The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 12, 1931, Page 4

THE FURRIER STRIKE IN" DANBURY By SOL HERTZ he preparation y for in the hist througl hatters strike. That strike the manufacturers, who are of the city administration, us injunction. Later, the manu- a decision by the U. 8. ig to which every mem- might be held respon- ed by the through a vicio facturers were gral Supreme Court, acco: ber of the atters ur sible for the losses sustained by the bosses dur- ing the hat Mmentfacturers took t s, and all y could As a result of this, the I The bosses intro- a blacklist. The Jay their bloody hatters union duced a s city ad: the bosses, bosses reigr Develop: in the A. F, of L. since then, taught the 5 that this organization wa longer a menace to them. On the contrary, the bosses began to feel that the A. F. of L. is a wall of the ever increasing ages by t ‘good lesson” gi The Danbury bosses s in New York who or- ion” for Schlesinger), have co- with the A. F. of L. bureau- he more skilled workers, unskilled and poorly paid workers to the mercy of the bosses. The present hatters union fur as a company union. It serves the interests of the hat manufacturers openly and unashamed. The Industrial Union Steps Into the Situation The conditions of the unskilled workers, es- pecially those who are engaged in preparing fur for the felt, grew from bad to worse. The unsanitary conditions in the factories were un- bearable. On New Year's Eve, the bosses an- nounced a 20 per cent reduction from the meagre wages the workers had been receiving. The In- dustrial Union at once issued a leaflet, calling the workers to a meeting and urging them to organize themselves for struggle against reduc- tions and against their miserable conditions. The workers, impatient to wait till evening when the meeting was scheduled to take place, abandoned work early in the morning and came to the hall which was announced in the leaflet. More than 500 workers from 4 large factories were in- volved in the struggle against reductions right from the first day. The struggle assumed an Jeaving the unusually militant aspect right from the outset. | The sympathy of the working population was on the side of the strikers. The reductions which were planned in all the other factories in Dan- | bury, were “suddenly,” as if by magic, stopped. Two bosses of the struck shops were forced to pay back the reduced wages, on the second week of the strike. The victory thus achieved in the first two shops, instilled new courage in the ranks of the strikers, and elevated the spirit of the entire working population. Each meeting called by the Industrial Union was invariably filled with hun- dreds of enthusiastic strikers. The workers of other factories started a campaign for relief for the strikers. The various national clubs, to which the workers belonged, and in which fore- men, bosses and spies were dominant, were as a result of the struggle split up. The workers un- der guidance of the industrial union, began to organize workers’ clubs of their own. There- upon, the bosses and their city administration adopted new methods of oppression against the workers. They organized a “Citizen’s committee” to break the sirike. The Unsanitary Conditions of the Shops and the Shameful Chailenge of the “Citizens Committee” Danbury workers suffer most from the un- sanitary conditions in the factories. The situa- tion in this respect is simply appalling. Fleeing the skins is very dirty and harmful work, The chemicals used in the process of this work, cause the workers much suffering and oftentimes the workers’ pay with their lives. The inhaling of the various gases, especially the one under the formula “Mercur so dangerous that the worker engaged in this work becomes a victim of what is known as “shakes.” The workers re- main hopeless cripples, writhing in agonizing pain, until death relieves them from their un- endurable suffering. The girls employed in drying the hair, cover their mouths with wet linen kerchiefs. But this precaution does not prevent them from becoming victims of the proletarian disease. The air in the factories is so poisonous that the hair on the workers’ heads turns red. The eyes are at- tacked with trochoma. The workers immersed in deep water, wear long rubber boots, also long rubber mitts; for the slightest contact with the “mercury” stuff means burning a hole in the hand. The poison destroys the nails of the furriers’ hands; many are afflicted with wounds that make their hands look like raw flesh. Most of these dangers could have been avoided, if the bosses were forced to install modern pre- ventive measures. The capitalist state has adopted a number of laws which were supposed to safeguard the lives and health of the workers, but these laws are not obeyed. The inspectors, along with the city administration, are mere marrionettes in the hands of the bosses to carry out their will. And while the workers are forced to work under such slave conditions, their