The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 11, 1930, Page 4

& Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc., daily, except Sunday, at 50 East 18th Street, New York City, N. Y. é : Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 50 East 13th Street, New York, N. Y. Page Four Cabli Telephone Algonquin 7956-7. “DAIWORK.” SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. HONOR HAYMARKET VICTIMS ‘ou Parse, soe”, BY CONTINUING T: EIR WAR ON CAPITAL By V. S. OVEMBER 11, is the anniversary of the hang- ing in Chicago of Alfred R. Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fi er and George Engel, in 1887. They were executed after the first big frame-up trial in American labor history. They were murdered because they were militant leaders of the workers in the 1880's, particularly because they were leaders and spokesmen of that intense, dramatic left’wing group known as the Chicago Anarchists. They were not anarchists as the word is un- derstood now—probably “direct action socialists” would be a more correct modern name for their movement. Like syndicalists and anarchists they repudiated the ballot, but unlike syndicalists they did not repudiate mass action and revolu- tion. Like the ana’ ts they took direct action, but unlike the anarchists they were not indivi- dualists- ey believed in organization. They had a good Bolshevik theory of fighting capitalism all the time, organizing and fighting in every industrial struggle ad building up the struggle for hours, wages and conditions into a struggle against capitalism itself, to smash the capitalist state. Militant Leaders. Millions believe in this theory today, and in revolutionary parlamentarism also. In those days those who advocated it with the exception of parlamen\rism were just a handful, but they inspired the great militant action known as the “Eight Hour Movement.” The A. F. L. because of its resolution in its 1884 convention declaring that after May 1, 1886, eight hours should constitute a day's work, has been given too much credit for the Eight Hour strike of over 200,000 men, and the action which established May 1, as a revolutionary holiday. The bureaucracies of both A.F.L. and Knights of Labor, the two safe and sane labor organiza- tions of the time, sabotaged and betrayed the eight hour movement. The enough to let itself be pushed ahead of the drive | A.F.L. was shrewd | towards action for which the Chicago Anarchists | were primarily responsible — and capitalism shrewdly picked out its friends and enemies. The AF.L. went on to become what it is today, the chief traitor to Labor, and the early militant leaders, were hanged, driven to suicide, im- prisoned. Protest Police Brutality. The circumstances of their arrest and trial can not be more than outlined here. protest against police brutality and the killing of workers in front of the McCormick Reaper Works on May 3, 1886, was held in The Haymarket square on May 4, with Spies, Parsons, and Samuel Fielden as speakers. It was attacked by police, and some one, not the leaders immediately afterwards arrested, bombed the police. A packed jury, stool pigeon lies, newspaper barrages, and lawyers’ mistakes by the defense did what these things have done since. ‘The defendants were convicted; Spies, Parsons, Engel, Fischer and Louis Lingg were held for the gallows. Lingg died in prison, his head shattered by a dynamit cap. It may have been suicide; it has usually been considered suicide, but later experience with police methods (Salsedo case for instance) throws some doubt on the suicide theory. The other four were hanged, and shouted defiance of the system that killed them as they stood on the gallows. Three others, Fielden, Schwab, and Neebe were held in prison until 1893, when they were par- doned by Governor Altgeld, who openly declared their trial a fraud and the whole eight innocent. Some Lessons. Parsons need not have been included. He walked in and surrendered on the day of the trial opening, because the defense attorney had confidence in justice before the law. We ought to learn a lesson from that. Ruth Hannah Mc- Cormick, once a congress woman, almost a sena- tor, won her political fame in this capitalist gov- ernment with money partly inherited from those who murdered the workers on May 3. We ought to learn a lesson from that. And the eight hour movement in general was successful, led by revilutionists. We ought to learn from that. The best traditions of the men who died 43 years ago on Nov. 11 in Chicago, are with the Communist movement of today. A meeting in | Daily, Worker Reading Socialist Admits He Favors Armaments By LENA ROSENBERG. 