The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 19, 1931, Page 4

= & Page Four Y. ‘Telephone Algonquin 7956-7. Cable: Help the in the Phillipines By D.B.D jMPOR TANT events have been F lately in e Islands. h were crushed w govern! e the news at wor who at- of the revolution- The Philippine ty is practically outlawed, its ibited, its leaders are ng trial. rutal suppression of every on of the Phili r has wit of the class struggle erialist mov The local bourgeoisie, 1 phrases about indepen- through missions to Wash- declares for a united front alism, ‘The masses & his betrayal and in increa: to the young to be . where the split and the revolutionary in May, 1929. The majority ij workers remained solidly be- trade unions which the Proletarian Labor the Pan-Pacific Trade taking place After a series h erialist t to this latter organization addressed Conyetion of the Proletarian ess in which it formulates the tasks before the workers of the Islands. From this letter we learn that while the imperialist au- thorities blessed the “labor” parades staged by the reformists on May 1, they laid by a huge supply of ammunition in preparation for the smashing of the revolutionary workers’ demon- strations. The Philippine press triumphantly enumerated the number of tear-gas bombs and riot guns let by the United States imperialist army to the local landlord-capitalist police for the purpose. ‘At the same time that the demonstrations of the revolutionary masses were being disbursed. by armed force, the reformists were entertain- ing the capitalist bosses at boozy luncheons e the collaboration of classes and the frat- ernization of capital and labor was the dominat- ing tone of the speeches. However, these betrayers of the working class understand that if the spreading influence of the Communist Party is to be checked some- riot guns and fraternization eeded. The reformist con- netioned the formation thing more than with the bosses is ventions accordingly of a Union “as a means to prevent the propagation of subversive Communist! ideas” in the Phili s. Thus the Philippir Greens have been inconspicuously blended int Philippine Mustei! he main commandmer of this brand new species of Philippine labor traitor is: “Keep faith in God and in the ir dependence of the people of the P. I. whic! sooner or later can be attained through the proper development of their natural resources.” Against all these manouvers of Philippine re- formism designed to keep away the masses from the revolution: class struggle, the Pan-Pacific ‘Trade Union Secretariat calls upon the Philip- pine Proletarian La gress tp organize the working class in their daily struggles against the bosses. It calls upon them to fight for the legality of the revolutionary trade unions. for a revolutionary proletarian press as the powerful organizer of the masses; against gov- ernment interference in labor disputes and strike arbitration, against the white terror and the suppression of working class organization. The Pan-Pacific Trade Union Secretariat draws the attention of the Proletarian Labor Congress to the necessity of establishing “the closest con- nection with the revolutionary proletariat in the U.S.A. (the Trade Union Unity League) with whom joint action and solidarity will be most effective in the struggle against American im- perialism.” It is the task of our Communist Party and the revolutionary trade unions in the USA, as well as the American Anti-Imperialist League, to show through action that we want and de- serve the confidence of the revolutionary masses of the Philippines. It is our foremost duty to help them to throw off the yoke of American imperialism. Right here in the United States there are tens of thousands of Filipino work who suffer from discrimination and terrible ex- ploitation. We must prepare them for the com- ing struggle in the Philippies by organizing them on the basis of their immediate demands. We must explain to them the revolutionary issues at stake in t ry, urge them to give moral and material support to the re- yolutionary organizations in the Philippines. And, above all, a nation-wide campaign for’ the release of the class war prisoners who are now Published by the GComprodaily Publishing Co., Inc., are except Sunday, at 50 Bast Vath Street, New York City. N. Ad@ress and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 50 East 18th Street. New York, Antilmperialist Struggle)... rotting in the jails of Yankee imperialism in | the P. I, for the legality of all working class organizations there, for the freedom of speech and assemblage, must be iitiated without delay. Hunger’s Cry from Kentucky By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL. HAVE just come from the depths of the Har- Jan County Jail, in Harlan, Kentucky, heart of the Eastern Kentucky coal fields, that spawn riches for some of the greatest corporations in | the land; hunger, misery, death, for the miners, their women and children. Nearly 100 miners and their sympathizers are crowded into the dark cells of this prison. A score are charged with murder, carrying the death penalty. Scores have been indicted for “panding and confederating.” Criminal syndi- calism is