The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 29, 1932, Page 4

i] > vage Four 13th St. New Published by the Comp York City. Address and mail all checks to the D: Party Recruiting Drive January 11 - March 18, 1932 daily Publishing Co., Inc., daily except Si » at 50 Mase SUBSCRIPTION RATES: q mI THE By CHARLES ALEXANDER. of the most important p recruiting drive and a sure to a considerable drive is the recruiting rs. In previous recru was to a great extent s s, where attenti ention did not ma si k g in and retain d, but merely to Such a state of affairs in the pres- e must under no circumstances be tole The drive must be — the means of ng into the P: of retaining them and further m into conscious fighters of This drive must be the tion and unit, he Party to take stock of the gro work in ge th the most dete ed eher nd retaining of hundred of Negro workers into our Pa n was paid to to a con- es of the x from being gz satisfact cts have ecessary to point out that of these challenges was the amount of 0 WO! 's which will be recruited stressed. an be argued th ted Negro workers were included, is not sufficient, nor is it sufficient to or that district will enroll so many Ne- workers merely on paper. Such challenges id ought to be made, but y must be 1 conscious determination and every t be bent toward the realization of ed number, and of retaining them in effort mu the the Pe pro he districts are not yet alive to the im- the drive in the development of our from the reports. A few , the largest in the cou ad with the greatest N Negro popul: tion, reported only 22 Negro workers recruited since the beg inning of the drive, and this in Chicago); it is situation existing in ation throughout the country of the under nd retail are not employed in theory is false The overwhelming the Negro population in New York ind they are bitterly i and ed to this is the robbery they suf- egated districts they are forced to ands of the Negro and white nber of them are unem- tion is rife, These are the vi rs in New struggle es. It is ce them that ig for their rights. It is on the struggles we will recruit thi it 1 the Party. No comrades, it is not F not “basically proletari but ave not CONSISTENTLY carried against their horrible oppression by class. ase the recruiting of Negro workers on half of the es that will c To the same general principle as that of the whi workers would not only be a grave mistake, but it will also be a manifestation of a serious lack of understanding of the Negro question in the United States. It will be a failure to under- stayd the Negro problem as that of a national minotity, and will consequently lead to failure RECRUITING DRIVE | employment, di AND NEGRO WORK proper tactics suitable for the it is true that the recruiting t be carried out on the basis of im- es in connection with the imme- is of the working class (unemploy- ainst wage-cuts, against evictions nd cu g off of gas and electricity, etc.), the pecial forms of persecution and oppression hich the Negro masses suffer as a national minority must be given great attention, and the necessary struggles must be carried on against them. It is only on this basis will we succeed to win, recruit and retain the Negro workers. The recruiting drive takes place at a time when rising upsurge of the Negro masses inst imperialist oppression is developing at a rapid tempo. The hunger marches to the differ- ent capitols are taking place with the Negro workers taking a prominent part in the fore- front. While Kentucky sees ten thousand Ne- gro amd white miners in a hectic battle against starvation by the coal barons, Chicago is alarmed at the tremendous demonstrations and persistent struggles of Negro workers in solidar- ity with white workers battling against unem- ployment, hunger and starvation. The South for the first time in its history since the civil war is terrified; the Negro share-croppers -are organizing into militant share-croppers’ unions, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia recently saw 40,000 Negro and white miners in a valiant battle against starvation wages. The Scottsboro legal-lynch frame-up is witnessing thousands of Negro workers in solid unity with the white workers demonstratively demanding freedom for the nine Negro boys. Simultaneously with this rising spirit of strug- gle of the Negro workers, the capitalists have unleashed a savage and bloody reign of terror against them. To top it all the Negro mis- leaders haye completely unmasked themselves, re now nakedly joining the oppressors in ng the rising revolutionary struggles of ro masses. In the present recruiting drive, therefore, the Party must come forward both as the leader of the Negro masses in their struggles and as their defender against imperialism’s bloody attacks and of on. In the shops, mines and fac- tories, on the farms and plantations—in short, medi diate de ment wherever Negro workers are, we must penetrate | in this