The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 10, 1930, Page 4

> Published by the Comp y Publishing Page Four Square. New York City, N. ¥. Telephor Address and mai) al hecks to the Daily W Central Organ of the Cu. OUTLINE FOR SPEAKERS IN UNEMPLOYED DEMON- STRATIONS PREPARED BY AGITPROP DEPART- MENT OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY. | I, THE PRESENT POLITICAL SITUATION. | The Economic Crisis. 2) In spite of the propaganda carried out | ‘s and the government, the mic crisis is developing further and as- ing more serious proportions. Seasonal actuations in production and in the steel and ndustries basically do not change while the accompanying intensi- up only further aggravates the con- talism, in making the crisis e capita c crisis in the United States vanced point of the general is, undermining most de- > already decaying stabilization of in its stronghold. In a number countries, this crisis and the developing counter offensive of the working class will upon the order of the day the task of t struggle for power. The Radicalization of the Working Class. ) The econoinie crisis which had its effect e working class, is further developing s consciousness of the American work- n drawing in hundreds of thousands in the struggle against the attempt of capitalism to the entire burden of the economic crisis he shoulders of the working class. The Role of the State. (d) The role of the state against the growing defensive, which is rapidly developing into a counter-offensive of the workers against gapi- talism, is being met with the most ruthless attack on the part of the bosses and the state. More than ever before, the state comes out as the executive organ of the capitalist class in the struggle against the workers. the ¢ ¢ The Role of Social Reformism and Social Fascism. (e) The socialist party allied itself with the American bourgeoisie in the struggle against he workers and endorsed the program of Presi- lent Hoover and his administration. The A. F, vf L. openly betrayed the interests of the work- ors, pledged its support to the attack of the bosses and to prevent the workers from resist- ing to wage cuts, speed-tp and unemployment. In the attack upon the workers, the socialist p and the A. F. of L. gave their full sup- port and approval. ‘se Correctness of the Party Analys ) The present economic crisis and the readiness of the American workers to struggle demonstrates only further the correctness of the analysis of the Tenth Plenum of the Com- munist International and the October Plenum of our Party on the undermining of capitalist stabilization and the radicalization of the work- ing class. The Success of the Five-Year Plan. (g) The success of the Five-Year Plan of socialist construction in U.S.S.R. simultaneously with the undermining of capitalist stabilization and the growth of the world economic crisis is today being recognized even by our class { enemies. The achievements of the Russian workers definitely demonstrate the superiority of Socialism over capitalism, and present a chal- lenge to the entire capitalist world. The Labor Governments. (h) While under the dictatorship of the pro- letariat, the working masses improve their con- ditions and develop the forces of production to | their utmost, under the labor governments in | England, Australia, and the rule of the Social- | Democratic parties in Germany, Czecho-Slova- kia and other countries, there is only increased exploitation of the working masses, terrorism, speed-up, and rationalization. The experiences of the workers with the socialist parties and the labor governments openly demonstrates the | role of the Second International as an agent of world imperialism in the ranks of the work- (i) The sharpening contradictions of world capitalism and the success of the Soviet Union is only further accentuating the war danger and making it a reality which the workers have to face in their every-day life and strug- gle. IL PARTY. (a) Winning of the leadership of the ma- jority of the working class in the struggle against capitalism. (b) To strengthen and increase the influence of our Party over the working masses. (c) To entrench the Party more firmly in the factories, mines and mills and to: recruit new préletarians irfto our Party. (d) To mobilize the workers for carrying through the Leninist Communist policy in the struggle against the war danger, by turning | the imperialist war into a civil war. Ill. HOW TO INVOLVE THE WORKERS IN CARRYING THROUGH THESE MAJOR POLITICAL TASKS. (a) We must grasp the weakest link in the decline of capitalist stabilization—Unemploy- ment. (b) On the basis of the everyday and imme- diate struggles of the workers, we must mobil- ize the working masses in line with our gen- eral revolutionary program in the struggle against capitalism. IV. HOW HE COMMUNIST PARTY UTIL- | {ZES THE STRUGGLE OF THE UNEM- | PLOYED. | (a) We