The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 6, 1930, Page 4

Published by the Comprods 18th Street, New York City, Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 50 Bast 13th Street, New York, N. ¥. Page Four Y. Telephone Algonquin 7956-7. Cable: y Publishing Co., Inc, daily, except Sunday, “DAIWORK.” at 50 East HELP THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE IN POLAND! (AN EDITORIAL) N the very border line between the decaying capitalist world of untold misery and starva- tion for the wor! and the rising world of socialist con: ion, the ever mightier and ever more prosperous fatherland of the work- ers and peasants, the storm is brewing. The bloodiest watch-dog of world imperialism, Mar- shal Pilsu i, is feverishly ending his prepara- tions for w: inst the U.S.S.R. Simultane- y, he is arming for. the civil war against the | ng class, the poor peasants and the na- tional minorities of his own state. Western Ukraine, where the poor peasants driven into exasperation by the terroristic regime by the merciless exp] ion and brutal oppres- sion, retaliate by burning down the estates of the Polish landlords, is invaded by punitive ex- ru peditions ef gend regular cav regiments. These Po ossacks are “pacifying” the | country by ing thousands and tens of | thousands of n workers and peasants, flogging and nly torturing them, de- and cultura ‘ative schools, stroying their political, organization. libraries, All over P shooting dowr 5 si 3 Es 4 g pi age cuts. There ar nd in the cities, nong the farm the millions of workers re- fuse to further wage cuts, unemployment misery, both gro of the fascist bourgeoisie, the one led by Pilsudski and the other “the left center” of which the social-fascist, the Polish section of the Second Tnternational is part, at- tack these workers just as the American capit- alists do against the starving workers in this country. The workers, the poor peasants and the national minorities in turn are rallying under the red banner of the Communist Party of Poland on the way to decisive revolutionary battles. For this reason, the fascist government of Marshal Pilsudski is dropping the last false pre- tences of democracy seeing that the masses can- | munist Party of Poland in the present campaign not be deceived any more. There are going to be elections to the Polish, Diet on November 19th. Pilsudski needs a one hundred per cent fascist parliament. In order to secure it, Pilsudski is trying to make it impossible for the Commu- nist Party of Poland, which is outlawed from the very beginning of the Polish republic, to parti- cipate in any way in the elections. The Anti-Fascist Committees of workers and peasants called upon the masses to vote and elect their own revolutionary representatives to | defeat both Pilsudski and the other group of | fascists to which the socialist party of Poland is allied. The ticket of the anti-fascist workers and peasants unity was declared by Pilsudski’s | government null and void. The fascist regime, supported through Dewey, representative of Wall Street and also of the American Polish fascist leadership of the mass organizations will | further try to make impossible for the Polish | working class and poor peasants to throw their | weight into the elections, to demonstrate their | will, to destroy the power of the fascist bour- geoisie and its social fascist allies. By this action of the Polish fascist dictator- ship, the workers, poor peasants and national | minorities learn once. more that their liberation can be achieved only through revolutionary | struggles, by setting up their own organization of government, the Workers Soviets. ‘he international working class must support the Communist Party of Poland and the whole working class of Poland in these coming decisive battles. The Communist Party of the U.S.A is issuing stamps for the Battle Fund of the Communist Party of Poland to support the Com- and Peasants also financially. Down with Polish fascism, out-post of world imperialism against the Soviet Union! Long Liye the heroic Communist Party of Poland! Long .ive the Soviet Republics of Poland, Western Ukraine and White Russia! Struggle against the chief supporter of Polish fascism, the American capitalists! How to Build A By JOHN SCHMIES. FN order to get a proper conception of what a shop committee is, it is necessary to keep in | mind some of the huge industries in which the workers in the main are completely unorgan- ized, such as auto, steel, textile, etc. In discuss- ing how to build it, we have in mind at the same time the building up of open struggles against the bosses. | Therefore in dealing with this problem we | shall approach it from the point of view that in most cases we tackle huge industries where the workers are unorganized. The purpose of this outline, therefore, is to serve as a general guide for our movement and especially for our organizers in the field. We also have in mind that in the course of building up shop co.:mit- tees we must be prepared to skillfully apply our united front policy among the workers in the industries. Now what is a shop committee? A genuine shop committee is an organized body of workers which is looked upon by