The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 18, 1931, Page 4

13th St Address an Page Four e Comprodally lall Publish checks to the Daily Worker, The Present Situation In the Automobile Industry By JOHN SCHMIES, ectly em- in Michi- large ands accessory lary and o used to 1 y tomobile industry. brani of uch as the city of Pon- idle. These work- nilies number far Whole com tiac and Fi headlines to be lies capitalist fact that y ly de- creased 30 per cent. 1931 so far produc- © production is s Auto produ In every month y down the line has decreased 2 30 per cent, and all indications point t automobile prod g will decrease 60 pe! In the early part of the economic crisis the automobile bosses used all sorts of schemes in stimulate automobile sales. An ex- rationalization was sapplied to the amount of 40 per cen carried out, Fevel attempts were put tion to liquidate the growing and deep- ry at the expense of t all these schemes and the whole ration- program only developed the contra- more shsarply the industry of it wer witnessing a condition of mass m and hunger which is facing many thousands of workers and their families. The latest announcements in some of the plants such as Fords, General Motors, Murray Body, etc., are to the effect that practically the whole factories will shut down for a period of six to eight weeks. Over 50,000 workers were laid off in the last four weeks. In the Ford plant icne more than 30,000 workers were paid off ructed to turn in their badges Trade Union Unity League office in De- troit received the following letter from the wife of a Ford worker: “We have received-your address from a friend who said that you would be able to help us. My husband has been killed or rather died from the heat in the Ford Plant. He expired last Thurs- day at 2:30 p.m. We inquired about help from the Ford Plar they said they could do nothing cbout t. If you could be able to help us or recom- mend any good ‘son we shall appreciate it very much. We are not very sure whether he died from the heat or not. Please answer as soon as possible whetreh you could help or not. The above letter gives a very good picture of the conditions under which the workers in the automobile industry are compelled to work. It explains in a very simple language the starva- am which is being forced upon the workers in order to shove the bur- den of the deepening crisis upon the shoulders of the workers and their families. I. The following is a comparison of the actual trend of developments in the industry. Automo- bile production at the end of 1930 declined very Sharply. All sorts of schemes were evolved to stimulate automobile sales. New models were gotten out in December, 1930, in order to force sales at the automobile shows. Despite this, production in 1931 has been distinctly below the severe crisis of 1930. The total production in 1930 up to May S 1,964,000 cars. In 1931 it had dropped to 1,376,000. Reports in the “Iron Age” in the latter part of May, state that “automobile consumption of pig iron and steel continues to decline.... A de- cline in production next month is becoming in- creasingly certain.” The usual trend from May on is a rapid cur- tailment of production. While there are no complete figures of automobiles in relation to production, it is apparent that there was a great amount of overproduction last year and in spite of the decreased production this year, the out- put was greater than the demand. The decrease in farm prices, the continued drop in the stock market, lowering of the standard of living of the workers rapidly cut into the diminished market for automobiles. The drop in automobile purchases is shown by the registrations of new cars. April 1931 registrations dropped 33 per cent below the same month the year before. In May the registrations @ropped below May of 1930. Sales in May were far below production ‘That even the sharply curtailed production in the early part of 1931 resulted in considerable overproduction is shown by the drop in ssales and registrations of new cars, as well as ex- ports. The New York Times (June. 9, 1931) Stated that “April new passenger car registra- tions total 263,000, as against 199,100 for March and 357,065 for April, 1930, (a drop of over 30 per cent below the 1930 registration) ... April exports of passenger cars showed no improve- ment over those of March, and April truck ex- ports, allowing for seasonal fluctuations, were Practically as low as for any month of the de- Pression. Early returns indicate a sharp de- crease in new passenger car registrations for May, which is unusually significant because the April gain over March, sharp though it was, Was semewhat less than the usual seaosnal ad- vance.” Auto financing also shows the contraction of auto sales, Most automobiles are sold in the in- Stallment plan. In the first four months of Uncover Starvation and Misery hattan and Bronx, SUBSCRIPTION RATES: ~ New York City. \ al: everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs Foreign: one year, $8; six months, $4.50. eee 1931, 86 cars were financed compared to 1,028805 cars in the like period in 1930. Most of the financial papers report that the hut down completely rowing around 70,000 k. The Ford Company has been curtailing its production sharply. There isaf is competition developing between the Ford Company and General Motors (Chevrolet) | for the cheaper car market. In the automobile industry there is a process of constant elimination of workers as shown in the section under employment. The automobile companies are reducing their working forces and getting out a greater number of cars with less workers. The prospects are that next yea will see a still further curtailment in automobile production, a sharp increase in the permanently unemployed automobile workers. As was pointed out in the economic analysis for the la(t plenum (section on automobile in- dultry) the automobile industry has reached a ion point. Now a government report on justry points out (N. Y. Evening Post, June 9)) that the demand for automobiles is constantly shrinking with the industry mainly lacement basis. The number of cars re= 1930 was 2,900,000. The percentage eat to , assuming no crisis, small. Considering the fact that the au- now has a plant capacity of over 8,000,000 cars yearly and that the export business has stopped growing, the perspective is for a continued cr in the automobile in- dustry, with more workers being thrown out of 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 constantly expose the miserable treatment of families of the unemployed by the city governments and charity institutions. We must uncover all cases of starvation, un- dernourishment, 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 shov!d publish bulletins to inform al! ~ >rkers of the starvation and miscry of the mnemployed. work a long time to come. The following is a table of automobile produc- tion’ (cars and trucks) by months for 1930 and | 1931 Automobile and Truck Production in the United States. April 1929 production, 622,400—100% estimated monthly capagity. per cent capacity 1931 January 171,900 February 219,900 March April May June July August 224,400 36.1 September 220,600 35.4 October 154,400 24.8 November 136,800 22.0 December 155,700 25.0 *Estimates for June are 229,000 cars per cent below May. i, OUR IMME ATE TASKS The above analysis and the actual conditions in the automobile industry can therefore be characterized by increased uncmployment, in- creased wage cuts, and a still more inhuman speed-up system. In addition to that, there is a further development and the application of Hoover's “stagger system.” As a result of this program additional thousands of workers will face mass misery and mass starvation and will place upon the Communist Party and the Auto Workers Union of the Trade Union Unity League ever larger responsibilities in order to give leadership and militant organization to these | hundreds and thousands of unorganized workers in the industry. Our Party as well as the Auto Workers Uniop are still lagging behind in this great task of organizing a fighting Auto Workers Union. We still face a situation within the ranks of the Party membership which expresses | that it is impossible to organize struggles in the | automobile plants in the present period of the of the fact that the struggles of the miners and deepening crisis. This tendency exists in spite textile workers have shown the contrary. It is therefore the task of the Party leader- ship in the Detroit District now more than ever before to ruthlessly burn out this conception, this hesitation and lagging behind of the re- volutionary forces, which is nothing else but opportunism in practice—developing out of an underestimation of the revolutionary role of the unions of the Trade Union Unity League and a Jack of confidence in the masses of struggle against increased hunger. The industry besides being completely open shop and producing automobiles is rapidly being developed into the most powerful and gignatic war industry. Some of the plants are already | producing war material, the outstanding of | which is the Packard Motor Car Co. This de- velopment in the industry has been underesti- mated by our Party forces. It is a well known or 18.5 Daily,<Worker’ : WHAT SHOULD BE PLOWED UNDER! | funeral By BURCK Steve Katovis’ Story Lives On| The he O tts b Oro C ase and the Negro Lawyers Sacco-Vanzetti Day “Seldom has the story of a worker been told with greater warmth and conviction than the story of Steve Katovis,” says a prominent book reviewer who read the pamphlet called Steve Katovis: The Life and Death of a Worker, by A. B. Magil and Joseph North. This warmth and conviction makes the story of this worker who was murdered on the picket line by a Tammany cop so important to spread among workers. And no better time could be found for doing it than August 