The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 8, 1931, Page 4

Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc., daily except Sunday, at 50 East SURSCRIPTION RATES: Page Four York City, N. Y. elephone ALgonauin 6. Cable “DAIWOR By mal] everywhere: One year,*$6; six. months, $3: twe months, $1: excepting Boroughs = ail all checks to the Daily Worker, 50 Hast 13th Street, New York, N. Y/ of Manhatian and Bronx, New York City. Foreign: one year, $8; six months, $4.50, ; By BURCK = ASSASSINATED!; On the Carrying Out of the 13th Plenum Decisions SOME PROBLEMS IN OU By JACK STACHEL HE 1 t t time, just like in T all Pi lop the daily gles, es among employ is can be achieved overcoml nderestimation of organiz: and the bad, burocratic methods of As to the methods of leadership of the Party in unemployed work and unemployed organiza- buro- tions gene These are really most cratic met We a of the Party nucleus who comes and hands down de- isions from The wor! top. but are told to do do not .séem to-them reasonable o ca i and direction, in- g forward in nployed workers and g cadres in the var- ods, to carry on the unemployed. work. Without this attention, without overcoming the bureaucratic methods, without building up these ca , we will not be able to overcome our weaknesses and set the unemployed organ- izations on a s permanent basis. On the basis of our experiences, as well*as on the basis of the expe: es and work of the in- ternational movement in work among the unem- ployed, we have to come to the conclusion that we have been too rigid in our conceptions of erganization of the unemployed, and that this almost equalled the conception of professional unions of the unemployed. This is not correct. Experience itself has shown that in our work. ‘We must begin, instead of forming unemployed unions, to form organization among the unem- ployed. Such organizations that will be able to carry on day-to-day work, will be able to lead it and direct the mass of the unemployed around it for carrying on the work. For this purpose it is necessary to set up committees on the var- ious phases of the work. In the United States where employment agen- cies do not play the same role as in European countries, our unemployed work will be mainly in working class neighborhoods. This does not mean that we cannot at the same time work with employment agencies, soup kitchens, flop houses, etc. But the essential work. will be in the neig&borhoods. There we must call meetings at which all workers will be present, irrespec- tive of the trade union membership or political affiliations—no matter which of the capitalist parties they belong to, etc. These workers must elect committees to carry on the work in their neighborhood. These committees in turn, elected at the various neighborhoods and at the agen- cies, at the flop houses, at the soup kitchens in that neighborhood, will elect in turn a leading body, a council for that entire territory, in all phases and manifestations. These city councils must really become lead- ing bodies, werking not only at the top through their own narrow circle, but throughout their entire territory. The united front must be the central point in our organizational forms. This means that the organization must be broad enough to enable all the workers to come in and feel this is a place for them, irrespective of what their political opinions or trade union affiliations are. t UNEMPLOYED WORK In connection with the TUUL we cannot com- plain that the TUUL has given too much guid- ance. On the contrary, it has not given enough. But at the same time we must not view the question from the viewpoint of formal affilia- tions, but from the viewpoint of our support, of our understanding and knowledge, of our guid- ance through past activity, from the viewpoint of adherents of the TUUL and revolutionary op- positions in the old unions. We must learn to lead the unions, not with a strong hand, mechanically, but through work and political guidance. | In this way we will be able yto establish a united front of the unemployed workers and build mass organizations. Without this our or- ganization will be very narrow. This does not mean that we must slacken down in recruiting unemployed workers into our unions. On the contrary, we have not yet begun to recruit these unemployed workers into the revolutionary unions. (From Comrade Stachel’s repart on unem- ployment at the last Plenum.) UNMASKING SOCIAL DEMAGOGY The reactionary leadership of the American Federation of Labor fully supports the Hoover prograth and the program of the Republican Party. It stands opposed to unemployment in- |Surance. It is in favor of the Hoover stagger | plan, and the permanent lowering of the living | standards of the workers. The A. F. of L. sup- | |,ports the Hoover program of «war preparations |and battleships under the guise of a public | works program. The socialist party program is the same as that of the democratic party and republican progressives. It supports the Hoover | | |program of the stagger