The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 19, 1932, Page 4

Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Ce. Inc. daily exeept Sunday, at 50 East York City Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 60 East 13th Street, New York, 12th New St wage Four L. D. (New York) A v days ago, I attended a Unit meeting ed of new Party members, and alr f them native Americans. At this meeting ber of very important points w by the comrades who are new in the Party mt opinion of some of the weaknesses nings of our Party work. And in I want to take some of these crit- i ns and show how correctly the new mem- nated the situation in the Party ust be done in order to change this lace, the comrades clearly pointed many of the old Party members are le to give definite, concrete answers on ions that puzzle the minds of the new Especially questions of a political na at deal with deviations of a c eft” character in our Party, This is of the greatest importance, and shows our Party finds itself on a low po- and that we must, without wasting , begin to really politicize the r Units to carry on some educa- g up the various, every e Party with problems of pol cal conceptions, and what is the line on one or another con- that. the comrades i That we have not lea 1 between the work of the Party mn proper, and the various mass or- The comrades pointed out that for e in the unemployment headquarters we find same pictures of Lenin, and the other leaders of our Party in the International move- me banners, the same slogans, etc. in the Party headquarters, and ts who are not ready to be called neviks or Reds, but who come to our move- ment on the basis of every day struggles on the demands for Unemployment Insurance, immed- iate relief, reduction in rents, etc. are scared away from the headquarters of the Unemploy- ed Councils because they have the impression that they have entered the ranks of the Comnit- nist Party. Large meetings of these mass or- ganizations do not distinguish themselves from the Party meetings, and in very few instances have we drawn in broad masses of workers at these’ organization meetings. It is due to the fact workers around one distinct concrete issue, and organize them for struggle around this issue. It seems to me that this point raised by the comrades is of greatest significance to us. We must begin to go down to the roots of this very important ponit, see what are the causes i point t we have not learned to mobilize | Party Recruiting Drive January 11 - March 18, 1932 N. ¥ Celephone ALgonauin 4-7956. Cable “DAIWOLK.” Dail Yorker’ SUBSCRIPTION RATES: New York City. Foreign: ene year, By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, $8: six months, $4.50. Porty U.S.A. G LIFE TO THE UNITS for this, and do away with it so that we can really mobilize masses of workers around the various activities that we are carrying on, with- out in any way antagonizing that section of the working class that still is prejudiced against Communists and the Communist Party, and only only the basis of struggle convince them of the correctness of our position, and draw them closer into our ranks. Another point that the comrades raised was the question of wasting time in waiting around for meetings to begin. These new workers who joined the ranks of our Party are full of en- thusiasm for the activities of the Party, and they feel that every moment counts, that every minute they can do something to develop the work of the Party, and yet they are forced to go to meetings that are called, and wait around for an hour, at times an hour and a helf, and then be told that because only a few comrades showed up, th s the meeting is called off. They do not seem to understand such a sit- uation, and they interpret it, and correctly so, as @ lack of sincerity on the part of the older Party members in taking the campaigns of the Party in a real serious manner. If we were to check up on all the hours and days wasted on just waiting around for meetings, we would see that this point raised by the comrades is of greatest importance to our Party. We must be- cin to put into effect a system whereby, when a meeting is called for a given time, irrespective of the fact of how many comrades show up, to begin this meeting on time. If we were to follow such a thing in a number of instances, then the comrades would be convinced that we mean business and we will not be in a situation where we will waste so many hours uselessly, without any results, These three points show very distinctly that the New Party members are alert and in bringing these criticisms to the Party do it in the spirit of really helping the Party to avoid some of the shortcomings that we face at the present time. It is of the greatest importance that we consider the opinions of the new Party mem- bers, that we discuss these problems with them, and really begin to develop a new inner life of our Units to a point where we really make the new and old Party comrades feel that we are a political Party that guides the workers in their