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

“Just _Keep_ Smiling!” __ 28 ed daily except Sunday by The Comprodaily Publishing New York City, N. ¥.' EW FINAL CITY EDITION Vol. VI., No. 363 Unton Square, /'LEADERS OF JOBLESS HELD IN P YORK, TUESDAY, MAY 6, 1930 and Bro} kk City and foreign cou : 86 a year everywhere excepting Ma: tries, there 8S Price 3 Cents aye RISON; BAIL DENIED Demand the Release of Powers, Carr, Gastonia Defendants; in Court This Week Gastonia and Atlanta Today in Atlanta the trial of Powers and Carr begins on the charge of “inciting to insurrection” for which the prosecutor has an- nounced he will ask the death penalty; the “criminal act” the publication and distribution of a leaflet such as have been distributed in five million copies throughout the United States in 1930. And during the week, the decision of the North Carolina Supreme Court is ex- pected on the appeal of the defendants in the Gastonia case. These two cases, Gastonia and Atlanta, combine wit! themselves all the elements of the struggle of the rising working class of the South, for organization and relief from the starvation conditions under which they work; they combine, also, all the methods of repression of the southern ruling class. They are the purest class cas They “are battles between the working class of the United States and the ruling capitalist class. In Gastonia, the main issue was whether workers shall be allowed to defend themselves when attacked by the hired agents of the mill- owners in attempts to crush their union. The courts said no; no work- er may defend himself, and if one should do so, then he and all his associates shall be sent to prison for 20 years. The conviction is before the Supreme Court on appeal. The working class cannot allow that conviction to stand. be overthrown. The Gastonia prisoners must be released. prisonment is the condemnation of all southern workers to slavery. Now Atlanta carries the bosses’ attack a step further, attempting to make it a crime punishable by death merely to issue a leaflet and call a meeting. It is attempting to apply the laws of feudal and fas- cist states, Japan, Mussolini’s Italy, the Balkans, China of the Kuo- mintang. It wishes to crush all beginnings of the awakening and or- ganization of the working class. The bosses’ attacks will fail. They will fail because the working class must win the right to organize and strike. The working class must fight the battles of Gas- tonia and Atlanta until they are won. These battles will never be finished until they are won by the workers. The fight has already begun. The fight has been on for more than a year. Hundreds and thousands of workers are already in the battle. Our task now is to mobilize hundred., of thousands and millions of workers for the struggle. Every worker, the moment he under- stands what these cases mean to himself and his class, must imme- diately become a fighter for the comrades of Gastonia and Atlanta. Organized demand by the working masses, this is the weapon to defeat the fascists of the South. Organization of the masses in the trade unions, this is the weapon for the further battles against southern semi-feudal capitalism. Forward to the organization of the South! Free the Gastonia prisoners! Release Powers and Carr! “Our” Investments in Cuba “Our investments in Latin America,” said Dr. Max Winkler Sat- urday, speaking at the Institute on Pan-American Ri at Jacksonville, “reach the impressive total of The same day, in obscure columns of the U , the garbled story but evident meaning of what this imperialist investment signi- fies to Latin American workers was told in cables from Cuba, where Yankee imperialism has $1,505,000,000 invested. The Cuban proletariat, reduced by imperialist robbe aid of its fascist lackey Machado, to an existence of and misery, none the less nuturing in its bosom the proletarian revolt, not only struck work and paralyzed industry on May Day, but came onto the streets to demonstrate power, to give voice to the historic determination to struggle for the overthrowal of imperialism and its fascist lackeys, including the bourgeois “Nation- alist” fake “opposition” to Machado. By thousands the Havana proletariat came onto the streets and marched to the spot traditionally known as “Lenin's Tree.” And not only did they march but defied the murderous police with the “illegal” slogan of “Defense of the Soviet Union” and, in the spirit of the heroic Communist Party of Cuba, the speakers openly declared the revolutionary intentions of the Cuban working class to overthrow their exploiters and oppressors as the Russian workers did. The police and troops—Machado “the butcher” taxes the workers to maintain their executioners—tried to arrest the speakers and the workers defended them. The result: One policeman and two workers