The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 12, 1930, Page 4

1 \ Published by the Comprodally Publishing Co. Inc., ally, ew York City, Address and Dial all checks to the Dally Worker, 50 East 13th Street, New York, N. ¥, 5 sth Btreet™ except Sunday, N. ¥. Telephone Algonquin 7956-7. Cable: at 50 East “DAIWORK.” Daily BEFORE ‘THE FISH COMMITETE By WM. Z. FOSTER. "HE Washington hearing of the Fish Commit- tee, to which, Comrades Amter, Gannes and were subpoenaed, was held in the rooms of the fouse Committee on Foreign Affairs, in the Capitol building. The main room of the suite vas banked full of big floral pieces, sent to he fascist millionaire Fish by His reactionary dmirers, in ration of his “good work,” now bout to be c allized into anti-working class While millions of unemployed are rvi Fish is feted and honored for tempting to drill the workers still deeper into ne abyss earing exuded a spirit of blacklist again gave voice to his program or repressing the growing rebellion of the work Ts, and intensifying the attack in the Soviet nion. He declared that he could be quoted a nousand times as being in fayor of a United tates national secret police, finger printing reg- stration, and deportation of foreign-born work- rs, and the breaking of trade relations with he Soviet Union. Bachman of. West Virginia mmediately solidarized himself with Fish; and he others, by their general conduct in the hear- ags, showed that they held similar opinions. foreover, n we charged the’ Fish Committee vith trying to illegalize our Party and Trade Jnion Unity League, and with aiming to creating inst the Soviet Union, not one of the made the slightest disclaimer, every- ly taking it for granted that these ‘bjectives of the Committee were manifest on he face of t S. From their line of questioning, it was evident hat the Fish Committee in their proposals, will The whole eaction. ody appa lirect a very heavy attack against the foreign ‘orn workers. heir fear of these workers was aanifest at every step. Fish, Woll and Co., nosy that foreign born workers form the bulk f “the wor force in the basic and most rategic indu: s in this country. They know, urthermore, that these workers, mostly with a ackground of radicalism or revolutionary train- ag, are the least under the control of capitalist deology in general and of the A. F. of L. in varticular. They also look upon them as the »wrincipal source of radicalization in the working lass. Consequently, a major phase of their trategy is to drive a wedge between our Party wd the foreign born workers. We must, there- ‘ore, be keenly alive to the vital significance of he struggle to defend the rights of these work- The Fish Committee also showed in various ways a keen fear of our growing strength among the Negroes. Manifestly, instead of considering she Negroes as “reserves of capitalist reaction,’- as Lovestone does, these fascist capitalists dread them as an element highly dangerous to capital- ism generally. Fish inquired carefully regarding our actual strength among the Negroes. Bach- man weakly attempted to deny Jim-Crowism in West Virginia; and Eslick, while boasting of lynching in Tennessee, triéd in the same breath to prove that Negroes were not disfranchised in his state. We may be sure that still more drastic steps are contemplated to isolate us from the ly important and deeply discontented mass- es of Negroes. Eslick clearly indicated what this means in the Bourbon South by the way he licked his chops when we demanded full social, industrial and political equality for Negroes, including the right of intermarriage. How fgr the Fish Committee, notorious for its Whalen forgeries,.will go in its attempt to develop a trade embargo and eventually war against the Soviet Union, was again illustrated in the person of a Russian kulak witness, fished up from social cesspool for the occasion. He told a blood-curdling yarn about prison life in Mur- mansk, enough to make Baron Muchausen blush in envy. Prisoners, he said, who were physically * unable to do the 8 hours of hard work, were put out naked in the cold, 50 degrees below zero. Those who refused to work were shot forthwith. Once 2,500 prisoners were sent to a neighboring lumber camp; two months lated only 500 sur- vivors returned. He was quite sure the lumber cut came to the United States. He produced fantastic figures as to the number of prisoners, starting at 4,000 for his unit, he mounted easily to 50,000 for the surrounding country, 40,000 for the district, and 5,000,000 altogether. At the last figure, even, the Committee members demurred. This was laying it on too thick. Their perjurer had out-Fished Fish! But the capitalist re- porters drank up the lurid fable. To such absurd extremes do Fish-Woll and Co. go in the at- tempt to bar Russian lumber from American markets and to create war sentiment. The reading of the sharp and incisive Party statement, right in the heart of the imperialist government center, made the Fish Committee reactionaries wince. Manifestly