give the Marxist-Leninist analysis of | the origin and basis of unemployment in capi- talist society. (b) As a result of the struggle of the work- ers against unemployment we develop and in- stall a hatred in the minds of the workers against the capitalist system which breeds un- employment. (c)) We utilize the struggle of the unem- ployed for the purpose of further developing and raising the political class consciousness of the workers. (d) The struggle of the unemployed, which is based on unity of action of the employed and | bnemployed workers: must result ” the MAJOR POLITICAL TASKS OF THE | mobilizing strengthening of the munist Party in the f members into the Par activities ‘of the Com- ‘actories, and winning new (e) We take advantage of the economic crisis for the p&rpose of preparing the ground in the workers for the proletarian revolution. (f) We advance and popularize among the workers the slogan and prepare the ground for the mass political strike. (g) We develop our new methods of work, new forms of united front, discussed at the Tenth Plenum of the Communist International and apply them concretely to the struggles in the United States. (h) As a result of the mobilization of the rs in the struggle against capit m and the attacks of state, we take definite or- ganizational steps in organizing proletarian self defense. (i) We draw in the Young Communist League in the struggle against unemployment. (j) We must determinedly struggle against all tendencies of economism and viewing the struggle of the unemployed simply from the economic point of view. In this particular campaign we must decisively and determinedly carry out the thesis of the Sixth Congress, Tenth Plenum of the C. I., October Plenum of our Party in giving a political character to the economic struggles of the workers. Vv. THE ROLE OF THE SOCIALIST PAR- TY AND THE A. F. OF L. « In the period of sharpening class struggle and the growing resistance of the working class under the leadership of the Communist Pa and the revolutionary trade unions, it is necessary most determinedly to struggle against and expose the Socialist Party. It is necessary for the Party to carry on a con- sistent campaign of warning the workers that it is in the interests of the bosses and none other to divert the struggles of the workers, to use the socialist party and the A. F. of L. and particularly the “Progressive” Mu for the purpose of misleading the workers and prevent the Conmmunist Party from assuming leadership. The Party in agitation must expose the statement of Norman Thomas, en- dorsing the killing of Katovis in New York, also the fact that the socialist party charged the democratic party and Mr. Roosevelt, the governor of New York, and President Hoover of robbing them of their program. We must point out to the workers the character of the program of the socialist party which Tammany Hall, and the millionaire strike-breaking Roose- velt, and the spokesman of American imperial- ism, Hoover, were ready to adopt. The present | London conference and the League of Nations, - both received the endorsement of the socialist party, which openly demonstrates that the S. P. is in full partnership with world imperialism in the imperialist war preparations, particu- larly against the Soviet Union. The A. F. of L, and its strike-breaking pol- icies must be more effectively exposed to the unorganized masses, as well as among the rank and file of the A. F. of L. We must par- ticularly utilize the Hoover-Green agreement and the role of the A. F. of L. in the South. We must also point out to the workers the strikebreaking role of theysocialist party and the A. F. of L. in trying to crush the militant working class organizations. We must also point out that the A. F. of L. and the socialist party are acting as, agencies to stimulate capi- talist rationalization and the consolidation of capitalist industry at the expense of the work- ers as examplified by the fake strike in the needle trades. VI. STRUGGLE AGAINST THE WING RENEGADES. (a) The present economic crisis in the United States and the world over definitely rejects in life and experience itself, the opportunistic ex- ceptionalist theories of Lovestone. RIGHT (b) The sharpening economic crisis definitely defeats the opportunistic theory of Lovestone of the primacy of outer contradictions. The developing struggle and resistance of the work- ing masses against the capitalist offensive, as proven in the unemployment demonstrations, the suce of the recruiting campaign of the Communist Party and the mass demonstrations clearly refutes the opportunistic theory of Love- stone concerning the American working class. (c) The developing economic crisis exposes the opportunistic theories of organized capital- ism and the softening of the contradictions of capitalism, as comprehended by Bukharin and the international right wing. (d) The role of Muste