The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 27, 1931, Page 1

ee ae Se Ee a Se 7 eee Pt 3 Bi es nee The Unemployed Councils Are the F e» Cyrenizations for Immediaie Relief and Unem- ployment insurance for the | ight: Unemployed Workers. Or- ¢ ganize Them Everywhere Vol. VIII, No. 51 at New York, N. Entered as secend class matter at the Post Office joi \., onder the act of March 3, 1979 y, Wo (hibition of the Communist International) orker Porty U.S.A. NEW YORK, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1931 CITY EDITION WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! —=— Price 3 Cents 00,000 DEMONSTRATE FOR JOBLESS RELIEF IN 41 CITES Many New J Jobless ; Councils Formed; Organize Broader F ight! From February 25th to Greater Successes! Rees from all countries show that everywhere on February 25th, International Day of Struggle Against Unemployment, great masses of workers entered into militant struggle against the starvation offensive of the capitalists. Considered from an international viewpoint it appears that the number of participants exceeded the number on March 6th a year ago. Demonstrations took place in a greater number of countries, and in many cases the struggles between the demonstrators and the police took on the sharpest form. In Sofia barricades were set up by the work- ers; in Leipzig, after a sharp battle between the police and workers in which five of the workers were murdered and many wounded, protest demonstrations lasted late into the night; in Berlin, Hamburg, Warsaw, Vienna, London and many other cities, powerful mass demonstrations took place. ‘The effect of these demonstrations in the present period of deepen- ing economic crisis and the beginning of the political crisis in some coun- tries will be to greatly sharpen the class struggle and to make it. still more difficult for the capitalists to escape from the present crisis at the workers’ expense. These demonstrations will stimulate more widespread strike struggles and still greater mass demonstrations throughout Europe which, most likely, will bring the workers, under Communist, leadership, to the revolutionary struggle for power in the not too distant future in such countries as Germany and Poland, to the struggle fpr the overthrow of capitalism and for the establishment of a workers’ government such as now exists in the U. S.S. R. The world-wide demonstrations against un- employment on February 25th show clearly a weakening of the influence of the social-democrats and a great growth in the influence of the Com- munist Parties and the revolutionary Trade Unions. . 2 ®. In the United States also, despite many weaknesses, the demon- strations of Feb. 25th show definite progress in the struggle of the un- employed for immediate relief from starvation and for unemployment insurance. Demonstrations took place in approximatély 100 cities. The first forty-one c-ties to report, making full allowance for exaggeration, indicate that the number of participants in those cities reached not less | URGES SUPPORT OF Dressmakers in Mass Picketing Today; Five More Shops Strike ADERS SELLING-OUT DOCK G2KERS IN NEW ORLEANS, LA. than 300,000 unemployed and unemployed workers. The total number for all cities will probably reach 400,000 or more. This is as large or larger than any demonstration since March 6th last year. And the number of cities in which demonstrations were held and in many cities the demon- strations themselves, were greater than on March 6th though for the country as a whole the number. of participants were less. It is necessary to point out, though, that, as compared with March 6th, the demonstrations Wedtiesday were better organized and less spon- taneous. Also it is necessary to note that whereas March 6th took place before the stream of bourgeois lies and demagogy had been turned loose, before the threats of deportation, before the Fish Committee report, and bfore the terror campaigns of the police had become really widespread, the demonstrations of Wednesday took place after these developments and were ay answer to these attacks and lies. "The workers who responded in the February 25th demonstratio.s were those who had broken away from the influence of the “socialists” and the A. F, of L. misleaders and who more consciously accepted the revo- lutionary, fighting leadership of the Communist Party, the Trade Union Unity League and the Unemployed Councils. These demonstrations were a great step forward in the fight for immediate relief and for unemploy- ment