The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 3, 1929, Page 1

THE DAILY WORKER FIGHTS or a Workers-Farmers Governme To Organize the Unorganized Against Imperialist War For the 40-Hour Week watered ass nd-elaas a ab the Yost Ottiee ay Ne ® York NY, ander the act of Marcb 3. 1b Worker 2. FINAL CITY EDITION mpany. tve.. Vol. VI., No. 231 Cublishee daily except Sunday by The Comprodaily Po 26-28 Union Square. % New York City, N. ¥.<@@2™s1 NEW YORK, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1929 SUBSCRIPT DN RATES) tn New York by mai Ontstde New York. by mall 66.00 per year. $5.00 per year. Price 3 Cents U.S. SENDS WAR NOTE THREATENING SOV Illinois Miners Are In Revolt; General Strike December 9 The miners of Illinois will go out on general strike of the district, on December 9 at the call of the National Miners’ Union. Tens of thou- sands of coal diggers will be mass picketing before every struck mine, and thousands will march on the rest of the mines to call their fellow workers into the biggest and most militant battle of their career. The miners are in revolt against wage cuts inflicted on them through treachery of the United Mine Workers’ Union (so-called), against such dangerous underground conditions as has just yesterday killed seven of them in the Old Ben mine at West Frankfort, against the swindle of penalty and docking of miners by the companies and with the consent of the U. M. W. A. against the fraud of arbitration of their grievances and against the robbery of the check-off, which is money taken out of their wages by the company and given to the bloated bureaucrats of the U. M. W. A., against speed-up and unemployment which has put half of them out of work within the last three years. The Illinois miners are fighting for the six hour day and the five day week. Led at last by their own union, the National Miners’ Union, the burning resentment of years of injustice will sweep through the Illinois fields in the form of organized masses of some of the best fighters in the American labor movement. Every worker in the country must rally to the support of this heroic struggle. Every force of the employers, their state, their sheriffs and depu- ties, their militia undoubtedly, the gangsters of the Fishwick and Lewis machines in the United Mine Workers of America, will be hastily mobilized to suppress this big movement of miners whose fighting ability is testified to in the traditions of Pana, Virden, and Herrin, in the “wild-cat” strike movement of 1919, in stubbornly fought strikes in 1922 and 1927-1928. And not only with brute force will the operators fight. The treacherous intriguers of the Muste movement, the defeatists repre- senting the Cannon and Lovestone renegades, are already busy, spread- ing pessimism, trying to mislead, trying to split and divide the work- ers’ host through such ymsavory figures as Watt, now removed from office in the National Miners’ Union. The Muste movement, which now controls the Federated Press one hundred per cent, speaks, as is the custom with petty-bourgeois liberals, with many “ifs” and “ands,” but clearly enough for all that, in favor of supporting Fishwick’s new so-called “miners’ union” (which is the Illinois Coal Operators Association’s company union). In this way the gang headed by the Rey. Muste hopes to side-track the re lutionary movement of “he American working class in all industri and to lead a section of it into the slough of a “new A.F.L.,” with “pro- gressive” camouflage on it. Carl Haessler, a petty-bourgeois scribbler of the F.P., writes an article in its news service of Nov. 30 entitled: “New Labor Federation Looms—lIllinois Key to Grouping.” Frankly these Musteites base themselves on the disreputable Fishwick, saying, “If it (Fishwick’s secession from the U.M.W.A.) becomes a second Amalgamated . . . then the way is open, according to gossip, for a powerful new labor federation.” They hint at an alleged hope to bring into their plan the railroad brotherhoods which betrayed the shopmen’s strike in 1922, the garment company unions whose gangsters assault and mutilate the garment Workers’ ‘pickets in New York, and other “organizations uncomfortable in the A.F.L.,” such as undoubtedly the United Textile Workers’ Union that betrayed the Elizabethton and Marion strikes—for it too is controlled by the Muste gang. Such an organization—if it were formed-—would have in it ele- ments of a slyer and slimier nature than those admitted labor lieuten- ants of capital, the Greens and the Wolls, and would be a worse men- ace to real gains by the ever more radicalized workers of America, than is even the A. F. L. The Muste gang and their Federated Press do not themselves imagine they could bring such a movement about. This talk is the sort