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

3; Published by the Comprodafly Publishing Co. Inc, dally excent & y, at 26-98 TT Page Six s New York City, NY. Teleph Stuyvesant) 169¢-7-8 DAIWOR 3 . Vall checks to the Daily We 26-28 Union Square New York N AUGUST 1-DAY OF WORKERS’ orker Porty U.S.A. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Sy mail everywrere: One year $6; six months §3; two months $1; excepting Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. and foreign, which are: One yr. $8; six mons. $4.50 ' STRUGGLE AGAINST WAR . AMTER ever—and out of War to end all and London naval reduction dis- revolt in two Anglo-S: as the good so- “War is un- y adding ships throughout in s, between whom say MacDonald hip armament proposed hy the Soviet ated the struggle for power, ts and raw materials, settled a new power arose during the viet Union of the workers ntral force of the workers s entire world. 000,000 workers and their families untries are jobless and hun- the colonies uncounted millions of work- ants are starving. In the capital- workers have piled up prod- 3 ding the consuming capacity of et—not the capacity of the masses to e, but their power to buy back so that the c consu: they Unemployment Grows y of 8,000,000 unemployed tramp the ets of the United States, in vain looking for work. Each month adds to the number: in June two per cent more in New York; 3.6 per cent in Ohio. The bo: see their opportunity to cut wages. In eve ustry the wage-slashing campaign cuts Ford fires 20,000 workers and 80,000 more a “vacation” of “three” weeks withouc pay—for reorganizing purposes. This means more speed-up, the discharge of more workers. Cutting the cost of production in or- der to beat Great Britain, Germany, France, ete. on the world market and to get back some of the losses on the world market. The bosses are trying to saddle the workers with the bur- den of the crisis. Farr mout nnot buy it. The price of grain drops delow the cost of production, Farmers are bank- world was s have been discovered n years during which have been adopted , war in Egypt, pines, t the last world war settled | ers produce too much grain—hungry | | on the militant workers, their p d jobs only to d. world—unem- ion, poverty of r or war itse! rupt and go to the city to fi land in the army of the unemplo; all over the capitalist peed-up, over prep: ns f prod is what the masses have received as the ge from the last world war—this is wha face today. The Soviet Union All over the capitalist world—but in the country of the workers and peasants, the Sov- iet Union, where socialism is being built, there is growing industry and collectivized agricul- ture. New industries, new plants, phenom- enally rising production, higher wages, lower hours, increasing lei: ure and culture. The viet Union that proposed, wants and alone can institute peace, faces the capitalist world which is engulfed in a crisi To meet the crisis, the capitalists everywhere try to crush the workers. Capitalist (Fascist) dictatorships or growing dictatorships. Attacks s and organi is. ons, especially the Communists and revolu. tionary trade unions. Arrests, persecutions, torture, electric chair, and the lynching oi Negroes—in the United Sta talist and colonial countries Fish in New York preparing to outlaw the Communist °arty and the Trade Union Unity League, preparing the forces for war on the Soviet Union. Fish representing the Wall Street Government with the fascist A. F. of L, leadership supporting him through Matthew Woll, who even outdoes him. The social-fascist s and other capi | socialist party, “deploring” the investigation but supplying the Fish Committee with mater- ial for its dirty work through the Jewish Forward. What is the answer of the work August First! March 6th—May Jst—July 4th Unemploy- ment Convention in Chicago. Strike against wage-cuts in Flint. What must be their next answer ?—August Ist! On August Ist all over the capitalist world, the workers will demonstrate. In every city | of the United States under the leadership of the Communist Party and the Trade Union Unity League they will demonstrate against imperialist war preparations! For Defense of the Soviet Union! For Unemployment Insurance! For Seven-Hour Day and the Five-Day Week! Against Speed-Up! For full equal, social, political, and econom- ie rights for Negroes! For the release of all political prisoners— Foster, Minor, Amter, Raymond, Mooney, Bil- lings, and the scores of others! Against the Fish Committee and the attempt to outlaw the Communist Party and the T.U. UL! For a Workers and Peasants Government! August Ist will be the beginning of a nation- wide movement to demand unemployment in- surance (“not a penny for war purposes, all funds for the unemployed”), of strikes against wage-cuts, of struggle against imperialist war and danger of an armed attack on the Soviet Union. All Out! Employed and unemployed workers—those still in the shops must form shop committees and link up with the Trade Union Unity League—those who are jobless must join the unemployed councils of the T.U.U.L. Together they must