The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 27, 1930, Page 4

Page Four — square. New ‘York. c Address and ma 3 to ON SOME OF Gatly, exc Stuyvesant | 1696-7 26-28 Union Publishing © Telephone the Daily Worker. OUR ORGAN- IZATIONAL SHORTCOMINGS By SI GERSON. | (This article is in the nature sion It dwells especially on our or- ganizational shortcomings. It is written as a result of seven months experience in our work in the South, among native-American workers, who for the most part are recent recruit n the class struggle. It is with this qualification that the article is written. Nevertheless, it is my opinion that most of the points here are valid, possibly in varying degree, in every section of the coun- of a discus- article. ade A VERY necessary and very important note was struck by Comrade meee in his ar- ticle on our “Shortcomings in Handling of Mass Struggl This note was the cri of our organizational shortcomings. Any comrade who is now engaged in any mass struggles of any sort will readily admit that the political 1 of the Comintern and Party are entation of the Party on the unskilled and semi-skilled workers 2 d the Negro masses has been proven correct by mountains of f: But what every comr and what Comintern and our Par the Plenum pointed out is that there is a tremendous gap between - ees poitical influence of our Party and the var- ious ‘mass revolutionary organizations and their organizational strength. The basic rea- son for this is that the Party sufficient attention to the or, izational ques- tion. (This very underestimation of the or- ganizational question, it might be pointed out, is in itself, a serious political shortcoming.) Comrade Oehler’s remark that “often lead- | ing committees hand down policies without any ways and means of execution” is only too has not paid often true. The roots of this go far back into the history of the Party. The sharp ideolo- gical war that went on in the ranks of the left wing of the old Socialist Party and which was continued in the various parties and groups that went to make up the present Com- munist Party, the immigrationist sectarianism of our Party, the lack of pract the basic masses of native-American workers— these were factors that made for ideological but sterile correctness (and that not always!), but organizational chaos. Theses that were correct did not find any reflection in organiza- tional correctness and influence among the masses. This was increased a hundred-fold by the Lovestone leadership. This opportunist group which was paralyzed by the might of Amer- iean imperialism never built organizations among the masses for serious struggle. “Yes,” said Mr. Lovestone when he was at the helin of the Party, “We will write correct theses, even lifting pages bodily from Comintern docu- ments, but when it comes to organization, we will follow the line of least resistance.” Thus it was that we had Party and Leagu@gpwpits mainly among certain language grow the mass work consisting for a great part of gain- ing control of cooperatives, ete. And _ since there had to be a bluff at work, often mass organizations were launched that had only a nominal existence and that were in actuality small duplicates of the Party. The meantime by this fakery Mr. Lovestone rewarded some of his caucus agents. They were placed at the head of some of these organizations or in some other place where the interests of the Lovestone group could be guarde1. This typical feature of Lovestone’s fakery left the Party in a serious position when the Party threw Lovestone and his opportunist followers overboard. While the political line and leadership was radically changed and while the Party is now on thegpige road to leader- ship over the great masses of American work- ers (the South, Illino’ are only the be- ginnings of this), nevertheless, certain serious defects in the organizational side of our work still remain. It is especially necessary for us to examine our organizational weakne ruthlessly at this -ioment, for, given the cor- rect, unified political line—which the Party undoubtedly has—there is no subjective factor that bars our constant and speedy progress other than the factor of organization. Present Defects. One of the most serious of our organiza- tional shortcomings is the handling of our | mass organizations. This has been especially noticeable in the South. In the South many of the workers in the Piedmont region have con- fused the National Textile Workers’ Union, the International Labor Defense and the Workers International Relief. To many of the workers these three organizations are all parts of the , Same organization. While this is not an un- healthy—tho primitive—class conception and not dangerous, nevertheless it has bad conse- quences occasionally. Workers will come to an organizer of the N. T,.W. U., for instance, and show him a WIR card and tell him that he is an NTWU member. Or vice-ver: And then when one considers that the workers must know what the Trade Union Unity League is, the Labor Sports Union, possibly the Friends of the Soviet Union, and on top of everything the Party and YCL, there certainly is room for confusion. The same thing is true of the va’ ious organs of the Party and the auxiliaries, To