The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 30, 1932, Page 4

Page Four 956. Cable th Street, New York. N. ¥, “palwok Kk. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Foreign: one year. Sy mail everywhere: One year. $6; sia months, $3; two months, $2; excepting Bororche of Manbatia# and Bronx, New York City. $8; six montos $4 40 By JAMES W. FOED. mm. By J. W. appeared nunism not in the bourgeois, whose mind is of the Jim-Crowism perialism, Mr. Kelley a state of affairs in o not rule, in which Negroes are He cannot picture a state of h Negroes are not subservient to ip of the proletariat, to y, is a dictatorship of He see’ this dif- capitalist i whites, ch while the pro- woud be a dictatorship of a leading role of in this.struggle. The miseries of the ests are all the workers. But the pecial national oppression. rtant part in the the overthrow and, consequently, a uture dictatorship of the leadership of of Amer! leading working-class in country. Communism is the theory and eapon of the Negro workers as well as of the white workers in this common struggle On the basis is false premise, Mr. Kelley concludes that Communism in America can be made to function “contrary to its principles and detrimental to the Negro” as (Mr. Kelley thinks) Christianity does. ‘The con! ion contained in Mr. Kelley’s state- Ment results from the fact that he considers the Comm t Party as the party of the white workers. Just as Communism is not the theory of any particular race or nation of the international working- gle for the overthrow of the so is the Communist Party not workers alone. It is the rs, Negro and white. It rep- rests of the entire working-class ace or nationality. Therefore Party points out and raises to of the wor indey the Communist the front the necessity of international solidarity of the working-class as the prime condition of @ successful struggle against the common enemy -the capitalists. It is to the interest of the MMUNISM AND THE NEGRO JAMES W. FORD, Proposed Candidate of the Communist Party for Vice-President white workers to support the struggles of the Negro masses for freedom because. he white workers cannot be successful even in their every- day struggles against capitalism without the fullest support of the struggles of the. Negroes. Precisely in those places where. one hundred per cent white chauvinism (race hatred) reigns su- preme and where oppression of the Negroes is the sharpest (in the South) it is also found that that the conditions of the white workers are the Tost degrading. Mr. Kelley attempts to frighten the Negro workers away from the Communist Party by sowing suspicions among them. “But,” the Negro worker will ask, “What about the Soviet Union?” Mr. Kelley has already anticipated this, and replies in the following manner: “The treatment (my emphasis—J. W. F.) given the few thousand Negroes in Russia under the Soviet form of government is not, necessarily, the same treatment that would be accorded the twelve million Negroes in America should this propertyess white proletariat come into power; for it is this same ignorant white class in the North and South which now fails to respond to just and intelligent appeals for racial and re- ligious tolerance. . . .” But before going on to the Soviet Union a question might be in order. What does Mr. Kel~ ley mean by “just and intelligent appeals”? Can he mean any other than the “appeals” of the Southern white ruling cl: vhich cov- ynehing. prac: _ tices with sweet words about “justice’?” _ Mr. Kelley's usé of the word “‘treatment” is indicative of his whole frame of“mind. Soviet Russia’s insistence upon absolute equality for all people is not a matter of “treatment” handed down as & favor from above, but of a funda- mental: policy of the Soviet Government ard the Communist Party on the national question. This policy has led to the freedom of ‘fhe Nationalities formerly oppressed by the ‘Tsarist Tegime itt the. same way that the Negroes are oppressed in the United States, to the recognition of the right of self-determination and of equality of these union of all raees,.colors basis of proletarian, solidarity. This achievement was accomplished by the joint struggles of all oppressed classes and races. It is not a. formal eduality. ‘The’ policy of the, Soviet Union is directed to the rapid development of industry and culture-in these backward nations, held for .centuries .in- oppression by <Fserist- capitalism, Why does Mr. Kelley think this can be-done and nations.on the Beo~ ples, resulting in the establishment of the Soviet « Union_as a voluntary in Soviet Russia and not