22, Sacco and Vanzetti Day. There is much in common in the life his- tory of Vanzetti, the immigrant worker, toiling in filthy restaurants in New York and Steve Katovis, who was shot down by a Tammany thug w fighting for the Food Workers’ In- dustrial Union. No worker who reads this pamphlet can help but be impressed with the heroic quality of Katovis, who like Sacco and Vanzetti paid the price capitalism has to offer for those who militantly fight the bosses. When Sacco and Vanzetti were executed hundreds of thousands of workers all over the world protested in vain. At Steve Katovis’ 50,000 workers surged into Union Square. These masses knew that their fellow- workers had given their all in the struggle. No worker should be unfamiliar with the story of Katovis, It should be spread wider and wider each year. And Sacco and Vanzetti Day is the most appropriate day on which to recall the dying message of Katovis, “I'm dying, comrade. Tell the others outside to keep up the fight—organize the workers.” A mes- sage not unlike that pronounced by Sacco and Vanzetti as they sat in the electric chair to be bzurned by the frock-coated fiendish agents of capitalism in Massachusetts. The Katovis story is told only in this little pamphlet which sells for 10 cents and is one of the series issued by International Pamph- lets. Any worker desiring this pamphlet can get it by sending 10 cents to Workers Library Publishers, P. O. Box 148, Station D, New York City. Unit, section and district . literature agents should see that they immediately get a supply in the regular way for sale on Sacco- Vanzetti Day. ment are working hand in hand in the city of By WILLIAM PATTERSON 'HE Seventh Annual Convention of Negro Law- yers took place on the 6 and 7 of August in the city of Cleveland. Not even the Conven- tion of the National Association for the |Ad- vancement of Colored People in Pittsburgh or the Convention of the National Negro Business Men's League in New York showed more clearly the depth of the crisis in the ranks of the Ne- gro petty bourgeoisie. The composition of the Detroit Convention ranged from Judge Cobb of Washington, D. C., an open and notorious tool of American impe- rialism, A. Wembrich, State Attorney in Chi- cago, who is the State’s prosecutor in the cases against the unemployed Negro and white work- ers who so desperately fought against the bloody police thugs during the massacré of Negro work- ers on August 3, high legal counsel of the Na- tional Association for the Advancement of Col- ored People, down to those elements, the lesser known Negro attorneys who constitute the rank and file of the Bar Association. The elements which have long since passed over to full support of “law and order” and the starvation program of the American bourge- oisie with its Jim-Crow discrimination andeseg- regation for the Negro masses, were in full con- trol of the Convention. The Convention met at @ moment when the attack of American impe- rialism and its lackeys in the ranks of the Ne- gro bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie against the Negro masses was at its height. The at- tempted mass murder of the 9 Negro boys in Scottsboro, Ala., the murderous attack upon the brutally oppressed and exploited croppers in Camp Hill, Ala., the bloody massacre of the un- employed Negro workers in Chicago were major Political issues facing the Negro and white work- ers of America. The ranks of the unemployed workers have reached the staggering figure of 11 million. Wage cuts are on the order of the day, The inhuman speed-up is exhausting the energies of the Negro and white workers before they reach the age of 40.. From this offensive of the boss class, the Negro workers are the greatest sufferers and their distress as workers is intensified by the exploitation from which they suffer as members of an oppressed nation. Of these issues, the Negro Bar Association took no notice. Insofar as these representatives fact that the representatives of the War Depart- Detroit with the automobile manufacturers, These very same representatives were the lead- ing forces in framing the Alien Registration Law in the state of Michigan, Iv This starvation program on the part of the automobile bosses is already creating very sharp discontent on a broad scale. The masses are becoming increasingly more militant and ready to fight. It is therefore the central task of our Party to | make it possible for this readiness on the part of | the masses to be crystallized into a powerful movement under the leadership of the Auto Workers Union of the Trade Union Unity League. ‘We must once and for all take up seriously the building up of an organization campaign, keeps ing the center of this work the unity of action of the employed and unemployed auto workers, Organize and Prepare for Strikes against the Starvation Program of the Automobile Bosses and the City Government! The building up of a membership drive, the building up of