The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 24, 1931, Page 4

by the ¢ York Page Four s and mail all ck MASS STRUGGLE AGAINST SUPPRESSION AND THE WAR DANGER By BILL DUNNE poe Mt. Sterling Gazette and Kentuc™ @qurier, h carries on masthead the motto “the republicanism of Abraham Lincoln, the de- mocracy of Thomas Jefferson, and the Americ- anism of Theodore Roosevelt,” said August 21, in an editorial entitled “The Harlan Situation” There has been altogether too much Ieni- eney shown agitators of the type of men and women in jail in Harlan, and the sooner such are shot at sunrise the better off the States will be... they should be de- culprits United measure and special methods of work— and the acceptance of illegality as “inevitable.” Next to the physical extermination of the de- cisive sections of a Communist Party, forcing | illegality upon it is the worst blow that the capi- talists can deliver to the Party and the working class. But a Communist Party never accepts an illegal status. It fights for every possible avenue of legal expression and activity and for its right to work openly and freely. The best protection against illegality is of course @ powerful mass movement in all fields of struggle. An indispensable part of such a movement, especially when imperialist war in ported, if possible, and if not, should’ be made to face a firing squad for the protection of such a powder magazine as the Fag East has Seite It is useless to send men and wo. already begun, is the united front of the working men ef the Harlan stripe of the Harlan agit- to the penitentiary They would be afer in a pine box under six feet of ators round.” rike of he 000 textile works ts in Lawrence, the Law- ader declared editorially on Nov. 3, fol- of arrests and clubbings and the ion of some 200 police to prohibit pick- wage C There is need of more speedy, more deter- mined, more permanent, more lasting action— The police can only arrest. The courts can only penalize within the limits of the statutes. ‘hen recognized law and order was unable to cope with a serious situation in the West some years ago—citizenry succeeded in clean- ing the place out—firing shot for shot.” statements are quite typical, though per- le more brazen than usual, of the n the United States wheneve: plete control of its masters is threatenec emonstrations or other mass ac rribly exploited workers. Thousand. of similar quotations are available, The entire campaign for the release and de- of the miners of Harlan County, Ky., ur hort time ago, as well as the strikes in ia, Lawrence, Patterson, show that we accustomed to taking for granted in the United States “legal” and armed sup- | sion of workers fighting for higher living ‘ds is a matter of course, that it is in- ple, to be expected and more or less ac- that talk about the “heroism” of the to a e become B 8 3 2. 2 8 2 i 3 8 2 6 & S ES gq = 8 4 3 acks, and can, at least to a con- replace any real mass struggle he suppression of the right to organize, rference and supervision, rom searches and seizures, etc. But it has become an accepted policy of coal companies, textile | S. steel companies and so on, of hiring | aining private mercenary armies of on some kird of a right which can- be challenged successfully. happening is that under the guise of “hardboiled” but actually senti- ch to the question of the suppres- in the United States, the mass ementary rights is being neglected rights which the capitalists never dared nge seriously on a wide scale up until little doubt that many militant considerable number of Com- 2 feel that the struggle for free ‘ch, the right to organize and strike, the fight ‘ary searches and seizures, etc., reformist character when carrie@ * into this “period of wars and revolutions.” They feel that the mass attack through big les, mass demonstrations, and “the streets,” the struggle against im- war and for the defense of the Soviet e far more “revolutionary.” It is there- ary to establish the fact that the re- character of demands, and of the the revolutionary struggle for them, d solely upon the demands them- selves but to what extent they embody the needs of the masses, their willingness to fight for them, and the extent to which they weaken the hold of the ruling class on the masses, either by win- hem, by the struggle for them, or both. ‘thermore, the reason for the growing sup- ion and terrorism in the United States lies in the sharpening class relationships, in the in- crsacing i ility of capitalism. The capital- isis find it necessary to restrict the mobility of the growing mass movement against their rule. Yoree is the principal weapon of the ruling class ally ry of class, and its allies among the intelloctuals, ex- ploited farmers, etc., against all forms of sup- pression of the working class and its organiza- tions, Just as the line of Leninism against imperial- ist war is to fight against it NOW and not wait until it begins, the struggle for the legal status of the Communist Party must not wait unil it has actually been forced into illegality, but must be an integral part of every mass struggle. Millions