recruiting drive. We must once and for all eliminate the periodic, sporadic struggles in behalf of the rights of the Negro masses which we have been carrying on up to now and re- place them with CONSISTENT, determined ones. The struggles against lynching, evictions, un- scriminations, segregations—in short, the struggles against the whole vile na- tional oppression of the Negro masses must be | redoubled and utilized as the basis for the en- rollment of Negro workers in our present re- cruiting campaign. No more vacillations, no more underestimations. Forward to making the recruiting drive a success in drawing in and re- aining masses of Negro workers in our Party. NOTE:—This article is good for general agi- tation. It is generally too abstract, not con- cretely stating how Negro workers can be re- cruited (for instance) from a laundry or the marine industry to the Party. Negro workers in New York are not steel, coal mining or stock- yards workers in basic industries, but they are engaged in transport, which is basic, and large numbers are discriminated against and doubly exploited in the needle trades. These people in such industries are not domestics (as the general conception is the majority of Negroes in Har- lem are domestics) but proletarians. They are excellent material for our Party and trade unions. We have conducted insufficient strug- gies for the special and economic demands of the Negroes in Harlem, and have failed to carry on a sustained fight against white chauvinism. These weaknesses must be overcome during the recruiting —Ed. INVOLVING THE PARTY MEMBERSHIP IN THE Y. C. L. RECRUITING DRIVE By JOSEPH ROBERTS ‘HE Young Communist League has launched a recruiting drive that started on Jan. 15, end- ing April 22, the tenth anniversary of the Amer- ican Y.C.L. Our aim is to double the present membership and reach the goal of 7,500 members in the League. ‘The Party recruiting drive must be coordin- ated with the Leagues in such a way that the Party membership ‘iis fully mobilized in helping the Y. C. L. to attain this goal WHY? The Young Communist International and the C, I. have set the mark for every section to build a Y.CL. that will catch up and surpass the Party in membership. In the United States the Party has now a membership of 12,000. Their drive to double the membership will raise the total to over 20,000. While our goal is 7,590 in the recruiting drive, it will nevertheless be the basis for narrowing the gap between the League and Party, at the same time increase the tempo in developing a mass base for rooting the League in the leadership of youth struggles, amongst the unemployed, in the shops amd thereby laying the basis for building a mass Y.C.L. in the course of the struggle. The Party is much stronger than the Y.0.L. Its influence deeply rooted amongst the masses, it is becoming more and more the leader and organizer for the workers. It has contact in shops, cities and places where there is no Y.C.L. or working-class youth organization of any kind. For this reason it is essential that the Party, through its units, membership and network of mass organizations takes steps to help the Y. Uncover Starvation and Misery ‘Visit the homes of the unemployed workers. List all cases of starvation, undernourishment, inade- quate relief. Carry on a sustained and steady struggle for unemployment relief for the starving families from the city government, the large corporations and employers. Have large delegations of unemployed workers present at every meeti of the , city council to fight for adequate re- lief for all cases of starving and undernonrished workers’ families. C. L. in carrying out its broadest recruitment drive. It is important that we start carrying out in real life the old-time slogan of the Party: “TO BUILD A Y.C.L. UNIT, WHEREVER THERE IS A LEAGUE UNIT, AND PARTICULARLY IN THE SHOPS.” We are far from this goal today. The recruiting drive must serve as a basis to help the Y.C.L. HOW? 1. Party members in the shops come in con- tact with young workers. They must be referred to the League. In shops where a large number of youth work and a Party shop unit exists, then the task of the Party shop unit should be to establish a Y¥.C.L. group. 2. The Party members in mass orgariizations have a broad contact with workers who can fur- nish your contracts. These are very valuable for the Y.C.L., which can follow them up and win them for the League, 3. There are cities with a Party unit or units, in some places even whole sections with no Y.C.L. in existence. Here the concrete task of the Party unit must be to start a Y.C.L, and guide it along. 