The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 12, 1930, Page 6

Page Six New York City, Square, Cab! nt '1696-7-8, Published by the Comprodafly Publishing Co. Inc., daily, except Sunday, at 26-28 Union N.Y. Telephone St Address and mail all checks to the Daily Work ‘DAIWORK.” SUBSCRIPTION RATES: verywhere: One year $6; six months $3; two months $1; excepting Boroughs of Manhattan ane Bronx, ‘New York City, and foreign, which are: One year $8; six months $4.50 A Communist Weapon in the Factories By A. PETERSON (Dist. 2, S HAT is the role of a shop paper the Communist Party? First: It must develop the workers in the shops to the realization, to the conscio of the facts, that they are part and parcel of an oppressed class, called the working class. That the working class lives in society, called the capitalist society, and that all events and all developments in this capitalist society, af- fects directly the workers as a class. Second: It must build the Party in the shop organizationally and help to build our mass organizations, such as the Trade Union Unity League, International Labor Defense, Workers International Relief, ete. The shop correspondence, the industrial arti- cles, the political articles—are to serve the tasks mentioned above. The shop correspondence which reflects the life behind the walls of the shop where the | workers are spending the best part of ‘their lives, is something of great importance. It is not only a matter of having the letters in- serted in the shop paper and from time to time to have our editorial comment (some- thing which is surely of importance, but also a matter of inner shop life on which the shop paper is to react upon. Here is one of our good opportunities to rally the workers to our leadership and introduce the Party as the lead- er of the workers in their daily struggles, The shop paper issued by Communists must react on all events in the shop by pointing out to the workers in the shop concretely what is to | be done how such an evil can be cured, how | to fight such an evil. Industrial Articles. The Communist Party as the leader of the working class is to guide the workers in all their struggles and therefore the Party says | to the work “Join your militant trade union! Fight the misleaders of labor and the labor fakers in the A. F. of Li!” The. industrial articles must be in accordance with the Party line on trade union work. They must be connected with the specific problems | in the shop and point out to the workers in | the shop, why they have to come, why they have to join, etc. How it is important to link up organizational work with the shop paper work, can be illus- | trated by an example in a big shop where the | editorial in the shop paper pointed out to the workers that “they have to prepare for the coming attack of the bosses. That they have | to get in touch with a representative of the industrial union in their trade in order to take up organizational problems,” etc. The workers were pleased with our guidance, we had a committee of 12 sympathizers. But because the leaders of this revolutionary in- dustrial union failed to come to work out with these workers plans of organization, the shop | paper lost for them a great deal of its value. 4 They began. to consider us simply as a bunch | of talkers who are not attempting to do any- thing for them. _ There is something that applies not only to | the industrial articles but also to the political | —_— articles as well, and this is the rooting out of sentiment of exceptionalism. It has to be made clear to the workers in the shop that they are not isolated on another planet and that a Hoo- ver’s. Economie Council affects them and a war danger will affect them. We have to de- velop them to realize that there is an interna- tional chain of relationship in all the events in the world and it affects the working class in every corner of the globe. If it is a Pan- Pacific conference, building Socialism in Soviet Union, the role of Japan in the Far East, etc. Political articles in a shop paper have to bring to the enlightenment of the workers top- ics that are on the order of the day for Party members to discuss. We should not omit the fact that workers are reading current events in the capitalist papers and magazines and in order to counteract this poison we should have these current topics in our shop papers. For instance, the $1,500,000,000 expenses in U.S.A. for the armament program and the contrast of the Five-Year Plan for building Socialism in the Soviet Union is excellent material for a shop paper article. Political articles to be sure have to be con- nected with the conditions in the shop. Simply to point out to the workers in the shop how this situation will affect us workers working in this shop. Conclusion. There is much to be improved in the issuing of our shop papers in order to make them more affective for their role and