they would have been glad to refute our terrible picture of crisis, unemployment, wage cuts, speed-up, lynching, war preparations, etc. But they were quite un- | able to do so. They could not even begin an | attack upon it. Their approach to the document was that of political illiterates. We had heard that they were such, byt the reality surpassed our expectations. Bachman ‘nad® a feeble effort | to refute our figure of 9,000,000 unemployed and to deny our charges of Negro persecution in West | Virginia, but he collapsed at once under our | further barrage of facts. Likewise, Eslick of Tennessee in his childish attempt to “defend” | the “rights” of Negroes in his state. Our Party's terrific indictment of American injustice went ‘practically unchallenged. Before it, the prosperity shouters had nothing to say. The best they could do was to put to us a few stupid questions about the flag, religion, and violence, for use later in the campaign of ter- rorism which they hope will protect American imperialism from the awakening masses. It was highly interesting to watch these fas- cist defenders of capitalism under the attack of our Party. In addition to the fiery Party state- ment, Amter, GanneS and I repeatedly charged their entire capitalist system bankruptcy; we demonstrated that the United States is a whole social era behind the Soviet Union; we excori- ated capitalism in the South, stating that its social, political, economic and cultural levels can be measured by the Ku Klux Klan, lynching, $8.00 a week workers, child labor, and the Dayton trial. But there was little response. The old- time militancy of such red-baiters, their violent 100 per cent, hair-trigger defense of American capitalism from-even the slightest criticism, was not there. This was not because, relying on ter- roristic measures, they do not consider any argu- ment necessary. On the contrary, they listened, obviously disturbed. Their attitude reflected she alarm and uncertainty which capitalists the world over feel at the deepenin> crisis of their own system, while Socialism makes such gigantic strides in the Soviet Union. In their hearts, the Fish Committee were suspecting the validity of their own system and were truly alarmed at the prospect of an awakening working class under the leadership of the Communist Party. In the next weeks, the Fish Committee will make their recommendations to Congress. Their proposals will incorporate the most extreme forms of the capitalist attack against the American working class and against the Soviet Union. Seeking to creat a terrorism that will break the growing resistance of the workers, they will aim at illegalizing the Communist Party and the T. U. U. L. In view of the sharpening economic crisisythe growing radicalization of the workers, and the growing power of our Party, the govern- ment, supported by the A. F. of L., will go far in the direction demanded by Fish. The pro- posals of Fish constitute a menacing danger to the workers and they must be fought with the utmost resolution by every working class organ- ization. Leningrad Needle Workers Celebrate Union Anniversary (From Leningrad Pravda Nov. 13) (On ‘the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of © founding of the Needle Trades Workers vi of Leningrad, the Leningrad Pravda pu hed an article written by Bograchev. ‘THR article will be of great interest to needle tr@de workers in America.—Ed.) needle industry of czarist Russia con- sisted of broken up small shops in which two mechanics worked with one or two “boy- learners.” Larger shops where 10 to 15 men were employed were few. Usually the whole work carried a seasonal character. Five months in the fall and winter, 3 to 4 months in spring and summer at 14 hours work'a day. In the so-called best times for the needle workers in “season” the work day was as high as 16 to 18 hours. During the season the bosses made believe that they considered the welfare of the workers. But their exploitation and brutality against the needle workers knew no limits, after the season. Organized in 1905. ““The revolution of 1905 roused also the needle workers. In that time in Petersburg the needle proletariat numbered about 50,000 men. Yet, before 1905 there took place amongst the tailors various strikes and attempts to organize a trade union, ‘To the call of a group of revolutionary needle ‘workers (Ozal, Ularof and others) to organize a adopted a decision of great principal importance. “That the union must pursue not only the near- est economic problems, but must participate in the political life, and in order to attain political problems the workers must unite in a political party that party is the R.S.D.RP. (Bolshevik). Accept Bolshevik Leadership On March 25, 1914 at a general-meeting of the union the Bolshevik program and construc- tion of the composition of the leadrship of the union on the one party control basis was ap- proved. The general meeting agreed to it and in the leadership came in the following comrades, Bolsheviks: chairman