grievance committee, the building up of the department form of organization and the establishment of shop locals as independent fighting organs is the task of the hour! The task of these shop locals and shop forms of organi- zation is to take up the struggle against lay-offs, wags-cuts and the “stagger plan,” etc, The building up of real militant shop organi- zations of the employed and the unemployed demanding that the automobile companies pay relief to their unemployed workers will keep in the center the most elementary partial demands which must be our key approach in the develop- ment of strikes and struggles against the auto- mobile bosses. All the work, all the eampaigns of the Party and the revolutinary forces generally must be directed towards the aim of building up a pow- erful Auto Workers Union, which must give con- crete leadership and concrete organization both to the employed workers in the shop and to the unemployed automobile workers around the unfon and the Unemployed Council, Intensify the Miners’ Campaign ihe is exactly in this period of the sharp strug- gles of the miners against starvation that the relief collection campaign must be intensified in all cities. The collections of funds and food in all the cities was never adequate to supply even a minimum of relief to the fighting miners and their families. Out of the 40,000 miners that went on strike, we were never in a position to give to more than 8,000 of them strike relief. Many hundreds of families were evicted, but jack of funds made it impossible to purch&se more than 80 tents. The miners’ strike is not called off. The miners will never cease their militant battle against hunger. The transference of strike ac- tivities to demands upon the local mines means intensified activities to again broaden the struggle at the earliest moment. It is therefore of the utmost importance to immediately strengthen the hand of the National Miners Union, so that it can consolidate all its forces, All strikers, all miners who, even those driven back to work at the point of guns, swear their solidarity with their new union, Thousands of blacklisted miners and their fantilies must be supported. Although the Ken- tucky coal operators’ thugs are dynamiting our relief kitchens, new kitchens are opening at the rate of two or three a weak. We must supply these kitchens with food. The quantity of food distribution in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia has not decreased. It has increased, At first we only gave relief to the most needy. Now, after two months and a half of strike, all are needy, and the registrations for relief at the mine relief stations are growing. When to this is added the plight of the miners’ children and babies, to whom we were never able to issue enough food and milk, then all the workers and their organization will realize that much more energetic fund and food collections must be es- tablished, The National Miners Union and its policies are rooted deeply in the consciousness of thou- sands of coal diggers. The strike of the miners against starvation constitutes a beacon which lights the way to better working conditions for all miners, and how to struggle to obtain them. Nothing must be left undone in the strike area that will build the power of the National Min- ers Union. To build this power, to effectively establish our first mass union in a basic in- dustry, strike relief, funds and food and tents and milk for babies, are of major importance. In cities owned by the coal and steel barons in the strike area the local capitalist govern- ments are terrorizing our local relief collection committees in order to drive the miners back to starve in the pits and their hovels, The Pittsburgh tag day in which 600 ragged miners’ children participated, was practically routed by the brutal police, who chased the children down the streets and alleys with threats of jail and beatings. Because relief collections here are narrowing due to terror against our collectors, the comrades in the cities everywhere must in- crease their efforts. All cities are called upon to broaden their relief activities, to widen their relief commit- tees, All cities are called upon to establish re- lief committees. All workers organizations are requested to again impress upon their member- ship the need for unflinching solidarity with the miners. Throughout the nation, mass col- lections, house to house solicitations, shop re- lief actions, must go forward with zeal and re- newed energy. Workers everywhere! Enlist in the relief cam- paign! Double your efforts for funds and food to help the miners carry on their courageous stuggle against starvation! Pennsylvanic-Ohio-West Virginia-Kentucty Striking Miners Relief Committee. | | | | of “law and order” were concerned, the Amer- ican working class was still enjoying a period of “prosperity” and the Negro workers were ex- periencing only “peaceful race relations” with the American