The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 11, 1930, Page 4

Published by the Cor Square. New York City, Addrese and mail a DETROIT STILL THE LEAD- ING DISTRICT Phila. Closing In On New York—Negro % Going Down, ITH eight we passed the Recruiting Drive shows three districts over the top: Detroit, New York and Philadelphia. This week 725 new members were re to the Party. In earlier figures some the dis- tricts, in spite of Polburo resolution, smuggled in appl instead of only cepted members. This must stop completely. only accepted members should be reported. The Central Office of the Party receives thru our press direct applications up to tens and aundr are not aes, bef zepted by procedure e ac- ds. nprodaily Publishin i Telep! cheeks to the Dail plicants. Detroit is leading this week with 243 new members, next comes New York with 98 and Buffalo with 55. The tempo must not be allowed to slow down during the rest of the drive. Only 60 Negroes were recruited this week. That means that only 8 per cent of the new members wi Negro workers. The percentage for the whole drive is now only 15 per cent, which indicates an inexcusable slackness in recruiting Negro workers to the Part; In the middle of the drive we had 20 per cent Negroes, then it went down to 18 per now it has next to 17 per cent and the very low figure of 15 per cent. cent, reached Every prove its recruitment of Negro comrades. district, except Philadelphia, must im- New Members District Quota Recruit. % New New Shop Nuclei Shop Papers Quota Org. Quota Issued Negro we have 7 Chicago, Buf- ‘alifornia, Con- District 11, the Da- d for the first time. But to- y, Pittsburgh and Seat- of the too long tail With er district Cleve ts over the ove 50 ‘per cen Minnesota, C 3 distr top nd, icut and the South ther with Kar tle they still form a in this driv Phila. has be ber of Daily tioning. California with 82 new subscribe: a higher percentage than Phila.—proves that DW subs can be gotten also in far away dis- tricts. The other districts are far behind—and every DC must during this drive have been able at least to build a functioning net of DW agents in the district. The results achieved are so poor that the Party must—to save the Daily—insist upon absolute and speedy im- provement during the end of the drive in cordance with special DW instructions, show- how to proceed. So far only 8 per cent of e quota have been filled ac- Shop Nuclei. A very serious shortcoming in the drive is the we@k activity building new shop nuclei. The Party cannot afford to permit any ness on this field, special efforts must be made by-every district to fill the quota of new shop nucl Concentration of comrades for special factory work must at once take place; leading and most energetic forces to be as- signed te such work, systematically to ¢ through a planned offensive in the most im- portant factories. A control should be made in all street nuclei, to find out if comrades working in shops are members of street nuclei instead of shop nuclei. ery comrade work- ing in a shop must request the assistance of nearest Party committee in building up a shop nucleus in his shop; and all leading committees should give more and more attention to this ork from now on. No district failing to fill its quota of shop nuclei can be considered tak- ing the work of Bolshevization seriou: So far only 42 per cent of the quota are filled. Clevel: is leading with 80 per cent together with Phila. ext comes Detroit with 67 per cent and Boston with 60 per cent. Chicago York are scandalously low and we must demand from both of these districts that xceed their quota considerably. Espe- ince the time for the drive has been prolonged to March 1. Of the shop paper quota so far 60 per cent have been filled, Phila. and Boston going over the top and Buffalo 100 per cent. and New Revolutionary Competition. Chicago has been beaten by New York—in new members and in new Negro members. This week there will be a decisive battle be- tween New York and Detroit on the Negro field, the one that now takes the victory may become the ultimate victor. Detroit has beat- en Bia. on all fields except DW subscribers but Cleveland has a fighting chance of beat- ing Detroit in new shop nuclei and shop papers, two very important in the drive. The triangle competition: Boston, Minnesota, Cali- fornia, shows Minnesota leading in a good vic- tory over its two competitors. California is leading in DW subs with Boston close behind, Minnesota very low. Boston has a splendid leadership in shop nuclei, where California is lagging far behind. California is also too weak in shop papers where the two others keep even. All three are rotten in recruiting Negro work- A decisive change on this