The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 4, 1931, Page 4

Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc., datly except Sunda: 18th Street, New York City, N. Y. Telephone Algonquin 7956-7. Cabl Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 50 East 13th Street, New York, N. ¥. Page Four at 50 Fast ATIWORK.” Daily... orker — sy mail everywhere: One yt ot Manhattan and Bronx, SUBSCRIPTION RATER: 1, $6; six months, $3; two months, lew York Ctly. Foreign: one year, 1; $8+ six months. $4.50. Dartg US.A MAY DAY IN CHINA By T. H. Li. (Written Before May. First.) ne celebration of May Day in ively very short, but it is ing spirit in the inter- r movement, This is r of 1931. een years ago, May ¥ rougl rth to China by radical in- tal: ized the significance of May Day r nan that of other “democratic” countries. But the young which is destined by the his- y the leading role in the emancipation of the coun- ‘ d the internationalist and ,eaning of May Day as a day of solidarity and mobilization for ag: capitalist imperialism. ‘ked another important ation of the working masses, , and their role in the anti- Several congresses of the c f Weste China national inst c an organized strength of about m and a half workers, were held on May ay. of 1931 is of special importance in for power in China. i peasants are already holiday under contrast- thefr brothers in other he Soviet Union. In the cts which numbered more than 200, hening of the Soviet Power, mprovement of material and masses, and also mobilization 1 campaign of ‘the Kuo- s and imperialists for further et Rule. l under the White regime, the large industrial cities, the ob- f this historical day will be the direct of May Day will take the form ' mobilization and developing of the working masses on the basis of economic and immediate demands towards the organization of general political strikes and armed uprisings against the order of imperialists, Chinese bourgeoisie and landlords, particularly against the “Peoples As- sembly” scheduled on May 5. In view of the fact that the development of the revolutionary tide is still quite uneven, and that the labor movement still lags behind the peasant struggles, this May Day, with correct demands and organization according to the local situation, furnishes an important opportunity for the revolutionary forces to bring about and’has- ten the maturing of the revolutionary situation on a national scale. The Communist Party and the Red Unions of China undoubtedly realize this, and have al- ready began an energetic organization of May Day celebration. The Nanking government, aided by American imperialism and other imperialist powers, on the eve of May, starts a fresh cam- paign of most savageous white terror against the workers particularly. their vanguard, the Com- munist Party. Martial law has long been de- clared in Hankow and scores of Communists have been publicly executed. Even in Harbin, Manchuria, martial law was also proclaimed. The ruling class of China attempts to terrorize the workers before May Day. This bloody mainten- ance of their decaying system of exploitation and oppression is of no avail. About a million heroic fighters have already given their lives for the revolutionary course for the last few years. ‘Today, we find fresh tens of millions take up the struggle and have succeeded in establishing their own government, the Soviet Government of | Workers and Peasants, On May Day of 1931, the Chinese workers and peasants, together with hundreds of millions of their toiling brothers in the capitalist and colonial countries, will play an important part | in the international struggle for power of the proletariat. Boston District Has One Member- ship Branch ot Jobless Workers By ALFRED WAGEN ECHT total of 40,000 workers ated against unemployment and starvation in the cities of Boston, Lowell, Law- ce, New Bedford, Fitchburg, Worcester, Provi- dence, Maynard and Haverhill. During many ore this date, many successful demon- struggles were carried on in the nion Unity League district for immediate relief and unemployment insurance. e is in this entire New England dis- e branch of organized unemployed ‘anch in central Boston composed of And this lone branch is simply an 1 forum, where twenty to thirty work- ers gather now and then to listen to speakers. Here we have in sharpest form the organiza- tional bankruptey that results from following a policy in our, work among the unemployed of only carrying on general agitation and issuing general slogans, instead of formulating concrete demands, based upon the miserable conditions of the unemployed and fighting to better these conditions while we continue our agitation for unemployment insurance. ‘The first membership branches of unemployed workers were organized in this country exactly around a very concrete issue, the fight against evictions. ‘Thousands of