The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 22, 1930, Page 6

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Pere oe Page except Sunday, tt 80 Kast aa 7 = es 18th Street, New York City, N. Y. Telephone Algonquin 7. Cable: “DAIWORK." ai ‘or ig B.. Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 50 East 13th Street, New York, N. Y. CA a wae at 24 i E ¥ pene by the Cdmprowaity Publishing Co. Inc, daily, St. Louis Convention of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights By CYRIL BRIGGS. Article No. 1. 'T. LOUIS, Mo.—There have been several fine conventions of class struggle organizations during the past year—the Trade Union Unity | League convention in Cleveland, the convention of the International Labor Defense in Pitts- burgh, etc. None has shown a more militant spirit or a finer representation of workers from the factories and fields than the convention just Pnded of the American Negro Labor Congress, Whose name is now by unanimous decision of the convention the League of Struggle for Negro Rights. One hundred and twenty delegates weré pres- ®nt, a number of them arriving late Sunday. ‘ame from 18 states, and from as far away ornia, Alabama, New York. They repre- sented 17 organizations in addition to the local branches of the League of Struggle for Negro Ri Seventy-three of the delegates were Negro workers; forty-seven, white workers. ‘There was a women representation of 17, most of them Negro women from the South and the Middle West. There were 25 young worker dele- gates, some of them members of the Young Lib- erators, the youth organization of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights. ‘The spirit of the delegates was expressed not only in their enthusiasm and militancy in the convention but by the grim determination by which they overcame every obstacle arising out of their wretched economic conditions as a re- sult of their exploitation by the white ruling class and of the efforts of the bosses and their state agents to prevent them going to the con- vention. Some came by old Fords which broke down many times on the way. Others arrived by buses. Several rodé the rods part of the way. One young Negro worker from Birmingham traveled by freight to Chattanooga where he attended the Southern Anti-Lynching Conference and was Blected a delegate to the St. Louis convention. He was told hv his father that he need not return if he “mixed himself up” with the anti- lynching convention. He made the most mili- tant speech at the Chattanooga conference, ex- pressing the readiness of the southern Negro masses, 2nd especially the youth elements, for militant struggle against boss oppression. He ar- rived in St. Louis penniless, but militant. and happy to be a part of a convention organizing real struggle against the savage oppression to which his race is subjected. Another Negro young worker rode the rods into St. Louls from Youngstown, Ohio. Most of them starved on the way, being barred from eating in the white lunchrooms, and not always able to go out of their way to the Negro sections, which are al- ways segregated away from the main streets of the towns. The white delegates suffered along with the Negro delegates, walking out of the white lunchrooms in company with the Negro delegates when the latter were refused service. In one town in Ohio, a delegation of Negro and white workers traveling by Ford was held up by police at the point of a gun and forced to submit to a search of their persons for no other reason than that they were white and Negro workers traveling together. The most militant speeches were made by the southern Negro delegates during the discussion from the floor. Mary Pevey from Georgia elec- trified the convention with her bitter indictment. of the capitalist oppressors of Negro and white workers, declaring that “not only the Negroes are being oppressed but the workers everywhere are being brutally exploited and thrown on the streets to starve during the present crisis of capitalism. The conditions concern not only one race of people but all the workers. We say that if a worker cannot get a living wage—they are not free; they are slaves. It is our duty to tell you that the preachers will tell you when you return to your homes to pray these condi- tions away, but we cannot pray these conditions away. We have got to organize, white and Ne- gro, side by side, against our common enemies. ‘We must be willing to die if necessary for the cause. A Negro delegate from Indianapolis was 50 thrilled by the fighting spirit of the convention that he wished its proceedings could be broad- casted to all the workers throughout the world. He told the convention how he had joined the church, he had joined the fraternal bodies, he had joined all sorts of reformist organizations, and never until he joined the League of Strug- gle for Negro Rights did he find an organiza- tion really fighting for the rights of the Negro masses. “My people are being lynched and these churches, lodges, etc., are not raising a hand to fight the lynching mobs. I am here with you to live and die in this struggle for Negro rights.” Delegate Kingston from