purpose, But even as the shop papers are at present they are the best means to rally the workers in the shops around the leadership of the Communist Party. The shop papers help to build shop’ com- mittees, to organize the unorganized, to de- velop the class consciousness of the workers in the shop. The six pages of good reading ma- terial in a shop paper is a marvelous means for agitation and propaganda. Our enemies are realizing the importance of these shop papers | and they are raving. Shop papers are practically illegal in their nature when the Party will be driven. under- ground. They will be more important than ever before. Can a leaflet, or even a Daily Worker take the place of a shop paper? It does not require Tong diseussion to make it clear that they can- not. They are supplementary to each other. What is necessary is to impress upon many of our leading comrades in trade unions that a Trade Union Unity League bulletin cannot take the place of a shop paper issued by the Communist Party that one does not conflict with the other. There is much confusion and disagreement on when, who and how to issue a shop paper. Especially are such disagreements sharp be- tween the heads of industrial union fractions and. section industrial organizers, There is a great indifference and under-estimation of the role and importance of a shop paper. In order to cure all these, it would be a good move that the Central Committee Department of Agitation and, Propaganda shall make out an outline for discussion in the Party units on the “Role of Shop Papers.” ~ Working Class Education to _ Train Organizers : By I. AMTER. NE of the crying needs of the militant work- ing class movement is organizers, propa- gandists, etc. The working class lacking those opportunities that the bourgeoisie furnishes for its chosen few, has to develop its own forces. The development within the labor movement | has brought about a clean line of division. It | is no longer possible to use workers who “ap- _ proach” the line. It is not possible any longer to utilize those who vacillate. The revolution- ary and militant working class movement de- mands men and women whose line is clear, free | from opportunism and deviations, j The workers have in their ranks plenty of | this. material, which, for one reason or other, | has not been developed, but lies dormant in the ranks, These new proletarians must be developed. into organizers, propagandists, agi- tators, educators, ete. The Workers School. The revolutionary movement uses its own | resources for this purpose. It has the Work- ers School in New York, an institution that | already has established itself in the conscious- ness of the workers throughout the country. More schools must be established upon the basis of this school, a school for revolutionary | trade union leaders, agitators, for propagan- | dists and educators of the class struggle. A school must be established in the South. The awakening of the labor movement of the South, with its tremendous possibilities, Shows the need of forces in the South. The strike movement, the awakening of the Ne- gro masses, who are fighting shoulder to shoulder with the white workers, the terror in the South, demand immediate action in the form of leadership. The plan to establish a school in the South must be greeted by every class conscious worker, and be supported in every way. The workers must be permeated with an un- “Workers! Join the Party of Your Class! Communist Party U. S. A. 43 East 125th Street, “New York City. . >A, the undersigned, want to join the Commu- nist Party. Send me more information. | gates to this conference. PRABBTOGD ios cccsccccccemneses Ult¥sscoceree bet «Mail this to the Central Office, Communist “Party, 43 East 125th St.. New York, N.Y. derstanding of the class struggle. They must grasp its theoretical basis, so that they will be able better to carry out the concrete work. This cannot be done on a narrow basis, but must be expanded as much as possible. The number of possible and eligible educators is | too limited today—there is a positive dearth of comrades able to lead educational work. Self-study circles are the remedy. They en- able the workers in their circle to analyze the problems, develop their initiative and thus furnish the revolutionary movement with more leaders, Support Education Conference. These problems cannot be settled by good wishes. The revolutionary labor movement must solve them jointly. Therefore the plan of holding a conference to discuss and work out ways and means of developing working class education, to build up leadership, is a splendid and necessary one. All working class organizations must sup- port the Working Class Educational Confer- ence, which will be held in the large auditor- | ium of the Workers School, 26 Union Square, on Saturday, April 19, at 2 p. m. Elect dele- g Make yourselves an integral part of the movefnent