fight under the revolutionary lead- ership of the Communist Party. Every man, woman, young and adult, Negro and white workers out on August Ist! Show the bosses and their government your willingness to demonstrate and fight for a bet- ter world—for a workers and farmers govern- ment—a Soviet Government of the United States! War Preparations Now and in 1914 By SOL HARPER (Former Sgt. Major, 349th Field Artillery) ‘ROM the fall of 1914 until the bosses gov- ernment of the U. S. declared war against the central powers officially, the American capitalist class reaped millions in profits from the sale of munitions and other war supplies to the allies. Though some munitions and sup- plies reached the armies of the Central powers, the geographical and shipping facilities for de- livering supplies to the allies were much better than to the Central powers. Following the second election of Woodrow Wilson, a native of South Carolina, the Ameri- can capitalists began an intensive campaign to force the American workers to leave the farms of the South, and other sections of the country and become cannon fodder, Preparedness par- ades, supported by an organized group of allied propagandists in American patriotic societies met with r tance, the workers were not easy to be comvinced that the “war in Europe was any of their business,” and in order to stimu- late these workers to forget the horrible slaugh- ter of thousands of workers during the war with @pain, the boss class, the capitalist press asso- @ixiions and the war department instituted a weries of attacks against what they called an attack upon civilization. The preservation of American independence was their chief slogan. The fact that Wilson was a southerner was utilized to mobilize the southern white workers to leave the hills and the rapidly developing steel and textile industries to fight “over there” and prevent “German Kultur” from being “shoved down the throats cf the American people.” Not a line was written in the boss press about the large industrial holdings of the American capitalists in England, not a word about the war supplies and credits which had been advanced to the French and British capi- talist governments and with a final effort the bosses’ government in Washington declared war officially on April 6th, 1917. However, long before war had been declared, prison inspectors had visited federal prisons where soldiers were suffering in dungeons, and asked them “do you want to return to your regiment?” Those who refused found them- selves either court martialed again, or given more brutal treatment, by the flunkies. In France _ When the 2,000,000°American workers draft- _ ed, intimidated and forced into the slaughter to | save the profits of the capitalist class had been murdered by the thousands and had murdered thousands upon thousands of their fellow work- ers, all workers found that the war was not one for their interests, but a war of the boss class. The War Department ordered court martials, and secret executions. Negro workers were lynched in France with their uniforms on, others, white and black, were threatened with mass murder before firing squads whenever they dared to ask “why don’t yer end, and what in the hell are we fighting or?” White soldiers who deserted were appre- hended and were confined into barracks and prisons where they, performed hard tasks as- signed to them. The Return When the American white soldiers were or- dered returned after the war, the Negro sol- diers found that they had also been ordered rushed home, but the real cause was not a de- sire to get the boys back to their wives, mothers and relatives, but to keep them from learning too much about the Russian revolution. To assure them that they were going home to the “good old U. S. A.” was the chief aim of the Y.M.C.A., the Knights of Columbus, the Sal- vation Army, and Negro lackies like Doctor W. E. Dubois, famed for telling the Negro workers to forget the lynchings, forget the jim crow system of the south and discrimination of the North, forget that even in New Jersey and other so-called northern states the Negroes are jim crowed into separate schools, churches and out of American Federation of Labor Unions. He said to us “Close ranks.” This same betrayer of the Negro masses came to France with Doctor Robert Moton and advised the Negro soldiers not to expect fair treatment like that they had been promised by the capi- talist army officers, and the capitalist govern- ment, in other words, more lynchings and race riots were to be their lot. The Number of Workers Killed More than 15,000,000 Negro and white work- ers were murdered by each other in the im- perialist war of 1914-18, and in America today there are more than 1,000,000 disabled veter- ans, more than 500,000 have been denied any- thing, more than 700,000 tried to get help. In the prisons are thousands of veterans forced to slave at hard work on chain gangs and die like rats because they were disabled mentally and some were later forced into becoming drug users, These workers, along with thousands of Unemployment and Unemployment Insurance in