in the United States? ise he accepts the ideas of the white ruling ag the welfare of the nation’s hitherto sub- ated masse: But, says Mr. Kelley, . “these s-are for the most part white.” Here Mr. Kelley displays compete ignor- jation of the ayce_of facts. The huge poy Union (ncludes 70 different ne cf whom are of non-white races. It is not a matter -of a certain “treatment ‘class. in this country—that.the Negroes are nat- urally an inferior people. Mr. Kelley admits that “Communism in Rus- * sia has brought about revolutionary reforms af- Pe K TO M mow ANDTHE O° handed out to the Negroes. Negro and white workers. he kr | drivers is to shi BURCK H 19 | the The Negroes will struggle against the ng of a dictatorship of Mr. Kelley assumes t the Negroes are not interested in this fight ruggle against wage cuts, unemployment, and the whole 5) m of oppression. Theret ‘ore he suggests the Negro worker had better stand aside, can “well afford to wait until more definite information.” What dees this amount to? It arnounts to this: be submissive do not struggle, wait until freedom is handed out from. above! Another. manouver of this agent of the salves the responsibility for Jime Crowism, lynchings, etc, to the white workers, whereas it is clear that the ruling class has by every means in its power instilled in this white working class the racial hatred which has op- ted to keep it apart frm the Negro working- The white bosses sow seeds of race hatred @ means.of keeping Negro and white workers divided; Mr. Kelley and others like him try to a leading role in t. bosses, in the establ a | accomplish the same division and antegonism by arousing Negroes. But the trend of the present day, thanks to’ the leadership of the Communists, is the in- creasing emancipation of the white wo joison of | recent months, of thou: of Am- erican white workers haye braved the bosses police terror to protest the fratne-up and lynch licts handed out by the boss lynch courts to innosent Scottsboro Negro hbo: Orphan Jones, Willie Brown a other Negro workers. The Negro and white workers are being solidly welded together in the fires of the struggle for their common emancipation. Every Negro worker must understand that the fight against such bourgeois elements as Mr. Kel- ley is an important. part of the strugge for Negro national liberation. + suspicion and mistrust among the Governors and Gangsters (By a Worker Correspondent) GOVERNOR ROLPH, who a few days ago re- fused to pardon Tom Mooney, knowing that he is innocent, has put himself out to the extent of writing to Governor Bruckner of Michigan in behalf of a gangster, and finally refusing extradi- tion of said gangster, Now when governors do that, they do not do it without reason. Who is this gangster that Governor Rolph became so interested in? The Detroit Times of February 16th states: “Frank Wysocki, former Detroit gangster and escaped convict, has been exonerated by Cali- fornia authorities and is now held on request of extradition by Michigan officials . . . “Starting life anew in Los Angeles, Wysocki has been ‘going straight. . . He had no police record, according to Los Angeles author- ities. In view of his exemplary life, Governor James Rolph of California has petitioned Gov- Socialists Try New Methods to L Betray Negroes The “Poor Farm” in ernor Bruckner for Wysocki’s pardon. “Wysocki was arrested in Los Angeles re-+ cently for assault with a deadly weapon after an automobile accident . . “In Detroit, during 1920 and 1921, Wysocki slow starvation. The resentment against the “poor farm” system, is growing, and when this | resentment takes on a yeal organized movement | it will make it real hot for Mayor Ashley and | New Bedford: ¥ By I. AMTER HE Socialist Party in practice is a lily white party. Following the policy of the Republican and Democratic partiés, the “Socialists” have hitherto treated the Negroes as a quantity to be ignored, But the revolutionary struggles that the Negroes have put up under the leadership of the Communists, in the unemployed struggles in Chicago and Cleveland and the) miners’ strikes have made the “Social Yicans and Democrats take note. They recognize that the Negroes are no longer “voting cattle,” to be sold by their misleaders at the highest price, but that the crisis has produced a fundamental change. Having been convinced by the Commu- mists that there are white workers not only. Willing to fight together with them for their immediate needs but for their emancipation from the system of slavery that exists today, the Wegroes are buckling up and fighting. in the life of the Negroes ty produce a change