The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 31, 1929, Page 6

4 Page Six * "=" DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, | * | Baily $a Worker Central Organ of the Communist Party of the U.S, A. Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co. Sunday, at 26-28 Union e, New Telephone Stuyvesant 169 8. Cable: SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By Mati (in New York only): $4.50 six months By Mail ( $6.00 a year $3.50 six months $2.00 three monthr Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 26-28 Union Square. New York, N. ¥. Inc.,. Dafly, except rk City, N,’Y. ‘DAIWORK." $2.50 three months outside of New York): $3.00 a year The Imperialist Lie About the Soviet-Chinese Conference in Berlin Police terror, mobilization of the military, wholesale ar- rests and open murder as weapons in the hands of the imperi- alists to counteract the working class preparations for strikes and demonstrations August 1st, have been supplemented by an international campaign of lies to the effect that represen- tatives of the Soviet Union and the Nanking government oper- ating in China are carrying on peace negotiations in Berlin. Not only are negotiations not being carried on, but the mur- derous government Chiang Kai-Shek is appealing to his im- perialist masters to wage a campaign of armed intervention against the workers’ and peasants’ government. The appeal itself, like all other actions of the Nanking government, was undoubtedly ordered by the imperialist states themselves. The affair of the Chinese Eastern railway is being util- ized as an excuse for mobilization of the imperialist powers against the Soviet Union. First, the United States govern- ment sought to organize the bourgeoise signatories of the Kellogg treaty against the Soviet Union. Now Chiang Kai- Shek prepares an “appeal” to the League of Nations supple- menting Secretary of State Stimson’s plot. There is open talk of enforcing an economic blockade against the Soviet Union, in spite of the fact that such’a blockade has actually been in effect for years. The open talk of an economic blockade is the prelude to a military blockade and intervention. The rep- tile press of the world is playing down the news of the con- spiracy against the Soviet Union, only because it hopes to softe nthe fury of the workers as August 1st approaches. But the most vicious, malignant war preparations are going on. The mobilization of military forces in France, the murders of leading Communists, the suppression of Communist news- papers and the police terror here in the United States against the demonstrations for the Gastonia prisoners and to prevent the fight of imperialist war are a part of the war campaign against the Soviet Union that every day grows in intensity. The world-wide demonstrations on August Ist must be of such proportions and conducted in such a manner as to se- cure the strongest possible mobilization of working class forces against imperialist war and for the defense of the workers’ fatherland, the Soviet Union. The War Industry Par Excellence Vhile statesmen of the imperialist countries are juggling the question of cruiser building, other parts of the war ma- chine are speeding full blast ahead. Particularly is this the case with the chemical industry. From a minor industry a few years ago the chemical industry in the United States is now the greatest in the world. Here are a few figures: The total value of chemical production has increased from $1,046,994,000 in 1914 to more than $3,000,000,000 in 1928, the latter figure representing more than half the total price of the world output. An indication of the rate at which the industry is being combined into big concerns and rationalized is evidenced by the fact that in the eleven year period from 1914 to 1925 the number of chemical manufacturing esta- blishments in the United States decreased from 9,848 to 7,597. At this moment there is on foot a move to create a gigantic merger of the leading chemical plants of the United States and then to unite on an international scale with the famous I. G. Farbeindustrie of Germany. Workers in the chemical industry not only suffer the de- vitalizing effects of the most intense rationalization, but are also subjected to the most frightful forms of chemical poison- ing, besides they are in constant danger of being blown to pieces by the highly explosive materials which they produce. Thousands of scientists are constantly employed experi- menting with chemical formulae for warfare—poison gases, liquid fire, etc. Every imperialist power is concentrating upon more deadly and devastating chemicals for use in war- fare; preparing to poison whole populations. It is the war industry