The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 26, 1929, Page 4

Publishe d by the Comprod New Y c N mz ers and mail all checks to dally, ne Daily Worker except Sunday, 1696-7-8. Cabi From the Recruiting Drive Front Flashes Water stronger Com nehuria They exnect to 1,000 should Detroit. copies .daily very soon Philadelphia. drive, show: ar cent « aoanin 53 per cer mbership per mbership present 51 per cent of members Section 3, Section 4, nd Section 5, 63 cent of men cruited ist_ the Soviet Union. e new members were re the Party demonstration son Note and the defense of the N. Y. Wins 73 New Members, First Week the rec T first week of ing drive in New York brought a total of 73 new members of which 18 were Negro worker: Th arrying out of the decision for the developing of a number of new shop papers has been begun with the establishing of the ern Elecric Worker. This factory is in sie war industry, employing over 4,000 workers including many youth, women and some Negro workers. The pamphlet “Why Every Worker Should Join the Communis' ist Party’ had sales for the first week of . Over 11,000 were already issued and undoubtedly many more were sold unted to the District Office. not yet begun to make good ‘on of shop nuclei, but we hope to announce results on for able Shop Nuclei in Youngstown YOU NGSTOWN, ¢ 0. “(By Mail).—The local Communist Party is growing in membership, fight capacity 1 determination to build th by concentrating on the steel mills town. Three shop nucl biggest steel mills . st been oF zed and are already func- tioning well. Militant Negro workers just 1 are assuring the progress The members! Dec. 6 has accepted the challenge of Cincinatti comrades to triple the membership of our local. | The “Build the Party” campaign is not any | more a mere slogan, but an actual fact in the life a2 our (Pi The Right Danger and Passivity in Our Ranks \. GERLACH Detroit.) By (Shop Nucleus 21, The Address of the Communist Internatic to our. Party has opened the eyes of man: Party member to what extent the social dem- ocratic ideology has prevailed in our Party in every phase of its activity. Prior to the Address we have wondered time a gain, why that we react very slowly on the questions of various campaigns and that we could not mobilize the entire Party to carry on these campaigns on a broader scale. We, in our Party could not see the third period with its tremendous rationalization and con- sequent effect on the working class generally and the unorganized workers in the automo- bile industry especially. We could not see the radicalization of these unorganized work- ers, we could not see that these workers are getting ready and in fact are struggling against the teriffic speed-up, wage cuts and long hours. We, who ‘e working in the auto industry, could not see that the “small” department strikes which broke out last spring and sum- mer were forerunners and expressions of these unorganized workers’ response and reactions to the capitalist rationalization. Our Party members, working in the ind y could not see that these workers are resisting the wage cuts first h small department strikes and later with larger strikes involving a few hundred workers (Fisher Body strike, Graham-Page strike in Wayne) and only a few months back with over 1000 workers in the Murray Body Corporation of America. In some cases we had members of the Party working in the industry and not knowing that the was a strike in progress (Flint, Mich., Buick). The unorganized workers were calling on the Party and the Auto Ww orkers Union for help, while our Party me were much slower. We have not yet been able to get to the point where we, while working in the shops, could feel and foresee the feeli of the unorgan- ized worke in the ind Our nuclei in the shops are not as yet functioning as Com- munist nuclei in the enterprises, to gather the unorganized workers to pport us, because our comrades in the shops are too much afraid of losing their jobs, if they say anything to their fellow workers about the rotten tions, speed-up, ete. We always wait, that the “other fellow” starts, instead of us being the starting and stimulating machine in the shops. We do not as yet act as the advance guard of the working class in the fights against the capitalist cla: Our comri , editors of the shop papers, have to cross-examine the members at the meetings of the nuclei, like district attorneys, to get some shop news for the paper. This holds true also as to reports of working conditions in the shops. Always the same answer “there is nothing ne while finally the organizer will squeeze out that somebody was hurt, or a wage cut took place, etc. We are getting “used” to these things. Wage cuts are nothing new, neither the speedup. These things happen every day. But the workers in general are feeling these things and we will have to learn to feel them very Boon, or else we will not be the “advance guard” But the tail end of the workers that are un- @rganized in the auto industry. Our language fractions are still carrying on @ctivities among thelr national groups on a narrow national basis, not linked up with condi- is Workers! Join the Party of Your Clas s! Communist Par 43 East 125th New York City. I, the undersigned, want to join the Commu- nist Party. Send me more information. Name .......