plan under the gifist | | of the shorter work day. It fights against a genuine unemployment insurance by supporting | an unemployment insurance bill which limits | | the payments to a few weeks in the year, keeps the workers down to the starvation level, dis- | | criminates against large numbers of the un- | | employed, and contributions to be made by the workers as well as the entire administration to |be in the hands of the bosses government, The Muisteites stand on the same platform as the| | socialist party. i| ig It is necessary to unmask all these proposals | of the republican, democratic and socialist par- | ties, and the A. F. of L., and all kinds of pro: gressives. This can only be achieved by un- | masking the politicians, and bosses’ agents, on the basis of concrete facts ahd thrdugh the or- ganization of the masses for struggle for our | demands ‘for immediate relief and uneniploy- ment insurance.” It is necessary to show the! | difference between our proposals for unemploy- | | |ment insurance, for all workers, amounting to | full wages, and to be administered by the work- ers, as against all the fake proposals. We must prove to ¢he workers, through their experience in struggle, that only through mass struggles can they force the enactment of a genuine un- employment insurance bill, and other conces- sions.—From Plenum’ Unemployment Resolu- tion, published in full"in October 11 “Commu- nist.” The Tactics ot Class Against Class By B. D. MANUILSKY tm When .deciding on the approach to the solu- tion of this task, we must take into considera- tion a number of auxiliary circumstances: the strengiii cf our Party, the extent of its influences, the strength of the reformist trade unions and the degree to which the masses have moved to the “Left” the role of element of spontaneity in the movement, ete. From, weak Communist Parties, e. g. the British, which are confronted by great trade unions, etc. If such preliminary work is carried on, the strike committees and the committees of action will be able to rely. on & broad mass base. A successful struggle against the Social Democrats amidst conditions of a growing revolutionary upsurge requires that the Communists in weak Parties shall carry on the most active work among the Social Democrats, forming opposition groups among them so that the group will split from the Social Democrats and come over to the ranks of the Communist Party. The Communists under present condi- tions must become active factors in the process of the incipient disintegration of Social Demo- tracy; they must not hope for the spontaneous Alevelopment of these processes. They must fight by a strong and active policy against the ten-» ‘dencies to form a “left wing” inside Social Democracy, which would simply be a barrier separating the revolutionary workers from the path to the Communist Party. Against Over Simplification Thirdly the class against class tactics; cannot he based on the assumption that all other classes form one comnlete reactionary mass without any difference or shades. Some/ Communists completely identify Social Fascism with Fascism. Other identif the Soctal Democratic workers with their leaders in the apparatus, the Social The uneven development of the crisis and ot the revolutionary upsurge demands from each Communist Party, in preparing for mass ac- tions, the concrete application of such forms ot the United Front from below as will create op- portunities for drawing into the struggles, the broad masses of working men and working women, the unemployed, the working class youth office eniployees and other semi-prole-| | This, simultaneously with the | ion of the general situation, calls | teric’ strate. | careful ev | the varicus ¢ Teonemic strikes, short proie: tionary demonstrations, mess political strikes, | ete, This calls for a determined struggle against | | the Right Danger, against every manifestation of opportunism, of dragging at the tail, pass- | rity and sectartanism.—From the 11th Plenum | Resolution of the Communist International. | | | Democracy and a refusal to work for winning } |i All the experience of the international Social Democratic bureaucrats who are in, the service/ of capital and its state. For example, one of the Plenums of the Norwegian Central Committee | stated: | “The Labor -Party is the leading Party of capitalism, not only from a political point of t view but from the point of view of its social | composition.” | Such a tactical line is“ wrong and only leads to a complete separation from the Social Demo- | cratic working-class. At the same time if reveals ; @ sectarian attitude towards the non-Party working-masses. This is the line of, despair, passivity, a product of the stabilization period, and has nothing in common with Leninism. It is one of the causes why exposure of Social Democracy by Communists ‘does not bring about the required effect on the masses who support it. The masses instinctively feels the super- simplification of this line which does not cor- | respond to reality. It is not