The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 10, 1929, Page 4

=. » tnion.-The expulsion was made by seaehdieeendeniervaneec eae " DATLY WCRKER, NEW YORK, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1929 ——————} A. blished the Comprodaily Publiabing Co. Inc. Daily, except Peenday, at 26-28 ‘Union’ Square, New York City, N, Telephone Stuyvesant 1696-1-8, Cable: “DAIWORK SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By Mai! (in New York only): $4.50 six months $2.50 three months By Mail (outside of New York): a year $3.50 six months $2.00 three monthe Adérete and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 26-28 Union Square. New York, N. ¥. — 2000 @ year The “Lena” Massacre in Roumania In Roumania a mass-murder of workers has been carried out | which puts all the other outrages of the year into the shade. In the valley of the Jiul in Transylvania, which a year ago was one of the strongholds of the reformist trade unions, 32 miners have been killed and several hundred wounded at the orders “of the government of the National Peasant Party which came to power with the assistance of the social democracy. These figures have passed the Roumanian cen- sorship and are therefore in all probability actually lower than the real figures. We are well aware that the Roumanian authorities are not sparing with Iead when workers are concerned, A year ago these same workers demonstrated in Alba Julia under the leadership of the reformist trade union bureaucracy and the Na- tional Peasants Party against the government of the so-called Liberal | Party. Thousands and thousands of miners left the mines of Petrosani, Vuleani and Lupeni in order to express their indignation at the brutal terrorist regime of the liberal government. The ferment amongst the miners.in the Jiul valley was exploited by the National Peasant Party with the-aésistance of the social democracy in the interests of the Rou- manian ‘bourgeoisie. But even then the workers went further than was pleasant for the social democracy and the leaders of the peasants party. After the demonstration they requisitioned Jocomotives and wagons in order to save themselves the trouble of walking the long distance back to their homes. The accession to power of the Maniu government did not pacify the miners immediately. The social democrats, who had obtained 9 | seats in the Chanfber with the assistance of the National Peasants Party, did everything in their power to nourish the illusion amongst the workers that the government of the National Peasants Party would carry out a democratic transformation in Roumania. It was, however, yery quickly shown that the new government was continuing the policy of its predecessor, the Bratianu government, not only in principle, but even formally. Despite the democratic illusions which still existed amongst the working masses, the Communist Party and the reyolution- ary trade unions succeeded in winning the confidence of the miners in the Jiul valley. The workers turned their backs on the social demo- crats and the National Peasants Party and took up the struggle against the coal barons for an improvement of their working and living con- ditions. It is almost impossible for the outsider to imagine the terrible conditions under which the miners live in the Jiul valley. The miners are dressed in rags, and the greater part of their terribly low wages are paid out in kind, a procedure which degrades the miners into semi- slaves. For months on end they receive no cash payment at all. Almost all the nations of the Danube and Balkan countries are represented amongst the workers in the Jiul valley. Under the Hun- | garian monarchy the authorities and the employers succeeded in play- ing the various nationalities amongst the workers against each other in order to prevent any organized struggle and to undermine prole- tarian solidarity. The real rulers of the district were the police. The arbitrary police regime was the normal state of affairs, the normal method of administration in the Jiul valley. In the years 1918 and 1919 a section of the workers, under the leadership of the Communists, carried out a regular guerilla war against the representatives of the terrorist regime introduced by the Roumanian authorities, which was even worse than the tyranny of the Hungarian authorities before the war. After the suppression of the insurrections, the social democrats strived to obtain control of the miners in the interests of the Roumanian landowners and finance capi- talists, and above all, in the interests of the mineowners. The social democrats succeeded for a time in bridling the discontent of the miners, but their success was shortlived. A few months ago, despite the assurances of the National Peasant Party and despite the promises of the social democratic parliamentary deputies, the exceptional regime in the Jiul valley was sharpened. The notorious gendarme detachments from the frontiers were drafted into the mining district together with military. The social democracy and the reformist >trade unions did their utmost to prevent the workers from commencing wage struggles. They tried to console the workers by telling them that after