The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 11, 1931, Page 4

Page Four St EOBERT MINOR. s have one of its demonstra- i, were r in Massa- honesty and rkers of were The unqu not the reason why and Vanzett: them bec: of capitalist go Government mac preme Court—and i se f he “liberal” membe: of the especially the adroit “liberal” ice of reaction, Justice was a deliberate murder for the purp: rorizing our class as a whole. It was not the murder of two individuals, but the murder of two heroic representatives of the struggle of the working class for liberation from capitalist slavery. That is why the capitalist class mur- ed them. That is why the working class re- members them. The fact tl the two dead Italian-American workers, despite their class loyalty and heroism, were still unable to see through the petty-bourgeois illusions of the theory of Anarchism does not alter the fa that Sacco and Vanzetti belong to the prole- ion. The revolutionary cause for and Vanzetti died h no other n the Communist Revolution in know that there is no other f defeating and destroying capitalist cept that which leads through the tatorship displacing the capital- ip, a period of proletarian and Vai ti belong to the Sacco use Sacco and Vanzetti ure martyrs ols of the struggles of the oppressed hose who are true to this And bi and symt r them with died. And of the living "8 who, like Sacco and Van- now rot t jails, and now face they did, on the electric chair. August not a day of mourning, of sor- Not for the working class! ation of the forces rking class for the struggle to save tims of the same capitalist fram- as the Scottsbora boys and -croppers at Camp Hill, idle w action zetti, death of the sueh prese! ers and hangmen, the arrested Negro Alabama! Sacco and Vanzetti belong to the Negro share croppers of Alabama in their courageous fight for life against slavery to the white landlords. nd Vanze belong to the heroic coal ting for life in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky. Sacco and Van- zetti belong to the Negro and white workers ef Chicago, guns of evictions hose blood is b (0 police in nd for unemploy It is peculi appropriate to ne the defense of the Negro victims of capitalist perse- cution with the legal murder of two foreign-born workers Sacco and Vanzetti. Why? Because this connection expresses the solidar- ity of all the oppressed, Because at this very time when the whole working-class and the Ne; sses are suf- fering such misery and persecution as never and while: the persecution ar ‘or of t government is being centered with ed fury against the Negro masses and the foreign-born workers in Am are certain corrupt Negro “leade: S political stool s for the c: ying to turn-the .anger of the Negroes the foreign born workers of their own aga: class. This the ork of the enemy! This is the sly work of that prosperous*agent of the white ruling class—Congressman De Priest, fat with the proceeds of high rents from jim-crow apartments! Asa p in the face of such, hypocrites—let the Negro masses turn out by tens of thousands in memory of the martyred foreign born work- ers, Sacco and Vanzetti! On the day of commemoration of the mar- tyrdom Sacco and Vanzetti there can be nothing more important than to bring forth in every demonstration the struggle on behalf of the imprisoned Negro share-croppers at Camp Hill, Alabama. Throughout the slave planta- tions of the southern ‘e to be found many times the “million that Vanzetti said were needed, when king hypocritical socialist party leaders and Anarchist reformist dilettantes tried to substitute their puny legal quibbles for the mass movement to save them. Into the South today ravels William Pickens, an ing and hypocriical reformist (a gro and therefore the most useful tool that the southern white ruling class can find to ) ns plays the role today that was played four ye: ago by the jist party and the intellectual Anarchists in trying to serve the capitalist order by demoralizing and sup- pressing the m movement and teaching that the victims of capitalism depend upon the “mercy” and the “justice” of those who murder them. And just as the socialist party and the anarchist reformists today play the role of strike-breakers and folice inciters against the working class—just so the Pickenses appeal to the southern ruling class to “sit up and take notice” and t: r measures against “the densely ign it ion of the colored populatio: And the sheriff's mob of deputies follows the renegade Pickens’ advice by shoot- ing down the Negro share-croppers. But the m movement proceeds and grows against the class enemies who murdered Sacco and Vanzetti. It grows nowhere so fast and nowhere so strong as precisely among the labor- ing masses of Negroes. Let all hypocrites who pretend to know the “psychology” of the Negro and who make use of such knowledge in the service of the