The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 19, 1930, Page 3

_ DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 1930 by Athletes. Comments the Labor By BILL. Over a fifth of a million people packed the baseball parks of seven, big cities this week to watch the opening of the baseball season. Brass bands flared, the flag of the capitalists sailed up the flag-pole, the high-priced ball players stood stiffly at attention with hats doffed, their uniforms clean gray or white against the expensive greensward of the field. . . . In the meantime millions of unemployed workers and children and those workers who could get near a radio listened to the chirpings of the various radio announcers, In New York it was the fifty- sixth opening of the major league baseball season. Everywhere it ‘was an opportunity for soaking the minds of the workers with patriot- ism, for organized distraction of the workers. The workers demand “Work or Wages.” The bosses have answered with “Ball and Circuses.” That is the real meaning of the fan- flare and to-do at the opening gates—to get the minds of the workers off their miserable condi- tions. The militant workers must see this and undersiand this. not shut o: es to this. The capitalist ef ge Sports over- time to capture the workers, to tie the workers firmly to the chariot of imperialisr How are the mili- tant workers answering? How many of the ders of the militant irade unions affiliated to the Trade Union Unity League have given the question fifteen minutes of serious thought? Not much, we venture, or else the results would be better. One can-| Revolutionary Theory and the Class Struggle in the United States Stresses Vital Need for Marxist-Leninist Training for Workers .. By J. MINDEL. This conception is erroneous and : One of a drawbacks of the revo-| should be combatted. lutionary class struggle in the! “Ki a United States is the lack of inter-| M@™% Engels and Lenin valued est on the part of the workers in "evolutionary theory and labored to theoretical knowledge-—knowledge | ¢Teate such a theory for the work- of the theory of strategy of the | ime class. Engels admonished the class struggle. The labor movement !¢aders of the movement to conduct of this country did not produce a the struggle so “that its three sides, single outstanding representative of the theoretical, the political and the | Marxian theory. practical economical (opposition to} The socialist party, since its the capitalists), form one harmoni- | |ception, opportunist and reformist, US and well-planned entity.” jhas a natural abhorrence to Marx-, Only through this entity can the | jian theory. It borrows its know]-! proletariat achieve its aim, the de edge from capitalist reformists. ‘struction of capitalism and the build. | The only . “Marxian” literature it ing of the Communist society. The ever published is capitalist in es- | Communism of Marx, Engels and sence, embalmed in Marxian phrase- | Lenin is not a utopia. Tt does not; jology. As such, it is dead to the pin its hopes in the “good will of jinterest of the working class and|/men” to abolish poverty, misery its ultimate aim. The object of such |and war. Communism is 2 science. | jliterature is to draw the working | This science must be made the pos- |class away from the path of revolu- session of every worker. “It is the! | tionary class struggle into the ser- ‘specific duty of the leaders,” Says! | vice of the bourgeoisie. Engels, “to gain an even clearer un- This abhorrence for theory, is not | derstanding of the theoretical prob- | peculiar only to the workers in gen-|lems, to free themselves more and jeral and to the “socialist” party, it} more from the influence of tradi- ‘also penetrates into the ranks of} tional phrases, inherited from the |the revolutionary workers and even | old conception of the world, and con- jinto the ranks of the Communist’ stantly to keep in mind that Com- |Party membership. |munism, having become a science, The left-wing workers, who carry|demands the same treatment as Central Comm. Greets Drive tor. Workingclass Education Points Out Need Especially Among Workers in Basic Industry and South HE CENTRAL COMMITTEE of the Communist Party greets the drive of the Workers School and Trade Union Unity League to increase and improve working class education in the United States. The growth of the struggle, the rapid expansion of revolutionary spirit among the working class, and the increasing sharpening of the struggle have brought new sections of the proletariat into the arena of class war against capitalism. This is particularly true of the work- ers in the South and considerable numbers of certain basic sections of the proletariat, such as seamen, who during the past period have manifested qvyer growing militancy. In order to carry forward these struggles larger numbers of bet- ter equipped fighting leaders are needed. The working class education movement in the United States must adjust itself to the new and trem- endous tasks of providing a trained leadership for our rapidly growing movement. