The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 28, 1931, Page 4

fi i Berote wa Page Four Worker On the Carrying Out of the 13th Plenum Decisions - LOCAL adopted by AN the 13th the unemployed is THE The resolution Plenum on the work a printed sue of the Communist. in full in on which deal with local, county hunger re to lead up to the National Hunger march, to Was Dec. 2, on the day of 1e opening TESS. a) U demonstrations should be organized cities and towns and county hunger mar The county marches provide a means of deepening the struggle, much more than ¥ ger 0 must be given to the During the n : immediate relief t for unemployment ns of unemployed For deeper into the neighbi homes, at the factories, where he unemplo; er, in the A. F. of L. the work unions, XI Plenum Decisions Must Deeply Penetrate the Ranks of the Party Plenum of the Central Committee fe tized the decisions of of the E. C. C. I. applying these The XIII the XI Plen decisions to the work and tasks of our Party here in the U. S. A. The whole membership of our Party must be made deeply conscious of the meaning and significance of these decisions in order to be r ively bring them into life. weaknesses from which our 3 allowing good resolutions and decisions to remain on paper. Often there is not even the px bility f he Party mem- bership to develop their understanding of the ood resolutions of the Party and C. I. for the reason that even the paper on which these resoluticns are written lies in the national and district offices of the Party and is not made available to the general membership. This, however, should not be the case at the present time. In the October issue of the Communist and the report of Comrade Wein- stone om the XI Plenum of the E. C. C. I. and the renort of Co: de Browder on the work of the Central Committee and the Party printed together with the general jresolution and the unemployment resolution of the Plenum. ries of pamphlets are ready a thorough study of the decisons of the XI Plenum. of the E. C. C. I These pamphlets are as follows Eleventh Plenum of the E. C. C. 1.—Theses Resolutions and Decisions 10 The Cemmunist Parties and the Crisis of Capitaliem—Report of Comrade Manuilsky to the XI Plenum 35 War Preparations against the Soviet Union —Report of Comrade Cachin to the XI Plenum with additional speeches including the speech of Comrade Browder 20 Urgent Questions of the Day—Speech of Comrade Piatnitsky at the XI Plenum on the Unemployment Moyement, Fac- tory Organization and Fluctuating Mem- bership 10 The War of Intervention Against the Soviet Union and the Second International— P. R. Dietrich 10 Every Party comrade and revolutionary work- xx should prepare himself or herself for the |better conducting the present and future clase battles by thorough study of the above pamph- lets and the current issue of The Communist | Every District literature agent should have the above on hand and the distribution should be widedly organized in the lower units of the| Party. Indi workers may receive these pamphlets and The Communist from the Work- 2ts Library Publishers, P. O. Box 148, Station D. New York City. The price of single copies of |The Communist is 25c Demagogy and More Demagogy-- D NATIONAL HUNGER M ARCH Resolutions favoring our program should be adopted wherever possible. In this work, we must utilize the r e than half a million in- dividual signatures demanding unemployment insurance, collected last winter and now in the hands of the district organizers. (b) The first two weeks in November must be used for the election of the delegates to the National Hunger March to Washington, timed with the opening of Congress, ‘We must strive by this time to have so popularized our pro- gram and strengthened our contact with the masses of the unemployed, that hundreds. of thousands of unemployed will participate in the meetings where the delegates are to be elected. The d tion which shall b@ a mass del- egation of m one to two thousand, must in- Ne unemployed, women and children of the wu oung workets and rep- resentatives of as many unions as possible. The Workers International Relief shall be drawn in to help in the organization of the march, the collection of food, clothing, means of transportation, shetler at Washington, etc. {c) On December 2, the day of the opening of Congress, and the demonstration of the hunger marchers at Washington, there shall be or- ganized nation-wide demonstrations in every city and town in front of the government bodies, to be preceded or followed by parades through the workers’ neighborhoods and the largest fac- tories. A conference of all delegates and hunger marchers shall take place in Washington in connection with the hunger march. (d) Both in their march to and from Wash- ington, of the we must organize to reach the masses unemployed. For this purpose, or- are to be sent out in advance of the line h by the various districts, to prepare : the coming of the delegates, the organi- zations of mass meetings, etc. Also in the organization of the march itself, we must take care to provide sufficient literatu perienced agitators. We must aim as a result of the hunger march not only to build organi- zations of the unemployed, but also to recruit members into the T. U. U. unions and’ Party. (e) Upon the return of the hunger marchers from Washington (from the first to the second week