The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 12, 1929, Page 2

ge TACHEL. Red Day ie to & By JACK International United in of the Soviet U is a great achievement for the Com- munist Furthermore the deme were held in many indu 1 tow of basic industry The response was best among the unorganized workers in the basic in- dustries. all nea’ 200 meet- ing were neluding a large num- ber of noon day factory gate meet- ings. The following are a few examples showing the comparative figures in the princip ties and the indus- trial towns in many of which hither- to no demonstrations of any signifi- cance were held: New York City—Main demonstra- tion about 12,000 workers and also a large number of meetings in the| ESSONS OF INTE many factory gate meetings, among them a meeting in front of the Brooklyn Navy Yard attended by about 1000 we rs, @ at the waterfront down- y 800 workers, ete. n 25,000 workers 1 thruout the city in the Demonstrations under the leadership of the Communist Party, In the Boston District the meet- ing in the city of Boston was at- tended by 2000 workers; the New Bedford meeting by 1500 textile workers and the Fall River meet- ing by 1000 workers, Meetings were also hel! in a large number of other cities including Worcester, Gardner, Fitchburg, ete. The Fitchburg meet- ing w attended by 1000 workers. In all from 9 to 10,000 workers at- tended the Red Day demonstrations, In the Pittsburgh District, results are most. gratifying. In the city of Pittsburgh the mass demonstrations held in defiance of the police order was attended at a certain point by | nearly 15,000 workers. Jn the Kees- port Steel Mills in the game district 3000 steel workers part{cipated in a noon day demonstratidn. Melon-owned aluminum plant in ngton, Pa. 1000 workers at- tended the demonstration and fol-'in Gary, Ind., Kenosha, Racine, | previou lowing the arrest of four speakers, paraded in front of the police station for nearly 30 minutes staying away In the} | workers. “DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 1929 RNATIONAL RED DA In the Minnessota district the) Santen ae =m, ¥ a Y ON AUGUST FIRST’ lice announced that they would not |radicalization of the American work- of the care that must be exercaag 3 In the Chicago district, 5000 work- | Party arranged a large number of|allow the Red Day demonstrations ers turned out to the main demon- stration in the city of Chicago, The | meeting was broken up by | police, Meetings were also arranged | Rockford, Bicknell, Rock Island, | West Frankfort, Waukeegan and other cities, meetings in the main cities and also in the iron shd copper range. The| than at sny other demonstrations | ly particularly in the indus- | trial towns. In one industrial cen- ter to be held, In the past no serious attempts were made to hold maj the | response of the masses was greater|demonstrations once prohibited by the police. The Party in this situa- tion announced to the workers that the demonstration would be held in Negaunee, Mich., where in the) spite of the police, the American; In many of the cities | past only small indoor metings were | Legion and the other patriotic soci from work. In the Westinghouse |in this district the local Party com- held over 3000 workers attended. In j ti Never befor~ did th. bourgeoi- plant in Pittsburgh, 4000 workers pletely underestimated the mood of | Duluth where usually a few hundred | sie display so much armed farce and participated in the noon-day meeting | the masses and the Party in fact) attended about 1000 workers came | never before were the police so bru- and remained out five minutes | acted as a break on the masses. In| to the Red Day demonstration, At the Boston meeting about longer than usual. In the Cleveland district the main demonstration was held at the Pub- lic Square where Ruthenberg was the first one in the United States to raise the banner of Revolution and aga‘nst imperialist war during the last world war, and was attended by 4000 workers, Successful demon- strations were also held in Neffs, Martins Ferry, Akron and in many other centers, attended mostly by miners, steel, auto and rubber |Waukeegan the Party organization refused at first to organize the demonstration but the District Com- mittee insisted that the meeting be lorganized. The result was that 3000 workers showed up at the demonstration. Many of the Party members stayed away from the meeting. It was the Young Com- |munist League that save the day |for the Party. The American Legion |sueceeded in breaking up the meet- ling while the police stood by. LAUNCH TEN-DAY’ GASTONIA DRIVE AUG, 24 - SEPT, 2 ILD, WIR, Union in Joint Campaign (Continued from Page One) of Sacco and Vanzetti in the electric chair in Charleston Prison, Boston, Mass. Joint Committee to Direct. Alfred Wagenknecht, who directeg the National Miners’ Relief Cam-| paign (1927-28) and the Passaje Strikers’ Relief Committee (192) | will be drawn into the enlarged ac- tivifies of the Gastonia Joint De- fense and Relief Campaign as direc- | tor. The Joint Campaign Commit- tee ‘will tkus consist of J. Louis Engdahl, national secretary of the} International Labor Defense; Jim Reid, secretary of the National Tex- tile Workers Union; Robert Minor, | representing the working class press" Ludwig Landy, of the Work- ers International Relief and Wagen- | knecht. The Joint Committee, in its initial statements, calls to the