The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 19, 1930, Page 4

- Comrade Stalin’s Concluding Speech at the XVI. Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet a a ad Page Four aily Publishing Co., Inc., datiy. except Sunday, fal VY Telephe Sto C-7-8 Cable: “DAIWORK." to the | rket - 26 Square New York N already entered the It is clear that we ha period of Socialism, for the socialist sector now holds all the levers of our whole national economy in its hands, although we are still far from the completion of the socialist struc- ture, and from the abolition of class differ- ences. And yet the national languages not only do not die out and merge in the common lan- guage, but on the contrary, the national cul- national languages develop and and It is clear that the theory of the ture: flourish. dying out of the national languages and their merging into one uniform language within the confines of one state, in the period of lope] socialist, reconstruction, in the period is a wrong, anti- lism in one count , and anti-Leninist theory. Secondly, the writers of the question are not clear on the point that the question of the dying out of the national languages, and of their merging in one uniform language, is not an internal question of one state, not a ques- tion of the victory of Socialism in one country, but an international qu ion, a question of the victory of Socialism on an international scale. The writers of this question have not grasped that the victory of Socialism in one country must not be confused with the victory of So- cialism on an international scale. It was not for nothing that Lenin said that the national differences will contirue to exist for a long time, even after the victory of the dictatorship of the proletariat on an international scale. Besid-s this, still another circumstance must be take:. itto account, coming in question for a number of the peoples of the Soviet Union. | There is a Ukraine within the Soviet Union, vit there is another _kvaine belonging to other | states. There is_a White Russia within the Soviet Union, ' ii there is ancther White Rt sia belonging to other states. Do you suppose th t the guestion of the Ukrainian and White Russian languages can be answered without taking these , culiar cir is.ances into con- sideration? Take further the nationalities of | ing on its southern frontier, akstan and the Burjak the Soviet Union from Azerbejan to K | Mongolia. These are I] in the same po-‘tion as Ukraine ani White Russia. The special condi- tions under which these peoples aré developing | must obviously be ta’ 1 into account. Is it not clear thet all “ss? and similar questions, con- | eted with the problem of the national cul- | tu nd national Jang s, cannot be solved | within the confines of one state, within tlre con- | fines of the Sov"2t Union. | This is how the matter stands in regard to the question of the nationalities in general, and of the points raise} by the question put | to us here in particular. | I should now like to pass on to the problem of the former leaders of the Right opposition. What does the Party Congress demand of the former leaders of the Right opposition? Repentance perhaps? Most certainly not! Our Party, and the Party Congress never demands anything of our comrades which could humili- ate them. The Party Congress demands of the former leaders of the Right opposition three | things: (1) that they face the fact that an Conditions of the Metal and Our Organizational Tasks By ANDREW OVERGAARDE. HE economic crisis in the United States is especially felt in the steel industry and re- sulting naturally in the parallel effect in all related industries, automobile, etc. In the metal industry, comprising between four and a half and five million workers, conditions and standards of living have reached a point where workers are actually working and starving at the same time. Wage cuts, cuts in piece work rates, are the orders of the day and in most steel mills the speed-up is reaching beyond human endurance. Wages in steel mills in Western Pennsylvania are as low as 27-36-40 cents an hour for com- mon labor and the skilled workers have had their wages cut as well. Machinists who used to earn $1 an hour or more are working for as low as 50 cents an hour in many steel plants. In all steel cor- porations the policy of even giving the usual notice of a wage cut has been abolished and the workers just simply receive so much less in the pay envelope. Workers Paying For Crisis. In the Westinghouse plant in East Pitts- burgh, the so-called shop committee of the company union was discussing the problem of deductions of wages without even telling the men for what purpose. Many of the workers were protesting, according to the minutes of the company union. The works manager stated very boldly “that it is the policy of the Westinghouse Corporation not to specify these deductions.” In other words these pow- erful corporations are forcing the workers to pay their fake insurance, sports clubs, etc., and