The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 13, 1931, Page 4

Page Four ie On the Carrying Out of the | 13th Plenum Decisions eal WEAKNESSES IN OU R UN By 0. PIATNITSKY (From his recent pamphlet “Unemployment and the Tasks of the Communists.” Just published by the Workers Library Publishers; price 15 cts.) vement cannot THE unemplos ed workers’ m be considered a mass moyement—if we t eration the enormous number of per- hout wo ere are thousands in th into cons! SW mployed workers’ movement, but there are millions of unemployed. rous gap between the strug- ‘s in employment and the un- ing y great im- mployed er than In Witer- Germany) s cin employed a ons of The struggle of upported by ers engaged in ir ry in Middle four kes of wo! town (an i xample dur i May) the unemployed carried on a the scale of re- hall and twice ng a period of against a reduction in They besieged the town lief succeeded in getting their unemployment bene- When the police inter- iege of the town hall fall back but continued with the po no sup broke fits on the old sc the third d did not in spite of conflicts obtained industry, it fered duri the unemploy oveme since t these port from ged in down In England, France, and, to a lesser degree, in the United .States, on the other hand, big strikes frequently occur, but there is an almost complete absence of demonstrations and other forms of struggle on the part of the unemployed. This rt of thing is very dangerous, for the bourgeoisie and the reformists can more easily deal with each movement separately than they could if the two movements—of the unemployed and employed—proceed simultaneously. Finally, the unemployed organizations—com- mittees and councils of unemployed in the majority of cases work extremely badly. All this can be explained by the fact that the Communist Parties, Red Trade Unions and Trade | Union opposition work badly and much too little | among the unemployed. Despit> the fact that in the parties and or- ganiations indicated there are sufficient forces available, the work has been, and is still, car- ried on among the unemployed in general, and | | not chiefly among the entirely destitute sections | | of the unemployed—and it is to this section that the majority of the unemployed belong In the work among the unemployed, the or- ganization of demonstrations and processions has predominated, and still predominates, this method of work being linked up with the organic, permanent, activities of the committees ant councils of unemployed, such as fighting against eviction of unemployed, against the introduction of new rationalizing measures and a longer working day in the factories, which throw ever-growing armies of new workers on to the streets; the organization of demonstrations ays without Ployed or aiming at the introduction of unem- j [the Communist.) i | | gress. EMPLOYED WORK is not linked up with the creation of children’s | dining-rooms, with the organization of a syste- ic continuous powerful pressure upon State and municipal institutions with a view to get- ting from them temporary assistance for unem- ployment insurance, the organization of the un- employed to help in strikes of workers in the factories, and so on. In a word, the demonstrations are not linked | up with the organic, persistent, day-to-day work on all questions which might be @ interest to the broad masses of unemployed and the em- ployed. In this connection it should be men- tioned that the slogans of the Communist Par- | ties and. the revolutionary trade union moye- ment are frequently too abstract and incom- prehensible, and defeat, their own ends in mob- ilizing the unemployed and drawing the broad masses of unemployed into the moyement The relations existing between the revolution- ary trade union movement and the unemployed workers’ movement have also not helped to broader? the unemployed workers’ movement. In England a National Unemployment Workers’ Committee has existed for many y but un- til recently it has not had either formal or actual connection with the Minority Movement and the struggles of the workers, In Germany, until quite recently, the unemployed workers movement was attached to the trade union op- position, and in America it was attached to the weak red trade union, which are few enough in number, The ass tion with the “red trade unions” and “revolutionary trade union opposi- tion” drove away the unemployed who belonged to other political parties and to the reformist, catholic and other trade union organizations. Joint Action of the Employed and | the Unemployed | In the development of joint action of the: Jemployed and the unemployed, little progress has been made. While the unemployed