The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 23, 1931, Page 1

Le ee ee Sal <a ea eS we 7 Two Thousand Workers Have Made Application to Join the Unemployed Council of Salt Lake City. Are You Winning Members for Your Council? Dail Central NOD (Section of the Communist International) er U.S.A. WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! Vol. VIII, No. 71 at New York, N. Y. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office . under the act of March 3, 1879 NEW: YORK, MONDAY, MARCH 23, 1931 CITY EDITION Price 3 Cents DEMONSTRATE MARCH 28 ON LYNCHING, DEPORTATIONS For Negro Rights ORKERS, whether Communists or not, will take notice of the com- plete hypocrisy of the capitalist class which, with Fish as leader, chatter about “forced labor’—in the Soviet Union—while unleashing the bloodiest terror against the efforts of the Communist Party to rally the masses to struggle against forced labor and peonage under which millions of Negroes are suffering in the South. The miseries of the Negro masses, particularly in the South, are in- tensified by the crisis generally and the agrarian crisis especially, and the eeforts of the Communist Party to give leadership to the growing strug- gles are met with not only Fish Committee terror and a concerted effort of all capitalist forces to incite white workers against Negroes, but also with Negro bourgeois misleaders, who help reaction by inciting Negro workers against foreign-born -workers and a policy of self-segregation timed to monopolize the exploitation of Negro workers for the Negro bourgeoisie. The increased activity of the Communist Party is revealing much hitherto dormant white chauvinism among mass organizations of work- ers, and even within our Party. If the whole cause of the entire work- ing class, white as well as Negro, is not to be injured, our Party must take decisive measures to clear away the confusion about and under- estimation of the importance of the struggle for Negro rights and to eliminate white chauvinism not only from our Party ranks but also from among the masses of white workers. It is a fact, proven by thousands of cases, that the white workers defeat their own struggles when in conflict with the capitalists, by re- maining under the spell of chauvinist teachings of these same capitalists and standing aloof from or in hostility towards the struggle for Negro rights. The effort of the Communist Party to enlighten the white workers in mass organizations and in general, and to clarify its own ranks, has, as noted, encountered much confusion and gross opportunist tendencies. One is the tendency to view the League of Struggle for Negro Rights (L. S, N. R.) as a substitute for or a department of the Party, forfeiting the leading role of the Party and really withdrawing it from this field. Equally pernicious is the view that the L. S. N. R. has no function because--according to this view—white workers who see the need for united action of both white and Negro workers is denied, the program of the L. S. N. R., which is broader than that of the Party, is’ limited, and the work in this field given up for a sectarian pose. These and other errors have contributed to a failure to make a suf- ficiently energetic fight against white chauvinisif{e tendencies in the measure that they came to light, particularly in mass organizations and in simultaneously clearing them from the Party. An artificial separation of the two was made, injurious to the carrying out of a complete cam- paign on all fronts, necessary to the end desired of unity of white and Negro workers both inside and outside the Party against capitalism. In another page of this paper will be found the resolution of the Central Committee clarifying the tasks and detailing the steps to correct present shortcomings. As in all Communist work, “Negro work” is not to be conceived of as merely recruiting Negro members to the Party, but in developing mass struggles for Negr6 rights. Mass struggles, agaimi-thiveeir ofhertields, are imposstble without concrete issues and partial demands; and likewise make imperative the inclusion of white as well as Negro workers. In these struggles, and in those against lynching, for equal rights and (in the Southern “black belt”) for confiscation of the landlords’ land for the Negro tenants and croppers and for self-determination, the Com- munist task is to show the white workers and farmers that their own struggles cannot be won unless they join in supporting the struggle for Negro rights, unless they defend Negro equality on