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the United States greets the April 19 Working Class Education Confer- ence being held in New York as a big step forward in this direc- tion. It gives its unqualified support to the drive of the Workers School to raise $10,000 to establish a school in the South, to enlarge the Central School of the Communist Party, and to establish self-study courses for those workers who cannot come to the School itself. We call upon all militant class-conscious workers to aid in this drive so that the purpose of the drive may be achieved. Must Push Working Class Education Among the Southern Workers Problem of Developing Revolutionary Leaders The capitalist class gives the mat-|on a bitter and obstinate struggle ter thought. The workers must, too. Building of the Labor, Sports| have a conception. that theory is|be to bring understanding, thus ac- ‘on the economic and political field, every other science—it must be stud- lied. The task of the leaders will Union is an essential task for the |some kind of a high-brow invention | quired and clarified, to the working militant labor movement. * Si cigre The holy of holics has been vio- lated! Massachusetts, home of witeh-burning, the pillory, child- labor and the altar on which the bodies of Sacco and Vanzetti were burned, has come down on the work- | ers’ sport movement! The flimsy excuse is that Blue Sunday has been violated. The Back Bay degener- ates who rule the textile and shoe towns of Massachusetts get connip tion fits at the mere thought of workers playing soccer on a Sun- day. So much so, in fact, that Wal- ter Burke, National Secretary of the Labor Sports Union, was given 100 days in the Norwoood, Massa- chusetts, jail for “being responsible” for a Sunday basketball game be- tween two workers’ clubs. The answer to this is to build the Labor Sports Movement, to fight against the blue laws and make the struggle a political one, pointing out its true anti-workingclass Meaning. +. 8 What the Labor Sports Union has pointed out a thousand times becomes clearer and clearer with this—that the bosses are using sports against the workers. Only this last week Rev. E. A. Walsh, worlds heavyweight champion anti- Soviet liar, spoke before the New York Athletic Club, slandering the only country where the workers and farmers rule—the Soviet Union— and practically incited the crowd of 500 members against the American workers. * * The American workers, driven by the speed-up and unemployment, are taking to mass action as never be- fore: Huge demonstrations are taking place. Workers self-defense is an important part of these dem- onstrations for the workers. And an important part of self-defense (though by no means the most im- portant part) is boxing. From this point of view the coming Eastern District Boxing Tournament is im- portant for the workers. Soccer League Open for Spring Games The Workers’ Soccer League of New Jersey, affiliated to the Labor Sports Union, has opened its gate for a spring competition. The seven teams in the first division are con- sidered to be equal in strength to! any amateur team. The member- ship are an all-proletarian element, mainly from the basic industry. It is'worth while to mention that five clubs before playing in the United States Football Association decided to leave the bosses’ organization and join the workers’ league, and they are now participating in the competition. WORKERS’ SPORTS IN FRANCE The yearly convention of the F. S. T. (the workers’ sports organization of; France) has ousted an oppor- tanist from the leadership. The renegade, Garcheri, was kicked out of the chairmanship and Comrade Doriot was elected in his place. The convention of the F. S. T. ac- eepted the line of the Red Sport In- ternational and follows it closely. The French government is bitterly @pposed to the workers’ sports or- ganization. : * ‘The Secretary of State has just barred their spring track and field meet. Nevertheless, the F. S, T. had decided to go through with it. The sport meet was scheduled in Ormesson, about twenty miles from Paris, and was held despite the | army of police on the field. The sec- retary of the F. S, T., Comrade Hanotin, was arrested and the class- court has sentenced him for two months. In the meantime + preaching of “neutral sports” is ad- yeeated by the French reformists. and a good and honest proletarian should not worry his head over it. A Workers Sch | By V. JEROME. oe growing class-consciousness |“ of the workers in the South has | brought with it the important prob- lem of developing a cadre of revo- lutionary mass leaders in the Soyth- ern States. This problem, which would be serious enough fer any other section of the country, is |doubly serious for the South be- |cause of the extreme backwardness ,and ignorance in which the work- jets white as well as black, have |been held there by the bosses. Our master class and their apologists of all shades pride themselves on the jsystem of “universal education” that this country is alleged to en- |joy. But the class-conscious work- jers know full well that the tea- spoonfuls