The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 3, 1931, Page 7

DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1931 ! e Workers By GEORGE MAURER The increase in terror in various forms against the working class, especially against all militants, is to be expected in this period of rapid development of boss offensive and workers’ resistance and coun- ter-offensive. The organization of “the mass presure of thé worker-mil= lions is necessary to meet and hold back the'boss-terror, to felease and save workers from prisons, to stop lynching, deportations, etc. The I. “L. D..is assigned to give the lead- ership in this task, as the partieu- lar class-struggle organization re- sponsible. The working class together with the LL.D. must fully understand the policy and organizatiqnal line that needs to be carried on“in or- - der to hold back the terror and per- secutions. It is essential for us to— 1a) Have a clear and well under- stood militant class struggle defense policy. (o) Grasp the need of a mass de- fense and prisoners’ aid organiza- tion based on active defense work- ers, mainly individual placate of the LL.D. ‘c) Understand the role of LL.D. as an independent organization, with which, however, the other elass struggle organizations must share the tasks. ~@ joint participation and establish proper relationship between the co- operating organizations and the TID. »» Clear up misunderstandings as .o the obligations of the I.L.D., and put a stop to wrong ‘iegalistic, ete.) practises inherited from the pac. ' In line with the above, plan anu make use of new metMods as ainst old, ineffective methods. 1 recent months the I.L.D. and the other organizations which have been invol od in defense issues and problems have learned much, have been forced to learn and adapt themselves to the new situation and needs. We have also the valuable experiences in other countries to be guided by. Five months ago the ILD. attempted to popularize its so-called “new policy”—For a Class Struggle Defense Policy (June La- ‘bor Defender). The Communist Party, too, issued a Defense Policy resolution for the guidance of its members and workers generally. But only a_beginning was made. Suc- cessful application was achieved in some places, such as Massachusetts (textile strike), Oregon (syndicalism cases), Ohio (Kassay and Barberton Work out the methods of ; Learn Militant Class-Struggle Defense Policy! eases), in the Penn.-Ohio Miners’ strike (with more difficulty), of course in the Scottsboro case, etc. The trouble was mainly, that the matter was approached at first too abstractly, as theory, not aided by example or linked »with current struggles sufficiently. Nevertheless, we earn in the heat of the strug-' gles and are pushing ahead. , <¢ tFrom the: policy «resolution we: read: (a) “The mere legal, defense jin-court is basically wrong and also hinders the building of the I. L. D. |into a mass organization. This ptac- tise is a remnant of petit-bour- geois illusions, creating the idea | that it is possible to get “justice” in the capitalist courts through le- gal maneuvers by some capitalist lawyer — we forget that against HOW THE By G. ACKERMAN Over six years ago the workers in the United States found it ne- cessary to organize a working class class struggle, uniting the masses of workers on a non-partisan basis of internationai solidarity for pris- 'oners aid and defense. Thus the International Labor Defense was organized June 1925 The weakest point of the LL.D. is our organizational “work. The po- litical and educational life of the IL.D. membership is not what it should be. The I.L.D. has great influence amongst the toiling mas- ses, but this influence we have thus far failed to crystalize organiza- | tionally. The number of members in our organization does by far not correspond to our influence among the masses. Besides this, it hap- pens that as a consequence of agit- ational and educational shortcom- ings along with organizational mis- takes, great fluctuation in member- ship takes place. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to pay much greater attention to the organiza- tional and educational questions. A correct program is primarily, of course, that of building the LL.D. into a broad mass organization — but a correct program and a gen- eral propaganda of this need among the masses is not sufficient to give a permanent character to the influence already won. There- fore, it is vitally important to carry on 2 correct organizational pro- gram and defense policy and sys- Detend the Foreign- Born By T. N, CARLSON The millions of foreign born in Mthe U.S.A. are the ones who are facing today the most brutal ter- ror, mass arrests, deportations, etc. .The bosses are using very cleverly their method of dividing the dif- ferent sections of the working class. _ Language and nationality plays a _very important role in persecution of the foreign born. The bosses are still using the slogan that there is no work for the Aerican workers because of too many foreigners. And at the same time the most backward workers does not under- stand as yet that they must unite in’ the class struggle regardless of the nationality, race or color. The bosses are concentrating their attack on the most advanced and class conscious section of the foveign born workers, who have been active in the class struggles. Persecution of ta foreign born is taking ever more b-utal forms. . De- portations are increasing very rap- idjy. The ecppressive laws against foveig¢n born workers have been adepted in many states and the bac cet government*is carrying on A "Saglisteto. Boy Writes: Monigomery Ala. Mr. George Matrer: | My dear friend, I thought ¥ weuld write you a few lines te let you hear from me. I am well | and bope when these lines reach | -you, they will find you the same. > Tam asking you to send us some money and if yeu send it please vsend cash. It takes two weeks ‘| Before werean get it. We are out srfloking. and no money. So /E will clocé“for this