the trade union field, and rally to the L. S. N. R. and give united class solidarity to the demand for Negro rights. : The Central Committee of our Party has outlined all organizational steps to carry through a correct policy. And not the least of these is to aid in the establishment of the L. S. N. R. paper, the “Liberator,” as an organ of mass circulation and influence among both white and Negro masses, Every revolutionary worker, every worker conscious of his class, will join with the members of the Communist Party in execution of the tasks laid down by the Central Committee of the Communist Party, in daily fight against the bourgeois barbarism inflicted upon the Negro masses, in mass struggle for Negro rights—a necessary and integral part of the struggle of the working class as a whole for the overthrowal of capitalist class rule, (PENN. A.F.OFL. HEADS FOR STATE AND IRON COSSACKS The Communist Party and the Trade Union Unity League) Representatives Thrown Out By Governor Pinchot When They Expose Scheme PAID COAL Acquit Walker of Northwest a Amid Cheers Coast Workers |Rallying Workers Forced Acquittal of Young Communist Held On Syndicalism Charges; | Paul Munter Testifies At Trial BULLETIN Amid the thunderous cheers of 200 workers who had 22. Portland, Ore., March crowded into the courtroom here, a verdict of not guilty was | returned by the jury in the case of Fred Walker, young Com- munist chaged with criminal syndicalism. for the Northwestern workers This is a victory as the state rested their hopes SE FRAME-UP TO PUS H WAR PLANS, TERROR PUSH PLANS FOR | | | | | | ‘Prepare Hunger March to Harrisburgh, April) 14 to Demand Immediate Relief Governor Pinchot Puts Up Bill to Have the State Pay For the Strikebreaking Police to Replace Ceal and Iron State Police HARRISBURG, Pa., March 22.—While | widespread plans are being made for the state hunger march, seheduled to arrive here, the stcte capitol of Pennsylvania, on April 14th, JAKIRA MEMORIAL MEETING AT WORKERS CENTER TODAY AT 1 ~NEW YORK.—A memorial meet- ing for Comrade Abram Jakira will be held at one o'clock today in the Workers’ Center, Comrade Jakira, assistant secret- ary of the International Labor De- fense and long active in the work- ing-class movement and in the Com- munist Party of which he was one of the founders, died last Friday af- ter many months of illness, suffer- ing from a cancer in the throat. The body lies in state on the sec- nd floor of the Workers Center, here all Saturday afternoon and (ORRIS WHITE IN MASS DISMISSAL NEW YORK.—In his first open attempt to throw the 165 workers of the White Luggage Co., Inc., into the streets and then reorganize the shop with reduced forces and cut wages, Morris White, the boss, had letters sent to the workers telling them to call for their tools. This is tantamount to dismissal and is the culmination of a whole series of ma- neuvers to reorganize the shop. This attack comes after four months of unemployment for the workers when the bosses thought the men were sufficiently starved and would not struggle. The policy of the right wing officials of the Suit Case, Bag and Portfolio Makers Un- ion, Local 22, is that of sympathy with Morris White’s reorganization schemes, with the elimination of left wing workers fit! in with their plans. Their action in overthrowing the militant shop committee and putting up a former shop chairman prepared the way for this wholesale dismissal evening and all day Sunday a steady stream of his comrades and revolu- tionary workers have viewed the body and paid their last honors to this self-sacrificing revolutionist. Following the memorial meeting, at which Foster, Tratchenberg, Mau- rer and Amter will speak, there will be a funeral march from the Cen- ter at 35 East 12th Street to 59th Street. The International Red Aid, ad- vised by cable of the death of Com- rade Jakira, has sent the following cable to the LL.D,: “International Red Aid feels deeply the loss of brave fighter Jak- ira. Trusts thousand workers will fill his place.” Immediately following the news of Jakira’s death, the International Labor Defense issued to all districts and sub-districts of the organization as well as to the International Red Aid the follewing statement: “Comrade Abram Jakira, assistant secretary of the International Labor Defense is now dead. His loss to the LL.D, and to the revolutionary moye- ment is a great one. His every con- cern even while “he was sick has been for the growth and strengthen- ing of the class struggle. The spread- ing of the struggle throughout the