The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 5, 1932, Page 4

Publishing Co, Yuc, daily except Sand: Telephone Algonquin 4-7956. Cable the Daily Worker, 60 East 18th Street, jay, st 60 East “DAIWOKK.” jew York, N. ¥. SOBSCRIPTION RATES: co af everywhere: Ong year, $8; six months, §3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs New City. Foreign: one year, $8; siz months, $4.50, = = ———<$—=—== = NN TRIAL OF THE OAKLAND COUNTY HUNGER MARCHERS a6 charyed. Nineiy days in the county co Thus ended the five day tris) of Willlam Reynolds, first of twenty-four defendants to be tried on a “disorderly conduct” charge for par: ticipation {n the Oakland County Hunger March om October 15. The charge of disorderly conduct was only nominal. The defendant, by proxy, represented the whole hungry and exploited working class, driven to action by starvation, and behind the amiling-and affable tool of the master class on bench, the bewildered, petty capitalist and talist minded workers, elements that com- the jury; behind the vicious lawyer stool- pigeon prosecution, stood General Motors, whose police had elubbed, arrested and beaten these: marchers, The significance of this trial Nes In that both the workers of Pontiac and County and the tools of General Motors ing the elty and county machinery of Govern- ment, understood that while the charge was orderly conduct against our workers, in reality she insane social order of capitalism, with its vileges to the rich owners and starvation f tl orkers, was being arraigned before the court of working class justice. Before a crowd that packed the court room, with hundreds daily turned away, the trial pro- sesded with the usual pretense of justice. Pre tenses that were completely torn away as the Jass nature of the trial developed until when the curtain fell upon the last stool-pigeon witness and the prosecution had waved the flag and ex~- erted the jury to save our holy institutions, the nurch, home, and country, capitalist justice ster revealed before us as the brazen prostitute she is, and the defense began the preparation of an appeal, which was ready before the jury had returned the verdict of guilty. The defendants, twenty-two white and one Ne “eo—men and youth and one woman had been clubbed, arrested and beaten. The evi- troduced by the police was that a permit nh had been denied, that we had enterec ity of Pontiac, halted in our conveyanc' that an offer by the county prosecutor to let samittee advance, had been rejected and that a geech by Reynolds, characterizing the police smed thugs, General Motors agents, plug ugiles, ., had terminated when Reynolds called the oolice a “bunch of yellow bellied bastards”, and the police had attempted to arrest Reynolds, had veen resisted and had resulted in disorder and ylolence. Police witness, after witness, vividly récalled “yellow bellied bastard” though all else in a ten minute speech escaped their attention. After the little camouflage, the real trial be- gan with the introduction by the “people”, at the prompting of a well-known fink of the so-called Ri Seaataasoat Edticationial League, of copies of the Daily Worker containing an outline of the National Hunger March. C. P. directives for work among the unemployed and an article from Party Life on unemployment work in Lincoln Park by , the defedant, Reynolds, all of which were read in full into the record, ‘The defense witness told a consistent story of it the fact Oakland compos- ntense hunger, misery, and insecurity for the | workers of Oakland County of unhumanly in- sufficient relief, of forced labor and of the or- derly procession of the march through several cities until the uniformed clubbers of Pontiac took up their work.” Aged women with grown sons among the defendants awaiting trial testi- fied to having been struck with blackjacks. Wo- men with babes in arms were struck and pushed, but the real flowering of General Motors de- mocracy occurred when the defendants were in the jail under arrest and were, one by one, called out into an “office” and beaten with fists and feet. A Negro youth named B. J. Graham was bru- tally beaten before twenty of his fellow pris- oners and then a rope was thrown over s steam pipe and fastened around his neck and pulled tight. This was the occasion for hilarious laugh- er on the part of these uniformed brutes, who later jestingly inquired if any police “wanted a number” were brought in for evidence by the prosecution, but were omitted on second thought, because of the intense interest of the workers. These were introduced by the defense and each read into the record The defendant was questioned as to Commu- nist membership, his arrest at Bridgman, Mich., at the Communist convention in 1922 and about the Communist International and many other things remote from the charge of disorderly con- duet The defendant was represented by Oliver een, a Negro attorney of Pontiac, whose in- est in the struggle of the Negroes against dis- ation and terror has led him into an un- der: ding that the Negroes fight is