work- Jers have in almost all cases fought side by side | with the employed workers in strikes, the mob- ilization of the employed to fight for the de- mands of the unemployed has made little pro- Only in the miners’ strike did we put | forward jdint demands for the strikers and the unemployed in the hunger marches organized. The fight for the 7 hour day, the struggle against rationalization and the stagger plan, has not been pressed forward. Ih the fight for |the unemployed in only a few instances did | We develop demands for part-time workers. The |fight against forced labor (which is increasing on Government | union rates tention. (From the 13th | lution, ork) and the maintenance of on all jobs, has received little at- Plenum Unemployment Reso: printed in full in the October issue of SERIOUS ATTEMPTS SHOW GREAT POSSIBILITIES IN} SHOP WORK By JACK CARSON the MBINE discu with action was ¢ method adopted in this district in connection with shop work. Already certain achievements can be recorded. sion Danville Section can now serve as an example for a good start in shop work to all other sec- tions in this district and many more sections in other industrial districts. The following achievements were made in this section since the last Party District Conference. A Mill Nucleus of four members was organized in one of the mills in the Section. Steps are being taken now to activize this nucleus. Three shop groups have been set up in three of the biggest Textile Mills in this Section with about eight workers in each. One group has issued the first Mill Bulletin in the shop. One thou- sand copies will be distributed in the mill. How Was This Done? The Party conference discussed the main decisions-of the 13th Party Plenum, which impressed the comrades not only with the need of shop organization, but also with the possibilities for this work. The district buro worked out in detail the plans for im- | mediate work. Danville Section was selected to | be given the first attention. The District Or- | ganizer went to Danville and worked with the | comrades there for two weeks. He did not | merely assume the job as an instructor, but | © going with the comrades to workers’ homes \ i | and discussing conditions and grievances in the mills. We learned that the workers believe that the Reds are good fighters. The only ones who can win better conditions for them, But that it is too dangerous to get connected with the Reds as the mill-owners fire every one who is We had to convince the workers that we know how to protect them from being fired. As a result of our conversation with them, the work- ers then proposed methods of inside shop work | : | connected with them. | | | The Most Dangerous Form of Op-. portunism in Practice ‘We cannot help the situation by declarations that the Communists in the shops are poisoned | with opportunism and with unwillingness to | work in the shops, nor by the conception that our weaknesses can be overcome by disciplin- ary measures, expulsion, etc. The most dan- gerous form of opportunism in practice that j hinders us from building the shop nuclei does not appear among the Communist workers in fthe shop, but in the approach of our fune- | pa 07 | on the workers in both districts: whole families | living in company owned shacks which they are | allowed to occupy so long as they furnish a tionaries to them. The fear of the difficulties | of shop work by the Communist worker is be- | cause of the fact that we do not know agadl to carry out this work, ALL the attention of the Party must be concentrated on HELPING , | » comrades i the shops to solve their prob- (Pre » main resolution of the 13th ) uum.) without immediately being spotted by the boss. We showed to the workers that through shop organization we can prevent the firing of the most militant workers from the shops, by pres- enting the grievances to the boss in an organized manner instead of an individual attempt to fight back. The workers told us that many individual workers have been fired for telling the boss to go to hell or even going into a fist fight with the boss. We explained to them how to fight against the rotten conditions affecting all workers, and the need of united organized action. On the basis of this experience we learnt: Only through more help and attention to in- dividual workers in the shops, by discussing every step we take in shop work with the work- ers in that shop, developnig the initiative of in- dividual Party members and other militant workers and building the confidence of those workers in themselves can we achieve real shop organization and lay the basis for our Party rooting itself in the factories. Lets get some real