The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 10, 1931, Page 4

«uvusned by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc, daily except Sunday, at 50 East 18th Street, New York City. N. Y. Telephone Algonquin 7956-7. Cable: “DAIWORK.” Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 50 East 13th Street, New York, N. Y. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By wmaW everywhere: One year, $6; six months. $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs et Manhattan and Bronx, New York Ctiy. Foreign; one year, $8+ six months, $4.50. Page Four us + set my — sae TAKAMATSU TO SEE NEW iicaiaacmy | ep. WORKERS MURDERED FOR PROTESTING AGAINST JAPANESE SLUMS CTSA Npaytielati ge. sone By GRACE HUTCHINS RINCE Takamatsu, youngest brother of the Emperor of Japan, who is received in New York with his Princess in royal grandeur, has he would like to see the slums of because he is “interested in social italist America can show him slums easily th. In the world’s richest city he has only | in the official limousine, placed at his josal, one block a lea Broadway to “a poverty because wages are too low to rent charges in better: districts. While ey show him the “sights,” neither Walker nor r any other silk-hatted crook of the ception committee will ask the imperial about workers’ conditions in capitalist But workers ask—and demand an an- about the slums of Kobe, Tokyo, Osaka? at about unemployment in the imperialist on of the East? What about our murdered des who dared to protest against Japanese ism? Japan's Slums Cesspools of Misery Japan the slums go along the ground, while In America they go up in many-storied tene- That is the chief difference. The writer has been in working-class districts of Japanese cities and will never forget those cesspools of human misery. in ment buildings. Kobe boasts the worst slums in Japan. It is close to the great industrial city of Osaka where two thousand tall chimneys fill the air with smoke. We walked along nauseous alleyways in Kobe's working class districts. Cells open on the treet. No running water. No toilets; only an open c pool for public use. No street lights; no electric light in the cells. Rats run freely in the alleys carrying disease from worker to worker A cell or room is about 6 feet by 6 feet square, | sometimes 6 by 9. In this one room all members of a family are crowded together, sometimes 9 in a cell. It is the only place for everything— sleeping, cooking, washing, “living.” The rent for such a room is 5 sen, or about 214c a day, collected daily by the landlord’s agent. A bowl of the poorest rice costs 3 sen, but often the workers are too poor to get even 3 bowls of rice a day, to say nothing of anything ‘more. Every disease known to poverty flourishes in these surroundings. Tuberculosis spreads in the foul, damp air. Trachoma, that contagious dead- ly disease of the eyes, attacks one worker after another. Typhoid fever and other infectuous diseases pass quickly from one family to an- other, How could it be otherwise when unskilled workers are earning less than 50 sen (25c) a day, while skilled workers may get 80 sen or 40c? Jobless workers are not getting even these few cents. And unemployment is increasing in Japan. Official government figures admit 400,000 unemployed, but the number is probably more nearly 2,000,000. Unemployed workers rather than starve in the cities have been going back to the rural districts at the rate of 20,000 a month, according to official figures. This ex- odus to the country only puts an added burden on the tenant farmers, already desperately poor. From 50 to 60 per cent of the farmer's crop must go to the landowner. Yet for protesting against such conditions as these, workers havé been jailed, tortured, and murdered. Before carrying out its raids on “Reds,” the government built extra barracks as jails for those it planned to arrest. A thousand workers were jailed in one concerted drive, sim- ilar to the Red Raids in the United States in | 1919-20. Workers of the United States will demon- strate their solidarity with Japanese workers in protest against Prince and Princess Takamatsu and the ruling class they represent The Significance ot Today’s De- portations ot the Foreign-Born foe the deportation of foreign born work- ers is so intensive and so extensive as to be distinct from what it was before. the partial stabilization of capitalist , the deportation, on a mass scale, of born workers was only a menace in- ed to intimidate these workers and prevent m from expressing their opposition to capi- An actual deportation of 1 was then unpractical, t, or neutralized the influence of rational ypon the reserve army—it left is reserve army as large as before, whereas it cessary for the capitalist class to swell it hrough rationalization, to render it larger than it ever was, not only in order to check the Ac- tive Army and prevent it from securing during the favorable economic conjuncture (during the relative expansion of industrial activity) an amelioration of its situation, but also in order to exploit it still more and worsen its already bad condition. Today, instead, the mass deportation of foreign born workers is more than a menace. It is more than a “possibility” arising from the impending approval of a new and more vicious legislation. Naturally, the existing legislation is somewhat “archaic” when compared with the proposed one. But in spite of that the mass deportation of for- eign born workers is a dire actuality, a dreadful Teality too patent to be denied. Why? The present economic crisis with the attendant recession of industrial activity far more than triples the size of the reserve army. But that is not all. This crisis is by no means the same as the cyclical crisis which occurred nine