part of the class struggle and that emancipation is a class issue. As 9, rebuttal witness to disprove the testimony regarding police brutality the prosecution put on the very brute who had led in the beating. They ad kept him under cover to avoid recognition by he defense witness until his use as a rebuttal witness. A sixteen year old boy who had been arrested | in the march and held over night, was being ss-questioned by the prosecution. “Do you be- to the Unemployed Council?” asked the pro- nutor, “Yes, sir,” answered the lad. “And do your father and mother?” ‘No, sir, but they will,” was the answer,,and in trial. Thousands of workers who knew nothing | of the Unemployed Council didn’t belong, but | through this trial they have received the work- | ing class message and to the open air mass meet~ ings held during the trial thousands of workers responded. This is the answer to the mercenaries f General Motors, whether their weapons against the starving workers be blackjacks and jail keys or law books and brief cases. Preparations are now going forward for an- other hunger march whose mass power of hun- gry workers will break though to the goal. — | Extending Law and Order With the Help of American Imperialism meaning a special victim for our banners carried by the marchers | ement lies the keynote of the whole | —By GROPPER. ‘The U. S. Working Class Watches Kentucky By HARRY SIMS UNDREDS of thousands of workers have their eyes fixed on the coming strike of Kentucky and Tennessee miners against starvation and ter- | ror on January 1, under the militant leadership of the National Miners Union, The workers of the South have a special inter- est in this struggle. The well known facts of | the Harlan and other fields here are typical though a bit worse than the conditions of the industrial southern workers and particularly the miners. It is the first real large scale strike to take place in the South under the leadership of the revolutionary unions of the Trade Union Unity League, since the Gastonia struggle, against misery and starvation, A few words suffice to show the conditions. Men working every day in the week yet not a crumb of bread in the house. Scores of children dying daily of the dread starvation disease “flux” The N.A.A.CP. Helps City Mayors Cover Up Jim-Crow Practices By ELIZABETH LAWSON the eve of a great Nationa! Hunger March, which swept aside Jim-Crow lines and united black and white workers in = commo! against starvation and Jim-Crowism, the 5 organ of the National Association for the Ad- yvancement of Colored People, came to the rescue of, the city mayors who are helping to starve and Jim-Crow the workers. Im its December issue, the Crisis prints letters from 11 mayors in various parts of the United States to the effect that their city “will not dim-Crow the Negro jobless.” On the basis of these letters the N.A.A.C.P. sends out a press release saying that “In general, the replies give assurance that there has been and will be no discrimination in the application of relief to colored people.” ‘These letters are printed in order to help the mayors cover up the truth about discrimina- tion in relief, and to disarm the Negro workers for a.real struggle against this discrimination and against starvation during the coming winter. ‘The Crisis prints these letters almost without comment. Yet its editors are well aware of the fact that discrimination against the Negro job jess is carried on in all of the large cities, either vpenly or by various red-tape methods ‘fhe recent hearings of the Unemployed Coun. cils, at which thousands of Negro and white workers testified to starvation conditions, gave plenty of evidence of discrimination. Workers in every large city told of systematic discrim- ination against the Negro unemployed in t giving of, jobs, st the feeding-stati flop-houses. We mention only a few Im Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester and N: York, Negro workers ere systematically denied jobs at the city agencies. In New York City women are forced to stand in Jim-Crow Cards printed by the New York State Service list four branches in Greater New York, one of which, in Harlem, is called the “colored ” Colored workers say that when they apply to other branches, they are ad- vised to go to Harlem, regardless of their place of residence. The Gibson committee allotted only $300,000 for over 180,000 jobless Negro workers and their families—a much smailer pro- i ® sign over one relief agency "% help Negroes.” A charity or- tn Loe Angeles broadc:st the same over the radio. ‘workers who testified at the open hear- on different days from thé whites, gives them the worst jobs and the fewest of these. Negro workers cannot get their meager relief in cash, but may have only a small grocery order. Memphis and Atlanta practically eliminate Negroes from relief altogether. And Since when, we should fike to know, is the word of a city mayor about the conditions of the jobless worth a whoop? And since when are mayors’ promises worth a plugged nickel unless forced