The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 1, 1930, Page 6

mprod: Published by the C ly Square, Y Address Page Six checks to the Daily Worke: Publishing Co., Inc., Y. Telephone Stu: éails, nt exc 1696 t Sunday, a’ . Cable 26-28 Union DAIWORK.” 6-28 Union Square, New York, N. Y. WIN THE NEW MEMBERS By SAM DARCY E are approaching the end of the ship drive. It is too early a thorough estimate of the drive are to keep and even further t hie must already member- as yet to make If we ements of the drive however, find the weaknesses them. drive n our work and elim This means not only to comp! successfully, but also to make a the gn to win the new members to a pation in Party work. Drive Results Show patty Prestige. Certai it is a t aa ute to our Party thd by the number note that the method with w the membership drive was a one than ever before, 7 h more than ever before on the icipation in actual i encouraging p drive is the improv w members who have entered our We have recruited already four times y Negro workers into the Party in the the pre een far exceeded Also we must ried out r more Bolshevik our approach was asis of the we in ature of the composition most one previo by improveme ty’s work in reaching the American proleta in the basic industries. Not Sufficiently There are, however, a large number of comings which we must seriously consider. example, out of the total recruited in the New York district almost half were recruited demonstrations and not in the factor Th fact alone has brought to light a considers number of shortcomings in our work. F example, out of the total number of those who composit and so on all reflect in Factories. or joined our Party, 200 recruits, tly those who joined at the demonstrations . under the pressure of mass enthusiasm are not re- porting for assignments to units. Although many of these will undoubtedly turn un prop- yet this is an indication that the full number ed as recruited will not actual become members. Also because of having r ruited at mass meetings so large a number of members rather than in the factories, have very few new shop nuclei as a result the drive. Nevertheless, this influx of new members undoubtedly a tremendous source of added strength to our Party and our task must now be to win these new members for activity. One of the most serious problems that has been fac- | ing our Party up till now is the large fluctua- tion of members which prevents steady growth. commensurate at least in a measure with our recruiting efforts. xcellent proletarian ele- ments join our ranks only to drop away after a verv short time. While not justifying the fact that workers leave our organization, the political Party of the whole working class, we must yet examine the reasons for it and take measures to improve the situation. The Life of the Unit. rst question we must put is—Why do in our Party? They see us, their fellow workers, fighting the bosses as an or- eanization, on the picket lines and in the shops. They see us fighting the police who break our strikes, in street demonstrations, etc. The al- most instinctive hatred for imperialist war b the great masses makes them respond readily to the Party anti-war struggle. In this v from the outside, the worker sees our Par only in'its general fighting role in the struggle and does not see the long arduous and detailed tasks necessary to carry out in order to prepare these struggles proper] Therefore, when they and do not find the units quite a: tured it from the outside, er we ganization “they pie- - the especial! our units which function very badly, there is a tendency to drop away from activity. In fact, during the factional struggle especially, our Party lost thousands upon thousands of re- eruited workers because of this situation. Even that our unit meetings and activities are taking on a better aspect since we have elim- inated factionalism from thém and have estab- lished healthy discussions based upon mass ac- tivity there are still» a considerable number of shortcomings which tend to antagonize new members who join our Party. now At the very first unit meeting they attend they hear the use of a large number of terms which are completely foreign to their ears. ‘These terms are necessary—they arise out of the needs of our continually developing theory. But when the worker does not understand them they appear, not something which helps him in the ¢ struggle, but something foreign to his activity in the class struggle. Similarly, many of these new members do not understand certain procedure and decisions and activities taken up in the units. Many of our members have an attitude that we must let the new members “sink or swim.” “If they catch on to the Party very well, but if they drop out then it is because they are unfit.” This is basically wrong. Each unit must insure that each new member gets pe sonal attention to help in the development of understanding. Win the New Members to Activity. We must develop the idea in our Party that the mere fact that a worker signs an applica- tion card does not yet mean he is a Communist; that the signing of the application card is only a signal for the fact that the worker is willing to become a Communist, and that our Party must then take measures tg win him for ac- ; to show him by