The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 11, 1930, Page 16

1 * Raunt hee Tere ee F, releghine Ree a eee DATWORRS Daily S43 Works By Mall (In New York City onty)s $8.00 4 years ¢he0 six montha; $2.50 thres months . © and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 26-28 Union Square, New. York, N. ¥. 5, 5 By Mail (outside of New Yo & City}: $6.00 a year; $3.50 six months; $2.00 three months ist Po the 0..8.)4- “Central Organ of the Comm aan ea LENIN ON IMPERIALIST WAR By Fred Ellis THE NEGRO ANDCOMMUNISM)°r#20"" By ROBERT MINOR. ance of the stabil- hroughout the earthquake and a the em concern imperialist Africa and you will see.a thern coast south- 1 jungle and and gold- the is the British Afri- ern-most tip at ) the westward onial empire, a colossal Bel- Mussolini’s Afri- there are ies of great size, orld does not quered colony of toils in slavery under e “Liberia” and une the rule tory for the Ne- J-outlook regards ploitation of its To capitalism historically and corn and ion. ave, mules, carried out consistently by 2 Government in this coun- Ht Nicaragua, Santo Domingo, , the Virgin Islands and Cuba. system the Negro through- e, not because of some , but because the capital- tem depends upon colonial Because of this economic neces- the whole capitalist world nost sacred principles Negro (and also the yel- 1 the brown man of other conti- an inferior order of human being, y and in every sense. e of the ideologi » theory of race superio me of “White Chauvin- apitalist world of is more strongly cul- 1out the capitalist ecoun- than ever before in history—because the list imperialist system is now in a crisis scale, But also never before was the revolt against this imperialist exploitation and conquest so 0 s today. nee, the great continent which alled “the mainland” of the whole now in a position as follows: he northern half is oceupied by the free revol- t and peasants’ state, the n of Socialist Soviet Republics, in whose ritory not only the Russian Slavs, but also of the different nationalities of nferior” peoples have become the ders of the most modern socialist so- n (the latter being organized and paid for ne imperialist powers). The Chinese rev- ion, once apparently drowned in blood by mercenary tool of the American Govern- » General Chiang Kai Shek, is beginning to rise again to a new and higher stage. Within the other great section of the continent, the 2 of India is now in a rapidly develop- lutionary situation, which a capitalist t has described as giving to the Brit- their greatest crisis since Lenin taught us to see Asia. Lenin, who Ted the successful revolution that overthrew the Czar’s empire across the 6,000 miles stretch from Leningrad to Vladivostok, taught us to ‘see the black, brown and the yellow peoples in the revolution. It is worth while to look at a tabulation of the population of the world according to the division between the colonially, exploited and the imperialist nations. A popular table of “racial” divisions (not reliable for serious political estimates) is the Toliowing: Mongolian . ++ 645,000,000 Population of India (native).. 319,000,000 Negro (Africa, U. S. A., ete.).. 139,000,000 lay, Polynesia, etc. . 40,000,000 American Indian (South Amer- ica, ete.) . 28,000,000 Total “dark” populations ... 1,171,000,000 “Whites (including Asian Se- mitics) ... 577,000,000 (About three times as many “colored” as “white”) But a much more useful and accurate tabula- tion, based upon political reality, gives the approximate total world population as $1,905,- 000,000, divided as follows: In Colonies and Semi-Colonies 1,134,000,000 In Soviet Russia ..... ae CR a\e 143,000,000 In Intermediate Countries .... 264,000,000 Total world population out- side of Imperialist “home- Tands” weeeseeeeeseeeeees 1,541,000,000 Total inhabitants of Imperialist countries exploiting colonies 363,000,000 The average white chauvinist wakes up with the start to discover that three-fourths of the entire population of the world consists of “colored” peoples—black, brown and yellow— and that the great majority of these are fast being drawn into world revolution, if not already in it. A further shock to the white shauvinists is, of course, the realization that the largest single state in the world—that. of Soviet Russia—is unalterably an ally of all of these colonial peoples.who seek liberation from the “superior” imperialist powers, and that. within each imperialist country also the revolu- tionary working class is their ally. The revolt of the Russian workers and peasants in 1917 which established the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics was indeed not a revolution of a single country, but the beginning of the world- wide revolution of the working rlass and the oppressed farming class and colonial peoples all over the