportions. The smallest difficulty has been enlarged to assume the dimensions ‘of unsurpassable obstacles in the path of Soviet progress. But to the great horror of the world’s capitalist op- 1 pressors the Soviet advance goes steadily and resistlessly forward. Thus the full weight of the discussions intthe present All-Union Congress will be brought to bear on the question of the five years’ industrial plan and the program for the socialization of agriculture. The building of a socialist economy as the basis of the Communist social order is the mighty task that goes forward to realization over the great sections of the two continents of Europe and Asia, where the Hammer and Sickle is the emblem of triumphant Soviet Power. There is no dispute as to policy. This has been ironed out during a long period of intense discussion that has drawn in wide masses of the workers and peasantry. These have endorsed the policies approved in the recent conference of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, putting the em- phasis on the develr nent of hea - industry, calling for a rapid tempo of industrialization, endorsing the growing move- ment for the creation of Soviet farms and collective farm- ing. The reports and discussions at the All-Union Congress will be rather a review of experiences and achievements in already putting these policies into effect. Workers from shop, mill, mine, railroad and factory will discuss industrialization on the basis of the immediate prob- lems presented. Peasants off the land will take up the ques- tions facing agriculture. take up their problems. Worker and peasant will jointly How different from the American congress, now in special session, where corporation lawyers, professional politi- cians, prostitute editors and other loyal lackeys of great greed unite to defeat every aspiration of the broad masses, where farm relief and tariff legislation are taken up, dis- cussed, and laws enacted completely in the interests of the dominant finance capital. The All-Union Congress now sitting in Moscow is just as completely for labor as the Dollar Congress sitting at Wash- ington is for the exploiters of labor. capitalist. in the Soviet Congress at. Moscow. There is not a single There is not a single worker or farmer in the capitalist congress at Wash- ington. This is the big fact that raises bluntly the question of the difference between the social orders now facing each other in the world as irreconcilable foes. Thus while the All-Union Congress meets to discuss the problems of peaceful Socialist construction, after nearly twelce years of Soviet Power, there is ever present the threat of an imperialist attack—the war danger. The All-Union Congress will hear reports of the cynical rejection by the armament-racing imperialist powers of the Soviet peace pro- posals offered by Litvinoff at Geneva; of the maneuvers as between the great capitalist nations in the war debt negotia- tions at Paris under the direction of J. Pierpont Morgan, Wall Street’s financial overlord; of the imperialist aggressions in GLORYING IN “HIS DAY” Why Food Workers Need New Rare and far-between are the| strikes, conducted by the American | Federation of Labor, yet there was {one in the restaurant industry of Union Center | New York during the past year. It was started by the right wing leader-| For abo~: seven weeks, the strike |ship of Local No. 1, Waiters and | lasted, dirceted by the union's paid Waitresses of the Hotel and Res- | officials, who even refused to allow taurant Employees International Al-|the strikers to elect a strike com- liance, whose officials are more/ mittee on the grounds that “we’re famous for strikebreaking than for) not in Russia.” Otherwise, however, | strike-making. |the strikers were treated as the How did such a strange animal as| bureaucrats usually treat them- ja picket-line get into this happy | selves, they were given full-course |family? It was like this: At one| dinners, big weekly benefits, fancy of the union meetings of Local 1,|raincoats for the girls when it | where less than fifty out of a mem-|Tained, and often they were taken |bership of 2500 attend, a business | home in taxicabs. agent reports that a new restaurant is to be opened in a certain neighbor- hood by a member of the bosses’ as- | | sociation who has an agreement | with the union. His agreement is jone of the usual craft contracts | which provides only for unionizing waiters, not for cooks, counter-men |or miscellaneous help. In the same | block where the new place is to open, | jis a restaurant where the waiters |have no agreement. According to |the business agent, the association boss wants a strike called on this latter place (!) Let it be added that most of the strikes called by this union result in the boss closing down, and the reason is apparent. was ever allowed to go near it. (How much Tammany Hall and vari- ous judges’ “uncles” and _ top- |sergeants got for their “friendliness” | is not recorded, but strike expendi- By HENRY C. ROSEMOND (Vice-President of Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union) The picket line | was “dignified” and no policeman} , tures for a score of workers were |far