of stuff they think will best serve to demoralize and defeat the workers in a situation where it is no longer possible for them to speak openly for retaining these workers in the graft ma- chine of Lewis. Apparently, in the words of Carl Haessler in the above article, “. . . it may be well to discount these speculations as pipe dreams.” But workers should know of these tricks and not be fooled by a huge smoke stream of pseudo liberalism thrown around the Fish- wick section of the U. M. W. A. Workers may as well recognize that dim figure moving in the background as none other than Frank Far- rington, expelled once from the U. M. W. A. for taking a $25,000 a year bribe from the Peabody Coal Co., and now readmitted to the Fish- wick union and Fishwick’s right-hand man—the representative of the Ilknois Coal Operators. y, The strike now led by the National Miners’ Union in Illinois must have the support of all militant workers. The miners, many of them unemployed for months, need relief. There will certainly be need for legal defense for there will be the same brutal terror used against these workers as was used at Gastonia. The whole history of the Illinois miners shows they know how to defend themselves, and have never submitted tamely to terrorism by the bos: December 9, the date of the strike, will be a red letter day in American history. If it is to be celebrated in the future as a date of victorious struggle, the mass support of the whole revolutionary work- ing class of America must be mobilized back of the strike. If this strike wins, the National Miners’ Union can’t be beaten in any state, and the entire revolutionary Jabor movement goes forward with un- precedented speed. ; William Green, president of the | | American Federation of Labor, will eae jadd his greetings Wednesday to hi | those of the state that called out the | militia last year against the miners. FASCIST cou | The fighting needle workers are \fs the Needle Trades Workers’ In- dustrial Union, which demands and | will carry on a vigorous strike ac- | tion to win recognition of the N. T. Convention Greeted by |W. I. U., and the enforcement of all Launching National Miners Union Indiana and Kentucky crowded declared a general strike of all December 9. the picket lines. from mine to mine to bring the The strike will begin to spread immediately. The In- Delegates of Masses in '3 States Unanimous for Big Struggle Tri-District Conference Sets Date; Calls on Working Class Support ILD Pledges Aid; Adopt TUUL Policy of Mass Picketing, Thousands Will March ZEIGLER, Ill, Dec. 2.—Miner delegates from Illinois, Liberty Hall here yesterday and coal miners in Illinois to start “Every mine on strike December 9,” was the slogan of the conference, and “Mass picketing at every coal mine in the | state,” they voted unanimously, Fifty thousand miners are exploited in the coal fields .of Illinois, and solid ranks of strikers will march Tens of thousands will be on m all out. |tory and ‘win the demands formu- | jlated at the Belleville convention,” | General Strike in Illinois Coal Mi BIG LAY-OFFS IN PHILA, N.Y. NAVY YARDS But Feverishly Build Cruisers for War, in Private Yards AF LAids Gov't Bosses’ Urge Workers to Turn | toms Ok Os; | BULLETIN. “WASHINGTON, Dec. 2.—A mild protest against the wholesale firing of navy yard workers, not protested | in the interests of the workers but ment was setting a bad example to the nation,” was made today to Hoover by Robert Wagner, alleged liberal senator of New York... With, because in the action “the govern- » @delphia, Betrayed By A. F. of L. ES Wie 1 Workers in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. One thousand of these workers are to be laid off by the end of, January; many thousands nore in the Navy Yards in Phil- Jorfolk, Va. and other yards. This does not mean that the Wall Street government is not building warships by the score for the coming imperialist war. These warships are being constructed in private shipyards, whose million- diana delegation promises that | declared George Voyzey, amidst a |not a pound of coal will be|storm of cheers from the delegates. | mined by them to break the Ilinois | Voyzey is ae district) president M. | PHILADELPHIA, Dec. Strikebreaking Gov. “Governor Roosevelt may count upon our full cooperation,” said’ President Benjamin Schlesinger of | its demands, the shorter work day, its wage scale and shop conditions. Schlesinger’s convention proposes to raise a slush fund of $2,000,000 to hire more gangsters and $500,000 to the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union when he arrived here yesterday to open the latest machinermade convention of that company unionized ene He was referring to the New York state’ : arearpr rants fascist council for the