The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 26, 1931, Page 6

Page Six 13th St., New York City, Address and mail all checks to the Dail N. Y. Telephone cept Sunday New ¥ ‘On the Carrying Out of the 13th Plenum Decisions | { -_ ON FIGHTING W. GE CUTS IN. A STEEL PLANT ‘UR formal approach to shop work is also-shown by the fact that we are very slow gnc clumsy in developing agitation around cer- fain specific grievances, in raising slogans deal- {ng with specific grievances. Our shop papers, which are closest to the shop, yet even they are general in their agitation. This is one of the main reasons why our shop papers are not becoming real organizers of struggles within the shops. The last Plenum of our Party again em- phasized the importance of working out con- crete demands. The resolution speaks of the need of “the working out of concrete programs of struggle for industries and factories are reprinting excerpts from a review of Spar- rows Point, a monthly shop paper issued by the shop nucleus in Sparrows Point, Md. which speaks of the need of developing agitation around specific grievances. On Fighting Wage Cuts in a Steel Plant. “The story on the wage cuts for the entire [Do the Old Methods of Recruiting Persist? ‘We printed in yesterday's column the org. directives to the Pittsburgh district bearing on | the problem of recruiting and keeping new members. We would like to hear from the dis- ricts what measures they are taking to carry lout the Plenum directives on doing away with the old methods of recruiting and keeping new |members. Because of the importance of this problem we are reprinting part of the section | of the resolution dealing with it. | “]§ is necessary to have a drastic change in the methods of recruiting new members into the Party, The present practice in recruiting work amounts in practice to s repulsion of workers anxious to join the Party and excel- lent. material for the building of the Party. It ‘is necessary that recruiting shall be carried on on a mass basis, that every facility shall be given for the largest possible number of work- ers to join the Party, that red tape and delay iin acting on applications shall be reduced to a ‘minimum, and that the entire Party shall be prepared not only to welcome the new mem- bets but to hold them and transform them into most active reliable Party cadres. To this end the life of the units must be made politically interesting and valuable for the members. Rou~ tine and bureaucratic methods must be Hqui- dated.” For a Decisive Turn in Our Revo- lutionary Trade Union Movement | wage reductions. steel industry is well written. It is good to give statistics of profits of the company and con- trast this with wage cuts of the workers, But the main trouble with your whole story is—it ‘salary reductions’ as a gesture, and the first step to cut wages of the workers? Certainly they did! They even tried to bluff that ‘salary reductions’ will eliminate the need for cutting workers’ wages. That it was a lie is seen by the present blank declaration for the 10 per cent wage cut throughout the entire industry, The heads of the General Motors and of the deals with wage cuts in the industry, and says nothing on these issues in the Bethlehem Steel Plant where your paper appears. We have pointed this out time and time again. You can not expect to develop a struggle in your own shop against the cutting of wages, if you only speak on wage cuts in the whole industry, but you don’t take your own plant as a basis. “You say in this story: ‘Make them cut down their own salaries and bonuses.’ This you sug- gest instead of cutting the wages of the workers, But this is not a correct slogan. Didn't the heads of the U. S. Steel Corporation make these rubber industry are also starting their campaign for mass wage cuts with the bluffed ‘reductions in salaries.’ a “Therefore your slogan here is not only im- proper but misleading. It gives in to the general bluff of ‘salary reductions’ as a help against In our fight against wage cuts we speak of the fat profits of the corporation, in contrast with the miserable wages of the steel workers, and how still more the steel workers and their families will have to suffer when an- other wage cut takes place. In speaking to the Sparrow workers, you have to make all these facts and issues Sparrow Point facts and issues, and upon this basis call these workers to struggle. “You call for the building of grievance com- mittees, but you make this a ‘general’ call. You | should have pointed out the immediate need for these committes, and how to organize them. ‘This becomes still of greater importance with the latest developments—the 10 per cent wage eut, Your nuclei must immediately set to work and organize grievance committees or shop com- mittees (according to the special situation in the. shop). “Organize the struggle against the present wage cut that will take effect in your shop as in the industry as a whole; this work can not be delayed. You must do it right now!” mL By RALPH SIMONS. (This ts the third of a short series of ar- ticles, giving valuable direction to our trade union work. The first article stated the short- comings of the Trade Union Unity League Work. The second article gave definite diree- tion on Factory Committees and Factory Groups.