insurance, The militancy of the demonstrations in Boston, Minneapolis, Pitts- burgh and many other cities showed very clearly the growing determina- tion of the unemployed long suffering from hunger and starvation. They showed that police orders and fake promises will not stop them from putting forward their demands. It s the duty of all workers to demand the immediate release of the dozens, possibly hundreds, of militant work- ors jailed for fighting for bread. The weaknesses in the demonstrations were chiefly organizational, but also in our inability to popularize sufficiently our slogans and de- mands in such a way that the great mass of unemployed workers take them up as their own and assume the initiative in fighting for them. Our roots are not yet sufficiently established among the millions of un- employed workers, principally because there is still a certain fear of the masses shown in much of our work, ‘The struggle against unemployment still remains our chief task. There can be no Jet up, no vacations, in our work. The building of the unem- ployed councils on the basis of developing their own activities and initia- tive remains the chief task of the Party and the revolutionary unions. May 1st, when the workers again go into the streets on a nation-wide scale, must find much stronger organization, more effective propaganda and agitational work, especially by the Daily Worker, and greater masses of workers carrying forward the struggle on a still higher scale. This can be accomplished by now concentrating on more thorough work, especially organizational work, while continuing the local and state struggles for the demands of the unemployed. February 25th was a success, despite the many weaknesses in the preparatory work and in the demonstrations. These successes must now be the means of everywhere stimulating and strengthening the work. Forward with the work among the unemployed! Build the unemployed councils! Strengthen the fight for immediate relief! Demand Unem- ployment Insurance! Against Exaggeration H bagec has long been evident a tendeacy among a number of comrades in all parts of the country to send in exaggerated reports to the Daily Worker. The reasons for this are various. In some cases it is a remnant of the old factional struggle in the Party when exaggeration was the rule. In other cases these exaggerated reports are due to an inability on the part of comrades to correctly estimate the size of large crowds such as those of Wednesday. In all cases, though, regardless of the cause, this tendency to exaggerate must be decisively stamped out. 4 Comrades in Houston, Texas, furnish an example. One telegram stated that six thousand workers participated in Wednesday's demonstra- tion for unemployment insurance, A second telegram gave the number as three thousand. These telegrams came from two different comrades, indicating a wide variation in the estimates. We accepted the lower figure as probably more correct. In Houston this discrepancy is ex- plainable by the inexperience of the comrades. But in the older districts having an experienced leadership such excuses are not applicable. In New York City, for example, dozens of demonstrations have been held in Union Square. Comrades have learned to correctly estimate the size of demonstrations there. So that yester- day’s estimate of 40,000 published in the Daily Worker (for which we also assume responsibility), instead of the more correct estimate of approxi- mately 30,000, is an example of more conscious exaggeration. Undoubtedly other districts are also guilty. . The Daily Worker is against the continuation of such practices. We have no desire to deceive our readers. And above all we have no desire to deceive ourselves, Future policies are determined by these reports. ‘Therefore comrades sending reports of demonstrations, strikes, marches, meetings, ete., to the Daily Worker should scrupulously strive for as near an exact’ estimate as is possible. It is best in all cases for several com- rades to check the estimate before reports are | sent, The aim 1 must be to rigidly stop all exaggerated reports, =~ ve) DEMAS AD CASHRELIEE we DHON TNS TREE 2 IN District Sets. Red Sun- day March 1 NEW YORK.