attention of | all Joint Campaign Committees and to workers and workers organiza- tions that the battle for the freedom of thé 23 strikers and organizers of the National Textile Workers Union does not end subsequent to the open- | ing trial date, August 26th. “The mobilization «of the | workers nationally and interna- tionally must continue until the | imprigoned. and indicted -workers | again take their places in the ranks of the Southern textile | workers, assisting in the offensive | | niral Dewey, the crui ts about to preserve as a “national monument” the flag- A Monument to U. S. Imperialism iser Olympia (above), which was used in overthrowing Spanish imperialism in the Philippines and substituting an even more vicious poited workers into mass struggle | against the mill owners. “To connect the struggle in the south with the organization of new militant unions nationally in all in- dustries and to connect it as well with the Cleveland TUEL conven- tion, “To impress upon the workers everywhere that the promises by the | state and the mill owners of fair trials, that religion and Communism would not be made an issue in the trial, the change of venue, the with- drawing of the murder charge against the three women defendants | maneuvers by the prosecution to | make it more possible to murder and imprison the jailed textile workers and organizers. | “2, The Gastonia campaign shall | |be a joint International Labor De-| one—that of Wall Street. must proceed thruout the campaign: Collections for Gastonia must be taken at all these meetings. “8. Collection committees headed by a competant speaker shall visit labor unions and other workers or- ganizations. This phase of the campaign work must receive im- mediate attention, “9. Resolutions must be passed at all mass meetings, street and factory gate meetings and by unions and other workers organizations. Telegrams of greetings and soli- darity must be sent to the defend- ants at the county jail in Gastonia | are not victories for the defense but | hy all organizations. “10. Adequate literature shall be published, leaflets, illustrated fold- | ers, posters, collection lists, etc, To Circularize A. F. of L. “11, The American Federation FOREST FIRES RAGE ON COAST ‘Lumber Workers Are Threatened i PORTLAND, Ore, Aug. 11— After more than a week of fire | fighting by more than 1,000 men, forest fires still held the upper hand today at half a dozen different points. State Fire Wardens were broad- casting calls for more men to fight a blaze which broke out late yester- |day a few miles from Portland and was raging through timber and \grain lands. Lumber workers were | threatened, | Fire which started Wednesday on Whiskery Creek in Crater National Forest, Southern Oregon, was still | out of control. Sixty men are fight- ing it and 30 more with fresh sup- |plies have been sent to the scene. | erew which took refuge yesterday in ja rocky canyon as the roaring flames foreed them to flee, today | was believed to be out of danger. | Efforts were being made to drop | food and water to them from air- | | planes. The fire which the marooned men were fighting, as a small unit of a | large contingent, was still sweeping through virgin forest on the slopes | of the northwest’s highest and most |majestic peak. More recruits were rushed to fight fires in the Pend Orielle, Selway, | |Colville and Clearwater districts in | eastern Washington and northwest- ern Idaho last night. The fire in |the Colville National Forest pre-| sents the most serious menace in In Rainier National Park, Wash- | mobiliz ington, a marooned fire fighting {leadership in Philadelphia and Cali- [fornia did not measure up to the| ituation on Red Day, while not to|the police could not arrest the In the Seattle District the Red Da long attended, and in Portland, Oregon, | about in other centers attended by lumber workers, principally in Aberdeen. In the Philadelphia, Detr and California Districts, the District | Committees in spite of the repeated instructions of the Central Com- mittee did not organize mass street demonstrations, but instead organ- ized the usual indoor meetings. In this act the districts failed to realize the significance and importance of International Red Day. In this they failed to keep even pace with the growing radicalizing process of the workers. Detroit because of this dampening of the spirit of the workers had only 900 workers at- time. In Seattle, 2000 workers | tend the indoor meeting, while on! the other hand Hamstramck and Grand Rapids, we had _ outdoor | demonstrations attended by 700 workers each, and the workers dis- played marvelous fighting spirit preventing the arrest of the speak- ers. The Detroit District Commit- tee must be sharply criticized for this capitulation to “legality” par- ticularly in view of the growing radicalization process among the auto workers as rev-3led by the re- cent strike of 3000 auto workers in the Murray plant. We had. every reason to expect that on Red Day Detroit would have one of the largest and militant demonstrations. The mai were ready but the Party leadership was not. It is true that Detroit the last minute tried to correct its error by turning the in- door meeting into an outdoor demon- stration. But the mistake could not be corrected, The masses were not | ed. Similiarly the district | the same degree. Criticism must be made of the failure to organize a Red