of workers now realize clearly for the first time that capitalism will not guarantee a living even to those who are able and willing to work, that they have to fight for the right to work, that they have to fight for the right to live. This is an elementary struggle which raises very sharply the question of power. It raises sharply before workers the whole ques- ion of the right of the capitalist class and ts government to condemn millions to poverty, hunger, disease and death. It raises the whole question of the right to or- sanize and carry on a fight for the right to live. When such basic questions are in the minds of millions, capitalism is in a dangerous way. Its spokesmen know very well the value of agit- ation and propaganda. They know the value of the right to free speech. They know the value of an unhampered press. They know the value of organization. They know the value of force. They know very well the danger to capitalism in its present decadent stage of those popular liberties which gave it strength in its childhood. It is here that reformist and so-called liberal organizations create grave dangers for a work- ing class which is beguiled by their activities. always and everywhere devoted to perpetuating illusions relative to capitalist democracy. Under this head came the Activities Of sobvialist leaders like Norman Thomas, the Civil Liberties Union, and other middle class organizations whose members become alarmed by thé careless brut- ality with which ‘the capitlaists use forcible sup- pression from time to time. Concerned lest the decisive sections of the working class lose all faith in capitalism; fright- ened lest the continual shift from republican to democrat party and vice-vérsa—with an occa- sional interim of “socialist” city government here and there—no longer serves to conceal the whole anti-working class character of capitalism and all its political parties, these elements rush in and protest every so often—as a warning to the capitalists to watch their step, to be more adroit, to preserve the outer garments of capitalism in better repair, to deck out and rejuvenate the cruel hag of capitalist democracy. Their purpose is to head off a mass movement for elementary rights—to operate so that one capitalist institution appears to be more “de- mocratic” than another, one judge more favor- able to the workers, one governor more “friend- ly,” one sheriff less brutal, one police chief more tender hearted. In other words, to show to workers that it is not the system that is bad but only the bad old men who run it. For this reason it is necessary that Commun- ists take more seriously the whole question of the struggle for the right to organize, to strike, the right of free speech and assemblage, etc. It is necessary further to curb all tendencies to dis- miss such struggles with the thought that they are of a minor character, that these rights can- not be won under capitalism and other excuses for doing little if anything about the increasing denial of these rights, of increasing legal sup- pression, of increasing fascist tendencies and methods. For months, while the terror was at its height in Harlan there was very little done to make the basic issues of the struggle there the central point of a sweeping nationwide campaign. This campaign should have coincided with the strike struggle and have been a tower of strength for Snd it is nonsense to say, as many good com- | jt, ‘The attention attracted by the Dreiser Com- ¥ece* do, that forcible suppression only adds to | mittee, and to the persecutions launched against ihe militancy of the workers, creates a wider | its members following the great publicity given r- > basis for the struggle, disillusions the mas- | to their exposure of Kentucky terrorism, shows er BO. ; that there is a widespread response to the ap- (hese stet-ments are | peal in behalf of the Harlan miners that can- ore is willing to take the not be accounted for merely by the prominence 1 inancial writers say, but they are merely of the Dreiser Committee members. ly philosophical and defeatist if one speaks American workers will support such struggles, « concrete possibilities of successful strug- | they will fight themselves in huge masses on f ew for any one of the scores of immediate | just such issues. needs and demands of the working class. |” These issues’ must not be left in the hands 1 | of the reformists and capitelist party dema- Precisely because the class relationships are gogues. t 2ening, and because the world crisis has rid- 22 millions of workers of their illusions rela- tiy2 to the beneficence and permanency of cap- fats m, it is more than ever necessary and pos- sible to rally workers to fight stubbornly against ove encroachment upon the rights and privil- which c>pitalism was forced to grant in its ith the feudal order and to be able to and carry on its system of factory pro- ergeni: duction. Here the cuestion of the legality or illegality of our Party arises in connection with avery strug- gle which it organizes and leads and stimulates. One hears frequently such statements as: “The government will