or ten years ago. That marked the incep- tion of capitalist partial stabilization. This marks the liquidation of such stabilization. That had as an immediate perspective a temporary solu- tion of the post-war general crisis. This faces an intensification of the same. Not only does this present crisis increase alarmingly the re- serve army. It radicalizes this army, it trans- forms this army into a fighting and militant sec- tion of the working class. Today, therefore, this large reserve army be- comes a menace for the capitalist class, it spells ruin. Once this army realizes, under the pres- sure of misery and starvation, that working class unity is necessary in the struggle against hunger and exploitation, it is no longer a competing qualitative talist ration: alization. force to be utilized by the capitalist against the working class, but is instead a strengthening force to be hurled by the working class against the capitalist class, The mass deportation of foreign born workers does not turn against the capitalist class. It is wrong to think, as many do, that this mass dé- portation would be unpractical for the capitalist class even today, that it would decimate the permanent reserve army needed by the capitalist class. Yes, it is utterly wrong to think so. This decimates the fighting militant proletarian army —without considerably reducing the reserve army which can be enlarged at any time by a new wave of rationalization. ‘The renovation of a long forgotten law which authorizes the “voluntary” deportation of dis- tressed “aliens,” shows this quite clearly. It shows that the capitalist class is determined to have a mass deportation of foreign born work- ers. In fact, through the so-called “voluntary” deportation the capitalist class is endeavoring to send out of the country not only the workers who in ever greater numbers participate in the class struggle, but even those who, although dis- satisfied and ‘restless, do not as yet participate in it and express their unrest by wishing to “go back.” The capitalist class knows that very soon these workers will join in the struggle, The working class must, therefore, close its ranks and oppose a Solid, indissoluble unity of action to the mass deportation of foreign born workers. Such unity of action must be the im- mediate aim of the working class in the present situation. The realization of this aim will be a powerful revolutionary lever without which it is materially impossible to defeat the well planned and organized campaign of the capitalist class, firmly determined to press the deportation of thousands upon thousands of foreign born workers, The native elements of the American working class must not fall under the sinister influence of capitalist propaganda. They must not al- low this pernicious propaganda to inject into their minds the false notion that a mass depor- tation of foreign born workers will help them, They must understand that this mass deporta- tion cannot but harm them. And together with the other elements of the working class they must fight against it—fight and win. Opportunism on March 28 By B. D. AMIS 2 ha sharp offensive of the imperialist bosses, their drives against the foreign-born workers, the increased lynchings of Negro workers, and the all-around sharpening of the yoke of per- secution against the laboring masses, made March 28 an important day in the history of the toiling masses. Recognizing these facts, this day was set aside as the national day of protest against lynching, discrimination, and deportations. The Party’s fractions in the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, the International Labor Defense, and the Council for Protection of Foreign-Born were instructed to mobilize the membership and all other available forces, All district organizations of the Party received detailed instructions and a model plan as a guide for making prepara- tions. The results were so far from the mass character that they should have attained, that we were obliged to assume that little or no preparations were made by the district organi- zations. Recent examination of the work of four of the largest districts of the Party by the Po- litical Bureau, have shown that the assumption was correct. It is quite evident that the comrades under- estimated the importance of this solidarity cam- paign, and instead of the districts actually tak- ing hold and mobilizing the forces at their dis- posal to assist the three organizations which had the leadership of the demonstration, the entire work was relegated to one or two com- and maybe the International Labor Defense and the Council for the Protection of Foreign-Born. What meeting and marches were held, have not been reported to the Daily Worker or to the Central Office. There was a total lack of co- operation and insufficient preparation. The dis- organized manner in which the few meetings that we have received reports on, were con- ducted, is an indication of the necessity of changing our methods of work. Never before in the history of our Party have we had such a favorable situation to arouse the indignation of the masses of Negro workers and foreign-born workers, as we have today, to pro- test against the persecution directed against them. Much as the comrades are aware of these facts, yet we notice that there was manifested an unconscious reluctance to supply the motivat- ing power for the success of our solidarity cam- paigns. It is little short of criminal neglect that the demonstrations of March 28 were a failure. Regardless of the results of these demonstra- tions, the comrades are instructed to imme- diately send in the reports from the outlying sections and districts, whether meetings prepar- ing for the 28th were held, and on the activi- ties of the 28th itself. To