The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 10, 1932, Page 4

bh BB § 23th St, B Uddress New a oh... #* sy: Telephone Algonquin 4-7956. Cable x Bubdlished by the Gomprodaity Publishme Ca, Inc, daily except Sunday, at 60 East York City. N.Y. nd mail all checks to the Dai “DATWORK” Worker, 60 Bast 18th Street, New York, N. Party Recruiting Drive January 11 - March 18, 1932 MISTRICT By M. MORTON souncement of the 10 per cent general cuts in the steel indu: found the Jali » unor- to this from urgh Steel held jin September, we steel ers, lay we can record some progress fn this direction and we have gained many valuable experiences in th gn that can help othe ections to turn the face of our Party toward hop work. We have succeeded to draw in only a dividual Party members into the cam ‘The bulk of our membership resisted, ome passively, others more openly, this orienta jon towards the mills Their main reasons for the inability of ithe Party to do shop work was “that Steel workers car stool pigeons and fear to lose their jobs,” herefore they will not join our union or follow r leadership. It is true, to some extent kers fear to be exposed. Jobs are very scarce 1 this period and although the steel workers ered to 1 to 3 days’ pay and are work 1g on starvation basis, they are 1 rtheless nxious to « to their jobs,” until such time that we have prepared them to wage an open against these conditio task, therefore, must be to; overcome this the workers, this difficulty we must prove to the workers and convince them that we are Vy nxious to safeguard their jobs, we must lop forms of organization within the mills that will appeal to the workers, so that they will accept it as their organization, as their For that purpose we are organizing workers into the MWIL on Dept. bas m and agitation with! contact and mass unemp through canvassing sympathet: u we recruit members for our unions. Vhese workers thus recruited have been or- ized into Depariment groups; we Idiscuss th them the conditions in their department and on the basis of the discussion we helped them to work out 2 program of demands and a ram of work. We even discuss with them the quality of workers in their department and personal how many of these workers can be recruited | into our union, each member lof the groups agrees to bring to the next meetin: more of his friends and the results method of work are good New members that are recruited into depart ment groups lose all fear of being exposed; they best discuss their in this manner we carry on a struggle tial demands for the workers in their depart~- ment, We have won some partial demands in some departments both in Indiana Harbor and in e activity of our von a very important ainst speed-up. At lone time ed 16 workers to load a cer- rloads of cement a day; re- force was cut down to 3, to do the same amount of work. Our Dept. grean di: cussed this grievance and decided to issue leaf lets demanding 8 men instead of 3, the demand was granted immediately following the distribu- tion of leaflets Similar demands were won in other Depts. in various mills, but instead of following these vic- ES IN TH E WORKERS’ IN DUSTRIAL UNION IN THE CAMPAIGN TO BUILD tories immediately with other demands and struggle against other grievances of the work~ ers and in this manner develop the struggle to a higher level, we in most cases neglected this import: task for 2 and 3 weeks. In some cases where we followed such victories of par- tial demands with other demands our groups became important factors in the |life of the | ts in their particular Dept | in the building of our union is the Grievance | Committee. A United Front of organized and unorganized workers within a mill or a Dept. around outstanding one or more grievances of the workers In Gary we are now attempting to organize such @ Grievance Committee composed of all workers in & certain department to go to the bosses and make a demand for more work or relief. ‘The demand of the grievance committee for more work or relief will be made not in the name of the department group of our union but in th name of the workers in the department Of course, our union group must organize, pre- pare and give leadership to this movement. Committees properly organized around outstanding grievances supported by the | workers will help to develop department strug- Grievance nother form of organization very important | gles and mill strikes that will result in the build- | ing of a mass Steel Workers’ Industrial Union. Especially in the present period when millions | of workers in various industries are working under the stagger system, the struggle for one or two days a week more work will rally masses of workers around it. In the Steel Mills this is the outstanding grievance of the workers and therefore grievance committees must be organ- ized around this grievance to carry on a struggle for more days of work Our Party and our unions usually carry on good agitation within the shops through leaflets | and other material. Generally, workers agree 5 | with what they read in our agitetional material, but when the workers look around to find our union they are almost always disappointed, be~ cause they cannot find anyone by asking that belongs to the union that issues the good leaf- | lets or shop papers. This happens in the very | departments that are organized where we have | @ group of 15 or 20 members. Why? Because we don’t discuss with the workers the problems | in their shops or departments; because if we discussed in the groups the good and bad quali- | ties of all the workers or at least as may work- ers as we know about im the departmynt and then decide to 2 certain number lof tHe best ly solve the problem of our isolation from the rest of the workers in the mill or department. For this purpose too, we must build our union on department basis, and we must organize and | lead Grievance Committees first because Griev- | ance Committee is the best organ with which | to develop struggles; second, because Grievance | Committees, which are known to and supported by the workers, will discover The missing link between the workers organized into our unions | | and the unorganized workers. | This link is onejof the most importané prob- | lems in our shop work. Our union groups will not grow if they are not part of the workers in the department or mil. Our Party members | and union groups wust be alert to all problems of workers in their shop, They must give guid- and leadership to the workers in the strug~ ainst all their grievances and we will over- | many weaknesses in our shop work towards | the building of = mass revolutionary union based | on struggle of the workers and » mass Commu- if co! nist Party strongly entrenched in the shops, mills and mines, “ROTTEN. RIPE” POSSIBILITIES FOR BUILDING THE PARTY IN SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA By ROBERT PACE CONSIDERABLE number of members were recruited into the ranks of the Party last year, during and directly after the miners’ strike, here. A number of Units were organized. Be- tween then and the last week of December all that had been built had disintegrated, due to lack of consistent leadership and no Jeadership at all for a considerable period of time. Bince the last week in December and this writing it has been possible, with very little ef- fort, to reorganize 6 Units, with an all inclu- sive membership of 59, build a Unit where none thas ever existed before, another new Unit is in the process of being organized, 97 new members have been recruited into the Party, three or- ganizationally fruitful anti-war mass meetings have been held and a strike organized in one mine. ‘This progress has been achieved despite that circumstances have made it possible to carry on only the. least, minimum of mass ac- tivity during the period. Out of the 8? new members that have been won for the Party, 80 have been recruited during the period of the Recruiting Drive—surpassing the section quota (60) set by the District by 20. ‘The comrades have set themselves the goal of not less than 100 new members by the time the end of the drive rolls sround, and, instead of building one mine nucleus, the task seb by the District, the comrades have decided that no less than three mine nuclei shall be organized by March 18. ‘The new, raw elements are bending every effort to achieve the tasks they have set for themselves. There have been shortcomings in the work thus far. The most important is that no Negro miners have as yet been won for the Party. ‘The immensity of this shortcoming has been brought home to the comrades and they have set out to remedy the situation and results can be ex- pected in the immediate future. Another shortcoming is that too few women Nave been won. This, also, the comrades have determined to remedy. Next is the fact that too few working miner's have as yet been recruited and after an ex- planation to the comrades, of the necessity of building the Party in the mines, results are al- ready to be seen. ‘Though too few working miners have been won, we must not loose sight of the fact that sme 80 per cent of the miners in this territory are totally unemployed and the 20 per cent that de work—one, two and three days a week—are do the overwhelming majority forced to live in company patches to hold their jobs. Forced to | live in terror and daily intimidation of having | what crumb they can provide for their families | taken away from them for the slightest action | on their part that does not meet with the ap- | proval of the company. Many dare not speak | with known militants on the streets of the | towns for fear they might be reported and thus | lose their jobs. Others dare not leave the com- | pany patches after work, that the company | | stool-pigeons and thugs shall not follow them | wherever they go. In spite of all, they are join- |ing the Party too slowly it is trus—of necessity | the forest in this case must be cut down one | tree at a time. | In