for working class education. No organization of the working class must fail to do its share in providing leaders, edu- cators, agitators, propagandists. This is the need of the hour: Every worker must recog- nize and support it. Bourgeois Bloc Government BERLIN (By Inprecorr Press Service) —The Centrist (Catholic) politician, Dr. Bruening, has formed his cabinet at Hindenburg’s instrue- tions. As expected, it is a government of the bourgeois bloc, i. e. it excludes the social dem- ocrats on the left and extends to the right to include the (German Nationalists. The cabinet is composed as follows: Prime Minister, Dr. Bruening (Centre Party); Foreign Affairs, Dr. Curtius (People’s Party); Interior and Occupied Areas, Dr. Wirth (Centre Party); Finance, Dr. Moldenhauer (People’s Party); Labor, Dr. Ste- gerwald (Center Party); Economy, Dr. Diet- rich (Democratic Party); Food, Schiele (Ger- man Nationalist Party); Reichswehr, Dr. Groe- ner (non-party)); Post, Dr. Schaetzel (Bava- rian Catholic Party); Transport, von Guerard (Centre Party); Justice, Dr. Bredt (Economic Party); and Minister without Portfolio, Trevi- ranus (People’s Conservative Party). The democratic “Berliner Tageblat” points. out that although the Centre (Catholic) Party has taken four of the ministries, the Bruening government cannot be described as a govern- ment of the Centre, but is a government with | a dominating ultra-reactionary tendency, —— ROLE OF A SHOP PAPER The Soiae Song | | Central Organ of the Communist Variy of thé U. S. A. <= c fa BETTER TIMES ARE | COMING XO Have a LTTE FAITH IN ME oo. : By Fred Ellis een oer" Problems Confrontin g the Shoe and Leather Workers By SOL REINSTEIN. HERE is not an industry in the countr where the workers have as many unio in the shoe industry. All these unions were | either crushed by the heavy blows of the bosses | because on a craft basis they were transformed by corrupt officialdom into instrume in the hands of the bosses against the workers. Nz turally such “unions” were soon abandoned by the workers. The Boot and Shoe. The record of the Boot and Shoe worke is of open strike-breaking. More than on the shoe workers revolted against this treacher- ous outfit. In Brockton in 1923 three thousand shoe workers went out on strike and fought for several months to rid themselves of the Bain and Lovely clique. The Boot and Shoe than showed its real color and with help of hired gangsters an the state cossacks they drove the workers back to the shops, placed them in Local “O” and left them with only the privilege of accepting wake cuts and paying dues to cover the sal- aries of these high-paid scab herders. “real” activity displayed by these strike-break- ers was last year in the Boston and Chelsea shoe strikes. For 17 years the shoe workers of Boston ly. Conditions were miserable, wage cut after wage cut, a vicious spy and black listing sys: tem worked out by the bosses and the faker of the Boot and Shoe. A worker could not tell in the evening whether he would have a job in the morning. The women in the shops were forced by the bosses and foremen to prostitution if they wanted to maintain their | jobs. The business agent of the “union” open- ly worked hand in hand with the bosses to bring down the wages of the workers to the lowest level. When the workers of Local 229 of Boston dared to elect a business agent who was not liked by Charles Bain the charter of the local was revoked and the 4,000 members placed in local “O.” There was a combination of three, bosses, Boot and Shoe and the State board of Arbitration. 15,000 Strike. In the beginning of April, 1929, the shoe workers of Boston and Chelsea decided to no longer endure such intolerable conditions and 15,000 went out on strike. Bain, chief faker of the B. and S., toured the country and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to sectire scabs to break the strike. They hired gang- sters, paid the police to terrorize the pickets, worked with the bosses to get the most vicious injunctions, sent many of the active strikers to jail, and with the help of the traitors of the “United” who were the official leaders of the strike, they forced the workers back to work, under worse conditions than they had before. The Betrayals of the “United.” The “United” outfit although pretending to fight the Boot and Shoe, followed exactly in the footsteps of the B. and S. They bitterly fought against all proposals for, militant strike tactics introduced by the members of the Trade Union Unity League. They, like all the labor fakers, divided the workers into craft locals, they too depended upon the State Board of Arbitration to solve the problems of the shoe workers. They have in the most shameful man- ner collaborated with the bosses by signing stipulation agreements to send the workers back to work without any improvement in con- ditions, thereby demoralizing and breaking the ranks of the strikers, Like all corrupt job seekers the Henry and Meade outfit spent tens of thousands of dol- lars for their personal purposes when thou- sands of workers and their families were starv- | of The | | 000 leather worker ing. This action puts the Uiiited outfit into one camp with the Boot and Shoe workers union as betrayers of the workers. 