as a strikebreaker and misleader of workers was demonstrated in the role of the Muste-controlled United Tex- tile Workers in the South and in Paterson, also rejects the class collaborationist theory of Lovestone and Cannon concerning the role of the “progressives” in the labor movement. (e) The success of the recruiting campaign, the response of the workers to the program of the Party, the readiness of the American work- ers to accept the leadership of the Party and the revolutionary trade unions, openly refutes the counter-revolutionary poison and propa- ganda spread by Lovestone and Cannon con- cerning the degeneration of the Conimunist International, and shows the dominant influ- ence of the Communist Party. VII. WORK IN MASS ORGANIZATIONS. (a) Laying the ideological and political basis for February 26 demonstrations in all mass organizations. (b) The mass organizations where we have influence and where we actively work must be | involved in the agitational campaign of the Party, distribution of literature, etc. (c) The mass organizations mypst endorse the demonstrations, must urge their members to attend and participate in preparing these demonstrations and cooperating with the Party and the revolutionary trade unions in the pre- sent campaign. (d) Sympathetic workers in fraternal-organ- izations must make motions of solidarity with the workers in other countries, backing up their political support by making contribuiions to the Party press, to the mass organizations,* LLD., W.LR., ete. The Hooverian Age for Small Farmers! By Mail (in New York City only): a year; By, Mall (outside of New York City): $6.00 a year; SUBSCRIPTION RATES: six $4. $3.50 six months; $2.50 three months jonths; ie $2.00 three months, The Question of Proletarian Detense - In the first installment Comrade L. Alfred pointed out: “The organization or proletar- ian defense is a practical necessity in the whole capitalist world.” The following is the second installment: ~ < (Continued) In the question of workers’ defense, as in all practical questions of the class struggle, we must first of all decide on the nature of the question in the present phase of the struggle. We can only find the answer to this question by a thorough examination of the peculiarities of the present moment. Today the preparations for ‘civil warfare have passed beyond the scientific and organ- izational stage; they have entered upon a new stage. The whole machinery of bourgeois suppression is finding more and more practical employment, acts of open violence are a daily occurrence all over the capitalist world, even in “civilized”, eountries, in countries of com- plete bourgeois democracy, such as France and Austria, where, a few years ago, they were rare and isolated cases. Every day the news- papers publish reports of such acts of violence, of armed attacks on workers’ meetings and demonstrations, of the armel occupation of local headquarters of workers’ organizations, of mass arrests of the most active revolution- ary workers, etc. The international character of this attack was demonstrated on August 1, when the capitalists everywhere mobilized their armed forces and in many cases engaged in an actual fight. It would be very instruc- tive for revolutionary workers to learn about all the details of the bourgeoisie’s mobilization and use of its forces before and on August 1. From the great abundance of’ material on this subject we quote, as a characteristic illustra- tion, from the issue of July 31st, 1929, of the French newspaper Le Messager d’Athene, pub- lished in Athens: “Yesterday evening, at the Home Ministry, a long consultation took place under the chairmanship of the minister Argyropoulos. There were present the commander of the Ist Army Corps, the Prefects of Attica and Boetia, the commanders of the Gendarmerie, the police presidents of Athens and Pyrea, leaders of the “security services” and miin- isterial departmental chiefs. The discussion dealt with the measures that should be taken to maintain order tomorrow, August Ist, in connection with the events announced by the Communists. . The Minister for Home Affairs accepted the plan of M. Caly- vitis (Athens police chief) to suppress any Communist demonstration in Athens. Ac- cording to this plan the capital will be di- vided into twelve sectors; in each of which groups of police will be concentrated, while gendarmes will patrol the rest of each sec- tor. . . . Each sector will be placed under the command of a high police officer, who will have at his disposal a company of in- VIN. BUILD THE T.U.U.L., COUNCILS OF UNEMPLOYED. (a) Our tasks in connection with the T.U.U.L< | The T.U.U.L. is the organizational coordin: ator and leader of the unemployment ¢ampaign and struggle. Under the leadership of the T.U.U.L. we organize and unite the struggle of the unemployed and the employed workers. ESTABLISH Simultaneously with the