in December) there shall be organized first meetings by the Councils to hear the re- ports and the next tasks; and mass deman- strations (exact date to be fixed later but just before Christmas) at which the reports are to be given and the mass mobilized for .the con- tinuation of the struggle. Between December 2 and these demor ns there should be pre- pared and ready the plan of work for the first three months in 1932. () In the enti riod of activity when this program is being carried into effect, it is neces- sary to connect up the struggle of the unem- ployed with the election campaign and to draw the masses around the platform of struggle of the Communist Party. It is necessary to con- nect up the struggle of the employed with the election campaign and to draw the masses around the platform of struggle of the Com- munist Party. It is necessary to draw the unemployed around the ‘strikes now in progress and the developing strike struggles. In the struggles against the war danger, we must particularly aim to draw the masses of the unemployed into the November 7 demonstra- tions. This will only be possible if this work is developed on the basis of the concrete demands of the unemployed and the slogans properly fused. One of the major questions that must be brought to the attention of the unemployed is the fgiht against deportations, lynchings, and the general terror of the government and the fascists and social-fascists. (g) In addition special programs of tasks for each of the most important districts are to be worked out in consultation with the district Jeaderships. “To win the majority of the unemployed does not only depend upon the ability to correctly formulate slogans of agitation and action, but first and foremost on the organization of the every-day struggle of the unemployed in defense of their immediate démands’—Excerpt from the R. I. L. U. resolution on Unemployment.) But Wage Cuts Forever! "TRYING to show how Mr. Hoover and his ad-_ ministration is downhearted about the open ware cuts initiated by the United States Steel ®orvoration, the bourgeois press informs us: “A phase of the official comment was an ion of hope that the action taken by eel corporations and General Motors would not lead to cuts in wages throughout the country.” This hope of Hoover was expressed precisely on the day when the “readjustment” of wages was already raging throughout all industries “The movement to readjust wages inaugur- ated by the United States Steel Corp. became 2!most nation-wide today as reports from in- rial centers told how other large corpora- were ordering wage cuts and reducing hours into effect October 1.” (N. Y. m, Sept. 24, 1931.) The American bourgeoisie and its government does not even bother to find a more or less plausible form for its lies. It knows that “public ovinion” will be satisfied with the crudest fabrications. When Japan carried out its planned and pre- pared occupation in Manchnria, the great diplomatic genius, Stimson, declared officially that there was no clash between Japan and China in Manchuria, but a mutiny of soldiers of both countries. When the first stage of this oc- t..n is already completed, Stimson boast~ supports a note proposing “to both sides the cessation of hostilities and withdrawal of the rospective troop This clever advice could but prove! laugh in Tokyo. According to the F~ireco's press, the reaetion in Tokyo on this s follows: ituation which the League envisages t exist, The Chinese troops have al- withdrawn, while with the exception of the three points mentioned the Japanese are an peel own railway zone.” lways uncovers he unspeakable ill- surgeois s . The present crisis | i9SCs especially clearly and obviously the cruel } s “and cyt cynical diplomacy of American imperialism, S offensive, both in and outside of the coun- The fact that the “gentlemen's agreement” be- tween Hoover and Green in the latter part-of 1929 for maintaining the wage scale was a fake, now becomes clear and obvious even for the workers who were under the influence of the bourgeois parties and its poisoned press. Now when the offensive becomes more vicious, this gentlemen’s agreement changes its form, but not its contents. Both the state and the American Federation of Labor are now shed- ding crocodile tears in the face of the announced wage cuts. The divi the trust sion of labor between the bosses in who have cut wages to the bone on one hand and the bosses and their lackeys in the government and the fascists and sccial fas- cists on the other hand is especially necessary to prevent and weaken the resistance of the workers, But at the same time the open wage cutters are now, more than before, interested in covering up their old system of betrayal, They reveal this old system occasionally, as in the N. Y. Times of Sept. 24: “Though wages have been held nominally at their old level, purchasing power has dropped off by heavy percentages. The reason is far to seek. The big industries have been run- ning on part time and at a mere fraction of their capacity. The U. S, Steel Corp., for exem- ple, has recently been up to only 30 or 35 per cent of what it has the facilities to produce, The inevitable result is that 60 per cent of their employees might not have been getting any wages at all but for the “staggered” em- ployment plan, which permitted their earning The Communist Party time and again exposed the “stagger” plan as an instrument to cut the wages of the workers without making them aware that they were robbed and plundered. w that this rch >*y assumes an open form, the class conscious workers have the duiy to e and ex-/} 50 Hast 13th Street, » Yorker’ Sheth eo SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Foreign: By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. one year, excepting Boroughs $8; six months, $4.50. By BURCK METAL. WORKERS INDUSTRIAL League By RALPH SIMONS WY. This is the fourth in a short series of import- ant articles on this subject. Previous articles have dealt with the need for work inside the factories, with factory groups and factory com- mittees and concentration of work.