The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 28, 1931, Page 1

TWO SECTIONS SECTION ONE Vol. VIII, No. 52 We we Lork. N. Dail Central Onda Rfnuniet Norker Party U.S.A. (Section of the aati: Entered as second class matter at the Post Office @gp>21 .. under the act of March 3, 1979 NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1931 AIDE ! cecneoeaen Forced Labor T a time when the bourgeois politicians and press are carrying on a feverish propaganda about forced labor, ‘and demanding an embargo against all goods produced in the Soviet Union, the following item which appeared im yesterday's New York World is of particular interest, espe- cially to the thousands of workers who are jobless, hungry and homeless in capitalist America. After telling of the Soviet Government's intention to build a nation- wide chain of workers’ clubhouses in all industrial centers, based on the experiences gained in one just completed in Moscow, the World, describing the Moscow undertaking, states: “This was built by the Soviet Government. ... The cost of its main- tenance is part of the municipal budget. The walls of the Moscow structure are composed almost exclusively of glass, much of which is perfectly transparent. . . . The building will accommodate hundreds | of workers, who make it their home and recreation center. It has baths, | gymnasiums, rest and reading rooms and a restaurant.” It seems to us that the building of such clubhouses, which in the United States are available only for the parasitic rich, and only in the Soviet Union are available to the workers, rather makes the capitalist chatter about “forced labor” sound rather empty. There, also, unem- ployment has been eliminated and an actual shortage of labor exists, due to the rapid progress being made in the building of socialism. Wages are steadily advancing, as is the general improvement in the workers’ conditions. This is specifically shown by the wide-spread building of. such clubhouses as the World describes. In the United States, on the contrary, where the bosses are fever- ishly carrying on their anti-Soviet propaganda with the aid of the “so- cialis” and A. F. of L. misleaders, the conditions of the workers daily become more terrible. Just yesterday the reports from Cleveland, typical of all industrial centers, revealed that 7,084 workers had been evicted from their homes. Everywhere there are reports of hunger, starvation, evictions, wage cuts, suicides and lynchings. And then, with brazen lies, the bosses try to turn these hungry, homeless workers against the work- ers’ government of the Soviet Union, where alone the workers’ condi- tions of life are steadily improving. These facts emphasize the need of defending the Soviet Union, while at the same time, we here organize and prepare for decisive revolutionary struggles to overthrow the power of our capialists as the workers there did with that of their czars. And with these maior revolutionary tasks always before us, we must organize and fight today against unemploy- ment, against wage cuts and for unemployment insurance. Against. White Chauvinism! ANY cases of white chauvinism (manifestations of white hatred against i Negroes) have recently come to light in various sections of the country, and in some cases have even been reflected within our Party. This is not accidental. It grows precisely out of the increased efforts of the capitalists, this crisis period, to divide the Negro and white workers. It is a m on their part of the old practice of “Divide and Conquer.” The capitalists are determined to ioad the crisis burdens on the work ers’ backs, int the form of wage cuts, speed-up, unemployment ,and mass starvation. This would be impossible in the face of a really united work- ing class. So by various means they try to stimulate and cultivate antag- onisms between Negro and whites, native-born and foreign-born, etc. The many murderous lynchings of the past few months are the fruits of this In our Party chauvinist tendencies show themselves, first as @ reflection of this boss-created hatred stimulated among the masses, and secondly, because of the increased activities of the Party in organizing the Negroes and in leading them into struggles against lynchings, segregations and persecutions, and for equal rights. Some comrades, in the past, were ready abstractly to polemize against white chauvinism and insist on equal rights for the Negroes. But, now that many hundreds of Negro workers have been recruited into the Communist Party, the revolutionary Trade Unions and the Unemployed