The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 27, 1931, Page 3

a DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE, 27, 1931 UNABLE TO FIND WORK . FAMILY STARVING URES--- DECIDES TO LOOK FOR WORK IN ANOTHER TOWN- BOSSES FRAME NINE NEGRO ° —_ By CYRIL BRIGGS. The murderous frame-up of the nine Scottsboro Negro boys by the Alabama capitalists and plantation bésses was first exposed by the Daily Worker, organ of the Communist Party. Immediately the Central Com- mittee of the Communist Party is- sued a flaming appeal to the Negro People and the entire working-class, black and white, to rally to the de- fense of these innocent working-class children being raflroaded to the elec- tele chair by the Alabama boss : ‘The International Labor Defense their freedom. Leading southern and northern attorneys were engaged by these two organizations to make the fight in the courts for new trials for in the law to free the boys, and to carry the struggle to the United that by exerting gréatest mass pressure on the capi- talist courts through the mobiliza- ‘tion of millions of workers and sym- murderous claws of capitalist class justice. They pointed out that it was the capitalist courts that had rail- the boys to the electric chair in the first place, They emphasized fact known by every Negro work- that Negroes cannot get a fair in the courts of the white rul- ing class. NAACP, Leaders Ignored Appeal Se For Boy: To this militant mass fight to save the boys many organizations and hundreds of thousands of white and Negro workers rallied. Conspicuously | silent, however, were the white and Negro “uplifters” at the head of the National Association for the Ad- vahcement of Colored People (N.A. AOP.). For several weeks these gen- Foreed to pretend that they were doing something for the boys, the NAACP. leaders began to attack, 1008 Ce rns the the ai eT] if f ite a ey gree kk ober gf gEEE ee : E BeGSE HH (Eu nt 5 g & g i newspapers, under pressure of thegty, the N.A.A.C.P. leaders persisted,® , With the aid of the prison warden, Negro masses, were forced to criti- cize the inactivity of the N.AA.C.P., the N.A.A.C.P. leaders pretended that they had been in the case all along. (Only nobody knew it!) And to sub- stantiate this lying pretense they claimed as their own the traitorous Klan attorney, Stephen R. Roddy who, acting as “defense” attorney in the original trials had helped to rail- road the boys to the electric chair. And although the boys all denounced this same Roddy as “a betrayer of our cause” and exposed him as hav- ing sought to have them plead guil- and still persist, in their attempts to foist this klansman on the boys. Thought Parents Too Ignorant to Choose Their Own Defense. They sought to override the ob- jections of the boys and their par- ents to Roddy. They sought to over- ride the choice by the parents of the attorneys of the LL.D. and the LS. NR. to defend their children. Told by the parents that if they really wished to help, they must co-operate with the I. L, D. and the LSNR. they centered their efforts on the boys some weak-kneed preachers from Chattanooga and a police spy, they sought to coerce and intimidate the boys into disregarding the wishes of their parents. For to these “uplift- ers” of humble working-class people, the boys and their parents were “too ignorant” to know what's good for them. So, although. rebuffed by the boys and their parents the N.A.A.C.P. leaders continued their attempts to hamstring the defense of the boys by pretending that they were handl- ing the defense and dishonestly col- lecting money in the names of the boys—money that has not been turned over to the organizations de-¢ fending the boys. Their Job to Save White ‘Supremacy’ The N.A.A.C.P. had a job of saving to do. And from this they would not be diverted even by the indignant de- nunciation of the boys and their par- ents. The job was not the saving of the boys, but the saving of the bru- tal of white “supremacy” which is threatened by the growing mass 1 vement against this hideous against the Negro People, by the fighting alliance of, white and Negro workers that is being forged against the imperialist oppressors of Negro and white workers. And to United Front for Action Against Hunger, Terrorism By BILL DUNNE. HE. struggle in the coal fields of Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio and the Panhan~ dle section of West Virginia has sharpened rap- idly in the last few days and as a consequence class alignments are more clearly defined. ‘The tremendous vitality of the strike, its ca- pacity for growth, the obvious mass sentiment for revolt among miners in practically every sec- tion of the industry, the resoluteness with which the rank and file strike committees are carrying on the struggle, has forced the coal operators and the various government agencies, the UM WA officials, the liberal