the stabilization of the currency the Maniu government would take measures to reduce the cost of living and in this way real wages would rise automatically without any strike move- ment. At the same time the government of the National Peasants Party strengthened troops in the Jiul valley in order to be able to deal immediately with any strike movement which might break out despite | ‘the social democrats, When the collective tariff concluded by the reformist trade unions expired, the workers demanded a new tariff in which the working hours per day would be shortened from 10 to 8. The mineowners re- | fused all negotiations. Out of this situation developed the bloody events | reported by the telegraph, of course, after the permission of the Rou- | manian censorship. | These events show the tremendous progress made by fascism in Roumania-under the protecting wing of the “Party of Democracy.” The National Peasants Party is not only supported by the Roumanian social democracy, but also by the Second (Labor and Socialist) International asawhole The press of the Second and of the Amsterdam (I. F. T. U.) International praised the Roumanjan social democrats and the Maniu government to the skies. The two reformist internationals announced to the world that the Maniu government represented the beginning of a new democratic era in which terrorism against the working class would be abandoned and a far-reaching social legislation introduced. The Austro-Marxists organized a campaign against the Communists, accusing.them of hindering “the great revolutionary work of the Maniu government.” They deliberatoely spread the falsehood that the Com- munists in Roumania were cooperating with the Liberal Party of Bra- tianu in ‘order to prevent the “democratization” of Roumania by, the Maniw government and the social democracy. There is no doubt that even now, after the mass-murders in the Jiul valley; which represent a new edition of the massacre in the Lena Goldfields by the bloody servants of the czar in 1912, the Second In- ternationa] will continue to support the National Peasants Party and the Roumanian social democracy. The events in the Jiul valley show that the spontaneous mass movement of the workers and the poor peasants places great demands upon the fevolutionary advance-guard of the Roumanian working class, the illegal Communist Party of Roumania. The Communist Party will @o everything in its power to prove itself equal to its tasks. It will place itself at the head of the Roumanian workers and peasants and at the head of the oppressed toiling masses in the non-Roumanian dis- .triets occupied by the Roumanian forces (Bessarabia, Bukovina, the Dobruja, ete.), and with the assistance of the international proletariat “‘ft-will conduct a determined revolutionary struggle against the M: i} government and against its agents, the social democrats, until final victory is achieved. Militant Worker Is Expelled by I. L. G. W. V. Abraham, militant member of , Local eeeantarnational Ladies Gar- forkers. Union was illegally from the union as a result up on the part of ‘the tight wing clique in control of the Bergdorf and Goodman. At a meeting of active. members of the local held at Bryant Hall, a resolution was adopted protesting against the expulsion. A commit- tee of 5 was elected “to organize all the forces in the union for the pro- tection of the membership against; expulsion and frame-up.” The meet: being held for months. As/|ing also demanded that Abraham be! _ the officials of the local without eonsulting the membership; no | —— The International Situation and Tasks of the Communist International Report of Com rade Kuusinen | AT THE TENTH PLENUM OF THE EXEC = UTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE COMINTERN | Is Capitalist Planned Economy Possible? What does finance capital undertake under these circumstances? Firstly, further concentration of production, further centralization fo capital, further monopolization in all the important capitalist countries. The mechanism of finance capital is brought into a “still greater state of perfection” by further fusion of bank and industrial capital, by | monopolist control over ever extending economic spheres, the transport service, the internal and external trade, etc.; lately for instance, the new big export monopolies of the United States have become very prominent. Furthermore, the centralization of bank capital goes on steadily. In a word, all the methods of finance capital are constantly developed for the “peaceful organization” of its monopoly system, the system which was praised last autumn by the participants in the Zurich conference of the League for Social Politics, with Werner Sombart at their head, as a wonderful system of stable, harmonious, properly “regulated” or “confined” national economy. Sombart himself has certainly become rather sentimental in his old days; he no longer speaks of “high capitalism,” he speaks of “late capitalism.” But as a substitute for the lost beauty of *high capitalism, the Sombart late capitalism has been freed from all dangerous contradictions. The gist of this is a prophecy on the part of Sombart of another quiet 100 years or more,for