The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 15, 1932, Page 4

aie Recs pee oe ne York Address and mail all checks to the biishing Lelephone ALgonquin 4-7956. Daily Worker, 60 Hast 13th Street, | | | January 11 - THE POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RECRUITING DRIVE By L. AMTER Party; but it will also enable ws to carry on HE Party t now going into the recruiting drive. This is of the greatest significance at the present time. Our Party is the leading and driving force in the class struggle. ‘The capitalist class fears no other section of the working class more than it fears the Communist Party. The capitalist class knows that without the leadership of the Party the workers cannot be organized and led in revolutionary struggle. ‘This is of the greatest importance to them, for the crisis is weighing heavily on the workers and small farmers. The capitalists know no other way out of the crisis but by making the workers and small farmers bear the crushing burden of the crisis and by war. These are not separate methods of the capitalists, but one method. Mr. Mallery, chairman of the public works committee of the American Association for Labor Legislation, declared the other day that “no government has ever stopped a depres- sion except by war and while it is dangerous to try to halt a depression it is more dangerous not te attempt to do so.” This is clear language—and indicates clearly hat the drive against the conditions of th workers is directly linked up with the prepara- ions for war. Against who the war is being organized is clear—the Soviet Union. t is not of the greatest importar re, that in the crisis, with the workers e nere showing a willingness to t—Kentucky » miners, textile workers, needle trades workers ete.—for the workers to have leadership and or- ranization? Is it not of the greatest importance that our Party should have its roots in those in- iustries which play @ foremost part in the prep- arations for and conduct of war, namely, marine, chemical, metal, transport? Is it not our duty to build up the revolutionary unions, the unem- ployed councils, and, most of all, the Party, in order that this struggle may be conducted? Therefore the recruiting drive is of the great est significance to the Party, Our Party is r large enough, nor is it sufficiently com- osed of the workers of the basic industries. And. most of all, our Party is not rooted in the shops—only about 120 members out of the more han 3,100 in the district are in shop nuclei. This shows that we will not be able to fulfill yur tasks unless we carry on th emost energetic work in the recruiting campaign—each member his or her own shop, union and unemployed But the Party, as a whole, must throw into recruiting from the basic—the war— buliding nuclei in the big shops of is will not only enable us to rs in the coming struggles—the needle, textile and other struggle; it will not uly strengthen the Party and bring new blood to tts work, furnishing new leadership for the ce, there- | Party Recruiting Drive i i {arch 18, 1932 the basic work in the shops that will bring out the workers in the shops in defense of the Soviet Union. By changing the unit life, by making it pulsate with the struggles in the shops and among the unemployed, the whole life of the Party will change, and the new recruits will remain in the Party. ‘They will help us build it up and to lead the workers in struggle against the capitalist class on the basis of the demands and slogans of the Party. The New York district must not only fulfill its quota in the recruiting drive, it must far ex- ceed itself, By revolutionary competition, be- tween the sections, units and individuals—by clear understanding of what our duty is, by or- FOR SUCCESSFUL RECRUITING— BUREAUCRATIC METHODS MUST BE LIQUIDATED. Y is necessary to have a drastic change in the methods of recruiting new members into the Party. The present practice in recruiting work amounts in practice to a repulsion of |workers anxious to join the Party and ex- cellent material for the building of the Party. jut is necessary that recruiting shall be carried on on a mass basis, that every facility shall ce given for the largest possible number of workers to join the Party, that red tape and delay in acting on applications shall be reduced to a minimum, and that the entire Party shall be prepared not only to welcome the new mem- bers, but to hold them and transform them into most active, reliable Party cadres. To this end the life of the units must be made polit- leally interesting and valuable for the members. Routine and bureaucratic methods must be liquidated. The system of administrative com- mand must be combatted and in its place de- veloped the active participation of all members in the planning and execution of the work without in any way weakening the practice of centralization and individual responsibility. The minimum goal of at least doubling the membership in 1931 must be set by each section and district—(From the 13th C. C. Plenum Resolution, printed In full in the October COMMUNIST.) ganizing in the shops, our Party can DOUBLE its membership and put itself on a better fight- ing basis. FORWARD INTO THE DRIVE WITH THE AIM OF DOUBLING THE MEMBERSHIP OF | THE NEW YORK DISTRICT, WITH MAJOR ATTENTION WAR INDUSTRIES! MINNEAPOLIS DISTRICT RERUITS 88 NEW MEMBERS DURING MONTH OF DECEMBER The composition of new members is as follows: Farmers Housewives Miners ..... Railroad workers . Miscellaneous ..... Unemployed ......06 Total .. . 