world gave him courage while he was on his death bed, and he hoped very much to be able to return to work. movement, His memory and a tribute to his services must be raised at every He gave his life to the revolutionary Seta One Peer celery , Sauce last state election was the coal TRY BATLROAD FIVE MILITANTS N. J. Workers Facing Death Sentence PATERSON, March 22—With the | death Saturday night of Max Urban, ‘boss of the silk mill at 36 Madison | Ave, as a result of blows received | on February 18, the police are try- ing to railroad five militant workers | to death. On February 18 while the workers of this mill were’ on strike and were picketing the mill, the boss's wife, | Mrs. Urhan, engaged herself in an altercation with Mrs. Helen Gershon- owitz, a strike leader. Urban was | standing nearby and was attacked by some other men, non-strikers, who came up while the altercation was on. Urban had many enemies among the bootleggers and gangsters with which element he carried on a con- siderable traffic. Urban had been confined to the hospital since the attack. The police made no attempt to find out who had struck him down, but immediately ar- rested the most militant of the strikers. The International Labor Defense took up their defense. The workers were released on $1400 bond each, Following Urban’s death Saturday night, the police at once rearrested the strike leaders and are holding them without bail “for further in- vestigation.” Those arrested are Helen Gershonowitz, Benjamin Lieb, Albert Katzhuk, Louis Harris and Louis Bart. The likelihood, is that they will be charged with man- slaughter and murder in the first degree, involving the death sentence, as part of the efforts of the bosses to terrorize and punish all militant workers and rob the working class of its best fightes. 4 The International Labor Defense is handling the case and calls upon the workers to register mass protests against this frame-up as the most ef- fective way of forcing the bosses to free these workers. HOLD MEET THIS A.M., LEONARD ST. NEW YORK.—A large number of unemployed workers disgusted with the fakery of the socialist party dem- day followed the Downtown Unem- ployed Council in a march to 27 E. Fourth St., where a militant meeting! the revolutionary unions, under the leadership | of the Trade Union Unity League and the Communist Party \is exposing the fake maneuvers of Governor Pinchot in con- | nection with the coal and iron police. | One of the issues on which Governor Pinchot ran in the | © meeting within the next few weeks, | YS held, the “socialist” fakers ex- especially at the March 28 meetings. posed and the basis\for a rea! strug- His great devotion to our cause must | 8!€ for unemployment relief and in- be hailed as an example, and a caj}}Surance explained to the workers. made on all workers and especially] Many joined the Council. to all LL.D. functionaries to make more than good his loss, recruitine many hundreds of workers into mem- The Council will hold @ meeting today at 10.30 a. m. in front of the ty’s fake employment agency at 59 ) bership. Leonard St. and iron police. He promised | during the campaign that when elected he would see to it that the, coal and iron police, for so long, used by the coal operators and iron companies to break strikes and in-| timidate the workers, would be done ‘Way: with» ‘This “was swallowed, | hook, line and sinker, by the reac- ticnary labor officials, and, accord- | ingly, they endorsed him. As a re- Sult of that and other fake prom-| ises used in the election campaign | Pinchot carried the cozl districts, | both the anthracite and the bitumin- j ous, by an overwhelming majority. | Pinchot, faithful agent of the bosses, could see in view of the sharpening crisis and the worsened conditions of the workers that strikes will take place in other industries as well, and it would be necessary to extend the use of a police force with more power and on a large field. Sc h thought he could kill two birds with one stone. He introduced a bill in the legislature providing for the setting up of an industrial police. This industrial police would be extended to many more industries and at the same time would appa- rently do away with the notorious name of the Coal and Iron Police. This police would be paid by the state and it would take the burden off of the coal companies of keeping up a special police force. Wishing to whitewash himself in view of the promise that he made during the election campaign, Pin- chot brought into play the dema- gogic use of a conference which was to discuss the two bills. This con- ference was called for Friday, March 20, at 3:30 p. m. in the governor's office. He had invited to this con- ference some misleaders of the A. F. of L, and the coal operators, (CONTINUED O* PAGE THREE) Payrolls Cut 21 NEW YORK, March 22.