—International Wo- men’s Day will be celebrated on Sun- day, March 8, by a series of mass meetings ‘throughout the district. In preparation for these meetings con- siderable activity is being carried on by the sections. It is necessary that | every Party member, women and men, recognize the significance of mobilizing the working women for WOM into the unions, unemployed councils and the Party. The sections are arranging for ac- tivity during the week of March 1 to 8 On March 1 Red Sundays for the distribution of leaflets, sale of and subscription for the Working Woman will be carried out. Every Party member, both men and women, are urged to participate in this Red Sunday in order to make International Women’s Day a real effective demonstration. District Committee, District, 2, Communist Party of U. S. A. MEN'S DAY, | the struggle and of organizing them | LISLE W NEW ORLEANS, La. | cents to 65 cents an hour for'the longshoremen working on the |four companies operating under the U ‘S. Shipping Board out} of this port, have precipitated a strike here ae may effect | between seven and eight thousand longshoreme The strike is under the mis-< \leadership of the International |Longshoremen’s A s sociation. pressure of the workers made the fakers call the strike. But they | tried to kill it from the start. They keep the workers picketing two blocks |away from the docks. They do not want to violate the Federal Injunc- tion gotten out by the New Orleans Steamship Association. At various meetings called by the Marine Workers Industrial Union the strikers were told to go out in mass picketing, right on the docks where | scabs are being shipped in, and to violate the Federal Injunction if they Socialists Give NEW YORK—Sir Henri Deter- ding, the British oil king, in his at- tacks on the Soviet Union, calling for war against the Workers’ Repub- lic, has been given some lessons on how to do the job by the New Leader in a series of articles it is printing against the Five-Year Plan, The most interesting thing about these articles is not that they are built up on a tissue of lies which Ham Fish, Jr., Briand and Poincare would have more sense than to ped- dle to intelligent peopie, but because of the open basis justifying war and counter-revolution against the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. Under the heading, “Can Bolshe- vism Bring About Socialism,” one, Bela Low, writing in the Feb. 14 and ist issue of the New Leader (the same issue praises the _ Morgan banker Owen D. Young) lays the basis for the socialist party’s ap- proval of war against the Soviet Union. Low says: “Bolshevism has thus to a large extent destroyed the accomplish- ments of the revolution, It is taking the land from the peasants, it has abolished every vestige of liberty, it is relentlessly exploiting the masses of workers and peasants, it has cre- ated a gigantic state apparatus which rests despoticaly on the population.” Naturally, a self-respecting social- ist feels he is doing humanity justice by aiding the imperialists like Hoover, Briand, Poincare, MacDon- ald, Pilsudski and Deterding wipe out this system, No lie is too con- Deterding Pointers for War on Soviets temptible for the socialists to broad- cast so long as it aids in the attack on the Soviet Union, against which every agent of world imperialism is now directing his energy. "wanted to win the strike. T When the bosses cut wages, | The In-| ternational Longshoremen’s Associ tion is trying to sell-out the strik on a compromise and has offered to} put up a cash bond of the workers’ money if a “fair and impartial” con-| of the fact that the ma jority of Ciliator can be gotten to settle the) 49.999 workers in the industry, struggle. No request is made for the shipowners to put up a similar cash| bond of their good faith. Commis sioner of Conciliation Fredrick Cran. | of the strike, 2 " | Needle Second United Front! Conference To Be Held Tomorrow NEW YORK.—The tenth day of F Seb, 25.—Wag —Wage reductions from 80} | the dressmakers’ strike here was sig- Po ase reas |nalized by the walking out of five | more shops, two of them in Brooklyn. continued activity of the strikers is the ; notable feature characteristic of | the enthusiasm with which the dres makers greeted the strike call of the Trades Workers’ Industrial Union, a ated with the T. U. U%,L. The dressmakers have been handi- capped from the beginning bet This |Jed by the company union and thi ene dby its gangsters, remained “in their shops. The enthusiasm of those who went field has left Washington to assist | on strike doesn’t make up for those the LL.A. fakers and the |: the sell out of the longshoremen. Several battles have taken place between strikers and scabs. In one instance a Negro man and woman were shot. The river front is like an armed camp. That militancy and mass