The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 18, 1930, Page 4

Published by the C ly Publishing Co. Ine, Gaily, excent Sunflar, at 28-28 F Page Four Badisve, New: Wark oc N.Y. Teleph Bane 1696-7<8:. Gabi ATW THE PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION Report on the Theses, Delive , f , cie police mobilization. ieninal: Coimniliee by 0 n New York, es other places. - 1 » forms of the underestimation = < of the lack of und nding f nd of the p ility of mob- IX. FIGHT AGAINST OPPORTUNISM. sses and of the strength that | his gives us. HAT is the 1 acle to the ¢ B= | qq gomesot the languare 0 ations Wwe ment of 0) P t a regular swamp of opportunism in prac- the cons ‘ { tice. We have a whole system of petty bou r Pa tical influence opportunism within « tion of the open 1 Gitlow, Wolfe and Com question, This Plenum, in our Octe phasize that the right dz danger and this is th ip round the cooperatives societies and other little special 1 vities which are used to build up a wall between the language workers and the movement and Party. We have nationalist tendencies in many of our language groups, papers and bureaus. I must say a word about one of the latest neral the Party and not ¢ developments of opportunism which present isolation and defe itself more in the form of theorizing pany, the opportunist and that is ion that has arisen in the sh to es as to Party do not v same isolation They try to hic will happen no longer present faction within the F themselves, they try in the to elude the attention 0 remain within the P: paralyzing influence t mploym movement we should set ourselves the task of feeding the unemployed. Polburo has taken a firm stand against »posal that the Conimunist movement revolutionary trade unions become the of soup kitchen work. We have set our- selves firmly against the idea that it is our their | task to go out and feed the seven million un- joyed or sections of them. On the con- our task is to organize the struggle to ' force capitalism to feed them. In this respect we have had resistance from some of the com- rades, from some very important comrades, who think the Polburo is wrong in this respect sist the Polburo line. I don’t mean that they go out and feed the unemployed but they appeal against our decision and are very in- sistent that we must set ourselves the task of feeding at least certain categories of the un- empl 1. They make a concession to the Polburo, ing that we will not feed the whole seven million, that we shall feed only three categor se unemployed who have families of more than eight persons, workers who have been unemployed more than one year and ex- t mothers. Of course, one can only admire the kindness t of those who cannot bear to see the sufferings of the expectant mothers, of the families of eight, and those who have been out of work for a year, but with all these qualifica- tions, comrades, we do not see where the prin- ciple of the thing has been changed a bit. We did I whether They know they exp hemse arty. disperse for and continue em Opportunism in practic now. Not the theory of portunism in the pra the Party. And there i I were to set myself the tz logue of concrete evid@nces of of practice within the Party for the pas months, I would not have time to do anything else. I think we could compile a good sized book listing these examples. So we must pick out a few examples to characterize just what we mean. We have had the example (especially in the needle trade union these examples of our former | needle trades leader », Feingold, who developed the theory of a “needle trades ex- ceptionalism.” That is, that the workers are being radicalized everywhere else but in the needle trades. On the ba: of this theory develops passivity and r tance to putting through the line of the Party and of the TUUL. We have the example of Comrade Raymond in the Auto Workers Union who, before, thought it was difficult to build the union because there and was prosperity, explained the absence of a | do not see where there is the element of the union because the industry we perous, | class struggle in this. We do not see why we and, later, explained the absence of growth | should relieve the capitalist class by setting of this union by the fact that the economic | ourselves the task of feeding the unemployed ctisis creates such difficulties for the build- | or any special categories of the unemployed. ing of the /union. Typical opportunist ten- The preachers can compete with us and can dencies which fimds reasons why things can’t | beat n this game. We do not want to enter be done, in the period of prosperity and in ! this kind of competition. This idea that we the, period of the economic crisis. must get into the soup kitchen game is one March 6 we saw remnants of these oppor- | of the clearest expressions of opportunism in tunist tendencies. We saw places where com- our movement. rades refused to organize open air demonstr: There is another side of opportunism that tions and we also saw that in those places | shows itself in the development of “leftist” where the leadership of the Party intervened | tendencies which seem left but which are op- and forced these units of the Party to carry | portunistic. We still have