The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 11, 1929, Page 6

Page six Daily Sa J Vorker Central Organ of the Communist Party of the U. S. A. Rally in Support of Gastonia Strikers! HE reply of the American working class to the capital- ist class attack, carried out by the local police against the tent colony of the Gastonia textile mill strikers’ colony, must be two-fold: First:—Defense of the scores of strikers, members of the National Textile Workers Union, arrested and facing framed-up charges of murder as a result of the death of the employing class leader of the attempted massacre of work- ers, Chief of Police Aderholt. Second:—Intensification of the campaign for the or- ganization of the unorganized, especially in the basic indus- tries, in spite of all obstacles, and the struggles at Gastonia and Elizabethton have again emphasized that these are great and many. é ikers involves the whole question of in waging the class struggle in the mt period of capitalist development, marked by the centralization of industry in great monopolies that completely dominate local, county, state and national governments, using them more than ever in fighting the toiling masses. Defense of the s Militant workers the nation over will applaud the suc- cess with which the Gastonia strikers defended their tent colony. They had not organized their Workers’ Defense Corps in vain. Instead of many men, women and children of the working class massacred, as has too often been the case in the past (Ludlow, Calumet, Everett, Alabama) the only fatal casualty was on the side of the would-be assassins, the attacking police. There will be no mass funerals of work- ers as a result of last Friday night’s attack, in which it is significant the first to fall was Joseph Harrison, president of the Passaic Local of the National Textile Workers’ Union, who now lies seriously wounded in a Gastonia hospital, a victim of the first broadside of murderous fire let loose by Aderholt’s invading army. In the case of the recent wrecking of the Mill Workers’ Union headquarters and the offices of the Workers’ Inter- national Relief, and last week’s attack on the tent colony, the bourgeoisie turns its full wrath on Negro and white workers alike. It must be noted clearly again that the employing class lynchers do not discriminate as to color in the class struggle. Today the lynching appetite that rages through the Carolinas hungers for the blood of white workers as well as black, for the strikers arrested at Gastonia, as well as for the life of Fred E. Beal, taken prisoner while on union busi- ness in South Carolina. There is no color line in the class war. It is boss against worker, irrespective of color, nation- ality or religion. The best and only effective defense of the Gastonia strikers is the mass support of labor throughout the nation. This assistance will be sabotaged and fought at every turn by the official regime of the American Federation of Labor, with its socialist and Muste lackeys, who have already charged every provocative act of the stool pigeons, detectives, gunmen, police and militiamen at Elizabethton. against the Tennessee strikers in Happy Valley. This was part of the Green-Hoffman-Kelly-Muste-Socialist campaign to drive the strikers back to their jobs, to force acceptance of one of the most abject surrenders in all American labor history upon one of the most courageous groups of strikers that have ever declared war against their exploiters. The defense of the Gastonia strikers brings before the whole working class, therefore, the growing effort to develop the campaign for class struggle trade unionism in the United States, based on the organization of the millions of unor- ganized in heavy industry. Defense of the Gastonia strikers means an offensive against the employing class, through rallying the toiling masses to fight on a class struggle basis against the “indus- trial peace” policies of the A. F. of L., Socialist and Muste traitors doing the bidding of their capitalist masters. Labor has never failed in the past to respond in such a crisis. It rallied in defense of Moyer, Haywood and Petti- bone facing the gallows in Idaho; it saved Mooney and Bil- lings from the hangman’s noose if it did not win their free- dom entirely ; it came to the defense of the Centralia victims in Washington; it gave mass support in defiance of the gov- ernment raids carried out against the Communist Party Con- vention at Bridgeman, Michigan, in 1922, so that not one of the 75 indicted ever remained in prison. The charge against the Communists in that year, as now, is that they were responsible for the strike wave sweep- ing the country. Labor must mobilize again in one of the most crucial struggles in its entire history; to support the effort of the unorganized textile workers to