The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 3, 1931, Page 4

Si Ee, EME Published by the Comprodaity New York Address and mail al Page Four Publishing’ Co. City, N. ¥. ‘Telephone 1 checks to the Daily Work t Sunday Cable , at 50 Bast “DAIWORK." 13th Street, New York, N. Y, orker | On the Carrying Out of the | 13th Plenum Decisions tl SHOP WORK AND THE MA By A. BITTELMAN (Excerpt from Comrade Bittelman’s Speech at the Plenum) Ee oa HE report on the 11th Plenum of the ECCI hhas once more brought to our attention the growing danger that confronts all parties, also our Party, in the present situation, namely, the danger of lagging behind the radicalization of the masses, The question I want to raise is this: Why is it that this danger of lagging behind is especially dangerous at the present time, Comrade Browder proceeded very correctly in his report when he stressed the proposition that the chief means with which to overcome this lagging behind is the turn to shop work, the building up of shop organizations, Party and utiion, in the decisive industrial plants and sec- tions of the country But we have been speaking about shop nuclei and shop work for the last six years, and the Comintern has been pressing this matter for about the same length of time. Why is it, then, that if we should fail now to make the turn to shop work that is called for in the reports and resolutions of the Politburo, the results may prove to be more fatal for our movement than was the case five, four and three years ago? I remember a speech by Comrade Foster de- livered at one of the Plenums of the Central Committee (or perhaps it was & Party conyen- tion) some five or six years ago. In that speech Yoster outlined a program of building shop nuclei in the heavy industries, proving that by build- ing its organizations in the shops the Party will be able to place itself at the head of big strike movements of the workers. This was correct and basically important even then. But at the pres- ent time it would be totally insufficient merely to restate that proposition. We must realize that all that the XI Plenum said on the question is absolutely correct; that failure to turn our face to the shops and organize our forces there to lead the maturing class battles may spell disas- ter for the workers and for the Party. Why? Because we are no longer in a period of just preparing ourselves “generally” for the class struggle, or of strengthening our Party “generally” as the leader of the working class. This “gen- erally” is no longer in existence. We all know and’ we all speak about impending and developing big class battles of the proletariat in the United States. We all know that big battles are coming, that important struggles are breaking out in sev- éral basic industries—in mining, in’ textiles. And let us now begin to hasten our preparations for struggle in the steel industry more intensively than we ever did before. What are the dangers confronting us in the steel industry? If in the next several months we do not succeed in really putting our foot into @ number of important plants in the steel in- dustry, the danger is not merely that there will be fewer shop nuclei in the respective districts, or that we shall not have made enough progress, but that maturing struggles of the workers against the capitalist offensive will not come to fruition ang that big sections of the working class will be defeated without battle. TURING CLASS BATTLES | We are now having a strike of the miners whose main demands have not been won. We are trying to narrow down the striking front concentrating on winning some of the local struggles, But do the miners feel defeated? No. The comrades who have reported here said that the spirit of th miners is not that of defeated workers. They go back to work but they don’t break with the union, except individuals here and there. And, interesting, the Party recruit- ing campaign is still goirlg upward in Pittsburgh. This is very characteristic—of what? That the miners, although they haven’t won this particu- lar battle and their demands, they have put up a good fight, have made a successful effort to or- | ganize. The workers have seen that they can | fight, they are able to fight, but that their or- | ganizations are not yet strong enough to accom- | plish all that they set out to accomplish at this time. | In the steel industry there is the serious dan- | | ger of the workers being defeated without a fight, | if we do not increase manifold the tempo of our | shop work. We may find large blocs of steel | workers crushed down to defeat on the question | of wage cuts, remaining for a time with a feel- | ing of impotence because they couldn’t even be- gin to fight these attacks of the bosses. To be defeated without a fight is the worst thing that can happen to the workers and to the Party. Consequenly, it is in the light of these im- pending class battles, to which we owe the great- est responsibility, that the stress on Party shop nuclei, and trade union shop work must be con- sidered, The Plenum Must