of the organization Davidov (killed in time of civil war in 1919); secretary of the organization Ionov, who was up to the end of 1925 one of the leaders of the central com- mittee of the needle workers union; Andrushe- vich (killed in time of civil war on the Polish front.) J To the lot of this group fell the leadership of the underground organization of the union up to 1917, because with the declaration of war the union was closed by the ezarist goverriment. In March, 1917, the union of needle workers comes out from underground, tempered Bolsheviks in the past struggles, and began on a wide basis to butld 1 its organization. N ro + THIRSTING FOR MORE POINCARE of SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mat! everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; Manhattan and Bronx,,New York City. Foreign: One year, xcepting Boroughe $8; ix months, $4.50. By BURCK The Indian Revolution, Gandhi, and His American Admirers . ARTICLE No.3. Gandhi and His American Admirers. ‘T is the reason for the American liberals’ admiration for Mr. Gandhi? Is it not strange that these devoted patriots—who every year solemnly celebrate the 4th of July, who every day go to sleep and awaken with sayings of Washington and Lincoln on their lips—sud- denly forget all the lessons of history and ac- claim the principle of non-violence as the great- est achievement of mankind whenever they turn themselves to the Indian revolution?_ No! There is nothing strange in this. With the bourgeoisie the logic of its class interests has always been stronger than its power of reasoning. ‘The American imperialists »re not averse to seeing Britain’s grip on India weaken. India under the rule of a native bourgeoisie would mean a potential vassal of American imperial- ism in southern Asia and immense opportunities for the penetration of American capital and goods into the country. But a free India, under @ worl ’ and peasants’ government, would be @ great calamity to the capitalist world, just as the Soviet Union is. That is also why Amer- ican imperialism was so hostile to the Chinese bourgeoisie when it still could claim some reyo- lutionary tendencies, and began to help actively the counter-revolutionary Nanking Government only after the defeat of the Chinese revolution. For a successful revolution in India, as in China, can result only in the creation of a new Soviet power in Asia. Mr. Durant knows this pretty well. “An India,” writes he, “longer forced under a hated yoke may abandon the methods of Gandhi for those of Lenin, and turn all Asia into a mad revolt against everything European or American.” (Page 206.) Now one understands why the American lib- erals are so sensitive to disorder in India; why Mr. Will Durant calls the greatest betrayal of Gandhi—the shameful liquidation of the civil- disobedience movement in 1922—“an act of moral courage hardly parallelled in history” (page 160). Now, we understand why this “humanitarian and humanizer of others’ philosophies,” this professed friend of India’s freedom, begins his book (which, by the way, is nothing but a col- lection of quotations and clippings patched to- supplying the workers with the products of this industry and thanks to cheap clothing, it com- pletes the workers budget. In line with this, this industry happens to be a solid source for the increasing of the fund for the industrialization of the country. The output of production in the past year all through Leningrad government clothing factories was 204 million roubles. Profit for the year amounted over 25,000,000 roubles. ‘What does this needle proletariat present to us to the 25th anniversary from the day of the organization of its union? This army of factory proletarian needle workers presents to us a com= pact and organized mass, builders of the work- ers’ socialist government. Many in Party This new needle proletariat which grew up through the Soviet power no longer resembles the old man tailor or woman tailor. It is now @ conscious factory worker, that works seven hours, using his remaining time for enjoyment and cultural development. The needle worker of today—he is a participant in socialist rivalry, he is a worker shock brigader. In the factories of the government clothing trust there are 13,000 needle workers in shock brigades. The political physiognomy of a Leningrad needle worker in the period from October, 1917 to this day is such: Over 5,000 needle workers sre Party members and an equal number in other revolutionary organizations. The union of needle workers can proudly proclaim that during the whole time of the revolution amongst the needle workers there never was, any vacillation in relation to the politics of the Soviet power Jed by the Communist Party. Bolshevik tempered in the long run of 25 years the union of needle workers always kept high the banner'of Bolshevism, the banner of the general line of the Party and to this day the needle workers of Leningrad rightly maybe included in the detachment of builders of socialism. Needle workers