The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 3, 1931, Page 4

¢ ed by Yo: Page Four the Comprodal! ¥ { (Resolution of Politburo, C.C., C.P.U.S.A, July 29, 1931 i. The r ike ed the | most diffi In the | very heart of t 1. 50 per cer At same tim to other mines has i down. er, the strike has r nd there can be ob- han hereto- of the movement kK movement itself. In served, though on a s fow, the developmei within the b; the Ohio ond north the strike | area compri: | number on str ther, in the We | miners now on | total | there | | effective. mines where miners who went back work, on the whole do not maintain a hostile attitude to the strike and to the National ™ ’ Union, On the contrary, perienced relief machin- tion for strikes, f ed were the or- ganizational weak es on of relief, in the building of the relief machinery both in the district the slownes. and in the center at Pitt h which the Party, the U. L. and the other m organizatio: were mobilized for the campaign, the inadequate response of the pre: (d) Political mistakes in the conduct of the strike. Here the most important are: (1) Slow- ness and hesitation in bringing forward the Pai (2) Undere: of the 1 that still e: among the m U. M. W. A. (3) Insuf ed front Y nal strike perspective as the only way out of all dif- ficulties instead of attention to overcoming or- ganizational shortcom: present str (5) Failure to build mass defense which led (4) | | | N. M. U. locals. at 50 Bast »AIWORK.” w York, N, ¥ ‘Daily is ede thant By mai: Worker’ everywhere: One year, $6; of Manhattan and Bronx, SUBSCRIPTION RATES: six months, §3; New York City. Foreign: two months, $1 one year, excepting Boroughs $8; six months, $4.50, in the Strike! including the spreading of the strike, work among the unemployed, collection of relief, etc. (d) To strengthen the local relief machin- ery and to establish better relations with the Pittsburgh relief office: To intensify the local relief collections, (e) Special attention to the building of the To improve the inner life of the N. M. U. locals. To organize the Section and District N. M. U. machinery, To effect the real leadership of N M. U. locals in the strike, in its mine. (f) To establish better relations and closer contact between the center and the mines through drawing of the miners into the leading | organs, through special instructors, ete. To fight against all tendencies to bureaucracy; to estab- lish genuine trade union democracy from top to bottom, and guard against the reducing of the leadership of the miners themselves to mere formal approval of questions, (g) To regularize the meetings of the vari- | trade union movement; and (3) it is the largest | acceptance by masses of white workers of the | principle in practice of solidarity of Negro and white workers, On the strong side, our work shows that (1) the division between black and white has been | overcome almost entirely in practice, i. e., strik- ing together, joining the same union, union ac- ceptance of Negroes on leading committees, (2) relatively large proportion of Negro miners rep- resented at July 15 conference, and large pro- portion of Negro delegates; and (3) adoption of concrete, specific strike demands for equal admission of the Negroes to “good” mines and equal access of Negroes to all jobs. The weak side of our work is represeted by: (1) failure to develop to a sufficient extent the specific demands of Negro mine workers, such as would concretize for the Negro workers the principle of solidarity of Negro and white; (2) failure to draw out and develop Negro leader- ship from the rank and file; (3) failure to place many of them ¥ to remain members of the National Miners’ Union and are preparing to rejoin the struggle 2. The objective difficulties in the strike can not be considered as the cause for this situa- | tion. The t o Party is to examine what are the reasons our failure to overcome these objective difficulties (starvation, terror, United Mine Workers ae America, Pinchot dem- agogy, etc.). Such an discloses the fol- Jowing main weaknesses in the conduct of the strike: (a) The Party as a whole, and in the mining fields in particular, was unprepared for the strike. Thus the largest strike struggle ever conducted under the leadership of the Party disclosed the weaknesses of the Party and its lack of orientation on the immediate prepara- tions for mass work, its weak base in the mines | and factories and the consequences of such un- preparedness. The absence of functioning mine nuclei was an important factor in our inability to overcome the objective difficulties. The Party is not mobile enough and there was not ® quick enough response to the strike develop- ments. The Party’s lack of experience in mass work Jed to many errors particularly in the methods of work of the Party itself and in the | Strike committees and the National Miners’ Union. The Party as a whole did not respond | sufficiently in the mobilization for the support of the strike. This finds its expression particu- Jarly in the slow