capitalism (a prospect such as an old professor would | probably wish for himself). Herkner, another old well-known figure, is not as sentimental as Sombart, he is more optimistic, and he made at this conference an | 4, idylie comparison: “Perhaps capitalism resembles a barrel of wine of a celebrated vintage which is fed from time to time with a new socialist wine, but without depriving it of its maturity.” It is a pity that Karl Kautsky was not there, the chief Marxist of the Second International; he could have agreed without much ado with the peaceful ultra-imperialism of Sombart, as well as with the capital- ist-socialist-optimism of Herkner, for hasn’t he said in his last work: “Materialist Conception of History:” “ “Capitalism has gone through so many crises, has been able to adapt itself to so many new and frequently surprising and enormous demands, that from a purely economic viewpoint, it seems to have more vitality than half a century ago.” This is the length this “Marxist” has gone. What does this “regulated,” “continued” capitalism, this capitalist “planned economy” represent? It is something that finance capital desires and to which it aspires, but which it cannot achieve. The na- tional economy of the Soviet Union works according to a Five-Year Plan—can anything similar be seen in the capitalist world? Wall Street dreams, for instance, of complete control and regula- tion of the world market. But as we can now see, hardly have such dreams been conceived when harsh reality in the form of wild specula- tion on the Stock Exchange and a sharp international credit crisis, plays havoe with them. Can capitalist rivalry be completely eliminated, even in a few countries, through capitalist monopoly? Certainly not. Gigantic concentration of the means of production and centralization of capitalism, truly vast schemes for the socialization of labor, these are facts. But it is also a fact that capitalist monopoly can exist only in a general capitalist milieu, and this means: in the milieu of com- modity production, of simultaneously existing competition and rivalry. Capitalist monopoly finds itself in constant and insoluble contradiction | to its own general milieu, as cleary shown by Lenin, on the basis of the Marxist doctrine, in his “Imperiaism.” Engels in his notes to volume Ill. “Capital,” when dealing with the increased efforts of the capitalists to bring about through cartels and trusts regulation of production and thereby of prices and profits, makes the following statement: “Tt is self-evident that such experiments are possible only under relatively favorable economic weather conditions . . . even if produc- tion requires regulation, surely this is not the business of the capitalist class.” (Free translation, Tr.) This is the business of the working class, as even a Superficial’ comparison—from this point of view—between the economic system of the Soviet Union and that of the capitalist countries will show. Socialist Planned Economy, The high degree of centralization of industrial production, beside which free competition plays a very subordinate role; state monopoly of foreign trade; rational economy according to plan not only in in- dustry and trade but also in agriculture—all this, quite apart from the socialist character of this planned economy, only as an organizational | form, means the possibility of enormous saving of productive forces, such as is not possible in any capitalist country. Even if we take into consideration only a single partial phenomenon of economic waste in the capitalist countries, losses through strikes, we can easily imagine what enormous savings the ecoonomic system of the Soviet Union im- plies, because the working class itself is the owner of the means of production, Moreover, we must bear in mind that even when capi- talist monopoly sucgeeds in partially eliminating free competition, this happens in capitalist countries not so much in order to develop the social forces of production, but rather to impede this development. The contrary is the case in the Soviet Union: it is precisely through the abolition of capitalist monopoly, through the establishment of the monopoly of the working class that the social forces of production have been set free. Even the interference with the normal international economic relations with the Soviet Union by the surrounding capi- talist world is in many ways compensated by the upsurge of the emancipated, rationally conducted productive forces of the Soviet Union. Even in the sphere where socialist planned economy is most diffi- cult in the Soviet Union, namely in agriculture, the application of the present course of the C, P. S. U. means a gigantic step forward. I mean the course of collectivization of agriculture (Soviet farms, col- lective enterprises, etc.). The collective enterprises alone which com- prise at present in the Soviet Union about 21-2—3 million hectares, will comprise at the end of the Five-Year Plan about 25 million hec- tares, that is to say, ten times as much. This means consistent so- cialist management in the development of the national economy car- ried through with the support of the most important sections of the peasantry of