The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 3, 1932, Page 4

isth St. adére: Page, Four N.Y. Pudlished by the Comprodafiy Publfshing Ce, Ime, dally except Sunday, at 66 East 2 Telephone Algonquin 4-7956. Cable “DAIWORK.' to the Daily Worker, 60 East 13th Street, New York, N. By mail everywhere: One year, of Manbstiaz and Bronx, New York City. SUBECEIPTION RATHS: sts months, $3; two months, 91; excepting Bofowsis Foreiga: ene year, $8; six montha $4.50. COMMUNISM AND THE NEGRO By JAMES W. FORD v article I how ated yesterdays prevailing rul ories of N the article by Mr. Fran! Davis, editor of the Atlanta World, in the so-called Symposium on Commu- | in the April Crisis. I answered the stupid slan- der against the Negro work- ers of “running after white bapa wwe women” by which this scoundrelly toady of the | Proposed Candidate white ruling class attempt- | of the Communist ed to explain the undeni- Party fer Vice-- ly left-ward trend of the acai In his servile acceptance of the imperialist slanders against the Negro people, it is not sur- prising that Mr. Davis cannot see the revolu- tionary role of the Negro workers. A bootlicker of the ruling class, Mr. Davis looks in the mir- ror and imagines he sees—the Negro masses! What he really sees is the wavering, confused and treacherous Negro petty bourgeoisie of which he is one of the ning examples. He proceeds to attribute to the Negro masses, cowardly qual- ities of the petty bourgeoisie. He sees the Negro masses afraid to move without the sanction of the ruling class, afraid to take up the revolution- | ary struggle against imperialism because, for- sooth, the imperialists frown upon any resist- ance to their murderous rule! Says Mr. Davis “But I have no fear of the rainbow brother- hood going Red in wholesale numbers—at least | not until white America takes long steps in that direction. It would prefer keeping its pres- | ent status, no matter how low, than fly to a | system, no matter what its worth, that is con- | stantly lambasted by press and radio. (Empha- ine—J.W.F.) is is a variation of the false bourgeois the- y (and hope!) that slaves will never dare to strike for their own freedom, that liberation is something to be handed down or denied from above. In peddling this nonsensical theory, Mr. avis completely ignores the heroic slave in- surrections in the United States under the lead- ership of Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, Gabriel Prosser and scores of other Negro revolutionary leaders. He ignores the revolution of the Hai- tian Negro slaves who not only dared to strike for their freedom but overthrew the slave hold- ers and successively defeated the veteran troops of Napoleon’s European campaigns and the best troops of England and Spain. These isurrection- ary struggles of the Negro masses were also con- stantly lambasted in the press of the ruling class. Mr. Davis’ attitude represents the conscious pol- icy of the Negro petty bourgeoisie of attempting to hide and destroy the revolutionary traditions of the Negro masses and to support the impe- rialist slander of the Negro people as servile and cowardly, as accepting any conditions imposed upon them by the master class. From this posi- tion, the Negro petty bourgeoisie quite naturally proceeds to the advocacy of a boot-licking diplo- macy for the Negro people. Mr. Davis, for ex- ample, says: “Too, the Negro considers himself too depen- dent upon white America to take any chance at Social Democracy in Japan in Its Usual Traitorous Role By AKIMOTO (In China Forum, Shanghai) APANESE social democracy has positively out- done itself by its cynical and indescribably impudent propagation of the “ideals” of Japanese imperialism. Not only has Japanese social dem- ocracy shown itself as the lackey of the most reactionary regime and policy in existence, this social democracy who hitherto roosted in police stations and large business firms, but it is now appearing in the garb of preacher of “great na- tional ideals,” and is singing the praises of the Mikado, the predatory Japanese finance capital and the bestial military clique. A “Socialist” Invasion At the beginning of the predatory occupation of Manchuria, the general secretary of the Sia- kai Minsei-to (social democratic party, declared: “The intervention in Manchuria is not of an imperialistic nature, because even socialist Japan will have to fight for the nec material for its industry, whereas it the hands of America, Great Britain and Russia.” How can there be any talk about the inde- pendence of the Chinese peoplé, when Japanese capitalism stands in need of coal, iron, shélls and guns, when it stands in need of a big sharp knife to be plunged at the convenient moment into the body of the U. S. S. R., when it stands in need of iron teeth to fight its rivals in the arena of world plunder? Eyes scratched out, heads torn off, children murdered, women vio- lated, thousands of the poorest Chinese dying, Japanese workers and peasants converted into executioners of their own and other people’s freedom,—all this is socialism a la Mikado, all this is justice personified! “Imperialism is capitalistic and at the same time national, because imperialism has not only ammassed