The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 16, 1930, Page 4

‘ 3 Saunre New OUR TASKS IN BUILDING. THE RED UNIONS In my have discuss: Wh the Pz I don mobili. tionar, whe gaa iree workers, That i at it want to ask t of the Part dustry, what mof, opinion arty for bh simply tu > comr: we the or the Meta on ¢ Worker Convention est ma represents act dustry of m n capitalis Basic Industries. The same is true in other decis such as C and Metal minin bile For instance, com Convention of the Auto W in Detroit. There ent, and these zation, right in the center of th trated proletariat in the United States. I cite this instance to show and to prove > the whole Party that so far as actual wo con. cerned, actual carrying out in every-day prac- tice the main line of the Cominte: that our Party approach is almost frivolo Pacts are facts, comrades, and one of the accomplish: ments of this Convention will be that no longer will comrades be able to convince the Party of the correctness of their line by speeches and resolutions. In our day-to-day work, especially of building the mass trade unions, is where the correctness of the line will be shown, the strength of conviction, the depth of under- standing. Certainly, comrades, our Party is not based inside the decisive industries and one of the reasons for this, perhaps the main reason, is that there is in the Party a very definite op- position to work inside the factories. I could cite any number of concrete instances to show this. And where does this come from? This comes from the deep-rooted opportunist tend- encies that have not yet been corrected. It is quite clear, comrades, that in every District of the Party we took a little too much for granted in the struggle against Lovestoneism and its expression inside the Party. We took too much for granted when we carried on a discussion, published many articles, removed some comrades. But the fact of the matter is that we simply began the struggle against opportunism, against the right danger, and then droped it before the struggle had been carried through effectively. The result was that we only skimmed the surface, we skimmed off the opportunist skum that arose to the surface but we did not dig deep into the Party to root out the tendencies that are there. What is the conclusion from this, comrades? It is that the Party cannot be mobilized for building the Red Trade Unions or for work inside the factories without at the same time carrying on a struggle against opportunist tend- | encies and expressions. And when we !ook into the work in the various Districts we see | new mem ainst United omrades in a very n about the revolution that they con the i e decisive ut Comrade Lozovsky did arty and to the other x forth and popu States siastic with written by Comrade onom demands in 1907 Cen't Skip a Process. uld serve as a guide for mass work. What ese economic e are trying to skip approachin,, the » dow For instance in one of the comrades organized 40 cleane dy TS 3 much atten- t after night and spoke to them, and finally the rank and file workers came the District office of the Party. They and stated that they agreed ‘am, we are not against the rs and devoted tion tot E almost ¢ with all of our wer resol they said, but for god’s sake, send us a cleaner and dyer to speak to us about our problems in the shop, we will pay his fare from New Yo! ry. Workers wil’ not be o: zed i The struggle must be centered op problems and de- mands. Then com th the great weakness in our day to day mass agitation. Ia the first* place there is not sufficient agitation, and we do not e enough leaflets, enough leaflets deali cal problems as they arise in the basic industries. Certainly it is not necesary to include in every leaflet. every slogan of the Party, every time a leaflet is issued. Our leaflets must be simplified. They must pro- ceed from economic demands and vice versa. New Forces. Then, comrades, the question of the develop- ment of new forces. From every District comes the demand for new forces, and our forces ar very weak, especially in the mass trade union work, especially in shop activity. There must be more growth conscious development of the forces that are coming to the forefront in the strug that are arising. I know for instance, that in the National Miners Union in the last 2 or 3 weeks, four or five rank and file organizers have been developed and placed in the field. The development of these forces can- not be a mechanical, a haphazard process. We es | must proceed systematically picking out those rank and file comrades who show ability for one or another kind or work, and promote and train them in the struggle—this is what de- velopment of forces means. And in the educa: tional work in our Party we must assign cer. tain comrades for this work in the ‘rade unions and in the Districts, and organize reading cir- cles, study classes, elementary political educa- tion. By these two methods we will develop more responsib: in the new forces and en- able them to deal with th serious problems that arise. every day. The American Fascists ot Atlanta - and the Working Class By CHARLES ALEXANDER. The organization in Atlanta, Georgia, of the American Fascist Association and Order of the Black Shirts which has as one of its tashs the throwing out of Negro workers from their jobs, and replacing them with white workers is of signal importance to the American work- ing class. For it is a clear indication of the vicious onslaught of the employing class against the Negro