The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 5, 1931, Page 1

y- of as ch te the pickets in sonie of the mines but failed to route the strikers. — = =a Strike pickets marching to Montour Mine No. 30. Note the women in the front ranks, fighting along side of the men. Unemployed and employed united in the mass picketing. Negro workers took part in this mass picket‘ng demonstration. Tear gas bombs were thrown at Coal and gunmen—waiting to shoot down strikers at the order of the bosses in the Pennsy! iron polico—company ‘ania coal strike. This is a view of a group of striking miners of the Pittsburgh Terminal Mine No. being addressed by 8, Coverdale, Frank Borick, National Secretary of the National Miners’ Union. Above are state troopers with Greensburg to guard the Pittsburg! and to protect scabs. rifles sent by the bosses from h Coal Co. Mine No. 10 in Library INCE You Ale WITH ME Uy THis ScoTTSBORO CASE: ee fatal or TURN ov Dail Central (Siec t1 0 at. n LY AW Lishd Communist orker erat Party U.S.A. te ainniehe WORKERS QF THE WORLD, UNITE! “Entered “Vol Vil, No. 135. at New York, N. ¥., und is second-class matter at the Post Office he act of Mareh 3, 1879 <A _NEW YORK, FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1931_ CITY. Ebr! TION The Miners March ‘Agata! ri ez By BILL DUNNE, ITTEBURGH, June 3.—The Western Pensylvania miners are march- ing again and there is panic in the ranks of the coal and steel barons of this district of heavy industry. Under the leadership of the National Miners Union affiliated to the Trade Union Unity League, with rank and file strike committees elected at every mine and with the central district strike committee in session in Pittsburgh today, working out the plans to extend the struggles, the miners, their wives and children, have struck against starvation, It is true that the ranks of the miners are thinner than in 1927-28 but already close to 10,000 miners, one-third of those employed, have left the mines at the call of the strike” committees, after strike votes taken in mass meetings, have joined the marching picketers that have swept once more through the coal fields. The ranks are thinner because the speed-up, the blacklist and starvation have taken a heavy toll in four years, “No War in Coal!” says the headline of the first page editorial of the Pittsburgh, 1 Press—the liberal Scripps-McRae sheet that is the most. Jpnsitive to the exigencies of t :,jords of coal and steel. ‘The strike is spreading. Altho the miners and their families have ‘Jred on the edge of starvation for more than five years, the Pittsburgh es has never before got excited about this fact. It is only when the Pevolt of the miners, as in 1927-28, is being led by revolutionary trade unionists with the Communist Party taking a leading part, that it calls the attention of its masters to the statement of the Russell Sage Founda- tion which, “after studying 10,000 disputes whith»eccurred in 30 years, concludes that the coal industry‘s problems have come nearest to being solved.where miners and operators have orgarized to act co-operatively and as equal partners in their enterprises.” ‘The coal industry “is vital to Pittsburgh,” says the Press. “It should have far more help and consideration from Pittsburgh as a whole, from business, professional and labor leaders, than it ever has had. If we have leadership in the Pittsburgh district, now is the time for it to show itself.” It concludes: “Above all, let’s have no violence.” This is the kind of strike-breaking hypocrisy which forms the basis of the united front between the local capitalist press and Fagan, secre- tary of the one skeleton local of the Lewis U. M. W. A., composed of company hangers-on, in this district. The Jocal press has been trying for four days to hand the leader- ship of the strike to Fagan but the miners will have none of it. Not a single mass meeting, to say nothing of a strike meeting, has been held by Fagan but the press nevertheless, as the Sun-Telegraph, for instance, continues to refer to the “leaders of the U. M. W. A. who are instigat- ing a strike at other mines in the district,” and to the “two-fold phase” of the strike. As for the call for “no violence” issued by the Pittsburgh Press this is sheer provocation against strikers since the various police agencies —state cossacks, coal and iron police and special deputy sheriffs—are already in the field in large numbers. Their activities at this stage can be judged from the following description in the Hearst sheet—the Sun-Telegraph: “The coal and iron police, armed with heavy caliber revolvers and their maces, kept the strikers moving. The state police, in three auto- mobiles, each containing a sergeant and three men, kept moving up and down the highway.” A dozen arrests have occurred, a number of women numbered among them. ‘This strike is a strike against starvation, There are concrete de- mands which have to deal with this major question in the strike call and program of action adopted by the district strike committee today, but both strikers and. unemployed—between whom there cannot be seen the slightest rift—understand fully the nature of this struggle. It is for this reason that the district strike committee meeting, com- posed of elected representatives.of the local mine strike committees, and because of the success of the NMU in developing and