The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 18, 1931, Page 6

. a ron ne * Pibiiehed by the Comprodaily Publishing Co. Tn 13th Street, New York City. N. Y. Telephone Algonquin Address and mail all chec Page Six sto the Daily Worker, 50 East 13th Street, @aliy Szcopt Sunday, at 60 Hast 956-7. Cable: “DAIWORK.” New York, N. ¥. IMPORTANCE OF MAY DAY TO NEGRO WORKERS By WILLIAM PATTERSON, Negro Workers: ‘ARS ago the workers of the world proclaimed May Day a day of international working class solidarity. Theypro 1ed May Ist a day when the workers would ise a united voice 6f protest against the continued exploitation and oppression of the bosses. Negro workers, it is time for you to ta rock of your position.. Never before were yo conditions more des- perate than now. Hundreds of thousands of you are without jobs, tens of thousands of you are starving or facing starvation. Poverty, Sick- Tess, disease, and prosti 1 are knocking &t your doors. Wages are being reduced on evefy side, thousands who are working are only work- ing part time.- The bosses are constantly driv- ing you.at a faster and faster pace. Their only thought is of more profits, but accidents and death are your reward. You are doubly ex- ploited as Negroes and as workers, Victims of Rent Gouging Landlords You are forced to live in segregated Negro districts. This discrimination limits the number of houses available to you and rents mount to the skies. Black and white landlords alike are brutally driving you into the strets when you cannot pay. The miserable housing conditions under which you must live causes an increase ih sickness, disease, insanity and suicides. You &re surrounded on all sides ‘by misery and suf- fering All the time the bosses live in luxury. As your misery and suffering increases, their wealth amd happiness increases. They are growing fat oh the misery they create for you. They are Yiying million dollar parties for their wives and daughters while you starve. Every morning they ®éme out of the cabarets and dives they have located. in the streets on which you live, parad- ing their wealth and luxury before your naked- fiéss. Drunken and corrupt, they carry the dis- ‘@ase of this corruption to your very door. They are prostituting your wives and daughters. Boss Government Reeks With Corruption ‘Their corruption is everywhere to be seen. The government. of ‘Tammany reeks with graft and underworld rackets. The judges who give the landlords: power to throw you into the streets are bought and sold like the food you need and would buy if you had money. The bosses need these tools, and spend their money for them. .The same & ent refuses to give You one cent for the relief cf your misery. But there is no difference between Tammany Hall and the. republican and socialist parties They are all three of them tools of the bosses. Whether one or the other rules your misery re- mains the same. The corrupted officials of the American Federation of Labor sell the workers to, the bosses on every side. The hand of all of. thesé are joined together and raised against you. When you ask for unemployment irisur- Alice at the city halls and other places where these parasites and vultures sit and discu ew ways and mearis'for carrying on their system of robbery: and starvation, they use their police thus and gangsters to curb your militancy. Misleaders Betray Struggles Where are your own so-called leaders? The Randolphs have sold the thousands who are members of the Brotherhood of Sleping Car Porters to the bosses. They have allowed the corrupt officials of the American Federation of Labor to divide this.union into many sections and thereby destroy its effectiveness. They have promised along with these graft loving crooks of the labor movement to put a stop at all costs to the cries of the black masses for better con- ditions. Your Du Bois nd other misleaders have called in the biggest of the bosses to sit upon the committees of their organizations. They are talking lidarity” but this will mean only your acceptance of their policy of working with the boses against: your interests, and the inter- ests of your class, Their race loyalty holds no greater relief for you than the white suprem- acy cry of the bosses. ynch Gangs and Courts Busy is to divide the working class and rule. They are encouraging the white workers to mob violence against you and are trying to lead you into an atack upon the for- eign-born. At all costs the bosses try to devide the working c! Last year there were 43 lynch- ings. This year, already 10 haye taken place and more are being prepared. preparing a mass lynching in Scottsboro, Ala. ‘This is truly to be a holiday of blood. They mean to split the working class and crush all resistance to mass unemployment, mass hunger, and mags misery The bosses are feverishly preparing for war. ‘They seek to turn your attention from the na- ture of their starvation government and the source of your misery. War for them means untold millions in profits just as in 