Negroes’ worst enemies—let them know this The Negro masses are a reserve of the prole- tarian revolution against capitalism. They will cast off the leadership of petty-bourgeois agents of the imperialist white ruling class, and with their own revolutionary party of the Negro and white workers, the Communist Party, they will come into action. ' Guilty ot All Charges-A Mis- leader Exposes Himself By PHIL FRANKFELD IN the Illinois coal fields, a so-called “rank and file” mov nt has developed. This move- ment recently held its convention in Belleville on July 6 to 17. At the head of this “new” ds a clique of leaders headed by on, from Zeigler, Ill. There can be the slightest doubt in any- one’s mind who knows and understands the situation in the Illinois coal fields, that to a certain extent this movement reflects the mass discontent amongst the miners of Illinois. It feprésents a blind revolt against the misleader- ship of Le’ d Walker both—on the part of the rank and file miners. This; mass discon- tent which r in the Illinois fields as a result of practica same starvation condi- tions that pr in Penn-Ohio-W. Va. and Kentuc! despite the “c: act,” is definitely swinging towards the National Miners Union. In order to offset and turn the tide back into the poisoned wat of the United Mine Work- Edmondson and his clique have or- ganized the “Rank and File District No. 12 Uni- ted Mine Workers of America” organization, whose purpose it is to revitalize and rebuild the corrupted UMWA in Illinois and thruout the country. These demagogues make free use of “militant” phrases, and have borrowed a few fig-leaves of stock phrases from the scanty garment of the Reverend Muste. Edmondson and his co- horts have even delved, into the NMU con- stitution and stolen some ideas for their own “brand new” constitution that will “bring sal- vation” to the Illinois miners. ‘The Belleville convention of July 6 uniteé front of the Lewis and Howat forces in Illinois. This was openly stated by quite a number of newspapers in the coal fields. The Belleville convention's major purpose was to mobilize the miners for a fight against Wal- ker and make a gesture of 2 “struggle” against John L. Lewis in order to continue fooling the miners. But during the course of the conven- tion, the mafor attack of Edmondson was di- rected aganist the National Miners Union. ‘The Belleville “rank and file convention” ex- posed itself in the eyes of thousands of miners. Firstly—the mayor of Belleville, the comman- der of the strike-breaking American Legion, and the chairmen of the Chamber of Commerce opened the convention. They were given a ris- ing vote of thanks. Secondly—the Reverend Muste was granted 15 minutes to speak for the “23,000 West Va. miners out on strike,” and the Lewis agents opposed the striking rank and file miner from Pennsylvania, receiving 15 minutes and demanded he be given 5 minutes. Thirdly —a hat collection of $43 was taken up for the ev Mi-- Workers Union (Keeney), but the € 43 » convention condemned the NMU and decided not to take a hat collection for the 40,000 strik- ing miners of Pennsylvania, Ohio, W. Va., and Kentucky. Fourthly—Edmondson and his,hench- men stated they were going to attack the NMU organizers and supporters physically—ala John L. Lewis and Walker s Fifthly—four reso- lutions introduced by real rank and file dele- gates were simply-ruled out of order in typical Lewis steam-roller fashion. These resolutions with a) Unemployment Insurance; b) Safe-guarding rank and file control of the convention; ¢) united front with the Penn- Ohio-W. Va. and Kentucky striking miners un- der the leadership of the NMU; d) spreading the Orient miners strike on a sub-district and then district scale.. Only the resolution dealing with the Orient miners strike was permitted to come before the convention by the Lewis agent who ran the chair—Edmondson—and it was sub- stituted for instead of spreading the strike that “financial support be given to the 2,200 striking miners in the Orient mines.” Who is Ray Edmondson—the new “Messiah” of the Illinois miners? ord in the struggles in Illinois? Mr. Edmondson is the gentleman who, together with others, was responsible for the smashing up of a miners meeting in Royalton last year, during which miners were slugged and one man killed. Ed- mondson led the fight for John L. Lewis in Franklin County against Walker, etc., Edmond- son and his friends resorted to the injunction against Walker, just as Walker resorted to the courts and injunction against Lewis. Edmondson declares in the second issue of the “Renk and File Miner” (July 29 issue—and called “Edmondson’s statement’): “Your temporary president pleads ‘guilty’ to any and all accusations of the International and district officials—if it was wrong to fight with the International to clean up the district—he is ‘guilty’—~if it was wrong to accept