Day demonstration in Gas- | tonia, It is not only the size and number of the demonstrations that are im-| portant but also the fact that the Party in many of the large cities and in almost all of the industrial towns and factory gate meetings or- ganized the Red Day demonstra- tions in spite of the prohibition of the police. In Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Minnesota Districts the po- 500 saw the largest meetings for a| the plac. of the demonstration and | future not only resist the police but | They were not only a source of in- police were concentrated near the entire city police fcvee was held jin readiness. In Chicago similarly brought to the place of the demon- stration. The brutality of the po- lice knew no limit. Women and chil- dren were clubbed and beaten with blackjacks, Like in Chicago and |Boston, so in all other cities and |towns there was + huge display of police forces. Everywhere the police charged the demonstrations, bru- tally beat the workers and arrested |scores, In all, at least 300 workers |and Communist leaders were ar- rested. In the Pittsburgh demon- stration the mounted police rode through the crowd, wounding many workers, among them women and | children, But the police and their masters, | the bourgeoisie of the United States, received surprises. The workers did not disperse as in the past at the ‘sight of the uniform, the club, the machine gun, From all centers the reports show the tremendous and splendid resistance of the masses under the leadership of the Commu- nist Party. Not only did our Party organize and hold demonstrations in spite of the prohibition of the police, jbut the masses under the leadership of our Party showed their readiness to defend the workers’ demonstra- |tions against the attacks of the jpolice in all their brutality. Many workers were wounded battling with the police and in many cases the police did not fare so well either. In New York City in the evening demonstration in the Bronx, follow- ing the afternoon demonstration in Union Square, four policemen were beaten up by the enraged workers when the police charged a demon- stration of 2,000 workers and tried to arrest the speaker. In Chicago |speakers who were defended by the masses when they attempted to ar- rest them. The police found thet the workers’ demonstrations no longer disperse at the sight of the uniform jand police brutality. They found the workers fighting back. The |workers fought for the right of the streets, The correctness of the line |of the Communist International and |the opportunist right line of the | Lovestonites was indeed brought out boldly in the splendid fighting spirit of the masses, The process of the ers is proceeding at a rapid pace. This was found particularly so among the unorganized workers in the basic industries, The police succeeded in breaking up many of our demonstrations. But this only after a severe struggle. This struggle in itself is a victory for the workers and the Communist Party and a defeat for the bourgeoi- |sie and the police. Nevertheless, we | will have to draw many important \Jessons from these first victories {and defeats so that we can in the lactually carry th ough our mass |demonstrations, In Pittsburgh the 500. Meetings were also held | between 400 and 500 policemen were | party called a protest street demon- stration Aug. 7 against the police | brutality on Red Pay. This meeting was held in spite of the fact that |no’ permit was secured. The Party |this time did not even ask for a police permit. Plenty of police were jon hand but a very successful dem- onstration was held. This victory has been achieved by the militant action of the masses on Red Day, and by the fact that nearly 15,000 workers turned out to the Red Day demonstration. We will have to de- velop a strategy of organizing and | defending our demonstrations, Some |beginnings have alveady been made in this respect. The Pittsburgh dem- onstration and the Chicago demon- |stration were prepared for the at- |tacks of the police although they could not entirely defeat the at- tacks of the police, In Pittsburgh the demonstration after being broken up, reformed in three differ- ent parts of the city previously ar- ranged. When many workers were arrested a demonstration was or- ganized in front of the police head- quarters. It was only after one hour of attack that the police succeeded in breaking up the main demonstra- tion and this only after the com- |mittee in charge decided to hold the demontsration from three different centers of the city. In Chicago the district committee took measures against the breaking up of the dem- onstration. The workers with cap- tains were together in certain defi- nite places and then at a given mo- ment to rush to the main center. |The police with machine guns and all other military equipment were |occupying Union Park with machine |guns fixed from the surrounding |roofs. All streets towards the park |were guarded by the police. Union Park was an armed camp. Qne of the reasons why the strategy of the |district committee could not be car- ried out entirely was the fact that | the police had all detailed knowledge jof the plans of the Party. They | knew the corners we were to gather on and they knew that the workers were at the given moment to come together at the south side of the park, This is a serious question which merits a strict investigation