of America must follow the example of the needle workers of the Soviet Union and gather all revolutionary forces around the Needle Workers Industrial Union in the U. 8. A. and prepare to deliver a smashing blow to the Shlesingers, Dubinskys, and all the other. traitors in the needle trades, gether with righteous indignation) with the enumeration of British crimes in India, and ends it . . . with a grave warning, to wit: “The sudden grant of Home Rule . . . might plunge her into such chaos as now disrupts China,” (page 205), therefore, “Home Rule ‘must not come overnight.” (Page 206.) When even the most reactionary elements of Indian society now assembled at the Round Table Conference demand immediate’ Dominion Status, it is doubtful whether the Indian bour- seois nationalists will be grateful to Mr. Durant for his advice. And this is the most outspoken “critic” of the Anglo-Indian regime from among the American liberals! These are the upholders of American idealism, to whom Mr. Sulindra Nath Ghose, who styles himself as the president of the Indian National Congress in America, ap- peals for help to the Indian revolution! Gandhi's admirers in this country are not con- fined to the liberals, pacifists, missionaries, and other masters of saintly arts. From the plat- form of a meeting held last June Bertram D. Wolfe, the récognized theoretician of the Right renegades, solemnly announced his group's in- clusion into the ranks of the fighters for the cause of Mahatma Gandhi. Wolfe authorita- tively informed his audience, “Gandhi is the symbol of the mass movement, of the mass struggle, of the revctutionary uprising of the Indian people.” That Gandhi betrayed the revolutionary strugglé in 1922, the strike of Tata metal work- ers in 1925, the Bardoli peasants in 1928, the Ahmedabad workers at all times; that Gandhi is ready any day and any hour to negotiate for an “honorable” compromise with British imper- ijalism; that Gandhi has consciously made it his aim not to permit a revolution in India—all this Mr. Wolfe, who poses as a Communist, for- got even to mention. Wolfe “forgot”; but, Will Durant recalled these facts, and recalled them as acts of “moral courage” on the part of Gandhi. Evidently Mr. Wolfe will not have to travel very far to shake hands with Mr. Durant. ‘The political conclusions from the identifica- tion of Gandhi with the Indian:revotution can be traced in the pamphlet “India in” Revolt,” published by the Lovestone group, and in later arti¢leS in the “Revolutionary Age.” By far’ the most amazing document in the pamphlet is a programmatic article entitled, “The Lessons of the Lahore Congress,” which presumably has the full approval of the “International Communist Opposition,” as the Right renegades call them- selves, In that document it is proposed that the Na- tional Congress “mobilize arouhd it larger and Jarger masses of workers.” ‘Thus not only the hegemony of the revolutionary struggle but even the guidance of the working class itself is hand- ed over to the national bourgeoisie, gratis. Is this criminal move—from the point of view of elementary Communist strategy—proposed at least with the misconceived idea to accelerate the mobilization of the masses for active strug- gle against imperialism? Nothing doing! The document literally warns the National Congress: “What we can do is to avoid a premature clash with the enemy possessing superior forces.” The appeal for non-payment of land revenue issued by the National Congress was subject to innumerable reservations in the hope of liquidat- ing the movement before it could have a che:zce to develop. Yet in an atmosphere charged with electricity even this half-hearted move, made under the pressure of the masses, gave a new stimulus to the struggle of the peasantry. ‘What is the stand of the Right Opposition on this question? It is: “The non-payment of taxes can be more easily organized . . . there- fore any campaign in that direction is more likely to bring us prematurely in a clash with the established. authorities. In view of these alarming consequences of any serious, large scale, no-tax campaign, it is sure that it will never be undertaken. Thus, non-payment of taxes is an utterly impractical slogan.” What a gratifying sight: Roy, Brandler and Lovestone urging Gandhi not, to come to a “pre- mature clash with the established authorities.” ‘These saviors of the Indian revolution are so thoroughly permeated with the spirit of non- violence that they accompany even the demand for nationalization of land with respectful apolo- gies in that “the abolition of the native states and -landlordism is not a measure for injuring ladies belonging to the specified category.” Which is quite in keeping with Gandhi’s fre- quent apologies to the British imperialists for the nationalist movement. The finishing touch to this disgraceful picture is supplied by another article published in the “Revolutionary Age” of August 1, 1930, under the caption: “The Tactical Problems of the In- dian Revolution.” Here we