Philadelphia declared that “the working class today, both white and Negro, are faced with a problem that we must either submit to slavery and starvation, or com- bine our forces to combat them. We must stand together. The capitalists are able to maintain their rule only by creating a division in the ranks of labor. We must organize to fight.” PRE-PLENUM Young Communist League, U.S.A. DISCUSSION | Trade Union Work and the Role of the | Young Communist League V/ By JOHN LITTLE. oO of the outstanding tasks that confront the U League at the coming Plenum will be the trade union question. Together with this the Zeague will have to consider other major prob- ‘Jems, Primarily, work among the masses of young Negro workers, the work within the armed forces and the struggle against bourgeois sports ps well as the building of our Labor Sports (Onion. | ‘This Plenum will have to make a thorough {| wheck up on the Shock Plan and especially its {free union section, to establish within the ranks ‘of the membership a correct orientation of the “eague toward the building of mass economic ‘\trade unions and their youth sections, The Y. °O, L. will not become a mass political organiza- tion that fights for the interests of the working | class without this orientation. | The problems of building a powerful move- ment among the Negro youth and a mass sports ‘ organization are not separate from the winning of the working class and especially its youth sec- tion into the revolutionary trade unions. The confusion, due to the mechanical separation of {these problems from the trade union question has resulted in our inability to make the necessary fmroads in any of these fields. A critical analysis | of this work of the League in these respective fields must be met. } Work Among the Unemployed Youth. “fH ‘The developing of special forms by which to frelly the unemployed is of utmost importance. Up to the present time the League has com- pletely failed in understanding this. Much of the activity that has been carried on has been ‘of an abstract propagandist nature. In order to effectively carry on the struggle against un- ‘employment, it is necessary to place before the workers immediate and realistic demands based on what the workers are willing to fight for. ‘The unemployed councils which we have or- ganized up to the present time do not reflect the struggles of the workers. With very few excep- tions these councils do not reflect the fighting mood of the workers, This is apparent by the failure to develop a broad national movement ‘among the unemployed. Where we have taken up concrete struggles of the wotkers (Detroit, Chicago, New York) for example, organizing workers to carry back the furniture of evicted workers and then placing guards to prevent the police from re-evicting the workers, the coun- cils have grown numerically. The League must correct the failure to develop special unemployed youth activities within the unemployed councils, both on the industrial and neighborhood basis, such as the bufiding of sports gnovements and the setting up of dramatic and educational work within the councils. ‘The failure to understand and apply the united front from below has resulted in our failure to draw masses of young workers into the struggle against unemployment. Practically no efforts have been made to penetrate the workers’ frater- nal, sports and educational organizations which have millions of employed and unemployed young workers, / we The coming Plenum will have as one of its \ major tasks that of making a thorough analysis ‘of the conditions of the unemployed young workers in the various sections of the country, from this formulating a concrete and realistic "program of demands for rallying the youth in the coming struggles this winter. 4 ‘The American Federation of Labor and espe- cially Muste, the spokesman of the socialist it Bue party, have long recognized the willingness of the working youth to struggle. For this reason Muste is today actually engaged in attempting to organize youth sections of the reactionary trade unions (Reading, Pa., Hazelton, Pa., and Phila- delphia), in order to prevent the young workers from entering the revolutionary trade unions of the T. U. U. L. The overwhelming majority of the youth to- day is completely unorganized. Our major task is the organizing of this great mass of young workers into the T. U. U. L. Along with this we must win over that section of the workers that still remains within the reactionary and so- cial fascist trade unions. This task must not be lost sight of if we are to win over this important section of the working class which at the pres- ent time is under their influence. This can best be done by the building up of revolutionary op- positions within the reactionary unions and util- izing every opportunity of exposing the betrayal policy of their fascist leadership. Youth Sections Within the Revolutionary Trade Unions. One of the outstanding obstacles in the or- ganization of youth sections within the revolu- tionary trade unions has been the complete lack of clarity in understanding the important fole of the youth sections in the everyday