The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 29, 1931, Page 4

a Published by: tha Gemprodaily Publishing Co. ir 1668 s Fast & > SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Page Four sth St, New York « N.Y. mene A qnin y . . au ‘ By mall everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; twe months, $1; excepting Boroughs ‘age tu Aah ones Dalia rows Want 18th St N NY. of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. Foreign: one year, $8; six months, $4.50. Central Org : me ad ro} or By BURCK CHOICE CUTS—A SPECIAL’ | On the Carrying Out of the | 13th Plenum Decisions HOW NOT TO FIGHT A WAGE-CUT By BILL GEBERT EFORE the present sweeping 10 per cent cut B was announced by steel, automobile, rubber a wage cut took place in o departments of the Illinois Steel (a sub- | of the U Steel in Gary). The wage was from 71-2 to 15 per cent, affecting over | wage cut aroused the | the workers immediately he 9,000 steel workers ve a step toward r all the work- other industrie: rans 2,000 steel worke we met this ods did we pursue e against wage cuts. Plenum of the Cen- ‘opportuni: ok ce on spontan- wage cut : to mobilize workers of the 1 when we are | methods of of ou in the hod which we What happened? Simply this ership decided to meet the wage eet. demo: tion against wage s the method of least resistance le against wage cuts. we inust recall the warning of the against “dependence upon spontaniety. tion on demonstration and de- nizing and carrying through the le and organization.” Instead of of the workers in the given de- § ted by the wage cuts, visiting the in their homes, speaking to the workers the shops and inviting them to a meeting ace in a private house to disc with them conditi in the mills and methods e and developing a strug- leading to a strike, setting up the depart- nt grievance committees, a general proclama- for “a street demonstration against wage cuts” was issued. Not the slightest attempt was made of carrying any work inside of the shop, to discuss the problems with the workers or even with a single worker affected by the wage cut. When we met with the Party and the League shop unit in the Gary steel mills, we found out that the workers are receiving with great enthu- usued in Ga sectior siasm our literature, shop bulletins, the leaflets of the Communist Party and Metal League. The workers bring the literature with them to the tory reading and discussing it. They are look- ing for o! ation, but instead of concentrating the energy in the direction of the general mood of the workers, the concentration was made upon the street demonstration, which was not well organized and broken up by the police. The re- sponse of the workers to the demonstration was not good either. After this experience and after losing a few weeks of time, a correct method was applied. Namely, visiting workers, calling them to meet- ings, which resulted in grievance opmmittees set up in two departments with new workers, con- tacts have been established and work, though very slow in tempo, proceeds in the proper di- rection. This experience in Gary should be very well kept in mind by the comrades everywhere. The struggle against wage cuts must be undertaken by setting up grievance committees in depart- ments, building the union and the Party, in- volving workers direct from the shops and not depending upon the spontaniety and calling upon them to demonstrate without any preparation whatever inside of the shops. Another phase of this activ: must be raised also, which was manifested in our District. That is placing the task of building the shop eco- nomic organizations of the workers exclusively on the few comrades working in the shop and holding them responsible for everything. While the comrades in the shop must be explained the methods of work and drawn into the leadership, additional forces must be assigned for visiting the workers in the shops, mingling among the workers in front of the shops in the morning and evening when the workers are coming and going from the plant, in which the whole Party organ- ization, including top Party committees should be involved. Without penetration i ing of shop organizations, to develop and lead struggles. Je of the shops, build- we will not be able Th will lead us }| to the outlook that workers will strike and strug- | gle by themselves. If they will, as it happened in | many cases, we will not be the leaders in this struggle and, therefore, the struggle will be de- feated and organizations will not be built. THE 13th PLENUM AND OUR SHOP WORK By SAM DON HE question of the penetration of the shops. and the buijding of shop nuclei was taken up time and again. Already the Twelfth Plenum called sharply the attention of the Party to the need of it. However, the Thirteenth Plenum did not merely emphasize and repeat what the ‘Twelfth Plenum stated on this question. The Thirteenth Plenum did not merely raise it as a general basic problem, but as an immediate tac- tical link for developing mass struggles, the building of revolutionary mass unions. We must consider the problem of penetration of the shops and the building of shop nuclei as raised at the Thirteenth Plenum not as a mere restatement of an oid problem. Not to see the burning concrete meaning that it assumes at the present