in the atti- » ‘of the capitalist parties. When, on the * Side of Chicago, the Negro and white liorkers boo off the platform capitalist dema- " les, then the capitalists know that something (8s wrong for them. When in the mining sections | @f Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, and in | New York, Negro workers see that the Trade ! t Waion Unity League is fighting for their rights, @nd is organizing them into the unions side by oa ‘with the white workers, then they know that face prejudice (white chauvinism) is not part ‘and parcel of the life of the white workers, but is something put into the mind and practices ‘of the white workers by the white bosses. When the Negroes see that the Communist Party, the International Labor Defense and the League of Struggle for Negro Rights fight for the lives of the nine Scottsboro boys, and mobilize millions of workers throughout this and other countries imi Struggle for their release, then they know that i® Browing section of the white workers look upon them as brothers and comrades. ‘The capitalists and “socialist” allies recognize these facts and therefore they change their front —to keep the Negro Workers from going to the - Communist Party. But we shall not forget the list Party. Is it not a fact that A. Philipp ph together with Frank Crossthwait or- the Negro Pullman porters and sold them fon the very eve of a strike—when they voted 100 per cent for strike? Is it not a fact in this betrayal they were openly assisted by Wm. Green, president of the American Fed- ,eration of Labor, who said the time was not \“ripe” and the Negro porters had not yet secured tthe “support of the public?” Is it not a fact 'that their miserable wages have been slashed with the aid of Kandolph, Crossthwait and ireen? Thus do the white and Negro misleaders the Negro workers, it not a fact that Norman Thomas in his lential tour in 1928 refused to speak to audiences in the south? Is it not a fact it, Heywood Broun in 1930 said it would be to fight for the enforcement of the Ith and 15th amendment of the U. Ss. stituti although these were supposed to i been the fruits of the Civil War? Did not | old socialist in Tennessee write a letter to the bio en in the election campaign of 1930, that “We (the Socialists) do not stand lity for the Negroes,” and declared it be a calamity for the Socialist Party if ‘Heywood Broun had the nerve to /@ Negro audience in Harlem on March ts” as well as the Repubs | brotherhood of all men”! He did not say a word about the treachery of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which the Socialist Party supported in their betrayal of the nine Scottsboro boys! He said nothing about the betrayal of the Pullman porters by the socialists, Randolph and Crossthwait! nothing about jimcrowing and segregation, which the Socialist Party does nothing to fight against}. | All-fe could talk about was the- socialist com- monwealth—but nothing about the beating down of the Negro workers in Detroit who participated in the Ford Hunger March—because the massacre in Detroit was at the hands of Ford’s mayor Murphy, whose election the Socialist Party supported! Norman Thomas said nothing about his speak- ing to lily-white audiences in the South, when addressing the same Harlem audience a week later. He talked about the Negro not trying “to develop a middle class of business men, in copy- ing a dying civilization.” He spoke about “re- moving every racial barrier, in attaining a fellow- ship of free men.” Nice words—but Norman Thomas, what are you and your Socialist Party doing to put an end to the discrimination against Negro workers even in the matter of relief? What have you done to expose the btrayal of the Negro dressmakers by the “socialist” leaders of the |International Ladies Garment Workers. Union? What have you and your Socialist Party done to brand as a white chauvinist, Clarence Darrow, whom you fought to get into the defense - of the Scottsboro boys with the assistance of the. N. A. A. C, P.