xample and by joint how to become active. ibly the worst feature of our unit meet- ings in respect to their effect upon the new member is the “heresy hunting” which still ex- ists in many of the units as a leftover of the old factional struggle. In those unfortunate days the aim of a discussion was not to clarify our Party membershin theoretically, but rather to be able to plaster deviations on the opposite faction. Everything that a member said in the unit was taken in the spirit in which a police officer gets information from a criminal, name- ly, “It may be used against you as evidence.” This must be radically changed. Our discus- sions must be of such a nature as to encour- age exactly those workers who have never dis- cussed theoretical questions before and who do not understand these questions fully to partici- pate in the discussions. This will develop them. Errors made by these workers in the course of presenting their views must not be made the occasion for comrades to set themselves up as heroic discoverers of deviations, but rather as the occasion for friendly discussion in order to clarify the situation and win the unclear com- rades to a correct point of view. The Life in the Factory. And finally, we must introduce into our units discussions of the conditions in the fac- tories where the members of the units wort In this concrete fashion we can evolve methods for building up our Party in the shops and connecting our units with mass work. Up till now our approach to the question of factory work was much too general. But through this different method of handling the question it is possible to examine our work in each fac- tory separately and involve the entire unit in the task of building up our Party there. On the whole, we can say our membership drive has been a splendid success. With loyaltv and devotion, with understanding and courage, we can carry forward the task of winning* the rity of the working class. ‘The Anti- Filipino Race Riots - WM. SCHNEIDERMAN, ! JHE American Legion attacks on the Filipino workers in California has brought to the attention of the Party the long-neglect- ed question of organizing the workers of col- onial origin, particularly on the Pacific Coast. where a huge population of Filipino, Oriental, and Latin-American workers’ is to be found in the large industrial centers as well as in the agricultural fields. In California alone, there are close to half a million such workers, facing sharp race discrimination and unbelievable ex- loitation by the bosses. These unorganized workers have shown the ability to fight and great militancy in strikes. By recent ‘The immediate background of the boss-in- d race riots was the strike of nearly 8,000 10 and Mexican agricultural workers in Tmperial Vallev, which has its repercussion in Northern California as well. Attempts were made to imnort scabs from as far north as Stockton without suecess. Stockton alone has a‘povulation of over 15,000 Filivino workers. California has about 200,000 Filivinos. Tt is: therefore no accident that the Filipinos be- came the obfect of organized attacks by armed hands of the American Legion in Watsonville. Castroville, Stockton, and elsewher has it been the deliberate policy the bosses to foment race antagonism against the Filipino agricultural laborers, but also to ereate friction hetwen the latter and the Mex- ican workers. Wages were cut down by pitting one nationality against another, Propaganda was spread about that one group was taking ‘ay the jobs from the other, and viceve Over a year ago. during a strike of 500 Me sean agricultural workers in Castroville, at- tempts were made to use Filipinos and Amer- av Workers! Join the Party of Your Class! Communist Party U. S. A. 43 East 125th Screet, New York City. I, the undersigned, want to join the Commu- ist Party. Send me more information. NQMe 6. eae leceesecceseeedeescenceee MOTION 56 5 ace oso ses ass dans ABBie ss ss ‘Party. 43 East 125th St., New York, N. Y. | i Mail this to the Central Office, Communist cans as scabs, and when the attempts failed, the ranch owners had to give in and the strike was won. The recent campaign 6f terror and murder ed on by the American Legion for several weeks against the Filipino workers had the tacit consent of the ranch owners, and was given official sanction by the State Govern- ment, which asked the Legion to “keep order,” doing nothing to prevent the attacks until the Filipinos retaliated and began to fight back. Then the National Guard and the regular army threatened to enter the riot area unless the local authorities established “peace.” The seven Legion men arrested for the murder of Fermin Tobera, Filipino laborer, are now de- seribed in the press as “erring youth,” prepar- ing the way for dismissing the murder charges against them. The Filinino boutgeois reformists and na- tionalists played their usual role. In the face of murderous attacks, they asked the Filivino workers to be “peaceful.” The funeral of Tohera was turned into a priest-chanting af- fair, led by a Filinino priest who had turned nolice informer during the riots. and who was instrumental in the arrest of Communists. in the vallev. Moncada, chief faker of the Fili- nino nationalist movement in. America, was busy pinning medals on the officials of the