surface of the entire globe. It is, of course, no accident that the cap- - italists and their governments in all countries fear the Communist International. The Com- munist Movement is tho enly fear of those who want to preserve the imperialist system of ex- nloitation and conquest. There is a lesson in | this for every already to be seen. cot- | | Negro working man and woman , in the world: If Communism is the only fear of those who ovpress you, then surely Communism has a message for you! The twelve million Negroes who live in the United States have a particular importance to the movement for liberation of the Negro and other oppressed peoples throughout the world. Here in the United States the modern Negro has come into existence in mod- In the revolutions of modern times it is the wage workire class which neces- ly must lead the struggle. And in Amer- ica a Negro wage working class of enormous proportions has been formed by the develop- ment of capitalist society. During the world war and since, the development of the Negro proletariat in the United’States has been pro- ceeding at a rapid pace. A new militancy and a new co jousness of their position are The rapid throwing in of hund » of thousands of Negro workers into modern machine industry is transforming a large part of the Negro population into the very best material for the leadership of the struc jle for liberation. working ern industry. New Leadership. The Negro liberation movement in the United States has in the past been led by a class which will not and can not desire liberation for the masses of Negroes. The National Asso- ciation for the Advancement of Colored Peo- ple is the “respectable” organization which claims to struggle for “liberation” of the Ne- gro. But to that organization “liberation” means merely the acceptance of a few Negro. intellectuals and business men into the priv- ilged s of American capitalism—and the perpetu-tion of the enslavement of the Negro and white masses. It is true that the N.A.A.C.P, raises a “liberal” voice against lynching and against the “excessive” ecruelties of colonial exploitation—but the entire leadership of the organization is in favor of the capitalist sys- te: 1 and violently opposed to the raising of any hand against the bourgeois class which it so ardently hopes to be allowed to enter. To a large extent the leadership of the N.A.A.C.P. is composed of politicians of the Republican party—the same party to which Hoover and Coolidge and the other chief° murderers of Haitians and Nicaraguans belong. A few more of these leaders belong to the Democratic party of Woodrow Wilson, which is now rul- ing, exploiting and lynching the Negro masses of the South. A few busy little fellows among its leadership belong to the “socialist” party, which supports the same program funda- mentally and differs only in its position of more “liberai§ words and more treacherous ways. An example of what can be expected from the N.A.A.C.P. is to be found in two recent facts. First, that the highest struggle for the organization of the Negro working class masses on a basis of complete political, racial-and so- cial equality together in the same trade- unions with the white workers has been going on; men and women have been murdered, flogged, jailed and given 20-year sentences in prison for attempting to organize Negro and white workers together on a basis of equality— the N.A.A.C.P. has given no word aid to the struggle. Of course the reason it has not done so is that the men and women who lead the fight are Communists—people who want to destroy capitalism. The N.A.A.P. is for capitalism, which enslaves the workers, black and white. The N.A.A.C.P. has in the last’ few days made an open attempt to ally itself with the American Federation of Labor just at the moment when the A. F. of L. begins its pres- ent “Southern drive” with tk2 ayowed pur- pose of breaking up the Communist struggle for the Negro and white workers. Then there is the movement headed by the famous and genial Mr. Marcus Garvey. Garvey is a charlatan of considerable natura] talent who has so openly prostituted himself by begging for favors from the white ruling class and openly offering to sell out his people, as to leave very little influence for him. Garvey thrived at a time when the American Negro masses were still seemingly hopelessly sat- urated with peasant psychology—when they . still dreamed the peasant dream of a “native land” in Africa*which Garvey promised them without even the trouble of being obliged to take it away from the British, French, Belgian, Italian, Portuguese and Dutch imperialist armies and navies. But just at this time the Negro masses in the cities of this country are losing the peasant psychology—they are getting to understand themselves as wage-workers, as members of the wogking class. The