dead. But many of the workers are arrested, and in Cuba that may mean death. More, the cables tell us that certain “labor leaders”—those who are the creatures of Wm. Green through the Pan-American Federation of Labor—called at the palace of “Butcher” Machado to assure this tool of Wall Street that they supported him against the Communists. These fascist. scoundrels thus ask and get imperialist support in thei attempt to form a fascist trade union center against the revolutionary unions which on March 20 had 200,000 on a general strike. American workers! When Winkler, the imperialist, speaks of “our” investments in Latin America, he speaks—not for you, as you have no investments there—but for the same bosses who daily rob and oppress you! You have no “investments,” but you have el ss com- rades there, fighting the same bosses whom you fight. Their fight is your fight. The workers’ blood spilled at Havana on May Day is the blood of your class! The workers held in Cuban prisons are your heroic allies in the common fight against a common enemy—the Amer- ican capitalist class! Workers! Let your voice be heard in protest! fense of your class comrades of Cuba! LESTEN OUT, BUT AFTER MAY DAY Will Continue Work of Organizing Jobless It must fire of Come to the de- mittee. The other leaders of the jobles: Wm. Z. Foster, Robert Minor, Israel Amter and Harry Ray- mond, are serving three year prison terms in the same prison. Leston was supposed to have been released on April 30, since every prisoner is allowed five days out of the thirty for “good behavior.” But in view of the fact that he would have thus been able to take |part in the May First demonstration, jhe was held over until May 5. Their im- | Joseph Leston who was convicted by the capitalist court as a member of the New York Unemployed Dele- gation of March 6, was released from the Work House or Correction Hospital today. Leston, who is a young worker, was given one month by the Tam- many court, on the alleged ground that he was only a “tool” of the others. He reaffirmed his full agree- ment with everything that was said snd done by the rest of the com- On May 1, however, Leston to- gether with eleven other prisoners, including two Negro workers, called a strike and refused to work. As a result, they were stuck in the “bing” and kept without food dur- ing the day. Many of the prisoners are in jail because of “‘vagrancy,” having been unable to find work. Now he will continue the work of otganiving the unemployed and pre- paring for the July 4th unemploy- ment convention in Chicago, BOSSES DEMAND _IN GEORGIA TRIAL Carolina Court to Give Gastonia Case Deci- sion Soon \Call Mass _ Protest ‘Only Militant Toilers Can Save Them Seuthern mill owners’ jus- tice, operating through Geor- gia and North Carolina courts has the fate, the freedom, the | very lives of nine militant or- | ganizers of the working class |in its hands today. It will try and kill two of them, and send seven more to the penitentiary | for sentences up to 20 years. | M. H. Powers, Communist district organizer, and Joe Carr, Young Communist League organizer, go on trial | today ih an undoubtedly biased court at Atlanta, Georgia, accused of “inciting to insurrection,” and “circulating insurrectionary papers” because they ued leaflets giving the Communist Party program of uniting Negro and white workers in a common fight against oppression fand exploitation, and stating the demands of the unemployed for | work or wages, | At Unemployment Meeting. Powers and Carr were arrested for holding an unemployment meet- ing at Atlanta, March 9. Police at- tacked the meeting with tear gas, seized the two speakers, released them, then when they returned to the meeting, arrested them again. They were first held on $1,500 bail for throwing the tear gas into their own meeting, then when this charge began to look too ridiculous, they were held for disorderly conduct. While they were still on bail, this charge was changed to “inciting in- surrectio: They travelled over four states to be present to an- swer it, but were held without bail. Their trial was scheduled for April 21, but was postponed by the prose- cution to May 6 because it wanted to try and pry loose from the de- fense the transcript of evidence of the first hearing, which the prose- cutor had neglected to obtain at the | time. eT To defend Powers and Carr and jarouse national support for their re- | lease, funds avé needed immediately. |Send to the International Labor De- |fense, Room 430, 80 East Eleventh St., New York City. To Rule on Gastonia. The protest of the militant work- ers throughout the world saved the Gastonia strike leaders from the jelectric chair. They must now mob- ilize to prevent them from spending the next twenty years in prison. The North Carolina Supreme | Court will give its decision on the | appeal