many of the workers there is no serious distinction between the Daily Worker, the La- bor Defender, Labor Un the Young Work- er, Workers Sports, Solidarity, ete. . That each has a separate function is not clear. The ef- fect of all this was that the various mass or- ganizations were constantly duplicating each other’s work and, to a certain extent, having certain “jurisdictional” quarrels. Further, each one of the mass organizations could have no separate and distinct organizational life. Our Writing. As a bar to leadership of the great masses, our writing has been second only to our poor forms of organization. (Lately, it must be said, however, there have been some serious efforts at chi i¢ this, as the C.E.C. resolution on the Daily Worker shows.) Our writing has, on the whole, been of such a nature that the great masses of workers could absolutely not under- stand the content of what we said, and this, to a great extent still continues. . This is another one of the plagues left us by Lovestone and can be explained mainly by the same “historical” reasons that explain our organizational weaknesses. The Lovestone petty-bourgeois opportunist group, whith was totally indifferent to the needs of the masses and had no roots in the working class and had very little contact with actual workers, did not write for workers. In true opportunist sectarian fashion they used only the “scien- tifie jargon” (Lenin) of the vanguard of the proletariat—which although necessary and cor- rect in the theoretical organs of the Party— cannot be used to rally ma of American wotke: Another characteristic feature of the writings of Lovestone and Co.—a feature, which, unfortunately has not yet been wiped out—was their opportunist fear of speaking out too plainly. This, combined with their factional indifference to the actual needs of the masses and their habit of lifting bodily and mechanically from Inprecoryr, ete., created such a state of affairs that today the Party has almost no simple Party literature for pro- paganda uses among the masses. The same thing was true of. the Y.C.L. and our youth propaganda and literature for the youth, who, of all workers, need popular literature. And what holds true of our Party organs, also holds true of our leaflets. Some comrades seem to imagine that the great masses of workers understand what the words “rational- tion,” “imperialism,” “third period,” “con- ciliators,” ete., mean without any previous ex- planation. The net result of this that many of our leaflets are just so much Greek to the workers. This was shown as late as three months ago when the Party put out a national leaflet, entitled “Hoover Makes War Upon the Workers.” This leaflet, which was supposed to be a “popular” leaflet and which was meant especially for the Party recruiting campaign, had by actual count, exactly 49 words that southern workers could not understand! Which meant that, as far as they were concerned, the leaflet was a total flop. And this sort of leaflet is by no means an exception to the rule, sad to say. In just one article in one issue of the Labor Sports organ, “Workers Sports,” there are a dozen words that most workers will not understand—and this in a magazine that should achieve wide popularity on its class sports line and working class simplicity. a (To Be Continued) Training for the Class Struggle! By ALBERTA TATE. , (Student of N. T. S.) HE question that constantly arises in the mind of everv class conscious worker is how best to fit himself or herself for active participaton in the class struggle. Tn looking over the courses outlined here in the National Training School. one sees clearly | the many problems that have to be understood | in connection with the class struggle. The economic basis of the struggle hetween the | workers and the capitalist exploiters, th tory of these struggles,! the org: tasks of the working class, such as Union and other organizations, the the Trade history of these organizations and the study of their pro- grams and principles. All these questions have to be studied and understood in order that the worker may, be properly fitted to carry on the struegle for the emancipation of the working class. A woman worker, and particularly a Negro | | Workers! Join the Party of Your Class! Communist Party U. S. A. 43 East 125th Street, New York City. I, the undersigned, want to join the Commu- nist Party. Send me more information. Address ... + vity. MORRO 65 335 sisib'd 00 gb'aic's a <a.ci0 ABO :s vant Party. 