wealth for its bourgeoisie, but has also raised the standard of living of the people of the whole country.” we are a class party and, at the same time, a national party, in the sense that our aim is to build up a socialist Japan.” (Kaidzo, December, 1931). They have the nerve to write about improve- ments in the standard of life of the workers by imperialism at a time when hunger, poverty and unemployment have become a scourge in all capitalist countries, when millions of workers and peasants in Japan are deprived of their last handful of rice, when the unemployed are dying of starvation in the streets and deprived of all assistance. The Japanese textile workers, locked up in the barracks of the employers like white slaves, receive a pitiful 15 yen per month This is described asa n “improvement of the situation.” “Right” to Murder The organ of the social-democratic League of Women “Minsui-Fudzin” wrote on December 25. 1931: “A solution-of the Manchurian-Mongolian question makes it absolutely necessary to abolish the capitalist system. Our rights and interests in Manchuria and Mongolia, con- quered at the cost of great sacrifices by the proletariat, must of course be given only to the proletariat. Socialist control over rights and interests in Manchuria and Mongolia is therefore a just demand.” What are these “rights and interests” spoken of by these friends of Vandervelde, the same Vandervelde who naturally favors the counter- revolutionary and predatory alliance of Japanese and French imperialism. They are the “right” of Japanese imperialism to look on the Chinese as beasts to declare China to be merely a “geo- graphical conception.” They are the “right” to violate and torment millions of people, the “right” to trample on all the national! rights of those who, to their great misfortune, are too near to Japanese bayonets. They are the “right” to attack the U. S. S. RJ! “Socialist control” to them means open col- laboration with imperialist and counter-revolu- tionary banditism. Japanese imperialism in- tends to carry out the annexation of Manchuria on behalf of the Jate Chinese emperor Pu-yi, the degenerate of the sing-song houses, Japanese social-democracy is thirsting to put its “socialist” label on the mandarin’s cap, Aid Dictatorship And is it to be wondered at that these knights of the IT International directly participated in the recent plot of the militarists, attempting— and not without success—to strengthen still further the dictatorship and the iron heel of the generals? These social-democrats joined in the conspiracy which was led by the present Minister of War, and which provided for the murder of all revolutionaries in the prisons This was announced by the father-in-law of the social democratic leader Akumatsu, professor ‘ of Peshina, in the January number of. the jour- | nal “Chiu-o-Koron.” “Recently,” he writes, “there | have been not @ few leaders in the camp of the | Right Proletarian Party who were in contact with the so-called Young Military Groups, syr3- | pathized with them and were their partisans. “A National Problem” In Japan, in addition to these Rights, there were also “Left Centrists.” Their Party Rono- | ai-Suto in November sent its leader Matsudani to “examine the events in Manchuria.” It Muk- den this gentleman stated: “The events in Manchuria do not comprise an ordinary capitalist war but the solution of a national problem.” ‘The congress of Rono-Tai-Suto took place in Tokio on Dec. 5th. The speech of Matsudani was declared at the congress to be “not in contradic- tion to. party discipline.” In reality, the party discipline of this clique can fully find a place for itself within the ftame- work of Japanese imperialism and anti-Soviet intervention. This is the picture of all Japanese social- | edmocracy. In all its branches and shades, it is the social support of the Empiré of the Mikado, | the bulwark of military fobbéry afid couriter- revolutionary adventurism. Japanes¢ social- democracy is actively fighting for an imperialist and counter-revolutionary way out of the crisis. | It is an uncounterfeited party of the II Inter- loosing the crusts now thrown him. Nor is the Communistic policy of crude and noisy militancy liked by this race, for every Negro knows that what he has obtained from white men has been through diplomacy or basically intellectual cam- paigning.” This is @ crude and open statement of the petty bourgeois policy of refusal to struggle, of servile reliance on bootlicking “diplomacy”. The slave insurrections in the United States had a tremendous effect in exposing the horrible na- ture’ of chattel slavery, in crystalizing abolition- ist sentiment and in accelerating the armed con- flict between feudal and capitalist economy for the domiation of the country. The struggles of the Negro croppers at Camp Hill, Alabama, forced the rich landowners to abandon their threat to cut off the food supply of the crop- fers during certain seasons. The struggles | against eviction of Negro and white workers in Chicago, Cleveland and other cities, have forced concessions from the landlords and the city gov- ernments. The mass fight of Negro and white workers against the Scottsboro lynch verdicts, against the attempts to