---- PeeWe nea eeseg tes bnecisnnes TENMER i secs ase aee Pirate at Ta ee Occupation ...... barebones Age. .sese Mail this to the Central Office, Communist Party, 43 Hest 125th St., New York, X. Y. general org: Party campaigns. nizing the unorganized are not dis The questions of ussed at the meetings of these language fractions and other burning questions are left aside, discussed. The question of organizing Negro workers never comes up at meet- f the language fractions. Not only that come up at meetings of the lan- but time and again we found ge fi ns cases where discriminations have been placed a Negro wo eg. service in co-operative aurants, where some Party members hi the Negro work away some white wor down the business” We have been told b; ve proposed to not serve because “that will drive ” and thereby “break of these restaurants. Lovestone, Gitlow and Company that America is something aside from pitalism, something “exceptional.” That a radicalization of the working class t not in America.” That the rationalization under capitalism has only “positive” results. We have been told that world capitalism may be reaching a crisis, “but not here in America.” Are we to be surprised that the comrades could not see the masses moving towards the left, when Lovestone and Company always told 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. ¥. PARTY RECRUITING DRIVE” ip meeting held Friday, us thot this is “not happening in America”? Are we to be surprised when our members did not respond to demonstrations which have been carried on and organized by the Party while we still were under the social democratic influ- ence of the Lovestone right wing No, not at all. are not to be surprised that our langua_ frectiens did function as language | groups and not as Communist fractions among the unorgaz!: 2 workers when the Lovestone leadership was trying to keep this foreign lan- guage groups as groups for his factional pur- pose Many things we did not dare to criti- fear of being expelled—not from the but from the Lovestone “group.” membership has been passive in the because of the social democratic right g influ upon the Party. The Comintern was corr it always is, there was a right danger in our Party, only we could not see it until it was pointed out to us by the C. I. Now, while can see the right danger in our ranks, everywhere, in every one of our units, we must fight that much harder, to tear it out by the roots, if we want that our Party shall not be a tail end to the tremendous mass struggles that are taking place and still com- ing on. The Comintern in its Open Letter to our convention said that “our Party is on a sharp turn, from a propaganda organization to become a mass Party,” and we can see and feel that our Party will be able to meet the oncoming struggles, not only meet, but lead the workers in their fight against the capitalist class and all its agents, be they open or con- cealed. Our Party has shown already that Lovestone and his “90 per cent” support dwin- died down to .009%, that the proletarian mem- bership has shown that it is a membership of the C.P. and Comintern. Now the time came to show that every Com- munist must be an active Communist or else leave the Party. we Pravda Castigates “Peace Pact” Stimson on Haiti MOSCOW (By Mail).—Dealing with the in- surrection in Haiti the “Pravda” points out that American treops are conducting mili operations upon the territory of a foreign | State which is a member of the League of Nations and which has signed the Kelloge American troops are shooting down citi- in Haiti. In this, however, Stimson ob- serves no violation of the Kellogg Pact. Ac- corditig to the short and incomplete reports to hand, the insurrection in Haiti would seem to be directed against American imperialism. The United States capitalists who have prac- tically taken possession of Haiti are not con- tent with the fact that the natives of Haiti are compelled to work for starvation wages on the plantations, arid the government of Haiti, which is in the pockets of the American im- is now preparing a law to drive the periali native