Have an Imme- | diate Effect } About two hundred comrades attended the last problem. How much of a force are these comrades in effecting a change in the methods of work in the Party? How well are these comrades mobilizing the Party, to bring about the turn in shop work, that the Plenum em- phasized? It is not sufficient to praise the Plenum reso- lutions. It will not do to refer to the good discussion that took place at the Plenum. The decisive question is, how we carry out in prac- tise the line of the Plenum. . The line is not something abstract, general. It embodies di- | rectives for immediate tasks. Every phase of | our work, no matter how small it is, must show | the effects of the Plenum resolutions, The Party is at work. The problem is of making our work more effective. We must not run | in a circle. The Plenum therefore raised sharp- ly the question of our methods of work, of | raising the political level of the membership. We} | must therefore in our work show “A combina- | tion of revolutionary zeal with the practical spirit which constitutes the essence of Leni- | nism.” (Stalin.) a WOMEN IN THE * By MARY BORICH. the strike of the 40,000 miners began, one of the chief tasks before the Party and the N. MU. was to involve the women into @rect strike struggle. This was not an easy task due to the fact that the miners’ wives were never organized under the UMWA. Because of this there were many obstacles in our way and quite a resistance on the part of some of the miners. Nevertheless, we were determined to earry out our revolutionary policy, to organize the women and to involve them into every phase of the strike activity. ‘The \eadership of the strike is in the hands of the local, section and central strike commit- tees, under the guidance of the N. M. U. and Party. Scores of women were elected on ‘these [No Slackening In Our Unemployed Work (>) Only by organizing the struggle for the | minutest interests of the unemployed, and | showing to the unemployed, through their own experience, how through struggle they can se- cure relief, can we enlist the mass of the unemployed around our organizations. Con- cere demands are to be formulated for all the Unemployed Committees in their sphere, In the employment agencies, the Unemployed Committees are to put forward the demands for fare and lunches when coming for em- | ployment. At thesoup kitchens the unem- | ployed should put forwayd demands for suffi- leient and good food and fight against any form of discrimination. At the lodying houses, demands are to be put forward for clean beds, | no limit on the time unemployed can stay, and | similar demands. At all the institutions, the demands for the control and administration by the unemployed themselves, must be put for- | ward. In the neighborhoods, we must demand free rent for the unemployed, free gas, elec- tricity, water, etc. The committee must put forward demands for food, fuel, milk for the children, etc. Demands must be put forward for relief to the young workers, and the set- ting up of lodging houses for the homeless young workers. Such demands must be linked up with the struggle against the terror against the unemployed, discrimination, etc. All these | demands must be elaborated, developed, and modified by the unemployed themselves on the | basis of their experience. fe) In the center of our activity among the | unemployed,’and on the basis of the struggle | for immediate relief must go the demand for | unemployed insurance, amounting to full wages and to be paid to all unemployed throughout the period of unemployment. In the meantime this demand must be made to the city, town, and state governments, The fight for unem- ployed insurance must also be organized where possible on state lines, through the center of thecampaign is the fight for federal unemploy- ment, insurance. (From the 13th Plenum Unemployment Reso- jution which appeared in full in the October issue of the Communist.) . vt aca? MINERS STRIKE committees, taking an active part in the strike struggle. The policy. of placing the women in responsible positions resulted in mass participa- tion of women in every phase of strike strug- gle. On every picket line, in every hunger march, in every kitchen, on every relief com- mittee, etc., the women, both Negro and white, took a very active part. This, however, was not sufficient. It was nec- essary to give to these women a permanent form of organization so that they may help the union in all the struggles of the miners. Therefore we set ourselves the task to organize Women’s Auxiliaries along side of every local union of the NMU. The response Of the women was | great. Both the Negro and white women en- thusiastically joined the Women’s Auxiliaries. However, in spite of the correct general line towards work among women, there was a defi- nite underestimation of organizing Women's Auxiliaries. Section organizers of the Party and the NMU, local and section strike committees, loca] unions and the Party units have neglected this work. The building of the Women’s Auxil- ijaries