to fulfillment by the organized pressure of the workers, black and white? ‘The truth is that Negro workers out of jobs must suffer not only the usual misery of unem- ployment, but special forms of persecution and discrimination. Last to be hired when workers are taken on, first to be fired when someone is to be laid off— this policy of the bosses forces into unemploy- ment three times as many Negro workers as whites in proportion to their numbers. Jim-Crow sections in the cities forcing the Negroes to live # virtual prisoner within a lim- ited area, bring with them high rents and un- sanitary conditions, A rent of 50 to 100 per cent higher in such areas than is charged white workers for similar quarters, quickly eat up the small sayings of the Negro workers. More Ne- gro workers, in proportion to the total, find themselves on the street with nowhere to turn for shelter, Besides the discrimination at the relief agen- | cies, Negro workers in many cities testify to the special terrorization of Negro jobless, both men and women, by the police. Negro workers out | looking for jobs ere framed on any and all ex- cuses. The case of the nine Scottsboro boys, | who were framed on 2 fake rape charge while out looking for work, is not an isolated instance. Yt is an example of what les in wait for almost any jobless Negro worker. It is no wonder that Negro workers in large numbers have rallied to the call of the Unem- ployed Councils. Smashing through, all the Jim-Crow lines, recognizing their equality of misery and their need to fight together, Negro and white workers have joined the local and state hunger marches. Among the 1,670 dele- gates of the National Hunger March, Negro dele- gates made up over 30 per cent. In addition to the general demande for rete? and insurance, the hunger mareh delegates de- manded the tearing down of the walls of special discrimination sgainst the Negro jobless and the Negro workers ss 8 whole. They demanded equal pay for equal work, equal distribution of jobs and relief, the stopping of the segregation practices at job-lines, bread-lines and flop- houses. They demanded the abolition of the dim-Crow areas, with their high rents and slum conditions. ‘They called on the workers for @ fight against the wave of lynch terror. They raised « mighty protest for the release of the mine Scottsboro boys, victims of police frame-up. and hundreds more unable to go to school be- cause of their. nakedness. Company prices are 100 per cent higher than elesewhere. Every min- er’s paycheck shows @ big list of deductions and a round “0” at the end of his statement or may- be he owes the company money for working. Many haven’t seen a red cent in months, ‘The terror regime in Harlan, Ky., is so br@tal and open that even the bosses’ own vile sheets are forced to admit that “lawlessness of the law” —kidnapping, brutal cold-blooded murder and hundreds of Jailings of militant workers is the order of the day for Sheriff Blair and his gun | thugs hired by the “respectable, upstanding coa! operators.” Thousands of Negro miners are forced to work under the gun and endure the same con- ditions as the white miners. Side by side, they work with them in the hell holes and side by side they and their families are slowly starving to death under the starvation rule of their com- mon enemy, the boss class. ‘The miners are determined to win in spite of the threats and actions of the operators and their tools. Already over 12,000 are lined up in the N.M.U. Men and women, young and old, white and Negro, children, and-all are prepar- ing solidly for January 1. The Kentucky miners have a responsibility be- fore the American working class. They stand ready, every man, woman and child, te fight to the bitter finish against the feudal starvation terror system, They lead the fight of the south- ern workers. Upon their struggle will hinge a great deal of the future of the class struggle,of the South, They are organizing solidly—some | places openly, others secretly. Significant is the welcoming in open, brotherly fashion of Negro miners into the ranks of the National Miners Union and the strike In the struggle against the common enemy, who oppresses all workers—the coal operators. Negro workers sit on the leading bodies of the union and all leading committees beside their white comrades. It shows that the poison preju- dice which the bosses have put into the white workers’ minds can be broken through militant organization end struggle against the boss class. ‘The Kentucky and miners will do their share—fighting not alone, the companies’ starvation and eviction plans—but the murderous gun thugs and government tools and other stool pigeons of the operators. ‘The American working class expects much of these Kentucky toilers, born and bred in the hills and hollows of that historic battle ground. They will not be disappointed. The Kentucky miners, too, depend on and count on the unfail- {ng support of the entire American working class, white and Negro, to ald them in their struggle. ‘The Kentucky miners and their