—Prelimin ary estimates by the Standard Corp- oration of Chicago that incomes of wage-earners in all but the stead- jest lines would be cut an average of one-third during 1930 have not been completely confirmed, but an unweighted average for 24 major in- dustries compiled by the Standard Statistics Co. shows for January a 12-month decrease of 13.9 per cent in the number employed, and a 21.3 per cent decline in aggregate pay- rolls, For the industries showing the sharpest declines, the drop in aggregate payrolls was as follows: Textiles . « 26.7 per cent Tron and Steel . 35.6 per cent Lumber ... 39.7 per cent Leather . 29.0 per cent Stone, clay . 30.6 per cent Autos, car building ..,. 37.7 per cent Miscellaneous manuf. .. 30.8 per ecnt Bituminous coalmining. | 27.7 per cent Metal mining ......... 40.7 percent Standard Statistics points out that the “philosophy of high wages” is | not standing the strain very well. Business men did not begin slashing wages right and left, however, until on convicting Walker. The International Labor Defense calls for a wider mass support of the workers on the Pacific Coast. Thanks were extended to Defense Attorney Goodman for his courageous fight. . . . | PORTLAND, Oregon.—On the second day of the trial of | Fred Walker and Paul Munter, young workers, charged with | criminal syndicalism for their Communist activities, the state completed its case and the defense witnesses were prepared to} ——~ take the stand the next day. | ON SOVIETS IS. enitentiary last month were used with one addition, stool-pigeon Jen- nings of the Seattle police depart- ment. The defense did not cross- examine either “Jennings or O'Dale who is Bacon’s chief as they thoro! exposed themselves to the workers by their own testimony. | M. R. Bacon, e his usual con- tradictory statements and on cross- examination admitted that he had been arrested for bootlegging in 1927. This gave the workers a good idea) of just what type of man the bosses use to trap militant workers. Despite | National Council for the Prevention | biceleeeuere tain ee peng O8 WAS, 2 Boge CheSEEANCS BOO te unlstitanas Wtam Fieh. jnitase) | PurDORe At Apso, Les REP Stacon ettl-hawed. eck af, Intelligence| See en Keone | and could not define revolution, the| After pointing out that the war) subject of his study! drive against the Soviet Union “i Immigration Fascist Called The state hurried through things | is | | internationally directed,” Libby goes | and left out much of the lies about | Party members that they used acne | | BEING PREPARED, But Pacifist Does Not Want Workers to Act WASHINGTON, March 22.—War is, being prepared internationally against the Soviet Union, declared Frederick J. Libby, executive secretary of the on to say. “If France or a Tory gov-| ernment in Great Britain were to} take action against Russia even to) declaring war, the ground has been! (continuED ON P prepared for calling it a ‘holy’ war.” | AGE THREE) | He absolves the Labor Party and} % | the American government from their | SPECI AL ISSUE OF | foremost shade in preparing this war. | Instead of admitting that Hoov Stimson and the other capitalist lead- | ers are driving to war he throws the LIBERATOR ON 28th Civic Federation and Ham Fish. “The |Qyders Must be Rushed | atrocity stories, on which war against | : in At Once Germany was fought, have been dup- | licated against Russia, at times with | forged documents. A war mind has) NEW YORK.—The Liberator, organ | been created and is being fostered by | of the Negro and white masses in the | organized and highly financed prop- | Struggle for Negro rights, will have aganda both in our country and | another issue out in time for the | abroad,” he says. |March 28th demonstrations against | | MARCH 28 MEETS |Boston and Detroit the Smash Gowns Terror Against Working | smash the growing unity of Negro and U. S. Frames Worker ‘Hold Kassay On Criminal Syndicalism From the report com- ing to the Daily Work- jer from Akron, Ohio, Latest to Report At the same time that the working class is preparing to make March 28 a day of national protest and ug- gie against lynching and deportations, the bosses are feverishly trying to workers, native and foreign| n the South, the vicious pic-| he Birth of a Nation,” is being} But in concluding he