The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 13, 1930, Page 4

Published hy ¢ ly N. Y Page Four * ane checks to the I" Publis Tele 7-8 Cable Suuare New st 26-28 Union SDAIWORK York JOHN SCHMIES. perspective i and in- whole front, that ciently our nting med of our ement on the eve of the Fifth World Con- f the Red International of Labor Unions um extent for the application of central slogan— organize and strike against wage cuts, and he speed-up program of-the bosses, t ary to mobilize the entire i our membership in the iate building up of an fund of $100,000. are placed upon our . as stated above, the increasing strike move- a campaign for unemployed insurance— and will develop into a mighty working nent in this count! ] Smelter Workers Indus- perspective the organ- a general strike on a nation wide ge The program teel and auto movement calls the ing up of a broal Metal Workers Industrial Union. Our textile workers union confronted with new tasks, and new respon- sihi The militant spirit among the needle trades, d aml shoe workers i ing at a rapid | po. The marine wor strike in New 1 revolt amongst the rank and nje of the A. F, of L. unions g to our movement greater possibil- The masses of unemployed workers look- ing towards us for guidance and mass initiative in the struggle against unemployment. This again brings to our attention sharper than | ever before, the role which our Pa:ty and the | revolutionary unions in this country must play. | Fifth World Congress of the R.LL.U. from our movement to increase of organization work and to actually mass leaders cf the American work- because only on this basis will our the red unions, that is the general n Unity League movement, be able isive sections of the American | maxi move fa) the mini idustry. metal bu to win the wor'ing cla I] this demands the most energetic mobil- | ization of all our forces, and the campaign on the eve of the Fifth W-rld Congress ‘for the builling up of this organization and strike fund of: $100,000 by our revolitoinary unions, is a test of our leadership. The success of this campaign first of all | will depend upon the capability of our general | Party movement, which must become the rev- | olutionary driving force in our T.U.U.L. and its affiliated union, in order to throw into this campaign many of hundreds and thousands of unorganized workers. This further requires that our Party district orientates itself in the sharpest way the major task of our Party, which is the building up of the T.U.U.L. This further requires the most rigid checking up on the part of our Party district leaders, on the entire Party and trade union apparatus. Our comrades must raise the questions: What taust our orientation be? What are the deci- | sive industries in the different districts? What is the Party doing in the coal mining district? Is our Party orientating towards the steel and metal sections in the respective districts? Are we going to convince our Party membership | that they must become the active workers and organizers in the T.U.U.L.? Why is it that we are so terribly slow in the | building up of our trade unioh fractions? which means that instead of giving political and or- | ganizationa] leadership inside our red unions, we find that our Party comrades are sitting | in the back seats, that is those who do attend, and acting merely as many of the rank and file workers in the trade union. Why is it that out of 800 Party members in | the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union, we are not moving with sufficient speed in or- der to keep up with the growing possibilities in the needle trades industry? The building up of an organization and strike fund of $100,000 demands mass initiative and mass action, it means that all Party members who are slow, who are pessimistic, who are hesitating, must wake up and must begin to appreciate the ever growing possibilities for the building up of a real, genuine proletarian mass movement at this stage of the class strug- | gle. We must decide that instead of pessimism amongst some members, have optimism, Yes, there international an: Tt must be the we must ists a fighting mood. olutionary upsurge on an national scale. task of our the and ORGANIZATION AND $100,000 PLEDGED TO RILU CONGRESS T.U,U.L; general movement to create and de. elop the necessary conditions and the nece: sary forces, which will make it impossible for e capitalist class to make an ttempt to | quidating the ever deepening economic crisis, at the expense of the working c’ This again brings up the question—Are we prepared to take advantage of these enormous movements, which are developing? The workers will not stand idly by and accept continuously wage cuts and the speed-up program of the bosses. The workers will strike, provided we will give them leadership, provided we will show that only through our leadership and through our form of organization will the work- ers be victorious, All the lies of Matthew Woll and President Green of the A. F. of L. and the open role