of education doled out to them by the bosses.are not given |with the purpose of enlightenment, |but because the bosses find a mini- mum of schooling indispensable to | Wage slaves in an age of technical \efficiency. In the Soath, where in- dustrialization is of comparatively recent origin, even the pitiful mini- mum of education has been denied to the workers, with the result that there is a great proportion of illit- eracy and near-illiteracy among the Southern working masses. | In this land of “universal education” countless working men By I. AMTER. (Written in Tombs Prison.) The workers of the United States have learned many lessons in the past few years. They have seen |the American Federation of Labor |in treacherous action at a time when leadership in struggle was needed. jIn the South, as well as in’ the North, one struggle after the other traitors, They have also witnessed the so- jcalled “progressives,” the Musteites jof Brookwood College. who pre- tended to be “radical” and then knelt at the feet of the A. F. of L. and “confessed.” “War to the death against the Communists and Bol- sheviks—long live the fascist A. F. of L.!” is their war cry. These |Musteites, mouthing radical phrases and “critical” of the A. F. of L., are the most dangerous enemies of the workers, since they use “pro- gressive” working-class language, but lead the workers directly into the ranks of the fascist A. F. of L. The socialist party—the social- fascists—with the trade union so- cial-fascist Musteites—no longer even pretends to stand for the work- ling class—but for all the- people. They talk “humanity,” “justice,” ete. These petty-bourgeois liberals, fostered by the capitalist class to deceive and betray the workers, are doing their vile work in the unions, hand in hand with the Musteites. |sabotaged and sold out by these! |masses to spread it with increased |enthusiasm.” ool in | South by September jaa women are actually unable to) read a newspaper or sign their | | name. | Our task in the Southern states | |must be understood in all its seri-| ousness. We must not only reach |the Southern workers with our | |Propaganda, but we. must prepare | |many of them with the elementary | ;veading ability to understand our | propaganda. | | Revolutionary Propaganda. | The class struggle of the workers in the South must be guided on ‘the basis of Marxism. In. the| jmidst of the Southern proletarian | |unrest we must establish a center |of revolutionary Propaganda—a | Workers’ School. The establishment of such a/ iSchool in the South by next Septem- ber is one of the main objectives | of the $10,000 Fund Drive now be- ing conducted by the Central Work- ers’ School. All working-class or- ganizations, as well as individual workers, must realize the urgent |necessity of a Workers’ School for | |the South, and, in realizing this, aie come forward with immediate ald, | All donations should be sent to| |the Workers’ School $10,000 und Drive, 26-28 Union Square, New York City. | best workers must be selected for this purpose, those who show un- derstanding and have stood the test } in the struggle in the shops and junions, on the picket line, etc. with 2,000 students is the central school from which many working- {class leaders have come for the tre- {mendous job of organizing the 25,- 000,000 unorganized workers in this} |@ountry, Negro and white, men and women, young and adult, and lead- ling them in struggle. This strug- jgle on the political and industrial | \field is tremendous—and were there more leaders the work of organiza- tion would proceed even more rap-/| idly. In the Communist Party and T. U. U. L. this need is keenly felt. | Since the expulsion of the right- wing renegades and the carrying on ‘of a real struggle against oppor- tunism in the Communist ranks, the | serious danger of this right-wing manifestation at this stage of the ; Struggle, with the workers showing } ever more willingness to organize land fight, has become outstanding. Correctness in theory and prac- tice! Practice strengthened by ba- {sie theorv! This is what is needed | ;by all—but especially by the new jleadership that is demanded by the! | struggle. | | In the T. U. U, L. this is a cry-| {ing need as well. The old-type leadership in the unions, protected ‘organize, lead and fight. in the South By CLARENCE MILLER. A little over a year ago there |was no militant working class Social movement in the South. Now we \have a movement in the South ex-| tending over most of the southern states. The National Textile Work- ers’ Union has six districts in the South. The Marine Workers’ League has organizations in several southern ports. The Trade Union Unity League in the last few months has made considerable pro- gress ina number of industries, especially metal and tobacco. A large number of Negro workers have been reached by our revolu- tionary program of fighting for) social equality. Generally we can see that the revolutionary move- ment is being entrenched amongst the southern masses. Develop Southern Leadership. The very growth of the revolu- tionary movement present