asks faith in| peace pacts, particularly the Kellogg | Pact, which Stimson used in trying | to start a war against the Soviet | Union. The pacifists, while admitting war is growing nearer, try to keep back the revolutionary fighting spirit of the working class, the only force able to stop war by an overthrow of capitalism, and who if war breaks out | can end the system which shales, it. ORGANIZE TO END deportations and lynchings. This issue should be given a wide circulation among the masses com- | ing out on the streets on March 28. | Orders should be sent in immediately | to the Liberator office, 799 Broadway, | room 338, New York City. TIl orders | must be aoccompaiied by cash, at the | rate of 2 cents per copy on hundle orders of 35 and more. The paper will go to press on Wednesday night and be in th emails e: Thursday morning, in time to reach most of | the districts. You must have the| Liberator for the March 28 demon- | strations. Rush your order in now. | STARVATION; DEMAND) RELIEF! | 1 Bi; ote ae —s ed ut In Jan. Wage Cut Drive by Bosses times as numerous in manufacturing as during any quarter of 1930. The number of wage-cuts said to have been reported in manufacturing fol- lows: 1930—first quart., aver. monthly. 25 second ” i ib 60 third ” a “sf 110 fourth ” st e, 100 TOSEJanuary oci dees ss ceanesa ess! 335 Railroad transportation is not in- cluded in the above figures. Official statistics of the Interstate Commerce Commission show that during 1930 the number of wage-earners of Class I railroads dropped by 196,000, from 1,438,000 to 1,242,208, or 14 per cent. But payrolls fell 19 per cent, due largely to the decrease in the amount of overtime and in the rate paid for earnings? The crisis of 1921 left real} wages higher than ever. During the | present panic retail food prices have held up rather better than wage rates. A committee of the U. S. Senate recently reported that the “stability” of retail food prices was | due to the activities of certain large food corporations; yet a resolution offered by socialist representatives in the Pennsylvania House asking an investigation of food prices, was pas- sed only on the third trial. According to the Standard Statis- tics Co., wholesale prices have de- clined 17 per cent, but no compar able reduction in retail prices has occurred. Retail food prices have come down 13 per cent, clothing 5.1 per cent, rents only 3.5 per cent, and fue. and light 2.1 per cent. The im- | | overtime work. At the same time, | the number of executive official and | staff assistants was reduced by 5! per cent; but the ayerage monthly salary of the remainder rose from Portant miscellaneous group of items in retail expenditure, which includes Street-car fares, motion picture ad- missions, newspapers, medical fees, revived on an_ extensive scale. ‘Throughout the OuAEy, the wbole= | it is clear that the Fed- sale raids and arrests of militant] foreign born workers is being pushed by the bosses’ government agencies. Native born and foreign white work- ers and Negro workers are being framed for their activities in organ- izing the masses for struggle against ss system of national hatred and starvation. | The workers will answer these at- tacks against their struggle for exist- ence, their demands for unemploy- ment relief and insurance, by pouring onto the streets on March 28. North} and South, Negro and white, native}. and foreign born, they will demon- | strate on Saturday against boss ter- ror and starvation. In every city and town preparations are on foot to make March 28 a day} of militant struggle and protest. In Detroit, the International Labor | Defense has arranged two mass | meetings for Saturday, March 28, and} Sunday, March 29. These meetings} will also commemorate the heroic} Paris Communards of 1871. Gross Misheff, editor of the Bul-| garian Communist paper, and Steve | Cojeron, section organizer of the Communist Party, who were beaten by the police and jailed by the bos for 60 days because they lead a dem- onstration against a Jim Crow res- taurant, will be speakers at both meetings. These two comrades were railroaded te jail because of their fight tor Negro rights, just as August Yokinen has been ordered deported | because at the mass trial in New| York at which he was expelled from | the Communist Party for white! chauvinism, he repudiated his chauy- inistic tendencies and pledged solidar- | ity with the Negro masses and to| fight for Negro rights. These meetings will welcome back | (CONTINUED 03 PAGE THREE: CIGAR STRIKERS CALL MASS PICKET De Luxe Cigar Factory. This Morning NEW YORK.