field must be made immediately. ers. | work especially in | ew York in shop Boston must improve it recruiting new membe: nuclei and shop papers, Buffalo—new mem- bers, especially Negroes; Pittsburgh needs im- provement on every field; Cleveland—new members and Negroes. Chicago has a mar- gin for improvement on every field; Minne- sota the same. Kansas City has been given too large a quota, but its slowness is not ex- cused by that fact—neither are the bad re- sults of our Dakota district, and of Seattle. These are the poorest. California and Con- necticut must improve their work for shop nu- clei and shop papers and get results in re- cruiting of Negro workers. Same holds true about the South. With 88 per cent of the membership quota filled up to February the 8th, this is the first drive when the quota assigned has been almost filled in due time. The drive was announced to close February 10th, and with a Saturday; Sunday and Monday left for work no doubt the results would have gone over 90 per cent, the more so because three district attle, Cali- fornia and the South, not having sent in any reports this week, and the final drive in far away places cannot be reported before inside a week or ten days to the Central Office. Every district must now prepare for a most energetic spurt during the last week. Who will be the victors in revolutionary competi- tion? On March 1 we expect telegrams from every district giving the final results from the battlefields in this membership drive, which already now in spite of many shortcomings can be characterized as the best recruitment drive in the history of the Party. More connections in the shops! More Negrces in the Party! Every new member a subscriber on the Daily Worker! Keep the new members by making them active! Mobilize the whole membership for unemployment campaign and make it best recruiting instrument of our Party! Org. Department of the C. C. the the Socialism and Red Putilov By CHAS. SUMMERS (Moscow). HILE the U. § world is confronted with a crisis that is ssuming ever wider proportions, the working ass of the Soviet Union is forging ahead in the building of Socialism. The success of the first year of the Five-Year Plan and the slogan to carry out the Five-Year Plan within four years or even less guaranteed by the fact that this advance is being carried out by the working class with the strong support of all the poor and middle peasantry. The bourgeoisie and their economists looked upon the Five-Year Plan as “Bolshevik mad- ness” and compile figures and statistics to prove that it will fail. When the capitalist economists said “it cannot be done” they were correct, because they were thinking of anar- thie capit: society with its growing contra- dictions. Planned economy is only possible after the abolition of capitalism and the estab- lishment of the political rule of the proletariat. The tremendous increase in the socialized sec- tor of agriculture, the mushroom-like rate of growth of collective farms, with a planned in- crease of 83 per cent for 1929-30, is even causing the bourgeoisie to speak of the “great- est agricultural revolution in human history.” A Mighty Wave. The working class of the Soviet Union has shown its revolutionary determination in the achievement of the economic transformation of the country. The capitalist elements, the kulak, as well as the vacillators and opportunists, are swept aside by the gigantic wave of mil- lions of toilers, surging forward under the " leadership of the steeled Bolshevik Party. To sce the building of socialism and the Five-Year Plan assuming flesh and blood, one has but to go through some of the workshops in the Soviet Union. Let us take the “Red Putilov” of Leningrad as an example. Within this plant we will see all the forces at work, as well as the problems confronting the Soviet Power; increased productivity, lower produc- tion costs, new cadres, higher wages, cultural and the whole capitalist | advances, the role of the Party, socialist com- petition, and even socialization of agriculture. When the Five-Year Plan was proposed the workers of all departments of “Red Putilov’ met and discussed the program and control figures. The workers offered many practical suggestions in facilitating the success of the Plan and in organizing the cooperation of “Red Putilov.” Before the October Revolution the Putilov works was devoted almost entirely to the pro- duction of war munitions. During the revolu- tion and civil war only 1500 workers were em- ployed, and proposals were even made to shut down the plant completely. It was only thru the intervention of the Party and the trade unions that this was prevented. In 1923 production was again resumed with a working force of 5,000 