The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 2, 1929, Page 8

ui Published by the eg dot ly Publishing Co.. 28 Union : il Page Bight Square, New DAIWOR # SON att Address and lchecks to the Dally Worker, 26-28 Unic w York, N. ¥. 4s Central Organ of the Comm By Mail (in New York only): By Mail (outside of New York): SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $8.00 a year: $6.00 a year; $2.50 three months $4.50 six months: $2.00 three months $3.50 six months; The Po Political Mass Strike in the United States EARL BROWDER. By EV#EWING the great Russian Revolution on its Twelfth Anniver- rstanding of the,tremendous role of the mobilization of the work btain a deepened unde me g S preparation for assuming state power. Lenin de- | scribed this role, saying: “This means—is the revolutionary strike, the tenacious strike which springs from one place to anott from the one end of the country to the other, the repeated strike—the strike which lifts the backward elements to a new of struggle for an economic im- provemen e strike which brands and stigmatizes every striking trariness and of crime of Tsar- which hoists the red flag in the of the e of violence, of ar tration strike, ism: the demon: which carries revolutionary speeches and to the crowd, into the mass of the people.” on, as described by Lenin, something foreign | to American workers, something strange to our own experience? By ch movements have spontaneously developed from | What Lenin adds of or nts of the American proletariat. is only the eler f consciousness, of system, | of direction by a revolutionary party, the Bolsheviks. The trike itself has been, and will be, produced by the ele- What we must add to it, rican working ¢ , is the element of conscious direction and | RECENT EXAMPLES I recall a few items of our working-class history. What was le General Strike of 1919? without conscious direction. It was an elemental political mass This was sharply recognized by the strike h understood much more deeply than the onary implications in that struggle. It was not for hing that the press hailed this strike as a “red insur- rection,” even though its official leadership frantically disclaimed any subversive i ns; by the logic of the struggle, that same leadership was driven m point io point, until it had established what amounted to a dual government of Seattle, for a short period. THE POLITICAL MASS STRIKE. Similar with the Winnipeg General Strike of the same period. Here the strike developed even further its rvolutionary political. char- acter; at the same time, it revealed even more glaringly the great gap between its objectively revolutionary character, on the one hand, and the lack of any conscious, understanding leadership on the other. In the same period was the general strike movement to free Mooney and Billings. This took deep hold upon the working class of the whole country, and was only suppressed by the most vigorous mobilization of the entire trade union officialdom of the American Federation of Labor against the strike. Even then, the strike would undoubtedly have gained tremendous momentum but for the fatal weaknesses and treachery in its organizational center. MANY IN AMERICAN HISTORY These three examples of the political general strike in recent Amer- ican labor history, have dozens of predecssors of a smaller scale. They occurred in a period of mass economic struggles, which were the Amer- ican expression of world capitalism’s post-war crisis—characterized by the strike of 500,000 miners, betrayed by the U.M.W.A.; by the great steel strike; by the “outlaw” strike of railroad trainmen, etc. These political m: strikes were the highest expression of the develop- ment of this period of revolutionary struggle. They give us the broad outlines of the inevitable developments in the present period, in which we are now entering. Our task is, consciously to set outselves to the development, organ- ization, political deepening, and leadership of these inevitably -forth- coming political mass in the United States. This task is the key which, successfully executed, opens the door for the working class of America to enter upon the stage of history in its own independent role, for the first time consciously taking up the tasks laid upon it by history. The manner‘in which the Communist up the tasks laid upon it by history. The manner in which the Com- munist Party tackles this task, gives the measure of its maturity as a Bolshevik party, fit to the lead the workers to victory. Are You a Worker? Then Read and Build the Daily Worker By ALFRED WAGENKNECHT. It is just at this time, when capitalist stabilization becomes more precarious day by day, when intensified exploitation ise driving the workers to resist the robbery and terrorism of the employing class and the state, that major attention must