unemployed workers’ homes were kept intact, furniture moved back, and in thousands of additional instances the landlords retreated and ceased giving eviction notices. These fights against evictions began six months ago. In district after district, our comrades have failed to learn the lesson that these successful struggles against evictions taught, namely, that or ization proceeds around strug- gles for concrete demands. Boston claims that evictions did not take place in that eity. “But there are other concrete de- mands which unemployed workers make. And NN February monstr: if our comrades do not know what the comerete | demands of the unemployed workers are, why have they failed to talk to, to visit the unem- ployed workers and families and ascertain their demands? Involving a neighborhood in a fight for food from the city and large employers for starving families of unemployed workers by specifically obtaining the names and addresses of these starving families in the working-class neighborhoods, is a struggle for concrete de- mands, and one around which unemployed Workers will organize, and a struggle in which tmemployed workers will co-operate as well. Fighting for free milk for the babies of un- employed workers; free meals for the school chil- dren; against the shutting off of gas, light, water; against high food prices; against high rents—these are all concrete demands, and many more will be found, once we actually begin to function in the depths of misery and persecu- tion to which the unemployed are subjected to by the city, the bosses and the charities. It was reported that in one city in the Boston district hundreds of workers’ homes were being sold for taxes. Has any struggle and organization’ re- sulted around this, certainly a matter of con- crete importance to the workers concerned? In city after city in New England relief is being lessened or stopped altogether by the city and its charity institutions. The governor of Massachusetts is demanding $6,000 for a private car to be paid for by the state. In Boston, Mayor Curley is being accused by councilmen of a reign of graft in the city welfare department. Political lackeys of the city administration were pocketing money given for relief of the unem~- ployed; landlords were getting free coal which should have gone into the homes of the unem~ ployed; one councilman claimed that $500,000 was going astray, in part by a charge by coal corporations of $16 a ton for coal delivered to the city welfare department, whereas another city department was buying this same coal for $12 a ton. Here are also very concrete issues to which the unemployed in Boston will respond, organizationally as well as for a city-wide strug- gle against the grafting city welfare department, against lessening relief, It therefore becomes necessary to root our- Selves in the working-class neighborhoods, to win the unemployed workers in these neighbor- hoods for struggles for food, adequate housing, ete. to organize neighborhood branches around these struggles, while at the same time we arouse all working-class neighborhoods, bread lines, etc., for struggle against all the restrictions, perse- cutions, starvation charity, inadequate relief, lessening relief and specific cases of starvation, directing this mass movement - Erpesiren te ent_aemnst the ty | Baty, , O, Bor government and large employers, To mobilize and lead such a movement, to or- ganize neighborhood branches of unemployed | Workers in such struggles, requires that our branches in every city keep posted and become minutely acquainted with what the city is doing and not doing regarding relief, the use that city budgets are put to, the demagogy and chicanery of the large charities, etc., while’ simultaneously we cease our mechanical and bureaucratic con- ceptions of mass movements, and instead cre- ate situations whereby the unemployed can dis- cuss and develop their demands so that they will understand this to be their movement, un- derstanding which, they will fight in it and for it, will organize into it. This will result in build- ing a capable leadership out of the ranks of the unemployed. At a meeting of the only membership branch of unemployed workers in Boston, steps have been taken, during the visit to Boston of the Trade Union Unity League national office rep- resentative, to abolish the general bankruptcy that exists in Boston. Three unemployed work- ers stepped forward as a committee to under- take immediately the planning of house to house investigations in the Roxbury section of the city, where very poor Negro and white workers live.