The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 7, 1931, Page 4

| Page Four Co., In none Algo cks to the Daily Worker, 50 East 15th Street, New York, N. ¥. ay, at 50 East “DAIWORK.” Pp. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By matt everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. —— Poe ee excepting Boroughs Foreign: one year, $8; six months, $4.50, Appeal ot the Communist Party of Germany : of the Communist T Party of G s issued an appeal, the most important se of which we publish | below Down with the ca Comrades, Wor! rmany A crisis seen before threat c life, t a standstill. yed are starving is only wor The collapse of ional Bank, in wt on marks, s dy extending to the e poorest of the r municipalities and ewise shortly cease Millions of small they have s of years population feel t go on as the: manner called forth the joodedly organize the star- order to secure state power against the masses of the people, has ‘contributed to the collapse Whilst the m ty of the whole people are ito sta jon, a few thousand capital- selves by transferring their cap- ion maneuvers and finan- Ing government issues mey decrees every day; the rich are left undisturbed; the poor are robbed of their last piece of bread, the last penny of their wages, the last penny of their benefit, their last sa’ Things cannot go on like this any longer. working class must now deal in another manner than hitherto with the criminals and deceivers, with the exploiters and oppressors of the people. We Communists have always dé- clared and repeat today with greater certainty of victory than ever before: there is only one way out of the crisis, only one means of escape from the catastrophe: the taking over of power oy the working class under the leadership of the Communist means the expropriatiori of the banks, the ropriation of the industrial concerns and big stores, the expropriation of the big landlo: the cessation of all Young payments and reparations, the cancellation of foreign debts, the replacement of the bankrupt capitalist economy by a new and better one, by he socialist economic order under the leader- ship of the proletariat. Wo nd toilers of Germany! Do not tolerate longer the crimes of a handful of be nace Do not allow yourselves to be mis- y eee by the social-democratic and na~ ci leaders, these cowardly hirelings ‘s who share responsibility for sis. We demand the arrest and 2 of the capitalists who are capital abroad and who for the fraudulent bankruptcy he deposits of all small deposit- tional of the capital the present cru ors and m of all bank accounts exceeding ; the immediate confis- cation of whole property of all millionaires, huge s: receivers and the recipients of ex- orbitant pensions; the immediate opening of all factories w have been closed down, with- out regard e profit interests of the em- ployers; ation of the stocks of food, footwear and other neces- sary articles for the purpose of distributing them gratis to the starving masses of unemployed and poor; the tion of the big dwelling houses, villas and palaces for the purpose of housing the home nd suffering toilers. Workers, employees and officials! Reply with mass strikes to the worsening of your conditions of living! Wherever wages are not peid out mediately cease w By means of mass pressure eh- ce an increast in your benefit, the cancella- m of the measures for cutting down benefit, relief action by the municipali- Small depositors! your hard earned saving: We demand that an end shall be put to the unbearable system of emerg y orders, wage reductions, cutting down of unemployment bene- fit and relief.- We demand that the police op- pression of the workers which leads to ever bloodshed shall cease. All prohibitions of meetings and newspapers of S must be Gone away with. The streets of towns of Germany must be made free for the working masses, the unemployed, the swindled .small depositors, the victims of the emergency order. We further demand the disar ag of the na- tional socialists and Stahlhelmers, whose provo- catory actions threatey the lives of the workers. ‘The Communist Party of Germany calls, upon the working masses and all toilers to take up with the greatest determination the fight for their vital interests. Down with the capitalists! Down with the Young Plan! Down with the Bruening government! Awaly with the social-democratic and national- socialist deceivers of the people! Long live the united front of the proletariat, the fighting alliance of all toilers in town and country! the payment out of Long live the fight for a free socialist Ger- many! The A.C.W. Agreement Permits Wage Cuts and Outlaws Strikes By FRED VIGMAN NEW YORK.—Contents of the new agreement between the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and the employers’ association, which was made Public yesterday, show the wage-cutting and speed-up provisoes of the old agreement have been outdone by new speed-up concessions to the bosses. The agreement represented not a single gain for the workers either in hours, Wages, speed-up schemes, or in fighting the re- organization plans of the bosses. The indirect wage cutting concession Hillman has given the bosses is contained in one of the articles of “points of principle’ embodied in Paragraph 11 captioned “Change of Line” and reads as follows 11. It is agreed that a committe_ repre- senting the parties hereto be appointed in the near future to devise suitable methods upon which a manufacturer may. add, change or discontinue any line of clothing heretofore or hereafter to be manufactured by him. Changing to cheaper lines is a known method of the employers to cut rates on piece and