The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 22, 1931, Page 4

} Published by the Gomprodetly Publishing Ge, Inc. defy. except Sunday, at 60 Bast 2 New York City, A@éress and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 60 Hast 13th Street, New York, N. ¥. vage Four Lyth 8t., POLITICAL INIT N. ¥. Telephone ALwonquin 4-7956. Cable “DAIWORK.” Dail orker’ Porty U.S.A. ————————— By mall everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, #1; excepting Boron; ef Manhatten and Bronx, New Yerk City. Foreign: one year, $8; six months, $ NEW MEMBERS ia @ new member the first few weeks is the most important formative period. The first impressions that the new members get about our Party may be decisive whether he will remain or drop out of the Party. It is, therefore, most essential to help the new members to learn about the role, activities and structure of our Party. ‘The participation of the Party in the class struggle, his life conditions as a worker, have brought the new member into the Party. Now that he is in the Party, he must be made con- scious of the leading role of the Party, get an elementary political explanation of the class le, and get practical concrete guidance as ber of the Party he is to learn to an active and leading role amongst the s. Such an approach will help in re- hem and involve them gradually into 2 activities of the Party. Political Role of Unit. The most important point of politically initi- nembers is the Unit. It is there where he gets the first impressions of the Party where he for the first time sees the Party in its and where he will be involved in ty. The raising of an improved or- is decisive how play work daily activities, the life and work of the P: the political life of the ganizational fu for the retention of new members. , At the same time we must give the new mem- bers an elementary political training which would make them feel more at home in the Party, give them a better understanding of the role and activities of the Party. This will make it easier for them and make them more eager to become active in the Party. Six Weeks’ Course for New Members. The following six weeks’ training course is pro- posed: First week, discussion with the new members, “Why they join the Party and how to improve the recruiting of new members”; sec- ond week, the present economic and political situation in the country; third week, the role of the Party in the class struggle; fourth and fifth week, the mass campaigns of the Party and mass organizations; sixth week, the organ- izational structure of the Party. Methods of Teaching. What should be the method for this course? A most simple presentation of tHe general basic problem in each course. The lecture and dis- cussion method to be combined. Reading of certain pamphlets, some sections in some pam- phlets can be assigned. The Agitprop Depart- ment is also contemplaing the publication of a simple propaganda pamphlet for new members. ‘This pamphlet will take up the same topies as mentioned in the six weeks’ training course, Organization of the Course, How should the six weeks’ training course be organized? It should not consist of more than 30 members. Every six weeks a new group to be organized. At the same time when the new member attends the course, he should be advised. not to attend any other classes. The unit should during this period give the new member only a few tasks. The District Committees to decide on the organizational form—whether it should be organized on a unit, city or section scale. It all depends on the local conditions. Wherever pos- sible one comrade should+be assigned to be in charge of the entire course. At the same time, in view of the nature of the topics and the diffi- culties of obtaining instructors, various com- rades may be assigned for the different topics. New Members’ Course and Fundamentals? There is, of course, a difference between the new members’ six weeks’ training course and the classes in fundamentals. The classes in fundamentals is for the pur- pose of giving an elementary propagandistic theo- retical training for the Party membership. A training which is to give a broaded understand- ing of the laws of the class struggle, role and strategy of the Party. The six weeks’ new mem- | bers’ training course, on the other hand, is only for the purpose of giving a most general under- standing of the role and activities of the Party. It is for the purpose of politically initiating the new members, for the purpose of helping the new members to BEGIN to THINK and FUNC- TION politically in the Party. ‘The six weeks’ training course is not a substi- tute for the classes in fundamentals. As out- lined above it is to serve an entirely different purpose. Course Is Voluntary. ‘This course must be absolutely VOLUNTARY. Under no circumstances should it be made a condition for. joining the Party or besoming ac- tive. It should