The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 17, 1932, Page 4

New York nd mail all checks to the Dally Worker, 60 East 18th Str Party Recruiting Drive January 11 - March 18, 1932 N. ¥ Celephone ALgonquin 4-7956 ~ Cable by the Comprodafly Publishing Co. tne, dally exeept Sunday, at 50 East Se! “DAIWOLK," eet, New York, N. Dail Yorker” REVOLUTIONARY COMPETITION By A. NEWHOFF (Chicago). recruit ir well u entire Party is now engaged der w in re T cruiting workers to our Party with special concentration on workers basic industries, Negro, wom- en and youth. The Chicago District challenged the Pitts- burgh District and a representative to the Pittsburgh District to bring the challenge and also to learn from the Pittsburgh Dist: to build the revolutionary y trade unions, and to work in the shops and mines. Did we achieve any results? It is cessary to sta that the reason we especially challenged the Pittsburgh District is because the two districts are similar in basic in- ing and steel) and in building the nange of experiences of the two valuable. The Party mem- bership in Pitsburgh was recruited after the Penn.-Ohio strike last ye: while the Chicago district recruited hundreds of new Party mem bers as a result of the fight for Negro righis and the August 3rd events, when 3 Negro work- ers were killed in an eviction demonstration While the Chicago District ‘S a Mass unem-~- ployed movement, Pittsburgh has a very small movement; Pittsburgh has a mass trade union movement, the N. M. U., while Chicago is ver weak im shop work and trade union work gen erally. ‘That ‘s why we challenged the Pittsburgh District in order te especially turn the whole nembership of Chicago in this campaign to work in the factories, mines and to link up the un- employed movement with the employed workers. The comrades in Pittsburgh enthusiastically responded to the challenge. In one section, the New Kensington Section, at a Section Confer- ence, the membership greeted the challenge by quota and concretely pointing out these workers can be recruited, from nines, in the section, aluminum plant, steel mills 1 an asphalt plant through the development local struggles. o, the steel mill nuclei in Pittsburgh re- ded well and challenged similar units in © Chicago District. Everywhere in the Pitts- rgh District where the N. M. U. conducted the struggle there is wonderful support for our union and the Party. We can see by the figures of the first few weeks of the drive that Pitts- burgh is developing the drive properly. Chicago °s not yet made the turn in this campaign, pccause the proportion of the employed to the dustries (mi Party the ext districts would be where A unemployed workers recruited into the Party is still the same 20 per cent, while the recruiting in Pittsburgh of employed workers is propor- tionately much higher. The third week of the drive numerically in Chicago is 132, but the amount of recruits from the shops is very poor, although some sections have done quite well. One of the reasons, as the section organizers stated, was because the membership of the sec- tions have not yet been mobilized in the cam- paign. This the District Committee has reacted on by sending a letter to each member of the Party, explaining the campaign and calling upon the membership to help. break down the bureau- cratic tendencies and. formalism in order swing into this campaign. Revolutionary competition between the sec- tions has had some response, but. not enough. The membership of the Party is becoming aware of this powerful weapon in our struggle. How- ever, the leadership of the Party, especially some sections, look upon revolutionary competition cynically. Wherever the rank and file of the Party has been approached to engage in revo- lutionary competition, it has had wonderful re- sults, stimulating the drive and properly turn- ing the Party in this campaign to the basic work in the shops and mines, building the TUUL. In some sections in Chicago revolutionary competition is engaged in by all the nuclei. Then there are some sections that have not even con- sidered this in challenging other sections. In the experiences of recruiting and keeping the new recruits for the Party, the agitprop depart= ment can be @ powerful factor. The exchang- ing of experiences are of much valuable aid in building the Party. The comrades in Pittsburgh who are prac- tically all new Party members are showing that with the aid of revolutionary competition the drive for new forces in our Party, to espe- cially guide the unions and the unemployed movement tg build shop nuclei which is of de- cisive importance, enormous achievements can be made. The lesson that Chicago can learn from Pittsburgh, of the new forces that are lead- ing the movement, is that we can build our revolutionary trade unions, that we can organ- ize the workers in the shops and mines, and in this campaign we can carry out with political understanding and concrete