day work and this is precisely the intent and pur- pose of the clause New Speed-Up Schemes. A hint of the extent of the new speed-up to be instituted is contained in Paragraph 12 which permits the manufacturers to have equal voice in fixing the price of piece work. In prac- tice it will be used to speed given operations under the lash of lower rates. The wey for the outlawing of strikes in the industry is paved by paragraph nine on disci- pline and money damage. The first paragraph reads: “Stoppages under this agreement are pro- hibited. If such occur, the arbitrator shall have the power to impose appropriate disci- The agreement maintains 44 hours as the working week, and pious but vague references to consideration of the 40-hour week is given. A Wage Joker. Paragraph three on wages contains a joker, permitting revere wage cutting: by the bosses. The opening paragraph reads: A “The manufacturers shall pay to the em- ployes as wages the rates now prevailing and established by the representatives of the par- ties hereto.” ‘The last varagraph of the clause on wages, however, permits wage changes and reductions. Tt reads: “It is understood, however, that nothing contained in.the preceding paragraph shall limit the right of the union to agree with any individual manufacturers acting with the labor department of the exchange upon any sche- dule of wages mutually satisfactory. Such schedules should be binding upon the union and that specific manufacturer irrespective of the schedule of wages then in operation or to be put in operation between the union and any other manufacturer or manufagsares=” It is under this proviso that the Hart, Schaff- ner and Marx firm in Chicago is leading the Chicago manufacturers in a demand that the A. C. W. put across big wage cuts, ranging from 10 to 20 per cent. Inadequate Jobless Relief. The agreement dismisses the great unemploy- ment in the trade with a proviso for the estab- lishment of an entirely inadequate unemploy- ment fund of 1% per cet of the “total union labor cost” to be paid by the manufacturers. Unemployed clothing workers know by bitter experience the use of this employment fund by the A.C. W. officialdom in fighting militant workers and providing favorites with some ‘Yelief. The apparent concession made by the manu- facturers in the agreement is that of the mono- poly of the labor market of the trade by the Amalgamated bureaucracy. This represents a conscious desire on the part of the bosses to strengthen the company union and increase its hold and power over the men’s clothing workers, Hart’s Demands Wage Cuts- The demands for wholesale wage cuts from leading men’s clothing firms headed by Hart, Schaffner and Marx are swelling in chorus. The manufacturers art confident that the A. C. W. will put over their wage cutting pro- gram and have purposely demanded high per- centages as 20 per cent to have Hillman scale it down to 10 or 15 per cent, The chief worry of the manufacturers and their company union agents is,how to put over the wage cutting program and speed-up plans without arousing the resentment and opposition of the workers. In connection with this, the Daily News Record, a trade journal close to the manufac- turers, says: “One house notes that the heads of the union appreciate the makers’ problem—that unless they help reduce manufacturing costs, the position of the union houses will become precarious. This executive, however, points out that if union officials reduce rates they are inviting troubles within their ranks. Many union workers have been little employed dur- ing the past few years, and to take further reductions would give the left wing element an opportunity.” FIGHT STEADILY FOR RELIEF! - Organize Unemployed Councils to Fight for Unemployment Relief. Organize the Employed Workers Into Fighting Unions. Mobilize the Employed and Unemployed for Common Strug- gles Under the Leadership of the Trade Union Unity League -. ON TO “VICTORY!” hopper invasion. Daily, Worker: By BURCK News Item: The Federal Farm Board is eal to be happy over the partial destruction of crops by a grass- PARTY LIFE Conducted by the Org. Dept. Central Com- mittee, Communist Party, U. S. A. Party and League Relations By BEATRICE SISKIND. 'HE excellent composition and the splendid character of the Youth Convention brings before the Party the much talked of “League and Party Relations,” very boldly. The Central Committee of our Party has set an example of giving every assistance to the success of, the youth convention. The report of Comrade Brow- der set the key-note for making the League a real mass League, broad and wide, and the lead- er of the struggle of the young worekrs, to make the League an integral part in the struggle of the Party in gaining the majority of the work~ ing class. Now that the convention is over we must ‘examine how deep the improvement of League and Party relations have reached into the units, how the Party and League work to- gether in the various campaigns, whether the League looks to the Party committees for poli- tical leadership and guidance. We have noticed in District No. 9 ( Minnesota) for some time the conception of “League and Party Relations” was the amount of paper the Party allows the League to use, how much space the League is allowed to occupy in the Party premises, and whether the League and Party or- ganizers starve separately or together. Following the instructions of the Central Com- mittee the District Buro discussed and examined the situaion in the YCL and found that al- though the League was conducting some activity, there was no youth committee in the Unemployed. Council, that no youth work was done in the