needle trades, GASTONIA DRIVE. a .coarse imitation of President) ‘The Gastonia and Anti-Terror Hoover’s grand fascist council for drive, instituted by the International all industries. Labor Defense, is reaching into rae" ‘ rt of the country—where elt. invited Schlesinger’s ,°Y°TY Part o! ; SP cach cetites the iolegatne of thy | Pole: aud government | aunt pr 3 , are weighing down on the workers. various groups of employers in the ft The Juanita Finnish Workers’ industry, and the retailers to meet Ar : with him Dec. 12, and agree. to Association and the Educational “stabilize” the needle trades on a Club sent in $90.41; the Newberry 3 o-operative Association of New- k,l et gee Sie | berry, Mich., contributed $18.05 and 3 ‘ 1 | Bii ton, N. Y., Gastoni workers, if possible, by Schlesinger’s kc let dete $75, baka eo-ypany union. | ~ Governor Greets Fakers. MILK DRIVERS ORGANIZE, The I. L. G. W. convention was) DENVER, Colo. (By Mail).- welcomed today by Governor Cooper /wijiik drivers here have organized a of Ohio, who paid a friendly visit to. Gnion and are d ding the cight- Schlesinger yesterday. and by Mayor awn day and.a, 25 per coat wage John D. Marshall of Cleveland, | increase. send to declassed Jewish business | men in the Soviet Union, who are now foreed to work for a living and don’t like it. | promising that every decision of the jeonference would be carried out to |the letter. A Canvas of the dele- gates showed that they had all ar- rived with a single unanimous in- struction, to set the date of a gen- jeral strike in Illinois fields. | The tri-state conference was called by decision of the National Miners Union state convention, held Octo- \ber 26, in Belleville. The demands drawn up by the. representatives ‘of local unions throughout the state at the Belleville convention were jadopted in full by the tri-state con- vention. The miners are fighting |for: 1, The six-hour day and the five- day week. 2. No penalty and no docking clauses. 38. No arbitration, but settlements of disputes by the pit committees. 4. No discrimination because of age, color creed or nationality. 5. Social insurance for unem- | ployed miners and fight against un- employment. 6. The end of the speed-up and |for 15 minutes’ rest periods every |hour, employment of more men on |eonveyors and on mechanical load- fers. | 7 Equal pay for young miners. 8. For full social, industrial and | political equality of Negro workers. | Against Jim Crowism. 9. Against the check-off. 10. Afolition of the bug lights. The miners call on all locals to i the bosses. They guarantee rank “A new day will be known in the history of the miners, and that day is December 9, when the miners of Illinois will strike and fight until they achieve their vic- Word has been received that San- dalio Junco, a native Cuban Negro worker and one of the outstanding leaders of revolutionary labor in Latin America, was arrested by the Mexican government on November 7, at Mexico City, at the instigation ;of, the real ruler of Mexico, the |Yankee ambassador, Dwight W Morrow. He may be deported to his death in Cuba, since Machado’s assassins are awaiting him there. While the information from Mex- ican sources lacks in detail, it is known that Junco was seized as an “undesirable,” namely, as one who is leading the fight of Latin Amer- ican labor against American im- perialism, and therefore has fallen under the vengeful fist of the Portes | Gil-Calles-Rubio regime, that is | servant to American imperialism. Junco, who led the strike of sugar plantation workers in Cuba some three years ago, has already a sen- tence of death against him in Cuba; but even without this formality, he would he murdered as others have licen murdered. bv the naid assas- take down the U. M. W. A. charters | and to join the National Miners | Union to wage a real fight against | and file control of the union and | officers’ salaries the same as miners’ | wages. (AS they are now in the | N. M. U.) s Making History. strike. They will join the struggle of the N. at once. Applaud T. U. U. L. Policy. Every delegates left the hall! Bill Gebert, speaking for the | Trade Union League pointed out that the miners can only success- \fully carry out the decision if on} | December 9 every miner who| supports the N M. U. will go on| | the mass-picket line in front of every mine. He showed the neces- sity and the means of winning every ‘coal miner in Illinois for the strike ‘as the conditions in the industry, |with rationalization and the speed- up throwing out thousands. of miners from work, worsening work- ing conditions, with wage cuts and jlocal strikes taking place, ‘all indi- cate that the miners are ready for {a general. move against the coal | operators, and their agents, Lewis | (Continued on Page