the U.S.S.R. | | Reprinted from the Pan Pacific Monthly. | A UMBER of articles criticizing the Soviet | ** Social Insurance Scheme and in particular Unemployment Insurance, were published re- | cently in the press of the reformist unions and the social-democratic parti All of them | without exception approach unemployment in Soviet Russia and Soviet Social Insurance | from such a narrow angle as to deliberately avoid giving a general analysis of economic life in the U.S.S.R. and its prospects. Without contrasting the economic situation in the U.S.S.R. and the capitalist countries, they simply compare the scale of uremploy- ment relief, the extent of unemployment and the numbers receiving relief in the U.S. S. R. and the capitalist world. They deliberately conceal] that no study worthy of the name,can be made of Unemployment Insurance without taking into consideration the whole economic situation obtaining in the give ncountry. The great work of Socialist Construction, undertaken by the proletariat of the U.S.S.R. today, outlined in concrete terms in the Five- Year Plan of Socialist Construction, has made tremendous strides forward, as a glance at the increased productive forces of the country will show. The growth of the productive forces of a country can be best measured by the increase of the ranks of the proletariat, ie., the in- crease of the numbers of workers drawn into gainful employment in the national economy. All over the country the number of workers employed in the national economy, and notably in industry, is increasing today. Not only has the number of industrial work- ers already outstripped the pre-war figures, but this growth is continuing and will con- tinue with the remarkable developments taking place in the economic life of the U.S.S.R. In 1927, there were 8.6 million workers em- ployed in the various trades and manufactures, of whom 2.4 millions were employed in the “census”! industry, increasing to 9.8 millién respectively by April 1, 1929. No matter how regarded, unemployment in the U.S.S.R. differs from unemployment in the capitalist countries. In the capitalist world unemployment is one of the results of the break up of the capitalist system and points in particular to the inability of the bourgeoisie to surmount the general crisis of capitalism. In these countries unemployment is the in- evitable sequel to capitalis rationalization, growing depression and overproduction, re- sulting in enormous sections of the working class being thrown on the streets to swell the ranks of the unemployed. But in the U.S.S.R. the bulk of the unemployed consist of indi- viduals who are seeking to gain a livelihood for the first time. Unemployment is the direct result of the rapid growth of the able bodied sections of the population and the overpopula- tion in the rural districts. This will readily be seen from an analysis of the figures showing the composition of our unemployed. We find that of the total regis- tered unemployed on August 1, 1929, of 1,298,000, 60% were unskilled workers (of whom 33% had never been in employment at any time), 18.2% were intellectual and profes- sional workers, while only 16.3% were indus- trial workers. During the economic year just ended there was a considerable decrease of unemployment in general. The outstanding feature of the past year was the fact that there was a sharp fall (16%) in the number of unemployed. Moreover, for the first time a general reduc- tion of the number of unemployed has been seen during this year. Should we contrast the number of unem- ployed registered on the labor exchanges on October 1, 1928, and on October 1, of unem- ployment fell from 1,364,600 on October 1, 1928, to 1,241,600 on October 1, 1929. In the R.S.F.S.R. unemployment fell by 19% during 1 All enterprises employing more than 20 workers come under the categroy of “Census” industry. others are now offered nothing. While a few others may get $40 per month for their sole support whenever the government doctors ap- prove the payments. Capitalist, War Conditions Now Today there are 20,000,000 workers out of work in capitalist countries, 8,000,000 of these are in America, a large number of these are veterans, and while the same kind of lies are being whooped up by the capitalist class against the U.S.S.R. and a fake peace pact has been passed by the United States Senate with more than $2,000,000,000 to be used for new war preparations. The workers, (veterans) of the working class organizations like the Workers Ex-Service Men's League are exposing these preparations and calling upon the entire working class of the United States, and especially to the Negro workers who have been lied to, lynched, whose mothers have been denied even the death pay- ment insurance, and jim crowed and their rela- tives to join with other working class organi- zations under the leadership of. the only politi- cal party of the working class, the Communist Party, and raise a mighty voice of protest against the capitalist preparations for an at-° tack upon the workers of the Soviet Union, the fatherland of the workers which the U. S. War Department