and a total produc- tion of 15 million rubles for the year. In 1925 there were 7,000 workers employed and pro- duction rose to 19 million rubles; this was 3 million rubles less than the goal set for that year. We sce here a steady rise in production until today, after completion of the first year of the Five-Year Plan, 13,400 workers raised the production to 92 million rubles for the year. How are the workers in “Red Putilov” able to accomplish such tremendous gains and con- _ tinue to set themselves higher and greater tasks? This coming year the workers of “Red Putilov’ must increase production by 19 per cent and lower cost of production by 10 per | cent, while wages must be raised by 9.2 per | cent. The Five-Year Plan provides for a 12 per cent increase in real wages during this year; the planned lowering of prices of prod- ucts consumed by the workers will balance the figure. in going through the plant we attended con- ferences and meetings held by the workers where they organized the work so that the Five-Year Plan will be accomplished !n four years. In some departments the goal set by the Five-Year Plan will be reached this year. (To be Continued) THE LAST CRUSADE! __ Central Organ of ‘the Communist Party of st! X. 8. A. By Mall (tn New York City on! Ie $8.00 By Mall (outside of New York 6. SURSCRIPTION RATHS: a year; 96.00 a year; $4.50 six months; $2. $3.50 six months; $2.01 50 three months 0 three months The Question of Proletarian Detense By L. ALFRED. Note: The following is the final installment of this article, e Although on August 1st the demonstrations’ in many cases were on the old pattern, that day and the whole of the summer of 1929 gave numerous examples of a quite new and differ- ent form of demonstraticn, important indica- tions of growing proletarian militancy. By learning from these concrete examples of char- acteristic episodes of the class struggle today, by generalizing, organizing and giving con- sciousness to the forms of struggle which arose in their course, according to Lenin's ad- vice, we shall approach correctly the question of proletarian defense. Demonstrations nowadays must be freed from all the old organizational traditions, must keep in mind all possible provocations by the police and by fascists. careful preparation and the working out. in good time of concrete plans for every single demonstration. These plans must keep in view possible measures of police repression and take counter-measures accordingly. The chief thing in organizing demonstrations is to assure firm and unbroken leadership of the demonstrating masses by the Party. A lead- ership must be created for every demonstra- tion. This leadership, the demonstration “gen- eral staff,” must be equipped with all the ne- cessary means of following the course of the demonstration and of reacting as quickly as Possible to events. In no case should militant workers on the streets be left without the leadership of the Party. Even on August First cases occurred where speakers as well as slogans were not on the spot which, during the course of the demonstration, became cen- ters of mass resistance. It happened that the speaker waited alone at the appointed meeting place for the arrival of the demon- strators, while these, left to themselves, fought the police in the streets. With even little pre- paration, leadership which was aware of the enemy’s counter-measures and was in contact with the This requires very | | | the | the existence of a demonstration | marchers would have made such grave mis- takes impossible. What measures are necessary to mislead the police, what is to be done in case of un- provoked attack, how far the organization of mass resistance should go, whether the dem- onstration should disperse and re-assemble at another place, whether special divisions should be allocated to protecting the main body, to hold up the police until the main boly is secure, how the demonstration leadership should main- tain contact with the different columns of demonstrators, how to organize and conduct the “shock troops” for calling the masses on to the streets and into the demonstration, what steps should be taken to protect speakers, local headquarters and papers—we shall not enter more closely into these and similar ques- tions of the practical organization of demon- strations now. If we make a correct judgment, concrete and thorough, of the situation, the forces and possibilities of the enemy, the feel- ing of the workers, it will not be difficult to find a correct answer in every case. The chief thing, which cannot be too strongly emphasized is that this work must be handled in a prac- tical and concrete fashion. Then everything else will fall into line. Demonstrations must