families are eounting on the support of the broad masses of this country to help them win their fight for better conditions and against the terror reign. Relief will be needed from the first day of the strike. Miners now working are starving—the minute they quit starvation faces thern. Many may be evicted—though not without = fight~ but they must be provided with tents. Many have no shoes or clothes to go om the picket 4 AMERICAN WORKERS LOOK AT WORKERS’ RUSSIA By NORMAN H. TALLENTIRE. E American Workers Delegation to the 14th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution have returned to the United States, animated by re- newed enthusiasm as 2 result of their observa- | tions and experiences in the Soviet Union. The | delegation is determined to work unceasingly to carry the truth about the Soviet Union to the millions of American workers—not only to speak, but to organize these workers into militant groups of the Friends of the Soviet Union, pre~ pared at any moment to militantly resist any attack by the imperialist powers, particularly the United States, upon the workers’ fatherland. The Delegation has had an exceptional op- portunity to observe the progress of the Five Year Plan and the spirit and resolution of the Russian workers who, confronted with unpte- cedented difficulties, are completing “Piatiletka” in four years, recognizing the correctness of the Communist Party program and policy, and ac- cepting the Party as the leader and director in the development of the Workers State. The delegation, by unanimous vote of the Pre- sidium of the Republic of Daghestan, were elected honorary “udarniki” (shock brigaders) of the Daghestan Republic. The Delegation returns to report to the work~ ers in the basic industries from which they came, and to build groups of the FSU in every basic industry, particularly in the factories of the largest enterprises. Smaller in numbers than some previous delegates, nevertheless the pres- ent delegation is characterized by its definite proletarian character and by the ability to ob- serve and report to the workers the situation in the Soviet Union. The Delegation consists of 4 marine workers—three from New York, one from San Francisco; two steel workers—one from Gary, Indiana and one from Youngstown, Ohio; two miners—one from the strike region of West Virginia and one woman picket leader from the Pennsylvania strike region; one chemical work- er from Buffalo and one railroad worker from Detroit. Four Negro workers and one woman delegate are included in those listed above. The Delegation was received with unprece- dented enthusiasm as they visited the workers in the factories of the Moscow District, the im- mense Dnieperstroy Hydro-Electric Project, the coal mines of the Don Bas, among the national minorities of the Republic of Daghestan, among the oil workers of Baku, the cement and marine workers of Novorossisk, the metal workers in Tractorstroy at Stalingrad and the workers in Red Putilov and on the waterfront in the port of Leningrad. Now the Delegation will get down to work, to bring the message of inter- national solidarity from the Russian workers to the American workers. The report of the Delegation, which will be printed in pamphlet form, will give a detailed examination of the conditions and progress of the building of socialism and the Five Year Plan. This report, which will be off the press in a few days, should be spread broadcast and read by every worker, unemployed and employed, in capitalist America, who is suffering unem- ployment and starvation om the one hand or ever-increasing wage cuts and speed-up in the factories—not through any fault of their own, but as @ result of the failure of capitalism to meet the ever-increasing difficulties which are inseparable from the system the capitalists sup- port and maintain. The message of the Russian workers to the American workers is 2 message of working class courage and resolution. The Russian worker call upon the workers in America, as in every capitalist country, to follow their example and even at the cost of tremendous sacrifice ,to fol- low in the footsteps of the Russian workers, smash the capitalist state and build a) workers’ civilization to supplant the corrupt and decadent capitalist system. While the Russian workers at the present time sre struggling under hardships to create the basis of heavy industry, without foreign loans, without the intervention or direction of foreign capital—building out of the raw material and resources of Workers’ Russia, a workers’ country —in short, building socialism—in the capitalist countries we find the workers ‘acing bitter mis- ery, hunger and actual starvation as a result of the collapse of capitalist institutions. America, with its 12 million unemployed is only symptomatic of the entire capitalist system. We have noted the actual horror of hunger, sta:va~ of the proletariat In the city of Berlin. While we have observed the difficult condi- tions and arduous tasks of the proletariat in the Soviet Union, nevertheless there