The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 7, 1932, Page 4

£ Published by the Gomnrodefly Publishing Ce, tne, dally except Bundy, et 69 Best 18th St, 2 ew York City. N. Y. Telephone ALgonquiz ¢-1956 Cabdle Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 50 Bast 13th S@treat, New York, N. Y. Party Recruiting Drive January 11 - March 18, 1932 THE REC RUITING DRIVE MUST BUILD THE PARTY IN THE SHOPS Ry J. LAUSO (Chicago) of the shop nucleus of T.U.U.L. group, is still questions posed when considering It is incorrect to place trade union Our approach to the workers in p must be on the basis of specific con- s in the shop. It is the task of the Party | to build grievance committees, shop ittees, etc. But it is also the task of the members to politicalize the events in the shop and bring forth the political role of the | Party as distinct from the trade union organi- tions and this way win over the best elements to the Party. of the shop work 1 { one | | Party 2 third and most harmful feature is the on the part of the Party to do this f sections or leading comrades ection ever take up the problems con- g ades working in the large s. When a certain campaign is started, do we d with our shop nuclei or individual com: orking in shops as to the ways and means of bringing this campaign to the workers? 2 uss during t ecent pe no organi: In the present Party recruiting drive we must comrades who work INSIDE the To assign quotas by the District or sec- ps where we hz thout any efforts o out know Pat ization insdie, or without being able | tion and leave it go at that ts absolutely insuf- t ; t. The comrades employed in the given in- er revails that shop work is a separate and shop of concentration must be called Boece tere aga a Weta win acenGs An GLE ther to discuss the campaign. ‘The work must be coordinated by assigning a definite group of comrades from the section and units to meet every so often with the comrades work- | to review the work accomplished and pare the work for the next week or two. This | ation must also be carried out in con- need the zeal and con- exerted by the Party for work around the shops as in other cam- of the Party, this is not a separate cam- | The factory must become the cc insi on poin ampaigns of the Party u a on pec eciy he workers in junction with the trade union fraction of the | shop on their particular conditions, explainir given industry of concentration. | th es and developing these logically, giving | This planning must necessarily include the our interpretation and the subsequent tasks, we come to the workers with our general program | which seems remote and far-fetched to the aver- | age worker. | The question of what comes first, the building campa’ Around | nese campaigns, concretely linked up with the | conditions in the shop, the workers will be mob- lized for struggles and members recruited into the Party. ms of the period of the drive. THE RECRUITING DRIVE IN THE BOSTON DISTRICT | shoe and marine workers. Outstanding among | the weaknesses of the recruiting drive is the in- By SAM REED. THOROUGH, and critical analysis of the | sufficient popularization of the drive among and experiences of the recruiting | the broad masses of the workers (very few | e in District One up till now, is absolutely | posters, a very small number of recruiting essential if we are to fulfill oyr quotas and | pamphlets distributed) and the failure to suffi- build our Party. | ciently mobilize our fractions in mass organiza- | Eee tions | The Central Committee pointed out in its | Bt mt on the drive, that the rec ing dri | How We Can Overcome Our Shortcomings. must be based on and linked up with mass work | The above analysis speaks for itsélf and gives the clue to the answer as to what confronts us | as our major tasks in the present period. Per- | haps the addition of one more outstanding les- | son from the drive will complete the pictyre. Of | the 175 new recruits, Section 1 with 6 units re- | | | | | on the part of our Party membership. The CC statement correctly stressed the importance of our Party intensifying its work among the un- employed, organizing and leading the unem- ployed masses in the struggle for unc loyment insurance and immediate relief. Likewise, the CC stressed the great need of our Party rooting itself in the basic industries, by forming of shop nuclei and developing shop organization. The CC was absolutely correct in stressing mass ac- tivity and struggles for immediate demands as the gyarantee for a successful recruiting drive In District One we have so f underestimated this and, hence we have so far lagged behind in Our recruiting drive is moving siowl) The © exposed many weaknesses of the Part 1ese weaknesses must be brought to | the attention of the entire membership, so that we may learn from our mistakes and avoid com~- miting similar mistakes in the future. cruited about 20 members. Of these, one unit alone recruited 11, Section 2 with 8 units re- cruited about 55 members. Two units in Section 2 lead the rest of the section with a total of 40 members out of the 55. Section 3 with 7 units has so far to its credit only 17 recruits with the Lynn unit having gotten in 8 out of the 17. Section 4 has one unit in Providence which has gotten in 20 members while the