of betrayal will not curb the revolutionary de- mands of the masses of workers. The development of this movement demands a keen sense of responsibility on the part of every Party member, the most ruthless strug- gle against both leading and rank and file Party members who are hesitating, who have any sign of pessimism, it requires the getting rid of all the dead elements, and to bring into our Party new blood and new forces, who are tested in the every day struggle on the picket line, who ate active on strike committees, who The Communist Party c is important for the Party to review the activities in connection with the Election Campaign to date. Very serious shortcomings | are being manifested in our Election Campaign work which must be rectified at once. The Party already had certain definite experiences with the Election Campaign from which we can draw certain conclusions for our future work, 3 Our first experiences show very clearly the great possibilities our Party has in utilizing the weapon of revolutionary parliamentar- ism for mobilization of large masses of work- ers for broad economic and political mass struggles. We have also seen a great response of the masses for the platform of our Party in the present Election Campaign. A poor Election Campaign in any district means fail- | ure to utilize the favorable objective situation in bringing the program of our Party to the masses. To date (August Ist), our Party has held State Ratification Conventions in 10 states. These 10 State Ratification Conventions were attended by a total of 1,370 delegates. Of these, 553—40 per cent were non-Party dele- gates, 435—30 per cent came from fraternal organizations, 225 or 16 per cent,. non-dele- gates from Party and League units, 104—7 per cent were Negro delegates and only 153 delegates, or less than 12 per cent, came from shops, A. F. of L. local unions and minority groups of A. F. of L. local unions. What do these figures show? They first of all show an incorrect proportion o fParty and non-Party—if we are to consider Minnesota, the proportion will be still worse. It, however, would be wrong to attribute the reason for this situation to the delegates sent by the Party and League directly. The delegation from the Party and the League was only 226. Consequently, the other 51 delegate Party members, which make 72 per cent of all dele- gates, were Communists coming from mass or- ganizations. The mistake was, therefore, first made by our comrades working in mass or- ganizations who insisted that Comunists go as delegates to the state conventions. This was wrong. Communists working in mass or- ganizations are already overburdened with toc many tasks, and upon their return from state convention could not devote much of their time to the Election Campaign. At the same time, however, by sending non-Party workers as delegates, these workers could have been drawn into the Election Campaign and our forces broadened out. Instead of exercising ideolog-- ical influence, our comrades resort to mechan- ical control. . The major lesson, however, we can learn from these figures, are: 1. We did not have Negro Misleader Preaches Loyalty ‘to Government.of Lynchings TE Negro masses suffer most from the grow- ing crisis in the country. They are the first ones to be laid off and their miserable wages cut still more and receive the heaviest and worst jobs. The growing wave of lynching and race discrimination is the method of the bosses to compel the Negro workers to yield to the growing exploitation that the bosses are sub- jecting them to. The beginnings of the activities of the Com- munist Party among the Negro masses is find- ing favorable response amongst them. The bosses, fearing this most, are therefore increas- ing the attacks on the Party, especially in those sections where activities are carried on amongst the Negro workers. In Chicago, for instance, every open air meeting of the Party on the South side is broken\ up. The Negro masses are being terrorized there. The bosses are not only using open terror against the Party and the Negro workers who begin to fight militantly, but are also using various so-called Negro leaders to attack the Communist Party in order to prevent the Negrd workers from really taking up the fight for full social, racial equality under the leadership of the Party. Oscar DePriest, Negro Congressman of Chi- cago, testified before the Fish Committee in Chicago. He stated: “I only wish other groups were as loyal.” Oscar’ DePriest wishes the Negro magses to be loyal to the government of lynching and race discrimination. Oscar Vel riest exposes himself here as a loyal ser- yant of the lynching government in Washing- | ton. The leaders of the Garvey movement have also opened a hie ettuck acainst the Party, © The Negro World, issue of August 2 carries a report of a speech of Reverend Drew, made at the Garvey Club at Liberty Hall in New York. The reverend; amongst other things, stated: “I am here now registering my dis- approval of this parade (August First