peasants from their land and to make over the land to the American plantation | owne | South,” Daily Sis Worker Central Organ of the Communist “WE DE TROYED THE “MAS so? DIXON LINE!” “Now there are no Ioiger any divisions between the workers of the Party of the U.S. A. By Ellis | North and id Wes Williams, president of the Bessemer City (N. C.) local of the N.T.W.U, By V. BURDOV. F we calculate the wealth of the various states per head of the population, and com- pare the figures for the United States with those of the Soviet Union, we find the amount to be 12.1 times less in the Soviet Union than in the United States. Shall we: ever overtake a country so far ahead of us? And if we do overtake it, gill it be within any reasonable time? The highest trump played by the United States in the struggle for the first place among the nations is the fact that in the United States there are none of the elements of feud- alism, so that the states are able to adopt an “American” speed of development. The United States is the land of true-bred capitalism. A closer survey enables us to recognize all the signs of senility in this coun- try. The average growth of industrial pro- duction in the United States lessens from year to year. In 1849—59 it figured at 6.1 per cent (in 1861-65 the civil war raged between the North and the South); in 1869-79 9.7 per cent, in 1879-89 6 per cent, in 1889-99 4.3 per cent, in 1899-1909 3.4 per cent, in 1909 till 1914 8 per cent. This constant retrogression of the growth of industrial production in the United States has been caused chiefly by the anarchic na- ture of capitalist production, which is an ever increasing factor on productive forces. This anarchy leads to periodic crises, and inevitably involves great unproductive expenditure, bound up with the commercial process. With the development of capitalism this unproductive expenditure becomes greater. By 1920 it had alrealy reached 50.4 per cent in the United States. Our commercial apparatus is by no means so highly developed, but the costs of selling are still much too high, totalling 25.7 per cent, Besides this, the rule of capitalism renders “dustrial strikes inevitable. Various Amer- ican economists have calculated that between 1881 and 1900 a loss of 449 million dollars was caused to the United States by strikes. In the twertieth century the class struggle became even further aggravated. The economic development of the United States has been further retarded of late by the extraordinary growth of its military budget. In 1920 91 per cent of the state budget was connected in some way with war aims, whilst only 9 per cent served purely peaceful purposes. Finally, the speed of development in the United States is further hampered by the pre- valent luxury, which swallows up no less than 15 per cent of the national income. Our main advantage in the struggle against the capitalist world is the socialization of the means of production, and this circumstance secures us a tempo of development exceeding that of America. We have completely ovei- come the feudal elements, and this in itself greatly accelerates developmei‘. The prole- tariat of the Soviet Union has, however, ac- complished more; it has defeated capitalism, and is proceeding to reorganize its economy on a new socialist basis. This reorganization unproductive expenditure involved by the an- archy of the capitalist system of production. Our economy is organized uniformly and sys- tematically, and our agriculture too, is mak- ing great progress towards socialization. Moreover, we have socialized the distribution of: goods to a great extent, which gives us an- other great advantage over the capitalist world, We must now endeavor to attain a fur- ther reduction of the costs of selling. With respect to the losses incident to the class struggle, these have vanished from our industries. The working class of the Soviet of our economy frees us, above all, of the Will Soviet Union Overtake America? up with the industrialization of the countr; ana aids this by all possible means. Besides this, a pace of economic development exceed- ing the American pace can be ensured for us by the reduction of military expenditure to a mini: In 1913 the military expenditure amounted to 29 per cent of the state budget, in 1928-29 to only 10.9 per cent. Social strata living parasitic lives scarcely exist in the Soviet Union at all. All these advantages of the Soviet Union do not exist merely theoretically; they have an actual and enormous effect on the development of our country. The average yearly growth of production from 1924 to 1928 was as fol- lows: per cent England the United States France Germany . eevee the Soviet Union Our indu: has, therefore, developed ap- proximately five times more rapidly than that of the United States. Our speed of industrial development is 27 times greater than that of England, The traasition from the capitalist methods production to the socialist actually secur for us a speed greater than that of America. At this speed we shall be able to record, by the end of the five year period, the following growth of our most important branches of in- dustry, as compared with 1928: of é per cent Coal output + 116 Steel prodiction + 150 Cotton + 89 Electric energy . + 483 Goods traffic ........ -+- 87 The probable growth of production in the United States during this period, as calculated by the Planned Economy Commission of the Soviet Union, will be the following: per cent Coal output +15 Steel production . + 11 Cotton - 8 Electric energy . - 47 Goods traffic .. . Hf ij Taking the tempo as standard, we are in advance everywhere; but the absolute figures of production show for the close of the five- year period (1933) the United States consid- erably ahead, as may bé seen by the following comparison: ’ Soviet United Union States Coal output (in mill tons) . 15 542 Steel production (in mill, tons 10.4 56 Cotton (in thous. bales) . 706 7330 Goods traffic (in mill, ton: 281 = 1364 Electric energy (in milliard kilo- watt hrs.) . +. 14 122 When shall we catch up with the United States in the production of coal and metal, in the consumption of electric energy? The cal- culations of our planned economy experts re- ply to this question as follows: By the end of the five years the industrial production of the Soviet Union will . e reached the level of France and England, but will still be below | the level of Germany and the United States. | By the en! of a decade we shall have over- taken France and England and perhaps Ger- many, but shall still be behind the United States, By the end of the th’'rd five-year period, * prov'‘cd the economic development of the Soviet Uricn is not hindered by war, or block- ade, we sha. cpproach the level of the indus- + ‘ted S'-tes, and by the four ..ve-year period we shall outstrip Union is*tonscious it its interests are bound | it. , a SURSCRIVTION RATES: 0 six months; $3.50 six months; § il (in New York City only): $8.00 a yea il (outside of New York City): $6.00 a year; $4. $2.50 three months 0 three months SOUTHERN COTTON MILLS { AND LABOR By MYRA PAGE. (Continued) Unionism in Southern Te tiles Discontent of mill worker: been secking active outlet. position as wage-earners, they have begun to act accordingly. Ever since the textile indus- try has been well established in the South, there have been intermittent union campaigns there. Usually these organizing efforts have been initiated by spontaneous strike move- ments among southern textile wor with a In been national union then coming into the field. consequence, union efforts have often rather sporadic and poorly organi Also company opposition has been ruthless. Never- theless, in nearly one-half of a century of struggles, this section of the American work- ing class has shown itself capable of a cour- age, sacrifice, leadership and endurance that speaks well for the determination of southern mill hands to conquer all difficulties and build their union movement. The first union efforts began in the late eighties, when the Knights of Labor led a few strikes in Carolina and Georgia cotton mil But these strikes were insufficiently organ- ized, local in character, and occurred at a per- iod when the Knights of Labor was in too veakened a condition to give adequate support. In 1891 the National Union of Textile Workers was formed, with a large membership, both North and South. Its outlook was definitely socialistic. Affiliation to the American Fed- eration of Labor was soon effected. The forty southern locals with their many thousands of members took an active part in this new in- dustrial union. A Georgia operative was elected president. Organization was pushed, and many strikes occurred to enforce demands relating to union recognition, higher wages, a ten hour day an] improved working condi- tions. The A. F. of L. was appealed to, but little aid was forthcoming. For example, in 1900, the National Union of Textile Workers’ representatives to the A. F. of L. convention reported on the deplorable labor conditions ing in the South and the mill workers’ villingness to struggle for improvements and union rezognition, Strikes were then in pro- gress in Augusta, Georgia, and various other centers. Although a resolution was passed by the convention calling for organization work | in the South, the only practi¢al action taken was appointment of two organizers to aid the textile union in this