8 Out of these, three are Negroes and thres in A. F. of L. unions. The District, in sending in this report, also mentioned the weaknesses of the composition of new members. It is conscious of the fact that starting off with the recruiting drive we must immediately take steps to concentrate in bring- ing into the Party miners, railroad workers, and increase the number of A. F. of L. members; especially in Minneapolis there is a big rank and file movement in the A. F. of L. against the labor bureaucracy. More A, F. of L. members must be and can be drawn into the Party. No mention is made of how many new shop nuclei have been organized in December. What about it, Minneapolis? You have in your dis- trict mines, railroad, packing house and steel mills. Let’s utilize this campaign to penetrate into the shops and factories, A NEW MEMBER VIEWS THE PARTY UNIT LET'S HEAR SOME MORE OPINIONS + JOINED the Party only a few months ago. I joined after reading a number of books on Communism and with full realization and will. ingness to submit to proletarian discipline. The minute I presented my book at the unit I was pounced upon with “At last we'll have a good org. secretary.” I accepted the task without pro- I didn’t know what the rights of a new member were and now that I do, it is plain to me that this was an unpleasant job which none of the older members wanted and they seized upon @ new member to take advantage of. I did the job and suffered. I was under the impres- sion when I joined the Party that it meant work among the masses and here I was swamped with test. [WHAT 1S COMMUNIST DISCIPLINE BASED ON? (From the “Proletaril,” No. 46, Jniy, 1909.—“Lenin on Organization.”) The question arises, first of all, how is the discipline of the revolutionary Party of the proletariat maintained? How ts it being tested? | How is it being strengthened? Firstly, by the nsciousness of the proletarian vanguard and its devotion to the revolution, its steadfast: its self-sacrifice and its heroism. Secondly, by its ability to maintain contact and to obtain approach, to fuse itself, if you like, with the wide mass of the toilers—firstly and foremost with the proletarian toiling masses, but also with the non-proletarian toiling masses. ‘Thirdly, by the correct political leadership ex- ercised by the vanguard and its correct polit- ical strategy and tactics, which are conducted in such a way that the wide masses are able to convince themselves of their correctness by their own experience. Without these condi- tions, discipline cannot be maintained in a rev- olutionary Party really capable of being the Party of the class which is destined to over- throw the bourgeoisie and transforms the whole of society. Without these conditions, disctpline must inevitably be an empty-sounding phrase, @ crooked gesture. But such conditions cannot be created immediately. They are the result of long effort and painful experience; their creation is facilitated by a correct revolutionary theory, a theory which is not a dogma, but which has been built up by close association with the experience of a rea) mass, revolution- technical work and inner meetings, now a meet- ing of all org. secretaries, now a meeting of all unit buros. The thing that annoyed me most about the whole thing was that I felt all the time an org. secretary was unnecessary. Why couldn’t the unit organizer just as well write out the assignments and hand them out at the unit meeting? { took it all without saying a word because I was new and didn’t know I had a right to protest, I wasn’t the only new member in that unit that was taken advantage of. Every time a new member came in, the older members would re- ject assignments given them and the new mem- ber would be asked if he could accept. A new member hasn't got the nerve to say no. Another thing I noticed in this particular unit, When the study circles were started, there were many comrades who couldn’t answer the most fundamental things, comrades who had been in the Party for 10 years and more, and stil no attempt had been made ‘before to give them # theoretical training, an absolutely crim- inal neglect, the blame for which can only be placed on the higher bodies of the Party, since it was plain that the comrades were eager to Jearn, I was very unhappy and felt like quitting and only the fact that I kept in mind what Lenin had said about discipline made me stick. But we must remember, comrades, that not every new member is fortified with the teachings of Lenin. A short while later I was transferred to an- other unit belonging to the territory in which I lived. What a contrast! I was greeted warmly and made to feel very much at home. They en- couraged me to take part in the discussion they were having. In giving out assignments, every comrade got something to do. At the first two unit meetings, I was given no assignment, The effect this had was to make me eager to get into the work that the other comrades were doing. I started to canvass with Dafly Workers, collect signatures for the Communist Party, act as chairman at open air meetings, ete, and began to feel that the Comunist Party was really @ Party of action. rer ie (From the Party Builder, issued by the Dis- ivict Commitee of the Comment Party im New York.) Beets So ri * Ine, dally except Sunday, at 50 ©: Cable TO THE WORKERS IN THE | AIWOKK.” New York, N. ¥. of Manhattan and Bronx, SUBSCRIPTION RATES: ~— New York City. By BURCK. Building the Metal Workers Indust- rial League in Pittsburgh District By PETE CHAPA [OUSANDS of steel workers in the Pittsburgh District are suffering from the attacks of the | Steel Trust on their standards of living. On | October 1, over 100,000 steel workers in the Pitts- burgh District received a direct general wage- cut of 10 per cent. This cut came at a time when over 75 per cent of all steel workers were | working 1 to 3 days per week. Before