at least a great num- ber of workers as the leading organization of all workers in one shop or one plant. Therefore, if a shop committee is the basic form of our shop organization it must in its very nature represent all the grievances of all groups of workers in a particular shcp and must therefore be much more than merely a commit- tee which is organized by a group of workers or by a section of workers in one department in a shop or plant oi the industry. If the above statement is correct, then, a shop committee is a.delegated body elected by the workers of the shop in the various departments. How To Do It. Now how is this to be done? Let us take as an example such huge industries as auto, steel, textile, etc., with many plants, each plant with many departments. The number of workers em- ployed in each department may amount to sev- eral hundred workers. The workers have grievances against the boss, based upon certain working conditions in the department. The forms of these grievances are many—wage cuts, lengthening of hours, in- creased speed-up, rationalization. These grievances vary in the different depart- ments, and it is from this point of view that we have to approach the building of our shop organization. Our Metal Workers’ Industrial League decides that we must begin to concen- trate on one of the large plants of the Beth- lehem Steel Corporation. The immediate task is to build up real shop connections. The com- mittee must represent all the grievances, so we must have some form of organization represent- ing all the departments in the plant, which will take up first the conditions of the workers in these different departments and on the basis of this develop and broaden out our general plan for struggle of all workers in the shop. This would mean the building up of department com- mittees whose elected delegates should constitute the shop committee or mill committee as it is called in the textile industry or pier or dock committee as it is called in the marine industry. If we follow generally the above mentioned outline then the question will be..asked—when will we build the shop committee? That is, how many of the above department committees must we actually have before we can take the next step in the building up of this delegated body elected by the workers organized in these dif- ferent department committees. The answer to this question does not merely lie in the number of department committees organized, but in ad- dition to this we must at all times have in con- sideration our immediate aims and our perspec- tive for struggle. We must coordinate the mili- tancy of the department committees and give general guidance and leadership to these already organized department committees by connecting them together through elected delegates to a central body; this body would then be utilized for broadening out our already existing shop or- ganization (building more and more department committees). Therefore let us say that we have two or three existing department committees. ‘The beginning of the shop committee would then be started by electing delegates from the existing two or three department committees. ‘This then, would give us more of a centralized and broader shop leadership. Now summing up these points: 1—Our first tapi is the building un of denort- f BL Shop Committee ment committees by utilizing all the important grievances which the workers have against the bosses in their department. 2.—Those department committees then elect delegates to a body which represents all of these organized department committees and therefore the workers in the entire plant. 3.—This body is called the shop committee and this shop con¥nittee serves as our basic shop organization because this committee not only represents the aims and the desires and the grievances of a particular department but it represents and gives leadership and organization for building up the struggle of all workers in the shop. 4. All this, then would mean that the shop committee is built in the course of our prepara- tion for struggle through the building up of de- partment committees which will elect the dele- gates and these delegates constitute the shop committee. The function of the shop committee as stated above is to discuss the issues brought up by the workers, to prepare the workers in the whole shop for a program of immediate action. The immediate task of the shop committee is to ap- ply our program of struggle through the proper and skillful applicatiq: of our united front pol- icy and the application of our strike strategy. The shop committee certainly must have its regular meetings and at these meetings the com- mittees should discuss the general situation in the shop and on the basis of these conditions be- gin to prepare the workers for struggle against wage cuts, speed up, or whatever the outstanding grievances of all the workers in the shop are. The shop committee has as its task to carry out the general policy of our union or national league. The shop committee has further as its task the building up of special organizing com- mittees, special committees of action and what- ever other commitees are necessary for the de- velopment of our program