Councils, it is no longer an abstract question. Now, when the revolutionary workers’ organizations contain within themselves thousands of Negroes, the question of equal rights presents itself in a very concrete form. It is necessary to insure for the Negroes, in the first place equal rights in the organization itself, and secondly ,it is necessary to re- double our efforts to develope the widest mass struggle against the bosses efforts to divide the workers. The issue cannot be sidetracked. It cannot be evaded. Certain pro- gress, most assuredly, has been made in the fight against these boss-class, Negro-baiting tendencies; but this progress has not kept up with the in- creased efforts of the bosses to stimulate these tendencies among the masses. It is urgently necessary, therefore, to alarm the whole Party and all other workers’ organizations on these questions. White chauvinism must be LESS JOBS EVERY DAY, SAYS RYBICKI FUTURE IS BLACK Survey of ‘151 Industries Shows No Jobs NEW YORK.—Each time a survey is made of the employment situation in New York it is found worse. A few days after he said jobs were dropping | all the time, Edward C. Rybicki, head of the City Free Employment Bureau was forced to issue another statement showing things getting blacker for| the unemployed. After a survey of} 15 industries in New York, by field| men working under Rybicki’s direc- tion he said that in those industries at least “employment was at a stand- still, with no prospects for a change in the immediate future.” The” industries surveyed ranged from slipper making to shipping. Ry- | bicki’s survey was made to find out/ what the chances were to get jobs for | the tens of thousands who have re-| gistered with the fake city agen During the past two weeks, Rybicki | said, jobs were dropping alarmingly. Full-time jobs are out of the question, Rybicki is apealing for any part-time low-wage jobs to keep the workers from fighting for relief. On the same day Rybicki issued his gloomy statement for the unemployed, the New York public school admin- istration let it be known that therc will be 4,700 applicants for 500 teach- ers’ jobs for which exami be held in‘June. Every class of work- teachers are feeling unemployment | now. The talk about “improvement” in’ business is effectively smashed even by the fake surveys made by the ca- pitalist lackeys. The future will bring worse conditions for the unemployed. The fight for immediate relief must be speeded, as we have the admission of the city government that jobs are not available, and in fact, get scarcer all the time. The situation in New York is representative of the country as a whole. 50 MEETS FOR WOMEN’S DAY Must Carry Fight Into Shops, Factories The campaign for International Women’s Day in this country shows that the working women are being drawn into the revolutionary move- ment. The campaign this year is not limited to the large cities. It is be- ing extended to the smallest towns burned out of our organizations with the hot iron of Bolshevik self-criti- cism and Bolshevik discipline. We cannot neglect the slightest manifes- tation of chauvinism, even when it is tolerated by the Negro comrades themselves. In fact the white comrades must take the initiative in clear- ing the Party of these poisonous tendencies. ‘The public trial of Comrade Jokinen at the Harlem Casino on Sunday where the position of the Party will be sharply put forward by leading comrades, must be the beginning of a drive to decisively defeat chauvinism in the Part7 and to mobilize the whole Party for the most energetic struggle for Negro rights, for the right of self determiniation in the South, and for fvdl equality in the North. The Party must prove its sincerity to the Negro masses by its energy, determination and by the uncompromising character of its fight for their interests. MASS TRIAL TOMORROW IN RELENT- TESS FIGHT ON WHITE CHAUVINISM * | oisie within the ranks of the Ameri- opening of the trial of 14 sabotagers AN ULii@ DOVICU Ustavady aremed oe ow and their organizations will join tomorrow, Sunday, March }, in a mass trial of a member of the Com- menist Party accused of the crime agaivst the working-class of white chauvinism, ‘The trial will take place at 2 o'clock tomorrow at the Harlem Casino, 116th Street and Lenox Avenue. Alfred We-en'mecht, relief head in the Pas- saic Strike and at present active in the irece Union Unity League, will act as judge. Comrade Hathaway will be prosecutor, with Richard B. Moore, Negro comrade, acting for the defense. All workers are urged to turn