the Soviet Union. This means introduction on a large scale of socialist reconstruction of peasant farming, and consolidation | | | 1 of the leading role of the working class on the basis of the development of the new forms of production implied in the alliance of the working class with the most important sections of the peasantry. The carrying through of the Five-Year Plan “of gigantic work” which demands enormous efforts on the part of the working class, in order to overcome the resistance of the capitalist elements and to remedy the extreme backwardness of agriculture, guarantees a con- solidation of the socialist sector in town and country at the expense of the capitalist elements in the national economy. As I have spoken about the labor conditions of the proletariat of | the capitalist countries in connection with capitalist rationalization, I must also mention a few simple but very characteristic facts con- cerning the labor conditions of the workers of the Soviet Union. In | the Soviet Union, workers’ wages rise every year. Moreover, 10 per cent of the revenue of the enterprises go to the improvement of the con- ditions of the working class, which means that-as the productivity of labor rises, the share of the workers in the profits rises in proportion. Then, there is social insurance to which the workers do not contribute anything; apart from wages they get all the benefits of social in- surance; the social insurance fund amounts now to 1,100,000,000 rou- bles. In addition, workers have cultural and educational advantages. As to working hours, the 7-hour day is now being introduced in the Soviet Union. By October, 1929, the 7-hour day will have been intro- | duced in 20qer cent of the industry. By the end of the Five-Year Plan, | that is to say in five years, the 7-hour day is to be the rule in the whole industry of the country. Underground workers have already the 6-hour day; the same is also the case in occupations injurious to health. All this explains the enthusiastic, creative “competition” of the human forces of production in the Soviet Union which have broken the chains of capitalist exploitation and slavery and are constructing their own socialist house. This enthusiastic competition enables the Soviet Union to out-distance by far the development rate of the most ad- vanced capitalist countries. We have every reason to prove in all capi- talist countries the main questions of the Soviet Union, as well as the questions of its economic development as our own questions and to explain to millions of workers the great process of socialist construc- tion in the Soviet Union. gInstead of talking about the stabilization of the capitalist world where stabilization is seriously shaken, we have every reason to present a clear picture of the conditions of the only state in the world which is not only becoming stabilized, but is also constructing socialism. The Imperialist Antagonism on a World-Scale. I will go back to the capitalist world. It is certainly true that through the development of monopolist capitalism the regulating role of the free market is more and more restricted not only in the in- dividual countries but to a certain extent also on an international scale. What is the consequence? Does a new general regulator take its place? The answer is in the negative. Capitalist rationalization has, for instance, increased enormously Germany’s capacity to produce and compete, but how and where to compete is a question which has not been solved for Germany, Can, perhaps, international concerns function in the role of a general regulator of capitalism? Certainly not. For instance, gigantic international raw material cartels have come into being, but they are the cause of continuous production crises in various countries in the respective production spheres. It seems that through them the crises are still more internationalized. capitalist world, instead of having one centralization center, has sev- | eral such centers: the various big imperialist centers whose further | development and consolidation is proceeding at an uneven rate. The more the function of the general regulator of the capitalist world | economy is interfered with, the better opportunity have the various leading groups of the financial world to “regulate” at their own sweet will and in their own way. But they regulate against one another, each in the interest of its own surplus profit. This means: struggle without impediments. rs In this struggle, investments of capital can be very well a means of poaching on other peoples’ preserves. Not only in the colonies and “spheres of influence” of the opponent, but also in the opponent mother country, investments of capital are used as instruments of imperialist struggle. We had a typical example of this in Britain, I mean the General Electric Company. Here British and American cap- ital came into collision, and it became evident that American capital had penetrated in order to act not only as a usurer, but also as a saboteur. Economic sabotage in the citadel of the opponent—why should not the finance oligarchy indulge in this? Or is this perhaps more reprehensible than espionage, bribing the press and such like