be started at first in afew sec- tions. On the basis of the experiences of some of the sections, then to be gradually extended. Just as in pointing out the need of involving the new members in activities, we must guard ourselyes against the danger of overburdening the new members with too many tasks, so in discussing the need of the political initiation and training of mew members we must guard ourselves against scholastic tendencies. With the proper balance on this point the new six weeks training course can become an important weapon in the training of the new members. The Revolutionary Unions in the Pittsburgh District By CARL PRICE. (Conclusion) 1V. Mass Work and Struggle for Demands The National Miners Union and the Metal Workers Industrial League must intensify to a great extent the mass work being carried on a. More direct and more active participation in the unemployment work, b. More mass meetings and leaflets Brownsville Section Committee reported that in he month of October, and in the first week of November, single mass meeting was held in the name of the National Miners Union in the whole section, and not 4 single leaflet, was issued in the name of the National Miners Union In the Johnstown section, 2 lea member of the section committee of the Party proposed not no intensification of mass work, but on the contrary, proposed that the National Miners Union in the big Bethlehem Mines shall not try to organize any group meet- ings whatever, or any meetings of the local un- ions, but shall work during a long period of several months on the basis merely of collecting applications into the union. He stated that this would better the finances of the union and would also give better results because the workers are afraid to go to group or local union meetings, on account of the terror. This giving up to the terror, this policy of advocating a discon- tinuance of mass work, or even of the necessary group or local union meetings, is a program for the complete liquidation of the National Miners Union. We must everywhere organize the miners into mine groups of the union, hold local union meetings and fight for the legality of the unions, fMrough its mass work. In the very section of Brownsville, where the NMU has for six weeks not held a single mass meeting, or issued a single leaflet in a meeting in Masontown, called by the Unemployed Council, 650 people showed up. Three hundred and fifty came to the hall and hundred to the City Hall where a demonstration was scheduled At the same titne that we intensify the mass work, we must use greater efforts to protect the miners and steel workers and make them feel that the union is safeguarding their jobs as much as possible. The work of the union is conducted too much on the basis of agitation and propaganda, not enough on the basis of struggle. In the Ter- minal Mines, after the slow start, the NMU was able to prevent the putting over of a 15 per cent ‘wage cut by the UMWA and the Terminal Mines. This had the effect of bringing many more min- ers from the Terminal Mines into the NMU. We must follow out more the policy of work- ing on the basis o f formulating a struggle for the local demands of the miners in each mine, especially in the mines on which we are cen- centrating. We must make the miners feel that we are a real union and not a propaganda or- ganization—a union which leads the struggle and develops a fight in the interests of the needs and demands of the workers. We must do this by giving more concrete instructions to the lo- cal forces, as to how to go about formulating demands—how to go about organizing on the basis of formulation and the working up and fighting for these demands. ‘The mass work must be carried on on a basis of bigger movements and campaigns in the in- terests of a united struggle. of all the workers. This includes formulation of the special demands of the most oppressed. a. Fighting for the demands of the Negro miners and steel workers, and struggle against ‘He white chauvinism within our unions. b. Fighting for the special demands of the young miners and the young steel workers: c, Demands of the women steel workers—un- exiployed workers, ots not a n the whole section The Ii is necessary to make use of the campaigns of the working class, to further the united strug- gle of the employed and unemployed miners and. steel workers. It is especially important to mo- lige the miners and steel workers in the defense campaign—for the leaders of the NMU, Myers- cough, Getto, Giambattista, Young, Leo Thomp- son, and scores of other active and leading fig- ures in the NMU.* The union must put up a stronger fight for these leaders of the working class, and on the basis of the defense campaign enlist broad masses of employed and unemployed miners and steel workers to support the union. The same is true of the unemployed campaign, the relief work, ete.