The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 12, 1930, Page 4

‘adalty wer" Page Four By A. LOZOVSKY. (General Secretary Red Ir gress. In the f turning point of t pointed to the grea ( organization by n Right their ed” in Mosc spiting Branc today an ind lifficult to ar stie pe Jevelopment of the inter . move ment. con! in the upsurge being evidenced 2 , though not alike in all countries. ch emphas and R.I.L.U. in ec In telegrams rei that the miners have set u corps. These self-defense corps called in the bourge One of the corps con 2 papers, of 400 persons, and the other of How- ever, also another figure is named—2,000 mem gers of the self-defense cor Some of the dourgeois papersaspeak of tv bering 8,000 and 6,000 out the aid of the Comr ers themselves in Au: Wales—are organizing, of some of the ex num ist Party, t lia—in Ne under the leadership , former sol ‘old iers in he imperiali jefense corps. And for what purpose? In order to struggle against he “Labor” Governm Facts A partisan war in such r-off country bear witnes a great The Correct L Here is another fa ‘om another f the correctness of our policy The Opportunist Evert sent a 1 Committee of the y in which he co kes and incoi n with the question On the trad ec in Germany. declaration to the C German Commu pletely recog ion, w committ 2 elections, concerning th question of he upward surge, ete. What docs this mean? It means tha’ the upsurge ha aven been recognized by the most hackward slements. At one time the bourgeois and so sial-democratic press, having heard of the capi tulation of Bukharin, Rykov and To wrote hat the latter were “compelled” to capitulat by means of thr in view of the fact that there is “terror” reigning in the U.S.S.R., that there is a dictatorship here. But what forces the opportunists to capitulate in Germany? eee sky Why, over there there is the dictatorship of he bourgeoisie! It is clear they capitulat yecause facts go against them. The mear ess and slanderous explanations of the opportunists to the effect that our Righ ‘onciliators capitulated ause of nothing. But, on the other hand, the fact of capitulation the conciliators in many srove clearly and vividly that the correct lin of the Communist Internatio compels those who do not desire to break with the revolu sionary labor movement least today to come out frankly and honestly admitting their mis- takes. I believe that this fact, taken from altogether a different view, also bears witness % the upsurge and relentless class struggle. Agenda of the Fifth Congress. The Fifth R.LL.U. Congress, as I said above, s confronted with the task of, on the one hand, summing up the past battles, and on the other, +0 point out forms and methods for the future struggle. The agenda of the Fifth R.I.L.U. Congress s not very extensive: (1) Report of Executiv« Bureau and Tasks of the International Wom m Workers’ Trade Union Committee, the R.1 4.U. Youth Secretariat, and the Internatio Trade Union Committee of Negro Wor (2) Struggle against danger of new imperial- ts wars. (3) Role of the Trade Unions in the ‘ Socialist Construction of the U.S.S.R. (4) Casks of the Trade Unions in the Colonial and Semi-Colonial Countr: (5) Problem of Jadres in the Revolutionary Labor Movement. ‘© Elections. seems as if the agenda is “short.” In tetual fact, however, it embraces a v num- ver of questions, it embraces all political and wganizational problems of the world revolu- ionary trade union movement; the results of he work carried out by our trade union or. sanizations from the point of view of self- 4 Righ Workers! Join the Party of Your Class! Jommunist Party U. S. A. 3 East 125th Street, New York City. I, the undersigned, want to join the Commu- ‘ist Party. Send me more information. Jame .. (ddress . Yecupation .... + vity.. « Age. Mail this to the Centra) Office. Communist ‘arty, 43 Evst 12dth St. New York, N.Y. i THE FIFTH R.LL.U. CONGRESS APPROACHES Punt Sindav, al oe 28 Y Cable: “DATWE uare, New York of the | feats from lead in the nent nd « I he he point batt the working class; ence in solving th of the united at the enterprises; the ques- regarding the organization and activities the lutionary trade ion deleg e mass poli- Red trade unions, nary oppositions, zation. majority o rom below factory committe urticular attention to of the Right ,devi- ation and con been evidenced w rse of these last ted by us. Then | r work in the colonial countries, the the 5 the Socia Aas of ies of . national economy, forms nizing the unemployed, } s with an illegal trade union t, combination of the illegal, legal and 1 forms and methods of struggle, the es—in a word, the joining up of 1 political and organizational problems con- fronting the world trade union mévement—such | agenda of | e the questions embraced e Fifth R.LL.U. Cong the Disputable Questions. number of ould I. Congre to preserve , d, Pe , line up in the disputable questions decided upon by | n be n such coun- ete, the reformist Is it nec ies like Germ: nt “Worke trade unions? 