dem- onstration) by the Communists and seek to take neither passive nor active part in it. The reasons for my op} sition I base.on two dis- tinct grounds, one it is unAmerican, and two, it is unChristian.” The reverend has nothing to say about the lynchings right after the war, the treatment given td the Negro soldiers, and the instigated race riots after the war. The reverend gives his blessing to the war and the exploitation of the Haitian and Philippine masses by American imperialism. The reverend stated further: “In a word, the Communist Party is going around spread- ing an unsaviory propaganda in the hearts of an already discontented group that can never hope to obtain their measure of American rights and privileges without law and order.” This “militant” Garveyite preaches submis- sion to the Negro masses in face of growing lynchings, tells the Negro masses to have faith in the capitalist law and order of lynching and race discrimination. The same issue of the Negro World has an editorial, the Negro and Communism. The article is full of attack and slander against the Party and Communism. The Negro workers who are already turning away from Garveyism and Garvey will, under the leadership of the Party, quickly learn to know the real program of Garveyism, which means in fact, submitting to the rule of the whiie master class in the United States, 1 VOTE COMMUN * __ Daily.qWorker SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Sy mail everywtere: Une sear $6; six months &3; two months $1; Mashattan and Bronx, New York City. and foreign, which are: (ine y cy "ie zeepting Morourhs of T. $8; six. mons $450 are fighting and organizing for the most ele- mentary demands of the workers. All in all, it demands the immediate fulfil- | ment of the new turn in our revolutionary movement, as outlined by the Comintern and the R.LL.U., it means, furthermore, as decided by our Party Convention, that we must turn the face of our entire movement towards the shops, that is shop work, shop organization, development of strikes and struggles for the immediate demands of the workers in order to develop the struggle for our political aims and political goal. Again, it means that the major taask of our Party is the building up of the a united front with the workers in mass or- ganizations still under reactionary control, we limited our united front to those mass organ- izations upon whom we already exercise influ- ence. 2. The Election Campaign and the Plat- form of the Party was not brought to the workers in the factori The United Front from below mvans precisely the United Front with those masses of workers who are dissatis- fied, who are growing conscious of the class role of the state, who are revolting agai “heir bureaucratic and reactionary leadership, who hitherto remained politically inactive and whose support we can win on the basis of struggle on certain issues, like unemployment inSurance, struggle against criminal syndical- ism, against injunctions, etc. The proportion of Negro delegates at our conventions is also very unsatisfactory, espe- cially when we take into consideration that fights for the Negro masses and the struggle for social and political equality and against election platform. No serious efforts were made to have the workers in the factories organize Election Campaign Committees and themselves elect delegates to the State Ratification Convention If we are to judge by the number .of factory gate meetings and open air meetings generally, for example, during the period of June 15 to July 15, we can see that no serious effort was i mass economic organ of struggle, the T.U.U.L, In our campaign for the building up of the organization and strike fund of $100,000 we must guard against the mistakes which we ve made, in the recruiting drive of the T.U. U.L. This campaign must be so organized as to really turn it into flesh and blood of the everyday work until November 1, through mass initiative in our respective affiliated red unions of the T.U.U.L, The August 15 mass meetings to celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of the R.IL.L.U. must be utilized for the opening up of this campaign and must be immediately followed up by mass colleetion of signatures. For example, states like Ohio, which must collect 30,000 signatures in order to put the Party on the ballot—to date, only a few hundred signatures were col- lected. The last date for the filing of these signatures is September 5. States like Cali- fornia, where 18,000 signatures must be col- lected in a period of one month, did not have the membership mobilized yet, at the time when material for this report was sent in. The same applies to Connecticut, where over 5,000 signatures must be collected, and only a few hundred signatures are secured to date. If we are to judge by the number of Red Sundays that were organized, or the number of organizations visited on the Election Campaign we can see that the Party, so far, does not take the Election Campaign seriously and un- less drastic steps are taken