—Editor.) oo we se Concentrate in Decisive Sections. (CH are the decisive sections upon which we must concentrate? They are: metal, automobile, mine, chemical, rail and marine transport. industries. In the most central points of these industries, in the largest factories, must be concentrated the greatest attention and forces. of the revolutionary trade unions and op- positions within the reactionary unions. To utilize all ways and possibilities for pene- tration into these factories, to organize there factory groups of the revolutionary trade union delegates, factory committees, for the purpose of developing under favorable conditions and on the basis of concrete demands of the militant masses their economic struggles, to endeavor to create in the fire of battle, strong, really mass revolutionary trade unions and to anchor these unions organizationally in these central sections —this is the work of concentration. "These important central points upon which it is necessary for us to concentrate are the fol- lowing: ‘Pittsburgh, the mine and steel indus- tries; Cleveland, steel; Chicago, mining, steel and food; Detroit, automobile; Philadelphia, steel, mining and textile; Boston, textile; Buf- falo, chemical; New York, sea transport, needle and textile industries. The concentration of our basic attention and forces: in these most important branches of in- dustry in the chief industrial centers and largest mills.and shops does not mean, must not be understood in the sense that such unions as the needle trade workers, food, textile, shoe and leather workers, and others, do not deserve our attention, that they have to be left alone, that they. are to play the role of step-children in the revolutionary trade union movement in the United States. Not one section of the working class, not one, even the most insignificant or- ganization, should be left without attention and leadership on the part of the central organs of the revolutionary trade union movement. This must be understood only in the sense that the chief and most basic problem for the revolutionary trade union movement is to pene- trate into decisive branches of industry and shops and the most important industrial dis- tricts, to create there strong starting points, actual mass militant trade union organizations, ‘The existing revolutionary trade union organ- izations in these sections which unite workers of other branches of industry must render all pos- sible aid in this respect, This aid must express itself in cooperation for the purpose of establish- ing contact with workers of large factories of the basic branches of the industry, in the co- operation in mass recruitment of new members, in the penetration of the shops, and in finan- cial aid. To tically and With Increased Energy * Develop Our Work in the Reactionary . Trade Unions. In-spite.of the numerous resolutions of the \Red International of Labor Unions, as well as the authoritative decisions of the TUUL, regarding ‘the necessity of increasing the work in the reac- tionary unions, in spite of the fact that the Fifth Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions again underlined the importance and necessity of work in the reactionary trade unions, we must recognize and declare that our to organize the unorganized, to wrest the toiling masses from the influence and leadership of the Teactionary trade unions. work in the reactionary unions, with a few in- significant exceptions, is extremely weak. Only | in the recent period has there been some slight attempts and in many instances systematic work by the supporters of the revolutionary trade unions in the reactionary unions has disap- peared. Everywhere the existing opposition groups in the reactionary unions do not manifest the nec- essary activity in their work. They do not util- ize the very favorable circumstances for a de- cisive struggle with the strikebreaking trade union bureaucracy, for the mobilization of the masses and the development of militant strikes against the will and the resistance of the strike- breaking apparatus, to carry through in prac- tice the line of independent leadership in eco- nomic struggles. The leadership of the work of the opposition groups is very bad, and very often these groups are left entirely to themselves. This contempt for the work in the reactionary trade unions has resulted in the fact that such demagogues as Edmundson and Keeney, etc., very skillfully utilize some of our slogans and often are quite successful in ‘utilizing the weakness and short- comings in our work, At the same time, we cannot overlook the fact that the A. F. L. is still in control of al- most three million members, that its official machine is an instrument in the suppression of strikes, that the strenghening of work in the reactionary unions and the winning to our side the broad masses of workers who still remain under the influence and leadership of the reac- tionary leaders is one of the most important pre- requisites of the successful organization and leadership of militant mass struggles of the working class, ‘There is no doubt that the active work in the reactionary trade unions is becoming more and more difficw#t. It is true that the trade union bureaucrats do not