The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 13, 1932, Page 4

‘HERE are anti-war se he millions of ost adve n0t only is Ja hile ut that ‘apanese base { nion. Tr ing their stitute the v smashing he Far a great response zations, cult or cieties, befor agains of mass 01 ms, Mutual id War Week. shops and mini is of thous > the mass or before factories housands of copies of and other pamphlets were organizations in lets were distributed n different languages @ neighborhood scale “Woman and War, d by the mass 1ages. ss organizations sent out their own appeals, as for example the Executive Committee of the ad on la Hungarian Workers Benevolent and Educational | Workers Federation. The Statement of the Hungarian organization in its final paragraph says attack against the workers’ fatherland. What will you do? Will you stand by and watch how the land of your hopes will be crushed? You cannot do this. You cannot assist capital- ism to commit the most horrible crime in the history of mankind. You must resist, you must organize and rally to the defense of the USSR. We call upon all workers in the United States to defend their fatherland, the USSR.” Hundred of Hungarian mass organizations re- sponded to this call. Hundreds of mass meet- ings called by the Hungarian orggnizations were arranged all over the country. This is not the only example. The Jewish, Russian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Finnish, Polish, Greek, Armenian and other organizations have all held and are arranging special anti-war meetings. During the Anti-War Week in New York, the Jewish organizations alone held 165 indoor meet- ings at which after a discussion of the war situation, the Jewish workers pledged themselves to become agitators in their shops, against the imperialist war. also 46 open air meetings at which thousands of workers attended. Never, as now, did the mass meetings called by the Polish, Ukrainian and Russian organiza- tions based on the class struggle, have such a tremendous response from the masses as in the anti-war campaign. In the hundreds of mass meetings called by the mass organizations that Tesponded immediately to the appeal of the Anti-War Committee, protest resolutions were voted and forwarded, as is known to us, to the State Department and Japanese Embassy in Washington. In this campaign, we see for the first time, hhow independent workers’ mass organizations take the initiative of calling mass meetings on the anti-war issue and not only indoor mass meet- | ings, but open air meetings, especially on a neigh- horhood scale in the territory where workers of the same nationality live. What is of special importance is the fact that they are appealing to the workers of the shops, mines and mills. The various language mass organizations have | held and are arranging city conferences and ap- | pealing to the masses of the organizations led by the reactionaries to join in the fight against imperialist war. to the workers | The imperialists are preparing for an early | The same organizations held | one ALgonquin 4-7956. Ce, ins, ally except Sunday, at 60 Hast Cable “DAIWORK.” Worker, 60 East 13th Street, New York, N.Y, SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, §3; two months, $1; excepting Borot of Manbattan and Bronx, New York City. fe papers, we can already see are responding in unmasking ions. Workers are notifying us yards of Hoboken, passenger ansformed into battle ships; some of the mills are working t other plants are manufactur how the w the war pre that in the show that large masses of nd in defense of the Soviet But here we must state that while large new masses are moving, and that on their own ini- ative mass organizations call mass meetings, vote protest resolutions, ete, the Party did not sufficeintly utilize this mass sentiment to make April 6 a tremendous Anti-War demonstration. Whil for example, in New York for weeks ge mass organizations were multiply of the united front Anti-War Com- and were calling on the masses, through and through hundreds of mass go into the streets, the demonstra- pril 6 took the character of an indoor in the Coliseum. The Party press and ally the Daily Worker failed to reflect with ssary emphasis the extent of the anti-war le of the masses. While the Daily Worker reporting the demonstrations in Detroit, mittee meetir espe! was | Chicago and in hundreds of other cities, it did not indicate that behind this demonstration there is a growing mass movement in hundreds of thousands of organizations, in the factories. Not one of the hundreds of protest resolutions | voted at mass meetings called by the mass or- ganizations, not a single appeal of mass or- ganizations was quoted in the Daily Worker. While the bourgeois press consciously main- tains silence on the anti-war campaign that is drawing in hundreds of thousands of workers, our press failed to bring forward the