The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 22, 1929, Page 6

% Page Six _ DAILY WORKER, Daily SH5 Worker Central Organ of the Communist Party of the U.S, A. Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc... Daily, except Sunday, at 26-28 Union Square, New rk City, ¥5 Telephone St sant 1696-7 Cal ‘DAIWORK only): $8.00 a year $2.50 three months New York): $2.00 three months $6.00 a year t tly Worker, 26-28 Union Square z. Address and mail all checks to the New York, Sar a>-- Two Years After the Murder of Sacco and Vanzetti DETWEEN nightfall and dawn two years ago tonight the capitalist class of the United States, in the face of world- wide protes the feet of the working class the shattered and burned bodies s and demonstrations contemptuously hurled at of Sacco and Vanzetti. These two workers, guiltless of the crime charged against them, were fiendishly tormented for seyen years, and finally led to the electric chair where bolts of chained lightning were sent surging through their tor- » and Vanzetti were victims of one of the murders in history. tured bodies. Sace most frightful cla In the long struggle for their liberation these two Italian workers had become symbols of the organization and strug- gles of the working class against the capitalist class of this country. ruling class to terrorize all who dared to challenge its ruth- Their murder was an attempt on the part of the less exploitation of the wage workers of this country. The vile instruments that the American capitalist class used to carry out this murder, Governor Fuller, Judge Thayer, President E. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard University, Judge Grant, S. W. Stratton, president of the Massachusetts Insti- tute of Technology, knew these two workers were innocent, but they had their instructions and carried them out. Today, two years after the murder of Sacco and Van- zetti, milions of workers, who first began to perceive the real meaning of capitalist cle justice at that time, now under- stand that capitalist laws, courts, judges, police and all other social institutions of the ruling class are maintained for the purpose of mercilessly suppressing the working class in order to enable the capitalist class to continue to pile up wealth through the exploitation of labor. Sacco and Vanzetti have joined the list of labor’s martyrs and will always be remembered and honored by the workers of the world. Today throughout the whole world untold mil- lions of workers in the imperialist nations and the masses in the exploited colonies and semi-colonies will honor the memory of these two brave working class fighters. The agents of the United States government in foreign countries dare not to- day openly appear. The American embassies are regarded as houses of shame and are objects of loathing and contempt. . * . For the workers of the United States and of the world, this anniversary of the murder of Sacco and Vanzetti has special significance, because the identical ruling class that so contemptiously ehallenged us by murdering them, is today endeavoring to railroad to the electric chair 16 striking mill workers and strike leaders in Gastonia, North Carolina. The Gastonia prisoners are today, as Sacco and Vanzetti were for seven long years, in the shadow of the electric chair, charged with murder, because they dared defend themselves against an assault of police thugs and gunmen who attacked their tent colony with the object of destroying it and mur- dering the strikers and their families. From the beginning of the attempt of the capitalist ex- ploiters to send the Gastonia victims to the electrie chair, the defense has been conducted along clear class lines. The meddling liberals, the yellow socialists who in that case aided the murderers by sowing all sorts of illusions about capitalist justice and who, even up to the last day, tried to sabotage mass demonstrations and strikes and tell the workers to have faith in “the orderly process of justice” to save Sacco and Vanzetti, will not be able to repeat their treacherous perfor- mance in the Gastonia cases. To the end the Gastonia fight must be and will be continued on class lines. There must be the most intensive mobilization of the working class in the United States and throughout the world to save these work- ers. All workers everywhere who have to slave to pay tribute to the Uncle Shylock, imperialist loan monger of the world, must recognize that the Gastonia victims are today in jail because they participated in a drive to organize and lead in struggles the workers of the “New.South” which abounds in war industries. Just gs bankers and industrialists of the North murdered Sacco and Vanzetti in order to terrorize labor in the textile mills and shoe factories, so the same out- fit with investments in the South, are trying to repeat their dastardly acts on a still greater scale to stop the working class struggle against rationalization. Today the New York masses demonstrate at Union Square at five o’clock in the afternoon in a combined Sacco- Vanzetti memorial and deferise of the Gastonia victims. In every other city and industrial center in the country similar