pay from the International or Provisional while Fishwick was trying to put him in jail for contempt of court. ‘He is guilty’ (emphasis mine—P.F.) Rdmondson has made a complete confession. * The facts are clearly admittéd. Edmondson Weived pay from Lewis for his fight against Wilker; for breaking up meetings of miners; for doing Lewis's work in Franklin County. Now Edmondson is conducting a sham “battle” against Lewis — but is carrying thru Lewis's policies in Illinois just the same. And this man professes to speak and fight for the rank and file! This same Edmondson who refuses to help the Orient miners win their strike by spreading the strike on a sub-district dealt and district scale—“defends” the interests of the Illinois miners. The first issue of the “Rank and File Miner” contains a big appeal to the local unions to send in their dues and assessments to the new What is his past rec-" By m Yorker’ Porty US.A. of Manhattan and’ Bronx, SUBSCRIPTION RATES: —- New York City. > everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, §1; excepting Borousns Foreigi: one year, $8; six months, $4.50, 0 By BURCK district office (Edmondson has already opened up a district office in Springfield). The fight for the check-off in Illinois has taken on now @ three-cernered character—Lewis-Walker-Ed- mondson. Tagging along behind Edmondson come the Musteites. Keck is the secretary of the new organization. He is a strong Muste man. The Musteites are now working with Edmondson as before they worked with Fishwick, Farrington, Walker and the Peabody Coal Co. They offer the strongest defense of Edmondson in the northern fields, where the miners haven’t got the slightest shred of confidence in Edmondson or his movement due to the work of the Na- tional Miners Union. Lost somewhere in Muste’s coat-tails are the slimy, yellow-livered renegades from Commun- ism—the Trotskyites. Gerry Allard writes in the so-called Militant, that Edmondson and his group’s “sincerity cannot be doubted.” Allard attacks the NMU and the Communist Party for exposing this new misleader before he can carry out more treacherous acts against the miners. Allard is for “saying the UMWA” and for work- ing with Edmondson, ‘The slimy, yellow Allard definitely informed Edmondson that on Tues- day night, July 7, the NMU was calling a broad caucus meeting of left wing delegates in the Dietz Hall, Belleville. Edmondson notified Tash and myself, that this meeting (caucus) was go- ing to be smashed physically. The renegade has taken the next step downwatd—he has turned into a stool-pigeon and informer—against the Party and NMU. And the “Militant”—Trotsky- ist-Cannon organ — publishes Allard’s stuff against the Party and the NMU, which means that Allard is carrying thru their policy in Tllinois, Just as the “Militant” defended and sup- ported Sylvan A. Pollack last year, after he betrayed two comrades and the illegal office of the Party and NMU to the State Troopers and sheriffs in Scranton, Pa.! In the Illinois coal fields, the leading com- rades did not begin soon enough to expose Ed- mondson to the miners. This mistake was very costly to us. Edmondson was permitted to place himself at the’Head of the opposition rank and file movement. in Illinois. Also as a result of two years neglect of work in the NMWA in Il- , linois, the writer, especially, failed to under- Stand the imperative need of exposing Edmond- son long before the Belleville convention. The task of the National Miners Union in the Illinois fields now is to establish locals of the NMU. Around these locals of the NMU, strong and broad unity committees of action must be built up. Already, we are having splendid res- ponse and success with the building up of the Unity Committees of Action thruout the field. The Unity Committees must function both in- side and outside of the UMWA. Concrete de- mands must be worked out to cover the main localities and the most important mines. Local grievances must be the starting point for devel- oping and broadening the struggle in Illinois, and linking it up with Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia ond , Kentucky, as well as with the Orient strike. The unemployed movement must be developed and branches established every- where. County conferences, county hungei> marches are already being organized in two counties in Illinois; but this will have to be broadened to include the northern fields. Marches in the different mining communities must be organized—right down to the company and chain stores—especially in view of the fact that the stores have cut out all credit for the unemployed miners, Relief for the Penn-Ohio-W. Va, and Ken- tucky strike activities wil have to be intensi- fied. House to house collections and colléc~ tions of food and clothing must be organized. In the northern field this has already been ar- ranged., Local unions are being visited for do- nations as well as fraternal organizations. Strike struggles are on the order of the day in Illinois as well 25 in the rest of the coal regions thruout. the country. Conditions are forcing the miners into action. The basic ques- tion is one of organization and preparation for these strike struggles immediately; and the working out of concrete local demands. The terrific and costly blunders of December 9, 1929 must and cannot ever be repeated again in the Tllinois coal fields. ‘The development of these struggles depends entirely upon us. P. §.