capitalist politicians like Pinchot. and the socialist party, to fall into their respective roles in the main task of breaking the strike against starvation. First of all, the state of Pennsylvania has es- tablished the death penalty for workers who re- sist strikebreaking injunctions. When Judge Rowand signed the injunction asked for by the Butler Coal Company against the strikers at its Wildwood mine, he at the.same time signed the death warrant of Louis Zigarec and loaded the rifles and riot guns with which a score of min- ets were killed and wounded. (Two more are at death’s door as this is written.) An offshoot of this policy wad the shooting to death on his own doorstep of a small storekeeper in Arnold City who had been active in relief work, and the wounding of four more strikers. The UMWA Officials signed a scab agreement with the Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Company al- most at the exact moment when the murdered and wounded miners were lying in their own blood beneath a burning sun. Governor Pinchot sent 75 state cossacks for the Pittsburgh Termi- nal properties and the UMWA as soan as the agreement was signed. ‘The action of Pinchot in regard to the cow- ardly murder of pickets from antbush is well ex- pressed by the heaglline in the Pittsburgh Press of June 24: “Pinchot Acts to End Fatal Mine Rioting— Orders More State Troopers into District.” The Pinchot policy is to put forward the state one killed by # coal and tron policeman making war openly in behalf of the coal barons. ‘The Pittsburgh (Scripps-MeRae) elabo- Mine Fields.” “Our much-criticized state police have not, as yet, been reported as using guns anywere, al- though they have been through the thick of the . They have ended or prevented riots—without shooting.” The Press then calls for taking the guns from special deputies—but to let the state cossacks keep theirs, of course, because “trained and picked men can be trusted with them.” Special deputies and mine guards should have thetr guns taken away because “modern science has supplied tear gas.” The editorial continues: “From all accounts, there is plenty of tear gas (costing $8 per bomb—B.D.) distributed among the deputies—enough to quell the fighting spirit in thousands of people. Yet the instant fighting 5 eg.” The cold brutality of this editorial discussion as to the best method “to quell the fighting spirit” of thousands of half-starved working- men, women and children, is equalled only by the brazen attempt to cover up fact that these deputies fired from ambush into a line of un- armed strikers, that they hurled tear gas bmmbs pointblank into groups of workers re blinded by the gas. That the depu- were not panic-stricken or scared but acting detailed instructions of the sheriff and Officials is beyond question. echo of the Wildwood shooting had hardly away before Sheriff Cain of Allegheny issued a blanket exoneration of all depu- g part in murderous assault. eu2GERR fait r starts, they forget they have it, and start shoot- The Pittsburgh Press also rejoices in the “peaceful settlement” between the Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Company and the UMWA. The Post-Gazette, not so interested in the po- litical fortunes of Pinchot, stresses more the importance of “reorganization of the industry as a whole”—federal control with the UMWA as the fascist instrument. for rationalization. The Post-Gazette says: “Resumption of contract relations between the United Mine Workers and the Pittsburgh Ter- minal Coal Company will be generally accepted as a constructive development in the present strike situation.... The wage scale accepted in the contract is no higher than that paid by @ number of companies now operating on an open shop basis, and is not as high as some... . Pennsylvania cannot be considered as a single unit, but must be grouped with other coal pro- ducing states that are in direct competition with it for the same markets. The hope of permanent. betterment lies in the reorganization of the in- dustry as a whole. The federal, government is the only agency that can compel consideration of the industry's ills on this scale. That it has become an emergency situation is evidenced by the continued outbreaks of violence—entailing loss of life—that have marked the strike in the past week.” (My emphasis—B.D.) ‘The Sun-Telegraph (Hearst) says: “The satis- faction felt over the announcement that the Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Company has entered into an agreement with the UMWA is marred by the killing of a bystander and the wounding of a number of strikers in a battle between the lat- ter and deputy sheriffs employed by the Pitts- burgh Coal Company at its Arnold City mine. . .. They are nominally responsible to the sher- iff, but are paid by the coal company—an unde- sirable condition.” We see the capitalist press, Pinchot