The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 20, 1930, Page 4

Four Sosa Page canny, excepr sunaay, ar esant 1696-7-8, Cable. 26-28 Union Square. STRUGGLE AGAINST RIGHT WING IN COOPERATIVES ANI ) THE TASKS UF THE PARTY (Adopted by the Central Committee, C.P.U.S.A.) 1 of a e lett ttention of ort e of ninist ted with the the ap- general in our cooperative wo were 1 lack (gen- eral ma ive Ex- change) parti » Recep- tion Comr that the P. given immediate attention rship and should ha es. that time. Inst expelled from the P condemning his line strong | ideolo- and rative factional Jonen’s removal w », and many times > Party was “too this impor- st fall. Muc! in the CI reparing pry stand These com- le against the Party's 's with criti- vacillation by s created confusion the membership in n among the weaker rgetic fight against line forcel him to n enemy of the Howeve Party International, but also as class enemy of the revolutionary prole- tariat and poor farmers, against whose real interest he fought. In this fight, the Party exposed Halonen’s efforts to make workers’ and poor farmers’ cooperatives into only petty trade institutions, as opposed to developing them into organs of struggle against capitalist exploitation and the capitalist system. This great difference between Halonen’s political and class neutrality and between the revolu- tionary class struggle line of the Party, has been clarified in this fight for the great num- ber of workers and poor farmers in the co- operatives, who have, during this struggle, come closer to the Party. This stggle against the right wing oppor- tunists in the cooperatives is part of the fight against the incurable opportunist elements in every Communist Party during this third per- | tod, and regardiess or rormer groupings, all | those who have taken up struggle against the Communist International are now making al- liances in their fight against the revolutionary line of the CI. For example, we see Lovestone and Halonen, formerly bitter enemies, now supporting each other. | Halonen’s betrayal was finally and unmis- takably exposed in the annual convention of the Cooperative Central Exchange, where his Phrases about “demoer: and “neutrality” were unmasked, All of the enemies of the Communist Party and the working class church people, social fascists, former TWW- ites, Alanne, Ohrn, and all the rest of the rene- gades against the Communist and Revolution- ary Opposition were united by Halonen, Ten- hunen, Corgan, and Vainionpaa, founders and builders of the Finnish Workers and Poor Farmers’ Cooperatives and founders of the Co- operative Exchange itself, were removed from the board. Reactionary and renegade elements were elected to their places. The Cooperative Central Exchange convention was a thoroughly machine-conducted meeting, ruled by a united front of reactionary, social fascist renegades, bureaucratic clique of cooperative officials. The revolutionary opposition was not even al- lowed to introduce its resolutions. The Communists and the revolutionary left wing made a splendid fight exposing Halonen’s | demagogie talk “democracy” as bureau- ¢ clique rule and his the of “neutral- ’ as the theory of the bourgeoisie against the interests of the workers and poor farmers in the cooperatives. Our Communist fraction i the revolutionary opposition, despite the ‘act that they were allowed only five minute spee put very clearly the role of the work- ing class cooperatives in the proletarian class struggle In their program and in various resolutions which they prepared for the con- , the revolutionary position was made As a result of our fight, the revolutionary tion has been crystallized and greatly lid: 1. It is now the task of the Party to continue the fight against the reformists, al fascists and renegade elements in the cooperatives, to win over the masses for the ne of the Communist International and to draw the cooperatives more closely to every class struggle of the working class. this, we must link up our cooperatives with the work amongst unemployed. Our fractions must fight to make the cooperatives show their soli- y with the unemployed workers, by ac- participating in their demonstrations, by credits to unemployed workers and , selling food to them at cost prices, In the same way, our fractions must fight to make the cooperatives assist strike move- ments and show elass solidarity with the strik- ing workers, assist them financially, giving it from their surplus and goods on edit and participating in their demonstra- tions and meetings wherever possible. © It is also of the utmost importance that our fractions emphasize the necessity of the co- operatives assisting in the organization of the unorganized workers into the TUUL and into new revolutionary unions and at the same time awing new members into the cooperatives >m the ranks of these basic proletarian ele- ments in the heavy industries and thereby strengthening the cooperatives with. sound proletarian elements, In this period of the sharpening’ contradic- tions between the imperialist powers them- selves on the one hand and of the war prep- arations against the Soviet Union on the other | hand, our fractions must strive to make the cooperatives actively participate in the strug- gle against the imperialist war and in the de- fense of the Soviet Union. Cooperatives also, as working class organ- tions, must be won for participation in the fense of class war prisoners, and for the ilding up