Negro masses in this country, in de- veloping class-consciousness, are at the. same time beginning to get their first understand- ing of the working class program of liberation —the program: of the Communist Party and Communist International. The experiences of the Américan Negroes in present-day class struggle are begining to have effect. But with this experience necessarily goes the approach to the Communist Party which leads the work- ers in the struggles and brings them to the conscious program of struggle for liberation. In the last presidential election thousands of Negro workers got a glimpse of the arrest and jailing of candidates for public office for advocating on the public platform full political, racial and social equality for the Negro masses. —and learned that: these candidates were the candidates of the Communist Party. Then came the southern textile strike where the Negroes saw the Communist Party. and the unions influenced by it, mobilizing masses of white workers to fight for the full equality of the Negroes and whites and their organization together in trade-unions to struggle for eco- nomic and political demands. More recently came the murderous assault upon Haiti, and the American Negro masses witnessed the fact that only the Comnmnists went out as the leaders of the workers on the streets to protest and to battle with the police on behalf of the liberation of Haiti. Still more recently such a “little” demonstra- tion as that of the delegates to the conven- tion of the International Labor Defense at Pittsburgh against the exclusion of Negro del- egates from the facilities of hotels—this again under the leadership of the Communists—has come before their eyes. Thus, the Negro masses are learning that the Communist program is their program—the only program which is not against them, The Negroes will more and more come to see that the capitalist system cannot free them, The Boss does not like to find the Daily Worker distributed at the gate of the factory. It , teaches the workers how to fight against wage-cuts and the speed-up, and how to conduct the revolutionary class struggle for the overthrow of Capitalism and the emancipation of our class. REACH THE MASSES AND BUILD THE PARTY By ALFRED WAGENKNECHT. The main task before us is to break out of the narrow circle within which the Daily Work- er functions as spokesman—spokesman to a few. Stating it sharply, we can say that all we have been doing for a long period is just talking to ourselves, Our national mailing list tells the story. Our readers are mainly Party members and a number of sympathetic workers so scattered that we can truthfully claim that the Daily Worker does not give leadership to any com- pact group of workers in any industry. Right now, with workers im all industries ready for struggle against speed-up, low ‘wages, with capitalism in crisis and unemployment growing by leaps and bounds, we must be very frank. The Daily Worker, our Party is not a war hospital filled gvith nurses at the rear of the battle line. We either lead the work- ers in outbreaks, demonstrations, the broad- ening of strikes—or we are not Communists. We must be frank. There are 100,000 steel | workers in Gary and East Chicago. The Daily Worker mailing list for these two important centers has just been placed into my hands, How many Daily Worker subscribers in these two steel cities, filled with sweating, starving, extremely exploited workers? Exactly eigh- teen. w The same situation applies generally. Have ‘we @ compact group of coal miners, textile workers, war industry workers in any large industrial center, any factory town, wny min- ing section who, after a day of back-breaking toil, during which their rebellious spirit has mounted to the “down tools” point, go home to their Daily Worker, there to find clarifica- tion ‘regarding methods of struggle, organiza- tional needs, leadership in aims apd policies? We have not. Until we have, we remain a blank .22 in an 18-inch cannon. - We, therefore, repeat: Methods to reach workers -in basic and all industries must be devised. Concretely speaking, we must mobilize large forces of Party members, under competent leadership —— that no party can support their struggles ex- cept a party which is willing and determined to overthrow the whole social order of capital- ism. No other party canbe willing to fight for racial equality against White Chauvinism; no other party can be willing to organize the Negro masses which, when organized, cannot be otherwise than a battering ram against the whole capitalist structure of tyranny and ex- ploitation. approach of larger numbers of Negro workers to the revolutionary Communist Party has a relationship to the recent great improve- ments in the Communist Party itself—the smashing of the open right-wing opportunist Lovestonites.and