workers, and consequently against the whole working class The name of the organization is significant, for it manifests that American capitalism is rapidly unmasking its face, and is assuming the name which really demonstrates it tions—fascism. The campaign of this fas organization to replace Negro workers with white workers is another means of the capi- talist class to further separate and divide the Negro and white workers, and to render them impotent to the brutal exploitation and op- pression to which both races of workers are subjected. The workers of Atlanta, and cf the whole South must not be misled by the pretensions of th n Fascist Associa- tion and Order of the Black Shirts, but must organize and unite in a common struggle against fascism and exploitation. The conditions of the workers of Atlanta for the past several months have been frightful. Mass unemployment and misery exist on all sides among all sections of the working class —Negro and white; while those who are yet fortunate to have a job are subjected to merci- less speed-up, wage-cuts, and a general wors- ening of their living standards. During this period the death rate from Pellagra—a dread- ful disease among the worl class caused by yndernourishment—has increased tremen- dously. Alongside with this the mortality among workers’ children sho ightful in- creases, owing to the fact that children at the early age of seven are compelled to slave ten to twelve hours in the factories and cotton mills to increase the starvation level of the family earnings. Confronted with this hor- rible condition, the Negro and white workers of Atlanta, under the leadership of the Trade Union Unity League, the Communist Party and the International Labor Defense have been breaking down the barriers of race prejudice, and are organizing and uniting in common struggle for improved economic conditions. The effect of this organized solidarity and unity of Negro and white workers in Atlanta, 8 1a the home of the blood-thjrsty Ku Klux Klan, and one of the strongholds of the lynchers of the South (since January, 1930, seven egro workers have been brutally lynched in the state of Georgia), was a horror to the exploiting class, and naturally consti- tutes a threat to their plunder and robbery. The utilization of racial barriers between Ne- gro and white workers being one of the main pillars upholding their oppressive system, they recognize in the breaking down of this pillar, the accomplishment by the workers—Negro and white—of one of the prerequisites neces- sary for the abolition of the whole vicious system. Their recourse, therefore, to attempt to prevent this is the organization of the American Fascist Association and Order of the Black Shirts and the initiating of its present campaign to kick the Negro workers out of their jobs, to pit one race of workers against the other, to terrorize the Negro workers by barbarously lynching them, and to try to bol- ster up their crumbling “superiority” and “inferiority” between the two races of work- ers, both of which, however, are subjected to the same brutal and miserable conditions. Let no worker, Negro or white, maintain any illusion as to the true character of the American Fascist Association and Order of Black Shirts, and the Atlanta bosses. It is in this very Atlanta that six workers, H. M. Power, Joe Carr, Anna Burlak, Mary Dalton, Herbert Newton and George Storey, the last death in the electric chair for attempting to hold meetings to organize Negro and white workers together into the same union. in this very Atlanta that the “Atlanta Life,” one of the lead:ng bosses’ newspapers of the city, declared, “The indictment of Powers and Carr (the first two workers arrested) is the answer of the state of Georgia to Commu- nism”—read: is the answer of the state of Georgia to the demands of the workers for better working and living conditions. It is in this very Atlanta that the Assistant Prosecu- tor General, Hudson, declared, “Your Honor, we will ask for the death penalty in these capi- tal cases’—referring to the six Atlanta pris- oners. And this very fascist organization was most active in framing up these workers, and is now engaged in inciting lynching mobs against them. It is this very fascist organ- ization together with the Caucasian Crusade, one of the original signers of which is the sheriff of the county jail in which the six At- lanta prisoners were confined prior to their It is | at 26-78 Union Prarwes KON Daily Cantrol Orgon R MSY SOVIET GERMANY AGAINST F Worker nist Porty U.S.A Marcha 4y mall everywhere SUBSCTUPTION RATES Ome vear $6: 81x months $3, two months SI New York City and foreizn whteb are Hrenx one ve excepting Boroughs of $8: six mons. $1.5u SCIST GERMANY BY BURUK. Fight in the Spirit of Ella May By KARL REFVE. - On September 14th, the anniversary of her tragic murder by the police, the International Labor Defense inaugurates Ella May Mem- orial Week, as a tribute to the memory of a courageous and militant working class leader, and as an occasion for more intensive work for the success of the September-November Class War Prisoners’ Defense and Liberation Drive. The Gastonia strike began on April Ist, and not long after occurred the strike in the tex- tile mills in Bessemer City, only a few miles away. At the very start of the Bessemer City strike Ella May came forward as one of the most active members of the National Textile Workers’ Union. She was soon acting as the Bessemer City secretary of the International Labor Defense, and