and also is a lesson of the necessity in the future with regard to who shall have the knowledge of the |strategy of the Party. The police also went through the crowd spread- ing all sorts of rumors as to the demonstration having keen called.” ‘off, as to the workers proceeding to \a certain hall, etc. One of the important events in the Red Day demonstrations was the, + fact that the Young Communist League and the Young Pioneers dressed in their uniforms and dis- |played real revolutionary courage. ete! spiration but performed rea’ service |in leading the defense of the demon- |strations. They were the shock .; troops. In many cities where the Party was passive they saved the. 3 jday. They will through their deeds jon Red Day stimulate the formation of a real Workers Defense Corps |which is absolutely necessary and to which the Party must give great attention immediately. | Most of the districts did not at- |tempt to organize strikes, They |merely organized mass demonstra- tions. This was a serious error. In many cities and plants partial - strikes could have been successful, but were not attempted, due to the underestimation of the fighting mood of the masses. Lateness in be- ginning the Red Day preparations was also a factor. Only in the New York District was the slogan “Down Tools at 4 p. m.” issued, There’ is no aceurate estimate yet of the ac- tual response. But the partial in- formation indicates that about 10,- 000 workers downed tools at 4 p. m. The best showing was made by the «' Independent Shoe Workers Union with about 40 shops and 8,000 work- ers responding. The mobilization by the Needle Trades Industrial Union was not very successful. The food workers responded partially. A |symptom of the mood of the unor- |ganized workers was revealed by |the fact that in the Ward Baking Company 250 workers quit work at |4 p. m. and held a meeting outside of the factory. They did not come to the main demonstration because they believed that it would not be held because of the big showers at that time. In Pittsburgh district the workers who participated in the Mc- Keesport demonstration stayed out for 80 minutes, the workers at the Westinghouse for 5 minutes. Re- ports of any other strikers for a |longer or shorter period are not yet. available. ti Hundreds of thousands of workers who did not participate in the dem=~ onstrations nevertheless received literature on Red Day. They learned of the plans of the imperialists of the U. S, to attack the Soviet’ Union! and the meaning of the slogan Dee>® fend the Soviet Union. In New York=or City alone 250,000 pieces of litera- > ture were distributed. Sixty thou- Coontinued on Page Six ) | fense and Workers International Re- | °f Labor unions shall be circularized zed that region, forest service official |lief Campaign. | from the center of the national joint f ice officials against the bosses and in the or- jat northwest headquarters here, —S ganization campaign of the Na- | tional Textile Workers Union. T pare for Probable Appeals. “Appeals to the state and to the United States Supreme Courts will have to be financed and the power of the working class must be | brought to bear upon these capi- talist institutions if these workers are to ‘e saved from the electric chair and long te-ms of imprison- ment. We face a long period of hard iad intensive work. “Steps will be taken to secure the mobilization of workers in | “3, International Labor Defense | |and Workers International Relief secretaries in all cities shall work | \jointly, in loyal cooperation and | without friction for he success of |the campaign. “4, The executive committees of | | the International Labor Defense and | | Workers International Relief in all cities shall hold joint meetings at once to put into effect the campaign program. This joint meeting shall elect a Campaign Committee com-| posed of the most able International | Labor Defense and Workers Inter-| committee. “12, Cirewlarization by the na- tional center of mailing lists of in- dividuals shall continue. 18. Publicity for the Gastonia campaign must be increased and the joint city committees must attempt to secure adequate publicity for their local activities in the labor and capitalist press. “14, The defendants out on bond and other southern textile workers and strikers shall be placed in the larger cities to assist in the cam- paign. The tours for the three women defendants must be so or- jsaid. Recruits were also called for [last night to battle a blaze which burst from control in the Nez Pierce Indian Reservation in Idaho. | In British Columbia, which has |heen comparatively free from fires |during the recent outburst, the town | of Allenby was threatened by | |flames which broke out in timber on |the international boundary last |night. ‘Attempt to Kill Bandit King of Afshanistan other countries in protest against | national Relief workers (a sraall| Pay ae | the attempt to murder these functioning committee) of which the Sanized in all the cities they areto'As Unrest Increases | workers.” ILD and WIR secretaries shall be|\°* hat masses of workers hear | Tt is pointed out that the first requisite in the campaign for de- fense or relief is to institute a broad national mass movement among the workers, to effect their ideological conversion upon the sues involved and to center this mass movement in large united fronts in the various cities. Finan- cial and organizational gains result in the main from such a mass move- ment, It therefore becomes immediately necessary to establish broad united front activities in all the cities, to carry on a speedy and steady mass agitation among the workers. To- ward this end the following pro- gram has been decided upon by the National Center of the Gastonia Joint Defense and Relief Committee: Issues in the Campaign. 