Three) SPREAD GALL FOR ‘SUBWAY STRIKE The striking subway workers and ‘many from parts of the system not | yet struck met last night at Harlem | Labor Center, at the call of the} | strike committee of 15 elected the day before, when the strikers seized | | control of the situation, left their | reactionary union officials and pro-} ceeded to run the strike. } The strikers were actively en- | gaged yesterday in spreading the | call for a general strike throughout the 16,000 workers in subway con- struction in New York, ‘and an- nounced a mass meeting for today, at 6 p. m. at Ambassador Hall, 3875} Third Ave. | “If you want to get more pay and better conditions you must support and join with the fighting Grand Concourse subway strikers” says a hand bill now’being distributed. “All subway workers into one union,” it calls. “To fight for more pay, shorter hours, and sanitary condi- tions!” . Aid Junco, in Mexican Jail With Death Waiting in Cuba sins of the Cuban “government” if deported there. ° Junco is thought “undesirable” in Mexico because he is the Provisional Secretary of the All-America Anti- Imperialist League, and Secretary of the Caribbean Section of the Latin American Trade Union Con- | federation, whose congress at Mon- tevideo, Uruguay, he attended last May. Previously he attended the Fourth World Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions (the Profintern) in March, 1928, In all these organizations he has shown | leader of the working class. The effort to save him from death in Cuba, by raising funds to afford him to pay his own transportation to some other country, is being car- | ried on by the International Labor Defense. All those who wish to aid | Sandalio, Junco eseape death, will please rush funds to the I.L.0., 799 | Broadway, Room 402, New York | City, specifying that the amount is to be used for this purpose. The need is pressing as he must leave | Mexico within a limited time, |few pe off of mal | himself to be a real and fearless |; lyn, N. Y., are scheduled to be laid off by Jan. 81, comes the lay-off of several hundred men at the Philadelphia navy yard in the last and the probable lay- mere navy yard work- ers in the near future, The lay-offs in the yard are the} result of the fact that scores of | huge ships being constructed for| use in the coming imperialist war | ave being built in the shipyards | Towned by private interests, whose | lobyists in Washington, and whose | close connections with the navy de- | department officials has led to their | receiving the contracts for construc- | tion of the cruisers designed to} slaughter workers in the coming! war. As the lay-offs continue and the workers’ conditions in the yard con- | tinue to grow worse daily, the men in the yard are becoming more and more disgusted with the reactionary A. F. of L. misleaders of the Ma-! chinists Union and the A. F. of L. Metal Trades Department in par-| ticular, who have pursued a policy | of class collaboration with the navy | department, boasting of their elose | friendship with the admitals and leading naval jingoists, while per> mitting the navy yard workers to | get the dirty end of things. | Work in the navy yard here are being laid cff according to a system of “efficiency averages,” which are being posted every three months. These averages are sup- (Continued on Page Three) TW WINS TREEO KNITTING. STRIKE Reinstate Fired Toiler, | Gain Other Demands | Workers in the Treeco Knitting | Mill, 24 West 26th St., New York, | under the leadership of the National | Textile Workers Union, have won their strike. The workers get a wage increase, and the worker who was discharged has been reinstated. All have joined the N. T. W., and | a shop committee of three has been | elected to deal with the boss con- ‘cerning all shop problems. The strike began November 26, when one of the workers was fired for demanding an increase in pay. | The whole shop struck, A mill lo- | cal of the N. T. W. was formed and | officers elected. fier] The annual national convention of | the N. ‘T. W. U. to be held in Pat- | erson, N. J., December 21, 22, was taken up at the first meeting of | the local, held at the headquarters | of the New York district? 16 W. 21s: St. and a delegate and ‘alternate | elected to the conventio The workers ef the Treeo Knit- ting Mill are jubilant over their victory and pledge their support to the National Textile Workers Union in its campaign to establish mill locals and shop committees in every textile mill tm New York. STREET CAR UNION FAKER GETS JOB AGIN, SEATTLE, Wash. (By Mail).