throw off their festival appearance and become means whereby to mobilize the activity of the masses. This means the organization of demonstrations straight from the factory, with or without a strike, marching from one factory to another, calling upon the workers to join the demon- stration. These demonstrations should not make for the traditional meeting-place, but for such places as government buildings, parliaments, town halls, barracks, in order to exercise revolutionary mass influence on the soldiers; to the prisons and police stations to demand the liberation of political prisoners and of workers arrested in the course of dem- onstrations. The appearance of the demonstrations is very important. They must have a revolution- ary and proletarian aspect, they must be ef- fective. This requirement is met by demon- strations straight from the factories of work- ers in their working clothes, of cripples and invalids of the imperialist and civil war, dem- onstrations of women workers and orphans, ete. With the accentuation of the struggle, pro- letarian defense in the factories has new and varied tasks to meet. It may be observed that a worker who does not yet dare to fight the police is ready to fight against the strike- breaker, the spy and the fascist in the factory. During strike movements proletarian defense in the factories is absolutely essential. If we consider that the main weight of the whole proletarian struggle is concentrated in the fac- tories, ant that even street demonstrations are more and more taking the factory as their starting point, it is clear that proletarian de- fense must be built up on the basis of the factory. As far as the special organizations of work- ers’ defense is concerned, they can be developed gradually from the practical measures of de- fense which are taken in the course of the struggle in different instances, and which have been proved expedient. Only on this’ basis is it possible to create a living organization of workers’ defense which will fulfil its purpose. These defense corps should not be secret fighting organizations within the Communist Parties, but united front organs of Commun- ist, non-Party and social democratic workers, whether they are broad mass organizations or small groups for special purposes. If possible, they will be legal, if not, they must be estab- lishel despite their prohibition, of course on the basis of the practical requirements of the revolutionary mass movement. y It is the armed forces of capitalism, the army, the police and fascist bodies, ‘against which the workers have to defend themselves in the first instance. It is these forces which are used against strikers and demonstrators, which carry out arrests, confiscate the news- papers and oceupy the premises of local work- ingclass organizations. Consequently the ques- tion of the workers’ attitude to these bodies is one of the most important questions of work- ers’ defense. This attitude cannot be the same to the different kinds of capitalism’s armed forces. While the workers recognize methods of bitter struggle against openly fascist, bourgeois military organizations, it would be a great mistake to take up the same attitude to all the forces, particularly to these which are re- cruite] mainly from proletarian and semi-pro- letarian elements. This applies particularly to the army. In regard to the army, the most suitable tactics, particularly in the present stage of the struggle, are those of fraterniza- tion, with the object of drawing the soldier masses over to the side of the revolutionary working class, or of neutralizing them during the struggle. With this object in view ‘the soldiers must be kept informed by wide-spread propaganda work, of the workers’ struggle; the slogans of the common struggle and the idea of fraternization of soldier and worker must be popularized among the greatest possi- ble mass of soldiers. If this fraternization is to be carried out in fact, active and courageous preliminary work in this direction must be carried on among the soldiers. It may be objected that fraternization tactics are only correct in conscripted armies, but that STARVE OR FIGHT! A Challenge to the Unemployed By GRACE M. BURNHAM, Labor Research Association. Note: The first installment of this series ‘dealt with the certainty of unemployment under capitalism, The following is the sec- ond installment. ey ¥ The Extent of Unemployment. cca for unemployment in the United States are at best only guess work. No national records are kept. Estimates made from time to time are based on the most frag- mentary information and vary according to the sympathies of the writer. The only of- ficial information at present available is com- piled by the United