competition from other sec- | tions and more experiences in Shop Work. | | | ABOR AND TEXTILES” | By ROBERT W. DU> and JACK HARDY. | Labor and Textiles analyzes the crisis in cot- ton and wool and tells in a factual and dis- assionate manner an almost unbélievable story f speed-up, women workers, unemployment, night work and industrial feudalism. Tle authors show the movement of the cotton mills from New England to the South and its effect quota of hands to the looms, children forced out of school into the mills, the struggle of the workers to improve their condition—Lawrence, Gastonia, Passaic and New Bedford. District, Section and Unit Literature Agents The following pamphlets are for main con- centration.in the November 7 campaign: The Decisive Year—A. A. Heller 10 Anti-Soviet Lies and the Five Year Plan— Max Bedacht 10 “Soviet Dumping” Fable—M. Litvinov 02 Modern Farming—Soviet Style—Anna Louise Strong 10 New Conditions—New Tasks—I. Stalin . 05 War of Intervention Against the Soviet Union and the Second International—P. R. Dietrich Revolutionary Struggle Against, ‘War cifism—Alex Bittelman ...... 4 Many other pamphlets are also~ available as listed in the catalogue of the Workers Library Publishers, P. O. Box 148, Station D, New York City. See that your literature is ordered early for advance activities prior to Noyember 7. , AGIT-PROP DEPARTMENT, a | of resolutions By mail everywhere: of Manhatian and Bronx, New York City. SUssUruriiUN KATES: One year, $6; Foreign: Se six months, $3; two months, $1; one year, excepting Boroughs $8; six months, $4. By BURCK Accidents in the Iron and Steel Industry Taken from a forthcoming pamphlet, Dan- serous Jobs, issued by the International Pam- phiets, written by Grace M, Burnham, of the Labor Research Association. a esc (Iron and Steel Accidents, by Labor Research Association.) woc® has been written in the employers’ press in praise of the safety work of the United States Steel Corporation which was started in 1926. kept in mind, however, work. In the first place, up to 1926, the death and accident rate in the steel industry was nothing short of a scandal. Men were actually caught up in the moiten steel and burned alive in the red hot mass. There was no compensa: and its subsidiaries, Two things must be when . discussing this tion insurance at the time. Damage suits piled | up. The companies began to see the financial gain in preventing accidents and thus pre- venting unwelcome publicity as well as damage suits. So safety education was started by the U. 8. Steel Corp. for plain business reasons. This safety campaign was merely feature of capitalist rationalization, Its investment of $4,000,000 in safety education during 10 yéars is claimed to have brought a return to stockholders of $9,000,- 000. “The men who direct the policy of this corporation,” states the Bulletin 11 of the United States Steel Corp., “have never lost sight of the fact that the first object of any company is to-make money for its stockholders.” The sufferings of the workers in steel can The Growing Revolt of the Illinois Miners By BILL GEBERT. E Springfield the Convention of District 12 U. M. W. A. opened on October 6. Four hun- dred delegates were assembled who brought with them over 100 resolutions, a large number of which directly or indirectly are against the Dis- trict and International fakers of the U. M. W. A. Probably never before were such a large number introduced, which in unmis- takable words speak of the treacherous role played by the misleaders of the U. M. W. A. Here is a quotation: “Resolved, that Local Union No. 492, of Springfield, Il., calls upon the delegates to the District Convention to demand on the first day of the convention the resignation of every dis- trict official, and in case they refuse to re- sign that they be placed on trial in that con- vention by the delegates and that the dele- gates take over the functions of the convention and operate it in a2 method that will solidify our ranks and adopt a program free from coal operators’ influence that will blaze the way for action nation-wide of the oppressed mine workers.” A number of local unions from different parts of the state had similar resolutions and de- manding elections in the U. M. W. A. directly by the miners themselves. For Struggle. Rive local unions adopted a resolution calling on the miners to set up an Illinois District Unity Committee of the miners from the pits, which is to map out a militant program based on struggle, The same local unions adopted a resolution formulating demands and to prepare for a strike to enforce these demands. “Resolved, that the scale committee shall for- mulate the final draft of demands, taking