The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 14, 1931, Page 1

i Vor Vol. VIII, No. 40 ETT ror ma The Unemployed Councils Are the Fighting Organizations for Immediate Relief and Unem- ployment Insurance for the Unemployed Workers. Or- ganize Them Everywhere Entered as second class matter at the Post Office <@ij>21 at New York, N. (Section of the 1, compiling a ae » under the act of March 3, 179 NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1931 stage. inite and organized. know what they want.” tion, which the local and national seats of capitalist power. of the mass movement. there is yet NO RELIEF! aration for the demonstrations of workers, Second, where a year ago there was little or no connection between the struggling workers of one part of the country and another, today after the proof of February 10th, the organization is knit together throughout the country, and with a common aim and strategy. Third, it can no longer be said that the million-headed masses don’t Today they do not'come before the capitalist authorities asking them what they, the authorities will be good enough to do, but the Unemployed Movement has worked out its own demands, concrete demands, both nationally and locally, and the workers have a clear idea of precisely what they are fighting for. Fourth, the higher stage of the movement is shown by the fact that, as an advance from March 6th last year, the fighting front has entered directly into the seats of government. The struggle against mass starva- authorities hoped to ignore and re- press off-hand, and which the Fish committee hoped to obscure with furious “red-baiting” forced its way into the halls of the national capitol and of the various state seats of government, proving that the spectre of hunger cannot be ignored, but that it raises its warning voice in the Fifth, even the capitalists recognize that the mass movement against unemployment and starvation, for Unemployment Insurance, is beyond the bounds over which they themselves forbid it to pass a year ago. Jails have not dismayed, nor clubs and tear gas halted, the onward rush Hence we see a change in capitalist tactics. The old weapons of clubs and gas bombs are by no means done away with —these are still the main “argument” and will doubtless remain so, but today these weapons of class force are supplemented by demagogy. is one of the foremost tasks of the movement now to counteract this demagogy by showing that words are not accompanied by deeds — that It The movement must now work to eclipse all past actions in prep- February 25th. There should be a more persistent effort to mobilize a greater support. from the employed especially the part-time workers, all of whom are suffering bit- terly from the attempt of the capitalists to unload the whole burden of the crisis on the shoulders of the workers. ‘ No illusion must be allowed to spread from capitalist hokum peddlers, t that “things are getting better”, and thus give a defeatist mood to the i struggle at a moment when every material proof exists that the ghastly misery of the ten million unemployed, the famished part-time workers and their wives and children is getting worse and will continue to worsen. _-The_ demonstrations of February 25th, International Fighting Day Against Unemployment, should receive the reports of the National Dele- gation in their different localities and, in united struggle with workers of other lands who are likewise struggling against capitalist starvation, On with the struggle for Un- Onto the streets for organized Slruggle on Feb. dered under a regime absolutely dictated by Wall Street and Wash- National independence is a farce. ‘The bloody tyrant Machado, who force to crush every vestige of the 1 should carry the movement to a new stage of struggle wherein the cap- 4 italists will understand that the starving millions will not be denied! 1 Build the Unemployed Movement! 8 employment Insurance! 4 25th! e nh Aid the Cuban Masses! 