build a left wing industrial union in the newly industrialized South, where capital from the North seeks increasing profits. The extent of the support given the Gastonia strikers by workers throughout the nation will mark the readiness of labor everywhere to build militant organizations in all in- dustry . The Portes Gil Reaction in Mexico. President Portes Gil is doing everything in his power to make himself acceptable to the reaction, especially to Yankee imperialism and the Roman Catholic Church. His recent execution of outstanding peasant leaders, be- cause they dared urge the peasantry to retain the arms they had used against the clerical counter-revolution; the raids carried out against the Communist Party, resulting in the closing of its headquarters in Mexico City and the suppres- sion of its central organ, El Machete, take place at the very moment that emissaries of the Roman Catholic Church ar- rive in Mexico to start negotiations having for their object the re-opening of the Mexican Catholic churches, while new concessions are being granted to foreign financial interests. This is the Portes Gil government that was put in power by the former president, Calles, one of the heroes of Second Socialist International, who was feted by the quits, Bergers, and Cahans of the socialist party during visit to this country. The complete surrender of Portes Gil and Calles to Wall Street will result in an increasing exploitation of the Mexican worker and peasant masses, as in all Latin American coun- tries. The. inevitable resistance to this oppression, under the leadership of the Communist Party, will lead to new struggles for its pea for the defeat of foreign and - die, Uresence of any. such IN THE NAME Terror in the North Carolina ARTICLE III, By KARL REEVE. As the strike of the workers ‘ the Manville-Jenckes plant in Gas- 5 AYLY Wi VEEHES NEW YORK, TUESD. AY _ TUNE 11, 1929 THE LAW! Textile Area | ionia, N. C., progressed, it became | more and more clear to the strikers that all of the forces of the com- munity were arrayed against them The government authorities gave the strikers a complete and thorough education in the use of the courts, the police, the national guard, the press, etc. against them. Almost immediately, Governor Max Gard- ner, himself a mill owner, the militia, which made its head- quarters in the mill and which e: erted ell its energies to prevent picketing. Machine guns, howitzers, jtear gas bombs, were brought into the mill by the national guard.) Cables and ropes were stretched and the streets were cut off from traffic end pedestrians around the mill. Lose “Healthy Respect for La’ At the beginning of the strike, ‘some of the strikers had a healthy |respect for “the law,” but, as the strike progressed, they lost their il- lusions and learned that their only hope lay in their own organized mass power. ‘As a part of this edu- cation, I quote one or two affidavits made out by the strikers for the International Labor Defense, which conducted the defense of the strik- ers. Red Hendricks, being duly sworn, declared “this affidavit swears that he himself was arrested without a warrant, and while he was conducting himself in a peaceful and orderly manner, that he was man- handled, mistreated and after he had been carried to the city jail was beaten into unconsciousness by the efficers who had taken him into cus- tody.” Mrs. Ada Howell, one of the strikers, declared that while walk- ling the streets, exercising their jrights to peaceful picketing, many \strikers “have been arrested by of. jficers of the city of Gastonia and |cfficers of the county of Gaston and }onetted. The officers declared to and in the presence of this affiant, whom they beat unmercifully, that they -had orders to stop picketing out.” Russell Knight declares “this | effiant and others who have been set upon by Gastonia city policemen |and special deputies under the sher- \ite of Gaston county, who have cursed them, jabbed them with bay- onets, beaten them with clubs and rifles and thrust them into jail.” Strikers Continue to Picket. Tom P, Jimison, attorney for the International Labor Defense, de-| clared “when the strike was first | called the repyblican sheriff and the demccratic mayor made commor | cause against the strikers and fran- |tically called on Governor Gardner, |North Carolina’s mill-owning chief |executive, for troops. They acted as | though they had orders to break the strike. Major Stephen Dolley, in ‘charge of the national guard, when |approached by the representative of | jthe I. L. D. with an inquiry about | le prisoner, swelled up like a poi- soned pup and issued a statement to the press on what brand of Ameri- canism he endorsed. He acted} throughout like he was the Lord| |High Executioner of “the mighty world.” When it was found that the strik- ers