anti-war fighting spirit of the American working class. It failed to organize, to give expression to this spirit and give at the same time guidance and organizational directives for the development of they, campaign. On the other hand, the Communist fractions in the mass organizations are also responsible | for the weaknesses of the Daily Worker, in so far as they failed completely to notify the cen- tral organ of the Party about the activities of the mass organizations, about ‘their participa- tion in the anti-war campaign, did not take care of sending copies of the resolutions, ete., to the Daily. This shows that while the elementary move- ment of the masses in the ‘anti-war struggle is growing, our forces are not yet able to co- | ordinate the movement, to lead it and utilize | the mass sentiment for the building of the mass | organizations, for the building of the Party, for the development of a much wider anti-war movement, a tremendous campaign in defense of the Chinese people, of the Chinese Soviets, of the Soviet Union. The anti-war week, between March 30 and April 6, was not an aim in itself, but created the basis for the development of the anti-war struggle, that must be continued and brought to a higher stage in which millions of American workers must be involved. May ist must be the expression of the most powerful anti-war sentiment of the American working class. Mass organizations that responded to the call of the Anti-War Committee must double their efforts to reach new mass organizations, new masses of workers, bringing the Anti-War agi- tation inside the factories, FORWARD! Continue to arrange new meet- ings in your organizations! Vote protest reso- lutions against the rebber war on China! Fight in the mass organizations against the reaction- ary social-fascist leadership which is support- ing the imperialists! Unite with the masses who are fighting against imperialist war, against starvation conditions in this country! Stop the transport of ammunitf#n! Bring the anti-war agitation into the shops! Forward in the struggle for the defense of the Soviet Union, the workers’ fatherland! Forward in the struggle to stop a new mass slaughter for the benefit of the exploiters! Agitational Work in the Kentucky- Tennessee Miners Strike ‘HE political importance of agitational and Propaganda work as an integral {part of mobilizing the workers in strike struggles is no more clearly demonstrated than in the Ken- tucky-Tennessee Strike. Nowhere else have our fevolutionary unions and our Party been faced with a situation where the terror was so openly fascist. And this terror was strengthened a thousandfold by the mass agitation of the employers, conducted in the most simple and emotional manner, built up on the prejudices and traditions of the workers involved in the struggle. What were |the three main political issues which the employers and their fascist allies in- jected into the struggle to prejudice the miners against the Union and against our Party? They were — patriotism, religion and race hatred. ‘These three prejudices are very strongly instilled into the native mountaineer miners of Kentucky and Tennessee. Long isolated from the main stream of life in America, and particularly from the main stream of the labor movement here; American-born, of Anglo-Saxon stock, brought up with a pride in their ancestry, and a feeling of Isuperiority over other inhabitants in the | United States; intensely patriotic due to this traditional pride in their pioneer ancestors, and partly due to their generations of isolation from the rest of the world; soaked through with prejudice against the Negro frorn the day of their birth—these were the issues with which the employers could freely play o n the emotions of these politically backward, unclassconscious workers. In the heat of the struggle, when the cluss consciousness of the workers is instinctively more acute, the replies to the attacks’ on the workers could have smashed the prejudices of the workers, particularly on the three issues— patriotism, religion and race hatred—and brought them to see how these prejudices are actually defeating their struggle with the em- ployer. As part of these issues, the employers brought that, as well as the other bogies, to some extent, by the very nature of our a ctivity. The workers gained confidence in us, and made the natural inference that if we were “Roosian Reds,” then “Roosian Reds” must be good for the working class. But that is only a spontaneous response to our activity. We did not sufficiently carry on an organized mass agitation in reply to the very systematic mass agitation of the employers, which was carried on by all the means at their disposal—leafiets signed by the “best citizens”; leaflets by the American Legion; attacks in the newspapers by ministers and preachers; series of articles by journalists who dug up all the available lies