is no starv- ation, there is no despair on the workers’ faces —only the resolute determination of the work- ers to conserve the results of the proletarian revolution and to create, in the face of the op- position of the entire capitalist world, a Social- ist society in the Soviet Union. The Russian workers and peasants are achieving the objec- tives of the Five Year Plan, which will be com- pleted in four years, One example in particular to which we will refer in our report and speeches throughout the country is the example of Tractorstroy at Stalin- grad, the first tractor plant completed in the Soviet Union. We have read in the columns of the capitalist press in America that this plant was erected by American engineers, equipped with American machinery, but that the unskilled and untrained Russian workers had smashed all the splendid American machinery, with the re- sult that it would be impossible to produce trac- tors in the plant. The renegade Trotsky, writ- ing in the bourgeois Saturday Evening Posi, has posed the question: ‘Well, they have a tractor factory at Stalingrad, but what are they going to do with it now they have it?” When he viewed the tractor factory, we found around the fac- tory on all sides, hundreds of tractors ready for shipment. We saw the workers at work, start- ing at the foundry and finishing at the con- veyor belt where we stoprec! until we saw trac- tors coming off the belt—one every 12 minutes, running off the belt under their own power, The plant now produces, for the past 30 days, 110 tractors per day. The workers in Tractorstroy have guaranteed to reach the maximum pro- duction of the first unit of the plant, of 144 tractors per day by the first of January, 1932. Already in anticipation of reaching the maxi- mum in the first unit, the second unit of the plant is in process of erection. This second unit when completed and running a maximum ca- pacity, will produce 288 tractors per day. The innumerable lies and slanders against the Soviet Union are emphatically answered by this and a hundred other instances of the success of the workers in carrying through the Five Year Plan. Another of the most slanderous lies of the capitalist class against the Russian working class, is that they do not support the present Soviet Government of Russia and are only cowed into submission by ruthlecs dictator- | ship imposed upon them by force. This lie of the capitalist class, and particularly the lick- spittles of capitalism—the social democracy— was blasted when we saw, afier a military par- ade of four hours in the Red Square of Moscow on November 7th, a parade of workers estimated at 2 minimum of one million, two hundred fifty thousand workers, pouring in, flooding the full width of Red Square, from 1 p. m. till 9 p. m. in the evening—workers, men, women and youth, with arms in their hands; with rifles, with bayonets, ready if need be to defend the work- ers’ fatherland from attack from any quarter. Well, we can state with absolute conviction, in the words of Merx, that a proleteriat armed cannot be suppressed. An armed proletariat is @ free proletariat. In capitalist countries it is @ crime for the workers to possess arms. Gang- sters, gunmen, dopesters, murderers, agents and adjuncts of the capitalist system, are permitted to carry arms. But not the workers. The one country in the world where the workers are armed by the government of that country, is the country of the proletarian dictatorship, which it is precisely because the proletariat is armed to defend the revolution and the con- quests of the workers. These and numberless othe: vital facts about the Soviet Union will be told by the returned delegation to thousands of meetings in the com- ing two-months reporting campaign, which will commence on January 2nd. Through the col- umns of the workers’ press, the Delegation ap- peals to the workers everywhere, black and white, men, women and youth, to hear through the Delegation the call of the Russian working class—not an appeal to capitalists, not an ap- peal to bankers or intelligentsia—but to the workers of the capitalist world, asking support for the shock troops of the world proletarlat, the heroic workers and peasants of the Soviet Union in their fight to build socialism in their country and to usher in the proletarian revolu- ama Nothing to Worry About—Some of the triples ply patriots are “viewing with alarm” the situa= tion as pictured by General MacArthur, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, who says that the army is all chopped up in little pieces and scattered around the country, so dispersed that they could not “meet the first phases of emergency”—whate- ever he means by that. Maybe he means YOU! | Anyhow, in view of the fact that the same Gene | eral MacArthur has given orders to the Reserve Officers to be “ready for service at a moment's notice’—we are a couple of sobs behind the triple-ply patriots, Have You Got Yours?