ahove the $10,000 mark.) * | Besides treating the strikers to | taxi ‘rides, the union officials also treated the bosses. And it was on one of these rides that the “strike” was “settled.” It was a typical A. | union scale and with the waitresses getting five dollars less than men | Who do the same work; more girls | being added in order that the bosses’ loss should be minimized. And the Chinese cook and the bus boys were given the privilege of having their old jobs back, without even being jadmitted into a union and with no compensation for the many weeks on strike. The Negro Workers and the Cleveland Unity Convention ,complex in order to remain in these | circles. F. of L. settlement, far below the | The Needle Trades Indus- | Always willing to oblige the bosses, a strike is accordingly created at the restaurant offensive to the bosses, one of thousands of un- organized places, which happens to be the Trufood on 7th Ave, near 39th St. None of the workers inside were informed as to t was hap- pening and a “professional” picket line was put up, being kept in front of the place, off and on, for a period of months, while the workers inside were undiz‘urbed even by their con- science. The Trufood boss managed to keep going in spite of the picket-line Meantime, the left wing in the union had succeeded in getting the mem- |trial Union, of which I am today | I have found it necessary as a/jan executive member, has more than | rade unionist and a militant worker | once shown, not only in the accept- |to face many instances of the ruth-|cnce of Negroes into the union and \less capitalist system in the trade at |into its leadership that it was one |which I have been working for|of the most progressive in the| many years, as well as in taking | United States, but also shown an part in the strikes in which our aims | interest on the side of the Negroes | \were the better living conditions for jin fighting openly the discrimina- four fellow-workers. I wish to urge | all Negroes of my trade, as well as | all Negroes in other tradas, to sup- port the coming Trade Union Unity Convention being held in Cleveland. This convention will embrace many |the first step toward the establish- angles of the Negro problem here | ment of a real trade union unity in in the United States which the A.|the United States, securing complete F. of L. has never touched, since it | racial, social and economic equality, is a part of the terrific and miser-| controlled by workers for the bene- ago uncer the direct control of the A. F, of L. Trade Union Unity. The Cleveland convention will be tion of the old leadership of years | By Fred Ellis | | What did the bosses get out of the \“strike”? Exactly how much is not known, but it is known thruout the union that over $3,000 changed hands be*--c the association lawyers agreed to a compromise. Such is an A. F. of L. strike,| whether led by right-wingers or| “progressives.” It is of the bosses, | |for the bosses and by the bosses. Con- trast this with the general strike of | 1500 cafeteria workers led by the left wing Hotel, Restaurant and Cafeteria Workers Union, Amalga- | mated Food Workers, and the reason is plain as to why we need a new trade union center under the gui- dance of the Trade Union Educa- tional League. The living conditions of the food workers must not rest in the poisoned fingered lawyers and A, F. of L. bureaucrats, who make strikes only to put one of the bosses* competitors out of business and whose so-called “union card” is # yellow dog contract which allows the 12-hour, coolie-wage exploitation of the unskilled workers so long as the skilled workers maintain a “union” agreement. Millions of workers in the food in- dustry are eager for organization, in| the packing plants, in the canneries, in the bread factories, in the chain | restaurants and automats. They are| |veady to “cht for their rights as union men and women; to win from the great food trusts the eight hour day and a decent standard of living; to struggle against the government | that tries to break strikes by in- junctions; and to take part in a na- tion-wide movement on the basis of | revolutionary trade unionism. And these workers, thru their past ex- | perience with the American Federa- tion of Labor, know that along side| jof the courts, police and judges, | stand these labor mis-leaders, the| most dangerous enemy of the Ameri- | |can working class. To defeat this ally of the bosses, food workers’ militant organizations thruout New York, are calling shop| delegate and factory meetings to | 2 CEMENT Gusproy GLADKOY, Translated by A. S. Arthur and C. Ashleigh All Rights Reserved—International Publishers, Nos Gleb Chumalov, Red Army Commander and Communist, returns to his home town to find the great cement works in ruins and a great re-constructive task awaiting the workers. He finds that his wife, Dasha, is so active a Communist and has changed her outlook to so great an extent that she no longer has time for the old “home life.” Gleb sets about getting things going. He reports to the Party Committee and declares that he will get the wood from over the hills before winter sets in. The factory committee and the Party nucleus