The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 23, 1932, Page 6

Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc. datly except Sunday, at 56 Hast ork City. N. ¥ New Page Six Telephone ALgonauin 4- 56. Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 50 East 13th Street, } Cable DAIWORK.” w York, N. ¥. Dail Yorker” Party ue of Manhattan and Bronx, New SUBSCRIPTION RATES: York City. Foreign: By mat! everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs one year, $8; six’ months, $4.50. Party Recruiting Drive January 11 - March 18, 1932 1 MUST BUILD THE Y. C. L. WHILE BUILDING THE PARTY By DAVID GORDON. CLEVELAND MAKES A BBR IS IN Bese to pl n ict 6, on the ain a foundation in t. D itself the quota for t nt of 500 young workers into the ¥.C.L. by March 18, as part of the Party recrniting drive. ‘This quota was announced to the trict Conference Jan. 2. The basis for ce the Y.C.L. Dis- the quota was analyzed, that is, the situation of the Young Communist League here, of its ion to the Party, and vice versa, and the <s of the Party in re the building of the Y.C.L The resolution at the district plenum correctly enumerated the basic weaknesses the Y.C.LL. here: “J, A lack of faith in the young workers and their willingness to struggle. “2, A failure to react to daily problems of the youth, covered up by a general talk about strug- “3. A burocratic em of work and system Of leadership which has stifled the initiative of the units and membership and kept them from developing into political leaders of their terri- “4, A narrow, sectarian approach building the League and recruiting. . . “5, A failure to popularize the decisions of the convention and carry on a daily fight egainst the right and left danger.” ‘The resolution further states: “The Y.C.L. shall not look upon the Party as a means for financial aid only—but as the political guide in activity. ... 2. Out of town (Cleveland-DG) the Party shall be responsible for the building of the V.C.L. ... 3. The development of independent yonth activity in all Party campaigns.” ‘These estimations and the decisions correct STEEL WORKERS! | COMMUNIST | | PARTY a fundamental error continually made by the Y.CL, in regard to the duties of the Y.C.L. and the responsibility of the Party in regard to building the Y.O.L. The Y.C.L. resolution and plenum place full responsibility upon the Y.C.L. for developing struggles of young workers, for drawing in young workers into the the general campaigns of the Party, developing independent youth activity and for building the ¥.C.L. This understanding will enable the Y.C.L. to overcome its dependency upon the Party, and develop an initiative that will penetrate every Young Com- munist League’. On the basis of this under- standing the Y.C.L will proceed to overcome its ‘weaknesses and carry through the tasks set by the resolution. Now, then, we must consider the question of Party relations to the Y.C.L. ™ connection with recruiting 500 members fmto the Y.C.L by the Party, and the building of Y¥.C.L. units where none but Party units ex- 4st; the Party Recruiting Drive Resolution states: “Our quota will not be considered fulfilled un- Jess we have reached both quotas, Party and Y¥.C.L., by March 18.” ‘The Party has taken a serious obligation upon REVOLUTIONARY CHALLE? itself. To carry through our task will require an ideological campaign among our Party mem- bership and a change in the general relation- ship to the Y.C.L. It is the duty of the Party here to overcome a tendency among some maturer Y. C. Lers, of | wishing to leave the League and join the Party towards | We must as well overcome a tendency in the Pa towards desiring such a migration, in practice, if not in actual words, because of the Party's need of more forces. There are three young comrades in Unemployed Councils in Cleveland who do general work and have be- The directives for the Young Com- ; munist League recruiting Drive are | contained in the January 18 iss the “Young Worker.” Thi vy off the press and should be suet | used by both the Y.C.L. and Com- munist Party units for discussion on preparing their plans for the recruit- ing of new members into ute Young Communist League, Organization deveninents of the Communist Party and Y.C.L. come the mainstay of these councils. On the other hand, there is not a single Youth Com- mittee in any of these Councils, because of the good activity of the Y. C. Lers—in genefal work. The lack of faith in the young workers, which reflects itself in the Y.C.L. as lack of interest in the younger Y.C.Lers, by these maturer com- rades, must be overcome. Coupled with this, there enters a certain capitulation before the difficulties of building the revolutionary youth movement and the glamor of really uncertain, but noticeable, results in general work, that helps along the tendency to do work mainly in the | Party. We must understand that if the Party needs forces, the Y.C.L., certainly, is sadly lacking in leading comrades. If the Party sees certain forces that are not