every day struggles for improved condi- tions. In this light, we must take these criticisms seriously and unite all our strength and forces to shove aside these weaknesses that we are confronted with today, in..order to.make the full ‘turn of our Party towards the shop work | as its central activity, and towards the build- ing of a real mass Communist Party. Mr. Green and Unemployment By HARRY GANNES. would be hard to find a blacker page in all labor history than that written during the present crisis by the deeds of the leadership of the A. F. of L. against both the unemployed and unemployed. It is especially necessary to recount these deeds of the Greens and Wolls when we see the spec- tacle of 100 overstuffed labor fakers presenting a petition to Hoover, asking for “federal aid” for the unemployed. The real intent of this petition can be understood only in the light of the bread~- snatching and strike-breaking activities of the A. F. of L. officialdom, Conference With Big Capitalists. Right after the crisis threw millions of workers into the streets to starve, William Green, presi- dent of the A. F. of L., along with 12 other high- paid A. F. of L. officials, met with such indi- viduals as Hoover, Walter Teagle, president of the Standard Oil of New Jersey; Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., president of General Motors; Owen D. Young, Samuel Insull (whose gun thugs are now shoot- ing down miners in Kentucky); E. G. Grace, Bethlehem Steel Co.; Myron C. Taylor, U. 5S. Steel (both of whom later headed the wage cut- ting drive for 1,000,000 steel workers). The purpose of the meeting was to prevent strikes and how effectively this was done is testi- fied to in no uncertain terms by one of Green and Woll’s best friends, the Wall Street Journal. The most hopeful sign this sheet could find for capitalism for 1932 was the following: “One aspect of the business year which has lately passed out unwept, unhonored and un- sung, is deserving of more than the casual men- tion it has received. It is doubtful whether so rapid and extensive a deflation of the wage earner’s income has ever before taken place in the United States, with so nearly a total ab- sence of open conflict between ‘masters and men’. . -It seems a far cry back to the Home- stead riots of 1892, to the Pmiman and railroad strikes of two years later, or even to the Col- orado mine disorders of 1914.” ‘Thus Well Street pins a medal on the lapel of Mr. Green for the “rapid and extensive defla- tion of the wage earner’s income.” ‘The results for the unemployed workers is written in the ledgers of the big corporations in the form of hundreds of millions in profits taken out of wages that would never have been paid had not the A. FP. of L. officialdom not helped the bosses to hog-tie the workers. Grecn’s Promises to the Unemployed. Green, however, as well as the rest of the A. F of L. officialdom did not neglect the unemployed workers in the Judas act. With the prospect of starvation for millions clearly pointed out by the Communist Party (and later even Green himself could not deny it), the A. F, of L. bu- reaucrats called on the hungry workers to have fortitude, to believe in promises, to go hungry for the preservation of American capitalism. It is sickening to read, in the light of the present siuation, in the face of the present ad- missions of Green of wholesale starvation, his promises shoved down the throats of the workers back. in 1929 and 1930. Brazen Lying a la Hoover. Workers were starving and sighting for relief. What did Green tell them? He sald: (Nov. 22, 1929): “We now find that pessimism is giving way; % that faith and confidence is being restored; and we all can look f with renewed hope to an early resumption of increasing in- dustrial activity.” There followed two months in which over | 2,000,000 workers lost their jobs, most of whom have since never had work; many thousands of whom died of hunger. But when asked to ex- press his views o fthe workers’ future Green wrote (Jan. 2, 1930) “The president’s conferences (out of which the wage cutting drives sprang) have been ef- fective in checking this drift toward pessimism. These conferences recognize the interdepend- ence of all industrial and economic groups. The necessity of maintaining wage standards and keeping the workers employed was phasized (and we know how well this was em- phasized!) and co-operation of industrial ex- ecutives forestalled the danger of serious lay- offs. With the ‘great back-logs’ of prosperity assured by public service institutions and gov- ernmental work as we enter 1930 we can look ahead with confidence.” Thus spoke Mr. Green, and he was echoed by every other labor lieutenant in the A. F. of L. while millions of workers and their families faced starvation; while the Communist Party was mobilizing the workers to struggle for un- employment insurance, for relief to come out of the gorged pockets of the bosses who had been reaping heavy profits by the frightful exploita- tion of the American workers. Now suddenly we have