—/ William D. Mahon, who helped sell | out many a street carmen’s stri*+ —as in New York and New Orleans ~-got himself re-elected at the con- | vention of the Amalgamated Asso- ciation of Street Car and Electric Railway Employees of America, | aire owners have received the con- tbe re uaa caan idles Pret ttl | tacts thru deals with the Wall | workers at the navy yard in Brook-| si;ect government. Besides being victims of speedup, wage cuts and layoffs, the Navy Yard workers have been betrayed by the A. F. of L. officials, who boasting of their great friendship with the navy officials, have done nothing to help the Navy Yard workers. IET REPUBLIC nes Is Called tor December 9 ALL IMPERIALIST POWERS EXCEPT JAPAN JOIN MOVE AGAINST U.S.S.R IN CHINA | MacDonald ‘Socialist’ Government Aids Hoover Against Union of Socialist Republics |Fake Naval Conference to be Turned Into Council of War on Soviet Union WASHINGTON, Dec. 2.—The United States government, which refuses to recognize the Soviet Government, has sent a note to the Soviet Government for the first time, but only to threaten to make war on the Soviet Union, and to gather all imperialist forces it can influence to join with it in this counter-revolutionary attack. Late today, Stimson, Secretary of State, gave out a state- ment to the press together with the text. of the note to the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, that note itself, however, being sent through the French government because the U. S. does not recognize the Soviet Government and refers to ‘“Rus- | sia” in the note itself instead of the “Soviet Union.” ® The note itself, with its inno- cent sounding phraseology, is to be understood more from the {background of the Stimson statement and the inspired stories of the capitalist report- jers, as to what the United NAVY REDUCTION States means to do. The fruit Admit Conference Will oe intense secret diplomatic U.S. WANTS NO CONGRESS OPEN; FASCISTS RULE Hoover Gives the Big Bosses State Power “WASHINGTON, Dec. 2.-—Con- gress opened today with the usual capitalist clap-trap, and awaited the reading of Hoovers message or the “state of the union.” The most outstanding fact in the opening of the 71st Cong was the existance, simultaneously, of a new state apparatus in the form of an open fascist grouping of 200 leading capitalists, rich farm organ- izations, the American Federation of Labor leadership, and the railroad brotherhoods. This fascist organ will become the machine of direct action of the capi- talist class in the present crisis Hoover has been criticized by republican leaders for keeping him-| self too huch in the background dur- ing the special session which closed several weeks ago, but the imper- ialist chief was looking elsewhere for an apparatus that could initiate wage-cuts, and a general attack on the Americn workers. Congress is becoming too unwieldy for Wall Street and its political ex- ecutive committee in Washington in handling the economic slump. The inability of the big bankers to have their tariff bill passed at the special session led Hoover when the severity of the depression in in- dustry became evident, with its growing mass unemployment, to bring the leading imper open governmental leadership in the form of the fascist economic coun- cil, Various capitalist anizations have developed contradictions which express themselves in Congr The big question confronting United States imperialism will not be handlec. through the usual “demo- state apparatus, and the Senate, but will get the di- rect attention of Hoover and his new fascist group. Difficulty in mobilizing Congress cratic” Congress Increase Armaments | maneuvers for days with what | SS | Stimson calls the “civilized,” WASHINGTON, Dec, 2.—Ameri- | iy the ieacitaligt id can officials here indicate that their | D2MCY be Caplialst Wore. efforts at the naval conference will|Stimsén’s statement declares |{e concentrated on “parity,” not ree.) for “arbitration” of the dispute eee? and that they sxe con-) instead of direct negotiations siderable increases in actual arma- 2 93 a ments. While Great Britain is | Oetween the Soviet Government planning to make considerable in- and China, in an effort to have creases in its naval strength, espe- | an imperialist finger in the pie. cially cruisers, the United States is | and of course by this very ac- determined to equal, if not exceed, | tion, proposing that it be the the British fortes. ieee ‘ holoae f In a signed article in the Seripps- | finger, nay, the whole arm, 0 Howard newspapers today, Philip | the United States. conn ee per faerie ae The United States government, SOUR Vane were te coe through Stimson, says that “thes ii “nec! iner . cal is expected to increase rather that! causes of the conflict are in dispute,” antod : | a brass-faced lie, since none knows Se better than Stimson who incited the Latest news from Paris. indicates | Nanking government’ (to ceatesithe that instead of keeping away from