picketing is necessary to win | Comparing the strike is shown by the admission | of the New Orleans Steamship Asso- ciation, which in a statement, said: “We have more than enough to load the ships but they fear the strikers.” The companies mainly effected are: The Mississippi Shipping Co., Dixie Steamship Co., Tampa Interocean | Steamship Co., and Lykes Brothers- Ripley Steamshin > es in| who didn’t, but on the other hand | the solidarity of those on strike is amazing veterans of the industry as well as constantly adding to the number of those who have left their shops. Proof of this can be obtained by the figures of those who are interested in keeping them as low as possible. On the second day of the strike the I. L. G. W. (company union) admitted that 2,000 had struck. Yesterday the U. S: Department of Labor granted that 5,000 were out. *|In both cases, of course, the figures are too low, activi but. they show fhat the y of the strikers is on the up- CONTINUED ON PA iE TWO) NEW YORK- vict labor,” of which the U, S. im- perialists lyingly accuse the Sovict camps, is rampant throughout the United States and its colonies, The Federated Press reports that in Louisiana complaint has been filed against J. M. MsLemore, a rich white planter of Coushetta, La, charging him with holding in peonage five Negro laborers and share croppers for payment of alleged indebtedness. Quite recently the New York Times was forced to admit the existence on a wide scale of this form of slavery throughout the South and South- west. Millions of Negroes and many white share croppers and tenant farmers are enslaved under this sys- tem. In the face of these facts Senator Steiwer, demanding an embargo on Soviet products, indulged in a colos- sal piece of hypocrisy in the U. 8. —‘Forced and con-| ° Union of practising in its lumber | Frank Espousal of Convict Labor In Philippines work when and where le wishes and can choose his place of employment | freely. This is the essence of free- dem as contrasted with slavery.” The millions of unemployed work- ers deprived of the right of working and sentenced by the bosses to star- vation must be wondering about that spiel that they can “work when and where” they choose. The thousands of jobless, Negro and white, being ar- rested throughout the country on the charge of vagrancy, because they can find no jobs where none exist, must wonder about this boasted “freedom.” The millions of Negroes Southern plantations against their will would like to get a taste of this “freedom” to “work when and where” Congress with the declaration that} tlicy please. in the United States “a workman can | In previous. articles, the Daily r held on} Millions Enslaved Under Forced . Labor in the U.S. and Its Colonies | Worker has exposed the enslavemen enslavement role of American imperialism in the colonies and semi-colonies, In the Philippines, the Philippine Herald openly defends for convict labor, declaring: “, ,. the country favors farm de- velopment by convict labor, And Col. Santos (director of prisons) is enthusiastic over such a plan. It matters not what critics have to say about it, What matters it that con- vict labor can be used to help de- velop our virgin lands. . And the Philippine legislature, act- ing as the instrument of the Ameri- can imperialists and the native bour- | geoisie, has appropriated half a mil- lion pesos for the establishment of penal farms on which the prisoners wil be subjected to the’ most brutal exploitation, In Cuba, under the terror of Ma- chado, puppet of Wall Street, the! natives are being forced to labor in | and | clubbing and | worker, | shot in the head ‘| strated in Vienna Hunger and Fish Prominent In New York Demonstration POLICE, LEGION THUGS IN BRUTAL ATTACKS ON UNEMPLOYED WORKERS 3 Killed In Leipzig; Barricades Up In Sofia (Cable By Inprecorr) LEIPZIG, Feb. 26.—Yesterday eve~ ning there were two mass meetings | in Leipzig. The processions formed | despite the prohibition by the so-| cialist Police Chief, Fleissner. | | | The police rushed upon the workefs | tional Unemployr strations attacked the demonstration, | slugging as they came. The workers repulsed the police at- tack and turned over a coal cart, and bombarded the police with coal Without warning the officer or- dered the police to fire. Three work- | ers were killed outright and ten seri- ously wounded. Many others were} lightly wounded. The fourth worker died on the to the hospital. Aj later report ¢ Bitter protest demonstrations last- ed into the night. Fascists fired at workers from local, wounding one, whereupon the local w demolished and the fascists beaten} Pp. Ss ee taae | | BERLIN. — Demonstrations were characterized by shooting and el bing in the industrial areas through- out Germany. more shooting but no deaths, ee SOUTH. 