into consideration the following: (1) A weekly mini- mum wage; (2) abolition of the bug light; (3) abolition of the Cardox system of shooting coal, as a dangerous method; yardage in all narrow work; (5) enforcement of all present state mining laws} (6) creation of others to safeguard miners at work; (7) no dis- crimination in apy form against Negro and for- eign born miners; (8) immediate unemployment relief, and for unemployment insurance; and be it further “Resolved, that our organization of miners if necessary takes on a role independent of corrupt officials, and that our efforts be based upon a militant program of action.” Also, these very same local unions introduced resolutions demanding the release of the organ- izers of the National Miners’ Union arrested in Franklin County and held on charges of crim- inal syndicalism, and for release of all class war prisoners. A local union from Gillespie declares: “That the delegates in this convention go on record condemning the action of the International Union for not supporting those innocent miners in Kentucky who are facing the electric chair.” Score Walker's Paper. Likewise, resolutions have been introduced de- manding suspension of the Mlinois Miner, which is the official organ of the Walker gang in the U. M. W. A. published at the expense of the (4) full payment for, Practically all the resolutions dealt with the question of unemployment and demanding the enactment of unemployment insurance and old age pension. Those resolutions indicate the growing dis- content and radicalization of the miners of Il- linois and that the miners are beginning to realize that their worst enemies are the fascist and social fascist officials of the union. Ray Edmundson, who headed the so-called rank and file movement, no longer has the some support as a few months ago because it has become clear to the miners, as some of his supporters stated during the caucus meeting of the con- vention that this “rank and file movement” of Edmundson’s was sanctioned by Lewis and also supported by Lewis for the purpose of winning radical miners away from the N. M. U. into sup- port of the Lewis machine in Illinois. About this Edmundson movement, the resolution of 5 local unions states: “Whereas, in Illinois the so-called ‘Rank and File’ movement of recent origin proved itself incapable of leading the miners into struggle, betraying the Orient strike, and proving its policies do not fit into the pres- ent situation.” For Real Leadership. More than any time before, there is a need of independent leadership of the miners in Ilin- ois in struggle against ever worsening conditions in the mines, speed-up, stagger system and un- employment and against officialdom of the U. M. W. A. of all factions, Lewis, Walker, Edmund- son, etc. Such a leadership can be given only | by the National Miners’ Union and developed by applying a united front from below, uniting miners in the Yocal unions and mines on the basis of immediate concrete demands and issues uniting memberchip of the N.M.U. with U.M.W.A. into the local Miners Unity Committees of Action. A statement of the N, M. U., submitted to the delegates of this convention, stated: “To develop an independent leadership of the miners headed by the Unity Committee of Action, who are composed of rank and file miners and of the National Miners’. Union, and to sever relations with both the district and international organ- izations of the 1. M. W. A, be it of Lewis, Walker, Edmundson, Watt, or any other mis- leaders and fakers. To cease payment of dues to any district, national organization or frac- tion of the U. M. W. A., and to keep dues in the local unions and work for affiliation of the local unions with the National Miners’ Union.” From the report submitted to the convention by the Secretary Treasurer of District 12 of the U. M. W. A., Walter Nesbit, we see that the membership in District 12 has been dropped from 98,985 in 1923 to 41,472 in 1930 of which only 26,953 have been employed in the mines. In other words the majority of the miners in the last few years have been disemployed in the mining industry and, therefore, have been driven away, tens of thousands who remain are on the point of starvation and there are already cases of deaths from starvation in the coal fields. But there is no starvation in the officials’ families of the U. M. W. A. The financial report sub- mitted by faker Nesbit shows that the up-keep pede the bunch gunna fakers costs miners approxi- never be told in cold figures: the swoop of gigan- tic overhead cranes, the terrific noise, the un- bearable intensity of the heat, the utter exhaus- tion of the workers who are forced to war with molten