continued picketing, in spite of the bayonets of the national guard, the city Council rushed :through an ordinance which declared “that no person, firm, corporation, organiza- tion, socity, order or assembly shall stage, conduct or carry on any pa- jrade, march or demonstration through or over the streets or side- walks of the city of Gastonia” without first obtaining a permit. The ordinance further declared “the ied out | * have been cursed, beaten and bay-| and they expected to carry ee ing, walking or marching in or with such parade, march or demonstra- jtion, shall be prima facie evidence jof or her engaging in or partici- pating in such parade, march or demonstration.” A fine of $50 or an imprisonment of 30 days is the penalty for violation of the ordi- nance. The ordinance just quoted April 23, after, the judge had de- cided that in its previous form only stick of dynamite at George Per- shing was frustrated by the strik- ers, but the police refused to prefer |any charges against Jones, Another attempt was made by an armed mob, |headed by Armstrong, a mill owner, to lynch Pershing, who escaped in an automobile in the nick of time. Fred Beal and myself -were twice ar- amended to its present form on| rested at night on the streets of |Charlotte, ridden around in automo- iles, searched and taken to the po- leaders of the picket line could be |lice station, threatened and ordered held under the ordinance. W. H. Moore, one of the strikers, in an af- ari idavit, tells of the carrying out of the ordinance, He says “when the meetings have been dismissed and the people have undertaken to leave they have been met upon the streets and highways by Gastonia police- men, by special deputies, alleged to be under the direction of the sheriff | jof Gaston county and by guards, | to leave town. Threats were daily | occurrences, Policemen and plain- jclothes detectives followed the strike leaders everywhere. All of this terror failed, the union | jeontinued to grow. The next step ‘of the mill owners was to institute jmass evictions, and more than 100, \strikers’ families were thrown on the | |streets in Bessemer City and Gas-| tonia. J. Valentine, the first to be alleged to be privately employed by | Manville-Jenckes Corporation, and | they have been dispersed and driven |from the sidewalks and _ streets, | |many of them being clubbed and beaten by the officers aforesaid and many of them having been lodged in jjail, charged with violating an or- dinance of the city of Gastonia.” | This affiant further swears “upon information and belief that the al- leged ordinance was passed at the instance of Manville-Jenckes Cor- poration, in order to interfere with the rights of the striking employes, snd when it was discovered by the city council and the Manville. Jenckes Corporation that the ordi nance at first enacted did not stop picketing, the city council met and amended the ordinance so as to in- jclude ell people who undertook to walk in groups upon the streets or who undertook to picket the mills \cf the Manville-Jenckes Corpora- tion.” Tricks of Mill Bosses Fail. The mill owners used every trick known in a strike in an attempt to ers Union. The organizers for the |N. T. W. U. were informed several |hours before it took lace of the in- |tention of the Manville-Jenckes Cor- poration, in co-operation wit the city and county authorities, to carry out a fake dynamiting of the mill, in order to frame up the strike lead- ers, and the strike leaders so in- formed a number of newspaper men in Charlotte. The dynamiting plot failed, in spite of the fact that the |company had shut down a section of the mill entirely and were keeping loveryone away from it. An unsus- pecting national guardsman. who was not in on the plot, caught the company stool-pigeon trying to plant the dynamite. A special deputy de- ‘clared that he would take him to the police station, Of course; this stool- |pigeon dynamiter “disappeared. us These facts were reported in the | southern press. Press Whips Up Lynching Spirit. During the first few weeks of ithe strike, an especial attempt was |made in the press to whip up a lynching spirit against the organ- izers, and such papers as the Char- lotte “Observer” and the Gastonia “Gazette” daily called upon “patri- otie citizens” to run the union or- ganizers out of town. Columns of abuse were hurled at the heads of the organizers. But the union con- tinued to grow, and the strike was spread, Fred Beal was framed up on a charge of abduction, but. the Superior Cofirt was forced to release break up the National Textile Work- | jevicted in Gastonia, declared in an affidavit made out for the I. L. D.