The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 20, 1929, Page 6

F Page Six ane DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 1929 TA Daily 34s Worker Central Organ of the Communist Party of the U.S, A. AND SON! Published by the Comprodaily Pub) Sunday, at 26-28 Union Squ: Telephone Stuyvesant 169 SUBSCRIPTION RAT By Mati Gin New York only): $4.50 six months By Mail (outside of New York $3.50 six months New York, N. ¥. York City, *DAIWORK. $8.00 a year three months $6.00 a year $2.00 three months Adéress and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 26-28 Union Square Spread the Furriers’ Strike! © Rea excellent response to the fur strike call of the Joint Board of the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union raises high the hopes for success in the drive of the furriers to wipe out the sweat shop and its accompanying miserable conditions which were brought on largely by the strike- breaking activities of the bosses’ company union, in which the socialists and the A. F. of L. were major participants. On the morning of the strike the garment center pre- sented a picture of a district under martial law. Policemen were stationed at points five feet from one another through- out the entire area. An attempt was made to stop the dis- tribution of strike calls and several workers were arrested. The Tammany police and courts will be used to the full against the strikers. The needle workers have already in many struggles shown their great courage. The whole work- ing class must help to defeat these enemies of the proletariat. The furriers have to their credit the victory of 1926 which won better conditions, which were later lost through the attacks of the reactionary labor fakers who achieved for the fur manufacturers and contractors what the bosses themselves could not achieve. This brought back the slavery and terrorism which the fur workers in heroic struggles had previously succeeded in greatly modifying. For approximately two years the fur workers have suf- fered beyond endurance. Now is their chance to beat back the exploiters’ onslaughts. The furriers union was among the first to raise the de- mand for a five-day forty-hour work week. It was their challenge on this issue at the Detroit convention of the A. F...of L. two years ago which shattered the complacency of William Green’s fat boys. In the face of the opposition of the combination of the bosses, socialists and labor fakers this demand was won, only later to be again lost, through the underhand disruptive work of the socialist and A. F. of L. bureaucrats. Now the demand is again raised with the same enemies fighting against it, the same enemies re-inforced by..the new group of reactionaries, the Muste group. The other demands are the equal division of work, un- employment insurance administered by the union, no section contracting, no discharge, payment of wages for time lost during strike, and many others including special youth de- mands. The workers are also directing their struggle against police brutality and against protection of boss and socialist gangsterism. The workers are now fighting with the advantage of a militantly led industrial union. The union will make the strike more effective than ever before by aggressively or- ganizing all the workers in the shops, including floor boys, shipping workers, office workers, and especially the Negro workers. The fur industry, lying as it does in the New York gar- ment district, offers an excellent opportunity for effective demonstrations of solidarity by the workers in other branches of the needle industry. The millinery, ladies’ gar- ment, men’s clothing, and workers in similar lines must exert every effort to aid the fur workers in their picketing of the shops and the prevention of scabbing. The New York fur workers are among the best fighters of the working class in this city. The splendidly conducted food strike which won so much for the cafeteria workers, accomplished what it did only because of the help that the needle trades workers among others, gave to it. A victory for the fur workers means a strengthening of the whole working class in the fight against the “efficiency produc- tion” (rationalization) program of the capitalist class. It therefore becomes the duty of all workers to energetically support the furriers’ strike, to help the fur workers tie up the whole industry by spreading their strike and thus bring this struggle to a victorious conclusion. We Need a Stronger Defense Machinery. Bag events at Gastonia bring again to mind the trem- endous importance of developing a strongery defense machinery for the working class. The capitalists have their permanent, well financed courts, prosecuting attorneys, departments