Pawtucket unit has been fast asleep. In Section 5, the re- sults so far are negligible. In Section 6, only Gardner made a fairly good showing by recryit- ing 13 new members, while Fitchburg and Wor- cester units are very very slow. our W A Few Facts and Figures in Our Recruiting Campaign. | Jp to date District One took in 175 new mem. This shows that our membership as a whole We Agro about 30 are Negro workers. Only | bas not yet been mobilized in this drive. By | about 15 per cent are women. Approximately 35 | Overcoming this shortcoming, by-initiating and | per cent of the new recruits are native born. | C@trying out of a consistent campaign of strug- | Out of our quota of 10 shop nuclei we only syc- | &l¢ against opportunism in practice, by exposing ceeded in organizing 2 shop nuclei. Of our | ll those petty bourgeois elements who resist quota of 65 textile workers we only recruited | doing mass work, who refuse to break with the about 20 textile workers. Of our quota of 25 past traditions of working within our own cir- workers only 9 were recruited up to | ‘le, and resist to go out among the masses and da So far our unemployment movement has | Mobilize them for struggle, by mobilizing our not been started to any appreciable degree. We || ™embership politically for our Party campaign, have not organized one shop group, not one shop by improving our methods of leadership and ommittee. Only a few members were recruited inner life in the units and Section, we will lay for the Y. ©. L. ihe basis for the building of a mass Party in m: District, One. What are the reasons for our poor results so ‘To answer this qyestion we must first of | | GRETTCISM OF A COUPLE OF NEW tate before the entire membership, that in PARTY MEMBERS ct One there ‘are still deep-rooted oppor: tunistic tendencies and resistance to mass work : The following letter was received by the | We still find leading comrades working in shop: Chicago District: Committee: { for years, or holding membership in the A. I’. of | | year Comrades | I, untons for years, and yet, these comrades We just wanted to let you know that we are | Farty on no work in these major fields, they do coing to quit the Party, We joined the Com- | not resist wage cuts, they do not take the ini nunist Pariy 3 months ago. Why do we quit | | tiative to mobilize the workers against the exist the Party? Because you have no system in | | | your party, It has to be systematized before | you will lead the masses and get the American elements into the Communist Party. ‘We were born here in Chicago. We are will- ing to work but not as long as you have that kind of system, the system made us disgusted. For instance, the units do not function right, the meetings start too late, and there is no end to it—l!’or 12 p. m, late at night, etc, | Another example: The last district member- ship meeting in Section 5, we came there at 1p. m. and the meeting started at 3:45 p. m. and adjourned at 7:30 p. m Just imagine? There were 3 speakers. Comrade —— spoke for 51 minutes and Comrade —— for 25 min- nd another comrade for 25 minutes. Then over, then Comrade —— | ‘Then after the discus- | Ing conditions. Our comrades and many of our mmittees cover up their failure to or ganize and develop struggle under fhe same old cover of either open opportunism (“the workers are too dumb, too religious, or too well off”), or under the “left” cloak, which is also opportun- ism, (“that the workers are ready for revolution, but will not join our organization because of ‘ear of deportation, blacklisting and persecu- tion”). In a nymber of instances we find com- rades working in large factories, in war indus- tries for as long as 7 years, without having re- cruited one single member into the Party. We likewise can point to examples where our Party members had a very wrong approach to the Negro workers (taking the ‘attitude that they must first join the LSNR or at least the ILD before “graduating” into the Party), which led | |; > for 10 minute: to our isolat and even discrediting ourselves | n Comrade ——, the Chairman, gave —-. | in the eyes of the Negro workers. | another 10 minutes to speak and —— from 10} to 15 minutes, but Comrade —— spoke for a rs! strict is arily , The leadership in the District is primarily half hour, responsible for most of these weaknesses. We | failed to carry on a struggle against opportun- ism. We failed to openly expose and uproot the outstanding opportunist elements in the District. We failed to mobilize the membership politi- cally for the recruiting drive. Our general ap- proach to any of the Party campaigns is not sufficiently linked up with the very important ~—"s mouth goes like a sewing machine but it don’t mean anything at all—all this could be said in 20 or 30 minutes. We both joined together and we will get out of the Party and will come back when your Party 1s better systemized. Take, for instance, the capitalist parties, they have better systems than you Al) this should be taken in task before us, that of raising the political 1 the Party leaders, and chould | | of oyr membership in the course of the cat ba be ikki elie tos mas paign. Above all, our leadership did not suf- squawking in meetings. ficiently orientate its major forces, and its ma~ Conintaaly youre | Jor attention to the