1 Nee socialist party had a large following In Six Centralia Boys Must Be Freed: This is Eleventh Year in Prison By VER SMITH. (ORKERS defended their union hall in Cen- tralia, Washington on Nov. 11, 1919, against what was practically a fascist outrage. The Lumber Trust, deliberately conspired to murder and burn out the I.W.W. Lumber Workers Indus- trial “Union, the militant organization in that industry at that time (however the I.W.W. has collapsed since). They sent the American Le- gion, then as now a fascist organization, to do the job. By every point even of bourgeois law, the lumber workers inside their hall had the in- violable right to resist such an attack. They did resist; in fact they killed four of the attacking force. As a result they were convicted of second de- gree murder in a court surrounded by Legion- naires and militia, with a jury of which nine out of twelve afterwards signed statements admitting that the men did not have a fair trial. Some jurors admit they convicted because they thought the men would be lynched if not convicted, and some jurors admit they convicted because they thought the jury would be lynched if it didn’t convict, The evidence did not count much. Eight Sent Up. Eight men were sentenced to what amounts to life imprisonment. One of these, Loren Roberts, was found “insane” and in deflance of all law was confined with the others in Walla Walla penitentiary, serving an indeterminate sentence up to life. Britt Smith, O. C. Bland, Bert Bland, Ray Becker, Eugene Barnett, John Lamb and James McInerney were sentenced to an inde- terminate “20 to 40 years.” McInerney Killed. Two have come out of that prison, one as a victory for the workers, one as a victory for the bosses. Loren Roberts was finally released this summer after years of agitation. James Mc- Inerney died of the results of prison life, August, this year. The other six are still there. One of those who defended his union hall that Nov. 11 was Wesley Everest—he was never tried. He was beaten nearly to death, thrown in jail, taken out at night by a mob of prominent busi- ness men of Centralia, tortured and mutilated with a razor, and lynched from a bridge over the Chehalis river. This is capitalist justice, for the workers, and this is all even as old and well | founded common law as that which makes every man’s house his castle amounts to when capital- ism is strong enough to do a little killing. Stopped the Raids. There are several things to learn from this case, in addition to its exposure of capitalist legal and court methods. One is from the fact that the self-defense of the Centralia lumber workers ended for a time the regular everyday out and indoor sport of the Legion -of raiding and de- stroying union halls. If they were going to meet real resistance, they were no longer so eager to raid. Only actual determined resistance to terror seems to check it. Terrorism feeds on successful acts of terror. The tactics for gaining the Centralia boy's re- lease are interesting. The I.W.W. efforts were divided from the first, the work being partly hadled by the I.W.W. general Defense Commit- tee in Chicago and partly by the I.W.W. North- west District Defense in Seattle. There were several “Centralia Publicity Committees” when the split in the I.W.W. took place in 1924, there were two defense committees in the northwest, and the lawyer, Elmor Smith, one of the de- fendants in the case, went with the Emergency Program splitters of the I.W.W. This faction smashed up even faster than the regular I.W.W. Even the Centralia prisoners themselves seem to have wavered a bit, both sides claiming them for a while, as members. I. L. D. Must Lead. LW.W. efforts now seem to be centered on publicity and praise for the Federated Churches recent report, which very mildly opines that the men did not get a fair trial, and is horrified not so much at the murder of Everest as his lack of christian burial. There is not much hope from all this. Some of the Centralia boys are bitterly hostile to the International Labor Defense, the leader in the only attempts to really mobilize all forces for them. They have been fed sedulously on I.W. W. sectarinism. But whatever their attitude, they are worker prisoners, and they must be got out, and the I.L.D. is the force (there is none other) that must take the lead in a campaign to free them. Nat Turner, Negro Champion and Martyr By CYRIL BRIGGS Y taeay November 11, is the anniversary of the murder by the American slave holding class of the Negro revolutionary leader, Nat Turner. + On this day while the American bourgeoisie make a mockery of the working-class dead in the last war with their fake phrases of de- mocracy, self-determination, etc. the thoughts of the Negro masses and of the revolutionary white workers will turn to the heroic figure of Nat Turner, the daring Negro revolutionary who with sixty followers challenged the power of the slave-holding state of Virginia and threw terror into the hearts of the brutal slave owners of that day. Bosses Try to Destroy Revolutionary Traditions. The American bosses, with the support of the treacherous Negro petty bourgeois misleaders (preachers, landlords, business men) have vety nearly succeeded in wiping out of the minds of the Negro masses all revolutionary traditions. The white imperialists and their Negro toolr have