The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 3, 1929, Page 4

Vage Four DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 1929 s of of the Sixth World Congress of the Communist ave proven the correct hat the question of a new in the t pointed out N ever fe ngside of endl of the ch sh war p present time. s talk and anda about disarmament, alongside of long military preparations ied, military budgets tant lustry can now be turned istry within the shortest amount of time f militarizing the entire population has re: time in th ist offensive is advancing. itish imperialisn inst the op- American imperialism in India, Egypt and French impe alism in Morocco, Syria and Central d Italian imperialism in Albania, Japanese imperialism in Korea and China, se facts signalize that the day of a new imper- jalist war is rapidly approaching. The struggle against the colonial peoples is linked up with the preparations for a new open attack against the Soviet Union, which is the natural ally of all oppressed colonial peoples as well as being the fatherland of the revolutionary working class throughout the world. The strengthening of the united front of impe sm must be met with a mobilization of the working class thru- out the world. We must unite all the forces under the prole- tarian banners in a struggle against imperialism. It is for this reason that the Sixth World Congress of the Commu- nist International decided to emphasize and intensify the of- fensive against imperialism and imperialist war with Inter- national Red Day throughout the world on August 1. The significance of Red Day is far more than a mere anti-imperialist demonstration. The war danger today is a basic characteristic feature of capitalism, especially in the present period, and a struggle against the war danger is part of the struggle against the entire capitalist system and inst all methods they use in order to deceive the working class. aga nternational Red Day is of great significance to our Party and to all class-conscious workers in this country. Red Day takes place in a period of sharpening class struggles. The present wave of strikes in all parts of the country is one of the signs of sharpening class struggles. The textile strike in Gastonia, the shoe workers strike in New England, the furriers’ strike in-New York, and many other strikes in the auto and other industries are not isolated factors but are part of a new wave growing militancy and increased fighting capacity of the American working class. That is why the state apparatus is now mobilizing all its forces for a struggle against our Party and the left wing in general. The attempt to electrocute our best fighters in the South, the < 5 which took place in Chicago, the mobilization of 5( police for the furriers’ strike is only the begin terror against us. By s ully mobilizing large masses of the workers for Red Day our Party will succeed in transferring the pre- sent battles of the American working class into a : stage of the class struggle. ted Day will also be the concrete expression of the left- ward swing, of militancy and fighting spirit of large mas of the American working class. “The rising discontent of the proletariat, united and schooled by the mechanism of capitalist production inself” (CI Program) will express itself on Red Day. The proletariat of Berlin, Paris, London, New York, Tokyo and Shanghai, under the banner of the Communist International will dem- onstrate their mighty power. On August First demonstrate against imperialist wars! On August First demonstrate in defense of the Soviet Union! bs On August First demonstrate for the international sol- idarity of the revolutionary working class! Two hundred Russian counter-revolutionary emigres have arrived at Lima, Peru, to settle in the Peruvian wilder- ness near the basin of the Amazon River. They were headed by the anti-Soviet general, Pavlichenko, who fought for the almost forgotten czar in the world war, and later joined the Denikine and Wrangel attacks against the Soviet Union. The Denikines, Wrangels and Pavlichenkos never got to Moscow as did Napoleon. But the greatest of the Bonapartes might well envy Pavlichenko’s retreat, all the way across Europe, the broad Atlantic and then South America. The Red Army of the Soviet Power sure has some pick. William Jennings Bryan no doubt rejoices in his grave that out of 831 rural homes surveyed in Alabama, the Bible was the only book found in 234 of them. In 23 homes there was no reading matter at all. By keeping the workers and poor farmers in ignorance, or doped with the opiates of re- ligion, the industrialists and landlords hope to keep the masses enslaved to the profit system. Elizabethton and Gastonia, however, are testimony to the fact that labor rebels in spite of every effort to keep it illiterate, ignorant and superstitious. Sidney Webb, the British “laborite,” secretary of state for the dominions in the “labor” government, has been ac- cepted into the imperial aristocracy through the action of King George V, in handing him the title of Baron Passfield, of Passfield Corner, the name of his country residence near | | | | | | MANVILLE-JENCKES’ 