2. Now is it neces: to organize trade union oppositions in such countries like Ger- <ngland, Austria; are the present or- F al forms of the trade union oppo- sition sufficient in conditions of the ever-in- sing class struggles and the provocative ons of the social-fascists? 3. How should the unorganized be organized | in those countries where there are no devolu- tionary trade unions; should the unorganized | workers be called upon to line up in the re- | formist trade unions, should they be joined up with the trade union oppositions, and if so, on what basis? . at 4. Has the question of setting up new trade in such countries like, for example— f so, how should this unions Germany, become ripe? be accomplished? 5, What is social-fascism, and to what de- ee have the reformist trade unions been isized? Should the slogan be used of “winning over the reformist trade unions,” or should this slogan be dialectically taken off and in- stead another slogan issued: “to win over the members of the reformist trade unions,” which means, of course, to continue to work inside the reformist trade unions. I have only enumerated those basic ques- be subject to preliminary de- ysis by us. , the principal thing in preparing the Fifth Congress is to lead these prep- arations out of the premises of the central organs, to make these preparations widespread | among the masses, to make it the common knowledge of the workers that the Fifth Con- gress is approaching, and that the questions | he agenda of the Congress be really widely sed at the workers mass meetings. fasei The “Young Worker” and Our Immediate Tasks rue has recently demonstrated that | it is capable of doing Communist work. and of building the organization. On March 6, on | May 1, as well as in other cempaigns in recent months the League has played a leading role. The establishment of the Weekly Young Worker must be considered as an outstanding achievement of our League. However, the gap between our organizational strength and our influence ig as yet too wide. The Young Communist League is not yet root- ed in the factories and shops. It is not even known yet among the broad masses of young workers. As one of the best means to further extend our influence and our organizational strength, is to build up the Young Worker as the paper of the masses of youth in industry, When the young workers read our paper they | will learn more about the class struggle of the | role of the youth in that struggle, and the part played by our League in leading the young workers in the fight against the bosses. Hence, by building up of the circulation and influence of the Young Worker, we are laying the ground for the building up of our Young Communist League as a mass youth organization. The drive to establish the Weekly Young Worker which has ted on March 1, has revealed some very serious weaknesses in our work, weaknesses which we must overcome if we are to complete the drive successfully, and maintain the Young Worker as a weekly. What are the shortcomings in ouur work so far? First of all there seems to be a.general un- derestimation of the political importance of the Young Worker as a medium of reaching the American proletarian youth. Our member- ship does not yet understand that as a means of erystallizing the present growing di (fue to the effects of the economic er employment, speed-up, ete.) among the young workers must be made into a mass organ, as the spokesman, propagandist and organizer of the youth. The nd shortcoming noticeable is the resistance on the part of a considerable number of our members to do the every day “little” work of going around soliciting subs, ads, eol- lecting funds, ete. For many of our League members this most elementary, but important work is “not politieal enough.” This tendency * is a remnant of the old (from the days of Zam, ete.). Here we find a whole lot of phrase- mongering, of speech making, but failure to produce results. (I am referring to such dis- tricts like Detroit and Cleveland.) The last outstanding weakness of ours In this drive is the lack of an apparatus. This is true of every district and every unit, The National Exeentive Committee ,is largely res- ponsible for the fe lure to build uy a funetion- ing apparatus for ihe widest sale and distrl- se Trion Py RK" a NY Daily [2 Worker Central Organ of the Comniumst Varty of the U. S. A. 5 at Nes 7 By Bill Gropper Lessons of the Trial of 17 in Los Angeles By EVA SHAFRAN. | | Tt the capitalist class is alarmed over the militancy of the working class throughout ¥ the entire country, can be seen by the con- fusion displayed by the capitalists and their servants of all shades, at the present moment. In one place the boss class suppressvs the workers with an iron hand. In another it is “lenient.” With one hand capitalism puts, working class leaders in jail, refuses to let them out on bail;'with the other, though gocd servants of capitalism, it “thinks” that this is not the “right tactics,” and so on down the line. Capitalism in Southern California decided to rule with an iron hand. Not one meeting of the Communist