set up in the place of such heroic figures as Nat Turner, Frederick Douglas, Denmark Vesey, etc., the pitiful figures of such serviles | and traitors as Booker T. Washington and the even more despicable Moton. By pretending that Negroes are “inferior,” that their character and role have been immemorially servile and sub- ordinate, the imperialist oppressors seek to jus- tify their savage oppression and super-exploita- tion of the Negro masses. In support of this policy, the utmost care is taken by the prostitute bourgeois historians to consistently present the picture of the Negro as a slave, satisfied with his slave status and in- capable of revolt. This policy is faithfully sup- ported by misleaders like Kelly Miller, and the Officials of the National Association for the Ad- vancement of Colored People, the Urban League and other Negro reformist organizations. Negro Misleaders Support Enemy. To these Negro misleaders any thought of the frightfully oppressed Negro masses joining ranks with the revolutionary white workers of this country for the overthrow of their mutual op- pressors is unthinkable and horrible. For these traitors there is, then, no inspiration in revo- lutionary traditions. For the Negro masses, however, groaning under a ruthless oppression ‘and virtual slavery, the case is different. Nat Turner launched his revolt on the night of August 31, 1831. John Brown invaded Vir- ginia with 19 men, and with the expressed determination to take no lives save in self- defense. Nat Turner, far more resolute and cap- able, attacked Virginia from within, with only six men, and with the revolutionary determina- tion to spare no life of the slave-holding class until slavery was completely crushed. Allentown during the war. Nevertheless the meeting for which they distributed thousands of leaflets has brought them no more than about 75 people and only a handful of workers by the looks of the crowd. In their leaflets they announced that there was going to be questions and answers. How- ever, as soon as the Honorable Socialist Super- speech, he conveniently took his hat and coat preparing to leave. tion of the chairman and as much as he hated to he was forced to come back because many agreed with me that he should answer questions. He flatly refused to answer any of my ques- tions, about the acticns of the socialists in Mil- waukee, Reading and New York, or referring to the labor party of Great Britain and social democratic party of Germany, on the grounds that he was ignorant of what happened in any of these places. However, when I questioned the gentleman about the socialist party unemploy- ment program he asked me in return what ours was which I gladly answered. I spoke for about 20 minutes showing up the role of the socialist party in the U. S. as well as their brother parties in Europe. “ However, it was when I mentioned the point in our unemployment insurance bill which deals with using all funds now used for armaments for the unemployment insurance fund that this “socialist” forgot the pacifist attitude of the so- cialist party and openly showed himself in favor of arming the imperialist power for the de- fense of capitalist profits. He shouted a question at me as to whether the Soviet Union is spending money for arma- ments to which I of course answered yes. Then he retorted “so why do you expect our govern- ment to remain unarmed.” Only about half an hour ago he charged the capitalists for being responsible for the unemployed situation, plead- ing with his audience that socialism would be a superior form, etc. But when he heard the Communists propose to use the funds which the imperialists use for war preparations for the unemployed insurance fund he forgot himself and admitted his true imperialist color. This is the true role of the social fascists today, to talk to the workers who are daily becoming more discontented with the capitalist system about being in favor of changing the system, but only to get influence among them so that they can better line them up for capitalist armaments and war against the Soviet Union. It is very seldom that these gentlemen admit their adherence to imperialism openly. It is therefore more important that these traitors to the working class be exposed ruthlessly among the workers, who because of their inexperience may follow them along their treacherous path. intendent of Street Cleaning of Reading, Mr. | Miles Williams, was through with his election I called this to the atten- | Slaves Flock To Arms. The slaves quickly rallied to his standard, and before the night was over he had sixty followers armed with whatever weapons came to hand. The white slave owners quaked with fear in memory of countless wrongs inflicted upon the insurrected slaves, of men and women savagely less Negro women habitually polluted. panic took possession of the slave owning class, that not even the arrival of United States troops and naval detachments served to dispel. Nat Turner's strategy was based upon a