legally lynch Orphan Jones in Maryland, Willie Brown in Philadel- phia, Willie Peterson in Birmingham and other framed-up Negro workers, have repeatedly forced the bosses and their courts to retreat, to postpone the date of “execution”, in an attempt to “tire out’ the masses and disarm their vigil- ance. The mass fight, for these victims of capi- talist justice still goes on and has thrown a great fear into the hearts of the boss lynchers and their courts. It is already clearly evident that the final decision in these cases depends not upon the lynch courts but upon the extent to which we can mobilize additional millions of workers in the mass fight against the lynch ver- dicts. All this shows that the Negro masses will struggle and that they do win victories—some- times complete, sometimes partial—when they struggle. It is the bootlicking diplomacy of the Negro petty bourgeoisie and its traitorous betrayal of the struggle of the Negro masses which re-.. tards' the Negro liberation struggle and pre-.. vents the winning of even greater victories. Tomorrow, I will deal with the statement of another of the bourgeois Negro editors in the Crisis “Symposium” on Communism. es fad oe CORRECTION IN LAST SATURDAY’S ARTICLE BY J. W. FORD. A typographical error occurred in Comrade Ford’s: third article on’ “Communism and the By BURCE Néws tem from the New York Times.—“Matthew Woll, viée-presid ént of the American Federation of Labor and acting héad of thé National Civié Federation, made public yesterday a letter he has sent to members of the Judiciary Committees of the Sénate and House of Representatives containing a-report of a survey made by the federation of outrages perpetrated throughout the country during the last four months. “The data include newspaper clippings of forest and oil well fires, bombings, the destruction and looting of buildings and banks, and other crimes, collected by Ralph M. Easley, chairman of the federation’s execu tive council.” .(May 2, 1932.) By DAVID GORDON (Agit-prop Director, District Six) IN practice, the Ohio district follows the theory of spontaneity. The situation is serious. The fact that our revolutionary trade unions are growing so poorly is a result of following this dangerous theory in practice. How is this expressed? Let us examine a Party shop nucleus. Close examination of the nucleus shows what? That agitation is carried on, is true. Workers are urged to join the union, are urged to organize and fight against wage cuts, ete. is also true. | But in this agitation there is insufficient defi- | niteness, nothing to which the workers in the particular mill can pin their fingers. In this agi- | tation, there is lack of enthusiasm which | always see present among workers when | nomic battles are actually in progress. The events impress and inspire us; the day to grind is more of a burden than anything to us. We know the importance of this work, but we don’t feel and act as though it very important. This subjective reaction on the part of our membership, is dus to the fact that from the top we do not sufficiently stress the possibility of developing struggles, and do not provide the or- ganizational means through which to conduct these struggles. Not only is this insufficiently stressed, but it is, altogether inadequately explained and popu- larized among our members. We lag behind the masses of workers in the mills. Who can doubt the fact that there is wide spread resentment to the vicious wage-cutting offensive of the capitalist class in this state: in the steel mills, in the huge light metal shops, in the railroads, in the building trades, and so on? Who can doubt that now, as never are we able to expose the reactionary role of leadership of the American Federation of which has helped put over the most slashing wage cuts, and win the workers of the A. F. of L. to a wide, united front struggle from below against the officialdom? In spite of this, the influence of our red trade unions, is insignificant in the shops and in the A. F, of L, locals, A step towards improving this situation has been made here, The Trade Union Unity League has established a full time training school for a period of two weeks, As a result, a few better 'T.U.U.L. workers, adult and youth, are expected. However, if only the question of how to proceed during a strike is emphasized, the school will not accomplish what it should. The school, as most of our internal propaganda, should orientate itself to the study of how to develop struggles. Members of the Trade Union Unity League, of the Communist Party and Young it League, ete., who are in the shops ghould be made to feel the responsibility for dewloping egeets in Against the Theory of Spontaneity in Our Work economic struggles where they are employed. ‘They should be made to understand that such struggles are possible to result from the proper approach to the workers in the shop, through the organization of methods to discuss the shop problems and the initiating of struggles against the~ worsening conditions or for better condi- tions: They should be made to understand that | struggles donot only mean strikes; that better conditions can be won without the launching of a strike. ‘To make our shop workers