—Editor. eer 'HE tactic of the united front must find larger practical application in the everyday activity of the revolutionary trade union organizations than was the case heretofore. This is impera- tively dictated by the concrete situation which is characterized by the growth and the approach of new mass economic struggles in connection with the mad offensive of capital. In every efonomic strike, in the organization of militant mass demonstrations, in the development of the movement of the unemployed, in our every day work in the Shops and factories, or in the union, we must invariably secure the establishment of a | united front between the supporters of the reyo- lutionary trade union movement and tie rank | and file membership of the reactionary unions, and with the unorganized workers, between the unemployed workers, between the white and black workers, and carry out the slogans of the united front in practice. In the question of the | successful leadership of strikes, in the question of successful work in the shops, and in the ques- tion of the success of our work in the hostile unions, we invariably depend on the question of the capable application of the tactic of the unit- ed front. This tactic of the united front we must place at the foundation of our concrete practical work during the preparation and then the con- duct of the strike. From this it follows that we should not foist on the workers of other political tendencies or workers from other unions ready made demands but to discuss them in detail and to work out those demands together with all the workers irrespective of their political affiliations or trade union affiliations, and in the same way explain to the masses the offensive of the bour- | geoisie and its different forms in their own ex- | periences. This will also help them to under- | stand why now one part of the bourgeois fakers | simulates its dissatisfaction with the system of open wage cuts, and in word demagogically takes a, stand against the wage cuts. The masses will understand that the statement of Gree “threaded with a note of bitterness and. dis- appointment” about the wage cuts, is but an integral part of the plan of the offensive ot the bourgeoisie, a plot without which this of- fensive cannot be carried out. “No threat of action by organized labor was coftained in the statement, however,” ironically remarked the N. Y. Times. Of course not! The aim of Green's statement in not to organize for action, but to betray and make impossible the action of the workers, Julius Klein, assistant secretary of the De. partment of Commerce, is even more “radical” in his demagogy. “There will be hell to pay throughout the United States in.the ‘event of a general wage reduction,” exclaimed Hoover's right-hand man. Dozens of senators and con- gressmen hurrjed to emphasize their dissatis- faction with the wage cuts, although in more | moderate form. We will not be surprised if to- morrow new dozens of politicians will join this “protest.” “Do not take all tlis too tragically,” states the bourgeois press. The politicians have in mind the coming elections. “But what about the political motives against this change in the wage scale? They are the ones that apparently cause most anxiety at Washington. To go into a prtsi- dential campaign next year with a record of lower wages and higher taxes appears far from alluring to republican, politicians. But when economic and business law shows itself to be inexorable, politics has to give way.” (N, Y. Times, Sept. 24.) But the bourgeoisie, of course, is not troubled by this play of the politicians. “The owner knows his cattle.” The American capitalists have a new international idol—MacDonald is their beloved man. And arguing for the neces- sity for a brave and decisive policy of open wage cuts, they cite him as an example. The blood of the young working class being transfused into the sick industries of the de- caying capitalism will end the crisis—this is the slogan of this new plunder, And on the very day the wage cuts were announced, the bour- geois press tried to create the impression that prosperity appeared once more around the cor- ner. “Stocks rise as a result of wage cuts,” exclaimed the bourgeois press. Too early, gen- tlemen, a new disappointment awaits you. Even this revival on the stock exchange, miserable as it was, did not last long. The_steel stocks have already shown a decline—a fact that reflects the deepening of the general crisis. But not only this, The counter-offensive of the workers is yet to be met, Union Movement together to go into the fight for these demands. Only then will the entire wol king mass