—After finishing this article, the writer picked up a copy of the latest issue of the Uni- ted Mine Workers Journal (Lewis's organ). ‘This The Signiticance of the Camp Hill Affair for the Party By HARRIS GILBERT. \ ‘HE determined struggle waged by the op- pressed Negro croppers in the Camp Hill sec- tion of the Black Belt against starvation and the oppression of the white landlord class has great lessons for our Party. Work had been conducted there but a few months. Yét in this time an organization of over 800 members was perfected. This in spite of the utmost terror and in spite of the oppression of the Negro nation in this section as throughout the Black Belt. Here the Negro croppers and even small owners have no rights whatsoever, political, social or even—according to the land- lords and their government—the right to eat— the right to live. Starvat'-- stalks through the Cotton fields. Hard work under the burning sun from morn till night for everyone, adults and children— with the landlord coming around to see that you work. The allowance advanced was? generally but one 24-pound sack of flour per family a month—that was all. The cropper was lucky if he could raise a little truck (some owners for- bid even this). No produce could be raised for sale. All goods must be bought from the land- lords’ store at double or triple prices with 50 per cent or so interest. Then on July 1 the landlords of Lee and Tala- poosa counties decreed all advances would be cut off. This they could afford to do because the crops had been laid by. Through this open star- vation scheme they hoped to drive the crop- pers from the land and harvest the crop for _ themselves. It was in this situation that the Party took a hand and stcried the work of organizing these poor croppers against the starvation schemes of the landlords. Not only Negro croppers joined the Coppers Union but quite a number of white croppers (though there are very few in this sec- tion) likewise joined because they too had to en- dure the same starvation conditions. Joint op- pression by the landlords broke down the bar of race prejudice erected by the landlords for the purpose of “dividing and ruling” all their poor croppers and tenants—and will serve to break it down more in the future. ~ ‘ “ Immediately one fact was clear, that here in the Black Belt, where the Negro people form the majerity. of the population, where the Negro is denied every single human right and is ruled with an iron hand by the white landlord class— any organization or struggle fighting for even the slightest economic demand would immedi- ately assume a political character. The entire force of the state would at once and unhestitat- ingly be thrown against the Negro croppers and the movement ruthlessly put down. Full well do few exploiting landlords realize the danger to their system of starvation and oppression of an entire nation—when the toiler- organize their torces) In view of this the party policy was to organ- ize small groups—to raise as the immediate issue the continuance of the allowance, the right to sell the crop when and where the cropper pleased, right to raise garden trilck. Here also was brought in the entire question of the Na- tional oppression of the Negro masses in the Black Belt. The Scottsboro case was an example of boss terror. The spjrit of these croppers who hhad been downtrodden was excellont. They were ready to defend their right to live. The party made the mistake of not giving this ee issue contains attacks from beginning to end on the NMU in Penn-Ohio-W. Va. and Mlinois. Dealing with the mess meeting in West Frank- fort, which booed and jeered Lewis off the plat- form; credit for this militant action and ex- Pression of opinion is given to the NMU or- ganizers. The most significant point in the August 1 issue cf the “Journal” is the fact that not a single solitary word is written ageinst Ray Edmondson, “leader” of the “rank and file.” Not a single word is directed against this so- called “rank and file” organization. Our frank opinion is, that despite the sham battle that Edmondson is conducting ageinst Lewis. Ed- mondson is an undercover stoop-pigeon and agent of the Lewis gang. Camondson not only received pay from Wewis a year ago, but may still be receiving pay from Lewis and the U. 8. Steel