us with the problem of developing a native southern leadership that will be able to cope with the growing struggle. For the South this is more than just an organizational task. For many months during the Gastonia trial when the movement was grow- ing by leaps and bounds we. failed to sufficiently entrench ourselves amongst the masses of workers and created the impression that we were a “foreign” movement of Yankees imported from above the Mason- Dixon Line. The cause for this was that we were very slow in develop- ing a southern leadership from the ranks of the workers to lead the growing movement, The problem of developing a lead- ership from the ranks of the South- ern masses is one of the most diffi- cult tasks facing us. The Southern workers have little tradition of working class struggle. The work- | ing class, itself, in the South is com- | bor movement. WORKING CLASS LEADERS THE NEED OF THE HOUR |farmers. Old traditions, remnants of a Workers School that will he| | | of the pre-civil war South are weigh-| establish a Southern leadership. paratively new, just recruited from the mountaineers, hill billies and ing down upon them. Illiteracy in most sections of the South is com- parable with the Russia of the cz: The mill village owned by the tex- | tile barons offers no stimulus, and, what’s more, little opportunity for or intellectual activity. | Militant Young Workers. The backwardness of the Southern | masses makes the problem of de- | veloping a leadership so much more difficult. On the other hand, we find another characteri: that will aid us in the task of bringing for- ward this Southern leade' . The | young workers in the South, who jare mostly children of the mill work- ers and who are not so weighed | down by the prejudices of their | parents, have shown themselves to be not only more militant, but also more eager to acquire knowledge. We find that these young workers are very eager not only to learn, but also to express themselves by speaking and writing. Every organ- |tke Party and its mass work. Such Hail Revolutionary Working Class Education Conference! | _ Communist Party National | Training School and | the Next Step Necessity of Theoretical Training for the Class Struggle By LEON PLOTT. ,agencies to come to the conclusion | Tats that the Party and more so, the Training School 0 ne ©om-| backward theoretically, that the |munist Party conclusively prove the importance of this institution. In| aig not imbue and develop the Am spite of the great shortcomings the) ia working class. This theoretical {National Training School made @)),ckwardness cannot be separated | valuable contribution to, the revolu-| +5. the general organizational tionary labor movement. For a per-/)ackwardness of the American iod of six weeks, 9-10 hours a day, \ sing class, Both of them go to- |85 workers from all over the United | ethan | States were actively engaged in a) S°™ 1°" serious study of the tasks and prob-, lems of the American working| there class and the revolutionary Marxist) practice”.—LE} Leninist methods and tactics in solv-! ppis fundamental ing these problems. glaringly at us in our every-d Worker Students Self. and strug In certain sect | All the students with few excep-| our Party itself there is manit tions were workers. Their social too much the tendenecy of repe composition was as follows: 5 tex-|ing phrases, of making | tile workers; 4 seamen; 3 metal | without an attempt to a their | workers; 3 wood workers; 2 miners; | meaning and their politic slica- |2 laborers; 2 steel workers; 2 auto-| tions, There are tendencies of us- \snobile workers; 2 food workers; 2\ing a “common denominator” to | students (Chinese and Japanese); 1) characterize all political tasks and | shoe worker; 1 housewife (Negro);| problems. The party membership 1 unskilled factory worker; 1 needle | and even leading party cadres did trades worker; 1 aluminum worker; | not learn yet how to use the Marx- 1 printer and 1 clerk. Among the| ist Leninist method of an of |students were six Negroes, three| problems, of drawing conclusions on women, two Chinese, one Japanese,| the basis of serious study cf these and one from Argentine. One of| problems along the general political the best features of the school was|lines laid down by the authoritative the fact that it had five workers| Party organs. trom the South, one of whom was a! ory, the insufficient measures taken Negro. | to spread the teachings of Marx and Lenin represent within themselves a very serious state of affairs which |must be remedied immediately. teachings of Marx and Lerin still “Without revolutionary theory, no be revolution: truth, stares The absence of the- As a result of the Training School, the Communist Party got four section organizers in the most industrial districts of the courtry, one district organizer, seven for general Party work, one agitprop director, three for work in the Young Communist League, six for work in language bureaus and for- eign language papers, two for work in the International Labor Defense and 8 for leading trade union work in the various parts