stop at the mere expulsion from the unions but they actually remove the workers from the job. It is also true that the reactionary trade union leaders resors oftener and oftener to the use of gangsters in the strug- gle with the active revolutionary workers, but nevertheless this cannot serve as an excuse for our passivity, this cannot under any circum- stances serve as a basis for the weakening of our activity. Revolutionary trade unions will become really mass organizations only then when they will be able to lead militant strikes to the end, and paralyze the betrayals of the strikebreaking trade union apparatus, if they will develop sys- tematic and intensive work among the member- ship of the reactionary unions, if they will suc- ceed in carrying on a stubborn, patient work among the members of the reactionary unions directly in the shops and factories, if they will succeed in driving a wedge between the masses and the strikebreaking trade union apparatus, to wrest the masses from the leadership of the reactionary leaders, to lend them in time to strikes and then organizationally strengthen our ideological influence. If we will not develop with all energy and perseverence our work in the reactionary unions, it will not be very difficult for the reactionary unions to break strikes that are under our lead~ at 50 East ® — t. SUSSCRIPTION RATES: DATW UO cis wk y.. c Ky wall everywhére: Oné year, Si: #'x © months, $1; excepting Borough s ey Pe jibe of Manhatian and Bronx, New York Ci n: one year, $8; six months44 sees Central fon tha EDYerynist Party U.S.A. % o e Building A Steel Workers Industrial Union By JOHN MELDON. (This articie was written before the an- nouncement of 10 per cent wage cut by the ‘U. S. Steel Corp.) 'HE main task of the Metal Workers Indus~- trial League is the building of a broad Steel Workers Industrial Union. The center of the union must be in the mills of the steel trust in the Pittsburgh, Chicago, Cleveland and Phila- delphia areas where the steel industry is con- centrated. In this territory there are over 500,- 000 employed and unemployed steel workers and their families. Especially in the Pittsburgh and Chicago areas, steel predominates over every other category of industry. Cleveland and Phila- delphia rank third and fourth respectively in importance, “Correct Concentration” The organization of a mass Steel Workers In- dustrial Union must be based on correct con- centration, the development of local struggles around the immediate demands of the steel workers, and the building of a broad mass move~ ment of unemployed steel workers, in the four districts mentioned. Each district must carry on an organized attack on the core of the area, se- lecting one particular mill of the United States Steel Corporation and the Bethlehem Steel Cor- poration and big independents, as its objective for the establishment of mill organization and preparation for strike. Pittsburgh the Center of Activity. The Pittsburgh district must be the main con- centration territory nationally. The core of the Pittsburgh district is the Homestead section, where the giant mills of the U. S. Steel and the huge independents are located. Surrounding Homestead within a few miles are the towns of Braddock, Rankin, and Duquesne, where the ership, to split the united front of the workers, to paralyze the revolutionary trade union or- ganizations which carry on a line of indepen- dent leadership in economic struggles. The strengthening of the work in the reac- tionary unions in reality, the activization of every supporter of the revolutionary trade union movement who is a member of the reactionary union, the charging of every one of them with definite tasks, systematically exposing by means of facts and documents the sell-out and strike- breaking policy of the apparatus, the defense of every worker in the shop and in the reactionary union, the patient individual cultivation of every member of the reactionary unions, the carrying through in practice of the united front with the members of the reactionary unions in the shop, and the united struggles in times of conflicts and strikes, the coming out boldly of the op- position at, workers’ meetings and trade union conferences with the declaration of a militant program of the revolutionary trade unions on the basis of concrete problems which agitate the workers at a given moment, will did us in win- ning over to our side and to start organized re- yolt of the members of the reactionary ‘unions against the strike-breaking apparatus. The systematic, stubborn and planned work in the reactionary umMions in a great measure depends on the question of the transferring of our work directly to the shop and the organ- ization in the shops of factory groups and trade union oppositions which unite all members. of reactionary unions who adhere to the opposi- tion and work in the given shop, The establishment of the closest contact in the work of the revolutionary trade unions and revolutionary trade union opposition, as well as between the lower organs in the shops, the lead- ership of the activities of the trade union op- position by the central organs of the revolu- tionary trade union movement, TUUL and its local organs, have to become an orgahic part of the work of the