the Trotskyites, who were, un- til so recently, debasing the revolutionary poli- 3 cies of the party. It is necessary now in the immediate future to draw many hundreds and thousands of Ne- gro workers into the Communist Party. If the southern capitalist newspapers are now snarl- ing that the Communist Party is the “Nigger Party”—we can very proudly accept the com- pliment and go the masses of Negro workers to say that only the Communist Party—the revolutionary party of the working class— is their party of liberation. They must join it and go forward with it to victory. and centralize our attack upon the one or half- dozen most important industries in every in- dustrial center. We will not win these workers for the Daily Worker in a day, or a week. We will make contacts and win them after a steady barrage over a period of time, but once won, they march with us towards revolution. Lenin must again be quoted. The Commu- nist Press is the agitator, educator and organ- | | izer for our Party. The Party must have a cen- | tral organ, no matter how many other organs it publishes, no matter how many district or- gans are established, There is danger in a localized movement, and in simply a language movement, referring specifically to our lan- guage press. The central organ must give leadership to all subsidiary activities and, there- fore, our Daily Worker must live and grow. Political outbreaks, demonstrations, strikes, throughout the United States must. be related |and co-ordinated. The workers in each indus- | try must become acquainted with the struggle, problems and revolutionary tasks that face workers in all industries. The Negro masses | must be closely connected with the white prole- | tariat. Colonial rebellions, strikes in other im- perialist countries, the increasing number of war conferences held cloaked in the poison gas of peace parleys, international mobiliza- tion of imperialist nations against the Soviet Union, exposure of reactionary leaders, reform- ists und renegades, the growing crisis, unem- ployment, the broadening struggles—thes: problems our Party center giyes uninterrupted consideration to, enunciates policies and con- crete tasks, which then the Daily Worker, in news and articles, places before the Party membership and should place before hundreds of thousands of workers. We: must change the “should place” to “we do.” The workers in all industries must be reached. One thousand subscribers in Gary will very soon mean 500 Patty members among these steel workers. Lenin said in’1902, when the problem of es- tablishing a central revolutionary organ in Czarist Russia was being debated: “And I continue ‘to insist that we start establishing real contacts. only with the aid of a common newspaper as a single, regular All-Russia en- terprise, which will summarize the results of all the diverse forms of activity and thereby stimulate our people to march forward un- | tiringly along all the innumerable paths which lead to the Revolution....The mere functions of. distributing a newspaper will help to es- tablish real contacts (that is, if it were a news- paper worthy the name, if it is ‘issued regu- larly....).” Seemingly, many Party members, some dis- | trict bureaus, hesitate about agreeing with Lenin in this matter. To them, the Daily Worker is still extraneous to every-day tasks. Using it in instrument for contacts seldom enters their minds. A mass circulation and distribution of the Daily Worker will help build a mass Comniu- nist Party. It will mean more power to the workers now, and then—ALL POWER TO THE WORKERS. J ’ ry ae a AST ee oi EGS, , x we eGR NY Rie "eae AK Mags Ha me. i * NG en Some LOE Ti aS Or ase ts EDITOR’S NOTE: The Lenin Campaign of the Communist: Party, extending through the month of January, comes at a time when all the forces leading to a new imperialist war are multiplying in feverish haste; when inter- national capitalism threatens to drive millions of workers and poor farmers to slaughter one another in a new world butchery. The Commu- nist Party knows that its first duty to the working class is not to lose a moment in rous- ing it to this growing danger, to prepare and organize the working masses against this new bloodbath, t6 educate them to the necessity of turning the imperialist war into a civil war in which the oppressed will put an end to capi- talist oppression once for all. It was V. I. [gnin who first waged a merci- less struggle against the betrayal ‘of the inter- national working class by the Socialists all over the world in the last imperialist slaughter. It was Lenin who held aloft the red banner of international working class solidarity aud called upon the soldiers of the various hostile coun- tries to fraternize, to get together against the capitatist masters, at a time when the leading Socialists of