field, and a paltry sum of five hundred dollars appropriated. In 1901 the National Union of Textile Work- ers was merged with the United Textile Worl ers, a new organization fathered by the A. F. of L. executive and controlled by unambitious craft bod Evidently the influence of: the southern militant section was eliminated by this reorganization, for the record shows that at this time all outside support was with- drawn from the southern mill workers, and they we.c .cft to struggle alone for better con- ditions. With the companies using all the weapons at their disposal against the strikers, the southern branch of the union virtually dis- appeared in a series of harsh defeats. Fron this period until 1914 the record of the U.1 W. in the South was one of repeated failures Pericdically, southern mill hands, goaded be- yond endurance, would plunge into struggles, and appeal to the U. T. W. for aid.’ A charter would be granted, dues collected—and ~ the workers, given little or no organizational and financial aid, would find themselves within a few months again without an organization and conditions unbearable. The company fired local union leaders, discriminated against union members and drove them from the vil- lage. This story repeats itself again and again. Seven or eight locals were created each year during this decade, only to disappear: The union naticnal executive formulated no general program of organization in the south, nor in the country as a whole. Neither did the executive make any effort to spread the.union- izing campaigns initiated by southern workers over a wider area. A branch office of .the union was kept in Charlotte, N. C., during part of this period, but its activities consisted main- ly in filling out charter forms for local groups of workmen demanding them, and. handling dues stamps. Evidently the U. T, W. felt no interest in southern textile operatives, for they were too poorly p: to be much of a finan- cial asset to the union. The U. T., W.’s con- stituent craft bodies catered to New England skilled operatives, and left the less skilled, both north and south, to shuffle for themselves. Furthermore, the industrial, militant charac- ter of southern workers’ attempts at -union- ism did not fit into the conservative, craft type of unionism which the U. T. W. sponsored. (To Be Continued) United Front of realtors in Wilkes-Barre Election By P. FRANKFELD. 'N the Dec. 6 issue of the “Anthracite Miner,” official organ of th United Mine Workers of District 7; the results of the court contest between the republican candidate Gerlach, and the democratic-socialist-U.M.W.A.-prohibitioni: candidate Harvey are dealt with. The “Anthra- cite Miner” announces in glaring headline the fact that “Court Return Elects James Harvey” as mayor of Wilkes-Barre. Says the “Anthracite Miner”—“Throughout the contest, while committed to the cause of Mayor Harvey, the ‘Anthracite Miner’ has sought to evade personalities.’ The “Anthra- cite Miner” then engages in answering the charges of the supporters of Gerlach. One of the republican papers of Hazelton, the “Tele- gram,” declared that “every backer of Harvey was an underworld denize The United Mine Workers of America officials then proceed to defend themselves and the adherents of Har- vey against the charge of “being gamblers, rum runners and plug uglies.” The “Anthracite Miner’ in turn questions Gerlach’s supporters and record in a polite fashion. Undoubtedly, there are more than grains of truth in the charges of both capitalist agencies. But the basic point in this struggle is the fact that each candidate represents another group of operators’ interests in Wilkes-Barre and the anthracite. One—the republican party backers of Gerlach—are openly for smashing even the corrupt, company unionized U.M.W.A. The other—backers of Harvey— are for collaborating and using the U.M.W.A. as its tool in reducing the conditions of the hard-coal miners. The open alignment of the U.M.W.A., of the socialist party, with the capitalist demo- cratic party is a further sign of the fascization of social-reformism. The U.M.W.A. burocracy helped to mobilize the miners to vote for Har- vey, and the socialist party label helped to give the decisive balance to Harvey’s being elected. The vote follows: W. D. Gerlach, Rep., 4,309. Harvey, Dem. ticket, 3,774; on pro. ticket, 78; on Soe. ticket, 448; on N. P. ticket, 16; total for Harvey, 4,316. By its action, the socialist party endorses the whole black reaction that has prevailed in Wilkes-Barre for years under Mayor Har- vey. In Wilkes-Barre street meetings are pro- hibited. The Communist Party’s activities have been constantly interfered with in the past. Comrade Jennie Gorman was arrested in Wilkes-Barre and charged with sedition for distributing leaflets. Gorman, who came to inquire about his wife, was also arrested and charged with sedition. During the strike in a textile mill last summer in Wilkes-Barre, Comrades Michelson, and Zaldokas were ar- rested by the socialist-U.M.W.A.