collection of relief. The Pol- bureau shares the sponsibility in this for not sharply raising this question in time and ef- | fect a change in the attitude of the District and local Party organizations. | (b) The weaknesses in the organization of “e strike is one of the prime factors in pro- fs the present situation. First there was ig delay in properly organizing the union and | strike machinery. This led to the inability to | properly organize the various phases of strike activity, including mass defense and the local collection of relief. Secondly, even after the | strike machinery was organized except for the | Rank and File Central Strike Committee which | met regularly the other strike organs, particu- Jarly executive, did not function regularly. In the top leadership of the strike the striking miners themselves were not drawn in sufficiently | to the day to day work. The relations of the | top leadership and the mass of the miners and “| their strike committees was very loose so that | the top leadership did no know at all times the actual state of affairs. To a certain extent bureaucracy crept into the work of the leading Strike organs. Trade union democracy was not Sufficiently developed and much of the leader- ship by the miners themselves was only formal. The failure to build the Party fractions in the Central Strike Committee and the Section Strike Committees contributed very much to the entire weakness in the organization of the Strike, All these conditio1 led to the situation that while the back-to-work movement was al- Teady strong, this situation was not realized by the leading strike and union organs. The lat- ter themselves did not function regularly but dissolved in the strike machinery (c) While the weakness in the relief cam- Paign on a national scale can not be separated from the genera] Party unpreparedness for the struggles, there are additional weaknesses that led to the slow tempo of the relief collections. First there existed, and were not sufficiently Combatted, wrong tendencies such as disbelief in our ability to collect mass relief in the period | of crisis (an underestimation of the radicaliza- tion of the masses), belief that all strikes in the present period are short strikes, therefore, the unimportance of mass relief, etc. Secondly, the failure to enter the campaign with an already We Will Defend Our Hither: land, the Soviet Union | ved as a likely ally of the “Germany was v United States in the next war by Brig. General | commander of the First Lucius R. Holbrook, Regular Army Division, in an address before the veterans of the Seventy-eighth Division. . The General regarded Russia as a likely foe. ‘We will face a new alignment in the | | next war. We will forget our foes of the || World War and welcome them as allies. This | is not an alarmist theory. Foes of the recent conflict will work together against the common enemy for the preservation of our governments, our homes and firesides and our religion.’ N. Y. Times, July 25. Means Atiack on Workers’ Fatherland, “It is not likely that our country will get. into a war with any of its neighbors, and therefore the next war, like the last one, will probably be an overseas campaign, requiring transport.”"—Captain George W. Steele, in an address at the American Club of Paris, April 30, 1931, As the workers were driven into. the last war by lies of the defense of the fatherland so are | the capitalists preparing now for war with slogan of the defense of the home. The States is going to defend its “home” by “a overseas campaign”! The United States is going to defend capitalism by an attack on the Soviet Union, The Soviet Union is the work- | ers’ home, the workers’ fatherland. Defend the Soviet Union against the attacks of the bosses. of |SMOKING THE PIPE OF PEACE By BURCK to wrong tendencies with regard to moves of desperation among indiviudal miners in the face of the violence of the government. This tendency, which increases now with the diffi- culties in the strike, must be overcome. In this connection it is necessary to combat the ten- dency that exists among some of the leading comrades in the strike leadership to idealize such individual acts of desperation. This ten- dency found its highest exp) ion in the coun- terposing of the methods of the miners in the Kentucky strike area prior to the coming in ot the N. M. U. into the field as against the meth- ods of mass struggle and mass mobilization against the terror that were applied in the Pennsylvania region. The best example of the effectiveness of mass action and struggle in the breaking of the terror was the forcing of the government to allow the hunger march in the Allegheny County as a result of the huge dem- onstration in Washington County and the mass preparations for the Allegheny County hunger march, oe The Polbureau is fully confident that the present weaknesses of the strike can be over- come. This can be achieved through the im- mediate correction of the mistakes thet have been brought to light. In order to achieve this we