The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 21, 1932, Page 3

Page Three JOIN AND BUILD THE PARTY OF LENIN, THE COMMUNIST PARTY! Coal Miners and Coal Capitalists By Y. 1. LENIN It was only recently that the Petro- grad report of the delegation from the Donetz workers exposed the gen- tlemen coal mine proprietors of the Donetz, who are criminally disorgan- izing production, who are stopping it, who to safeguard their “divine” right to enormous profits are con- the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies and the Union of Employes in their telegram: “Criminal and pro- voking manner of managing the business” by the capitalists. And all the members of the Provisional Gov- ernment, the so-called Socialist Min- isters included, will be accomplices of this crime if they continue to “grapple” with the approaching col- lapse by means of resolutions, com- missions, conferences with the em- |ployers, if they continue to waste | words, where they should use force | against the capitalists. | Prayda, No. 61, June 1, 1917. Lenin’s Simplicity| --His Knowledge of the Lumber Industry By M. GORKL In the Autumn of 1918 I asked a| worker from Sormova, Dmitry. Pav. lov, what he thought was Lenin’s most striking feature? He answered, | demning the workers to unemploy- ment, the country to hunger, indus- try to a crisis because of the lack of coal. Today we received @ telegram in- forming us of another equally brazen attempt of a criminal group of coal | mine proprietors in another part of Russia. Here is the telegram sent to the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies and ta three Ministers: “The Soviet of Soldiers’ Deputies and the union of employes in Mik- | helson’s Sudzhensk mines on May 12 | remoyed nine person# from the ad- ministration of the mines because of their criminal and provoking man- ner of managing the business, which might have led to the shutting down of the mines, The management has placed in the hands of a council of engineers a technical council under the direct control of the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. A commission of the leading Sudzhensk organizations has, upon investigation, approved our decision. “Mikhelson, in a telegram dated May 24, refused to settle with the workers; we demand complete restor- ation; restoration is impossible; (*the meaning is not clear, Does | the telegram aver that, once the} mines are shut down, it would be | difficult to start again?) the mines | are threatened with anarchy, the | workers with misery. Take imme- | diate measures by sending half aj} million rubles, determine the fate, of the mines, confiscate them, The mines are’ working for national de- fense, the daily output is 135,000 poods—stoppage may imperil the movement of trains, the functioning of factories. So far the work is nor- mal. Wages for March and April have not been fully paid. (Signed) Boviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, and the Union of Eni- ployes.” tion. It is impossible to find a more fit- ting expression than the one used by he began to study Marx. exiled to Siberia in 1897, 1903 saw him lead the formation of the Bolshevik Party and in 1905 he returned to Russia to participate in the first great Russian revolu- When the years of reaction followed the 1995 revolution, he was forced to leave the country again, but 1917 saw his return, again to take part in revolution. In 1918 he was wounded by a social revolution- ary, and on January 21, 1924, Lenin died. LED AT THE AGE OF 18. Vladimir Ilytch-Ulianov Lenin was born of peasant stock on April 10, 1870 in the town of Simbirsk, Rus Kasan University for taking part in the student movement. He moved to Petrograd in 1893, and was In 1887 he was expelled from “Simplicity. He is as simple as truth | itself.” He said this as though it had | been thought out and decided long | ago. It is well known that one’s severest critics are those who work | under one, | Lenin’s chauffeur, Gill, a man of j great experience, said, “Lenin 1s quite unique. There are no others | like him. Once I was driving him } along Myasnitsky St. when the traf- | fic was very heavy. T hardly moved | forward. I was afraid of the car getting smashed and was sounding the horn, feeling very worried. He opened the door, reached me by standing on the footboard, mean- while running the risk of being knocked down, and urged me to go forward. ‘Don’t get worried, Gill, go on like every one else. I am an} old chauffer. I know that nobody | else would do that.” | It would be difficult to make the | reader realize how easily and natur- | ally all his impressions flowed in the same channel. “With the ariability | of # compass-needle his thoughts turned in the direction of the clas interests of the workers. One of our | free evenings in London a small ¢om- | pany of us went to the “Music Hall” -a democratic theatre. V. Mlyitch laughed gaily and infec- | tiors'y at the clowns and comedians ed indifferently at the rest. paid especial attention to the | timber-felling by the