imperialist government which is oppressing the Filipino people. Manlapit, once a militant strike leader, has deserteed the working class and is silent on the race riots. The entrance of the Communist Party into | the situation at the height of the attacks, and its appeal to unite and fight the bosses, dis- tributed to all the workers in the Pajaro Val- ley. at a time when martial law practically nre- vailed, had a tremendously favorable effect among the agricultural workers of all nation- alities, as did the protest demonstrations held in San Francisco, Oakland, and Los. Angeles, and the raising of the slogan for complete independence of the Philippines. The estab- lishment of an Agricultural Workers Industrial League in Pajaro Valley was the immediate organizational result, with farm committees es- tablished on large ranches, following the ex-. ample of the Imperial Yai'ey strikers. The best and most active elements among the Fili- pino Workers are joining the Party. With the coming of the asparagus-picking season in the north, and the cantaloupe season in: Imperial Valley, the prospects for a successful organiza- tion campaign and a strike of agricultural workers on the ranches is favorable. The Party must redouble its efforts. to wing over the exnloited Filipino, Mexican and’ Oriental workers, “Ry: Baily 32 Central Organ of the Communist Pus, ; AVorker vi the U. 8. A. By Mail (in New York City only): $8.00 a By Mall (outside of New Yor® City): $6.00 a year; SUBSCRIPTION RATES: a year; $4.50 six months; $3.50 six months; $2.50 three months 32.00 three months All Out For the Dehhbhutration Agailist Unentplay ment By Fred Ellis Greece: the Unemployed and the Political Strike By PETRO P.-V T no time during the last ‘few years has. un- employment become so -widespread in Greece as during the last few months. Mass demonstrations of the unemployed are now to be seen all over the country and have become almost a daily feature. The general economic crisis which has swept the whole of the capitalist world, undermining the very foundations of capitalist stabilization, is directly responsible for the present marked increase of unemployment. Thanks to the present crisis, 100,000 work- ers have been thrown idle and are doomed io slow:-starvation. Intolerable taxation, capi- talist exploitation and the land “hunger” have ruined large numbers of the poor peasantry who are being forced into the ranks of the working class. This proces still further aggravating the unemployment situation, And that hypocrite, Venizelos and his associates, are now claiming that the pe are coming into the towns because they like “town life” and that this movent must be suppressed without any turther delay. Official statistics on unemployment are not published by the bourgeoisie, but it is» pretty obvious that there are about 100,000 workers out of work today or approximately one- fourth of the workers in industry and trans- port. But this estimate does not include the agriculture workers. The most depressed in- dustries where unemployment is greatest be- Matthew Woll, Enemy the World a Atef BRAN] — of the Soviet Union and Unemployed High-pressure salesman Woll warns the bosses that the jobless are organizing for unemployment relief, and tells them to rely on _the strike-breaking A. F. of L. .In.@ Sherlock Holmes manner, that smells more of the stoolpigeon, slimy Woll tells the bosses that he has suddenly discovered the unemployed will demonstrate for Work or Wages March 6, of The Daily Worker for in this world demonstration. This facb has been blazoncd across the headlines over a month, and nearly a million leaf= Tets have been printed urging the Americon workers to participate MASS DEMONSTRATIONS OF UNEMPLOYED IN HUNGARY By A. KOVACS. ae Hungarian political police have once again saved the state order. The Ist and 2nd of February had been announced to be cr 1 days: in Budapest the whole of the police were mobilized, the troops in the bar- yacks were held in readiness. The expected Communist putch did not materialize, but as the bourgeois press complains, the distribution of leaflets could not be prevented, in which the “Unity Committee of the Unemployed” called upon the workers to hold street demon- strations and issued revolutionary slogans. A short time ago the state police had al- ready announced the annihilation of the Com- munist Party apparatus, when it arrested 12 “conspirators” and discovered two illegal print- ing work How is it possible that in spite of this the Communist propaganda is being continued? That is the question asked by the bourgeois press. The Hungarian working class is taking up the active fight against fascist terror and so- cial fascism which is collaborating with the government. For weeks the uninterrupted street demonstrations of the unemployed kept the Budapest police in constant suspense; in spite of prohibitions and ruthless attacks of strong police forces, the unemployed hold dem- onstrations for hours, beat and rough handle the police and even police officers. The poli- tical police have not succeeded in getting hold of the leaders. Unemployment in Hungary raises all the other unsolved problems of the government, the devastating industrial and agrarian crises the unbearable burden of taxation, the impov- erishment of the toiling