must concentrate on the following main tasks: In the Strike Area, The maximum atten- tion to the strike in Western Pennsylvania, East- ern Ohio and Northern West Virginia. The tasks set forth in the resolution adopted by the National Miners’ Conference can only be achieved through first, strengthening the main base of the strike. Our aim must be: (a)~'To check the back-to-work movement. (b) 'To draw the miners who went to work back into the strike. (c) To extend the strike to the bordering sections (Fayette and Westmoreland. (d) To concentrate in these territories in Western Pennsylvania on the largest and key companies (Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Company etc.) In order to achieve these aims it is neces- sary to carry through the following tasks: (a) Carry through re-elections and the re- newal of the local strike committees, the sec- tion strike committees and the Central Rank and File Strike Committee on the basis of a thorough discussion in which we bring to light all the weaknesses and how to overcome them. To strengthen the strike executive and draw the striking miners into the work of the day-to-day jJeading organs. Similarly we must re-elect and renew the Relief Committess, and the other de- partments of the strike machinery. (b) To organize meetings in the mines where the majority of the miners went back to work. ‘To hold these miners under the infl ice of the N. M. U. and do everything possible to draw these miners beck into the struggle (c) Special efforts must be made to work out a local progrom of action for each mine and ous strike bodies, particularly the Strike Execu- tive that until now has not functioned properly. (h) To-organize and build the fractions in the Central Strike Committee, in the sections, ete. - G@) To pay special attention to the training cf cadres from among the miners for? every phase of the strike activity, including the Party. (j) To increase the Party recruitment and strengthen the work of the Party, the Party agitation and organizational work, the distribu- tion of the press, etc., along the lines laid cown in the resolution of the Politbureau on the Building the Party in the Mine Fields. It is necessary to give the greatest attention to the following questions which, already stated in the above tasks, must receive special atten- tion: 2, Cadres, The Party shall send additional forces into the strike field, both for the work of the Party and the strike activity in general. But the central tasks with regard to forces is to build the cadres from among the striking miners themselves. It is impossible to lead and develop sucii a big struggle merely with outside forces. We must fight against all tendencies to think that there are no forces from among the miners. The Party must send in additional trained and experienced forces. But these forces, together with those leading forces already in the field, must consider their task not the sub- stitution of themselves for the miners, but to train and develop the leaders from among the miners for the strike, the building of the union and of the Party. 3. Building the Party. Some progress has been made in the building of the Party since the adoption of the Politbureau resolution on this task. But this work is proceeding too slow. There still exists some hesitation in bringing forward the Party among the miners. It is necessary that the Party assign some additional experienced agitators and-organizers to facili- tate the recruitment into and the building of the mine nuclei, the development of the work and life of the mine nuclei. Special attention must be given to recruit into the Party from among the Negro miners, the unemployed etc. No results have been attained in the recruitment of women into the Party. This must be over- come. Without the increasing of the base of the Party and the improvcinent of the work of the Party it will become increasingly difficult to cope with the problems of the strike and to overcome all wrong tendencies that arise. 4. From Among the Negro Miners. The im- portance of the coal strike from the point of view of Negro work cannot be overestimated. We have the largest mass of distinctly prole- tarian Negroes as yet involved in any action led by the Party (6,000 Negrees, 20 per cent of te- tal miners involved), This is (1) the first be- ginning of serious trade union organization of Negro workers by any organization in the United States; (2) it is the beginning of the entrance , Sufficient number of Negro miners upon the top committee at the beginning; (4) the mis- take of keeping the whole Negro question on the “elementary” plane—the simple “trade union” plane—the confining of the Negro ques- tion to one of “solidarity of Negro and white,” and therefore insufficient recognition of the Ppecujiar position of oppression of the Negro (no mention of self-determination for the Negro people, insufficient concretization of the strug- gle for equal rights, etc.); and (5) failure to bring forward (in the Negro question above all) the face and program