workers of Bri- | tish Columbia. The litile scene at the back showed a forest camp and on the ground in front two young fellows hewed thru the trunk of a tree about a metre in thickness in the course of a minute. “That's for the public, of course,” ; said Ilyitch, “They couldn’t work as quickly as that in reality. But ap- parently they use hatchets there also, and cut up a lot of wood into useless | chips. There’s English civilization ' for you!” He began to speak about the anarchy in production under capitalism, the great percentage of | | In 1888 Stalin on Lenin | “War Is Politics Continued By Other Means” The Eagle. I first made the acquaintance of Lenin in the year 1903. This acquaintance, it is true, was not a personal one, but > But this acquaintance- ship made an unforgettable impression upon me, which has | not left me during the whole of my Party activity. time I was living in banishment in Siberia, with the revolutionary activity of Lenin at the end of the nineties and particularly after the year 1901, after the ap- kra” (Spark) convinced me that here we had to do with a quite exceptional person. that time not the simple leader of our Party, but its actual founder, for he alone understood the inner nature and re- When I compared him with the other leaders of our Party, it always appeared to me as if Martov, others—stood quite a head below him, as if, in comparison with them, he was not simply one of the leaders, but a lead of a higher type, an eagle, who is a stranger to all fear and would courageously lead the Party along the unknown paths was based on an change of letters. pearance of hte “ quirements of our Party. Lenin’s collaborators—Pleckhanov, of the Russian revolutionary movement. This impression penetrated so deeply into my soul that I felt the necessity to write to a near friend of mine who was at that time in exile, in order to obtain his opinion. some time. Lenin’s let over the most complicated things that every sentence not only speaks to the reader, but also hits the bull’s eye. This simple letter increased my conviction that we had before us in the person of Lenin the eagle of our Party. Unfortunate- ly I have, according to the custom of old conspirators, burned this like so many other letters. It is from that time that I date my acquaintance with Lenin, at that time I was already in banishment in Siberia, it was towards the end of 1903—I received the en- thusiastic reply of my friend and a simple, moving letter from Lenin, to whom my friend had given my letter to read. was comparatively short, but it gave a bold, fcarless criticism of the practice of our Party and a surprisingly clear and compact presentation of the whole plan of work for the next period. Only Lenin was capable of writing so simply and clearly, so compactly and boldly | By V. I. LENIN peace and war times Consists in thr oe = pees ent of x not in their hes On the contfary, in China, | of the profounde questions, Clause Marxists axiom a. for their ur At that | ing of ev very standp gels regarded wars Acquaintance Apply this id & NE You will find I saw in him at | almost |ments and th | land, France tria and R of labor eign nati other one, is bein the present war. and in Russia the Axelrod and | After raw material which is wasted, and) subject. ion V. Ilyitch. ng some interesting of art of the theatre. Two years afterwards in Capri, ended by regretting that no one had when he was discussing the Utopian as yet thought of writing a book on novel with A. A. Bogdanoy-Malinoy- The idea wasn’t quite sky, he said, “If you would write a ar to me, but I didn’t manage to}novel for the workers on the subject He. was already|of how the sharks of capitalism remarks robbed the earth and wasted the oil, about pantomime as a special form jiron, timber and coal—that would be a useful book, Signor Machist!” sedis progres- ¢ | Or present war, nce of the eS and S n f shows {ng for-| that tt Which justifies r def herland” in the d n | pre false, hypocritical and n r ntradiction to historic HOW LENIN WORKED TO ORGANIZE UNEMPLOYED COUNCILS IN PETROGRAD This description of the leading part taken ‘ by Lenin in the organization of the Unem- ployed Councils, and in pointing out the line of struggle during the revolution of 1905-06, is part of the pamphlet, “Unemployed Councils in St, Petersburg in 1906,” to be published shortly by the Workers Library Publishers. ‘This pamphlet is by Sergei Malyshev, one of the old members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik) who was prompted to write his pre-revolutionary exper- jences by the abolition of unemployed under the Soviet Power. (Editor's note.) * 2 . At 8 o'clock that evening, we sat in a country house at Lesny where the delegates who were to consider the question of helping the unemployed had gathered and were waiting for the represen- tative of the St. Petersburg Bolshevik group. This comrade was also the chairman of the Unemployed Commission. While we were wait- ing we acquainted ourselves with the situation in the district. The