Party, of the Trade Uni Unity League, of the International Labor De- fense passes without the “Red Squad” inter- ference, 6r breaking it up. As a result of this, the workers of Los An- | geles and the surrounding cities are organiz- ing workers’ self-defense organizations to pro- tect their meetings and demonstrations 2s well as the movement generally. Capitalism in Southern California hopes, through the increased police terror, to stifle the revolutionary movement here. But we see entirely another thing taking place: the Com- munist Party, the T.U.U.L., the Unemployed Council, is growing daily, and the revolution- | ary mood of the workers is increasing tremen- | dously. March 6th Fighters. All this was especially reflected in the trial of the 17 workers and leaders of the Unem- ployment Demonstration on March 6, that opened on April 3, and lasted till April 14. As a result of the great demonstration that we had here in Los Angeles, on March 6th, when tens of thousands of workers came out | to the City Hall at the cal} of the Communist Party and T.U.U.L., for unemployment relief and the general struggle against capitalism, 17 workers were arrested, severely beaten up, and tried by a capitalist court for “meeting without a permit,” “unlawful assemblage” (which meeting of the workers is lawful in the eyes of the boss class?) “obstructing traf- fie,” “resisting arrest,” and other “charges” of | the same nature. | Two out of these 17 arrested, Comrades | Sklar and Waldron, deeided to be their own at- | torneys. They were so, throughout the trial. A jury was “chosen,” and our two comrades ; in questioning the jury, right from the first ( day of the trial mafle it very clear that the | whole procedure of “picking” a jury is ridi- culous, for everyone of these men and women had their minds fixed even before they came to court; that this was the only reason for calling them to be jurors, Through questions, the comrades brought out clearly that the “im- partial” jurors are very partial when it comes to the question of private property, and the protection of private property by the govern- ment at the expense of the toiling masses; and finally, that the jurors were against the right of the workers for self-defense at a time when they are attacked by the police and armed thugs. Further our two comrades, and ghe LL.D. attorney for the remaining 15, brought out clearly the brutality that the police displayed bution of our weekly. By an apparatus we mean a plan of organization in every unit and in every district, by which means the Young Worker will be spread among the youth in the factories, in youth organizations, on the streets and wherever young workers are found. As a part of carrying out the Plan of Ac- tion (issued by the N.E.C.) as a part of our work in making the necessary turfi towaids mass activity we must mobilize the entire , Lea@gue to maintain the Young Worker cs 7 weekly. Concrete every day work must be c. ried out by every member. A real well fun tioning machinery must be established, wheve: by each unit will sell the Young Worker 2 factory gates, at meetings, demonstration, cte. | Shock troops should be formed in every unit | as a means of getting best results, ayd as a | medium of mobiligation of the membership for action, The drive for the weekly is still on Every district can and mu&t intensify its worl in the drive. Only by @ real conscious effort on the part of the entire League will our Young Worker become the newspaper of the militant youth, Over the top in the drive by June First \ . \ sary. " first degree guilty verdict” on them. in the March 6 demonstration, and stated openly in court, that “the workers will not stand for this, but will fight this terror by still more, and means.” still stronger organizational (Spector, as witness.) Bewildered Judge. The judge all through the trial was bewil- dered. A few times he stated that “this is an outstanding, an unusual trial.” At one time he would let the comrades go on as their ,| own lawyers, asking questions, ete., another time he would cut them short, not allowing a word. Only one thing he didn’t fail to do all through the trial was—prejudicing the jury agaihst the defendants, and ridiculing every- thing the “defendants” said. Of course this was stupidity and not neces- The jury does not need to be preju- diced. It was enough to say the defendants are Bolsheviks, Communists, atheists, and the prosecuting attorney could have gotten “a But “everybody has to do his share,” you know, so the judge did his. : The most interesting day of the trial was Saturday, Friday evening the prosecuting attorney | made his “rebuttal.” He said “the glefend- ants are Bolsheviks, Com-moonists, and any other name you want to call them,” si RST everywhere: One year $6; six months $3; two months $1; excepting Boroughs of tian and Bronx, New York City, and foreign, which are: One year $8; six months $4.50 | of the Mlinois coal miners. and de- | of a Weekly Young Worker is a tremendous SUBSCRIPTION RATES: a ad ane By JOHN YEAR has passed since