against the Soviets and against the Communists, and invented some very original ones of their own; speakers with the customary tremendous flow of typical Southern oratory. And we, with our first Party leaflet answer- ing these attacks, coming a whole month after the strike started, with our failure to issue leaflets on the specific issues raised, left this fertile field entirely to our fascist enemies, leaving the masses to grope their own way to a true ex- planation through all the bewilderment and confusion caused by the boss offensive. The appalling terror and the difficulties of systematic work as a result are by no means a sufficient or fundamental explanation for our neglect of the agitational work. The pressure of the most elementary organizational measures was so great, what with the kaleidoscopic change in the situation every day, and the necessity of adjusting ourselves to these changes, that such matters as agitation, as propaganda, as literature and leaflet distribution—which are essential factors in mobilizing organizationally— these things were constantly pushed into the background. Agitation is a mobilizing force. ‘There can be no such Chinese Wall between “organization” and “agitation.” They go hand in hand in our activities, and especially so in sharp struggles. This ar tificial separation and this relegation of one of the vital forces of mo- | bilization into the background reflects a gross forward the “Roosian Red” hogey. We exploded | s can be drawn into the anti- SE FEEDING YOU ANY MORE! = HEE " Foreign: one year, $8; six months, Two Gatherings for Unemploy- ment Relief Specal Sesson of the Ohio Legislature ws. State Unemployed Councils Conyvéntion. By PHILIP BART. With great haste, in order to frustrate any gathering of the unemployed, Governor White rushed through a specail session of the State Legislature for “Emergency Unemployment Re- lief.” As a@ result of the activity of the un- employed in the cities and those suffering on the farms, the call for the Special Session was issued a few days prior to March 29th, the date set for the opening. Although very little time was left, the maneuvers of the governor did not succeed, because of the response of* the Unemployed Councils, who succeeded in organiz- ing its forces and calling for a State Conyen- tion of the Unemployed Councils, to be held | simultaneously with the opening of the Legis- Jature. In the short period of time that it had to organize its forces, the Unemployed Councils of Cleveland, with the support of the Trade Union Unity League, Communist Party and other or- ganizations, gathered over 400 delegates from 16 cities throughout the State to the Unem- ployed State Convention in Columbus. It is only necessary to contrast these two gatherifigs to see clearly the differences between the meet- ing of the Executive Committe of the bosses of the State of Ohio, and the representatives of the hungry, unemployed and part time unem- ployed throughout the State. The State Legis- Jature gathered in its stately halls, coming in Pullman cars from all over the State, while rep- resentatives of the unemployed, unable to gather sufficient funds in this short time, arrived in cars, open trucks, walking, hiking, from every Part of the State, to voice their demands against the maneuvers of the State Legislature and for Unemploymert Insurance. Governor White Contradicts Himself A short time before the calling of the Special Session, the governor, answering Senator Bing- ham of Connecticut regarding starvation, said, “Have no authentic record of any present cases of starvation.” But a week later the governor in his message to the State Legislature said, “Conditions in the well populated centers have become dispirited,” and that “It has now be- come apparent that extraordinary means must be provided to assist local sub-divisions in meet- ing their unemployment problems.” In a short period of time, the governor has changed his mind. This very good watch dog of the utilities treasuries is even unable to prepare his state- ments so as not to contradict himself in such @ short period of time. The conditions throughout the State answer the lie that “there is no starvation in Ohio.” Attorney General Bettman, in giving an opinion of conditions in Perry, Hocking and Athens Counties, where thousands of miners are on strike, wrote that “Mothers stagger out on the highway to flag passing motorists and beg pen- nies to buy bread for their children.” The Plain Dealer of March 14th, not only confirms this ST mass agitation must play in every strike struggle. ‘To get the masses to act, we must convince them, by our agitation, as well as by our practical activity. ‘The necessity of an educational apparatus and an educational director as part and parcel of the strike machinery, who is very close to every phase of the struggle, is one of the lessons to be drawn from this strike. If