supposed to be the crime others have committed, for speaking at meetings. No one knows, not even the jailed union of- ficials or the lawyers, exactly how many pris- oners there are. Warrants for arrest are out, for scores more. New prisoners are being bought in pactically every day. The Eastern Kentucky coal miners cannot fight this out alone. Whether in Harlan’s dun- geons or out in the dark mine pits of the hills and mountains, they writhe under the heels of such great combinations of organized dollars as the United States Steel Corporations (the Steel Trust); tht Peabody Coal Company of Chicago; the Peabody-Insull interests, the Wis- consin Steel Company, the Commonwealth Edi- son power monopoly. Exactly at the moment that the Steel Trust heads, Farrell and Schwab, in New York, were hypocritically voicing their opposition to wage cuts, and “Sammy” Insull was advancing mil- lions of dollars in loans, out of his stolen wealth to his newly elected Chicago municipal gov- ernment, the gunmen and thugs of these “in- terests,” recruited from the dregs of bootleggers, rum runners and hijackers, were pouring broad- sides of murderous dum dum (mushroom) bul- lets from machine guns and high-powered 20- shot rifles against striking Eastern Kentucky coal miners, seeking to utilize the strike weapon in defense of their efforts to organize, to fight wage cuts, to resist the lowering of their starva- tion standard of living so low that in many instances working miners were forced to ask for charity to keep alive. ‘The mine strikers bury their dead. But they do not forget. ‘There are no statistics of mar- tyred workers in Harlan County. But the mine owners’ press (the press that licks the boots of the Farrells, the Schwabs, the Insulls), the press of the Harlan County Coal Operators’ Association, rages through the coun- tryside; Governor Sampson orders out the state militia; Sheriff John Henry Blair deputizes new hordes of criminal scum; Circuit Judge D. C. “Baby” Jones calls a special grand jury, boss class “law and order” seeks the blood of work- ers because in their attack on the coal miners’ “free city” of Evarts, in May several mine own- ers’ gunmen were also numbered among the dead. It was Gastonia all over again, exactly two years after the textile workers in the Man- ville-Jenckes’ mill town of North Carolina had stood their ground against the armed lynching mob attack led by the Chief of Police, Aderholt. Not a single mine guard, deputized thug or other riff-raff of the Farrell-Insull anti-labor army of mankillers has been arrested. But the man-hunt goes on through the mountains for the leadcrs and organizers of the miners’ strug- gle against hunger. I talked with W. B. Jones, secretary of the Miners’ Union, sitting in his prison cell. He told of oppression of labor tiirough these Ken- tucky mountains that made human slavery in _ the pre-Civil War days of more than 70 years ago seem paradise. For struggling against these conditions he is charged with,murder. Here in this same jail sits Joe Cawood, the miners’ candidate for sheriff in the last elec- _ tions who was counted out in real Tammany - Hall style, while the Insull gang was screaming about “honest elections” in Chicago's mayoralty battle to replace “Bill” Thompson with “Tony” Cermak, considered a more subservient tool. In another cell sits the chief of police of Evarts, who recognized the right of the coal miners to hold their union meetings in this mountain stronghold, where thousands have ‘often gath- ered at a time, Negro and white, to discuss their ‘Weaknesses in Unemployment Work and How to Overcome Them! j | commoa grievances and organize to win the | remedy for them. In another cell is W. M. Hightower, the president of the union. The struggle goes on, however, because other | officials, atother president and another secre- tary are functioning out in the hills, and the coal miners still hold power in Evarts, in spite of the govrenor’s militia, the sheriff's gunmen and the coal barons’ thugs. This is a fight for the lives and for the free- dom of the 20 already in jail charged with mur- der. It is a fight for the freedom of the scores | of others facing the yawning steel gates of boss class penitentiaries prepared to swallow them alive. It is a fight for the organization of the mine workers, for living siandards higher than the starvation level. I pledged the Miners’ Union, through its rep- resentatives, President Hightower and Secretary Jones, that the International Labor Defense would do all in its power in the struggle for their lives and their liberty, that it would seek to develop the widest possible protest of Amer- ican and International labor, while at the same time helping to build the struggle in the boss class courts of so-called “justice.” We have written Scottsboro, Mooney and Billings, Im- perial Valley, Centralia, Atlanta, Paterson, Youngstown, upon our banners and linked them up in our struggles. High up must also blaze the thundering appeal of “Harlan County, Ken- tucky”! ‘lhe neroic Kentucky cecal miners must not die! Den.and their right of self defense, their right to organize, thcir right and the right of their families, women and children, to live! DAIWORK.” eee SUBSCRIPTION RATES: ‘ey mati everywuere: ows year, $6; six months, $8; two months, $1) excepting Boroughs ef Manhattan and Bronx, New York Ctly. Foreign: one year, $8+ six months. $4.50. 