4. The Party can only be effectively mob- flized for helping the League if there is a thor- ough conviction among them as to the role and necessity for the building of a mass Y¥.C.L. For this reason the leading Party comrades in the units, sections, districts and central committee must check up on the activity of the Party mem- bership for the building and leadership of the League in its work. 5. Let the Party responsibility for the lead- ership of the League be felt in the ranks of the Y.C.L. and in the Party, Then we can be as- surred of a successful recruitment drive and the bettering of the Party and League relations. Already in certain districts (Cleveland, New York) the Party has assumed its responsibility. More than that they are doing it in deeds, with applicants and contacts being turned over to the Y.C.L. in large numbers. Note from the Organization Department, C.C.: Cleveland District of the Party proposed to in- clude in the revolutionary competition the re- cruiting of the young members into the Y.C.L. Good suggestion—let other districts accept it. A CRITICAL REVIEW OF OUR WORK AMONG AGRARIAN MASSES By H. PURO PART L. f Ete Eleventh Plenum of the Executive Com- mittee of the Communist International paid great attention to the questions of the world agrarian crisis, the peasant movement and the work of the Communist Parties in the country. In emphasizing this work, the Politsecretariat of the E.C.C.I. later sent a letter to all Com- munist Partie$ with the opening paragraph as follows: “In view of the new conditions of the rev- olationary class struggle in general and in the villages in particular, which are taking an ex- tremely favorable direction for the Communist Parties, in view of the role of the toiling peasants as the allies of the proletariat in the revolution, the Plenum put forward as one of the immediate basic tasks for the Com- munist Parties the winning over of the toiling Peasants to the side of the proletariat on the ground of their struggle for everyday needs. But, in addition, while criticizing the work of the Communist Parties for the past year, the Plenum pointed out as one of the greatest shortcomings the extraordinary weakness of the work of the Communist Parties in the vil- lages and the absolute absence of such work in some countries, This passivity of the Com- munist Parties in the villages has connections with the lagging of the Parties behind the radicalization of the village masses, their tail- ism with regard to the strikes of agricultural workers, to the unemployed movements of the peasants, The Plenum made it obligatory on the Communist Parties {o increase their work on the village front to the greatest pos- sible extent, thus strengthening the revolu- tionary alliance of the workers and the pe: ants under the leadership of the proletariat,” Especially now that our Party is conducting the Lenin Drive for membership, we must speak very critically about the shortcomings of our work among the agricultural laborers and toil- ing farmers, which in many of our Party dis- tricts amounts to a complete absence of this work, We mus tpoint out to our Party mem- bership that it was Lenin who always pointed out the absolute necessity of work in the villages and the necessity of the winning over of toiling farmers on the side of the working class against the capitalist class. The establishment of the revolutionary alliance between workers and toil- ing farmers under the leadership of the workers in this alliance is one of the fundamentals of Leninism. ‘The teachings of Lenin in regard to the peas- ants are embodied in the program of the Com- munist International as one of the fundamental doctrines, and as a section of the Comintern our Party must follow this program, not only in theory but also in practice, The program of the Comintern regarding the peasant question is embodied in the thesis of the Second World Congress of the Communist International. This thesis is written by Lenin himself. For the benefit of our Party com- rades, this thesis has been republished in the Dec., 1931 issue of The Communist. This basic Leninist document of the Communist Interna- tional on the present question must be studied by all the leading comrades of the Party and explained to the Party membership. On the basis of hey Leninist teachings we must begin immediately to do practical work ‘among the masses of agricultural workers and the toiling farmers, because acceptance of Leninist theory without practice does not mean anything at all. Let us point out some of the latest happen- ings in the villages and we can easily see the inability of our Party to utilize the growing spirit and readiness for struggle among the agrarian masses. From Camp writes: “The croppers are getting but three to four cents a pound for their cotton after paying ginning. . . . This is in the cotton belt, yet they must go around in tattered, torn cloth- ing. The white croppers are in just about the some bad fix thought they (some of them) get a little better treatment (than Negro crop- pers). . . . White children go to school, but the Negro children do not go at all.” These situations are developing the deter- mined spirit of struggle, both among Negro and white share croppers in the South (Camp