independent revolutionary trade union movement. ‘The plans of work of all the links of the revo- lutionary trade unions from top to bottom must foresee also the concrete tasks in the field of work of the supporters of the revolutionary trade union movement in the reactionary trade unions. The TUUL and its organs must systematically control the work of the revolutionary trade unions in this respect, listen to reports of the opposition groups in the reactionary unions, give practical directives to further develop the work, to look after the correct division of the active forces for the purpose of insuring the neces- sary number of active workers in the work in the reactionary. trade unions 4 | Carnegie Steel Corporation, the biggest subsidt- ary of the U. S. Steel, is located. The second section, McKeesport, with the McKeesport Tin Plate Corporation and the National Tube Cor- poration of the Steel Trust, is next in import- ance in the Pittsburgh district. Third is the Monesson section, with the big mills of the American Sheet and Tin Plate, of the U. S. Steel and the Pittsburgh Steel Company. Fourth, the Pittsburgh section proper, with the huge inde- pendents such as Jones & Laughlin and the A. M. Beyers Corporation. The last section, but ex- tremely important in the sense of section con- centration, is the Ohio Valley, with the base of the National Steel Corporation and large inde- pendents, Carry the Steel Campaign Into the Districts. This comprises the Pittsburgh area, with its five centers of attack for the building of the Steel Workers Industrial Union, Each section has a full time organizer of the M.W.LL. and ad- ditional forces to assist them in their work. Steel workers conferences are being held in these sections leading up to the mass steel work- ers conference of the Pittsburgh, Youngstown and Ohio Valley which will be held in Pittsburgh on September 27. Active steel workers and or- ganizers of the Chicago, Cleveland, and Phila- delphia districts will be present to participate. A provisional National Committee will be elected at the mass conference for the building of the Steel Workers Indusrial Union, This committee will b> responsible for the creation of a national steel organization campaign and responsible for their respective districts, ; Chicago Area Second Largest Center. Ranking next to Pittsburgh in importance is the Chicago territory, with the Gary-Indiana arbor section as the point of concentration. Gary, the largest mill of the U. S. Steel, must be the e-~- and center of activity, as Homestead is the central point of the Pittsburgh district. Next is the Cleveland district territory, with Youngstown as the main section. Thousands of steel workers of the Carnegie, Youngstown Sheet and Tube, Republic Steel Corporation, are work- ing in this section. While Youngstown must be the concentration point, the huge mills of the American Steel and Wire Corporation, the Otis Steel, and the Lakeland section of Cleveland, must not be overlooked. It is well to remember that 30,000 steel workers walked out of the Cleve- land’ mills in one day during the 1919 strike. Youngstown must receive the closest organiza- tional attention, but at the same time, Cleveland proper is not to be overlooked as an important factor in the district. ‘The last district concentration is“the Phila- delphia territory. Baltimore and Bethlehem, Pa., as the centers for the organization and develop- ment of struggle, This district is composed mostly of mills of the Bethlehem Steel Corpora tion and large independents, In each of these cities, Baltimore and Bethlehem, there is one huge chain of mills of the Bethlehem Corpora- tion. The organization of mill branéhes of the Steel Workérs Industrial Union and the develop- ment of struggle in the two centers mentioned is the main task of the Philadelphia district. Continuing General Work of M.W.LL. . Although the main task of the Metal Workers Industrial League, as stated in its new program, is the development of a four district concentra~ tion and the building of a mass Steel Workers Industrial Union through organizing and leading steel workers in struggle against their almost unbearable working and living conditions, the general work of the M.W.I.L. must not be ne- glected in the cities and mill towns outside the. concentration areas. For instance, although there is very little steel in the New York dis- trict, mostly in and around Buffalo, the New York district is one of the largest metal manu- facturing centers in the country. Newark has thousands of metal workers in its shops, The New York district is one of the country’s largest electrical manufacturing, shipbuilding, and ma- chine ‘building centers, Especially in the General Electric, Westinghouse, and Western Electric plants, where many thousands of young workers are employed under terrific speed-up, sécond only to the automobile industry, there is a ripe field for organization. ‘The same holds true for the Philadelphia dis- trict. Along with its main concentration on steel ineSparrows Point and Bethlehem, there must be @ coordination of work in the machine build-. {ng industry, the shipyards and steel castings companies which abound in this territory. While Chicago concentrates on steel in the Gary section, there