majority of the delegates were members of our Bolshevik circles. All of them, of course, as the most active workers, had been driven from the factories and blacklisted. But they did not Jook as if they and their families had been thrown out on to the streets and were starving; the science of Bolshevism had taught them, above all, to control themselves and not break down no matter what happened. The chairman of the commission arrived, greeted us, and they turned to a student stand-. ing there, our host. He wanted to know if every- thing had been seen to, should the police or the gendarmes raid the place, ‘The chairman of the Unemployed Commission laughed and said that they could be sure that they would not be taken either by the gendarmes or the police, for they would have to be fed in prison and the bourgeoisie had dismissed them in order to starve them to death. Conditions of the Unemployed. ‘We got down to the business of the day. Our Bo!shevik comrade started his report on the condition of the unemployed. ‘The funds of the unemployed were exhausted; ‘The levy on wages in the factories and’ mills was ceasing because tie employers were obstructing the collection, and in some places they.had ordered the officers not to give the money deducted to the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies. The situation tn the districts was desperate. “This, we suppose,” said-the speaker, turning to the delegates, “you yourselves know well, but you must remember that such a situation threatens to Ist. Individuals and entire groups of ‘undesirable’ \orkers are being turned out of the factories and m'”s, All that the uncmployed had in the way of clothes and other valuables have been sold or pawned during this period. “The term for redeeming these belongings—is approaching and there is nothing to redeem them with. The things are being lost. The landlords are throwing the workers and their families into the streets without pity. There are thousands of such cases in ali the workers’ districts. “We cannot help these families of the unem- ployed who are. being thrown out on the streets. Some collections are being made for the unem- ployed at workers’ meetings, in trade untons, among the students, but these sums are so small that we cannot do anything. substantial. “Dining-rooms are being opened by the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies and some liberal groups in the liberals, who are campaigning for elections to the Duma, will soon stop contributing money for | them.” Proposals of Bolshevik Group. After he had finished reading the figures, the speaker urged that the delegates immediately | organize an, unemployed commission at each dining-room which would not only audit the accounts but would direct the business end of the dining-room and administer it generally. Further on, the speaker declared that the sit- uation of the unemployed at the given moment was grave, but not hopeless. “The Bolshevik group, in whose name I speak now,” said the comrade, “supports the unem- ployed movement and helps us organize ourselves into a strong organization. «It is essential to | organize all the unemployed and set up a leading body—an Unemployed Council. “This council, with the help of the unemployed, must start a struggle for bettering the condition of the unemployed not only. through the distribu- tion of dinners and 30 kopeks a day, but chiefly by getting the City Duma to organize large- scale public work for the unemployed. The unemployed are not paupers, they do not want charity. They demand bread and work. “The question must be so presented that our demands to the City Duma win the support of all the workers in the factories and'mills. The city must organize public work. There is quite enough work of that kind to be had in the city and it is now being given to various contractors who give the city administrators large bribes. ‘The most highly skilled workers of all trades are to be found among the unemployed. They can do all types of work. The city has a number of contracts essential for public welfare for instance, the construction of tramways.” Bolshevik Proposals Unanimously Accepted. The delegates listened silently and very atten- tively to the speaker. When he had finished, others got up to speak. Each one welcomed the suggestions made by the Bolshevik organization and spoke briefly and clearly on how to realize them. Ail the proposals of the speaker were unanimously adopted It was decided to organize an Unemployed Council by holding electfons at the dining-rooms where the unemployed were getting their din- ners, and a group of worker Bolsheviks were assigned to carry on the agitation for it and get the elections carried through. ‘The council was to consist of thirty delegates from the unemployed. It was also decided at this meeting to print leaflets calling on the unemployed to organize themselves immediately as the only way out of the grave situation. This printed appeal of the Bolshevik group of workers actually made it possible to carry on elections