utilized by the Y.C.L., it shall be the duty of the Party to call this to the attention of the Y. C. L. In helping the Y. C. L. the Party here has passed a good decision: That all Party members, 23 years of age and under, shall have as their major activity, work in the | Y.CL. It remains now to carry through this decision with utmost speed. The Y.C.L. has great tasks before it, in building the youth move- ment in the steel industry, for fighting against | the war danger, etc., and these comrades would aid greatly. Besides seeing to it that the Y.C.L develops ; independent activity in the general campaigns of the Party, we must see to it that the Party 1s mobilized for participation in Y.C.L. cam- paigns. A beginning was made in regard to the Liebknecht anti-war rallies, where all out-of- Cleveland sections where no Y. C. L. exist, were instructed to hold such meetings and from these meetings recruit youths into the Y.C.L. The Cleveland and other sections, where the Y.C.L. units exist, were instructed to issue leaflets for these meetings in the name of the Party, and support the meetings held by the Y. C. L. or the Provisional Committees, led by the Y.C.L. ‘The Party, too, must aid the Y.C.L. in adopt- ing methods of work in order to build the Y.C.L. and revolutionary youth movement. We must suggest new methods of work and see to it that decisions of the past are carried out. Finally, the Party must take particular care in helping the Y.C.L. raise its political level and | raise the Y.C.L. age, which is 16-17. The lack of politicalization of the League arises from the fact that the Y.C.L. is not based among the broad masses of young workers, which is, in turn, a result of the sectarian inactivity of the entire League. Adopting the point of view, as sketched here, the Party sets itself the task of carrying through its quota and of aiding the League in building itself into a mass organization of revolutionary young workers. GE FROM THE SPRING- FIELD SECTION, DISTRICT 8 TO THE CALUMET SECTION Springfield, TL, Jan, 11, 1932 Dear Comrades:— At the first section conference of the Spring- field Section it was decided, ong with many other important decisions, at we challenge you-to revolutionary competition on the follow- ing basis: 1. ‘That by March 15 we will triple our mem- bership and challenge you to do likewise. 2, That one half of the new recruits will come from the mining, railroads, metal, steel and farmers. And also that we challenge you like- wise to get your recruits from the steel industry and other important industries in your section. 3. That out of the five units we have now in the section, that by March 15 we have 12 units, out of which four will be mine and shop nuclei, and challenge you to do proportionately like- wise. 4. At the present time we have approximately 1,000 members,in the unemployed council and four branches. We.expect to double this mem- bership and to build block committees, also double the amount of branches as well as estab- lish three city committees in the section, and we challenge you proportionately to do the same. DANGER SIGNAL FOR SECT URING the past week our Section recruited 28 workers into the Party. While the num- ber of workers recruited during the week is hot bad, the recruiting of these 28 workers must Serve as a danger signal in this recruiting cam- paign. Let us analyze first how these new members were secured. With the exception of one worker, @ll the workers were recruited through language mass organizations or through the activities car- ried on by the unit in its territory. Let us un~- derstand, comrades, that we welcome into the Party all workers who are ready to struggle in the interests of the working class and, therefore, we welcome all these 28 workers with en- thusiasm. But at the same time the recruiting of these 28 workers into the Party indicates the 5. To carry out the policy of building opposi- tion movement in the mines and also grievance committees in the factories, also to carry on ac- tivities in support of the Kentucky strike, and work within the local unions of all the shops and factories. 6. To in:prove the political level of the Party and membership, more and better discussions, to establish better functioning apparatus, etc. We propose that we communicate with each other at least twice each month, in order that we share our experiences and also the progress of our work; discussing the problems that we are confronted with, as many of these problems are identical. ‘This Section is only two and a half months old, and we believe that the experiences you have will help us a great deal, and that the ex- periences we have and will have among the coming struggles among the miners and rail- road and other workers will help you a great deal. We hope that you will accept this revolu- tionary challenge in the same spirit as it is sent to you by our section Comradely yours, SPRINGFIELD SECTION BUREAU, ION 15, DISTRICT 2 fact that our Party comrades are inactive in the shops. The dariger, therefore, does