- ‘They went to Roxbury three times, acquainted themselves with the territory, decided upon the streets which should be visited first, got a hall for a meeting, issued a leaflet, considered the question of securing co-operation from other or- ganizations in the house-to-house canvassing. At two meetings of leading district comrades, a | comrade to take charge of the work among the unemployed was selected, emphasis was placed upon T. U. U. L. activity in the unemployed work, decision was reached to concentrate upon three other cities outside of Boston and methods of work were discussed in detail. From practically nothing organizationally to something, is, considering the miserable condi- tions of the unemployed and their response to our mass demonstrations, an easy step forward for the Boston district comrades to make. We shall see whether it is made and how quickly. And we understand that there is a Communist Party in the Boston district as well, which claims to be the fighting vanguard of the work- ing class. It's got to prove this, prove it in. mass work among the unemployed, in establish- ing organizational bases among the unemployed for more militant and victorious struggles to come, The situation in -the Boston district consti- tutes a danger signal for all T. U. U. L. dis- tricts. What basic organization among the un- employed have you in your district? Are you checking up their activities and organizational development? Have any struggles been carried on singe Feb. 25? This lull in activities, this stoppage in steady and sustained local struggles just because no national day for demonstrations hhas been indicated or because comrades view the gathering of cases of starving families and fight- ing for food for them as the only activity now before us, will lead to serious disintegration un- less checked at once. Struggles for relief for all unemployed and their families (not only for starving families but plus starving families), the cases of starving families to intensify the demands for adequate relief for all unemployed and for unemploy- ment insurance must constantly express them- selves in city hunger-marches, in rapid-fire de- mands upon the city, in large delegations at every meetingyof the city governing body and its charities, in a steady fight against lessening relief and increased starvation. Workers! Join the Party of Your Class! Communist Party U. 8. A. P. O, Box 87 Station D. New York City. ’ Please send ore more information on the Cum- munist Party, NAME «+ sceccccecenesecsecsesscesesesececsoreoes Address CI ..cesecccceseccccsceseess State . eeeee -Mail this to the Central Office, Communist D, New Xork City, | sink tae aided ttn s, THe enereecerecceseccsssessssessecenneees a he i ae CRUSH IT! wy a) of wUMUR. PARTY LIFE Conducted by the Organization Department of the Central Committee, Communist Party, U.S.A. }/ Against Language Sectarianism By D. REGIS (Erie, Pa.) 'HE language organizations here in Erie, al- though they are supposed to be working-class > organizations, don’t feel it necessary to do any- thing in the way of helping us to do some real work, We have as an example the Jewish branch of the International Workers’ Order. This branch has puffed out its chest and tried to give everyone the impression that it is a big shot and that any other organizations don’t count at all. Yet when conferences are called for different purposes they find it very con- venient to forget all about it. As far as financial support is concerned, that shouldn’t be men- tioned at all. This is what happened at the May Day Conference, where every language or- ganization was given a call to attend and to give their financial support wherever possible. Language organizations are to help draw the workers closer to the revolutionary movement. Yet in this branch, since it has been organized, those members. who also belong to the Party have dropped all their Party work, and always put the work of the Order before any Party work that they have to do. In other words, they are a good example of what a language organization should not be. Comment: article supplies some very necessary criticism. With regard to the point raised in the last paragraph, there should be no division or con- flict between “Party work” and “mass organiza- tion work.” Work in mass organizations IS Party work, provided it is carried on in a Com- munist spirit and according to the instructions | of the Party Committee. Work in fraternal or- ganizations, however, should under no condi- tions be taken to mean that the comrades con- cerned do not have to carry out Party work in their shops, or the necessary amount of work in their units. The activities of every Party member must be decided upon by the leading Party Committee, . * Talk English! By R. WEICKERS (Section 2, New York) LL meetings of the Needle Trades Workers’ Industrial Union (especially those of the furriers)—that is, meetings of the unemployed, open forums, meetings of active members, gen- eral membership meetings, and so on, with the exception of the Shop Delegates’ Council—are conducted 90 per cent in the Jewish language. My contention is that in all these meetings at least 