create mass action among the Negro and white workers against the terrific and savage persecutions of the toiling masses, it is neces- peri to build cit Bh mass sentiment for struggle, successful mobilization of native and rade of een of el fo oe Bi favicon Heo ted wie yrs Yo oe | | | Party Life The Role of Fractions in Mass Organizations INE of the main shortcomings in the work of our Party seems to be at the present moment | the inability to place our fractions in the mass | organizations, particularly the T. U. U. L. and the reformist unions, on a leading capacity. We find today that in most of the reformist | unions such as the building trades, our fractions do not seem to understand how to lead the work of the Party and the revolutionary opposition. In some cases we have functioning T. U. U. L. groups within these locals but the comrades have | a tendency to substitute the opposition groups for the fractions. This shows that our comrades within these organizations do not understand properly the basic difference between the two. Substituting one for the other means in the long run to eliminate the Party from these organiza- tions. The growing unemployment especially in the building trades and the discontent on the part | of the broad membership of these unions as a | result of the unwillingness and inability of the leadership of these unions to organize struggles against the bosses on the basis of the wage cut and the murderous speed-up, places before our fractions a very important task—in fact the most important task that our fractions were ever faced with, and that is to utilize and direct this mass discontent of the workers to the channels of the T. U. U. L, Unfortunately this is not done. There are many convincing examples on hand to prove that where we have carried on some campaign on the basis of concrete trade issues, the workers were ready to support us and ma: of them joined our opposition groups within these locals and turned out to be much more active than some of the Party members. We had cases where the non-Party workers stated openly at the meetings of the T. U. U. L. groups that they are losing confidence in our ability to organize the work simply because we were unable to place the Party membership at the head of these organizations. In many in- stances non-Party workers volunteered to visit Party members to find out why they don’t at- tend local union meetings and also the group meetings. It went on to such an extent that non-Party workers placed on charges the Party workers for their indifference to the campaigns of the union. (Blumkin case in the Bricklayers’ Union.) Another serious shortcoming is the fact that our units and sections in spite of the repeated demands by the district to check up on the Trade Union Work of the comrades do not carry out this decision. In many Cases unit and sec- tion buros refuse to release comrades from sec- tion work so as to give these comrades sufficient time to work in the T. U. U. L. In the fractions of the building trades there are from 300 to 400 Party members of which only 20 per cent to 30 per cent are members of the T. U. U. L. and a smaller per cent of these do active work in the union and T. U. U. The new section committees must place on the order of business the checking up of the com- rades. Too many comrades as a result of the in- efficiency on the part of the units to check up on them spend their time in organizations of lesser importance and pay no attention to the work of the union. The section conventions must create efficient departments in the sections to properly check up and direct the work of the comrades in the work of the Party and especially. trade union activity. We are long past the stage where com- rades can put up all kinds of alibis why this or that and something else. At the present time the workers in the reactionary unions are mov- ing and it is up to the fractions of the Party in these unions to be able to lead these workers into the channels of the revolutionary move- ment. 3 Only through the everyday struggles of the workers and our participation in these struggles will we be able to build the Party and the T.UUL L, BRAVERMAN. Organizer of Building Trades. monstrate their solidarity and their willingness to give stubborn resistance to capitalist persecu- tion and starvation. All manifestations of un- der-estimating the significance of this work, all passive reluctance to mobilize masses of workers for participation in meetings and demonstra- tions, all tendencies to relegate to a handful of comrades the struggle to build united fronts, must be sharply combatted and condemned. Methods of work that were used in the March 28 demonstrations are opportunistic and have no place in the revolutionary movement, The must = 35 PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE, U. Y.C.L. Discussion Opens This article is the first of the Young Com- munist League pre-convention articles to be published every Tuesday and Friday in the Daily Worker, The articles will continue up to the League Convention to take place on June 7th in New York City. Both League and Party active functionaries and members are asked to write articles dealing with the problems of the youth and the experiences in building the League in the various districts. All articles are to be sent to Young Communist Léague, Box 28, Station D, New York City, N. Y. Left On the Starting Pots By F. H. HE Enlarged Buro Meeting of March Ist, in estimating the results of the Two Months Shock Plan of Work, stated in no uncertain terms that no change has been made in the work of the Labor Sports Union. The comrades of the Labor Sports Union who were armed with correct decisions to remedy the situation in our sports work, were still at the starting point. While