not lie in the fact that 28 workers were. recruited, but rather in the fact that they were not recruited from the shops and from the unions. There- fore, the comrades must bear in mind that the major objective of this campaign is to strengthen the Party in the factories. This is impossible unless the comrades working in the factories are going to approach the workers in their shops on the basis of their grievances and lead them into struggle to better their condi- tions. Another outstanding characteristic of the new members is that not a single Negro worker is among them. This certainly indicates our weak- ness in Negro work. Therefore, the comrades THE DAY OF STRUGGLE AGAINST HUNGER INSURANCE fers By BURCK 4 Ton te (fe. genes FACE TO THE WATERFRONT! By RALPH SIMONS. (This is the second of three articles on the marine transport industry, the Marine Work- ers’ Industrial Union and the tasks of our Party in this vitally important industry. Not only marine workers, but all workers, should read them.—Editor.) Pee feat HE ship and dock owners are carrying on an energetic campaign against the living stand- ards of the marine and dock workers. The mer- ciless wage cuts follow one another. The speed- up and rationalization makes the army of un- employed marine work?rs grow bigger and big- ger. The ship and dock owners work out various schemes to worsen the conditions of the workers. ‘They break the various wage agreements, cut the wages of some sections of the marine and dock workers in order to prevent a general pro- test among the marine and dock workers. Under various pretenses they are postponing the mak- ing of wage agreements, hire crews for one rate, and complete the crews on lower rates, etc. In addition to the highly miserable conditions of the workers, the administration puts fines and inhuman treatment upen the workers. Due to the passivity of the Marine Workers’ Industrial Union in this field of activity, there still exists among the leading elements of the union an underestimation of the radicalization of the masses and their readiness to struggle against the onslaught of the bosses. This ten- dency of underestimation of the radicalization of the masses is tied up with the tendency of dividing the strikes into “ours” and “theirs,” i.e., the strikes led directly by the Marine Work-- ers’ Industrial Union and strikes led under the press' of the workers by the leaders of the reformist and company unions. No Independent Leadership. The passive and negligent attitude towards strikes led by the leaders of the reformist unions, the absence of any serious efforts to turn these strikes into united front struggles, in this way not isolating the strikebreaking burocrats from the workers, and as a result of this, no indepen- dent leadership in the economic struggles in spite of the reformist leaders and on the basis of the united front tactics against the bosses and their agents in the ranks of the working class, is not put into effect in the practice of the union, With the Marine Workers’ Industrial Union it suffices only to criticize the betraying role of the reactionary leaders and to warn the strikers against the betrayal of the strike, instead of taking direct part in the struggle, to come out as an independent factor, unmask the strikebreak- ing role of the reactionary leaders on the basis of concrete facts. Not only to call for the or- ganizing of strike committees, but directly help in the organization of strike pickets, organiza- tion of mass solidarity campaigns, etc. The union is practically standing aside. A classic example of this is the strike of the longshoremen in Boston, This strike demon- working in shops where Negro workers are em- ployed, or territories where Negro workers live, shall pay special attention to approach these Negro workers and make efforts to draw them into the Party. Another outstanding feature of the newly re- cruited workers is that out of the 28, only four are below 30 years of age. All the rest are 30 or over and none of them of Y.C.L. age. In the future the comrades must bear in mind that we want especially young elements who can be more easily developed and assimilated to Party life SECTION 15, DISTRICT 2. Ore ar Note of the Org. Department, C.C.—Section 15 of District 2 grasped the basic characteristics of the present Recruiting Drive. This danger signal at the beginning of the campaign is a correct method to bring to the attention of the Party the weaknesses of the drive. In the first paragraph of this statement, Sec- tion 15 is expressing satisfaction with the num- ber recruited. Section 15 is a large Section. More can be expected. What about the 28 workers—are they working in shops, did these workers supply new contacts in the shops? “How do we draw these workers into activities? Let us know about it. Your “Danger Signal” ts not only for your section, but many, many other sections of the Party. strated deep discontent and disillusionment by the workers in the reactionary fakers who were on the side of the bosses