-democratic- prohibitionist candidate's police of Wilkes- Barre, And the reaction will become only stronger in Wilkes-Barre as thruout the entire anthra- cite. With the miners going into battle against the operators, the Lewis-Boylan-Kennedy ma- chine, in Sept. of 1930 when the agreement expires; the terror against the National Miners Union, the Communist Party, the Young Com- munist League will become greatly intensified Especially as the N.M.U. succeeds in mobiliz- ing the hard-coal miners for this great battle. and as the Party succeeds in building itself up, will the “plug-uglies” of the U.M.W.A. as well as the uniformed police of “genossen Har- vey” come into prominence. This broad united front of the traitors in the last election in Wilkes-Barre is no accident at all, It is a logical development of the class struggle under present conditions. Here the é socialist party made no pretense of retaining its identity, but went even further than en- dorsing LaFollette as it did in 1924—it.en- dorsed and let a democratic candidate run ‘un- der its Party emblem and name. Our Communist Party. must ruthlessly ex- pose the real nature of the last elections to the masses of miners. It must expose the role of the U.M.W.A.-S.P. fakers in misleading them into supporting Harvey. Our Party must edu- cate the miners to an understanding: of its political problems as well as its economic struggles. In the struggles that are now. tak- ing place, and that will. develop; the Party must not limit the fight to the economic issues involved, but must broaden them out to include a clear, conscious political struggle against capitalism and the capitalist state. Our Party must combat the Lovestone renegades especially in Wilkes-Barre, who as part of the Lovestone group of right-wingers, fail to understand ‘arid who strongly deny the process of fascization of social-reformism, and in that way serve to bind the workers to this fact. This was not done at the time of the last elections in Wilkes-Barre. Our Party did not even attempt to enter the election struggle. And the, anthracite sub-district was at that time under the leadership of Vratarich, and the other “great saviors” of the Comintern and Leninism in America and elsewhere. Our. task is made a bit more difficult due to that - fact, but our Party must proceed at once to unmask the treacherous role of social-reform- ism in Wilkes-Barre as well as in the entire anthracite. Swedish Renegades Work With |_Police Against Communist - | Congress STOCKHOLM (By Mail).—The representa. tive of the Communist Party of Norway at the. eighth congress of the Swedish Communist. Party, Arvid Hansen, was arrested by~the police. The arrest was the immediate result of a denunciation published in the of the Swedish renegades, “Folkets Dagblad,’” The police declared that Comrade Hansen was the the Communist International. As a'matter of fact, this is not true, for Comrade Hansen ty. The reason for the police action is that for weeks “Folkets Dagblad” has denounced him as the representative of the E. C, 10h the iC 1. * * | The arrest of Comrade Arvid Hansen, the j vepresentative of the Communist Party. of | Norway at the eighth congress of the Swedish C. P. aroused indignation amongst -the’ dele- | gates. The congress adopted a. resolution of | protest.against the arrest and demanded. Com- | rade Hansen’s release. The police are furious at their failure to secure the representative of | the E, C. of the C, I. and today arrested a number of Swedish comrades delegates to. the | congress, who looked like foreigners, or at | least, the police thought they did. These ridic- ulous attempts of the police to save their repu- tation caused much laughter amongst the dele- gates. Police ‘spies swarm in. the neighbor- hood of the congress hall and do not tire of asking with assumed innocence where the Ger- man delegate Mueller can be found. Whilst the police are searching for the representative ef the E. C, of the C, I. numerous, foreign comrades are taking part in the congre: bates, including several representatives of the. E. C. of the C. I. . * ” & * 4 . connections with the Lovestone counier-vevolu- tionaries follow the same tactics of: i | with the police against followers of the Com: | munist Intexnational. representative of the Executive Committee of | represents only the Norwegian Communist Par-_ dees. The Swedish right-wing renegades,’w!io havc © wee