par excellence. The chemical industry in this country is practically un- organized, as is correctly pointed out in the series of articles on chemical parfare prepared by the Red International of Labor Unions and being printed in The Daily Worker. The A. F. of L. as a part of the imperialist war machine will fight against organization of the chemical workers and in case a movement.for organization spontaneously develops will try to deliver the workers bound and gagged to the im- perialists. ‘ One of the principal tasks of the Cleveland conference of the Trade Union Educational League will be to set up machinery for organizing the horribly exploited workers in this war industry. The Party Will Deal Mercilessly with Defeatists Those detestable watch-dogs of imperialism, the social democrats, are waging a campaign to defeat the strikes and demonstrations against imperialist war and for defense of the Soviet Union that are being prepared for August 1st. ‘They supplement the police provocations, the newspaper sup- pressions, the murder of Communists and the mobilization of the soldiery (as in Paris) with a widespread propaganda among the workers calculated to persuade them not to par- ticipate in the August 1st struggles. These same social democrats that in 1914 aided their capitalist masters drive the workers into the slaughterhouse of imperialist war are today actively helping to prepare the imperialist war against the Soviet Union. Their belittling of August Ist is a part of their war policy. . Closely following international social democracy are the Trotskyites who openly slander the revolutionary movement ) the world and traduce the leaders of the heroic struggles Berlin on May Day. The Trotskyist organ of the political literate and renegade Cannon, refers to preparations for igust Ist as the result of “light-mindedness, garrulousness, raggadocio and disgusting irresponsibility,” and concludes | slanders with the proclamation: “It is necessary to call _ Off the August First Demonstrations.” Jes (Bringing up in the rear of this anti-Soviet crew is Love- stone and his supporters in the United States. Their latest mal document, distributed among members of the Party which Lovestone is expelled, joins in the chorus of cal- against the preparations for August 1st and refers spe- lly to the slogan for the workers of New York City to FACE TO FACE AuGUST ify, 1, The Theory of Betrayal. Chemis- ; try on the Threshold of | “blue” | \ding’s report we find him express- | Reichswehr, Socialism. it for its subsequent work in shoot- As allies of the Kings of the;ing down dozens and hundreds of chemical industry and agents of Im- | Strikers in the big working class perialism, the role of the Social- Democrats and the leading lights of the reformist trade unions could furnish material for an entire book or rather “black” book. The chemical industry is one o. the favorite themes of the the- oreticians of social-imperilism. Speaking at the German S. D. Con- gress in Kiel in 1925, Rudolph Hil- ferding built up his theory of the “peaceful evolution” of capitalism into Socialism chiefly on the prog- ress made in the development of the chemical industry. “Organized economy,” stated Hil- ferding, is coming to the fore tech: nically inasmuch as alongside steam ani electric power chemistry is coming to occupy a more and more prominent place.” In the feverish development of the chemical indus: try this theoretician of social- treachery beholds a fresh step for- ward on the part of the capitalist |tariat in Central Germany and in | the Ruhr, as well as the massacre of |May Day demonstrators this year, for Germany boasts an S. D. in- jister of War, and S. D. Home Sec- retary, while practically all the \police , beginning from the chief |constables of the S. D. Party who | were represented at the Kiel Con- gress and finishing with that bril- liant specimen, Herr Zoergiebel, be- |lo.g to the Social-Democratie Party. 3. From the Theory of Treachery to the Practice of Betrayal. Hilferding’s theory as to the “So- cialistic” nature of the chemical in- dustry in the capitalist countries is only one of the minor reasons why the Social-Democrats can commit such dirty betrayals against the chemical workers’ movement. Prob- system toward the abolition of crises, the simplication of cap-|Chemical Workers’ Trade italist economy and to newer) Moveemnt. achievements for civilization. He In the capitalist countries the mentionedNot a Single Word about;chemical workers are almost en- the Feversih Preparations for tirely unorganized. In the United Chemical Warfare that are going) States, the country with the biggest on, although these preparations are |chemical industry, there are nearly the fundamental military rule of} million workers all told in this what is euphoniously known as | industry, yet the chemical workers “peace time” chemical production.