manifestations of out demonstrations, they were tremendous suc- cesses, We also saw legalistic tendencies. We also saw one of the signs of opportunist tenden- “leftism” not expressed in any particular in- dividual but affecting the whole activity of the movement. (To Be Continued.) The Seventh Convention By WM. Z. FOSTER. } 'HE keynote of the coming Party convention will be the thorough-going mobilization of our Party for intensive mass work on all fronts. The favorable objective situation greatly facilitates and imperatively demands such work, and all the inner Party develop- ments make for that direction. On all sides the workers display inc These developments lay the basis for ef- fective mass work,, Because of them the Party has already made real progress in strengthen- ing itself among the masses. It has almost doubled its membership—especially important being its large inerease of Negro members. The March 6th demonstration gave it enor- mous prestige among the workers and infused our members with great confidence in their Piatticae (to atregnie » That economic. c ability to lead masses in struggle. The Party deepens, bringing with it still greater mass | has not only been prepared to fight by its unemployment and worsening of the workers’ | inner consolidation, but it is actually partici- conditions in every respect. That the wo pating in the mass struggles on an unprece- ers will fight, that they increasingly tend to | dented scale. : : : take the offensive against the capitalists, is | vever,, the picture is not entirely rosy, i! demonstrated afresh hy. the great demonstra- still confront glaring weaknesses in’ our tions on March 6th. This historic day was an is. Among these are the insufficient roots evidence of the growing radicalization not only of our Party directly in the factories through of the unemployed, but of the whole working | Shop nuclei. The weakness of the YCL and class. Great class ‘struggles stand immediate- | the crisis of growth in the Trade Galen On Rey atiea act os. | League. ere is also a serious shortage o : Aedteaeive Mane Wank: trained leading forces. But these difficulties The present situation of sharpening and | Ca? and will be overcome in the militant ad- broadening class struggle throws great tasks | Vance of our Party, of organization and leadership upon us. These | _ The coming convention will ‘give the Party can be fulfilled only by our Party coming for- a tremendous thrust forward into the mass ward as never before as the mass leader of | Work. It will be a totally different conven- the workers. Intensive and aggressive mass tion than the previous one. _At the Sixth Con- work now becomes the Party’s most vital and | Yention our Party hao still tn the euipe ot urgent necessity. Mass work, now more fruit- Lovestone. The factional struggle was at its ful of results than ever, is the key to develop- zenith, The Party was threatened with a split. ment of our Party into a mass organization. No mass work was either done or planned— Failure to do real mass work in this period | there was not even a report to the convention of growing struggle would lead us to the most | o” the trade union fale Coats bya serious isolation. onven! ion, representing a united, hea! y an All factors now combine to project the Par- | 8t°wing Communist Party, will have as its ty more aggressively and efficiently into this | Very center the development of the mass work, mass work. These factors will climax at the | Which is the broad way to building our Party coming convention and give that gathering | #"¢ winning it mass leadership. the characteristic stamp of an intensive Party Clear, Correct Policy. mobilization for its great mass tasks. The The Party policy is clear and correct, the Party during the past year has, with the help | Party organization is in a thriving condition. of the Communist International, made tremen- | It now remains to educate the Party member- dous progress in preparing itself for the mass | ship fully to this line, to concretize the line work and in actually going into such work. still more definitely in action, and to unite The political line of the Party has been | completely the whole Party for the work corrected, the Party is unified, and the lead- | among the masses. These will be the central ership strengthened. A death-blow has been | tasks of the coming convention. struck at the opportunist, exceptionalist It must be the aim of the convention to theories of Lovestone and Pepper; the Party | mobilize the entire Party to further the big now clearly sees the situation and the tasks | mass campaigns now beginning to develop. In before it. The paralyzing grip of these Right | first line there is the building of the Trade elements has been broken and their attempt | Union Unity League. This requires all power to split the Party defeated. For the first time | hehind the realization of the TUUL drive for in the life of the Party a consistent fight is | 50,000 new members. This means in turn that being conducted against the right and concil- | the whole Party organization must be rallied iatory elements, as well as against such leftist to build the coming TUUL national mass con- trends as show themselves. The old group | ventions in the next four