must be work carried on in its tremendous machine and farm implement industries. This holds true for the activity of the M.W.LL. organizations in all parts of the country outside the steel areas. The organization of a mass Steel Industrial Union cannot be based alone on concentration. Along with correct concentration, there must be correct approach to win the confidence of the thowsands of steel workers and have them ac- cept the leadership of the M.W.LL. in their struggles. This correct application of concentra- tion is closely tied up with the immediate eco- nomic demands of the mill men. If the organ- izers and other active comrades in the concen- tration areas are ka rag? to crystallize the daily grievances of the steel workers in the depart- ments, mills and steel towns and put them forth in concrete form, then the concentration program” will be ineffective. In the minds of every stcel worker, from the laborer to the hot mill worker, there are burning grievances. In every mill de- partment, there are department grievances. In every mill, and very steel town, there are the co¥lective grievances that must be made articulate specific form by the M.W.L.L.. Through con- stant activity, in the form of individual discus- sion with all categories of steel workers, through department meetings in the homes of the work- ers, through steel town and section conferences, the grievances of the steel workers must be for- mulated, in the language of the mill men, and put on ‘paper, sent into the mills, printed in our press, and spoken of at mass meetings. This has been done recently in the Pittsburgh and Youngstown and Ohio Valley areas and the yague forms of the general demands of the in- dustry are already beginning to express them- selves, arising out of the immediate department and mill demands. For instance, a check-up re- vealed that the demands of the hut-mill workers of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. in Youngs- town are almost identical to the hot-mill de- mands of the American Sheet & Tin Plate in Monessen. A further check-up shows that almost all department demands of all mills where we have organization are very closely related. These facts carry within them the seeds of what will in the near future become national immediate and general demands of the steel workers. As an example, the steel workers in the blast fur- naces of the Republic Steel in Youngstown, de- mand that the company post daily working no- tices after every turn, in order that the men will not’ have to report five days a week to get one day’s work. This same demand was found to be a burning grievance of the workers in every de- partment of the company, A further study of the demands shows that every department in every mill of the entire Pittsburgh and Youngstown area where we have groups, puts forth the iden- tical demand. Special Youth and Negro Demands. Approximately 25 per cent of the steel workers are Negroes. The jim-crow policy of the Steel ‘Trust, aimed at the separation of the white and ‘Negro workers on the job in the company towns and in the steel cities, is maintained for the pur- pose of attempting to create a division between the white and Negro workers in the coming | struggles in the industry. This jim-crow policy | accompanied by the open betrayal of the Negroes ‘by the American Federation of Labor has result- ed in a division of the white and Negro workers to @ large extent even to this day. In the campaign of the Metal Workers Indus- trial League for the building of a mass Steel Workers Industrial Union we must express our uncompromising policy for full social, economic and political equality for the Negro workers in the steel mills. The basis of our approach for the winning of the Negro steel workers must be the development of struggle in the mills around the fight against discrimination on jobs and in wages. We must be careful not to develop this struggle separate and apart from the demands of the white workers. Instead, the demands of the Negro workers must be stressed in conjunc- tion with the immediate demands of all the workers in the departments and mills, This also holds true for the youth in the in- dustry. There are special forms of exploitation of the thousands of young workers in steel, such as equal pay for equal work, and the winning of the youth will require the conscious develop- iment. of struggles .centered around the fight Been By JORGE cee “Steel Does It” That was the title of an editorial in the N. Y, Post of September 23, and since the Post is J. P. Morgan's property (it combines with the N, Y. Sun and goes out of business shortly), what it says is Wall Street's words. Steel, as you know, has “done it” all righty! And so, since U..S. Steel also belongs to Mor- gan, why shouldn't the N. Y. Post approve? In the light of . Deportation Doak’s Labor Day speech in which he “saw” prosperity “just ahead,” what the Post says is interesting: “The largest corporation in the world has decided that. good times will return neither soon nor-automatically. Steel has determined that the idea ofa merely temporary disloca- tion is to be discarded.” But the way it handles Hoover, who has suddenly been ‘struck with Coolidge dumbness, is delightful: “We do not at all object to seeing