in the factory be under the leadership of the revolu- tionary vanguard and will heroically fight for the demands up to the very end when they will know that these are their own demands. We must clearly and directly explain to the masses and underline it with all our behavior that the united front is not a skilful maneuver but a question of mutual action, it is a problem of the methods of work for the defense of the common daily needs and interests. This can be considered @ maneuver on-y in that sense that the tactic of the united front has for its aim the directing of the entire will, the entire dis¢ontent, the entire militant determination of the working class against the capitalists and their agénts within the working class, who aim at stifling the joint vigorous struggles of the proletarian masses. The supporters of the revolutionary trade union moyement must be the initiators, the guiding ele- ment in the establishment of the united workers front from below. Having taken the initiative of the united front, we by no means reject the struggle against the reactionary leaders. We do not cease to expose the strike-breaking activities of these leaders, but we must constantly explain to the masses why the reactionary leaders are not capable of fighting for the interests of the workers. We must prove by means of fact and document how closely these leaders have merged with the bourgeois government and the bosses. We must show whose interests they are defend- ing and warn the workers that the reactionary leaders will break the vigorous militant battles of the workers, warn them that these leaders will pretend to be friends of the workers and even declare a strike with the aim, however, of quickly breaking it and worsen the conditions of the workers, that unity can only be achieved, not with the agents of the capitalists, not with strike-breakers, but only with the rank and file members of the unions in opposition to the re- sistance of the reactionary leadership. We must, however, struggle with all our determination against the tendency to create a v~ited front at | all costs at the expense of giving u) our princi- pal position, giving up the agitation in time of strike for joining the revolutionary trade unions, etc. Such an unprncipled united front, one that leads to the breaking of the struggle, to the sub- ordination of the movement to the reactionary trade union bureaucracy, one which facilitates the betrayals by the reactionary leaders. such a united front must be opposed by the supporters of the revolutionary trade union movement. They must set up against this united front a united front of workers created on the basis of concrete demands, on the basis of a consistent class strug- gle program. We must with special energy and determination expose the “left” maneuvers of the Muste group and the renegade group of Love- stone who, as it was demonstrated by the miners’ strike in Illinois and the textile strike in Pater- son, attempt to come out with hypocritical pro- posals for a united front for the purpose of caus- ing disintegration in the ranks of the fighters, to rob the demands of the strikers of their revo- lutionary content, to sow the illusion among the workers that they want and are able to defend the interests of the workers, to place themselves in the role of the champions of the united front, to paralyze the leading role of the revolutionary vanguard, Th> same kind of hypocritical chatter as that of the Musteites and Lovestoneites about. the unification of the unions and the creation of one union, for example, the furriers. We must not only set up against it a slogen of the erea- tion of the single class union on the asis of, consistent revolutionary c'.ss strugcle under revolutionary leadership which would carry through the concrete program of struggle and would guide its activity by the will cf the masses, but it is also nccessary that the revolutionary trade union should not lag at the tail end and should themselves come out with the direct ini= tiative for a united front in the organization of a single class union, The reactionary clique in the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, saturated with corruption, exposed in the use of gangsterism against the active workers, exposed: in taking graft, in open strike-breaking policies, in direct collusion with the bosses, discredited through the shameless clique fights, feeling that the working masses are slipping from under their influence and becoming permeated with the tendency to- ward unity, it is because of this that they place in the forefront the “left” allies and agents from the groups of Muste and Lovestone, hoping that through this they will save their little shop from complete collapse, True, though somewhat late, the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union adopted a correct stand with regard to the posi- tion of the Musteites and Lovestoneites on the question of the single union against the vague For a Decisive Turn in Our Revolutionary Trade slogan of the “lefts” for the organization of the “single union” on the basis of the individual de- mands copied by the “lefts” from the revolu- tionary vanguard, the Industrial Needle Trade Workers Union brought forward a concrete pro- gram of organization of a single real class union with revolutionary.leadership on the basis of a concrete program for struggle