did not want the American Negro and white workers to learn about in France. Long live the solidarity of the Negro and white workers! Down with imperialist war! Defend the Soviet Union! | the past year. $ The reduction in the siz eof the stationary groups alsé deserves attention. For example, | there was a drop in the number of Soviet and commercial employees. Whereas in 1927-28 there. was:an increase of 37,000 unemployed in this category, 1928-29 registered a decrease of 73,000. All branches of the economic. life of the country developed so rapidly during the past year, that the control figures for 1929-30 pro- vide for a ten per cent reduction in the abso- lute number of unemployed although according to the Five Year Plan a further increase of unemployment should have taken place during thiseyear.’ According to the estimates of the R.S.F.S.R. People’s Commissariat of Labor, unemployment in the towns will be reduced by 85 to 40% during 1930, thanks to the general development of industry. Unemployment will be decreased during the current year, first of all, by the large industry and the: large-scale farms (since the influx into the towns will be substantially lessened) and, secondly, by the rapid development and mechanization of the socialized sector of agri- culture which will absorb thousands of skilled workers, a demand that will be met in part by unemployed workers in the towns. Foreign newspapers frequently express their doubts as to whether the labor exchanges keep track of all. the unemployed in the U.S.S.R. Their fears can be best allayed by a glance at the results of an investigation into the composition of the unemployed, when about 30% of the unemployed did not re- register when notified, apparently because they were no longer unemployed. The foregoing facts show the wide pos- sibilities opened up for the development of the economic resources of the U.S.S.R. The growth of the national economy and the re- construction of agriculture on collective lines cannot fail to influence unemployment favor- ably. In fact this has already happened. All the workers will be absorbed by the national economy and. in the very near future the U.S.S.R. will be confronted with the question of a dearth of labor. : It is these prospects of national economic development in the U.S.S.R. that distinguish the position of the labor market in the U.S.S.R. from that of the capitalist coun- tries. We can look forward with confidence to the time when unemployment will be un- known in the U.S.S.R., where as in the cap- italist countries the position of the unem- ployed will grow more ard more hopeless since unemployment here {3 the inevitable result of the decay of capitalism. Now with regard to Unemployment In- surance. Let it be said at once that at bot- tom the comparisons of the scales of relief in the U.S.S.R. and the capitalist countries which is the favorite method of “drawing conclusions” used by the foreign press), are erroneous, Apart from financial assistance unemployed workers and employees in the U.S.S.R. enjoy many privileges which go a long way to improve their general material well-being. For example, the unemployed pay hardly any rent at all (they have to pay 5% kopeks per square meter, which according to the 1927 inquiry into the Budgets of Unemployed Workers comprised 1 rouble 7 kopeks (a little over 2s.) per month, ie, an insignificant sum, The unemployed are assisted in other ways too. The labor exchanges issue large num- bers of dinner tickets which are sold to the unemployed at discounted prices. Besides the money sum received from the Insurance Fund the unemployed in the U.S.S.R. also receive union benefits. Ac- cording to the figures of the Moscow Pro- vincial Trade Union Concil, an unemployed worker was receiving in Moscow in 1928, 9 roubles 89 kopeks from the union besides 36. roubles 50 kopeks State Relief? When studying the position of the unem- ployed in Soviet Russia we should also bear in mind that .in this country a large number of temporary jobs going all the time absorb large labor exchanges are able to provide the un- employed with work from:time to time, which goes a long way to raise their material con- ditions, There is another method of unemployment relief work in the U.S.S.R. known as the Labor Collectives where workers are employed for defninte periods, receiving wages at union rates, but remaining registered all the time as unemployed on the Labor Exchanges. But these facts are glibly passed over by , the foreign press, which prefers apparently to draw its tendencious conclusions by making unwarranted comparisons between the scales of relief. But even-if we take these scales, we do not see any sharp cleavage between the size of relief granted in the U.S.S.R. and the cap- italist countries. In Soviet Russia the unemployed are divided into three categories (graded according to trade and former earnings), different scales of re- lief being figured for these categories, size of relief varying for the different “industrial belts”—essentially an administrative ‘division of the country. In Moscow, an unemployed worker on the first