and called the workers to return to work. They told the workers that they will later come to an agreement with the bosses. This was a spontaneous strike in spite of the tremendous opposition of the reactionary leaders of their union. The efforts of the lead- ers to guillotine the strike by referring it to arbitration, due to the active opposition of the workers, ended in failure. The strike was carried on with a splendid spirit, but the Marine Workers’ industrial Union did not take serious, active and energetic part in the struggle. Together with exposing the strikebreaking role of the national reformist union with Ryan at its head, the union put some criticism against the local leadership in Boston who covered up their strikebreaking role with pseudo-radical phraseology and so-called “fight” against Ryan. But this was insufficient. The M.W.I.U. only sent a union organizer there, gave out a few agitational leaflets, and made an ef- fort to make some individual contacts, instead of mobilizing the organization for the success- ful carrying through of this strike on the basis of independent leadership and isolation of Ryan and the local leaders of the reformist union. Not only its own strength should have been organized, but also the help of the other revolu- tionary unions in Boston and the Party should have been mobilized for this strike, to organize mass picketing, election of a strike committee from the ranks of the strikers, and a broad agi- tation campaign for the benefit of the strike, especially among the Negro workers, and liqui- dation of the mass strikebreaking which was organized by the bosses with the help of the strikebreaking leaders of the reformist unions. But this was not done. Help Not Given. It would be wrong to put all the blame. on the leaders of the’ Marine Workers’ Industrial Union. In this the Party and revolutionary unions of Boston also share the guilt. The fact that the Lawrence textile strike took away all the at- tention of the Party and Boston revolutionafy unions is no excuse for neglecting the longshore- men’s strike. The lessonagof this strike must be studied, brought to the masses and not be forgotten in the future. ‘The weakest link in the work of the union Is the work among the unemployed. There are about 200,000 marine workers in the ranks of the struggling unemployed. Very little attention is being paid to working out concrete demands for this mass of unemployed workers. In Phila- delphia a group of longshoremen have been kept together by fighting evictions. In New York, on the initiative of the union, ans unemployed marine council was organized, but the work was very isolated and had no mass character and, therefore, it is beginning to de- crease. A clear and concrete program for the unemployed marine workers is not yet worked out and popularized among the broad marine masses. In such cases when the union and the unemployed councils took the initiative, there were positive results. It is enough to remember the hunger march of 2,000 marine workers in Philadelphia which was carried through very successfully and mobilized under its slogans broad masses of marine workers, Where Are the Dock Workers? ‘The biggest shortcoming in the work of the union is the fact that the dock workers are absolutely out of their scope of activity. As a result there are absolutely no longshoremen in the union. The work among the Negroes is still more ne- glected. This underestimation of the work among the Negroes showed its results in the strike of longshoremen in Boston, where the Negro workers were being used as strikebreakers and where the Industrial Union was absolutely unable to paralyze the plans of the bosses to break the strike by creating race hatred, by turning one part of the workers against the other, by filling the places of the workers with strikebreakers. The union was unable to put forward against the efforts of the bosses the united front of the Negro and white workers. ‘The Negro workers are insufficiently drawn into the work of the union. There are no Negro workers in leading posts of the union. There is no Negro department in the union. In time of strikes, no special demands for the Negro workers are worked out, ‘The colonial work is very weak. Attempts to form a Latin American seamen’s secretariat in New Orleans and a Pan-Pacific Seamen’s Secre- tariat in San Francisco have not been success- ful. At the same time we should not lose sight of these tasks. The necessity of special work among the youth is no doubt underestimated. No youth commit- tees exist. In the last period the National Of- fice gave directives in this direction, but these directives have not yet been carried out in life. About 24 per cent in the industry are. youth, but not Iong ago there was the idea that this is not important because almost all seamen are youth. Orgapizational Clarity Needed. The preparations for struggles and working out of demands is not carried over directly to the ships and docks. The organizations on the ships and docks, wherever