Mr. Green singing a | different tune. Not long ago at the last conven- tion of the A. F. of L. in Vancouver the most prominent feature was a speech made by Green declaring the A. F. of L. was against any form of unemployment insurance or “federal relief” | because it was undignified and not in keeping with the morale of the American workers. After the February 4 demonstrations, Mr. Green with 100 other Wall Street agents in the official- dom of the A. F. of L., presented a petition to Hoover calling for “federal aid.” Why should these fakers who were promising the workers “prosperity”, who were talking about co-operation with the bosses, who were preach- ing optimism, and decrying unemployment in- surance, suddenly try to hide their two-year’s of betrayal by a mass of phrases about the hungry millions? It is now to the greater interest of capi- talism for Mr. Green and the leadership of the A. F. of L. to appear, like Father Cox, to be lead- ing the growing movement of the unemployed demand relief. The bosses look to Green to do for the unem- employed what the A. F. of L. was able to do for the employed in the matter of wage cuts. Mr. Green is now tryinr a new confidence game. The A. F. of L. officialdom which for years was telling the hungry workers to rely on “local re- Hef”, said in its petition: “The local relief agencies in New York, Phil- adelphia, Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit have found the task too great. For instance, in New York 250,000 families are in immediate need of relief, while 100,000 are receiving assistance. Tn Philadelphia the number dependent on re- lief has risen from 3,000 in December, 1930, to 43,000 in December, 1931, Philadelphia esti- mates Its need at $6,000,000 beyond that raised, and there ix no more money in sight. Funds May 1. In Chicago relief funds will be exhausted by “HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN!” News Item:—Report heavy orders being placed for war materials cause stocks to rise. By BURCK By SAM DON. PART L first condition for the mobilization of the Party for the struggle against war is merci- less struggle against the underestimation of the war danger—particularly against the underesti- mation of the war danger against the Soviet Union. What is the main cause for the slow response of the Party to the struggle against war, with consequent indecisiveness and lack of sustained activities in the mobilization of the masses in the struggle against war? ‘The cause is to be found in the very insuf- ficient popularizing of Lenin's teachings on war, in the lack of a thorough political digestion and application of the resolutions of the Com- munist International. The result is that we do not develop a systematic and persistent strug- gle against opportunistic manifestations. The absence of such a struggle in practice as- sumes the character of “rotten liberalism,” which was so decisively condemned by Comrade Stalin in his recent letter. We must, therefore, regardless of persons, carry on a decisive struggle against opportunis- tic manifestations of a right and left character. In order to understand the seriousness and danger of these manifestations we must trace them to their source, that is, the bourgeois in- fluences within the ranks of the working class and their reflection within the Party. We will first of all very briefly state the line which gives the analysis of the C. I, on the war situation. With the continuous deepening of the crisis, the bourgeoisie is sharply faced with the ques- tion of liquidating it. By what method? By a murderous attack on the standard ~* living of the toiling masses, of the colonial peoples, and by the most desperate and feverish struggle for markets, for the armed redivision of the. world, through a new imperialist world war. In sub- raised from private sources will be exhausted by the 15th of February. Eviction cases in that city average 250 per day. In Cleveland the local re- Hef funds are practically exhausted, while the need for help has substantially increased. Green Looks for “Explanations” Mr. Green who helped to swell the profits of the big corporations by helping wage cuts, began to look for “explanations” when Congress handed these same bosses billions in government funds So Green said: “No explanation can be made to hungry people and their sympathetic friends which would satisfy them as to why Congress voted billions to aid banks and corporations and would refuse to appropriate even a moderate sum to be used for the purpose of assisting the States and communities in supplying food, clothing and shelter to patriotic, loyal citizens who are suffering from unemployment.” Green wants Congress to give the workers “explanations” not relief. He wants the “relief” to go to “assisting the States and communities” —that is, to helning Jimmie Walker and Mayor Cermak make up their dwindling graft. Drive Against Unemp!oyment in:urance No worker should be fooled by the latest rantings ofthe A. F. of L. leadership. They are of the same cloth as the promises of Mr. Green and