of strikes. The shop committee would have to see to it that we pop- ularize and organize as many workers in the respective department around our strike slogans as possible. For the organization of workers around our strike slogans, it would be necessary for the shop committee to organize a broad dis- cussion among the workers, to elect rank and file strike committees, these committees must in- clude all departments and sections in the plant. The workers must voice their opinion of our general strike program and demands by an ac- tual vote. The shop committee would further give out shop bulletins and general leaflets and literature in order to actiually unify and coordinate the shop. These bulletins must be issued regularly and should contain the concrete demands as well as the program of struggle of the shop comnzittee. The material in the shop bulletin must come from the workers in the shop and must deal specifically with the issues the work- ers are confronted with. The shop committee must have further as its task to get the workers to join our red unions and leagues. The workers in the department committees and organizations might be loyai to their shop movement, but are not yet ready to Join our union. Then again among these w-rkers organized into these different committees we might find rank and file workers of the A P. of L. unions who unconsciously cppose and work against our union, but nevertheless are ready to follow “ie program of our union or league as it is applied in that particular shop or depart- ment, Explain the Union In this connection the task of our members who fre elected into the shop committee is to win these workers away from the A. F. of L. unions and to bring them into our movement. This, therefore, would require that the shop committees which we are organizing are always on guard against the policy of the fascist and social fascist leaders and to actually build an open struggle in order to expose the sell-out policy of the officials of the A. F. of L. This must be done on the basis of citing concrete is- sues telling the workers how and why these mis- leaders are agents of the bosses. We must at all times make a sharp distinction between the rank and file workers of the A. F. of L. and its offi- ie We will run up against the following situ- ation: 1 —We will have committees pois, organ- SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mail everywhere: One yeat, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. Foreign: One. year, $8; six months, $4.50 THE HORN OF PLENTY By BURCK ized and initiated by us, that will be composed of our members, rank and file workers of the A. F. of L. and unorganized workers. 2.—We might run into a situation where the unorganized workers as well as the rank and file A. F. of L. workers are réady to follow our pian of struggle as far as the conditions in the shop are concerned, but are not yet ready to join our unicn_, United Front from Below In such situations, we must be in a position to skillfully apply our united front policy from below which will include the above mentioned groups of workers. In this our task must be to win thsse committees and workers not only, for our vrogrrm of struggle us it is applied in the shop, but tor the-geverai program of our 1. U. U,_L. and its affiliated. crganizations. This we wil ced in dowtz if we are skillful in the application of our, united front policy and the proper building up of our strike strategy which must be based first and foremost on the actual conditions and demands of the workers in the shop. The further task of the shop committee must be to also take up the building of the above mentioned shop form of organization in. other plants within the same industry and through this the establishment of a shop delegate council of all the plants of a respective industry in one locality. By this-we mean that if, for instance, we have two or three plants; let us say in a steel industry or in the auto industry, in one locality, the shop committees in all of these plants must be connected up by delegates elocted by the respéctive shop committees in each of these plants and this committee would. then constitute the city shop delegate council ‘na certain locality. At all times keep in mind that in most cases in the early stage of the building -up of this form of organization we are compelled to be very careful and to. work in some instances in a semi-illegal fashion. By this I mean that. in quite a few cases we will be forced to call meet- ings in. such a manner so as not to have our- selves exposed to the bosses. (For instance call- ing meetings'in workers’ houses.) As we go along and during the course of the building up of the above outlined form of organizations, we. will be in a position to work as an openly recognized organization in the eyes of the workers. Then again it must be understood that the program outlined above is not to be looked upon as some- thing which takes a long period of time, but rather on the contrary, we must keep in the forefront in practically all cases, our immediate perspective of struggle because the conditions are favorable for such a program and the task therefore is to increase the tempo of