| |“Sheriff Lineberger, through his | agents and deputies, together with | the Manville Jenkes Corp., through | jits agents and vice-principals, car- |ried affiant and members of his \family, some of whom were ill, to- {gether with their household goods | and effects from his house and placed them in the street and left them there, on a rainy day, exposed |to the weather.” This was done in the case of more than 100 families. | But the strikers left their meager belongings on the streets where they ad been placed by enkes thugs and waited for tents from the Workers International Re- \lief. A tent colony has now been built on Union Hill where the evicted |strikers are living. . Race Issue Fails. The next move of the mill owners was to fall back upon the race is- sue. It is interesting that when the, Civil Liberties Union brought suit, \against the Manville Jenkes Corp., |the mayor, chief of police of Gas- tonia and the sheriff of the county, that these people filed an answer which was an open attack upon the strike and which showed that they all considered that the real crime of the union was that it had dared to call a strike in the Manville Jenkes mill. The suit was brought against these authorities, charging them | with unlawfully breaking up picket- ing, with police brutality, etc. The answer filed i# a charge against the strikers that they favor race equal- ity, that they continued picketing and that they organized the workers into the union. The defendants charged petinst myself “Carl Reeve, representing himself to be a representative of the Integnational Labor Defense from the state’ of New York, and purport- ing to represent the striking employ- ees of the said union, has in his speeches and addresses to said strik- ing employees and others who had assembled urged and told the said udience to disregard the said ordi- Mesice (against picketing) and that the said authorities could do nothing with them, -stating that he would lead t] the parade himself.” The Charge Against Weisbord. ~The charge read in court against Weisbord, secretary-treasurer of the union, is as follows: “Recently the said Albert. Weisbord, in addressing an audience of striking employees and others in the western part of the city of Gastonia, advocated race equality in industrial organizations, urging and insisting that the colored people be allowed, requested and asked to join the National Textile Workers Union on, the earns footing hit the Manville | Fred Ellis | eas and local organizations, and used language substantially as fol- | lows: ‘every man and every woman, ee and black, tan, yellow and red, | jthat comes into this union comes jupon an equal footing’, which, as |the defendants are informed and be- lieve, is calculated to create feeling |between the employees opposed to |such race equality.” Another charge against us is that |we were “foreigners”. That is, we |were not born and raised in Gas- |tonia. After listing the strike lead- jers, the defendants state “None of jthem are natives of North Carolina jor natives of the South, but are from | \city of New York or that section of | |the country.” The authorities com- iplained that “the expense incurred jby Gaston county for the aforesaid | deputies in preserving peace and | |protecting property at this time is| {from $1000 to $1200 per week, be- | sides the expense to the city of Gas-| tonia in maintaining its police force for such purpose.” It is common \knowledge i in Gastonia that the Man-| |ville Jenkes Corp. pays the salaries | lof the deputies. The main charge | against the union is that it called |a strike in the Manville Jenkes plant | and the brief is particuiarly slander- | ous against Fred Beal, southern head of the N. T. W. U. The brief declares “the employees were called upon and advised to leave their em- |ployment and enter upon such strike and those employees who had left | their employment and entered upon | such strike were -called upon and| | advised to prevent in every way |possible all other employees of said | |company and of said plant from re- turning to their work in the said| |plant of the Manville Jenkes Corp.” | Thugs Smash Headquarters. The smashing of the union head- quarters by a masked mob of 200 men using tools from the Manville) |Jenkes mill, a mob which was com- posed partly of the special deputies, | was the definite turning point in| the use of mob violence in the strike. | |The headquarters were smashed while the National Guard looked on. |Beryl Stewart, one pf the deputies, was drunk as usual, shortly after \the smashing of the headquarters \and declared to a number of witnes- jses whose affidavits I possess, that he and other deputies had taken part in the smashing of the union head- quarters, and that the entire job had taken not more than fifteen minutes. This and similar’ evidence was turned over to the special grand jury, called together by Max Gard- ner. But, as could be expected, this jury was also controlled by the mill owners and declared they had