1 very same clique headed by Lucio and Me are now removing charters of locals in Lynn and are conspiring with the bosses and the state board of arbitration to enforce upon the shoe workers of Lynn a 20 per, cent cut. This outfit is hated by the shoe workers and maintains itself by collaboration with the boss- es. The Shoe Workers’ Protective Union. ke of the shoe workers in Haverhill sold out by the No- The 3 year “agree- ment” that they signed the workers have no right to elect their of Is, no right to anything to say about wages or condi- all the power is placed into the hands a “manager” who has more power over the shoe workers of Haverhill than the old czar. This individual sits in the office of the “Protective” in I rhill and does the work for the bosses. Wage cuts, long hours, fir- ing without reason, spy systems, black-listing, miserable conditions, these are the results of the sale made by lan, Fitzgerald and the “Socialist” lawyer Birack who helps them in their betrayals against the workers. Many of these workers are hoping for the day when a ¢ z | real militant industria i vi = suffered under the iron rule of Bain and Love- | mulitane industrial yunion. will be ‘organ ized. Conditions of the Leather Workers, In Massachusetts alone there are about 20,- In the last few years the leather industry went through the most in- tensified rationalization. The machinery is developed to the highest conceiveable extent. Belt systems, bonus systems and many other systems are being constantly introduced. Work- ers using poisonous gasses are forced to a 10-12 hour-day for $22 a week. There is a large per centage of women and young work- ers getting $10 and $8 a week. Our Next Step. The speed-up forces thousands upon thou- sands of workers out in the street, and the bosses are using these workers as a ‘weapon against the workers who are still employed. The fakers of the old unions do not give a snap for these thousands of workers. The task of a real union must be to organize the unem- ployed and the employed workers for a com- mon fight against unemployment, for higher wages and shorter hours which will make it possible for more workers to secure work. The National Shoe and Leather Workers Organization Committee of the Trade Union Unity League at its meeting in Philadelphia last March decided to hold a National Conven- tion of shoe and leather workers on June 22 in the city ‘of Boston, Mass. The slogan is 500 rank and file delegates from the shops to this convention. Our next step is to see that every shop sends delegates. Every shoe center in the country must be represented. We must organize a powerful national industrial union of shoe and leather workers to fight against unemploynient, for higher ‘wages and shorter hours. A union with its basis in the class struggle ‘controlled by the rank and file of the workers through the shop delegate sys- tem, and affiliated with all the revolutionary unions in the country to the Trade Union Unity League. "TALK to your fellow worker in your shop about the Daily Worker. Sell him a copy every day for a week. Then ask him to ears ee SITUATION IN PALESTINE Communist Party and Arab Masses By BOB (Jaffa). wrt the great advance of the revolutionary mass movement in Palestine after the Au- | gust insurrection, a growing differentiation within this movement has taken place. The nationalist leadership of the movement, before all the clergy and the commercial bourgeoisie | —under the pressure of the British officials and out of fear of the further development of the mass movement—are inclined more and more to the Right. There is no doubt that the nationalist leadership, in spite of its big phrases, has in reality already capitulated to British imperialism, and that the journey of the Arab delegation to London only serves the purpose of sealing this capitulation by the be- trayal of the interests of the peoples not only to the imperialists but even to the Zionists, Hence it is not to be wondered at that the bitterness of the masses towards the nation- alist leaders is increasing, and that the toilers, before all the fellaheen, the town workers, and the poor handicraftsmen, are beginning to realise the treachery of the aristocratic leaders. In this process of regrouping of the Arab revolutionary movement the Communist Party of Palestine is playing a not insignificant role. It is showing the workers and peasants that the national emancipation of the toiling masses must be closely linked up with their social emancipation: the enactment of labor legislation, the distribution of the