time axiounts to a failure to understand in our daily mass activities, the prospective of a growing rev-. olutionary up-surge. t is the strategy of the oisie to divide the employed from the unemployed, to make the shop the center of a capitalist way out of the crisis by a furious murderous onslaught on the of living of the workers, brought more and rationalization, to increase the ag army of unemployed. To organize the workers in the shops, mines, and mills on the basis of their immediate grievances with the cre- ation of a mass base for the T.U.U.L., in the ops and reformist unior in uniting the strug- gles of the employed and unemployed for social | insurance—are some of the pre-conditions for the winning of the majority of the working class for a revolutionary way out of the crisis. And it is precisely because the bourgeoisie makes the shop the center of its attack on the conditions of the workers that the shops must become our fortresses. Is it any wonder that the bourgeoisie makes it difficult for us to penetrate the shops? And our main weakness lies precisely in the fact that we have a most general approach | to our shop work. There exists an ignoring of | di*ficulties of shop work, but no methods devel- | ep2d to overcome them. A tendency to accept the difficulties created by the bourgeoisie as | | sufficient to prevent us from penetrating the shop, as an excuse for lack of faith in the masses who are suffering from the effects of the crisis and ready to struggle. This is wrong. The Plenum, therefore, in its resolution demands a rp turn in the methods of shop work. It state: “The building of shop nuclei demands a fundamental change of our methods of work, the transferring of attention by our whole Party in each particular unit to this task. Further “the fear by the Communist workers is caused by the fact that we do not know how to carry out this work. All attention of the Party The Election Campaign in the Deve- lopment of Mass Struggles The coming election campaign assumes more | importance than ever in the development of | the mass struggles against hunger, capitalist terror and imperialist war. The development | of these campaigns is seriously hampered by | the remnants of anti-parliamentary tendencies and underestimation of revolutionary possibi- lities of election campaigns. The election this fall, important in themselves are of even great- er sitnificance as being a test of our prepared- ness to exploit the tremendous possibilities be- | fore us in the general national elections of 193%. The election campaigns must be made the instrument to bring together the issues of all | the partial struggles and the issues of parti- | cular flelds of work into one consolidated pro- | gram of revolutionary working-class struggle | ogainst capitalism, concretizing the general slogan, “Class against class,” and showing the | | exploited masses the impossibility of any way of the crisis except the way of mass revo- ‘onery struggle and proletarian revolution. | m the 13th Plenum resolution.) | | developing struggles in th must be concentrated on helping our comrades in the shops to solve their problems: “Instead of insulting them, we must work out a system and teach them how to develop the work without being exposed.” And in order to change the methods of shop work, the Plenum called for merciless struggle against all forms and manifestations of burocratic tendencies and forms of work ‘The Plenum discussed the experiences and ies- sons of the miners’ strike. One of the main les- sons to be drawn from the strike is the fact that we have failed in building the Party prior and during the strike as a necessary condition for building the National Miners Union, of develop- ing forces for leadership and organization during the strike. In outlining, therefore, the tasks for basic industries where huge wage cuts are the order of the day, the les- sons of the miners’ strike must be taken to heart by the entire Party. We must remember that wage cuts by themselves do not at all times pro- duce strike strugg] It is our ability to organ- ize and lead the masses which will give them confidence and faith in the possibilities of win- ning their strike demands. The resolution, there- fore, states “that the building of the Party must become an integral part of the preparation and leadership of mass struggles. The building of the Party in mass struggles means particularly to strengthen the important organizations of the Party in heavy industries and in big factories and in the industries in which these factories are located.” For a Decisive Turn in Our Re By RALPH SIMONS This is the fifth of a short series of articles, giving important direction to “all adherents of the @rade Union Unity League—EDITOR. ORGANIZE THE DAILY WORKER HE revolutionary trade unions will only win the confidence of the worker, will only then have an attractive force and will be transformed into real mass organizations, when all their daily through all their links, through all the lower organizations in the factories in the first place will at every step display the most patient and attentive interest in the minute needs, in- terests and problems of the working masses, when they will defend them with all determi- nation, when the workers will be convinced that the