time. From Olen Montgomery Kilby Prison. the vicious atiack on the foreigners (Fish committee, etc.), What shall the workers do under these conditions? Are we going to accept the bosses atiack without any resistance? Not by any means. We must put up a strong. fight against the arrests and deporta- tions. We must unite in the strug- gle in order to defend the rights of the workers. We must demand that not a single foreign born worker be deported, and all of these who are waiting their deport- ation must be rel2ased immediately and unconditionaily. The International Labor Defense is fighting splendidly against the deportations and has succeeded in many cases to stop the deporta- tions. However, it is important that our struggle for the defense must receive much more support fromthe large masses of the for- eign born workers. We must bear in mind that unless we are able to put up a sirong resistanee, the bosses are going to increase their persecution to an unlimited extent. It is up .to us to defend our rights, and organize ourselves for the struggles. # We 'must_activize our, language branches of the International Labor Defense. More new members must be recruited» among the fore born workers, new branches, house and block committees established. With the good efforts we will be able to bring thotsands of new workers to help ovr work and hit back the aitack of the bosses, which has been concentrated on the rad- ical elements of the foreign born. Only when united we are strong. | |AVithout the organization we are weak, Let us build the: Intérna- ional Labor Defense*a ‘strong mass organization which is abie to fighi against deportations and persecu- tion of the foreign born workers. defense organization, based on the: ali tegai procedures which help eep ) be made to get out of capitalist se- {By this method we can prevent the capitalist crooks out of jail, the rul- | ing class has hundreds of other. rea- sons to keep militant workers in jail. The only correct policy in the organization of mass protest and mass defense around the par- tionlar issue out of which the ar- rest: resulted — the only thing that will save and free the nine’ Negro boys ‘framed ‘in Scottsboro will “be the. mass protest and united front organized by the LL:D. and League | of Struggle for Negro Rights.” Legal Defense Not Ali “The legal defense in court of class struggle victims of capitalist justice is merely one phase of the defense and not even the most im- portant one. We enter this phase of | defense first because efforts must LL De WILL tematic, ~planned - organizationa: work, in order to fully utilize our influence. This means to give political life to the branches—have regular ed- ucational work and _ discussions, classes for functionayies and the activists, training classes, etc. How Are We To Build The LL.D. Into A Broad Mass Organization * We know that many workefs join the LL.D., wamet to be members of the organizaion, but do not find the meetings interesting or find time to come to meetings regularly; busy in other organizations, work- ing iate, too tired to come to meet- ings, etc. In order not to lose but rather to activize these members we propose the branches be organiza- tions on a group system with Mem- bership Captains on the following basis: more than 50 members. b) Each Branch should be divided into groups, each group composed of no more than 10 members, with a Membership Captain. c) ‘The Membership Captain is to visit each member assigned to him or her at least once’ a month for the purpose of collecting dues, per- suading members to take part in campaigns, etc. At the same time. the Membership Captain should have-the Labor Defender and all other LL.D. literature and leaflets to bell to the member and give to him to sell among his fellow work- ers, thus familiarizing the members with defense issues and I.L.D. cam- a) The Membership Captain visit these members in the shops, at the Workers’ Center, where the mem- bers of the LL.D. gather, or at their homes. e) Each Branch is to meet once @ month where the executive com- mittee is to report on its proposals and follow with an educational dis- cussion. The Executive Committee is to see to it that each branch meetings has political and some so- cial life, thereby making it inter- esting for the members to come. Our Work In The Trade Unions And Fraternal Organizations The I. L. D. is an organization composed of individual members and affiliated organizations. A leading comrade recently said: “De- fense work is not the task of the LL.D. only, but the work fo all or- ganizations, under the leadership of the I.L.D.” In the resolution of the National Executive Committee of the LL.D. (printed in the June is- _. “RICHARD B. MOORE * (Head of Negro Dept., i. LD.) An important article by him, “The war in a subsequtnt issuc. a) Each Branch should have no} | ten, and second, to teach the work- of this ‘justice’ by the courts that it is capitalist justice. mus; emphasize that to achieve both these aims mass Hfobilization ity Hor the quantity of legal points that ‘will free: the accused wo: | While: we must utilize all p: of procedure in capit tics," we must not sacrifice | struggie issue involved in the particular defense case for the isake of the best capitalist iawyer who knows ali the tricks of capital- ist court procedure. It is therefore advisable in many cases that the |aceused. workers defend themselves. BE BUILT ue of Labor. Defense). we say: snception and practice, that some sroups Of workers are organized nto organizations doing the fight- ng and another group of workers | is organized into an organization | which defends the workers from capitalist justice, must be funda- mentally changed.” Each affiliated organization is to have an I.L.D. group, involved di- rectly in defense work. A member of this group is to be a represent- ative of his organization, or the group, report to the group on the IL.D. campaigns and this group is to bring forth to their organization of all defense issues