was left almost exclusively to the women organizers—and there were only a few of them. In some instances the women were forced to fight for hours at the local union meetings to be permitted to carry on their revolutionary duty. In other instances the women are taking a leading part in the local unions, being even officials of the locals. Even when the Women’s Auxiliaries were or- ganized, not sufficient attention has been paid to them by the union and the Party organizers. As a result, because of lack of understanding of the most elementary principles of orgapizatioh on the part of the women, some of the Auxil- jaries have ceased to function. In the recruiting campaign of the Party not sufficient attention has been paid to drawing the women into the Party. Only about 10 per cent of the new members are women. This will have to be corrected at once not only to bring the women into the Party but also in order to give a stvong Party leadership to the Women's Auxiliaries. In spite of all shortcomings and weaknesses we have laid’ a definite basis for the organiza- tion of women, The task of the Party and the NMU is to further develop and build the Wom- en’s Auxiliaries. The success of this work de- pends upon involving the women into every-day. struggles of the miners and also upon the de- velopment of special activities of the women. The immediate task in this respect, closely con- nected with the strike struggle and the unem- ployed movement of the miners, is the fight for free food, clothing, medical aid, school supplies, etc., for the school children. Tens of thousands of children are hungry, naked and barefooted, The work in this respect has already begun, Mass demonstrations of the parents and chil- dren will be organized In every mining com- munity to force the capitalist government to take care of the starving children... Wherever the government will refuse to grant children’s de- mands, school strikes will be organized. With the Party and the NMU paying sufficient. attention to the work among the women we will be able to involve them in every struggle for the improvement af miners’ conditions. Daily, “SPEAKING IN THE NAME OF PROSPERITY—” frunist Party U.S.A. ¢ -AJBSCRIPTION RAT: Foreign: one year, By maj] everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; twe months, $1; excepting Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. $8; six months, . $4.50. 'ANDHI has arrived in London. The leader of the Indian National Congress has come to take his place side by side with the Maharadjas and Zemindaris, the big money-lenders and mill-owners, side by side with all the servile and exploiting classes of India in their deliberations with British imperialism. Gandhi and his as- sociates of thé Indian National Congtess have ers in their task of safeguarding British domina- tion and of elaborating new methods for the oppression of the Indian masses. At the height of the struggle*of the Indian masses for freedom, the Indian National Con- gress made peace with the imperialist oppres- sors. The participation of the Congress in the Round Table Conference sets the final seal on the betrayal embodied in the Gandhi-Irwin- Pact. Now even the blind can see the true value of Gandhi’s doubts and hesitations. His day to day vacillation from “feeling like going” to “feeling like not going” had only one purpose in view: to deceive the masses into believing that the Congress was still the champion of. their interests, and thus to paralyze the opposi- tion of the masses to his trip to London. Bu all these elaborate maneuvers are in vain. Now that Gandhi is in London, it will be ob- vious to all that he has not_undertaken“his trip in order to serve the cause*of the national lib- eration of the Indian people. The object of his to deferd the interests of the Indian exploiting classes agtinst the onslaughts of the Indian masses through the consolidation of the British overlordship in India. The proceedings of the Round Table Confer- ence will undoubtedly provide many valuable lessons for those sincere but misguided revolu- come to join the imperialist and native exploit - participation in the Round Table Conference is | tionary elements in India who still cherish illu- | Congress sions about what the Congress will do. The Indian workers and peasants will not be slow to realize that the vague and hypocritical de- mands on their behalf which were drawn up at the Karachi Congress, were intended only to mask the cowardly capitulation of the so-called “National” leaders, ‘The heroes of the Indian revolutionary strug- gle, now undergoing torture in the medieval dungeons and prisons of India or exiled for life to the deadly Andaman Islands, will doubtless appreciate the cordial shaking of hands between the “National” representative of India and their torturers. The British imperialists, on their side, are doing and will do everything possible in order to help the Nationd? Congress. to deceive the In- | dian masses, Noble lords and representatives of the imperialist Labor Party eulogize the great- ness of Gandhi. His