of the country. Concrete Benefits. For a Successful Drive. The National Training School be- sides arming 35 workers with the | weapon of Marxism, Leninism, will also help greatly in dissiminating Marxism in the ranks of our Party. The more such schools we will build, the greater will be our success, the more effective will be our Part the stronger will be the working \class. All this therefore means that | we must build a revolutionary edu- cational venter in the U. S., which see the conerete organizational hene- Ria heied Et in saat Sy ie fits derived from the National School | “"Fogi a success. ‘The Workers that will no doubt greatly strengthen | s-1,991 drive must receive the utmost From the above on¢é can clearly izer finds: that it is-very easy sto| ‘Pe it attention from every working-cl get the Southern workers to speak! % School however, must be estab-| organization and — class-conscious ab omiadet mcetinwdvoand they lacgelime nce ter ote ae ecnens also | vor numbers of worker correspondents for the Party and trade union pres is another proof of this. The present central task before the Party is, alongside of develop- ing a broad mass movement, to train a leadership for this movement. A leadership for the South helps the building of a strong working class. A large number of Party units were organized during the last months.) These. units need more attention and training. Above all we must de- velop a cadre of functionaries that | will be able to lead and direct the whole Party and_ revolutionary) movement. Also Southern Paper. The undertaking to build a South- ern school and to issue a Southern} paper will help in establishing such a leadership. To establish a Work- ers School in the South is an out- standing task before the whole la- Every trade union, | every workers’ organization must; | come to the support of the building Funds are being received by the! | Workers School $10,000 Drive Com-' mittee, 26 Union Square, New York City. To the Rebel Guard: The Workers’ School in New York | National Guardsmen 5 Letter Ri its defense to do with us? ia or /numbers of comrades could ke given) on a district scale, where larger} Significance of School in South. theoretical and political training; The activities of the Workers of Marxism-Leninism. The National) School must be considered from a Training School is definitely linked broad revolutionary aspect. The up with the most burning problem present drive of the Workers School facing our Party—Training of Cad-| which aims to establish a school in res. These training schools are also | the South is of historical importance. part of the great tasks of the revo-| It will mark a wider penetration of lutionary working class‘ to spread| the revolutionary movement in the the teachings of Marx and Lenin in| South. It will strengthen and pro- the U. S., to imbue the active forces! vide leadership to the ever growing of the working class with revolu-| class struggles. Again we must re- tionary theory and combine theory| peat the words of Lenin: “Without and practice in our every-day strug-| revolutionary theory, there can be gles. The greateest weakness of the| no revolutionary practice.” So far American working class is precisely | the American masses are not yet the lack of any theoretical training. | imbued with the revolutionary the- A similar situation prevails in the | ory of Marxism and Leninism. It ranks of the American Party. jis our task to make the teachings One only has to look over the;}of Marx and Lenin permeate the sales transactions of our publishing| mings of the masses of Amevican houses and literature distribution| workers. THE LABOR DEFENSE AND WORKERS’ EDUCATION By J, LOUIS ENGDAHL. jare only now being seized upon. Th The tasks of the International / work of education and propagand Labor Defense draw it closely into|has entered upon its first meage the field of work of the Workinz| beginnings only since the Fourth Class Educational Conference or- | National Convention in Pittsburgh, anized under the direction of the | Dec. 29-31, 1929. Workers School and the Trade} ‘The life of the LL.D., especially Union Unity League. ‘in the branches, has been quite bar’ The International Labor Defense’ ren in the past. Meetings have been I am a member of the 165th In- | (Such questions wili be answered in| during 1929 averaged 6,480 mem- ! confined to the barest routine. fantry (the old 69th) and have read |two or three issues of your paper, | which was distributed at-our ar-| pretty bad. That is why your paper showing for March was 10,426. | mory. It has interested us very | much as most of the things written|I don’t see why we are forced to ship, around which is grouped those | in it are quite true. Everybody from the buck privates | them out of our small pay checks, | bers of affiliated organizations, to the officers know that the guard |I bet there is plenty of graft for | the mass of close sympathizers. is purely a strike-breaking organi-|the officers. zation. may take part in. There are a few things in your ithe Rebel Guard.