demonstrations will be held. The workers and peasants of ,the Soviet Union and all revolutionary workers everywhere who demonstrate in mem- ory of Sacco ahd Vanzetti today will recognize that the same malignant imperialist power that is inciting the Chinese ban- dit government against the Soviet Union, is the identical rul- ing class that murdered Sacco and Vanzetti and is now striv- ing to burn alive the Gastonia prisoners. In Latin America there will be tremendous demonstra- tions and strikes because the class-conscious workers in the southern republics know only too well that the same class that exploits them, that sends marines and bombing planes against them in order that Wall Street may realize super- profits through their exploitation and degradation, also mur- ders workers in the United States for daring to “challenge the same imperialist oppressor. Throughout the world the masses must take up the battle cry: Remember Sacco and Vanzetti! Stop the bloody hand of Yankee capitalism now raised against the Gastonia victims! Free the Gastonia prisoners! f Down with Yankee imperialism! f a j } ! | SAVE THE GASTONIA STRIKERS! ‘ The Socialist and Liberal Front Against the Gastonia Defense BY JACK STACHEL In all struggles in the present pe- \riod the workers are faced by the sla front of trustified capital, the | capitalist government and the social reformists. Every important strug-| gle in the recent period has brought convincing proof of this, Gastonia is the most recent case. ere the American Federation of Labor offi cialdom, ‘he socialist party, and the [and the government. The capitalis' EW YORK, THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 1929 2 By Jacob Burck the workers for some ity of the Communists to organize the defense. It is an attempt to separate and create d tween the Communists and Communist defendants, In all these attempts the Rever- end, like ail social reformists, ies out the aims of the capital non- abstract | being served by the International , organizations. The socialists and lib- ideals. It is to sow doubts in the| Labor Defense, a Communist or- |erals who now speak about the fair- minds of the workers as to the abil-| ganization, and by the Communist | ness of the court and the judge see | | press.” | The position of the liberal Baily nsion be-/and the position of the socialist |to self defense, Thomas is the same as the New York Times, organ of big business jand finance capital. Both speak about the sincerity of the judge and the fairness of the court. Both hide the fact that the entire government liberals are very active at the pres-/ 97° also trying to create the impres-| machinery is controlled by the tex# ent time trying to undermine the de- |fense of the Gastonia strikers, thir- |teen of whom are to be tried on \murder charge. Their attacks are particularly vicious here because of the leadership of the Communist Party in the struggle in Gastonia. | ‘The usefulness of the socialists \and liberals for the capitalists in |this situation is to be found partic- | lwlarly in theit work of, trying to \confuse the workers, and in trying) |to create and maintain «illusions in| the working class. Posing as friends of the workers they,.do everything possible to disarm the workers and| make ,it easier for the capitalists | |and the state to. deliver blows against the workers, Reverend Norman Thomas, the outstanding leader of thé socialist! party at the present time, and one | of the organizers of the Conference | for Progressive Labor Action (which objectively plays the same | role in the"U. S. as the left social | democrats of Europe) in the recent | follows: “At least it looks as if North Carolina was spared the disgrace of furnishing the United States with another Judge Thayer. | “Judge M. B. Barnhill, by grant- | ing to the Gastonia defendants a | change of venue and by admitting the women defendants to reasona- ble bail, lives up to his former reputation which was for fairness —A reputation enhanced not long ago by his decision that the North Carolina Bus Company must pro- vide decent accommodations for Negroes. . . « When the Daily Worker headlines nes of a decent | act by the judge as ‘a trick to call trial fair, pack jury,’ it feeds our suspicions that some Communists are more anxious for martyrs in this case than for a victory of justice and the acquittal of the defendants.” . The aim of the Reverend here is very clear. It is to create the illu- sion among the workers as to the fairness of the judge and the court. and to hide completely the class character of the trial. It is to con- fuse the’ workers with empty talk of abstract justice—capitalist jus- tice. It is to prevent the workers from organizing a broad nationwide defense which alone can*save the Gastonia defendants from the elec- tric chair, It separates completely the struggle of the workers to or- ganize themselves to defeat the ra- tionalization of the textile bosses from the murder charges that re- sulted from it. It is to make the workers believe that the Commu- sion of fairness, They also want of the ruling class. tile barons, the trusts, ete. Both |the tvorkers to look upon the state hide the fact that this case