75 per cent and more can and do un- derstand the English language. I maintain, further, that with the use of the Jewish language, two thirds of the workers of our trade are excluded from these meetings, making it impossible for them to understand and know the conditions prevailing in the trade and thereby they are forced to act individually. and independently, ready to accept the lowest conditions of work and wages. I maintain, further, that all the Swedish, Ger- man, Hungarian, Czechoslovakian and Ru- ,Manian, as well as American workers, make up two-thirds of the workers in our trades; the retail trade is completely in their hands. The almost exclusive use of the Jewish lan- guage is one of the main contributory causes which hinders our Industrial Union, especially the furriers, from strengthening and broadening out the basis of our activities in the class strug- gle generally, and in the low conditions of our trade in particular. Instead of breaking down the fence of national and race prejudice, it strengthens it. The workers have a perfectly Just excuse not to join our union, I therefore would like an official declaration whether I am wrong by rising often in meetings and insisting on the use of the English language. Comment: The comrade is absolutely correct, for the reasons that he has himself given in his article. Any organization except a language so- ciety—CERTAINLY AN INDUSTRIAL UNION— must use English in its work and at its meet- ings, English is not only the language of the American workers, but also the COMMON LANGUAGE of all the different foreign language sveabing srorkepe_ We, In general, we think that this | By VERN SMITH | |. -EWIS J. BROWN, president of the Kellogg Co., manufacturers of corn flakes, etc., at Battle Creek, Mich., is bombarding newspapers with arguments for the six hour day, his style, which includes a wage cut. The propaganda is handled by N. W. Ayer & Son, professional ad- vertisers of Philadelphia. Kellogg represents that group of capitalists who, seeing underconsumption and a steady drive by the toiling masses for the shorter work day, seeks to cut the ground from beneath the feet. of the revolutionary movement by insti- tuting part-time disguised as “concessions.” This group is far from being in the majority among employers. Most of them simply lay off the whole force a certain number of days a week. The difference seems to be that in Kel- logg’s industry there is still a chance to run the a man has little enough money to live on, but each man has some, he is more likely to spend it on breakfast food than anything else. Plenty of Food. Kellogg makes certain interesting admissions in his press releases. He points out that during the past 17 years, the world population has in- creased 10 per cent, and productive capacity for food products has increased 25 per cent. In the U. S. population has increased 25 per cent, and Six Hour Day on Corn Flakes - A Refined Type of Slavery plant to capacity, and Kellogg considers that if | production of food products has increased 60 | per cent. The 10,000,000 jobless who don’t eat much will like ‘to hear that! Kellogg’s president says: “I believe the time has come to admit to ourselves that we cannot expect consumption of manufactured products to equal the production capacity of our indus- | tries.” So, to increase if possible the consumption of corn flakes, and making a little pretense of friendship to the working class, Kellogg puts on four six-hour shifts instead of the former eight- hour shifts. And in cold blooded fashion he lists the ad- vantages of this kind of a six-hour day to the employers. The most important is a direct wage | cut, the hourly wages being reduced 12% per cent, under the guise of employers and workers splitting the 25 per cent that would otherwise have been lost to Labor by changing from eight to six hours. In return for this added 12% per cent which the employer pays, he gets 25 per cent more customers. It is safe to say that a welfare work, semi-company union scheme can be built on this basis, perhaps with stock sales, too, Then, Brown points out that the speed up | can be increased. The speed in this factory had veached its limit on the eight-hour shift, and speed actually had to be decreased a little in he last two hours because the workers got so tired they spoiled machinery and material. And in addition, you get rid of the lunch hour. Any koss hates to see the worker eating and the machinery running idle. Instead of working four hours and resting half an hour, they now work six hours straight. Elimination of extra pay on the previously long night shift is another point. More shifts means more chance to exploit special talents better. It's a Campaign. And Kellogg winds up this description of his | program with an appeal to other businesses to adopt it. His group thinks that this pretended concession to the workers will stop the demand for the workers, sort of a six-hour day. We want a six-hour day too. But we want one without wage cuts, instead with a wage in- | crease. We want one without a new speed-up: We want one with rest periods. Kellogg’s six- hour day is just a new sort of slave driving. And still cruder methods are used by most employ- ers to speed and cut and lay off the workers. Join the militant unions of the Trade Union Unity League, join the unemployed councils and fight for a real six-hour day! BY BEATRICE SISKIND. 