—Lditer.) Conditions in the Guard are ‘has made such a teremendous hii. buy dress uniforms and to pay for | Besides uniforms we As most of us are workers|jhave to pay for dances and beer we certainly don’t like the idea of|rackets and othe. breaking strikes that other workers | make some of us forget the seriou affaivs which business we are really in. | I hope you continue to distribute | paper which I do not understand | your paper. I will write some more, | very well. For instance, what has | Coen ae ee a ae LER REE ee — eee mining, textile and tobacco indus- tries must be trained to take over leadership—leadership unafraid to face Ku Klux Klan and night-rider |fighters—to make them better fight- of the United States will be organ- gangs—leadership capable of mak- ing clear to the workers the treach- | ery of the A. F. of L. and Muste- | Yours, A Worker in the Guard. | city and town. i A broad working-class educational | system to teach workers to become | ers and leaders. } No more important task confronts the militant working class than | ites—leadership that knows how to The Southern Workers’ School is our second big job. | Masses of workers must working-class education for train-| ling fighters and leaders. It is! the to lead the ingle; to build up the ranks of the duty of every group of work tne shops, all unions, all lefe-wing bers. The average for the first three months of 1930 was 8,950, The This shortcoming, which is on |now being remedied, has milita strongly against effective organ’ tion, the systematic penetration into ithe ranks of those workers still and | Standing aloof from the Interna- | tional Labor Defense, especially the This membership is organized in| VTKers in the basic indust This is the dues paying member- | “carried on the books,” the mem- 475 branches, with 38 city central hen pid 1 committees in 18 district organiza-|tevy ic (ho chontion ot thee Cot aghaefanchiming duded thes direc. {tek is the education of those mem- ion of the national office in New | ets Albee Ov me teat Of Hie York City |LL.D., making the life of the branch The vast opportunities for devel: j interesting on the basis of the gen oping the inner lif of the ILD. jeral tasks of the organization. jof education and propaganda is be- ‘ing organized from the National E |ecutive Committee through the dis- | trict organization into the branches, ary working-class movement for- ward at tremendous speed. It means to hasten the day when the workers ized into powerful industrial unions | jower units in winning broader with effective, fighting leadership. ,! . "| masses an roac! ae ea It means that the Communist Party class bee rar eee Ne on will even better than today be able hd ee are ing spirit of the strug- | skilled functionaries that do not now Party and the organizations of the exist, and for providing them with carry on their work. > made fjand Peasants Republi Ne- | To achieve this purpose the work | | special emphasis being laid on the t |for the training of hundreds of, be|and progressive geoups in (ho A. f.| Workers in the North and’Sonti/; be | Satisfactory material with which to ue Fascists and _ social-fascists—open|in its opportunism by the former senemies of the workers—open tools | right-wing leadership in the Party, | {of our class enemies! cannot make the turn. The turn | The workers have the Communist! must be made—and many of these iParty and the Trade Union Unity leaders of the industrial unions of League—sufficient, and yet every-jthe T. U. U. L, must be replaced where is the demand for clear, by militant rank and filers. | jfighting working-class leadership.| The training of these rank and{ |This can be supplied only from the filers is the big job of the Workers’ | jmidst of the revolutionary working | School. i A second task faces us in the} jclass itself. Workers must be trained for lead-| struggle arising in the South, Ne- coached and helped theoretically to! of L master the problems daily confront- ing us in the sharpening struggle -- the struggle against imperialism ny Petia hou relented These bodies of workers must not insurance, ‘7-hour day; ‘6-day week— | {ail to participate through delega the struggle for the overthrow of |in the Conference for Working Class capitalism and for a Revolutionary | Uducation, which will be held on Workers’ Government. ‘This study |Saturday, April 19, at the Workers’ nust be launched, encouraged and|Center, 26 Union Square. broadened by study circles in every! To make this conference a suc- all working-class fraternal organization and clubs, to make this an important item for discussion and decision. ership in theory and practice. The gro and white workers in the steel, shop, mine and factory, in every'cess means to push the revolution- iable to give more revolutionary working class of | Educational Features. \Latin America. It means to bring} Various activities, like photo-e nearer the day of the revolutionary | respondence and worker correspond- working class of the United States ence, use of films and lantern slide: ;—the November 7 of the United | theatricals, “living newspapers, (States! | music, Songs, expositions, are