organiza- tion. This, in. my opinion, is one of the most out- standing tasks hefore our general T. U. U. L. movement. In case a spontaneous strike breaks out in a shop in which we have no form of organization at all, our task must be to build up'a shop com- mittee during the course of the strike along the above mentioned line. in addition of course to other methods of strike strategy (mass pickét- ing, rank and file strike committees, defense organizstions, ete.), which would enter into the building up of this shop committee. As we proceed in the building up of inside shop organization we must increase our activity in the building up of the movement among the unemployed. The shop committee, therefore must have a definite concrete program in order to organize the unemployed workers in the respec- tive industries around its program of struggle, both for the demands of the employed and un- employed workers. This program must’ be based on unity of action between the employed and ser unemployed in accordance with our general pro- | gram of struggle ‘against unemployment. Today in Workers’ History November 6, 1829—Ebenezer Ford, carpenter, elected to state assembly on Working Men's ticket in New York City. 1855—Locomotive engineers made first attempt to organize, in National Protective Association of the United - States. 1904—National Zemstvo Convention opened in St. Petersburg in spite of govern- ment opposition. 1911—Francisco Madero, leader of revolution against’ Mexican tyrant Diaz, inaugurated president. 1919—Paul Blan- shard, organizer for Amalgamated Textile Workers, sentenced to thirty days in for violating Utica, N. Y., strike injunction, 1922—Gas explosion in gat mine at Spangler, f Thirteen Years of Proletarian Dictatorship By EARL BROWDER IN the occasion of the thirteenth anniversary of the October Revolution, it is particularly opportune to draw again the balance between the results of 13 years of proletarian dictator- ship, of the policy of Lenin and the Bolsheviks, on. the one hand, ‘and the results of reformism, of the policy of the Second International under MacDonald, Vandervelde; Kautsky; Hilferding, Hillquit, on the other hand. : What was always the song which the leaders of the Second International sang for the masses? “Do not follow the Bolsheviks,” they said, “be- cause those terrible fellows lead you only to struggles and misery and sacrifice, to a futile battle in which at best you are only fighting for future generations. Whereas, we, the reform- ists, will avoid the hardships of struggle, and gain for you real practical results of improved conditions today.” 13 Years of Capitalism. Now, after thirteen years application of these two contradictory policies, the Bolsheviks in the Soviet Union, and the reformists dominating the working class in the capitalist world, what are the practical results? The reformist MacDonald heads the govern- ment of Great Britain; the working class of that country is starving to the number of 3,000,000, Wage-cuts and speed-up are making life a hell for those who are employed, while the colonial peoples are being violently oppressed on a scale never witnessed under an openly capitalist. gov- ernment. The reformist social-democracy in Germany, after being in and out of all sorts of government coalitions with the capitalists, has just’ voted°to support the Bruening government. with its pro- gram of Young Plan, taxation of the masses, Wwage-cuts, and militarism; while’ the German workers, with more than 3,000,000 unemployed, sre pressed into poverty and despair. The U. S. “Socialists,” In the United States the reformist “social- ist” party under Hillquit, has become an openly bourgeois party, with its outstanding candidate in the current elections being an ignorant and stupid comedian, Heywood Broun, a. sportsman with an income of $50,000 per year, who is en- dorsed by the capitalist press specifically because, as they say, “Broun may not know it, but he is no socialist.” Meanwhile, more than 9,000,000 workers are unemployed, wages are being slashed at an unprecedented rate, machines. are being speeded up beyond human endurance and the economic crisis of capitalism threatens destruc- tion to tens of millions of the population. What has been the net result of 13 years of reformist policy in the capitalist countries? Paralysis of the working class, delivery of all power into the hands of the capitalists, and now the full fruits of this policy, a catastrophic crisis of capitalism! 13 Years of Bolshevism. But what about the results of 13 years of Bolshevism in the Soviet Union? What a con- trast! In the Soviet Union, under the firm lead- ership of Lenin’s Party, a gigantic work of socialist construction has already reared itself so high that it overshadows the entire ‘world. With capitalism and its reformist. servants plunging into deep crisis, in the Soviet Union the socialist economy is expanding even faster than capitalism declines. In the past year, while production in the United States, premier land ‘of capitalism, declined more than 25 per cent, in the Soviet Union the producton increased al- most 30 per cent. Unemployment. With unemployment ing the capitalist world rising into the tens of "Manos, and growing worse every day, in the Soviet Upion unemploy- ment has always been guarded it by gov- ernment insurance and now has been abolished altogether by the tremendous expansion of the industries, so that now there is # Positive short- age of workers, Wages. 