this direct | cut, the workers were receiving wage slashes on a mill basis at different times. The Negro steel | workers are hit hardest of all. | ™ the period since the October 1 cut, this | | same policy of slashing wages on a mill basis has been followed out in this district. On De- cember 16, the Oliver Steel Company cut wages 10 per cent and put the entire working force on a 6-hour day, which amounted almost to a 25 per cent cut. The Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company posted a notice announcing a 10 per cent cut for all workers in the plant to go into effect on January 1. The huge J. & L. works in Pittsburgh are “feeling out” the workers by spreading rumors that there would be another cut, These rumors were propogated in the biy U. S. Steel mills of ‘Monessen, McKeesport. | The U. S. Department of Labor statistics for August revealed that the earnings of steel and iron workers in June, 1931, were 22.8 per cent less than in June, 1930. (Steel production in the Pittsburgh District is only at 20 per cent of capacity at the present time.) Unemployment is increasing by leaps and bounds. Thousands of steel workers and their families are on the verge of starvation. In the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation employment office it is not uncommon to witness the wives, with children, of steel workers demanding work for their husbands, ‘The Government and the Steel Trust are at- tempting to solve unemployment at the expense of the part-time underpaid workers. In Alle- gheny County, the employers backed by the Gov- ernment worked out a program for “‘taking care” | of the unemployed in their county. The plan called for the collection of $5,900,000 to be col- lected through contributions from manufacturers and employees; $3,000,000 of this fund was to go | for “direct” relief, and $2,900,000 for “opening jobs on public works.” Most of the money collected for this fund has been forcefully taken from the part-time workers, particularly from the steel workers. The capitalist press admits that the greater portion of the fund wes collected from the employees of the mills and factories. Through the mass agitation campaign which the Metal Workers Industrial League has carried on against the October wage cut, thousands of steel workers learned to know about our Union. New fields of work were opened for the Metal | Workers Industrial League in this campaign. | ‘This ts especially true of the work among the | unemployed steel workers, which also helped to | reach the part-time workers in the steel mills. ‘The biggest short coming of our campaign was the failure to firmly establish our Union inside the mills. We have not paid enough attention to the special needs of the Negro workers is our shop group work. Our major task at present is to build a network of department groups and mill branches and prepare the workers for strug- gle against wage-cuts and speed-up, for unem- ployed relief and insurance and against Jim Crow laws and courts, The District Committee of the Metal Workers Industrial League has adopted a Three Months Plan of work for building the organization in the district. The main points in the Plan are concentration, shop work, and unemployed work. Six towns have been selected in the district where our activities will primarily center. Out of these six places, Pittsburgh was selected as the central point for concentration. The mills for concentration were also selected for each town. One or more responsible local organizers were assigned to each place. The outstanding feature of the plan is shop work. The plan deals in detail with the organ- isational forms and methods that must be ad- opted in order to develop struggles of the steel a lta tt EE workers. Firsi, a thorough investigation of the burning grievances of the workers in the depart- ments and mills must be made and a powerful sentiment among the workers for struggle against these grievances must be created by our Union. This work must be followed up by the organ- ization of a Grievance Committee which will present the grievances to the Company when the Committee has the backing and support of the majority of the workers ih the Department or mill. This follow-up work has been entirely neglected in the past. The organization of Uni- ted Front Committees of Action against a wage- cut, a new speed-up system, mass lay-off is con- cretely dealt with in the plan, ‘The organization of the unemployed steel workers for the struggle for immediate winter relief and unemployment insurance in the steel towns is closely connected with the work inside the mills. Work among the unemployed and part-time workers plays a big role in the plan. The building up of working representative Un- employed Councils in the steel towns is the im- mediate task of the Union, The drawing of young steel workers into the Union must become the task of the entire mem- bership of our Union. This is to be done through the working out of the special youth demands together with our :yeneral demands and through the organization. of the youth in the company towns, where the terror is great, in sport teams, youth clubs, etc. Work among the Negro workers as weil as the wives of the Negro steel workers is a central part of the plan. The Three Months Plan of Work will end on March 20, The National Committee for building of the Steel Workers Industrial Union elected at the September 27 Conference in Pitts- burgh, will set a date for the calling of the Convention to establish the Union. Fight for the burning grievances and for the everyday de- mands of the workers in the mills and the de- velopment of struggle is the road for the build- ing of the Union in the Pittsburgh District