—althongh this same Clarence. Darrow fought bitterly for a lily white jury in Honolulu to save four white imperialists. from prison for murder of an Hawaiian! af Nice ‘words, Socialist gentlemen, because you know that the Negroes are turning to the pro- gram and leadership of the Communist Party and the revolutionary unions. .Because, now that the imperialists of the United States are. pre- paring for war against the Soviet Union, they know that the Negroes, betrayed: in the last world war, are becoming a revolutionary force against them! Because the Negro workers are being inspired by the example of the Soviet Union—not in talk alone, but in deed! Because the Negroes know about Stalingrad, where white workers guilty of crass white chauvinism weéfe severely punished by the workers of the Soviet Union, who Would not tolerate “white capitalist practices” in their country! Because the Com- munist Party of the United States is carrying on @ fierce fight against jimcrowism, segregation and discrimination! Because the Communist Party is fighting for Negro rights! Because the Communists are carrying on the ONLY fight against lynching,.and are calling upon the white workers to DEFEND WITH THEIR LIVES the Negro workers! Because the Communist Party is fighting for the right of self-determination of the Negroes in the Black Belt of the South, where the Negroes are the majority, and where the whites will have to accept the position of the minority! It makes your blood curdle, you capitalists and your Sociailist friends—but that is the program of the Communists. It makes you rave, because the Communists are carrying on a bitter struggle against the white chauvinism on the part of workers who join the Communist ranks—expul- sion of Yokinen and numerous other members of the Communist Party and Young Communist League! Because the Communists are catrying on the same struggle in all working class organ- izations, thus proving that they not only talk but ACT! Not-as in the Socialist. Party, -which,-in: the | and. poverty, Fully 20,000 men and women are -| He sald") \aded:to- lib Already large army of-fob seekers. | there is the city poor farm, where the poor and By 8. P. “poor farm” and they have to ‘walk there and BEDFORD, once a big textile center in | New England, is today a city of mass hunger today jobless. Last week 700 more workers were There is no relief in sight. Rumors are that the few mills still operating on a part time basis will soon shut down completely. ‘The unemployedof New Bedford share the same fate as those of other Massachusetts towns. ‘The city refuses to give the unemployed adequate relief, The city government is doing everything possible to hide the real facts of mass hunger and poverty among the workers. One of the methods used to keep the workers from organizing and from fighting for cash relief is through the so-called city “poor farm” employ- ment. In the extreme part of the South End elderly men and women are usually sent. But now this spot is used for a more “bene~- ficial” purpose. Now the unemployed are sent there to work. The system followed in sending the jobless to: work there is very interesting, Every unemployed man who applies for relief is registered in the.City Welfare. After 2 whole series of questions are asked from the applicant, after the city welfare department is convinced that the worker does not belong to:any organiza- tion of struggle (and above all after they make sure that He is not a member of the unemployed council or of the N. T. W. U.), the application is accepted and the man is told to report to the “poor farm” to work. Every unemployed works one day a week on the “poor farm.”."The work on. this “farm” consists in carrying rocks from one rock pile to the other. Some carry wood from one spot to the other side of the farm. After the rocks are cleared from the given spot, the men are put to work to carry the same rocks back to the former place. In additionto ‘that, the workers have lately been put on the job of cleaning the beach. Formérly this work was done by city hired help at union wages. Now the unemployed do it at starvation wages. That is one way of saving money for the poor city. This week another method of slavery was intro- duced on this “poor farm.” While until now the cultivator was pulled by horses, now the horses were put into the barn, and jobless workers are forced to pull the cultivator. Workers resented | this latest scheme of enslavement and refused to do the, work, pointing out that the work is too heavy, and that they cannot stand the strain. ‘The . overseer- informed these workers that if they don’t keep on working they cannot get their relief check. © Day after day hundreds of men come to work on this “poor farm.” Every unemployed is forced _ to do one day's work every week. For this he receives a'check varying from $2 up to $8. The “hand-out” {s made according to the number of children the person has. One dollar per child @ week is the calculation. ‘Nothing is given for the parents. No consideration is made ‘for’ ‘the’ ‘Tent, gas, light, etc. Many workers live four or five miles from the elections to the national convention in Milwau- kee, fajled to elect a prominent Negro mem! in New York