is an as an institution standing for ab-|attack of the capitalist class against |the defense and for a liberal policy |stract justice, and not a government |the working class. Both hide the |fact that the government and its | Negroes. Incidentally the Reverend Thomas |courts are the instruments of op- also exposes his agreement with the | Pression of the capitalists against oppression of the Negroes in the |the workers, Both Thomas and South and his approval of Jim Crow- Bailey are uneasy as to the conduct ism. The Reverend praises Judge |of the case by the International La- Barnhill for his decisions instructing bor Defense. the North Carolina Bus Company to fto the exposure of capitalist democ- provide decent accommodations for "acy and capitalist justice in the It does not even occur to Both regret the fact the “left socialist” Thomas to de-| tha case is under the leader- mand race equality in the South. It|ship and conduct of the Interna- does not occur to him to demand the | tional Labor Defense and not the abolition of Jim Crowism, It does |liberals and socialists. Both regret not occur to him because he is| the fact that they can not be of full against race equality, because he|Service to the capitalists as they stands for the oppression of the Ne- | Would be if they could be in charge groes, for Jim Crowism and segre- | of the defense. Both see their mor- gation. His stand on the Negro|tal enemy in the mass workers’ de- question is the same as that of |fense organized by the International Judge Barnhill, the same as that of Labor Defense. Both regret that the the capitalists and land owners of growing disillusionment of the work- the South, the same as that of thers in capitalist democracy, the capitalist class of the United States, |state, and the courts as a result of Both are uneasy as} nists are playing with the lives of Mr, Thomas stands for capitalism and defends every institution of cap- italism and capitalist oppression. Similarly Mr. Forrest Baily, direc- tor of the American Civil Liberties Union, in the August 14th issue of the New Republic tells us about the action of Judge Barnhill, that “From time to time when he in- structed the grand jury on the functions and explained the atti- tude of the court on the necessity of a fair and impartial trial, no intelligent observer could fail to be impressed by his force and his sincerity.” and further along in the article he makes the observation “There has been some uneasi- ness in the minds of many as to the effects of the International Labor Defense over the defense policies and strategy. . There are many sympathizers who would feel greatly cheered if some form of intelligent control could be ex- ercized over what the Daily Worker prints about the case dur- ing the-next few weeks.” The New York Times in an edi- torial Aug. 15, under the caption “Communist Defenders,” endorses the position of Baily in the follow- ing words: ‘ “Not the least of the hazards confronting the defendants in the approaching trial of the Gastonia strike leaders at Charlotte, N. C., is the ‘strates,’ of those in charge of the case. In quarters eager to assure a fair trial for the prison- ers the opinion is openly expressed that their best interests are not 4a issue of the New Leader writes as,This can not be otherwise because |the defense organized by the Inter- national Labor Defense. The Sacco and Vanzetti case fur- nishes an important lesson for the working class as to the role of the |socialists and liberals, and the im- |portance of organizing the broadest possible mass movement of the | Workers which alone can save the peaetonia victims of the class strug- gle. The Gastonia murder charges grew out of the struggle of the Gastonia workers to organizé themselves into the National Textile Workers Union for a struggle against rationaliza- \tion, and the unbearable conditions junder which “the workers in the newly industrialized South must \live, Phe struggle in Gastonia is a symbol of the awakening of the workers in the South, not only in the textile industry, but the unskilled workérs as a whole. Not only that, Gastonia is a symbol of the growing | radicalization process now going on among the workers in the United |States. The fascist methods used by the textile barons of the South is an answer of the bourgeoisie to this radicalization process and is an attempt to defeat the efforts of the workers to organize, The repeated brutal attacks against the workers in Gastonia and against the tent colony of the International Work- “lers Relief showed that the capital- ists are determined to drown the movement of the workers in blood. The attack on the tent colony on June 7th found the workers ready and determined to defend themselves and their families and their organ- ization. The Communist Party stands for the right of the work- Jers to defend themselves and their only a frame-up in this case. They jdo not speak of the workers’ right It is interesting to note that the |renegades, Lore, Cannon and Love- stone take the same position. Lore in the Volkszeitung, Cannon in the | Militant, and Lovestone, in a series ‘of mimeographed circulars, speak jabout the narrowin> down of the | defense. What they mean is that \they are against the class policy of that does not undertake the creation of a broad mass movement, but gives the leadership of the defense to the liberals who pin their hopes on the fairness of the capitalist court and capitalist justice. In the New York Times of Aug. 15 there appears an editorial under the cap- jtion “Communist Defenders,” in| |which the policy of Thomas, Baily, |Lore, Cannon & Co, is endorsed. | This clearly exposes the role of the |socialists, liberals, and renegades, and shows that their policy aids di- |rectly the bourgeoisie to carr} out its attacks against the workers, Only the working class can save \the lives of the 13 accused of mur- der and secure the release of the other defendants, Only a powerful movement of the workers will stay the executioner’s hand. The capi- talists will not stop at executing the Gastonia defendants unless they \fear the rising power of the work- ing class. Let the socialists and | tened out, a tree, standing out, was suddenly liberals talk about the “methods of the I. L. D.” These methods are the only methods that the workers must follow. The workers can have no faith in capitalist justice, in capital- ist fairness. Capitalist justice is jclass justice directed against the |workers, (apitalist fairness is like ja deck of stacked cards against the workers. r - Every worker and every working class organization must fally to the support of ‘the national campaign for Gastonia workers, ,build a pow- erful united front mass movement for the defense of the Gastonia de- fendants. Organize the movement for the right of the workers to or- ganize to defend themselyes and their organizations. Raise funds that ,are needed to carry on the work, Support the Workers International Relief that is bringing relief to hundreds of families in Gastonia. Build the Daily Worker and sup- port it financially so that is may continue to print the kind of news and material so irritating to Thom- as, Baily, and the capitalist class, because. it enables the workers to build its organizations and fight the capitalist class, its government and its socialist liberal lackeys, Help the National Textile Workers Union in the campaign to organize the million textile workers, Support the Trade Union Unity Convention to be held in Cleveland Aug. 31. Help create a national center that will direct the struggle for the organization of the unorgan- ized, and against capitalist ration- lalization, T by | [AW | HENRI BARBUSSE ! Translated by brian ios MAW 4 E L F ission, from “I Saw It Myself” by Henri Barbusse, Reprinted, by peri 1 yrighted by E. P. Dutton & Co. Inc New York, published and c Song of a Soldier This is the tale of an obscure soldier, an utterly insignificant rank and filer who is constantly dogged by misfortune. His entire outlook is changed when, during a visit home on a six-day leave, the gentle Clara shows him affection. Thereafter he goes along on his duties singing—singing in the thick of battle. . . ee 'URTHER on, at a round meeting-point in the trenches, where the parapet was flat- blasted; close at hand, came the shell’s ter- rific iron thresh; you saw the flash, like a clenched hand, shaking, smashing, rending. In this uproarious din, to counter all the noise, the singer—pipe in teeth—sang out loud. On and on he sang as he climbed up-hill, down-dale on the mountainous plain now be- fore him. Sometimes, for a few seconds, 7 broad daylight seemed to hang in the night sky. At times, one would have thought that all the stars in heaven were exploding. Out on the plains, the eye picked out points where lights fell to earth like clustering constellations, shell-holes which were the nests of fallen men. Yet though these fitful dawns shot light into his very soul, though the guns’ metallic clang vibrated through him, even so he was happy, and happier still, to think of Clara, { * * * NICHE was thick when he reached the subterranean dwellings, where his unit lodged, among ashen paths of silence. Threading maze after maze, he came at last to the lairs of his own company. “You're just in the nick for the fatigue party,” said the N. C. 0., by way of welcome; he was short of a man. “Take a spade, and—hey there, look alive! Look as though you're a bit squiffy. We'll soon stop that.” Somewhat abashed, the soldier who had only drunk of happiness stopped his song. But he couldn’t stop when he wanted to. What is, is, and there’s no saying no to it. Happiness coursed on through his veins and the song which, ever since he started out, had been as much part of him as his own soul, still sounded from this throat. The little band of diggers were now busy with soft black things, stretched out under cold black things, and once again, he began to hum, like a purring cat before the fire. “Can’t he shut his gob, that stinking son of a bitch!” said the N. C. 0. But the greater the distance from Clara, the more she seemed to move him, to pluck at his heart, the more wonderful the good times they had had together. Lightly he strode over the black and rugged morsels of the night. Radiance poured down from the falling stars. It was one vast celebration, a firework display, in