big landed estates to the Fellahin are connected with the fighting slogans against Zionism and in this way every worker and peasant, even the most backward, can realize that the C. P. is not only fighting for na- tional emancipation, but is aiming at the emancipation of the Arab masses from the hard yoke of economic exploitation. These slogans of the C. P. of Palestine, as | well as its fundamental turn to the Arabisa- imperialism and | tion of the Party from below, in the sense of the resolution of the E. C. C. I. on the Arab insurrectionary movement of October 16th, 1929, are serving to increase the influence of the Communists among the Arab masses. This fact is admitted not only by the pro-imper- ialist and Zionist papers, but even the Arab nationalists, who up to now have kept silent regarding the Arab Communist movement, must now admit the great Communist ad- vance. The immediate result is that, on the one hand, the imperialist and Zionist terror has been enhanced and not only Jewish but also Arab workers are being imprisoned and tortured on the charge of being Communists, and, on the other hand, also the nationalists are placing their press and their apparatus in the service of anti-Bolshevist propaganda. Also the trade unions established after the Haifa Arab workers’ Congress are the scene of constant fights between the agents of the treacherous nationalists and the Communists. But neither the fiercest reprisals nor the anti-Communist campaigns can hinder the growth of the Communist influence and the decline of the nationalist influence in the trade unions, the growth of Arab Communist literature and the organizational strengthen- ing of the Communist Party by the influx of Arab workers into its. ranks. In the few months that have passed since the August up- heaval many Arab comrades have entered the Party; purely Arab local branches have been formed. Arab comrades have been elected to all leading Party bodies, both local and cen- tral. Thereby a trump card of the nationalists which they used to play against the C. P. of Palestine—the assertion that the Party is a “Jewish” Party—is taken out of their hands. This development of the C. P. of Palestine will clear the path for fruitful and effective work of the Party not only among the Arab masses in Palestine, but also in the neighbor- ing Arab countries, London Conference of Negro Workers General Plan for the Election of the Negro Delegation to Atend the International Trade Union Conference of Negro Workers To Be Held at London, England, July 1st, 1930. HE International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers, jointly with the Trade Union Unity League, has worked out a plan whereby the election of the Negro delegates to attend the International Trade Union Confer- ence of, Negro Workers to be held at London, | England, on July 1, will be an integral part | of the election of the delegates to attend the Fifth World Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions. The National Committee of the Trade Union Unity League has already is- sued instructions to all of its affiliated or- ganizations to proceed with the election of dele- gates. Forward to World Congress. To this London Conference of Negro workers will come Negro delegates from Africa, the West Indies, parts of South America and the United States to work out plans for uniting the forces’ of Negro labor and joining with the workers of other races and nationalities for a | combined struggle against capitalism and im- perialism. The election of the delegates in the United States will be conducted on the basis of wide campaigns by the Trade Union Unity League to organize the unorganized Negro and white, Latin American and other foreign-born work- ers of the U.S.A., to struggle against unem- ployment, to fight racial discrimination, to es- tablish unity between white and black workers, to support the struggle for self-determination of the Negro masses in the Southern part of the United States, to bring a big quota of Ne- gro workers into the T.U.U.L. in its drive for 50,000 new members, and finally to carry on a wide campaign to link up the struggles of the Negro toilers of the U.S.A. with the struggles of the Negro toilers in other parts of the world. General Plan of Elections. The T.U.U.L. is beginning a campaign to elect 30 delegates for the Fifth World Congress of the R.I.L.U., a minimum of 8 of these dele- gates shall be Negro workers, who shall also be delegates to the London conference of Ne- gro workers. At least two shall be young workers and one a woman. & Negro minorities in American Federation of Labor locals Negro workers in A.F.L. jim crow locals, independent unions of Negro work- ers and other Negro working class organiza- tions are especially invited to participate in the T.U.U.L. elections by placing nominees in the election campaigns of the various indus- trial unions, industrial leagues and the districts of the T.U.U.L. Generally the elections will be conducted on the basis of industries. A minimum of one Negro delegate shall come from the following industries: Mining, metal, marine, automobile, packing, railroad and ag- riculture. Plan of Nomination and Election. 