Hoover at the beginning of the crisis, They have the same end—a powerful drive to keep the workers from fightin, for une™c'oveont inom - ance and against wage cuts—so that the stand- ard of living of the entire American working- class can be lowered and the bosses profits (i which Mr. Green and the other 100-petition presenters have no little interest) be preserved, ‘The most effective answer workers can give is to build a powerful movement of the unem- ployed, rallying new millions in the struggle for the Workers Unemplovment Insurance Bill; by speeding the movement within the A. F, of L. endorsing unemployment insurance to be paid by the bossses and their government at the rate of full wages, coming out of the fortunes and profits of the rich, and by strengthening the struggles on all fronts against the decaying cap- {talism which Green seeks to save at the expense of the lives of millions of workers. For Political Decisiveness and Clarity in Our Anti-War Activities stance, this is the capitalist way out of the crisis. But what is the main obstacle that imperial- ism finds today in its way for the redivision of the world, for its capitalist way out of the crisis? It is the very existence of the Soviet Union, | particularly now, when the first five year plan is being carriéd out in four years, completing the foundations for the building of socialism, and the Second Five Year Plan is announced. Comrade Stalin gave a very clear answer to the above question. In his report to the 16th Party Congress he pointed out brilliantly why the imperialists consider the Soviet Union the main obstacle for their murderous and bloody capitalist way out of the crisis. He said: “I spoke earlier of the contradictions of world capitalism. But apart from these contradic- tions there exists yet one more. I mean the contradiction between the capitalist world and the U. 5S. S, R. It is a contradiction between capitalism as a whole and a country building socialise, But this does not prevent it decom- posing and shaking to pieces the very founda- tions of capitalism. Sti'l more, it lays bare to the very roots all the contradictions of capi- talism and gathers them up into one knot, mak- ing of them a question of life and death for the capitalist order itself. Therefore every time that capitalist contradictions begin to grow acute the bourgeoisie turns its gaze trwards the U. S. S. R.: ‘Cannot we settle this or that contradiction of capitalism, or all contradictions taken together, at the expense of the U. S. S. R., the land of the Soviets, the citadel of the revolution, revo- lutionizing by its very existence the working class and the colonies; preventing us arranging for new war, preventing us dividing the world anew, preventing us being masters of our own extensive internal market, so necessary for capi- talists, particularly today in connection with the economic crisis?’” (My emphasis —SD.) The Soviet Union is the living embodiment of the revolutionary way out of the crisis. The toiling masses throughout the world, the colonial peoples, look towards the Soviet Union in their struggle against capitalism, against imperialism. An imperialist war, a war on the colonial peo- ples, in face of the existence of the Soviet Union, holds for the imperialists the danger of prole- tarian revolutions and colonial uprisings and revolutions. The imperialist powers therefore, whose contradictions as a result of the crisis sharpen to the point of armed struggle, who already today carry on wars on the colonial peoples, consider as the main aim of their for- eign policy, military intervention against the U.S. 8..R. We therefore see the dialectic development of the following process within the imperialist camp: acute growth of antagonisms amongst themselves and within these antagonisms the development of the struggle for leadership for a united attack against the Soviet Union. Thus through war on the Soviet Union, “re- moving the obstacle” which “revolutionizes by its very existence the working class and the colonies’ and “prevents the arranging of a new war, prevents the dividing of the world anew.” The pivot, therefore, of international relation- ships today is the antagonism between the world which is building socialism and the world of dying capitalism. This antagonism is ~rowing daily. The second Five Year Plan, in its epoch making arnouncement, most clearly demon- strates. the grewing antagonism beiween the two worlds, The s! eance ch the Second Five Moar Pisa d in the I of its main polticai ¢ ye: “het 2 potitical tock of the seeond Five Year Pan is the final liguidation of the capitalist elements and of classes in general, the complete removal of the causes which produce class differences and explcitation, the overcoming of the rem- nants of capitalism in economy and in the minds of the peovle, the conversion of the whole of the working population of the country into conscious and active builders OF THE CLASS- LESS SOCIALIST SOCIETY.” (From the Thesis of the Sesond Five Year Plan.) (My emphasis, —S. D.) ‘The developments