be demanded for the Daily | Worker. The Daily Worker is the official organ of the Communist Party. It is an inseparable part of Party life. It must march forward hand in hand with every task the Party undertakes. This is not generally accepted or understood by the Party membership. The Twelfth Anni- versary Celebration of the Russian Revolution must positively mark the close of the period during which the Daily Worker was but an after- | thought. It must now be placed on the agenda as a co-worker in every campaign in which the Party enters. In our fight against rationalization, for the organization of the un- organized, the Daily Worker must play a leading role. In battling | against_the terrorism of the bosses, social fascism, the social reformists, | the Daily Worker must be placed in a position of being able to speak | to large masses of workers. The Soviet Union must be defended and our anti-war mobilization must increase in momentum. To do this suc- | cessfully the Daily Worker must be rooted deep in all basic and poten- | tial war industries. : Beginning today, the Daily Worker must appear before factory, mine and mill throughout the industries of the nation. It must be in- | troduced into working class residence sections ni every city by a well | organized house to house camaign. It must speak from the platform | and reach theaudiences of every meeting the Party has jurisdiction over. Every Party member must accept it as a foremost task to build | the Daily Worker, so that it, in turn, may become the builder of the | Party, and so that the Party in turn, thru the Daily Worker, may in- fluence and lead the broadest masses of workers. Concrete proposals will go forward to every Party subdivision very soon. These proposals to build our official organ will be accepted and carried out by every Party member who actually lives and works for the Party in this, the third post-war period. And of all others we will say—they still have one foot in the second period, and the conse- quences of this should be apparent to every comrade by now. Ben Gold Tells Why All Needle Workers Must Vote Communist CR. ACKING THE | WwW WORLD OF CAPITALISY “All Power to the Sov By Fred Ellis ets!” (Continued from Page One) ceive one and all: any one who wishes not to remain idle enters upon the path of creative work. They cover the entire country with their network, and the tighter this net of people’s Soviets becomes, the less possible will be the exploitation of the toiling masses, since the existence of the Soviets is incompatible with the flourishing of the bourgeois sys- tem: that is the crux of all the contradictions of the representatives ef the bourgeoisie who are waging their struggle against our Soviets, and exclusively in the name of their own interests. A RESULT OF HISTORICAL FORCES. The transition from capitalism to the socialist system is accom- panied by a long stubborn conflict. The Russian Revolution, having overthrown czarism, was obliged to go much further; it could not af- ford to content itself with the achievement of a bourgeois republic, | | since the war and the unheard-of poverty resulting from it among the | exhausted nations had created a soil for the outbreak of the social revolution, and there is nothing mofe impudent than to say that the further course of the revolution and the further discontent of the masses has been brought about by any special party, by any individual person, or, as they lament, by the will of a “dictator.” The revolutionary conflagration burst forth only by reason of the | poverty and unheard-of sufferings of Russia and of the conditions created by the war, which plainly and definitely faced the toiling masses with the alternat: or to perish—to die—of hunger. ither to take a bold, audacious and fearless step, | And the revolutionary conflagration had the result that the Soviets, | this prop of the proletarian revolution, were established. The Rus- sian people accomplished a tremendous leap in the transition from ezarism to the Soviets. This is an undeniable and hitherto unparalleled fact, and at the very time when the bourgeois parliaments of all states | and nations, bound together by the ties of capitalism and ‘property, have | nowhere and at no time offered any support to the revolutionary move- ment, the Soviets, fanning the flame of revolution, imperatively com- mand the people: fight, take everythng into your own hands, organize yourselves! | | | | There is no doubt that in the process of revolutionary development | called forth by the power of the Soviets, there will be all kinds of mis- ! takes and follies, but it is no secret to anyone that any revolutionary movement inevitably and always is accompanied by a temporary ap- pearance of chaos, destruction and disorder. Bourgeois ,society is also war, is also a throat-cutting, and