0 1 e Uudan Masses: e Oo V Ee. workers and poor peasantry of Cuba are starving and being mur- 1] n ington. r promised at a banquet in New York when first “elected” years ago, that k ‘No strike would last more than 48 hours,” has not hesitated to use e the most bestial tortures and brute a labor movement—except those fascist “leaders” who, like Green and = Woll of the A. F, of L., are the allies of Machado, the lackey of imperial- e ism, is Today, after years of casual butchery of a long list of workers’ lead- ors; today, with 500,000 jobless workers literally starving; only the re- zently renewed imposition of martial law, under which workers are dragged from their homes, young and old, driven at the end of guns nto the cane fields—martial law under which workers who dare strike against wage cuts and picket the shops are shot down and “disappear’— derialism in power. only martial law throughout Cuba, imposed in violation of even the capi- alist constitution, keeps the bloody butcher, Machado, and American im- ‘The future of Cuba is in the hands of the Cuban workers, led by the 1eroic Communist, Party of Cuba, which almost dally gives the lives and lib- ‘called “nationalist” opposition leaders, capitalists themselves, ‘ardice of the same class interest they have to defend as have confine their action to bombs and to intensify the terror against the ! to unite with the workers of Cuba, Rebruary 14, at 1 o’clock p. m,, in 1e srty of its members to the task of rallying the masses, in mass ‘actions, n the fight for bread and national freedom from imperialism. ut ‘The fe ith the sad \merican imperialists, unable to undermine the army and just as fear- aif ul of mass action as is Machado, a vurnings by individuals—a tactic rejected by the Communist Party, but ue vhich Machado uses as an excuse aD vorkers. 4 Yet, driven by utter starvation, the Cuban workers are daily striking, ie facing bravely the savage tortures of police and the rifles of the * oldiery. 7 4 Against this terror the Communist Party of New York (District 2) Ka alls upon all workers, conscious of the class solidarity that must move { ne workers of Imperialist: America ) demonstrate their protest today, “attery Place, at South Ferry. Down with American imperialist terror in Cuba! Defend the Cuban ‘ masses in their fight for bread and freedom! s _ Speed the Red Shock Lists zed Shock Troop lists are still slow getting here. We took special scaution in sending out self-ad- 1 »ssed and prepaid envelopes so that. » little details of mailing the lists h the contributions would be ‘we, ted. Monday is again approach- ~ and that is the hardest day we . the paper, nediately mobilization of the com- H es in New York City that the ver came out. We are again facing same situation unless the com- es send in their Red Shock Troop immediately. York City, as the opening attack against the bosses, the dress-makers throughout the country, The work- ers, employed and unemployed, are carrying on a combined fight. Hunger, eviction, starvation facing the unemployed workers; wage-cuts, speed up is the lot of those workers who are employed. ‘The Daily Worker mobilized for these struggles. More Daily workers are being printed now than ever before. We are closely approaching actually printing of 40,000. This means new heavy burdens on the press which must be met during this critical period. Get your Red Shock Troop list out of your pocket, circulate it around ip the workers, mail in the money im- mediately to the Daily Worker. KING CALL FOR WAR ON USSR’ Want to. Stamp Out the Workers’ Republic John D.-Rockefeller, Sr. living in luxury at Daytona Beach, Fla., while millions of his wake slaves starve to death, and Senator Tasker L. Oddie | of Nevada, big silver mine magnate, used Lincojn’s birthday as an oc- easion for an attack against the Soviet Union. Rockefeller stamped his feet and foamed at the mouth declaring: “We must denounce that thing, and by that I mean that thing over in Rus- sia.” To this bloodsucker of the workingclass, the very name Com- munism is poison because it means parasites like him will not be able to live on the blood and sweat of millions of toilers. Senator Oddie’s speech was along the same line, but was put over more cleverly. All the old familiar phrases against the Soviet Union, except the one about nationalixing women, was | packed into Oddie’s speech. He} blamed the Soviet Union for every- thing but earthquakes. The Silver) Trust senator ended his talk by de- manding war to stamp out world Communism. Not only did Oddie blame the Soviet Union for the world crisis of capitalism, but he blamed. the Soviets for the disorganization of the gold and silver standard, and especially charged them with causing the drop in the price of silver. “The soil of unemployment, pov- erty and distress is fertile for the planting and growth of Soviet propa- ganda,” declared Oddie. But he stop- ped there without letting the workers know that “unemployment, poverty and distress for the workers