The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 27, 1929, Page 4

shing Co. N. Telephone ecks to the Daily Work Page Four « Daily’ Central Organ of the Communist Party of the U. § By Mail Gin New York only): By Mail (outside of New York): SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $8.00 a year: $6.00 a year; $2.50 three months $2.00 three months $4.50 six months $3.50 six months; “PARTY | Lip The Renegade United Front Against the Revolutionary Unions BROWDER. By EARL E have already pointed out vicious attacks by the Lovestoneites against the Cleveland Unity Convention, which Gitlow Ned a “crime against the working class” in agreement with Green, Woll, Cannon & Co. It is not yet clear to all tho who formerly looked to Gitlow & Co. as “left” leaders, how complet this gentry has gone over to the enemy. Let us examine a few e facts. In all the revolutionary unions the des are fighting against the building up of these unions, and are bu g a united front whic includes all the renegades, and connects them up with the Muste move- ment and with sections of the already redited bureauc y. In the miners’ union, the Lovestoneites (Myerscough, Vratarich) make an open assault against the union, carefully timed with that of Watt, who is headed toward the Lewis camp. Watt has his campaign organized and directed by the Cannonites (Swabeck, Angelo) who at the same are time are connected with the Muste “progressives,” while the latter supporting Fishwick-Farrington. The whole crew—Lewis, Fishwick, Farrington, Howatt, Brophy, Myerscough, Watt, Angelo, Swabe: Vratarich—have a complete united front on at least the main slogan, which is, “Down with Communist leadership in the Miners’ Union.” But it is not only a practical united front. It has a solid base in common theori These are, that the American working class is back- ward, that the movement must therefore also be backward, therefore we cannot build unions on the basis of the class struggle, therefore we must hook ourselves onto the tail of the Muste movement, there- fore we must crawl by hook or crook into the A. F. of L. and be real quiet there about basic issues so as not to get thrown out. Swabeck expressed this in “The Militant” of Septembe he argues for a policy of “drawing the masses into the A. of affiliating “the new unions to the A. F. of L wing with the progressive (Muste) movement.” Gitlow expressed the same thing in his organ of Noy. 15, when he denounces the Cleveland Convention because it included in its program the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of a Workers’ and Farmers’ Government; for Gitlow this is “pure and simple left sectarianism” (exactly the same judgment as that of Cannon and Lore!), and he quotes Lenin at great length, to prove that because Communists must work in reactionary trade unions, therefore when Communists organize trade unions they must organize reactionary ones! In the southern textile industry, Cannon solemnly proposes that the left wing “must take the initiative in proposing joint action” to the A. F. of inasmuch as the A. F. of L. is the greatest exponent of ra- tionalization, as the cure for all ills, Lovestone must logically endorse Cannon’s proposal, for he (writing under the name of Dawson) finds the cause of the troubles in the textile industry generally, in the South and the whole world, in the lack of sufficient rationalization, the lagging behind in technica] progress. Both Cannon and Lovestone hark back to 1925, as the crystallizing point of their joint “correct” trade union poli We take up the old 1925 resolution, which was rejected by the VI Plenum of ECCI, and sure enough, there is to be found there the 1929 policy of the renegades, in the following paragraphs: “In the declaration of policy for the ILGWU convention, the CEC statement declared the basic policy of the Party to be ‘the firm consolidation of the left wing on the basis of our left wing program. Efforts must be made to make the convention discus- sion an ideological campaign to convince the progressives and win them for our program.’ “The opposition policy presented to the CEC stated that our fundamental policy shall be ‘to completely smash the reactionary machine and to take over the administration of the union.’ “These two statements bring out in striking contrast the correct policy as stated by the CEC and the incorrect policy stated in the opposition resolution, which has been the policy which has influenced our trade union work in the past.” Lovestone does not yet admit the identity of his program with that of the other renegades, but still keeps on his camouflage. Cannon ad- mits it, but explains that he stands for the same thing from different motives. One of the rarest gems of Trotskyist casuistry yet produced in America is the result. Through the pen of Schachtman he writes: “His (Lovestone’s) demand may appear superficially to be similar to ours. But . . . when we demand party democracy or a correct trade union policy it is for the purpose of strength- ening the working class Bolshevik elements in the movement. When it is demanded by Lovestone, it is for the purpose of gain- ing free play for interests alien to the working class.” Accepting the complete correctness of the description of Love- stone’s aim as that of “gaining free play for interests alien to the, working class,” we leave it to the metaphysicians and mystics to explain how the purity of intentions (!) of the Trotskyists makes their com- mon program with that same Lovestone any less injurious to the work- ers, But if Cannon and Lovestone find it necessary, where of L, of uniting “the left in the interests of “division of labor,” to maintain organizational separation from one an- . other, their old friend Lore is not so bashful. (in Volkszeitung of Nov. 23) for “constantly against the accusation that they are in any and says: “The three tendencies expelled from opinion in all important questions; in the same tactical and principle standpoint. . may attempt to deny their ‘poor relation. Yes, it is true that the renegades all have the same program in essentials, especially on the practical questions, such as the trade union work. This reflects an underlying unity of theory. These facts are becoming clear to all. « Lovestone-Cannon-Lore rise and fall together, and their destiny is concurrently bound up with that of Muste and Wm. Green. CLEVELAND CHALLENGES DETROIT! aoe quota for District Six (Cleveland), and District Seven (Detroit) is 400 new members each. District Six discussed the mmebership campaign and decided to chal- lenge the comrades of District Seven. Now we read in the “Daily Worker” (Nov. 16) that the Detroit comrades have challenged Pitts- burgh District. Why look for an “enemy” hundreds of miles away when we are at your gates and are ready to fight with you? Are the Detroit comrades afraid to enter with us in revolutionary rivalry? We are out to defeat Detroit District. The field of our operation is very extensive. In our district we have millions of workers. Our territory takes it Ohio, and parts of W. Virginia and Kentucky. In this territory we find great automobile plants, steel and chemical fac- tories, some of the largest mines, and the center of rubber industry We are determined to root our Party in these gigantic factor to win hundreds of new recruits in these basic industries. After this membership drive we expect to have an entirely new basis for our Party in this district. We hope to have the overwhelming majority of the membership in shop nuclei by Febbuary 10. In this district we also have tens of thousands of Negro workers. They are the most exploited and oppressed section of the working class. They are massed in big factories. They are forced to do the hardest and least paid work. Therefore, we are concentrating our attention upon drawing the most advanced revolutionary Negro workers into our ranks during this membership drive. We have already dispatched Comrade E. Williams, a young fighter, into the mining section of Eastern Ohio and W. Virginia to work for the Party among the Negro miners. He gently chides them defending themselves way related” with Lore, the CP are of one main they defend the . Cannon-Lovestone WHAT—NEW YORK ASLEEP? Our young comrades have challenged the New York district of the League to increase their membership proportionally, but they re- ceived no reply. It means that the New York comrades have accepted their defeat even before entering the fight. Our League organizer tells us unofficially that they already have 25 new members in the League, and at least one new shop nucleus. They have six organizers in the field. We repeat, in the spirit of Revolutionary Rivalry, we challenge District Seven to secure more new members, to build more shop nuclei, and to get more new subscribers for the “Daily Worker.” We are out to winl ¥ J. ADAMS ' | | | A few days'ago the District Buro of | | gress of the warfare. DID A GOOD JOB!” By Fred Ellis ‘The New Reactionary Civil War and the Prospects of the Revolution in China By N. DOONPING. (Continued) 3. THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTENT AND PRESENT AL’ MENT OF REACTIONARY FORCES AND THE NEW CIVIL WAR IN CHINA. E picture of the contradictions in China that were bound to bring about a civil war in the near future. He said: “The background of the militarist wars in China can be described as the following: (1) the struggle between British, Japanese and American imperialists for spheres of influence in China and the right to control the central government; (2) the struggle between the var- ious militarist groups for territgries, representing the combined in- | terests of commercial capitalists in the local markets and the gentry and landlords; (3) the struggle of the Shanghai national bourgeoisie (including banking capitalists and compradores, and those capitalists of the big industrial and commercial banks) for the control of all the markets of the nation, demanding the local markets (such as Hankow, Canton, Tsingtao, Tientsin, and Dairen, ete.) to abolish their semi- independent character and obey Shanghai, and thus to bring about the unification of the national market; hence the conflict with the local militarists. These three causes of ciyil wars in China are closely re- lated to each other.” (Taken and translated from a Chinese pamphlet entitled “International Struggle Against Opportunism.”) Two months after the above words of Comrade Chiu were written, the opening battles of the civil war of reaction were fought. Nobody who was familiar with the situation in China was surprised; every- body who has an interest in Chinese politics was patiently waiting for the curtain to ris The general aggravation of international and in- ternal contradictions in China made the war inevitable in the nearest future. The wor: ing of famine conditions in the northwestern pro- vinces, the territory under Feng Yu-Hsiang’s control, with little or no prospect of relief, presented a grave food problem for Feng Yu Hsiang's army and thus gave the “Christian General” a strong impetus to descond southward at the earliest possible moment. The prolonging of the “Sino-Soviet Crisis” weakened Nanking’s position and thus strength- ened the po: All of these factors, though not of equal impertance, contributed to make the civil war come at this particular time. The reports about the war are so confusing that it is not possible to examine in detail with a fair degree of accuracy the military pro- Fortunately, such an examination is not neces- sary here. The important things to know are the political and. social content of the groups involved and their part in the march of events toward the Chinese revolution. A. THE CHIANG CLIQUE AND THE NANKING REGJME. ® The present civil war is the result of a revolt against Nanking, a combined attack by the anti-Nanking block on the domination of the “Central” Government by Chiang Kai-shek and his associates, the Chiang clique. Therefore, we will begin our analysis with a brief survey of the Nanking group and its regime. THE SHANGHAI NATIONAL BOURGEOISIE AND THE CHIANG KAI-SHEK CLIQUE. It is true that Nanking serves as the agent of American imperial- ism and at the same time represents the interests of Shanghai bour- geoisie. It is also true that Nanking’s tottering existence signifies, as Comrade Chiu said, “The struggle of the Shanghai national bourgeoisie for the control of all the markets of the nation, demanding the local markets (such as Hankow, Canton, Tsingtao, Tientsin, and “Darien, etc.), to abolish their semi-independent character and obey Shanghai, and thus bring about the unification of the national market.” But here it should be made clear that Nanking is not a real national govern- ment. It is practically built upon the support of only a few provinces in the lower Yangtze valley. While bearing the name and having the legal status of a national government, Nanking, ever since its begin- ning, has always the character of a local government. “Although Chiang Kai-shek represents the Shanghai bourgeoisig, the Shanghai bourgeoisie is grown up together and mixed with certain landlords and comporadores. The fact that Chiang Kai-shek must depend upon the support of Chu Pei-Te (of Kiangsi), Ho Ying Chin (of Hupeh), Chen Tia-yuan (of Anhui) and even Ho Chen (of Hunan) is an evidence of this situation!” (from Chiu Wito’s pamphlet “International Struggle Against Opportunism,” published in Chinese.) In the present con- flict the alliance of Chiang Kai-shek with Chen Ming-shu of Kwang- tung is a very clear illustration of this point. Chen Ming-shu, with the slogan “Kwangtung for the