if they protest their jobs will be gone. In the McKeesport Tin Plate Co, the work- ers have to pay the foremen petty graft of $2 to $3 a week in order to get steady mills. At the Byers plant in Ambridge the rates have been cut to 40 cents an hour; at the same time the workers are cheated out of $2 or $3 a week. In many steel and metal manufac- turing plants wages and piece work rates have been cut as high as 100 per cent since Hoover started the “prosperity” campaign. More Rationalization. The employers are continuing their ration- alization campaign with still greater tempo. The Westinghouse Co. is thus spending $1,500,000 on its new engineering laboratory in East Pittsburgh. The Aluminum Co. (An- drew Mellon) of New Kensington is complet- ing a new research laboratory out of a $58,- 000,000 expansion fund for 1930. Over $150,- 000,000 is being spent by the steel corpora- tions of Allegheny Valley for labor displacing machinery, while not a penny for social in- surance for the workers. The steel and metal workers, however, are not accepting these cuts and conditions with- out struggle. In spite of the fact that Mike Tighe and the fakers of the A. F. of L. are accepting wage cuts for members of the Amal- gamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers’ Union averaging 20 per cent, steel workers are beginning to organize into the Metal Workers’ Industrial League and pre- paring for struggle against wage cuts, the speed-up system and for work or wages. The recent. strike in Flint involving 50,000 workers in spite of our mistakes and our or- ganizational weaknesses proved that the per- spectives for immediate struggles in the auto- mobile, steel and metal industries as a whole | correct. Recently department strikes | were broke out in the Sparrows Point plant of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, andyif our shop organization were a little bit stronger, it would no doubt have developed into a general strike in the entire plant and this would have given a great impetus to a national strike in the steel industry. Metal Workers Organizing. The experience of the Metal Workers League shows that the workers are ready to join the Revolutionary unions and leagues of the T. U. WU. L. Steel workers throughout the country re signing up daily. Metal workers, auto workers, airplane workers, workers in ammuni- uon factories are anxious to join. In the Fairchild Airplane Corporation of Long Island 10 workers have organized a shop group and more workers are coming in. In the Jones & Laughlin plant in Woodlawn a group of 5 workers are being organized and another group of workers whom we have never had contact with recently took up a col- lection of $23 and sent it to our National Of- fice. This is the hell hole where our comrades, Zima, Resetar and Muselin, were convicted Workers and sentenced to 5 years for trying to or- ganize the workers. In the Jessup Steel in Washington, Pa., a group of workers are being organized into a shop group. In Farrel about 600 steel workers, white and Negro, partici- pated in a picnic held under the auspices of | the Metal Workers League. Organizational Weaknesses. | It is, however, of greatest importance to | learn from some of our past mistakes in or- ganization so that we will be able to stop the gap between our influence and the fact that we have not been able to grow simultaneously organizationally. In spite of the fact that we must not forget, that the achievement of the League in starting out after the Cleveland Convention with nothing and today we have almost 2,000 members, we must nevertheless record serious mistakes in the building of the League. The major mistake was that we started out building general Leagues composed of metal workers in a given city and not concentrating on shop work. The present policy is to build our Leagues mainly on a shop basis. These shop groups immediately are split into depart- ment committees and instead of too large meetings of 25 to 50 workers in large shops, we have for instance 10-12 workers in each department and the coordination of the work be done through the representatives from the various departments. Thus we shall be able to get in contact with all the workers in the various sections of the shop and when struggle breaks out we can immediately in an organized way broaden the struggle to involve the entire plant. This policy will also to a great extent protect the workers who join the revolutionary unions against company spies and make it possible to more effectively carry out our work from the inside, A Big Task. One of the great tasks facing us today is to link up our general agitation with our or- ganizational tasks. It is not sufficient that we speak to the workers only in mass meet- ings and demonstrations but that’ we learn how to be able to not only enthuse the workers with our general speeches but that we will take advantage of this enthusiasm by bring- ing the workers into the organization and then be able to keep them. : Day to Day Work Imperative. There