under capitalism is the by-product of pro- fits for the bosses. Oddie demanded an embargo on.all Soviet products, and if this did not destroy the workers’ republic then he urges a bloody conflict by the im- perialist powers to do the job. SUBPENA WALKER FOR COURT TRIAL Jobless Delegation to) Appear On Monday Mayor Walker was yesterday (Friday) served with a subpoena re- quiring him to appear as a witness) at the trial of Sam Nesin, Milton! Stone and Robert Lealess, leaders of the unemployed demonstration on October 16th. The trial will be held Monday morning, February 16th, in Special Sessions Court, Part 6, The New York District of the Internation- al Labor Defense is handling the case. When Lealess called at the Mayor's office with the subpoena, he was again refused admission as had hap- pened at his previous call Wednesday. Police Captain O’Connor at the door took the subpoena, brought it into the mayors office and told Lealess the subpoena had been served. He refused to give a receipt for it. Though the subpoena has now been legally served, the failure to serve it in person on the mayor may be used as a pretext to permit Walker to dodge out of appearing at the trial and facing the barrage of embarras- sing questions which the three de- fendents are preparing for him. Nesin, Stone and Lealess were the leaders of an unemployed delegation which on October 16th, at a meeting of the Board of Estimate, demanded immediate appropriations for the re- lief of the hundreds of thousands of starving‘New York workers. When Nesin denounced as Tammany graft- ers the judges who had sent to jail Fosted, Miner, Amter and Raymond, leaders of last years tremendous March 6th unemployment demonstra- tion, Walker ordered the three work- ers thrown out, savagely beaten and arrested. ‘They are now facing charges of unlawful assembly, outraging public decency and endangering public peace, involving long prison terms. The three workers have been denied jury trial and are being tried before the same crew of corrupt Tammany judg- es who railroaded Foster, Minor, Amter and Raymond. Instead of being defended by attorneys, the three workers. will conduct their own cases | before to go to a dance. and will expose this trial as an ef- fort to gag the demands of the 1,000- 000 unemployed workers of Greater New Xorks JOHN D., SILVER Neale Tras Fadisstrial Union Wins Strikes In Two Dress Shops Another Shop Goes Onl General Strike In Dress Trade Soon NEW YORK.—Startling proof of | the fear that bosses have for work- ers who are united and organized was afforded yesterday when dress- makers in two shops won the de- mands for which they had gone on strike less than 24 hours before. In the Cohen and Rosen shop, 159 West 25th Street, dressmakers stag- ed a spontaneous walkout at 11 a. m. Thursday, when they heard that the N.T.W.L.U. would soon issue a call for a general dressmakers strike. By 4p. m. the same day the dressmakers had won the following demands: re- cognition of the Neede Tradse Work- ers Industrial Union, reduction in hours from 50 to 40 a week, and an increase in wages for operators, pres sers, finishers and examiners. In the G. and K. shop, 158 West 29th Street, the dressmakers walked out at 1 p. m. under the leadership of the N.T.W.LU. when a fellow dressmaker was discharged because she had left a little earlier the day Tnasmuch as the girl was employed on a piece work basis, and the boss paid her only for work that she turned out, and since, moreover, the girl had (CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO) THREAT OF COPS AGAINST TENANT Landlord Evicting Jobless Negro NEW YORK.—The function of the police and courts as agents of the landlord-bosses is further brought out by a letter sent by the Albert Paul Construction Corp. to Mr, Fair, an unemployed Negro worker of 159 W. 133rd St., threatening the use of the police against him is he resisted eviction or tried to organize the rest of the tenants in the house against the bosses’ policy of not only throw- ing workers out of work to starve, but throwing them on the streets to freeze as well. ‘The. letter, after demanding im- mediate payment of the rent, de- clares that “a copy of this letter will be sent to the police department,” and covertly threatens police burtal- ity against this unemployed worker unless he comes across with the rent. ‘The landlord is especially incensed that this worker has tried to or- ganize the other tenants in the house to fight’ the rent robbery of Negro workers and resist the evictions of the unemployed. The anger of the landlord shows that the worker-ten- ants are on the right track. Tenants! Organize House Committees! Or- ganize Tenants’ Leagues! Resist rent robbery! Resist evictions! Join the struggle for unemployment in- is one of hundreds of thousands of throughout the country and facing eaten a meal for some tite.’ Joe Colie, of 314 Delancey Street, children, have been ordered evicted for non-; _ Jobless Family Victims of Bosses’ System New York, and his wife and 3 ayment of rent. This jiobless families living in starvation evietions for non-payment of rents even while the boss press admits, as in this case, that the family hasn't Moore at Harlem! Workers Forum Sun. NEW YORK.—Richard B, Moore, Natioual Negro Organizer of the In- ternational Labor Defense, will speak at the Harlem Workers Forum, 308 Lenox Avenue, this Sunday afternoon at 3 oclock. Comrade Mryfe’s subject will be “The Persecution of the Foreign Born.” All workers are urged to at- tend. OLGIN TO SPEAK AT FORUM, SUN. “Why Proletarian’ Literature?” will be the topic of a lecture given by M. J. Olgin at this Sunday Forum eb. 15th, 8 p. m. at the Workers’ School Auditorium, 35 E. 12th St. | second floor. Since it is important to have an proper estimation of the role of proletarian literature in the revolutionary movement, workers should not miss this chance to get a correct orientation. As usual, the forum will be marked with lifely questions and discussion. Comrade Olgin will also continue his lectures on the Bolshevie Revolu- tion this Eaturday, eb. 14th, 3 p. m. at the School Auditorium. This will be the third of a series of six lec- tures on this vital subject. Since the lectures are so arranged that each one is complete by itself, work- surance! Fight against the bosses’ hunger system! ers will be benefited by any lecture they attend. However, it-would be ‘BEST SPEAKERS AT KATOVIS MEET Tomorrow Honor Brave Victim of Police —The speakers at the mass demonst ion toms ww, com- | memorating Steve Katovis, who died at the hands of the police while at a strike demonstration at Millers | Market in the Bronx a year ago will NEW YORK. ring the memorial meeting. Jack Stachel, assistant general sec- retary of the T Union Unity League will speak, and the T.U.U.L. particularly urges all workers to come to the meeting and honor their fellow worker who died for them. Other speakers will be Fred Biedenkapp, Obermeier of the Food Workers In- dustrial Union, and J. Louis Engdahl | of the International Labor Defense. ‘The meeting is at Ambassador Hall, 2861 Third Avenue, Bronx, at 1 p. m. tomorrow. The mass meeting is being held under the auspices of the Trade Union Unity Council, the Building Maintenance Workers Union of which Katovis was a member, the Food Workers Industrial Union, the Inter- national Labor Defense and the United Councils of Working Class Women. wore advisable to attend consecu- tively the remaining four lectures since they will treat of the most im- portant parts of the Revolution of 1917. Tom Mooney, In Prison Now for 15 Years, Sends Militant Greetings to ILD. NEW YORK—Tom Mooney who is now spending his fifteenth year in prison on the most spectacular frame-up charge in American labor history, sends his greetings to the International Labor Defense through George Maurer, Pacific it or- ganizer, who has just visited Mooney in San Quentin, Mooney sent his greetings to all the members of the LL.D. and its affiliated organizations throughout the world and stressed in militant terms the necessity of arousing the entire working class for the freeing of all class war prisoners and the “bringing of gigantic pressure” to bear upon the ruling class as the only method of achieving that aim. Just prior to his message of greet- ings to the LL.D, the organization that is conducting a militant cam- paign for his unconditional release, Mooney issued a pamphlet exposing the corrupt “leadership” of the A. F. of L. who helped frame him and keep him in prison for the past fifteen years. In the words of the pamphlet: “The bureaucracy of the A. F. of L. and a wi conservative New Campaign For Unconditional Release ican bankers and industrialists. Without the Greens and Wolls the security of the employers would be considerably diminished, for the function of the A. F. of L. leader- ship is to fool the workers and make them amenable to the em- ployers.” Then the pamphlet points out that. it was the Soviet workers who saved Mooney