development of ‘our | unemployment campaign we carry on more in- tensively than ever before the campaign for the organization of the unorganized, for build- ing the new industrial trade unions and the revolutionafy Trade Union Center in the United | States. (b) The councils of the unemployed. The Party members must take an active part in the formation of councils of the unemployed. Through the activities of the members of-the | Communist Party in various mass organizations and trade unions, we strive for the affiliation of the organized workers with the councils of the unemployed and support the struggles of unemployed. Definite organizational consoli- dation and the developing of the political char- acter of the movement of the unemployed must | receive the major attention of the Party. IX. TASKS OF COMMUNISTS IN THE FACTORIES. (a) The slogan must be in the present cam- membership: + 1. Every Party member into active work in carrying out the campaign. 2. From Communist theory to Communist action. ; (b) Every Party member must be engage! in the distribution of literature, pasting of posters, circulation of leaflets, gathering of workers correspondence for the Party pres: and shop papers. | In this work we can very well utilize the women, children and the youth. (c)*Appeal to and organize workers to come to our demonstrations, to come to the meetings prior to the general demonstration. (d) To dramatize these demonstrations in front of factories, and in the streets by using of drums, fanterns, flags, posters, which will make our demonsirations impressive and call them to the attention of the working: masses. (e) Verbal agitation in the factories, read- ing aloud of our papers, discussion of the tasks of the workers, the achievements of the Soviet Union, ete. X. MOBILIZATION OF AGITATORS 4ND PROPAGANDISTS. (a) Every-district is to call special] meetings of all speakers, editors, discussing the unem- ployment campaign and how to bring it to the masses. (b) There must be special meetings of edi- torial committees of all our language press, (c) Every language bureau is to call a meet- ing of all speakers and editors in their lan- guage, where the unemployment campaign is to be taken up. In reports to the units, the following main points must be discussed and brought out by the speaker: 1. The political significance of the campaign and the chief problems outlined in the statement of the Central Cotnmittee. 2. The organizational forms and” methods of work among the broad working masses, mob- ilizing them for the February 26 demonstra- | tion, - . paign concerning the activization of the Party ; 8. The necessity of drawing every Party member into active work in carrying out of the unemployment campaign and of using him in accordance with his political development and ability in the performance of one kind of ' work or another. | XI. HOW THE PARTY WILL JUDGE THE SUCCESS OF THE CAMPAIGN. The success of the campaign will not be julged only on the basis of the number of meetings and demonstrations we hold. The uecess of the campaign will be judged on the asis of its organizational and political re- ults, In other words, the unempoyment cam- nign will be judged by its results in the draw- ng in of new proletarian elements into the Party, the building of the mass organizations, particularly the Trade Union Unity League, the increasing circulation of our Central Organ, the Daily Worker, and strengjhening the in- fluence of the Communist Party. Agitprop Department, * Central Committee C.P. of U.S.A. (defense and attack.” : , cial democratic example. Demonstrations were STARVE OR FIGHT! A Challenge to the Unemployed By GRACE M. BURNHAM, Labor Research Association. The Certainty of Unemployment. [Phebe at ty is inherent in the capital- | ist system. A job today depends on the | most intricate organization of raw materials, | machinery, specially constructed buildings adapted to the particular product to be manu- factured. These “industrial tools” are pri- vately owned. When the employer considers it to his financial advantage to use this ma- chinery, he, takes on men, pays them wages and pockets the difference between what they pro- | duce and the wages he can force them to ex- ist on. When the employer considers it un- profitable to operate his plant, he closes down and fires his workers, In the United States, where capitalism has attained its most complete development, the government leaves the fate of the thirty four million workers dependent on their jobs, en- tirely to the private arrangements of the em- ploying class. The transfer of the discharged worker to another job,is in the hands of fee- charging employment offices, notoriously un- scrupulous, and often functioning as direct strike breaking agencies for: the employers. Maintenance of the vast army of unemployed left to private charity. Unemployment flour- ishes in such soil, The number of