is a dangerous tendency in the revo- lutionary unions and the Party to live on the spectacular and not to bother abott the every day Jimmy Higgins work of visiting the work- ers in the homes, signing up individual mem- | bers for the unions, ete. I would like to use New York as an example, where for instance | demonstrations are great but where the Metal | Workers League, in spite of the great possi- | bilities, remains weak and practically is weak- | er than one good shop group of 10 in spite of | having 175 members on the books. | We must learn not to be too big to spend | hours with workers individually, systematically | concentrating on certain shops until we have gotten some results instead of jumping from one place to another. In all strikes we have participated in the main weakness has been the same—no contact—and we must as quickly as possible get the members of the unions and the members of the Party and the Y. C. L. to benefit from this experience. The “face towards the shops” must be a living slogan to all revolutionary workers. The workers in the metal industry are beg- ging for leadership of their struggles and we must take this responsibility seriously by cor- recting all our mistakes and begin as speedily as possible to make all the major steel mills, automobile factories and metal manufacturing plants fortresses of revolutionary unionism, Workers! Join the Partv 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 ....cccccvccccccetereccccocccescmsese Address ..sscecseeeevsenecers Vit¥.seoveeee Cecupation ...secececccecrseseees ARCs eeeee Mail this to the Central Office. Communist Party, 43 East 125th St.. New York, N. ¥. o—— SSI! = abyss yawns between the line of the Party and the line which they defend; the fact that the line which they defend leads objectively, not to the vietory of Socialism, but to the victory of capitalism. (Voices: Hear, hear.) (2) that they condemn this line as anti-Leninist, and dis- sociate themselves from it, openly cerely (Voices: Hear, hear.); (2) that they | place themselves in our ranks, and fight’ with us against: each and every Right deviation (Voices: Hear, hear. Loud applause). is is what the Congress demands of the former leaders of the Right opposition. Do these demands involve anything degrad- ing from people who wish to remain Bolshe- vists? It is clear that there can be nothing degrad- ing in these demands. Every Bolshevist, every real revolutionist, every Party member with any self-respect, will comprehend that he can only advance, can only gain in the e of the Party, when he openly and sincerely acknowl- edges the clear and indisputable facts. Hence I am of the opinion that Comrade Tomsky’s utterances about being banished in- to the desert of Gobi, an being forced to live on locusts and wild honey, are nothing but the empty phrases of a provincial debating society, and have nothing to do with the dignity of a revolutionist. (Laughter, applause.) It may be asked why the Congress submits afresh these demands to the former leaders of the Right opposition. Were these demands not, made to them at the November Plenum of the Central Committee in 1929? Did not the for- mer leaders of the Right opposition agree to | these demands at that time, renounce their line, admit its erroneousness, and promise to fight for the correct line of the Party? To be sure, all this is true. What then is the present ques- | tion? The question is that they have not kept their promises: that they have not fulfilled, and are not fulfilling, the obligations which they undertook seven months ago. (Voices: True!) Comrade Uglanov was perfectly ri- “DINNER READY!” WHT fou se “MEN TQMAY FARMER Daily, Worker SUBSCRIPTION RATES’ By mall everywhere: Une year $6; six months $8; two months $1; excepting Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. and foreign. which are: (ne yr. $8: six mone. $150 and sin- | - ” when he declared in his speech that they have failed to fulfil the obligations which hey un- dertook at the November Plenum of the Cen- tral Committee. This is the source of the mistrust which they have encountered at this Congress. This is the reason why the Congress renews its demands. Comrades Rykow, Tomsky and Uglanov have complained here that the Party Congress has shown mistrust towards them. But who is to blame for this? They themselves are to blame; people who do not fufil their. obligations can- not expect trust. Were the former leaders of the Right op- position given the’ opportunity, had they the possibility of fulfilling their -promiges, and drawing a line through their past? To. be sure they had. But what have they done in these seven months towards utilizing these oppor- tunities and possibilities? Nothing! Comrade Rykow recently attended the Ural Party Conference. Here he had the best op- portunities of making good his errors. And what happened? Instead of breaking openly and resolutely with his vacillations, he began a pantomime and maneuvering. The Ural Con- ference was naturally obliged to oppose