and Billings from the hang- man while the corrupt leadership of the official American labor movement was either silent or tried its best to help send them to the gallows: “The Mooney-Billings case has always been and must always be, a vital part of the general struggle between the workers and the em- ployers. Mooney was saved from the hangman’s noose only through the mass protests and pressure of Russia and the rest of the world. ‘The workers and all sympathizers of labor must again be roused.” Mooney also stresses the fact that of the Amere- | not ope he and Billings haye been eB daa siistisnenevear betrayed and sabotaged by the A. F. of L. leadership but the entire militant section of the American working class. Mooney says: “They (the A. F. of L. leader- ship) have not only betrayed us, sabotaged our defense, and vilified our characters; they have been equally villainous toward other militant workers. Did the A. F. of L. make any effort to prevent Sacco-Vanzetti, the noble labor martyrs, from being burned in the chair? Have they raised a hand to help the long suffering Centralia boys? Or the victims of the 1922 Railroad Shopmen's Strike, John Cornelison and Calude Merritt? Or the eight Imperial Vailey or- ganizers convicted solely because they tried to unionize agriculture workers? All these men are serv- ing like ourselves in California penitentiaries, but not a word, not a gesture do the labow leaders make to help them, or us.” A vigorous amnesty campaign for the release of all class war prisoners is now being conaucted by all mlii- tant organizations through the In- iat fo ternational Labor Defense and a drive for @ million signatures is on through- | be the best in the organizations spon- | CITY EDITION Only 3 Congressméni| Out of 800 Even Acknowledge Bill And They Are Evasive Stick to Form and Let the Hungry Die As the masses of unemployed and employed workers prepare for huge demonstrations on Feb. 25, “Interna~ tional Fighting Day,” letters from the speaker of the house of representa- tives and from two congressmen give further proof that the U. S, govern- ment is the enemy of the workers and jobless, that it is carrying out the orders of the capitalist class of the United States to starve these 12,000,000 jobless into compliance with the employers’ plans for war and wage-cutting. After two months of demonstra- tions, mass meetings, united front conferences and collection of signa- tures, in which. nearly a million and a half of jobless and workers par- | ticipated, the delegation of 140 from all over the country appeared in | Washington, Feb. 9, and held public meetings. Sent to 800 Congressmen, On. Feb, 7, they gent a letter de- manding the’ floor of congress to pre- sent the Workers’ Unemployment In- surance Bill, which provides that the war funds shall be taken over and used to pay each jobless workers $15 a week and $3 more for each de- pendent. This letter was sent to about 800 senators and representa- | tives in congress. Only two of thes even answered the letter, and both did so in a for- malistic, off-hand and evasive man- ner. What do they care how many (CONTINUED ON SPEED PLANS FOR INT. WOMEN’S DAY Mass Meetings Over City March 8 NEW YORK.—A series of 12 meet- ings in every section of New York City, as well as New Jersey, are be- ing arranged for March 8, The ques- ion of unemployment, high rent, and the high cost of living, struggle against wage-cuts, are the outstand- ing issues of this campaign. Working women in shops and werking women’s organizations are being mobilized so as to make Inter- national Women’s Day a real mass demonstration of working women. In the various sections of the city work- ing women are taking the initiative of developing the campaign for free lunches for the school children, The committee in charge of the various sections is organizing the women to take an active part in the Feb. 25 unemployment demonstration, Work- ing women of the shops and factor- ies are called upon to rally to this campaign, The dressmakers, who in a few days will come out on strike to fight for better conditions, will take an active part in this campaign. In 1910, when working women in the United States first began to celebrate In- ternational Women’s Day, the dress- makers took an active part. March 8. 