the Second International were teliing the workers to shoot one another in de- fense of “their own” capitalist class. It was Lenin who unmasked the reactionary robber character of the war and showed the workers of the world the only way out. The Communist Party, therefore, owes it to the American work- ing class to acquaint it with Lenin’s teachings. In this Lenin Corner, the Daily Worker, throughout the month of January, will continue to run some of Lenin’s most important writ- ings on imperialist war and party oganization. The pesent article is taken from Lenin’s Imperialist War—The Struggle Against Social Chauvinism and Social-Pacifism, which is being published by International Publishers as Vol. XVIII of Lenin's Collected Works. * * * On January 8 the Swiss papers received the following communication from Berlin: “It has of. late- been repeatedly printed in the public press that peaceful attempts at fraternism have been made between the soldiers of the German and French trenches, According to the Tagliche Rundschau (Daily Review), an order dated December 29 prohibits fraternisa- tion and generally every form of intercourse with the enemy in the trenches. Disregard of this order will be punished as state treason.” It seems that fraternisation and attempts at intercourse with the enemy are a fact. The military authorities of Germany are di: by it, consequently they attach to it a serious importance. In the English paper, Labour Leader, of January 7, 1915, a whole series of quotations from bourgeois English papers {1 contained bearing witness to the fact that cases have occurred when English and German sol- diers had fraternised, had established a “forty- eight-hour truce” at Christmas and had met in a friendly fashion halfway’ between the l | trenches, ete. The English military authorities forbade fraternisation by a spéciai order, And still the Socialist-opportunists an their de- fenders (or maybe servants lil culsky 2) have in the public press assured ..: workers with an air of unusual self-satistaction and with the comfortable feeling of being protected by military censorship against refutations, that | understandings between. the Socialists -of: the belligerent countries as to anti-war activities were impossible (a verbatim expression of Kautsky’s in the Neue Zeit!), Imagine that Hyndman, Guesde, Vandervelde, Plekhanov, Kautsky and others, instead-of aid- ing the bourgeoisie, which is now their occupa: tion, had formed an international committe: for the propaganda of “fraternisation and tempts at mutual relations” between the Sociale ~ ists of the belligerent countries. both in the “trenches” and in the army-in general. What would have been the result after several months if even now, only six months after the begin- ning of the war, in spite of all those political bosses, leaders and stars of the first magnitude who betrayed Socialism, there grows every: where an opposition against those who voted for military appropriations .and against the ministerialists, while the military authorities threaten death for “fraternisation”! “There is only one practical: question: the vic- tory or the defeat of our own country,” Kautsky, the servant of the opportunists, wrote. in. uni- son with Guesde, Plekhanov and’ Co. This is true; yes, if we were: to forget Socialism and class struggle, this would be true. But: if we do not forget Socialism, it is untrue! There is another practical question: whether we should perish in a war between slaveholders, ourselves blind and helpless slaves, or whether we should perish for the “attempts at frater- nisation” between the workers, with the aim of casting off slavery? Such is, in reality, the “practical” question. PARTY RECRUITING DRIVE Collinsville, Ill, Challenges Hammond We, the comrades of the newly organized unit of the Collinsville League of District 8, hereby challenge the comrades of the Ham- mond, Indiana. League unit to carry out the following plans in the Recruiting Drive. This challenge being made wholly in the spirit of Revolutionary Competition. 1. To secure 10 additional members for the League. 2. To build 1 mine nucleus and 2 factory nuclei. 8. To publish 1 mine bulletin and 1 shop bulletin, if possible 2 shop bul- letins. 4. To secure 16 subscribers for the Young Worker. 5. To secure 10 subscribers for the Daily Worker. 6. To sell 25 copies of “Why Every Workers Should Join the Com- munist Party.” Buffalo Functionaries Discuss Membership Drive Friday, January 3, 1930, the Buffalo Func- tionaries discussed the membership drive and the situation of the Buffalo Units. It was pointed out that: 1. The Buffalo Units were too isolated from shops &nd factories; that there was not enough mass activity. 2, The units were not taking up the political prob- lems but merely collecting dues. 3. The units had no functioning bureaus that would direct in an organized manner the activities of the units. 