The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 30, 1931, Page 10

Page Two DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1931 Attacks on foreign-born, Negro Workers By CYRIL BRIGGS. JAY DAY this year will be of greater significance than ever efore to the American working lass. Especially is this true of the Jegro masses staggering under the nost monstrous national oppression n existence anywhere in the world today. Coming in the period of deepen- ing crisis, of rising resistance on the part of the workers to the mass starvation program solution of the bosses, May Day, 1931, finds the American ruling class in the midst. of a vicious campaign of terror against the workers. ‘This terror is directed especially against the Negro and foreign born workers in an attempt to isolate them and to cut them off from the general struggles of the working class. Lynch Law By their vicious campaign to in- cite white workers against Negroes, and native born white and Negro workers against the foreign-born workers, the bosses are attempting | to divert the masses from the neces- | sary mass revolutionary struggle against starvation; are trying to set workers to fighting among them- selves in order to prevent a united struggle against the bosses’ system of starvation, lynch Jaw, persecu- tion of Negro and foreign-born workers. By lynchings and deportations they hope to terrorize the Negro and foreign-born workers into hes- itancy in joining the struggle against wage cuts and the stagger plan, into acceptance of a lower standard of living, into acceptance of the starvation program, and into the role of strike breakers. Socialists and KKK In this conspiraéy of splitting the working class in order to defeat the struggle against starvation, the ruling class of this country has the full cooperation of the social fas- cists of the socialist party, the fas- cist A. F. of L. leadership and Ku Klux Klan elements, and the vari- ous camps of the Negro reformists. In the South we find the Ku Klux Klan, the Caucasian Cru- saders, the Black Shirts and the A. FP. of L. officialdom united in the demand that “No Negroes be | employed while white men are starving,” and “That Negroes now holding jobs be fired and white men employed in their place.” In the North we find this same maneuver to split the working class taken up by the Negro reformists in the form of a fake campaign for jobs for Negro workers, coupled with the demand that the foreign-born workers be discharged and kicked out of “our” country. 2 Both cases represent a dastardly attempt to split the working class, to narrow down the struggle against starvation into a demoralized fight | for a few jobs atthe expense of j other sections of the working class. As against this attempt of the boss agents to split the working class and divert the struggle against starvation into channels harmless to the imperialists, we must record the rising militancy of the workers, the growing unity of Negro and white workers un- | der the leadership of the Com- munist Party and the revolution- ary industrial unions. ; Especially is this noticeable in the | field of the Negro liberation strug- gle, where the new Negro proletar- iat, under the guidance of the Com- munist Party, is struggling man- fully and successfully for proletariat hegemony of the movement and against the frenzied attempts of the Negro reformists to maintain their hegemény and influence. Workers Lead May Day. 1931, will record a high- er development of the struggle for working class unity, for proletariat hegemony of the Negro liberation movement, and in the mass revo- lutionary struggle against starva- tion, wage cuts, race hatred and persecution of Negro and foreign- porn workers, imperialist war prep- srations against the Soviet Union, and for reat unemployment relief and insurance. Negro and white workers! Down Tools May Day! All out in tre- mendous demonstrations against the bosses’ hunger system! Join the, gigantic miltiant protest and struggle against lynching and de- \e TE AMERICAN FARMER § mand the right of self-determin- ation for the Negro majorities in the Black Belt and in Africa and the West Indies! Defend the So- viet Union, the citadel of the revolutionary workers and the colonial masses! Halt Boss Wage Cut Drive by Struggles (Continued from Page One) ._program of the _ revolutionary movement. Especially we must know how to utilize the May Day demonstrations to initiate real strike struggle in the shops around concrete, partial demands. We must energetically build grievance committees and to _ generally strengthen the organization of the TUUL. The May Day demonstrations must not be simply a turn out of the workers, important though that may be, but it must be connected at all points with the actual or- ganization and general struggles of the workers. On May First millions of work- ers all over the world will demon- state against capitalism. As never before, they will be inspired with the fighting spirit, with the glorious example of the Soviet Union before them, they will more clearly than ever un- derstand the revolutionary goal they must drive toward and how to get there. Let us, therefore, unite great masses of workers for a worthy part in this great international demon- stration of labor. HE shrill blasts of fifty whistles forced their way through the soot and smoke that hung like storm clouds over the rambling steel plants, over the rows of lean- ing tenements which staggered in ndrrow rows along the adjoining streets. Jets of crimson flame shot into the air. The blasts echoed across the city, down to the river’s edge where ships crowded the docks, loading cargoes of steel rails for Europe, South America and far away China. A mighty flood of grimy, toil- stooped men poured through the gates and down the winding streets. Above their dark shirts their faces as U. = —_ =( Pay WHAT You Phebe re RMD 2 CeLeBRavesS May DAY wer Negro Reformist: “It’s all right! yp? legally By MYRA PAGE rose im one grey, haggard mass. Jack MaeFarney separated him- self from the others to walt near the entrance to the finishing de- partment, where his wife worked. | His powerful shoulders and arms were set on a body that had never reached its full stretch from the ground. Labor since ten years of | age had stunted his growth. Heavy lines slanted diagonally across his cheeks. His eyes, steel-blue, had that sharp, clear-sightness