methods of “competition” in which the high diplomats of imperialism indulge in all countries? Struggle in all spheres, for outlets, for raw material sources, for spheres of export of capital not only for economic partial interests, but above all, for extension of one’s own economic territory, and this of course at the expense of others, because the world is already partitioned. Struggle for supremacy and monopoly—such is in reality capitalist “planned economy.” To talk out of existence these contradictions of the capitalist world, and especially to deny the accentuation of these contradictions, ig the business of the “scientific” apologists of finance capital such as Som- bart and Kautsky. In this connection, their method is rather cunning. Sombart for instance, indulges in reemingly Marxist phraseology; he produces facts concerning the process of the socialization of labor, he admits the parasitical character of modern capitalism, he does not phophesy eternal life to capitalism, but its gradual decay, perhaps in a hundred years time . . . Prof, Schulze-Gavernitz, on the other hand, has already taken fright. At the aforementioned Zurich conference he said in reply to Sombart: perhaps revolution is possible because “the peace treaties have certainly accumulated stores of dynamite in Europe” and “the wheat of revolution will never flourish so well as in new wars.” He is even afraid that it will not only be a revolution in Europe but a “world revolution which might even seriously jeopardize the position of the titan of Anglo-American capitalism.” He says: “Europe would be then an Asiatic Peninsula of archaelogic interest.” One can see how panic stricken the poor man is, for, he cannot find any other means to save the capitalist world than inoculation with Christian faith, namely a recipe of merely “archeologic interest.” | One can see of what enormous importance is the fact that the | By TOM MYERSCOUGH. It is doubtful if there is any other place in the world that is as dependent on one industry as the southern section of West Virginia is on the mining industry. Kanawha, Boone, Mingo, McDo- well and Logan Counties depend al- most entirely on the production of “black diamonds” and the “black re- action” of the coal operators whose police see to it that union agitators are “sent down the road.” Under the iron rule of these oper- ators’ armed thugs, labeled as sher- iffs and deputies, constables, state, city and town police, the miners have been harnessed as serfs to the job. Protest in any form against treatment accorded or wages paid means the loss of the job and in many instances {fa damn good trim- ming.” The “trimming,” of course, means almost anything from a black eye to “leading a parade organized by an undertaker,” about which the victim knows not a thing, Scales for the weighing of coal produced are used only after the coal is in the railroad cars ready for shipment to the distribution for it is charged for by the ton in carload of Abraham’s expulsion, he |immediately reinstated into the wed trom his job withishop, ;~ ase Seana lots but is mined by the men whose lot it is to toil in the dark recessesa ttle. to keep it clean and ig the ‘lenge the rule of armed thugs will a = at so much per car, or, as they put it “by the acre.” Mine cars are of jthe three and a half to five ton variety and the pay for such “tubs” as these ranges from.65 to 90 cents acar. This means that the tonnage rate is in some cases less than 20 cents a ton, while day rates run |from 35 to 60 cents an hour, sup- |posedly on the basis of an eight- hour day but which, in reality, is a |ten, eleven and sometimes a twelve hour day. This is brought about by the fact that drivers and motormen and others engaged in the haulage of coal are compelled to stay in the mine until their men are cleaned up and there is no such thing as pay for overtime. Company Towns: Company Stores. Almost without exception the min- ing towns are absolutely company- owned, Signs dot the highway giv- ing the names of the towns and in- variably are marked “unincorpor: ed.” A glance around will reveal a squalid looking camp on the bank of a dirty creek and all other short- comings of the average mining town. Further down one can see the tipple and other outside buildings sur- rounded by the junk and dirt that is allowed to gather because it costs (To be Continued) midst of it all, usually near the company office, one can see the company store. Here the miner is compelled to trade his earnings, little as they are, for whatever brand of goods the company store chooses to carry, for there are no private stores in which he might expect to gain the advant- age of competition. The southern miner has noticed that his southern neighbors in the textile industry have been leading the way in the formation of unions that will challenge the right’ of the overlords to exploit the workers in that industry, particularly in Gas- tonia, and is ready to do likewise. The southern miners have not for- gotten the betrayals of John L. Lew- is and the United’ Mine Workers of America all over the country and particularly the ones in the South which were the first on the long list perpetrated by that arch