true to say that | there is not internal friction among the bour- geois classes (including the Social Democrats as a bourgeois party in its policy). The very rise of fascism is due. to the friction that does exist as one of the elements of the maturing crisis on the upper ranks, The buorgeois classes and their Parties are united only on the question of fighting the working-class or the ‘movement of | the toiling masses in general. To think that reaction is united all along the line, from the financial oligarchy down to the Social Demo- cratic worker, in reality, means accepting the | theory of “organized capitalism” which can be overcome in all its internal contradictions. |This | would not be applying the class-ageinst-class | tedtics, but the tactics of isolating the Com- | munists from the working-class. The practical | harmfulness from this line is that it signifies a rejection of the genuine exposure of Social over the Social Democratic workers. Fourthly, the class-against-class tactics is di- rected against the theory of “the lesser evil,” by means of which, by playing on the “spectre of reaction,” Social Democracy deceives the masses. From day to day the social Democrats assure the workers that they are supporting the Bruening government because it is the lesser evil, com- pared with the Hitler government which might replace it, The English “Left” Independent La- bor Party calls on the workers to support the Labor Government because it is better than the Conservative government, etc. In many cases, the Communisis have not shown the masses clearly and concretely why Social Democracy is not the lesser evil. It is not that it is “worse” than the Fascist$ or “just as bad” as the Fascists, but it is the main obstacle to the mobilizaion | of the masses for the struggle against the dic- | tatorship of the bourgeoisie in all its forms, be- | cause it is the main social support of the Ou F2A cle. ag rn Local Elections in the Pittsburgh District By CARL PRICE, b Gaene week, for the first time in the history of the Party, the Communist Party will be on | the ballot in the coal and steel counties, West- moreland, Washington, Cambria, Somerset and Fayetté, as well as Allegheny county, providing the bosses’ governments do not arbitrarily rule the Party off the ballot. The necessary number of signaturés have been gathered, and the hun- dreds of dollats necessary to pre-empt the Party in cach locality and in the counties, has been raised. One hundred thousand of the election platform of the Party for the counties of western Pennsylvania have been printed and over 60,000 already distributed. Dozens of mass meetings have already been held in the coal sections and steel towns. Dozens of mimeographed leaflets have been issued, arnounting up into the thou- sands. Printed county programs have been pre- pared for Allegheny county and Westmoreland county and will be distributed this week. The program of the Communist Party for the counties of western Pennsylvania, is a fighting program. A large section of the program, ex- tracts of which I hope will be printed in the Daily Worker, is based on the struggle against the wage-cuts in the coal mines and the steel Democracy, both in Austria, Germany and other countries, proves that it assists the bourgeoisie to establishing the Fascist form of dictatorship and capitulates*to it step by step. It carries on, with its own hands when in power or by sup- porting other fractions of the bourgeoisie, as in Germany, |the fascisation of the state, while pretending that it is saving so-called “dem- ocracy” from Fascism. In this way it lulls the vigilance of the masses and stifles their spon- taneous {struggle against fascism. In~ Great Britain, the bourgeoisie keeps the Labor govern- ment*in office at the most critical moment and allows it to carry out their program, under the label “Labor Government’ the indignation of the masses against this government is ‘stifled the so-called “Left” independents who protect it with their “Left” phraseology. If the Labor Government were not in power in England the struggle of the working-class would ,develop much more strongly and the process of the masses adopting violent methods would go on faster. By means of class struggle the practical minded British worker would be better able to save himself from the attack of capital than by the capitulation of the agents. of capital—Mac- Donald, Thomas, etc. In Germany the Bruening Government, as correctly described by the Ger- man Central Committee ,is a government for the establishment of the Fascist dictatorship. And the Social Democrats who are supporting it, and the Hitler Government which might come to replace it. - ‘ Manoeuvring and More Active Exposure of Social Democracy Fifthly, the tactics of class against class does not mean the rejection of manoeuvring. If the enemy still has a strong position in the working- ¢lass, manoeuvring by Communists is necessary so that by capable exposures this position can be undermined. However, since the tenth Plen- um of the ECCI