of ,a mass workers’ defense organ- ization, the International Labor Defense, and help it in its work, The duty of the Communist fractions in the coperatives is to work for class participation cf the cooperatives in all the struggles of the workers under the leadership of our Party. It is absolutely necessary that this struggle ogainst the right wing be linked up with these tasks. Only this way will we be able to win over the masses in the cooperatives for the line of the Party and educate them in the class struggle. Only in this way can the coopera- tives be made organs of the class struggle. In order to accomplish these tasks, the CC cooperative department must be made to func- tion regularly. It must establish close con- nection with the CI cooperative sections ant with the cooperatives of the Soviet Union. The CC Cooperative Department must study co- operative questions thoroughly and organize local cooperative fractions and through them, establish close connectins with the revolution- ary left wing and with the masses in the co- operatives. Every district committee must establish a cooperative department and pay close atten- tion to the cooperative work. Especially must this be done in those districts like District. 9 and others, where there are many working class cooperatives, are first duty of the Communist fractions , to win the revolutionary left wing and the pLopeouatya elements for the Party program in the cooperative field. The Party must immediately start an ef- fective enlightenment campaign and discus- sion of the CI letter in the Party press. Espe- cially the Party language papers, Finnish, Jewish, ete., must explain in detail the letter of the Political Secretariat of the CI and the role of the Communists and revolutionary workers and poor farmers in the cooperatives. Also wherever they control, or have influence, our fractions must start local cooperative house or shop organs for the membership, utilizing them in furthering the revolutionary line of the Party, by linking that up with the local questions, ete. Discussion must be organized in every Party nucleus and in every Communist fraction in the cooperatives and from this the discussion must be taken up to the other working class organizations and finally to the shareholders’ meetings of the cooperatives. The Party must also issue coonerative liter- ature, such as “Lenin on the Cooperatives,” ete., in English. While our immediate aim is to defeat Hal- onen and his followers in the working class cooperatives, and to continue the struggle against the alliance of Warbasse, Alanne, and Halonen, our general an] main objective is, by our activities in the cooperatives, to win over the masses of workers and poor farmers for Communism. And in order to do this, we | must study this question and find ways and means in our educational and organizational work and by correct tactics, to convince, by our work in the cooperatives, the rank and file members, that only we, Communists, stand for their class interests and that our line is the only line which they can support. The Communists and revolutionary oppost- tion must now concentrate its fight on the local cooperatives and for the winning over to the revolutionary class line of the Comintert and our Party those masses who have until now mistakenly followed Halonen’s petty bour- geois line. New Yoru. N ¥ - Daily - Morgan, Hoover and Green (capitalism, unemployment convention in Chicago July 4 By S. B. | HE United States produces more than eighty- five per cent of the world’s motion pictures. One hundred and ten million people see these films each week in the United States alone. It is with peacockish pride that Will Hays, so-called “czar” of the industry and arch-hypo- crite, proclaims’ that.the motion picture is now a two and a half billion dollar industry! But the motion pictures are rot merely an industry in the same sense as say, the steel or oil industries. Besides being a tremendously profitable enterprise almost entirely in the | hands of four powerful trusts (Fox, Warner Bros., Paramount-Famous-Lasky and Radio- Keith-Orpheum, it is at the same time a power- ful instruntent in the hands of American. im- perialism for doping the minds of the workers with “wholesome enteytainment,” and {for spreading counter-revolutionary propaganda. The New Saloon. To a large extent the movies have taken the place of the saloon and the church in the every- day lives of the-workers. It is this compe- tition with the church that aecounts for the frequent attacks on the motion pictures by religious organizations. Only the other day the General Conference of the Southern Meth- odist Episcopical Church launched an attack on the movies which was given a lot of publicity in. the capitalist press. “... the motion pic- ture theatre—the greatest menace to morals and religion the church has had to face in many years.” So the proclamation read in,part. | A keen competition which cannot fail to end | up in the triumph of the more modern motion j picture with its “talk”” and “color” and “wide film” and stereoscopy.” As to prohibition, the cultural minimum which the capitalist class permits the workers to enjoy is much more profitably supplied in the form. of imbecilic films of the current mys- tery brand, than‘ the time spent in saloons. While whiskey results in a lowering of the productive: capacity of the worker, the film kills two birds with one stone by. stupefying him while allowing him to retain his working efficiency.’ Ford may threaten to fire intoxi- cated workers, but he will only find words of encouragement when it comes to their seeing movies. And speaking of films that dope the minds of the workers, the last eighteen months have exceeded all possible limits in output of moro- nic films, There is no need to name films to prove this, suffice it to quote Adolph Zukor, head of the largest film producing, distributing and exhibiting orgatization in the world, who | offers the following excuse in defense of films that are an offense to the intelligence of even a 14-year old child. “The intelligence of the average movig-goer is that of a fourteen-year old child.” Hailywood does not peoduce special films for children. ~The same “wholesome en- tertainment” is dealt to children and adult minds alike. Any wonder that the Soviet Union has found it necessary to forbid the admittance of children under sixteen into theatres showing films made in the United States. Children and Movies. The question of children and the movies de- serves a little more attention. The tragedy of juvenile delinquency that capitalism creates is closely allied to the movies that are shown to American workingclass chlidren, over ninety per. cent of whom attend movies from once a month ,to seven timesa-@ week. | “Movies is the real stuff. They ain't like | at home. That ain't real life—home. It’s just | hollerin’ and fightin’ all the time and—kids. , Pa’s drunk. Ma yells and the kids cryin.’ Ceniral Organ of the Communist Party ef the its government, of Labor) were standing unemployment very nicely. workers should starve, without demands for more wages or for shorter hours. the great campaign for 50,000 new members in revolutionary unions, and a great national TSA. 7 —By Bill Gropper and its American Federation They had it all fixed up that the Now comes The Movies As a Weapon Against the Working Class You see things in the movies that are dif- ferent—it’s another life. Fine clothes, cars. Poor people want these things too and they ain't got them. Movies gives you the real stuff. Then it's over soon and you come out on the street and it’s the same old thing for you, just ‘like before you went in.” This is a stenographic report of what a seventeen-year old boy in the New York State School for Boys replied when asked his opinion of the movies. And a fourteen-year old delinquent girl: “Movies make most anything seem all right. Things that look bad on the outside don’t seem to be bad at all in the movies.” It was at the end of the nineteenth century, | in the mining secigons of Pennsylvania that the movies first made their appearance, commer- cially. They supplied the necessary safety valve for the recreation of twelve-hour-a-day slaves. But great a blessing as the movies were for the capitalist class at their origin, they are thousandfold more valuable today that Hollywood represents the third largest industry in the United States. Trustification. The complete trustification of the motion pictures in the last two or three years has resulted in a more conscious shaping of this supreme propaganda machine by the capitalists. Consider that Owen D. Young, of Young Plan fame, is the man who leads Wall Street in the movies and helped organize the powerful Radio-Keith-Orpheum chain. The three new and most important features that have come to light since the wave of trustifieation have been the following: (1) The increasing importance of the news- reel, (2) The production of an unheard of num- ber of war films. (3) Use of the most primitive and vulgar themes in the average run of films. Without going into a detailed analysis of the special value of the newsreel for propagawla purposes, it is sufficient to point out that Fox, Hearst, M-G-M and Paramount have doubled and tripled their weekly output and never be- fore has the documentary film played such an important role in the movies. In a later article we will explain the reason why we believe that even if the film as an industry declines, which, incidentally, is very possible, the newsreel will be retained as the purest and most efficient weapon for spreading reactionary propaganda. At any rate, the theatre showing exclusively newsreels is a recent and significant pheno- menon. Nearly every large city in the country at the present time has at least one house screening newsreels exclusively and at nominal admission fees, As to the war films, it is a well-known fact that the U. S. War Department cooperates with projucers in the making of films like Wines, Flight, Cock-Eyed World, Tell it to the Ma- rines, and others. Mr. Lasky recently was de- corated for such cooperation by the U. S. gov- ernment. The Stinking Quality. The stinking quality of the “entertainment” films is the result of the digging into cheap novels and musical comedies in a desperate ef- fort t@ revive interest in an industry which at the time of the invention of the “talkie” three years ago, was. on the verge of complete collapse. Hollywood at the present time is a thorough- ly fascisized machine, ready to pour out im- perialist propaganda not only to America, but to the whole world. (American films are sent to seventy countries.) The Public Relations Committee which watch- Ry mail everywhere: One year $6; Machriian and Bronx, New York C ix months $3 SUBSCRIPTION RATE! two months $1; y, and foreign, which are: excepting Boroughs of One year $8; six months $4.50 I How Shall We Organize the Unorganized? : By EARL BROWDER, HEN