this situation has called forth and sharpened the conflict between the Constituent Assembly and the | Soviets, All of these people who, reminding us of the time when we also stood for the Constituent Assembly, rebuke us for now dispersing it, are suffering from a complete lack of brains or understanding and are using mere empty phrases, for no doubt the Constituent Assembly was considered by us to be superior to the organs of power represented in ezarism or the Kerensky republic, But, when the Soviets came into being, they naturally, being popular revolutionary organizations, be- came immeasurably superior to any other parliament in all the world, and it is this situation that I emphasized as early as April of last year. K THE ROAD TO FREEDOM. The Soviets, in delivering a serious blow to bourgeois and land- holding property, in aiding their final overthrow, in sweeping away all *the remnants of bourgeois society, have started us on a road which-has brought the people to the building of a new life. We have already taken up this great construction, and we have done well to take it up. | The Russian Soviet place | | | There is no doubt that the socialist revolution cannot be presented | to the people at once in all its pristine, obvious and flawless perfection; that it cannot but be accompanied by civil war and by the phenomena of sabotage and opposition. And those who would teach us the opposite are either plain ordinary liars or people living in another world. The events of April 20, a day on which the people, of their own free will, without any ukase from any “dictator” or party, came out as one man against the conciliation “government”—this incident alone was enough to show all the instability of the bourgeois basis. The masses felt their strength, and on the basis of this strength there began that notorious ministerial intrigue for the purpose of deceiving the people which soon passed its zenith, particularly after Kerensky, who had the secret predatory treaties with the imperialists in his pocket when he ordered the troops to make an advance. All the activities of the “con- ciliators” was always understood as calculated to deceive the people, whose patience was beginning to be exhausted, and the result of all this was the November Revolution. A SIGN POST! This revolution pointed out in fact how the people must proceed to take over the land, the national wealth, and the means of production | and transportation, placing all these in the hands of the workers’ and peasants’ state. for this slogan, The people desired to convoke the Constituent Assem- “bly—and we convoked it. But the people soon felt what this vaunted Constituent Assembly really represents. And now we have again ful- filled the will of the people, which declares: “All power to the Soviets!” And we shall crush the saboteurs, When I went from the boiling cauldroa, full of life, of smolny Institute, to the Tauride Palace, I left like a man who is suddenly surrounded by corpses and lifeless mummies. | When they made use of all the available means in their struggle against setialism, applying even the measures of force and sabotage, they trans- formed even the greatest pride of man—knowledge—into a tool for exploiting the toiling masses, and though they did to some extent im- pede the steps toward the sogialist revolution in this manner, they could not break it, and will never be able to break it, for the power of the Soviets is too great. The Soviets have already begun to crush the ancient outlived remnants of the bourgeois system, not in a feudal manner, but in a proletarian and péasant manner. NO CONCILIATION Even the transfer of afl power to the Constituent Assembly is the same kind of policy of “conciliation” with the malevolent bourgeoiisie. the interests of the toiling masses much higher than the interests of the treasonable conciliators, though the latter may now be adorned in a new garb. The speeches of Chernov‘ and Tseretelli, those outlived leaders, who are still attempting to continue all their silly talk about the cessation of the civil war ,are drooling with age, with decrepitude, with senility. But as long as Kale: & exists, and as long as the slogan: “All power to the Constituent Assembly!” is still used as a cloak for the slogan: “Down: with the Soviet power!”