immediately the Party ticket in a number of states will be | jeopardized. white terror is one of the major points in our | | local issues. made to bring the Platform of our Party to | the workers in the factories. In the period of June 15 to July 15 in a report from 17 states outside of New York, only 54 neighbor- hood meetings were held weekly, 49 factory gate meetings weekly duzing the same period and 36 open-air meetings held outside of the district headquarters city. This shows how weak the general agitation is in the Election Campaign. | olina, New York, ete. Another illustration of the weakness of the | Election Campaign, especially in its agitational Number of Delegates be held Non-Party Members Convention held Delegates or to Number of Negro Number of Delegates Number of Delegates State from Fraternal Org. Number of Delegates from Shops, The other shortcomings in the Election Cam- paign is the abstractness and failure to utilize local issues. While the basis of the Election Campaign is the general existing economic and political situation in the country and the gen- eral problems facing the working class, yet we must say that if the Election Campaign is to be effective we must learn how to utilize In every state, there are special local political situations that must be utilized by our Party. For example, the situation. in the states of Pennsylvania, Illinois, North Car- We must raise in our Election Campaign the local problems facing the workers and link it up with our general program, such as the criminal syndicalist laws, police terror, coa] and iron police, strike-break- ing role of the A. F. of L., etc. This, how- ever, is not heing done by our Party. First. because of failure to pay attention to these local problems and, secondly, inability to con- nect them gp with our general struggles. On Klection rms Paid for Open Air Meetings Held Weekly—June 15 Meets of City Factory Gate of Other Local Candidates to July 15 Meetings Outside Dis- umber of Total Sig- matures Required (5) Number of Delegates from Party & League trict Headquarters No. Wkly, June 15 July 15 ISTATE California . Colorado .. 200 16 q7 Illinois 186 Towa . Marylan (7)Massachusetts Aug. Michigan .. Minnesota Montana .. New Jersey . New York .. North Dakota . Ohio'5 33. «5 Pennsylvania . South Dakota . 45 (2) (3) ue 3 525 4 12 1,000 10 5,100 21,476 (1) 2,000 9 1,000 1,000 6 4,500 10,000 750 (9) 6,000 1 4 50,000 16,000 (10) (10) (10) 300 4 4 12 30,000 50,000 200 5,100 5,200 10 2 11 12 2 16 5 10 2° 8 25,000 100 8 1,370 517 106 330 162 226 69 77 195,076 40,175 64 31 qa) This table 1s based on incomplete reports on the Election Campaign. Reports from a number of states where we are certain to have candidates were still not received, * such as the states under the jurisdiction of districts 16, 17 ‘and 12, All states where we give congressional candidates have in addition also nominated a full state ticket. Stamford having local elections. 49 fraternal organizations. total as a reserve. < (7 number of signatures required fo: be on the ballot. (8) (9) ao) not specified in report. Party already on ballot. Not reported. phase, is illustrated by the sale of the Election Platform. To date, 45,390 platforms were sold for cash by the Central Office. About 80,000 were printed. If we will especially analyze the, sale of the Platform, as given in the table, we will note that districts like 1, 8, 9, 12 and 18 ordered very insignificant numbers of this platform. At the same time, we have districts that did not order even one copy of the Plat- form, like 4 and 13. These districts have cre- ated an impermissible situation, which must be rectified at once. The Party membership must demand an explanation of the failures in the sale of the Platforms. The organizational phase of the Election Campaign to date is even weaker than our agitational phase, although they cannot be separated. This is best characterized by the 4 er ) ) ) ) Signatures as required by the state law, but we must collect 10-25 per cent of the ) ) state ticket very small. Not specified In report to the National Office, 2,000 signatures for each office by registered voters, Now engaged in signature colllections to nominate mayor in Detrolt. The total Party will definitely Overwhelming majority of the delegates are from fraternal organizations, although the other hand, our Party was not energetic enough to expose. and struggle against special dangers facing us, such as the socialist party, capitalist candidates posing as “friends of labor,” like Pinchot and Davis in Pennsylvania, Roosevelt in New ¥ork, farmer-labor party in Minnesota, ete. ¥ We also have failed to bring our Election Platform to the agricultural proletariat and poor farmers. Our Election Campaign in the agricultural territory is completely neglected, This is done in the face of the most severe agricultural crisis and the growing discontent of the poor and middle farmers. * The cause for the shortcomings in the Elec- tion Campaign is primarily attributed to the fact that our