white ruling class and its bloody Ku Klux Klan. The agenda of the Convention contained such reports as “The importance of local bar asso- ciations as adjuncts to or branches of the Na- tional Bar Association.” “The justification of higher standards in legal education.” “The colored lawyer in America, his program and advancement,” etc., and, of course, the leading lights had assigned the task of reporting to themselves. But a note of struggle was injected into the proceedings by Attorney Joseph Brodsky of the International Labor Defense, one of the defend- ing attorneys in the case of the innocent Ne- gro boys in Scottsboro, Ala., and William L, Patterson of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights. Their presence caused great uneasiness among these defenders of Jim-crow capitalism. On the first night of the Convention, at its open mass meeting, Joseph Brodsky followed Clarence Darrow on the program. Although given but a brief moment to speak, in no un- certain terms Brodsky condemned the philo- sophy of despair and of hopelessness which Darrow had pronounced, condemned the open support of the N.A.A.C.P. of the legal and extra- Jegal lynch program of the American ruling class, stressed the necessity for organization and relentless struggle on the part of the Ne- gro masses and announced the fact that he and Patterson would speak on the Scottsboro case at the Convention on the following day. Comrade Brodsky received a tremendous ova- tion from the Negro workers who were present. Even some of the Negro attorneys expressed their agreement with the line proposed by Com- rade Brodsky. On the next day, the conven- tion hall was crowded. The Negro workers re- ceived the report of the Scottsboro case and the Camp Hill case from Comrade Brodsky with tremendous applause. The first signs of a split in the ranks of the Negro attorneys openly manifested itself. Some of them even rising to grasp Brodsky’s hand at the conclusion of his speech. But the report of Comrade Brodsky threw the leadership of the Bar Association into consternation. The program of peaceful ac- ceptance of things as they were, with reports glorifying the American ruling class and its “democratic” policy towards the Negro masses was not running smoothly but the worst was yet to come. Comrades Brodsky and Patterson introduced a resolution on the Scottsboro case calling for the Convention’s approval of the ef- forts of the International Labor Defense and its attorneys to reverse the verdict of conviction in the Scottsboro case and the presentation of these to the Convention entirely disrupted all orderly procedure, The class position of the leaders of the Bar Assn. clearly came to the fore. They expressed in no uncertain terms their unwillingness to be associated in any way with this “Communist” organization. They proclaimed its program to be one which demanded the overthrow of the American government and they expressed their unwillingness to see this government of lynch- ers and of mobbists overthrown by the “vio- lent” reds, But the rank and file of the Bar Assn, were not so willing to support American imperialism. Their presence there in a Jim- Crow Bar Association Convention very clearly exposed the yy of American democracy. The program of struggle outlined by the at- torney of the I. L. D. appeared to thein to offer larger possibilities to secure democratic rights for the Negro masses than was to be found in full support of the “law and order” of the bosses’ government. By a vote of 5, the resolution failed of passing, but the tone of the Conven- tion was. completely changed. Among the rank and file, the lawyers openly expressed their willingness to financially contribute to the de- fense campaign of the International Labor De- fense and to support its program, In the face of the militancy of the rank and file, a resolu- tion was passed supporting the program of the I. L. D. in the defense of the Negroes who had been deprived of their rights or were suffering from national persecution. The Convention of the Negro Bar Assn. brought sharply to the forefront the deep-going contradictions in the ranks of the Negro petty PARTY LIBE Conducted by the Org. Dept. Central Come mittee, Communist Party, U. S. A. Organizing a House Committee and a Rent Strike UR unit has as its major activity the work in the territory where our comrades live. This territory covers several blocks of slums. Here the streets are dirty, sanitary conditions in the houses are extremely bad and rent is quite high. The tenants are either poor workers who still make several dollars and hardly “get by” or are unemployed and cannot “get by.” When the section committee outlined the work for the building of tenants’ leagues, our unit, following the instructions, selected sev- eral houses upon which to concentrate. These houses were selected only for a start; we knew that we will have to broaden the activities as we go along. The method we used