basic fields of concentra- TWO NEW MEMBERS. | fons, unemployment work, work in the textile This let ks for tteelf, Geld gparticularly Lawrence), and among the |. nenismsemcienemapsnantnagsteccemeaeenee! Fs “DAIWORE” SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mall everywhere: Une sear, $6; six months, $3; two wonthy of Manhattay and Bronx, New York City. Foreign: one year, $8; yi Bh epting Boroughs siz montha, $4.50, By BURCK avfok, Why the Terror Against Red Unions ? By EDITH BERKMAN. a Hie: National Textile Workers’ Union was the first one’ to suffer from the “red terror.” ? Because it was the National Textile Workers’ Union who answered with “Strike!” against Hoover's efficiency methods and stagger system. The union chose Lawrence, Mass. (textile woolen center) as the main concentration point. And thus the National Textile Workers’ Union | Organized the textile workers to answer with strike struggle the challenge of the bosses and | their agents. A challenge was put out by Hoover for the iMioncires of America. Hooyer saii in effect: “The depression has cut the profit’ of the very rich whom I represent in this country. You, workers, must’ help me to bring back Prosperity for the rich at your expense. You must from now on double and triple produc- tion. We will not cut your wages. (What a lie—E. B.) We only want yoy to accept my stagger plan. This means from now on we will make you work six hours a day, but with the new efficiency methods you will produce a day’s work in six hours, but you will be paid for six hours’ work.” And the American Federation of Labor high paid officials answered—Amen,” and they said, | “We promise there will be no strikes.” The textile workers said, “We know that you are all wet. We know that you speak of ‘beer’ to take our minds off the class struggle. But neither you, Mr. Hoover nor you A. F. of L. mis- leaders can make slaves out of us. We will strike!” And first of all the N. 'T. W. U. in Lawrence decided in addition to the general propaganda, to concentrate on one mill. In this one mill we made connections first in one department. We organized a committee there. The function of the committee was to bring to the attention of the workers that throygh organization the speed-up could be stopped and lay-offs pre- vented. When the mill agents wanted to introduce the speed-up in this one department, they found a grievance committee, elected by the workers, ready to tell the boss, “No lay-off and no speed- up here.” And there was no lay-off in the print works print-room. After this 500 workers joined the N. T. W. U. ‘This must teach the comrades in the field a lesson as to how important the organization of grievance committees are in departments. For it was this first victory under the leadership of the N. T. W. U. that established the union as a leader among the textile workers. The victory in this one department gave the assurance to the workers in Lawrence that lay- offs and speed-up canbe stopped through or- ganization. In February, 1931, when the mill owners came out with a genera!) plan of “effi- ciency” and “stagger system,” the N. T. W. U. succeeded in leading 10,000 textile workers in Lawrence, against the speed-up schemes of the Hoovers, Greens and the rest of the bosses’ agents. ; With this strike, the workers of the country learned that even though the A. F. of L. said there would be no strikes, that the Trade Union Unity League was organizing the workers to better their conditions. With this struggle in the textile industry we also showed to the mil- Uonsires and their representatives that the un- demonstrations and meetings for unemployment relief and through the Unemployed Councll, the unemployed learned that it was this devilish specd-up and efficiency that was responsible for unemployment. When the mill owners saw the fine solidarity of the employed and unemployed, when they saw how the textile workers follow the leader- ship of the N. T. W. U, they came out with terror against jhe “ved unions’ . \ ne ae Telegraphic deportation warrarits were then for the first time issued to rob the strikers of their “red leadérs.” The scare of deportation for belonging to a Trade Union Unity League Union was introduced. The Ameri¢an Federa- \*tion of Labor was called upon by the mill own- | ers to come to the textile field to stop the work- ers from strikers. (After the Lawrence strike Our union led strikes in Maynard, Rhode Is- land, Connecticut and Paterson. Many of the strikes were partial victories.) But when the ten per cent cut was given to | the Lawrence workers, even though the A. F. of L. was in Lawrence, and the whole government machine was there, the workers followed the | leadership of the “red union” and walked out on strike a week before the wage cut was in effect. But in order that they may break the strike they, the millowners, got their federal court to arrest the leaders of the strike, Murdoch and Berkman. With the organizers who were known | to the workers of Lawrence, the A. F. of L. be- came the “misleader” of the strike. At the same time the A. F. of L. brought to Lawrence the | “socialist A. F. of L. members” and it was these socialists who sold the workers out. In conclusion, the’ terror against the “red unions” and the scare of deportation for foreign born