not allow the Party to work legally,” or “illegality is inevitable in this period,” or “the Party wil soon be illegal.” These sen- timents are heard in one form or another every time there is a new wave of arrests in connec- tion with strikes, demonstrations or when Party offices are raided, etc, Tt is necessary to make a sharp distinction botween illegal methods of work and illegality. Tt is necessary to make a sharp distirtction be- tween the most extensive and careful prepara- tions for being forced into i egalfty, the protec- ti on of he Party organization by every possible The fight for the right to organize and strike, to picket, to free speech, for the right to as- semble freely, against all forms of police per- secution, against the private bands of armed cegenerates maintained for war on workers by the big corporations, etc., today involve all the basic issues of the class struggle beginning with the right to work and live. These issues and the niass struggles centering around them now take on profound revolutionary significance, They are connected inseparably with the fight against imperialist war and as the war situation grows more acute they will have a still greater importance for the working class and its Com- munist Party. There must be no fatalistic acceptance among revolutionists of the inevitability of the wiping out of all elementary rights of the workers in the United States, of the “historical” nature of the brutality of the American ruling class, of the “impossibility” of winning and retaining through organized mass action and by the use of all legal avenues, the rights of free press, free speeclr and assemblage; the right to organize, strike and picket, the right of freedom from po- lice interference. There must be no acceptance of the theory of the “impossibility” of defeating mat ? SUBSCRIPTION RATES: mm i <" Or ig By mati everywhers: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs | Ga r ef Manhatian and Bronx, New York City, Foreign: one yeat, $8; six months, $4.50 ict Dorty USA . : —By GROPPER. Steel Workers and Miners On Hunger March to Pittsburgh By REBECCA GRECHT 1) fovember 25, workers of Allegheny County, western Pennsylvania—steel workers and min- ers, suffering the cruel misery of unemployment, blacklisted, driven ott of the mills and mines— wil march into Pittsburgh to demand immediate unemployment relief from the county govern- ment. They will come from the steel and.metal fort- resses of McKeesport, Clairton, and Duquesne; from the company-owned mining camps of Co- verdale, Mollenauer, and the Allegheny Valley, from all sections of Pittsburgh, stronghold of the steel trust. Over 150,000 workers are without jobs in Pitts- burgh and vicinity, this third winter of the crists. Lay-offs continue to swell the army of unem- ployed, wage-cuts in the steel and meta! plants are further deepenine the misery of workers, already impoverished through part-time employ- ment, In Coverdale, ruled by the Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Company, the tent colony of blacklisted miners and their families, victimized for their activities in the recent miners’ strike against starvation, stands out as a glaring testimony to capitalist oppression and cruelty. In Pittsburzh 2,000 families on the South Side alone are threat- gened with having their water shut off. The attacks have*been extended to the city employee$, 3,000 of whom have been compelled to take “vacations without pay” in order to en- able the city to lower the taxes of the real estate capitalists. Everywhere hunger and want increase, but the sovernment has ignored the needs of the job- Jess, The County poor directors can build $70,000 piggeries, with graft and corruntion, but there are no funds for unemployed relief. Instead of taxing the coal and steel magnates who have made millions out of the toil of workers now thrown on the streets to starve, the city and county government demand that the workers still employed shall pay out of their meagre earnings, This is the meaning of the six million dollar drive of the Welfate Fund and Emergency As- sociation in Allegheny County, for the purpose, it is stated, of assistance to “neediest case for some public works. This is the line of the Hoover charity program. By this means the government throws off all responsibility for relief. The Pittsburgh Depart- ment of Public Works cuts off one million dollars from its 1932 budget, announcing that it will employ fewer men this winter and put into ef- fect the stagger system. The campaign bulletin of the Welfare Fund carries a streamer that “the workers must give first”! Collections are made in the factories, forced upon the workers. Andrew Mellon, multi-millionaire Secretary of the Treasury, sponsor of tax reductions for the bosses and wage-cuts for the workers, came to Pittsburgh for a public speech, to save the “self-respect” of the starving jobless. Mellon, who recently endorsed the 10 per cent wage- cut in the Mellon-controlled Aluminum Plant of America, is deeply concerned that the work- the attempts of the capitalist class to extend their dictatorship and