revolutionary trade unions are better than any reactionary unions, no matter under what banner they try to hide their identity. ‘The workers must feel and know that 4 given revolutionary trade union is their own organiza- tion, in which they will always find an atten- tive and sensitive attitude towards their com- plaints, needs and problems, in which they will always find true defense of their interests. \The appeals and requests of the workers to and in our trade unions must not be looked upon as so Many annoyances. We cannot spurn them, but we must in a comradely manner help in the Satisfaction, in the solution of the problems which agitate the workers. The worker must be convinced hat our, revolutionary trade unions are the only union organizations which sincerely defend his needs and interests. He must see the direct benefit from being in the ranks of our organization. He must receive at least some sort of material aid during a strike. Together with this, our organizations must satisfy his cultural wants. The workers must be convinced not only that our organization is the only. organization \which reflects his interests, formulates his demands, prepares and leads the strike, and after the strike watches the execu- tion of the agreement signed with the boss, but that the organization is also anxious to organize a militant solidarity with the strikers and mat- erial help; therefore, revolutionary trade unions cannot free themselves from the care of collect- Build the Youth Movement By WILLIAM Z. FOSTER _ The resolutin of the thirteenth Plenum of the CO of our Party lays much stress upon the building of the YCL. This is very timely. The question of organizing the youth is a particularly vital one and it grows more acute every day. The role of the youth in the American class struggle is highly and increasingly important. | This is indicated, among many other facts, by the relative youth of American workers in gen- eral and the constantly lowering of age levels in the industries, by the energetic (and too suc- cessful) efforts of the capitalist to draw the youth into its gigantic militarist and strike- breaking plans, by the position of the youth as a bridge between the adult foreign-born and native workers, by the huge masses of prole- tarian youth in the capitalist high schools and political activity of American workers, we have no broadcadres of trained adult leading forces but must look chiefly to the youth for their development. In every phase of our struggle— strike activities, unemployed campaigns, work among Negroes, ete—the question of the or- ganization of the youth becomes more and more a decisive matter. But we have made little progress in this vital task. The YCL is still extremely weak which constitutes a great handicap in our every field of work. This must be drastically remedied. Large numbers of the militant young fighters of the working-clas must be drawn into our ranks and activities. And they, like the adult workers, are becoming ripe in large masses for-our leader- ship. The YCL is destined to be a powerful weapon of oud Party, but at this stage of the development, it needs most active Party support. The Party must therefore, take seriously in hand th ebuild'my of the YCL, To do this the Party must devclop much ore of an orientation upen the youth. There is in many instances a definite underestimation, not enly of the special methods of organizing young workers, but of the whole question of the youth, Consequently there is a tendency to relegate this entire matter to the YCL as its special task, instead of recognizing as a central task of the Party, to which our forces must be applied. The YCL has been leoked vne too much 9% a. stepchild, Cc has been neglected and youth activities in the mass organization hay ebeen slighted, and in | many instances,“the YCL finds itself in more or less of a struggle with the districts to maintain ntly, the work of building YCL nuclei its own minimum of leading forces. All this, of course, robbing the League of its initative. ‘The struggle with the youth over the question of forces should cease—the Party can well afford even to lean backward in this respect. The YCL must have adequate forces of its own, and more than that, leading Party workers must devote part of their time to the practical work of the League The same principle must apply to or- ganizers of the TUUL unions—they must not leave the building of the youth sections and the development of youth activities simply to the young workers. On the other hand, the YCL must develop a sharp turn towards the factories, towards mass work It must consciously arrive against separa- tist, sectarian tendencies it must link up its work with that of the party in general. As part of this orientation towards mass work. the YCL must broaden its conceptions of what is youth work. Like the Party, it must definitely assign strong forces for leading positions in mass or- ganizations, Such organizers must also, of course, systematically build the YCL and youth activi- site generally. Like the Party; the building of the YCL is bound up directly with the strength- ening of the mass struggles and mass organi- zations. There are at present distinct signs of a turn of the YCL towards the shops and mass work. and for coordination with the