1.47 *77HE Pclbureau is desirous of securing the broadest pos- sible Enlightenment Campaign on the Comintern Ad- dress and the immediate Part y tasks outlined therein. All Party members and particularly the comrades active in the rkshops in the basic indust By MAX BEDACHT The following series of articles represents extracts from speeches delivered Comrade Bedacht, as yepresentative of the Central Com- mittee, to Functionaries’ meetings in’ New York, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. This series is devoted to some main political questions and may ~be used as an outline by agitprop workers in the enlightenment cam- paign. But special care must be taken in localizing and concretiz- ing the self-criticism, as well as the immediate political tasks in the light of the Comintern Ad- dress (questions which were dealt with by Comrade Bedacht in his previous articles), 1.—Our International Party and Its Discipline. For the comrades whose ideology and political conceptions have in the past run in the direction which is riticized and condemned in the Ad- lress of the Communist Internation- al to our Party, the question of the eptance of the CI Address pre- ents itself first of all as the prob- lem of discipline. It is, therefore, indispensible that a correct premise be established for the consideration of the CI Address through a correct approach to the problem of Party and Comintern discipline. , The international character of the class struggle on the one hand, manifesting itself also in common action, campaigns and understand-| ings of the capitalist world in its struggle against the workers, and,, on the other hand, the close inter- dependence of the problems and the fate of capitalism in one country with those of capitalism of any or) all other countries necessitate the organization of the proletarian class truggle on a plan of international organizational unity and of unity of the major tactics. To meet this necessary requirement the advance guard of the revolutionary working | class of the world, the Communists, are organized in an international Party, the Communist International. The International through its con- gresses and its international execu- - tive committee lays down the com- mon plan of action for the Interna- tional Party; it decides upon the general line to be followed by all of its component parts. These com- ponent parts in turn, the Communist Parties of the different countries, insure the adaptation of the general line and tactics of the International | Party to the peculiar and particular conditions of the class struggle in their respective countries. The Exe- cutive Committee of the Communist International and its sub-committees | watch and guide this adaptation by the different parties to the general line of the Comintern, correcting er- rors here, enlivening initiative there, criticizing, correcting, condemning, if necessary, and guiding. This function of our International Party is possible only with the uni- ries are invited to write their IST STRIKEBREAKER By Fred Ellis Enlightenment Campaign on the Comintern Address to the Communist Party | opinions for the Party Pres: also will be printed in this section. ing with this campaign to Comrade Jack Stachel, care Na- tional office, Communist Party, 45 E. 125th St., New York | City. mintern Address to Our Party Resolutions of Factory Nuclei Send all material deal- | Discipline, therefore, acceptance of| the. decision must therefore in all; every comrade who up to this mo- the directions and the decisions of the Comintern, are a fundamental principle of our International Party. Without accepting this principle one cannot be a member. Rejection of this principle means the rejection of the 21 conditions of membership in the Comintern, adopted at the Second World Congress in 1920. The submission of the individual members or of the parties to the CI is not the outgrowth of a merely formal relationship between the component parts and the whole. It is the outgrowth rather of a very important political relationship and political consideration. We submit to International discipline because we consider that the revolutionary integrity, the revolutionary energy, the revolutionary experience, the rev- | Olutionary knowledge of the whole , International is greater than, and superior to the integrity, experience, knowledge, etc. of any individual member or Party of the Comintern. We submit therefore, not out of fi mal considerations but because w consider the whole of the Comm nist International a higher authority on questions of theory and practice than any individual member or sec- tion of the International so that the authority of the individual mem-| character of this acceptance, there-| tional point of view. ber or section must give way to the authority of the whole International. cases be transformed into a political) ment has accepted the CI decision acceptance. The formal acceptance} of a CI decision must be completed} with a conscious analysis of the de- cision to which we submit in order) to penetrate and absorb the political reasons of the Comintern for mak- ing the decision. Only thus can the political