The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 3, 1930, Page 4

shed by the Comprod Page Four £ New work OUR TASKS IN ILLINOIS AND, 1 Saily excer t Sunday Cable: "D. tare New York, N Dail Central Onge INDIANA COALFIELDS By BILL GEBERT We are And when we are >in not rk not mean that t agita- he miners the work e absence of the Mine, ’ Industrial Union (for- National Miners’ Union), the 1 by the fake rank and ne How ington to the Lewis faction. e organizationally and arry C g mong the broad s ers The Ben- n ca n South Illinois, in an Cor s Obstructing Prof- Operatior ” states: “A gloomy 1 ‘ace : try of Franklin ( oda s es of conservative ner pu officials and leading citizens pla a co-operative effort to check the wave of Communism that is spreading to every ntry.” shaft in this e¢ The bosses’ paper rec- nize anger” of Comm = adi shaft in this country.” In- ain danger.” jer the influence of our agitation e€ » in the mines, are under- ruggle against the speed-up. Sd n among the miners in Frank- n Cour w down on the job and put the motion.” This method of t the speed-up system is so ef- Benton News, in said article, “One of the plans of the agitators is to make the use of loading machines and con- yeyors impractical. Many instances are re- lated by coal operators where men on these modern mining machines have failed to pro- duce as inuch coal during the 8-hour shift as one man could load by hand. Agitators of unrest are being sent into various coal union meetings to sow the seed of discontent among the miners, and the officers and citi- tly are alarmed over the influence 1 of Reds exert over a group of se considered loyal and obedient to the laws of their union and of their coun- try.” Miners Resist. s with whom I discussed per- facts that the majority of the of the mines in Franklin “slow motion” to such an extent at the production of coal is decreasing stead- nile th ser of miners employed in ut the same. The miners of struggle are taking in the fight against capitalist rationali mines and mass unem- ployment which is general throughout the coal fiells of try. ases where bos Many sonally rs in unty are in m relat some mines this cov In other up th Used BF mine s attempt to speed ting large numbers of s struck and fought against ion on the part of the and they have no hope or miners, elimina , the eis a de strug any illusions that Lewis or Fishwick will be of any help to them in their struggle. On contrary, they look upon them as tre misleaders, etc. Unfortunately, the M. 0. 8. W. I, U. not there as an organiza- tior rhe fighting miners are under the in- fluence of the fake rank and file movement. This rank and file movement, which held in Bellev n August 26 a so-called state con- ferer 1 the representatives of the 18 local unions, did not, as could be expected, take up the struggle of the miners. According to the this v of and file m operater No wonder movement, Fussner, “the rank ent had been favored by many at the struggle of the sed at this convention. movement received support not dis and file miners wa TI ait rank of inde coal operators, just as the Howatt-Farrington movement gets the support of the Peabody Co. and the Lewis union re- ceived the support of other coal operators. Bosses Benefit. movements are movements in the coal operators. The only decision of the Belleville “rank and file convention” was All three that they passed a resolution asking the secre- tary of ‘labor, Davis, and Bill Green, fascist president the American Federation of Labor, to influence Lewis and Fishwick to resign from their posts. In the meantime the rank 8nd {ile conference proceeded to set up a “new” wnion in the coal fields, selecting a committee of three to prepare for another conferen which elections of president, vice-pre secretary, etc., will take place. There should be a clear understanding that the so-called rank and file movement is not a movement which fights for the rank and file, but a movement of independent coal operators Jed by several local union officials who want the check-off for themselves and not for Lewis, Farringion-Peabody unio : Organ It is « that in this situation the main ask confronting the M. 0. 8. W. I. U. is or- ganization. It is unfortunate that many com- rades in the field up to this time could not un- derstand why it is necessary to build an inde- pendent union, set up independent mine com- in the mines and lead independent “ There ave still illusions that we should work insile of the U. M. W. A. instead of building locals of the M. O. S. W. I. U. and on the basis of a united front from below with militant mii lead the economic struggle of the inin- ers, which must be linked up with the struggle egair local. district and national off Is of tne U. M, W. A, of all factions who are a part of the ¢ operators’ machin in an effort ty the new wave of struggle of t miners organizers the T. U. U. L. to help build the union coal fields reports as could be revived very y here a few » same old story of the so- the organizers who are not the ones who should ‘or of think that 1ild the union, but survey the field, and some- dy else would go and build the union. Pay Attention to Details. Overgaard, in his ar ng the Metal Workers’ Industrial League, | tly stated that we should not be too the utmost attention to the “littl uestions. This must be un¢ zers and by leading members of arty and unions everywhere that we are from the period of agitation to the Period of organization and organization for or strikes. must be have n satisfied