workers who lost their jobs through technical changes, mer- | gers, speed-up devices and the territorial shifts of industry, has mounted into millions and the number is constantly increasing. The creation of a vast reserve army of the unemployed is fundamental to capitalism, The employing class depends on and does every- thing to stimulate unemployment. Women and children are hired to replace the more highly | paid men workers. Negro, Chinese, Filipino, and Mexican workers are drawn on to repress wages. Advertisements in Southern papers are made use of to get unskilled labor to come North and flood the labor market. In this connection, it is’ not the inclusion of these groups of workers into industrial life which renders unemployment more acute. It is the fact that they are unorganized, forced to ac- cept low living standards, and threatened with starvation in order to provoke the competitive struggle between them. As the employers increse their efforts to stem the tide of capitalist decline, the unem- ployment situation is bound to become more | acute. The stock market crash of October, 1929, represented for the worker only the cul- mination of months of industrial curtailment. Hundreds of thousands had already been laid fantry. Public buildings will have a mili- tary guard. At the same time a number of arrests will be carried out (it is said about 500).” It is also characteristic of the present phase of the class struggle that the workers have begun, quite spontaneously, to take up their defense against the civil war methods of the bourgeoisie. This has happened before, but only in isolated instances and isolated coun- tries. In general proletarian defense against fascism and against capitalism’s preparations for civil war bore, even last year, a prepon- derantly ideological and propagandist charac- ter. An ideological campaign against bour- géois terrorism is more necessary than ever now. The idea of proletarian defense must be systematically and emphatically spread among the workers. The establishment of anti- fascist defense corps to spread this idea must now be taken in hand with the utmost energy. But an ideological struggle will no longer suffice. The intensification of the class strug- gle, the bourgeoisie’s activities in suppressing the workers, the growth of working class mili- tancy have all proceeded so far that it is es- sential to deal in all seridusness with the ques- tion of the direct, physical defense.of the work- ers and their organizations against the acts of | violence carried out by the bourgeoisie’s armed | bodies of suppression. It must be strongly emphasized that the question of ‘the concrete forms of proletarian defense cannot by any means be limited to the question of special defense organizations, particularly in the present phase of the strug- gle. The question will have to be dealt with in a much broader fashion if we are to ap- proach it correctly. We think it will be use- ful at this point to recall Lenin’s words in his article on Guerilla Warfare: “In the first place Marxism differs from all other and more primitive forms of Socialism in that it does not bind the movement to any particular form of struggle. It recognizes the most ¥aried forms of struggle, and it does not “invent” them, but only generalizes, organizes and endows with consciousness those forms of the revolutionary class struggle which arise spontaneously in the course of the movement. Hostile to all abstract formulae and doctrinaire recipes, Marxism demands the closest atten- tion to the mass struggle which is proceeding and which, as the movement develops, as the class-consciousness of the masses increases, as economic and political crises grow more acute, | gives rise to new and most varied methods of If we want to attack the question of prole- tarian defense from the correct angle, we must first of all have the greatest possible elasticity in the tactics and organization of defense. It is, for example, quite clear that the question of the creation of special organizations is one whose correct solution is possible only on the basis of the practical needs of the mass strug- gle in strike movements, in the defénse of workers’ organizations and their headquarters, ete. In particular we must develop new tactics in street demonstrations. With increased police provocation, prohibitions and attacks on one hand, and the growth of working class mili- | tancy on the other, demonstrations must keep even Communist demonstrations in most coun- tries were in general modelled on the old so- made with the permission of the police. demonstrators walked through the streets, ac- companied by the police, to the tre al meeting place, where the traditional }»on°am was run through, « To be Continued) The | ployment, } coneluding the valuable and interesting article off or been put on part time with correspond ing reductions in wages. Then came the crisis. ‘Lhe