in that capacity signed up many workers into the defense organization. When the delegation of the Gastonia Tex- tile strikers to Washington was organized, Ella May was selected’ as one of the twelve who went to Washington to expose the fake maneuvers of the Senate. Ella May spoke up fearlessly in Washington. She exposed the fact that not only was the textile barons’ sen- ator from North Carolina issuing daily lies in the Senate about the conditions of the Gas- tonia workers, but also that Green and Woll and Wheeler were acting as strikebreakers on behalf of the textile barons. The lesson of the Washington trip was not lost on Ella May. She saw that there was a united front of the United States government agents which included the fascist “progres- sives” and American Federation of Labor “labor” leaders. She saw that all of these agents of the capitalist class in the workers ranks did not want her to appear and give the true fact as to their conditions. It became clear to Ella May that the “investigation” was being conducted for the purpose of pre- venting the southern workers from organizing into the National Textile Workers Union. In the Gastonia strike area Ella May spoke daily at strike meetings, telling of her ex- periences with the agents of the bosses in Washington. She developed into an eloquent speaker. She told in simple forceful language the conditions under which she was living; of her children at home living in poverty and want; denied schooling because of the starva- tion wages she was paid in the mills. She release on bail by the International Labor De- fense, and the Ku Klux Klan which burned a cross in the prison yard in an attempt to ter- rorize the six prisoners, and have been instru- mental in spreading brutal terror among the Negro and white workers of Atlanta. « It must be pointed out that it is exactly in this period when the working masses are bear- ing the whole burden of the economic crisis their living standards reduced to a starvation level, and going through one of the wérst un- ; employment situation in its whole history, that the employing class will utilize and bring into | existence all its fascist organizations to pit two Negro workers, stand indicted and face | one race against the other, to terrorize the working class, in order to weaken labor's re- sistance to exploitation and oppression. The organization of the American Fascist Association and Order of Black Shirts marks another step forward in the development of the employers’ machinery of persecution of the workers. And it dates back one yeay ago when the Manville-Jenckes textile barons or- ganized their “Black Hundred” during the textile strike in Gastonia, North Carolina. It was this “Black Hundred” that kidnapped and attempted to lynch many of the strikers and organizers, and finally on September 14th, 1929, murdered Ella May, one of the leaders of the Gastonia and Bessemer City strike, and whose fighting spirit will be honored by the International Labor Defense during the week September 14th to 2ist. The activities and purposes of the “Black Hundred” laid the basis for the organization and development on a broader scale of this direct fascist organ- ization. The workers of Atlanta, of the South and of é Y.C.L. PRE-PLENUM DISCUSSION Six Weeks of the Shock Plan By GIL GREEN. Six weeks have passed since the beginning of the Shock Plan of the American League. What is the significance and purpose of the Shock Plan, and what are the lessons and results of the Plan to date? The Shock Plan is the first conerete mam- festation of the new methods which the Young Comunist League is developing in order to carry out the line and the decisions of the Young Communist International. For months following the Plenum of the YCI the Amer- ican League talked about the “turn to mass work,” without understanding the turn, and how it was to be carried out. The acceptance of the decisions of the YCI was only ac- ceptance in words, and part of the same kind of revolutionary phrase-mongering that has been eating at the League for years. The Plenum of the NEC held immediately stated that the organization of the National Textile Workers’ Union meant a life and death struggle to the workers in the South. She stated her willingness to go through any sacrifice for the union. Ella May knew her life was in danger. She had been threatened more* than once. Ella | May was a splendid representative of the southern women workers. On September 14th she was killed, on her way to a strike meeting. No one has been punished for her death, although the six Gas- tonia defendants are judged guilty of “mur- der” and are now being sought to fulfill sen- tences totalling more than 100 years. | The working class of America remembers | the heroic role played by Ella May. On Sep- | tember 14th their tribute to her sacrifice must | be expressed in new action for the same ends to which Ella May gave her life—the right of workers to organize and fight for their class; and the building of a powerful defense organ- ization to protect the workers’ struggle against the hostile and oppressive ruling class a that exploits-them today. the whole country must recognize that the American Fascist Association and Order of Black Shirts is an organization designed by the capitalist class for its own purposes, and consequently it an enemy of the working class. It has as its role apart from embit- tering racial feelings between Negro and white workers, the decided task of superseding the Ku K]ux Klan in the