and completely Some of the whole conception of the f wor! changed. It h holding on conditions the of building the movemen of them made the speeches for months, but in the meantime they did not proceed to make one step toward building the organization. vanizers, for the good of the working class, must be taken away At present, the MOSWIU in Illinois is con- centrating tp rebuild its organization in Frank- lin county, the biggest coal ucing county in the state d the organizers have been ac- cording’ structed to build nuclei of the union in Franklin county to establish a base of organization from which we can proceed to build a movement throughout one state, This is more important than making flying trips thru the field and not accomplishing any- thing. We are taking these drastic step$ after removing from the field incompetent organiz- ers who have not only done any work, but destroyed everything built befor There are unlimited possibilities in Ilinois. It is only necessary to have a clear conception of the building of the union on the basis of setting up mine committees which shall under- take a campaign to organize miners for strug- gle and lead them in the struggle on the basis of a united front from below on concrete de- mands. The economic struggles shall be linked up with the political struggle of the working class and in the present election campaign, with the candidacy of Freeman Thompson who is now in jail for leadership in the December, 1929, strike in Illinois. It is pe ble to put the Party and the union in Illin on a real or- ganizational b: By stressing so much the organizational side I do not want to minimize an iota of the importance of the political at- tention of the miners and general agitation, but emphasis must be put on organization. Some Such o1 Aes ploit the Possibilities. The situation we are in in Illinois coal fields is about the same in Indiana and there also are unlimited possibilities for building the or- ganization. A few days ago, an organizational trip to Indiana coal esulted in establish- ing a Party unit in Bicknell of 10, local union of 40, and a Party unit in Clinton of 5. Also we were able to speak at a meeting of unem- ployed miners in Oakland City. These facts, together with the recent strikes in Franklin and Saline county, mass meetings in Zeigler and West Frankford, with mass meet- ings of unemployed over 800 workers in Bel- leville with the support of a Communist can- didate for U. S. senate, Freeman Thompson, in Illinois coal ds, are signs of how much could be done in the coal field It is our duty as Party to help the MOSWIU to build it as a mighty power of the miners. Id: Against Political Corruption! Statement of the Central Committee, Commu- nist Party U.S.A, on “Roynost Ludu.” 0% 1930, in a number of copies of “Rovnost Ludu” Czechoslovakian organ of our Party, a half page advertisement and two write-ups appeared, calling upon the readers to yote on the July Ist referendum for the “Traction Ordinance.” To fully understand the unprincipledness of the action. of those re- sponsible for ;.ublishing the advertisement, .ne must know, that in other copies of the same issue, an article, entitled “Defeat the Traction Ordinance” was published, giving the stand- point of the Communist Pariy, exposing the ity government. This article was taken out from copies and replaced with a write-up en- titled, “Vote for the new traction ordinance on July Ist” and with another entitled “What oth people are saying about the traction plan,” containing statements of bankers, reat estate men, lawyers, ete., agitating for the In- sull inteerests and an advertisement entitled, “Vote yes and give work to the unemployed.” A copy of this paper was sent to the Party today a worker and the Central Committee ord d immediate investigation to find out who is responsible for this unprincipled, non- Communist action. The Chicago District of our Party mobilized the workers for a bitter struggle against this ction Ordinance of the City Council of Chi- cago, which was so disgraceful and in a secret manner, without the knowledge of any respon- sible Party Committee, advertised in some copies of Rovnust Ludu. Prior to the referen- dum our Chicago District exposed the plan, as one dictated by the Insull interests dominating the city administration, the servile acceptance of which further signalizes the complete uni- fication of the finance capitalists and the gov- ernment. By the new franchise granted by the Council of Chicago to the traction in- they not only consolidated all the sur- and elevated lines in the hands of the June face Insull finance capitalist group, but practically they turned over to them the 60 million dol- Jar traction fund of the for them to raise the far grip of the traction interests over the traction workers in their wage slashing and speed up drive, strengthened the fascist terror raging in Chicago, with the completion of the finance- capitalist rule. ss ty; opened the way strengthened the The unification of the surface, elevated and the planned subway lines in the hands of a powerfy] finance-capitalist interest does not result in “giving work to the unemployed” as the lying advertisement propagates. On the contrary, it results in eapitalist rationalization, in the intootuetion of new “scientific methods e on build- | © good speeches | The Voice of the Jobless Workers’ Savings Gone By I. AMTER, Prisoner No, 52350 thecSdyfuniet Porty U.S.A (Communist Candidate for 23rd Congressional District, Bronx.) INCE last November, Hoover