still AN] success to the Conference for |i" their infancy. There is a basis Working Class Education and ics) {" ,the rapid development of. this mission of spreading and teaching | the LL.D., the “Labor Defender,” {the pri iples and practice of Mar<- | which now has a monthly circulation ism-Leninism to the workers, ! sistance to the | work through the’ central organ of | of 26,000 copies (30,000 of Soviet sible BOOKS Reviews and Notes of Interest The Nineteen, by As Fadeyev. Translated from the Russian by R, D. Charques, International Publishers. Boards, $1.50. Cloth, 50. (Reviewed by A. B. M4 With mmense 8 the till unf 1ed—that began with the Russian Revolution and the overthrow of czarism and capital- ism; t continued through the civil wa ‘amine, the reconstruc- *ltion and the Five Year Plan; and that is now leaping dynamically into the 'future of the free socialist so- ciel here are many smaller epics arts and an heroic whole. he Nineteen,” is one erhaps it never happened r all, a novel. Fadeye of them. literally: that is, aft But its inner, deeper historic truth emerges and unassailable. “The n is flesh and bone of the Revolution. It lives and bre delible testament of the invir f th untaught ma first Wor in the world. teen” is a tale of the when the youn: ic was desperatel, ing for life against the impe counter-revolution, which attacked both from without and within, A of Red partisans, those regular worker-peasant bands who played such an important part m saving the Revolution, retreating be- fore the advancing Japanese in the is finally cut to e raw, “The eivil war iet Repu comy Siberian fo pieces by white guard cossacks. Only nineteen men and one woman emerge to safety. It is a simple y more than an episode. ne raw stuff of the And it is craftsman- story, har But it conta entire revolutionary epic. h superb ship, with such simplicity and pre- ion, rising fierce unforg ble climax, that the effect is overpow- | ng. “The Ninetec told wit je * has many of the qualities of a s tory-concentra- tion, unity of effect and the unrav- elling of a single narative thread. It has none of the vastness and color of Gladkov’s “Cement,” which really envisages an entire period; but it Jalso has none of “Cement’s” rheto- rical expansiveness, subjective ideal- ism and sentimentalism. If it is pos- sible to make an analogy between two different artistic mediums, we may say that “Cement” is li {dovkin’s film, “Ten D Shook the World,” while “T' teen” is like Eisenstein’s “A Cruiser Potemkin.” in its own we And out of “The Nineteen” eme: ‘these simple yet profound figur: the carefree, half-scoundrelly, brave and generous Morozki wife, the tender, deep-eyed Varya, who gives herself to all the men, but reniains “essentially sweet, vulgar; the shepherd, Milititsa. the most daring of all the platoon Tead- rs; the boy impetuous second-i command, Baklanov; the weal petulent Metchik; and among: them, yet a little apart, the leader of the band, the small, red-bearded Jewish intellectual, Levinson. Levinson is a remarkable figure, a hero who is human and free from idealization. It is he who welds together thi: shapeless mass and gives form, di rection and articulation to th blind loyalty and stubborn courage. Yet he does not stand above them, but with them, bound to these sim- ple people by strong, invisible ties. Only Levinson is clearly class cons- cious. At the end, when he learns that his chief enant, Baklanov, whose v i, boyish head reminded him of his own son dead, something col- lapses in h and the tears stream unchecked down his face. But he is still Levinson who sees the maze of | tragedy and defeat to the great shin- )ing goal ahi “He looked silently, with eyes which were still wet, at this vast- ness of earth and , promising bread and rest, at these distant peo- ple on the threshing ground, whom he would soon have to make his as near to him as were the eighteén who followed him in silence. He ceased crying: it was necessary to live and a man had to do his | duty.” | And on this note the book ends. A terrible, tragic end, poised amidst death and desolation, but an end that is bright with unquenchable hope and the vision of a new world, where all this prodigious suffering nd heartache shall blossom in the lew, fine and vigorous man” that Levinson dreamed of and that he— and the workers of the world are fighting fo: own: ary, November, 1929) and of the International May Day, 1930, special editions. Alth considerable attention has been given featu of the “Labor De- ces I n,” lopment of this worls registered, undouble lack of the prope? ulation from the center, inelud- more energetic organization spondence between the I.L.D. the ¢ n of per: other countries, especially in India, China, Japan d the Latin Amer ican countries at the present mo- ment. In view of these tasks, the LL.D. endorses the Working Class Educa- tional Conference as a m m for exchange of opinions on how to carry on these activities in all work- jing class organizations. It greets this effort and will give it all pos- support, dev been edly due to the .-