faker. However, under the leadership of a real militant and class conscious union such as the National Miners Union is, the miners of not only West Virginia, but also those of Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama can and will be organized. The initial steps have been taken and ere long the struggle to chal- South with the National Miners Union begin. These events of the near future will provide material for pages of real labor history and un- der the leadership of the National Miners Union and the Trade Union Unity League, the new trades union center, there will be much to be re- corded. That the bosses themselves have been able to observe the awakening of their southern slaves is evidenced by the fact that fakers are now in the field and, with the aid of the bosses, are attempting to force the miners to join the U.M.W.A, But when bosses themselves tell the min- ers that they must join the U.M. W.A. it is readily agreed that the U.M.W.A. is everything that miners thought it was at the time they were betrayed by the Lewis and Van Bittners, In the drive into the South, the National Miners Union and the trade Union Unity League will stress the class against class char- acter of the new miners union as compared to the class collaboration policy of the U.M.W.A, and the A. F. of L. Very clearly and without equivo- cation, it will point out that it is going to bring them into a union that recognizes no particular color | fanatic, after a fashion, to find them to your taste. aren by i § AW IT HENRI BARBUSSE Translated by Brian Rhys MY § & L = “1 Saw It Myself” by Henri Barbusse, | Ip Dutton & Co. Ine, New York. | : t Reprinted, by permission, from published and copyrighted by E. P. FERDINAND HERE was once a young prince who was happy. He was happy because, as I have said, he was young. And be- sides, he was handsome, and-rich, and illustrious. He was indeed the king’s nephew and heir-apparant, and every day the king covered him- self with glory, just by sitting on the throne. His aunt, the queen, had taken up literature, and proved to have genius. Such, at any rate, was the opinion of polite readers and of literary critics, who know what they are talking about. But the young prince did not cultivate literature; he only sowed wild oats. . This was far more in accordance with ancestral tradition, and was by way of being a discreet lesson for his noble aunt. Sowing oats was preferable, really, to politics: heir-apparents who go in for politics are always setting their august parents by the ears, as well as the stage managers and scene shifters of kingdoms, com- monly known as ministers and diplomats. rJCHERE are noble pursuits for the mind, it will be said, useful activities. . . . Yes, but you must be keen on them, and be a Our prince only cared for sowing wild oats. Now there are oats and oats. What he liked was the wildest kind of all. For him, this meant fascinating young women and girls with his smiling’ face and lordly air, and then dropping them. He swore eternal love for a time to all kinds of poor creatures whose one possession was a youthful heart in a youthful body. He went out hunting women as other men go out hunting birds, and devoured them rapidly, thus enjoying the pleasures of the gourmet. But he did not do his hunting among the ladies of the Court and upper classes alone. He had a taste for handsome lasses. He could stoop to conquer, and explore, incognito, the lower quarters of his capital for quarry. Haroun al Raschid did the same, so the “Arabian Nights” tells us, and often went out in some disguise into the streets of Bagdad to find out what his subjects were thinking of himself as their sultan. But our prince only talked to the women, and his curiosity was of a purely personal order. ND so he gathered many heart that faded ere long. In old times lords, especially of the highest rank, were quite open about these things. Today, they hush them up, And there you have democratic progress. Now there was a beautiful young woman in a suburb of that town. His princely eye fell upon her, and so a fresh idyll sprang up out of the ruins of all the rest. This time the adventure went on for a little—several days. The husband, a butcher by trade, had his suspicions, discovered the affair. Let it be said that the prince, being fond of heroic adventures, and knowing that he ran no risk himself, did not take many precautions. The husband was an honest, hard-working man, fond of his wife, and realized that the stranger in his house could be nothing more than a vulgar thief. The moment comes: out he rushes like a tiger, ready to give the fine young fellow a thrashing. And a nasty time he would have had, if he had not been a prince. You can guess the scene: the four walls of a modest room, the un- fortunate wife lying in a corner, hands over her eyes, and the simple, menacing figure, like the avenging arm of the law. B« as we know, the flesh and blood of Royal Highness is far too precious to be left to its own devices; it might get damaged in some accident. Two discreet and broad-backed persons—watchdogs in morning coats—were following their master like his shadow, or nearly so, The two of them were always