in organizing a House Committee was as follows: 1. A number of comrades were assigned for canvassing every apartment in the house every night for two weeks. We had with us contact cards, also the “Working Woman.” When our knock was an- swered, we introduced ourselves as representing the Tenants’ League, an organization of tenants, and that we had come to investigate conditions and not to solicit money. We usually succeeded in gétting the tenant to listen to us. After the introduction we proceeded to outline the pro- gram of the Tenants’ League, at the same time taking care to mention the unsanitary condi- tions of the dark halls, toilets, dark rooms, etc., in the apartment under inspection. We also spoke about the harm being done to children playing on dirty streets instead of being in the country during the summer, and they invariably listened keenly. Then we asked about the hus- band. In most cases they were unemployed. We spoke about the high rents and the high cost of living, always mentioning the children (this seemed to have an effect). By this time we had gained the confidence of the tenant to the point where the tenant began to relate her tales of woe, asking us what she should do? Our answer to this was that organization and a rent strike would win better housing conditions for them. We asked one of the tenants to give us per= mission to hold a meeting in her apartment. With her consent, we outlined what steps should be taken to draw tenants to the meeting and impressed upon her the importance of talking to her neighbors in the building, about condi- tions, etc. We also informed each tenant that we would help to do this, but it was up to the tenants to stand firm. Several meetings were held and most of the tenants were very enthusiastic about the de- mands, which were undersigned by 22 out of 24 the demands were: Reduction in rent! Re- pair of roofs! Toilets to be fixed! Hall to be fixed! Letter boxes to be fixed! Painting of apartments! Hot and cold water when needed! ‘The landlady threatened the tenants with eviction, When the tenants were served with dispossess notices, immediately we arranged & street meeting, in which some 500 workers par- ticipated. Wé distributed leaflets, After three weeks of struggle, the strike was settled with a reduction of rent, repairing and painting of apartments. At first Mrs. Bloch, tha landlady, insisted upon: dealing with the tenants individually, but the tenants knew that if they did not stand together she would succeed in breaking their strike, and told her that she could not break their strike by threats and trickery. She finally dealt with the house committee. ‘The tenants have learned than only through or ganization can they hope to win their demands. We now have a base to work upon. We can now point out this house as an example to the rest of the tenants of the street. We have not only gained economically but organizationally as well. The House Committee Representative has also told us that he will start to organize the house next door. Our chief shortcoming in the above work was the fact that we were unable to spread the strike to other houses on account of so few comrades being active in the work. We also failed to activize the tenants of the struck house in this work, who seem to think all they had to do was to refuse to pay rent and that the Ten- ants’ League would do the rest. We failed to enlighten the striking tenants of the importance of strengthening the Tenants’ League, through daily activity in the neighborhood by drawing in all the women and children. These weak- nesses reflected on the strike activities. Two tenants moved out and three paid rent. The sentiment of the tenants, however, is strong for organization. One of those who paid rent has come to the house committee and pledged that he will not scab again. This rent strike was the first in our territory, but we are certain many others will follow, bet- ter organized and with greater success. We can organize the tenants and lead them in a fight for concrete demands! .Workers! Join the Party of. Your Class! Communist Party 0. 8 A. P. O. Box 87 Station D. New York City. Please send me more information on the Come munist Party. ; Name tee eeeeeeeeeneeeeeeeeneeeeesseeseeens Steen neeeeeeeeeeneneeeeeseesreeee State . Chy .. OCCUPATION ..seceesereeeeessererses ABC ee, -Mail this to the Central OMce. Communist Party, P. O. Box 87 Station D. New York City. —__ bourgeoisie and the tremendous effect that the crisis is having upon it. The intellectual bank- ruptcy of the leadership of the Convention and its unwillingness to enter into any militant struggle for the defense of the rights of the Negro peoples was fully exposed but underneath this, the lower strata of the Negro petty bour= seoisie clearly showed that it was still willing to march in the ranks of the oppressed Negra masses against imperialism and the emancipae tion of the American Negro masses, 1 ioe | Af f es