wipe out the fighting mobility of the American working class, as part of its war program and general drive to reduce the whole living and social standards of the masses, : Not only can the working class be organized for mass political struggle for elementary rights, but these rights can be retained and extended by determined struggle; the war program of Amer- ican imperialism can be defeated; imperialist world war is not inevitable. Struggle against every attempt to reduce living standards, stubborn struggle against every en- croachment on elementary rights of the working class, making clear the connection between these and the war danger, mass agitation and pro- paganda on a nationwide scale, orgnization of the workers around these basic issues in united front bodies of struggle, organization of the mass trade unions of the Trade Unoin Unity League —these are the methods by which the capitalist offensive, including the attack on the Soviet Union, can be defeated, ers shall be “spared the bitter experience of receiving money for ich no compensating Jabor has been given,” and therefore attacks the demand for direct government aid, and unemployment insurance. “Let the workers pay!” is the slogan of the bosses and their government. { The Allegheny County hunger march will de- mand free food and clothing for the children of unemployed and part-time workers, no evictions, no shutting off of gas, light, or water The workers will insist that the $6,000,000 sub- way fund, raised through a bond issue in Pitts- burgh sevetal years ago for a subway that he's not even been started, shall be turned over for winter relief for the unemployed. The demand for full wages for part-time workers, for the 7-hour day without reduction in pay as against the stagger system proposed by the bosses: the immediate re-employment of the blacklisted miners, and the housing of all miners starving and freezing in tent colonies; an end. to the terror in the company steel and mining. towns, the right to the streets for the workers—these are also among the demands o/ the unemployed. The fight for unemployment insurance will be brought to the forefront as a principal point in the struggle of the jobless and part-time workers. The total indadequacy of charity ventures, the discrimination and degrading investigations practiced by private relief associations, the pres- sure brought upon the workers in the drive of the Allegheny Weltare Fund and Emergency As- Soctation, the actions of the Pittsburgh city government in adopting the stagger system on public works and cutting down its public works budget while graft and corruption permeate every department—these issues must be brought before the workers to unmask the bourgeois and reformist relief manoevres as attempts to de- sMoralize the ranks and dampen the militancy of the workers in their struggle for unemploy- ment relief and insurance. Preparations for the Allegheny County hunger march take place at the same time that Pin- chot’s Legislature meets to consider Pinchot’s fake relief program. On the basis of a concrete analysis of this program we must campaign to break the illusions among masses of workers that Pinchot will fight for adequate govern- ment relief and that his aims are basically dif- ferent from Hoover's. We must show how his road-building tent colonies are an attempt to develop forced labor in a more open form in Pennsylvania. We must expose his deliberate failure to propose taxing the rich for unemploy- ment relief, but instead throwing the burden on the workers themselves through the indirect forms of city taxation schemes. We must point out that while Pinchot makes demagogic ap- peals for relief in Harrisburg, his state trooper attack the unemployed in New Kensington, in Fayette County, who organize Hunger Marches to demand reliet. All forces of the National Miners Union and the Metal Workers Industrial League in Alle- gheny County must be thrown into the mobili- zation of the broadest masses of workers for the Hunger March. ‘The Nationg! Steel Conferena@ held in Pittsburgh on September 27th poimted out that the organization of the unemptorcd steel workers is a direct road (o the organiz>tien of the men in the milis I i*cwise, a struggle for the interests of the blacklisted and unem- ployed miners is a direct link with those still employed in the mines, working at the most, two or three days a week. Every Communist nucleus in the steel and coal towns of Allegheny County must consider their principal task to organize the fighting demon- stration of the unemployed. Negro and white workers, who in the strike of 40,000 coal miners in Western Pennsylvania gave an outstanding example of class solidarity in their common bat- tle against starvation, must be rallied together in this united struggle for unemployment. reliet. It is necessary to establish a common fighting front of unemployed, part-time, and employed workers. In this way we can deyelop a militant mass movement for the County Hunger March, for the widest response to the National Hunger March to Washington, D. C., on December 7th. PARTY LIF Conducted by the