carrying through the policy of stimulating leadership directly from the ranks of the work- ers, affords a sight that is still too rare in the United Clctzs—2 meet- ing of working men and women, Negro and white, with large numbers of Negro women, working out together their demands for strikers and unemployed, and developing the central plan of campaign on the basis of their experiences of the bitter struggle all of them have left for but a few hours to carry out this important work. Here is a battle staff with the marks of battle on it. (Remember that only four years ago the Negro workers were lured into this field to take the places of the strikers.) Thousands of applications for the union have been received. No one can say exactly how many because two typists have been busy for two days compiling the applications, assigning them to their respective mine locals, etc., and the work is not yet finished. ‘Two great tasks confront the district strike committee: The first is the extension of the strike to the Eastern Ohio and Northern West Virginia fields where conditions are as bad or worse than in Western Pennsylvania. Second, the organization of strike relief. It must not be forgotten that these miners and their families have no reserves—either of money, food or clothes. Eviction notices have already been posted for many of them, The slow starvation while at work is replaced by a more rapid progress of actual aching hunger. The strike committee plans to have the wives and children of the strikers and the unemployed organize and carry through mass campaigns for relief in the cities and towns of the district—in Pittsburgh first of all. We will see whether the apostles of “cooperation of miners and operators” will respond to this form of cooperative appeal. Some immediate relief will be secured in this way but the Workers International Relief, the Metal Workers’ Industrial League—so closely connected with the struggle of the miners in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia—and other working class organizations, must assist in every way possible to give the miners and their families the sinews of war—for war it is, a war of workers for the right to live, Rally with all forces to the striking miners whose unbroken It CHATTANOOGA, June 4. — The hearing on the motions filed by the International Labor Defense for new trials for the nine Scottsboro Negro boys facing the electric chair on a vicious framed-up charge of having raped two white girls, will take place today in Scottsboro, Alabama. The International Labor Defense in its motions for new trials for the boys challenges the boss court lynch verdict which in the first farcical “trial” sentenced eight of the boys to burn in the electric chair on July 10. The trial of the ninth boy, 14- year old Roy Wright, was declared a mistrial. Two of the other boys are also only 14. The oldest boy is just 20. “Tried” In Lynching Atmosphere The boys were “tried” in a tense Warning! Readers: ‘ Today is the crucial day in | the lite of the Daily Worker. Yes- terday only $612.75 was received and we still are $3,146 short ot the $5,000 that had to be raised within three days. Unless we receive a substantial part of this money today, we will not have sufficient paper to get out to- | morrow’s issue. Only you, the workers, can save the Daily Worker! What will be your an- ~ $Swer? Keep our Daily alive and fighting! Rush contributions by wire to the Daily Worker, 50 E. 13th St. New York City. Daily Worker Management Comm. : NEWS FLASH We have just received an urgent appeal from Pittsburgh asking us to send bundles of Dailies to help spread the mine strike. must have money to meet this demand. What . .We will be YOUR answer to this appeal, comrades? Many Organizations Wiring Demands to Trial Judge of 10,000 surrounding the court house and yelling for their blood. A brass band was on hand to play the “Star Spangled Banner” and “Dixie” as the first. verdicts were announced. The boys were sentenced on the unsup- ported testimony of two white pros- titutes who, at first denying that the boys had been traveling with 7 white men on the freight train which the boys had hoped in search of work. The girls at first denying that the boys had molested them were forced by the Alabama bosses and court of- ficials to lie against the boys. In this they were ably aided by Stephen R. ‘and tigating yi) show. the way, to the. whole Americap working clash. Jyneh atinosphere, with.an armed mob Roddy, Ku Klux Klan attorney. who Hearings Today on Motions of I.L.D. For New Trials for 9 Scottsboro Boys was in the case without the consent of either the boys or their parents. Roddy declined to cross- examine the girls, in spite of the glaring contra- dictions in their testimony. Roddy has been denounced by the nine boys as “a traitor to our cause.” Roddy is now claimed by Walter White to be representing the N.A.A.C.P, Boss Terror Against Defense As the hearing on the I. L. D, motions for new trials nears, the Alabama bosses finding their bloody plans for a legal mass lynching chal- Jenged by millions of white and Ne- gro workers throughout the country, are carrying on a terroristic campaign against the I. L, D. and the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, the two organizations which initiated the mass movement to save the nine boys. ACONTINUED ON PAGE THRED) FOSTER TQ SPEAK METAL MASS MEET Start Ditve. in New . York Metal Shops NEW YORK.