4, That the forces were not well dis- tributed, too many developed comrades in one Lenin on a Bolshevik Newspaper (EDITOR'S NOTE: The following extracts are taken from the sesction on “The ‘Plan’ For An All-Russian Political Newspaper” in Lenin’s famous pamphlet “What Is To Be Done?” which now comprises part of Vol. IV, Book II, of Lenin’s Collected Works, published by International Publishers under the title of “The Iskra Period.” The importance which Lenin attributed to a revolutionary newspaper and the role of such a paper are indicated quite clearly in these extracts, which were written in 1902, when the Russian Bolshevik Party was on the verge of assuming independent political existence.) A newspaper is not merely a collective prop- agandist and collective agitator, it is also a collective organizer, In that respect, it can be compared to the scaffolding erected around a building in construction; it marks the contours of the structure, and facilitates communication between the builders, permitting them to dis- tribute the work, and to view the common re- sults achieved by their organized labor. to ela * * ’ I continue to insist that we can start estab- lishing real contacts, only with the aid of a common newspaper, as a single, regular, All- Russian enterprise, which will summarize the results of all the diverse forms of activity and thereby stimulate our people to march forward untiringly along all the innumerable paths which lead to the revolution in the same way as all roads lead to Rome, . . * . We... could. . . establish a daily news- paper that would be regularly distributed in tens of thousands of copies over the whole of Russia. This newspaper would become a part of an enormous pair of smith’s bellows that would blow every spark of class struggle and popular indignation into a general conflagra- tion. Around what, is in itself very innocent and very small, but in the i sense of the word a regular and common cause, an army of tried warriors would systematicelly gather and receive their training, } unit and none in another. = After a good discussion, in which many com- rades participated, it was decided to organiza a new unit, to reorganize all the old units and to assign each unit a definite factory ands definite territory to concentrate upon. bas Many suggestions how to get and how fe keep new members were given. Special attem tion to organize a functioning apparatus tf cach unit was stressed. The meeting adjourned, accepting all ‘pro- posals of the district organizer, Comrade Mills, as a basis for further work. ined Perth Amboy Challenges Passaic Dear comrades: At our last Unit meeting (held recently) we, the members of the Perth Amboy Unit, decided to challenge the comrades of the Pas- saic Unit, although that Unit is larger in members. We raised our quota to 12 new mem= bers, instead of 8 as per decision of the last Jersey Section Executive Conference, Dec. 8th. We challenge your Unit on a Revolution- ary Competition that our Unit will double our quota sooner than your. Unit will. Will you let us know through the Daily Worker whether you accept our challenge or not? —A, HOFFMAN, Secretary-Organizer. Flashes Ftom Recruiting Drive Philadelphia has set January. 12 and Janu- ary 19 as Red Sundays. On these days the entire Party membership {is being mobilized for the Recruiting Drive. The district Has’ com- piled a complete list of all subscribers to the Party press (sent by the Organizing Depart- ment to all districts) plus all other names of sympatherizers gathered in past year. To each of these addresses of workers a Party member will-go armed with application cards, Daily Workers and sub blanks, Recruiting Drive pamphlets, leaflets and Lenin Memorial Meeting tickets. While hammering away in the factories the basic. recruiting ground for the Party, thig.is a method which all dis- tricts can use as supplementary to factory re- cruiting. ._ ow In Minnesota over 300 metal miners fave been organized into the National Miners Union and a Lumber Workers Industrial: Union has also been organized. This shows @ good orlen- tation on the part of the Minnesota Distriet. From amongst these elements the Party must recruit new members. Results to are in Minnesota. Additional plans have 800d worked out to stimulate the Drive, including tours, meetings and a’Red Sunday. January 19 throughout the district. Minnesota hes @he task of carrying all its good plans inte Workers! Join the Party a4: Your Class! Communist Party U..8. A. 43 East 125th Street, New York City, 1, the undersigned, want to foln the Gomme: nist Party. Send me more information, Name oo renee reer | Addr€S8 ...+sesseccceccmmesee Oty. vom Occupation »...... Mail this to the Central Off Party, 43 East 126th St., New York, N.