for a new trial any day now. If the decision is against the de- fense it will mean that the seven | militant textile workers—Fred E. | Beal, Clarence Miller, Louis | McLoughlin, George Carter, K. Y. | Hendricks, William McGinnis and |Joseph Harrison, will be cut off from the labor movement for two decades, unless the workers by mass pressure save them. It will mean |that the employers will feel con- |fident that they can stem all mili- | tant labove activity by placing the leaders in jail, in that way terror- izing the hundreds of thousands of Negro and white workers who can be organized in militant unions. The Gastonia strike, which start- ed on April 1, 1929, was a real sur- | prise for the mili barons, as was the |way the workers defended them- selves against the murder crew of the bosses, an indication of the fu- (Continued on Page Three) NEEDLE TRADE FRACTION MEET TONIGHT. An important Needle Trades Fraction meeting will be held to- |night, May 6 at 9 p. m. in Manhat- tan Lyceum. Comrades whose units meet tonight must arrange to at- tend their units and conclude its business at 8.45 so that they can |be present at the fraction meeting on time, y DEATH SENTENCE. 4 ‘Save | ¢ GANDHI JAILED BY GT. BRITAIN ‘His Pacifism Only for Oppressed Indians | BULLETIN. | Proving the statement given | only in the Daily Worker, that the “labor” government of British imperialism was secretly sending | troops to India, the press Monday | night featured the fact that armed forces sent by Great Britain were being sent into action as strikes swept every great city of India following the arrest of Gandhi. | The strikers are not following | Gandhi's foolery of pacifism, how- | ever, That is why there are troops. eda eae Ghandi has been arrested by the jpeitishy: according to Indian dis- patches, which incidentally show that the arrest was carried out be- c:.use there v a decline in the re- volutionary “disturbances” — thus again proving that pacifism on the part of the masses is always seized upon by imperialism to sharpen re- pression. “Last week-end was in the nature | lof a test,” say dispatches. “The disturbances were inconsequential, | and in the lull that followed action was taken.” Police from Bombay at. ‘last gave Ghandi the ride he was jhoping for, by arriving by train at Surat station, gathering him in at his bungalow before his “staff” knew it and taking him to the Poona| jail. These Leaders of the Workers’ Struggle in the South! Above—The original Gastonia organizers, st up to 20 year in Georgia and Joe Carr, Young ( go on trial under @ civil war law will ask the death penalty. Their holding meetings for that purpose. eu i defendants, except the three women lying in jail while awaiting trial. Seven men were given Below—Left to right, i. H. Powers, Communist Party organizer Tommunist League organizer. They in Atlanta today. The prosecutor crime consists in distributing leaf- lets calling on Negro and white workers to organize together and in BULL Whalen, four-flushing “red” tion” of the Congressional Commi ington to show what he hi telling about “Soviet plot: talist press says he is already “a geries which the Federated charges are the work of the infa the chairman of the committee, J ever the ridiculous “revelations.” * (Wireless B Ghandi’s arrest may give a tem- |porary help to his pacifi ment and therefore to Br |perialism, but tie principal leader- |ship of the Indian masses is in the hands of the proletariat. | The life history of Gandhi has ibeen one long story of support to| British imperialism, in spite of his |pretended “opposition.” When he was in South Africa during the Boer |war he aided the Bri selling war bonds, agitating for en-| listment and organizing an Indian) Red Cross service which he led and was cited for heroism by the Briti Likewise in the World Imperiali perialist Britain so actively that the British government gave him a medal. His present pacifist prop- aganda is fully as worthy of a medal from British imperialism. 2,500 MINERS STRIKE. WHITBURN, Eng.—Under the leadership of the young putters in a local colliery 2,500 miners struck over a wage grievance, ROME ROME, Ga. (By Mail).