States Department of Labor from reports sent in by 10,000 concerns in 54 manufacturing industries. The govern- ment does not gather these figures directly. It takes them from the employers’ own com- putations, which are easily manipulated to ex- aggerate pay rolls and minimize the extent of unemployment. Dr. Hornell Hart who made one of the few long time studies of the trend of unemploy- ment, concluded that the number of unemployed for the period of 1902-1917 was never less than 1,000,000. The average was more nearly 2,500,000. This was exclusive of agricultural workers. In 19238, the National Industrial Conference Board estimated that the number of unem- ployed in the manufacturing and mechanical industries alone totalled no less than 1,536,000 out of 12,800,000 workers engaged in these in- dustries. Taking Dr. Hart’s figures of 2,500,000 as the average number of workers unemployed before 1917, we estimate the number out of work in 1927 was no less than 6,000,000. The manufacturing industries lost 1,000,000 work- ers, the farms 1,000,000, bituminous coal mines 200,000, railways 300,000. During the same period 3,000,000 workers were added through the natural increase in population. Estimating an absorption of some two million workers in new and “flourishing” industries and “service” occupations and deducting this number, we arrive at the 6,000,000 minimum figure for unemployment in 1927. Further intensification of industry between 1927 and 1930 followed by the crisis of 1929-30 leads to a conservative estimate of at least 7,000,000 unemployed at the beginning of 1930. The general average of unemployment for the country is placed at from 10 to 12 per cent. In: 1928 the American Federation of Labor figured that 14 per cent of their membership was unemployed. In 1929 a census of working- class families in New York showed 17 per cent without jobs. The national censtis of unemployment sched- uled to be made this year will give us the actual number of unemployed in April. But it must be remembered that April is one of the months when unemployment, due to season- activity in farming, building and other in- A Death Sentence for Saul. By CAROLINE DREW. \ 'HE case of George Saul establishes a new precedent in the South, A white man is being sent for six months on the chain gang without the alternative of paying a fine, for “carrying a concealed weapon.’ The judge frankly stated that he gave this road sentence because Saul was making a speech the afternoon he was arrested. Saul was telling the workers the meaning of class justice received in bosses courts. un ease after case the most outstanding of which are Sacco-Vanzetti, Centralia, Mooney and Billings, Gastonia. Now his own case can be added to the list. The maximum sentence Saul could have re- ceived was two years. There are many Negro workers who have to serve this maximum sen- tence whenever there are new roads to build, the famous “good roads” Carpenter spoke of as he rolled on the floor asking the jury to give Gastonia Textile workers and organizers the maximum sentence—death. The two year’s sentence’ wasn’t needed. The capitalist judge well knows what a 6 months road sentence would mean for George Saul, a “Red,” and Southern organizer of the Inter- national Labor Defense, an outstanding labor organization of the South. He understands thoroughly the bosses’ cruel, crude, lynch rid- den South. He knows of the National Textile Workers union members who were framed up this summer and sent on the chain gang. After a week their fines were paid and when they got home it was found they had ribs broken, were black and blue all over, and were so weak from being tortured they had to remain two weeks in bed. An appeal has been filed in Saul’s case. The workers must send letters of protest to the governor. Every workers organization aust protest this frame-up. Saul carried no “con- cealed weapons.” Every worker who attended the meeting George Saul addressed saw the weapon. It was meant to warn the black hun- dreds and thugs that the meeting would be held in spite of all their terror and that the workers believed in self defense. in the case of modern mercenary armies and police forces, which are the first to be set against the workers, these tactics will accom- plish nothing. It is true that with the growing tendency to create reliable mercenary armies sérving the bourgeoisie, our job of disintegrating cap- italism’s armed forces becomes more and more complicated. This exphasizes the necessity of active defense against those forces. But it is possible to exaggerate the bourgeoisie’s suc- cess in its efforts to create a reliable army. For example, the German Schutzpolizei is a typical example of the civil war army. It won