Party's cam- paigns. This is evidenced by the resolutions of the sixth convention of the YCL, by the League's increasing activities in strikes and by its gen- uine effort to mobilize its forces into Pttsburgh for the Party’s major concentvaten in the col and steel industries, All this is orly a beginning, of course. But it is progress in the right direc tion and it must be energetically supported by the Party. At present the Party is developing a strong recruiting campaign. Conditions are ripe for enlisting nat of militant workers into the Party. But this membership drive will fail of its purpose if it does: not put in the very cente~ Union Movement; | | | | ] | } position in the everyday ing funds and giving direct aid to the strikers. They cannot relegate these functions entirely to the organizations of workers’ relief. From this it follows that we must pay special attention to the organization of permanent strike funds and to direct all our forces to this work. The prob- Jem of systematic cultural and educational work must also occupy a corrsepondingly important work of our revolu- tionary trade union organizations. The entire system of work, all the methods, must be such as to insure the possibility of the manifestation of the initiative and independent action of every member of the union. Under the term of “revolutionary trade unions” we under- stand and must understand to be not only the leading body of the union, the top layer, but the entire membership. Our revolutionary trade uhions will become militant mass trade union organizations not only when they will recruit new thousands of workers, but when the entire mass of members and every member individually will be drawn into the work of the union. when they will determine the policy of the union. Already the last Plenum of the Trade Union Unity League stressed the question of the neces= sity of introducing 1 real trede union democ- racy into our unions. But this decision has not been put into life yet. However, the carrying out of this decision is one of the conditions of Installing a normal inner life, the gaining of the svymnathies of the workers, the activization of the broad membership, and the transforming our trade unions into mass organizations. The difference between our trade unions and the reactionary trade unions must be the fact that, at the time when the latter have destroyed the last remnants of trade union democracy, are not calling any membership mectings, are not calling any conventions for years. the members do not participate in the work -* the union, do not decide the policies and do r+ make de- cisions for the unions. our revolutionary trade unions must base their work on the carrying out of trade union democracy, of eliminating bureaucratic methods of work, of activizing the membership, of having them lay down the pol- icies, and making all decisions for the trade unions. It will only be possible to root out the buyeau- cratic tendencies, to establish a real trade union democracy, to eliminate the method of com- manding and ordering and have the trade unions function normally, when we will have regular merting. days, when the meeting will be held in orderly manner, when the members of the elect- ed committees will come to the meetings recu- larlv, when the agendas for the meetings will be * worked out beforehand and will be sent to the members, when all the members of the elected committees will be supplied with the necessary material before the meeting which will helo them oriehtate themselves in the questions, will give them the possibility of expressing their opinion and of deciding the questions. Trade ynion democracy has as its aim the ’ participation c” the whole membership in the work of the unicn, means that not one deci- sion can or should be put through without the knowledge ard preliminary discussion of the whole membership, It presupposes the encou- ragement of initiative and work of the rank and file members, who must be assigned definite tasks, and the carrying out of the assignments must be checked up. Cases where all the work is done by the paid functiena*y only, who is man- aging the work, when most of the elected com- mittees are not assigned any concrete tasks, have no definite fun’ticns, are not permeated with the feeling of responsibility for their work, when the membership finds out about decisions made accidentally, when decisions are made without their particivation and knowledge, having noth- ing to do with the first principles of trade union democracy. We must carry on a struggle against “paper” leadership, the Ieck of constant contact be- tween the leadership and the memberchip, the lack of collective leadership in the trade union uestion of building of the YCL, But -the ng of the YCL like the Party, is not a matter of simple recvuliment. It is primarily a@ question of strengthening the mass activities the mass activities of the youth in every direc- _ tion. his whole question of the building of the YCL deserve the greatest aitcntion of the Party.’ It presents itself as one of our most urgent and decisive task: volutionary Trade bodies. Questions of collective leadership must be brought forward before the membership in all trade union organizations. We must, at the same time, stress the necessity of drawing in of rank and file workers into all leading commit- tees, from top to bottom, boldly put them into leading positions, give them comradely coopera- tion and help in the work. The whole life of the trade union must take_ place before the workers’ eyes and under. the” control of the masses. Hence the necessity of keeping the membership informed, through mem- bership meetings, and the press of all activities of the trade union as a whole or its organiza- tion, and have the membership discuss and ap= preve of th? general and financial reports. Only by putting trade union democracy into life, by drawing tke membership into active participation, by creating a pormanert activity in the trade unions, by assigning every active member a specific task and by helping him to perform it, only by. boldly putting members of strike committees, unemployed councils, shop committee, Negro work, women and immigrant workers from colonies (Latin America, Philip- pines, ete.), young workers, into leading posi- sions and also by giving them the necessary training and theoretical knowledge, will be pos- sible the development of leading cadres, will it be possi's to put the decisions into life, will we be al. > to actually solve this burning and im- portant problem. Cre: te a Living and Flexible Apparatus We must consider the question of establishing a flexible and living apparatus in the trade unions from the yiewpoint of the carrying out successfully our task in the revolutionary trade union movement. The task of going over to the factory basis, the question of concentrating on the basic industries, largest factories, and the question of intensifying our work in the re- actionary trade unions, the strengthening or- ganizationally of the unemployment movement, the creating of a sound financial basis for the revolutionary trade unions and the introducing of the principles of trade union democracy into our unions, We must create an apparatus which can, through its various sections, as through a cog wheel, be linked up with a thousand threads with the membership, which can be in a position to quickly inform the smallest committees of the decisions of the center, which can keep the mem- bership in fighting readiness, lead them, and through them lead the masses of workers at the time of militant mass activities, We must create an apparatus which can un- derstand the moods of the workers in the fac- tories, to formulate their demands, interests, needs, to report about these matters from the lowest committees to the center, without any de- lay, an apparatus which will not suppress the membership, as the A. F, of L. official machinery is doing, but. will devote its energy to the ac- tivization of the membership, to the bringing out of the initiative and self-activities of the rank and fille members, to filling the needs and de- mands of the membership, to quick mobilization of the masses, on the basis of the expressed wil- lingness of the masses to struggle. Revolutionary trade unions must be built on the basis of a harmonious system. Shop com- mittees, local organizations of the trade union, sub-district organization, district organization, na- tional center. The TUUL must immediately build sub-dist- rict committees. The TUUL must work out general forms on the functions of all organi- zational bodies, of the organizational coordina- tion and relations between the higher and low- er committees, jurisdiction, etc. For the normal functioning of the trade unions the sections and committees must function harmoniously. Such functioning c-mittees are: organiza- tional and training committees, agitation and propaganda committee, finance committee, com- mittee for work among women, youth and Ne- groes, colonial peoples, press committee, etc. To insure the proper functioning of these com- mittees and sections, for the utilization of the initiative and sclf-activity of the membership we must establish in all our trade unions from top to bottom compact groups of militant ele- ments known as “actives.” At the head of the sections or committees we must have workers elected by the membership. We must draw into the various committees, a8 many as possible of active workers, It is also advisable, in order to carry through some specific task, like the following up of trade union organization, or to: investigate the finan- cial situation of one or another organization, or to go Mrough the instructions and decisions, etc., By JORGE gd Little Observations We note that Lindbergh was presented with a Chinese medal—probably in recognition of his being the best publicity agent living for Am- erican imperialism’s air preparation for war. SES Sse Al Smith got a lot of fleeting fame out of being the Big Shot who “built” the Empire State building, the monarch of sky-scrapers. Of course he really didn’t build it, the workers did, and about 150 lost their lives doing it. But now comes the joke on Al: There happens to be a “depression,” and: only one-fifth of the building is rented. There it stands, empty! What a monument to capitalism! CS hee O. Skinney! Lookit! See the man! That’s Grover Whalen, the ex-Police Commissioner who “discovered” all them Red plots about the Communists.end the Soviet Union and “tes- tified” for the Fish Committee. Recently he was identified as a “hit-and-run” driver