The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 3, 1931, Page 5

IN TWO SECTIONS (SECTION TWO) > {Section of the Communist International) NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1931. AMNESTY FOR CLASS WAR PRISONERS We Must By EARL BROWDER Why do we have this organiza- tion, the International Labor De- fense (1.1.D.)? Certainly it is not because we like this particular com- bination of letters, or because we want “another” organization. But certain tasks must be done — and tasks can be accomplished system- ftically only by organization, very week, as the crisis deepens, as _ new hundreds of thousands of workers are thrown onto the streets, @s wage cuts for millions go into effect—the result is that the class struggle grows sharper. And that means, that every week hundreds of our comrades, leading the strug- gies of the workers, come into con- flict with the capitalist government. They are thrown into jail. Work- rs on the outside do not desert them, however, but rally the masses for struggle for their release. The defense of our prisoners of the class war is everybody's busi- sat what is only “everybody's bus.ness is nobody's business.” It is necessary that not only do we mo- bilize ali workers in the struggle, to defend our prisoners, but also that this support be ORGANIZED, that it haye a head and hands to work with. ‘.ue International Labor Defense ers’ efforts for defense. It is noth- ing more nor less than the work- ers coming together to defend their own fellow-workers who have falien into the hands of the class enemy. The LL.D. must have a large body of workers supporting its members of its branches and coniributors to its funds. That is the body, with- out which the head and hands of the organization cannot do any work. The body gives all the strength. A head cut off from the ody is a useless thing. Or a head with a very weak body is not of much use in the struggle. ‘There- fore, if we want really to defend our prisoners, we must build up the LL.D. into a really mass organiza- tion, and make it strong. With such a strong body of mem- bership, then the head and hands ef the LL.D., its headquarters and its few paid workers in the offices, will really be able to do effective work in the multitude of tasks, And the headquarters will be able to give directions to the mass activities, in meetings, in demonstrations, and so forth,-that will powerfully help to bring our comrades out. of the jails. And the tasks to be done- are enormous. In every city, arrests of workers for activities in the class struggle are of daily occurrence, In New York and Chicago they total _ - hundreds every week, - Then there - pte the big cases, Of truly national _. pnd ‘international importance +the » ‘Scottsboro case, the Imperial Valley case, the Mooney case, the Ken- tucky miners’ case, and the scores oe ~ oe Build the International Labor Defense / & —y work. That is because its mass membership, its body, has not grown fast enough, not so fast as the tasks. of cases of miners in Pennsylvania, | aggregate, but small amounts when | Ohio and West Virginia. peat out over all the thousands of All these cases are fights, battles.| workers who should be interested They require mass mobilization of | in supporting them. the workers; they demand lezal| Today the ILD. is carrying on preparations for the fights in the } sO Many cases, the need for the I. courts. All of these aciivities cos! L. D. is growing so fast, that it is money, large sums of money in the having great difficulties tod o all its RECOGNIZE YOUR CLASS ENEMIES to be weakened. Now more than ever we must defend our prisoners. And we must make this defense a “Mooney-Harlan-Seottsboro” —— Its Meaning workers continues, while the frame- The three words “Mooney-Har- | UP trials for murder is forcing more lan-Scotisboro” carry an appeal! than 30 of labor's best fighters in that should awaken and arouse | Kentucky closer and closer to the ae chair. Governor Clem D. . By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL Company that is mighty in Ken- of his own frgm Detroit down into Kentucky to exploit these coal ers’ cry for bread. Scottsboro, scene | the state. dollar of the attempted judicial lynching Rockefeller-Melion-Ford als y Go ame in- of the nine Negro boys, a planned| Call the roli of the great inter- wholesale murder intended to ter- | ests that control the coal mines in Recognize Your Enemies! Torize all the millions of the op-| amd around Harlan County, Ken-| There is hardly a worker in the pressed Negro masses into meekly | tucky, and you have the names Of | iand who should fail to see in the accepting an ever-worsening slay- | the richest parasites and the most | robber of his own pay envelope the ery in industry and on the land, | Powerful monopolies in the land.| enemies of ‘Tom Mooney, of the Either one of these persecutions |The names of Rockefeller, Mellon | tarian coal miners, of the nine should be sufficient to call labor to| and Ford are there, reputed to be} Scottsboro Negro boys. It is these action, All three should stir a|the three richest men in earth.