|there Have no Trade Union Or- 2. Hilferding’s Blessings. |ganization At All. The American A line lower down in Hilfer-| Federation of Labor is doing every- thing it can to effect co-operation ing his delight over the German “The Reichswehr,” he of the worst paid and most ex- ploited sections of the working of the Reichswehr, struggle to make it more of a reliable instru-| class. | ment of the Republic. The Reichs-| In Britain there are no less than wehr should be in the same rela-| 250,000 workers employed in the tions to the Republic as the defen-|chemical industry, yet altogether sive police created by Severing in|only a few thousand have been won |Prussia. The Reichswehr is a ques-|for trade union organization. The tion depending upon the gaining of|General Council is just as inter- ; control over the Reischwehr. Every- | ested in preventing the chemical thing depends on the extent to| workers from coming together, just |which the Minister of War follows|as interested in seeing them dis- this policy. united, as the boss of the General down tools at 4:00 o’clock on August 1st and proceed to the mass demonstration at Union Square as “empty talk”. This, taken with the Lovestone talk about degeneration of the Com- munist International and his cheap sneers at the Berlin May Day events, clearly indicates the road he has travelled. With- in an incredibly short time he has aligned himself with the social democrats and Trotskyites, who are conducting a cam- paign of defeatism against the Communist struggle to com- bat imperialist war and in defense of the Soviet Union. There are no more dangerous enemies of the working class at this historical moment than those who preach defeat- ism to the masses. It means abandonment of the struggle in defense of the Soviet Union. Even worse, it is direct aid to the imperialists, inasmuch as it is intended to give them a free hand to mobilize their forces for intervention and a military campagn against the workers and peasants of the socialist fatherland. Using the most time-worn phrases, the Lovestonites plead that the masses are not ready for such a struggle. It is an old trick to blame the masses for one’s own lack of politi- cal initiative and revolutionary integrity. But the masses by their world-wide response on August 1st will give the lie to the united front extending from the imperialists and their social democratic lackeys to the Cannons and the Lovestones. The Party will not tolerate within its ranks repetitions of these degenerate and defeatist slogans. It will know how to defend itself against such methods and will deal mercilessly with those who are aiding the imperialist drive against the Soviet Union by preaching defeatism to the working class. “ 9 all the work of Social-Democrats, | Chemical Warfare, the Chemical Kings and Their Social-Democratic Tools By the Chemical Workers International Propaganda Committee of the Red International of Labor Unions. Thus this theoretician of socialj Council, British Big Business and strike of the Ludwigshafen Chemical | treachery blesses his Party, blessed| the “uncrowned king” of the Brit- | workers ish Mond. In France over 300,000 workers chemical industry, Alfred jactions undertaken by the prole-| are employed in the chemical indus- | 7. |try, a few thousand being organ-| | ized in the Reformist Federation. 4, One Step Forward, Two Back- | ward. | The only mass organization af- filiated to the Chemical Interna- tional (the Factory Workers’), is tho German Factory Workers Union. A rapid survey of the de- velopment of this the only mass or- | ganization catering for the chemical | workers reveals a picture of the blackest treachery by the reformist. Suffice it to say that in 1922 this union had a membership of nearly | 750,000. In 1923 the membership |fell to round about 522,000, a drop | of about 211,000 members. In 1924 | there was a further fall, this time to 325,700 members. Since then, and after 1924 the labor movement jably in no Other Industry Has Re-| has been swept by a wave of en-|Viding “.r an “increase” of wages | |formist Treachery Been Revealed|thusiasm while the chemical indus-|from 1 to 4 pfennigs extra per hour. | so Plainly and Cynically as in the try has passed through a period of | This, be it marked, when the Ger-| Union| real prosperity, the membership has | man chemical combine known under | |increased very little. * 5. Bureaucrats Favor, Abolishing Eight-Hour Day. In the Reichstag in 1923 the MPs | were called upon to discuss the ques- |tion of Martial Law, or the ap- |plication of an Emergency