conclusion, despite the many difficulties that are to be found the progress that has been enumerated is nothing compared to the possi- | bilities that exist in this field. We haven't yet begun to scratch the posstbilities existant. | Whoever coined the phrase “rotten ripe.” surely must have had the Southwestern section of District No. 5 in mind, regarding the favor- able objective possibilities, for building a mass Party. The requirements are consistent and un- interrupted leadership to the new, raw elements, | qualified workers about our union, this will part- | MARCH 18TH IS THE ANNIVER SARY OF THE PARIS COMMUNE “The Paris Commune of 1871 arose victorlous- ly . . . from the ruins of the Second Empire and, after seventy epoch-making days, it suc- cumbed heroically under the hail of bullets..of the Versailles counter-revolution. ‘The Com- mune was, in a far higher ‘sense than was the June insurrection of 1848, the most tremendous event in the history of European civil wars’ (Marx) in the nineteenth century. {t marked the violent conclusion of the pre-history of the proletarian revolution, with it begins the era of proletarian revolutions.” Paul Braun, Intro- duction to [Lenin's “Paris Commune.” LL.D, Paris Commune Anniversary, March 18, 1932. Fight ‘Terror Against Negro and White Workers! “In particular, the Commune has demon- strated that the working class cannot |simply take possession of the ready-made machinery of the state and set it going for its own ends.”— Marx and Engels, Preface to the German (197%) edition of Lie Communist Manifesto, Fight for the prisoners of Kentucky coal company terror on T.L.D, Paris Commune Anniversary, March 18, 19% > a WAR BY “TRUCE” Daily, Wor Rd ae pie & 4% an > SUBSCRIPTION RATES: ~~ sg er Rr mall everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughe of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. Foreign: one year, $8; six months, $4.50. Party USA = —===— ae By BURAK | | | By JoREE The Kentucky By TOM JOHNSON PART It | eat ices Yew Negroes are involved in the present eétrike struggle. Yet, here in the South, pagticularly, the Negro question is an issue of paramount importance IN EVERY STRUGGLE. In this strike we have an oppor- tunity te bring forward our position in the course of the struggle in a bold and clear man- ner. It has been done only in an abstract way. We have not formulated any specific and con- crete demands for these Negro workers involved in the strike. We have failed completely to draw into the leadership Negro comrades. In consequence the number of Negroes who have returned to work is out of all proportion 1o the number involved in the strike. Our failure to bring forward sharply the rev- olutionary program of our Party and Union on the Negro question certainly constitutes an op- portunistic retreat before the chauvinistic ten- dencies of the Southern white workers. Our leadership in the strike has failed to place this issue squarely and boldly before the masses of strikers, explaining to them the necessity for the closest solidarity of white and Negro and the methods for its achievement. Is is necessary to correct, this major error without further loss of time. Broaden Struggle. We have not sufficiently broadened out the struggle in the strike area, that fs, to include workers other than miners, In those few in- stances where a teal effort has been made to collect relief among the poor farmers, their re- sponse to our program, and their support.of the strike, has been splendid. We must take steps to bring the present struggle to the attention of the whale working class and the poor farmers of the South, to draw them into support of the struggle through relief and defense activity and to finally win them for our movement. Corresponding with this failure to broaden out our activities is the failure of our mass auxiliary organizations to secure a foothold in the course of the strike. The International La- bor Defense has been completely absent from the strike area. Despite repeated appeals and requests from comrades in the field, no organizer has arrived in the strike zone at this writing. For the first six weeks of the strike not a single Labor Defender or other agitational ma- terial of the International Labor Defense came into the strike area. The I.L.D. simply isn’t to be found. A notable exception to our weaknesses In fail- ing to use the strike to reach out, influence and organize for struggle workers other than miners is the situation In Knoxville. ‘There, with com- paratively little effort, we have succeeded in de- veloping a real mass movement among the un- employed which is now beginning to take firm organizational shape. We are in contact with the textile workers in some of the biggest mills im the South and the basis has been laid for the organization of Grievance Committees in these mills, We have also organized one unit of the Party in’ Knoxville. In no.strike led by our revolutionary unions has the politicalization of the struggle as a means