the Party Convention meets on June 20th, one of the most important problems which it must pass judgment on is our trade union work. Central Committee, in its thesis and in the trade union resolution, is the organization of the unorganized into the revolutionary unions, and the independent leadership of economic struggles. This line, the product of our past years of experience and of the leadership of the Red International of Labor Unions, un- doubtedly has the support of the overwhelmin; majority of the Party, In the main, the at- tacks made upon it come from outside the Party, from the renegades of the Lovestone and "Trotskyite groups, and from the fas and social-fascists. There is, however, some unclarity among some Party members, and an occasional voice is raised against this line. For example, in discussing trade union problems, Comrade Kurt Stahl (in Der Ar- beiter on May 8), comes out most sharply with the conclusion that “it must be our task and duty to mobilize the membership of the Party against this wrong line.” Comrade Stahl, by thus challenging the line of the Central Committee, lays upon it the task and duty to convince him (if that is pos- sible) that he is wrong and that the Party is correct. Such a task can also be the occa- sion for a restatement of the trade union policy in a way calculated to clear up some miscon- ceptions more widely held among the member- ship than those of Comrade Stahl. Development of the New Line, The present policy of the Party represents a sharp turn from that followed for many years (approximately from 1922 to 1928), which made the center of all trade union work the penetration of the A. F. of L. and the building of left-wing groups therein, upon a program of transforming the A. F. of L. unions into organs of the class struggle for the work- ers. The former policy was, in general, cor- rect for the period in which it was applied. But in the course of those seven years, certain changes took place, first in the general condi- tions of the class struggle (transition from the second to the third period of post-war capi- talism), and second in the transformation of the trade union bureaucracy into fascist shock- troops of the capitalist class. With the chang- ing conditions, our policy changed also, It is true, not fast enough, however, as the change in policy was accomplished only under the blows of sharp defeat. Two experiences stand out as the most effective in bringing up sharply to face the necessities of the newly developing conditions of the class struggle. These were the Passaic strike and the Colorado coal strik In Passaic our Party made one of its first steps in directly organizing the unorganized workers, It did this falteringly, without any es over the quality of the films produced is composed of the following organizations: The main line proposed by the ; clear boldly-conceived policy, but the pressure of the movement of the workers quickly carried us into a great strike, in which the Party was recognized by the workers and the world as the unquestioned leader, Faced with the ques- tion, how to organize the unorganized, in this concrete form, we tried to fit it into our es- tablished policy of working “within the main stream” of the labor movement, the A. F. of L. We set ourselves the task of bringing these workers into the United Textile Workers. It is unnecessary at this moment to recall all the incidental blunders that were made in this great struggle. Jt was a magnificent class fight, in which the Party organized a national movement of masses in support, over many long months. But the basically wrong conception of the A. F. of L. as “the main stream,” into which all efforts must flow, led us finally to a F. of L. bureaucracy. We delivered the Pas- saic workers over to the United Textile Work- ers Union, which destroyed all organization within a few months, In Colorado the coal miners came out on | strike, under the nominal leadership of the I. i} National Society of the Sons of the American | Revolution. National Fiducation Association. Federal Council of Churches of Christ of | America. International Committee of the Y.M.C.A. Boy Scouts of America. Girl Scouts of Amer American Legion. American Federation of Labor. National Community Center Association, Camp Fire Girls. American Sunday School Union. Chatauqua Institute. Daughters of the American Revolution. National Board of the Y.M.C.A. International Federation of Catholic Alumnae Russell Sage Foundation, Central Conference of American Rabbi Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, National Catholic Welfare Conference. American Library Association, ete. In 1925 this committee became a permanent | and actual part of the motion picture industry. In other words, every jingo and fascist organ- ization in. the country has a say as to what pictures the workers are to see. After this, one need no longer be surprised at the quality | of pictures shown. Censorship in the United States is from day to day becoming more vicious. Despite the fact that strict control is exercised at the point of production, the great danger remains the news- reel, which for technical reasons cannot very easily be overseen. Czar Hays, can, however, cause any “dangerous” newsreel to be burned at a moment’s notice, as in the case of the Sacco-Vanzetti films, the movie which have been destroyed. Also the police commissioner of any city is empowered with the privilege of ruling out whatever he may think