months—miners, walls have been broken down; the deadly fac- | marines, steel, auto, lumber, sho¢, food, nee- tional fight is ended; the Party now knows a | dle, southern conference—and to carry on the greater unity than ever before in its history. | organizing campaigns preceding and follow- The new leadership consolidates itself and | ing these conventio It means also full sup- | wins the support of the membership. For the | port for the mass campaign to select the R. first time a real start has been made in the | I. L. U. 5th Congress delegates, the setting practice of Communist self- The | up of local TUUL committees, ete. Party has travelled far towards becoming a Forward to May 1 and July 4 Convention. real Bolshevist organization, f Then there is the big movement of the un- Tntow NY HELP! By J. KOUIS ENGDAHL. 'ORKERS will not be confused by the storm of discussion centering about the Senate Judiciary Committee at Washington over the demand by President Hoover that the notorious Judge John J. Parker of North Carolina be- come a justice of the United States Supreme Court. Judge Parker’s selection, as all previous ap- pointments to the United States Supreme Court, is a class appointment to an important instru- ment of the capitalist class government. Allies of Capital: The interests of this capitalist government are well served by the so-called “protests” of the fascist heads of the reactionary labor of- ficialdom, President William Green of the American Federation of Labor, and President John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers of America, with the social fascist, Norman Thomas of the Socialist Party, and the acting head of the National Association for the Ad- vancement of Colored People, Walter White. Their protests only help to veneer the capital- ist class justice that increases its persecution of the toiling masses in the present period of growing economic depression with 7,000,000 of jobless demanding “Work or Wages!” They proclaim the integrity of the courts, of capital- ism itself, while atacking the individual. Norman Thomas, who has posed as the teach- er of Tammany Hall rule in New York City in its bloody attacks on Communist demonstra- tions, now wants to instruct President Hoover on the best method for creating a “good” supreme court under capitalism. Thomas claims to have the recipe for purifying and sanctify- ing capitalism. . Seek to Weaken Real Protest. This is, of course, the best possible service that can be rendered to the capitalist enemies of the working class. It can serve but one purpose, constituting an atempt to weaken the mass protest of the whole. working class employed, an organic part of the TUUL. TI emovement, with its campaign of organizing unemployed councils, wide mobilization for May First, great mass convention and demon- stration in Chicago, July 4-5, and big program of action for the Fall elections, offers a splen- did medium for the Party to establish mass contacts. x Finally, there are, the big drive to develop the Daily Worker into a powerful mass organ, the building of the national convention of the American Negro Labor Congress, the broad campaign of the Friends of the Soviet Union, the defense activities of the International La- bor Defense, and last, but by no means the least of the major campaigns, the systematic Party membership recruitment. This is a maze of mass activities, all going militantly forward at the present time. But they are not a too big job for our Party. With its correct line, its new unity, its added strength and growing enthusiasm, it can ac- complish them all and more, and thus lay the basis for the still greater tasks that already loom up in the very near future. The coming convention will give an enormous stimulus to all this mass work. A Historie Convention. Our Party comes forward rapidly as the mass leader of the American working class. More and more effectively it challenges the misleadership of the fascist A. F. of L.; more and more it outstrips the social fascist S. P.; wider and wider it develops the circle of work- er support behind its elementary slogans for the organization of the unorganized, for social insurance, the seven-hour day and five-day week, against imperialist war and for defense of the Soviet Union, etc. The convention just ahead of us will be historic in the life of our Party, It will be the summoning of all the healthy tendencies now enlivening the Party, the crystalization of our maximum forces for our vast mass work. Its record of solid achievement and healthy growth will be an- other crushing blow to the defeated renegade Cannon and Lovestone groups. The Seventh Convention will mark a tremendous step for- ward to the building of our organization into a mass Communist Party, a worthy American section of the Communist International, ‘ Baily [= Worker . “Orson of the Communist Pui : Capitalism Promotes Judge Parker | against them in the courts of Western Penn- . for the selection of Parker. Benjamin Gitlow, of the U.S. A. SUBSCRIPMON RATES: Ry mail everywhere: One year $6; six months §3; two months $1; excepting Boroughs of Machwttan and Bronx, New York City, and foreign, which are: One year §S; six months $4.50 eg aOR TEIN, against capitalism’s entire