'APITALIST hypocrites have been barking about forced labor in the Soviet Union. They hhave shed crocodile tears about the poor Czarist generals, and the counter-revolutionary scoun- drels who are for the first time in their lives doing a little useful work, It is ridiculous to imagine that this propa- ganda can blindfold the working class into war and hatred for the Soviet Union, The news of the eyer improving standard of living, of the elimination, of .unemployment in the Soviet Union, the success of the Five Year Plan, build- ing Socialism at an unheard of rate has come through. Even the capitalist sheets cannot sup- press the gigantic achievements of the Soviet proletariat. You may be. fooling yourself, Mr. Fisif and your war making colleagues, but you cannot fool the workers who border the beet fields of Col- orado, Mason City and East in Iowa and South- ern Minnesota. The workers and farmers there have seen and felt forced labor. They have seen year in and year out, thousands of human beings, men, women and children, toiling from sunrise ee the Party itself in 1925 and 1926, when the Party was re-organized and comrades were no longer allowed to hold their Party membership through the language federations, but instead only through shop and street nuclei. At first, the foreign language speaking comrades insisted they could not speak or understand English, refused to attend nuclei meetings or take part in them, or insisted on 1g in foreign lan- guages at the meetings, but after a while when it became cle’r that the Party would give these comrades all possible help but would not make any concessions on this polnt, they began to learn English very quickly, and some even found that they could already talk and understand ah Pecpapaaern GigE NC ORES Talk About Convict Labor! ‘ing atmosphere of the community. to sunset for a mere pittance. They have seen thousands of Mexican workers, brought in from Mexico and Texas, like cattle and sold into bondage by the American Sugar Refining Com- pany. They have seen these families destitute when the winter came in, and made the shan- ties unbearably cold. These families then drift to the cities and must pay their own fare, there to starve and join the army of the unemployed. In Southern Minnesota, the state that boasts of its “liberalism’ where the “Farmer Labor” party is the ruling party, and indulges in a lot of talk about the workers, there are two rows of counties that live off the slave labor of the Mexican beet workers. Sugar beet labor is gotten in the following manner: The American Sugar Refining Com- pany, with agencies in Mexico and Texas con- tracts the Mexican workers for work in the beet, fields, When the carloads of these workers ar- rive, the company phones the farmers to “come and get your Mexicans.” The season usually begins June Ist. The contract commences then. ‘The families are given a shanty with cots and no other furniture, and groceries enough to last them until they “get” their first check. When the grocery debt is deducted, two weeks usually is held back for security. These two weeks’ wages bind the workers to the soil, to the starva- tion diet, to the unsanitary and disease breath- During 1930, the wages were $23 an acre. Each acre contains 19 tons of product. It takes four’ operations to complete the product.’ The farm- er receives from the sugar company the sum of $152 per acre. . This figure was given me by a worker who slaves in the beet fields. The farm- er he worked for got from the company $8 per ton, which amounts to $152 per acre, While the Mexican workers, who have their entire fami- lies working from sunset to sundown only get SE Lee From Among One Hundred Thousand “Child Health Day’—said Hoover. “International Labor Day,” said the Commu: nist Party, “a day of struggle against capital- |? ism,that starves the children of the workers, wrecks their bodies and ruins their minds,” \ And, there at Union Square, marching sol- emnly with the grown-ups, into whose ranks they had entered as the phrade passed down the tenement district of Eighth Ave., were four ex- amples, A girl about 13 years old, with a boy of 10, marching with two smaller children of perhaps six and eight, one tugging at her coat. A torn and ragged coat it was, expressing the poverty of the torn ard ragged lives of workers’ chil- dren; all of the four children