Kwangtungnese” is almost a pure type of a provincial militarist, representing the semi-feudalists and commer- cial capitalists. Indeed, the Chinese national bourgeoisie, which is more or less concentrated at Shanghai, is not yet an independent force suf- ficiently strong to organize a real national government for China and it can never be strong enough to do this! | Since the Nanking Gov- ernment is not » real national bourgeois government and must rest upon the support of local forces, it canpot and never really did pro- ARLY in July this year, Comrade Chiu» Wito gave us a very clear | ion of Feng Yu Hsiang and, at the same time, alienated | Chang Hsueh-liang’s (the Manchurian war lord) support of Nanking. | ceed along the line of pure bourgeois development. Hence, the civil war in China can never be a progressive war, not even from the point of view of Nanking. The Chiang clique is not a compact body repre- senting the independent bourgeoisie of China; like the anti-Nanking bloc, it is also a bloc, an allied group, composed of Chiang Kai-shek himself, representing the Shanghai bourgeoisie controlling Kiangsu and Chekiang, and the provincial militarists of Anhui, Kiangsi, Hupeh, Hunan, Fukian, and part of Honan. Such civil wars of reaction, even if Nanking comes out again victorious, can never bring about the real unity of China! The Tenth Plenum of the Communist International has | diagnosed the Chinese situation quite correctly in the phrase “the in- terests of the ruling clique in China are diametrically opposed to the | interests of the national unification of China.” (Inprecorr, Vol. 9 No. 46, p. 975.) CHIANG KAI-SHEK AND AMERICAN IMPERIALISM. The dual’ character of the National Government at Nanking to a large extent also serves to explain the sometimes wavering foreign pol- icy of Nanking. Although Chiang Kai-shek chiefly leans upon Amer- ican imperialism, the fact that the Yangtze valley is primarily a British sphere of influence together with other circumstances oblige him to flirt not infrequently with his British and Japanese masters, and some- times he doesn’t even hesitate to “pass a night” with either one of the two. The capitulation in the Tsinan case, the recognition of the in- famous Nishihara loan, and the Sino-British naval agreement are some of the well known products of such “overnight unions.” But, by and | large, Chiang Kai-shek is primarily pro-American. Of course, Chiang Kai-shek’s occasional overtures to Great Britain and Japan weakens America’s confidence in him. However, no wise master expects com- plete fidelity from his servant. So long as he does not resent the master’s approaches and carries out his wishes, some kind of support from the master can be assured. Thus we see, despite Chiang Kai- | shek’s infidelities, America still gives him help in his recent trouble. The American bourgeoisie realizes that it cannot win the Chinese market from England or Japan withcut a war, and she does not hesitate to | start the struggle, on a smaller scale, by helping out her agent, in China. The lifting of the arms embargo which makes it legal for foreign pow- ers to sell arths to China, but, only through the central government, naturally greatly strengthens Chiang Kai-shek. The recent order from Nanking of the largest consignment of army aeroplanes that China has ever made before in any foreign country is of great significance since, owing to the poor arms of the opposing forces, this may be of | decisive importance to the outcome of the war. It may be mentioned here that almost the whole air force of China, under Chiang Kai-shek’s direction, is organized with American capital (the Curtis interests) and under the command of the famous American adventurer, Albert Hall, masquerading as “General Chang” in China. The New York Times of November 1, carries the news that “the Nanking government is now negotiating with the American Oil Company, attempting to raise $10,000,000 Mexican ($5,000,000 gold) advance tax payments by giving a 20 per cent rebate.” We do not know yet the outcome of the nego- tiations, but the very fact that negotiations are going on certfinly proves that American, imperialists have not yet given up hope of bet- ting on Chiang Kai-shek. The editorials of two of the leading capital- ist papers in America also betray this attitude on the part of the im- perialists. The New York Times (Oct. 16, 1929) said: “whether or not the National Government be—as its supporters assert—the only hope of China, it has succeeded, longer than any of its predecessors, in