1.—Nominations: Each local union, local lea- gue, shop committee of all the National In- dustrial Unions and Leagues and districts of the T.U.U.L. is entitled to one candidate. Mass meetings are to be called by these locals and groups to which shall be invited all. workers from shops and factories in the locality—or- ganized and unorganized, employed and unem- ployed, Negro and white. Nominations for can- didates are to be made at these meetings and voting conducted by show of hands (there will | be no secret balloting). The worker receiving, the highest number of votes in each local or group shall be the nominee for that local. The names and all particulars are to be sent to the Executive Boards not later than April 21. 2.—Elections: The Executive Boards or spe- cial election committees shall select the 20 highest candidates of this nomination, write them on a sheet of paper and submit them for national industrial elections, instructing the locals to hold similar mass meetings as for the nominations. A vote is to be taken on the quota of delegates allotted to the respective industrial unions. The Executive Boards or elections committees shall tabulate the votes and declare the candidates receiving the highest votes according to allottment, to be elected as delegates. The Negro delegates thus elected as delegates to the Fifth Congress of the Red International Labor Unions will also be dele- gates to the London Conference of Negro work- ers. 3.—Special District Elections: In industries where there are no industrial unions or in- dustrial leagues of the T.U.U.L. three delegates for those locals, shop committees and left wing minorities that function outside the regular industrial unions. Special district T.U.U.L. elections shall be conducted for the election of these delegates, similar to the campaigns for nominations and elections as above. The campaigns for the election of these dele- gates shall be conducted on the basis of wide campaigns of revolutionary competition to build the T.U.U.L by the number of workers, Negro and white, organized and unorganized that are drawn into participation in the elec- tion of the delegates, by the number of new members brought into the unions and leagues, by the number of special delegate stamps sold by industries by the number of shop commit- tees organized during the campaign, by the number of new subscribers gotten for Labor Unity, by the number of unemployed councils organized and by the number of special meet- ings held to popularize the London Conference of Negro Workers. Worker Delegates to the S. U. MOSCOW (By Inprecorr Press Service).— The committee for foreign relations attached to the Central Council of Soviet Labor Unions announces that a series of worker delegations will visit the Soviet Union for the May celeb- rations. A delegation of 25 workers will arrive from the United States, These workers are the ini- tiators of the recent tractor collections in the States on behalf of the Soviet Union. $25,000 were collected and 20 tractors were purchased of which 12 are already at work on the collec- tive agricultural “Choper.” The delegation will visit the farm and see the tractors at work and study the conditions of the members of the undertaking, A delegation of 15 landworkers will arri from Norway. This delegation will also visit Carelia in order to study the conditions of the lumbermen there. } Delegations of railwaymen are expected from Hamburg and from Switzerland. These delega- tions will of course pay special attention to the Soviet railway net and the repair shops and building works. Unemployment in Greece f (By Inprecorr Press Service) The economic crisis in Greece has seriously affected shipping and the harbor of Piraeus (Athens seaport) is choked with over 80 large ships which are lying idle. Over 2,000 seamen are unemployed and dependent upon the mis« erable support accorded to them by the “Seas men’s Home.” Even those seamen who are ab work are bitterly discontented because the em~ | ployers are exploiting the crisis in order to worsen the conditions of the men. The ine fluence of the revolutionary seamen’s union is rising daily and ship’s committees have been formed on over 50 ships. The authorities are doing their best to ‘put a stop to the activities of the union by repression and two secretaries of the union have already been imprisoned un- der the exceptional laws. The unemployed workers demand unemployed Support to the ex- tent of two-thirds of their normal ‘wages. —— The Daily Werker is the Party's best itistrument to make contacts among tke masses of workers, te” build a mass Communist Party,