35,000 tion in immediately! miners are striking against starva- : Pennsylvania, aR = Ohio and West Virginia, i 5 and the strike is spread- ing, but it can only be won if*relief on a large scale is rushed in, Act By SAM NESIN ‘HE shortcomings enumerated in the previous article are contributing factors which account for our organizational weakness. However the outstanding weakness is that we are still iso- lated from the neighborhood and its every day grievances against high rents, high cost of food, electric gas, coal, unsanitary housing, lack of play grounds for the children, starvation and evictions. We must entrench ourselves in the neighborhood and become the leaders in these daily struggles linking them up with our gen- eral demands for immediate relief and unem- ployment insurance. Uniting these forces with the employed workers in struggle against wage- cuts, speed-up and for the shorter work day with no reduction in pay. The fight against dis- crimination against Negro and foreign born workers must be carried on to a much greater extent than in the past, particwarly on the issues of rent and relief. In many instances we found neighbors col- lecting money among themselves to help a family threatened with eviction. Also collecting food and money for starving neighbors. In Harlem a Negro woman cooked a stew for the unem- ployed members of the branch. Clothing was brought into other branches by sympathetic neighbors. These gtnuine expressions of work- ingclass solidarity have not been taken advan- tage of organizationally. We failed to realize that these masses were expressing themselves in a very practical way. These very same families that show their interest in the struggle by bringing food, clothing or money, will alsp help to resist evictions, accept as part of neighbor- hood delegations to demand relief from the bos- ses and the city government and participate in New Forces---A Product ot the Scottsboro Campaign By TOM JOHNSON ‘HE fact, so often stressed by Lenin in his speeches and writings, that the best forces of the working class develop and come to the fore in the course of mass struggles, is again confirmed in the Scottsboro defense campaign in the South, It is no exaggeration to say that in Chatta- nooga our Party is now for the first time reaching and drawing into its ranks the best and most courageous fighters from the ranks of the Negro proletariat. One example of this from personal experience: I went last night with a Negre worker, the leader of his Naborhood Scottsboro Defense Committee, to a Negro community over in Georgia to speak at a meeting he had arranged there for the defense campaign. In our con- versation on the way over I learned that he was an old timer in the labor movement, having joined the I. W. W. on the Pacific coast fol- Jowing his discharge from the army there in 1915. He had gone thru the red raids and police terrorism of the war days a member of the Wobblies and had only left them when he became convinced ‘that the organization was no longer a fighting revolutionary force. Since his return to Chattanooga several years ago he has followed the revolutionary movement in the press. He spoke with knowledge and en- thusiasm of the 5 Year Plan in the Soviet Union and the new world the workers are building there, aptn a ats ‘This worker has in the course of a few short weeks, developed into one of the real local lead- ers in the Scottsboro campaign. He leads the meetings and the activity of his Naborhood Committee and he does a good job of it. On shis own initiative he has arranged not one but ‘many meetings in Negro churches and com- munities. He has personaly drawn scores of workers into the movement to save the lives of the Scottsboro boys. He has courage, loyal- ty and initiative. He is typical of the splendid revolutionary material everywhere about us, which we unfortunately have not yet learned sufficiently well how to draw into our moye- ment and to utilize. Why is this worker and many more like him only today coming into the ranks of our Party? The answer is clear, These splendid fighters are coming close to us today, are joining our Party, because of the fighting mass campaign waged under our leadership to free the Scotts- boro boys. In this campaign these elements see the Party in action as a real Party of revo- Jutionary action, mobilizing masses for a de- termined struggle against oppression. These fighters, the best, of our class, will develop and come into our ranks only to the extent that our Party initiates, vein and leads such fighting actions of the workers for their most pressing needs and around those burning issues which most agitate the whole class. The organi- zation and leadership of such struggles is today the first task of our Party, r demonstrations. These are the forces that will help develop sustained activity such as canvas- sing, gatherings, etc. They will greatly assist in the organization of house and bloek com- mittees of the tenants’ league. We