Corporation, movement sufficient concrete guidance—owing partly t- to,the distance from the center and the cifiiculty of communication. The party failed to grasp the seriousness of the situation quickly enough, and of the readiness -f the masses to struggle for their demands immediately. Like- wise the party made the mistake of not building a strong party core there and of developing suf- ficiently local leadership, bs As a result of this, events developed faster tian we counted on. Though instructions were to hold only small meetings and to work closely and carefully—to go in small groups of two or three to the particular landlord to demand con- tinuance of the allowance—and not to hold any MASS meetings. This in order to avoid the full force of the terror which would -be unleashed against large meetings and secondly to test out how far the croppers would go with us. Our apparatus for the execution of these in- structions was so weak that they were not car- ried through. The result was that the large meetings were held, after we had won the al- lowance continuance, and we had not suffi- ciently laid the ground work for defending our- selves from the armed attack of the landlords and their tools, that we had not sufficiently de- veloped a leadership which could be counted on tocarry on the work in spite of attack, that our organizational contacts and connection was not solidified enough. i The croppers won their demand for continu- ance of the allowance. This in itself was a splen- did victory. It spurred on and encouraged the croppers to further organization and the putting forward of more demands. It showed them that organization can get results. Further it proved to them the role of the Communist Party as the leader of their struggles. The Southern Worker played a big part in all the agitational and or- ganizational work there. After winning the allowance we should par- ticularly have been on guard, as the landlords would try their utmost to get bac’. at us and smash the organization which had forced them to continue the allowance. The attack took place as is well known. 4 In spite of our weaknesses the croppers put up an heroic defense. They succeeded in saving the organizer from the landlords’ lynch mob. And in spit€ of the terror, the murder of Ralph Gray in cold blood, the lynching of four others, whom the murderous chief of police said “were chop- ping wood” and one of whose bodies has been found, in spite of the brutal beating up of wo- men and children, in spite of the third degree of the 55 arrested croppers, they still hold firm— vp one word of incrimination has passed their Ips. f This case has had its echoes throughout Ala- bama and throughout the Black Belt as well. Thousands of, Negro and white sharecroppers are aroused over the brutel murder and open faced attempt to smash up the Croppers Union. Many white and Negro croppers have already written into the Southern Worker expressing their soli- darity. The reaction on the whole to the heroic stand of these starving croppers is a good one. The mass protest of the toilers throughout the U.S.A. and throughout the world has already had a great effect on the smug tools of the land- lords—to the extent that already they had to admit their frame-up case is so weak against the 55 arrested croppers that they need another month to frame up fake “evidence”, : Our task now is to bind together the/contacts and members of the Croppers Union there, this time teking view of our mistakes in the past. It means quiet careful work to rebuild that which has temporarily been disrupted by the murderous attack of the white ruling class. To build small groups, to develop local leadership and above all to build the Party and League as the back- bone of cur movement on the farms. We must not be content with work only in that section. We must train forces there to go out to the neighboring sections to build up the work there. Educational work must be carried on to show them how to carry on the struggle for better conditions against the landlords. Furthermore we must link up the economic struggle with/ the entire struggle for Negro rights, for State Unity of the Black Belt, and | the Right to Ror Determination, It is our task PARTY LIFE Conducted by the Org. Dept. Central Com- mittee, Communist Party, U. S. A. How to Liven Up Our Shop Papers Saddles’ reports: Prior to seven months ago, our shop nucleus issued a shop paper more or less régularly in a manner which taught the comrades nothing. A few days before an issue was made up, one of the comrades from the section committee of the Party would take notes on what had happened in the shop. After the comrades from the shop had given him whatever stop news there was, their job on the shop paper was finished. They had no discus- sion on the contents of the paper, made no plans for campaigns to be carried om in the paper, and