as delegate, even though he is on- sidered “‘a good socialist,” because white lily back once a week. Special schemes of spying on the workers are being used. If a worker is:found to be a member of a working class organization, he is told to “get out of #.” or lose the chance ot getting any city aid. - At the present time, with the Massachusetts State Hunger March in full swing, the bosses are making efforts to: divert the attention of the ufiemployed away from struggle and from the Unemployed Councils. Thursday’s (April 21si)) Mercury carried an editorial to the effect that a new genuine “New Bedford Plan” is being prepared which will alle- viate unemployment .in the: city.” The editorial does not state what this New Bedford “specialty” is, but tells the workers that the workers will benefit by it. The bossés and city officials are really worried about the progress that is being made by the unemployed council. .Weekly mass meetings out- doors are being held, with many hundreds of workers attending. Little by little these jobless are learning the way out for them. More and more are joining the fight against hunger and | ei aksd Ashley will not have to go to Florida for his vacation. The workers will keep him warm in New Bedford. The delegates elected by thousands of New Bedford workers are tharching to Boston, to join jy with the rest of the Hunger Marchers in de- manding the immediate payment of cash relief and unemployment. insurance ‘by’ the state and the struggle againsi hunger to a higher level. But the fight must go on, even after the Hunger March. Only to the extent that the unemployed, together with the part time and ‘employed work- ers, will have their militant organization, which | will force, the bosses to grant their demands, will “poor farm” be abolished. Hunger March, Unemployed Councils for immediate cash relief and insurance. Demand the immediate payment of the bonus to all war veterans. Demand the cutting ‘down of all official salaries above $2,000. Join the. fight. against the bosses’ program of hunger and starvation. The Marxist Study Courses By A. MARKOFF We have been looking forward for a long time to the appearance of the Marxist Study Courses in the English language, Our German comrades were ahead of us. The “Marxistische Arbeiter Schulung”. in Political Economy and the History of Class Struggles have been pub- lished for more than a year, There was a crying need for these courses in the English language. The wish is finally fufilled. ‘The International Publishers have issued the first lesson. of the series of the course in the “History of the Working Class.” This course, ,as stated in the introduction “is designed to give a description of the principal stages in the history of the modern working-class movement; the movement of today in the epoch of imperial- ism, will be illuminated by the history of Eng- land, France, Germany and Russia, with parti- cular reference to the ecnomic and political his- tory of those countries.” The reader will also be given the most important facts in the more re- cent history of those countries, as well as of the United States of America and-to somé extent the countries of the East.” From the above. statement in the introduction one can see the enormous value of the course. -This course is divided into eighteen chapters'and will appear in eleven separate booklets. The tor fifteen cents. ‘These: booklets contain the outline, of the course, ‘the’ redding‘ material and reference for those who can do additional reading, The value of these booklets is due not merely to the fact that théy contain factual information on a’ given topic, but because the historical events are given, 4 correct Marsian interpretation, appearance of the Marxist Study Course. te lat chetaaine ioe, wee. bol UB been and still is:the lack booklet itself is attractively. gotten out Ant. sells | ‘The Workers School especially welcomes the _ material in connetcion. with the classes. This was especially felt in the, class in the History of Class Struggles. In taking up the various his- torical perids, the students were compelled to read several hundred pages in one week, which is physically impossible. The result was a lack of preparation on the part of the students in the class. The booklets of the Marxist Study Course solved the problem, since it gives the essential in- formation in a concrete manner. The first lesson, which deals with the great French Revolution, is on sale at the Workers School office and the Workets Bookshop, 48 East 13th Street. The following quotation frorn the introduction to the first lesson gives an idea as