The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 28, 1932, Page 5

Proposed National Election Platform and Candidates of the Communist Party of the United States of America PROPOSED BY THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE C. P. U.S. A., FOR DISCUSSION, SUBJECT TO CHANGE AND FINAL ADOPTION BY THE NATIONAL NOMINATING CONVENTION TO BE HELD IN CHICAGO, ILL., MAY 28-29, 1932—ALL READERS WHO HAVE PROPOSALS FOR IMPROVING OR STRENGTHENING THE PLATFORM ARE URGED TO WRITE TO THE DAILY WORKER IN TWO SECTIONS (SECTION TWO) (Section of the Communist International) THE FACTORY WORK- ERS ABOVE ALL MUST BE WON FOR THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN NEW YORK, THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1932 f For Working Class Unity in the Election Campaign! -- Against the Hunger and War Offensive of the Capitalists! For the Workers’ Ticket -- Candidates of the Communist Party! -- Against the Candidates of the Bosses! For Vice-President— For President— JAMES W. FORD PLATFORM OF IMMEDIATE DEMANDS WM. Z. FOSTER of Alabama of New York Workers and Farmers, White and Negro, Men and Women:- ’ uke anyone deny the widespread suffering and misery prevalent today among the great mass of workers and farmers in all parts of the United States? No, this cannot be de- nied! The facts are too well known. Twelve million workers, ready and anxious to work, and capable of producing the food, clothing and other goods so urgently needed by the people, are suffering enforced idleness. Those workers who still desperately cling to their jobs have been forced to accept one drastic wage cut after another, until in some cases their ‘wages are now 50 per cent below their former income. Hoover's “stagger plan” has brought almost universal part-time work with great reductions in the weekly earnings of the workers. Only 15 per cent of the employed workers now have full time jobs. Eighty-five per cent of these workers are working only a few days per week. Unemployment, part-time work and wage cuts have resulted in a lowering of the living standards of the entire working class by more than 50 per cent, bringing the American workers down to the level of the poorly paid European workers. “This is the situation confronting the toilers now in the third year of the still deepening crisis. The frequent promises of- Hoover and his Re- publican and Democratic. supporters about “re- - turning prosperity” are completely refuted by these undeniable facts, Instead of “returning 1—Unemployment and social insurance at the ex- pense of the state and employers. 2— Against Hoover’s wage-cutting policy 3—Emergency relief for the poor farmers without restrictions by the government and banks; ex- emption of poor farmers from taxes, and from forced collection of rents-or debts. 4_Equal rights for the Negroes and self-deter- mination for the Black Belt. 5—Against capitalist terror; against all forms of suppression of the political rights of the workers. 6—-Against imperialist war; for the defense of the Chinese people and of the Soviet Union. VOTE COMMUNIST! prosperity”, we find only that the suffering of the workers and farmers and of their wives and children becomes steadily worse! This is the United States of America in 1932! But what have the capitalist politicians— Republicans! and| Democrats—done about ‘it? Warehouses are bursting with unused food and clothing. Hundreds of thousands of houses are standing empty. Idle factories are capable of producing all the goods the people need and more. Yet have these politicians taken any steps to start the factories going again, to open up the empty houses for the evicted workers, or to distribute the food and clothing now stacked up in the warehouses among the people who are starving? Not a step! Starvation in the Midst of Plenty, this is what is presented to the workers and toiling farmers of the United States by the ruling class, by the bankers, manufacturers, lawyers, publicists, politicians and their political parties. Capitalists Force Crisis Burdens on Workers | They remain coldly unconcerned about the suffering of the masses. They think only about the profits of the rich. Their proposed way out of the crisis is a way that will bring permanent poverty and misery to the workers and poor farmers, while the few rich bankers and man- ufacturers who control the country will becom: still richer and. still.more powerful. - | "heir way out of the crisis—the capitalis| way out—firstly, proposes direct help, not to | Sthe poor, but to the rich. . . Under the guise of ‘‘economy”: they categor- ically refuse unemployment insurance as de- manded by the unemployed hunger marchers to Washington and to many state capitols. They refuse to appropriate money for a far-reachin® public works program for relieving unemploy- ment. They refuse to appropriate money for immediate relief for the starving workers and farmers. They refuse to pay the bonus to the ex-servicemen of the last war, most of whom are now unempioyed or working only part-time. For the hungry masses, in their opinion, the slop from restaurants and hotels and the miser- able charity system is good enough. The em- ployed workers, themselves suffering from part-time work and wage cuts, are being forced to pay for even the charity system. The abom- inable “block-aid”,‘ “community chest’, and “Family help Family” systems, oy means of forced collections im the factories and neighbor- hoods, are placing the burdens of charity also on the hungry masses and taking it off the rich who alone can afford to pay. Yet the Republicans and Democrats, who con- trol the National and State governments, de- spite their “economy” talk where the masses are concerned, have plenty of funds to aid the bankers and manufacturers and to provide the huge amounts for graft and corruption which serves as oil for their political machine. The last session of Congress, with Democratic con- trol of the House and with the approval of Hoo- ver, appropriated billions of dollars for direct aid to the rich. Hoover's, “Reconstruction Cor- — poration”, alone made $2,000,000,000 available for the big bankers. Changes in the banking, tariff and taxation laws, not only placed the burden of the huge government deficit on the middle class and chiefly on the broad masses, but paved ‘the way for further trustification of bet tga?