of “justice”, etc. The workers have only the International Labor Defense to defend them against this powerful frame-up machinery of the government. Within recent months the number of workers mistreated, arrested, indicted and imprisoned has greatly increased. se for a great variety of reasons ranking in some cases merely asking that the bosses pay the wages due them _ a8'in the case of the Arab seaman in Baltimore to the “of- fense” of not allowing a massacre against the workers to be “perpetrated, as in the case in Gastonia. ~=2"It must be ‘clear to every thinking worker that our de- _ fense is entirely inadequate. The International Labor De- fe with its small resources is fighting loyally against the of government persecutions against the workers. But L. D. does not have sufficient facilities for their gr Especially do they not have a permanent machinery _ to meet the emergency needs of every moment. Days and V are often lost while workers lie in jails before suffi- resources can be mustered to meet a situation. . e example of the Civil Liberties Union attacks on the we must have an independent working class defense fully equipped to meet every working class need. | textile prisoners from the death clutches of the _ efforts must be directed towards building the ranches and sections of the International Labor meet all future, similar emergencies. By Jacob Burck The Slaves of the Silk Barons ND SILK—By Grace International Pub-§ liskers, New York. In cloth, ; board, $1, +) me (Reviewed by Gertrude Haessler.) NY worker who is amazed at the wave of textile strikes engulfing jthe indastrial sections of the South, | |and who wants to know what caused | jthis sudden and unexpected out- |break, will find the reasons in the | |book, “Labor and Silk,” the first in | \the “Labor and Silk Industry” series \being put out by the Labor Research | | Association. The book was written before the \cutbreak occurred (although it fore- sees it), but the facts contained in it on the silk manufacturing indus- try, especially as it affects the workers in the industry, and the} working class interpretation of these | facts, makes it plain to the reader | why the Southern wave arose and| why the rumblings of renewed en- counters in other textile centers, jespecially in New England, ere be- | ing again heard. | + + 8 | Everyone who has worked in the | silk will be struck not only by the vecurate and vivid descriptions of the lives and conditions of work of cvery type of worker in the indus- | try, but also by the comprehensive | handling of the subject—from the ; simple pictures of the homes of the | workers contrasted with those of the | employer, the immediate problems | of the workers— wages, hours, speed- up, unemployment, sanitation, pro- tection, piece-work, child labor, com- | pany tuwns, ete.—phases of the polit- | ical aspects of the industry and how } they affect the worker, and finally ihe more complicated aspects, which seem very remote and complex to the average worker—the’ influence on his life of the monopoilization of | the industry, international complica- | tions, struggle for markets, war, | speculation and the throttling role of finance capital behind the entire | iscene. | | The book goes into the history of | \the industry since the first strike in jthis country, which took place in} Paterson, N. J., in 1928, It stresses conditions in the South. It goes into the lives of workers in the silk in other countries, personal obser- vations of the author of conditions in China, various European coun- tries, and, most interesting of all, ‘the Soviet Union today. | * * | When it comes to handling the |trade union question, the breakdown lof craft lines in the industry, the | rude toppling off of the’ skilled | jworker from his pedestal of aristoc- racy and special privilege by the constant production of modern ma- chinery and new labor-saving de- iviees, are analyzed to show that the usefulness of the craft-bound forms lof organization of the American Federation of Labor is worn out. |The history of all the unions in the \silk industry is given, but none of ‘them are criticized and analyzed clearly enough to enabie an un- | class-conscious worker to distinguish Ithe role which the various unions are playing in the class struggle | The Associated Silk Workers, for instance, is nowhere unequivocally condemned, although during the re- cent strike in Paterson it exposed its so-caNed progressiveness and was shown as a_ typteal reactionary junion.. Nor does the United Textile |the author’s sympathies for this new “Labor and Silk” By Grace Hutchins Shows the Unmerciful Exploitation by the Mill Bosses quate treatment. The U. T. W. to-|fore urging the workers to join :t, day is one of the