Hill, Alabama, croppers). But our Party down in Alabama and in the entire South is too weak to develop these struggles, but very slowly, M Hill, Alabama, one comrade our Party were up to the level of its task, there are excellent possibilities all over the South to develop a gigantic mevoment of tenants, share croppers, agricultural laborers and toiling small farmers’ movements, which could be a powerful ally of the Southern proletariat and which would mean a decisive turn in all our struggles for equal rights for Negroes. Our entire Party must assist the comrades in the South to take up seriously and speed up our work among the millions of tenants and share croppers, in order to win them over for the revolutionary class struggle of the proletariat and for the liberation struggle of the Negro masses. A couple of months ago there was armed strug- gle on the part of the toiling farmers in the A Book on Southern Unions (A Book Review) By LABOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATION. “IT does not appear that the Communist entry in 1929 will ‘offer continuing difficulty.” With this last sentence in his book, Textile Unionism in the South, George S. Mitchell, in- structor in economics in Columbia University, dismisses the efforts of the National Textile Workers’ Union in southern mill towns. Mitchell, a white southerner, is opposed to militant union- ism. On the other hand, he believes that safe and sane United Textile Workers’ unionism would help the mill workers to understand capi- talist democracy and hence prevent them from going Red. In fact, he accepts the whole class cooperation program of the A. F. of L. whén he writes that “much is gained” if the unions ‘can materially aid the southern cotton manufactur- ers in restoring the industry to complete and successful operation.” Although Mitchell says, “I confess to a sym- pathy with the efforts of the mill people to or- ganize,” he can certainly not be considered a friend of the left-wing union; and his story of recent organization movements in the South is too sketchy to be of any value to organizers in this field. However, his account of attempts to organize textile workers from 1886 to date is well worth reading. It is a most careful and detailed account of historic strikes and union activities in the South. In fact the section on southern unionism in Labor and Textiles by Dunn and Hardy is based on this part of the Mitchell manuscript. ‘The story includes the early efforts of the Knights of Labor, those of the International Union of Textile Workers (1898 to 1901) and finally, those of the United Textile Workers from 1901 on. The four periods of greatest activity were 1886 to 1890; 1898 to 1902; 1913 to 1921; and finally the period of 1928 to 1930 when the National Textile Workers’ Union played a lead- ing part. In his brief account of Gastonia, Mitchell ad- mits that the “most arresting element in the whole disturbance is the ready acceptance by large numbers of the Gastonia workers of the Communist leadership.” But like others who hhave attacked the N. T. W. U., he shows his ignorance of recent developments when he says that “the failure to recruit any membership since the Gastonia strike . . . would indicate, however, the practical elimination of the Na- tional Textile Workers’ Union.” But he brings out clearly the fact that the United Textile Workers’ Union is now much more conservative than in the early days and how it has “offered its help to the management in scientific rear- rangement of work schedules and in other prob- lems of operation.” The account runs only to the Danville organ- ization period of 1929-31 and does not include the strike itself or the United Textile Workers sell-out of the workers. While International Publishers offers Labor and Textiles, a book of 256 pages, covering both the cotton and wool industries and their work- ing conditions, union history and the present situation—all for $1, this book of Mitchell's is issued by the University of North Carolina Press and deals with only one limited aspect of work- ers’ struggles in cotton. Although 90 pages in length, yet it sells for the same price as the International volumr state of Iowa against the fake tuberculosis test of cows, This was a spentaneous movement of toiling farmers, on their own initiative—and the capitalist press was very much aroused about this struggle. The state militia was called to suppress this struggle of the farmers. These farmers had to conduct their struggle without any leadership. Although we are supposed to have some Party organizations nearby, they did not know anything about this struggle, or at least they did not do anything about it. They did not even send in reports to the Central Com- mittee. A similar struggle was reported going on in Western Minnesota. There our Party comrades at least disoussed the problem, but were very much in doubt whether we can oppose a “scien- tific test.” This hesitation