the strike ma- chinery has no provision for issuing and dis- tributing our seitational matter, then, particu- larly under such terror conditions as existed in Kentucky and Tennessee, the Union and Party will not only find it difficult to get the material into the hands of the workers, but will inev- itably find that the educational phase of the organizational work will be be neglected. The union paper must by all means be issued during such a strike struggle, no matter what the sacri- fice this demands in the central office of the union. Then, in the course of the strike, it was found that there is a real need particularly in our major strikes of this kind, to have a special short simple pamphlet, putting forward the Party program particularly before these workers, and making # special appeal to them, on the basis of the local situation and the local issues arising, to join the Communist Party, a mee . ee pew" pst Statement but goes further and writes editor- ially, “Even from the usually prosperous agri- cultural areas comes stories of indiivdual priva- tion, little short of starvation.” With this appalling hunger, staring in the faces of about one million who are unemployed in the State, comes the announcement that re- lief will be cut further. The amount of relief distributed, as witnessed for instance in Cleve- land, where the Plain Dealer reports that “Cleve- land has been forced to reduce its scale of help, until now those dependent, upon the Associated Charities receive approximately half of what the county allots its convicts in the jails and the dogs in the city pound.” This is the Emer- gency Relief that Governor White called a spe- cial session of Legislature to carry through. A program of the most flagrant neglect of the hundreds of thousands of families in the State, which is a program of slow starvation. That the governor lied when he made the statement to Senator Bingham is admitted by the very newspaper supporting him. In an ed- itorial in the Cleveland Plain -Dealer entitled, “Slow Starvation,” it is characteristically stated, “It is a frank confession that our charity is | not on the basis of little better than slow star- vation.” Thus we observe that the program of “immediate relief,” in the State of Ohio, is part of the national campaign of slow starva- tion and deterioration of the lives of millions of workers. The Charity Racket ‘The Unemployed Councils have always pointed out the role of the private charities, as a means of further developing the starvation system, and as a racket for a small section of its official- dom. The report of the Community Fund of Mansfield, for the year ending December 31, 1931, bears out these facts. In their Aiicial report they write “the total Community Fund receipts for the year were, $59,633.00, while the total salaries were $33,638.88.” What clearer ex- ample is necessary of the forced method of ex- tortion from employed workers in the factory, to be used for fat salaries by officials, of which @ very small sum goes actually for so-called relief Workers’ Enemies Exposed George Guarantzy, of Youngstown, Ohio, has been exposed and expelled by the Cleveland Dis- trict of the Communist Party, as a company stool-pigeon in the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. plant. He is about 37 yeers of age, about 5 ft. 4 in, in height, weighs about 140 pounds, and has dark hair. His photograph is published here- with, Ben Ott, of Cleveland, Ohio, has heen exposed and expelled by the Cleveland District of the Communist. Party as an unreliable and irrespon- sible drunkard, who violated the trust placed in him by the Party (as custodian of Party head- quarters) end stole organization funds, He is about 47 years of age, about 5 ft. 4 in. in height, weighs about 135 pounds, and has a crippled leg, which causes him to limp, All w orkers and workers’ organizations are warned against these enemies of the working class. CENTRAL CONTROL COMMISSION, Pr, aby comes PARE OE THE ue “i i of the unemployed. The lies of the governor were hurled back into his very face, at the State Legislature by the Convention of the Unemployed supported by thousands of workers in Columbus, It showed to them that their maneuvers were without avail and that the struggle on the part of the unemployed is increasing. New Tricks by the Same Old Magicians Recognizing the rapid increase of the struggle on the part of the unemployed and part time workers, these demagogues are in search for new methods. Therefore, a Commission headed by Senator Reynolds to study “Unemployrwnt Insurance,” was set up. This’ “commission” now on its junket trip throughout the State holding “anemployment insurance hearings,” is faced in each city by the wrath of hungry workers de- manding not merely 2 study which will be re- ported to the State Legislature in 1933, but the immediate enactment of the Workers Unem- ployment Insurance