chief stumbling |and of hopping on the bandwagon blocks for the organization of the|cnly when it sees success in sight. unorganized, as anyone following | But this. unsigned note, whether it events in the South can see, and it emanates from the editors or from is necessary in any treatment of the jthe author? would lead undiscrimin- textile workers to strip it completely |ating readers to interpret it in just of any pretences of being an organ-|this way. lization benefiting the workers. I AIG Another point to be criticized is} The introduction to the “Labor the attitude toward the National and Industry” serics promises the Textile Workers Union. Although |reader a “concrete program of ac- \tion.” If the last paragraph of the book is supposed to serve us the conscious worker, there is not one |concrete program of action for im- sentence in the entire book which |mediate struggle, then the same specifically urges the silk worker to |criticism holds as above—nothing join the N, T. W. U. It is the back- |definite, all vague and unclear. Rec- ward unclass-conscious worker who |cmmendations for 100 per cent or- needs this urging, and this book does |ganization, and the improvement it not give it. It is true, the book|will bring, but not how to get this urges a militant union, “headed by |100 per cent organization. fearless and untiring leaders,” but| For the complete emancipation of fails to point out that such a union |the working class from capitalist ex- has already come into existence. |Ploitation, the “concrete program of Since the author is herself a mem- action” is still less “concrete.” Say- ber of the N. T. W. U., the explana- jing that there is no solution under tion for this fault may be found in |capitalism for the evils from which the fact that in this “Labor and In- | the industry suffers, and urging 100 dustry” series sponsored by the La-|per cent organization on an interna- bor Research Association the policy |tional scale under fearless and un- of presenting the new unions has tiring leaders, merely indicates again not yet been clearly defined. where the sympathies of the author ee lie, without giving the reai solu- To the class-conscious, mili- militant union are clear to the class- The review of the same book in tion. the March 4 issue of “Labor Unity” contains a similar criticism, but the March 11 issue hastens to the de- fense of the author by pointing out that the N. T. W. U. was only newly-organized at the tirme the book went to press and that there- But since the book does not contain the program and constitution of the union, it would be interesting to know why it is impossible at the same time to advocate joining a union which seems in every respect to measure up to the author’s idea of what a militant union should be. “Labor Unity” is certainly not a paper which is in the habit of wait- ing to sce how a union gets on be- tant, left wing worker, the convic- tions of the author on the point of political action are obvious, but this worker does not need anyone to point out the solution. It is the as yet unclass-conscious worker, blindly groping for a solution of the seem- fore it was impossible for the author |ingly insurmountable obstacles in his to come out unequivocally for it. |way to a life free from exploitation and oppression, who must have his way clearly and unmistakably pointed out to him. This the book fails to do. out the Communist Party as the champion of the working class not only in its day-to-day struggle, but in its struggle for complete eman- cipation, for the overthrow of those basses who seem so powerful, for the wresting of power from their ee Wall Street Picks New Lesser Underlings Nowhere does it point | |hands—or the revolution which will | destroy all exploitation and misery \ot all the workers. eters This failure to point out the Com- munist Party as the leader of the working class is inexcusable. In fact the Communist Party is mentioned enly twice in the entire, book—when speaking of Harry Wicks as the leader of the 1924 strike in Pater- son it mentions that he is a mem- ber of the Communist Party. The second time is when a “mass meet- ing arranged by the Workers (Com- munist) Party for Albert Weisbord was broken up by the police.” That is all. Where is the “concrete pro- gvam of action?” Certainly no con- crete program of action for any worker can be anything but iden- tical with the program of the Com- munist Party, which includes the ad- vocacy of the National ‘Textile Workers Union in the struggle for immediate demands. Surely a con- crete program of action must point to the Communist Party as the champion of the working class, as the vanguard which is preparing the working class for its final and mighty struggle to seize power