43 Eost 125th St.. New York. N. Y Mail this to the Central Office, Communist | our ae woman worker who realizes her true condition under capitalist oppression, feels the need for this training most keenly. For her’s is a three- fold oppresson. In addition to being exploited as a worker, she is oppressed as a Negro and also as one of the socalled “weaker sex.” This oppression is to be found even within the ranks of the working class where the importance of Negro and women workers for the class strug- gle is still greatly underestimated. In the present class of thirty-three, there are only three women workers and six Negro workers. This shows that this underestima- tion of the necessity of these most exploited workers is not yet completely overcome within which is the most conscious orgart ization of the working class, although much is now being done to accomplish this. Being the only Negro woman worker in the National Training School, I can see the necessity for extensive organization among the unorganized Negro masses and women workers to draw them into the workers movement. This work is needed, now more than ever, when we are subjected to such deplorable conditions, par- ticularly in the present unemployment crisis. Study and Fight, The students are eager to learn as much as possible in the six weeks.alloted for the course. But however hard we study, it is impossible for us to get more than a background and the necessary line to carry on the class struggle. The courses are new to the majority of us and they cover such a wide range, that it is quite difficult for us to master them in the short period of six weeks, Yet we are doing our utmost to grasp as much as we possibly can of the theory and practice of Marxism- Leninism in order to be more capable and ef- fective fighters for our oppressed class. Under the leadership of the Communist International we will fight for the dictatorship of the pro- letariat which alone can abolish the present class svstem of exploitation and inequality and emancinace the working elees throveh. the es- tablishment of a Communist order of society, 28 Unt : “DAIWORS . New York, gid conve WEE of the’ ALL OUT M: ARCH 6TH! Communist Party or the U. 8. A. By Mail (in New York City only By Mall (outside of New York City’ SCRIPTION RATES: 8.00 a year; 6.00 a year; SU $4.50 six months; $2.51 $3.50 six months; §2.0' 0 three months 0 three months A Communist Speaks in a Capitalist Parliament NOTE—This is the second installment of the speech delivered by the Czechoslovakian Deputy Gottwald in Parliament. OU Social-Fascists attempt to prove to the workers that you have entered the govern- ment in order to defend the interests of the workers. We call you “Social-Fascists” and you declare that this is an insult. In the same manner, a rascal and murderer, if he would be called by his true name, would declare that this is an itsult. The appellation “social- fascist” is merely an ialication of what actually exists. And finally your practice, strike-breakin espionage, your auxiliary work in the si of the employers, your collaboration in all of this the crimes against the working masses, is social-fi m. With your first acts of violence you proclaimed the war against the working masses, you have proclaimed war against the workers and the Communist Party. Very well, we accept the challenge! What have you at your disposal? In your hands are the schools, the churches, the print- ing shops, the prostitute* journalists and the prostitute orators, you have at your disposal the spies, policemen, gendarmes, you have at your disposal the army, the jails, the gallows. You have the social-fascists who’ even at the present time lured a considerable part of the working class into the capitalist yoke. (Ex- clamations from the deputy seats). But you must know that with bayonets one can do everything, but to sit on them, that against | the social-fascist poison there exists a good antidote—the experience of the workers and of the Communist Party. Do not forget that all that you have at your disposal was to even a greater extent at the disposal of the ezarist government in Russia. Despite this fact, it broke apart into thou- sands of pieces. What has the proletariat at its disposal? First of all, it has the quanti- tive and qualitative superiority (exclama- tions from the seats). The proletariat in its sufferings and severe struggle, has acquired a strong fist. The proletariat possesses the fighting capacity and the endurance of a young class which is fighting for power. Not you, but the workers, the proletarians, stand at the machines where arms and guns are produced. Not you, but the proletariat is preparing and serving the armored cars, tanks and airplanes. The majority of the boys in the army, the sol- diers belong not to you but to us, the prole- tariat. The proletariat has also its Communist Par- ty and the Soviet Union. (Cries: This is its misfortune!) You attempt here to ridicule the Communists, You write in your journals that the Communist deputies could be recog- nized by their dirty collars, but you have dirty souls, Behind the laughter the soul of a spec- culator is hidden, your mockery of us is not sincere, it hides fear and anxiety (cries). You call us an insignificant group. But why does this negligible group give you so much con- cern? For the Proletarian State, For a Soviet - Czechoslovakia. Ask every policeman, every spy, they have no other business than to spy upon the Com- munists, Why are you keeping in readiness against these negligibles a whole army of spies and policemen? Why are you prohibit- ing and subjecting to censorship the press of such negligibles? Why are you dispersing and prohibiting our meetings? Why are you spending millions on bribery of treacherous ele- ments within our ranks? Why are you throw- ing into jail for months and Years our best and most active fighters? Why are you throwing us, the Communist deputies out of this parliament? Why? Be- cause we are