—better coordination is ne- cessary.. It is necessary to carry on more edu- cational work among the miners and steel work- ers. A bigger agitational campaign against social fascism, of the UMW, a campaign of the unions against the war danger, a campaign against the demagogy of Pinchot, against the fake programs of Hoover, and his Unemployment Committee, a campaign directly conducted by the unions, in defense of the Soviet Union, and explanation by | the union leaders of the role of the Communist Party, inside of the unions—adirect struggle by the unions against the policy of the socialist party in the mine and steel towns, a struggle against white chauvinism, etc. At the same time, the unions, the NMU, the Metal League, must be directly mobilized for these campaigns, through their entire apparatus. V. Organization Many plans and resolutions have been worked out, giving the activity necessary for the NMU and the Metal League. More systematic work, more planned work, better concentration, more drawing in of local forces is necessary. There still exists, to a great extent, a separation of the “mass work” from the organization work. It is necessary, at once, in the beginning of every campaign, to begin immediately the work of securing organizational results and giving the lo- cal forces concrete directives for the day to day and step by step work of how to secure these results. VI. Perspectives The perspective in the mining and steel in- dustries must be for every Communist a per- spective for the development of immediate strug- sles—local struggles based on local demands in the individual mine and steel mill, and the local grievances of the unemployed, and bigger strug- gles which will undoubtedly develop from them in the near future, if we strengthen our organi- zation sufficiently. Six months ago when there were only a few hundred members of the Na- tional Miners Union in the Tri-State area, when there was pessimism in the ranks of the Party and the union, when only one or two small local struggle were to be seen, the State Hunger March to Harrisburg took place. One hundred twenty delegates from the steel mills. and coal mines of Western Pennsylvania, East Ohio, and. Northern West Virginia took part in this march from the Pittsburgh District. This Hunger March and the organization work that was carried on in the course of the Hunger March had a great influ- ence on the subsequent course of the: miners’ struggle, and was one of the most important steps leading to the strike of the 40,000 miners, which was not foreseen on such a large scale by our Party. I predict that the National Hunger March will have a similar effect in preparihg the struggles of the workers in the steel mills and coal mines in this District. Starvation has increased. Workers, their wives and children are dying of ‘tarvation in inereasing numbers. There ¢an be only one perspective of our Party and -unions in this District. The workers cannot accept the perspective of the booses for the solution of ‘the WomenWorkers! Support the Liberator Drive! By ANNA DAMON. T= Negro workers are among the best fighters in the ranks of ‘the Communist Party, the ‘Trade Union Unity League, the League of Strug- gle for Negro Rights and the Councils of the Unemployed. We need only review the recent ‘struggles In ' the South, in Chicago, Cleveland, to see that the masses of Negro workers are’ moving and moving fast to consolidate their fight against their common enemy the capitalist class with the white workers. ‘The recent strikes in Pittsburgh, West Vir- ginia, Ohio and Kentucky, under the leadership of the National Miners’ Union, brought the Ne- gro miners into direct leadership’ of the union and the strike. The Negro women were, in many sections, the leaders of the strike and became officers of the women’s auxiliaries in the miners’ union. The class program of the Communist. Party and the revolutionary union has proven to. the Negro masses that the Communist Party is their Party that fights in their interests as the most oppressed and persecuted workers under the capitalist government of the United States of America. The Datly Worker, Southern Worker, Labor Unity, Working Woman and other Party papers reflect the struggles, of the Negro masses and proceeds to organize them along the lines of revolutionary struggle. However, these papers, with the many general problems of the working class, could not in the limited space they have at their disposal, treat adequately the problems of the Negro masses, ‘The need of the weekly organ of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, the Liberator, becom- ing a mass paper in the present struggles of the Negro masses must be recognized by all the work- ers. The Liberator drive for 10,000 new readers, which has been prolonged until Jan. 15, must be accomplished. It is not too great a task to set; however, it requires the full co-operation and support of the