struggle of the working class. The incorrect tendency to or- ganize the youth into separate “youth unions” has not been completely overcome. In addition to this the attitude that “you cannot organize youth sections unless you first organize the union” (Lawrence, Mass.) brings out clearly this mechanical separation of youth. This due to the lack of understanding that organizing the youth is simultaneously building the union. This ap- proach does not only retard the growth of the union, but completely ignores the tremendous possibilities of utilizing the young workers as a forerunner in building the union. Especially is this true in sections such as Lawrence, where the majority of the adult workers employed in the mills are foreign-born and cannot speak English. The reaching of the native-born youth and the sons and daughters of the foreign-born workers becomes of paramount importance when we realize that through the youth we reach the parents. Another outstanding example of this mechanical separation can be witnessed in the Metal Workers’ Industrial League. comrades present the theory that the union must be built before special youth forms and activi- ties can be developed. While there is no opposi- tion to the recruiting of young workers into the union, there is resistance to the development of special youth methods. “Storm the shops” must become the living slogan of the youth sections. Their function among the young workers in their ntighborhoods must be brought to the forefront. ‘The building of the youth sections must be con- sidered as a general organizational problem of the union and as an integral part of the union activities. Youth Sections and Their Shortcomings. ‘The present resistance to the building of youth sections is due to the lack of understanding of its functions, which prevents its functioning ef- fectively and in turn causes the sections to disin- tegrate. In analyzing the reason for the decline of the youth sections that have been established in the past, it is essential to note that the out- standing reason has been that the youth sec- tions have not been connected with the every- day struggle of the working youth. In our re- cent struggles (Passaic, Gastonia, New Bedford) it can be noted that so long as the struggle was Here the Plenty of Food in the Soviet Union By JAMES BARNETT. the Soviet Union, where the workers, begin- ning with a very backward industrial develop- ment, are doing, in a few years, whit it took the the United States one hundred years to do, one of the big jobs is to provide more and better food for the workers. Previously they had the most meagre living on the poorest food. Next year the government is investing seven and three-quarter million dollars in food in- dustries, besides what they have already devel- oped. The state food industries will produce over twice as much as they did this year—124 per cent more. By doing this they expect the food consumed per worker to increase by 8 to 14 per cent. Two hundred more large-scales state hog ranch- es are to be started in 1931. This is in addition to the 240 already organized. Big meat pack- ing houses are to be built in different sections of the vast territory of the Soviet Union, to supply the population. By 1932-33, there will be many more milk cows, a total of 30 million head (they now have only about one and one- half million) and the supply of milk to the city will be doubled in addition to the increased con- sumption of milk in the country. While the dairy industry is being built up. while cows are multiplying so as to supply the workers with an adequate supply of milk, cheese and butter, strong efforts are being made, in the meantime, to furnish vegetable oils as a sub- stitute for butter-fat. Already there are 470 large oil-pressing plants. On July Ist, the first margarine factory started in Moscow. Seven additional factories will be built in 1931, with a combined annual output of 70,000 tonss. 886,000 tons of fish were caught in 1913. In 1930 the marketable catch was 1,260,000 tons. A catch of 2% times this has been set for 1932-33. A supply of sugar double that of pre-war is now assured to the population. ‘The cultivation of fruits and vegetables has been small in the past, but by 1932-33 the garden acreage “is to be double the present area. The minimum annual consumption per person, at present, has been set at: 275 Ibs. of potatoes, 330 Ibs. of other vegetables and 55 lbs. of fruit. It is expected to greatly increase this during the next five years. The largest cannery in Europe is being built in the Crimea, which will be able to produce 90 million cans of food per year. The construction of 13 new plants was begun by the United Canning Industry in 1930 with a total capacity of 205 million cans; other plants are also being built and old gnes remodel- led. It is expected that the entire canning pri duction for this year will be 1.3 billion cans; at the end of the Five-Year Plan this will be in- creased to 5 billion cans annually. Millions of dollars are going into the extension and develop- ment of milling and bakery production. Great cooperative and factory restaurants are being