our arsenal of manoevres has been of very modest dimension. It is not we who have maneuvred, but the Social Democrats have manoeuvred against us. Because mary of the Communists started out from the preinise that the Social, Democrats had completed their Fascist development, they did not expect from them any maneourving ability. Their mano- euvres, as is particularly evident from the French example on’ the question of the unity of the trade union movement, caught them unawares. In reality, Social Democracy has onc? again taken to manoeuvring, at the very moment when the process of its fascisation is being 9c- -celerated. Th? fact that the radicalisation of the messes is increasing under the influence of the crisis, and then the workers are beginning to desert Social Democracy, demands from Com- munists a still more active and merciless ex- posure of Social Democracy, while it also calls for greater activity in regard to manoeuvring. (x) From his report at the eleventh on Plenum of the Communist International. The report was publisned in pamphlet form and is obtainable from the Workers Library Publishers, . mills. The program draws the lessons from the strike of the 40,000 coal miners in District 5, pointing out the role of the capitalist govern- ment in this strike, and the necessity of strug- gle against the bosses’ government. The program points out the role, not only of the Pinchot state government, and the county government and lo- cal government, against thé strikers, and for the coal bosses, but alsé a céntral point in the pro- gram is the role played by the “socialist” party in its support of the coal bosses in the strike and the attack of the “socialists” on the unemployed councils and the demands of the unemployed workers. The program points out the fact that the Pittsburgh District is a basic war industry center, the necessity of a struggle, especially in this district against the war-danger, and in the defense of the Soviet Union. The program calls for the support, of the demands of the National Miners Union, the necessity of building a mass National Miners Union, and the struggle for the demands of the miners. A section of the pro- and the struggle against unemployment, show- ing how the county governments have repeatedly refused the demands, of the strikers and the un- employed workers for immediate relief, showing the role of the United Mine Workers of America, in betraying the unemployed workers, as well as the strikers, and gives the demands of the Party for the unemployed workers, The program calls for a struggle against the 10 per cent wage cut in the steel industry, for. the organization of the workers into the Metal Workers Industrial League, the building of a mass union in the steel industry, the struggle against “the strikebreaking betrayels of the Amalgamated Association, and the “‘socialist” party, the struggle against Hoover's stagger sys- tem, and above all the organization of strikes against the wage cut. ity for the Negroes, against the jim crow, which ig very bad in the Pittsburgh District—for strug- and youth and women workers. The im. * points out: “The Communist Party is running workers as candidates in the present election, miners who lead the struggles of the N.M.U., against starvation, steel workers who are taking an active part in the present struggles of the steel workers against wage-cuts, unemployed workers, representing the demands of the un- employed.” The program calls for the destruction of the capitalist system, and the setting up of a Work- ers and Farmers Government. The election campaign in this county, of course, faces tremendous difficulties, the diffi- culty of lack of forces, no finances for the dis- tribution of leaflets, the fact that the laws of the state require the payment of an election tax which has disfranchised thousands of workers, the fact that thousands more are foreign-born, not cilizens and cannot vote. However, it is. un- doubtedly true that never before has the Party sunk such deep roots in the masses, never be- fore has the Party had such mass influence among the coal miners and steel workers, never before has the Party had such influence in the coal fields and.steel towns as it has today. The election ratification conferences so far held are one ‘example of this, Organized within a few days time and with tremendous difficulties, such as lack of transportation, etc, there were 300 delegates to the Washington County Ratifica~ tion Conference, held in Washington, and 300 delegates to the Allegheny County Ratification Conference. The Allegheny County Ratification Conference had at least 50 steel worker dele- gates, mostly from the McKeesport Homstead section. In both conferences, from 30 per-cent to 60 per cent were Negroes. At the conference called by the Metal Workers Industrial League, to fight against the wage cut, the tremendous response of the delegates to the Party speaker, ing Communist, is another indication that the steel workers are becoming ‘very rapidly radical- ized and that they recognize