—so long shall we be unable to escape from civil war, for we shall not give up the Soviet power for anything in the world! ... And when the Constituent Assembly again stated its intention 6f setting aside all the burning and timely questions proposed to it by the ‘Soviets—we answered them that there could be not a moment’s delay. And by the will of the Soviet power, the Constituent Assembly, which has failed to recognize the power of the people, is dispersed. The stakes of the Ryabushinskys have been lost, and their gpposition can only sharpen the civil war and bring about a new and éarly outbreak of it. The Constituent Assembly is dispersed, and the Soviet revolutionary republic will triumph regardless of what happens! Fascist Development and Proletarian Directorship In a statement sharply attacking Tammany strike - breaking ime and its republican and so- falist allies, Ben Gold, general man- Lad of the Needle Trades Workers’ dustrial Union and ommunist Can- fidate for Alderman in the 29th Aldermanic District, the Bronx, is-| jued a call to all needle workers to | ly around the Communist Party the only Party which is carrying = a struggle for militant trade ion organization. Gold pointed it that the Communist Party bat- s relentlessly against capitalist scist terror used against strikers \d all fighters in the ranks of the vorking class, Tammany’s Strike-Breaking. “Needle workers know who Jimmy Walker is,” declared Gold. “Hun- lreds of dressmakers, cloakmakers, furriers have felt the clubs of fammany’s police over their heads, \bly assisted by republicans and ap- uded by the socialist labor bu- ucrats an d scab agents. “Needle workers also understand lily why it is now very fashion- le for the capitalists to compete each other in praise and en- dorsement of Thomas, the socialist candidate for mayor. Thoma—sthe graduate of one of the most exclu- sive ¢ olleges in the United States, the minister, the ‘gentleman;’ Thomas,—who joins with the reac- tionary fakers of the Federation of Labor, with the needle manufactur- ers, with the capitalist state govern- ment, in trying to force compulsory arbitration upon the bitterly ex- ploited needle workers; Thomas— who fights to ‘free the police’ so that more of them may be used as strike- breakers on the picket lines; Thomas —who sanctions gangsterism, ar- |rests, prison terms for militants fighting against sweat shop condi- tions and against the I. L, G. W. U., the bosses’ company union which he endorses—this Thomas is indeed an excellent candidate for the third party Of capitalism Only One Workers’ Party. “Needle workers have a long re#- |lutionarw tradition. That tradition must today especially rouse them to repudiate the parties, of capitalism, to support the program, and candi- dates of the Communist Party, to Vote Communist on election day.” . ‘ By Mario Alpi {proletarian revolution, it broke the While the war was raging in the | world economic system and as & whole capitalist world, bringing ha-| result we now have one one hand voc and death, a great roar much|the capitalist world which hag en- more pcwerful than all imperialist | tered into its general crisis and, on guns shook the earth and awakened It the other, the Socialist world which che people. e Russian proletariat | is progressing steadfastly. was the first "to overthrow the capi-| The blow received by the capital- talist regimé and install its own/ist world as a result of the war, dictatorship. \the sharpening of the class struge The words of Lenin, who since | gle due to the influence of the Oc- 1905 had predicted how the Russian | tober Revolution, around the prole~ proletariat would succeed bringing tarian masses of Europe and the revolutionary light to the dark and colonial and seini-colonial popula- desperate masses, how the Russian | tions. The October Revolution gave Revolution would last not four the signal of revolt to the whole months but for years and how the | world and to a series of revolutions power of the bourgeoisie would be | and revoiutionary movements from overthrown forever, became a re- | 1918 to this day. ality, The betrayal ‘by the social democ- The victorious proletarian revolu- | racy has interferred with theanarch tion expropriated the expropriators,| of the proletariat, it allowed capi- it took the instruments of produc- talism to catch its breath, to find a tion away from the hands of tho | certain balance for itself and «stem, bourgeoisie and land owners, in-| for a moment, the rising trend of stalled the proletarian dictatorship |the working class along the lines in a sixth part of the world, created | indicated hy Lenin and by the Oc- a new type of State, the State of | tober Revolution,’ * Soviets. The October revolution fur. | In the face of the itaviaice i tho ther disclosed the way for the world, proletarian revolution, capitalism other -priceaes of formation but has undertaken, since the end of the war, the demoblization of “democ- racy” and exposed to large ma‘ more clearly its real essence previ- | ously hidden by the veil of bourgeois democracy, which, translated, means liberty for capitalism to control all instruments of production, to ex- ploit, to dominate and to maintain in chains the great majority of the population, In order to stop. the march of the revolution, c@pitalism has adopted new forns of reaction: it has de- veloped mass reaction