of strengthening the strike assumed such importance as in the Kentucky strike. Respect for the “law” and “legal procedure” generally, is deeply rooted in the Southern work- ing class. This is particularly true in Kentucky. Hence, the necessity, if our strike is not to be broken by a combination of stark terror and demagogy on the part of the state, county and city authorities, for a thorough going exposure of the class character of the state power from top to bottom. In the present struggie we have had not one, but dozens of instances in which individual strikers, including members of our Central Strike Executive Committee, have appealed to county sheriffs for warrants against the operators, against gun thugs and against professional strike breakers imported by the coal companies. ‘This went so far that on one occasion strikers, came to the general relief warehouse and found posted on its doors a notice signed by the chief of police of Pineville to the effect that only members of the relief committee would be admitted. ‘The notice was written and posted at the request, of comrades from the relief committee. On the other hand, in no strike in my ex- perience, have the full forces of the government been used so openly and brazenly to break the strike, thereby facilitating the exposure to the 7g Raber of the! plage: eamneter of he: epnara: Strike--Our Mistakes and Their | Correction ment, 'The| theory of “the lesser evil” plays a con- siderable role here. ‘Thousands of strikers will declare that the present authorities are strike~ breakers, but still look forward hopefully to a change of administration after the next elec- tiom It is necessary now to fiud the ways and means 10 expose the government as a whole, and to carry on relentless struggle against any manifestations of this theory. | This means not only the systematic exposure of every strike-breaking activity of every state and county official, but also the daily driving | home of the fact that the govetnment is not a | strike-breaker because of the people who are in | office, but rather that these people act as strike- | breakers because they are part of the capitalist soyernment. s What the failure to bring forward our Party has cost us in the politicalization of the struggle | will be dealt with later, Popularize Demands. While on the one hand we have failed to suf- ficiently politicalize the struggle, on the other hand we have failed to sufficiently popularize the demands of the strike. Particularly at the present stage of the struggle where partial set~ tlements are already the order of the day, is it necessary to carry on a most widespread di: cussion involving every striker on the demands and aims of the strike. In all our agitation and | in every mass action in the struggle, the funda- mental demands of the strikers must be brought forward. | Mass Activities. Due largely to the extreme terror, the deep- rooted tradition of individual action among the Kentucky miners and the lack of adequate lead- ership in the field, we have failed to develop, With the exception of half a dozen notable in- stances, mass activities in the strike. Since the first days of the strike there have been no real mass picket lines, real mass marches inyol- ving hundreds of miners on the working mines. At the same time, we have failed even more completely to draw the women and children into mass activity and to break down shy resistance to their participation in strike activities, There has even appeared tendencies in the leadership to discourage mass activity. At a | time when 5,000 to 8,000 workers were marching every day or two on the county jail to demon- strate at the preliminary hearings of our ar- rested comrades, our coinrades in jail deliber- ately discouraged such demonstrations, holding that to continue them would “interfere with mass picket lines!” There has been an entirely insufficient ideological campaign against tendencies towards been paid to the organization of mass defense groups and action. As the struggle continues, the danger of individual terroristic actions will greatly increase and will become a very real danger to the strike. It is necessary to smash this tendency now and to explain clearly and simply our tactics of mass defense. It is even more necessary to insure the actual organization and proper functioning of defense groups. Resulting directly from our failure to involve the masses of strikers in strike activities, is the relatively narrow leadership of the strike. The initiative and instinct for organization inherent in the masses has not been released. ‘The lead- ership remains a narrow cadre of leading people with the masses of strikers inactive. The local strike committees, relief committees, defense committees, are altogether too small and too narrow ‘in character, Ilere it is necessary to say a word about the whole question of united front tactics as em- ployed in the Kentucky strike. I think it is safe to say that not a single Kentucky miner thor- oughly