metal 12 hours a day (or night) 7 days a week, But even when crushed and burned bodies are reduced to statistics, careful analysis of the figures reveal conditions for the majority of the workers in the industry to be far from safe. In 1907 the accident frequency rate, per 1,000,- 000 hours exposure, in the steel industry had reached the high figure. of During the Yeats 1913 to 1929 plants doing intensive safety work had cut the rate from 60 to 18. But only about half the workers in the industry are em- ployed in such «plants, and even within this “safety” group, many plants and certain processes show rates far in excess of the average re- Ported, with increase in. both the severity and frequency of accidents. In steel foundries, for example, the rate for 1927 had risen to 51.60 as against 4810 for 1926. Certain steel plants in 1927 repcted rates as high as 151.86, 111.60, 101.71, wr 'e in one foundry the rate was 411.61. ‘These arc the figures for plants doing safety work. For the other parts of the industry, the U. 8. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the average | frequency rate to be not 10.2, but closer to 50. For foundries reporting for the years 1920-24, and employing some 150,000 workers, the rate fell only 2.3 from the 1907-24 average, while in 1925 it rose to 65.9, almost the highest point in 18 years. In puddling mlils the rate rose from 47.1 in 1917 to 51.7 in 1925, while in forge shops the rate in 1925 was 79.7. The rise in accidents in spite of the scientific advances in medicine and safety measures are due to speed-up and ration- alization, Diseases in the Iron and Steel Industry The iron and steel industry has a bad record of trade diseases. The excessive heat of the furnaces, with temperatures as high as 220 de- grees, and the intense glare of the burning me- tals, are bound to injure the internal organs of the body as well as the eyes of the steel worker. Heat stroke, exhaustion, and heat cramps are the more acute results of such exposure in an industry notoiious for long hours and night work. “Gassing” is also common. In one such accident in Pennsylvania in 1919, 55 men were “gassed.” The men were relining a blast furnace. The company had been warned that the methods used would lead to fatal results, but they went ahead nevertheless, Twenty-five of the 55 work- ers paid the price with their lives. Asthma, bronchitis, tuberculosis and even in- ternal hemorrhages are recognized hazards in the trade. They result from breathing gritty dust and sand and from constantly filling the Jungs with poisonous gases and fumes. Heart disease with many workers collapsing and dying on the job is a direct result of the terrific heat, hard work and long hours. Rheumatism from sudden changes from heat to cold, as workers with steaming bodies are exposed to drafts, leads to much permanent suffering. In spite of regulations which are supposed to control the heat, and dust, foundries continue for the most part to be filthy, dusty, suffocating places where workers become sick and die. In the sand blasting departments air is so filled with sand that most of the men have to quit the job within a year. Some shops make this the time limit for employing a worker. Brass foundries are particularly dangerous be- cause of the dense, vhitish green poisonous fumes rising from the molten brass as it is poured into the molds. “Brass chills” is the name given to this type of poisoning. Furnace men have the worst of it. Next come the brass pourers. Braziers and galvanizers also suffer. Attacks of “brass chills” may yast as many as 20 hours. Over one-quarter of 212 New York brass workers examined by the U. S. Public Health Service averaged attacks of “brass chills” once a week. Heart disease was found among 17 per cent of one group of molders examined and ‘among one-third of the workers in another group. Hardening of the arteries was found among over one-third of the workers in both groups examined. Almost a million: workers. are. employed in the steel mills and foundries of the United States. With over ten million workers unemployed in the crisis gear of 1931, hours for steel workers still average 54.6 for a full-time week. One fourth of { 91,000,000 @ year. . ee ee ae | | Who Runs This Column, Anyhow? We used to think that I did. But now we're “onsartin.” Maybe you noticed that some of these sparks joined the Tammany Hall crowd and became repeaters. That wasn’t our fault. You see, in actual fact, we editors might as well run along home. We don’t get any pay anyhow; and the chaps in the printshop run the paper, anyhow. And that’s just how they run it, It appears that the other day they liked some of our Sparks so much hat