sur- prise attack and a quick march on Jerusajem. the county seat. Persuaded to pause at one of the plantations, he failed in his objective of reaching Jerusalem with its huge stores of arms and munitions. His force thereafter became fugitives. Most of the revolted slaves refused to sur- render, preferring to die fighting than to accept the fate in store for those who fell into the hands of the master class now recovered from its terror and in a frenzy of fury determined to make an example of the rebellious slaves. A bloody reign of terror was initiated. Thousands of Negroes were murdered in cold blood regard- less of whether they had participated in the revolt. The aim was to terrorize the slaves. Nat Turner Fearless to the End. Nat Turner took his capture with the utmost equanimity. Cool and fearless to the last, he made no denial of his leadership of the revolt, but like a good revolutionary, utilized the courts of the master class as a tribunal from which beaten, of many wantonly murdered, of count- | Blind | PRE-PLENUM DISCUSSION Young Communist League, U.S.A. On Collective Leadership We Must Build Collective Leadership. One of the major tasks of each comrade in charge of any field of work, D.O., unit organ- izer, agitprop director, etc., is to develop more comrades in his line of work. Even if work will get along slower at first it must be the duty of the leading comrade in the committee to patiently work with the other comrades, ex- plain the work, show them how to work. The committee as a whole must work out the plans. Certainly the chance for errors is least where a discussion has taken place and decisions made by a whole body. If we carry this out we will have real collective leadership, we will be able to develop self-criticism and we will create a situation where many comrades understand the work and work hard to carry it out. District after district, most of the units, committees, etc., show this bad situation. Comrades work alone and do not develop collective activity. In New York due to the failure to develop col- lective leadership in spite of all subjective bar- riers, difficulties developed in the leading cadre that had its reaction on all of the work. This must be remedied everywhere. Closely connected with “individual” leadership we had the tendency to “push” comrades. This has cost us many, many good proletarian com- rades. It showed itself in the “pushing” of new comrades into leading bodies because we knew we had to have proletarians there, and once we had them there, leaving them stranded without help. Ne real attempt is made in the majority of cases to help these comrades work. Naturally these comrades without the help of the more experienced comrades dropped not only out of the leading committees but also out of the League. As matter of fact the rise of new forces into leadership has been more or less of an acci- dent in most cases and not the result of a clear consciously followed policy. With rapid develop- ment of collective leadership such things will disappear and comrades will go step by step into the highest bodies of the YCL and then into the Party. The responsibility for the development of this process lies on us, the older comrades in the League. Collective Leadership Will Help Build Prole- tarian Leadership. Particularly must we draw into the COLLEC- TIVE leadership of our League, rapidly and boldly new comrades from the large shops and mines. These must be taken care of particularly. The older comrades must work all the time with some less experienced one and develop him for more responsible work. We must develop ALL comrades, particularly those in the shops, as quickly as possible so that they may lead the struggles of the young workers better. ‘We had some good experience in development of new comrades. In New York a comrade joined the League. He was helped out, became a mem- ber of the executive and later was sent out as coloniser. Today his work, only four months after he joined the League, is among the best of any. But how many were not taken care of and dropped out? Certainly well up to a few hun- dred. In Pittsburgh a new comrade who joined the YCL just four weeks ago, is among the most. active and with the help of all the comrades is taking his place in positions of responsibility in the district. These are examples of what can be done when leading comrades pay attention to developing new forces. Such comrades must be helped along and advised rapidly. to thunder his denunciations against the op- pressors of his race. He was sentenced to death on November 5, and was executed six days later, on November 11. Even his enemies record that he met his death with perfect composture. Long live the memory of Nat Turner, Negro Revolutionary Leader! Long live the Revolutionary traditions of the Negro Masses! Long live the international solidarity of Ne- gro and white workers! Support the struggle of the Negro Masses for full equality and the right of self-determination! Down with the servile