lives being in constant danger, a stream of geld is steadily pouring into the coffers of the manu- facturers who are getting richer from day to day. The Industrial Union exposed the horrible con- ditions of the workers and unmasked the para~ sites with their A. F. of L. lackeys. This in- furiated the black cohorts, the so-called “Citi- zens’ Committee” to such an extent that they issued a leaflet with an offer of $1,000 to any worker who would repudiate the charges of the strikers. This money offer was the first attempt to bribe some of the strikers and to defeat the strike. The “Citizens’ Committee” failed in that. The efforts of these gentry had the reverse effect. The strikers closed their ranks still tighter, and intensified their struggle all along the line. The entire working population sup- ported and aligned itself with the strikers. | The bosses and their government conducted an organized campaign to break the strike. They succeeded in intimidating the hall-keepers from | renting a hall to the strikers. The labor depart- ment in Washington sent an agent by the name of “Miss Weinstock.” The state of Connecticut, also sent in agents and they all were doing their utmost to break the strike. They made an at- tempt at calling a meeting at City Hall where they proposed a wage cut of 10 per cent instead of 20 per cent. They broadcast false statements that the strike was settled, that the strikers agreed to accept a reduction and the workers | in other factories have returned to work. | All efforts of the bosscs and their strike- | breaking government were of no avail. The | workers consolidated their ranks. The strike was spreading into other shops wherever the bosses tried to cut wages. The workers were militant and courageous. At night, they waéched the roads to see that no work was being delivered. At 6 o'clock in the morning, they came out in | mass picketing. No arrests or terror of any | kind, stopped the militancy of the workers. The | strikers were determined to win the strike and to build their union in Danbury, The Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union | comes into the forefront in many localities around New York, always fighting to better the | conditions of the workers. The Industrial Union Jed the struggle of the shirt-makers in New Haven, of the needle workérs in Troy, N. Y., and organized Hillman’s slaves in Rochester to revolt against Hillman’s hunger system. The Danbury strike was the most important of these struggles. Thousands of needle trade workers in Danbury and in other suburbs watched the outcome of the strike. | In this struggle the bosses were forced to re- treat from their original demand for a 20 per cent cut, two shops won their cut back, others got 10 per cent back, now the furriers and hat- ters of Danbury are building the union of their own, the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Un- ion. Under the leadership of our union, they are preparing much greater and better organized struggles for better conditions. “BOY, AIN'T IT FUN!” : TTT REO TEI LF* “2Worke : eg Berrie ean Party USA ~— SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $8; two months, $1; excepting Borought of Manhattan and Bronx, New York Ctiy. Foreign; one year, $8: six months, $4.50. By BURCK cape SAL, News Item: Rotary and Exchange Club in California will have an egg throwing game to reduce the egg surplus, while twelve million starve. PARTY LIVE Conducted by the Organization Department of the Central Commitee, Communist Party, U.S.A. IN CHICAGO DISTRICT Under this heading a series of short ar- ticles will be printed, giving experiences in the Chicago District, as well as suggestions and opinions developed in the course of the work, that will be available for all districts. Functioning of District Departments HE importance and fundamental reasons for organizing functioning Departments of all Jeading Party Committees have been dealt with so many times in articles, resolutions and the Party Organizer, that we will not repeat the same here, Suffice to stress one point, namely, that the mass work of the Party among the workers on all fields is so pressing, that to fail to distribute both the leadership and detailed attention and development of work dit is under- stood always under the coordinated leadership of the Buro) means to actually retard and stifle Party work and leadership among the masses, pecause no District. Organizer and Org-Secretary can physically handle ail the work properly and at the same time give it the proper political ion. eee of the District Committee in Chi- cago were, up to a certain time, like the majority of Districts cited recently in the Daily Worker, which meant sither a nominal existing Depart- ment which seldom met or non-existant even in this formal way. We then understood to es- tablish functioning Departments with some suc- cess, but these were only consultative in char- Build Shop Organizations tor _ Coming Struggles . By E. BENDER, (E militant