no evidence as to who tore down the headquarters, «Learn of Class Struggle. Newspapers of the South charged that the N. T. W. U. is against the government. The strikers have learned that all government agencies, from: the federal government to the city government of Gastonia, are op- posed to them and their struggle for better conditions. This knowledge has been beaten and bayonetted into! them in the course of the weeks of | struggle, Thousands have joined the N. T. W. U. The strikers have be- come members of the International Labor Defense. They have learned that in Soviet Russia there is a workers’ government, where there is no cause for strikes, and where the trade unions and the government co- operate to benefit the working class. They are no longer afraid of the words “Communist” and “Bolshevik”. This is the result of the use of terror in the strike by the mill owners and their government agencies, and the result of the many lessons learned in the Gastonia strike. 2 @ NEgtO in the south (The iris article will deal with | wes her’ go! Two paces to the rear!” By FEODOR GLADKOY, CEMEN Translated by A. S. Arthur and C. Ashleigh All Rights Reserved—International Publishers, N.Y. #6" Gleb Chumalov, Red Army commander, returns to his town on the Black Sea after the Civil Wars to find the great cement worke, where he had formerly worked as a mechanic, in ruins and the life of the town disorg nized. He discovers a great change in his wife, Dasha, whom he has not seen in three years. She is no longer the conventional wife, dependent on him, but has become a woman with a life of her own, a leader among the Communist women of the town. Gleb wins over the workers to the task of reconstruction and also gains the approval of Badin, chairman of the District Executive of the oviet. . Badin and Dasha go on an important mission to a place some distance from the town. The road on which their carriage travelling is infested with bandits. On the way Badin makes ad- vances to Dasha, eee . * * ONE could not see the road ahead: it was broken by rocks and boulders, to right and left, above and below. In front of them they saw a wood, entangled with lianas, with ferns and bushes growing among crags—a wild place. It appeared to move away when they reached it, this wood with its mossy stones and cliffs moistened with the tears of subterranean rivulets; to the right and left it moved away, plunging down precipices and climbing cliff-terraces—a terrible height! Dasha did not see the crest, she shut her eyes and crouched in her corner like a little girl. And beyond there were other twilight? ravines, full of a dread speaking stillness, where mysteries lay. hidden or bandits’ lairs were concealed. Comrade Yegoriev turned round on the box, his beard flicking his shoulder. His eyes shone moistly out of the shaggy thicket of eyebrows and beard: “You were wrong, Comrade Chairman, not to have had a Cavalry escort. The robbers are bound to kill us here. Speculators get mur- dered here nearly every day. You’ve made a mistake, Comrade Chairman.” Dasha remembered having seen eyes like this before. Such slimy eyes crawled in the shadows of counter-revolutionary cellars. Badin, restrained, bursting with blood and quivering from its bestial throbbing, sat deep in the cushions of the phaeton, He was as though made of stone, fearless and calm; but under his heavy brows, in his steady eyes, deep in those eyeballs of dark mother-of-pearl, excitement burned from the throbbing of his blood. Was it danger in- toxicating him, or the heady fumes of Dasha’s nearness? How could Yegoriev fear the roving bandits when Badin ‘was here, so invincibly strong and brave? The stony weight of Badin was oppressive and painful to Dasha, who sat motionless. Yet it was pleasant in these dark hours to feel the reliable support in this man ‘of steel. ; * +1 Ne x Ra smiled and stared at Yegoriev’s beard. “Cowardice is more dangerous than bandits, Comrade Yegoriev. Carry on with your job and hold firmly to your reins and whip. The road is not so bad.” Yegoriev bent as though under a blow. He no longer raised his voice to urge the horses on; just tightening the reins he turned his head from side to side, guiping his saliva with difficulty. They drove on another mile. Suddenly, Dasha felt Badin’s mus- cles become tense; it was obvious he was fighting with all his strength against his emotions, his secret impulse. He breathed deeply, and pressed her into the corner of the carriage with the full weight of his. body. One arm was round her shoulders, the other on her breast, “Comrade Badin. . . . You dare not, Comrade Badin! Take your hands away! For shame!” He smiled drunkenly. He breathed heavily through his nostrils, “and his face was pale, “On the contrary, I do dare, and don’t see any great shame in it, We’re a good