and lack of clarity prevented them from doing anything. In and around Portland, Ore., and St. Louis, Mo., dairy farmers conducted very bitter strug- gles against dairy trusts last fall. We found out about these strikes from the capitalist press re- ports. Although in both p‘aces there are Party units, they hardly know anything about these struggies. At least they did not make any con- tacts with these farmers, nor did they report to the Central Committee about these struggles. In the beginning of December, when the burley tobacco sales opened, there were considerable protest movements among the Kentucky tobacco tenant farmers against the robbery of the tobacco trust. In Owensboro, which is in North- western Kentucky, as many as 3,000 farmers gathered around the tobacco trust office, holding their protest meeting. In some other places as many as 1,500 participated in similar demonstra- tions. Many militant farmers were arrested in these meetings. From the reports of the capi- talist press, from which we were compelled to gather our information, we found that the tobacco trust was trying to prevail upon the farmers to reduce their acreages in order to raise the price of the crop, and it seems to us that to a certain extent they were successful in this. In view of the big mine strike in Kentucky it is very important for our Party to immedi- ately establish contact with these tobacco farm- ers in the northern and central part of the state, who have shown their willingness to strug- gle against the robbery of the tobacco trusts. These farmers can be easily mobilized for the struggle against capitalism on the basis of their immediate demands, which we should help to formulate, These tenant tobacco farmers can be gotten to support the striking miners. From Colorado the District Organizer of the Party writes, describing the extremely favorable situation for the work among agricultural work- ers and poor farmers: “There exists a most favorable situation among the beet workers and farmers generally,” but then the comrade is up against it, because, he says, “lack of funds and the inability of this weak Party organization to wholly subsidize the work of the Agricultural Industrial Workers’ Union.” It is important to know that there are thousands of agricultural workers in Colorado. And this is the most im- portant category of village population among which we must work, At least our comrades in the Colorado District realize the importance of this work and try to do something, and we hope that in spite of difficulties they will succeed in mobilizing these thousands of agricultural work- ers in a fighting organization and into the struggle for their immediate demads under the. leadership of our Party. (To be Concluded.) -Workers! Join the Party of. Your r Class! , P.O Box 87 Station D. New York City. Please send me more information on the Cum- munist Party. Name ...00 seen ceeeeecescecscesecsessecsersees Address setae eeecenneesereecenscescesenees CNY ..ceccvecrecesceccceeeers SURO «reves OCCUPATION ...seeeseesceeceenerecsss ABC seseee .Mai} this to the Central Office, Communist Communist Party 0. &. A P. O, Box 87 Station D. New York City. N.Y hone ALgonquin 4-7956. Cable “DATWOILK." By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs ly Worker, 50 Hast 18th Street, New York, N. ¥. of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. Foreign: one year, $8; six months, $4.50, By BURCK ——|Broaden the Mass Movement to Free the Scottsboro Boys 4 HE struggle to free the Scottsboro boys eatw not be limited to the frame-work of bour- geois legality, neither can dependence be placed in Negro “leaders” to give aid in building up @ united front mass defense movement, By B. D. AMIS. To follow such a course is an opportunist error which will have disastrous effects upon the struggles to free the nine boys and the Negra liberation movement. The first error is right opportunism, dependent upon legal measures, which ignores the impor= tance of politicalizing the struggle. It is & ree treat to the positions of the reformists who ad- vocate reliance upon “justice” from the courts of the lynchers. It objectively supports the base theory of these same scoundrels that @ mass movement will “disturb the calm of the South and good southern race relations.” These wrong tendencies haye been revealed during the course of the campaign. Their source springs from the opportunist conceptions —lack of faith in the Negro masses to struggle for immediate partial demands and against the sharpening persecution. This lack of faith has expressed itself in the failure to build Scottsboro block and neighbor= hood committees. (And where they were built, to limit the struggles of the workers to the Scottsboro campaign only, no attempt being made to raise the level of the struggle and link it up with the growing waves of lynchings and increased terror against the Negro masses.) Failure to give revolutionary leadership