built all over the Soviet Union to furnish the workers with hot, well prepared food at the lowest cost. At least 50 per cent of the workers’ families will be served by large state or cooper- ative restaurants by the end of 1931. All of these industries and increased benefits are for the toilers of the city and country. To the working class, which has been starved for centuries, for the first time, nourishing and plentiful food is assured; many new wants come into existence and they are carrying out these and other plans for @ greater supply and more varieties. In the Soviet Union the workers eat! on, the work of the youth sections was fruitful. As soon as the strike was called off these sec- tions ceased to function, The outstanding task of the youth section is to represerit and carry on the struggle of the young workers. The youth section must take up the problems of the youth in a given locality or industry and also rally the young workers who are not in the union to struggle for the demands put forward by the union and its youth sec- tion. To do this the section must develop special youth forms and activities with which to hold its members and draw non-union members closer to the union. The developing of trade union sports (hiking, baseball, football, boxing, etc.), together with various forms of crafts clubs, trade union educational circles, as well as cultural ac- tivities, are of the most importance in the life of the youth sections, (To be continued.) “TLL HAVE A CAVIAR SANDWICH, WAITER” SUBSCRIPTION RATES! Foreign: One year, By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. $8; six months, $4.50. ——— By JOE TASH, PART 1. Tt Ninth Conference of the International Committee of Propaganda and Action, the international mining section of the Red Inter- national of Labor Unions, taking place in the U.S.S.R., the land of the working class, gave the delegates representing the Mine, Oi] and Smelter Workers Industrial Union of America an oppor- tunity to acquaint themselves with the condi- tions and problems of the mine workers on an international scale. The conference gave the correct line and policies to be applied in the or- ganization of the miners and in leading their struggles. The failure of some of the sections of the conference was not due to an incorrect line of the LC.P. The conference therefore en- dorsed and clarified the line of the eighth world conference and stressed the proper application of it to the huge economic struggles who’s task it is to organize and lead. Rank and File Representation. One glance over the heads of the delegates at the conference was sufficient to note that. the composition of the conference was of a rank and file character, 95 per cent of which were miners actually working or unemployed, elected in a variety of circumstances legal or illegal by special meetings and conferences of rank and file mine workers. There were 99 delegates rep- resenting 29 mining countries. Our conference was a great contrast to the bi-annual congress of the Miners’ International Federation, section of the yellow Amsterdam In- ternational, which took place in Cracow, Po- land, in May, 1930, under the protection of the Pilsudsky fascist government. The reformist gathering was composed of 129 delegates com- ing from 11 mining countries. Those 129 dele- gate workers look well fed, paid functionaries of the affiliated national unions, who attended by virtue of this fact alone and not elected by the rank and file of the miners. ‘The reformist conference was a gathering of betrayers who during the course of their ses- sions fell on their own throats in their endeavor to serve best their own bosses in their respec- tive countries, all were patriots only interested in aiding their government in the attack upon the workers. They bellowed about the stabiliza- tion of capitalist industry and supported in their way the program of wage-cuts and the lower- ing of the standard of living of the miners and their families, and declared a war on the Com- munists and the Red International of Labor Unions. Nothing was said of the intensified war of the capitalists against the working class. ‘The conference of revolutionary miners pointed to the general crisis of capitalism and its far- reaching effect 1n the mining industry. The delegates from every country represented spoke “B-b-but it’s Russian Caviar, Sir.” ‘Ninth Int'l Conterence Ot Revolu- tionary Miners in the same terms as did the delegates from America: They spoke of wagé-cuts, worsening and tearing down of conditions won through years of struggle, closing down of mines, of in- creased unemployment, of the misery and suf- fering of the mine workers and their dependents as a result of the crisis. In Germany 513,000 miners are unemployed, the number of miners from the year of 1927 to 1929 decreased by 5 per cent, or 30,000 miners, while the output of the same period grew by 10,000,000. In Belgium, the number of miners in the same went down by 13 per cent, bringing the number of miners unemployed to 151,000, while the output increased only by 2 per cent. In England, the number of miners took a swift fall by 66,000 miners, while