1914. But war means even m The: to crush the workers’ and peasants’ government of Soviet Russia. They try to crush the on where there is no unemployment, where wages are going up, where the work © the bosses and are bettering at an unheard of pace their own standard of living. On May Day the worl of America, together with the workers al the world will unite in mighty demor ation against hunger, wage cuts, lynching, and imperialist wars. May Day belongs to the workers of the world. But the e today. bosses, through their police are trying to keep | This the | the workers of America off the streets. workers must and will never allow. American workers, you are part of the work~- ing class and must demonstrate together with the rest of the workers on this day of working class solidarity! Negro workers, form May Day Committees! Down Tools on May Day and come out in the streets! Show your class solidarity with the white workers who are struggling, under the leadership of the revolutionary working class organizations to prepare to put an end to this | government of the exploiters and their tools. Communist Training School in District 10 By P. €. ‘is with genuine alarm that the Christian “Science Monitor of Boston, in its issue of March 25th, writes: “A Communist, school for students of six states has started a month's training period in Kansas Gity, the first short course in Communism to be given in the Middle \West—purpose admitted to make’ Communists of majority of Americans.” “Indeed there is ample justification for the egmeern shown by this religious sheet in regards tothe District 10 full time training school which has Just. been concluded. The student body of #Bis school clearly indicates that the frontiers of the’ Party organization are rapidly being extend- ed‘irito the Southwest and Middle West, that Communism is intrenching itself in this region. Of.the 25 students at the school, 5 came from ‘Texas, 8 from Oklahoma, two from Arkansas, 6from Kansas, 4 from Iowa and 1 from Nebras- Ka. Twenty-three of these twenty-five were na- tive born, and of these 33, seventeen were still living in the states of their birth. In tracing a little’ further back, the interesting fact is re- vealed that 9 of the students are grandchildren of Civil War yeterans! Eight of the students were women. Two of them Negroes. Average age of the students was 22. Average length of in the Party—or League—only 11 months, of the comrades being in the movement Iés8 than 4 months! “This reflects the rapid assimilation of new Daily Worker--- Best May Day Organizer WAL bg By 1. AMTER. ws DAY mobilization, May Day organization, bringing of the masses to the demonstra- tlons and marches, organization of grievance yamittees in the shops, mobilization of the un- t ed for building the Unemployed Councils, exposure of the misery and starvation of the ugemployed,, fight against lynching and against psecution of the foreign born, organization intervention of the imperialist powers in } Soviet Union—these are the vital questions the workers ‘on May Day. it better organ have the workers of this ntry for reaching the masses, for organizing ‘and leading them in struggle, than the > Worker? What better mouthpiece has the fighting working class than this fighting organ, the Daily Worker? ‘The Daily Worker must reach hundreds of of workers before May Day. It must them to struggle and to demonstration on Day. All working class organizations fight- for the interests of their class, against. the , the fareist American Federation of Labor socialist party leadership, must push the ly Worker in the drive before May Day! Build up, spread, distribute, circulate, secure at the shops, in the unions, unemployed » in the neighborhoods, in all mass or- ganizations, for the Daily Worker, the fighting bo of the revolutionary American working s! The Daily Worker is our organ—make it our Pet organizer! . elements which is proceeding in the course of turbulent Party growth in the middle western and southwestern states. A significant feature of the social composition of the students—re- flecting the shifting of population from country to city in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas—is the fact that many of the students had worked on farms as well as in industry. This is of par- ticular importance for the development of agrar- ian work, a key task confronting the district. Because of the political backwardness and in- experience of the students, the curriculum was boiled down to three basic courses: fundamen- tals of Communism, Party organization, and trade union work. In addition to these three main subjects there were special lecture courses on Negro work, history of the Three Interna- tionals, history of the Party, and current events. The final week of the school was mainly taken up with practical problems: District three months plan of work, May Day, new forms of unem- ployment work, shop papers, organization of mass meetings and demonstrations, workers’ correspondence, and how to