Communists. (Interjection: You are beasts, not Dp beings.) You are doing it all because you know that we are defending the interests of the working class. Because you know that some fine day we will deal with you exactly in the same manner as the Russian Bolsheviks have dealt with the Czar, the bourgeoisie and Kerensky. You declare that we are fighting against the state. Quite correct, we are fighting against the state in which the banks, the factories and the large estates belong to the capitalists. We are fighting against the state in which the majority of the working masses are economi- cally and politically enslaved (exclamations). We are fighting and we will continue to fight for a proletarian state, for a state of the workers, for a state of the peasants, for a Soviet Czechoslovakia. You say that we are breaking the laws. Quite right—we are breaking the laws under which the starved proletariat and the mothers of the workers who are brought to despera- tion, are thrown into jails at a time when your society consists of elements who, on the basis of your own laws should be in jail. We are breaking and will continue to break the laws, under whith the proletarians have only the right to keep quiet and to be ex- ploited, and under which the capitalists have an unlimited right to exploit the workers. We are breaking and will continue to break the laws, (exclamations from the benches of the government blo Deputy Slavichek: “Just for that you are put into jail.”), on the basis of which additional taxes are deducted from the wages of the workers, while the taxes on the capitalists are being reduced by millions. (17 lines stricken out by Czechoslovakian censorship.) (To Be Continued) otes on the South By CAROLINE DREW. The Charlotte News in a recent edition stated that the “flop house” operated in con- nection with the city jail has been unusually well patronized in recent months. This “flop housé” is just the regular cell where the great masses of unemployed Southern workers ask to he allowed to sleep on the cold nights. Since January 101 unemployed workers—-86 white and 15 Negroes—spent the night in jail because they had no place to go. Among them were a man and his wife, a mother and several children, two young girls and two married women. ye - A policeman in Charlotte admitted 75 per cent of the recent “thieves” were workers who broke into grocery stores to get something to eat for their kiddies, The same situation pre- vails throughout the South. ’ od The Winston Salem Journal in a recent is- sue stated “that there was privation in Eastern North Carolina in consequence of which steal- ine for food was occurring in communities which had formerly known little if any trouble of that kind.” y In Goldsboro, N. C., the city aldermen were compelled to yield to the pressure of the un- employed and voted a meagre emergency fund of 3500 to keep the men, women and children from starving to death. ° In Ceday Rapids, Va., the railroad shop was permanently closed down and the work was transferred to another nearby railroad shop where rationalization in the form of new machines and speed-up allowed -the work of both shops to be done with one crew of men, Hundreds of workers were thrown out of work and since no other work can be found in this small city, these workers have been added to the 6 million tramping the strects of. the country, STARVE OR FIGHT! A Challenge to the Unembloyed By GRACE M. BURNHAM, Labor Research Association, (Continued) Pa “Fight or Starve!” INEMPLOYMENT completes the strangle- hold of the capitalist state on the working class. It brings out in sharp relief the role of the A. F. of L. and the Socialists as sup- porters of the corporations, The capitalist class has itself flung the challenge to the un- employed. By refusing every avenue of relief, by defeating every measure for unemployment insurance, by flaunting wage cuts and addi- tional lay-offs in the face of the workers, the corporations have pressed the attack, until to the desperate workers there remains but one alternative: Fight or starve. The working class is ripe for action and eager for militant leadership. They see about them riotous luxury and the tremendous profits piled up by the employing class. They see shops bursting with food, with clothing and with the countless products which capitalist economy dazzles before the eyes of its victims And as they walk the streets in a vain search for work, their families starving and sick with cold, they read of income tax refunds amount- ing to hundreds of millions of dollars. The working class must be left under no il- lusion that unemployment can be wiped out under a capitalist state, nor that the employ- ing class, short of a revolution, will concede demands which will be at all adequate. Quite the contrary! ‘Phe capitalist government and the corporations will resist every effort on the part of the workers to gain any comprehensive relief measures. As soon as a powerful mass movement of the unemployed gains momentum, the police are brought into action. Intimida- tion, mass arrests, violence are among the methods used to break up demonstrations. Va- grancy laws still on the statute books in most states, furnish an excuse for picking up the leaders of the