but got out of that by pull. But now lookit! As Police Commissioner he put a stop to raids on gambling joints! * * bd See the headlines in the N. Y¥. World- Telegram last Thursday? “Crime Conference Called by Walker—Officials to Plan Use of New Laws on Gangsters.” Oh, boy, ain’t that Mayor Walker going to give the gangsters supreme hell? Yes, he ain’t! Look at the other headline just above that one: “Two Murdered in Tiger Club, Accused Man Not Indicated—valentine Tells Seabury; Says Siayer in Perry Place was Known to Prosecutor; Link Third Killing to Gambling; Burglar Who Told of Losses at Far- ley's Died Strangely.” Anybody who thinks that Mayor Walker is calling a conference “against gangsters” ought to have a padded cell. a ee 1 Goy, Roosevelt’s ‘Great Heart Since the capitalist press is recently bulging over with praise for Governor Roosevelt of New York State, and the main line of this praise which the boss press wants all the workers to get, is: Roosevelt's $20,000,000 scheme for relief (relief of those who administer it!) is going to be “adequate”, and “nobody will go hungry”. robably it will do no good, but someone might pour some inquiries into the papers that are cheering for Roosevelt and his scheme, asking WHY, if N. Y. State relief is going to be “ade- quite” and WHY if Roosevelt himself even thinks it is going to be adequate, why, then, do we find the following item in the columns of the N. Y. “Mirror” of September 21, written by Wal Winchell, who is in a position to know things: “Here's a cheerful little earful for the optim~ ists: Gov. Roosevelt has instructed National Guardsmen to hold themselves in readiness during the winter months to quell impending food and other riots,” And you also might ask the capitalist papers why this information is published only in an obscure paragraph of one paper only, and not, played up as—perhaps—just as imortant as the Collings murder case. Be ee. ’ : It’s Kosher All Over, Ain’t It? From Boston, district headquarters for New England boiled dinners, pie for breakfast, the Yankee domesticus and other native curiosi- ties, we get the following note from the Daily Worker district agent: “Dear Comrade:—I just finished reading in Red Sparks that the Needle Trade Workers In- dustrial Union in New York went kosher on Yom Kippur. Well, being a gentle unsuspecting Yan- kee, I tried to get into the New England Dis- trict Office of the T.U.U.L. that day. The door was padlocked. “I went to the Party office, which was rather lonesome, to find out what was the matter with the T.U.U.L.. and the comrades there were shocked at the ignorance of their District Daily Worket agent: ‘The Needle Trades and the T.U. U.L. should be open on Yom Kippur?’ “I asked some more foolish questions and was told: ‘What is Yom Kippur? I should tell you? You don’t know?’ .* “Oh, yes, I ‘most forgot... Rabbi Jacobson bought a car load of wine bricks for the racket- eers and hired a lot of kids, bosh Jewish and gentile, to wrap them up in his labels, so that his followers can use them without fear of going to hell.—J. 1.” Perhaps rothing can be done about the rabbi, But we might suggest that the coming T.U.UL. Plenum take the kosher sign off its trade unions. to form special “workers brigades” (of about 5-7), who would carry out the work assigned to them and then report to the corresponding com- mittees of the trade union about the work. In “order that the decisions of the various trade union committees should not be accidental, but based on the concrete facts and evidence, it is important to thoroughly discuss these questions in the sections and committees, which can utilize the shock brigades for this preliminary work. We must establish, as a rule, that the work of all trade union committees, central and lo- cal, must be put on a general and calendar basis. It must also be established, as a rule, that all Congresses and conferences on a national scale, must be called with the knowledge and approval of the TUUL and must be carefully prepared, All plans submitted to these conferences and congresses must be discussed beforehand in detail by the membership, In otder to carry out successfully a decisive action, to help the local organizations in their everyday tasks, it is advisable to assign Tespon- sible and reliable trade unionists to the lower organizations. ‘Those assigned must participate in all meetings, must help in the carrying out of the most important mass campaigns, advise upon the shortcomings, weaknesses and failures in the work, give practical suggestions and ad- vice, and keep the trade union committees in- formed of the situation and of their work. It would also be beneficial to send members of the weaker unions, where the work is poor, to the better organized unions, in order to ac- quaint them with the work there, But what is most important at the present moment is a systematic check up on the carry> ing out of our own decisions. Periodical reports, checking up the carrying out of accepted deci- sions or instructions must be taken into the plan of work of all trade union organizations. The check-up will create and increase the sense of responsibility for the assigtied task, and will in- crease the confidence in our decisions, and will eliminate looseness and irresponsibility in the work rege