government ant | cipated the rising temper of a working class / made desperate by the spectre of mass unem- Conferences were ‘hurriedly called, Such a mobilization of business magnates had never before been resorted to except in emer- gency. The government was determined to shift the burden of the crisis on the workers through wage cuts and intensified production drives, but at the same time it, wished to create the illusion of continued prosperity to blunt the edge of the fighting spirit of the workers. | Officials of the American Federation of Labor were called in for this purpose. They respond- ed with a pledge to ask for no wage increases. and to prevent strikes. « Wage cuts immediately followed the confer- ences. Further intensification of labor con- tinued to increase unemployment. The Chrysler Corporation in Detroit closed down and laid off some ten thousand men. Ford laid off 30,000 in his River Rouge plant “in preparation for another new model.” Many textile plants which had already shut down one week a month during the summer decided on a four-day week schedule. The minimum amount of curtail- ment agreed to by a certain group of Southern cotton mills was 27 per cent. In November the Victor Talking Machine Company laid off 3,000 of its 15,000 workers, 20 per cent of the working force. Similar reports come from hundreds of plans in various industries thru- out the country. Hoover’s mobilization of the captains of in- dustry to stimulate construction projects and thus take the edge off the threatening em- ployment slump failed miserably. The Annalist summed up the’ situation and showed the futil- ity of such panaceas in its issue of November 22, 1929, when it said: “The depression itself is in large part dut to what is now proposed as the remedy namely, expansion in industrial production.” “Unemployment will be the greatest problem before the United States in the next’ decade,” according to experts of the American Economic Association and the American statistical Asso- ciation who discused this subject at their an- nual convention in Washington, December 30, 1929. “Unemployment, now the nightmare of five out of every ten Europeans, has. never been a problem for a sufficiently long period in the. United States to influence our political thought, but it is doubtful if that blissful state will continue,” said Robert W. Warren. He foresaw a more or less chronic state of indus- trial unemployment during the next ten-year period. The American working class must face the facts. Unemployment is no passing phase in its life. For increasing millions of the: less fortunate, it has become a permanent certainty. For 1.illions more it constitutes a constantly recurring menace. (To Be Continued) The Importance of the Feb. ruary Issue of the ‘Communist For the first time in the history of the Party we are now presented with a draft program on American agriculture. This question ‘was grossly neglected and with the existing sharp crisis in American agriculture, it is absolutely essential that every Party member should fa- miliarize himself with this draft program and: begin real work among the oppressed and ex- ploited millions of American farmers. The February issue of the “Communist” is also continuing interesting articles on the Ne- gro question, devoting special attention to the tasks of the Party in this work among, the Negro masses in the South. The article by Comrade Zinoviev: “Are New Revolutions possible Without War” is a good Leninist exposé of the opportunist theory of Lovestone and the International right wing, concerning the primacy of external contradic- tions in the capitalist deyelopment and decline. The February issue of the “Communist” -is- by Comrade Buchartzev on the “Theoretical Knights of Opportunism.” This latter part de- votes special attention to the role of Lovestone and the opportunist anti-Leninist character of his program. 2 The Second Congress of the Anti-Imperialist League, held in Frankfort, Germany, was. in-- sufficiently discussed and presented in the - United States... The decisions of the Second Congress of the Anti-Imperialist League are be- coming especially important in view of the growing attacks of American imperialism upon the colonial countries and development of the ~ revolutionary movement: in the colonies in the struggle against American imperialism: , In addition to that the February issue of the “Communist” also contains interesting-informa- tion in-the “News of the Month,” as. well’as in- teresting book reviews. Workers! Join the Party of Your Class! Communist Party U.S. A. 48 East 125th Street, New York City. ~ I, the undersigned, want to join the Commu- nist Party. Send me more information, NAME ie iese ends seve tcquanpeubarteenhed es Address ..... + vity. Occupation sereeeeeeeeeeeeceneres AGCrvepen Mail this to the Central Office, Comménist™| Party, 43 East 125th St., New York, N.Y.