organizational ap- | plication the recruiting of workers from the basic industries and successfully link up the truggles of the employed and unemployed workers. DRGANIZATIONAL — AGITATIONAL — PROPAGANDA WORK AND THE RECRUITING DRIVE By DAVID GORDON. HE Party Recruiting Drive brings sharply to our attention the need for Goordination of our organizational work with that of agitation propaganda activity. The question of agitprop work spells the relationship between our Party theory with our Party practice. The understanding of the linking up of these two phases of our activity means better understand- ing of how to win Party influence over the masses and bring them inte the Party organ- ization. org- Although the need for such co-ordination of org-agitprop work seems obvious we, neverthe- less, are forced to observe that attitudes have been expressed to such coordination which need a few words of explanation. For instance, it has been expressed by a lead- ing comrade, that he did not see the need for having a joint org-agitprop department meeting in which to discuss the relationship between these activities. Although there was finally agreement that such meetings should be called, it is now some 6 weeks since action on this was to have been taken. It is imperative that such meetings are held from time to time. Such hesi- tation and postponement comes from an under- estimation of the need for coordinating this work. We have continually stated that there Is a wide gap between our political influence and our organizational strength. It has been usually stated that it is because we are “poor organ- izers” that we have not been able to build the Party, the Young Communist League, our revo- lutionary unions and other revolutionary organ. izations. By this was usually meant, or very much implied, that we don’t know how to con- vince workers to join our revolutionary organi: tions. It is this w 's opinion that not only the question of method of approach to the work- er was the reason for failure to secure organ- DISTRICT 9 CHALLENGES DISTRICT 8 Org Dept. District 3 1413 W. 18th At Chicago, Ill. Dear Comrade: In connection with the Party Recruiting Drive, the District Buro of District 9 calls upon your District, District 8, to join in revolution- ary competition on the following points: 1. We will build 5 new mine nuclei in the fron and copper mines and challenge your dis- trict to build the same number in the coal mines, 2. We will fulfill our quota of recruiting 100 | iron and copper miners and challenge your dis- | trict to recruit as many coal miner: | 3. We will issue regularly the present 3 mine | papers and issue a new mine paper and chal- lenge your district to establish at least two mine papers in the coal fields by the end of this drive. 4. We will fulfill our quota of recruiting 40 railroad packing house workers quicker thah your district will recruit your quota of 90 rail- road and packing house 5. \ 2 -wiil recruit half as many members into the Party from the AFL building trades and railroad unions as your district will. | rc | times large as the three large cities in. our districts (all three combined) we feel that it is a fair challenge and ask you to accept it, Comradely, ORGANIZATION DEPARTMENT. District 9. idering that Chicago, the city algric, is 5| | ization results, but also the fact that we did not organize our agitation-propaganda activity suf- ficiently well so as to result in concrete organ- ization. What do we mean by this? By this is meant that the question of the need for organization is not followed by our explanation of things to which workers agree more and more. For exam- ple, although very frequently we convince work- ers of the correctness of our program through shop papers we do not point out to them what actual organization can do to better these con- ditions, and what organization has ac- complished in the past. An outstanding case in point is the Wright Airplane Co. in Paterson, N. J. There the Party had much influence, was issuing shop papers reguarly for a period of months. When the strike broke out there, how- ever, In 1930, we found that the workers agreed with us as a political party, but asked the Amer- ican Federation of Labor for leadership which resulted in the sell-out of the strike. We could not convince the Wright workers to fight behind the Metal Trades Workers’ Industrial League. Or take another case. Very frequently our organizational departments send comrades to visit organizations for funds. Comrades go out. They give convincing speeches, showing how the bourgeois parties are supported by capitalism and that our support can come from workers alone. We convince them of the need for aid- ing us in all our campaigns, elections, anti- imperialist war, Lenin, etc. But after we con- vince workers to give funds to the Communist Party, which in most cases means a sacrifice, after good agitational speeches what are the re- sults? A few dollars—but