conduct study classes and groups. Some time was also given to par- ticipation in practical work. Comrades E. Gardos of the Chicago district, and Paul Cline, Kansas D. O., were the instructors. The students manifested remarkable earnest- ness and diligence in their studies, striving hard to overcome their great handicap of no previous Communist training. Exact punctuality was de~ veloped in the class and study group routine. Discipline which was ragged during the first week, was rapidly improved through the exercise of frank self-criticism engaged in by the entire student body. ‘Towards the closing week of school an extraordinary high level of enthus- iasm, responsibility and discipline was reached and maintained. Every week marked a visible growth in the Communist stature of the students. At the close of the school all of the students without excepion, placed themselves at the dis- posal of the District Committee, declaring their readiness to undertake any work assigned them anywhere. As a result of the distribution of the forces developed in the school, the district apparatus was greatly strengthened.. The center, Kansas City, was reinforced with three capable com- rades. Three of the students were sent to Texas, two to Omaha, and one to Sioux City. The rest were sent back to their home cities and towns. Holding of the schoo] was made possible only through the unparalleled enthusiasm of the Party membershtp and sympathizers. Comrades in Kansas City, Sioux City and Omaha made ex- traordinary sacrifices in financing the school. The students themselves suffered many hard- ships in regards to travelling, housing and feed- ing, without complaint. District 10, the largest in the Party, both in point of territory and population has always been regarded as one of the backward districts— a weak link in the Party structure . But this weakness of the district, this lagging behind, is now overcome. The district training school re- flects, and will accelerate .the growth of the Party in the important middle-western and | southwestern statr- ‘The bosses are | overnment: | = soy SUSECRIPTION RATES! Wn, By mail everywhere; ear, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs vt Manhattan and Bronx New York Ctiy. Foreign: one year, $8- six months, $4.50. By BURCK. NEWS ITEM:—Police Commissioner Mulrooney of New York decorates policemen for bravery. ad PARTY LIFE Conducted by the Organization Department of the Central Committee, Communist Party, U.S.A. Help the Party Fight Against Burocracy of the Party to eliminate it, still stands out as one of the important obstacles to the develop- ment of our Party and our mass work, Buro- cracy is based chiefly upon fear of the masses. Burocrats are unwilling to develop new forces, to develop rank and file initiative, to share responsible work, for feat that these measures will mean a decrease in their own control, will expose their weaknesses to the sharper criticism of a larger Party circle, and might even lead to their replacement if they are not very com- petent, by fresher and stronger forces. Besides it is much harder work to educate and convince a large circle of proletarian functionaries of the correctness of @ policy, and to critically examine and decide on all the new suggestions and ideas brought up by them, than it is to merely issue mechanical orders and instructions along the old familiar lines. Of course, the excuse given by the burocrat for stifling rank-and-file ini- tiative is that “mistakes will be made.” But the mistakes will be compensated a hundred- fold by the experience and development that will be gained by the membership. ‘There are very few incurable burocrats in our Party. However, many functionaries have ele~ ments of bureaucracy and burocratic practices. Many of them are unaware of their burocracy, or do not know specifically in what it consists, or are unclear as to how to correct it. The fight against burocracy must be the fight of the Party as a whole, under the guidance of its leading committees. One of the most effective weapons in this fight is merciless publicity in the Party press. The Organization Department of the Central Committee therefore invites all Party members as well as non-Party workers to make full use of the Party Life column for the fight against burocracy. Of course, we do not want general articles against burocracy. Anyone can write them (even the worst burocrats). Send in specific names and cases. We want the whole story— all the facts, though of course, discretion will be used in printing names. Make sure your facts are correct and then go to it! Of course in addition to exposures of burocratic practices, we must have suggestions and recommendations on how the particular situation can be remedied. And it must be borne in mind that the fight against burocracy is meaningless unless linked up in the closest possible way with the general tasks of the Party. The District and Section leadership in particular must take the lead in correcting the burocratic