had a leftist fear of this self activity of the masses degenerating into a soup kitchen charity atmosphere and that it will destroy the militancy of the workers, is attitude can be likened to the one which asks you to stop work because you might make a mistake. In the Present stage of our activity there is more danger of our isolation in the rejection of this self activity of the masses than its acceptance. Underestimation of Unemployment Work While we accept unemployment activities as one of our major tasks, we have not taken the necessary steps to show that we regard it as such. We are acquainted with the cry of no forces and will not repeat it. However, we must agree that we must haye something to begin with. Unemployment work is a <cry intensive form of our activity. It calls for v.>"k amongst the broad masses, many meetings, lexflets, daily issues, quick action and funds are necessary. For this most important work in New York City we have one full time functionary with no tech- nical assistance. No permanent comrades as- signed for this work in many sections of*the Party. None of the Unions or Leagues have assigned any responsible comrades for Unem- Ployment work. Few women‘assigned. In some sections no meeting place provided. No weekly or monthly sum of money contributed by any of the Unions or Leagues or our close fraternal organizations for the organization fund. It would be wrong for us to have our faces turned inwardly for the solution of our problems, but we must start with what we have and work .out- wardly. Proposals For Furthering Work 1, Organization of Fractions. 2. Additional Organizational forces in Local Office. 3. Each Section to assign a permanent com- mittee of five to be in charge of this work. 4, Section to assign as many women as pos- sible for this activity. 5. Unions and Leagues assign responsible comrades to branches in such territories where they are concentrating. 6. All Unions and Leagues of the Trade Un- ion Unity League and close fraternal organiza- tions to pay a regular monthly sum of money to the organization of the Unemployed Council. 7. Evening meetings of the Unemployed Branches be held. This will make it possible for organizations to give continued assistance and leadership. All workers of the neighbor- hood will be able to participate. It will help to unite the unemployed workers with the rest of the neighbors and add to their militancy. 8. Canvassing and the organization of house committees should be carried on by the section committees. units and members of the Party not independent sf the Unemployed Council, but through it. In this manner there will be a bet- ter coordination and every Party member will lead non-Party members in the doing of that work. A Correction In my previous article I was incorrect when I stated “Comrade: who are furthest removed from the work give “he most categoric instructions, ‘This applies to the District anr Section Commit- tees as well as the Unit Buros.” This formulation constitutes a denial of the role of the Party as the leader of the Unemployed workers as well as the workingclass as a whole ~~ Organizational Forms Within the Shop (From “Shop Paper Editor” issued monthly by the C.C.) dS particular form of shop organization which we advocate depends entirely on the parti- cular issue involved, conditions in the shop, the readiness of the workers for struggle, and forms of organization which already exist. Therefore no cut and dried blue-print formula can be is- sued. We give below a rough characterization of the various forms of organization, and must leave it to the jodgment of the comrades con- nected in the shop in question, which form they advocate under given circumstances. They are distinctly divided into united front forms and union forms of organization, the former representing the united front from below, in- cluding all workers, whether they are members of the revolutionary unions, A. F. of L. union, independent craft unions, or unorganized. These united front organizations, which are not an in- tegral part of the union, are the Grievance Committee, the Department Committee and the Shop Committee. United Front Forms of Shop Organization One contact: What to do with one contact is obvious—through him to conduct agitation in the shop and gain more contacts, to form a group to discuss not only conditions in the shop but ways and means of bringing about some forms of organization within the shop. Grievance Committee: The grievance commit- tee is the most elementary form of organization in the shop. It is formed to combat a par- ticular grievance in the shop, wether this grievance touches all the workers in the shop or only part of them. It is not a permanent organization, but may develop into a permanent form in the course of struggle or preparation for struggle. It may-develop either into a De- partment Committee or Shop Committee. It is oftentimes formed spontaneously by the work- ers who are driven by worsening conditions to protest. The most advanced and militant work- ers will speak in the name of the rest. This group is the Grievance Committee. The com- mittee may also be deliberately organized our own comrades in the shop, by