the F Convention of the Young Communist League, Events of world importance togk place in the country as well as in our Part and League. Life has been the best judge and has fully brought out the correctness of the line and decisions of our convention. If a year ago we declared at the convention that the “prosperity myth” is disappearing, now, a year later, the country finds itself in a serious economic crisis which is continually deepening and has a tremendous effect on the conditions of the American working class. The toiling youth have made gigantic steps forward this year in becoming more and more UBEN. ifth National a decisive factor in the class struggle. A year ago, our convention pointed out that: “The proportion of young workers in heavy industry is increasing and the gen- eral orientation of the young workers is directed more and more to heavy industry. New industries established on a_ ration- _ alized basis, employ a majority of young workers. Thus the weight of the young workers in industry is greatly increased, leading to an increasing participation of the young workers in these industries.” This process has been further accentuated by the present economic crisis which brought about an absolute worsening of tht conditions of the young workers. Simultaneously with it, we see a tremendous increase of resistance’ on their part. It is only necessary to recall the strike wave in the textile ind out the South, the Illinois coal s ticipation of 200,000 young workers on March 6th, the participation of thousands of young workers on May Ist. It becomes obvious that a militant spirit and readiness for struggle prevails throughout the ranks of the Amer- ican young workers, This year also brought about a complete change in the life, work and outlook of our Young Communist League. Whereas at the Sixth Convention of our Party, the renegade Lovestone laid the basis to depart from the Comintern, by rejecting the Comintern line and decisions, the League Convention fully en- dorsed and pledged itself to become one of the best interpreters of the Comintern line. This firmness and decisiveness on the part of our convention played an important role immediately after the convention, when the hopeless opportunists and permanent faction- alists of the Rubinstein type raised their stu- pid factional heads again, These elements soon exposed themselves to be a part of the renegade Lovestone group, they were isolated, diseredited and expelled from our ranks. This year was indeed a year of struggle, a stubborn fight to break with our past (the Lovestone-Zam regime) which marked “one of the darkest pages in the history of the Amer- ican League.” We not only squeezed the pus out of our ranks by lancing the organized right wing, but consistently struggled against all concrete manifestations of the Right Dan- ger which remains the main danger. We have made a beginning, although belated, in the struggle against the “left” danger, which is the chief hindrance towards our struggle against the right danger and concrete Bolshe- vik mass work. Complete Unity. The complete consolidation and unanimity of our ranks from top to bottom on the line of the Young Communist International has helped us to make tremendous steps forward in the direction of a beginning of mass youth work. We have penetrated into the South for the first time in the history of our League.e The League actively participated in the strike The establishment manded in the name of patriotism, allegiance | political achievement of the entire League. to Your” flag, the jury should convict them. The taking in of eleven hundred new members He even found it necessary to state: “If you | jn the last membership drive, the beginning | will not conviet them, you will show that you too, are against our government!” What else did a jury of old fogies, business- men, and retired business-men, many of whom make a living out of sitting on the jury—what else could a jury of this kind (or any capi- talist jury, for that matter) have said, if not “guilty”? Right in Their Teeth. But when the comrades Sklar and Waldron got on the stand Saturday morning they «told n right into its teeth what it means for , and what workers can get from cap- justice and rule. “Not fifteen defendants are on trial here, but the working class, the Communist Party. its leader, those are on trial, and those will | give us the verdict and answer you,” said Com- | | tivity in penetrating into the masses of workers rade Waldron. “The only thing you give to the workers is ' misery, starvation and jail; the working class at the present time is revolting against you and will revolt still more,” he continued. “If you put us in jail now, you can’t break our movement, hundreds, thousands, of others will take our place and carry on our struggle till this system will be abolished and the dictator- ship of the proletariat, as in the Soviet Union now, will be established.” “Your system, the capitalist system is doomed,” said Comrade Sklar. “We will still see your downfall and the rising of a workers