and the UMWA officials united on the policy of sta- bilizing the coal industry, “curing its ills,” at the expense of the miners. The agreement with the P.T.C. Co, is rightfully welcomed by these elements as a step in the right direction. It is a wage cutting agreement for mines that already paid a starvation wage. ‘The capitalist press is likewise united on the question of abolishing the armed coal and iron police and deputy sheriffs paid by the coal companies—and replacing them with better armed, better trained, better disciplined, and therefore more effective state cossacks. The socialist party which, at its district con- vention here recently, supported the UMWA- Pinchot-capitalist press policy of “re-organiza- tion of the industry as a whole,” follows in the footsteps of the liberal bourgeoisie by laying the entire blame for the murders and maimings upon the deputy sheriffs. It calls in its public statement for “the immediate arrest of every deputy involved in the shooting on a charge of murder.” In other words the socialist party, which up to date has “aided” thé miners by gathering contributions for the strike-breaking UMWA, proposes to punsh murderers of work- ers, hired by coal operators, by turning them over to the courts controlled by their paymas- ters. The socialist party would like to have workers believe that there are some political dif- ferences between courts and gunmen in this principality of Schwab and Mellon. John L. Lewis has recently called upon Hoo- ver to sponsor the “re-organization of the indus~ try as a whole.” Senator James J. Davis in a speech in Pittsburgh the other day urged the “re-organization of the industry as a whole” and intimated that it would be quite easy to get around any legal obstacles such as anti-trust Jaws if a serious effort were made. Howat, now once more in the arms of Lewis, is likewise for the “re-organization of the in- dustry as a whole, Frank Keeney and’ Fred Mooney, whose leadership of the somewhat nebulous West Virginia Mine Workers Union, is of the Musteite persuasion, are also for re~ organization of the industry as a whole” under government auspices, ‘ All of these elements, openly or covertly, are seeking to revive the UMWA, its leadership—and the checkoff; the dear old checkoff by which sweating miners for years paid millions of dol- lars in fat salaries to equally fat officials who sold them out for fat prices; the UMWA is try- ing to become the instrument for the fascization of the coal mining industry; many UMWA hangers-on ‘are now special deputy sheriffs in training for the delightful day when they can be UMWA organizers without any change in func- tion or allegiance. Almog’ everyone seems to be in favor of the “re-organization of the industry as a whole” at the expense of the miners except the Communist Party, the Trade Union Unity League and its affiliated unions—and the miners and other workers. While the capitalist press plays down the murderous attacks on miners and sympa- thizers and their families, and plays up the scab wage-cutting agreement of the UMWA and the P.T.C. Co., the miners, led by the Rank and File Strike Committee of the National Miners Union, are picketing the Terminal Coal Com- pany mines en masse. Against the united front of the coal operators, their government, the UMWA and the socialist party and Musteite elements, the Rank and File Strike Committee has brought forward the pro- gram of the united front of all miners for mass support of the strike, for extension of relief ac- tivity, for struggle for unemployed insurance, for spreading the strike. The Rank and File Strike Committee, in the name of the 40,000 miners on strike and the 120,000 women and children involved in the fight against starvation, has invited delegations of rank and file members from UMWA locals. West Virginia Mine Workers locals, mine committees anti local strike committees in other fields and unemployed miners’ committees and councils, to attend its meeting in Pittsburgh, July 15. At this meeting a program of unity and action for all miners will be worked out. It will put be- fore all miners the burning issue of the further strengthening of the fight against starvation and slavery, the fight for the 6-hour day and strug- BOYS this job of saving white “supremacy” the N.A.A.C.P. have bent their full energies. William Pickens, who first praised the ILD for initiating the fight to save the boys, and was reported threatened by removal by the NA.A. CP, top leadership, has just returned from the South where he carried on 3, vicious campaign against the mass fight to save the boys. He returns despised by tens of thousands of Ne- gro workers as a toady of impe- rialism. a traitor to the Negro masses, but with the fulsome praise of the white bosses ringing in his ears. And Icudest in its praise of Pickens, the turncoat and traitor, is the Chatta- nooga