TUUL, and generally the League dragged at the tail end of the Party compaigns, instead of work- ing with the Party campaigns among the young workers, and on the other hand the Party was not involved in the youth campaign, and the two were becoming estranged. In some Sections where the Party was weak vanguardist tenden- cies developed in the League. In the strong Sec- tions the League was pushed to the background. Both the League and the Party were sharply called to task in this situation. We made some attempt to better the situation by improving the TUUL and Unemployed work in the Center. The League examined its forces and assigned definite comrades to unemployed work and TUUL work. This corrected the mis- conception that the League must set up its own unemployed youth committees and TUUL sec- tions isolated from the general TUUL work. The assignments were done on the basis of making the entire Unemployed Council and TUUL do youth work through its youth representatives and the youth committee. Also we saw to it that the district committee and the departments exchange representatives and that a constant reporting system be devel- oped, whereby the Party will be constantly in- formed of the status of the League and its activity. This done, the’ comrades began to talk about good “League and Party Relations” in the district. But what did we discover at the League District Convention? The comrades from the units and ‘sections testified that the relations were only on the top and that they had not pen- etrated the basic units of the League and Party. Many examples were given to show that the Party comrades in the sections did not regard ‘the YCL as the political leader of the toiling youth but rather as a “bunch of kids.” This basic underestimation of the League as a tre- mendously important factor in the class struggle, as an indispensible training ground for the new cadres of our Party, coines from the lack ‘of working together for a single purpose of two different sections of the working class. It was also brought out at the convention that in those sections where the Party 1s composed largely of non-English speaking workers, it is the League comrades that ere being used to make contacts and to conduct work among the English speaking workers. The District Bureau took note of the tremen- dous shortcomings in League and Party Réla- tions down at the bottom, and instructed its re- porter to the youth convention to bring very sharply before the League the need for self- criticism and the establishment ‘from the con- vention forward of deeper and closer contact between the League and the Party. ‘The District Bureau decided to put the follow- ing into effect in each section: At the bottom the section must ‘have exchanged representa~ Two Lessons trom the New England Textile Strikes (This article was written before the recent sell-out of the Weybosset strike by Chris Donsereau. The chairman of the strike com- mittee, Walter Plante has written a statement showing up the betrayal of Dansereau—Editor) - eee the ea By NAT KAPLAN. . IMPORTANT experiences on strike strategy and tactics are now being secured in the ‘New England textile strikes. I will deal with two lessons in this article: (1) On Strike Preparations. International experiences in strike struggles show the need for thorough preparations before the fight breaks out. This is especially true in the present period, when the prerequisities for strike struggles against wage-cuts and speed-up are maturing daily and when the full forces ot the capitalists are quickly mobilized against the strikers. In all the New England textile strikes there has been insufficient organizational and agitational work carried on in the pre-strike period. Ip trying to rectify this we must guard against two wrong extremes: (1)+ Calling the strike under the influence of a passing mood, or (2), being at the tail end of the strike move- ment; retarding the forward move of the masses. The preparatory work for the New England textile strikes had the following shortcomings:” ()) Insufficient activity to build the “iron core” ~ of the future strike committee (i e., the mill committee with elected representatives from each department). The decisive question here is to win over and train these leading elements in the various departments and language group- ings and to weed out reformist and vacilliating elements from the leadership before the strike starts. Thesg leading workers must be gotten into the union and the more advanced into the Party. (2) The strike demands were not formu- Jated in sufficient time to allow for plenty of discussion and agitation in the mill before tho strike. In the Salzberg -mill in Putnam, Conn., the strike demands were formulated after the strike had been called. In the Weybosset mill in Olneyville, R. I, there was little discussion on the demands before the strike, and during the strike the strike committee resisted the put- ting forward of the most important department demands besides the demands for the return of the 1214 per cent wage-cut affecting the entire mill. To a large extent this enabled the com- pany to play the unskilled against the skilled during the strike. Of the workers who flocked back immediately after the fake vote conducted by the company (about 100-150 out of 600 work- ers) the majority are women and young work- ers. Although this has not broken the strike, it could have been avoided with the proper tac- tics (putting forward department demands, special women and youth work, etc.). (3) The inter-connection between the various sil strikes (Central Falls, Pawtucket and Put- nam, etc.) could have been strengthened by the calling