and farmers state in the United States.” Thus spoke our comrades, fearlessly, coura- geously, in a capitalist tourt, right into the teeth of capitalism. Unemployment—the causes of it, imperialist wars, the building of Socialism im the Soviet Union, the right of workers for self-defense and the right to organize and strike, all these questions were discussed and our position made clear ‘at the March 6 trial in Los Angeles. Hundreds of workers that filled the court room daily, got their first lesson in Commu- nism and capitalist justice during this trial. Thousands of other workers got much of this information through the capitalist newspapers that came out the net day with big head lines on the “menace of Communism,” how the Com- munists want to destroy the United States, and how the prosecuting attorney and the judge defended “our” country. Many workers, as a result of this, joined the Unemployment Council right in the court room, and many joined the Party since. Twelve out of the seventeen were sentenced to six months jail and $500 fine; two to sixty days; two to thirty days and one was acquitted. 'The bail was immediately raised to $1,000 and the comrades went to jail till the money can | be raised. The case was appealed to a higher court. But this in no way crippled our movement as the capitalists thought it would. On the con- trary: with still more fire did our comrades throw themselves into the work of the Party apd the movement generally; still more work- ers are flocking into our ranks, and still more we have made in organizing youth sections, the issuing of shop papers in important indus- tries, the active participation of the League on March 6th and May Ist, as well as the be- A YEAR OF STRUGGLE ginning of the carrying out in practice of the Plan of Action, show that slowly but surely our League is making the beginning in mass activity. Despite all the positive achievements League is still in a very serious condition, mainly due to the disproportion between the growing process of radicalization of the young workers and the slowness of the League in adopting itself and its methods of work, suit- able to the present period. The roots for this slowness lie in the serious underestimation and-the failure to see the readiness of the young workers for struggle. The League is not enough politically alert, thus failing to grasp things quickly, lack of appreciation of the excellent possibilities ‘we have at present to build our League. There are some of the concrete tendencies of a defi- nite Right nature which must be strenuously combatted, Revolutionary Phrases. In addition to this open opportunism, we also have in our ranks strong manifestations of a “Left” nature. We have comrades who speak about the third period, about the radi- calization of the young workers, and shoot wonderful revolutionary phrases, but in deeds are not doing the most elementary things which the movement demands from an average League member. The Y. C. I. and the Na- tional Committee have pointed out again and again, that it is these “heroes” of pseudo- revolutionary phrase mongering that are the chief obstacle in our struggle against the Right danger. The main prerequisite for making the turn totvards mass work is complete ideological clarity, to be fully aware of all the elements that stand in our way in making this turn, That is why it is so necessary to struggle on two fronts, against open opportunism and against opportunism covered with “left” phrases. This struggle on two fronts is noth- ing new in our ranks. In fact, the entire his- tory of the Comintern is a history of sys- tematic and persistent struggle against open and covert opportunism. While we struggle on two fronts, we must always know when and where to direct our main blows, based on the objective situation in the country, the exact status of the class struggle, the co-relation of forces, etc. It is wrong to create a mechani- cal division between these varied forces of op- portunism, they do not run parallel. In the long run, all shades of opportunism run into the same channels. However, it is very es- sential to carefully distinguish open oppor- tunism covered with “left” phrases, since the methods in struggling against both deviations are different. The struggle against opportunism, however, will remain so much talk if it is not accom- panied with daily activity among the young workers. The carrying out in practice of the National Plan of Action is,,therefore, the most impor- tant political and organizational task of our League today. The Plan of Action should not be looked upon as a mere carrying out of quotas. The realization of these quotas must come about as a result of developing and lead- ing the struggles of the young workers. Indeed the present, as well as, the future, is very bright for the Young Communist League, providing we will increase the tempo of our work, providing the factories and the mass youth organizations will become the central sphere of our activity, providing we will learn how to approach, bring in, and keep young