him. Now compare the speech made by Comrade Rykow at the Ural Conference with his speech at the Sixteenth Party Congress. A- wide chasm separates the two speeches. There pan- tomime and maneuver, struggle with the Ural Conference. Here he strives openly and loudly to admit his errors, endeavors to break with the Right opposition, and promises to aid the Party in its struggle against the deviations. Whence this difference?: How is it to be, ex- plained? The obvious explanation is the threat- ening situation of the former leaders of the Right opposition in the Party. Hence it is not to be wondered at that the Party Congress has had the distinct impression that there is noth- ing to be done with these people without exer- ~ nressure upon them. (General laughter, BY BURCK. By UCHIDA. UNJI SUZUKI, founder of the “modern” trade union movement in Japan, and sub- sequently the notorious labor faker following in the foptsteps of Sam Gompers of this coun- try, and of Albert Thomas of the Geneva Inter- national Labor Office, is reported about to land in this country on his way from Geneva, where he attended the International Labor Conference this summer. As the head of the Japan Federation of Labor, a typical reformist organization, and a former member of the Imperial Japanese Diet, this Suzuki is eredited with dozens of anti-labor actions. Besides selling out many strikes to the bosses, in the past few years he has been active, with the pronounced co- operation of the Japanese Government, in ma- Right Wing unions in opposition to the exist- ing revolutionary Pan-Pacific Trade Union Secretariat. When Albert Thomas visited Japan last year he had in mind the promotion of this plan of Suzuki's, The plan, however, met a stern op- position from revolutionary workers and peas- ants of India, China and Japan and so far has not been successful in spite of the fact that” the date for the first Congress was set by the notorious Joshi and others of India, for April, this year. Hated By Japanese Here. To the thousands of toiling Japanese ag- rarian proletarians residing in the western coast of this continent, this Suzuki is especiai- Suzuki, J apanese- the United States ] | | | | Hooyer calls bankers to “aid” farmers. ly memorable in that he did not fight against the passing of the Japanese Exclusion Act of 1924 in this country. On the contrary, to- gether with such a “pro”-Japanese Christian minister as Sidney Gullick, this Suzuki preach- ed to the Japanese immigrants in this country that because of “inferiority” and “backward- ness” they have to be “patient” until the “mis, guided” Americans who control politics “re- pent” their deeds and repeal the law. Will Make Noise. It is possible that. he will again make a lot of noise concerning the cooperation of U. 8. and Japanese labor, ete., especially. in Cali- fornia and in Boston, where he will attend the American Federation of Labor Convention in October, since Mr. Castle, under-secretary of | state and temporary ambassador to Japan dur- neuvering to form a Pan-Pacific Federation of | ing the London, Naval Conference, is now sug- iene the. repeal of the Japanese Exclusion ct. : oe With the next imperialist war nearing, the role of the labor. fakers becomes more and more important. They are being used to check the ‘leftward march of the working class. This is the slogan of. these labor fakers.. And Su- zuki and Go. are the leaders of these labor fakers in Japan, Ps! In spite of the report by the Musteite Fed- erated. Press that Suzuki “has achieved re- markable success in organizing the transporta- tion and factory workers in Japan, and in es- tablishing a labor party,” he was’ defeated miserably in the last general election held Teb- ruary this year, ~ Labor Faker in continuous applause.) Has Comrade Uglanov had the opporttinity of fulfilling the promises which he made to the November Plenum of the Central Commit- tee? Yes, he has had this. I refer to the super- party conference in the “Moselectric,” at which | he spoke recently. And what happened? Instead | of speaking as a Bolshevist should, he began to attack the line of the Party. It need not be said that that met with energetic opposition from the works nucleus. Now conipare his speech with his declaration, published today in the Pravda. A wide chasm separates this speech from this declaration. How is this change to be explained? By that same threat- ening situation which has arisen for the former leaders of the Right opposition. Is there any- thing to be wondered at that the Party has learned a certain lesson from this—that no- thing is to be gained from these people without | putting pressure on them? Or Comrade Tomsky, for instance. Recently he was in Tiflis at the Trans-Caucasian Party Conference. Here he had the opportunity of making good his errors. And what happened? He spoke of the Soviet farms, of the collective farms, of the cooperatives, of the cultural rev- olution, and of everything imaginable, but not of the main matter—he did not devote one word to kis