category with no depen- dents receives 27 roubles; second category 20 roubles; third category, 15.50 roubles. The unemployed in Austria, for example, are divided into ten categories (graded according to former earnings), the highest, category re- 2 This is ‘the sum received by an unemployed skilled worker having 3 children, sections of the unemployed. By this means the | THE SOVIET UNION AND THE SOCIALFASCISTS By WM. Z. FOSTER. victorious building’ of socialism by the Russian workers constitutes a revolutionary threat to the decaying. world capitalist sys. tem. The capitalists meet this threat by in- tensifying their war preparations against the Soviet Government. In this their loyd} aides are the social fascists of the Second Interna- tional. As a capitalist party pretending to represent the workers, the socialists support every major move made by the employers against the work- ers. But especially the attack against the So- viet Government, a government which they, no less than the employers, consider a mortal enemy which must be destroyed at all costs. Socialism Triumphing. The great progress of the Soviet Union cre- ates a serious crisis for the parties of the Second International. For the past 16 year: these parties have been increasingly exposing themselyes as an anti-working class movement by their great betrayal during the world war their armed crushing of the revolutionary up- heavals in Germany and elsewhere following the war, their persistent collaboration with the capitalists to re-establish tottering capital- ism at the expense of the workers, their counter-revolutionary attacks against the So- viet Union, ete. The Five-Year Plan. This long record of treachery has greatly undermined the vast influence which the social democracy once had upon the working class. And now the tremendous advance of the Soviet Union, with the brilliant success of the Five- Year, Plan of socialist construction under the leadership of the Communist Party, occurring as it dopes in the midst of the deepening world crisis of capitalism and of the utter failure of the socialist parties to make any progress whatever towards socialism, throws violently into bolder relief than ever the complete bank- ruptcy of the Second International as a work- ing class organization and deals its declining prestige a mortal blow. A Manifesto. Keenly conscious of this, the social fascists try to solve their difficulties by destroying the Soviet Union by force. Hence they have be- come active leaders in the growing capitalist war offensive against the Soviet Union. The recent manifesto of the Second International on the Soviet Union was practically a call for war against the victorious Russian workers and peasants. This manifesto, raising the slogan of “Save the Russian Revolution” calls upon the work- ers not only of the Soviet Union, but of other countries to defeat the Soviet government. The last war was fought under the hypocriti- cal slogan of. “Make the World Safe for De- mocracy.” The socia’ fascists are outdoing even this duplicity by trying, in the capitalist war against the Soviet Union, to demoralize the world’s workers with the program of “Make the World Safe for Socialism.” Lies! To carry out this prograin the social fascists intensify their campaign of lying about events ana conditions in the Soviet’ Union. The more the Russian workers advance, the more the social fascists deny it. At all costs they must hide the truth from the working masses. The above mentioned manifesto of the Second In- ternational reiterates the line for this syste- matic falsification, It says not a single word about the great socialist construction now gc- ing on, even though the capitalist press of the world is full of wonderment at the tremendous progress The social fi ts, te delude the workers paint a picture of the Soviet Unioh as a scene of hunger, iv tense exploitation and térrorism. They outdo even the capitalists themselves with such slanders. How aggressively the socialist parties, fol- lowing the lead of the Second International, carry on this attack against’ the Soviet Union, is well exemplified by the fact that the Fish Committee, whose role is to violently stir up war sentiment against the Soviet Union and to make the Communist Party illegal, takes it principal propaganda material from. the columns of the “Daily Forward” the lies of the counter-revolutionary Bessedowsky, And no less significantly, the Fish Committee, clearly recognizes its blood relationship with the so- cial fascis categorically refuses in its hear- ings, to permit any criti n whatever, to be made against the socialist ‘party. °* An open attack upon the Soviet Union is the main line of the policy of the social fas- cists everywhere. But the so-called “lefts” among the socialists are still more insidious. While pretending to be supporters of the So- viet Union they play the game of the capital- ists by denying the existence of the war danger, by misconstruing the lessons of the Russian Revolution, and by giving practical support, under cover of radical phraseology, to every hostile step of the Second International