workers in our ranks. We passed the stage when “show work” was considered an accom- plishment. What we want is permanent re- sults in the form of building youth sections in trade unions, organizing genuine shop nuclei, to maintain our Young Worker as a weekly, to develop mass anti-militarist activity, to in- crease our membership, to broaden ottr League, to enter new territories. Let us arm ourselves ideologically and or- ganizationally and prepare for the coming battles of the American working class youth. Our Red By EDMUND GR . HE practical everyday activity of the Com- munist Party should be directed towards | the winning of the leading role and the es- tablishment of its influence among the work- | | ing mass Communist Red Sundays should give us the | opportunity of widening the scope of our ac- that our Party membership is unable to come in contact with in the various factories and shops. Red Sundays should be the medium of ap- proach in carrying forward Communist agita- tion and propaganda to the workers. How- ever, what is tlte procedure ‘of our work during Red Sundays. How do we go about them and, what are our results? - Experiences of Red Sunday. Let us examine the Red Sundays in Section One, District 2, which we had lately. 1. Our membership was not onganized for Red Sunday activity, This.was proven by the number of comrades who Showed up. A small fraction of Section One membership turned up during the three consecutive Red Sundays. Fur- ther, practically the same comrades reported for duty Sunday after Sunday. 2. The Red Sunday activity was not carried through in an organized manner. (a) Comrades were sent out at random to streets and localities which were picked with- out consideration as to whether they were residential or business districts. (b) The significance of language districts were ignored. For instance, Italian comrades were given t® canvass a locality consisting of entirely American, Slovak, Greek, and Jewish residents. Those who gould have done weil their own nationals were sent to localities where they could not put forth the message of our Party as well as they would have done were they sent to the correct place. (c) The result was that very little was ac- complished. It happened so all down the line. 3.—Localities reported useless on the first Red Sunday because of either having no work- ers residing there or, composed of the boss determine becomes our struggle. The propaganda and agitation done for our Party by the two comrades acting as their own attorneys were tremendous, and it should serve as a lesson to us, and a point for discussion and decision—whether this should not become a general practice in our movement in cases of arrests and trials, Sundays class or again, entirely covered with business houses were, instead of being disregarded, visited repeatedly the following two Sundays. There was no check fip the experience at- tained from one Red Sunday to the following one, 4. There was not a sufficient number of copies of <Daily Workers, tht Liberator, the Working Woman, I] Lavoratore, ete., on hand for distribution. Naturally because of this sloppiness and disorganized manner of Red Sun- day activity the energy exerted by those who did show up was practically hopeless, In this period and at this stage of development of our Party such condition is and should be in- tolerable. Do Not Respond to Struggle. Regardless of the fact that the struggles are rising rapidly and decisive battles are im- mhinent—nevertheless, some of our membership seem to react in such an unconscious manner as, though this did not concern them at all. What does this signify? "his shows that some of our comrades are lagging behind the times and, are simply drift- ing smoothly and calmly along the current which leads away from the working masses and their daily struggles. Our membership fails to live up to the decisions of the Tenth Plenum of the E.C.C.I. While the bourgeoisie are preparing for any emergencies that will arise from the maturing mass battles, our membership is falling down on the job; is lagging behind. The demonstra- tions our Party had in this city lately should serve as ample proof to those comrades who are still floating in the air and dreaming dreams. Our Party, the working class as a whole, carinot afford the danger of being caught in confusion. We are today living through a period of revolutionary upsurge. Our Party must utilize and call to duty every single comrade in what- ever field of work he may fit in. Our Red Sundays will become Red Sundays only when our Party membership will pene- trate deep into the working masses and rally stalwart*fighters and defenders of our Party program. The decisions of the Tenth Plenum of the E.C.C.I. will bear fruit only when our Party membership and activity will become the guiding light &nd leadership of the Amer- ican working class. This cannot be attained by mrely attending a mass meeting and be- come drunk with victory by shere applauge. Everyday work of our Party must became the» duty of every Party comrade. . ' Bee