opportunist work in the Central Council of the Trade Unions of the Soviet Union. This is what he calls fulfilling the promises made the Party! He wished to cheat the Party, and has forgotten that each one of us is under the observation of millions of eyes, and that here nobody can cheat. Com- The Adventures ot a Gas Man in Australia By EDNA NELSON. (Editorial Note:—This very interesting story from the Australian struggle is of special import to the Unemployed Councils of this country. In Australia the Unem- ployed Workers’ Movement has made it a part of its task to defend unemployed work- ers from eviction and from having their gas and electricity cut off. This is the busi- ness of the Unemployed Councils in this country as well. So far it has hardly been tackled.) ee re AS the small blonde man reached a certain house inghiver St., he took a long, last puff at hiscigarette, then threw it to the pavement and stamped on it. Leisurely he stréde into the front garden, up the steps and knocked at the door. Presently it was opened by a frail little women, obviously a worker’s wife. Ste bore the traces of strain and anxiety and insuffi- cient rest. The man lifted his hat: “Have you got the money for your gas Dill this morning, Mrs. Robinson? Otherwise I will have to cut off the gas.” ® From behind Mrs. Robinson a big male form appeared. It was easy to see that he pur- posely wore an air of disinterest in the pro- ceedings as he slowly opened the door wide enough to permit of his walking past the woman out on to the verandah. He sat on the edge o fthe verandah, dangling his legs over the railing, and hummed a few bars of the “International.” Then he called to some- one inside: “Hey, Bert and Jim, better come out here.” The collector for the gas company, who had continued informing Mrs. Robinson of his un- pleasant duty, became uneasy on hearing this; and his feelings were not quieted as two more hefties made their appearance and stepped on to the verandah, The enthusiast who had continued with his tendering of the “International” now straight- ened up and turned sharply toward the gas man. He was a big, broad-shouldered fellow, his eyes shone, his. actions were alert in spite of the fact that he showed no signs of pros- perity on that huge but lean and ill-clad body. “You think you’re going to cut off the gas here,” he began, “but I want to tell you,. dig- ger, that you’re making a bloomer.” The gas man remonstrated. “If you dare to interfere in my work I have a right to call the police,” he asserted. “You just try to call the police and it'll be a damn long time before you can call any- thing again,” menaced the broad one. “Now, how in hell do you think Mrs. Robinson is going to feed her kids on rice and water if you cut off her gas? Anyway, no use argu- ing about it. The gas stays on.” There was an awkward pause. It was plain that the collector was making up his mind to beat. a judicious retreat, no doubt to call again at a more favorable opportunity. “J'll just haye to report this—” he began. “Oh, no, you won't,” came the answer quickly. “We haven't finished with you yet. I don’t know whether you have heard of the Unemployed Workers’ Movement.” He nodded towards his companioons, “Us fellers are in it and one of our jobs is to stop blokes like you from cutting off the gas and light on anyone in this district. You see, we have a branch in every suburb,” he explained with enthusiasm. “We picket houses to stop evic- tions and this idea of keeping light and gas on for the unemployed is only one of many new stunts, We'll have them delivering our tucker right on to the doorstep yet—in short, we unemployed aim to enjoy the benefits of civilization. Just because the bloody bosess reckon they can’t give us a job is no reason why .we should have to starve in the midst of plenty. And you work for the gas company, eh? You might lose your job any day and then. they’d cut your gas off.” “Cut out the windbagging, Bill,” growled one of his colleagues, who happened to be Mr. Robinson, “Don’t get impatient, comrade,” replied Bill, calmly. “We ought to explain the situa- tion to our fellow workers. Why, this com- rade might be prepared to join our study class so’s he can take his place in the ranks revolutionary workers.” “T-am on the of the workers,” declared small many “I belong to the Australian Labor Party.” “Hal I knew we'd find something in com- “pare his speech at Tiflis with his attitude at. this Party Congress, where he has openly and | directly acknowledged his opportunist: errors as leader of the Central Council of the Trade Unions of the Soviet Union. Again the chasm between the two speeches. How is this differ- ence to be explained? By that same dangerous position which has arisen for the former lead- ers of the Right opposition. Is it, then.a mat- ter of wonder that the Party Congress has endeavored to exercise pressure on these com- rades, to the end that they may be induced to fulfil their obligations? (Laughter, applause.) these comrades still-encounter in