haye many tasks facing them, some of which are discussed at the meeting in the “Komintern Club.” * * * ytete women were fidgety, fingering their ragged clothes, smiling broadly and chattering like sparrows. As their guide and leader, somewhat apart from them but fully in view, was Dasha. Her red headscarf burned like a calm flame. Now and again she would come nearer the women and they would cluster together, whispering and giggling, Thy were all wafting for Lukhava to come in with his report on the struggle against disorganization and the ‘full crisis. The door opened and Savchuk entered, tattered and barefoot, with bloodshot eyes, Enormous, his muscles heavy with useless strength, he sat down heavily on the floor near to the door, his back against the wall, stick- ing out his bony knees covered with bruises and scabs. A turgid anguish burned in his vanquished eyes. Dasha threw open the heavy windows. “What people they are, in this group! All the work is done in a cloud of smoke! Smoking is work for idle brains!” * * * Gaz had ‘scarcely opened the windows when a volume of noise poured in, making the room resound. On the’ first floor balcony the trum- pets blared and the drums thundered deafeningly. % Along roads and footpaths, on hills and steppes they journeyed to villages and to Cossack hamlets as in the days of primitive barter, driven by hunger and blind greed. These toilers of the factory, who once had awakened not at the crowing of the cock but at the metallic sereech of the whistle, had learned during the past years the charm of pigsties and goat pens, the acrid savour of manure and the warmth of henhouses. And these men who once worked amidst the din of ma- chines now gave ear to the cackling of the farm-yard and concerned themselves with pigs, hens, goats—and about the little neglected pig which had devoured somebody’s food ration. The electricity supply to the works and the workers’ dwellings had ceased; the whistle was choked with dust; silence and stagnation reigned amidst this pastoral idyll, except for cluckings and gruntings. But here in the “Comintern” Club, at the factory group meeting, the Communists were rubbing their eyes; and their soiled hands and clothes smelt of the excrement of fowls and beasts. They were sitting crowded together and the blare of the trumpets and the unaccustomed words recalled from the past a forgotten life. Gleb also belonged to the past as though he had come but yesterday, smelling of oil and molten iron and the sulphurous vapors of cooling slag. And so once more: the factory... production . + . the ropeways . « « the workshops! * * * Bent had Dasha left the window when Serge entered with his shy glance, bald patch and locks falling to-his shoulders. He went up to Gleb, bent over him and whispered importantly to him. Gleb stood up and skilfully flung his cap on to the window-sill. “Comrades, Comrade Ivagin is here instead of Lukhava. Comrade Lukhava is down among the stevedores; they’re raising a hell of a riot about their rations. We'll open the meeting now—but keep quiet, damn you! Now I’m going to tell you something; I had heard a rumor of it and now the radio announces it. Foreign countries, the Entente, are going to trade with us and are sending ships. I don’t think we'll feel offended at that! Certainly not! We shall be very glad! We can do our bit too.” And he laughed at his own joke. Gromada began to gesticulate and his eyes glittered with Joy. “Comrades, as we are workmen of a magnificent factory, but havé encumbered ourselves with pigs and goats, and so on « w+ er, YeS. ss! Come out of your lairs, Comrades. I propose that we liquidate alk surpluses in favor of our Children’s Home. And as we are the workw’, ing class—” + | Dub-a-dub of the drums! A buzzing tumult of voices amidst smoke and dust. 4 “The pigs . . . there’s always plenty of people out for someoné else’s property! Whose been dragging stuff from the villages and farms? He thinks a lot of himself. . . . Not enough to go round... . Gromada’s wife wore out her clothes going round the villages, « » .”°' “Liquidate? . . « To hell with it! Group decide!” “Ah, Brothers! . . . There’s nothing to eat, you know! A devil of a fight, eh? . . . Now, Brothers... .. .” Gleb struck the bell and called the meeting to order, “Silence, Comrades! So far there are no restrictions about pigs and goats, if you want to fool around with them you may. When the time comes we'll deal with them in a real proletarian way like we did with the bourgeoisie.” Decide, Chumaloy— Let thé What! 4 * * * yee thus with a joke and a laugh he induced order and calm. “Comrades, I propose we elect a Chairman.” Hardly had he uttered these words than the women in their part of the hall, with Domasha and Lisaveta at the head, jumped up and down, shot up their hands, shrieking out one name, bit each vying with the other as to who could call loutlest. “Dasha! Dasha Chumalova! -Dasha!” The men were also shouting, but without at first being able ta yell down the voices of the women. “Gromada!’ Chumalov! Savchuk!” t i The name of Savchuk was drowned in a roar of laughter. Gromada jumped up by tKe table, wildly waving his arms at the Re bership interested, and forced the|able conditions and oppressions that | elect representatives to the Trade} women and screaming to the men: “Comrades! I don’t mind about China, India, Afghanistan, Nicaragua and elsewhere. The holding of the All-Union Congress in Moscow, there- fore, raises sharper than ever before the American masses the question of the recognition and defense of the Union of Soviet Republics. An increasing struggle for complete recognition and the opening of unimpeded trade relations, development in + .«...every respect of its power to defend the Soviet Union, is the reeting that American revolutionary labor sends to the All- “Union Soviet Congress meeting in Moscow, the fore-runner of the World Soviet Congress that is to be. At least six new members joined the Communist Party as a result of the police raid Saturday. Negro workers, the other four white. Two of these were They were proposed for membership in the 51st Street Police Court, where the workers of both racts discovered an identity of interest they had never realized before. This same realization, with the development of the class struggle, will bring workers, Negro and white, under the banner of the Communist Party until it becomes the mass Party of the American working class, i The appeal to “Join the Communist Party!” is finding an in- creasing response among the toiling many. The Gastonia, North Carolina, textile strikers have built and opened new headquarters for their union and relief of- fices. This is living testimony to the calibre of their fighting qualities. The Ku Klux Klan petty bourgeois business hood- lums who attacked and destroyed the original headquarters will think twice before repeating this brand of warfare against the organized workers. The courage of the Gas- t tonia strikers is an example and inspiration to the whole American working class. The success of the Metropolitan Area Trade Union Con- ference held in New York City is another indication of the growing ferment among the working masses that is the basis in the present period of the organization of the unorganized and the building of a militant center of revolutionary trade apioniam, ; ____ by then, I will be officials to extend the strike to all!the Negroes are suffering. the Trufood houses in an effort to A. F. of L. Treachery. bring the bosses to terms on the} t¢ has been proven more than question of union conditions, once that the A. F. of L. was not in Thru the agitation of the left)favor of organization of Negro wing, all the waiters and waitresses | workers and in the places where Ne- at the two other places, one on 40th | groes are a factor in different in+ hong one on 44th St., near Broadway, | dustries, they establish Jim-Crow came out, as well as a Chinese cook | locals, dealing always with the idea jand two bus-boys. At the same/of white “superiotity.” I have also time, the right wing leadership in|noticed that the few Negroes in the union was defeated and a so-|these various unions under the lead- {called “progressive” group electea. | ership of the A. F. of L. who man- It was up to the “progressives” to age to have a voice are still com- show what they could do as strike|pelled to remain in the far back- “leaders.” |ground and expose an inferiority fit of the workers, and will always fight militantly and break down the barriers of the capitalists, for the | betterment of the working class. Therefore, the Negro workers, be- |ing the most exploited workers here in the United States, exploited as Negroes and as workers, we must jonce for all realize the need of a full and complete collaboration with our brother white workers in em- bracing the struggle against the ruling class for the extermination lof capitalist oppression, which can be overthrown only by the complete unity of the workers of all trades, ‘races and creeds. - loeb ai." Union Educational League Unity | Convention in Cleveland on June 1, where the new revolutionary trade union center will be established and | plans completed for the building up jof.a national industrial union for |food workers. The general strike lof the ‘cafeteria workers in New | York is one of the sparks that will set the United States aflame with a great organizational drive to draw all food workers into a real workers union to combat the great food trusts and all the forces of labor reformism and of governmental tyranny that ; stand in the path of the workers! struggle for power. More Letters fot Food Strikers Now in Prison ,line. In the meantime keep up the} Don't be afraid to go on the saying that 27 places are signed up. | fine work you have been doing so picket line, fellow-workers, but an-|Now, fellow-workers and comrades, _ that we can win the strike in a short swer the bosses with the greatest |keep it up and it’s a sure victory The following letters from food strikers now being held in the city prisons for their militancy in the big cafeteria strike continue the | series that the Daily Worker began | last week, time. Kindly print this letter in the Daily Worker as I know all our fel- | low workers read this “our” paper, { | and I want to send them direct re- | No. 97645, Cell 609 | Sards from me. ; Fellow Comrades of the Cafeteria| . | Wish the union all the success in Union: | the world. . I am now starting on my 7th day —FRED FUREK, Correction of a 10-day sentence which began on Welfare Island, N. Y. April 27th, 10:30 a. m. I was framed! P, $.