reformist misleaders who today betray the struggles of the Negro Masses! Collective leadership will make easier the full- est use of personal leadership instead of circular as heretofore. When we have a whole commit- tee carrying out one task, then it can mobilise all its comrades to go down to the units and sub- | committees and help them work. They can speak to individual comrades who are to carry out the task and explain to them how to work. But even this is not enough. Each comrade in charge of some work, member of a committee etc., must’ spend much time in the carrying out of the tasks set by his committee so that he may show the membership by his personal example how to do the work. An agitprop director should not only instruct others to speak at open air meetings or at forums or to get out shop papers and wall papers, but should himself help do this work in the units. Besides this each leading comrade must spend as much time as possible among the young workers. In this work as in all other work, the leading comrades should take | others with them and show them how to speak to young workers, what to say, etc., etc. Lately political education is altogether neglected. Above all we must develop classes and circles. Current problems must be discussed and explained (not just spoken of.) All new comrades must be en- couraged to read. Each League unit should make available to the new comrades at least the ele- mentary pamphlets and books. Periodical dis- cussions should be organized and comrades | should report on these books. As soon as financially possible the National Committee should issue a handbook outline on political edu- cation for functionaries and for the League generally. The Shock Troops, too, can do much to build leadership. Each Shock Troop that has carried through its task must have contributed to the development of understanding and initiative of all of its comrades. The Shock Troops should generally include at least one more experienced comrade who will help lead the Shock Troop into activity. Task of Building New Leadership. Each League member must become a leader of the young workers in his or her shop and organization. The present leadership from top to bottom, must leave the League equipped with able developed comrades when we go into the Party. We had our lessons. If now we boldly advance comrades from the SHOPS and HELP them work and work with them, we will succeed in laying a firm foundation for further work. If however the National Shock Troops every- where as well as the leadership everywhere will not do this, then the entire work will fall apart again. We must not be afraid of drawing in new comrades into work. BUT once we have done this we must work with them ALL the time un- till they can do the same with other new com- rades. We must smash all remnants of indivi- dual leadership. Communist leadership means leadership by the best more experienced com- rades working together and the constant develop- ment of less experienced comrades to become better. Each District Committee should discuss this question and see whether in each unit, in each committee comrades are being developed for leadership and new proletarian comrades are constantly being advanced and taken care of. Today in Workers’ History November 11, 1831—Nat Turner, Negro slave, executed for revolt against white slave holders in Virginia, 1845— Jules Guesde, French Marxian Socialist leader, born in Paris. 1887—Parsons, Spies, Fischer and Engel hanged in Chicago Hay- market bomb frame-up. 1918—Beginning of political general strike in Switzerland. 1919—Centralia, Wash. I. W. W. head- quarters attacked by American Legion par- ade, Wesley Everett lynched. 1921—New York milk drivers enjoined from carrying on strike. $1; excepting Boroughs Foreign: One year, $8; six months, $4.50 —————— s«__ Kedeffoate be By JORGE Spilling the Frijoles We must return to Aimee Semple McPherson. Not in person, of course, but in comment. Aimee is abroad (geographically speaking), making a little whoopee in the cabarets of Panama, which are known to out-Broun even the Nut Club of New York. They are as wicked as Singapore. But we only begin. It seems that Aimee, in her guise of evangelist, has some dumb followers in a little village called “Frijoles” (which 1s Spanish for “beans”) near Balboa, Canal Zone. The faithful in the city of Beans heard that Aimee was coming, but alas, Aimee had plans of her own. She had cut up something awful in the night clubs of Colon, which is a city in the Canal Zone and must not be confused with the lower intestine. And being under the assumed name of Betty Adams on the boat, and listed as a governess without any self-control, and having sent the thermometer up at the city of Colon, she couldn't very well be met ‘at the wharf at Balboa by a crowd of “true believers” singing “Lead Kindly Light.” So darned if she didn’t disown her “Four Square” gospel and all its Frijole followers at Balboa when they insisted on meeting her. But the square heads of the Four Square Gospel spoiled her party on the boat, so she’s flying, no doubt flying high, to Miami. It’s getting rotten when a lady evangelist can’t go out on a rutting expedition without not only God knowing all about it, but all his be- wildered followers butting in and spilling the beans. Mexico Nears New Revolt; Communist Leader Jailed By HARRISON GEORGE. 