brutal lynchings of Ne- gro workers, and the persecution and spread- ing of terror among the working class. The answer of the workers—Negro and white, and particularly the answer of the workers of At- lanta and the whole South to this fascist or- ganization and its whole activities must be | organization and unity, the welding of a | strong bond of working class solidarity to | fight not only the attacks and persecution of the southern capitalist class, but to struggle against all oppression and plunder. The persecution of workers by the Ameri- can Fascist Association and Order of Black Shirts must rally millions of American work- ers to struggle to defeat the bosses’ terror. In this connection the workers must intensify ever more sharply than before their struggle for the release of the Atlanta, Georgia, pris- oners. We must demand that they shall not burn in the electric Nits but that they must be set free. One of the main tasks of the working class in this respect, therefore, is the building of the International Labor Defense into a powerful mass organization functioning as the shield and weapon of all workers— Negro and white—against all persecution and terror of the capitalist class and its fascist organizations after the YCI Plenum, did not sufficiently estimate the right danger in the YCL as the main danger in the YCL as well as in the Party. The Plenum did not understand cor- rectly the “Left” danger in the YCL, as the main obstacle in the fight against the right danger, and mechanically and falsely tra ferred the “left” danger into the main danger. Instead of acting as a lever in changing the poor situation in the YCL, the Plenum merely reiterated the old hackneyed phrases of mass work, but failed to show how this was to be applied in practice, and so only led to further orgies of phrase-mongering. The sharpening of the economic crisis, glar- ingly brought to the fore the great lagging behind of our League to the objective develop- ments. The League participation in the grow- ing struggles of the workers (March 6, May Day) was negligible and this at a time when the young workers were showing ever more readiness for struggle. Based upon this ex- tremely unsatisfactory situation, the YCI ad- dressed a letter to the Central Committee of our League, the shortcomings of the recent Plenum, and pointed out the immediate tasks of the League, in overcoming this situatio Once again the leadership of the League tacitly accepted the criticism of the YCI, but failed to understand them. Instead of using the letter as a means of fermenting a deep-going discussion and self-criticism in the ranks of the League, the leadership merely pigeon- holed this important document, and failed to send it to the membership for.discussion. By doing this, the leadership showed that it failed to understand the role of revolutionary self-criticism as a pre-requisite for changing the poor situatign in the League. What is even worse, however, consciously or unconsci- ously, it was an attempt to hide the situation in the League from the membership. The first Plan of Action of the League begun shortly after the YCI letter, remained merely on paper. Failing to understand the methods of carrying the Turn into actual life, the Plan of Action was doomed from the first. It was only with the direct aid of the Party and the YCI, that at the Party con- vention the League took its first step in car- rying out the decisions of the YCI through its present Shock Plan. What Is the Shock Plan? The, purpose of the Shock Plan is to, in a certain given period of time, through the utilization of every possible method of mass 4 activity, change the poor situation jin the League. The Shock Plan has as its aim the closing of the broad gap that exists between the influence and the. organization strength of our League and the objective possibilities. With the aid of the Shock Troops and revolu- tionary competition, the Shock Plan must put the entire League on a war basis, that will turn the face of the League to the masses of young workers. Unless the League today, catches up with the objective possibilities, the struggle of the young workers will develop outside the influence and leadership of our League. This is the significance of the Shock Plan. It is not a plan of merely increased activity. It raises the question of whether our League will play its historic role in the present crisis, or whether the young worker: will move on, leaving our League behind. The Plan in Practice. After the first six weeks of the Shock Plan, the NEC Bureau held a special meeting | at which it analyzed the work of the first half of the Plan, and drew the proper lessons for an intensification of the work in the coming weeks. What do the first six weeks of the Plan show? The first six weeks of the Plan prove de- finitely the correctness of the Plan, and that the League is on the path of carrying it oUt, 4 California ocialists” Want to “Make Them Talk” in the Coming Elections By EVA SHAFRAN. The “socialists” in Sunny California are involved in the political campaign. In “oppo- sition” to the big business candidate, the religious maniac, James Rolph, Jr., they have as their candidate Upton Sinclair, the “real” socialist. In a circular addressed to “Dear Brothers” (who is not a “brother” to the “socialists”— except workers?) they state: “If labor wants the real issues that inter- ests them discussed (our emphasis) in this campaign, they will, have to build an oppost- tion party,” and this, according to the