Org. Dept. Central Com- mittee, Communist Party, U. S. A. DAE 5 Some Thoughts On Party Work By PAUL MUNTER TYPICAL Saturday night in Portland. The Party holds its street meeting in the heart of the downtown district at 6:30 to 7:45. Usu- ally at 8 pm. there is a social program in the Workers’ Hall, given by some revolutionary or- ganization. The street meeting is attended by 400 or 500 workers, They listen attentively to the speakcr. So attentively do they listen that the fakers of the socialist party and unemployed union wait until the Party meeting is over. ‘They know that it is impossible to get the crowd away from the speaker. They have failed enough times to know this. A collection is taken. Its base is ncikels and dimes and pennies of unem- ployed workers. A few dollars and half dollars come from employed workers. There we see the interest of both groups of workers in the pro- gram of the Party: Literature sales are generally fair, Workers give money for the distribution of literature to workers who cannot afford it. The meetings ©-e fine agitation. Only one little sug- gestion have I to offer. The Party comrades in the meeting should approach workers about joining the Party. It would be a good idea, I think. So much for Saturday night except that the workers attend the social entertainments in increasing number. They are becoming very popular. Here, too; Party members should be looking for workers who show interest and strike conversation with them regarding joining the Party. There is an increasing number of women re- sponding to the forums, entertainments, etc., of the revolutionary organizations. With the one or two close sympathizers of the Party that are among the women; plans for the building of Some sort of a Woman’s Club would be in order. There is a number of workers joining the Un- employed Councils at every one of its member- ship meetings: All of these workers who join show that for them the problem is definitely e-t- tled. They must fight to gain relief. More of them are resident workers than ever before in the history of the movement in Portland. To date there has not been one neighborhood branch established. There is no need of saying that the basis for them do not exist. All that is neces- sary is that the Party comrades .use a little initiative. The I, L. D. is getting ready to go into the criminal syndicalist repeal campaign. In order to get this repeal measure on the ballot, about 17,000 signatures are + 2eded. The Party is going into the elections, Tat is, it had better, after telling hundreds and. reaching thousands of workers with election agitation’ ‘To date, the Party is vaguely considering “elections are not until next November.” It is interesting to note that the same approximate number of signa- tures are necessary to get the Party on the bal- lot as are necessary to get the repeal measure on. Why not a little socialist speed-up and enter the campaign for signatures for the Party at the same time? It is our best chance to get the Party known in the states as a Party of Work- ers and Farmers. The other course is to run Party candidates as independent entries, A lit- tle caucus of 125 registered voters and this is Possible. There is one hitch, bourgeois parties have funds to rush these details through, the Party has not. It is a case of the early worm trying. The Party should try as soon as Possible. ‘These are but sketchy suggestions for the Party work in Portland and Oregon but behind them lies a lesson. Despive the tremendous growth of Party prestige in the last year some things still exist that are revealing. At the time of the raids in Sept. 1930, the Party had a bigger unit membership than it has now: The funtionaries in all organizations are mostly from the same cadre as existed a year ago. What does this mean? Simply that the comrades have not jJearned all the lessons in the past year they might have learned. There is still lack of faith in the masses, Perhaps not verbally, but look at your leading functionairies, comrades, That tells the story. The comrades are not afraid of doing their duty to the working class movement, they are merely afraid of underdoing it. Isn’t & Local Unions and Workers Clubs! Fight for Unemployment Insurance! White Chauvinism Every revoMitionary worker will know tha the essence of what is called “white chauvinism’ is the white “superiority” idea against the col- ored races. It holds that the Negro, for example, is something not quite human. The I. W. W. used to boast that it had no preju- dices against the darker races, but what can you make of the following, taken from a long article in the western organ of the I.W.W., the “Indus- trial Worker” of November 14. Firstly, the story tells of the demonstration in Los Angeles on Oct. 30, and says that the police attacked “50,000 Americans” (!) and in the course of the story the wobbly writer says: “Back in Pershing Square, a Negro had climbed a tree and was doing everything but hang by his tail in primordial ape fashion.” Even a capitalist reporter would hardly ge that for, and its flavor is more like and openly K. K. K. version. By JORGE Cea