of a silk conference before the strikes broke out. The calling of a woolen conference before the Weybosset strike was even mage im- portant. We are dealing basically with a string of mills of one company (the American Woolen Company) and the securing of simultaneous strike action in a number of mills is a double surety of victory in the struggle (the Lawrance y, - tives. In isolated communities the units must exchange representatives. Each campaign as) jit comes to the sections and units must be dis- cussed with the units of the League. The or- ganization department must include in the plans of action for the various campaigns tasks for the League that should be worked out with the League representative. All discussion outlines should contain a section on the youth angle of the campaign. The District Bureau should watch carefully that the sections do not isolate the League from the ‘mass struggles that. develop, but that a very close unity of action should exist. “All meetings should have an interchange of speakers. Only through such close cooperation right down at the bottom, only through drawing the built into a real mass League with roots among the toiling youth im this country. This is the only nieve tid that the splendid convention just ended will bear fru~ strike last February proved this). The failure to take this preparatory step enabled the com- pany to play the workers of one mill against the other. The weavers of the Shawsheen Mill (near Lawrance) were given important improve- merits. The same for the magazine loom weavers inthe Maynard mill. The loom fixers in the National-Providence (near the Weybosset) were given “promises” for the future. (4). There was insufficient preparatory agi- tation with leaflets, the press, etc. In many cases we tended to be at the tail end of the masses in our agitation, backing down when the “red issue” was raised by workers still suffer- ing from capitalist ideology (wrong attitude to- wards Daily Worker, the Soviet Union, etc.). The effort to correct this swung to the other extreme (artificially raising political issues, revolutionary phrasemongering, etc.). (5) Immediate organization work was ham- pered in the strike by the fact that no efforts. ‘were made to collect a strike fund before the Strikes were called. I have emphasized the shortcomings in the preparatory work, so that they can be corrected in other strikes. At the same time we must recognize the many good features in this prep- aratory work (building up of the N. T. W. U. and its mill locals weeks before the strikes com- menced, leading up to the’ present strikes through departmenta! struggles which won many important demands, etc.). In Putnam, for example, about 80 per cent of the Salzberg and Blgom Mill workers joined the N. T. W. U., before the strikes. It is clear that I am dealing here with strikes called by us and not spontaneous strikes. ‘We must also remember that a significant feature of the strikes is the fact that we were able to defeat most of the classical strike-break- ing moves of\the company and the government. Paterson will go through similar moves (citizen’s committees, fake votes, terror, etc.). (2) On Calling the Strike. ‘The Strassburg resolution of the R. I. L. U. on trike strategy declares: “The task is not to lare a strike, as one would pronounce a de- ree, without serious preliminary preparation of ie masses for struggle.” The readers will re- ber that this was the decisive mistake com- mitted in the unanswered strike call on the Philadelphia waterfront. The decisive point is: prepare the strike, properly gauge the mood of the masses in the mill for the strike action, Judge the proper moment for calling the strike, etc. ‘The following is the basic procedure in calling the strikes, When the preparatory work is well under way, the workers are ready and the strike moment is here, we send a representative com- mittee of the mill workers in to present the de- mands to the employer (the mill or strike com- mittee). Immediately after the negotiations this committee reports to a mass meeting of the mill workers. This meeting decides on the ques- tion of striking. Insufficient attention has been paid to the proper organization of this mass meeting. It can be held on a lot or a large enough the immediate vicinity of the mill, or in a large lots ; in enough room in the mill itself, if the can be kept out. Strike meeting halls should be secured well in advance of thi date: They are decisive, The Royal strike (Pawtucket) was voted for at a mass meeting held right in the mill. The meeting listened to the report of the eommit- tee and the walkout then proceeded. This in- side meeting, however, should have been fol- lowed immediately by an outside lot meeting, so that the bulk of the 1,300 workers could par- ticipate. The Weybosset strike (Providence) was called right in the mill. The mill committee called upon the workers to stop all the machinery while the negotiations with the mill manager ‘were under ways When the demands were turned down the committee went from depart- ment to department reporting this to the work- ers and calling them on strike, The whole mill responded, The Salzberg mill strike (Putnam, Conn.) was called by the N. T. W. U. mill local. A union member was fired without justification. . The \ attempt by the committee to adjust the matter i By JORGE A Hard Job We have with us again that amusing organe ization called the Fellowship of Reconciliation, whose scratchetary, John Nevin Sayre, comes out in a circular appeal to all reconciliatory souls in an appeal for funds, bewailing in the opening lines that he is “forced to write on one of the hottest