and_I. L. D. campaigns. There are many organizati such as A.F. of L. locals, Amal | mated locals, and other inde ent unions which are not affi to the LL.D. due to the anti-w £s policy of their reactionary officials. In these organizations the members of the LL.D. are to act as @ gr within the organization and bring forth there to the mem- ga d- ai tion against the militant working- class and the campaigns carried on by the I.L.D. against this terror, such as the Mooney-Harlan-Scotts- bore eampaign, Imperial Valley, etc. etc., thereby getting the workers in such organizations to join the LL. D. and the organization to affi- liate. The time is at hand when the most serious attention musi given to buiiding the IL.L.D. into a] great mass organization! ers in the course of the dispensing | Hefe also we | is indispensable. It isnot the qual- | bers ‘the boss-terror and persecu- | be | called ‘justice’ whatever can be got- | drowning of the class issues in legal | technicalities and bring out clearly the politieal character of the perse- | cution.” To this we must add that while | form where there were individ- | ual s of tens and even hun- dreds | cou legal help and defenge in éould be given—today, when | arrésts run into hundreds and’ even | thousands daily, this is not. always Leesan The LL.D. will shortly is- & a pamphiet on “How a Worker Should Defend Himself in Court.” }It includes sections on What to Do | When Arrested and Questioned | We cannot tell the workers: “You |go and fight and the IL.D. will | Keep you out of jail.” But we can |tell the workers: “You fight for | your demands and we will help you | and provide as far as possible for your dependants, and will carry on the struggle for your release if you fall victim to capitalist class jus- tice.” We can not keep all work- ers out of jail because of the very ‘mature of the capitalist system, but q {raised by the lawyer of the LL.D. we can and must support the mili- tant fighters in jail and their de- pendenis outside. We conclude therefore that the relief jor worker victims of capi- alist just ice and the relief for the ieee ndents of such victims must be a first charge in the activities and finances of the LL.D. Under (b) every one must see that “gigantic pressure” (Mooney) and a mass protest movement as now Call- ed for in Mooney-Harlan-Scotts- boro Carxaign must have -as its backbone a special mass member- iship organization which concen- irates on building such a million- voiced vnited front movement. Under (ec) we read from thé reso- lution: “Not only the LL.D. must carry on the defense activities, but "jal working class organizations and especially the organization carry- ing on the activity out of which the arresi grew, must take part in unit- ed front mass activities under the leadership and guidance of I.L.D. for the release of the class struggle | Victims.” And “The conception and | practise that one group of workers is organized to do the fighting and another group is in an organization which defends the workers from capitalist class justice, must be fun- damentally changed.” All class struggle organizations | agree that the I.L.D. must not be treated as a department of another organization. | {A second article will follow in a subsequent issue) A Harlan Miner Speaks (CUNTIA CED FROM PAGE ONES sion of this lawd and coal they also came in possegsion of the law, which they have been using for and to their. own personal interest ever since. In many cases where the companies have the coal leased they are hogging the coal like this. They will work out the lowest seam in the mountain because this seam is easy to get at. This gives them a better chance to pile up more profits. But what else does this do? This breaks up the mountain above this seam. The mountain crumbles in and leaves it in a state that it can never be mined under no circumstances. In many cases in Kentucky there are millions of ‘dollars worth of coal that is left, hat will never be of any value to “ny one. These are things that “any people do not see except the “cactical miner. It shows the ter- ible waste of the boss-class. The program of the operators of ‘his coai field at the present is to drive the miners to work under a tarvation wage scale and in order >, support this policy they are making a great use of the law yich they own and control. They always manage to buy the -octions and keep the man in of- fico that they want. They hire their gunmen and appoint them deputy sheriffs and pay these men big salaries to terrorize the miners and their families by beating them up and shooting down and jailing “nem. In this .way they down the National Miners Union and the result is there has been 12 | e'to- break 4 naa pallets mb a peta or 15 men shot-and killed. Several have been wounded and hundreds have been jailed. Thirty-five fac- ing murder charges. Thousands are starving and already the operators have spent enough money in supporting this brutal proposition to have paid the miners a decent wage scale and gave them decent working conditions for five years in Harlan County. Lynch.Law At Work From 1885 to 1927, according to figures published in the World Almanac, 3.326 Negroes were lynched in the United States. During the same period 1,407 white persons were lynched in the United States. From 1885 to 1889 Negro lynchings ranged from 71 to 95 per year. In 1891, 121 Negroes were lynched. From 1891 until 1895 Negro lynchings ranged from 112-0 155. During 1927, 2% men _ were lynched—three of them burned to death. During 30 years between 1689 and 1918 the North reported 218 lynchings, the South, 2,834, and { the West, 156. Georgia leads t!1- list of states with 386 lynchings; followed by Mississippi with 373; Texas with 335; Louisiana with 313; Alabama with 276; Arkansas with 214; . Tennessee with 296; Florida with 178, and Kentucky with 169. Lynchings in 1930), jumped to 43. Whenever there’ is jhazd_ times, unemployment -£ ? tynthings increase under insti- gation of the boss-class. Halt lynchings! ,