The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 2, 1931, Page 8

Page Four March, 1931 ;RIDC Soviet Women Workers Make Great Strides Forward A FACTORY DIRECTED BY WORKING WOMAN IS SOMETHING YOU CAN SEE) ONLY IN THE SOVIET UNION A Visit By American Women Workers to the Red TexSle Factory in Moscow; Nurseries For Children; No Unemployment By REBEC€A ROBERTS We were invited to meet the director of the factory. It was the Red Textile Factory in Moscow, which we, as part of a delegation of American workers, were visiting for the first time. ploys 1200 workers, of whom 85 per cent are women. of the factory is a woman, Pimina the workers call her. into the room, a rather stocky Woman, with firm, heavy steps, smiles lighting up her serious face as she saw the workers’ delega- tion. We looked at her eagerly. A woman director of a factory! A womar who sympolizes, in a Way, te new life cf freedom, of equality, of glorious activity and accomplishments, which the pro- letarjan revolution has opened up for the women in the Soviet Union. Seven Hour Day In a clear though gruff voice, she told us about the factory. How they were working-seven hours a day, whereas before the revolu- tion the women toiled ten hours daily; how women workers were being mobilized through socialist competition for the fulfillment of the Five-Year Plan in Four Years, and were becoming active enthu- siastic participants in production; how illiteracy among them was be- ing wiped out and their political understanding’ faised through dis- cussions, classes, cireles. She told us about the factory nursery and the kindergarten, where the work- ing mothers could leave their chil- dren under the care of trained nurses and instructors; about the complete liquidation of unemploy- ment, the seady rise in wages. A Worker All Her Life As for herself, she, the director of a factroy, was a working wom- an, She began work in 1913, ina metal factory. She joined the forces of the proletarian revolu- tion in 1917. In 1919 came the call for duty on the front, in the war against=.the counter-revolu- tionary--white guard armies, backed by foreign imperialists. .This in- flomitable woman worker was mob- llized, and served almost two years on the front. At the end of 1920, she returned to work in the same factory, taking an active part in its leadership. In 1929, she was appointed the director of the Red Textile Factory. A working woman, rising step by step to one of the highest posts in Soviet industry! A working - woman almost illiterate before the revolution, now trained under the proletarian dictatorship to guide the life and activity of a textile factory in Moscow! While the director Pimina was speaking about the factory prob- lems, another woman worker en- tered the room, She came in with complete self-assurance. No cring- ing here, no fearful glances, no elass barriers! As one worker to another, ske spoke to the directoy, using the familiar “thou.” “Tell the American Workers” “Look,” said one working woman to us, her eyes glowing with spirit. “Look what the Soviet Union has done for us women.” “Tell the American women workers about us,” said another. “Tell them they must organize and fight against capitalist exploita- tion. Tell them only the proletar- ian revolution can free them from slavery.” This was the message ringing in our care as we left the factory that day. # melitge fx the * nrobili- tate i en sMorkings worhth of Ameri joins in {comjmon+ ttle with t bi worké@xs, Again an employment and wate ents,’ for social insurance, against capitalist exploitation, for struggle for work-ley was _ @ts’ rule. The factory em- The director She came Prepare For March 8 in Germany By EDNA STAMS In Germany the capitalist class tries at the expense of the work- ing class to liberate itself from its desperate situation. The toiling masses are exploited till they bleed through unemployment, rationali- zation, reduction of wages, taxes, and the costs of the Young Plan. The women suffer especially un- der these conditions. The female workers in the shops work under inhuman conditions and starvation wages. Every day women break down at their machines. Twenty- year old girls are replaced by girls of 16 and 17 who receive smaller wages per hour on account of an agreement between the bosses and the trade union fake leaders. In agrarian districts women work twelye hours and more daily for ‘starvation wages. How great the suffering is we can see from the fact that in Upper Silesia wom- en sell their children to be able to buy some necessary furniture or clothes. Unemployment Funds Taken Away In the war industries (chemical) women are in a majority. After three or four years they are no longer able to work on account of the steady inhaling of the poison- ous air... Nothing remains for them, but starvation, because the capitalists’ took away the unem- ployment -funds for women with the assistance of the socialists, us- ing the lie that the women are house-workers in the first place. The fascists who before the September elections had been pos- ing as the friends of the working- class, introduced a motion in the German Reichstag for a labor-ser- vice year for women between the age of 20 and 21 ycars. They would force young women of the working class to work one year long for wages of 80. pfennigs (about 7 cents) daily to scrub and clean the dirt for the ladies of the bourgeoisie. The girls would then be substituted. by men who would have to work for the same low wages. Joining Communist Purty However, the working women of Germany are joining the Commun- ist Party in increasing masses and also the Roten Frauen und Maed- chenbund to participate in the struggles