days of the summer”. That's too bad. He should conciliate God and see if he can get a breeze for a compromise. However, the F.O.R. needs funds now, because the devil of violence is cropping up everywhere, at least in four spots. And four assistant scratchetaries are out wrestling with the Evil One, to wit: “J. B. Matthews. is working in Russia.” (Good, say we! No unemployment there. Though what the devil he is “reconciliating” in the Soviet Union we don’t know. And why reconciliators here should spend good money on it is some~ thing curious.) i “Charles Thomson is in Mexico.” (But not “working”, eh? Why should he be paid for loaf- ing just because he is in Mexico. The Pope is in the Vatican, but we keep our Peter's Pence to buy funny papers—they're all funny thess days.) “Charles Webber is toiling to keep violence out of-a strike situation in Pennsylvania.” (So he is. “toiling”? Yet several miners are dead, shot by coal company gunmen, and—of course—to these nit-wit hypocrites of the F.O.R., of which A. J. Muste is vice-chairman, by the way—there is ne violence in starving tens of thousands of min- ers’ kids to physical wrecks or even to death, “Violence” is only when miners strike!) “Howard Kester is visiting cities in Alabama and the South, endeavoring to build up Fellow- ship groups that will set examples in inter- racial brotherhood and solidarity.” (Go tell it to Alabama sheriffs! The fellowship established in one hour of struggle on Chicago’s streets by black and white workers against the murderous capitalist police is worth more than all the feke’ “Fellowship groups” these F.O.R. fakers can mts- ter from now till the crack of doom!) But the F.O.R. asks for cash to finance thess perambulating fakers, who are “waging peace” as it terms this “toiling” and “working”. What social quackery! ee aie * From Bad te Worse A comrade wants to know what can be done about Mayor Walker, who is all afloat on the road to Germany. He (the conprade) says:““You are not going to permit his visit to be a round of pleasure and a bed of roses, aré you? For Heaven's sake, if our German brethren are ad- vised of his conduct towards us in the past, Tt know they will make his trip an embarrassing round of demonstrations.” Well, after all, he’s “our” mayor and we ought to take care of him ourselves. Besides, the Gers man Communists* have a number of more ims portant details to look after right now, so ws wouldn’t expect them to pay attention to such a louse. They know about him, of course, and whatever hospitality they find time to bestow on him is welcome, but not required. Incidentally, Jimmy's alibi for going is enough to make a Tammany cat laugh. He’s sick. O, yes! And is accompanied by his doctor, Wm, Schroeder, Jr., and is going to “examine the sewage system” in one place, and “take the cure’t at another, arld be watched over by the dock, etc., etc. However, did you notice that Betty Compton left for Germany a short while back?? The German name for “bath” is “Bad”, and while Jimmy is supposed to being going to the German “Bad”, he seems rather to be going from bad to worse. But anyhow, he begged off on account of “sickness” from staying here and being “investigated”, so its all according to the Marquis of Seabury rules. * ae. Another Swindle A reader in Boston sends us & clipping of the Boston American of August 4, with a screaming headline: “New Klan Starts in Boston.” The story goes on to say that Boston is “flood« ed” with literature asking for application at $3 per, for the “United Guards of America” whose address is a postoffice box in Baltimore. Of all places to pick on such a scab town as the center of all “Americanism”! All very mysterious, except the $2. They tell you nothing, but they ask you to tell them ev~ erything about yourself—even to the extent of telling them “the name of your employer”. Evie dently all’ suckers are supposed to be workers, but they don’t care about the unemployed, so if you have no master they're not interested, for the good reason that you wil! also not have $2. If America was guarded by a Red Army une der a Workers and Farmers Soviet Government, no worker would have to pay. $2 to join some hhocus-poctis secret society of fascist scoundrels under the pretense that he was guarding some- things that belonged to him. But in such case, he would have something worth guarding for more than $2 worth, for ine stance he would have a job or if he didn’t he would have unemployment insurance. ing “America” now ts guarding capitalism. ? : failed. The coma ee., Werte pene eres to department and called the strike. @ meeting before the walkout. To argue against this procedure, that it would dnly give the vacil- lating elements in the mill @ chance to ex- press themselves, indicates an underestimation of our own ability to lead it in the proper chan- nels, an underestimation of the extent of calization in workers already prepared to strike, etc, . £, Such a meeting is necessary: (1) To unity .all crafts and varied elements in the mill at the decisive time of the walkout. (2) the workers decide to strike themselves, will increase their fighting determination and overcome the caimpany demagogy: “The reds forced the workers to strike.” (3) To have, to _the extent possible. a well disciplined, simul- taneous walkout throughout the mill. (4) To arrange for the taking of an immediate strike registration. (5) To immediately elect a large representative strike committee (if not. yet done). In short, therefore, we must be well prepared before the strike is called. We must strike in such a way that it involves workers in the taill and. tinmediately Lepr llrs: iiacrciceute rsa = r TERRES ore