beginnings of changes could be recorded in almost all phases of our work—the comrades in our sports work were “left at the starting post.” In examining the situation in the Labor Sports Union we find: 1. That the correct line laid down by the NEC at the Fourth National Convention at Cleveland and the basic decisions have not yet reached the membership.in order to effect the necessary change in our sports work. One of the foremost tasks of our comrades will be to popu- Jarize the Fourth Convention decisions and take energetic steps to carry them out. What were the basic decisions of the Fourth Convention? (a) ‘10 tear ourselves loose from ur isolation and sectarianism which resulted in narrow poli- cies of “playing games with ourselves.” In order to reach the young workers whom we want to win away from the influence of the boss con- trolled sport movement, the Convention decided that we turn our faces to the young workers in the mills, mines, factories, and the trade unions —to the work places of the young workers. There we must bring the worker sportsmen the mes- sage ©_ building the workers sport movement and expose the boss-controlled sport organizations. This work of building factory and trade union sport clubs and teams is of basic importance and will establish our sport movement on a solid bed-rock foundation. (b) To win the millions of young worker ath- letes which are in the boss-controlled sport move- ment it will be necessary to send class-conscious worker athletes into boss-controlled sport or- ganizations, While mixing with these young workers within their social and sport circles we must raise demands for the interests of the membership, ‘These demands will be formulated and based on issues within the particular clubs in addition to the general demands of the Labor Sports Union. Partial demands will rise out of a strug- gle for democratic elections; rank and file con- trol of the organization's policies; fight against race discrimination; lower fees and dues with special demands and consideration for the un- employed; free use of public playgrounds; swim- ming pools; gyms for the workers; the right of individual members and the whole organization to support and participate in the Workers In- ternational Athletic Meet (the Spartakiad), etc. Athletes won from boss-controlled sport organ- izations must not totally divorce themselves from former friends and acquaintances, but must work to win them into the Labor Sports Union. (c) To organize popular mass sport activity for the young workers, This means that all the existing clubs of the LSU must have such sport facilities and teams which will attract the youth. slip-shod routine methods (which objectively give support to the enemy) of conducting na- tional campaigns of solidarity.. Sectarian pro- paganda methods do not meet the requirements of the present period. Carefully planned, mass agitational methods are adapted to this period to assure maximum results. Well organized, sys- tematic and energetic campaigns must be put into force; masses of Negro workers and white workers must be mobilized to voice their dis- satisfaction with, and fight against the existing ie of terror directed against the working class, especially the tpn geed omy pele pinto S. A. Basketball, baseball, track and field, swimming, boxing and wrestling, etc., must be encouraged. Also our sport meets must popularize our prin- ciples and our organization. Therefore, invita- tion open road and street runs must become a vital part of our technical sports program. Also the children must not be neglected—street meets, sport carnivals, festivals must be arranged with the entire neighborhood solicited for children to participate. (d) To send a large delegation of worker athletes from the U. S. to the Spartakiad in Berlin. Through this campaign we must reach far into the heart of the boss-controlled sport movement and win large numbers into the LSU. This Spartakiad campaign must develop into a mass counter movement amongst the workers against the bosses’ international sport meet (Olympics) in Los Angeles in 1932. This cam- paign must stimulate active recruiting of new members and must build a mass circulation for our sport press—“The Sport and Play.” It must be remembered that the “Sport and Play” is¢he | only workers’ sport paper exposing and fighting against all the scores of boss-published magazines and the bourgeois sport press. sport. As stated at the Enlarged Buro these basic de- cisions have not been popularized among the LSU membership and surely not carried out, Therefore, drastic steps must be taken with the consequent decisions to remedy the bad situation in the LSU: 1, That Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Pitts- burgh, and New York as important industrial centers, strongholds of reformist and boss con- trolled sport movement, be chosen as points of concentration. That the comrades of the na- tional board be sent to these districts to help the district comrades in their work. 2. That sports be an important feature of the National Youth Day to involve the mass partici- pation of worker athletes in the sports program on NYD. In this manner NYD becomes an im- portant step in the preparations for the Sparta- kiad. On NYD the Spartakiad campaign should be at its highest point with the district Sparta- kiad elimination meets taking place on NYD. 3. That we turn to a more systematic strug- gle against the AAU and all boss-controlled sport organizations by raising partial demands based on local issues. All of the districts must begin to issue leaflets with partial demands to win the support of the worker athletes. 4, That major emphasis be placed on the or- ganization of baseball teams and leagues in all districts. Baseball is the “basic commodi' in American sports without which the LSU cannot grow into a mass sport organization. 