—Twe hun- | dred workers and unemployed gath- ered around the speakers’ stand | here in the first May Day demon- stration ever held in this city. They | were prepared to defend themselves and their speakers and did rescue one of them from the police. Thousands of leaflets were dis- tributed among the mill, stove foun- dry and railroad workers, giving the demands of the unemployed and calling for a fight on capitalism | and for the defense of the Soviet Union, Thugs with shotguns threatened to shoot down the workers distrib- uting the leaflets, but did not dare to do so. Bleck Arrests. miserably collapsed, because t compelled to admit the basele: nections exist between the So- viet trade organizations in America and the Communist movement. The “Izvestia” notes that the serious American press scepticism, and assumes that Sir Henry Deterding, Royal Dutch Shell oil imperialist of two birds with one stone: the hated Soviet Union and the dreaded American competitor. As everywhere, says “Izves tia,” so in America, the anti- Soviet provocations damage chiefly the interests of the country where they occu issuing warrants for H. Jackson, Trade Union Unity League district organizer, and for Mary Dalton, National Textile Workers’ Union or- ganizer, but though of making a preliminary canvass of the workers’ homes first to feel out sentiment. about that. The answers they got to their questions were so hot that no warrants were issued. Bets were offered by the thugs that no meeting would take place, and many threats were made gainst speakers and organizers or demon- strators, but the meeting was held anyway. H. Jackson spoke on the signifi- cance of May Way, the role of the A. F. of L. in the South and the need of the Southern workers for The police and sheriff discussed organization, ia vy Press Soviet Paper ‘‘Izvestia”’ | Raps Whalen’s Forgeries JETIN baiter, has “accepted the invita- ittee on Immigration to visit Wash- s to prove all the fairy tales he has been He will appear on Friday, and the capi- rranging” all the cight or ten for- correspondent in Washington mous “Dr, Nosovitzky.” However, ohnson, is quoted as vastly excited * * 'y Inprecorr.) MOSCOW, May 5.—Commenting upen the American for- geries, the official organ of the Soviet Government, “Izvestia,” road them to the elec! | declares that the tacticak move of the New York police has|shot them down in cold blood. he State Department, etc., are sness of the suggestion that con- ‘HIM AT ASTOR TONIGHT Grover Whalen, watch dog of big sh loyally, treats the forgeries with great! business in New York will be given his dinner tonight and sent to bed. | All of his immediate bosses will he at Hotel Astor, will be there tonight, to verbally pat : , World Imperialist; Great Britain, has a hand in) him on the head for clubbing down War he kept India “loyal” to im-) the game to damage Soviet- and threatening to shoot workers. | American trade, thus killing) With a grand swell feed, they will |celebrate the hero of the blackjacks and the breadlines, and while the st ing jobless go on starving, they ill swell rich viands, and Whalen | will get drunk on the oratory The dinner was originally intended to celebrate Whalen’s retirement from the office of Police Commis [sioner Now, they say, he will try to stay on for a while. \ / WORKERS PROTECT SPEAKERS May Day Meeting Held in Defiance of Police, Thugs Fight to Save Speakers. Mary Dalton spoke in defiance of |threats to “get” her if she did so. {Company thugs began to throw jeggs and brickbats at her, with the benevolent neutrality of the police jstanding all around. Trey were not able to stop the speaker, The police delegated the company thugs to arrest Jackson. He was |seized and crowded into a police car |for “a ride,” but the workers’ de- jfense corps swarmed around, pre vented the kidnapping and forced the police to admit that they had no grounds for his arrest. The meeting then continued to a} | successful conclusion, the workers | \forming a voluntary guard around Ithe organizers, 2,300 business men} Forger Whalen Going for Secret Plotting Amter, and Raymond. case was argued April 2 WIN SOUTH, SAYS UNITY LEAGUE Answer Boss Terror The Trade Union Unity League national office has issued the fol- |lowing statement, calling for ae creased struggle in the South by | workers, against exploitation and |for the release of their arrested | leaders. | “A little over a year ago, the Trade Union Unity League entered |the South, with a program for or-| | ganizing its greatly exploited work- ers for ctruggle against the stretch- out, low wages, and the most miser- able living conditions of the South- ern workers, both Negro and white. Bosses Answer Is Terror. | Ever since the southern workers have begun to organize under the militant leadership of the T.U.U.L. the bosses, with their hired thugs, | police, courts and government, have used every kind of legal and lynch-| law violence in an attempt to stop |them and to drive out and murder the leaders. They have raided the union halls, the strike relief stores, and beaten and bayoneted workers jon the picket line, sent organizer: and union members to long chain- gang sentences, and tried to rail- ric chair; and “The first great struggle of the southern workers centered around the textile region of Gastonia. Here he workers under the leadership of the National Textile Workers Union, affiliated to the T.U.U.L., went on |strike against starvation wages and miserable conditions, and besides |carried on a campaign