—‘the striking cigar | workers of the Blum De Luxe Cigar | Factory at 40 East End Ave will stage a mass picketing before the ‘actory today at 7 o'clock.” Picketing 11 continue throughout the day until 3} o'clock, and will be repeated every} day il the boss is forceci to settle the strike on the dem: is of the strikers. | The strike resulted in the failure of the boss to live up to the agree- | ment which was made following the] successful strike of hort time ago. In protest against this breach of con- tract a shop committee was elected | and instructed by the workers to call on the boss, The boss promised to see the com- mittee at 4 o'clock on Friday. When the committee appeared, they were met by the boss together with a ser- geant and two cops. The»workers seeing the cops re- fused to negotiate. The boss then called in ten of the militant workers who led the previous strike and told them before the cops that they were Communists and were fired. The! workers then decided unanimously to! go on strike | | wi | and now everyihing hay eral Government, thru its secret service department, is working up war propaganda and furthering the attack against the foreign born work- ers through what appears to be one of the worst frame-ups ever manufactured by the bosses. Federal secret service men have arrested a Hungarian worker, Paul F. Kassay,.on the framed up charge of sabotage of the construction of the navy dirigible “Akron” at the Good- year-Zeppelin Co. plant, Akron, Ohio; The secret service agents are al- ready beginning to cook up all sorts of “evidence.” This is part of the Fish Committee campaign to jail and deport foreign born workers. It is a counter-attack by the capitalists to the nation-wide demonstrations on March 28, called by the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, the Com- mittee for the Protection of Foreign Born, and the International Labor Defense to protest against the perse- cution of Negro and foreign born workers and against all proposed laws for fingerprinting, deportation, ete. The story peddled by the capitalist newspapers is that Kassay “cone fessed” that he sabotaged the build- ing of the dirigible because he did not want to see it go up. At the first opportunity given him to make any public expression, Kas- say declared that the whole affair was a frame-up; that all the stories peddled about him are lies, concocted purely by the government dicks be- cause he is a militant foreign-born worker and a reader of radical liters ature. Kassay is now in jail on $25,000 bail on the charge of criminal syndical- ism. When asked by newspaper re- porters about the charge against him he said, “It is a dirty frame-up.” He said that he knew the government had a stool-pigeon by the name of “Petro” Working at the bench next to him. The federal authorities ad- mit that Petro was in their employ, “Petro” suggested that Kassay do | Some sabotage and that the federal authorities would pay his wife $3,000. There are many other obscure angles to the case about which the Daily Worker does not have clear re- ports. An investigation is being made so that all the facts can be presented to the readers of the Daily Worker, According to the Akron-Times Press Kassay is reported to have said: “I was trying to do something to help cen turned against me. It is a frame-up.” Many other rumors are being print- ed in the capitalist press to make the whole thing appear as a deep laid plot by the Communists, while it is very clear from the facts printed even by the capitalist press that the so~ colled sabotage, if any, was the plan of “Petro,” the agent of the U S Secret Service, in an endeavor to frame up other workers. The capitalist press throughout the entire country has already picked up this apparent frame-up in a drive against the Communist Party and in Communists. furthering their war preparations. The Akron frame-up is part of the as to demand the execution of all The New York ‘Mirr goes so far $475 in January to $483 in Decem- ber. 1930. Haye “real wages"—the amount of | medicine, hospital care, laundry, bar- ber service, toilet articles, telephone rates and tobacco, actu: pe Following the mass picketing, in| war propagenda started to speed up which all workers are urged to co-| war preparations by the War Policies perate, there will be a meeting at} Commission, headed by Secretary of cent more on the avei goods rataer than money received—ja year age ~ Hungarian Home 13} Slsv Strigh War Hurley, which has just concluded ils hearings ia Washington,