out for this very important trial. Comrade Hathaway, a member of the Party Secretariat, lays particular stress upon this trial, declaring: “Our Party must fight relentlessly agains) all influences of the bourge- ————— SRS FRE RRA IE SEH SE EE TITEASIESTASE TE Da PPMOPRAEIRN RSE SG me can working-class. Particularly must we wage a sharp and uncomprising struggle against the influence of white chauvinism by which the Amer- ican bourgeoisie seeks to justify in the eyes of the workers its brutal op- pression of the Negro masses, “It is necessary to alarm the whole Party and all other working-class or- ganizations on this question. As the Comintern working-class organiza- tions on this question, The Comin- tern has correctly pointed out that ‘The slogan of equal rights of the Negroes without a relentless struggle in practice against all manifestations of Negrophobia on the part of the American bourgeoisie can be nothing but a deceptive liberal gesture of a and centers, particularly the indus- trial centers. International Women’s Day will be preceded by a larg enumber of open air meetings in every section of the country. In the New York District along, plans are being made for 50 open air meetings during the coming week. In Passaic, where the working women have carried throveh sich | valient struggles, the textile workers | are rallying to this campaign. The | same is true of Paterson. In New- (Strikes Continue Mass | the immigration authorities for de- | Citizens’ Committee, acting for the eae seit | union leaders were beaten up, jailed, ‘ jon them. Meanwhile, the Citizen's Vaceerharanedareathaling erciccompaninne | Committee engineered a “strike vote” | hoping thereby to put a quick end Picketing; Fight for Demands BULLETIN LAWRENCE, Mass.—Bill Mur- doch, national secretary of the National Textile Workers’ Union, and Edith Berkman, local organ- izer of the uunion, were held by portation after having been ar- rested yesterday, Oe er LAURENCE, Mass., Feb. 27.—Des- pite the brutal slugging and arrest of eleven leaders of the National Tex- tile Workers Union, 10,000 strike in the Ayer, Washington and Wood} woolen mills are still out on strike. | + night, the city government mo- bilized its forces to smash the strike. | Mayor Landers and the mill owners, ordered the arrest of Edith Berkman, organizer of the union; Pat Devine, national organi- zer; William Murdock, an official of the union, John C, Czarnecki, Alex Danilevich, and nine others, so that a fake vote could be recorded making it appear that the strikers want to return to work. For this reason the union head- quarters was raided, many of the! and a total bail of over $100,000 put to suit their taste. Despite the arrest of the leaders, the Lawrence Lexington hall was packed out side. Union speakers were Harfield and Keith. The strikers de- manded the release of the leaders and asked for a ballot only under the union strike committee auspices. Yesterday's raid ‘and brutality was instigated by Mayor ‘Landors and the Citizen's Committee in an attempt to deprive the strikers of their leaders, to the strike. But this did not de- moralize the strikers, as the bosses had hoped. Picketing was conducted at three mills this morning, showing the real fighting and determined spirit of the strikers, The action of Mayor Landors and the bosses’ Citizens’ Committee shows how the city, state and na- tional government are used as strike breakers when the workers fight to improve their conditions. The strike of 10,000 woolen workers here began last week when the Na- tional Textile Workers Union called out the combers of the Washington Mill against the efficiency speed-up system, the back-breaking stretch-out. The strikers then got other mills to walk out and a militant struggle of 10,000 workers began, against which every instrument of the boss govern- ment was used to break the strike. ‘The woolen bosses made a fake offer Heads in Effort to Break Strike majority of the Lawrence textile demands. Discuss Dressma todey as thousands } ond day of mass picke doors of-every building in the to and fro, some with picke without. ‘how many strikers were pick eting, because it was decided} jat the last moment to picke individual shops rather than stage a mass demonstration, as was done | last Tuesday. However, a close check of the garment district re- were in the picket lines by 8 a. hours after that. in several clashes with scabs. Several more shops struck today, including a large one in Harlem. Cops Raid Strike Hall. ing reaches its crest the police are certain to try to