their choos- ing the most militant workers, from among our group of contacts, and getting them to take the lead in the protest. Any demand which the Grievance Committee wins, no matter how | small, develops the confidence of the workers and strengthtns the organizatoin. Many work- ers will follow a Grievance Committee on a specific grievance who are not yet ready to join @ permanent organization. of struggle, particularly successful struggle, thtve workers become convinced of the neces- sity of permenent organization and permanent struggle. ‘rhis leads then to the formation of our more permanent committees, the Depart- ment Committee and the Shop Committee. Department Committee: A Department Com- mittee is, under the most ideal conditions, el- ected by all the workers of one department, to represent them in their struggle with the boss. It is a more permanent form of organization, and is the spokesman of all the workers in that department, in the fight for improvement of working conditions in that department. Un- der most conditions at present, however, it is not always possible to elect the committee in the face of boss terror, company spies, etc., and the tendency will be to get the most militant workers in the department to function as a com- mittee in the name of the workers of the de- partment. However, if the committee is the outgrowth of successful struggles under the leadership of a grievance committee, it will most likely be possible te elect the committee openly. We must not yiel? too easily, however, to boss terror, and contizually strive to elect the com- mittee openly. ‘he Department may, as it ac- tually did in the Lawrence strike, serye as a shop committee for the entire shop, or it may develop into a shop committee by leading in setting up corresponding department commit- tees in other departments, either under cover or openly. Shop Committee: Under ideal circumstances the Shop Committee is elected by the workers in the shop, to represent them all in their struggle against the boss for better conditions. In practice this does not always necessarily work out. The Shop Committee may be, and almost always is, the logical development of a grievance committee or a department committee, and com- prises the most advanced and militant workers in the shop. This committee is the highest form of the united front from below, and is not an integral part of the Union. It guides and directs the department committees, takes up all grievances, and leads all struggles in the shop. However, in a strike struggle, a mass strike committee takes over the leadership. The Union Mill or mine or shop branch: This com- prises all the members of the revolutionary union within the shop. Branch Executive: This is the elected guid- ing committee of the shop branch, and is not a united front organization. Union Shop: Where every worker In the shop is a member of the revolutionary union, the Shop Committee may be identical with the Shop Branch Executive, but it is the Shop Committee, even under such circumstances, which speaks to the boss in the name of the workers, and sees to it that any agreements the boss makes, whe- ther with the union or with the Shop Commit- tee, are put into effect. i The Party ‘The organization of the Party within the shop is the shop nucleus, and in organizational work within the shop it is the duty of the comrades inthe nucleus to push whichever forms of or- ganization are being introduced, must build up these organizations and build up the Union— it must be the driving force within the non- Party organizations within the shop, and must carefully guide the activity of the united front organizations along revolutionary lines, combat- ting the reformists, and preventing the reform- ists from dominating any of the committees formed. In short, the activity within the or- ganizations in the shop corresponds to the ac- tivity of the Party as a whole outside the shop in any non-Party mass organizations. And of course, as far as recruiting goes, we draw to us the most advanced elements we find in the course of any activities we carry on within the shop, whether from the non-Party organizations or from among the unorganized: (See the Next Party Life Column for “Some « Notes from St, Donis.”, But in the course | Party Life Conducted by the Org. Dept Central Com- Red Gfocste mittee, Communist Party, U. S. A. | | By JORGE In Other Words—War! In the N. Y, Herald-Tribune of June 14, a gent by the name of Joseph Stagg Lawrence, who is Vice-President of the Board of Industrial Coun- selors, Incorporated, lets us in on what he thinks is a cause of the crisis, and hints, broadly, at what ought to be done about it. He says: “The greatest consumer of capital goods is war. Since we have fully repaired the destruc- tion of the last great conflict, the world is now able to go ahead and accumulate exclusively for its peace-time purposes. It is probable that this particular adjustmént is one of the major con- tributing causes of the present depression.” Clear, isn’t it? “The world,” that is to say the capitalist world, has “accumulated” too much capital goods. “Too much,” because the consum- ing forces (which are the masses of