the output increased. The same is true in France, the number of miners having decreased by 23,000, while the output increased by 2,000,000 tons. In the American mining industry 50 per cent of the miners are unemployed, this figure including the metal miners as well as coal. Coal production on the whole is decreasing, while at the same time the productivity of individual mine workers is increasing. This is due to the extensive introduction of the rationalization schemes of the coal operators. Mines are being mechanized to the extent that while closed down and those that operate have and production on the whole has fallen, productivity of individual mines and mine workers has in- creased. ‘The wages of the miners in all mining coun- tries have ben beaten down and in spite of the fact that some increase in wages was granted to the coal miners in the Ruhr district in Ger- many it greatly lags behind the increased pro- duction and means of speed-up. Thus can be seen, on an international scale in the chief min- ing countries, the vicious attempts of the mine owners to place the burden of the crisis upon the shoulders of the mine worker. In order to save themselves from the grip of the crisis, the individual mine owners as well as groups of mine operators of the various countries attempt to reduce wages, lay off workers, engage in a program of speed-up in order to squeeze out their competitors from the limited markets. The entire burden of the expenses connected with the reduction of wholesale prices of mine products and competitions are being shifted on the backs of the miners, increasing the exploitation. Down with deportation, lynching, Jim- Crowism, segregation; elect delegates to the National Conference for the Protection of Foreign Born, Nov. 30th, Dec. Ist, Washing- ton, D. C, | Bina. | By JORGE The Trials of a Soap Boxer “On the memorable Oct... 16th,” writes a worker, who also happens to be a soap-boxer, “one hour or so prior to the city hall demon- stration, I was calling upon office workers in | Madison Square to attend the “public hearing.’ “In the course of my talk I exposed the truly burglarious nature of the City Budget, charace terizing Jimmy Walker, et al, as grafters. Thé crowd cheered me, pledged their solidarity and even assisted by their large numbers in freeing me from an attempted arrest on the spot. The meeting, from all revolutionary angles, was @ ‘wow’. But— “The functionaries attending got me back to their sanctum at the T.U.U.L., asked me to hang around a half hour or so, the while they held a secret caucus. I had important work to do (I was averaging 750 copies of the Daily Worker street sales per week), but the vision of a crown of bay and laurel, elevation to a seat in the Comintern and similar honors heaped upon mé by the Office Workers’ Union, kept me in tow. “Imagine! When I was ushered in finally, amid appropriate hemming, hawing, etc., I re- ceived a lecture on the ‘psychology’ of the work- ing-class. Particularly emphatic was the warh- ing not to ‘antagonize workers by vilifying city officials’! “It was I who wound up that conference. I had them blushing when I asked them if they ever read the Daily Worker, and specially re- ferred them to the then current editorial on the front page, entitled ‘A Burglar’s Budget’.” Such is the complaint. And if the facts are as described, there are several lessons to draw from this. One is, obviously, that numerous functionaries do not read the Daily Worker. We note this from many many other examples as well. While the comrades in the Comintern may regard the Daily as one of the best Communist papers outside the Soviet Union, too many functionaries have the idea that it is beneath their dignity to read it. Though the staff writ- ers on economic trends and general current events are supplying them with careful sum- maries from all sources, many functionaries think that they are going to get something superior by their own casual digging in the cap- italist press. The net result is that they soak up, uncon- sciously, some of the sea of, bourgeois bunk about the “return of prosperity.” In no other way can we account for action (or inaction) here, there and everywhere, whose basis can only be an ignorance of the perspectives of the Party as laid down in the Daily Worker. ‘Thus in the case cited, the comrades who so mistakenly estimate the psychology of the work- ers, were proven not to have read a leading editorial on the subject they were discussing. It is logical to presume that they had neither read the Daily's estimates of the extent of the crisis and its political conclusions as to the temper of the working masses. They had their own theory, which was not the theory of the Party or its central organ, that the workers would be “antagonized.” That the very action of the workers had shown differently, they ig- nored, perhaps resented. Facts must give way to their conception of them. The workers, Party“and non-party alike, read and follow the Daily Worker. It is time that numerous functionaries, who think they are above doing so, were given to understand that Party policy is to be obtained from the Daily Worker and not from spontaneous combustion in their individual think tanks, be they ever so brilliant. Bankers, Too, “Prefer Bonds” “The most hopeful sign, is the loss of faith in fascism by banking friends here in America, who formerly have helped the Mussolini govern- ment.”