reaction of the steel workers to a 10 per cent wage cut in Sparrows Point and the inability to develop a struggle indicates once more the weakness of the Party and the TUUL within the factories, and the need of organiza- tion from tht inside in order to be able to lead these struggles. ‘The Bethlehem Steel Co. has begun a second series of wage cuts and “efficiency” introducing schemes. Within the Jast year the wages of the workers were cut in every mill and depart- ment. In the Hot Mills, the workers received two wage cuts amounting to 9 per cent. In the Sheet Mills wages were cut 22!4 per cent. In addition, new devices and new machines were introduced that have raised the productivity of the workers and eliminated hundreds of workers from production. Stick pulling machines were introduced which have thrown out 50 per cent of the stick pullers. Labor gangs were cut in half. A turf in the plate bills was fired, throw- ing over 160 workers on the street. Through a@ new chemical process of cleaning, the cold roll workers were fired from their jobs. / Part-time work in the last nine months has reduced the income of the workers from 40 to 50 per cent. For a long time the mills have been working 50 per cent of capacity. At present they are working two-thirds of capacity. The workers are “staggered,” working two or three weeks in ; month and four to five days a week. The semi-skilled and unskilled workers are re- ceiving an average pay (every two weeks) of $15 to $20. Tn a confidential bulletin, the Bethlehem Steel Co. boasts of the Jower rates that it pays to its workers in the Sparrows Point plant which gives it a saving of $12,500 a year for every 100 employees. This amounts annually to a saving of over $1,500,000 taken from the Sparrows Point _ workers. But the company is out to further re- duce the gcost of production.” This is to be to the openers in the Tin Mill on February 1 while the shearmen in that department will have a new device put on the machine which will eliminate 48 feed books and lengthen the hours of the shearmen so that they may pro- duce the same tonnage. This was a signal to the workers in the other departments of the coming wage-cuts, The workers were aroused by the new attack of the bosses and have Shown a militant spirit for struggle. Of a department of 200, over 125 workers came to a mass meeting called by the Metal Workers Industrial League and unanim- ously voted for Strike. But the lack of organ- ization, the weakness of the MWIL committee, made it possible for the bosses to curb the mili- tant determination of the workers to struggle. ‘The employees representative (supposedly “elect- ed” by the workers but actually in the pay of the company) has succeeded in demoralizing the grievance committee by threats and promises with the result that the grievance committee failed to act. The failure to develop a struggle against this wage cut has not broken the spirit of the work- ers, but on the contrary has given impetus to the building of the committees of the MWIL in the mills. The workers have convinced them- selves that the employees representatives are tools of the bosses and that an organization of their own is needed if they are to struggle suc- cessfully against the attacks of the bosses, At the same time the following lessons have been brought before the Party and the TUUL: 1. The wage slashing campaign of the steel bosses brings us face to face with immediate strike struggles, 2. The workers are becoming more militant and will struggle against the attacks on their standard of living. 3. In order that these struggles may be suc- cessful, it is necessary to build strong commit- tees in the mills, acter. By this I mean the head of the Depart- ment, brought in all reports, etc., and executed all decisions of the Department. The other mem- bers were only there to express agreement, dis- agreement or make changes to all reports and proposals of the head of the Department. The reason for this latter situation is gener- ally because those who had been chosen for the Department were overloaded with several other tasks. This brings us to the point that in choos- ing the personel of the Department, we must select comrades who already have some experi- ence plus some newer comrades who will help gain this experience in the course of the work of the Department. All comrades should be those involved in the carrying thru of Party work, both in the lower Party circles as well as in the mass organizations. It also means that at least half of the comrades chosen inust have their work so assigned as to make it possible for them to take certain responsibility for De- partment work, At present, there are the following function- ing Departments — Organizational, Agitprop, Trade Union. Functioning poorly and primarily through the department head but with regular meetings are the Negro, Finance and Language Departments (the last two are essentially sub- departments of the Org. Dept.) and still largely noit-existant, except for an assigned personel and irregular meetings are the Women’s and var Imperialist Depts. As yet there is no jan Dept. organized. The three listed functioning Departments have finally succeeded to an extent to distribute the work amongst their members. For instance, in the Org-Dept a comrade has been assigned to be responsible for Party fractions. in the Trade Unions, together with registration, a second for shop nuclei’s work, a third, together with two other comrades, has charge of fractions in Jan- guage mass organizations; finances (except dues) are handled by a fourth comrade as Finance Secretary of the district. In the Agit-Pprop Dept. different members are responsible for literature, ployees representatives. 