for the or- ganization of Negro and white work- ers together for struggle. “For this, the bosses evicted the families of the workers from their | |ccmpany owned shacks, raided their | |temporary tents and quarters, and fired upon the workers. During the! struggle for "he defense of them-| jselves and their families and the! {right to organize, the Chief of Pol-| | ice of Gastonia was killed, and sev- |eral other police agents of the bos- ses were wounded. For this fight tc defend themselves, seven leaders (Continued on Page Three.) UNITY COUNCIL MEETS THURSDAY To Build Organization Center for New Unions All unions, industrial leagues, shop committees and Trade Union Unity League groups in reformist unions are urgently requested to have their delegates attend the first organization meeting of the Local Trade Union Unity Council. The meeting will be held on Thursday May 8, at 7:45 p. m., at Astori Hall, 62 E. Fourth St. This meeting of the Council is} of the greatest importance to the} ampaign to build a real center of class struggle unionism in Greater New York, which will co-ordinate | the activities and struggles of the T. U. U. L. unions and leagues and establish an apparatus which will meet the growing possibilities for | arrested and charged with ARBITRARY DECISION BY JUDGE GAVEGAN ANOTHER m7 SLAP AT HUNGRY WORKERS Foster, Minor, Amter, Raymond Punished for Carrying Demands of 110,000 to City Hall to Washington Friday Against U.S. S. R. No bail and no writ of probable error for Foster, Minor, That was the decision yester nunced by Supreme Court Justice Gavegan, before whom the The capitalist courts of New York add one more point to their list of tyrannical and arbitrary attempts to suppress the organization of the unemployed workers here, to jail for as long a time as possible their elected leaders and representa- tives. Appeal proceedings were started as soon as the committee of the March 6 demonstrators against hun- ger were convicted, April 11. When they reach a certain stage, prob- ably during the course of this month, another demand for bail can be made. Special Treatment. In every ordinary case, the su- preme court grants a writ of prob- able error in the course of things, and the defendant is released on bail. But this is not an ordinary case. This is the case of 110,000 unemployed and striking workers who refused to be submissive, who insisted on making demands. Fos- ter, Minor, Lesten, Raymond and Amter speak in the name of mil- lions of hungry, jobless men and women, And the capitalist courts, |the Tammany judges of New York know it. They hope by unexampled severity to suppress this movement. The unemployment movement is go- ing on, with a national convention July 4 in Chicago. List of Outrages. When the committee sought to present the demands for work or wages and unemployment relief, seven hour day and five day week, to the city government, they were unlaw- ful assembly, and with assaulting a policeman. They were denied bail by the chief magistrate. Only a higher court order, backed by the masses of aroused workers got them admitted to high bail, $12,000 each.’ They were tried without a jury, be- fore three judges. No evidence of police brutality was admitted. The defense was not allowed to show pictures of the events on Union Square. They were railroaded. They were then confined ten days before sentence. At the time of sentenc- ing each made ringing speeches, condemning the fake trial, exposing capitalist justice, and defending the | right of the unemployed to march to the city hall and present de- mands. Each spoke of the then coming May Day demonstration. Minor said, at the time, “You are sentencing us not only for March 6, but for the greater demonstration May First.” Gavegan’s Threat. Judge Gayegan, when argument | was presented for bail, admitted in {a brazen statement from the bench that he would take May First dem- onstrations into consideration in rendering his decision. This was interpreted at the time that there would be no bail, to keep the ar- rested leaders in jail until after May 1 Another Trial May 14 The felony case, “assaulting a po- liceman” often postponed, is now set for May 14. In this case a jury trial must be allowed, and the courts ‘are not in so much of a hurry to try it. Foster, Minor, Amter and Ray- mond were sentenced up to three yeary each—they could be released after six months, but it is safe to Say that if the courts have their way they will serve the limit. Jo- seph Lesten, another member of the committee, was given 30 days, and was released yesterday. organization with 10,000 new mem- bers in New York. The Council will elect its execue tive, set up departments and make final arrangements for the member- building the T. U. U. L. into a mass ship drive in New York. Delegates are expected to come early, wii ' a uve: =