for increased wages and the betterment of the conditions of work, against gangsterism, and for trade union democracy, etc. The “Lefts” are trying to utilize our organiza- tional weakness, our sluggishness, and our in- ability to carry through in practice at the right time the tactic of the united front and they hope in this way to earn for themselves politi- cal capital. To take the initiative in the creation of a single workers’ front in the struggle and in the formetion of the corresponding concrete condi- tions of a single class union, to expose the hypo- critical maneuvers of the “Lefts”, to expose the real character of the “lefts” es agents of the bourgeoisie in the reactionary trade union bu- reaucracy, to apply on a wide scale in practice the tactic of the united front, this is what is necessary in order to isolate the reactionary leaders and their “Left” agents from the masses and the transformation of the revolutionary trade unions into real mars organizations. It is hardly possible to deny that in the sphere of the unemployed movement we have a loss in tempo. The revolutionary trade union organiza- tions h v2 not begun to work seriously in tne unempl: ed movement. The directives given by the Pr:iintern on the question of the -unem- ployed movement have not been properly re- flected in the work of our revolutionary trade unions. These directives gave concrete informa- tion regarding the content, as well as the organ- izational forms and methods of our work. Spe- cial emphasis is laid by these directives onthe formation of unemployed. councils and a whole network of auxiliary organs with a view to better penetrate unemployed masses by means of all these added links, to embrace organizationally the masses and activize the entire movement. ‘We must, however, admit that there is a very sharp discrepancy between the activity of the masses who are undgr our influence and the organizational base of the movement. Neither the number of organized unemployed councils nor the character of the everyday work and the organizational structure of the councils can be considered satisfactory. We face a severe winter. The discontent among the unemployed masses is growing. The broad mass campaign which is being organized by the Communist Party, TUUL and the revolutionary unions, which has for its purpose the organization of gigantic marches of the unemployed and the calling of a confer- ence of the unemployed delegates in Washington, must become the starting point for concrete un- dertakings for the general strengthening of the organizational base of the unemployed move- ment. We must first of all create a flexible vital ap- paratus on the basis of the activity of the mass- es themselves. We must create an apparatus which will be in a position to carry on planned and systematic work in the defense of the small- est needs and interests of the unemployed mass- es, an apparatus which would be connected by thousands of threads with these masses and would give leadership to these masses by means of the special auxiliary organs and the delegated bodies. The unemployed councils in most of the cases are top organs devoid of any support in the lower ranks, without any ties leading to the masses. This circumstance does not permit the councils of the unemployed to serve the minute needs of the unemployed, to quickly mobilize them, to raise and bring into motion the broad- est masses of the unemployed. The creatio» of such belts in the form of special commissions and sub-committees in strikes for organizational problems, trade union work, press, recruiting members, legal aid, fe->ding of children, the pro- tection of the evicted, for the struggle against overtime work in the shops, for work among women and youth, this will assist in the intro- duction of normal life in the councils of the un- employed, in the creation of a good active group ef unemployed, in the establishment of contact between the employed and unemployed workers. All these commissions and auxiliary organs must report regularly to the councils of unemployed and the latter in turn must report at meetings of the unemployed, But what is of special im- portance is to insure direct initiative and inde- pendent action of the unemployed themselves, At the coming plenum of the TUUL, we must place the question not only of which measures must be introduced for the successful preparation and carrying out of mass hunger marches of the unemployed but also the question of measures for the strengthening of the organizational base of fae unemployed movement, of the drawing of = = — By JORGE Conternation Among a the Bullfrogs Just our little mention of a certain ¥. ©. Ie Unit seems to have produced consternation, “Who could have been the tale bearer? Is if Comrade “A” or “B” or “C”? Who is guilty?” Now it hadn't occurred to us that the Y. C. Ie was a secret organization whose members are sworn not to reveal what goes on in its meetings to members of the Party. In fact the Y, 0. In Convention invited and the Party Plenum ene joined Party members to take an jpterest in ¥. C. L. units, so all the horrification rolls off the crocodile’s back. { Incidentally, the Unit in question DOES things: it is a secret organization of parboiled heroes with a Brigadier General as Organzier, without whom NOTHING can be done. If he is away, Classes suspend, the work halts, the clock stops. The