honor of the over- powering change in his fortunes, What was there to hold him back? Life never seemed quite so good. His song throbbed forth again, low at first, then loud. “Stow it!” growled his comrades, under their breath, * Site: HE soldier within him, trained to night work, told him that there was no danger imminent; the front lines were still a good way off; moreover the officer was still commanding the detachment in person and he always stopped doing so at a given moment. And then again, as already said, he really couldn’t help it. It was impossible now to keep his face glued to a wall of silence, like a schooboy in disgrace. He was the victim of his own simple heart, and his voice sang on of itself, rggardless of time and place. Then everyone there began to feel frightened of this strange fel- low who would not stop singing. They were too far up now to send him back. The shadows halted in disorderly fashion, panic-stricken. “Shut him up, never mind how!” said the officer, trembling— with fury no doubt—to the N. C. 0. , The N. C. O. stiffened his neck, grunted, made a furious dash into the night—and soon a deep, a widespread silence came over the plain once more, ‘ At dawn, the N .C. 0, brought the fatigue party back to the trench, and on confronting the captain, said, “There’s one missing.” “That’s annoying,” said the captdin, who was keen on his men. He noticed there was blood on the N. C. 0.’s stripe. “Wounded?” he asked. No,. sir, it’s only my knife.” “Ah, that’s good,” said the captain, guessing at gallantry. . se Laughing Jack and Wheeping Jack. | !Ha! Ha! Hi! Hi! Hi! Always making you laugh, was Martin. There was no resisting his jokes. All the livelong day he sat in his little wire cage, like, a black and white magpie, with his lockers and pigeon holes round him, selling stamps to the public, cracking his jokes and working away. Here was a young fellow who saw the funny side of life; he was a great hand at digging out the comic element in people, in daily events. Out from this little official centre, thanks to him, laughter went rip- pling through the town. And they all liked that—the old folks, the girls, the married women. He was a power in the land. Even quite important people—officials and tradesmen—used to say: “Martin’s a funny fellow,” and didn’t mind his being such a character. And the local magistrate in his private sanctum felt a twinge of envy too, for he could only contradict people, while Martin made them laugh. As I have said, women were attracted by him and were so ready to laugh when he spoke that sometimes their surrender was as complete as it could be. So Martin enjoyed general esteem, unlike the growsers and grum- blers. There were plenty of them; Joel, the lamp-lighter, represented the most abominable type of all. Joel painted life black; Martin brightened it up. Again, Joel was a regular repository for stories of people down on their luck, of things “that didn’t ought to be.” And more than that, like all people with a grudge against life, he was deep in anarchy and the red peril. . 8 © i teed was how things were in our little town, which was like any | other little town in the world, when War was suddenly declared (in July, 1914, as perhaps you will remember). They went off side by side. Martin and Joel were in the same yeat and the same regiment. And, of course, Joel looked black, swore at fate and talked of rank butchery. But Martin laughed louder than ever, breathing @ deeper air outside his post office cage. Folks said, “He might be off on his hdlidays!” At the front things went on in exactly the same way. Amidst the foulness and ferocious mechanical din of war, where thunderclaps and shreds of steel and copper nails about for men, Joel became a profes- sional abuser of slaughter, and even of patriotism (he was actually heard to say that commissioned officers and ministers were not of finer clay). But Martin was unshaken; he remained the prince of jesters, Joel was marked down as a maker of trouble and kept under observa- tion by the gilded officers; here was a fellow who made heavy weather of things and pitied the men, till they began to think, of things that they would never have dreamed of otherwise! But when he had had his way, Martin would pass by, wipe out the effect of his poisonous jere- maids with one or two well-timed jokes that stopped the fellows thinking too much about their own skins. The two of them were pitted against each other. And Joel would growl and writhe, ashen-faced under Mar- tin’s sallies, much to the delight of the miserable gallery, I A SOLDIER like Martin, ringing with so many laughing changes, was invaluable for the morale of the company. “The fellow’s a gold- mine,” declared Captain Maqueron, “Why, he’d keep the sheep on the laugh all the way to the slaughterhouse!” said Major Eckenfelder, who was a butcher and cattle-dealer in civilian life, as well. One day, Martin got a bullet in the head. A pun stuck half-way out of his mouth. But if this event shut him up there and then, it did not shut him up for good and all. He escaped from that wound; what was more, escaped with all his waggish exuberance too, wi., {TO be Continuedd * * * + - i | }