the Communist Party as a result of its leadership of the strike of 40,000 miners in. this district, has established tremendous influence, not only among the min- ers, but among the steel workers,although the \ strikers did not win thelr demands, they recog: gram deals with the demands of the unemployed . | ‘The program calls for a struggle for full equal- ; gle for the demands of the foreign-born ers especially to the mention of the necessity of vot- | Young Reds at Ballard (By PAUL MUNTER.) It is early morning and a figure slinks along toward the Seattle Cedar Mill in Ballard. A young boy playing in the street notices him. The boy is a striker’s son. He thinks: “That is a scab.” He follows the man for several blocks. The man turns toward the wide street of the mill. * “Rat,” callsout the young boy, He means it. He is living on what little food the relief station can afford to give his family. He ts behind his daddy to win. He knows that the fight is to make a better life for him. This flashes through his mind while he calls “rat.” The man turns. “You God damn brat.” He strides toward the boy. The lad shouts. Around the corner other boys, strikers’ kids, are play- ing.” They hear their pal. a “That's Joe,” says one. “He's in trouble,” says another. “Let's go.” The Ygang” of about six kids comes running toward the outcry. They arrive just as the scab strikes th> boy. : “He's a rat,” shouts the youngster. All the kids feél as this youngster. Their dads have been out since August. They want to help them win. This scab must have figured on getting down earlier than the pickets. If he was to come about 20° minutes later, the police, armed with sub-machine guns would be there to pro- tect him, Their dads would be powerless. He hit one of the gang. A piling of little bodies on this man mountain: One scab went to work under difficulties that day. “Good work, fellas,” says one. “Mum’s the word,” says another, “the cops ,might pinch us.” Later one of the boys about 12 years old was arreSted and searched. He stayed in the police station about three hours. He told them nothing. “We got our Daily Worker Club now and we're going to raise money for our paper and the strike,” one tells the writer. Two kids have started out to build a Daily Worker route and get the rest of the gang in with them. | ‘They aré Reds, these Kids, Reds of two months. They are helping“to win the fight. They need your help, too. Around their dad’s strike the lumber barons of the Northwest have centered a heavy attack. They expect to prevent strikes in the lumber industry by terrorizing the Ballard strikers. The strike is important to all North- western lumber workers. Help them win. nize as do the steel workers, that the National Miners Union and the Metal Workers Industrial League, are the only unions representing the in- terests of the miners and the steel workers in the struggles. which. are now approaching. The masses are looking towards the Communist Party more and more as their leader. In addition to linking up the Party election campaign with the struggle against the wage-cut .and the steel campaign with the building of the National Miners Union and the unemployed committees, and the struggle for the demands demands of: the children, Negro, foreign-born, youth and women, the struggle against the danger, the main task of the Party in the’ elec- tion campaign is the consolidation of the and the building of the organizational of the Party during the course ef the campaign. hundreds and hundreds of workers to our Party, to build functioning steel and coal nuclei—to build the Party in the city of Pittsburgh, to put the Party throughout the District on a function- ing basis. Due to the newness of the Party in the Pitts- burgh District, a number of misconceptions have arisen amongst some new Party members as to the role played by the Party in the election campaign. The “good man” theory, the “lesser evil” theory and in some cases, the influence of the “socialist” party has made some slight in- roads in the course of the campaign. It is neces- sary in the remainder of the campaign to con- duct a _struggle against all opportunist and sy; callst tendencies and through the agit- | to every worker, x a ieee ee Chicago, “Let’s Go”! It seems to us that a situation is arising in Chicago to which some attention might be given. One letter we have says:,“This is the flop dis- trict and there is a soap-boxer speaker here every evening speaking to many readers of the Daily Worker, advocating ‘Steal it’, instead of organizing.” Well, maybe the Party can't do anything about it, if the police puts up such people to talk. But you workers who read the Daily should make such soap-boxer feel mighty uncomfortable and let him know what you think about him, Another letter says, in part: “I've been watch- ing the meeting at Washington Sq. in Chicago for the past five months. The radicals hold meetings there each night. Seven out of ten ot these speakers just talk to take up a collection to get a bottle of moonshine. I know what I'm talk- ing about. I see things for myself, just a lot of drunken bums, “I and others were going to join the Reds, but what we saw at Wash. Sq. would turn any- one away. Don’t think I’m not in favor of Rus- sia. I sure hope Russia has good luck. These speakers should be exposed, they don’t care about the working class.