practices exposed in Party Life. Of course, Party .Life will continue to print the same material as before, and if we get too crowded, we may hand some of the worst cases of burocracy a couple of columns over to Jorge, where they are liable to meet an even worse fate than in Party Life and get completely burnt up under a rain of Red Sparks, A few articles in Party Life attacking buro- cratic practices have already had an excellent effect in correcting them, In general, we wel- come the growing tendency of the lower ranks of the Party and non-Party workers to make the Party Life column their own, ‘It is partly for this reason that we expect the use of this column to give real results in the task of elim- inating burocracy. Organization Department of the Central Committee. Technical Note—If you can get hold of a° typewriter, type your articles, and if you type them, make them double-space and on one side of the paper. And, preferably, no longer than this article. + Fight lynching. Fight deporta- tion of foreign born. Elect dele- gates to your city conference for Protection of foreign born, | Bureaucracy in our work, despite the efforts First National Youth Day; Lessons and Tasks By TONY MINERICH. 'HE recent conference of Y. C. of New York, Philadelphia, Boston and New Haven has clearly shown that the decisions of the enlarged buro in regard to the organization of the first National Youth day in this country have not been put into effect to any serious degree. Not.only did we fail, up till now, to popularize this day of struggle amongst the young workers, but even failed to begin to mob- ilize our own membership for this important event in the life of our League. Now what are some of the reasons for this slowness in our pre- paratory work? 1. Lack of. understanding of the meaning of NYD as_a day of struggle; for example, a ten- dency to look upon NYD as a “Big picnic.”* Also, tendencies to. separate NYD from the general work and campaigns of the League and thus look upon it as “another campaign,” with the result that NYD will not become the culminating point of’ all our work, especially in: connection’ with’ unemployment, wage cuts, terror and the war danger: 2. The failure of district committees and Na- tional shock troops to bring NYD to the lower ranks of the League, as well as the mobilization of the Party, the Revolutionary Trade Unions, Unemployed Councils, LSU and other youth or- ganizations. An example of this was New Haven, where the leading comrades were so enthusiastic that “good” reports were sent to the N. O. (even offered medals to the organization of NYD) but “at home” failed to eyen bring their own de- cisions to the membership. . This attitude pre- vails in one or another form in the other dis- tricts. i 3. Sectarianism thet. still prevails in our ranks, acts as a lever in preventing us from reaching large masses of young workers. ‘There are too many tendencies amongst leading com- rades to make decisions. in top committees, to be satisfied at. this, and not make any attempts to carry these decisions to the young workers. 4. The failure of the NEC to still further con- eretize the decisions of the enlarged buro and mobilize the district leadership and membership for NYD, thru the press. Significance of National Youth Pay. While the revolutionary movement, as a whole in the United States, has already succeeded in establishing its own reyolutionary traditions and days of struggle (May First—Haymarket Riot— Ruthenberg Memorial, etc.), however, this can- not be said specifically about the Revolutionary Youth movement, like in other countries (Ger- many). ‘The bosses, in order to maintain their grip over the working class youth, have established in this country. special days for intensifying jingo and anti-working class propaganda (July 4th, Decoration Day, Armistice Day, Army Day, Child Health Day, etc.). In order to fight. these bour- geois days of jingoist preparations, it is abso- lutely essential to build up our own traditional working class youth day of struggle. This is especially important now that the United States is taking the initiative in organizing a block against the Soviet Union, and that this is done under the cover of more pacifist phrases and organiv«tions. This increesed activity of the pa- cifists is another proof of the nearness of the war. 4 ‘The very conditions in the country at the pres- ent time are extremely favorable and ripe for developing such youth days of struggle. Over 2,500,000 young workers aré unemployed. With the result that the youth today, is becoming more and more desperate, is ready for militant struggle, is continually migrating from town to ‘town looking in vain for jobs, in this way forc- ing them to leave their parents, and sleeping in flop houses, parks, subways, etc., as well as the increased number of suicides as a result of hopelessness and desperation among weaker ele- ments, who cat ‘see the way of struggle. The Hoover stagger system affects the youth more than any other