flatten the next wave. The picketing in Brooklyn has ben so effective of recent days that the cops raided the Brooklyn strike headquarters at 795 Flushing Ave. Thursday night and arrested Al Stone, a militant picketer, charg- ing him with assault. Six pickets were arrested yesterday. continues to day in three strike halls to the hun- dreds of penniless strikers, many of of eliminating the efficiency system, but refused to recognize the shop committees of the union, and to pay time and a half for overtime. ark, the campaign is centered in the Negro sections. In Elizabeth the activities are developing on a larger scale than ever before. In New Brunswick, the campaign is develop- ing amongst the women in the to- bacco factories. Great stress is laid on drawing the unemployed women into these demonstrations. It is the duty of the men workers to assist in reaching the women in their shops and their neighborhoods. The men workers must show that class conscious workers they will d their share to help organize the work- ing women for common struggle against capitalism, Important Article On Page Four What> is the relation of the Communist Party to the revolu- tionary trade unions? This ques- tion fs taken up in a special fea- sly slave owner or his agent.’ White chauvinism must be stamped out of our Party with the red hot iron of Bolshevik self-criticism and discipline.” a a hb bt ture article appearing on the Congressman Fish and Mathew | Woll are groaning in mock agony at the supposed “slave conditions” of the Russian workers. The workers of So- viet Russia regard this farce with loud horse-laughs. For they are the rulers of the nation, Again this is proven by a none too friendly journalist, Eugene Lyons, cor- respondent of the United Press, who in Friday’s N. Y, “World-Telegram” tells a story which, while written from the lofty egoism of all capitalist news- paper prostitutes, gives in the follow- ing parts or summaries, a crushing refutation to the war propaganda that the Russian workers are “slaves” toil- ing at “forced labor”: “The ascendancy of the manual la- borer in the new Soviet civilization,” says Lyons, “is not an abstract thing . . It is a reality. He receives the largest rations, and when there is not enough of any item to go around, he back page of today’s Daily Worker. Every worker should make a care- ful study of this article. Turn to the back page now and read it! is the first to be provisioned. The same applies to new housing, school and hospital facilities, places in the theatres, clubs, sanatoria, whom would certainly be driven to starvation or breadline slop if the W. I. R. weren’t on the job. Work- ers are still urged to contribute, if Mass Picketing In Lawrence | Cops Raid Dyess Strike Office: 500 Tailors Strike of dressma! Polic vealed scores of shops being pick- | eted by 20, 30 and 40 pickets each. | It is estimated that at least 5,000) and the picketing continued for two | The picketing late Thursday night | was extremely effective and resulted | Whenever a wave of good picket- | The Workers’ International Relief | supply lunches every | Despite intense boss terror and attempts to break the strike the strikers are still fighting for their | S strike Fund | NEW YORK.—The garment district was black with cops | stration, our cor | March 6th the w n twos, ed in their sec- | rded the ers here enge 3. al sixict, eerds on their hac di. some butter, , they can, fru old meats, 500 Tailors S lor ee Five hundred t shop in Brooklyn, influenced success stril dressmaker | have achieved, walked out yesterday | and declared they would stay out itil they won real union condi- ons. Most of the tailors are mem- bers of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, a company union which accuse of working hand in hand vith their employer to cut wages | | 8nd introduce the most brutal sort of speed-up systems. Although the $15,000 Dress Strike | |Pund is being well supported by | many working-class organizations, the N. T. W. I. U. urges that every workers’ organization put the matter of supporting the strike fuund on its | business program and work actively | in its support. A second United Fiont Conference is being held to- dey at 1 p. m. in living Plaza, Ir- | ving Pl. and 15th St., where the mat- ter will be discussed in detail. The New York members of the Food Workers’ Industrial Union de- cided at a recent meeting that they would put aside a certain portion of salaries every week for the benefit of the fund. They also col- lected $48 at the mocting. their Fight lynching, Fight deporta- tion