its spurs in this field during the May Days in Berlin. But, considering that a large num- ber of members of this police force voted for the Communists during the elections, it is evidently possible to win some success among them by active work, He brought | dustries, is on the upgrade. Also every effort will doubtless be made by employers to increase employment totals, for example, by concen- trating orders during this period in order to give a picture of business prosperity. The figures for the period of 1930 will only be of value as a base upon which to approximate unemployment fluctuations during the coming months and years. Alongside of the workers who have no jobs, there are always uncounted numbers who are given only part time work an? whose earnings are thus seriously curtailed. The Massachu- setts Department of Labor and Industries re- ported that in January, 1928 over 1,000 repre- sentative establishments were employing only 82.7 per cent of their normal working force and of these 22.8 per cent were in plants operating on short time schedules. In other words less than two-thirds of the number of Massachusetts factory workers usually em- ployed had full time jobs. Unemployment fluctuates by periods, by sea- sons, by industries, by localities. In the State of Illinois applicants at the free employment ex- changes for each one hundred jobs. between the years 1920-1928 were as follows: APPLICANTS FOR EACH 100 JOBS 1920 ° In January, 1928, at the highest of the busi- ness depression of that period the number of | applicants for each 100 jobs rose to 239, in January, 1929, it was 182 while the average for the first eleven months of 1929 was 150. | Fluctuation by trades in Ilinois during the | month of December, 1927, also showed marked variations. In agriculture there were 134 ap- plicants for every 100 jobs open; in the build- ing industry 344; in clerical occupations 246; | in domestic service, hotels, and restaurants | 246; for metals and machinery 271; printing | trades 142; Miscellaneous trades 227; casual workers 133; common labor 210. The following data compiled from U, S. De- partment of Commerce reports shows the ac- | tual number of workers squeezed out of certain | industries between the best and worst months of 1925. | Industry Largest Smallest Squsered ‘o. | Workers — Workers | Root and Shoe.....21gsen sores © 34443 ‘165,547 156,350 416,963 aaa 86, | 165,319 intae 110,795 | LE el is At 426,015, Sr2se Bl Machinery 273.418 218,717 B4/T01 | Foundries, etc. ....412.947 376.880 36,117 | Furniture 171,011 28,558 Iron and S| 354,053 31301 Knit Good: 176,802 16,857 | Lumber, 464,382 21,633 | Motor Vehicle Rodiex and Parts..256,117 100,552 65,565 | Motor Vehicle | (axxembled) 107,088 58,296 | Paper, ete. 122282 «8,548 | Printing, ete. 120,398 Silk Mfg. . 123.582 15,326 Slnughtering, etc. VRIVS «RATT Tobacco 2808 11 11,249 Worsted Goods. :107574 $5,284 19,280 (To Be Continued) Difference in Political Color The following conversation was overheard by | a member of the committee of the council of unemployed as the committee was leaving the City Hall in Milwaukee. Two girls, clerks, were talking. One of them said: “Who are these unem- ployed people knocking the socialists?” “Oh, they are socialists themselves.” “Then why do they knock the socialists and Mayor Hoan?” “Well you see they are a different variety. | Mayor Hoan is a yellow socialist, and they are red socialists, and they’re fighting over that.” | Statement of Comrade Gladys Schechter The Bureau of District Two is in receipt of the following statement from Comrade Gladys Schechter, an active worker in Millinery Work- érs Union, Local 43. Comrade Schechter makes this statement because her personal relations with certain expelled renegades raised the question of her attitude. The statement fol- lows: “In regard to the Lovestonites, I am: doing my utmost, together with other leading com- rades, to expose and eliminate them from every leading position of our union. “More than that. I am calling shop meetings whenever the workers are ready to discuss the Party situation at which meetings I pre- sent the position of our Party. “Moreover, I have succeeded in winning over a number of influential left-wingers of our union for the Party line, a) “The unscrupulous and destructive methods employed by the Lovestonites in the mass or- ganizations must be fought most vigorously— and this I pledge to do.” Workers! Join the Party of . Your Class! Communist Party U. 8. A. 43 East 125th Street, New York City, I, the undersigned, want to join ithe Commu- nist Party. Send me more information, np gmeces Name . Occupation .. Ae eeceeeecene Age..sea. Mail this to the Central Office, Commi Party, 43 East 125th 8, New Yok NE