and death to our heroic organizers who are American born (Kentucky, ete:) or foreign born, must be answered with more energetic struggle right in the mills, mines and shops and ships. The “red unions” are the only ynions that are fighting unions, Unions who have dedlared “war” against the bosses. And while fighting | for economic demands, of course, we learn that every economic struggle is also a political struggle. Don’t we see the part the “government” plays in all strikes? Yes, the deportations and the rulings against the T. U. U. L. in the courts are because the bosses and their agents are seared to lose their power, their economic an@ poll- tical power. Let us answer their attack against the Trade Union Unity League with the organization of a grievance committee in each department. . Let us answer the arrests with a fight to free those who are now class war prisoners. And let us answer the murders of our fighters with an increased membership drive to fill the places of those who are killed and jailed in this | class war, By A. MARKOFF IL. ‘HE 6 weeks Regional School of the Central Committee, which was held in Detroit, was generally very satisfactory. We have dealt with the composition, structure, work and method of teaching at the school in another article. In today’s article we will point out some of the shortcomings of the school. The ‘Trade Union course was the weakest. It received very little time. This criticism was ad~- vanced by the students at the final meeting. The situation in connection with the trade un- ion course became worse towards the end when comrade Schmies met with an accident. Another defect from which we suffered for a long time, wes the lack of material written for workers, we mean material written so that the workers coming from the shops, factories, mills, mines, etc., would be able to understand without having to consult ap encyclopedia which they do not know how to use. ‘This is such an im- portant problem that it seems to me our Party must take notice of immediately. It cannot be postponed any longer. The Party Organizer and ‘The Communist were of tremendous value in the school. Here we would like to urge every district, in fact every section of the Party to establish files of the Party Organizer, The Com- munist, Inprecorr, The Communist Interna- tional, ete. We should urge every comrade to subscribe to The Communist or buy it every month and keep it for reference. The policy of reprinting im- | portant documents in The Communist is good. This work Should be kept up. We reprinted several of the theses of the Second Congress of the C.I, It is very urgent that we now begin reprinting the theses of the Sixth Congress of the C.L, especially on War Danger and the Colonial ‘Thesis, | In addition to this we need material on Par- | ty Structure, Trade Union Movement, and Lenin- | ism. ‘This material must be written in as simple a style as possible nnd illustrated with examples from the class struggle in the U. 8. ' In the letter from the C.I. printed in the Daily Worker, January 27, we find the following: “The Communist Parties must, above all, strengthen the fight in their own ranks -for the ideological purity of Marxism and Lenin- ism, against the underestimation of revolution- ary theory, against the separation of theory from practice of the revolutiongry fight, for | The Regional Party Training ° School strengthening the Communist conception of the Party in theoretical work, against any con- ciliation and rotten liberalism towards all de- viations from and distortions of Marxism and Leninism.” It is therefore incumbent upon the Party to proceed energetically with the preparation of material mentioned above. ‘The experience of the Regional as well as the National School has proven conclusively that whenever and wherever we conduct a full-time training school either on a national, regional or district scale, we must have one’comrade theo- retically and practically equipped to be in charge of the school and be ready to aid the students in their work, answer questions, clarify things, ete, It is also my opinion that schools of the char- acter we had up until now can be and should be conducted on a district basis, in certain cases combine two or three districts together, especially if the districts are near each other, such as Cleveland and Detroit, perhaps Detroit and Chicago. If a school is to be held on a national scale, it should be for the training of higher func- tionaries—district organizers, organizational sec- retaries, agitprop directors. ‘This means that comrades who have had some training already, who have been in the Party a considerable time, should be sent to such schools. ‘The number of such students will be necessarily small; it will be easier to handle stich school, and the need for it is quite obvious. ‘Whatever we do we must not relax in our efforts to carry on the necessary theoretical training of our members, the training of more and better cadres for our movement. 