mills. All of our work until the convention must be doubly intensified, so that by the time the Con- vention is called, a good representation of steel workers from the big mills of the Pittsburgh area will gather with workers from all steel sec- tions of the country to establish a revolutionary steel workers union in the United States. | LENIN CORNER THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION AND THE AMERICAN WORKING CLASS ‘The workers of the whole world, in whatever country they may live, rejoice with us and sym- Pathize with us, applaud us for having burst the iron ring of imperialistic agreements and treaties, for having dreaded no sacrifice, how- ever great, to free ourselves for having estab- lished ourselves as a socialist republic, even so rent asunder and plundered by German im- perialists, for having raised the banner of ‘peace, the banner of Socialism over the world. What wonder that we are hated by the capitalist class the world over! But this hatred of imperialism and the sympathy of the class-conscious workers of all countries give us assurance of the righteousness of our cause. earner ‘The best representatives of the American proletariat—those representatives who have re- Peatedly given expression of their full solidarity The PartyTraining School of District 10 -From a Report to the Agitprop Dept. C. C. ‘HE second full-time training school held in District 10, which started December Ist, came to a close December 31st, Despite insufficient preparations, such as the selection of students and difficulties with the raising of finance, we can record with satisfac- tion that the school wa sa success, ‘Twenty-nine students from five states, among them three Negroes and three woinen, were en- rolled. The average age of the students was 28. Five of them had had no previous experience in Communist work. Only one student, for whom the school discipline became too severe, was expelled. ‘Three fundamental courses of instruction were given: 1. Fundamentals of Communism. 2, Trade Union Work. 3. Party Organization and Party Structure. Besides these special courses were given in the History of the Ameri- can Working Class, Public Speaking, Negro Work, Agrarian Work, and two periods were devoted to @ discussion of the importance of the Daily Worker and Party literature. Every week special lectures were given on practical problems confronting Party workers. As part of their training the students were given an op- portunity to speak at the Workers’ Forum in Kansas City, to participate in tag day activities, to arrange entertainments, to hold street meet- ings, to visit factories and packing houses and to distribute leaflets. The practical aspects as well as the theo- retical side of the work was emphasized. Some of the questions before the school were: how shall we organize a shop nucleus, an unemployed council, a fraction, a workers’ meeting? What is the function of a fraction at an unemployed council? Just how does this fraction operate? The students were given lessons in how to pre- pare and write leaflets, shop papers, etc. Many similar problems were considered. ‘These prac- tical questions were considered in connection with the deepening of the capitalist crisis in’ the U. S. and other capitalist countries, the growing war danger, and the rising tempo of Socialist construction in the USSR. ‘The instruction was carried on by means of the class and study group method. In the classes the instructor presented the subject to be considered, then asked questions which was folowed by a general discussion by the students. ‘The study groups consisted of five or six stu- dents who took turns in reading aloud from | the lessons assigned, after which discussion took place under the direction of the group leader. One of the best students was selected to go from group to group to assist with the guidance of | the discussion, to clear up controversial points, | to maintain discipline among the students while | they were studying. We feel the study group | method was quite successful, the students being especially interested in this phase of the school work. The reading habit was also cultivated, Saturday afternoons being usually set aside for individual reading and study by all the students. A students’ executive of five, selected by the students themselves, were running the affairs of the schcool, in cooperation with the instruc- tors and the district buro. The prinicpal com~ nuittees were those of food and the taking care of the hall. A school secretary was selected and also a librarian. The executive held frequent meetings at which schcool problems were con- sidered. Regarding breaches of discipline the students, whose Communist conduct was in question, was brought before the executive and his case discussed and decided in a comradely but firm manner. The Third Full-Time Workers’ Training Schcool in District No. 10 will be held next spring. civil war of 1860-1865? with us, the Bolsheviki—are the expression of | this revolutionary tradition in the life of the American people, This tradition originated in the war of liberation against the English in the eighteenth and the civil war in the nineteenth century. Industry and commerce in 1870 were in a much worse position than in 1860. But where can you find an American 30 pedantic, so absolutely idiotic as to deny the revolutionary: ‘The American working class will not follow the lead of its bourgeoisie. It will go with us against the bourgeoisie. The whole history of the American people gives me this confidence, this conviction. (From a letter addressed to the American working class, the first word to come to the By mail everywhere: One year, $6; siz