en Stick This in Your Scrap Book! The Nashua, New Hampshire, “Telegraph” of Noy. 18, carries a long “address” by some scoun- drel named W. S. Vivian, who is “public rela- tions counsel” of the Middle West Utilities Co., the Power Trust run by Sam Insull. The “ad- dress” was made before the Rotarians, Lions, and Kiwanis clubs in Manchester, N. H. and is entitled: “Progress of America Now Faces Prob- Jems of Communism.” » What do you mean “Progress”? Of which “America"—the poor or the rich? This lying apologist for capitalism dodges all that. He says: “Today we (!) are the wealthiest, most pro- gressive, happiest nation in the world. Our (!) people are the best fed, best clothed, best housed of any nation.” Then he goes on: “Nothwithstanding this out- standing success, there are many who would change it all by the introduction of Commun- ism,” And he proceeds to scare all the respect- able Rotarians with the Communist “menace” to this “progress.” Now, boys and girls, remember that this is Sam Insull speaking, the big capitalist of Chi- cago. Then we skip around to New York City, where we find the tabloid paped “The Daily News” engaged in a campaign of outrageous lies against the Communist Party. Remember this gink Limpus who is writing an anti-Communist “exposure.” Well, now, please get the point why the N. Y. / Daily News is especially ornery about the Com- munists in Kentucky. Its heart bleeds for the | poor miners who have been “misied by the Reds.” You see, the N. Y. Daily News is owned by the same interests as the Chicago Tribune, and those interests are the Insull interests. And the In- Sull interests also own the Black Mountain mine at Evarts, Kentuckl, where the deputies shot down the miners and the miners are being tried for murder! If such a beautiful system is “progress,” then we are against “progress”! If Sam Insull and the N. Y. Daily News is “Progress,” we are op- posed to it. But of course that it all rubbish. And workers must learn to see the demagogy and. lies behind all the pretty words of capitalist, apologists and the so-called “impartial” news of the capitalist press. And This Is “Ci The Kansas City “Star” uses daily wrinkles lization!” of supposed wisdom pulled off by an old fossil ~~ called “Ed Howe,” much as some papers uses Will Rogers daily dribbles. In the Star for Nov. Noy. 12, Howe says: “The early Geeks had a plan of employ- ment for the persistently idle that might be tried in the present emergency....when one would not earn his living under intelligent dir- ection he was permanently made a slave.” That's a nice “progressive” way of settling un- employment, isn’t it! One that shows thas capitalism is reactionary to the marrow of its bones. But in all essentials this proposal of Ed Howe is being carried out, On our desk is a clipping from the Springfield, (I) Register of Nov. 17. A picture of two twin boys six months old, fat little chaps, Under- neath it tells that their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Sam Harris of Hutchinson, Kansas, have offered these babies of theirs as security for a loan of $200 because the father needs an operation and has no money! Some difference than in the Soviet Union where medical treatment is free! Another ‘case, we hope you read in the Daily Worker news columns (it is set up in type but we are at the moment uncertain when it gets ; in). Robert Goelet, one of the richest of New York multi-millionaires, has a county estate at Chester, N. Y. where he has “kindly” stopped using dogs to raise pheasants in hunting parties given to amuse his friends, and uses workers in- stead of dogs! This is, of course, a rather ancient custom in feudal Europe; but it shows how vilely reac- tionary American capitalism has become. A line of a hundred workers forms and runs through the brush to scare up the game birds for the rich to shoot at. They shot three hundred red ducks and two workers last year! Progressive? Yea gods and little green apples! Goelet has got as far back as feudalism. And Ed Howe wants to reestablish chattel slavery! And, this is capitalist “civilization”! this possible the cause of trouble in other units? We are still a Party of the streets in Portland, Is it impossible to get into the shops? Since that has not been really discussed and tried, the answer is obvious. How many units are on such a threshold as Portland? How many units have the problem of a growing sentiment in fa-,¢ vor of the Party of workers looking to them fo. leadership, of conducting campaigns such as th criminal syndicalism repeal campaign. Why, all’ of them, of course, Then let us read once again the resolutions and thesis of the 13th Plenum, Let us draw from it the lessons—To the masses, Meaning, put the workers into activity. We don’t have to fear that they will make mistakes, They will, so do we. That's how we learn. We know today that shortage of forces is an awful ob- stacle to achieving our work. It is difficult to overcome. There only seems to be one method of doing it. Recruiting new forces: Give Funds For Trucks and Food For Marchers! Elect Delegates to Your City Labor Conference! ' § ("