understands just what our united front tactic is and how it is to be applied. The re- sult is that strikers not members of the National Miners’ Union, and rank and file strikers who are active workers but still members of the United Mine Workers of America, are not drawn into the leadership of the strike, are not drawn into the day to day strike activities. Almost without exception, strike committees and other leading organs of the struggle are made up exclusively of N. M. U. members, ‘The dangers of this course are obvious. The re- sponsibility for it rests not on the shoulders of our Kentucky comrades, but on the shoulders of our more experienced comrades in the field who have not sufficiently explained the basis and necessity for building a firm united fron’ of organized and unorganized. . (To be Concluded.) By HARRY GANNES. m In the meantime, the especially severe crisis on the railroads, with the drop in railroad se- curities, brought about a very difficult financial problem for the capitalists. Railroad securities amounting nominally to $25,000,000,000 are the financial foundation for the leading insurance companies and financial trusts (a new form of financial swindling institutions developed dur- ing the past period of “prosperity”). ‘The drop in the values of these securities threatened bankruptcy for the insurance companies, ‘The insurance companies, likewise, are large holders of farm and city mortgages. ‘The value of these mortgages has dropped over $10,000,000,000, ac- cording to the American Investment Bankers Association, Bankruptcies Pile Up. ‘Tens of thousands of small business men went into bankruptcy, being unable to pay their bills. ‘This made it difficult for many industrial capi- talists to pay their obligations to the banks. The banks were filled with worthless paper, creating what the capitalists calla “frozen” condition of credit. . Hundreds of thousands of farmers, facing bankruptcy, were not able to pay the hundreds of millions they owed on their mortgages, and for farm machinery, driving the agrarian banks into bankruptcy, putting a tremendous strain on - Jarger banks with which these smaller bdnks ‘were connected. Along |with this development went another phase of the credit crisis, bringing about the present severe financial crisis with all its as- Peete oC nation and arma hordes sort | ee New Tortures for the Workers— Intlation, Taxes, “Anti-Hoarding” | | workers. The collapse of the greatest portion. of the credit and the bank crashes led to hoarding of money. The petty-bourgeiosie began to trans- form their securities into ready cash. A process of “liquidation” began—that is, a process of the banks, industries, speculators, business men of all types, attempting to transfer their stocks and bo: ds into cash. In order to get the cash, they had to sell their paper securities at what- ever they could get. ‘This led to the repeated stock market crashes. ‘The money they obtained was not returned to the banks, in most in- stances, because the banks proved to be “un- safe.” The workers, seeing their savings being wiped out, began to withdraw their last |few perinies from the banks. ‘There resulted wide- spread. hoarding amounting to about $1,500,- 000,000. Government Spends—For Big Capitalists. Another phase contributed to this financial crisis. ‘The economic crisis, contracting all busi- ness activity, throwing 12,000,000 workers on the streets to starve, slashing wages of the entire working class, cut down governnient income, at a time when the imperialist government was in- creasing its expenditures especially for war greater government expen- ditures in the interest of the big bourgeoisie— the Federal. Farm Board (to preserve the bil- lions the financiers held in farm mortgages); the $2,000,000,000 Finance |Reconsiruction Cor- poration, to pay dividends on railroad securities and save the interests of the big insurance com~ panies, the financial trusts, and the leading | less than $4,000,000,000. individual terrorism, Almost no attention has | Hey, You Jobless Father! Just look over this as a guide to what you should demand from the local Community Chest or whatever other brand of “statistical christs” that may be “helping” the unemployed. You should, if you have a baby, demand that it be given just as good food as Lindbergh’s, the kid whose daily diet was broadcast to the nation as follows: “One quart of milk daily. “Three tablespoons of cooked cereal morning and night. “Two tablespoons of cooked vegetables onse dail e yolk of egg daily ‘One baked potato or rice daily. “Two tablespoons stewed fruit daily. “One-fourth cup orange on awakening in morning, “One-half cup prune jnice following afters noon nap. “Fourteen drops of viostere! daily.” Now, comrade workers, if your baby is just as precious to you as Lindy’s is to him, you'll join the Unemployed Councils and rally all hands and the cook to force capitalism to feed your baby as well as Lindy’s kid ‘The federal government placed all its