imperialist masters accept his eccentricities with an indulgent smile. Gandhi may even be permitted to render hom- age to his Majesty, the King-Emperor of Bri- tain and India, dressed only in a@ loin-cloth. No doubt, great concessions for a subject nation! ‘The Indian national bourgeoisie may acclaim the generous reception accorded to their repre- sentative. But what of the demand for com- plete independence, accepted by the Lahore | Congress only, two years ago? Can anyone in his senses pretend to believe that India will be granted independence by the Round Table Con- | ference, that independence can be achieved by | negotiations with the British imperialists? | ‘This the crucial question. No diplomatic | jugglery at the Round Table Conference, no new maneuvers on the part of Gandhi, can alter the plain fact that the participation of the Indian | National Congress in the Round Table Confer- ence means the open and unequivocal abandon- By TOM MYERSCOUGH A being searched no fewer than six times bewtéen nine o'clock Friday night at Neon, Ky., where we were arrested and about 4 o'clock Saturday morning on top of a big mountain near ‘Larue, Va., where we were taken from the car and again “looked over” to make sure we had no arms, Jim Grace and I were “invited” to fight by three, hedvily armed Harlan County thugs to whom we had been turned over by the thugs of Letcher County. I got to Norton, Ya. where I now write these linés over a “trail” that I am sure was never “blazéd before. I know it was not the “lonesome pine,” for I hit too many of them as I rolled and slid down the side of that steep and prob- ably the highest mountain in this part of the country. And Daniel Boone was fever over it for a tablet on a monument of some kind deco- rates every spot where he was supposed to have stopped. But down the “trail” I started with a dive over the edge as the three thugs began to “blaze” it with their guns, all the trees struck down by lightning during many storms and all the leaves of perhaps hundreds of autumns are ‘still there. I must say here that a terrible electric storm with its usual strong’ wind and exceptionally heavy downpour of rain perhaps helped more than any other one factor in my getting i and thus be able to write this description. T6o, if I hadn't’ mdde up my mind to go over the side of that mountain, I would know nothing about my obituary notice which the Daily Work- er would carry for they had their headlights shining down the road. Poor Jim Grace, I don’t know yet what has become of him. All I know is that they picked me for the first victim and after they had figured that they had either got me or would no longer be able to, there came a pause in the shooting. Then I heard many more shots but they didn’t seem to be coming in my di- rection. Must have been aimed at Jim who only: a few minutes before had said “This ain’t the road to Harlan, it’s atop the Big Mountain on the road to Appalachia. They're a fixin’ to kill us.” ‘The rain never ceased. This and the wind permitted me to keep moving down, often help- ing me to slip and fall off the crags I encoun- Kentucky's “Brave Defenders” tered and thus became the recipient of still more bruises, Daybreak found me soaked to the skin with rain and mud, my clothes by this time torn almost to shreds and did not know where in. hell I was. For several hours I was just lost that’s all, At about nine I could see a mine in the distance so I circled the moun- tain, not knowing I would find some sort of pig trail or cow path soon, Presently I heard a barking dog but that was much preferred to the “barking” I'd heard a few hours before. Now a house. T'll beheading for somewhere soon. But how little I realized where. A woman at the house, between spits of her snuff tobacco, directed me to the pike and Appalachia, but before I. got out of the woods, I was spotted, arrested again and handcuffed, this time by the Virginia coal operators “law” who had év- ery trail and road covered. There's no doubt they were informed of my being in there and as soon as~they got me they demanded to know where Grace was, mentioning» his name as well as my two names. It was not hard to convince them that I didn’t know where Jim Grace was however, and one of them remarked, “You wouldn't know if he'd been killed, would ya?” After being taken from office to office, they | noticed my bruises and took me to the doctor who informed them I had no broken bones, Then one of the “law” in those coal camps took “me to Appalachia, said he Was sorry for me, etc, and told me to “scram.” , With water still oozing out of my shoes and my clothes so wet that both th¢ coat sleeves and pants leg had raised tovhigh tide levels, I had to “scram” from there so as to avoid any vagrancy suspicions and a session ‘with the Ap- palachian “law.” I then remembered that Bruce Crawford, who had been shot by the -Harlan thugs for things he had written in his “Craw-" | ford’s Weekly” about things in Harlan, lived a short distance away in Norton, Va. So I came on here where I knew I would get help out