white and.Negro workers. In the campaign of the Daily Worker and other Party papers the support of the working-class women have shown that they recognize the im- portance of the revolutionary press as a weapon against the bosses and their lying propaganda. ‘The present campaign of the Liberator should meet with the same response. Women Party members, members of trade unions, fraternal women’s organizations! Do your share to con- solidate the struggles of the 10,000,000 Negro workers with white workers in the United States of America. Get your organization to order a bundle of Liberators every week, get your or- ganizations to make a donation. Become active Participants of the Liberator building group in your city. DISTRICT, SECTION AND UNIT LITERATURE AGENTS See that you are’ supplied with the following literature: For All Anti-War Activities Pacifism, by Alex. Bittelman..... War in the Far’ East, by Henry Hall. Chemical Warfare, by Donald A. Cameron.. ‘The War of Intervention Against the Soviet Union and the Second International, War Preparations Against the Soviet Union, by Marcel Cachin.................++ oes Revolutionary Struggle Against War vs. See crisis, through the. literal starvation of the workers. The miners and steel workers will fight under the leadership of our Party and the revolutionary unions. In spite of the wholesale jailings of our leaders, in spite of the increase of the terror, in all its forms, in spite of the many difficulties, shortcomings of our work—the movement—the Party and the unions are growing in ‘influence and organizational strength. As a result of the National Hunger March, it {s necessary to quickly consolidate and build our organizations and im- mediately throw..the workers into struggles for their local demands. “ Z Under the leadership of the revolutionary unions of the Trade Union Unity League and the Communist Party, the workers of this District, undoubtedly will carry on mass struggles for the working class solution of the erists, The United States Is Drawn Into the World Financial Crisis ECRET REATIES sot 4 tl tl GL By BUROK. By MAX WEISS. “On the eve of the crisis, the bourgeoisie with the self-sufficiency that springs from in- toxicating prosperity, declares money to be a vain imagination. Commodities alone are money. But now the cry is everywhere: money alone is a commodity! As the hart pants after fresh water, so pants his soul after money, the only wealth. In a crisis the an- tithesis between commodities and their value form, money, becomes heightened into an ab- solute contradiction. Hence in such events, the form under which money appears is of no importance.” (Capital, Vol. 1, page 155.) Pee Se A VERITABLE fear and trembling has seized the capitalist world as one by one the ele- mental forces of the crisis begin to batter away at the whole edifice of capitalist finance. There is not a credit structure of importance in the capitalist world that is not either on the brink of a cataclysmic plunge or on the rapid road to such a plunge. The latest country to be drawn into the maelstrom of capitalist. financial de- bacle is the United States. Already a premonition of impending disaster has filled American financiers with a profound pessimism. Expressions of misgiving as to the ultimate outcome of the inflationary movement now under way find their way increasingly into the organs of finance capital. With the deliy- ery of Hoover's presidential address in which was outlined the creation ofan emergency Re- construction Finance Corporation, this pessimis- tic mood occasioned such frank expressions of doubt as that contained in the Journal of Com- merce of Dec. 10. This Wall St. paper carried very prominently the statement, that: “Business men have heard a great deal re- cently about possibilities of inflation, which will give immediate stimulus to business but which will cause additional trouble and read- justment later on, “The newly proposed Reconstruction Finance Corporation sponsored by President Hoover is designed to accomplish a measure of infla- tion. “A moderate amount of inflation to check a deflationary movement is believed by many to be sound policy in a time like this... .” Although it is very clear from this statement that Hoover's emergency measure is an infla- tionary one, that the capitalists desire “a mod- erate amount of inflatnio,” and that they are seriously worried about paying the piper after inflation has had its dance, the Journal of Com- merce hides one very significant fact;. namely, that the tendency toward inflation is not merely a “possibility” but an actuality! ’ For the capitalists it is no longer a matter merely of adopting a policy of inflation but of being drawn irresistably in the wake of an in- flationary movement that had its beginnings many months ago. At that time, against a background of inter- national capitalist finance that was tumbling about its ears