unity of the Comintern and the International uniformity of its struggle against capitalism be prea} served, It is manifestly impossible to win the Party and the working class for the political line of our International Party if we ourselves have reserva- tions as to the correctness of this line and if we ourselves submit to the line only as a matter of formal discipline. It is manifestly impos- sible to mobilize the Party for a Cl decision or to win the working class for the CI line if our thunderous assertion of the sacredness of the principle of International leadership and of the indispensibility of Inter- national guidance have an either ar- ticulate or inarticulate undertone to the effect that this leadership is wrong and that this guidance is in practice, incorrect. My own acceptance of the Com- intern decision and the very formal | fore, confronted me with the duty | to change my point of view on the only formally. IL.—Factional Corruption. For six years our Party has gone} through a continuous and most} severe factional struggle. The mo- mentum of this struggle survived) political issues which caused and fed) it. The factional divisions within the Party, finally, developed into a| theoretical system. Factional consi- derations, at first only seriously in-| terfering with general political and| class struggle considerations, finally | supplantel them. Not only was the inner life of the Party completely dominated by this factional phyl- osophy which culminated in the theory that the interest of the Party and of the faction are identical, not only was every organizational and political step influenced and finally} decided by primarily factional consi-| derations but the necessarily petty | maneuvering of the factions against | each other within the Party sup- planted every other form of strategy and maneuver even in the relation- ship of the Party towards the work- ing class and towards the CI. In {other words, even the working) class and the CI were treated as, factions and approached from a fac-| | | This state of affairs is plastically | \ilustrated by the reactions of our| After we have argued ‘the matter, issues involved and to adopt that | Party and its leadership to the criti- | out with the Comintern and after) point of view to the one of our In-| cism of the CI. When the CI made; the argument is settled by a definite/ ternational Party. It confronted me | critical observations concerning our) decision, we not only accept the de-| with the necessity of analyzing seri-| policies we made no effort to analyze cision as a matter of discipline but) ously all of the arguments and| what is wrong with us but we un- we accept the correctness of the de-| reasons given by the Comintern for hesitatingly ask the question what cision as a matter of recognizing the its action in order to learn and to|is wrong with the CI.. Decisions of international and ideological super-| understand the viewpoint of the|the CI were not analyzed politically | iority of the Comintern over our-| Comintern, and to be able to apply but purely factionally. The formal acceptance of it correctly. This same problem faces | by the CI of mistakes and errors of selves. Silk Workers Get Jobs Today in Mills; None Tomorrow By GRACE HUTCHINS* PATERSON, N. J., (LRA).— “My sister and I never take jobs in the same mill,” explained a silk weaver. “Not because we don’t like working together, but because a mill is sure to close down part of the year. Then maybe another mill where the other of us is working | won't close down at the same time |and we can live on what one of us \is earning.” | What this silk weaver knows by years of experience, the U. S. Bur- eau of Labor Statistics, federal gov- |ernment agency, knows by statis- jfical charts. Few silk workers can count upon any rogularity of em- ployment during a year. Six years’ official record of employment in 104 mills is summed up in the | Monthly Labor Review with the con- |clusion that “employment in the silk industry as a whole is rather un- |stable and has shown no improve- ment in recent years.” cording to government statistics “the stability of employment” in \that plant is 65 per cent. At least |35 workers who had jobs in that | mill during its busiest season were out of work at some time during the year. More than a quarter of the silk ‘mills included in this government | study showed “stability of employ- |men” as less than 85 per cent in the last thrce years, This means ‘that for those plants at least one | worker out of every six was out of \a job during part of the year. Six | plants in 1928 reported less than 70 per cent in stability. Shorter Work Week. As a first step toward securing greater stability of employment for silk workers and for other textile workers, the National Textile Work- ers’ Union demands shorter working hours, the 40-hour week, abolition of ight work, and abolition of child fiabor. Fighting to take the children out of the mills and to secure the A criticism | one group were interpreted as a fac- {tional support of the other group, land instead of) analyzing why the CI criticized “our group” we asked |the question why did the CI “join ‘the other group.” | The theory of identity of the in- |terests of the group with the in- terests of the Party could not but jlead to the monstrous conception | that the Cl’s determination to smash “four group” is a determination to smash the Party. It led to the |equally monstrous conclusion that the CI’s determination to end “our ; group leadership” must needs be a | determination to establish the lead- ership of “the other group.” Factionalism has thus created with our Party a sort of. political myopia. We could not see straight jany more. Political considerations | were replaced by factional consider- |ations. The only guard against serious political errors: a Marxist Leninist revolutionary political proach to all questions and problems, ‘was replaced by a purely factional approach. Thus factionalism. be- came in itself one of the worst mani- festations of the right danger, be- came in itself a manifestation of op- portunism and in turn became a breeder of politically right mistakes. These right errors remained unde- tected because of the factional inflic- | Low “Stability.” versal acceptance within it of the Southampton. It is certain that the “Baron” will never If 100 workers are employed in a 8-iour day, 5-day week for all work- | principle of subordination of the plant running at full capacity but parade his title before the Southampton dock workers. They gg dump him in the ocean along with other useless rub- h, i, | conéeptions of any individual mem- only 65 workers are regularly em- ber or any section of the eal tional to the decisions of the whole. ployed in this plant as a monthly average through the year, then ac- ers, this militant union calls at the same time for a determined front} against the whole system of capital- ist oppression and exploitation, 4 tion of political myopia and thus they had a fair chance to develop into a right opportunist line, 4 (To Be Continued) By FEODOR CEMENT tusovov Translated by A. S. Arthur and C. Ashleigh All Rights Reserved—International Publishers, N. Y. Gleb Chumalov, Red Ar r, returns to his town on the Black Sea after the Civil Wars to find the great cement wor 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 woman with a ‘life of her own, a icader among ine Communist women of the town. Under the direction of Gleb, a group of Communist workers start confiscating the belongings of the middle class elements. Among the victims are Chirsky, a former “socialist,” and an eccentric old scholar, the father of Serge Ivagin, a Bolshevik intellectual. The middle class people are now being moved out of the town. * ‘HE carts, loaded with large white bundles, were crawling on in single file. At the rise of the street they could be seen emerging from the hollow—the white bundles and the heads of the horses. On the second cart stood a Young Communist with bare chest and curly head. He was kicking his legs and playing a polka on his guitar. Somewhere in the distance an asthmatical concertina was hoarsely wheezing and moaning. The Special Communist Detachment lined the road on either side, each man seven paces from the next, with grounded rifles. The rest ot the Communists, haggard and morose from sleepless nights, were looking at the crowd without seeming to see it. In the side streets trampled and shouted another crowd: small traders and other petty bourgeois, who had come out to see this unusual sight. The petty bourgeois women do not look abroad for laughter, They are soft-hearted—they are fond of burials and tears; and at a wedding it is not the dancing, but the sorrow and tears of the bride that at- tracts them. Such is the life of the petty bourgeois woman; she will welcome a stranger in tears rather than one who comes with laughter. So here in their hearts, theplower middle-class women felt the call of abundant tears; and they were running in from various parts of the town, from their own little houses or from nationalized flats, to revel in the moans and sobs of these oppressed, honorable and re- spected families. Greedily and sadly they gazed at the sobbing women, and their puffy faces were watered with greasy tears. ie * See in the distance an order was given. Other voices passed it down the length of the line. The convoy shouldered arms, the crowd shuddered, a deep sigh rose; it became agitated, rushing hither and thither as on a market day. Sobs, hysterical cries, ex- clamations and shouts of these fear-maddened people threw them to- gether into close groups, dominated by disorderly panic. There was no air, no streets, no houses—there was only an orgy of death and a mad despair. The first carts of the caravan began to rumble on and the crowd, with a storm of sobbing, surged in a broad wave along the street. Serge wds walking behind Dasha and behind him came Shuk. On the other side of the street—one could see them through the crowd— were walking little Gromada, the hump-backed Loshak, and Mekhova. A vague anguish filled Serge’s breast, What they were doing was ugly, revolting. Surely the Party could not authorize it. this crowd? These women convulsively sobbing? These children in their mothers’ arms? The Party could not approve of this, he