peasants, etc. Un- employment is constantly growing, but its in- crease cannot be stated in exact figures, as no official data are available. According to the last report of the free trade unions on the 81st of December 20,000 of ‘their member: 's, con- stituting 13.04 per cent of the organized work- ing class, were unemployed. But only a small portion of the Hungarian working class is or- ganized in the trade unions. The total num- ber of unemployed among the industrial prole- tariat amounts to over 100,000. In Budapest alone, 53,000 unemployed recently handed in questionnaire forms on the occasion of a relief action; also in the various provincial towns the unemployed number several thousand. In addition there is a chronic unemployment among the agricultural workers. The collapse of the small peasant undertakings, the prole- sides industry and transport are the building trades. In the two largest towns, Athens and Pir- aeus, there are no less than 60,000 unemployed. The unemployment season for 40,000 tobacco workers was very protracted this year. In fact, nothing like it had been seen at any time in the past. The crisis in this industry is due mainly to rationalization and the lack of markets. With the exception of the tobacco workers, none of the unemployed are covered by any in- surance benefits. But even the insurance scheme introduced for the tobacco workers, which was won after many bloody battles, has to be subscribed to by all workers in employ- ment to the amount of 6 per cent of their wages. As a matter of fact, the so-called To- bacco Benefit Funds, controlled for the most part by government and capitalist representa- tives, are simply a fraud since these insurance departments never spend any of the money paid in in relief.. Another exploiters’ agency is the so-called “Seamen’s House” where only members of three years’ standing can expect to get a few pence in relief. On the other hand, in a memorandum sub- mitted by the Employers’ Association to the government on January 16, 1930, in connec- tion with the crisis, we read the following: “In view of the present situation, a 10-hour day must now be introduced in our industries. The Greek Employers’ Association has been compelled to reject completely the Social In- surance Scheme contemplated by the Minister of National Economy. Far from extending the existing insurance scheme to other localities, the abolishment of the present system of in- surance benefits must be included in the pro- gram of the government.” > And/so we find that even in the few enter- prises where the 8-hour day has been intro- duced, it is to be abrogated, while even the present ridiculous insurance scheme, inade- quate as it is, since only a few thousand work- ers are covered, is to be abolished. Such is capital’s reply to the unemployed who are starving today. In view of the specific character of unem- ployment today, we find the unemployed work- ers adopting new forms of struggle. The work- ers are now using methods of struggle never used before. For example, on the Passo Is- land the unemployed seized some of the ships in the harbor and sailed to Kavala, the nearest center, where they were met with machine guns. Barricades were thrown up in Agrinio, which were subsequently captured by the authorities. Mass demonstrations of unemployed build- ing workers, tobacco workers, food workers, and others, took place in Athens, Piraeus, Sal- onika, Kavala and other working class’ cen- ters during December and January. ‘ The chief demands of the unemployed work- ers were: full unemployment’ insurance, sub- sidized by the state and the employers to be under workers’ control and to guarantee three- fourths of former wages received, which must be paid out by the municipal boards; provi- sion of work, tobacco workers’ insurance funds to be run by the workers, The unemployed workers also protested against the persecution of the revolutionary TU organizations and condemned the present war preparations against the USSR. Large numbers of the unemployed workers were ar- rested and victimized by the authorities. The instructions of the government call for the immediate suppression of all workers’ movements and should there be any signs of resistance “to shoot to kill.” In fact, this was the curt statement made by the governor of Kavala when.he addressed) the Unemployed Workers’ Délegatién who had*submitted a pro- test against thé continued terror. Hundreds of unemployed workers were arrested an.l heaten up during the demonstrations and many of them have now been sentenced to long terms of imprisonment on the charge of in- fringing the Anti-Communist Law. © Still, the unemployed workers got a few | tarianization of broad sections of the pet antry and the unlimited exploitation of the ! rural proletariat have created a “surplus land- | lass population,” numbering hundreds of thou- | sands, who are subject to unemployment even in the busy season. The Minister for Agri- culture himself recently declared that the only solution of this problem is the emigration of the agricultural workers to South America and to the colonial countries. For the present the migration of the agricultural workers to the towns is worsening the position of the indus- trial proletariat. Capitalist rationalization, which means enor- mously