judicial system, and resistance to the capitalist social order itself. Judge Parker is merely capitalism’s judicial mouthpiece. He has served his master well in the past. He is now slated for promotion. The White House (President Hoover), in defending Judge Parker’s Red Jacket (Conso- lidated Coal and Coke Company) decision against the West Virginia coal miners’ efforts to organize the unorganized, stated that Judge Parker was merely carrying out correctly the decisions already handed down by the United States Supreme Court. This is a clear confes- sion as to the capitalist class (anti-labor) char- acter of the profit system’s judicial oligarchy, which welcomes Parker even as it wept over the passing of Taft. Deaf Ear to Workers. This is the same U. S. Supreme Court that recently refused even to listen to the appeal of the three workers, Muselin, Resetar and Zima against the conviction and savage sen- tence to five years’ imprisonment returned sylvania. It is in Western Pennsylvania that two of Hoover's cabinet members are dominant industrial overlords—Secretary of the Treas- ury Mellon and Secretary of Labor Davis. The only crime of Muselin, Resetar and Zima was seeking to organize the steel workers of the Monongahela Valley, especially in Aliquippa. It was to be expected that energetic support for Judge Parker’s appointment should come from the textile mill owners of Gastonia, N. C., like A. B. Carter, president of the Carter Tex- tile Mills, who joined their lynching mobs with the efforts of their government to send sixteen strikers and organizers to burn in the electric chair because of their efforts to organize the brutally exploited textile slaves of the South. In spite of the massed protest of workers the world over seven of these defendants were con- victed and sentenced to 117 years’ imprison- ment. This case is now on appeal to the North Carolina Supreme Court and will be fought through to the United States Supreme Court. It is very clear that the Gastonia mill owners, who led in the destruction of the National Tex- tile Workers’ Union headquarters and the Workers International Relief station, and in- spired the mob that murdered Ella May and kidnapped and flogged Lell, Saylors, Wells and others, would very much like to have their judicial lackey, Judge Parker, write the Su- preme Court decision sending the strikers and organizers of the National Textile Workers Union to a living death in their prisons. Socialists Uphold Private Property. Yet it is clear that any appointments that Lewis, Thomas, Green or White might offer, would serve the same purpose. The socialist judges in Milwaukee are the best upholders of the right of private property. The placing of such “good” men as Brandeis and Holmes in the black robes of the United States Supreme Court did not alter the class tyranny exercised by that tribunal. Sacco and Vanzetti were burned to death just the same in the electric chair in Massachusetts; Mooney and Billings are still imprisoned in California after 14 years, the judicial oligarchy with Brandeis and Holmes in its midst serves the capitalist master as loyally as ever. Yet the appointment of another Bran Jleis or Holmes is the only alternative that the Greens, Lewises, Thomases and Whites have carrying out the renegade program of Love- stone, also protests the appointment of Parker on the same basis, thus teaming up more closely than ever (as already predicted) with the fascist and social fascist enemies of the working class. Class Enmity Towards Negroes. Judge Parker’s bitter enmity to the Negroes was voiced in his declaration that:- “The participation of the Negro in poli- ties is a source of evil and danger to both races, and is not desired by wise men in either race, or by the republican party of North Carolina.” * Yet the hundreds of thousanls of eligible Negro voters in the South are disenranchised” with the approval of the Supreme Court. The attitude of Judge Parker and the position of MARC the Supreme Court has a class basis. - There is no opposition to Negro capitalists H SIXTH: ITS MEANING AND SIGNIFICANCE By A. LOZOVSKY- | NTERNATIONAL Day to Struggle Against | } Unemployment, organized by the Comin- tern and the RILU demonstrated that the revolutionary workers’ movement in every part of the world had made a further step | towards coordinating united action. Our in- formation on how this day was carried out in | the various countries is still inadequate, but the facts already to hand enable us to draw a few preliminary conclusions. The preliminary results can on the whole be summarized as follows: There was great- er response and far larger sections of the | working class were roused on March 6th, 1930, | than on August Ist, 1929 (International Day to Fight the War Menace). Should we con- trast these two International campaigns, then it must be said that March Sixth succeeded in rousing far larger sections of the workers both unemployed and employed. Further, the ; movement on March Sixth was greater than on August First, And lastly—the third con- | clusion that can be drawn—March Sixth j marked off a definite stage in the struggle | of the working class to unifyits ranks, for on this day it was made clear tp all the work- ers that the interests of