they put them tn a couple of times. Sortofan encore. We've begged them to desist. Enuf said. ihe eae Ain’t It Awful, Maybelle? The capitalist cartoonist, J. N. Darling, is just too darling for anything. More, he’s trying to hog the Pulitzer prizes for both anti-Soviet cartoons and anti-Soviet journalism. He has visited Soviet Russia and is horrified | “All Russia looks as if the bosses have disappeared and left the help in charge.” But, dang it all: “As I watched these people day after day and looked to see if any one among them showed signs of loneliness for the absent aristocracy, I found none.” How sad! And what's more: “There are many things which the Russian populace grievously mourn the lack of, but the list does not, so far as I could discern, include a landlord.” Still worse: “There is not even a merry-go- round, with a wheezy old calliope, in all Russia!” Worse yet: “They have no table manners.” BUT: Although “Janitors and office boys are in charge”—‘They finally get something done.” AND MORE: “No wpnder they like it. They are not starving.” Which is more than Darling can truthfully stay about the janitors and office boys of Amet. fea. But to him—Russia “is inexpressib!y dis- POSTSCRIPT: However, there’s one thing that capitalist artists do when they go to the U.S.S.R.; they come back and write things and draw’ things. But when the John Reed Club sends a delegation of supposed proletarian ar- tists and authors, they come back yawning empty in too many cases and produce nothing save a vast wonder of what the hell they went over ‘for And it is our humble opinion that if the So- viet Union doesn't inspire a proletarian artist or writer, it is questionable if he is artist or writer, and almost certainly not a proletarian. Beware the narcotic squad: “You must not only listen to ‘the dope we are giving out here, but, join the I. L. D. Come tomorrow night to our English Branch meeting of the I. L. D., and get some more dope.”—From a speech by Comrade Nat Kay, Sept. 23, at open air meeting at Grand Street Extension and Havemeyer St. Incidentally this “dope-peddler” was one hour and forty-five minutes late in showing up. ‘ ¢ 8 Mislaid strike found: Section organizer up the Hudson protests Anaconda Cable Co. strike NOT mislaid. Only lost. But later analyzed in the Daily. Crocodile misinformed by staff member. Pardon asked. Grievance committes and shop nucelus of Party organized. Good! Everybody happy—except company. ee Trick performers: Governor Murray of Okla- homa, aspirant for the White House, stood on his head on the Nebraska state capitol lawn for reporters. Hoover stands on his head right in the White House, but only for bankers. OE Te A guy named Erlicher, who “started as an of- fice boy,” has been appointed purchasing agent of the General Electric Co. Ask the other office boys if he didn’t have to be more than just an Erlicher. Po ear ew Amid the fall of systems and the crash of worlds, the “financial expert” of the Scripps- Howard papers, Mr. Hendershot, was heard to observe in the N. Y. World-Telegram of Oct. !—"It is possible that some hitch has developed in the credit scheme.” the 7-day week, and 11 per cent of the blast furnace men are on the 12-hour day. ‘Wages of ~teel workers in the United States are lower than in any other country in relation to the total value produced by the workers. The average American steel worker produces 81 tons of pig-iron for $100 in wages, while his English brother produces 41 tons for the equivalent in wages. But that is not enough for the United States Steel Corporation and its stockholders. ‘Wages must be still further reduced to protect the profits of the owners of steel shares and the stock exchange gamblers who trade in them. Wage slashes of 10, 15 and 20 per cent are al- ready common in the crisis winter of 1931-32. The steel workers are unorganized. Slav and Negro, Hungarian and Italian—the policy of the corporations is to keep them divided. How far this policy can be carried in the face of starva- tion, disease and death, remains for the workers to decide. Only an industrial union, uniting all steel workers on the basis demands of shorter hours, a living wage, and safe work places, can put an end to the horrible conditions.. (Section from a forthcoming pamphlet “Dan- gerous Jobs” by Grace Burnham, of the Labor Research Association. Pamphlets to be published by the International Publishers. .Workers! Join the Party of. Your Class! P. O. Box 87 Station D. New York City. Please send me more information on the Cum- munist Party. Name -Mail this to the Central Omce. Communist Communist Party 0. S. A. Party, P. O. Box 87 Station D, New York City. ee Pn nathan OREO namin Mec £ ~