no members. Let us take a third case. Where even to a little degree we popularize the need for organ- ization, we see. results. For instance, in the Fisher Body Co., Cleveland (manutacturers of automobile bodies), the Party shop nucleus issues a paper called “Spark Plug.” Through popularization of the need for joining the Party and the Auto Workers’ Union in the “Spark Plug” and, of course, through individual agitation in the shop, we hvae a Party nucleus of about 15 and a union group of 35 members. Although this 1s not a huge. organizational achievement, it shows the possibilities of build- ing the Party and unfon in the mill. The com- bined written agitation and propaganda in the shop paper, plus the individual agitation of the nucleus comrades in the mill resulted in the organization mentioned. It is of greatest im- portance for the org-agitprop departments to discuss the question of the shop paper in rela- tion to the activity of the comrades in the shop, the question of development of struggles, ete. found organizational results—workers applying to the Party and Y. C. L. The manner in which to develop struggles in the shop is very important. Thts is a matter for org-agitprop discussion. For instance, only recently the torch solderers organized themselves into a grievance committee, demanded that the company shall pay the foreman his wages in- stead of having them taken from the wages and demanded a letting up of the rifle speed-up. The demands of this committee were won. This was e direct of the agitation for the organization of ance committees, which was often stressed in Hi EL! the paper. ‘This gives a little indication of the need for dint org-agitprop meetings. Such mectings wil develop olé and bring forward new methods of work, new methods of bringing our campaigns to the mills, to workers generally, so that the general agitation will be linked with the local conditions and with the need for organisation, as well as, in this wer, develop struggles for to | SIMMS IS DEA D—BUT OUR FIGHT W. SURSCRIPTION RATES: For More Clarity in the Struggle Against Imperialist War By JOHN WILLIAMSON While the imperialists maneuver for privileged position in relation to each other, spurred on by the sharpening of the economic crisis in their respective countries, and simultaneously haying one common. cause, to try and destroy the Soviet Union through military intervention, they let loose a barrage of pacifist talk and bluster to cover up their feverish military, naval and air- building program, The bourgeoisie is more alert and sensitive to their class role in regard to preparatory work befora the actual outbreak of imperialist war in the USA than we, the Communist Party. The ilth Plenum of the Communist International siated: “The agitation against the war danger is not carried on systematically, and in many cases only from campaign to campaign.” This is a correct characterization which is best exampled in our attitude to August Ist as merely | @ mass demonstration, and our failure to make | our struggle against the war danger a part of every other mass activity. However, when our Party recently called for a campaign of resolu- tions against the Stimson-Tokio Secret Pact against the Soviet Union and for special mass meetings on November 21st, the result prac- tically a failure. While tens of thousands of workers were mobilized for November 7th, and hundreds of thousands of workers for the strug- gle for unemployment relief and insurance and the Hunger Mareh, we were not able to carry through successfully such a primitive and e' mentary phase of struggle against imperialist war as resolutions and mass meetings. V would we expect to do with more serious t Placed before us? Basis of Anti-War Work. Can this failure be explained by organizational weaknesses—closeness to November 7th—to many campaigns, etc? Absolutely not. We must look deeper and more politically for the reason. There are five basic reasons, all of which represent an opportunist underestimation of the War Danger and incorrect Leninist attitude towards our Party's tasks, (1) The idea that we need do nothing until imperialist war breaks out, coupled with a fata- listic attitude. (2) The idea that revolution can only come through imperialist war—therefore why fight against it. (3) The idea prevalent among unemployed that war will end the crisis and give jobs to all~ therefore why oppose it. (4) Not linking up the struggle against war with the other campaigns against the same bosses and bosses government, who are simultaneously preparing war and attacking the workers at home (5) Underestimation of pacifist activity of the bourgeoisie and their Socialist lackeys and no organizational struggle against it in the ranks of the workers’ organizations, On all these points, plus many more which will face the working class at the outbreak of impe- rialist war, there is the greatest need for ideolo- Tecognizing imperialist war as