to what the course covers: + “Of eighteen chapters, divided into eleven sep- “arate booklets, four deal with the pre-imperialist epoch. These (cot the Great French Re- volution, Chartism, the Revolution of 1848, and the First International and the Paris Commune) are intended to give a picture of the bourgeois Teyolutions and the early stages of the labor movement. The following four chapters con- tain a review of economic development and the labor movement in England, Germany, France, and Russia up to the’ outbreak of the world war. A special chapter is devoted to the war itself and the Second International before and during the war. ~ _ “The second half of the course (nine chnptets) deals with the 1oyolutionary movements and the | working-class movement of ‘the post-war yeats. Six ‘chpters analyse the class struggles of : Westéth’ Europe after the war and déscribe the’ activities, of the Communist International, the history of its struggles and tactics. One chapter is devoted especially to the ideology and ‘tactics gf the Second International and the Amsterdam Trade. Union International. The last two chap- ters deal with the. colonial question; the first the rest of the city agents of the mill owners. | city governments. .The Hunger March will raise | such a system of slavery as the New Bedford | Workers of New Bedford, get behind the State | Support the demands. of the | was leader of a powerful holdup gang. He was arrested seven t:mcs, convicted in 1921, and sentenced to 7!4 to 15 years in the House of Correction . . . Other wembers of his gang have since been sentenced to Marquette or Jackson prisons.” The Detroit News of February 25th states: “Governor Bruckner js willing to withdraw his request for extradition of Frank Wy- socki. . . “Wysocki, one time Detroit gang leader, who escaped from the Detroit House of Correction in 1922, was arrested December 31 in Los Angeles, where he was living aS Jorie T. Medqueaux. Gov. Rolph, Jr., of California, has interceded in Wysocki’s behalf, pointing out that he has been a law abiding, respected citizen for ten years . . . “Be has been employed by an automobile imsurance and finance company . . .” ‘The Detroit Times of February 28 informs ur that: > “Suieide of a Jackson prison inmate may block Wysocki’s fight for freedom . . . “Admitted leader of what was then Detroit's most vicious bandit gang, Wysocki was serving 744 to 15 years for breaking and entering He turned state’s evidence aguinst his pals, four of whom were sentenced to 15 to 30 years each. “Leo Brandon, one of the four, committed suicide three months ago in Jackson. When it was reported Califorr:a authorities, impressed by Wysocki’s reputedly honest record for the ten years he was a fugitive, had asked Michi- gan to drop the charges against hini, a woman giving the name of Alva Brown visited the prosecutor's office and reported Wysocki had been in a holdup five years ago. “Wysocki turned squealer and sent my brother to prison, where he committed suicide,” the woman said. Finally, the Detroit Times about a month later pubished the report that Governor Rolph has denied the extradition request. While we are not interested in the history of Wysocki as such, perhaps it would be interesting to know how come that Gov. Rolph, while re- fusing to pardon Mooney, has taken such a paternal interest in Wysocki, the gangster, wha Squealed on his own pals in an effort to save his own skin; who managed to escape “clean” from the House of Correction jail break, while all of the others who broke out with him were promptly recaptured? What connection is there between Gov. Rolph and gangster Wysocki? “How come” that Wy- socki has so quickly gained so much influence that Gov. Rolph intercedes on his behalf with Gov, Bruckner, who in turn expresses his willinge ness to oblige Gov. Rolph? Does Wysocki know too much about Gov. Rolph or his henchmen, or is he thus being rewarded for some service to the California authorities? Another significant fact is that Wysocki, alias Jorie T. Medqueaux, was reported to be em- ployed by ari automobile insurance and finance company. ‘Insurance agents do not as a rule punch time clocks and are more or less free in their movements, often using their job as a mask for spying activtities against the labor Moyenient. Perhaps that is the way in which Wysocki “earned” the gratitude of Gov. Rolph and his cohorts. ‘We do not expect Gov. Rolph to tell us why he is so interested in freeing Wysocki while he keeps Mooney in jail. But we do know. that governors. _with the revolutionary anavementiin Ob aed thes: dos nat sesuins: so” “second. with