Washington deplore the move—waze cuts.” Sure, let Hoover “deplore”! It don’t cost a cent and his “sadness” keeps the workers guessing — maybe. “But,” says the Post, ‘‘we decidedly think that Mr. Julius "Kein, Assistant Secretary of Com- merce, goes far beyond the bounds of propriety and good sense when he growls out the threat that ‘there will be hell to pay throughout the United States in the event of a general wage reduction’.” You see, for Hoover to “deplore” and shed gobs of ‘tears don’t hurt anything. But Klein deplored too violently, and used such “improper” words! Words-that might get the workers to thinking that-the government would sort of look kindly ona little “hell to pay.” Julius Klein, you have been bitten vy & cape italist crocodile! Consider yourself rebuked for being such @ jackass as to make your “deplor- ing” useful to strikers against wage cuts! What thé hell do you think J. P. Morgan keeps you on the payroll for? Whose government do you think you're running, anyhow? Sa oe The Decline and Fall of Jazz When Americah“imperialism was going about | Kicking all the neighbors’ dogs, we happened to spend some time in Spain, without, it is true, fully advising-Primo de Rivera, the fascist dle~ tator, of our presence. It pained us’ gréatly to dissemble, but ‘twas necessary. However, what pained us more and wasn’t at-all necessary, was the way Aimer.can jazz had replaced'*the much more harmomous and catching nitisit of Spanish birth. In Ma- drid and Barceldtia, everywhere, in fact, the coffee houses or cafes are the througed centers of social contaet, And in almost all of them we found the same jazz, which was not che reason, but might well have been, for our lzav- ing America. Only in thé cheapest and—it must b2 sail the most disreputable cafes, was thove the navive music and Songs 6f Spain. ‘ihe dollar wes boss in Spain and so the peseta had to swallow jazz, too. Well, since’ the dollar is now falling in relation with the franc on wo-ld ex ve guess that jazz is likely to suiier an unpopular-- ity in many countries, ere long, aid nol only in Spain. We were reminded of this because the com~ paneros of the “Vida Obrera,” the Csainunist Party's organ in Spanish of this be-ja: land, are giving a blowout, dance, entertainment and what not, at the New Harlem Casino this Sat- urday night (116th St. and Lenox Ave.), and have promised to have something really Span- ishy. ¢ That-is, they. have Mexicans and Cubans to sing and play, and we hope someon? from Porto Rico, too. These all have the proper kind of pepper, and since it costs only four bits, we think you'll enjoy it that much, anyhow. It gives me a pain in the neck to go to “a Spanish dance” and hear nothing but jazz. And we demand that the “Vida Obrera” furnish those who come—not..with ham sandwiches —heaven forbid! But with garbanzos, chorizes, and if it’s a cold night.We would take a little puchero, gracias! oe + against ‘these’ conditions of the youth. The whole organization campaigi must be closely connécted up with the building cf r-- employed councils of steel and me‘:' ~orkers. In the conipany” towns, where the overwhelming majority of the population are steel workeérs, the key to successful organization of the mill men will be based-on the building and activizing of unemployed councils of steel workers. From this source the M.W.LL, will gather hundreds of contacts of steel. workers still employed and will be able to develop squads of organizers as is be~ ing done now in the Pittsburgh area. The terror in company towns will be smashed only through a broad unemployed steel workers moyement linked closely with the mill workers. In the company..towns, the unemployed coun- cils must take the form of Unemployed Councils of the Metal Workers Industrial Union. De- mands must be directed point blank at the mill offices in conjunction with the general demands for unemployment insurance. The immediate de- mands of the unemployed steel workers must be centered around .the struggle for free rent in company. houses, free water and light from the Steel Trust public utilities, non-payment of mortgage interest. on company owned homes through the Steel Trust land holding companies, wiping out. of long standing debts in the com- The link +etween the unemployed steel work- ers and the-employed workers on three, four and five days a week,-must be the steel workers who are working # steady one day a week and one day every two weeks. Thousands of steel workers in this position “are easily reached, and the de- mands for this category of workers are a com- bination of the immediate demands in the mills and the immediate demands of the totally un- employed. -For instance, these workers will join both the unemployed in the fight for free rent in company and non-company owned houses, free water and light, and immediate relief from the treasuries of ‘the Steel Trust. At the same time, as, workers.working one day a week in the mills, they will enter the struggle for the par- tial demands on. the job. In this way, a welding of the workers and unemployed will take place. The organization of broad mass movements of the jobless steel and metal workers must be an integral part of the steel campaign and the key to the organization of mass struggles in the industry.