5, Consolidate the present department com- mittees and draw in more workers into the union. 6. The ‘building of an Unemployed Council among the unemployed steel workers, EXPERIENCE IN ORG WORK: | : Second Generation of Young Bolsheviks Convenes By I. AMDUR (Moscow) ‘HE Ninth Congress\of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League opened here to- | day. The Bolshoi (large) Theatre is filled to overflowing with delegates and guests. The Hall is brilliantly illuminated by a wonderful casquade of lights hanging from the center of the great | arched dome. While a myriad cunningly con- | cealed lamps throw long thin scintilated streaks from every arch and corner. ‘The tribune makes a gorgeous setting. The flaming-clothed background is breasted with banners beautifully embroidered with revolution- ary greetings from all lands. Long scarlet slogan- covered strips sweep down from all sides of the tribune calling in a thousand tongues greetings to the revolutionary youth throughout the world. | And right around the central tier, dominating | the entire assembly, hangs a gigantic banner: | “THE LINE OF THE KOMSOMOL, IS THE LINE OF THE PARTY.” The delegation are a fine ‘representative lot; the most active of the League organizations. Here are White-Russians and Great-Russians, Caucasians and Armenians and Tartars, youth from Uzbekistan and from northern Siberia; even that farthest of far northern points of the Soviet Union—Kamtchakta—is represented, On one’ side of the threatre floor are a group of sturdy built lads—from the great tractor sta- tions of Kharkov. Near them, singing under the direction of a smiling dark-haired girl swinging @ rolled newspaper as @ baton, are a dozen del- egates from Magnitostroi; while further away one’s attention is attracted by a rhythmic clap- ping to which are dancing a youthful kharki- shop papers, and school with a comrade, not on the departmertt, in charge of workers cor- respondence. Although definite progress has been made, we are by no means satisfied, as we have just scratched the surface of building an entire Dis- trict machinery with everything running smooth- ly and regularly, We face the task of establish- ing all Departments on the same basis as the Org-Agit-prop and Trade Union and at the same time of further distributing responsibility and improving the leadership and functioning of the Departments. It is very important to develop the respon- sibility and leadership of each Department. amongst the Sections and Nuclei. Not as a parallel District Buro, but as the instrument and spokesman of the District Buro on that field of work. This raises the question of avoidance of two extremes in the content of the work of the de- partments. Firstly, the tendency to substitute the District Buro, by adopting policies on im- portant political problems (at best the Depart- ment in dealing with such questions should make recommendations to the Buro) and secondly, the tendency to take up only inner Party problems in an administrative sense, instead of dealing with all problems in the light of rooting the Party and its influence deeper among the work- ing class or preparing the Party in that specific field of work to carry thru effectively its major political and organizational tasks, There is a very bad tendency among. some heads of Departments not to set regular dates for Dept. meetings but to call at will. Nothing is more demoralizing and destructive to a func- tioning Department than to concede to this idea, as the result is inevitably that the Department does not meet and the “head” does or tries to do all the work alone. Therefore regular meet- ing dates twice a month must be established and-iteis up to the head of the Department, plus the Org-Dept, to see that no conflicting meetings are arranged. One grave weakness in all Departments {s the failure to give sufficient attention to out. of town sections. The best that ever happens is a casual letter. The departments must devote much more attention, particularly thru personal visits, to the out of town sections. In this work of establishing Departments, the Org-Dept plays a dual role in that it is one of the Departments to establish and organize it- clad couple—these from the coal area of the Donetz. oe I glance up