fight on every sort of trumped up charge, holding them on exhorbitant bail, or throwing them into jail. Finally the liberals, the socialists and the right wing unions can be counted on to come to the aid of the corporations to mislead the workers under the pretext of compromises. Without doubt a whole series of unemployment insurance bills, utterly inadequate, and aimed to deflect the growing militancy of the work- ers, will grow out of this reformist alliance. In contrast to these compromises the fast developing revolutionary movement in the United States has put forward a program for the unemployed which will ensure some meas- ure of immediate relief. Under the leadership of the Trade Union Unity League, the left wing trade union organization, the unemployed are being organized into Councils of Action. As against the reformist bills for unemploy- ment insurance which arbitrarily cut a workers income to a maximum of $1.50 a day. and stop payments after 13 weeks unemployment, the Left Wing demands work or full wages for the entire period of unemployment. They demand that all funds for unemployment in- surance come entirely from the employing class in the form of ta on income, inheritance and profits. They ist that ‘these funds be administered by committees of workers and not by the corporation-controlled capitalist govern- ment. i The Left Wing program sharply opposes the A. F. of L. pledge to the government of no strikes and no demands for wage increases. It contends that just because of growing mass unemployment the corporations will make every effort to lower wages. It contends that for this reason the situation calls for an in- tensification of the campaign for the organiza- tion of all employed workers, with strikes against low wages and wage cu! The T.U. U.L. is undertaking the organization of the unemployed side by side with the employed fh all industries so that the employing class cannot make use of these starving millions to break strikes and smash living standards. The Left Wing demands the complete and immediate abolition of all fee-chareing private employment agencies and the establishment of a national system of free public emplovment exchanges under workers control. It asks for free transportation for workers who are sent on jobs in other localities, The Left Wing will not tolerate the continued exploitation of children and young workers. It demands the immediate prohibition of child labor and state maintenance of these children: Tt demands drastic reductions in the hours or work throught the legal establishment of the seven-hour day, five-day week. The fierce intensification of labor through which the cor- norations contemplate increasing production with reduced working forces, demands im- ~ediate relief in the form of shorter hours, the complete elimination of overtime, and two fell rest days each week. In the mines and other extra-hazardous occupations and for young workers between the ages of 16 and 18, a maximum working schedule of six hours a day is called. As a further safeguard against the arbitrary imposition of sveed-un, the Left Wing demands. that regulation of machine speed be placed under workers’ control. In this growing mobilization of the work- ers for strugele, the United States does not. stand alone. The crisis of capitalism is a world crisis. The certainty of unemvloyment faces increasing millions of workers in every capi- talist country. About 2,000,000 persons were without work in Germany in the fall of 1929, an increase of 900,000 over the beginning of that year. In the winter of 1930 the total number of un- employed is renorted to exceed 3,500,000. Everywhere in Germany the unemployed are forming organizations. of protest and stating demonstrations. Police frequently shoot into these crowds of marching workers and many have already been killed and wounded. In Spain, food riots are already reported, with groups of unemployed workers breaking into grocery stores and smashing shop win- dows to get food. Madrid newspapers estimate 25,000 unemployed in the building trades in that city alone, due to the fact that construc- tion is almost at a standstill. John A. Hobson, one of England’s recognized capitalist economists, writing in the New York Nation in January, 1930, sees little hope for conditions for the unemployed in that country. “Though some slight improvement is visible in our iron and steel trade,” says Hobson, “our 4: | | export trales in general still remain in the trough of the desperate depression recorded in our country. During the past eight year there have been two slight flickers of recover) but they have soon vanished, and we are au now convinced that the policy of waiting with folded arms for a recovery of world trade which shall absorb our million and a quarter unemployed is sheer imbecility.” And he adds significally, “It may be that a satisfactory solution of the problem is beyond the power of any government, that the new economic conditions of the post war world, with its new national industries protected by tariff walls, and the rapid advances of produg- tive power in Germany, the United States and other countries, have permanently diminished the volume of our export trades, and reduced the number of workers that