like a house of cards, American finance found occasion for expressions of jubila~ tion at its ‘apparently secure position. about it were unmistakable symptoms of fihancial disaster. | ‘ Culminating a long period of similar develop- ments, the week ending Dec. 2 found the Bri- tish pound in its most precarious position since the period following the war. Alongside of a decline of 84,918 pounds in gold holdings, British notes in circulation rose to a point where they ex- ceeded the circulation of the past week by 4,057,000 pounds. From a reserve ratio last year of 45.51 per cent, the ratio dropped two weeks ago to 33.82 per cent and last week to 28.44 per cent. The British pound stirling for two, successive days last week (Dec. 7th and 4th) hovered at a point 33 per cent below its par value.» Every indication possible is being given of the depreciation of the British currency and of the heginning of a gigantic wave of inflation. ‘The position of Germany is no better. The Reichsbank statement for Nov. 30 shows a,con- traction in the holdings of gold and bullion. equal to 8,623,000 marks, ‘The Relchsbank’s gold now stands at 1,004,928,000. marks against a holding of 2,179,992,000 marks during the same week last year. In significant contrast to this is the gain in the value of notes in circulation of 363,412,000 marks. Expressive of this tendency is the lowering of the proportion of gold and foreign currency to note circulation from 588 percent last year, to 27:5 per cent last week, to 25.3 per cent the week of the issuance of the Reichsbank’s statement. If we take into ac- count also the depreciation in value of. many foreign currencies, particularly. the pound, then this ratio will be seen to be even lower, since part of the reserve ratio is calculated on thé basis-of the holding of foreign currency. That the German mark is not.greatly behind the Bri- tish pound can easily be seen. In: fact only the desperate efforts of international capitalism have saved it thus far. ‘That this is recognized even by the bourgeoisie is made clear by the “Tinan- cial Chronicle” of Dec. 5, which writes: “The mark remains-at gold parity (?), how- ever, primarily because the balance of foreign payments, insofar as it is created by currency. ordinance, is artificial.” United States Drawn In. In the early stages of the crisis, American financiers thought themselves exempt from the inexorable operation of the factors that were making for international capitalist financial ruin. So lightly did they discount the possibility of their being drawn into the international whirlpool that opinions were openly expressed in favor of a policy of “moderate and controlled inflation.” The cock-of-the-walk arrogance of American capitalism inveigled it into actually believing that it could flirt with a policy of in- flation and not be swept off its feet! The state of mind of American finance in those palmy ‘days of blissful ignorance is very well epitomized in the report of the Guarantee Trust Co. for Noy. 30. This organ of finance capitalism rue- fully states that; “In the early stages of the depression, re- peated efforts were made to draw up a pro- gram designed to maintain the existing level of prices and wages. Subsequent events have proved that that program, while it might have been effective under certain conditions, was based on a broad misconception of the far reaching character of the changes that were then getting under way.” (“The Guarantee Survey.”) While it is beyond doubt that American capi- talism attempted to stave off the ruinous down- ward plunge of commodity prices by a ‘mild, controlled inflation,” the statement that any at~ tempt was made to maintain the then existing level of wages is a downright lie. In fact there has been an open and brutally callous wage cutting drive on a national scale, This wage cutting drive was a conscious attempt to shift the losses in profit entailed by a drop in commodity prices upon the shoulders of the working class. Wage cuts, as will be pointed out later, are an inevi- table concomitant of the inflationary movement. Now, more than ever, talk of the necessity of inflation as a remedial measure is indulged in by leading bourgeois economists. As late as Nov. 16 Babson’s Report came into the open with a direct call for inflation as the only way out of the blind alley into which American capi- talism has,run. Says Babson: “With a large volume of credit locked up in real estate and other long term invest- ments, a turn in business has been blocked. However, the many plans to relieve this situa- tion and break up the jam with new credit will move business ahead. SUCH ACTION FORECASTS INFLATION WHICH IS NOW CONSIDERED NECESSARY BY MANY AU- THORITIES TO CHECK FURTHER STAG- NATION OF INDUSTRY AND TO BOLSTER THE WHOLE FINANCIAL SITUATION.” 