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 meeting of the clty council to fight for adequate re- Uef for all cases of starving and SSS How the Rich “Suffer” LAS, and also alack! Berl Carroll's giite edged leg show, the “Vanities,” is so hard up that the outfit had to give up the “patriotic” blowout on Washington's Birthday, which last year cost $15,000, and even has to move out of the theatre Carroll built especially to tickle the bourgeois taste, for lack of $400,000. But, then, the poor fellow still has his pork chops. Also, our heart is wrung with pity at the sui- cide of a native New Yorker in California, 2 broker named Walter M. Stettiner, who just couldn’t stand life any longer and blew his worthless brains out because, so "tis said, “His once large income had been reduced to a few hundred dollars a month.” Now, workers, hadn’t you ought to be ashamed of yourselves, for striking against wage-cuts, when your poverty-stricken bosses have to get along on “a few hundred dollars a month”—or commit suicide! As for us, we're in favor of more strikes—and capitalists can commit sui- cide all they wish. “Let the galled jade wince.” We can also worry along without Earl Carroll's leg show, if he insists on killing himself of The Defenders “Civilization” First, let us see what the Japc::>2> officers are doing to the unarmed, helpless peasauis they run across in the area outside Shanghai, as told by 'T. O. Thackrey, editor of the Shanghai “Post- Mercury” of Feb. 22: “A Japanese officer turned one of a group of Chinese in peasant garb to face the sun. His shining saber flashed up to the Hilt in its human sheath. A second figure took its place and once again the saber found its pulsing seabbard . . . There were women and ciildren among the corpses. Women shot through their padded coats and run throvgh with sabers. Jhildren whose bodies were riddled with bul- lets.” Then let's see what the New York “World- ‘Teelgram,” the chief organ of the so-catled “liberal’ Scripps-Howard syndicalate of papers, which boasts of Norman Thomas and other “so- cialists,” has to say about wnat a great blessing the Japanese imperialists are—and how they can be even bigger blessings by attacking the Soviet Union: “The Chinese-Japanese squabble, even though it develops into 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 con- cern in this country.” Now, back to Shanghai aagin, to quote Morris J. Harris, Associated Press correspondent, in, a dispatch dated Feb, 23: “In the middle of the war-torn area I saw an old Chinese woman sitting in an open field, weeping and wringing her hands, ignorant of all but the starkest externals of what was going on about her and entirely helpless. Some dis- tance to the right a Japanese soldicr appeared, followed by several more close behind. The | leading soldier raised his rifle, aimed at the | Woman and fired. He missed. The woman continued to weep, her face buried in her | hands. The riflemen leisurely aimed again and fired. This time he scored with deadly ac- curacy. His bullet sent the helpless victim into eternity. His comrades pushed forward to continue looting and terrorizing.” We trust that you noticed that word “looting.” Anyhow, let’s sec what the nice, genteel, N. ¥. | Evening Post has to say as a recommendation for | these looters and murderers of old women: “The great Western nations, behind their League masks and .under .their .diplomatic camouflage, secretly want Japan installed upon the Asiatic mainland, a dependable sector of a protective ring around Soviet Russia.” So, workers, THAT is why Japan is getting away with murder, literally! PLEASE TAKE NOTE: ‘There are 2,000,000 unemployed in Japan and although every fool in America talks as if wat would “solve unemployment,” it hasn't done so in Japan. In fact unemployment is getting worse. ‘The big Osaka sugar mills have closed down com- pletely. Silk weaving is all! shot to hell, And the Japanese press runs a headline that says: “Gov- ernment Worried Over Educated Jobless.* The “uneducated jobless “don’t matter, of course. Also, since “anti-deflation” is supposed to bring back “prosperity” to America, we might notice that it has failed to do so in Great Britain, and also in Japan, where after the “temporary, but slight” ym in speculation that followed going off the gold standard, the Japanese press admits that business is going from bad to worse. Indeed, how can it do anything else, so long as the ability of the masses to buy and consume commodities is. not Increased, but dn the con- trary is decreased by the higher prices resulting from inflation. The price of rice has gone up tremendously in Japan, and rice is the staff of life for the masses. Just so, the prices will rise here, with inflation, on whatever the workers buy—or want to buy. beginning, boys and girls! Mr. Dawes and Senator Glass’ magic bill for je‘producing $750,000,000 in gold automatically,” is going to pull out of the hat! Cut this out and The Week's Prize Piffle: “It is high that the people awaken and that we Washington a man whose heart is with ing millions, and who cannot be lulled by the subtle perfume of Wall Street. Nance Garner is that man!”—Mayor Chambers of San Antonio, at a Garner-for-President rally on Washington's bis ae 4 . ts the to rit What's In a Name: From Edinburg, Tesas, comes the Associated Press dispateh Greta saying that 16 members of the “Good ment Party” are now residing in the hoosegow, charged with conspiring to hire some- body to murder all the office-holders “city” of Donna, Texas. The idea being to the city government,” also control of some irri- ‘ &