of certain sec- tions of the population. The bour- geois State has revealed its true essence has appeared more clearly as the instrument of the bourgeoisie, of the class in power, of financial vapital. Wherever the class contra- dictions, due to the unequal develsp- ment of capitalism, have been sharper and the loss of equilibrium of the capitalist system has been greater, we have seen the rising of fascism. We have seen it rise first in Italy, and later in other countries which have followed other ronds and lave always led to one end ahd as- sumed the same substance. Spain, Poland, Hungary, Bulgary, Rumania, Austria and Czechoslova- kia, reckoning in Europe only. ~ In all these countries the develop- ment of fascism has assumed vari- ous forms but it has suppressed the vegimé of old “democracy” and cre- uted a mass reactionary movement in, order to stem the proletarian revolution. The “fascistization” process oc- curs in all capitalist countries, ac- companies the concentration process of capitalisin, constitutes the last card of the bourgeoisie and accel- erates the war preparations against the Soviet Union. Tn large industrial countries where the proletariat is powerful, the bour- geoisie makes use, in its reactionary transfcrmation, of the social democ- racy, which is now a counter-revo- lutionary weapon. Social democracy has gone, step by step, down to in- dustrial peace, to the denial of the class souaels, fb fascist scl ra t All power to the Soviets!—we said then, and we fight | Today fascism is in power in Italy, | | if | | | |THE CITY. Seen OF BREAD Reprinted, by permission, from “The City of Bread” by Alexander Neweroff, published and copyrighted by Doubleday—Doran, New Yorks TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN (Continued.) They stood around in a semicircle, starving, grim, despondent, and Nastenka lay within the circle, passive and silent, with her bare, seratched legs. When at evening they carried her to the station Mishka followed behind the heavy steps. His old cap was pulled far down over his eyes, his overtaxed arms ached. He was no longer a child now. He saw how things went. . Suppose he fell sick suddenly, who would help him? He must look after himself, think of some way out? Otherwise—death! But rack his brains as he might, the outlook was bad, He tried to slip into the train, but they wouldn’t let him, They looked at him as if he had somekind of contageous disease. They shouted to him to go away, nad their voices sounded as if they had hated him, Mishka, all their lives. Some one even emptied a jar of water over his head. Hot rage swept through Mishka. “Damned boorzhui! Just let the Reds get hold of you! He went further then went back again. “Maybe htey threw a piece of bread with the water.” He squatted on his heels in the darkness, and began to grope around in the dirt. His fingers encountered something—it was a pebble. Encountered something again—dung. Mishka wiped his -fin- gers off on his knee and closed his eyes in vexation. “How they mock us! He thought and he thought, and again began groping around, He found a fish bone, blew on it, cleaned it off on his skirt. “Tf only I don’t get sick from it. It’s been lying amound-under people’s feet.” But his mouth had already opened of its own accord. jaws were working impatiently. “Eat it, you won’t get sick from fish.” The bone crunched between his teeth the eager saliva flowed down over his lips. “All right. And now where shall 1 go?” In the waiting room lay Nastenka under a bench, The mujik at the other station had lain like this, and the Tartar boy with the scabby head. So many people, help for none. They wept, they spat, they cursed, they groaned. Each had his own afflic- tion, each his own load of misery to bear. And Mishka’s heart was so overflowing with anguish that there seemed nothing left but to lie down at Nastenka’s side. But that was not for Mishka. He had set out for Tashkent—he must get there. Better diee farther on than here in this place. Not hold out any longer? Yes, he could hold out this night too. And tomorrow he would sell his grandmother’s skirt. They would give five pounds of bakers bread for it, that would be fint. He would not eat it all at once, He would break off about half a pound and save the rest. Five pounds that makes ten half pounds, for ten days. In ten days he cold get there and back, if the trains did not stop too often on the way. Mishka’s thoughts took a pleasant turn. Things began to seem more endurable. The mujiks ni the corner were talking about Tashkent, some one mentioned Samarkand. It was another city lying four hundred versts beyond Tashkent. Mishka pricked up his ears and listened eagerly. Bread wa sextremely cheap in Samarkand, cheaper than in Tashkent. In Tashkent itself prices were going up, and you could not get your bread out of the city—they took it away. But if you went to the Sarts beyond Samarkand, you could get bread for next to nothing. For a pair of old shoes you could get four poods of seed grain; for a pair of new, six. For any kind of old dress, by God—a Pood and a half or two poods. Because that is Asia, and there are no factories, and the people want all kinds of nice things.