section of the werjing class, the average wage of a young worker being from ten to twelve dollars, and in the case of the South from four to six and much worse for the Negro youth, with the result that the stagger system still further slashes the wages of the young L. organizers | | workers to a point.that makes it impossible for them even to exist, let alone support their fam- ilies, which is the lot of many young workers. This mass unemployment, wage cuts, inhuman speed-up and long hours, has already sériously undermined the health of the youth. In addi- tion, and as a part of this, the youth is fast being militarized, prepared for the coming im- perialist war, in which America will play the leading role. It is against these evils that we must mob- ilize the working class youth to protest and stage militant demonstrations on National Youth Day. In this lies the political significance of our first Youth Day of Struggle. How to Prepare For National Youth Day. The success of NYD will depend greatly upon the amount of preparatory work carried on amongst the young workers. Our first task is to make National Youth Day known to all mem- bers of the YCL, with the view of making every Young Communist.an organizer for NYD. Each unit of the: League must have a thorough and concrete discussion,as to how and where it will concentrate for the mobilization of the young workers in the city, town, factory, youth organ- ization, farm, school, playground, pool room, and other places where the young workers are found. The most important issues’ around which to mobilize the youth are unemployment insurance and immediate relief, against the Hoover stag- ger system, and wage cuts, against capitalist mil- itarism and for the defense of the soviet U- ion, exposing. the role of such organizations as the YMCA, Boy Scouts, Boys and Girls ©: !'s, ‘Four H Clubs, National Guards, CMTC, ROTC, YPSL, ete.; and form a United Front from below with the rank and file of these organizations, who are disgusted. with the leadership and. fascist role of these organizations. Of these. the outstanding slogan should be, “Not a cent for. militarism—all war funds to the unemployed.” In addition, cach city. and town should» work out concrete and immediate de- mands based on the local issues, as for example, free carfare fot the uneraployed youth, no dis- crimination against: the-youth when the few crumbs are handed out by the’ charity organiza- tions, the establishment of trade schools under worker control, etc. In regard to the organ.7xtional tasks, the dis- tricts must stucy and put into effect the organ- izational proposals contaired in the outline sent out by the NEC on NYD. In his document the main emphasis is laid or the establishment of @ permancnt broad united front that will be- come the bridge between the revolutionary youth organizations and the great inasses of young workers who are still not under our influence. What We Expect. Our tasks in connection with N¥D are not only to have militant youth demonstrations, but we must also strengthen ourselves organization- ally as a result of the day, which means fully carrying out cur shock plan especially in the building of our shop nuclei, revolutionary, trade unions, the struggle against unemployment, building the Labor Sports Union, the Young Liberators, as the main prerequisites for the building of a Mass League. By doing this, NYD will really become the culminating point of all our activities for this period, enrich our League in valuable experience and making our coming convention a real gathering of young Commu- nists who started to seriously make the turn towards mass work and a. mass League. Neuro ‘Jobless Discriminated Azainst Reports from many cities give the information that the families. of Negro unemployed workers are discriminated against by the city governments | and charity institutions. The relief distributed » ts always inadequate, but Negro families in many instances get nothing or much less than amounts given to white familles, Starvation and sickness among Negro fam- ilies 1s much, more severe. Fight dis-\ crimination, unite Negro and white un- employed workers into neighborhood. branches for common struggle for we By JORGE seceeentoe Neither One Nor the Other There are more ducks in the world than have been shot at; as we are reminded of by a letter from David L., who took exception to a protest printed in this column from a worker who took three Negro workers to an entertainment—which had. been advertised in English—only to hear everything in Jewish. Just to show you what a happy life we have, we'll quote from David: “We all like’ your column, but now you are going crazy. You criticize the TWO for holding an affair in Yiddish, because three Negroes could not understand, -What do you want? That the two mijlion Jewish shall become dumb silent? What is this? America for Americans? Only English spoken? My boss gave out such an order: ‘No other language but American. ‘You make a living in America, so speak American.’ It seems that you and my: boss agree.” Now. comrade, be reasonable! There were not 2,000,000 Jewish workers at that entertainment. And it had been advertised in English. And all the other comrades expected that at least part of the speeches be in that language, for the benefit of the 12,000,000 Negroes, who also don't want to be “dumb silent’—to use your own reasoning. Does this position make us like your boss, Not at all. Not while we believe in and support the Freiheit, which has a real and necessary place among the Jewish workers. Does your boss like ‘the Daily Worker because it talks American? We'll guess not. But we like the Fretheit and support it. ‘The same goes for a Greek comrade who writes us (M. G.), criticizing the way the Empros, the Communist paper in Greek, ran its “tea party” early this month, If half he says is true, the leadership is bad. We don’t vouch for it one way or another. But what does he propose? That “if is better not to have such organiza- tions. Put them all together. This will force them to use English.” This is wrong. And scctarian. It would defeat the very internationalism aimed at. So we sup- port the Freiheit and the Empros. And we try to correct the errors of the International Work- ers Order, which, dear comrade, is not or should not be exclusively Jewish, but international, ‘as the word implies, How Not To Do Things “Dear Red Sparks:—The I. W. O. (Interna tional Workers Order) is growing, and there are many sound reasons why it is not growing more rapidly. Although I was stamped O. K. some months ago by a medical doctor, this same M. D. was both brief and vague as to what I should do next. “He checked me out with the assurance that I would receive full information, rates, meetings, dues, benefits, branch, etc., through the mai] in a few days. Nearly three months later I re- ceived a letter, and seeing the ‘I. W. ©.’ on the envelop, I assumed that at last I was to find out something about my application. “Now my application shows that I was born right here, and my name is decidedly Scotch, so I was more or less mystified when I discovered that thé letter consisted of two long sheets printed all in Yidwish. “Within the next few days I received another barrage of correspondence, all without a single word of English. Yesterday morning the Irish mail-man handed me’ an unwrapped magazine in Yiddish and also handed me a loud harse- laugh in English. “My wife was beginning to look at me with suspicion. Being partly Seotch and thoroughly petty bourgeois minded, she suggested that my inability to translate my acquisition in literature was probably due to my neglecting the orthodox ceremony early in life. “Not knowing how to dispose of the cornse, T corltiu~red my desire and went for a walk. The follows morning T received a registered letter from the local secretary of the I. W. O. “Lo and behold! It was in English, in printed form, and not only informed me that IT was ac- cepted to membership, but also that T was sus- pended from membership for non-payment of dues, ete.! “Owing to the fact that T have six mouths to feed, I am comvelled to labor from 12 to 14 hours every night in the week and can’t pos- sibly attend avy I. W. 0. meetings--as. they have no morning branch as yet for night workers. “Therefore, the sum total of my acquaintance with the I. W. O. is, acceptance and suspension on the same date. No meetings attended by no fault of mine; and a large amount of strictly kosher correspondence which makes everything as clear as mud. “Understanding the. difficulties of organiza- tion, I will take steps to straighten out my own case with the I. W. O. But what about the American non-party workers whom we send into the I. W. O.? Will they understand? One of the first and most important steps in building the I. W. O. is to make the word ‘International’ mean exactly what it says; after which a branch for night workers in New York. “The I. W. O. is an important organization with tremendous possibilities that should not be endangered by adherence to antiquated meth- ods of adininistration.—A. A.” . Be Careful of Fire A-comrade from Syracuse writes in saying that the so-called “socialist” party is a bunch of scoundrels. Which is cprrect. But he goes on to infer that the Workmen's Furniture Fire In- surance Society is also bad, just because the sequndrelly “socialists” are using it to foster il- lusions that insuring furniture will take the place of struggling against the capitalists. The mis-called “socialists” are undoubtedly doing such things, and using the lists of names they have as feeders for an insurance society which they use as a business concern alone, just as Mattic Woll’s lite insurance business. But this is not an argument against a workers’ mutual society, or against the one mentioned. It is an argument, and a pretty good one, for the wotkers in it to kick the “socialist” misleaders out, to make it a better mutual society and one that will be helpful to all workers in the class struggle,