of the men. In this sense we are preparing for the Eighth of March (Interna- tional Women’s Day). In Ger- many, in the whole world the sup- pressed and _ exploited women march to fight for their just de- mands for a free workers’ state. WE DON’T WANT MORE HANDOUTS WASHINGTON, D. C. — From a thousand dollar treasury the Sen- ate Ladies’ Luncheon Club, which consists of well fed senators’ wives, voted the: small sum of one. fa L dred dollats for the starving: tens. of thousay is of farmers, their -chil--} dren, and ‘wives’ in the twenty-one drought affected states. The mon- Army, which will get its rake-off. 4 given to.the Salvation UNDER IN Where Workers Run the Factories . The Soviet workers run the factories. The women workers have special advantages, such as shorter hours, etc. They go to school in the fac- tories they work in, as in the photo above, which shows women workers in the factory school at the Moscow Motor Car Factory. She is being trained to help direct ~~ factory. trast in capitalist U. S. A See photo on next page for con- Working Women Won’t Let Bosses Attack the USSR Workers ‘International Relief—Weapon of ' >» €lass Solidarity By TRANTE HOELZ The participation of women in the political and trade union field is still in no proportion with their role in production. The indifference of the women masses is still very great, but this gives us no justifica- tion to let them remain in this state of neutrality which menaces their very existence. We must, on the contrary, call the masses of laboring women to the support of the working class struggles all over the world. We must say “You women cannot stay away from our struggle! You must struggle with us and show working class ‘solidarity in the great class battles of today!” Plan to Draft Women for War The capitalist. state is already preparing laws making compulsory the service of women during the coming war. As in the European states in 1914, the women will have to replace men in the armament industry. While fascism considers the woman worker equal to the man if the question is to crowd the fac- tories that manufacture cannons and shells, it doesn’t_consider the woman worker fully equal to man when it comes to wages. Working Women Will Resist The woman worker is forced to slave today under the oppression of the capitalist state and the opium of the church. Tomorrow, the woman worker will be used in the most terrible massacre there has ever been, which will possibly turn out to be a crusade of the capitalist countries against the Soviet Union. Will the laboring women masses accept this without resistance? No! The working class solidaffty of the entire world helped the “Soviet: Union in 1921, which marked the. beginning of Socialist construc- tion, and a blow against imperial- ist conspiracy and starvation. The Workers International Re- lief was the result of an interna- tional manifestation of this soli- darity. The workers of all coun- tries helped the Soviet Union, through the organization of the WIR, by sending food, clothing, drugs, and other forms of aid to the Soviet Union. In this struggle as well as in the subsequent strike struggles in all countries during the post-war period, women workers helped the WIR. Working women, joir the strug- Ten Million _ U S Children Are Starving Ten million children in the United States are not getting enough food to keep them alive and hea!thy, ac- cording to the Washington Child Conference, which also stated that there are three million consump- tive children, Children must have air, food and sunshine to keep them healthy. Millions: of American children don’t get enough food and many live in old unsanitary tenements and cellars and slums where air and sun cannot penetrate. A mother is a fighter. Mothers will fight to provide food for their children. They are militant fight- ers on the picket line. Nine million working women in the United States don’t work in factories and laundries because they like to slave nine and ten hours a day, leaving their children in the streets; they work because the children at home are hurery and waiting for the $10 or $10 which the work of mother or big sister can bring, and because hus- bands and fathers and grown sons are unemployed, or their wages too low to live on. The answer of the mothers must be: a demand for good warm food and clothing for all school chil- dren. Working women and mothers of the country will go further than this. They will demand immediate relief and unemployment insur- ance. They will organize into na= tionwide councils of the uneme- ployed and put up a fight with the men for the Workers Unemploy- ment Insurance Bill. _The working women of this country, native, Negro and foreign born will also fight for better shop conditions: for better wages and against the killing speed up. The women of the working class know how to battle. They will show their colors on March 8, Interna- tional Women’s Day. SHOOTS HUNGRY W¢ ?KER FOR TAKING BREAD PHILADELPHIA, Pa, — A bak- er’s wagon was standing at the ¢urb full of pies and bread. Jack Chew, nineteen, of- 2029 Master Street, Philadelphia, was hungry. He had been out of work for a long time. He reached for the pies. Took one in each hand. But he did not have time to eat them be- cause he was shot by a city detec- tive and died a few hours after. gle organizations of the working class—militant trade unions and Unemployed Councils. Class con- scious women are needed to help mobilize their working sisters who still belong to the neutral masses under the bonds of capitalist sup- pression and _ church-sponsored ignoranoce. These women must join the Red Front of working class struggles. ah pone