70 |Lay | nui imm ment insur: the death of a fifth | 300,000 work A twelve-year-old boy was | ployed, | tions. stcrmed and| to the 300,000. Feb. 3 ‘over the “Feb. 10 demons’ on World Unemployment Day, 25, equalled, and in som More than 139 arrests surpassed tt tcok place in Berlin where there was | onstrat JILERS SHOW MILITANCY Stress. On Organi< zation at All Meets Intern Day de In the United ¢ ent that on= showe ber of worker an inc c asing oining the m for diate re ng feature of the stru never before hol From repor Daily Worker from cities, more than employed and unem- demonstra were held ‘in the time full between be added took Demor ver 100 cities, a eports are i 000 and 1 There wa 25 in the a In many cities the demon: historic Mi In Texa: ent an rangers § hou: Hamburg, Madgeburg, Dresden, Co-| sm sh up a demons ion, Every< logne, Braunschweig, Munich, etc.,! where org tion steps were taken, great demonstrations took place. IN Unemployed Councils were form eee |ed and many workers enrolled. Therd In Sofia, during the demonstra- | Were marcl neighborhood dem~= tions barricades were erected. shooting took place. unknown. Gr Casualties wer oe WARSAW.—Police fired into the| procession of workers, killing one, and | 4% wounding many. SO Ee VIENNA.—Ten thousand demon- The cemonstra- tions resulted in collisions in the} Austrian province towns, Klagen- | furth, Baden and Leoben. | 5 canes SOE Czech demonstrations resulted in mass arrests and collisions in the in- | dustrial areas. Demonstration strikes | in Brux district occurred. Twelve | thousand demonstrated in Prague. Five thousand in Ostrau. Fourteen thousand in Goteburg. Several col- lisions occurred. Workers all cities before PAGE (CONTINUED ON THREE) ‘HUNGER MARCH PASSES YONKERS Civ e Them Grand, Ovati ion YONKE N.Y. fhe 200 Hunger hae Nie | their way to Albany e H _ | a here at 1 p. m. nd imme= Forty thousand demonstrated in} were followed an ehthus Copenhagen, Denmark. Collisions | with police resulted. Sie ie | Demonstrations and collisions oc- curred in many Belgian towns, cluding Answerp. aa ee PARIS, Feb. 26.—In order to pre- | vent demonstrations from occurring in Paris dozens of revolutionary | workers were arrested. Demonstra- tions were reported in the suburbs. Numerous leaflet distributors were arrested. a ae BUDAPEST, Hungary.—Fifty-four workers were arrested here today charged with resisting police and demonstrating in observance of In- ternational Unemployment Day, de- spite of prohibition of the govern- ment, Special Edition On Ruthenberg The life of Charles E. Ruth- enberg, secretary of the Com- munist Party, who died in 1927, will be contained in a special supplement edition of the Daily Worker Saturday, Feb. 28. Articles will include his role in building the American Communist Party and his struggles against imperialist wars. Orders for extra bundles for Ruthenberg mass meetings received until 6 p. m, tonight. the cane fields under armed guards and for 35 cents a dayy | granted the pe: | thus disperse a good der (60,000 circulation flashes on page 3). tic crowd. The Marchers wended its way Larkan Pl: and to reinforced the ~~~ | demonstration of the Workers Ex- in- | servicemans’ League which had been nission to meet there, rmit, police sought “free-for-all and thu a “free fo In spite of this gathered into a | gathered into Their efforts failed and the demon- stration ended suc@essfully as the | Hunger Marchers continued on to the | Co-operative Club, |ers fed them and the members of an where the works American Federation of Labor Bakers Local contributed hundreds of loaves of bread sufficient for a good ways of the march. The onlookers joined in the cheers Jand songs of the marchers as they left Yonkers for Tarrytown where they were scheduled to arrive at 5 p. m. yesterday. Solidarity Open Air Meetings In Harlem Today and Saturday NEW YORK.—In Lacks ny alg for the mass trial Sunday at 2 p. m. at the Harlem Casino, the Communist Party is holding a series of open air meetings in Harlem on Friday and Saturday to inform the workers of the signifi t of one its member inism. The meetings will be held on both days from 11 to 1 p. m. on the fol+ lowing corners, 12nd and Lenox Avenue, 130th and’ Lenox Avenue, 126th and Lenox Ayenue.