4 With wages going down in the capitalist countries, hours of labor increasing, and the speed-up destroying the minds and bodies of the in the shops, in the Soviet Union, _ on the contrary, wages, Increage from 6-to.10 per cent every year, the seven-hour day is rap- idly being installed for all workers, with the 5- day week (work four days add rest the fifth), while in the shops the conditigns of work are guarded by the workers’ own organizations. While in the capitalist coyntries, with all their riches, their. tremendous accumulation of ma- chinery, their great_riches of skilled labor_.the net result of 13 years policy of the reformists is collapse, crisis, misery and staryation. for the millions; on the contrary, in the Soviet‘ Union, as the result of 13 years: of Bolshevism, of the proletarian dictatorship, from its beginning with wrecked, backward and poverty-stricken agri- cultural country, has come forth a reconstructed economy, upon a socialist basis. the transforma- tion of the country into an advanced industrial country, the raising of the living standards of 145 million people and an increasing expansion at a rate never before witnessed in the history of the world. The Workers’ Hope. And now, in its 13th year, the proletarian dic- tatorship has given the world another glimpse of its tremendous revolutionary powers of trans- formation of the old world, in the astoundingly successful socialization of agriculture, in the Soviet and collective farms. The world-shaking Five-Year Plan, which is being executed in four years,’ is.the sign and symbol of the “bankruptcy of capitalism and re- formism and of the inevitable triumph of the proletarian dictatorship all over the world as the bearer and the only possible bearer, of socialist reconstruction. Long: Live the Soviet Union! On ‘the 13th. aninversary of ‘the seizure ot power by the Bolsheviks-under ‘the leadership of Lenin, the workers of the entire world will gather in greater masses than ever before, ‘with greater enthusiasm and fighting’ determination, under the slogans; _ Long live the Soviet Union! dictatorship of the proletariat! Forward to the struggle against capitalism, for the world revolution! Long live the Socialist Competition in the U.S. SR. ‘ " (Continued) A more advanced form of shock brigade work is what is called the “through brigade,” or “chain brigade.” | This involves various pro- cesses of production. Groups of workers, shock brigades, in each department of production of a definite commodity, agree to work together so that each group supplies the one engaged in the next higher stage of production with the neces- sary material in the quickest time and best con- dition. Each group is thus a link in the pro- duction chain. Sometimes groups in three, or as many as fifteen departments, are united, in such a “chain brigade,” setting an example for the entire factory of efficient, ertthusiastic effort. The highest form ~of socialist competition is the “Bucsir,” or towing brigade., By this method, workers of a department in a factory, or an en- tire factory, or even a collective farm, which has completed its program or indicated absolute pos- sibility of completion, mobilizes to. assist. a weaker department, or’ factory, or collective farm, which lags behind. Here we find the bed bl da of that collectivity ‘and soli- larity which dominates social rel; tionships the Soviet Union. Hoot me These principal forms of socialist competition constitute new forms of labor activity which are stirring the masses, in spite of the greatest difficulties, to utterly, astounding achievements. Participation in. the shock brigade. movement is entirely voluntary. The Constantly incteasing number of workers joining in socialist competi- tion is proof of the mass enthusiasm with which the Russian workers and peasants are construct- ing socialism and demonstrating the ‘correctness of the line of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Socialist Competition in Leningrad. Take the highly industrialized Leningrad dis-. | eaicfnte By JORGE ‘ceenobanmcarenmonene Registration of Aliens eee Simple, straight-thinking workers often haven't the least idea of the way capitalists and their paid bloodhounds lay awake nights thinking up some new wrinkle to make the working class defenseless against the attacks of their greedy bosses. 