inherent very system of capitalism and inevitable capitalism, this does not mean that the class is not, or cannot be a positive fac- in the postponement of imperialist war en in its prevention. The latver, however, can only be through the revolutionary struggle of the working class in destroying capitalism. Mass Struggle of Workers C2a Postpone War. Everyone is aquainted with the fact that in England in 1921, the mass pressure of the British workers under the slogan of “Hands off Soviet _ Russia” stopped the war hand of Churchill. This ‘point of view is stated very specifically in the 1th Plenum Resolution, as follows: While recognizing the ine ility of im ist war under capitalism, this by no me: cuses the attilude of “do nothing now.” tt is our duty to carry on the most intensive mobilization of the working class to defeat the imperialist war before the outbreak of the war as well-as after | out of the clouds of genera’ | day concrete life of the workers. We must con- In populs feat the ii ion,” me ing the very correct slogan of “De- against the Soviet Un- even Party members kers and are confused as to the Party attitude towards “preventing war.” ‘This is confused with “post- ponement of the imperialist slaughter.” While, as outlined above, we at all time must organize the workers today in the struggle against im- perialist war—which can result in its postpone- ment—we must unde nd clearly that the working class can only nt war, in the ab-. solute sense, by revolutionary mass struggle to overthro capitalism or through the reyolution- tion of the imperialist war into our own capitalist class. This learly and categorically in the ’. I. Resolution, as follows v P from capi‘alis from this it follows that the 2bolition of war is pos- sible only through the abolition of capitalism, Le, through the overthrow of the bourgeois class of explciters, through the proletarian dic- tatorship, the building of Socialism and elimi- nation of classes. All other theories and pro- posals however “realistic” they may clam to be, are nothing but a deception calculated to per- petuate exploitation and war.” ALSO— “Although convinced that war is inevitable under the rule of the bourgeoisie the Commun- ists, in the interests of the. masses of workers— wage a persistent fight against imperialist war and strive to prevent imperialist wars by pro- letarian revolution.” Our struggle against the 1 ary trans a. class is ar danger must come s, into the present- nect the struggle against imperialist war with the struggle for unemployment relief and insurance, against wage-cuts, and stagger plan, and against the new wave of political reaction and terror against the workers. If we can prove to the workers that the same bosses’ government that starves him through denying him relief and in- surance—who starve him through wage cuts and stagger systems—who beats him up when he protests and participates in strikes and mass meetings, also spends billions for increased army and navy, hundreds of thousands on fake dis- armament conferences, then he will understand more clearly the correct class approach to the question of war, Carry Struggle Against War Into the Factories, Especially important is it to penetrate into the factories—but not just with general leaflets We must in addition, through our work INSIDE the factory, find out: (1) Composition and age of workers in shop. (2.) Learn the use of the product for war pur- Poses. (3.) Find out whether any orders have come in to your shop in connection with war prepar- ations. (4.) Whether the company has any agreement with the War Dept. for orders, as soon as war breaks out. (5.) The possibilities of transforming the fac- tory for war production and if this was done during the last imperialist war. (6.) What the profits of the company were during the years of the last war, compared with the wages * On the basis of knowledge of the above fasts, our agitation among the workers inside, as well as our leaflet distribution outside, will be more concrete and better received. Against Hesitation and Fatalistic Tendencies— Combat War Danger Now! ‘The tendency to wait and unedrestimate the growing war preparations, particularly against the Soviet Union, must be rooted out of the Party }and the Party intensify its activities manifold on this field today. U.S. Capit alism Plays with the Dynamite of Inflation By HARRY GANNES. NEW phase of the economic and financial crisis is being opened up in the United States by the latest moves of the-Hoover hunger government towards inflation and the ultimate collapse of the gold standard in the United States, * So desperate is this step that. one leading capitalist economist, writing in the York Evening Post, described it with enough dynamite to blow the capitalist, system to pieces. While the capitalists themselves tremble at the possibilities of their new move, the chief result will be to intensify the misery of the workers, bringing forward the