thought; for Serge it was too heavy, more than he could bear. Over there was the little girl with the doll; she was holding her mother’s hand and in her other hand she grasped the doll’s arm. Chirsky walked on calmly, his head high, with sacrificial dignity; his braces slid up and down on his shoulders, and his hands were in his trouser pockets, * * * A VERY old woman in bonnet and shawl, stooping, leaning on a stick, walked as though in a religious procession with cross and banners; a white-clad young girl supported her by the arm. They were not erying and had faces like nuns. Serge saw his father a little way in front. He was walking alone, sometimes surveying the crowd, his eyebrows raised in a smile. He was bare-footed and his breeches were ragged. He walked strangely: at one moment quickly with little steps, overtaking the others; then he would stop. And then he would ramble on slowly, deep in thought. Suddenly he caught sight of Serge and began joyfully to tug at his beard, He raised his hand in greeting and waited till Serge came up to. him. “You are my guard, Serge, and I the wise man going into banish- ment. Isn’t that curious? It’s really not becoming for you to have contact with me as long as I’m your prisoner. I only want to tell you that the weapons with which you guard the citadel of your revo- lutionary dictatorship are laughable and senseless. Your rifle looks more like a flute on the shoulders of such a fierce Bolshevik as you. But you can envy me: just now I feel the world limitless as Spinoza never felt it, although Marcus Aurelius dreamed of it in his long nights.” Since Serge had seen him last his father had aged greatly; the death of the mother had been the final blow. His rags were like a beggar’s. He was dirty and unkempt and his feet were wounded and suppurating. A sickening compassion, amounting to physical pain, burned in Serge’s heart. “Have you nowhere to go, father? Why don’t you settle down with me in my room—we can live together. You mustn’t go, father! Where are you going? You'll perish, daddy!” The old man raised his brows in amazement and laughed like a child, “Oh, no, my son! I know too well the price of my liberty, I am a man, and a man has no place because there’s not a hole that can-enclose the brain -of a man. Events are the best teachers: see how liberty vanquishes the slave and what a curse are wings to a hen.” . . NOISBLESELY: Verochka joined Serge. Most likely she had been walking along with the sightseers. With her usual surprised look, trembling all over, she began whispering indistinctly into Serge’s ear. And all that Serge could seize was that this was a tearful appeal. His father laughed and waved his hands; joy glittered in his va- cant eyes. e “Ah, Verochka! Unlimited source of love. . gotha affect you, little girl? Now, come here, come here!” “Ivan Arsenitch! Ivan Arsenitch! How happy I am! Ivanovitch! I am so very happy!” She flew over to the old man and took him by the arm. She walked on with him like a daughter, her face shining with tears. “Father!” Serge wanted to tell his father something, but he had forgotten what.» He stretched out his hand to him. But no one took his hand and it dropped. His father with Verochka was walking away from him into the crowd. But once more the old man turned to look at Serge, like a stranger—with a deep furrow in his brow. “Look, little Serge, how history is never new: I am a certain blind old man, Oedipus, and this is my daughter Antigone.” He laughed, a stranger, remote, who had gone away into a world which Serge could not understand. Serge readjusted his rifle on his tio clenching his teeth painfully. Within him the last bond roke. .. How does my Gol- Serge 'HE crowd halted in an empty stretch of waste land, with high grey grass, not far from the docks. The crowd sat down on their bun- dles among the grass tufts. The carts had taken their loads to the warehouses of the Soviet. On the quays was a long, colored line of moving people. It was the petty bourgeois women from the town who had followed the crowd, One heard no more hysterical crying, sobbing and clamor. Some were lying down, others sitting, others wearily stamping on one spot—they seemed like sick folk, Did it matter what might happen afterwards? The children cried, jumped and tried to play; it was so nice to run on the grass, with the sun coming out from behind the mountains and burning amidst the morning mist; and the sea which was so near seemed blue and gold right up to the horizon. Only they were hungry . . . hungry! The children played and cried: hungry, hungry! . 7 Near them were the landing-stages, but there were no ships, and they were overgrown with grass. The torment of an exhausted crowd resembles hope: the smoke would rise in a minute from the funnels of ships on the glittoring ‘swell; the sirens would shriek; and the peo- ple would run jostling along the quay, intoxicated with the joy of departure, , Gleb’ looked mournfully at the sea and then in the direction from which Lukhava’s detachment was to come, with the carts piled with goods and chattels and the families of the working peoplpe. (To Be Continued), 1 | Why ~ * | |