1. “The right of the National Textile Workers Union to organize, picket and strike. “To defeat the mill owners and the state in their attempt to electro- cute the defendants in order to im- pede the organization of the textile | workers. “The right of the workers to de- fend themselves, their union head- quarters, their homes in the tent colony. (This is not a classic frame-up case tho it has elements of frame-up tactics of the employers an the state, such as perjured evi- n ind the prosecution of work- ers and organizers who were not implicated in the shooting. How- ever the defense policy is the right to self :fense), “The role of the American Fede- ration of Labor in the south (United Textif’ Workers). Its sell-out of the’*orkers (Elizabethton and Ware Shoals), the demand by demo- cratic politicians and the southern capitalist press that the mill owners accept the United Textile Workers as the organization for the southern textile workers. “The Southe: Textile Workers Conference, arlotte, N. C. in October, which constitutes the mobilization point to lead these ex- members. The name of this commit- |tee and the name under which the! joint drive shall be conducted shall }be Gastonia Joint Defense and Re- lief Committee of the International Labor Defense and Workers Inter- national Relief. “5. A conference of delegates |from all organizations affiliated | with the I. L. D. and W. I. R. shall |be called immediately to mobilize |for the campaign on the basis of |this program. There shall be invited to this conference leading members of unions and other workers’ organi- zations, whether affiliated or not. Broad Scope in Committees. “6. The immediate creation of language defense and relief commit- | tees, youth committees, women’s committees and children’s commit- tees in every city. Besides the Gas- tonia issues above enumerated, united fronts in the language work- ers’ organizations that join them must be impressed with the great possibility of bring American work- ers into our movement; Negro work- ers must be activized for the cam- paign on the issue of social, politi- eal and economic equality; youth workers and united fronts must be activized on the basis of the ex- ploitation of youth workers in the south and the additional fact that most of the defendants are youth textile workers; women workers and united fronts must be told about women exploitation in the south; children united fronts must be made cognizant of the immense amount of child labor in the Southern mills. All of these extra Gastonia com- mittees must work i: close contact with the joint committee and be re- sponsible to same, “7. ™ order to mobilize the workers thruout the nation and to win them for the Gastonia issues, large city-wide mass meetings must at once be held in every large and small city in the country. Street meetings must be crganized, ag well as factory gate meetings. The street meetings and factory gate meetings them, “15. Every joint committee in every city shall at once engage hall for a dance, bazaar, motion p. ture showing or concert for some date in September, shall print tic- kets for the affair, institute a wide advance sale of the tickets among workers, induce workers organiza- tions to buy blocks of tickets. The trial will last thruout September and the highest interest in the trial will be reached in September. “16, There shall be an intensive Ten Day Campaign for Gastonia during August 24 to September 2 inclusive on the basis of tag days, house-to-house lections, shop, mine and mill collections, street and factory gate meetings and collec- tions, speeches to labor unions and other workers organizations. Mass mobilization for tag days and house- to-house collections especially for Hear the Story of AMY SCHECHTER SOPHIE CALCUTTA, India, Ang. 11—Ad- | |viees from Kabul say that discon- | jtent under the cut-threat rule of| |Bacha Sakoa, British-supported ban- dit king of Afghanistan, is constantly increasing and that the successor of Amanullah is in momentary danger of losing his throne and his life. An attempt to assassinate him was made yesterday when he was returning from Maidan ‘to Kabul in a Rolls-Royce, the bullet crashing through the windshield. Saturday, Aug. 24, Sunday, Aug. 25, Saturday Aug. 31, Sunday, Septem- ber 1 and Monday, September 2 (Labor Day) shall take place. “17, The Sacco-Vanzetti mem- orial meetings must be mobilization meetings for Gastonia and in these meetings the Gastonia issues must predominate. the GASTONIA MURDER FRAME-UP VERA BUSH MELVIN charged second degree murder and released on $5,000 bail each Mass Protest Meeting Tonight at 8 o'clock . CENTRAL OPERA HOUSE, 67th St. and Third Avenue +» Auspices: Admission, Internaticnal Labor Defense, New York District 25¢ Local New York, Workers International Relief Let’s Gol l Everybody is going to the PLEASANT BAY PARK Fitth Avenue Buses from East 177th Strect Subway Station Sunday, Aug. 18 ' FROM NOON TILL DAWN rm Entertainment — Sports Dancing—Refreshments