at the former Royal Box of the czars. No longer does it hold the despotic autocrat of all the Russians. From it come merry laughter as a “flotilla” of paper aeroplanes shoot from it, below. Near me I notice a young Eastern girl. From Kirkhitzia, I decide. She looks around some- what timidly at this huge splendid congregation of singing, joyous youth, and it is perhaps only now, sitting in the Red Capital and surrounded by this happy gay spirit of the Komsomol ac- tivist that she realizes to what heights has the Revolution placed her and her mother and her sisters, who, until but a few short years ago, lived in the most wretched conditions of semi- Slavery. And this young Kirghizian girl who in all probability has never ventured beyond the boundaries of her steppe-bound village, has journeyed over 4,000 miles to attend the Con- gress and to relate to these wonderfully enthu- siastic youth of the work that the young Com- munists are doing in her distant republic. Of how the spirit of the revolution has permeated deeply into the mind and heart of the Kirghizian youth, of the difficult but increasingly success- ful battle that is being waged against old cus- toms and traditions, with tenacious religion and superstition with the crafty kulak; of schools that have been opened where adults are pain- fully groping toward literacy; of clubs and hos- pitals that are leading the way to a tremendous cultural awakening; of factories, a university, even an electric power station that is flooding the mud-built homes with “Lenin’s light;” and, finally, she will describe with conscious pride of the unbelieveable economic change that has come about as a result of the Five-Year Plan. A storm of cheering announces the opening of the Congress. Comrade Kossarev (Secretary of the League) speaks of the great work that the League has done during the past 21% years since the Eighth Congress, During this period the Five-Year Plan has been adopted and taken to heart by the Komsomol. The League has proven itself a worthy helpmate to the Party in carrying out this Program of Socialistic Recon- struction. Socialism, which has seemed but a fantasy two years ago was today sighted. The three-millioned army of young Communists has proven by its struggle with the lefts and rights, within its ranks and without, that it had reached @ high level of political consciousness. During difficult moments the League had even been in the vanguard fighting alongside the Party. Three hundred and fifty thousands Y. C, Leys had been mobilized and thrown into the breaches that had opened at various periods in the struggle for fulfilling the Plan in four years, “The Army of young Communist kolkhoz- niki (collective farm workers) had grown from 30,000 to 600,000. The gigantic development of industry has made it necessary to increase the number of factory training schools. “If in 1929 we had only 163,000 pupils at these schools, then in 1930 this figure has grown to 589,400, And in this, the third year of the Five-Year Plan the number will swell to 1,204,100. In this manner is the sore problem of obtaining new qualified cadres for our socialistic industry being, in part, solved.” ‘The tasks confronting the League are touched upon. Chief among these is the problem of “the ~polytechnical training of the working youth;” all our energy must be directed toward drawing the entire youth into socialist competition, in- dustrial shock brigades, communes, ete, For the village, the organizing of more and yet even more agrarian schools of intensified short-term courses for the peasant youth. The keynote is struck when Kossarey says that the League must mobilize all its forces and energy to cement the laying of a socialistic foundation to the national economy of the third and decisive year of the Five-Year Plan. Suddenly there is a hush, the soft murmuring and whispers die away, It seems, for a brief moment, as though a vacuum has settled over the hall. All eyes are riveted upon a figure that is quietly making its way across the back of the tribune, Of medium height, dressed in an army tunic, there is nothing to distinguish By JORGE Sweet Little Playmates Do you notice the fawney little flowers, beiiig tossed back and forth between Uncle Sam “and John Bull these days? 2 Last Monday, Oliver Baldwin, son of Stanley~ Baldwin, the Tory leader but himself a “Labor- | ite,” arose in parliament and asked Foreign Secretary Henderson if there were any British subjects “among the persons who have. died from starvation in the United Statec.” That was a little reminder to the U. S.A: that it is getting a nice reputation for starving people to death rather than give them one of those awful “doles” which British imperialism manages to pay. ‘Then it is “reported” that the Prince of Wales, who shut himself up below decks while his ship stopped two hours in Havana harbor, the strong- hold of Yankee imperialism, and only came out to wave a sardonic farewell as the ship*left, had, when he got to Jamaica, asked very particularly - whether the U. S. was making a fight for trade” in that British colony. This was countered by a book review printed in. the N. Y. Times Feb. 9, as a news item, rée- ferring to a nice book “England; Her Treatment of America” (take that, you limeys!) wherein it is told, after an introduction by Senator, Moses of New Hampshire, how perfidious Albion.