being busy with other Party work, paid no fur ther attention to getting the paper out. The shop paper was written and run off on the mimeograph’ by one of the comrades in the Sec« tion Committee; a few others who happened ta be in the office took the paper out for distribu- tion. This had gone on for some time with the re~ sult that the comrades in the nucleus had no” real stirring interest in their own shop paper and neither had the other workers in the shop. There had been no response from these workers to our,shop paper during all the time the paper appeared. We felt there was something wrong with our paper and decided to do something about it. First of all, we prepared for the next issue of the paper a month in advance, discussed and de- cided upon what should be written, arranged for the technical work and distribution, etc. Each comrade in the nucleus was assigned to | write a specific article and all other details were | worked out. i At first some of the comrades said they could not get out the shop paper in this way because they couldn’t write English well enough and an- ‘ other could write only in Slovenian. Therefore the fourth comrade who has no difficulty with English should write the articles and get out the paper. And besides “we never did it this way - before.” “Well, that’s so,” said another comrade, “but anyway, I think now we should begin to learn. I know myself, I'll try to write better English all the time.” So we accepted our gs- signments under the new plan. The comrade who knew English well agreed to help the one comrade translate his articles from Slovenian ‘ and correct the English in the articles of the other comrades. In this way we combined Eng- ( lish lessons with getting out the shop paper. bi We have followed this method for seven months and find that our paper has more influence and gets response from the shop workers due mainly to its now being alive to important shop issues + being written about by the workers themselves. ‘The nucleus comrades also have more interest | in the paper because of taking an active part in its production. ‘ COMMENT x In connection with this, a comrade from Cal- ifornia came in the other day and told us that some shop units in that district do not get out shop papers because they don’t know how. They have never heard of the Shop Paper Manual. As a eontrast to this we get a letter from Duluth, Minn. saying: “The Shop Paper Man- ual was a great help in getting up our paper. Although we had never made up a shop paper | before, by reading the Shop Paper Manual, we were able to get a fair idea of what it should be like.” ’ The Shop Paper Manual deals with every phase of shop paper work, from the more com- plicated political questions down to technical make-up. It should be inthe hands of every unit in the country and in the hands of every com: rade who is a member of a shop unit, It sells for ten cents, and can be ordered di- rect from the Workers Library Publishers, 50 E. 13th St., New York City. -Workers! Join the Party of. Your r Class! “Coramunist Party 0. 5. A P. O. Box 87 Station D. New York City Please send- me more information. én the Com munist Party. Name .... rrererereee | AGGTESS ..sseesceeesccccscnscesstecsecesccconog peg. oe Btate 000 seseeees ABO sccsee, Occupation . ! .Mail this to the Central Ofice. Communist Party, P. O. Box 87 Station D. New York City. Uncover Starvation and Misery ; The capitalist press, the agents of the ruling class, _ has been publishing less and less news about unemployment. It hides the starvation of the unemployed workers’ families. We must constantiy expose the miserable treatment {| of familics of the unemployed by the city i! governments and charity institutions. We _ } must uncover all cases of starvation, un~ {| / Gernourishment, sickness. We must pub- | lish these cases in our press, in the _ Daily Worker, in Labor Unity, tell them at all workers’ meetings, Un- ! employed Councils should publish me i bulleting to inform all workers of the starvation and misery of. the t _ unemployed. - { to lead the struggle for economic demands—and __ to raise it to the hicher level of a struggle for National liberation trom the hands of the white _ ruling landlord class and their government. \ ‘We must populerize the events of Camp Hill, linking them up with the Scottsboro cam and placing them before the workers of the | USA. as typicsl of the situation of the op- || pressed Negro people of the U.S.A. Our job is to utilize the ca:npaign for the freedom of the t Camp Hill croppers and the Scottsboro boys as a means for widespread agitation and organiza- j tion around the program of the Party on the Negro question. Through this campaign we can expose the open rotten treachery of the misleade ers and Negro fakers and win the masses of Negroes and whites for the program and atruge gle of the Party eee > Toe aaa eA Sie