membership and even leading district committees underestimate the political A. FT. BY A SHINGLEWEAVER. | HE shingle weavers are now engaged in a struggle against wage-cuts in many of the mills of the Northwest, especially in Grays Harbor, Kalama and Centralia, and the de- featist maneuvers of the I. W. W. and the | A. F. of L. fakers, who pose as independents, have sabotaged these strikers from their very beginning. When the Workers’ International Relief de- manded the co-operation of the Shingle- | méetings amongst unorganized workers—mass | meetings of the masses of unemployed workers, an energetic campaign amongst the rank and file workers in the A. F. of L, All this to be made into a membership drive for our red unions and the building up of the Labor Unity. It further requires the printing of large quan- up of special machinery for the execution of this gigantic plan before our revolutionary trade union movement. #3 The building up of an organization and strike fund of $100,000 is the task before our move- ment on the eve of the R.I.L.U. Fifth World Congress. The success of this campaign will mean the broadening out of the strike move- ment, will mean the building up of a campaign of struggle against unemployment Labor Day demonstration, it will mean a mass revolution- ary movement under the leadership of our Party for the American working class. significance of the Election Campaign. Con- sequently, they have failed and were very late in the mobilization of the Party members. We can state that the election activity of our Party was carried on only by 25 per cent of our Party membership—the bulk of the mem- bership is not involved as yet in this work, Our immediate tasks in this situation are as follows: (1) The leading committees in the districts must make themselves responsible for the Election Campaign and, making a periodical checkup of the work done in this campaign. Regular reports to the bureaus must be made periodically. (2) The collection of signatures must be intensified. The districts must set a certain definite quota of signatures to be raised week- ly, seeing to it that they are filed at least two weeks prior to the filing date. (3) Open air meetings, particularly factory gate meetings must be continued systematically upon the direct initiative of the units and with the help of the district. Every unit must have at least one open-air meeting a week. Special attention must be paid to holding open air meetings ‘in small industrial towns, (4) The districts must immediately issue a number of leaflets for wide state distribution on their local problems. (5) Every member of our Party must be made to sell ten copies of the Platform. The increased sale of the Party Platform must be the major task of the districts. (6) Special agitators must be sent out on tours, supplied with literature, for the elec- tion campaign. (7) Special measures must be taken to or- ganize “Vote Communist” clubs in the neigh- borhoods and Election Committees in the fac- tories in order to draw in the non-Party work- ers in the electio campaign. (8) Shop papers and special leaflets must have as their central point the election cam- paign to be connected up with the problems of the workers in the factories. (9) We must especially utilize our struggle for Social Insurance and make the Social In- surance Bill the central point in our election campaign. If the districts will not take steps to correct their shortcomings, ‘the election campaign of our Party will find itself in a very critical state. The reports on which this article is based were incomplete. First, not all districts have ‘sent in reports. Secondly, a number of states in the South, where we were going to have candidates, have not sent in their reports, but on the basis of the preliminary reports re- ceived, we point out the shortcomings of the campaign which must immediately be corrected and our entire Party membership aroused to action. By H. HARVEY (National Organizer Marine Workers Industrial Union) (E wage cutting program of the bosses is being answered by the New Orleans dock- workers by one of the most militant strikes carried on here in a number of years, Six-hundred Négroes are brutally exploited on the Mississippi River boats with wages of from fifteen to twenty-fice cents an hour. After hearing the program of the Marine Workers Industrial Union they set up their dock committee and presented their demand to the bosses for a one-hundred per cent inctease in wages (from 25 to 50c per hour) and com- plete recognition of the M.W.I.U.. After those demands were presented by the dock-commit- tee and refused by the employers, they were immediately followed by declaration of a strike on all river-boats, Today we find that although one-hunded workers have been arrested, thirty of those railroaded through night Recorders’ court to serve a sentence of thirty days or pay a fifteen dollar fine, the spirit of these men is better than ever and the bosses are very unsucc--s- The Daily Worker {s the Party’s best instrument to mabe