The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 29, 1932, Page 8

ATOM cenmman Editorial Note by A. TRACHTEN- years ago, it serves as an example | wherein jay our strength, and have BERG. The May Day leaflet which is re- printed below was written by Lenin while he was incarcenated in a St. Petersburg jail awaiting trial in the Soring of 1896. When arrested in December, 1895, Lenin, at the age of 25, was already the leader of the central organization of the Social- Democrats in St. Petersburg. Le- nin’s characteristic method was to gather first hand information about. living and working conditions of workers, carefully check and analyze the jniormantion obtained, and write leaflets in the most simple terms so that the least developed workers could understand. While Lenin had already then to his credit a number of serious Marxist studies New Tendencies in Peasant Econo- ; my, etc., and polemics with the Po- ; pulists (Who are the “Friends of the Peopse,” ete.), he particularly enjoy- ed writing for the masses, and his training during the period impressed itself on his writing during the fol- lowing thirty year's The May Day pamphlet was writ- ten at the request of St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class, one of the first Marxist organizations in Rus- | sia which helped to found the Rus- sian Social-Democratic Labor Party , in 1898. The May Day leaflet was smuggled out of the prison and mimeographed in 2,000 copies, an edition considered at» that time as very large. It was distributed among workers of 40 shops and fac- tories with what proved, very soon, great success, Contemporaries write that “when a month afterwards the famous strikes of 1896 broke out, , workers were telling us that this modest little May Day leaflet was the first impetus to their organiza- tion.” The comrade who attended to the technical end of getting out! and distributing the leaflet wrote as follows about the effect of this leaf- let on the St. Petersburg workers: “In issuing and distributing this May Day leaflet we felt that we ac- complished a great revolutionary task. The calling of the great strike one and a half months afterwards by the weavers, among whom the movement began and was spreading precisely under the influence of the May Day leaflet and was only await- ing the opportunity to assert itself openly, demonstrated to us and to the whole world that .e were not wrong in our estimate. The strike developed extactly in those shops where our leaflet was best distrib- uted,’ We reproduce the Lenin May Day leaflet not as a relic dug out from the dusty archives, but rather as a living piece of simple and direct writing for workers on a revolution- ary theme. Although written 35 |for a May Day leaflet in any of the | capitalist countries today. The Le- |nin leaflet “produced results” be- | cause it was written in a language which the workers could understand. | because it was concrete and dealt ; with problems which the workers | could identify as their own, because lit was distributed not indiscrimin- j ately, but directly to workers in the sheps and factories, and, naturally, because of previeus work in these aiops and factories. “In this leaflet Lenin reveals him- self not only the brilliant teacher but the successful. organizer and leader of the masses as well. = * ° Comrades! Let us look carefully into the conditions of our life; let us observe that environment where- in we pass our days. What do we see?. We. work hard; we create un- | limited wealth, gold and rich fabrics, brocade and velvet; we dig iron and ,; coal from the bowels of the earth; | we build machines, ships, castles, |railways. All the wealth of the | wealth of the world is created. by our hands, is obtained by our sweat {and blood. And what reward do we ;receive for cur hard labor? In justice we should live in the houses, wear good clothing, and in any case not want for our daily bread. But we all know very well that our wages scarcely suffice for a baré existence. Our bosses lower the wage-rats, force us to work overtime, unjustly fine us. In a word, they oppress us in every way, and, in case of dis- satisfaction on our part, they prom- ptly discharge us. We time and time again discover that those to whom ;we turn for protection are friends and lackeys of our bosses. We, the workers are kept in ignorance, edu- cation is denied to us, that we may not learn to struggle to improve our conditions. They hold us in bond- age, discharge us on the slightest pretext, arrest and exile anyone of- fering resistance to oppression, for- bid us to struggle. Ignorance and bondage,—these are the means by which the capitalists and the Gov- ernment, always at their service keep us in subjection. What means do we have to im- prove our conditions, to raise our wages, to shorten our working day, to protect ourselves from abuse, to read intelligent and useful books? Everybody is against us—the bosses (since the worse off we are, the bet- ter they live), and all their lackeys, all those who live off the bounty of the capitalists and who, at: their bidding, keep us in ignorance and bondage. We can look to no one for aid; we can rely only upon our- selves. Our strength lies-in union; our salvation in united, stubborn, and energetic resistance to our ex- The Workers’ Holiday—May First | attempted in all manner of ways to keep us divided, and not to let us understand that we workers have interests in common, They cut wages, not everybody’s at once, but over us, they introduce piece work; and, laughing up their sleeves at | how we workers toil at our work lower our wages little by little. But | it’s a long lane that has no turning There is a limit to endurance. Dur- ‘ing the past year the Russian work- |ers have shown their bosses that | slavish submission can ‘be trans- formed into the staunch courage. ot men who will not submit to the: in- solence of capitalists greedy for un- By JAMES LERNER “WE'RE going back to Union Sq, was the joyful announcement of the Socialist press May 1 a year ago. This cingle line was supposed | to be the herald of a new era in socialist policies. In 1929 at a meting of lawyers, accountants and some workers call- ed by the S. P. May 1, Norman Thomas led in the singing of the “Star Spangled Banner”. Union | S., the scene of revolutionary dem- onstrations in New York, was out of the Socialist Party vocabulary. The year before the socialists had dropped the phrase “class struggle” from their constitution because or- ganized capitalism had done away with the need for class struggle. Algernon Lee said as much as this: “Well, frankly speaking, I do not believe that Marx or Engels could clearly see the possibility of a high- ly organized capitalism which would be able to tame the unem- ployment devil”. But it was a sin- ister devil playing mean tricks with the socialists. The next year 1! red-horned freak re-appeared and left the socialists high and ary with their theories. The success of the Soviet Union also playing a most important part in showing up the party’s bankruptcy, The Socialist Party has started to change its appearance. In New York they are organizing unem- ‘ployed organizations. At the na- tional convention, which is to take place in May, a resolution demand- ing the re-inelusion of the phrase “class: struggle” in the constitution will be proposed. And also, even Norman Thomas has called for a new attitude towards the Soviet Union. Are these symptoms of the one at a time. eThey put foremen | ;but even tr | MAY DAY - paid labor In_ various broken out} Ivanovo-Vizn Minsk, Kiev towns. The: ended succé only appare: reality they: f ribly, cause: t | force them -t fear of a ne’ inspectors al and notice tt talists’ eyes: their eyes are calling a stri the factory’ | BACK T¢ S. to stay”? ¢ sending of a revolution? Let us take battle on thi within the rz the last two become disgu attacks made the U.S.S.R. lectuals. have same way. So New Leader testify from | the absorbing able interest : country. I ea fact that we much harm by carping and cism of Russi: Just because Russia that n the good of ¥ well as a gre want to be make criticisr ing.” Criticizs eareful that the workers continue to h ty. One of tt ker Lewis, 1 should change Soviet Russia attitude builc us and certai ‘What have “poor unemy whom every i: er is wringing When the p made a sham socialist “Forv in the demor police; the yo the handsom ploiters. They have long understood Socialist Party’s “return to Union ‘ graceful horse