Times. which has all along yelled for the blood of these innocent Negro children. But in spite of the treacherous at- tacks by the N.A.A.C.P. Uncle Tom reformists, the mass fight to save the boys goes on with increasing power and intensity daily drawing in addi- tional thousands of Negro and white workers. ILDHitsBrutal KillingofSirike Symbathizer Denouncing the deliberate mur- der of Mike Filipovich at Arnold City, Tuesday, following the shoot- ing on miners. at Wildwood the day| previously, J. Louis Engdahl, general secretary of the International Labor Defense, made public affidavits yes- terday from miners and sympa-) thizers who were the targets of dep- uty sheriff's guns. One of these affidavits was from) Mary Pilipovich, widow of the slain storekeeper who had shown his sym-| pathy for the mine strikers. Mrs. Filipovich declared that tear gas was set off in the midst of the mine strike pickets “and before the gas was dispelled began firing toward the house, on the porch of which her husband was standing, and at nine pickets assembled nearby; that Dep- uty Roy Ingram fired several shots directly at her husband; that she knew said Ingram because he had traded at her store; that she was standing in the doorway at the time the shooting took place; that when her’ husband fell Ingram stopped shooting for the moment; that In- gram was using a gun that rested up against his arm or shoulder, while) all the other deputies and police whom she saw shooting were using revolvers; that her husband died al- gle for the building of a powerful industrial union and a national collective agreement, the organization of defense of arrested workers and struggle against the wholesale terror in the coal fields. There is great ferment among steel workers and workers in other industries closely connect- ed with mining; they see the strike as the first, powerful blow against the ever-sharpening capi- talist offensive against the living standards of the American workirig class and the meeting on July 15, in the heart of the coal, steel and iron industry will focug upon the strike and the de- cisions of the strike committee session the close attention of thousands of workers in other in- dustries. The call for the meeting and the election of the delegates which will take place in scores of mining carhps in connection with the local needs and demands of the miners, will strengthen the strike movement. The mass character of the strike itself furnishes in turn a splendid base for such a gathering of militant miners. ‘The July 15 meeting is therefore of basic im- portance as a mass instrument for a further working out of many problems of the working- class counter-offensive, and of the greatest sig- nificance fer miners—and all other workers. Our Party membership in all coal, steel and metal districts, in the railway fadustry, must give all possible assistance to the support of the strike, the preparing and popularizing of the coming meeting. The T.U.U.L. unions and leagues in other in- dustries can find in this work a splendid method of winning new members and bringing forward the T.U.U.L. and its unions as the organizers and leaders of the fight against wage cuts and speed-up, i Th miners in Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio and West Virginia are marching and bat- talions of workers in other coal fields and in other industries must be prepared to march with them, most instantly.” Walter Dudak, mine picket, in an affidavit, declared that while not a single striker even hurled a rock at the deputized gunmen, Mine Super- intendent Ferguson had threatened the pickets with, “I'll get you one at a time,” and that after the tear gas bombs had been thrown Fer- guson had yelled: “Shoot the sons 0’ bitches.” Joseph Kuklar testified that he was fired at by Deputy Ted Hunt and named Policerhan Yoder and Deputy Roy Ingram as those who fired toward Mike Filipovich’s store. Frank Brazen also testifies that he was in the picket line before Mike Filipovich’s store and identified the coal and iron policeman, Jack Yoder, and the Deputy Sheriff Roy Ingram as those who shot point blank into the crowd of pickets. He declared that Deputy Ted Hunt shot at him, chasing him around the building like a hunted animal. Brazen pointed out that all the mine pickets were unarmed. Phila. Tag Days PHILADELPHIA. — Stations for the tag days for the Daily Worker and Scottsboro Defense on June 27 and 28 will be open Saturday, June 27 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. and on e y | Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The stations are as follows: 8th and Ritner Sts., 1208 Tasker St., 213 Lombard St., 2926 W. Gor- don St., $29 Arch St. 2802 Kensington Ave., 1331 N. Franklin St. 715 N. 5th St. 995 N. 5th St, 2004 W. Mayfield Ave. MASS vai WILL F ON WAY TO S & I AKSH Toto ar ASA e Ax THEM. Taad amc [K WORK IN ANOTHER TOWN. /