Powers! | Act, and the abolition of the 8-hour working day. At this partifcular |time the Vice President of the | Union, Gierbig, was in a big cen- |with the magnates of the chemical |tre of the glass industry where the/,ig and their fellow-bureaucrats industry, and moving not a finger | glass-blowers to the number of 10,-/have freed the German capitalists |says, “is a defensive system. What|to organize the proletariat em-|000 workers had gone on strike to| from the need Sor looking after the | we need is, not struggle against the ployed in the chemical industry, one |Reichswehr, but struggle in favor enforce the 8-hour day. Side by side in the same motor-car with lone of the employers, Gierbig sped to Berlin to arrive in time at the “historical” sitting of the Reich- |stag. Along with Brei, the Presi- | dent of the Union, He Voted in Fa- vor of declaring an Emergency Situation and Withdrawing 8-Hour Working Day. 6. How They Sold the Pass. In 1924 a wave of strikes swept the chemical industry. In Ludwig- shafen 20,000 chemical workers fought heroically under the revolu- tiorary leadership of the progres- sive elements of the movement. The tiations with the employers regard- ing the breaking of the strike. It appealed to the workers to accept an arbitration award. Throughout the whole country, thousands of workers collected funds and food- stuffs for the strikers. The Ger- man Trade Union Federation (ADGB), and the German Factory Workers’ Union forbade the collec- tion of funds on the threat of ex- pulsion from the Union, The chem- ical plants were occupied by the po- lice, who had every assistance from the reformist officials. The com- manding officers of the French troops’ of occupation adopted re- pressive measures against the strik- ers. The Central Committee of the USSR Chemical Workers’ - Union and the Chemical Workers Interna- tional suggesting that help be or- ganized for the strikers, The sug- gestion was turned down. The In- ternational declared that it entirely approved the activities of its Ger- man Section and that in its own good time “it would find the ways and means to enable it to win the eight-hour working day in Ger- many ERNATIONAL RED che | union executive entered into nego-| By Fred Ellis >. ‘° went down’ before the} | United front of the employers, the bourgeoisie, the reformists and the French army of occupation. j Their “Anxiety” for the Eight-| Hour Day. For ten years exactly the one |and the same collective agreement j has been binding upop the German chemical workers. Every year the} union executive resigns this agree- j;ment without making any changes, | jor rather with consistent degrada- | |tions in its ter.as. According to| |clause 2 of this agreement the 9- |hour working day is laid down as} |the “legal” day; actually, the work- | jing day of the German factory work- | ers amounts to 10 hours and in some leases even to 12. These slave-like | | conditions are explained in the same | jclause as due to the “prevailing | economic difficulties affecting the |industry” (1). | In 1929 the Union Executive con- \cluded a new wage ‘agreement be- hind the backs of the workers pro-| the name of the “Interessen-Gemein- | |schaft” openly acknowledges that | | its profits for 1927 amounted by no |means the small sum of 227,000,000 | | marks, | |8. Stool-Pigeoning, Corruption, and | Vote for Cruisers i The last Union Congress, held in| 1927, considered the question of] peace in industry and union benefits | |for members permanently incapaci- | jtated for work, Messrs, Brey, Gier- incapacitated workers thrown onto the street after capitalist rationali- zation has sucked the last energy out of him, Out of the 165 dele- gates at the Congress 89 were trade union officials, and there were only 12 delegates in all with the Revolu- tionary Opposition which, as should be known, has a following of not less than 40 per cent of the union members. Revolutionary candidates to the executive were simply withdrawn | from the list of candidates, that was all. The membership was deprived of all opportunity of freely voicing its views. The expulsion of revo- lutionary workers from the various branches has acquired a mass char- acter. Within the union machine, stool- pigeon and spying upon revolu- tionary workers is the rule, while moral corruption prevails, bringing in its wake an extensive embezzle- ment of union funds and various other abuses. At the same time union money is used for the election campaigns of the SD Party. At the same time, Brey and Gieberbig vote in parliament for the construc- tion of cruisers, while for submit- ting resolutions against the building of these cruisers union members render themselves liable to im- mediate expulsion from the