main- taining a semblance of order in China.” The New York Herald-Tribune Oct. 13, 1929) is even iaore outspoken. It writes: “Chiang thus far has seemed to symbolize civil peace and national unity; that is why the successive revolts against his government have collapsed.” Of course, this over-confidence of American imperialism in Chiang Kai-shek does not mean that if'Chiang Kai-shek goes to the dogs, American influence in China will go with him. Imperialists can always find new agents when the old one has served its turn. But in the meantime, I think, the evidence at hand warrants the conclusion that American imperialism has not yet abandoned hope in Chiang Kai-shek and is still supporting him. (To be continued) Muste Wants to Take Green’s Place Role of Betrayer A. J. Muste, leader of the fakejdent policy of its own, but always ‘progressive labor group,” which is | follows the lead of big business,” trying to bolster up confidence in the cane eri, 1 is peddled so reactionary American Federation of that Muste can fool the workers ek eA le aici G ited into the belief that he has some dif- ep ‘ ferences with the Greens and Wolls. he slightly disagrees with Green’s 'S|In reality Muste is merely the sec- statement at the Hoover economic | ond line of defense within the A. F. crisis conference, in which Green is of L., ready to carry on the fune- said the A. F. of L. would not pro-|tions ‘of his masters the capitalists, tect the standard of* living of the the Wolls and Greens, when their workers. wholehearted espousal of Hoover's Muste said that Green’s statementt |cause will completely discredit them shows “that labor has no indepen-|even among the aristocracy of labor. in | | | | x NEWEROFF | THE CITY.--: OF BREAD Reprinted, by permission, from “The City of Bread” by Alexander Neweroff, published and copyrighted by Doubleday—Doran, New York. | PRANSLATED PROC THE RUSSIAN | (Continued.) On a clear warm day in the late autumn, the Tashkent train came to a stop at the little station between Samara and Buzuluk. Several mujiks jumped down from the cars to the platform, The train made only a short stop. When the cars went on again with a busy clatter of wheels, there lay on the hard frozen gravel near the tracks piled up sacks of grain marked with crosses and bars and crooked uneven letters. On two sacks, each two to three poods in weight, was written in indellible pencil: Mich Dodon. A husky, sunburnt lad in a big, torn cap approached the sacks, tried the knots carefully, felt the sacks themselves, and blew out his brown unwashed cheeks complacently. Across the clear, lofty sky floated a blue-gray cloud, covering part of the sun and casting a light shadow. The husky, sunburnt lad stood there, his feet, wrapped in rags, spread wide apart, mujik fashion: calmly and gravely he surveyed the two sacks, bound securely with double knots, drew in a breath of keen autumn air, coughed, and shook his head. “How cold it is here! This was Mishka. In Tashkent he had roamed for places, slept under hedges, lain around by muddy canals. fell sick of dysentery, he thought he would surely die. Day after day he was tormented by diarrhea. His tortured entrails seemed to be coming out of him, the result of the rotten apples and peaches he had picked up from the ground and eaten. But even in those days he was not destroyed. He lived through everything, endured everything—lice and dirt and dysentery. . .. He sold his. knife and his belt, gathered rotten apples from the ground, begged for alms. And then one day he had enough of it, it grew hateful to him. He would never get any seed that way! And he must have seed with which to sow his land and save the farm... . He went to work in the gardens of a rich Sart, then he met some Buzuluk mujiks, and went out with them on the steppe. He threshed wheat, cut weeds, earned two sacks of grain—four poods apiece. Two poods he gave for the journey home, some he ate on the way, not wanting to beg any longer, and_so returned with other mujiks to his native district. i There was no one from Lopatino village at the station. Two carts came by from a neighboring village, and the other mujiks began loading their sacks of grain. Mishka said to the driver: “Take mine along too, I'll pay.” “It will be too heavy,” objected the driver. “That’s not heavy,” said Mishka, “six poods—no more. Drive slow- ly, there’s no hurry. You have to pass our village anyway.” The horses toiled along, their bony backs bent, the wheels began their familiar creaking, the cart of twisted linden twigs shook and