of the Party, the failure generally to politicalize the positiongof the Negro miners in the struggle. (5) Unemployed Miners. While excellent work has been achieved in the creation of the united action on the part of the unemployed and employed miners (hunger marches) the organization of the unemployed has been very small. Also in the course of the strike little has been done to fight for the demands of the unemployed. It is necessary to correct, these shortcomings, This question is tied up with the checking of the back-to-work movement and with the further spreading of the strike. (6) Young Miners. The young miners ron- stitute a large section of the strikers, The strike committee and the N. M. U. must devote more attention to work among the young miners, draw them into active leadership, develop the demands of the young miners and build the youth sections of the N. M. U. overcoming at the same time separation tendencies. ‘The Party must givé more assistance to the Y. C. L, in the recruitrent of the young miners into the Y.c.L. (7) Women, Some progress has been made in drawing the women in the strike area into the fight and in the building of the women’s auxiliaries, More women must be drawn into the strike leading bodies and into the relief ac- tivity. Similarly, the children of the miners must be drawn in more than heretofore into the strike activity and attention given to the building up of the Young Pioneer organization in the striking fields. (8) Press. We must pay more attention to the improvement of the material from the mine strike in our press. The press is not being suf- ficiently utilized to take up the actual problems of the strike and to answer the important ques- tion that arises in the course of the strike. The Party has not explained all problems sutfi- ciently to the miners. It is necessary to or- ganize better correspondence from the striking miners to the press. u1 Tasks for All of the Mining Fields, (1) The carrying through of the program of the National Miners’ Unity Committee of .\- tion in the non-striking mine fields is the cen- tral tasks of the Party organizations in the arets, In those sections where the Party is now being built for the first time (Kentucky) the mine fields of Kentucky, Central Pennsylvania | and Southern West Virginia, we must aim to develop the strike movement as rapidly as pos- sible. For this purpose forces shall be assigned as soon as possible, first giving the maximum attention to the present strike area. In Illinois and the Anthracite the best weapon that we can use to develop the struggle is the relief cam- paign. At the same time we must try to de- velop there the struggle on the basis of the local issues and demands of the miners. We must organize our opposition and fight for our pro- gram inside the U.M.W.A, loccals no matter if controlled by the open Lewis machine or by the various Musteite elments (Edmundson in Illinois, Maloney in Anthracite, etc. The Illinois Dis- trict of the Party must quickly correct the mis- takes that were recognized by the D. C, and embodied in the D. C. resolution, The Party in Illinois must overcome the mistakes of under- estimation of the readiness of the Illinois miners for struggle, and the opportunist mistakes that were made by some of the comrades in the mine field with regard to the strugfle against the Musteites (Edmundson, etc.). One of the prin- cipal tasks of the Party organization in the min- ing fields in the preparation of the struggle there is the building of the mine nuclei. The lessons from the present strike must be learned by all the Party organizations. (2) The scheduled Hoover conference, at which the operators, the government and the U. M. W. A. officials will attempt to carry through a program of trustification and ration- alization at the expense of the miners must be exposed and combatted. There is no doubt that the whole program will be directed against the miners, causing more unemployment and wage attacks on the miners. We must rally the min- ers against this program and present to the miners our program as adopted by the National Miners’ Conference. -We shall not, however, de- mand our participation in this conference or that the government deal with the National Miners Union, but shall demonstrate against the conference and demand that the operators shall deal directly with the National Miners’ Union and the Strike Committee. (3) The Muste groups in the various mine fields and their allies are becoming more and more a threatening factor in. the United Mine Workers of America against the miners and the National Miners’ Union. This becomes even more serious as they bring forward in appa- rent though false opposition to the Lewis- Hoover scheme of trustification their slogan of nationalization. We must fight against the Muste elements, above all, by exposing con- cretely how each and all of their slegans and tactics especially that of nationalization, is an | integral part of the general capitalist scheme of placing the burdens of the crisis generally, and