—We refer to the No. 2 edition of “Red Sparks” pamphlet. You know we | printed only 3,000 of the first, or No. 1, edition, And they were gobbled up quick, and that nume ber ran short. So the Workers Library has printe | ed 5,000 of No, 2—and it’s really better than the first pamphlet. But, hang it all, the front cover is exactly like No. 1, and we're afraid many of you will think you “already have it.” So look in the lower left corner, and if “No. 2” is there, that’s the new one. We'll have to change the color or something of the cover on the next one, So you'll recognize it as a new one without’ using @ microscope. But get No. 2, and send one to some hard-boiled egg to see what happens, e ee 6 A Piece of Effrontery—The college giris in Chie cago, having nothing else to do and being inter- ested in the working clawsses, recently got toe gether in their Phi Pi Psi Sorority, and advised working girls (who might, be it noted, be work= ing for the darling papas of these sorority lasses) what they should do to “become a success”. Lots of advice about morals and “keeping your neck clean”, but the worst insult was: “Do what the boss wants, the way he wants it, even though¢ he won't raise your salary.” oF Sar oe How Generous!—According to the Los Angeles Examiner, we are asked to give praise to Allah, blessed be His name, because at Altadena, Calle fornia, the good citizens have pledged; no, not given, pledged the sum of $700 a month for “aid” to the unemployed heads of families, And we got all excited about such a BIG sum, seven hun- dred whole dollars a month, but...But we saw | that this was supposed to “aid"—FOUR HUN- DRED FAMILIES! The Importance of Unemployed Coun- cils and Agrarian Work in the South By CLARA HOLDEN successfully lead mass struggles in the South, to successfully build mass organiza- tions and to successfully build a mass Party, unity of Negro and white workers must be estab- lished. In the South, the capitalist century-old. Poisonous propaganda of race hatred, in order to better exploit both white and Negro worfsrs, has taken hold to an almost unbelievable ome tent. Our most difficult problem is to break down this barrier between the Negro and white workers. This is particularly necessary with the capitalist offensive against the working clase sharpening, and the possibilities in the future, of race riots being used as part of this offen- sive. Unity between white and Negro workers can be effected only through struggle. We must ask ourselves in what fields of work in the South can we most easily and quickly bring Negro and white workers into united struggle. At the pres- ent time, I think that our two most important fields of work are Unemployed Council work and agrarian work, In building our revolutionary unions in the South, we have the bad situation that in most shops, where the great majority are white work~ ers, there are practically no Negro workers, and yice versa. In the textile industry, for example, the chief industry in the South, with 300,000 mill workers, there are practically no Negro workers. Of course there are some few excep- tions, as the Harlan, Ky., miners, where Negro and white workers organized and fought toe gether, Also, some of our organizations and fields of struggle do not attract the white work- ers of the South. White workers, at this stage of the game, will not organize and struggle with Negro workers on issues dealing specifically with Negro rights, such as Scottsboro, Camp Hill, ete, But in the two fieids of Unempicyed Counc work and agrarian work, white and Negro work- ers can see that their problems are identical, ‘They can see that they have a common basis for struggle. In both instances, of course, thera are special problems for Negro workers, as for example, we find cases where children of white share-croppers have @ school bus, and Negra children on the same plantations do not, ete, The share croppers, both Negro and white, are having it forcibly brought home to them, that after a year of back-bres!:ing slavery the worse off than if they had done no work ‘They are forced to sell cotton at 5 cents cents @ pound, which costs them 16 cents 20 cents a pound to grow. They know something must be done. Negro and white workers in the Southern cities and small towns are having it forcibly brought home to them that cold, hungry and ragged, as they have been, conditions are cous tinuously growing worse, They know that somee thing must be done. Vor both farmers and city workers, starvation, treezing and nakedness are grim realities. Now is the time to organize the Negro and white workers together on the farms and in the Unemployed Councils.. They are meeting on common grounds, where united struggles should take place and will take place. By organizing white and Negro workers together, and by fighte ing jointly for relief and other demands, a real, unbreakable unity of Negro and white workers can be achieved on the farms and in the cities, eg ips H E A network of Party units must be established, And if we can also bring unity between the city workers and the farmers, through joint struggles, sorne real steps will have been taken toward our’ § — & |