objectionable in a newsreel, A flagrant example of this was the action of Forgery Whalen, who saw to it that the films of the March 6 demonstration in New York were not shown. I want once more to emphasize the news-film is the important thing; that the cap- italist class knows that there are certain things that it cannot afford to have shown. It is afraid of some pictures. On the other hand, it has learned to use this kind of film to its own advantage. Hence the concentration on the news- reel in the past year. American capitalism has also learned to use the movies for directly militarist purposes. There are 84 army motion picture theatr: showing films from twice to seven times week- ly. They are under the supreme supervision of Major General Charles H. Bridges, with branch managers in the five army territorial divisions throughout the country. Before long every army post will be equipped with sound projection apparatus as a means of instructing soldiers in up-to-date mass murder technique. We must challenge this pernicious use of the film against us. We must openly fight against jingo films by hissing them off the screen. Films are being used against the work- ers like police clubs, only more subtly—like the reactionary press. If the capitalist class fears pictures and prevents us from seing rec- ords of events like the March 6 unemployment demonstration and the Sacco-Vanzetti trial we will equip our own cameramen and make our own films. The vogue of sound films, and the records of | W. W. We had a great left-wing mass move- ment on within the United Mine Workers at the time, and a national strike was going on We could have united the Colorado .movement of hitherto unorganized miners with our left wing, if we would not insist that in Colorado they should join ¢he U.M.W. But we were afraid of organizing any workers outside the A. F. of L.; consequently the Colorado miners continued their movement isolated from the main body of the left wing, and under the disastrously blundering leadership of the I. W. W. to final defeat and breakup of their organ- ization. At the same time, our left wing in the U.M.W. had been paralyzed by the united front with Brophy, Howat and Hapgood, who effectively prevented any independent leader- ship. Shortly afterward, came the Ninth Plenum of the Comintern and the Fourth Wotld Con- gress of the Red International of Labor Unions. , These international gatherings registered the first practical recognition of the “Third Per- iod,” which was only established theoretically a year and a half later at the Sixth World Congress of the Comintern. This international reorientation, expressed in the slogan “Class against class,” and the sharper fight against social-democracy and its fake left wing, when applied to the examination of our experiences in America, produced the program for the in- dependent organization of the unorganized into revolutionary trade unions given us by the Fourth Congress of the R.LL.U. (1928). This soon resulted in the foundation of the National Textile Workers Union, the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union, and. the National Miners Union. (To Be Continued.) tremendous expense that goes with it by no means make this impossible. In their present state, the talkies are by far inferior in their technical value to even the old silent films. made in Hollywood. Moreover, we have in the labor movement individuals who have absorbed and studied the best in the Russian methods and can produce films more economically and effectively than the capitalist studios. | The Bunk About Over- population ' (ata theory that wars are caused by “over- population” which is a very common fallacy and which is advanced by bourgeois theoreti- cians for the purpose of misleading the work- ers as to the real cause of war was again pro- nounced a few days ago by a Baptist pastor, MacArthur, in a speech at a dinner of the American Eugenie Society and the Eugenics Research Association. He cre must ‘be legalized control of human race increase before the raturation point leads to war on the part of Italy, under its saber-rattling dictator, or on the part of Japan and China with cneir teeming millions.” It should be remembered that Italian fas- cism and Japanese imperialism will go to war not because they want to dispose of their sc- called “surplus” population but because the exploiting classes in these countries want more colonies for exploitation. revolutions are caused by the contradictions in. herent in imperialism and native reaction and are not due to “over-population.” To get profits, and more profits, is the driv- ing force behind the war for the colonies and the real cause for war. The theory of “sur- plus population has been used by the imper: ists merely as a cover and an “argument” for the real purpose of their colonial policies and no class conscious worker should be fooled by it. \ As for China, it is obvious that wars =| Demand the release of Fos ter, Minor, Amter and Rage mond, in prison for fighting for unemployment insurance. Workers! Join the Party of Your Class! Communist Party U. S. A. 43 East 125th Street, New York City. 1, the undersigned, want to join the Commu- nist Party. Send me more information. Name ...cscsccsccseccasccccevccvcccccesses Address .s.ssccescvccccresccs Uit¥escccccce Occupation ....ee00 + Age.cceee Mail this to the Central Office, Communist Party, 43 East 125th St.. New York, N. ¥. disastrous and shameful capitulation to the A. |