whj7h is customarily found only in mount- aineers and seamen. The MacFarneys were sprung from Scotch-Irish stock that had been enticed to this country three generations earlier to lay railroads that opened up the West, mine coal and build giant steel plants where | he and his Mary now labored ‘eleven hours a day. Seven years ago, in answer to glowing advertisements, he and his young wife had come to Smoky City with their two babies. Seven years! MacFarney shrugged his, shoulders and spat into the gutter. Mary elbowed her way toward him and they started up the street that worked its way among the tenement cliffs towering on’ either side. Through the Negro and Ita- {lian sections, past the blocks in- habited by Slavs and Polaks they {walked on to the neighborhood where the Anglo-Saxon Americans lived. “Anything wrong, Mary?” Jack peered anxiously into her glum face. “They ain’t laying off in your They are doing it , Section?” “Naw. Not as I know of.” Her voice was fiat, lifeless. “Another girl got her hand smashed today. Tt was a sight to turn your stomach,” “This dam speed-up. They got | no right to rush us so. Burning the life out of us— for ’em!” He jerked | his thumb upward, over his should- thes On a hill overlooking the city, high above the smoke-laden low- lands with their mills and tene- ments, stood the mansions of the steel syndicate owners. They reared their white marble pillar with all the majesty of medieval palaces. Now the residences were empty. Only a score of servants had been left behind, to care for the grounds, horses, and motors while the mas- | 3 May Day of A Misleader By A. PETERSON. HE FEDERATION of Organized bor Unions set May 1, 1886, struggle for the eight-hour working day. But Powderly, Grand Master of the Knights of Labor, at that time the strongest S., opposed the eight-hour movement and even sent out secret circulars to his trade assemblies not to participate in any of the eight-hour day May Day committees. The militancy of the rank and file members in the Knights of Labor recahed such heights that on May Day 1890,.the members of this organization preparations, feverish May. Day . When on May Day 1890 70,000 workers turned out in Chicago, when thousands went out in such small cities as Bayonne, N. J., when thousands filled Union Square, New York, despite the pouring rain, Trades and La- as the day of union in the U. for: the demonstration was declared to be the red letter day in American labor history. Heavy armed guards of police were on the ground. Powderly spoke at one of the meetings, and on the platform sat the future President Grover. Cleve- land. Powderly made the vicious declaration that ter was in Florida. “Aw, shut up, Jack.” “It’s true ain't it?” “Sure, but what good’ll - come of saying it?” They trudged on. “Jack,” she jerked at his arm, hesitated, “I hear they gonna cut the rate on us again.” He stopped short. “By gorry! Another cut!,.. Pete was right.” — “Who—what? You been talking to that Red again?” “Well, you see—He workrs along- side. Today he told me he’d word of a cut coming: “And—2?” Her voice had gone shrill as the whistles. “I suppose he was speaking more about a un- ion? Maybe a strike?” “Now Mary, don’t take on so. I ain’t promised nothing.” “You sure?” She searched his face. “With so many thousands on the streets, crazy for jobs, this ain’t no time to be getting fired, or walking out.” “Don’t I know it. You take me for a fool!” He felt angry, upset. As, they rounded a corner, the nightly sight whieh they both dreaded came into view. Five hun- dred men, able-bodied, turned off at the mills, waiting in line for two hours for a bowl of soup and some pieces of bread. “Poor devils,” Jack muttered. “What’s the country com- ing to?” Heads lowered, they hure ried by. waege “Does that Rea say there’s gona be a strike?” Mary persisted. Jack didn’t answer. “Go on, you know I ain’t loose-mouthed. Speak out.” “Well, yes, he does. Against the wage-cut and driving. He says we gotta all stick together now, it’s the only way. They got a committee in about all departments, lining up the trusty ones.” Neither Jack or Mary had ever been in a strike. “And you?” There was a fright- ened look in her eyes. “Naw, I ain’t said nothing, yet.” “But—you—you. How soon?” “Soon. Maybe by the First of May.” “Stars above!” Mary's hands trembled, her eyes blurred. “Ain’t things bad enough without that!” They turned in at their tenement and started up the dark flights of stairs. As they passed the Harri- gan’s landing, they heard sounds of wailing and angry voices. “What’s up?” After supper Mary told him, “Jack, while I wash up and put the kids to bed, you step down and find out what’s wrong with the Harrigan’s?” She was already in bed when he crept in. “Mary,” he whispered hoarsely, “they gona turn the Harrigay's out. Tomorrow the judge give ‘em a dis- possess notice. That’s what the city does to a poor man who's lost his job.” “But they can’t do that! Her sick and with a young baby! Where’ll they go?” They lay staring up into the dark. Their dark thoughts, the ache in their joints and back kept them from sleeping. > . * OWN in Florida Mr. Graynor, the steel king, and his family, took their daily sun baths and dip in the ocean, played golf, went to fashion shows and concerts, and spent long afternoons on their piaz- zas sipping cool drinks and gossip- ing lazily about the latest scandal among their millionaire colony at Miami. The residences here were in gorgeous keeping with the near- tropical climate. Elaborate gardens, baths, and gold knobs on the en- trance doorways. Nevertheless, this life of luxuri- ous ease was not entirely self-cen- tered. Only the evening before— the same evening that the Harri- gans in Smoky City learned they were to be evicted. Mr. Graynor’s lovely young daughter had been one of twenty debutantes to raffle off her kisses to the highest bid- der at a charity ball for the bene- fit of “the deserving poor suffer- ing from idleness,” * . »* . ARY and Jack hurried home from work the next day, fearful that their neighbors, the Harrigans were already in the street. put her and the baby. up, over- night,” Mary worried, “and the other neighbors can crowd the rest in, till they find a place. But what'll happen to their furnishings lying in the street?” But there was no furniture i the sidewalk in front of their tenee —_— (Contiang® Oy Page Four) “Well. 4 F i i “