there, a few yards off, on the Jookout in the street, not far from the door, ears strained, always ready to save the face of the ruling dynasty should complications set in. One of them, having heard loud voices, thrust in the door with his shoulder, just as if it had been a curtain; both men burst into the room and seized the working man in their clutches. When the two myrmidons had hitched up their man and held him fast, the prince, quickly recovering from his momentary pallor, took out a cigar, lit it, and laughed in his face. The bellowing of the fellow, fast in the grip of the plain-clothes men amused him. They amused him for a time; then the home truths which the fellow spat out frothingly into his face began to sting him in his princely sense of honor, HE took the cigar from his mouth and set the lighted end to the nose of the working man transfixed before him—kept it there, long and firmly—while the two Herculeans held him, motionless and harmless, through all his yells. And then the prince went calmly back to his heir-apparent’s palace. This young prince’s name was Ferdinand. His name is still the same. But he is no longer young now, nor a prince. He is King of Rumania.* } *Since this was written, Ferdinand von Hohenzollern, King of Rumania, has died. Interpreting a Fair Trial By JEANNETTE D. PEARL. (Field Organizer Gastonia Defense and Relief.) selves. A strong trial is what these workers need. A powerful fight must be waged in the court room, that will reverberate throughout the Many people who feel keenly and sincerely the tragedy now being en- acted in Charlotte, N. C., are hope- ful in that the-Gastonia defendants seem to be getting a “fair trial.” In the measure that that hope rises their effort to aid defense work falls. In consequence, their optim- ism is jeopardizing the defendants’ chance for life and freedom. What is a “fair trial?” It is ob- vious that it consists in interpreting and applying the existing law hon- estly, without bias. But whose law is it? The law that grew out of the needs of the capitalist class, evolved by them, administered by them or ther retainers, No judge would be permitted to rule for five minutes were he to fail in interpreting that law on its class basis. The honesty of a judge is not the dominant fac- tor in a class war trial. The. Gas- tonia case is a class war case. The prosecution—the mill owners —hold up the dead body of Chief of Police O. F. Aderholt, that is pro- duced by them as prima facia evi- dence. Killing resulted in conse- quence of the workers organizing. The culprit, then, is the right to organize, Since that right took physical form in the bodies of the strike leaders, these leaders are placed on trial for the murder of Aderholt, ‘Though no proof is at hand that the defendants did the killing, ample proof is at hand that they did “conspire” to defend the right to organize southern textile workers into militant industrial unions. The defendants are held on a conspiracy charge to murder. Those who are naive enough to think that “a fair” trial is all suf- ficient to acquit, are deluding them- land, throughout the world. Legal procedure in capitalist courts is extremely expensive. If a successful fight for the lives. and freedom of the defendants is to be waged, the ammunition of war—de- fense funds—becomes the first pre- requisite ‘for victory. In rescuing life and liberty for the Gastonia de- fendants, we are not only saving just these lives, but we also estab- lish the workers’ right to organize militant labor -uniorls in the South. In establishing that right, we are securing and safeguarding the life and liberty of future labor organ- izers. It is not the defendants alone who are on trial, but the workers right to organize, False testimony was accepted sal used as true evidence in the Sacco- Vanzetti case. The same is true of the Mooney-Billings case, and the same may: be true of the Gastonia case. The seeming “fairness” of the judge may prove an instrument in the hands of the prosecution for their class domination, The fight of class power is on in the Charlotte court room. Workers and friends of labor, on to that struggle! Build the defense fund. A “fair trial” alone will not save the lives of our comredes. A strong defense fund with which to rally the workers’ solidarity for that fight will free our fellow workers. It is in our hands to give life and free- dom to the defendants by establish- ing and maintaining the workers’ right to organize for workers’ free- dom.The conditions demand action. Hopes and wishes are of no avail. Put your shoulder to the wheel-~ push the defense fund, on to Char- lotte and to VICTORY! i D Negro has a right to come and play as big a role as any other miner, re only as a member contributing dués to keep the union in the field, but also as organizers and officers as is the case now. e National Miners Union in going into the ot ereed, . A union. into. which the Seuth. is, doing that. job which, founders intended it should do, namely, to organize into its ranks all those engaged in the mining in- dustry and it will not stop until the .\ job of bringing every miner, coal, ore and metal, into the N.M.U. is completed and all are under A