to the militant struggles of the aroused and angered Negro masses at the present time subjects the struggles to savage verbal and physical attacks from the reformists, the capitalist cluss and their agents. Consequently, in the end, the struggles will be beheaded or turned into paci- fist channels. The second error is a negation of the forms of the united front tactic from below. It fol- lows the path of least resistance, confining ¢ne struggle to a “struggle” with the Negro preach- ers for permission to “steal” their carefully guarded congregations from before their eyes, It is an attempt to build a united front from the top, to follow in the tail of the misleaders, who stand ready to serve their class interests and not the interests of the Negro toilers. The leftist mistake to limit the struggle to the acts of a few revolutionary mass organiza- tions places the campaign on a narrow se¢tar- ian base. The wrong conception of winning freedom for the boys (only adopting protest resolutions and sending protest telegrams) with- out the aid of outside pressure from the Negro masses and white and colored workers fails to broaden the united front. Rarely has the strug- gle been concretely linked up to the every day struggles of the workers for partial demands. How to Avoid Mistakes. How can we best overcome such opportunistic errors? The comrades in the suburban town of Detroit, Hamtramck, have set a good example as to how to broaden out the struggle by cor- rectly linking it up with the election and un- employment campaigns. The demonstration of workers before the town council produced suf- ficient mass pressure to force the City Council to send a protest telegram to the governor of Alabama, denouncing this hideous frame-up. Other cities must follow this good example by mobilizing masses of whites and Negroes to dem~ onstrate before the city councils in their respec- tive cities and demand that they too should take the same action. Especially should demonstra- tions be held before the homes of Negro poli- ticlans such as Aldermen of Negro Wards. Mass pressure will force them to declare themselves on the case and growing Negro persecutions. We must demand of them to accede to the pres- sure of the indignant masses and send protest telegrams to the Alabama state officials. Their failure to do so gives us an opportunity to expose them before the Negro masses and brand them for what they are—class enemies to the strug- gle to free the nine boys and to the Negro lib- eration movement, ‘We must appeal over the heads of the Negro reformists to their rank and file membership. Their treachery and class interest must be ex- posed and they must be isolated from the rank and file who are willing and ready to struggle. Building block and neighborhood committees is a method to reach the rank and file members of the reformist organizations. Street demon- strations in the Negro neighborhoods and be- fore local politicians will draw into the struggle the most conscious sections of the Negro masses. Appeals to the membership of workers’ clubs should be made. Such forms of activities take us away from running around to churches and bring us in direct contact with the toiling masses. ‘The slogans issued on Scottsboro, appearing in the Daily Worker, January 20, 1932, will (with our concrete agitation) awaken the political con- sciousness of the Negro masses and white work- ers to intensify the struggle and raise it to a higher political level. Masses of Negroes and white must be drawn into such a program to produce required results and to broaden out the struggles. We must smash through the subtle frame- work of bourgeois legality with a tremendous out-pouring of proletarian protests and demon- strations, Such activities will draw into the struggle those organizations and sections of the masses which are not on the periphery of our movement. It will turn the extensive indigna- tion of the Negro masses ito real revolutionary channels of struggle and will afford us an op- portunity to build our organizations. The fact must not be minimized that the form of strug- gle as applied in Hamtramck is one that will give to the toiling masses a weapon which will be decisive in aiding to smash the Ppwer which holds the nine innocent boys. The immediate danger which confronts us is that the struggle will not assume the broad character that it should and that while waiting for the decision of the Alabama State Supreme Court, a lull will set in, which will enable the southern lynch bosses to carry through their plans of legal lynching unnoticed by the inter- national and American toiling masses. Effec- tive mass action, broadening out the struggle (at the same time properly linking it up to the struggle for partial demands), increasing its power, and always bearing in mind that the boys will burn if we are not alert to keep the masses in constant motion, will eliminate many of the dangers that face us, ‘ ee ati —