against the Soviet Union. They are the most danger- ous elements among the social fascists. Diseredited. The rise of the Soviet Union enormously dis- credits the social fascists. Nor can the latter, with all their lies and all their war maneuver- ings, escape the logic of its revolutionary les sons. The growth of the great socialized i dustries, the collectivization. of the land, the rapid rise in the cultural level of the working masses, cannot long be hidden from the toilers of other countries. And as this knowledge spreads among the workers it renders the posi- tion of the social fascists more and more un- tenable and loosens their hold upon the work- ing class. Hiding the Truth. The bosses, like their lackey social-fascists, fully understand the great importance of de- ceiving the workers regarding real develop- ments in the Soviet Union. Thus the Fish Com- mittee pourel out a flood of lying statistics ments, misrepresenting the working ing conditions of the Russian workers. In this way they hope not only to make war propaganda against the Soviet Union, but what is equally important for them, to discredit our wh ‘> program in this country. Popularize the Successes. From all this it should be clear to us the imperative necessity to carry on the widest possible popularization among the masses, .-of the successes of the Five-Year. Plan, This is a powerful means for defeating the social-fas- eists. It also arouses the workers and makes them more receptive to our entire program. But most important of all, it is fundamentally necessary to offset the war propaganda of the bosses and the socialists and A. F. of Lotools and to rally the workers in defense of the So- viet Union. Above all we must make the August First anti-war demonstration a gigantic success, To bring to the masses the true lessons of what is now happening in the Soviet Union is our most elementary revolutionary task, .All our mass campaigns—the coming elections, our strikes against wage-cuts, our work among the unemployed, the Negroes, ets., must be satu- rated with this. Demand Release ot the Unem- employed Delegation By BEATRCE SISKIND “NEMAND the release of the Unemployed Delegation,” must be a central demand of the workingclass on August Ist. The arrest of the delegation of 110,000 workers who de- manded “work or wages,” their detention with- out bail or jury trial, and the postponement which caused their 5 months imprisonment without trial is part of the war schemes of the bosses. The fight against imperialist war can- not be separated from the every day struggle of the workingclass. Fe The arrest of the leaders of the workingclass is an effort on the part of the bosses to stop the growing movement and the increasing struggle of the workers, against tremendous unemployment, mass layoffs and neck-breaking speed up, and imperialist war. The system of sending Jeaders of the work- ingclass to jail is part of the bosses attack on 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 ..cccccccccccccccccecvccccccesceucces Address ... sveceee UItY.ceceeees Occupation ..sscccececcesecseccs» Age. Mail this to the Central Office, Communist Party. 43 East 125th St.. New York, N. ¥ ceiving the maximum of 24 roubles 20 kopeks, the lowest benefit for the same category being 19 roubles 20 kopeks, Thus, by comparing the scales of relief alone we see that an unemployed worker in Vienna is getting less benefit than any of the unemployed in Moscow on the sec- ond or third categories, not to speak of the first! (To be continued) the workingclass. In every industry, the bosses in order to place the burdens of the crisis on the backs of the workers, have launched:a vici- ous attack on the militant workers and their organizations. We look to the textile trust, and’ find that the crisis in the textile industry has caused a ruthless policy of imprisonment and railroad- ing of, workers to jail and death, Now this trust demands the lives of six organizers of — Negro and white workers against low. wages, unemployment and the stretch-out system, The fruit growers of Crliti-yia, that employ slaves from 10 to 12 hours in the hot sun for the sum of $10 to $12 a Woes, ove aiacoced wid sent the organizers of the Agricultural Work- ers Union to terms of from 3 to 42 years in the hell holes of California, In the struggle against imperialist war, the workers must therefore demand the release of their leaders. The demand must be a blow to the entire system of persecutions and fascist attack. August 1st must carry on the struggle. August Ist must be an organized protest and - demonstration against the increasing fascist in the U. S. A. It must espécially demand the release of the leaders of the Unemployed Dele- gation. Every anti-war committee must also develop an organized struggle for the immedi- ate release of all class war fighters. The de- mand must be carried to the shops and fac- tories. Demand the release of Foster, Amter, Minor, Raymond, the workingclass needs its fighters. Support and build the International Labor Defense. Strengthen the organs of strug- gle against growing fascism in this country,