3 ‘Take this innocent-looking gag about “regis tration of aliens,” which is endorsed by the A: F. of L. officials, mind you! The A. F. of L. puts out the boloney about this being a “pro- tection” to native labor, and so on. Protection my eye! What it amounts to, is a system of registration, of identification of all workers, both native born Americans as well as aliens. A system that can be used as a black- list to intimidate both! Just, imagine an instance: A strike occurs, and the cops round up a bunch of strikers. Some may be aliens, some native Americans. The aliens of course can be threatened with de- portation. And in actual practice, the American- born workers will be compelled to prove that they are not aliens who are here “illegally.” And in order to do just that, active trade unionists who have changed their names to es- cape the blacklist will be exposed to the bosses’ blacklist again! So get this thing straight, workers! A regis- tration of the foreign-born workers will be a registration of the native-born workers also! And so long as capitalism rules, any such regis- tration will be used against the workers and to help the bosses. Provoking “Cordial Relations” By way of carrying out Commissioner Mul- rooney's policy of establishing “cordial relations” between cops and the citizenry, Probationary Policeman Robert Mullery, walked into the gar- age of Ben Darnos in Brooklyn and tried to see whether his blackjack would bounce off Darnos’ head. Darnos, protesting, was arrested for “resist- ing an officer,” but on the way to the lockup Mullery asked: “How much money you got?” “Six dollars,” said Darnos. “That's not enough. You'll have to get more,” was the cop's reply, holding out for the union scale, So they journeyed around in a taxi borrow~ ing money, after which Darnos paid the tax! bill and gave the cop $15, whereupon the cop “waived immunity” and let the criminal go. After this, one can understand why it was that a 39 year old woman, “shabbily dressed,” ac- cording to reports, walked up to a cop who was talking to a taxi-driver near Queensboro Bridge, and blazed away a couple of shots at this par- ticular cop whom she had never seen before. She explained it by saying: “I hate cops. I just wanted to kill a policeman. I wanted to get Inspector Ahearn, but all cops stick to- gether and any one would do.” * * * Now It’s All Righ Anyhow, now that we see that the Queen of Spain is teaching Spanish to the Prince .of Wales, we can be sure that things will brighten up. } trict, with 300,000 workers. It was here, in 1928, in a metal factory called “The Red Elector,” that socialist competition was first begun, on the initiative of the workers themselves. Today the Leningrad District reports 64 Red factories that have fulfilled and even over-fulfilled their pro- duction program for the Second Year of the Five-Year Plan, and the district as a whole has carried through the plan of a 40 per cent in- crease in general industrial output for the year. In these achievements, socialist competition played a major role. With what giant strides this form of self-activity of the masses has de- veloped may be seen by the following fact: In October, 1929, the Leningrad district had organ- ized 829 shock brigades involving twelve and a half thousand workers; in March, 1930, over 100,000 workers were participating in 12,000 shock brigades, vying with one another for the in- crease of production, the elimination of waste, the decrease in the fluctuation of labor—all united in the determination to fulfill the Five- Year Plan in four years. In the Putilov Plant. Go through the Putilov plant, producing trac- tors, locomotives, turbines—that revolutionary fortress of the Leningrad proletariat, foremost leader in the struggles of 1905, in the October revolution of 1917, and now in the construction of socialist industry. In 1928-29 this plant pro- duced 3,500 tractors; in 1929-30, 12,000 tractors, and now it is preparing to produce 35,000 trac- tors in the third year of the Five-Year Plan, Of its 25,000 workers, 13,000 are organized in shock brigades. In the locomotive. production division, a chain brigade has been formed, and at its head a production brigadier directs the work, coordinating the activity of the depart- ment shock brigades, spirited, efficient. Or visit the shoe factory, “Skorochod,” the largest in the Soviet Union, employing 15,000 workers, which in 1913 produced 4,000 pairs of shoes daily, in 1929-30, 39,500 Pairs daily, and in the third year of the Five-Year Plan, will pro- duce 46,600 pairs of shoes per day. In every de- partment the shock brigades are the active lead= ers in production. Each day sees new recruits for revolutionary competition. In the month of September alone, answering the call of the Cen- tral Committee of the Communist Party, 280 new shock brigades were organized. The “Schorohod” will complete the Five-Year Plan in four years—the shock brigades will lead the way. The “Karl Marx” Towing Brigade. A striking illustration of the collective ace tivity of the masses is given by the steam tur- bine factory, “Karl Marx.” ‘This ‘is one of the Red Banner factories of Leningrad, in the front ranks for the Five-Year Plan. When the metal factory “Pneumatik” slowed down its produc- tion schedule, and began seriously to lag be- hind, the decision was made to attach the “Karl Marx” factory to it as a towing brigade. Some of the best shock brigades of the “Karl Marx” were sent to the “Pneumatik,” joint meetings were held of workers from both factories, an ideological campaign developed with active “Karl Marx” workers in the forefront, As a ‘re- sult, the workers of the “Pneumatik” were stirred i np highest effort, and on October Ist, wre le announce proudly that they, fni8ed thelr moftiction pienso Bad A’ $e ig 4 — +