to the Unemployed Council within a shert period. Thirty representatives of the un- employed were elected to the Council. After several days, the first meeting of the thirty del- egates took place and Comrade Kairsky was elected president. The first things we discussed were the aims and objects of the unemployed organization. ‘The following points were adopted unanimously: 1, The geenral aims and tasks of the Unem- ployed Council are to lead the unemployed out of their unbearable situation, 2. The most immediate task of the council is to get the city to organize public work for all unemployed, | arrange for the election of these representatives. mon demands and arrange to send the del- |} egates to the City Duma and subsequently seek other means of influencing the City Duma. After a number of organizational questions and suggestions on what further steps the coun- cil should take, the first meeting was adjourned On the day following the meeting of the Unemployed Council, Comrade Kairsky- and 1 went to Lenin to report to him what we had done to organize the Unemployed Council. Viadmir Hyich heard what we had to say, and then said he had some doubts as to whether the Unem ployed Council alone could fulfil its programme by its own efforts. | The Employed Workers Must eB Drawn Into. the Struggles of the Unemployed. “Through this organization alone,” said Lenin, “you cannot influence the bourgeoisie; you will not be strong enough, and the unem- ployed workers themselves will not be able to | develop this work on a broad proletarian class basis, Therefore, you must immediately extend the Unemployed Council to include representa- | tives of those employed in all the factories and mills of St. Petersburg. | “You must now begin to agitate in the factories and mills for this purpose, and immediately | The Unemployed Council must consist not only of 30 representatives of the unempioyed, but of 100 or 150 representatives from all districts from all the factories and miils. This will provide the unemployed with a genuine proletarian leading body which will really be able to exert pressure successfully on the City Duma and on the bourgeoisie generally.” | Delegates elected by the unemployed at general meetings, one for every 250 workers, and from factories and mill districts constituted the dis- trict councils, | | signatures to it. The Executive Committee consisted of three representatives from every district council, three representatives from the unemployed, and three from the employed. The Executive Commit- tee was to ke All questions which were to be raised for dis- cussion in the Unemployed Council were first taken up by the cutive ‘Committee which was empowered to carry out the general decisions | of the Council. The Unemployed Attack the St. Petersburg Duma Under the direct leadership of the Bolshevik | Party, the St. Petersburg Unemployed Council began to prepare for the first offensive on the | St. Petersburg City Duma. A petition to the St. Petersburg City Duma was drafted by the Unemployed Council, couched in the most forceful, Bolshevik-proletarian terms. The petition was discussed by the Unemployed Council, adopted and sent to all the factories and mills of St. Petersburg and its vicinities to be discussed by the workers and to get their Of course, the discussion of our petition in the factories was carried on at the general factory meetings. But in addition, it was discussed in our proletarian press, except in the paper under the control of the Mensheviks. The Mensheviks (I will prove this later on) opposed the Unemployed Council most energetic- ally and hindered our work in organizing the unemployed at every step. Our Council del- egates were to insist on reading the petition at the meeting of the City Duma before a vote was called for. This petition read as follows: “Owing to unemployment, numberless workers’ families are now without bread. The workers do not want charity, or doles. We demand work, The masters refuse to give us work, They say that they have no contracts. But LENIN AT A PARADE ON THE RED SQUARE, MOSCOW, 1919 ) in touch with the Duma bodies. | the city has contracts and can provide work for the unemployed. We think that the way the city disposes of the public funds is scan- dalous. Public funds should be used for public needs and our need today is—work. Therefore we demand that the City Duma immediately organize public work for all the needy. We demand not charity, but our rights, and we will not be satisfied with charity. The public work which we demand must be started immediately. *All the unemployed of St. Petersburg must be allowed to do this work; every unemployed worker must receive an adequate wage. We have been delegated to insist on the fulfilment of our demands. The masses who have sent us will not be content with less. If you do not tecede to our demands we will report your refusal to the unemployed and then you will not have us to deal with, but those who sent us, the masses of unemployed.” Our speakers went with groups of t