- Why, a Sart, for ex- ample, has four wives. Each one a dress—that’s four dresses. And they drink tea out of kettles. Let htem lay eyes on a samovar— twelve poods Mishka found the talk of grain disturbing, it oppressed him, made his peasant’s heart ache. But then he thought of the skirt: “Maybe I won’t sell it yet. Keep it for later.” A pood na da half or two poods! That’s nothing to laugh at! You could fix up the whdle farm with that. In a good year that ‘would mean a thirty pood crop. How many sacks would that fill! Enough for themselves and enough left to feed a horse as well, if they bought one. His hungry . Before his eyes waved fields of ripening wheat, waves of wheat swaying in the warm Lapatino wind. Mishka saw himself, the hus- bandman, standing in his fields and chatting with the other Lopatnio mujiks. “Well, Mishka, isn’t it about tmie to start gathering the crops?” “I start tomorrow.” And his mother was there too, holding a sickle, and his brother Yashka with a sickle as well. Fyedka was running around without a sickle—he was too little... Yes, it certainly would be best to wait... This was not the place to sell ‘the skirt. If the train ddi not leave too early in the morning, he would see what he could get by going through the cars. There are all kinds of people. One might drive him away, but another might give him some- thing. For a long time Mishwa paced up and down the platform: ‘Think- ing so much about the farm had tired him out, hsi legs refused to carry him any longer. Tired. He sat down beside a car to rest, and dropped off to sleep, his head against the wheel. His happy thoughts of soil and field and harvest lulled him like a cradle song, his long day of work and hunger made him sleep soundly. No dream care to him. In the morning he woke and jumped up in a daze. His shoulders felt strangely light. He reached back, but there was no sack. “Little father!” He dived beneath the car—nothing there. He flung himself forward—nothing there. He ran around four of the cars—nothing, nothing. “Oh, God!” Sweat stood out on his forehead, his body was wet, his heart turned to stone. It beat no longer. “Stolen!” - His legs gave way beneath him, turned to water. Mishka sat on a rusty rail and wept bitterly. The mighty sorrow of humankind swept over the little boy, crushed him to eerth, suffocated him. He fell on his face across the ties, his bark sandals with their torn heels sole upward, and shuddered like a lamb beneath the knife, It wasn’t just hte sack and the skirt they had stolen from him, but his last joy. They had robbed him of his last hope. (To Be Continued.) given by the Russian proletariat and finally, that it must replace the bourgeois dictatorship, the bourgeois. liberty to enslave the proletariat, with the proletarian dictatorship which is a greater democracy that translated itself into liberty for the proletariat and for the great ma- jority. With the deepening of the contra- dictions and the sharpening of the class struggle, a new revolutionary period is being disclosed, the con- sciousness of the proletariat is be- coming stronger, the lessons of the October Revolution. more vivid. Large masses are waking up and looking to the Soviet Union, their class Fatherland, ready to defend it, veady to fight fascism, social-fasc- a and for the proletarian dictator- 8 On the Twelfth Anniversary of the October, Revolution, the slogans ‘of the revolutionary proletariat are: CLASS AGAINST CLASS! gle against the proletarian revolu- tion. n other words it has been “fascistized,”—it has become social- fascism, Even where it is a com- petitor of fascism, as in Austria, we see it “fascisized” by its aliiance . with reactionary forces. Secial democracy of today is not what it was yesterc And as the masses become radical they go from it and move themselves in the direc- tion of the proletarian revolution. With the fall of the veil which has been hiding the essence of bourgeois democracy, with the character and attitude of the present social de- moeracy clearly shown, and with the development of fascism in all capitalist conntries, the division be- tween the classes becomes keener, the proletariat perceives mores and more clearly the road it must fol- love. The proietariat understands tha‘. it is its historical role to transform’ the capitalist social order into a new Communist Society, into a DICTATORSHIP OF 1 ciety without classes and under- | LETARTAT! stands also that in order to do this, | C P