—W.C.H.” Well, comrade, we are doing our part in the exposing. Only please don’t get all the hole and corner “radicals” mixed up with the Com- munists. We don’t believe that anyone who is speaking for the Communist Party is taking up collections for moonshine. It must be some gang of “radical talkers” who preterid they are “Reds” but are not. And maybe the Party cannot do much about it for that reason. But if it can do anything, it certainly should start right in. A little organizea attention to such fake “Reds” would soon put a stop to this sort of thing. You workers who reaa the Daily and attend such meetings should do your part in making sure that the Party O.K.’s the speaker. Just An Ordinary Liar A comrade in Brooklyn writes in saying that: “It was at Unity House, Forest Park, that V. F, Calverton, in the course of a talk he gave on literature, mentioned that Mike Gold is out of the Party because the novel he wrote, ‘Jews Without Money,’ was not up to the Communist standard of proletarian literature, Should like to know whether that was a mis-statement or not.” Now it séems to us that some comrades should by-em-bye get hep to the fact that Calverton is a sort of an ideological racketeer. Very few ever heard of him, it is true, but once every six months some naive comrade who mistakenly spends his time reading learned nonsense writes us enthusiastically calling our attention to the “fact” that Calverton is a “Communist.” Which is seven thousand miles off the course. But you folks who have a yen for philosophy, and will not be convinced by our simply ex- epressed judgment, should read the devastating analysis of Calverton and his “school” by our own “ragged trousered philosopher,” Comrade Landy of the Daily Worker staff, who takes Mr. Calverton to pieces in a theoretical treatise in the October number of “The Communist.” ‘We take this opportunity to smite a myth that has grown up, that anybody who actually works right in the Communist Party, and helps edit its journals, cannot possibly break lances with some goofy guy who sits in “ivory towers” and whittles' away at words, because the latter is a professor, or has a string of degrees after his name. Our “ragged trousered philosopher” (and believe us, his trousers ARE ragged) proves quite the contrary. Take this article of Comrade Landy and read it. For us it was an enjoyable and as rare a treat of polemical writing as many of Marx and Lenin.» Above all, it spears this school of fish who are playing around with Marxism in the so-called “intellectual” world, on the lance of irrefutable Marxian analysis. ‘This Calverton chap furnishes the ideological humbuggery which feeds the whole social-fascist movement, and Landy has done a brilliant job of exposthg dt. About Mike: we never read “Jews Without Money,” though we have seen a lot of them, We've heard that some like the book and some don’t. Also we've heard the same about Mike. But we never heard of any bell, book and candle being brought into play to exclude Mike, so if he’s outside the Party, it seems to be Mike's fault and not the Party's. Peaek cone. They Love the Workers, Yeah? ‘The world’s finest subway, the Eighth Avenue line in New York, will be running New Year's Day, if things go right. It’s a new one, ® all Tammany officials, and the » World-Telegram which supports Tammany whenever it isn’t sup- porting the “socialists’—and sometimes at one and the same time—are proud of it. ‘The World-Telegram is so proud of it that it ran a special article about it on Oct. 1, calmly inserting the following: “Municipal operation is deemed not feasible because the city would be compelled to pay prevailing wages to the 1,500 employes. With a private operator, the wages could be lower and an eight-hour day would not be man- datory.” } 8h ie ote : . Mislaid Strike Located . Regarding the strike at Clear Lake, Washing- ton, Comrade Archie Young says it began as a shingle mill strike, became a saw mill strike, and then just naturally died of old age or something when the shut down for a long, long time, or until “prosperity” comes back. ‘The strikers beeame apple pickers and spud-_ glommers and are holing up for a Hard Winter. But the National Lumber Workers Urtton = lying in wait for the boss to start up again; unemployed councils are being organized ‘and the United Farmers League is growing in many places. Well, that strike is now accounted for. prop work in the units, at mass meetings, etc., to make clear to all workers, the role of the Party in the election campaign. : The fact that local programs have been pre- pared and will serve in the remaining weeks to concentrate the campaign more upon local is- sues and bring the issues of the campaign home o Rs 4. Ww t