eir- cular, is the socialist party. And what more “When the socialist party polled a huge vote in the state of New York, it sent a shiver (?) up the backs of the old” (our empasis—the socialist party, according to the circular, are the new politicians) “live politicians: they immediately began to pass some labor legislation for fear that the workers would rally to the socialist party and put into power an administration run for the benefit of the workers.” “Labor Legislation” of Tammany Hall. The workers of New York will answer the “socialists” about the “labor legislation” the New York Tammany Hall has_ introduced after the “huge socialist vote If the socialist party means the abolition of the j system in revolutionary work- eds trials; if they mean the increased police brutality in working class demonstrations; then they are right. Tammany Hall, as well as the entire capitalist class in this country has introduced “special labor legislation” garding the revolutionary working class— outlawing workers’ organizations, throw!Ing leaders of the workers for long years in jail, for fear that as a result of the deepen- ing of the economic crisis and the worsening of the conditions of the workers, the prote- tariat of the United States will be aroused and deal heavy blows to capitalism. As that workers,” for a “socialist admin serve the interests of the of Milwaukee and Reading, Pa., In California, where unemployment is wide spread, as throughout the country, where slavery in the agricultural fields exists to an unimaginable extent, where scores of working class leaders fill the filthy, lousy jails for their working class activities, the workers and poor farmers can expect and await nothing from the socialist party as well as from the other capitalist parties tn ; the coming elections. The only party that the working class and the laboring farmers can look to in Califor- nia as throughout the country, in the’ coming elections is the Communist Party. The Communist Party in California (as in the country as a whole) is not out “to make the politicians talk” about unemployment and other problems and demands of the working class. On the contrary—we say “enough cheap talk! We were fed with talk long enough!” The Communist Party is out for a real fight for social insurance; a fight against wage cuts, speed up and unemployment, with all the miseries it brings upon the working masses, We are out to fight the vicious Criminal Syndicalism and Sedition Laws that throw scores of working class fighters into prisons for long years. In California, where six leaders of the Agricultural Workers Industrial League, the Trade Union Unity League, the Internation- al Labor Defense and Communist Party are in jail for 3 to 42 yeargerms because of organizing the bitterly exploited agricultural workers, on the charges of criminal syndical- ism; where workers are arrested at dem- onstrations or picked up on the streets and charged with criminal syndicalism and faced with long years of jail; in California the fight against criminal syndicalism, the free- dom of the Imperial Valley prisoners and all other class war prisoners, will have to be r part of our election campaign. Workers, Vote for Communist Part Workers and working farmers of Califor- nia, not a vote for any of the capitalist parties—may it be republican, democrat or “socialist.” They are all alike. A vote for the Communist Party is a blow against capitalist. oppression; is voting for unem- ployment and social insurance; is yoting against the beastly criminal syndicalism laws; is voting for the freedom of the Im- perial Valley prisoners, condemned to 42 years in jail! This is the message that must reach hun- dreds of thousands of workers and laboring farmers in the state of California during the present election campaign. For this we must organize, strengthen our Party appa- ratus, mobilizing the whole membership and all militant workers in the coming two-three months, 7 That we can mobilize masses of workers working farmers behind the election pro- gram of our Party becomes clear when we look upon the miseries facing the toiling masses in this part of the countr The workers will listen to the word of our Par- ty in this state if we will only come to them in time, and talk to them—only bring them our message. EEE In the period since the start of the Plan the League has definite organizational results. Judging new members only through purchase of dues stamps in districts, 328 new members joined the League in the period of six weeks. At the same time the districts reported organ- ization of new units, formation of shop com- mittees, the formation of the Negro youth organization, the Young Liberator in New York, and the calling of Negro and industry youth conference in nearly all districts and important industrial centers, The first six weeks definitely gave the answer to the Trotskyists and Lovestonites who ridiculed our Plan. The Plan shows that in thes most important industrial districts the League has made the most progress. In Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Con- necticut and Detroit, the League has beer consolidated and built. In places like Ptts- burgh and Buffalo where no League existec before, the League today has a firm organ- izational base for rapid growth. Pittsburgh where there wera only nine members includ: ing the members of the Shock Troop when the Plan started, recruited eighteen new members of steel workers and coa] miners twelve of these being young Negroes. <To be continued.) me