those in employment and out of work are one and the same. What was the political significance of this day and what is it that deserves our special attention? The significance of this day lies in the fact that it was the revolutionary wing of the labor movement alone, as repre- sented by the sections of the Comintern and the RILU, that took up seriously the ques- tion of fighting unemployment and that on this day not only the unemployed, but all the workers in employment were brought into collision with the bourgeois state ap- paratus and their social-fascist flunkeys. This development was extremely important for some countries, especially in those parts of the world where large sections of the workers still support Social-Democracy, and undoubtedly is bound to prove a big fac- tor in breaking down social-democratic in- fluence among the workers. Another extremely important development. was that this International Day was organ- ized in every part of the world under the same slogans, the chief of which were: For a Saven-Hour Day, Struggle Against War and Defend the USSR. Should we take into con- sideration the present campaign of lies, hatred and misrepresentation directed against the USSR being conducted in the capitalist coun- tries, the demonstrations organized on_ this day under the slogan, “Defend the USSR,” are even more significant from the political view- point. Thus we see that the positive aspects of March Sixth were: the demonstration that the interests of the workers whether in or out of employment were the same, the simul- taneous movements of large numbers of work- ers on this day on different sides of the fron- tiers, which put up the same slogans, and lastly, the fact that in several countries the response to the call issued by the Comintern and the RILU was so great as to have been unexpected even by the Communist Party and the revolutionary unions in the given country. This was seen first of all in the U. S. A. Ac- cording to preliminary data, approximately one million two hundred thousand workers took part in the March Sixth demonstrations in dif- ferent parts of the U. S. A. It was a long time since anything like these demonstrations had been seen in the U. S. A. The imposing demonstrations in the U. S. A. on March Sixth certainly alarmed the bour- geoisie. Some of the American bourgeoisie newspapers are already making known their views. They have put forward the very pe- culiar slogan of “Mobilize the Blacks against the Reds,” that is to say, to utilise the back- ward Negro masses to save capitalist “civil- ization” from the Reds, the militants who showed the American bourgeoisie unmistakably on March Sixth what international working class solidarity means. But besides the positive factors, March Sixth made clear several defects and blun- ders, and, most important of all, that in- adequate preparations had been made. First of all, our sections in some of the countries considered it necessary to fix their own day. This effor to come out independently, to ‘fix or choose their own day, shows that some of our comrades do not fully realize the in- ternational significance of March Sixth and that its significance grew in proportion to the way its organization was coordinated in every part of the world. The second drawback was that in several countries the preparations made were some- what formal in character. Preparatory actiy- ities were limited to a few articles published in the press and to an appeal or so, no ser- ious preparations being made. This was seen and Negro petty bourgeois elements participat- ing in politics, since their politics is the same as that of the white capitalist and middle class elements. It is the millions of oppressed Negro workers and farmers who are feared in the South and it is their disfranchisement that is continued as a basis for the perpetuation of white capitalist supremacy. The class basis for Judge Parker’s opposition to Negro en- franchisement is seen by the fact that anti- working class elements among the Negroes, like J. E. Shepard, president of the North Carolina College for Negroes, has been mobil- ized with other anti-labor elements among the Negroes for support of Judge Parker's appoint- ment. The Case Against Capitalism. __ The decisions of the capitalist judjcial system in the present period are characterized by the conviction of fhe Unemployed Delegation in New York City (Foster, Minor, Amter, Lesten, and Raymond), railroaded to prison for voicing the demands of the jobless; the increasing numbers of heavy prison terms meted out un- der the sedition laws (California, Ohio, Penn- sylvania), wholesale deportations and mass ar- rests of workers whose only crime is that they are homeless and penniless. The socialists and the trade union fascist leadership appear jointly with the capitalist state as the prosecutors of the worker, William Shifrin, in New York City. The case against Judge Parker is a case against the capitalist judiciary, against the capitalist system. Workers cannot escape the increasing persecutions of capitalist class jus- tice without ending the social system that spawns it, for example in Belgium, to mention this coun- try alone, Finally, in some countries where the movement was not going, it was