of foreign born. Elect dele- gates to your city conference for | protection of foreign born. Working: Class Comes First; All Control In Their Hands “The vast official apparatus, except in its topmost reaches, quakes in all its limbs at the approach of a fac- tory ‘brigade’. A thousand com- plaints from other directions may go unheeded, but a single one emanat- ing from a group of miners or mil} ands, seals the fate of an offending functionary. “The newspapers devote pages reg- ularly to letters from factory workers. The grimy faces of Ivanov, factory worker, and Comrade Ivanova, woman worker, decorate the pages of leading magazines just as those of ‘society’ fill select American magazines. “If you have written a play, a sce- nario, a poem, and are politically wise, you will read it before a workers’ meeting somewhere. Its resolution of approval, if you are lucky enough to Soviet Workers Are Real Rulers of Nation, Says Capitalist Journalist jelicit one, is as good as a command to producers and publishers. “In the courts of revolutionary jus- tice, the fact that a man is a worker is his best defense.” “He (the worker) is a soldier in the ranks of his class . . . But the sense of superiority, of having come into his kingdom, is real compensation.” Lyons tries to make out that the workers are “not yet ripened” enough to rule. He exhibits the worst of in- tellectual snobbery by sniffing at the sight of Soviet'intellectuals respecting the workers’ favored and powerful po- sition, But the gigantic fact that Soviet economy is thriving while capitalist economy is shattered; that, as Lyons admits “The Bolsheviks have con- vinced the majority of the population of the fundamental tenets of their Communist faith,” while in capitalist lands ‘the governments remain in power only by alternately deceiving | and violently repressing the masses, | strations on February 25th. | demonstrations | but “ CITY EDITION WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! Price 3 Cents ORGANIZED STATE HUNGER MARCHES FOLLOW FEBRUARY 25 RALLIES Lawrence Strike Continues Despite Boss Terror DRAW NEW MASSES INTO Jail, Beat Up Lawrence Union FIGHT FOR UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF ‘orm Caanele: Main| Task Is Jobless Relief Demand Dozens of reports are streaming to the Daily Worker from all} country, showing the in parts of the | splendid spirit of the workers at the demon- All the showed that the workers and organizers of the Un- employed Councils, Trade Union Unity League and Communist Party recognize that the main question be-| fore the working class is the strug-| gle for unemployment relief. The| demonstrations all laid plans for speeding the fight. Everywhere Un- employed Councils were strengthen- World Unemployment Day ed. New members were taken in Some were formed where none ex- isted before. The main share of the demonstra- tions reported today are from the | West. They show the fighting de- American workers. In Omaha and | Council Bluffs, thousands took part! each, and presented their demands to the| Second United Front Conference Today Will) mayors. around Buffalo, many mili- | 4” mas ke |tant demonstrations were held, pre- raring for the Albany hunger march. Reporting the Canton, O., demon- | spondent says on} rkers were curious ‘today they were there to Iearn | how to s Por the first time Kansas City. Thousands fight for releif in the Klen State, Indiana. Everywhere the workers put forward It was hard to judge jusi | brea 1 and milk to the W. I. R. food | their demands, exposed the fakery of | the city governments, and pointed he way Tor real relief by organized fight. OMAHA, Neb., Feb. 27.—Today for the time in the history of the two cities (Omaha and Council (CONTINUED ON THREED 5,000 DEMAND ENTIRE BONUS, Yonkers Toilers Come Out at Call YONKERS, N. Y.—5,000 unem- ployed workers and Ex-Servicemen, | and workers of the Otis Elevator Company demonstrated for the full payment of the Cash bonus, and the solidarity with the Hunger March- ers and the fight for Unemployment Insurance Thursday. Chief Quirk was compelled by the pressure of the workers and the Workers Ex-Service- man’s League to let the workers have use of Larkins Plaza, at 12 noon. Yonkers’ workers answered the call of the workers Ex-Servicemen’s | League and the Unemployed Coun- cil by coming out in thousands. It was one of the largest demonstrations that Yonkers ever saw. In spite of the threats of the local Legion politicians, workers stood for an hour and a half listening to the speakers. The speakers were: James Walsh of the Workers Ex-Service- men’s League who acted as chair- man, David Rishensky, Sol Harper, a Negro Ex-Servicemen, Milton Weich and Nathan Liss both of the Yonk- ers council. Workers demanded the release of Milton Weich and William Walters. At the meeting of the Yonkers City Post 1666, Veteran's of Foreign Wars denounced the and Commander Frederick A. H. Kampfer protested vigorously at such a “com~ mon Communist practice to appeal to Ex-Servicemen orev bonuses.” They are beginning to feel the force of the Workers Ex-Servicemen’s League. “reds,” Bronx Unemployed Council to Replace Evicted Furniture NEW YORK.