4 \ The utter absurdity of the capitalist dream of “controlling” any of capitalism’s anarchic forces is very evident. The inflationary movement pnce under way pours through the tiny crevice opened for it by the unsuspecting bourgeoisie and bursts- like a torrent through the floodgates of capi- By Jonex Somebody Is Lying On August 1, this year, Ralph M. Besley, the National Civic Federation, issued a | heartrending appeal that all good citizens to the aid of the “helpless” tice which, according to his plea, was authority” to “keep track” of the Reds. A of his touching plea ran like this: Federal Government had no right to integw fere with the subversive forces within the states... . They threatened to enjoin the Department of Justice if it repeated its Bridges man, Michigan, assault upon the Communists, An examination of the matter proved, umfory tunately, that the Red groups were right; and the Bureau of Investigation had to discharge aH its under-cover men who had been hee} the Government informed upon. every move made or contemplated by the radical elementy, From that day to this, the Department’s ma» chinery has been ‘padlocked’ and, as stated, the Government knows nothing about what fi going on in these underground movements.” Now we find in the Boston “Transcript” aff Nov. 30, an editorial directed against the Na~ tional Hunger March. The “Transcript,” whieh has cut wages ten per cent for all its workers except those belonging to the A. F. of L. printe ers’ craft unions—in which case the A. F. of ky has done the job itself by docking $3 a week from every worker for the “benefit of the un- employed brothers’—cheerfully lies about the Hunger Marchers by declaring they are now hungry, can’t possibly be hungry because “they ride in motor trucks’—which seems a strange ~ Substitution of transportation for physical suse tenance, > What agonizes the ‘Transeript” in reality iw the fact that motor transport insured the Hun» ger Marchers actually getting to Washington, and not dying by the wayside as did Coxey’s Army in 1893-94, of which only 83 marchers sob to Washington out of the thousands that started, The “Transcript” rages at the Hunger Marche ers, but says it is “gratified” by the “revelations? of the Secret Service, and then it goes’ on t@ what we wanted to bring out as against Mi Scarem Basley: “We would remind the American Comme. nists and their Soviet masters that there neve® has been a time since the Bridgeman raid, when the Uni States Government has net kept itself fully informed of, all their plots.” Now, we respectfully submit that either Basley or the Boston “Transcript” is a liar about this particular subject. Of ocourse.they are both against the. working class. But on this th an obvious Clash of fact. We don't care which is the lier, though we ere inclined lieve it is Easley. We only cail attention bungling job capitalist liars make of it. e ss @ Maybe This Is Helpful Because many comrades are sort of hary What fascism is, we*think it a good idea to git a thumb-nail sketch, which we take the of “translating” into plainer English than original (otherwise good) found in the pamphlet, “The World Crisis and ‘the that i a © ek ii tional Class Struggle:” “rhe big thing about fascism ts % is open attack on the working class, using kinds of force and violence. It is war on workers. Whe the capitalist dictatorship we call “democracy” changes, slowly ot rapidly, to an open dictatorship, with no “democratic® pretense about it, we call that the “fascisation® of the capitalist government. 3 Fascism is now a new form of government, different a lotfrom a “democratic” The fake “socialists” say it is, and trick workers into fighting FOR a so-called “democracy” we der the notion that it is “the lesser of two evils”? Yet the workers get robbed and clubbed plenty under a so-called “democracy.” A regular capitalist “democracy” and fascism are only two forms of the same thing, a capital~_ ist dictatorship. Fascism grows out of “demos cratic” republics, and one can’t say exactly, where “democracy” leaves off and fascism bee gins, é Fascism develops as capitalism becomes weak. But it is a violent effort to hang on by attacking every effort the workers make to fight for theig interests. We must beware of making mistakea on this point. re ges j around or in the working-class movement, try to get the workers. not to fight capitalism, not to strike or anything, under the false ides that the growth of fascism shows a growth in the time being. These “rights” say that fascism ts just- ordinary capitalist attacks, only a little more of them, and so they figure out that capl- talism is getting stronger merely because it hits you twice where it only hit you once before, So they say “Don’t strike now, capitalism is too strong,” or “The workers must give in because only makes the capitalists’ attack harder than ever, No, the only way out is for the workers to get more hostile than ever, organize better and with pagel behind the movement. In fact, if sy