—Roger Baldwin, director of the Civil Lib- erties Union. According to this, the Italian working class is either not interested in their own civil liberties, or Baldwin's estimate of their ability to fight successfully for them is pretty low. And what is to save the Italian workers from fascism is not the revolutionary action of these workers, but the “loss of faith” in fascism by American bankers. So civil liberties are to be preserved by regen- erated bankers, whose childlike trust in Musso- lini’s purity of purpose is being ruined by his evil habit of making agreements with Great Britain. For bankers, like other devoted uphoM- ers of civil liberties, “prefer bonds.” It is a distressing time for liars. Just after Portes Gil, on his way to Europe, stopped off Jong enough to tell us that there was no unem- ployment in Mexico, along comes an “open letter” to Bill Green from the Mexican labor fakers, telling him that because of the terrible unemployment in Mexico, would Green please stop Yankee musicians from going over the bors der and taking jobs away from Mexican musi- cians across the Rio Grande. Against the Injunction Written in Harlem Prison, 170 E. 121st St., on Sat, Nov. 14, 1930 We, the group of women comrades arrested on the picket line on Thurs- day in front of the Zelgreen’s Cafe- teria, find ourscives at the present moment in jail together with many other prisoners convicted for prosti- tution, shoplifting, murccr and for peddling drugs. On our arr:val to our temporary “free home,” like revolutionists, we were gaily singing our revolutionary songs. We were, however, immedi- ately informed that this was a prison and songs were not tolerated. We were not scared of this—Threats like no messages to our friends, 30 days jail, report to the judge, were not ac- cepted by us, We, however, immedi- ately decided that since we are ready and not be bailed out, which may mean a number of days in jail, we that the battle between the “justice” and the workers was on for the fight for and against injunctions, and that we as a body will fight to a finish. Upon leaving the jail on Friday morning for court, we were informed that we were coming back to jail in the evening as our case will come be- fore a special session. The bail was set. at $300 each. The comrades all as one decided not to be bailed except one comrade who was brutally hit by the police and who was very sick. We are on our way kacx to jail, all in good spirit, fully aware cf what we can expect. We are already known to the matrons. They heve been warned by other mairons that we are a “bunch of Communisis” and are to be stopped from singing, and other acts. We are not met very friendly, not smilingly, but rather as we ex- pected—We are ordered roughly to must act ike a disciplined body as befits revolutionists. This was a unanimous decision. We were firmly convinced after the first day in court stand in line, not to be noisy, not to sing—all “don'ts.” But we are united, we are strong, disciplined. We under- stand just how much we can rebel and we know olir elected committees will stick up for our rights. We are ail rather tired out and we decide to pull in early to bed, Of course we do not have to decide this, as by 8 p. m. we are all locked in our cells, two in each cell, with but very little air and in general very little comfort, Saturday morning we are all cheer- ful prisoners), We go down to break- fast. We feel very rcluctant about eating as we are eating from the same dishes as all other prisoners, many of whom ave contagious dis- eases. We remain for the rest of the day in a rather small room to- gether with about fifteen other pris- ‘oners—not enough room for 33 girls, hardly enough breathing space. One of the prisoners is lying sick in her cell and we are therefore ordered to speak quietly and not to discuss ‘and not to sing. We gather in groups, mingling with we are here, listening to their stories, giving them our interpretations. Hav- ing with us a comrade who had just returned from the Soviet Union, she relates her impressions and especially does she tell us all about the prisons in the Soviet Union, comparing them with the American prisons, The dif- ference is indeed great. Prisons there are educational institutions. The convicts here are all products of the Present system. In talking with them, it is evident that many of them realize it, and also realize that jails such as these will not correct them, will not better their miserable conditions, but will rather doom them for life. We, the group of comrades in Harlem prison, feel that we are fighting not only against injunctions, for better conditions for workers, but against the whole capitalist system and for the final victory of the work- ing class, for a Soviet republic in America and in every other capitalist country in the world.

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