—The Bronx Unem- ployed Council is organizing to put back the furniture of an evicted worker, An eviction took place at 1801 Longfellow Avenue, near 178th Street, in the Bronx. The furniture is now out on the street. The unem- shows the Russian workers are cap- able of rule better than the parasite class of capitalists, ployed family have no place to put it. The Unemployed Council will Place the furniture back, ‘BUFFALO POLICE SLUG MARCHER Jersey Hunger March Starts Off BUFFALO, N. Y., Feb. Slashes occurred today with the police who are trying to prevent the hunger march to Albany. The police tacked the hunger march trucks and drivers and delayed the schedule of starting by four hours. Niagara Falls and North Tonawar- da marchers arrived early this morn- ing after which, together withthe Buffalo marchers a mass meeting was |held at Broadway Auditorium for over an hour. Hundreds of unem- ployed cheered and gave a farewell collection io the delegation. Then the premeditated attack began by the | police: A protest march of workers at- | termination of tens of thousands of| to the City Court then followed. The | arrested unemployed were fined $10 Jamestown and Olean are the way. There will be meeting in Buffalo and Rochester on the day of the Albany presentation of the demands. already on | | ROCHESTER, N. Y., Feb. 26. | Abou it 1,200 workers in Rochester as- sembled in protest against unem- the strikers marched | {the masses see a hunger march in| ployment and existing conditions un- |ger which they must e, The meet- {ing started at 3 o’clockin the after noon. About 50 new members were taken: jin to the Unemployed Council. The | capitalists trying to further demora- izethe workers in their fight, re- |ported that only about 20 signed up. There was a surprising amount of young workers in this audience, who listened very attentively. ; It was announced that Friday the | Rochester unemployed workers were | to greet the hunger marchers coming |from Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Lockport, by calling a demonstration at the City Hall in the afternoon. The workers here are very anxious to go to Albany and see what they can actually do to force this faker Roosevelt, who promised so much to the workers before he was elected. It is expected that about 30 dele- | gates will go from Rochester, . NEWARK, Feb. 26.—To the army |of militant unemployed workers that | will start on their march to Tren- |ton on Feb. 28th, we the employed and unemployed workers through whose city you will pass, express our THREE) HUNGER MARCH | PARADES THRU YONKERS, New lew York: —Mayor Fo- garty of Yonkers was forced to issue a permit for the Hunger Marchand the Hunger Marchers paraded | through the city streets as the work- ers cheered them on. Chief Quirk in a desperate attempt to stop the march from reaching the demonstration of five thousand arranged by the Workers Ex-Service- men’s League, stopped the Hunger Marchers from going through the Plaza and forced them on to Ware barton Avenue. When Fred Beiden- Kamp, one of the leaders of the Hunger Marchers, protested the ac- tion of the chief, showing the per- mit, and pointing out that they had a right to march through the Plaza, the chief and his cops began to push march onto Warbarton Avenue, ‘The workers marched down War- barton Avenue to the Workers Center where they were fed by the Local Unemployed Council and/) "the Women's Council of Yonkers, Local | 144 of the Bakers Union gave 1,000 pounds of bread and promised’ 500 pounds more for next week when the workers return from Albany. Fred Beidenkampf spoke, and Mil- ton Weich of the local Unemployed Council, greeted the Hunger March- ers with $70 cash donated by ‘the | Yonkers Workers and invited ‘the | marchers into the hall for dinner, ex- pressing that this is not charity but solidarity at the same time. the Yonker workers joined the Hunger March. The Hunger marchers then left on their way to Albany.