1931, will see thousands of dress- makers joining hands with the work- ing women of other industries and the working-class housewives in mili- tant demonstration, which will unite the ranks of the working women, Ne- gro and white, side by side with the working men in the fight for unem- ployment insurance, against the war plans of the bosses and for the de- fense of the Soviet Union. The International Women’s Day issue of the Working Wo. will re- flect these struggles, Working women are called upon to send special work- ers’ correspondence and articles so as to make this issue a real expression of the militancy of the working PAGE, FIVE) WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! Price 3 Cents JOBLESS TO ANSWER CONGRESS’ STARVATION PLAN The Fight Goes On! ‘THE whole working class, jobless and employed alike, have every reason to estimate the results of the unemployed action of February 10th as a step forward, as a lifting of the movement to a new and higher In what does this adyanceé consist? First, from the more or less vague and unorganized movement of a year ago, the movement for Unemployment Insurance has become def- LONGWORTH PROPOSES T0 ONLY “REFER” DEMANDS FOR SOCIAL INSURANCE HUNGER MARCH TO ALBANY, FEB. 19 Tag Days Today and Tomorrow for Fund Conference Monday NE WYORK.—Organized in groups of 25, marching fro mone small fac- tory town to another, all the way to the state capitol at Albany, the New York hunger demonstrators will start out Feb. 19. They will be joined in all the industrial cities they pass through by other marchers, and will converge on the capitol building to tell Governor Roosevelt and the state legislature that something must be done for the starving jobless of this state. There are a million out of work in New York City alone, and the pro- portion is greater in, smaller up-state towns. ‘The state labor commissioner, in her last report, admitted that there was a further fall in employment last month—things are getting worse. Activity. ‘The Unemployed Councils of New York have some heavy activity ahead. Feb, 14 and 15 there are tag days to raise funds for the March on Al- bany. Sunday, at 11 a. m., there is a meeting in Irving Plaza Hall of all those taking part in the state hun- ger.march. They will there organize into groups of 25, On Monday, there is a conference in Irving Plaza Hall at 7:45 p. m., where all the delegates from the New York jobless to Washington will be present and report. This meeting is the third session of the New York Campaign Committee for Unemploy- ment Insurance, and all workers’ or- ganizations have a right to send dele- gates, Send Off Wednesday. On Feb, 18 there will be a send-off for the state marchers, at 8 p. m., at New Star Casino. All the hunger marchers will be there. There will be speaking and the Workers’ Inter- national Relief Band will play. ‘There wil be street meetings lead- ing up to the great Feb. 25 demon- stration, WORKERS STRIKE IN UPHOLSTERY Demand Definite Pay Day from Boss The workers in the Commercial Upholstery Shop, 240 Newport Ave., Brooklyn, have been working for a number of weeks without getting paid and on Feb. 7 they decided to demand their wages from the boss. ‘The boss was clever enough to hake the workers believe that by Wednes- day, Feb, 11, he would pay them all off, that is, whatever he owed them as back wages. ‘When Wednesday came the boss again tried the same trick and at- tempted to delay the pay day for another week, which most likely meant a few more weeks. The work- ers did not like this evasiveness on the part of the boss and decided to make a final demand for their wages. So militantly did the workers back up their demand for pay that a physical fight almost took place and resulted: in the firing of one man who was one of the most militant, ‘The workers interpreted this action of the boss as the start of a cam- paign of firing of any onthers who dared to fight for what was theirs. Finally, the workers decided to strike in sympathy with the fired worker in order to force the boss to take him back, The strike began Friday, Feb. 13, and the workers held a meeting im- mediately and selected a strike com- mittee of three and decided to hold a strike meeting at the T, U, U. L. headquarters the same afternoon, where the final vote will be taken women. Fight lynching. Fight deporta- tion of foreign born, Elect dele- gates to your city conference for thi da 7 ell Protection 9¢ ferelen ‘ nnn Ein vvwew on the demands which are as fol- lows: 1—The worker who was fired for hsi militant action to be imme- diately taken back. 2—Definite cf» be set for pay day. 3—No discr ination and no discharge of for being on piilee pI Raye ksi a.