of my raiment difficulties and I can close by say- ing that, though I find it difficult and painful to scribble this information, I’m glad I’m able to also that I'll still be able to do more for the N.M.U. and the working class generally alive, than I would otherwise, for if they would have managed to plug me over that mountain- side, they'd never have been able to find me to hold a Red funeral. Against the Capitulation ot the Indian National a “truce,” that it was not the end but merely a “Laboratories of Cincinnati, “may be charged By BURCK “ment of the demand for independence. The pur- pose of the conférence iS nothing else than the completion of the work begun by the Simon Commission. It Meets in order that British im- perialism can enlist the aid of the Indian capi- tdlists, as well as of the Princes and landlords, against the growing threat of workers’ and peasants’ revolution in India. At the time of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. the Congrass pretended that it was not “peace,” but suspension of the fight. The participation of the Congress in the Round Table Conference gives the direct lie to this pretense. As the League Against Imperialism has repeatedly em- phasized, and as was clearly formulated in the resolution of the last session of its International Executive, “the directing committee of the In- dian National Congress has become an open agent of British imperialism and of the rich landowners and capitalists, and a traitor to the cause of Indian independence to Wiel it has rendéred so much solemn lip-service.” For this culminating act of a long series of betrayals the “left” wing phrase-mongers, Jawaharlal ~Nehru and 8. C. Bose, will have to account before the Indian masses along with Gandhi and the other groups of the National Congress. \, Wherein lies the duty of all fighters against imperialism in the face of this betrayal? Our duty is above all to mobilize the masses of India, of England and other countries against the In- dian National Congress and its supporters abroad. It is necessary to expose the counter- revolutionary sabotage of the struggle for inde- pendence undertaken by Gandhi and the leader- ship of the National Congress. Demonstrations should be organized against the Round Table Conference, against Gandhi and the other Con- gress leaders. We call upon all the workers and particularly upon the masses of India to show by these demonstrations that Gandhi speaks not in the name of the Indian nation but in the name of a handful of Indian capitalists and money-lenders... Down with Gandhi and all Indian exploiters in the service of British imperialism! Down with the Indian National Congress, the enemy of India’s emancipation from the imper- ialist yoke! Long live the struggle of the Indian workers and peasants! Long -live the mass revolutionary struggle for the overthrow of imperialism and the achieve- ment of complete independence! Health Hazards in Rayon Plants (By Labor Research Assn.) RGANIZERS of workers in rayon plants such as those of Enka Viscose, Glangtoff, Beriley and other giant companies, should be fully ac- quainted noj only with the processes involved ih the manufacture of the product but also with the health and lives of the workers who make it. Most production of rayon in the United States (about 85 per cent) is by the so-called viscose and this process, according to Dr. Carey P. McCord of the Industrial Health Conservancy with thé responsibility for more disability than any other process.” He lists the principal occu- pations and the hazards affecting them, a few of which are summarized in the following table: Name of Occupation Chief Hazard acid worker acid burns, fumes capillary inspector wetness, skin affections churn operator carbon disulphide fumes .and explosions coagulating bathmaker acid burns and fumes drier heat drying machine oper- heat ator wetness filterer wetness, skin affections mercerizer from alkali explosions, carbon dis- mixer ulphite fumes fumes spinner fumes , spinnerette cleaner heat, wetness, chlorine washer and bleacher fumes Some of the actual hazards in particular eet Can You Beat It? We were busy yesterday training the crocodile just when, and when not, to bite, and the phone rang. “Hello,” said a voice over the wire. “This is the Trade Union Unity Council of Greater New York. Will you do us a favor, Jorge?” We kicked the crocodile under the desk and gave @ diplomatic answer: “What d’ye want?” “Well, you know we're running a big ball at Rockland Palace Saturday night, 155th St. and 8th Ave. A lot depends on it. It’s got to bea success, If not, our trade union mass revolu- tionary work will suffer. We won't make that decisive turn to the shops. Can't you give us a write up in-the column?” ‘We demurred at writing advertisements. But the decisive turn was already begun on the concentration point of Red Sparks, and the necessity of self-criticism hove into sight: “Let's get around that, Jorge. We'll bring you over some, errors we have made, some weak- pri eiciae alot of ’em. So, then, you can ec us and