—Greetings from three com- by the Savoy Cafeteria boss who rades that are in jail with me. |with the help of the police and the | ‘ | courts sent me to jail on a trumped up charge of wrecking his shop. | Dear Comrades, you and all of us | know that no such a thing happened | in that place, but I don’t mind stay- | * *& # _ * * ‘ New York Prison, 4 é May 11, 1929. Comrades and Fellow Workers: spirit of picketing and you will be isure to win. When I get out, next Tuesday, I will be back on the bat- tlefield again. There is another |striker here by the name of Teddy Furude, aie Don’t think that this jail has |taken our spirit away, because it jhas only increased it to a greater extent and will make us fight even more when we get out. I hope that when I get out I wil find more shops on strike and more shops settled. Long live the Union! WILLIAM NINOS. P.S,—The first thing I buy when I get out of jail is the Daily Worker.—W. N. ing here as I know that all workers who fight for better conditions have no easy time of it. Fellow Workers, I have done as | much as I could and as soon as I jam freed, if the strike is not over k on the picket|in are about as dark as this cell, how glad I tent amen oe a ti ox I am now serving a jail term for five days for picketing, but this is nothing, because the food they,serve here is about as bad as the food jwe received in the cafeterias where we worked, and the places we live * Fellow Worker in Jail, Welfare Island, N. Y. Fellow Workers: Just a few lines to let you know ee to receive a letter | Worker, in this “dump, jfor us, As soon as I get out of jail I'll be back on the picket line fighting side by side with you. Fellow-workers, do not get fright- ened about going to jail, because it don’t mean anything, As for my part, when I get out, they can put me back into jail, since I am figlt- ing for my rights and no one is go- ing to stop me from picketing. If anyone thinks that these are lies I {will show them how much of a lie it is, for every word that I say comes straight from my heart. It is about time that we, the work- ers, have something to say about our conditions, Hoping that the next meeting you have will bring you greater results, yours for the eight-hour day. A STRIKER IN JAIL. P.S.—I wish I had the “Daily ete * in his EEN 9 i the women—they have equal rights, the creatures. . . . Ah, yes. And the young ones, they must be the leaders, of course. But let them wait a little longer. We need a beard on the Chairman.” 1 “And where’s Chumalov’s beard? And what about your whiskers, has the cat licked it off?” 4 The women were bawling at the ton of their voices, “Dasha Chumalova! Dasha! Gromada’s not even capable of passing het a glass of water! Savchuk’s beard is just good enough for a hearth brush, and Motia knows his fists well enough!” i “Savchuk! Chumalov! Loshak!” . ‘ fb Gleb banged the bell repeatedly. 4 “We'll have a vote on it, Comrades. Dasha Chumalova is first on the list. Although she’s my wife, I have no objection to a woman taking the chair: Who is fér—” | But before he could call out Dasha’s name the women again began to scream. “Dasha! Why don’t you give way to the women, you good-fors nothings?” 4 Gleb was the first to raise his hand, and with him the women and Serge, The other workers raised their hands one after the other as though unwillingly, coughing and sniffling: F * * * Scns without raising his hand, roared from out of his corner? “Drive ’em out, thesewomen! Send them all home! Phew, I can’t bear them!” { Again Gleb rang loudly to still the clamoring. i “Now we'll vote for Gromada. . . ; Very few. Now vote for Loshak. . . . Only a few. Take your place, Comrade Chumalova.” + The women began to applaud like a lot of hens flapping their wings. ' “Bravo, Women! We've won! goats what you can do, Dasha!” Dasha stepped with firm tread to the table and stood beside Gleb. “Comrades, I ask for silence and a real proletarian spirit. Give me the agenda, Comrade Chumalovy. Comrade Ivagin has the floor for his report. You have fifteen minutes to speak, Comrade.” Serge, astonished, could oniy laugh with a gesture of dismay. i If you’re going to talk, go Show these bearded and shaven “This is too strict a ruling, Comrade Chumalova.” “Don’t pad it out, Comrade Ivagin. to it or we shall go on with our business!” “She thinks enough of herself! I told you so. a woman... .” é Kick them out! Let them all go home, the noisy hens! I’d pick ’em up by their petticoats and sling them out of the window.” . “Silence, Comrade Savchuk, I'll have you put out for this anarchy. Remember you’re Communists, Comrades!” Dasha is right. A little time is enough; what can be said in a report to workmen? Serge has too many words in his head. She knows best what he wants at the present time. Cold text-boels pres are strange and unintelligible, abstract and*remote as Metge himself, words and in his nature. aT Ste Ri vy (Lo Be Continued) tks t y ae dee: in ae We didn’t want