| same interests that today seck to storm of wrath. When ail three,| There is Rockefeller’s Consolidated) put through new wage cuts bul- however, are closely linked with all other savage boss class attacks on the working class, the 1,200 arrests in the Pennsylvania-Ohio-West warked with new, ever-more savage attacks against the working class. _The Mooney-Harlan-Scottshoro Campaign is the building of our re- But we cannot allow our defense tucky. Henry Ford built a railroad part of our mass mobilization’ of struggle against the whole capital- ist systern which oppresses the workers, That means that we must build the 1L.D. We must take it really seriously. We must build it in a practical way. That means that we must organize new branches, bring in new members, broaden the circulation of its paper, the Labor Defender, and its appeals. We must develop new leaders for its work. The LL.D. must grow and beeome stronger in every way. Tens of thousands of workers are interested in the work of the I. L. D,. ‘They are willing and anxious to join it and help in the work. But we have failed systematically to in- vite these workers into this collec- tive work. Let us immediately set about to strengthen this weak point in our battle front. To the masses, to the workers in their shops,, streets and homes, with the fighting defense or- ganization of the workers, the In- ternational Labor Defense. A HARLAN MINER SPEAKS— By WILLIAM DUNCAN (A Harlan Coal Miner, Charged with Criminal Syndicalism, and Now Out On Bail) First I want te give the reader a little geographic sketch of Har- lan County, the center of the coal mining done in Kentucky. It is located in the Cumberland Moun- tains, which is the headwaters of the Cumberland river. There are three principal forks of this. river that averages about 30 miles in Virginia coal fields; endless deport- ations, and other vicious attacks on the foreign-born; cold-blooded murder of the unemployed in the streets as on Chicago's south side; bloody warfare against the workers of other countries under the regime of the Wall Street dollar, then the hurricane of rage of. the workers against the oppressing class should mount to strength as yet unknown. Stir The Tens of Millions The International Labor Defense declares frankly that the Mooney- Harlan-Scottsboro Campaign moves forward and grows very slowly. In the very moment when pres- sure should be. increasing daily upon California’s governor for the release of Tom Mooney and sthe other class war victims, McNamara and Schmidt, Billings, Merritt, the Imperial Valley prisoners, this poli- tical henchman of the powers that prey on labor, Governor Rolph, ap- points the notorious prosecutor,. Fickert, of -Mooney..and Billings to a lucrative’ staté political job. He dares to do this) oply “because: our protest is not suffiéiently strong: In Harlan, Kentucky, the shoot- ings, kidnappings, imprisoning of . Pd length. These forks are named Martin’s Fork, Clover Fork and Pore Fork. These forks have many mining camps, which several of the largest Companies in the country own. Harlan town is located “at the junction of these forks in a small narrow valley. The mountains of this section are very high steep and rough; and have three to four seams of coal in each mountain, and quite a bit of timber yet. The only resource in this part of the country is coal mining. ‘The Louis- ville and Nashville Railroad runs thru here. ‘The only railroad. The courthouse” with the jeil combined is the lar¥est building in the town of Harlan — and always open to the miners. Some years ago when this part of the country was in a more primitive state, when the natives of this country knew sistance, the organization of the counter-offensive of the whole class. It is on this basis that the demonstrations now being carried through must develop into ‘| mighty mass outpourings into the streets of great throngs of workers not yet drawn into the struggle. The Mooney - Harlan - Scottsboro United Front Conferences. must everywhere become the broadest possible expression of organized protest to develop this whole move- ment to hitherto unregistered strength, linking it up with the struggle against wage cuts and for unempleyment relief. he International Labor Defense calls all labor to throw powerful forces onto thedefense front, to shelp free Tom Mooney and all the other class war prisoners; to com- bat lynchings and deportations, the Harlan, Kentucky 1—Joe Moore 2.—Jeff Baldwin 3.—Carl Richmond : Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Vir- ginia Coal Strike 1—Pete Zigaric 2.—W. Simons 3.—Mike Philipovich Camp Hill, Alabama 1—Ralph Gray FOUR MISSING Chicago ete 1—Abe steep Weapons against the Negro and the | nothing about the value of coal, 3—Thomas Page foreign-born masses; to struggle|inose companies took advantage of ‘Their families. must bé saved | {oF the right to strike, to orgavize | wis) and bought and .Jegstd | and from starvation! | Rush coritribu- | |-2f Speech, press aad asscmblage, of | faked the old settlers oubef their self-defense. .No worker can sti outside’ this giant effort. Every worker must join in and become an active part of it. land and coal Tights St. small ‘ions to Prisoneds’, Relief Fund, figure. When they came in pokses- 30 East llth Street, Room 430, N. Y. City. (CONTINUED ON PAGE. THREE)