lin! foie sae ik up the ball_at Rockland We were 80 kerflumixed at this offer to s self-criticism for column space that we prick ' to thank the T. U. U. L. genius for the offer before hanging up, promptly yanking the croco- dile out fromi under the desk, posting it at the door and instructing the varmint: “When you see an out-worn method of work coming in, labeled T.U.U.C—hite, durn you!” eet aaa Bing—Also Bang A. B. Bing, an insurance agent with offices at 41 Park Row did the dutch last Monday, and the Times tells us: “Dr. Miles, who established the death ‘as suicidal, said there was no money in the pickets. “Mr. Bing had/suffered nancial reverses.” ‘The editor of the magazine called “Fortune,” which told everybody how to get rich, jumped out of a window recently for like reasons as Mr. Bing. Denis Steiner, for twenty years manager of the Electro-Chemical Corporation shot himself Monday “over .financial reverses,” says thé Times, in a story alongside that of Mr. Bing, while on another page we read that in Phila- delphia William. E. Caveny, director and counsel for a bank that busted Monday, shuffled off his ynortal coil_in his garage the same day that Mr. Bing banged, All of which led a comrade to write us: “We should concern ourselves with suicides of workers, but the capitalist press does not bother reporting them any more, there are so many capitalists committing suicide. “The: old--capitalist system just aint what it used to be. It’s getting too tough for some of its own patriots and stand-patters, “For reports of workers dying, if one takes a walk around Houston Street, East Third or East Fourth.near the river, workers dying of starvation are.a.daily sight. A friend who lives down there says: ‘They drop like flies.’ But it’s not ‘news’ for the capitalist press and they don’t report it—E. D.” Now, workers, don’t you ever, ever committ suicide! That’s just what the capitalists would like you to do, rather than see you fight along with your class for life. Let the capitalists kill themselves. But don't take after them! See what can be won by class struggle! Look at the triumph of the working class in Soviet Russia! ~ Join us, fight to live! Fight for fod, with the whole working class! Join the struggle where there is hope, well founded hope of a better life through the strug- gle that we assure you will be victorious! “Socialist”? Ways and Means Out in siimny California, in the city of Pasa- dena, pink handbills were passed around recently notifying one- and all that a mass meeting on UNEMPLOYMENT would take place on Satur- day, September 19, in “Gold Shell” park. It was a shell game, all right. The circular said the meeting-was under the auspices of a long list of “citizens of Pasadena”, among whom glist- ened the,name of the mayor, Monsignor McCar- thy, numerous doctors and notables, and the reader was informed that it was his “civic ard patriotic” duty to attend. Further, fhe meeting was to “discuss ways and means of solving the serious situation”; to wit, UNEMPLOYMENT. And a professgr was going to speak. Hot stuff! _ But, says a reader, “The ways and means dis- cussed came-out to be an appeal to vote for the ‘socialist’ party!” But that only makes the more interesting the part of the leaflet, which spoke of: “...,.this serious: situation confronting the rich and poor alike.” Well, we admit that the rich are pretty much unemployed.’ But that the situation confronts them “alike”? However, THAT is the kind of anti-worker applesauce put out by the fake “so- cialists”, and not only in Pasadena, eee. plants, especially those’ resulting from hydrozen sulphide and‘ carbon bisulphide are given in the report of Dr, McCord: . “An instance is cited when 79 patients suf- fering; front’ conjunctival inflammation were under’ treatment. They complained of darting pains in the’eyes, a feeling of sand, photophobia, tears, halo and rings around lights. The eyes were réd, the lids swollen, the follicle velvetlike - and conspicuous.” k “The solvent—carbon bisulphide—is so poison- ous that it has been practically discarded in the © rubber industry, but it is still used for treating alkali cellulose in the churn room of artificial silk factories’: The workman is compelled at the end of the process to put his head into the churn to remove the orange-colored sticky mass, and so is exposed to fumes of carbon bisulphide. Further trouble, including sharp pain, photo- phobia, and conjunctivitis, 1s claimed to be set up by traces of stilpheretted hydrogen generated at the spinfing troughs. . . .” It is pointedsout also by this authority on in- dustrial health in the rayon manufacturing pro- cess, “Many steps are carried out at high tem- peraturés, thus ititroducing the danger of, burns, as well as the systemic effects of high tem~ peratures. .In. the same manner, wetness pro- vides opportunities for falls, as well as the con-, stitutional harms of excessive moisture.” All of these dangers to health should be stressed in..campaigning among these textile workers for social insurance legislation. ' } j } j } i | ' ee , }