the chronic coal crisis in particular, upon the shoulders of the miners. Iv National Relief Campaign. The miners re- lief campaign thus far has demonstrated, on the one hand, the underestimation by the Party and the T. U. U. L. of the importance of this cam- paign and at the same time the excellent re- sponse and solidarity of the workers everywhere with the struggle of the miners. The relief activities have disclosed the growing radicaliza- tion among the masses and growing mood for struggle among the membership of the Ameri- can Federation of Labor and other reactionary unions. It is possible to multiply many times the tempo and results of the relief campaign. Already with the slight improvement that has occurred the last three weeks has brought in collections three times the total amount prior to this period. The relief campaign must be utilized to help the miners in their struggle and at the same time can and must be utilized to stimulate the struggle against wage-cuts in all industries, the crystallization of organizations in the factories (grievarce committee) the build- ing of the T.U.U.L. unions, and the building of the left wing inside the reactionary controlled unions. The C. C. shall mobilize the entire Party organization and its fractions in the mass organizations (T.U.U.L., etc.) for a mass na- tional relief campaign. Leading members must be sent into the field to mobilize the Party, the Party press must take up the campaign on a much broaeder basis. Discussions should take place in the Party organizations on the miners’ strike and the rélief campaign. We must take steps to carry through the line of the Polbureau to build the W. I. R. as a result of the miners’ relief campaign. The comrades sent into the field must prepare the ground so that at the August 28th National W. I. R. Conference in Pittsburgh we can take steps to bring the W. I. R. more organically into the leadership of the relief campaign of the miners. While sharply calling attention to the pres- ent situation in the strike and the weaknesses that must be overcome, it must be said that the srike of the miners is the biggest strike struggle ever conducted by the Party and T, U. U. L. and has resulted already in important gains. The strike of the miners more than any other struggle has clearly demonstrated the correct- ness of the line of th R. I. L. U. and the Party. It has shattered the right opportunist views that no mass strikes can take place during the crisis period. It has confirmed the correctness of building the revolutionary unions, and the line of the independent lJeadershin in the strike struggles. It has confirmed the strike-breaking role of the reformist unions and the socialist party. It has demonstrated that the “left” so- cial-reformists (Muste) are the greatest danger te the working class in its struggles. The strike of the miners has demonstrated the capacity of the Party and the T. U. U. L. to lead the masses ‘kers in struggle. ‘The miners’ strike has already many achieve- ments to record, First, there was carried through the elections of rank and file strike committees. The unity of the employed and un- employed was established. The Negro workers have been organized in full equality with their white brothers. Women and childrep have been drawn into the struggle. Large sections of the ,Workers in other industries have been drawn in in support of the miners’ strike. Already many | thousands of miners have been organized into the National Miners’ Union and its influence ex- tended into the other mining fields, outstand- ing of which is the drawing in of the Kentucky miners into the National Miners’ Union, The Party has recruited a few hundred members, organzed into mine nuclei. The Party and trade union press have been brought into the mining fields. Progress has been made in defeating the attempts of the U. M. W. A. and the govern- ment to break the strike. ‘The Central Committee {1s sharply taking up the present stage of the strike and the tasks that must be carried through; it does so with the ‘ection on, the basis of Wie epeaiie copdilons | of mgsige of Negraes iplo ie cevolutiouary ' Rolitbuzsay must give det aliguiouy 4 sha,| sub epiidenes tage a8 a secu ofthe lesions of By JORGE If He’s Worried About It Secretary of Commerce Lamont, writing to Congressman Condon of Rhode Island about wage cuts, tries to squeeze out a few tears for the “poor” capitalists. He says that the capitalists have only the al- ternative between closing down their factories (Lamont hasn't heard of any closed already) or cutting wages. If it’s closing down for lack of orders that’s worrying Lamont, why don’t Lamont—who speaks for Hoover—go after some Soviet orders? ‘The Soviet is buying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of machinery in Europe—which the Hoo- ver government is trying to stop, not by offer- ing to sell American machinery, but by entering European politics to use financial pressude to prevent entirely as a trade embargo preparatory to war. So a lot of American