organi- zation. In order to break the First of May demonstration this year the union executive expressly sabotaged the preliminary campaign. After the May Day massacre the union paper, “The Proletarian,” poured a stream of filth inuendoes over the demon, strators, : 9. The Sassenbachs Approve. The very same thing is to be seen in France, a case in. point being the The __herotcally-fought Sida innate way the reformists betrayed the 2,500 paper workers in the Aa Dis-! similar conditions, the Glass Blow- workers’ union, So ie a | plan of productoin, By FEODOR GLADKOV Translated by A. S. Arthur and C. Ashleigh All Rights Reserved—International Publishers, N. ¥. In the offices, the spruce specialists would speak frankly to En- gineer Kleist. : “Why don’t you drop this fantastic idea, Herman Hermanovitch? You know that the factory cannot be started again. In fact, what need is there of it? It’s absurd, Herman Hermanovitch. Let us suppose that the factory is going and that the store-sheds are filled with ce- ment. Well, what then? Where is our market? There is no market! Formerly our cement was destined principally for foreign markets. But now? Construction? But nothing is being built, and nothing can be built, since there is no capital nor productive capacity. ‘They've stirred things up a great deal here, trying to start it—you must give them credit for that. But they have no strength, no experience, no means for creating new enterprises. And they cannot, when private capital and initiative are absent. They won’t go very far with their nationalization. Willingly or unwillingly, we shall have to apply to the | foreigners.” . . OLDLY and gravely, Engineer Kleist listened to the specialists while smoking a cigarette. He did not argue with them, but answered briefly. “I did not come here to discuss questions of political economy and the general economic system of Russia. I have merely a modest aim: to exact from the management the fulfilment in the near future of our Our repairing work has stopped at present owing to the fault of the management.” a) eal ae The specialists were looking at their fingers and hiding their | smiles, listening with polite attention. “The management has nothing to do with it, Herman Herman- ovitch. It receives all its instructions from the Economic Council. Will you not apply direct to that institution?” These were newcomers, sent by the People’s Council of Economy, but, under cover of apparent loyalty, they were cherishing the past. Kleist too carried the past in his mind, but it had become remote and dead, cremated by the present, and only ashes remained. He saw their faces fall at his unexpected reply. In their smiles, there was a hidden sneer, and cowardice and distrust. They thought: “This funny old chap is either too cunning or he has gone off his head in terror of the Bolsheviks.” Engineer Kleist went to the Economic Council. He was received there respectfully, as one of their own people; and they smiled there in the same significant, enigmatic way, with their gold-stopped teeth. And there was a fixed suggestion in their eyes, just as it was with the factory management. if his usual cold and grave manner, he explained the reason for his visit; concisely and clearly as he had done with the factory manage- ment. He received the same polite official answers, delivered with a hidden sneer. “Yes, the carrying out of deliveries according to your schedule has been stopped; most likely your estimates will have to be revised. You see we cannot go against the instructions of the Bureau of In- dustry and the Cement Trust. Up till now the necessary conditions do not exist. The Chairman of the Economie Council is a competent and careful man.”—They watched him with a little laugh playing in their eyes.—‘‘And has agreed with our report. Everything has been too hur- ried. What will the Cement Trust say? There is reason for believing that all this somewhat wild enterprise will not meet with approval in the Bureau of Industry and especially in the Headquarters of the Cement Trust. We are awaiting authoritative instructions.” ear * * * . = returned, his helmet on the back of his head, all dirty and rumpled from the journey, but with clear and wide-open eyes. He did not call home but walked straight to the factory. He spent a short time there and then, pale with emotion, blind and cursing with wrath, he hurried to the ropeway; everywhere emptiness, rubbish and decay, just,as during the days after his return from the front. Breathless with rage, he rushed to the management offices. The sleek specialists, in their elegant clothes, rose in astonish- ment, deafened by the unexpected noise and loud oaths; those who were walking stood still; those who were