—Metal workers from many shops and factories are ex- pected to come tonight to the mass meeting called by the New York local of the Metal Workers Indus- trial League. The purpose of the meeting, is to officially open the or- ganization drive in the shops and factories. Machinists, tool and die makers, metal polishers, spinners, molders, auto mechanics, helpers and workers from all other trades are invited. The meeting will take place tonight at 8 p. m, at Stuyvesant Casino, 142 Second Avenue, corner 9th Street, New York. Admission free, Price 3 Cenig_ HURL TEAR GAS AT PICKET LINES IN MINE STRIKE Sheriff Fails to Break Ranks; Demands Are~ Formulated By Strike Committee Miner’s Slogan Is: “Might As Well Starve Striking As Starve Working!” PITTSBURGH, Pa., June 4.—Mass pict. keting by over 300 took place at the Cedar Grove mine of the Carnegie Coal Co., near Avella, led by Frank Note of the National Miners Union Na- sional Board. The & Sheriff of Washington County ordered Note to Migcere the pickets and get out of town or he would be arrested and taken to W ashington, Penn- sylvania. Tear gas bombs were thrown solid until the regular time to end» the morning picketing. Wednesday night mass picketing at the Montour mine, No. 10, at Library was broken up by the deputies’ at- tack, but this morning 1,400 went on the mass picket line here and it was not broken up. This is the answer of the miners to the attack on the smaller picket line yesterday. This morning the strikers of the Soudan mine of the Valley Camp Coal Co., who walked out yesterday, marched on Gibson Mine of the Hill- man Coal Co. at Bentleyville and caused a hundred per cent strike of 400 miners there. They are continu- ing their march into the territory of the Bethlehem Co. ‘There is intense militancy and en- thusiasm among the miners. They y: “Might as well starve striking as working!” The main slogan : “Fight starvation by means of the strike.” The second slogan iss “Spread the strike!” The Negroes imported in the 1927 strike are lead- ing in this strike and are strongly represented on all committees. Fagan, bureaucrat of the United Mine Workers here, is forming fake committees of the Carnegie Co. mines to meet the bosses and try to settle and betray the strike behind the Note refused and urged the pickets to stand fast. The sheriff ordered the deputies to attack with te: r gas. but the pickets held their line backs of the miners. The National Miners’ Union and | Strike Committe organization of | local, section and district strike com- mittees is proceeding rapidly. Three thousand joined the National Miners’ Union yesterday. Over 9,000 are out on strike, The strikers’ demands, adopted by the Perinsylvania District Rank and | File Strike Corhmittee yesterday are: “Fifty cents a ton for machine coal; 75 cents a ton for pick coal; 12 cents a ton for cutters; $5.50 a day for day men; $5.40 a day for day helpers; 67 cents a yard for narrow work; 15 cents a yard for cutters payment for all dead work, to be based on day man rate; outside skilled labor to be paid $4.50 per day; outside unskilled labor to be paid $4; all supplies to be delivered to face and adequate supplies to be on hand at all times; union check- weighman at every mine; enforce- ment of the 8-hour day; recognition of the National Miners’ Union.” Demands for mechanical and con- veyor loaders are to be formulated at the next meeting of the District Strike Committee. (ADDITIONAL NEWS ON PAGE 3) Workers of Detroit Rallying Against the R And for Fight egistration Bill for Scottsboro 9 To Hold Mighty Protest Demonstration June 19 in Grand Cireus Park Against Attacks on Negro and Forei gn-Born Workers DETROIT, June 4—In militant protest against the new Michigan Alien Registration Bill and the Scottsboro boss court lynch verdict, the workers of Detroit will hold a tre- mendous demonstration on June 19. The demonstration will take place in Grand Circus Park at 5 p. m. From the park the workers will march to one of the largest halls in Detroit to be addressed by well-known working-class leaders, The mass struggle against the Alien Registration Bill.is combined with the struggle to free the nine innocent Scottsboro Negro boys being railroaded to the electric chair by the boss courts of Alabama on a lying, framed-up charge of raping two white girls. The workers of Detroit realize that Mt is the same ruling class which condemned these innocent. boys to burn in the electric chair that has passed this infamous bill in the Michigan legislature to photograph and fingerprint the foreign-born workers, In Michigan, as in Ala- bama, these vicious attacks on the working-class are aimed at crushing the resistance of the native and foreign-born Negro and white work- ers against the starvation capitalist system. Only Mass Protest Can Defeat Bill, ‘These vicious attacks on the work- ers, white and black, native and for- eign born, can only be defeated by the united mass action of all the workers, banded together in a fight- ing alliance against the ruling class. The workers of Michigan are indig- nant over these attacks on the for- eign-born and Negro workers, They are determined to fight against the registration bill. A City Committee of the Councils for the Protection of the Foreign Born has been set Up, | (GoNoUNTED OX PAGE =