initative of the rank and file simply ain't there. In only one instance that we know of did it escape beyond bounds. One new member start- ing out to sell Young Workers from door te door, alarmed old member partners by telling folks that it was “a Communist paper.” “O, you MUSTN'T tell them that! That will SCARE them!” Well, that the new member thought that was funny, because he thought that capitalism scares workers INTO Communism, and not away from it. But another new member asked this first new comrade what to tell ’em, because he was WITHOUT INSTRUCTION. So the villians got “out-of control” and the lad that decided to ask donations for COM- MUNISM, after both had figured out that hid- Ing it didn’t bring much, made a_ record- breaking collections for the Young Worker. All of which seems to tell the crocodile that an understanding of the Third Period hasn’t yet penetrated that Unit, despite the “efficiency” of Bullfrog Brigadier. If there were some rank and file expression in that unit, the lesson of this experience might have been learned: But there isn’t any. The Brigadier gives ORDERS and ASSIGNMENTS— and interminable SPEECHES. But if any of the Genossen think that the crocodile is ornery, let him or her try to distribute the decisions, moved, seconded and carried without a vote, of the BRIGADIER! “Shut up! You're out of order!” declares the Brigadier, and rejects the suggestion that the Chairman has SOME function, as a mere “technical” objection. Of course a chairman does come in handy sometimes, as when, after the chair had just given a comrade the floor and while this comrade was speaking, the Brigadier suddenly got the notion that he left bored, and ordered the chairman to cut the comrade off in the middle of his talk. But if orders are sacred, it is not orders in general, but HIS. “We have instruction from the District to form a new unit of I. Y. D applicants,” says he, “And of course we must carry out instructions. But I am against it.” From which he dives into a long speech telling why, but not why the District is for it. Result: A Committee of protest is elected not to carry out the decision of “course,” but to try to con- vince the District that it is wrong. ‘Thus passeth life in not only this particular unit, but in plenty. And thus the Y. C. L’ers become accustomed to that sort of thing, and when they grow up to be red trade union mem- bers they think that brigadiering the non-party members of the trade union is “efficient Com- munist work.” And that, dear Y. C. Lers, is what the crocodile is mostly worried about. THAT is why he sheds crocodile tears over this horrible example! FIGHT STEADILY FOR RELIEF! Organize Unemployed Councils to Fight for Unemployment Relief. Organize the Unions. Mobilize the Employed and Unemployed for Common Strug- the initiative and self-reliance of the unem- ployed, of the creation of a wide group of active leaders from among the unemployed, and the general increase of attention from the reyolu- tionary trade union organizations to this move ment. It is important that the revolutionary trade union organization manifest a direct ini- tiative in the solution of all these problems. We must not, however, lose sight of the fact that the revolutionary trade union organtz@tions can- not under any circumstances take the place of the unemployed councils. The leadership of the unemployed movement must express itself not in the formal subordination of the unemployed councils to the revolutionary trade union move- ment, not by means of orders, not by mechanical introduction of the directives from the trade unions, but in that the fighting program of the revolutionary trade union movement in the sphere of the unemployed movement is carried through in the unemployed councils through the unemployed members of the revolutionary trade union organizations. The latter must be system= atically instructed and they must serve as the fundamental kernel in the unemployed councils, They must be that driving force in the work. At the same time we must with the aid of the members of the revolutionary trade unfon organ= izations in the unemployed councils carry on @ systematic recruiting campaign to attract the most advanced sections of unemployed workers into our trade union organizations, exempting them from the payment of the initiation fee and the membership dues. Of no less importance is it that with the coming Plenum of the TUUL we should make a very careful analysis of the moves ment of the unemployed, the question of the methods of work, organizational forms of our work, directed partly to the drawing in into the mess movement of the unemployed also, workers who are working part time and the unemployed workers, and the creation of a united front in the struggle against the attacks of capital, against the lowering of wages, for the increase of wages, for the immediate relief to the unem- ployed, and for social insurance at the expense of the government and the bosses, etc. The ac- tivity of the revolutionary trade union organiza- tions and supporters of the revolutionary trade union movement in the councils of the unem- ployed must go on all the time in such a man- ner that the wide masses of unemployed will convince themselves that only the revolutionary trade union movement is sincerely and stub- bornly defending the needs and interests of the unemployed, * ot 2 iin $A LLLLL LL AAA