ployed, stopped the workers as they left dur dinner-time or in the evening during the chan of shifts, and held factory-gate meet questions of unemployment and the should be given the unemployed. The were always successful. Brief resolutions on necessity for helping the unemployed were m and signatures were collected for the pet elp Ww Drawing Sympathetic Petty-Bourzeois Into Unemployed Struggles. But beside raising the spirits of the masses c the workers, which it undoubtedly doing, the Unemployed Council had also to r help the unemployed. The Unemployed Council managed to interest @ number o fliberal newspapers in St. Petersburg in this work. Comrades who had connections | with the liberals on these papers were commis. sioned to speak with the more liberal among them in order to get them to help by writine | articles and announcements in their petty-bourgeois readers brought serious pr to bear upon them to do so. The armies of a hundred thousand unei ployed had seriously alarmed the petty-bour gBeoisie. This tremendous mass of star People, they reasoned, would spread va: epidemics, which undoubtedly would first uffect those petty officials, office workers, etc., came in contact with them in the cou wort, “Help is essential not only in the iz the workers, but for the sake of the h ests Duma Commission, beginning in the cellars and garrets, groups of society. people, embittered by poverty, to extreme ures. That being the case, it is ess help them now. cost us dear.” mea jal i Sympathy for the unemployed movement in- creased daily in all districts, factories and mills. Nuclei of the Unemployed Council were formed in factories and mills.District councils were or Ganized. Committees were set up to investigat 7s on the meetings Groups peded in a desire, among the petty-bourgeois groups to They supported the unemployed becanse their se of their of h of the whole population,” said the president of the “It is known that typhus, claims increasing number of victims among the higher On the other hand, the pro- spect of death from starvation may drive the Help that is given too late may mee split in the Menshevik r The Mensheviks Fight against the Unemployed Organizations But unex this point we found ourselves up against cted enemies of this proletarian work in the persons of the Mensheviks. AS s00n as they saw that we had attained considerable fluence among the masses and ‘had created a competent bor to lead the masses, the Men- the St. Petersburg Parfy Cominitiee— Bolsheviks and Mensheviks belonged to the same at that ti began to oppose us and, the Unemployed Couricil apt our unemployed F rrest its develop- But the Menshevi. efforts were a com- failure the workers’ districts since we ed a strong organization there, them, tion, at least vik speakers were howled down at igs of the workers in the fac! whenever they a cil. Then t ricks to the leading organ of ne Petersburg Committee in they then had accidentally an insignificant y, to t this question in the com- ed the opinion mployed Council, Jed by the Bol- the workers to premature ation of tHe unemployed ik stunt. Our petition, which had circulated through all the districts had received thousands of 5 much discussed at this meeting of the St. Petersburg Committee. The Mensheviks demanded the deletion of the concluding words of the petition: “If you do not accede to our demands, we will report your refusal to the unemployed and then you will not and | have us to deal with, but those who sent us, the masses of unemployed.” 'T that the unempl y then demanded d delegation be City Duma. They the organization of the City Duma nployed work—-that had cat lly fo! ) opposed the demand publie work because, they said. the uy to be done by the te. Mensheviks Oppose ¢ Participation of Employed Workers in Unemployed Councils The Me ele: revik of representati d mills to the U also stron: ly. Onposed the from ‘the’ factories F nployed Council because they saw in this a revival of the Soviet'of Work- ers’ Deputi In conclus; the Menshevik leaders insisted that the S' burg Commit- tee forbid us, the Bolsheviks, to work among the unemployed and to develop and strengthen this nization, and in the event of our persisting lectior in that we be expelled from the party, Th of the unemployed told the Com- mittee th h a decision would. be harmful to the proletarian and not binding:en them, and therefore they would not submit :to,such a de- he Committee decided td meet the next to take up this question at am enlarged 4 The en 1 meeting, it fs true, was called on the designated day, but it was after pril 12, after we had already won 4@ll our de- mands from the a. This caused a ity Dui and those opposed ¢ ° districts, These provide some tcns of thous- 2. The council is to rally all the unemployed the condition of the unemployed and to hel) «. .ds of dinners, but they may be closed because | around these aims on the basis of their com> | ' them in their struggle with the City Duma. to us were left in the minority | No decision against us could be arrived at {