they exist, are very weak and hardly show any signs of life. The contacts with the ships are very weak. The ship delegates, which according ot the reports of the last Plenum are about 250, have no guid- ance whatsoever. The difference between ship committees and ship groups or branches of the Industrial Union is not made clear. There is no understanding that ship branches are the lower functioning or- gans of our union and that the ship commit- tee should be an organ of united front and should be elected by all marine workers without consideration of political and unio- affiliation. It is also not made sufficiently clear what are the concrete duties of the ship branches and ship delegates. Such special concrete instruc- tions must be worked out by the union and in this way the lower organizations of the union must be systematically instructed, The union will be able to prepare and develop economic struggles only when it will turn its face to the ships and docks, when it will build up func- tioning ship groups, when the delegates will be constantly instructed in their work. Only then will the union be able to feel and know the spirit of the workers, formulate their demands and mobilize them for struggles. The union will not hang in the air, but will be a real expression of the marine masses and or- ganizer of their fights. Therefore, the question of building ship groups and concentrating the main attention of the work directly to the ship ‘voups and docks is one of the decisive condi- tions for development of struggles, for the fur- ther growth of the union and for the transform- ing of the union into a mass organization. ‘The International Seamen's clubs are only ad- ditions to the union office and can hardly be called International seamen’s clubs. The work in the International seamen’s club is very weak, not only from an organizational point of view, but also from the point of view of the neccs- sity to carry. on real mass agitational work. Therefore it is natural that these International seamen’s clubs have no attractiveness for the marine workers and longshoremen. It must be especially emphasized that there are no language departments, although a colossal amount of for- eign ships visit the U. S. Most of the foreign ships visit San Francisco, New Orleans and New York. The official organ of the union, the “Marine Workers Voice,” which in this period is to be not only the agitational weapon, but the organ- izational instrument in’ the whole system of trade union work, comes out yery irregularly. For System In Finances. The big mass of marine workers are unor- ganized and this we should not forget. But, according to the report at the last Plenum, the Marine Workers’ Industrial Union has only about 5,000 members. Out of these only 1,250 pay their dues more or less regularly, which makes {t difficult financially for the unien to carry on its work. But the union did not in- stitute a systematic reéruiting drive. In some particular cases when the delegates made some efforts in this direction, the results were very good. At the last Plenum of the In- dustrial Union it was mentioned that on one ship our delegate drew in in the period of three months 52 members. On another ship in a few weeks he got 26 new members. With the or- ganized efforts of every member and of the whole union in this direction, {t is easy to im- agine what progress we could make in @ very short time. Protest, Against the Fascist Regime of Montero i in Chile “By ALBERT MOREAU a fascist government of Montero in Chile, servant of Yankee imperialism, has again ini- tiated a wave of terror against the hungry masses in the cities and the countryside, especially against the militant trade unions under the Fed- eracion Obrera chilena (Foch), the unemployed workers and the Communist Party which is lead- ing the struggles of the workers against hunger, Starvation’ and fascism. ° The economic and finarfcial crisis which brought the end of the Ibanez regime under the pressure of the masses last July, had deepened tremendously. As a result of that, all the contra- dictions of the imperialist colonial regime have become sharpened and are shaking the very foundations of the Montero regime. The characteristic feature of the present situ- ation in Chile is seen in the widespread upsurge of the masses against the policy of the govern- ment of landlords and capitalists who are shift- ing the burden of the crisis upon the shoulders of the toiling masses. It has given expression to a series of strikes of the workers in the light industries, extending themselves now in the basic industry of the country, in the nitrate mines, transportation, ete. with the monstrous rising of unemployment (more than 200,000 workers are exposed to want and starvation), the struggle of the unemployed has extended in the nitrate mines. ‘The brutal murder of unemployed workers in the valleys of Copiapo and Vallenar in the mid- dle of December met with the resentment of the soldiers in Coplapo who mutinied on the eve of December 25, not