sitting down jumped up. And those who were writing did not raise their heads, keeping their noses down close to their frozen pens. From the’ vefy threshold, Gleb began to shout, deafening every- body, hurling the words from his very bowels. “Tell me what bastards have done this bloody thing! I'll smash their damned faces for this treachery! Where’s the director? I'll send all these dogs to the Cheka for sabotage and counter-revolution! You thought because I wasn’t here you could carry out your old tactics— that without me your dirty tricks would succeed. You sons of bitches, I’m going to hang you all at the end of a rope!” oe 3 * ee room to room he ran, his face congested; he was looking for someone, but saw nobody; knocked the chairs about, swept papers from off the tables and hurtled against people who stood in his way. The girl typists, like pretty dolls, cowered terrified in their chairs, bending their coiffures down to the keyboards of their machines, And the people stood or sat stupefied and amazed, dumb with shock. When he left them, they looked at each other in panic and raised their hands or their papers to their mouths. When his mad fit had partly abated, Gleb threw his military coat knapsack down in one of the rooms and stormed into the director’s private office. With the same alarmed amazement—nevertheless, as- suming a calm severity—the assistant director, Muller, received him, His skull was covered with silvery bristles; he had a silver, close-cut moustache and gold pince-nez. He rose, his gold-stopped teeth glittering, and stretched out a hand to Gleb over the table. “Why so much noise, Comrade Chumalov? loudly that you'll break the window panes.” Gleb neither sat down nor noticed the outstretched hand. Standing sideways to Muller, he turned on him his face grown thin and burnt with the sun. “Who gave the order to stop work at the factory?” Muller’s teeth again glittered. He raised his hands in a gesture of helpless submission, “Don’t play the fool; speak out straight! What swine has inter- rupted all the work here, that was in full swing?” Ae: Le You’re swearing so } ULLER, his face suddenly worn and grey, raised hisghead, the lens of his pince-nez shimmering. “Firstly, Comrade Chumalov, I must beg of you, be more careful in your expressions. The factory management has nothing to do with it. We stopped the work because the Economie Council has discovered that it is impossible to continue the repairs for lack of the necessary resources and without the sanction of higher economic organs.” . “Show me the order of the Economic Council. You bastards have come to an agreement with those wasters in the Economie Council. You thought you’d be able to shuffle the cards behind my back. You thought the Bureau of Industry was going to give me a dressing down and that then you would cut in and win. Go on with your little game, I shall be able to get you all in the net!” _ “What grounds have you, Comrade Chumaloy, for making such serious charges against us? I protest categorically. Without reflect- ing, you say most offensive things. We’re not little children: we can’t go beyond the instructions and orders which come from above, We have even been removed from all participation in these affairs. All the stores have been put under seal by the Economic Council and all documents have been taken from the files here by their representative, If you’re going to make a row, will you kindly do it, not here, but at the Economic Council,” (To be Continued) 4 —_————— trict when they went on strike, The ers’ Union was expelled from the outstanding feature of the bureau- crats’ activities is daily collabora- tion with chemical combines like the Kuhlman, Goben, and other firms, Up to 1926 there was a single union in Poland for the chemical workers, The 1926 congress of the union withdrew the Polish Socialist Party people from union leadership, whereupon the PSP launched a com- petitive union and, with the support of the fascist dictators, began a vile campaign of scurrilous slanders against the Left Wing union. In the result, the Left union was expelled from the PSP Central Trades Union Commission. Afterwards, under Central Trade Union Commission— the 1928 Congress of the union hav ing decided to recall its PSP leader. ship, Now, what sort of opposition does the Factory Workers’ International put up against such incredible facta of disruption and co-operation with a fascist dictatorship? Sassenbach, as the representative of the Amster dam International and Stenhuys, as the representative of the Factory. Workers’ International, were thé fraternal delegates at the Warsaw Congress when the split occurred: and they fully endorsed the PSP in what it did to split the ehemical