necessliy of greater struggles against capitalism and the new series of tortures it holds in’ store for them. ‘The Glass-Steagall Bill. Very soon Congress, under the careful groom- ing of the leading Wall Street bankers, will pass the Glass-Steagall Bill providing for a huge inflation of the United States currency. ‘This measure is but one of a whole series of futile attempts of American capitalism to stop the ever-increasing number of bank failures and the bankruptcy that threatens the railroads, in- surance companies and other large capitalist cor- poratons. The first move was the establishment of the Finance Credit Corporation that was toy save the banks. More bank failures followed this step, The next move was the creation of the Emergency Reconstruction Finance Corporation. This measure, which was to be a cure-all, was followed by an increase in bank failures, a fur- ther intensification of the crisis in every indus- try, a drop in the stock and bond market and @ worse phase in the governmental budgetary ortsis. Realizing all these measures were useless in stopping the deepening of the crisis—in fact, they brought about new, and sharper features of the crisis, involving the whole credit structure— rect. decided: on definite inflationary moves Were brought about by the rapia withdrawal of gold reserves by France, Hollana, European countries, The first step ig8 the lowering of the discount rate on bank- decided to answer with inflatio internally by reducing the gold. coverage of the currency, by issuing $2,500,000,000 in inflated money; by wholesale watering of government obligations; by huge loans to banks without any security— and by the general policy of reducing the value of mon forcing an increase in prices and in stock and bond valuations. Squeeze Workers. By this means American capilalism hopes to squeeze billions out of the workers through mak- ing their reduced wages, and small savings now hoarded -vorth less and less; by expropriating * rge sums from the middle class, and by a gen- eral curther drastic lowering of the standard of living of the workers. At the same time, by lessening the gold cover~ age, American capitalism decided to establish » larger “free gold” reserve fund for the impena- ing battle with French and other European capitalisms for financial supremacy. This is the purpose of the Glass-Steagall Bill which on the day of its announcement haa drastic results. In Europe the gold exchange value of the dollar is-droppihg. The result will be that soon huge quantities of gold will flow out of the United States endangering the gold standard. It is only natural in the face of this situation that the Hoover government with its entire press is endeavoring to hide the plain facts from the mass. The majority of the capitalist news- papers (and soon all will fall in line) declare there is no inflation planred. They declare that gold is being “freed” and that business will be stimulated. Vandenburg Admits Inflation. When the Glass-Steagall measure was first announced, one of the close supporters of the Hoover government, Senator Vandenburg of Michigan, rashly admitted that inflation was the next step. He ssid: “This bill means, fn plain terms, more money. (That is, more money with less gold.) - » Hs effect wil he to bring the price of down and briny the commod ty in- a . Nothing can be plainer than this so far as its | terroristic and fr: By mall ‘erywhere: One year, $6, six months, $3; two months, 81; excepting Boroughs tf Manh: n and Bronx, New York Clty. Foreign: one year. $8; siz months, $4.50. Porty U.S.A. i = — — — porno ———= oS Se eee Ao By BURCK \ ° *, CONTINUE! sees |The Class War Prisoner in Court and Jail 1 By HARRY RAYMOND. 5 Yee International Labor Defense, in develop ing a broad educational campaign on how workers should defend themselves in court and what to do when arrested and questioned, has Just issued a 31 page pamphlet, the title of which is “Under Arrest!”* The pamphlet the result of a year's ree search and compilation of material. All the e-up tactics that the capital- ist police use against workers, the trumpery of court ceremony, the mazes of legal procedure used to confuse workers are exposed in plain simple language on the pages of this Ppamphiet so that any. worker can understand. Not only this, but more important still, “Under Arrest” tells the worker what to do when jailed in the class struggle, what to do when hailed into a capitalist court. In some states, Massachusetts, for instance, d workers can be represented in court by » Not lawyers, In all states a worker ig given the right to defend himself in court. How | { | to defend one’s self, and at the same time bring: out the class issue, is clearly stated in this pamphlet. Tt is especially important for worke ers to be familiar with these points at this pere iod of mass arrests, when it is difficult for the International Labor Defense to furnish lawyers in all instances, The role