virile couple and it’s not becoming for us to pretend and babble hypocritical words. Let me be! You know“very well I never give in when there’s a fight! And what I want to do, I dol Ina struggle, I use all means.” Dasha struggled convulsively to free herself from his hands, but Badin pressed her more glosely, suffocating her, causing her to shriek out. He pulled her closer to himself and for a moment she saw his enormous black head and maddened bony face. Then his face stifled her with savage kisses and the strong odor of a man’s sweat, a * * * ‘HEN suddenly she felt the blood of his hands, lips and nostrils surg~ ing upon her; then followed a languor, a wave of feminine weake ness, of confused delight and fear. She could feel only her heart hammering ceaselessly in her breast. And one other thing she knew: she must fight furiously, strike, break his hands to catch him by the throat and strangle him, to get free from these iron, inhuman arms, Suddenly the carriage gave a leap, flinging them about on the seat. The forest seemed to turn and flash up into the sky; and it seemed as though the cliff were crashing down upon them. Dasha saw Yegoriev sway for a moment from side to side and then roll like a sack down upon the front wheel. At the same instant Badin tore himself from Dasha, and leaped forward seizing the reins. The horses began to struggle and rear between the shafts. “Halt! Hands up! We’ve got you, you bastards!” From behind boulders and out of the bushes came creeping Cir- cassian tunics and shaggy fur caps, rifle in hand. Dasha saw only these caps and the eyes beneath them. She no- ticed their rapacious gleaming. Then she saw, near to them, a blond Cossack, hatless, with foaming lips, dashing towards the horses. His upper lip quivered, displaying swollen gums and small reddish teeth like nails. Dasha had only time to shout convulsively: “Drive on!” And she jumped from the carriage upon the Cossack, falling with him into the stone-filled ditch by the road, ~~ * «© 4 ates! an unbearable weight crashed down upon her, as though # whole, crowd had fallen upon her and were dancing with their heels upon her flesh, forcing her into a narrow cleft. There was a sharp sour smell of wet wool and puttees. They were beating her; she did not remember whether there were shots nor whether thy pursued the _ carriage. It was as if she had been thrown into water, which was | boiling in a red-hot tank; and she knew only a roaring gulf and a crashing weight. When she came to herself she was standing, leaning against a © rock, and the whole band stood before her in a compact group, yelling at her, giving out stench of wet wool. She was being shoved about, — her arms twisted and her hair pulled. ' “Woman! A bloody woman! A woman! The bitch! Kick her | in the guts!” ‘ There was no carriage; only far away up the valley one could hear horses galloping and stones clattering down the slopes. As soon as Dasha heard this distant sound she recovered; her mind and heart re- vived. Comrade Badin is there, and far along the road. Badin was unhurt. On the other side of the road, opposite Dasha, with one leg raised against the cliff-side (a bare foot showing among leg-wrappings), Yegoriev lay on his coachman’s coat; his crushed hat lay in the road, His hair and ear and a part of his beard were congealed in blood, * “+ BESIND, a rock a horse was snorting and kicking and champing. Ne bit. Other Cossacks ran hither and thither with sweaty ciarinypd faces. “Bring her over here! What the devil are you all doing here?” A moustached, fur-capped Cossack stopped by the rock and erect, his hand to the salute. “A woman, Colonel. Let’s hang her and have done with it! »She’s the one that smashed Limarenko. Give us permission, Colonel.” , “Bring her here and don’t talk so much! Instead of her I shall have all you cowards hanged! You're only good for fighting women, — you swine!” Growling, stumbling over their rifles, the group dragged Dasha along like a doll—she did not walk, but trailed along in their hands— over the stones and ruts, on to the grass, and placed her before a horse which was madly snorting, its eyes bulging, and prancing. Dasha felt the moist hot odor of horse flesh; she felt shameless hands crawl greedily over her hips and thighs. The weapons rattled and voices cried together: q “Yes, it’s really woman, Colonel! Let’s crush the louse!” Dasha stood erect and looked straight at the Colonel. He regarded her steadily, swaying gently to the movement of his horse. He was wearing a Circassian cloak, a silver belt, silver epaulettes and a flat Kuban cap of Astrakan. His face was dirty and long unshaven; his Jong black moustache fell over his lips and chin. His nose was snub with a shiny rounded tip; and his bulging eyes fleshed with laughter or with insult. Ae. CONTINUED) _ * a NEBL > te