months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs Foreign: one year, $8; six months, $4.50. ee They Did It One of the weakest of the many weaknesses of the revolutionary movement is the lack of | shop work, or just. dilly-dallying with it. Too often it is done badly or not at all because of that “vile disease,” as Comrade Stalin calls it, of fear of and distrust in the masses, Anyhow, without going into that further, we are delighted to point out an example of good work, carried out by the Metal Workers’ Induse trial League in New York, in the “Durable” too and die shop. An organizing group built up such an infin- ence that when the boss, feeling something slip~ ping, fired some worker to frighten the rest, the influence of the group was such that the nexé day power was shut off in the shop while a workers gathered right in the shop to discus grievances. A strike resulted which was properly organ ized with rank and file control, and in thred days’ time all demands were won, the discharged workers taken back, wages increased, extra pay for overtime and recognition of the Shop Come mittee. Since then, other wage increases have been won by proper functioning of the Shop Committee. Recently, we understand, the N. Y. Trade Union Unity Council arranged with the Workers’ School to teach trade union strategy to selected members of the red trade unions in the locality, | but only one or two unions even replied to the letter sent them about it. about it, we don’t know, But since these other unions are so backward. about going to classes to learn something they certainly don’t know now—maybe they might be snared into the dance being given by these strik= ers at Irving Plaza this Saturday evening. It’s called a “Victory” dance, and possibly the strik- ers may be able to smuggle some {dea into the heads of even some cocksure Communists and “passive militants” of our trade unions on how strikes are won. All Crippled Up A Washington dispatch of Jan. 11, telling ot & session of the U. S. Supreme Court, remarks tnat Justice Holmes, 92 years old “was suffering from lumbago and had much difficulty im reaching his seat,” while Justice Van Devanter “had an arm in a sling because of rheumatism” and Justice Brandeis “was unable to attend bee cause of a cold.” This calls to our attention the fact that nine decrepit old imbeciles who ought to be any~ What can be dons | where else where they are, function as the solmen. Judges of what is and what is not “legal” in this country. However, although feeble, they do tha best they can by capitalism. And it is perhaps fitting that a decaying capitalism should have such a lot of ancient fossils numbling over it in its declining years. * “Our” Ally Against Bolshevism In view of the namerous expressions in the capitalist press to the effect that America should not be too severe in criticizing Japan's seizure of Manchuria, because the empire of the Mikado is acting as an ally of “our civilization” against the “menace of Bolshevism,” the following ex- cerpt from an Associated Press dispatch of Jan. 12, imparts to us just hof “civilized” this ally is: “TOKIO, Jan. 12.—Emperor Hirohito will re- port the recent attempt against his life to the sun goddess Amaterasu, and will participate in rites before the ‘Place of Awe,’ 4 small sanc~ tuary within the Imperial palace.” The. Mikado should also “report to the sun goddess” that he has for years been holding hundreds of workers in prison for organizing trade unions, as one more reason why he should be hailed as @ defender of “civilization” againal Boishevism. Not Adequate Punishment We don’t know who said it, probably nobody, since Heywood Broun is notoriously given to | lying and misquoting, but in his column the other day he said that “one Communist leader has announced that his first official act upon coming to power will be to set me up before a firing squad.” Naturally, when THE WORKING-CLASS— hot some “Communist leader”—comes to power, it may not display any special enthusiasm about maintaining fake “socialist” columnists of cap- italist newspapers in the style to which they have becomes accustomed. But to shoot Heywood Broun would be a sheer’ waste of powder and lead. In fact it would not be necessary. He’s too much of a coward, and | Just as today he keeps on the near side of those in power who happen to be capitalists, he would be quite willing to sell himself to the workers, if they were foolish enough to take him, once they were in power. Where he is a loathsome instrument of cap- italism against the workers is now in the time of their struggle to get power. And it is not for us to decide now what the workers government might mete out as punishment for that. Shooting may be deserved, and we do not exclude that from the possibilities, but how about: taking his gin away from him and putting him to work as a stoker in a steamer carrying work~ ers to the Bermudas for their vacations. He knows that route—abocv deck. Or a job gathering up garbage cans. He has been writing a column in the capitalist press Jong enough to be thoroughly experienced in handling garbage. This methods ought to settle that old stupid question that bobs up now and then: “Who will do the dirty work under socialism?” Who if not the fake “socialists”? They do the dirty work now for the capitalists. OD hie IN THE HALL OF JUSTICE: The telephone company at Sacramento, California, is finding out what kind of “justice” is handed out in that, the capital city of the state, where sits the gov~ erhor and the state supreme court that have k2pt Mooney and Billings in prison for 16 years. ‘The company maintains a nickel phone station in the “Hall of Justice” there. And the looal forced to remark that all the com-