only against the wholesale mas- sacte of the workers, but also against the wors- ening of their conditions and the reign of terror against the soldiers through the Councils of Wat instituted after the naval uprising on Coauimbo on September 1. The naval uprising at Coquimbo which was crushed with the utmost brutal government forces was followed with the dismissal of 4,800 sailors who took part in the rebellion, depriving them of all means of subsistence and robbing them of unpaid back salaries. The government has instituted a regime of persecution against all those who participated in the Coauimbo naval mutiny, cutting the wages of the sailors and sol- diers and reducing their daily ration. In the middle of December, the War Councils directed a massacre of unemployed workers in the nitrate valleys of Copiapo and Vallenar. Hun- dreds of workers were murdered and more than one hundred are now awaiting-court martial sen- tences which, if carried out, mean absolute death. In Copiapo,.the mutiny of rank and file soldiers on December 25 resulted in the killing of 11. The widespread mass movement of the toiling masses in Chile has extended among the petty bourgeoisie of the cities who are also made vic- tims of the deepening crisis. The small shop keepers have organized a movement and are de- manding a 30 per cent reduction of their rent, the extensién: of their debts and the resignation of the Minister of Haciendas Pratt. The movement is a united front against the usurers of the Nacional Banks and foreign bank- ers, the big industrialists and the present govern- ment of big capital and foreign imperialism. The government is attempting to “solve” the unemployment question by instituting forced la- bour. Thousands of workers are concentrated in barracks under military control, compelled to work for a miserable salary of three Chilean pesos daily from which the high prices of food and burning wood is deducted. Against the offensive of the bourgeois-impe- rialist forces, the popular masses are rising to put an end to their conditions of starvation. The Montero regime has the support of Yankee im- perialsm. It is attempting to forc> the operation of the imperialist Cosach whici’ has thrown thousands of workers in the street». Since Ibanez’s fall the operation of the ni- trate Yankee monopoly (Cosach) has »2duced the jobs of the nitrate workers from 22,0 ) to 16,000. The tremendous low reduction of gov “nment in- come from the export of nitrates, is»compelling the government to resort to more taxation which falls heavily upon the petty bourgeoisie of the city and countryside. Chile cannot meet its for- eign obligatioris and has declared a moratorium. Under the pressure of imperialism, the bourgeoi- sie and the landlords are resorting to a most savage attack against the workers and the city poor, exacting from them enormous taxes in order to pay the huge interests to the loans. Parallel to this, the rivalries among the ous dominant groups of landlovds and. native capitalists. are sharpening more and more. Brit- ish imperialism is mighty busy rallying around it groups. of landlords who are connected with it, against the growing influence of Yankee imne- rialism and the domination of the Yankee Co- sach. ‘These sharpening rivalries between the various groups will lead to the organization of couv- d’etats for the support of which they will seek to utilize the masses. In the face of the inevitshil~ ity Of the masses rising against imperialism» ond the retive rulers, all dominant groups will be. < ‘they have been, unanimous in the attacks againrt the working class and especially the Communist Party, which is leading a considerable section of the proletariat and the petty-bourgeoisie against the capitalist solution of the crisis in Chile, Between the working class and the landlord- bourgeois government stands the renegade and traitor Hidalgo, serving the interests of the capi- talists. Hidalgo and his lieutenants constitute one of the main obstacles for the unfolding of the revolutionary. movements of the masses in Chile, because their activities have the purpose of checking the rising revolutionary movement of the masses, The workers and revolutionary peasants of Latin America must raise their voices of protest against the fascist murders of the Montero re- gime, In joined action with the revolutionary pro- letariat of the United States. Let us remember that it was by the action and protest of the revo- lutionary movement in the American Continent that the Chilean fascists were stopped in the ex- cution o fthe heroic rebels of the Coquimbo na- val mutiny. ° More than 100 workers, militants of the Foc!) and the Communist Party of Chile are to lc court martialled by the fascist Councils of War.in Copiapo and 1 ‘Vallenar. Only through mass pro- tests and the action of the masses throughout the continent, can we save these brave class mi!- itants from the paws of the enemies. Demand the immediate freedom of the Copiapo and Val- Jenar prisoners, the freedom of all class war