has flooded the country with statements about “prosper- ity,” “returning prosperity,” “stability,” “soundness of conditions,” ete. Secretaries La- mont and Davis and Andrew Mellon have added their voices to the “prosperity” chorus. And each time they spoke the stock market broke. Wall Street pays no attention to this gibber- ish, for it knows the actual conditions. The functions are divided—the government plays its part in “assuring” the people and “spread- ing confidence” in the “basically sound condi- tions of the country,” while Wall Street is working overtime to overcome the crisis; to get industry going, to curb the disaster in ag- riculture, to speed up ‘foreign trade, to “cut the cost of production,” that is, to slash wages and speed up the workers. Wall Street is not pleased with the existence of an unemployed army of 8,000,000. Wall Street does not like the experiences of thefree employment bureaus established, where, as in New York, more than 20,000 workers have registered and not even 1,000 jobs could be as- signed—and these chiefly on the basis of “a job for a week.” Bitter Struggles. Wall Street knows that this is a crisis that promises to increase considerably the number and the suffering of the unemployed and lead during this winter to the bitterest struggles this country has seen in demands of the unem- ployed for unemployment insurance and strikes against wage-cuts, Now comes along James W. Gerard, former ambassador to Germany, who, in listing the names of fifty-nine men who he says control the United States (he later increased the num- ber to 64), has given the names of the kind of people which make up the future national fascist council of the United States, These names range from Rockefeller and Morgan to Green and Woll. Gerard, comparing the United , States with Great Britain, siates that unem- ployment in the United States, although greater than in Englan!, is “temporary,” while in Great Britain it is “permanent.” Permanent Army of Unemployed. We remember some years ago, Harding ad- mitted that in normal times there are 1,500,900 country, permanently unemployed in this of speed-up and mass d unemployment. When the Communist Party exposed this scheme and led the workers into struggle against it, to print the propaganda material of the Insull group is the worst kind of oppor- issals and growing tunism, an attitude of “business is one thing | and Communism is another thing,” which hay nothing in common with our revolutionary movement. Our press is the face of our Party Always showing what the Party stands for and always;onen to the working class. The Communist Party does not tolerate “doube- bookkeeping” and trickery. What is not in the interest of the working class and what we cannot do openly, we will not do secretly. The Party will take severe steps against those, who, with their anti.Communist actions step between the working class and its Party, which leads it in its day to day struggles, to libera- tion from class rule, orker Heard SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mall everywtere: One year $6; six months $3; two months $1; Manhattan and Bronx, New York City, and foreign, which are: On BY BURCK, Strike Strategy By JOHNSTONE. Article Number IIL. TRIKE struggles involving large masses of workers creates favorable conditions for in- creasing the influence of the Trade Union Unity League,’ but strike struggles galso de- mand well-planned preparations. Certainly, the calling of a strike such as that which took place a short time ago in a candy factory in Indiana Harbor by the issuance of a leaflet calling for a strike against a wage-cut which had taken place, and the voté to strike was taken by only about a dozen girls out of a factory where hundreds worked, and then the setting up of a picket line of about forty with only two strikers participating. is not the kind of preparation or the kind of strike that will increase the influence of the T.U.U.L. Dozens of lost opportunities like the one men- tioned here can be cited, which shows a wrong orientation regarding leadership and the role of the workers in strike struggles. Revolution- which number has been greatly increased by * new machinery, speed-up and the belt and con- veyor system. In other ‘words, our “perma- nent” unemployed army is even larger than that in England and a large part of the “tem- porary” unemployed will become permanent member The fascist Gerard should think twice before making such blundering state- ments. The same day, Stanwood Mencken, president the National § of urity League, declared in Paris that “the Communists will never control “America, because they will be defeated by the common se! life ins: If thi: patriotism, savings deposits and nce of the working men of America.” true, then why all this worry about the Commun Why resort to Whalen for- geries, Fish congressional committees, why out- law the Communist Party and revolutionary unions ? vings Disappearing. Because in spite of his bluff, Mencken knows that the savings deposits of the workers are disappearing, and that many who have pulled through the last winter on savings and loans face the coming winter in despair. When a worker has no money, no job, nothing to feed his family on, faces eviction; when poor farm- ers are ruined and “farm relief” is merely a graft for the rich farmers; when wages are being cut sometimes down to 50 per cent, and when, on top of it all, the new tariff will raise the cost of living—then Mr. Mencken will see what “common sense” and “patriot- ism” American workers will manifest. Mencken “forgets” the million and a quarter of workers who demonstrated on March 6th. He “forgets” the 80,000 men who stormed Ford’s factory in Detroit and 20,000 a factory in New Jersey. . If Mencken believes that it is “patriotic” and “common sense” for workers,to starve, then he will be sadly jarred. American workers won't starve—they will fight, and the Com- munists are organizing them for the fight. The first step is the fight for the Workers’ Social Insurance Bill. The Communists thus are proving that they are the only fighters for the working class, and we can assure Gerar! that the workers and farmers will also battle against any National Fascist council of the United States, and will not cease till the workers, under the leader- ship of the Communist Party, have established a Workers’ and Farmers’ Government in the United States, The workers must learn their lessons from the statements of the fascis:s and line up be- hind the Communist Party, support its pro- gram and vote for its candidates in the coming elections. Join the Communist Party! Build up revolutionary unions of the Trade Union Unity League and the Unemployed Coun- cils! ° Ton' ary leadership must show a special attitude of understanding the masses, of leading with- out commanding or demanding service, but by drawing the workers into the very heart of the struggle where they lost their individual aloofness, where they lose the feeling that the union (something outside of themselves) is doing it, and where they become an integral part of the mass struggles forging to the front as mass leaders. Only by these means will we be able to develop a broad cadre of much needed new leaders. The organization of broad rank and file strike committees is a prerequisite for the de- velopment of new leadership, as well as for the successful conduct of the strike. These strike committees cannot be considered merely as a sub-committee of the union, even of our revolu- tionary unions. The strike committee elected by the workers will draw in workers who may be members of the A. F. of L. company unions, in politics, . ay be republican, demoeratic, so- cialist, or members of our Party. The task of the Party and the T.U.U.L. in this situation is to bring forward the best and most energetic members into the committee through the chan- nels of democratic elections, and by example, by deeds, by th2 following of a consistent class program, by winning the confidence of the masses who e!.cted them, dominatin® and lead- ing the strike committee and the strikers,bring- ing them, irrespective of their political or re- ligious beliefs, into the revolutionary unions. The old, not so very old, method of electiny a strike committee by the union, composed of union members only, must give way to the revolutionary strike strategy of a rank and file strike committee elected by the workers, irrespective of the fact of whether they belong to the T.U.U.L. or not. Sometimes A Minority. In some cases the adherents of the TUUL may find themselves in a minority of the strike committee in the preliminary stages of the strike. The recent strike of the Boston Shoe Workers involving some thousands of workers, found us in this position and so poorly prepared were we for it, that although our revolutionary minority forced the election of a ‘ strike committee and won the leadership, we Jost it again and the strike was seld out by the fascist leadership of Mead & Company. This was due 1) to lack of preparation for the strike; 2) an opportunist position taken by the leaders of the Independent Shoe Workers Union, namely, that the strike was bound to be lost because it was under the control of the fas- cists, therefore, nothing could be done and we | should not get into a lost strike situation; 3) failure to expose the treachery of the fascist leader, Meade; 4) when a correct policy was finally worked out, it was too late to carry it thru successfully. In situations such as we faced in the Boston shoe strike, the revolutionary workers press forward their program for the strike. However, without retreating or retiring from the struggle, we must manifest patience and develop the ability to convince the strikers and the majority of the strike committee of the need for revolutionary strike strategy. Where the strike committee is composed of reformists an! is obviously betraying the strike, the revolutionary minority must not hesitate to expose them before the strikeys, even to the extent of withdrawing from the strike com- mittee. . Report Every Day. The strike committee must have the ability to keep in constant touch with the strikers, reporting every day. They must learn to un- derstand their mood and keep the workers at | a fighting pitch, continually strengthening it- self by drawing in new life elements from the strikers who have shown initiative. The work- ers, at ali times, must have complete control of the strike committee, and not allow the committee to arbitrarily decide important questions, to secretly negotiate with the em- ployers, to accent, or reject, conditions offered by the employers or to call off the strike. All ’ . must | i | By JORGE Another Gag The Cuban “government” of Machado, than whom no more servile a bootlicker ever licked a boot of Uncle Sam, has arrested some wom- an on a charge of trying to sell Cuba’s mili- tary secrets to the United States. That’s about like Walker discovering that there is graft in New York City. If the dear lady was so dumb that she does