can be sustained on British soil.” Hobson recommends “ration- alization, reorganization, stabilization, the co- operation of firms in an industry for the elimi- nation of waste, specialization of productio and in general, improved technique and orga ization,” an] concludes: “The restoration our industrial prosperity and the absorption o/ our unemployed, cannot in any case be a rapid process.” A recent report of the Federation of Britist Industries sees in America England’s greatest rival for world trade. “Although the domestic American market is still doubtless full oj potentialities,” it contends, “the United States must in time be driven to dispose of an in creasing proportion of her exports abroad. A’ present the United States exports only 8 pei cent of her total production. If she were tc increase this by only one per cent this woulc represent an increase] export, of $350,000,00( equivalent to approximately 10 per cent o: total British expo: which would mean addi tional heavy competition for British industrie: in the world’s markets.” British priges are the lowest since the ending of the war of 1914 and are continuously declining. In striking contrast to the desperate pligh of the unemployed, to the business crisis, ir capitalist countries is the astounding progres: manifest in the Soviet Union, As agains wage cuts, and lay-offs, labor in this worker: republie gets a constantly increasing share o national production. The five-day continuou: working week is already in operation in glass brick, paper, match, textile, and agricultura machinery factories, metal plants, electric pow er stations and many other industrial enter prises. In the five year period during whic! Russia’s new industrial plan will be work: out, upwards of a million new workers will | employed. The results of the introduction v the seven-hour day, already a fact for ove 43 per cent of Russian industrial and transpor workers are an increase of 20 per cent in th number of workers employed in these indus tries. As against 8 per cent of the workers i) the United States organized into trade unions there are in the U.S.S.S.R., 11,000,000 organ ized workers, over 94 per cent of the tota number employed, and these workers partici pate directly in the building of socialism. While in the United States, mechanizatio: and the drive for increased production has bee achieved at the expense of labor, has throw) milions of workers, particularly the older ones on the street, has continued the exploitatio ot the children and the youth, has actually in creased hours and overtime, in the face o nerve wrecking speed-up, in the Soviet Unic real wages are being constantly increased, u employment is being reduced, and social i) surance and other benefits are offering relie against sickness, ol] age, accidents, etc. The workers of the world are learning b; bitter expenrience how little capitalism has t: offer them. Each new layer of the unemploye adds to their rising discontent. Each act o betrayal of the social democratic parties, th: shooting down of workers in India by th: MacDonald government of Great Britain, th shooting of the unemployed by the Zoergiebe police of Berlin, draws the working class wit) ever surer faith toward struggle, toward th revolution already accomplished by the worker of Rus “We have only our lives to loose, was a recent comment of one of Germany’ jobless workers, “and under the present regim: our lives are worthless anyhow.” “The unorganized are not doing any fightin; at. all,” says Professor Commons, spokesmat for the intellectuals and the liberals. “The; are not engaged in any political movements t: amount to anything. They are Negroes an other classes of people and are advised tha it is impossible for them ever to select a perso1 that would represent them.” This was untrue in the winter of 1929. is still more untrue in the winter of 1930. new spirit is stirring among the unorganized among the Negroes, among the unskilled, < spirit of protest, of organized struggle. Thi unorganized are organizing, the unempoyed arc fighting. They are going to choose their owr leaders, leaders whom they can trust, leader: who will dare challenge the right of the em ploying class to starve, to maim and to kill The international demonstration of the unem. ployed on March 6 will be the signal for organ: izing the desperation of the masses throughout the capitalist world for the protection of the workers republic of the Soviet Union and for the lasting advantage of the international working class. Jobless Want Bread—Not Messiahs Unemployment is very heavy in many indus, tries, said Paul U. Kellogg, editor of Surv; Graphic recently speaking on “Smoking Sky. lines*and Idle Men,’ before the Society for Ethical Culture. Kellogg, who represents the capitalist soctal- service workers, while deploring the growing unemplovment, wants the workers to look to Hoover for remedies, The erowing Unemployed Councils and the 7,000,000 unemnloyed know that from such messiahs as Kellogg or Hoover they can only expect wage cuts ard increased unemployment. Meanwhile they mobilize jobless and employed workers to fight for unemployment insurance. Fight the Right Danger. A Hundred ‘Proletarians for Every Petty Bourgeois Rene- gadel ,