depart- ments at the disposal of Lindbergh, the willing and well-paid servant of the big finance cap- italists who have accumulated their millions from your sweat and labor, so why shouldn’t you be entitled to haye your baby fed as well as Lindy’s! Hearst the “Civilizer” Another brilliant example of capitalist “civill- zation” was published in an article featured by the Hearst Press gn March 3, which recom- mended the followtng “The pen: for kidnaping should be flog- ging to deat’ in the public square or slow torture with ra’ hot knives.” William Randolp” Hearst also champions John Nance Garner for P. -sident. ficit which at the present time amounts to no In coder to cover up this deficit, the government b bonds. The value of these bonds bevan t drop with each fssue, The banks began to fill up with government bonds, along with the other stacks of paper that the banks had swallowed up. ‘ In order to meet the increased demand for Paper money ‘most of {which was used for hoarding) the Federal Reserve Bank required greater gold stocks and greater amounts of what, is’ known as commercial. paper. Commercial | Paper represents the production and circulation of commodities; and with the cut in production down to but 60 per cent of “normal,” the amount, of commercial paper available for the issuance of the new money was materially cut down. With the world struggle for greater gold re- sources, with European capitalists withdrawing their gold from the United States, the American bankers were met with a very critical situation. ‘The amount of gold available for the issuance of new morey was yery slim. T2!* about going off the gold standard was real and remains real to this day. Role of Federal Reserve. In this situation, the Federal Reserve System controlled by the Hovse of~\Morgan primarily (with Eugene Meyer an integral part of the House of Morgan as®the head of the Federal Reserve System) began its manipulations which led to the creation and adoption of the Glass- Steagall Bill, and opened the way for a vast inflation. With this brief background, the devélopment of the processes behind the Glass-Steagall Bill and its meaning should be clearer. The manner of passing the bill is extremely significant for the workers. The VI Congress of the. Communist International Pointed out to the workers that the capitalist governments were becoming more closely intertwined with the financial magnates. In the United States this was especially true. Andrew Mellon, a leading imperialist banker, was head of the treasury. Dwight W. Morrow, a partner of the House of Morgan, was a dominant figure in the Hoover government. Every important cabinet office is today held by a direct representative of leading imperialist groups. Hoover himself is the in- carnation of the financial promoter in the im- perialist epoch. But this process reached an un- precedented stage during the present crisis, How the Glass-Steagall Bill Originated. The formulation of the Glass-Steagall Bil) took place in the offices of the leading bankers in Wall Street. It was an extra-parliamentary matter, with very little discussion taking place | on it, despite its tremendous significance. A secret conference of the leading democratic and republican politicians was called by Hoover at which Ogden Mills, speaking for |the bankers, jaid down the dictates of the leading financiers. ‘This shows in the present stage of the crisis in the United States that the most important mover of the capitalist government do not even go through the usual parliamentary procedure but are put through directly by joint action of the bankers and their government apparatus. The great secret of the rushing through of the Glass-Steagall Bill is simply that the Congress- men and Senators who were called into confer- ence by President Hoover were told that the major objects of the bill were already achieved, and that any attempt to change them would precipitate a financial panic of the severest type, The capitalist papers reported that these Sen- ators and Congressmen were given a “black ple- ture” of financial conditions, but that the ple- ture was too black for publication. In short, the representatives of tho leading bankers merely instructed their republican and democratic representatives that the whole fiuan- cial structure of American capitalism was in a dangerous state; that the Federal Reserve Bank hati already entered on a period of inflation, and that all they could do about it was formulate it into a law; add a few mroe inflationray pro- visos and pass it. That is precisely what they a: Where Will It Lead? Now the question arises: Precisely what ts the situation which Jed to the Glass-Steagall Bill? What is the bill itself, and what are its per- spectives? What will it lead to? As we pointed out before, we must always keep in mind that. this fs Just one of the mocsures of American capitalism in its frantic efforts to keep back the further development of the economies erisir which is reaching lower levels.