workers and farmers besides the capitalists adding new fac- tories and machines to production) fail to use up goods as fast as they are produced. And, since this Mr. Lawrence admits that peace-time consumption is inadequate to keep up, and therefore there is an unused “accumu- lation,” and since “the greatest consumer of cap- ital goods is ¥ et’s have a war and every- thing will be jake. Only a war will “consume” a few millions of workers, in addition! Tripe, Two Bits a Pound One of those godewitl “detective magazines,” callyed the ‘Real Detective,” which assures its readers that every word is “absolutely true,” is out early with its July edition with a lot of plain and fancy fertilizer about “The Red Terror in the U. S. A.” Listen to this tripe: “Fearing neither God nor Devil, they (the Reds) do not hesitate to resort to tactics from which Christian people would turn in horror.” Again: “M was the measure of his (Len- | in’s) power. He could kill because he knew no God.” “We are Christian people,” said the United States Supreme Court in denying citizenship to Professor MacIntosh ang Miss Bland, precisely because they wanted to support capitalism with- Christianinty demands that ‘ou kill, so long as you kill for capitalism's in- terest, In Alabama, a woman named Laura Wright, | who murdered her husband, tries to escape pun- ishment by saying that he was an atheist (Asso-. ciated Press, May 27). And if you examine the list of murderers in any American State, you'll find almost all of them “good Catholics” or “de- vout Protestants.” In fact, here in New York, the gangster-boot- legger wars result in murders by Catholics with such tiresome regularity that when the moron girl, Starr Faithful, who was both rich and batty, took an overdose of dope and jumped in the ocean, it was the first chance the Catholic edi- tors of the capitalist dailies had a chance to play up a “Protestant ‘murder.” So they did themselves proud, and are still selling oddles of papers to, the scandalized Chris- tians, though it is the common talk of news- paper row that the girl killeq herself, incident- ally, like Christians do. The Chief of Staff of the U. S. Army recently wrote a letter to the preachers, qouting Scripture to prove that Chris- tianity definitely O. K’s killing folks. Talk about killing, those who ‘“‘know God” beat atheists four ways from the jack on both murder and suicide! “8 @ Three in One ‘Three items have come to our desk, and dew reader, if you can read this without getting mas all through, something is wrong with you. First, a circular letter sent out by Theodore Roosevelt, the sap-head son of Teddy the Ter- rible, who is, by the grace of Hoover and the National City Bank, Governor of Porto Rico. It is a letter asking for contributions to feed the hungry children of PoPrto Rico. fil No doubt they should be fed. But by whom? Roosevelt says that they are “Loyal American citizens, but have been the victims of poverty, disease and a disastrous hurricane.” American imperialism, which since it grabbed Porto Rico has taken out of it in profits over nineteen times its present national wealth, ac- counts for the “poverty” and the poverty ac- counts for the “disease,” and imperialism has been worse than a dozen hurricanes. Let the im- perialists who have robbed Porto Rico feed the Porto Rican children. But Roosevelt says something else: He says, “Child hunger under the American flag is in- sufferable.” So! How does it happen then that Hoover himself manages to bear up under the fact he himself cites that there are some 6,000,000 chil- dren in United States suffering from ailments traceable to “malnutrition’? And what about the following concrete case, told in the Buffalo, N. Y., “Times” of June 9, of a man who told a grocer his family was starving and invited him to come and see. The grocer went to the work- er’s home, and: “The wife and mothcr was pale and emaci- ated and the children were ragged and half famished. On the stove some meat was cook- ing. The man said he had killed a dog and they were cooking it!” We note that there are 504 capitalists in the United States, according to income tax reports, who don’t work but who “get” an income of a Million Dollars or More per year! And we re- member that Hoover said, when the crisis began, that “No worthy citizen would go hungry.” These children of the worker who had killed a dog to feed them, no doubt were not “worthy”! The worker hime! certainly wasn’t, for had he not killed a dog! And dogs ar eprivate property! To eat the private property of somebody else 1s a crime! Such criminals are condemned in the third item we have before us. A circular from W. T. Van Alstyne, Secretary of the “Sons of the Revo- lution,” who calls all patriots to arms against the Communists, who, says he: “Are avowedly press- ing a ruthless campaign to destroy private own- ership of property, religion and the personal lib» erty for which our forefathers fought.” Religion and hunger! Personal liberty and dog meat for workers’ babies! Private ownership and imperialism which, for the profits of a few parn- sites, starves the American workers’ children just as it starves those in the oppressed éolony, of Porto Rico! 3