not know that the National City Bank owns the Cuban government, it serves her right to get locked up for trying to sell the U. S. am- bassador the military codes he had already been given by Machado. The gag comes in on the idea that Machado would be highly indignant if the U. S. got them. By arresting the old girl, he pretends that Cuba is a free and independent country. “About as much as Long Island,” as someone else once remarked. a @ Hoover’s Official Liar Pity the poor census taker, especially Mr. Steuart, the chief liar in Washington, who is slowly becoming almost convinced that there may be two or three unemployed workers in New York City, and perhaps one or two in Chicago. Sometimes eight or nine millions take a sud- den notion to take a day off, but they are not “unemployed.” Only those workers who cornered the census man, tied him to the kit- chen sink and by force and violence com- pelled him to enter them in one special kind of Steuart’s 57 varieties of people who are “idle,” as the capitalist press calls it, are “unem- ployed.” Steuart tries desperately to “explain’ how it is that there are only 2,000,000 who should really be counted. Here’s what he says: The workers, as a rule, do not work all the time. They have at least one day off in a week, usually Sunday,and perhaps have half of Saturday. Many of them have some vacation.” So, the idea is, that merely because a work- er doesn’t work for a few years, is no reason for counting him as unemployed. If he’s on a “vacation” this year, who knows but what he'll be working next year. Likely he'll die before the 1940 census and settle the whole question. Anything to save the reputation of republican prosperity. Which reminds us of the saying that there are three kinds of liars; just liars, damn liars and statisticians. * * * We heard that the Fish Committee is com- ing back in September, and thought we struck it when we saw the headline: “Fish of Many Kinds Win Exhibition Prizes.” But it was only about how the Pterophyllum scalava eimeke, which the papers say is “a small fish with ex- aggerated fins, prominently figuring in all tropical submarine moving pictures,” won a prize at an aquarium show of queer fish. Hum .. . Sounds a little familiar, doesn’t it? “A lot of little fish with big names,” con- tinues the story, took the prizes, which is like Ham Fish, only they come by their big names honestly and not by Act of Congress. At least they never swallowed Grover Whalen’s for- geries. + * * Did you hear about the Birmingham, Ala., business men appealing to manufacturers to “come to Birmingham?” They said by way of inducement: “This city has 106,000 unem- ployed females of 10 years of age and over, who will work for lower wages than females anywhere else.” Probably they can find a few thousand nurs- ing babies that will crawl to the cotton mills for a bottle of milk a day, and there is no doubt but that any number of small unem- ployed boys are playing marbles who ought to be getting 10 cents a day and tuberculosis just as they do in-textile mills of China. Isn’t it a blessing that the Chinese Exclu sion Act gives Americans the “right” to work for Chinese wages, and the Alabama fascist “Black Shirts” demand that only white Amer- ieans have this wonderful privilege. Great world! Soon the K.K.K. will demand that only white babies under five years be allowed to do longshore work. The Communist Party fights lynching—vote Communist! tendencies of this character must be ruthlessly fought against and defeated and elements sponsoring them recalled from the committee by the workers. The control by the workers of the strike committee and the constant contact with the workers by the strike committee, is funda- mentally necessary for the proper conduct and success of the strike. This does not mean that the strike committee, cannot under an excep- tional situation make independent decisions reporting its action for approval to the strikers, but the general principal should be te. bring aH important proposals to the strikers for dis- cussion and approval or rejection before action is taken, Against Fascist Elements. The participation of the leadership of the A. F. of L. company unions in strike commit- tees must be fought against, whether they parade as a socialist, a Muste progressive, a Lovestonite or Cannonite. The acceptance of any of these elements on the strike committee means the beginning of a defeat. It is partic- ularly in preparation and during strike strug- gle that these treacherous fascist elements must be exposed before the workers. All ef- forts to.slacken the fight against these bureau- crats on the grounds that we are now leading a strike, must be condemned. It is during a strike that these traitors become the most dangerous and the fight aaginst them must be increased rather than slackened. The first necessary steps however, in strike preparation is the successful carrying through of the national campaign! launched by the T. U.U.L, for a $100,000 strike fund. This cam- paign can and will ‘be successful if brought to the workers, by the revolutionary unions and leagues with a concrete plan’ of work, every member of the union to be drawn into what factories are to be organized; how is the work, what are the concrete demands around which the workers are being organized to strike for, what are the campaigns ahd plans for the organizing of the unemployed, what are the strike objectives. The workers ai ready for struggle—they will contribute @ $100,000 strike fund and they will strike,