in the world today must therefore be analyzed from the viewpoint that: “The growth of the antagonism between the capitalist world and the socialist world, between the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and the dic- tatorship of the proletariat extremely intensi- fies the danger of military intervention against the U. S. S. R.” (From the 11th Plenum Reso- lution of the C. I.) ‘The present war in China, the growing open acts of provocation against the Soviet Union strikingly confirm the analysis of the Commu- nist International. Under the pressure of the crisis, Japanese im- perialism is waging war on the Chinese masses. ‘The antagonism between the imperialist powers is sharpening over the:struggle for the partition- ing of China. There is only one force today in China which can unify China, which can defeat the imperialist partitioning of China—that is SOVIET CHINA. And the very existence of the Soviet Union, the steady growth of socialism in the Soviet Union, is the sreatest force and in- spiration to the Chinese toiling masses in the struggle against an imperialist war for the par- titioning of China. ‘Thus we see that within the sharpening of the antagonisms between the imperialists, looms the war of intervention against the Soviet Union, and the various imperialist expeditions to crush Soviet China, to destroy the Chinese Red Army. The imperielist interests of America and Japan clash over the Pacific Ocean. The strug-~ gle between Japan and the U. S. over the Chin- ese markets, the main market of Japan, for the control of the markets in the Pacific area, is growing daily. The Japanese war in Shanghai, threatening the interests of the imperialist pow- ers in Central China, extremely sharpen the contradictions between the imperialist powers. But America, while preparing to the minutest. detail for war with Japan, is within certain limits willing to support Japan. What is the main basis for this support? It is the expres- sion of the main line of American foreign pol- icy—struggle for leaderShip in the anti-Soviet front, to ruin and interfere with the carrying out of the Five Year Plans. The events in Shanghai must not blind one to the occupation of Harbin by Japan, to the at- tempts to seize the Chinese “Eastern Railway. The growing rivalries between the imperialists in connection with the Shanghai events, the | growing danger of an inter-imperialist world war, does not change the fundamental fact that the main danger of war today is that of armed intervention against the Soviet Union, does not change the fact, that there exists a united anti- Soviet, anti-Chinese Front of all imperialist powers. We give here a few characteristic expressions from the capitalist press, which bring out the MAIN danger in the present war situation in China, and the LEADING role of American im- perialism in the Anti-Soviet Front. ‘Thus the liberal World Telegram in its finan- cial section (no accident) speaks out: “The Chinese-Japanese squabble, even though it de- velops into a war may not be as detrimental as it appears. It might even stimulate trade a bit, and if Russia becomes involved in a minor way, she may be forced to give up her Five Year Plan, which has caused no little concern in this country.” (My emphasis.) Indeed the Five Year Plan has caused concern to Wall Street and Hoover. What about the Second Five Year Plan, gen- tlemon? The New York Evening Post, the organ of b n, Who criar od the conference botween er and Laval, carsied a dispatch from va, that for brutal das a roiity in the capi Its femt fron Goneva -wrote: “Why not s.ate the truth, that Japan eme-ges victorious not only in far eastern battles, but here as well, be- caue the great western nations, behind their League masks and under their diplomatic cam- ouflage secretly want Japan installed upon, the Asiatic mainland, a dependable sector of a pro- tective ring around Soviet Russia! . . . What * Finland, Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Roumania do for conservative Europe in their function as buffer nations against Soviet Russia, it is argued—and settled for that mat~- ter—Japan intrenched in the Asiatic mainland would perform at the gateway of the Reds’ backyard.” Here we have the whole true....A ring Ke ®y JORGE A “Special Tribute” The Rome correspondent of the N. ¥. Amerte can of February 11, in cabling the account of Mussolini’s reception at the Vatican, where the Swiss Guards were drawn up to receive the fascist murderer, goes on to remark that the Guards had laid aside their usual ancient hal- berds, as follows: “In place of halberds, were rifles with fixed bayonets, a special tribute to the visitor.” One is lost in admiration of the Pope, the rep= resentative of Christ, according to his own claim, who is thoughtful enough to keep a good bunch of “rifles with fixed bayonets” around to show that he’s a real Christian. Particularly, in view of the fact. that he was supposed to pay “a spee cial tribute” to Mussolini, another Christian who just dotes on guns, by showing rifies with fixed