and establish a society without exploita- |tion and without classes. | re not only the International lishers and the L, R. A. are at fault, but the author, too, for she does not even introduce her convic- tions by implication as she does on the question of the National Tex- tile Workers Union. The author is a member of both the N, T. W. U. and of the Communist Party, and with such an admirable mass of facts as a basis the logical conclusion should be clearly and unequivocally brought out. *“ * 8 However, viewed as a compilation of striking facts created from a working class point of- view, the book so far is the only one of its kind in existence, and, in spite of its political and interpretive short- comings, it is fully worth the dollar to buy it.and the time to read and study it. For anyone active in the textile industry, whether as a work- er, organizer, writer or what-not, the book is absolutely indispensable. It should form part of the library of every organizer of-the N. T. W. U., it should be a hand-book for every militant silk worker, every class-conscious fighter among the textile workers, and for every work- er interested in the conditions of work of his fellew-workers in this country and elsewhere, * 8 8 The style of the book is simple and clear. The illustrations by Es- ther Shemitz, drawn from life of workers actually at the bench, are eloquent in their faithful expression of all the patience and misery and endurance of these terrifically ex- ploited workers. The cover design is immediately recognized as one of Louis Lozowick’s best portrayals of the beauty of line of the machine— one need not even look for the sig- nature to recognize it as this prole- tarian artist’s work. The Labor. Research Association is doing the working class a great Wall Street has picked ite new Treasury and Justice Department, who “little cabinet”, They are no less anxious to do the bidding of their masters, the big business men, than the higher servants of Wall St. Left to right, Ferris. Heath, new under secretary of the treasury; J. P. Cotton, new under secretary of state, and Charles P. Sisson, Workers Union come in for ade- new assistant attorneu general. — “ service in issuing this series. All silk workers, all te#tile workers, all workers, no matter in what industry they are engaged, are urged to be- gin accumulating the whole of this valuable series by buying the first volume, Sf o¢ | |\CEMEN By FEODOR GLADKOV Translated by A. S. Arthur and C. Ashleigh All Rights Reserved—International Publishers, N. Y. Gleb Chumalov, Red Army Commissar, returns to his town on the Black Sea after the Civil Wars to find the great cement works, where he had formerly worked as a mechanic, in ruins and the life of the town disorganized. He discovers a great change in his wife, Dasha, whom he has not seen for three years. She is no longer the conventional wife, dependent on him, but has become a womun with a life of her own, a leader among the women of the town to- gether with Polia Mekhova, secretary of the Women’s Section of the Communist Party. Gleb wins over the leading Party workers to the task of rem ~ constructing the factory and work is started. } an ee | CHAPTER X. STRATA OF THE SOUL. L Quiet Moments. | ea the factory dining-room and passing through the tired crowd, Dasha and Gleb, worn out, came out upon the high road and then turned off down a wild path invaded by bushes, wild vines and tangles of ground ivy. They had only just entered a wood of young oaks and witch-elms, whose bluish semi-transparency pulsated with the murmur of spring, when they were joined by Polia Mekhova, “Comrades, I’d like to walk with you as far as your little den. I would like to rest a few moments with you in quietness.” Dasha and Gleb glanced at each other simultaneously. Some- thing flashed in the eyes of both. A question? Astonishment? An- noyance? They gave no sign by word or movement. Dasha took Polia by the arm, “Comrade Mekhova, you have never visited us yet. We afl five together in our work; but we don’t know how each other lives at home.” * * * porte shook her long curls, entangling them in a thorny branch. She gave a little shriek, stood still and started to laugh. She took the rough mossy twig in her fingers, looked at it with gay curiosity and smelt it. “How nice it is here! It’s so long since I’ve been in a wood. It smells of dew and damp earth. And this bitter-sweet odor, it is the buds and the sap of the trees. How long ago since I was here, it seems! As though the last time were in my childhood. Here in these woods we feel not as we are, but as others see us. . . . And for that reason it’s just a little sad and painful. When we were working on the mountain it wasn’t sad at all; but here these