'HE internal conflicts of the bourgeois clique in control of the Mexican government, re- cently caused the resignation of Portes Gil from the chairmanship of the government party, the fascist “National Revolutionary Party,” so- called. It also brought about the resignation of Luis Leon, the demagogic loud-speaker of the government, from the cabinet ministry of in- dustry, commerce and labor; also the resigna- tion of the personal secretary of President Or- tiz Rubio, Hernandez Chazaro. Portes Gil, by the way, recently passed through New York, and gave a spoonful of soothing syrup to American imperialism with rosy pic- tures cf heavenly accord in Mexico. Gil poo- poohed the “rumor” that in Mexico the “poli- tical ambitions” of those out of power were be- ginning to stir “again.” If such were the case, he admitted, it would be “sinister.” Which is all very interesting, but is 100 per cent boloney. The ambitions of those out of power have never ceased to “stir.” And Senor Gil’s comment that if such were “again” the case, then things would be “sinister,” is an adroit threat to the Ortiz Rubio regime—which is to say to American imperialism. For, despite Senor Gil's innocent pretensions that he is going to Europe to “study economic. trade and socitl conditions”—he is much more likely to be going there to get a substantial or- nection with British imperialism to give his am- bitions some financial backbone. We will leave to the N. Y. Times, which printed a cheery edi- torial in Sunday's paper, to swallow Senor Gil’s words at face value. Armed Conflict Brewing. The conflicts within the ruling clique of Mex- ico, are aggravated by the opposition of the so- called “Labor Party” (the reflection of the re- formist trade union confederation known as the “CROM”), and the growing rapprochement be- tween this opposition and British imperiai'sm, which is seeking to defend and better its posi- tion against Wall Street. Obviously, this whole development gives the perspective of a possibility of an armed sirug- gle quite similar to all the so-called “revolu- tions” which are shaking all Latin America. Although the efforts to forestall such a revolt have thus far succeeded in putting it off, they have not eliminated its possibility: ” In view of this, the Communist Party of Mex- ico, which has much, if not always happy ex- perience to learn from in the previous revolts and the recent events in other Latin American countries, in the face of the fascist terror and the greatest difficulties and sacrifices, has pointed out to the masses of workers and peas- ants the role of the armed struggle and the form of active mass intervention in an inde- pendent manner for their own class interests against foreign imperialism and native ex- ploiters. The government, fearful of the masses and interested in continuing its servile lackeyism for Yankee imperialism, is in‘nsifying its perse- cutions against the revolutionary vanguard of the masses. ° For this reason it has imprisoned, among dozens of others and without the slightest, “legal” argument, Rafael Carillo, a prominent leader of the Communist Party of Mexico and member of the Executive Committee of the Com- munist International. Carillo is one of the founders of the Commu- nist Party of Mexico and always has been an outstanding figure in its leadership. Our Tasks, The working class of the United States, its revolutionary organizations and first of all the Communist Party of the U.S. A. are under the , obligation of not only raising a stern protest, but to strengthen all effective and practical soli- darity in the aid of the Mexican workers vic- timized by the fascist dictatorship there, which is openly a tool of Wall Street. At the 7th National Convention of the C. P, U. S. A., the Chicago District of our Party, re- sponding to the program proposed of building up @ fraternal connection between specified dis- tricts and the movement in specified Latin coun- tries, accepted the task of aiding Mexico, But to date this has remained utterly unrealized and even letters of inquiry to the district concern- ing this question are unanswered, Clearly, this is no manner of carrying out tasks laid upon us as the leader of the working class in the imperialist country. Whatever the difficulties, they s.ust be met and overcome, It is a serious, vital and fruitful task, and must not be lightly accepted and then ignored. Moreover, the whole workers’ movement of the United States must be roused to action, and while this is the task of the movement as a whole, the Chicago District is expected to make Bood its pledge and take the necessary steps foetal, ; ' 4 i