bayonets, instead of halberds. Ci aa Reckefeller Enters Rug Business Valdez, Colorado, The Colorado Fuel & Iron Co., co-operating with state board of vocational education, is instructing unemployed miners in the gentle art of weaving “genuine Indian” rugs. All work is to be done on hand looms, which, ac- cording to a newspaper account, can be “put” into the home for less than $20. The following jingle is used by the bosses to advertise this scheme: “Miner, miner, are you starving? Do you want ‘good times’ to boom? Just procure yourself a twenty— Buy yourself a hand-power loom.” vith the eastern warehouses full of “genuine Navajo rugs” made in Hoboken, N. J., it is diffi- cult to believe that the miners in the Southern Colorado coal fields will be able to dispose of their primitive rugs. Sager aie | Presidential Timber We notice that the boom of “Garner for pres- ident” is being spread far and wide. All kinds of “yes men” are yelping in chorus: ‘Garner is the man of the hour.” Just why he is that, is not dis- closed. Maybe he has a watch. Of course, one thing claimed for him is that he comes from Texas and is supposed to be “a farmer” from “out in the. sticks”. But farmers should take not that he has lived in Washington, D. C., for twenty-nine years and wears a silk hat with the best of the Washington politicians. Also, whether he’s a “farmer” or not, would make no difference. He's a capitalist farmer, maybe. And his party is a capitalist party. Aside from that, he appears to be eligible as a capitalist candidate for president, by reason of the fact that it has not been proven that he has had an idea, either new or second hand, for the last forty years. His heaviest political utterance of recent date is the remark, made while visiting the White House, that the silver door knobs in- dicated that there might be a funeral. Kindly contrast, against this and other fossil- ized blockheads and reactionary clowns of Wall Street, even the Second rate leaders of the Soviet Government. Then realize that what we say about th “decline and decay of capitalism” can be exemplified here in the person of presidential timber, : Chalk This Down Carefully Workers should take due note, right now, that the democrats are just as enthusiastic as the re- publicans in Congress, for the new way of put~ ting over a general wage cut that is called a “sales tax”. Incidentally, as showing that incompetence is rewarded, the United Press dispatches of Febru- ary 9 reported both the approval by the Senate of Ogden L. Mills as secretary of the Treasury, and the admission by Mills of @ “treasury error of $455,000,000.” ‘4 'To make up for this mistake of Secretary Mills, Secretary Mills suggests a sales tax. And the democrats are all for it, too. Among the demo~ crats who are cheering for the move to tax what workers eat, the Hearst service plays up Con- gressman Crisp of Georgia. After “explaining” that, for some reason he doesn’t give, the rich cannot be taxed to balance the federal budget, and that it must be balanced by a sales tax, Crisp lets this out: “Today some of your government bonds are selling as low as 85 cents on the dollar. If you continue to issue bonds-there will be a further depreciation. The premier security of the world today is the United States bond and if you do not stop issuing bonds they will show further depreciation and all industrial and commer- cial bonds, stock, lands and everything else will depreciate.” Now, that would be downright bad, wouldn't it. Yet that is exactly what is going to happen, even if the capitalists do have their sales tax, from which they aim to extract a penny on every dish of baked beans, so to speak, that the workers consume. Yes, sir, that “premier security of ths (capitalist) world”, the U. 5. bond, is going down below 85. Why? Well, for one thing, when the masses wake up to what that sales tax is going to do to them, their opinion of the government will go down from 85 to 58 or maybe lower. Also, all such taxes are a limitation on production, and the more limitation the worse for the symbol of capi- talist government strength, the price of its bonds, Moreover, in the first place, $2,000,000,000 in additional paper bonds have just been approved by Conv-essman Crisn and all his little republi- eon prd domecvetis side-Iichs, and that is pure inflo\'on, which will have its effect on U. 8. herds Trottontaty, ifs all wreng what Crisp said ohont TT, & bonds keine the premier security “of the wold”, ve left the Soviets out, and the rently bert security is Soviet Government bonds, But even if you have been “hoarding”, you can't buv them over here. That’s a privilege that only Soviet workers have. The nearest thing to it that you can do is to join the Communist Party and thus join the fight for a Soviet Government right. here, It’s the price of beans, not bonds, that should interest you, around the Soviet Union on the Eastern and of of Western Front. Within the growing conflicts the imperialists stands out the united front all against the Soviet Union. (To be concluded) })