read: “The Com- | munists cannot draw in the bourgeois-democratic nationalist masses in a revolutionary struggle with slogans representing the maximum de- mands of the workers and peasants. Above all a common platform must be worked out.” Lenin taught us that the “maximum demands” of the peasants, i. e., the expropriation of the landowners and the transfer of the land to the peasants, the abolition of all feudal relics, along with the complete liberation of the country (self- | determination including the right of separation) are the basic tasks of the bourgeois-democratic revolution in a colonial country. The whole program of the bourgeois-democratic revolution represents only the minimum program of the party of the working class, whose maximum de- mands can never coincide with those of the whole peasantry, as they are nothing short of the abolition of capitalism and the establish- ment of socialism. What other “common platform” with the “bourgeois-democratic nationalist masses” (a very suspicious entity? Is it not the national bourgeoisie that is concealed under this am- biguous phrase?) can be found by the workers and peasants of India, except this program of the bourgeois-democratic national revolution? The self-styled “Communist Opposition” is ready with its answer: “The Communists must in the very beginning issue a central slogan to give positive form to'its struggle for national liberation. What should this slogan be under the given circumstances? It must be the concrete expression for the recognition of the right of self-administration.” To the Indian masses the slogan of “self- determination” may sound rather vague, like Gandhi's mysterious Swaraj. Not so to the “Communist Opposition” author. He knows his mind. A little earlier he explains that “dom- inion status . . . is complete self-administra- tion.” Now we, too, know why the “Communist Opposition” is so eager to find a “common” plat- form with the “hourgeois-democratic nationalist masses.” Their reason for doing so is the de- sire to substitute for the slogan of complete in- dependence the slogan of dominion status! When the Indian National Congress in 1928 gave up the demand for complete independence put forth in 1927, and accepted the slogan of dominion status, the reason given by the Gan- dhis and the Nehrus was that they needed a common platform with ‘the liberals, i. e., with the big capitalists and landowners. The right wing renegades are now passing through exactly the same process which marked the capituldtion of the Indian National Congress in 1928. Now one can also understand why they consider the National Congxess a revolutionary organization, so much so that they even fear a premature clash between it and British imper- ialism. The National Congress is now, at least in words, for complete independence. The Na- tional Congress IS more Left than Brandler, Roy and their associates. Could anyone have ever imagined greater degeneration for men who were one time members of the greatest revolu- tionary organization of the international work- ing class—the Communist International? ‘There remains still the question. of Constituent Assembly (the slogan of Roy and Lovestone) as against the slogan for Soviets.in India. “Impor- tant as it is, there is no use discussing this ques- tion with these gentlemen. What’ remains still to be explained is why at all do they call them- selves “Communist Opposition”? What on earth have these foul liberals in common with the Communist Party that they pose as opposition to it? Fortunately, the Lovestoneites themselves, being ignorant of the very A. B, C. of Commu- nism, have inadvertently answered this question when they stated that they ggree with the Com- munist Party on fundamental questions of Com- munism, and differ only (!) in,questions of an- alysis, strategy and tactics. (Revolutiohary Age, Sept. 1, 1930.) ss : ' Lovestone may not know, but the students of our Workers School know. that after deducting from Communism the analysis, strategy and tac- tics of\the class struggle, the remainder---accord- ing’ to all rules of arithmetic—ts zero, Zero— this is exactly what remains from Communism with the “International Communist Opposition” and its American section, Lovestone’s Commu- dfs | By JORGE Another Sign of it—War! Dear Soviet Peasants: We are moved to write you a few lines to let you know that over here in the paradise called America, there are some gentlemen who are trying to rescue you from the evils that have fallen upon you since you lost your beloved Czar, his kind-hearted police who used to caress your back with whips, his generals who used to burn your houses when you forgot to pay taxes, and your landlords who were so generous that they never took more grain than you raised without charging it up to your next: year’s crop. In short we just found out that here ig Amer- ica there has been organized something called “The All-Russian Union of Farmers, Peasants and Cossacks Abroad.” We know that you will be interested in knowing that the