the naval conference at London, as a result of sharp conflicts with other imperialist countries and especidlly Italy, the French government in- tends to participate in order to claim | Chinese Eastern Railway last July, | that that seizure and the continued | refusal of the Nanking government | which is bossed by the American | State Department through American | “advisers” at Nanking, to settle the that it is for “peace,” and to intro-| ,° A Seika * duce a number of proposals which | dispute by direct negotiations sineé will remove even a theoretical limit | then, have caused the later conflict to naval armaments. | The accounts are “contradictory” The fundamental point of the | Says Stimson, who rushes to the aid French demands is that every coun-|of the Nanking lackeys of Wall try must have a right to sufficient | strength to “defend” itself against all possible enemies. As the Kel- | logge pact may be used as an excuse for all wars under the claim, al- Street, only when the Soviet Union, after six months of suffering inva | sions by Russian white guards and | Chinese militarists, have struck a | punitive blow at the invaders of lists into | | ways advanced, of being “defen-| Soviet territory and smashed the |sive,” the French give the excuse ; kennel of imperialist bloodhounds in to the workers that unlimited con- | Manchuria. struction of warships is necessary! Stimson’s note, written with the jfor “defense” against all possible | knowledge that direct negotiations |combination of imperialist powers. | are now going on at Harbarovsk on | a | Soviet soil between duly authorized | SWEDISH COMMUNIST PARTY} delegates of the Mukden govern- | CONGRESS. |ment and the Soviet government, STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Dec. 2.—| leaves. these negotiations without |The Eighth Congress of the recog-| recognition, and speaks hypocritieal- nized (recognized by the Communist | ly of “no effective steps having been | International) Swedish Communist! taken by the Chinese and Russian | Party has opened here, with dele-| governments” looking to settlement gates representing eight thousand| through “pacific*means,” the kind workers, sitting jointly at the open-| of which Stimson specifies as pre- ing session with those representing | ferred by him to be “arbitration” or jtwelve thousand members of the! “neutral conciliation.” | Young Communist League. | The Soviet governmen: long ago ADMITS WAR DANGER. —_|Tenounced and denounced any ef- “There are more potential causes | fort of imperialism to pretend to for war today,” saig Professor Harry |be “neutral” toward the Soviet [tempt of the southern open shop | to act speedily enough in the interest | Elmer Barnes, pacifist, “than there of the big imperialists, was empha-|were in 1914,” speaking befor the sized by the appointment of Dwight |social-fascist Rand School on Sun- day. (Continued on Page Three) Graham Tells of Big Layoff in Portsmouth, Va., Navy Yard NORFOLK, Va., Dee. 2.—Port- | bosses to railroad Stephen Graham, smouth Navy Yard workers too are; member of the Communist Party being laid off constantly. In the; who will be tried in Norfolk court last month or so about 700 haye been | on Thursday, on charges of “inciting laid off in‘ the yards here, while the | the Negroes to rebellion” were Wall Street government builds war! shown by Graham yesterday. cruisers in private yards. He told of the. growing fighting Employing normally about 3,500 spirit of the workers in the Tide- workers, the yards are down to about | water district, which! takes in Port- 400 now. Further lay-offs loom) smouth, Newport News, and Norfolk, throughout the winter. important war industry centers. Dai- i A ad ly lay-offs of workers, following in- Some’of the reasons behind the at-| tense speeding w* 'f one of the rea- (Continued & Page Three) ‘ i | Power, especially in sitting as arbi- | ter of such a plaything of imperial- j ism as China. It would be in effect imperialism sitting in judgment of its own interests which are in con- flict with the interests of the Soviet Power and with the interests of the Chinese masses themselves, None must be deceived by the propaganda that only “peaceful | measures” of pressure are to be ex- erted on the Soviet Union. War begins by threatening to maintain peace, war measures follow from the terms suggested through Stim- son’s inspired press articles “boy- cott” and “blockade.” “Diplomatic recognition” the United States has |never given the Soviet government, | though it has the Nanking govern- jment. The “surrender of extra- territoriality” as supposédly to be | withheld from China, will be with- held anyhow. All the threat and all the menace of war is against the | Soviet Union, and the workers of i (Continued on Page Two) :