(an alias for England) had, during the war—when of course American imperialism was not doing y= thing like stealing British trade—been trying to cinch Brazilian trade for England. A quotation shows how rich this is: “To the amazement of the Secretary (at Wash- ington), he discovered that while America was doing everything in her power to assist the Al- lies abroad, Great Britain was negotiating a treaty’ by which every exclusive trade advantege that possibly could be obtained was given by. Brazil to Great Britain. The American, officer was so amazed after reading the document that, in a short time the wires were hot between Washington and England. Thus ended the fam- ous de Bunsen treaty.” ~ Of course, the U. S. State Department at once “denied” that it had any information about this naughty trick of England. But then, én Tuesday, Premier Mac Donald also “denied” something. Somebody, of course, we wouldn't say by arrangement, got up and asked if there were “any proposals under consideration by the government for summoning an international round table conference on the subject of “inter- allied debts and reparations.” Mac Donald said “No.” Then someone else. asked if the debts didn’t have a bearing on what. they call “the slump” in England and “the de- pression” here. “They have a very great bearing,”. answered Mac Donald, thus politely saying that. if America doésn’t like the “depression” she can and should cancel the debt, and if she doesn't, the world will know who is responsible! Neat, what? ies And the dispatch adds that while England wants an “all-round cancellation” yet “the lead- ers of all British parties have agreed that’ the initiative in this matter cannot come front London.” O, dear no! This is not the “initia=: tive,” this is just a little “trial ballon!” Now it is Washington’s turn, and whether it will be that a Stimson statement will say, that “no official conversations have been carried on about war debt cancellation” and that “such suggestions are coldly received in official quar- ters here,” or whether General Butler is told to make a speech saying that the Prince of Wales is bow-legged and wears pants creased on the side to conceal the deformity, we cannot say. But if you read the news with an understand- ing eye, you will see that England and America are saying with flowers what they will later be Saying with poison gas. And if you don’t believe that, just read what Henderson. of England was warning of dnshis speech about the horrors of the next war. “Who was he warning?” you may ask. Don’t tmnédétr- stand? He was more than “warning.” He was threatening—the United States! Again we-say, learn to read the papers with an understan eye! Another One On Benito --~ From. an Esperanto paper,’ a comrade sends us the following new scandal on the famous “hit-and-runner”of fascim: fi “One day, Mussolini was swimming and @l- most drowned. A young peasant came to his rescue and saved him, : “Tell me what you desire as a_rewaré,” said Mussolini and it shall be granted you; whether you want a million dollars, or to be a minister of government or a captain of militia!’ «s+!» “* Who are you, that can grant all these things?’ asked the peasant. “‘T am: Mussolini.’ Bae peg “Well if that’s so, then I ask only ore. favor of you, said the peasant, ‘Please don’t: téll.any- one I saved your life!” 2 Per aa “Publicity Stuff” a Ind doing the best they can to disgulse th starvation rations of the Red Cross to tte farm) ers of Arkansas, the N. Y. Herald-Tribune runs a headline saying: “Arkansas Needy Eat 280 tons of Gift Food Daily”—which sounds big, almost as: if one farmer was eating all of that 280 tons a aay. = ‘ This is “publicity stuff” put out by’ the. Ree Cross, and written by some paunchy cuss. who is drawing $100-a week at- least,. from .the Red Cross and living on the fat.at Washington; from whence the story comes, BOE, Paige me leaps to the lips— tache, and quickly the nai STALIN! é ‘ ‘Then such a wave of cheering bursts out tha’: for minutes after I could hear the effect in th: | an a ee a we (NEV put. | comi | prete veut | | Bu Ame! |the 1 | state peon: Guat Amer "th authe slave: undet Mach | Fn must same repa ind p slay singing of the closely clustered clump of glass.or the chandelier. The entire hall is on its feet anc nothing can be heard for the deep roaring whic! continues louder and louder,- gaining in volum until it reaches its apex., Then from all of the building, in many tongues,’ the greetings to this steel-willed and tri of the Party, this Old @olshevik. Stal himself and stands up, He looks w) upon his broad speaks better bolsheviks