not raised to the plane that could have been expected with the objective conditions. This was seen for example in England where there were sev- eral demonstrations and meetings, ete. But if we remember that there are more than two million unemployed in Great Britain today, the Labor Party having long since derided the un- employment,, then it must be admitted that the demonstration of a few thousand workers throughout England on that day was certainly a small movement for such a country. We must make a careful study of the posi- tive ani negative aspects of March Sixth, not merely with a view to making an investiga- tion, but with the object of laying bare the mistakes with the firm intention of avoiding their repetition in future. The movement on March Sixth was one of those international demonstrations which must serve as a starting point to prepare a far more serious mass movement on May Day. We must, therefore, carefully examine what was done by our organizations in each coun- try on this day, and what could and should have been done. This is essential, for if we make good use of the experience gained on March Sixth we shall be able to organize a real international mass political strike on May First and thus take another step forward on the road to consolidating the Revolutionary Wing of the working class movement and co- ordinate the movements of the workers on an international scale, Is the Party Membership in Action in the Daily Worker Campaign? We ask this question because we are receiving letters from Section Committees asking for campaign information. St. Louis, as an in- stance, writes: “We have set our own provi- sional quota because the district has not as- signed us any as yet.” The quotas for mail subscribers, bundles and contributions for. the districts were printed twice in the Daily Worker, April 1 and April 3. Every district should have assigned Section quotas long before this date, It is true, the Party is engagd in many im- portant tasks at this moment. An attitude may prevail in some districts that to initiate at this time a campaign for the Daily Worker is just one task too many. The answer is that building the Daily Worker is a part of every task the Party undertakes, is a part of the daily life of the Party. A Feature of Every Party Task. You want to increase the revolutionary un- derstanding of the masses of workers in your district? You want to have a mass response to your call: “Strike! Down Tools May First.” Reach the masses in the industries with the Daily Worker and they will learn why they must fight and how to fight. This will give you leadership over conscious masses who .will join your defense corps, will join revolutionary unions, Securing mass circulation for the Daily Worker goes hand in hand with every Party task. The Party membership has. not under- stood this. For many months the members have wholly neglected their duty to secure new readers for the Daily Worker. To make all members conscious of this duty, the Central Committee has decided to institute a Daily Worker campaign. It has been decided to set up a special campaign apparatus for the purpose, first, to clarify the role of the Daily Worker as a mass organ; second, to drive the members into action to secure tens of thousands of new readers, This campaign to win masses of workers in all the industries for the Party by making them regular readers of the Daily Worker will be successful only if every district bureau, thru the district Daily Worker Campaign Com- mittee, will show initiative and give leadership to the campaign. Over the Lagging. The campaign opened officially April 1, with the printing of the campaign program. A half month has gone by and many districts are lag- ging behind. Some have not yet taken the initial step to’begin the campaign. We repeat, with emphasis, your immediate tasks: 1. The Central Committee holds every District Bureau responsible for the success of the campaign. 2. Elect able and authorita- tive district and section campaign committees. 3. Apply the campaign program concretely to the entire district, the sections, industries, working class neighborhoods, ete. 4. Strengthen your district, section and unit Daily Worker representatives. 5. Insist that your district agitprop director give leadership to discussions in every unit on the role of our official organ and the campaign. 6. Assign quotas to all sections and units. 7. Institute revolutionary competition. 8, Out of the delegate conferences you are holding for the May Day demonstra- tions must come a permanent Daily Worker supporting group. The Daily Worker pro- gram for these conferences has been sent you. Every organization represented at your con. ference should name a Daily Worker repre- sentative. Attend to this and you will soon have all Party members and all sympathetic organiza- tions moving forward in solidarity to make the Daily Worker a powerful spokesman of the Party, for the working class, Workers! Join the Party of Your Class! Communist Party U.S.A. 43 East 125th Street, New York City. 1 the undersigned, want to foin the Commu: nist Party. Send me more information, Name sicecccccoes Address Occupation Mail this to the Central Office, Comgunist Party, 43 East 126th St.. New York, NY,