president of this strange organization, supposedly of peasants, is a professor, by the name of John V. Eme® ainoff. One Gregory J. Dolgopiatov is “secre- tary,” and we suppose you will recognize him by the scars on your backs. ““"* We found this out from a mimeographed let- ter sent out from Room 624, 328 West Madisoag St., Chicago, a building owned by William Rane dolph Hearst's paper, the Herald American. An@ we thought it funny that Russian peasants have to go so far away from home to get set up in ‘business with a professor in charge. But what they have to say might explain things. And the first thing they say is: * “Whereas the Russian fafmers in Russia have no possibility of raising their voice and declar« ing their attitude to thé Communistic experi- ments performed at the present time with our nation and national welfare, we, organized Rus- sian farmers abroad, have a duty to do so.” That sounded queer, bec -se we read that in 1927 you already had 107 newspapers for peas- an’ only, more than American farmers have, and ’ ~t these 197 papers had 22,453 peasant correspondents writing directly from your vil- lage- So why professor writing from Chi- cago? F* there is more. The letter is ad- dressed to “All American Farmers’ Organiza- tions.” And it has six points which we can’t re- peat here for lack of space, but which, summed up, are: 1. ,The present rulers of Russia are not the Russian people. 2. That Russian Communists have enslaved “millions of Russian farmers” and are “criminally dumping” to “disorganize Eur- opean and American markets.”§ 3. That grain export is “starving” the Russian people. 4. That the Five Year Plan is a “failure.” 5. That the professor appeals in your name to American farmers and all the “civilized” world to protest. 6. That the professor thanks Mr. Hoover and company for not recognizing the Soviet Gov- ernment. You see that Professor Emelainoff is carrying on where Professor Ramzin left off in the good work of “liberating” you with the aid of Poin- care and General Denisov. Only Emelainoff over here in Chicago has worked with Secretary of War Hurley and Secretary of Agriculture Hyde, both of whom have plainly said that America must make war against the Soviet Power. And Hoover has approved this. So Professor Emelainoff is trying to convince American farmers that war on the Soviet would be a blessed thing for you—and for them. Thus he addressed the “farmers’ organizations” here, which are almost entirely made up of rich farm- * ers, with some middle farmers hooked in, but are controlled by bankers. Well, Tovarishi, remember that these birds will expect the workers and poor farmers to do the fighting. And when they come over there, just remind them that there are about 9,000/000 workers and their families starving, and about a million poor farmers and families who right now have nothing to eat for the winter—and that Hoover and Hyde are“refusing to use any government. money- to feed either workers o1 poor farmers here. So invite them in for a glasi of tea and ask ’em if they ever tried shooting officers as a way to end war.—Red Sparks. * 68 6 . The “X” in Sports We see that one of New York's grafting judges, bearing the moniker Francis X. McQuade, was running a side line as treasurer of the New York Giants baseball team, one of the headlines of capitalist “sports.” The “X,” we presume, is the algebraic symbol representing the “unknown quantity” of how much he got out of it. About this whole subject, a Red Sparks fan informs us that he visited a movie recently, the “Leather Pushers.” The hero, he tells us, is a young chap with “guts,” who breaks his thumb while sparring but gamely goes into the ring for the big fight because “he needed the money.” The cloven hoof of “egotistical calculation” (Marx) is sticking through the mask of “sports- manship” and “athletics” wherever capitalist sports rules, And it rushes in this benighted land—except, and note this exception—in the real sportsmanship and athletics of the Labor Sports Union, dust finished the above, when we were res village of New York the Labor Sports'Union is minded while out for coffee-and, that in this having some kind of a blow-out on Christmas Day at Dyckman Street and Broadway. If you haven't got anything else to do that day, drift around, and if you have, do it there. And this | is no paid ad, either, Mr. Morrow “Humbled” Of course we can’t expect too much editor of the Telegram, seein’ as how up with such as Heywood Broun, but we sorta expect o little better evaluation than following, which appeared in his Friday: * 1 “Morrew (Dwight of New Jersey and the National City Bank—Réd Sparks) A] flat-topped editor of the N, X, Telegram, expected to be placed on the, Banking and rency Committee, But the former partner J. P. Morgan & Co, will serve on such committees as Education and Labor, Affairs,” ete. 6 Now our idea of ‘the importance of the tary Affairs Committee, not to speak of the Committee on Education and Labor, of the. 8. Senate, is horizontal to that of