the Party. remarkable behavior on the part of the former leaders of the Right opposition? their own free will, without external pressure? stances. ters, generally resolving: Let us wait till spring, ‘branch of the Unemployed Workers’ Move- nion This is the source of the mistrust which What is the explanation of this more than What is the explanation of the fact that they have not made one single attempt, during the period just past, to fulfil their obligations of The explanation lies chiefly in two circum- Firstly, they have not been quite convinced of the correctness of the Party line, and have been quietly continuing their fractional work, awaiting time and good counsel and the op- portunity to come forward openly against. the Party. They have met together in their frac- tional meetings and have discussed Party mat- perhaps the Party will suffer defeat in the spring sowings—then we can advance as we should. (To be « ntinued.) mon. I used to be a member of the A. L. P. myself.” “But I bet you're a Communist now and it’s the likes o’ you blokes that causes more trouble than there need be.” “Just the very thing I used to say myself, digger? But let me explain. Now, what is the trouble? There are thousands (gawd knows how many thousands) of us unable to get a decent feed; well, you know it all as well as I do—as this marvellous system of society progresses, we're worse off. The wealthy ones press more and more electric buttons and bab- ble of the wonders of modern science and by Christ we starve and shiver. How could Com- munists cause that?” “When this cursed unemployment first came heavy, the A. L. P. League here ran concerts for a shilling a time, the money to go to the worse cases of unemployed; also got the pic- ture show owner to give us his theatre free for one afternoon for the same cause.~ The idea of this was that those in work should help their unfortunate mates. - Saved “the bosses and government a lot of trouble. | suppose we managed to give some of the un- employed a decent feed now and again, so they did not seem to be doing very much, Still it was all my weak brain could think of: “Then as things got worse, there’ were less workers who could afford to buy a ‘bab (% shillings—Editor) ticket, and more “of us who needed the help. Naturally I could see through this punk idea of overcoming our troubles. “One day a feller came to the door and asked was I out of work. Oh, gee, was I what? He said he had come up to form a ment ‘and wanted me to help. Well, he talked to me for a couple of hours and I wondered how I, ever lived so long in such blindness. This comrade pointed out to me that whoever was in control of things was unfit to carry on making such a mess of it all. I agreed, @ course, and said 1 believed in socialization ef industry. I didn’t quite understand what that meant or how it would happen but. those blokes in parliament were supposed’ to look after that. “Do you know how the workers will come to own all the wealth?’ he asked, “I didn’t know. * . “ ‘By taking it with their own strong hands like the workers did in Russia. Comrade,’ he says, ‘we’ve got to do it for ourselves. Even if the politicians wanted to do anything like grabbing the glass works, the bosses’ police would have them in jail or dead if necessary in half an hour. But if a thousand trained ana armed workers want the glass works, it’ll take a hell of a lot to stop them from having a victory.’ “And ‘look here, fellow worker, victory is the only thing that we care about. It means everything for us, everything,” - emphasized) Bill. 8 ie hela “To get down to some actual work. You gas workers can be very useful. You should talk over things to the rest of them in the gas company and between yourselves elect a Shop Committee. One of the first things you can do is to assist the U. W. M. by deciding that whoever is sent out anywhere to cut off gas should inform the secretary of the U. W. M. so that arrangements can be made. to prevent him. This saves the gas worker from losing his job by refusing to cut the gas off. Of course those workers who are already mem- bers of the movement notify us themselves, like Bert here, and we are prepared. But everyone hasn’t joined up, yet. . “Now I want to accompany you on your tour round this area to see how many more gasses you're likely to tinker with, And I'll interview your unfortunate victims and tel them our plans and enrol them as members.” The gas collector was amazed. He show resentment but he .knew, it was hopeless . object. Also he hated hist job, | “You may as well. conie friendly,” ‘con: tinued Bill, “and you can ask me all the ques- tions you want to know about the class struggle as we go along. I-won’t be able answer them all satisfactorily, but it’ll be prac: tice for me. I’m learning’ to become speaker.” He led the way to the gate, “Hooray!” h yelled back at the Robinsons, “Don’t forge’ we meet at Number 26 at.7:30. And you fel lers mind the kids while Comrade Mrs. Robin- son goes to that women’s meeting this after- noon.” ; ‘