groaned, and the sacks, bursting with heavy yellow grain, moved slowly up the narrow field path into the transparent stillness of the deserted fields. Mishka walked with the mujiks behind the cart, looked greedily about at the low hills and the valleys and the rabbit holes, and thought of his mother: “Ts she alive?” His troubled eyes roamed over the dead faked fields. up a hard ¢clod of earth from the unsown acres and sighed: “I wonder what it costs to buy a horse here now?” When they reached his village, Mishka was confronted by the empty, silent izba, with the greenish glass in its little window-panes., Through the open gateway he could see the empty courtyard, over-" grown with weeds. Sting-nettles grew tall against the fence, and the yoke lay blackened and forgotten on the ground. His mother did not come to meet him. The drivers carried Mishka’s sacks of wheat into the courtyard, and lay them down on the banked-up earth beneath the windows. But still no one came to meet him. His heart shook, all grew dark before his eyes. Old grandfather Ignatye came creeping out of his gateway, he shaded his eyes with his hands, stared at the cart with the sacks on it, and called in a weak voice: “Help is come—for whom?” Mishka paid the drivers with grain out of his sacks, then ran over to the shriveled, trembling old man. “Grandfather, what’s happened to my people? Grandfather Ignatye stared at him with dim, vacant eyes, finger- ing his beard with a trembling hand. “Wait, wait, where do you come from?” Two women drew near, felt the sacks lying beneath the windows, picked up two grains that had fallen to the ground and said slowly: “Little father! Look what he has brought along!” In the empty, darkened izba, on a naked bed, beneath the dead eyes of two icons, lay his sick mother. Yashka and Fyedka were dead. Mishka bent above his sick mother and said softly: “Mamma, wake up. I’m back!” His mother was freightened, joyful, moved her lips weakly: “Oh, God, Mishenka!” “Ive brought bread, Mamma. For you!” From his pocket he drew a hard piece of white bread, and a hand- ful of dried apples, and laid them in his mother’s cold hand. “Take them, Mamma. Eat!” “You're alive, little son?” “Tm alive, Mamma. Don’t be afraid!” Mishka stood by his mother’s side, brown, big, unrecognizable, and stroked his cheeks with her dry fingers. “My darling!” Then he went slowly around to the dirty courtyard, overgrown with weeds. His eyes fell on some dried horse’s dung, and he remem- bered about the horse. He must get one. He saw a hen’s nest, with two feathers lying in the blackened straw, and sighed: “The whole place will have to be built up again. . . f No chickens.” A sparrow that had escaped alive lit on the broken-down roof of the cowshed. It hopped along the beam, ruffled its feathers, and looked at Mishka with twinkling eyes. Mishka looked thoughtfully at the sparrow. He lifted the blackenec yoke from the earth and put it away in a corner. Then he went over to the sacks of wheat. “Tt doesn’t matter. up again. vr Must be frost already, nights... a long time about the market When he He picked on »she - No horses. . . | There’s no sense in crying. I'll fix everything THE END. Francis Urges Negro and White Workers to Fight Bosses Together “The pace of advance of the work- -ing class movement in America de- pends largely upon what progress is made in winning the Negro mass- es,” Rothschild Francis, editor of the Emancipator, of the Virgin Is- lands, declared today completing a tour for the International Labor Defense. He spoke in eight industrial cen- ters to mixed audiences of white and Negro workers, and invariably discovered Negro workers were anxi- ous to join the International Labor Defense in their fight for all class war prisoners. “Negro workers in Washington, Francis returns December 4 to thé Virgin Islands, where he w: imprisoned for a year and a hal charged with “contempt of cou and libel.” He demanded full right of the Negro populace of tho: islands, which suffer hardships an ignominy under military rule of thi United States. “With 12,000,000 toiling Negro in the U.S, A.,” Francis said, “t) advance of the labor movement di pends largely upon the cooperatior of the white and Negro workers other.” , Francis made a plea that all Negrc Philadelphia, Chester, Media, Ard-|workers join the I. L. D. and fight more, Boston and Stamford came!shoulder to shoulder with white up to the front of the hall,” Francis | workers for the rights of all workers said, “and applied for membership.” | alike, One cannot advance without the