contacts umong che masses of workers, to build a mass Commanist Party, | THE L W: W. AND THE tities of leaflets and literature, the building | « Mail this to the Central Office, Communist. Negro Longshoremen Strike for Wage Increase UNITE weavers’ Uniort to organize relief activities, the fakers in the union refused to do so, stating that they had several hundred dollars and that the rworkers were all right and did not need relief; they disrupted, in every possible way, the relief activities of the W. I. R., thus hin- dering the planned campaign of the Workers’ International Relief, which had as its pro- gram the support of the strike through an or- ganized campaign of relief and publicity. However, this did not prevent the T. U. U. L. and the W. I. R. in carrying out some essential work in support of the strikers. The W. I. R. has succeeded in bringing the ap- peal of the strikers before many workers and has organized its relief mainly around Moclips, because there the workers give their support to the activities of the W. I. R. Not being content in preventing the W. I. R. from organizing their relief activities at the outset of the strike, and when the W. I. R. did succeed in putting the relief work on an or- ganized basis the I: W. W. fakers came out in a vicious article in their slimy sheet, telling the workers that the W. I. R. was feeding “lousy Skid-road bums” with T-bone steaks and various cther choice foods, eating up the strikers’ food, etc. This cannard was typical of the propaganda of the bosses. showing clearly the degeneracy into fascism of the I. W. W. The strikers themselves see this vicious campaign for what it is, and they denounce it in ringing terms because these strikers, who themselves belong to the W. I. R. and help the W. I. R. in its activities and handle the funds and the dis- tribution of the food, etc., are in a better posi- tion to know, and by now, the workers have been acquainted with the dastardly lies that the I, W. W. have been spreading in order to defeat the strike. On the one hand, they pose as friends, and mouth “radical” phrases, and on the other hand, commit the most reactionary deeds against the workers, but the workers are pretty thoroughly convinced of the reaction- ary and fascist role of the alliance of the I. W. W. and the A. F. of L. fakers. Some of the rank and file workers who managed to get on the strike committee ars being kept away from the meetings through the intrigues of “Stumpy” Payne, who is the master of ceremonies of the strike committee. This is done, of course, in order to prevent the rank and file from participating in the strike activities and to make it easier for the “leaders” and the fakers to sell out the strike against the protests of the workers from Moclips and other sections. The I. W. W., which claims to be an indus- trial organization, is steering this craft union committee, wh.ch is a narrow, small committee, unable and unwilling to draw in rank and file workers on a large scale to continue and spread the strike; they are preparing not only to sell out the strike, but even to pave the way for @ still greater attack upon the part of the bosses. The Shingleweavers must wake up and re- alize that the “radical” phrases that are spouted by the perverts who are at the head of the social-fascist I. W. W., are simply so Many smoke-screens under which the doder- ing and dying Wobbly crew knife us in the back. This has been strikingly brought home to me in the past years. 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 AdArESE ccc ccccccccvesemccce Uity. Mecupation .occccesssccceccsccecs AZCresece Party, 43 East 125th St.. New York, N. Y¥. full in getting scabs. The result is that ships are away late in sailing and even when they: do sail, are being held up at the first landing. We see on the part of the Negro and whi workers of New Orleans a great readiness accept the fighting program of the M.W.LU. and the putting of this program into prac- tice. We find on the other hand in this strike like! all others of today, the state forces are mobil- izing and squads of police patrol the dock: and try in every way (arresting, beating, etc.) to break the fighting spirit of the men o1 strike. We also note that the social fascist lead of the.A. F. of L., in the persons of T. J. Darcy and Jos. B. Spencer of the International Longshoreman’s Association are busy on the water-front dissuading the workers and prom- ising them an agreement for better wages and conditions in September. Those betrayers of labor are co-operating with the ship-owners and helping them in put ting over their wage cutting program, but workers of New Orleans, since the betrayal of the street carmen’s strike, are awake to the program of the A. F. of L. and are not res- ponding to their call for organization but a1 lining up in the fighting unions of their class which are «under the leadership of the Trade Union Unity League. Join the M.W.LU.! Prepare for a Longshoremen’s Conference for September 7! Organize and Prepare for Struggle!