of the I. L. D. in arousing the wid- est mass protests as the chief effective method to wrest the class war prisoners’ from the clutches of the bosses, how to carry on the class struggle in the court room as w@l as on the picket line, how to make the court 2 workers’ forum—these and many other important ques tions are answered in “Under Arrest.” Workers are advised not to be awed by the “dignity” and “sanctity” of the courts and are told to give no information to the arresting Officer. The pamphlet states firmly: “Give no information, of any kind whatso=~ ever, either about yourself or your fellow workers, or any organization whieh you belong to, or in which you are interested. If you are a foreign born worker, no information of any sort, of the date you landed, the name of the boat, ete. Give your name. That's all.” “Under Arrest” correcily informs workers while in jail to sign no statement, “confession,” or any other paper, no matter how innocent is appears. “Under Arrest” is the first volume ot its kind issued in America. Its publication marks a big step forward toward the education of American workingmen and women in class defense. and self defense. No worker can afford to miss Teade ing this book. “Under Arrest”—issued by the International Labor Defense, 799 Broadway, New York City. Pri¢e 5 cents. a cut which will have devastating effects on the already low standard of living of the Americas workers. So far as the recults of inflation are cone cerned, man, of the bourgeois economists theme selves, worried by the prospects, even before the Glass-Steagall bill was Proposed, admitted that inflation was the real object of all of the Hoover finznce measures, For.example, one of the lead. ing spokesmen of Washington, Benjamin Baker, editor of the Times-controlled “Annalist” on Jan. 15, 1932, said: “Speciffcally, the relief measures proposed at Washincton, together with what appears to be the besinning of a new easy money cam- paicn by the Reserve Banks, together, in ad- dition, with an evident tendency in the middle west toverd straight-out greenbackerism, Teprecent a lunze toward general inflation which contains the germs of a!most illimitable mischief. . . . “The present trend on this, as it is repre- sented by information from Washington and elsewhere, poimts to the launching of an In- clusive and downright inflationary movement suc’ as seems to this writer of very threaten< ing character... . It does not need to be ex« plained to the Reserve Board that such a de« mand, if it coincided with a serious overload- ing of the Reserve Banks, might easily take ua off the gold standard.” Such expressions, however, are now not free quent in the capitalist press as the whole boure geo's press is behind the Hoover cam} aign of inflation, me “Economic Ruin.” The effects of this admitted inflationary move, with the danger to the gold Standard, were stated by another bourgeois economist, L. M. Graves, vice president of the Brookmore Ecoe nomic Service, Inc. (N. Y. Evening Post, Jane uary 9, 1932), writing under the title of: “Ecoe nomic Ruin Held Certain if U. s. Drops Gold.” “The effect of any serious breakdown of the gold standard or resort to fiat money in the United States,” he wrote, “would be economic ruin.” He went on to point out some dire prospects for world capitalism growing out of the lates’ financial debacle. “If the United States should follow Europes off the gold standard,” he continued, “by the adoption of some cheaper standard (precisely what the Glass-Steagall bill provides for) or irredeemable paper (fiat money), it would mean the end of Western industrial civiliza~ tion.” While the Hoover government tries to make the workers believe the spurt in stock gambling, the orgy of speculation which will follow, the world clash of imperialist money masters, will Test in a return to “prosmerity,” even the boure Beols economists deny this. Graves says: “An inflation of the currency, contrary to Popular impress'on, dees net stimclate indus- trial activity. It does not premote exvorts of goods produced from imported materials,’ It does not relieve uném: ent, but tends, if the inflation is severe, to aggravate it,” ‘Thus, we have the admission that all the pres« ent features of the crisis, with their drastie effects on the working class, will be aggravated and intensified by the latest moves of the Hoover government, With a treasury deficit of over $4,000,000,000 the Hoover government is now attempting to squeeze this sum out of the workers through in= flation and through new and crushing taxation. The whole process of inflation goes along with the war moves of American cantt:lism. ‘The sperate striigg!s throug’: every pre 5. tlack against the wovkers, internelly through wage cuts, unemployment, cutting of relief, inflation, and externally in the attack against the Chinese the Soviet Union is capitalism's attempt to float ite self out of the orisia ine sam of workers’ blood, | » N