intensified exploitation of the workers and a simultaneous mass dismissal of “su- perfluous” workers, has the same effect, The number and the misery of the unemployed masses are increasing enormously. There exist no insurance or welfare institutions for the unemployed. The government refuses “on principle” to grant any kind of unemployment benefit. Both the government press as well as the opposition liberal and democratic papers at- tribute the resentment and bitterness of the unemployed to “the undermining work of Moscow” and unanimously demand the estab- lishment of the anti-Soviet bloc. It is very characteristic that in this question there is re- vealed the closest connection of the irredentist Rothermere propaganda with the preparation of the war of intervention against the Soviet Union. The same hymn of hate against the Soviet Union is ground out by the press of Hungarian social democracy which is attacking the mass actions of the unemployed in the rear by means of calumnies and denunciations. Its central organ, “Nepszava,” wrote among others: “According to the latest telegrams the Central Council of the Soviet Trade Unions has decided to commence an energetic of- fensive, whereby the unemployed of the European countries are to be made use of as the most valuable revolutionary elements. A fund was set up for financing the revo- lutionary unemployed movement... . . Mos- cow does not wish to alleviate the great misery of the unemployed, but only to make use of their exasperation and desperation for its own special purposes.” No matter how stupid such assertions may be, they will not fail to have’ their effect upon the police, the public prosecutors and the bloody courts, who will make use of these “a¥- guments” for a new campaign against unem- ployed proletarians. But the toilers who have been aroused to revolutionary activity will not be intimidated either by fascist terror or by social-fascist provocateurs, Another Anthracite Worker Repudiates Lovestone Renegades Following immediately the reinstatement of. five Italian miners into the Party who had been suspended for supporting Lovestonism in the anthracite, and who repudiated the Love- stone position; another proletarian comrade in the anthracite has repudiated the renegade grouv, and has applied for readmission into the Party. The statement of this comrade, who was a former member of the anthracite District Com- mittee follows: “T, the undersigned, like to become “Party member. I was Party member for so many years, but I was expelled from the Party last October, 1929, for defending resolution on ex- pulsion of Vratarich, Borich, and the others. 1 admit that I make biggest mistake that I ever make in all my years as active Party member. Since then I found out.that Lovestonites work- ing against interest of the working class. So I declare that from now on T will do all in my power to work against Lovestonites, Trotzky- ites, and their followers if admitted in the Party. 1 already wrote article in So. Slav oyan “Radnik” against Lovestone and its fol- lowers. And I further declare that I will stay with my word as long as I live. So please, Com. Frankfeld let me know when and where I can join as Party member again. I will only too glad to do it. Comradely your,”* “ Name not printed to avoid victimization on the job. The Party’s line is increasingly becoming clearer to the few workers who were misled by Lovestone’s and Gitlow’s phrases. The fact that our Party is making the excellent head- way that it is under the new line, and Comin- tern leadership is not passing by unnoticed by the honest, revolutionary workers misled by Lovestone. The disintegration of. Lovestonism can best be judged by the fact that its hold over its few remaining followers is rapidly slipping, and that its few proletarian elemento are returning to the Party. insignificant concessions. For example, the mayor of Athens after continued demonstra- tions on the part of the unemployed, was compelled to provide employment for 300 workers. Just before the holidays, the Muni- cipal Board of Salonika gave the unemployed workers a sum equivalent to five days’ relief. But the mayor took good care to utilize the occasion to support his own people. JJnder the pretext of helping the unempl he voted a subsidy of 850,000 Drachmai which was promptly handed over to the social-fascists, ministers of religion and to the bourgeois “charitable societies.” In this way, the revo- lutionary unions who have more than 10,000 unemployed in their ranks, received 24,000 drachmai, barely a few pence for each mem- ber! If this is not derision, then what is? _ Mass Political Strike. As the crisis deepens and rationalization in continued, thousands upon thousands of new workers wll be thrown out of work. Organ- izing the counter-attack of the workers, the Communist Party and the Unitary Confedera- tion of Labor have now put forward the slo- gan: “Prepare a mass political strike.” The government promptly disbanded the U. C. L. But the movement among the peasantry is gaining momentum, which together with the unemployed workers’ movement and the gen- eral struggle of the working class will pro- vide a new impetus for the fight to over- throw the dictatorship of, the bourgeoisie and to sef up a Worker-Peasant Government in | : |