little oaks and this spring-time smell seem to stir me. Probably I shouldn’t leave work to go in the country. I’m going to take your husband’s arm, Dasha; he’s got enough strength for both of us. After all, we are weak women.” She chattered like a little girl, playing with the branches, laugh- ing nervously, hurrying on excitedly, as though trying to say some- thing grave and important; perhaps she wanted to weep, perhaps com- plain, perhaps abandon herself to her own troubled feelings. . . . She ran over to Gleb and took his arm, bending forward and looking across him at Dasha. “You're not jealous, Dasha?” But Dasha, smiling, looked at Polia like a good friend, “D’you want me to pull your hair, Comrade Mekhova? If you’re so bewitched by this great bear, there’s no need to doubt his strength.” “Oh, I know his strength! His fight with the Cossack on the mountain proved that all right!” * * * oie) Gleb felt Polia’s hand press his to her soft breast. Here was Dasha, and here the curly-headed Polia. Both women passed over his heart like waves which met together in a warm flood. There was Dasha, so fine, so near, difficult to understand and to overcome. And Polia was a weak child, all fire, trembling with emotion and impulse. ee his elbows he pressed the arms of both women and began to laugh. “Well, each one of you sit on one of my arms! I’m going tovarry you both home!” Dasha struck him in the ribs, threw up her head and cried loudly: “Oh, don’t boast so, soldier!” __ “There, damn it all—sit down! Just because you’re a couple of militants you think that you’re not the same women? Sit down on my arms!” Polia’s eyes flashed gaily; laughter quivered in her face. “Come on, Dasha, let’s make him sweat. He’s had a lot to do today, his bluff won’t carry him very far.” “Come on, you little hares! You snub-noses! Sit down now——!” He stretched out his arms, bending down, and seized the two awomen below the hips. With cries and laughter they put their arms round his neck, entwining their arms and locking their fingers. Gleb’s knees cracked and the blood rushed to his face and neck. Without slackening his pace, he walked firmly on, carrying the two women who were like two little, laughing school-girls. af ee | essen sprang down first, gasping with laughter. Polia got down slowly, stealthily pressing against him with her breasts and curls, “There now! You see? mockers!” So don’t accuse me of boasting, you They were both women, and both had soft full breasts, But Dasha was different—his own; and Polia was different—a stranger. _ Already the sun qvas sinking, fading beyond the distant moun- tain ridge; and the sky above them was a deep thick blue, except in the opal dimness over the sun, where it was stained with fire. The mountains seemed very near, rushing down in streams of black and bronze towards the fissures and terraces of the works. On the right, i beyond the slope, along the steep rib, the ropeway cut a sharp yellow strip, like a furrow. . . . 'HE violet shadows of evening, dim as though strewn with ashes, floated up from the valley along the crater-like gullies. There were still patches and strips on the rocks and slopes which blazed / i fierily. And here, among the blue cobwebby bushes, in this isolat place with its grass-grown paths, the twilight silence came flooding the land like water. It seemed to flow up out of the earth, out of the wild undergrowth of the forest, and from the ravine where a little brook rustled. The stones in the brook seemed alive like tortoises and ‘the water played there, black, flashing with blue. This. yalley dark- ness, charged with the heady fumes of the moist spring earth of the grass, and of unborn leaves in pregnant buds, exhaled the breath of the earthy depths, their tangled roots and_airy branches, Through the transparent network of the branches, the tops of the smoke-stacks plazed like orange torches. The Pléasant Colony blinded your eyes with the fiery reflections of its windows. That was up above; and down below, along the slope, the little houses and the tenements were melting into the creeping twilight. These two women, Dasha and Polia. One his own, the other a stranger, were equally dear. In two waves they passed through his heart, meeting together in a warm blood. Which wave would recede first from his heart? Or would they cross each other, leaving him forever in different directions? “Yes, What has passed today can never be forgotten.” And in Polia’s wide-open eyes Gleb read the hidden significance of these words, He understood that there on the mountain peak, om the edge of the precipice, under the shower of bullets, a new and dis- turbing bond had been forged between him and Polia, without either of them willing it. (TO BE CONTINUED.) . 2 I