Bill. The State Convention called in such a short period of time, receiving the response of del- egations from every part of the State, is a sign of the deep-rooted influence of the Unemployed Councils. However, it is necessary, here to un- derline a number of weaknesses and what must be done immediately to overcome them. While Unemployed Councils throughout the State were represented, not a single A. F. of L. local had sent representatives. Nor did we suc- ceed in drawing in any working class fraternal organizations. The election of delegates while taking place at meetings attended by hundreds of workers in each city, was entirely too narrow. Such a conference should have had representa- tives elected by tens of thousands of workers throughout the State. The Tasks of the Convention oe The Convention has, therefore, set itself the task that out of the gathering in Columbus must result a wider movement. It correctly agrees that this necessitates a broad united-front based upon the election of block-committees, neigh- borhood committees and representative bodies at all gatherings of the unemployed. Already a few days after the Convention, the task was set that each delegate upon his re- turn is to organize a minimum of two meet- ings should be an oceasion of popularizing the program of the Unemployed Councils and build- ing a broad movement drawing in tens of thou- sands of workers, It is the task ‘of the Party membership in every city throughout the district to regard as one of its chief tasks the participation in the Unemployed Councils; together with the dele- gates, we must organize these meetings which will mean that between 800 and 1,000 neighbor- hood meetings will bear the report and pro- gram of this convention. To develop the cam- paign that by May ist the unemployed move- ment should have reached the objective set by the Columbus Convention, of entering every important industrial city of the State and the building of a net-work of organization of Un- employed Councils in the struggle for immed- fate relief and the passing of the Workers Un- employment Ynsurance Bill. ‘he Workers Unemployment Insurance Bill can be realized only on the basis of suth broad movement being developed. The fact that the government was forced to recognize this by se- lecting @ committee to study “unemployment in- surance,” bears ont that they are maneuvering to divert the campaign for real Unemployment Insurance by some scheme. This, however, can and must be smashed, through building the Un- employed Councils on the basis of block com- mittees, neighborhood organizations—which will be representative of the large masses of un- employed in every city. : Uncover Starvation and Misery ‘The capitalist press, the agents of the ruling class, has been publishing fess and less news about unemployment. It hides the starvation of the unemployed workers’ families, We must constantly expose the miserable treatment of families of the unemployed by the city governments and charity institutions. We must uncover all cases of starvation, un- aernourishment, sickness. We must pub- lish these cases in our press, in the Daily Worker, in Labor Unity, tell them at all workers’ meetings, Un- einployed Councils should, publish “ bulletins t% inform all workers of By JORGE “Bright Side” Stuff The Chicago “Blade and Ledger” recently ran j a signed editorial by a guy named William PF. i French, which seems to have been patterned after Mary Pickford’s “cheer-up, you-are-lucky” advice to the prisoners on Welfare Island, New! York. Here is some of this chap’s hokum: “They (the “right kind” of workers—Jorge) go right along with their work—despite falle ing wages. They have the vision to see that money is but a small part of man’s pay for his work. They understand that adversity is their staunchest helpmate, the ‘stone upom which to sharpen their wits, the burden with which to develop their muscles, the resistance against which to sirengthen their will. Deprese sion and hard times fail to worry them of sidetrack them into the slough of despair.” Well, Red Sparks is the last one to advocate despair. But we want to take this hokum te] pieces and show you how it is made. You se@, while it is true that individual workers here and. there do certainly “despair,” and sometimes bee | cause of that do such insane things as kill theme selves, they ro so because they lack all cone| scious understanding of the class struggle in soe} ciety. They despair of society “in general,” ine stead of “despairing” (or becoming. wise to, by disillusionment) ‘of capitalism and capitalist rule, This prostitute French, or French prostitute, is not trying to “save lives” by cheering up worke ers thus seized by “despair,” but of restoring the damaged faith in capitalist rule of those | workers who are turning in their disillusione ment to the revolutionary way out of the misere jes capitalist rule means for them. This reminds us that the Scripps-Howard chain of papers has recently been running | “cheer up” editorial features, bidding workers look on the “bright side.” Some of them have | veen titled “Look at the doughnut instead of | the hole.’ Thus and so many workers have; jobs yet, they say; things sre rot so bad. The purp’se of all this being to keep the wo:kers from struggling against wage cuts and for une; employment insurance. * meet Twas kinda funny tc see these same Scripps- Howard papers turn around just after that, to! @ campaign for Soviet trade. “American trade} is in a hell of a fix,” they say in effect, “and | the only country that is paying its bills is the} Soviet Union, which has oodles of money to} buy.” The funny part of thie is that Soviet | business has turned out to be te doughnut and American business the hole. { But looking beyond the joke, we see that, at |{ this moment when even the most stupid pere son knows that America is preparing to make war against the Soviet Union, the Scripps- Howard papers conceal that fact, and try to! make the American workers believe that Amer | ica is on the point of new and friendly rela~ | tions with the Soviet, thus trying to sidetrack | the workers from mass protest against war when | it does the most good. Thus, even the things which seem “all right” | otherwise, are used by the capitalist newspapers | to strangle the very things they seem to ene | dorse. Learn how to read capitalist newspapers | to understand their demagogy. Pane Sie . ° ° eee | The Pandit Bootlicker of Fiji | Happened to read a paper published in the | Fiji Islands, called “Vriddhi,” printed partly in | English and partly in Hindustanee, Sanscrit. or whatever it is. And, say, boys and girls, we Tun across something that would make that Broadway “socialist” bootlicker for imperialism, Heywood Broun, turn green with envy. \ ‘You see, a Hindu by the name of Pandit Durga Prasad, edits that paper, and he starts out an editorial in English by quoting H. G. Wells’ sad prophecy that the British Empire and indeed the whole of capitalism, “may go down to its doom before the forces of War, Universal Bankruptcy and Bolshevism.” Then the Pandit bootlicker to British imperialism turns in ex- alted language this momentous matter into # ridiculous as well as bootlicking oNmax by saye ing: “If so, the work that our Ewpire has done will come before the judgment of the his torian whether it be good or evil: and we can- not doubt that the decision will rest on one | point—how far we can justify our claim that our rule of subject races has been paternal and educative, operating for their good rather than our own advantage. And here in Fiji, in this year 1932, we have the crucial event which justifies our claim... Ratu Sukana hae been appointed District Commissioner for Lau.” / P. S.:—The point of this “justification” of imperialism by one of its subject race boote lickers on the thin ground that another boot~ licker has been appointed to office, can be seen better by noting that in another item, it fs said that unemployed workers in the Fifi Islands— “have work made available for them on the Tailevu dairy farms at a wage ranging from eight shillings a day for a Euronean married man to four shillings for a half-caste single man.” Forced labor for private profit at half the white man’s pay; that’s the ticket for subject races une der all imperialisms. . ae ae A La Mikado : It seems that American capitalists are begine ning to realize the serious danger of thinking —on the part of the workers. In Japan there is a law against “dangerous thoughts.” One of these birds writes to the New York Times, say« ing:—“Stop drinking and you start thinking, and in these days thinking men are dangerous men. This absolute fact seems to have escaped, the observation of the fanatics who are banded to deprive the workers of the only solace vouch safed to them.” For instance, if the workers who drink wonld remain sober, they mieht see why J. P. Morgan. and Norman Thomas and Police Commissioner Mulrooney are all three strong for the “Block- Aid” idea, as supervised by the Taramany cons and the American Levion. The workers who don’t drink certainiv don’t have to think very hard to see through that, Also, we just picked up a clipping from the Boston) Transcript, giving a column and @ half on what all Boston's “society folks” wore at a “Poverty Ball” recently. ‘The prize costume was worn by a Mrs. Almy, and was—"so realistic that she wos refused ad- mittance until Mr. Almy vouched for her and / admitted to heine her husband. Her bare legs and feet were dirty; she had ragged trousers to the knees, a big peaked cap was pulled to one side of her head, one tooth was blackened and she carried a tattered newspaper under her arm and smoked a cigarette.” ‘Thinking workers might understand how the h make fup of their muiserieg tn idle zoe ee ae lg i | f j