miners, metal workers and those that make the things these workers would use if they had wages to buy with, are out of a job. Pharaoh's heart was no harder than Hoover's head. at ~yt on . mane Thanks For The Boomerang! The Australian bushmen make a curved piece of wood, called a “boomerang” which, when thrown in a certain manner, will go a consid- erable distance and then come back to the throw- er, Sometimes, if he doesn’t watch out, it comes back and knocks his own brains out. From this comes the definition that anything meant to hit someone else, which comes back and injures the fellow who started it, is a boom- erang. We thought about this when we read a leaf- let sent in by someone, issued by some obscure fascist scoundrels calling themselves the “Con- stitutional Educational League” of Lansing, Mich. This leaflet makes a great fuss about the Un- employed Councils, and starts off in great big black type offernig $1,000 reward if the informa- tion it prints is “proven untrue.” Some of it is, but we don’t want to go to the bother to collect. But what worries these birds is funny. It thinks workers, jobless and starving, give a hoot about what causes the “Constiutional Educational League” cold chills. It informs them in tones of alarm that: “The Communist movement is organizing the unemployed into what it calls the Unemployed Council, affiliated with the Trade Union Unity League,” and this, workers are gravely informed, “is the American section of the Red Interna- tional of Labor Unions with headquarters in Moscow,” so, therefore, and from this long way around the bush, everybody who joins the Un- employed Council is “under orders from Moscow, Russia.” Much obliged, gentlemen of the Constitutional Educational League, the workers who read your Jeaflet have been waiting for that! We are only sorry that “Moscow” can’t be moved right over to Lansing, because we think it could do better organizing than those now in direct charge. Anyhow, the workers who hear that if they join the Unemployed Council they will get “or- ders from Moscow,” where there is no unem- ployment, wages raises instead of wage cuts and the seven-hour day, will be climbing over each other to join. Thanks for the boomer Yep, We Rob the Cradle “By the way, Jorge,” writes a worker fross Boston, ‘if I may be so bold as to ask you: What is a Red, anyhow? You see, we have been taught by the capitalist press that Reds have long, black whiskers, carry a knife between their teeth, look like pirates of the Spanish Main, and are so old-fashioned that they think horse pistols are machine guns. “Tl tell you, Jorge, I am sadly disappointed in the Reds as I have fonnd them in my search for adventure. Because every one of them I have met has proved to be a man or woman of super- intelligence, and fearless in the cause of uphold- ing the rights of the oppressed. “This small epistle is written by a poor man, out of work, on the steps of Faneuil Hall, sup- posed to be the Cradle of American Liberty.” You've answered your own question, comrade. We're jist that cussed, besides, that we want to rob the cradle of liberty of you, and take you for the Communist Party. All like you should come over and slide dewn our cellar door. aT wet The Telegram Versus the. Telegram Again we are disheartened at the discovery that thg N.Y. World-Telegram editor is a liar. But we rdly expected to find it proven in his own paper. In the issue of July 30 we found an editorial praising the Stee] Corporation, as follows: “Action of the United States Steel Corpora- tion..../..: refusing to cut wages......may be the sign of a better day in American industry. It is particularly encouraging...,..”—ete., ete. That was on page 20, among the editorials. But over on page 26, in the financial news, the financial editor,‘ Ralph Hendershot, gave quite a different view, as folows: “A director of the United States Steel Corp. is authority for the statement that the com- pany has by no means come to any final de- cision on the question of wages for mill workers and other employees, The subject, he said, will probably come up at the next monthly meet- ing of the board. This is somewhat contrary to the impression gained from the statement given out after the dividend meeting on Tues- day. It was thought that only the salaried workers were to be required to take a reduc- tion.” The World-Telegram has been running ilius- trated stories on how fast their financial editor, Hendershot, can work. And we must say that somebody worked fast, because this Hendershot story telling the truth about Steel Trust wage cuts was taken out in late editions, but the lying editorial was let run in all editions. the strike, through the correction of the mts- takes, the overcoming of the weaknesses, the strike can be strengthened, the present base widened and consolidated, and the struggle car- ried forward among the miners in other sec- tions, who, more and more are beginning to look to the National Miners’ Union and to the Unity 3 Committee of Action for leadership in theme struggle,