had ragged clothes and dirty faces, as tenement children often have. But—they were serious faces, the faces of these children! They were not tagging along after people “just for fun.” They marched alongside grown-ups, beside Communists holding banners calling “Down with Hunger! Food for Workers’ Children!” ‘They understood vaguely, no doubt, but they understood, that they belonged! That here was something for them! Something that meant food, clean and warm clothing, a chance to play and grow healthy—a chance which capitalism and Hoover's “Health Day” denies! So there they were, marching, these four tene- ment children of the “imperial city’ of New York, marching into Union Square, packed with tens of thousands of people, surrounded by a throng of a hundred thousand, with the police bluecoats ahorse and afoot ... threatening... . ‘There they were, four little children march- ing, marching with the masses, marching under the Red Flag .. . marching in the struggle for a world where workers’ children will be free! PMC Easy Moscow Radio Program ‘ We haven't the least radio technical knowl- edge, so we don’t know if you can pick up Mos- cow or not, but the new powerful station of the Central Trade Union Council of the U. S. S. R. which began operation May Day, offers the following program in English for the remainer of the month. All English broadcasting at mid- night (Moscow time) or 5 o’clock in the after- noon (Standard time) in New York. Wave- lenght 1,304 m., frequency 230 kilocycles. Here's the list: May 4, Monday—Reading of the Moscow News. May 7, Thursday—Review of the Week. May 10, Sunday—Sport and Tourism in the U! S. S. R. and English Radio Post-Box. May 11, Monday—Reading of Moscow News, May 14, Thursday—Review of the Week. May 17, Sunday—Moscow News and Radio Post-Box. May 18, Monday—Moscow News. May 21, Thursday—Review of the Week. May 24, Sunday—Radio Post-Box. May 25, Monday—‘Moscow News.” May 28, Thursday—Review of the Week. May 31, Sunday, ete Hed Army. . Glad to Hear It ‘We are informed that “there is another sec- ‘tion of the International Workers’ Order that is truly international, that, is the Youth Section, with some twelve English-speaking branches in New York City alone.” ‘And they sent a young Negro worker delegate from Chicago to the May Day celebration in the Soviet Union, too! See D. Greene, 32 Union Square, if interested, you of New York. While we are about it, let. us jump over to the Workers’ Laboratory Theatre, which wants us to de-jinx it from the misprint of their address given’ recently. It is at 131 W. 28th St. and long may it wave. It wants more members to take part in the work. Go to it, boys and girls! [Ps in MEA Ean oe SRS ncn NRE security. Let us see what happens to these workers dur- ing the winter, when the season of slavery has expired and the worker must seek shelter from the severe weather. After paying all the debts to the company and the stores, they are square with the world, and face dire need. In the city of Minneapolis many of these families live. We have contact with a typical one of these families, through the work of the Unemployed Councils of the Trade Union. Unity League in this city. Seven persons in this family live in four holes (rooms), with two beds. The rooms do not con- tain the minimum necessities, .No heat, no light, not even gas, no water, the windows are screened with dirt, and the walls are mouldy. ‘The father of the family has been unemployed for about one year, and the family is actually starving. The landlord has forced many a hard day’s work from this worker to pay rent for filthy place that should be condemned as ufi- livable. This family went to the Welfare d for Relief and were refused. They were old point blank that they were under the jurigdic- tion of the sugar company, slaves of the sugar | company. The sugar company agent, in order to bind this worker to the beet fields, was willing to advance some money on his future wages. ‘The worker argued that as it is, mer’s work he is penniless, and months on his future wages, slave for nothing during the entire summer. for this worker and forced the Welfare Board to give them relief. What do you think of that, Shipstead and your colleagues, company? Before you spread tastic tales about convict ‘Union go and look at your beet investigate the condition of the ployed in the city of Minneapolis alone. sure, though, to go next summer when the ee eh Oe ee et forced starvation labor to pieces. ‘The Mexican workers are ready and clamoring for organization. In 1931, the conditions threat- en to be worse than ever before. It was al- ready announced that the introduction of ma- chinery will result in a reduction of wag@s to — $16 an acre, The workers who have slaved year in and year/out, and in the winter starved in the cities, are up in arms against. eee This summer will see = the beet mans elds: ni Z | | | | |