5. That our fractions and YCL districts make a more systematic check-up and give more as- sistance in the organization of United Front Spartakiad Conferences and general stimulus to the Spartakiad Campaign. Especially must this be emphasized to our comrades in mass organ- izations such as trade unions, language clubs, etc, A large representative delegation of ath- Jetes must be sent to the Spartakiad in Berlin. Through the successful execution of these de- cisions we will be able to develop mass popular interest in the Spartakiad campaign. This will insure the striking of effective blows against the boss-controlled sport organizations and building of a workers’ sport movement in the U. 8. Workers! Join the Party of Your Class! Communist Party U. 8. A. P. O. Box 87 Station D. New York City. Please send me more information on the Com- munist Party. NAMC ..ccccccctececcecccescccscsssscccccsccsees Occupation .....cecccscserversesesss ABC seveee -Mail this to the Central Office, Communist Party, P, O, Box 67 Station D, New York City, ’ ism” is used as an excuse to establish the mame rines and a branch of the National City Bank, but right here in New York City. And it was given prominent comment in a box on the front page of the N. Y. Times. The “it” mentioned was the incident that occurred when Mayor Walker, returning from Hollywood ladies to Betty Compton and still “organically sound” slipped into the City Hall by the back door, was confronted with nothing more or less than 's Black Cat! ° Ah, that was significant! Not only a cat, but a black cat! And parading back and forth be- fore the mayor of the world’s metropolis! ‘The witch doctors of the capitalist press went into a huddle about it—but like all doctors they dis- agreed on the diagnosis. Evil spirits were afoot—or possibly a-horse- back. In the land of capitalist civilization, where cyclical crises of capitalist production are still charged to sun-spots and the length of women’s skirts, experts disagreed on the mean- ing of a black cat. So authority was consulted. In one book, “The Mascot Book,” it was said that 2 black cat means good luck to everybody but @ Chinese. And Mayor Walker was not a Chinese, It would insult the Chinese to even mention it. So another book was consulted, “The Handy Book of Curi- | ous Information,” and there, at last, but—alas! in contradiction to the first book, it was found that: “The black cat has been regarded as the incarnation of the devil.” Oh, the devil, you say! Well, we knew long ago that he was in the City Hall! But also we knew that it would be a good idea if the Australian bushmen would send some mis- sionaries to redeem the superstitious heathen o Christian America to simple sanity. No Money for Unemployed! Pittsburgh jobless, when demanding of that city bread for the starving, were answered by the mayor and chief of police that the city “couldn't afford” it, Now it turns out that the city could afford, however, a $3,000 mother of lavatory for the said police chiefs, and $3,865 worth of knick- nacks, oil paintings, Persian rugs and what not for the mayor, And if it will teach a lesson in the necessity of breaking down the “respect for authority” which is drilled into the workers by every agency of capitalist propaganda, we will mention that— when the Pittsburgh populace descended upon the City Council in protest at some other little grafts, one councilman, invoking the. religious credulity of the audience, cried out: “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely!” Which reminds us, that in the furor of “civic virtue” that has been sweeping New York City, | While all the protestant divines and Jewish rabbis have found cause to yap against ‘Tammany cor- ruption, the Catholic priests have been making @ noise exactly similar to the well known clam. What, may we ask, has Cardinal Hayes got in- vested in the Walker administration? Kind of Particular Out in Los Angeles, the uppish ladies who call themselves “clubwomen” have got together and decided what it needed. And it is not a good five-cent cigar cither. ‘They. want, and they are going to introduce a resolution to that effect in the California Fed- eration of Women’s Clubs’ convention which meets at Fresno, April 22—they want, we repeat, a law that children born in America shall be denied American citizenship if their parents were born outside of America. Children will, therefore, take due notice to pick their parents earefully before they dare to be born. As for us, we propose that anybody born in America since the Declaration of Independence be deported, no matter where, but deported. Some way, as Col, Woods of the Hoover com- mission “for employment” might say, must be found to “relieve the situation.” But, after all, can the colonel afford to admit that there + a “situation?” The April Communist ‘The April COMMUNIST is now ready ans contains the following articles: “In the Footsteps of Lenin,” from Pravda. “How We Must Fight Against the a Fascists and Social-Fascists,” by ert Browder Neat becaitaedt gi en ah L Amter. bd, “A Review of the Political Soetidien the Par= liamentary Stage,” by Harrison George. “Overcome Looseness in Opr Mass Work,” by Jack Johnstone. “The Crisis of the Jim-Crow Nationalism of the Negro Bourgeoisie,” by Harry Haywood, “How We Build the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition in Germany,” by F, Emmerich. “The Role of the Red Army in Civil Wer end Reconstruction.” “Bourgeois Democracy and Proletatrian Dieta- torship,” the Theses of Comrade Lenin adopted by the First Congress of the Communist. Inter- national, March 1919, Two letters on the Paris Communist, By Ka Marx. Outline for Discussion of the Agrarian Susi tion, Lesson Two,