understand this, special classes should be held, special discus- sions’ with shop nuclei should be continued; the problem of how to develop struggles should be up with individual workers in big shops; should be discussetf in the district buro, in district organizational department. A.high pitch of enthusiasm must be awakened among our shop nuclei and shop workers. There be constant, careful—but not so careful cannot be known to anyone—agitation carried on against the conditions in the mills. Discussion among the workers must spread from individual to individual, from department to de- partment, against the common grievances. “The tone of the agitation must be one of ac- tually organizing to fight against new forms of worsening the conditions or for betterment of the existing conditions, choosing those issues which are upper-most in the mind of the work~- ers as necessary to be improved. ‘The making of contacts, the visiting of con- tacts, the calling together of contacts in meet- ings in private homes, must develop rapidly. Not weeks and months, but only days, must go by in which to call these contacts together. ‘The meetings must involve above all the dis- cussion of demands, the probability of develop- ing struggle around these demands and the man- ner in which to involve larger numbers for these demands, The question of distrtbution of agitational ma- terial, leaflets, stickers, etc., must be taken up concretely. An air of struggle must filter through every individual brought together in the group, to every contact, and to go further to the rest of the workers. ‘The problems must be taken seriously. The revolutionaries in these groups must take initia- tive in all the work, must themselves be active, or else they will not secure real activity from the Fest, Our comrades must be punctual; must car- ry through the tasks to which they are assigned. ‘These are vital to winning and keeping workers for the struggles in the shops. What is grossly negelcted in our shop work, aside from what has been above mentioned, is winning the youth. Of the element in the shop that could put up the most militant struggle, of this element which has the greatest amount of enthusiasm for carrying through a struggle for better conditions, once put into motion, is the youth, But this requires correct’ epnmoach to gee E young workers. Even where we find equal pay for equal work in certain important basic industries, and this its to be found, special demands regarding sports facilities, special demands regarding time off for rest for young workers under 18 years of age, etc., should be formulated as a means of win- ning the youth for the general struggles in the mills, Failure to win the young workers has already hurt strikes led by the Trade Union Unity League. Persistent neglect in organizing the young workers into our groups and unibns of the T.U.U.L. will find them easy game for the Muste- jites, A. F. of L. leadership and the renegades from the Communist Party, Lovestoneites and Trotzkyites, (By a Worker Correspondent) “Hopewell, Petersburg and Richmond are 1o- cated within easy commutation distance of each 4 other and there is an exchange of labor among the three cities. However, before the war of 1914 there really wasn’t any Hopewell to speak of, just farms, until Dupont came down in 1913 or 1914 and started his ammunition plant. Dupont bought a farm for, I believe, $20,000 built the factory on it and also built “cardboard” houses to house the workers, Labor was imported from all parts of the country. Activity was tre- mendous at the factory and I recall at that time it was stated that scores were perishing in the Dupont ammunition factory either through mu- tilation from acids or through acidents.’ Con- ditions seemed to be so bad that even the tem- porary houses in which the workers were living turned black from the acid fumes coming from the factory. There was at this time, however, no real boom in Hopewell and no real effort to establish anything other than a temporary city. Tt was said that Dupont made so much money that he sold his plant after the war to the Tu- bize Rayon Silk Company for $9,000. The Tu- bize plant sent girls to Belgium in order to learn the best process for making silk. With the ad- vent of Tubize the merchants of Petersburg and Richmond began to realize that Hopewell as probably a permanent institution. Permanent homes homes were built both by Tubize and pri- vate landowners, but in spite of this fact retail business did not increase noticeably and Hope- well did not present the booming appearance that was expected. New Munition Plant Arrives. ‘Then suddenly about five years ago this whole section was electrified by the arrival of the Allied Chemical and a new life was injected into the financially expiring merchants of this whole territory. It was rumored that this new plant would be the largest in the world for the purpose of making munitions, fertilizers, dye and for extracting nitrogenf rom the air. .The inhabitants took this announcement as an open declaratiow that the government had another war up its siceve, though none of us were quite sure as to who the opponent would be, We had heard before this that the Allied Chemical had been trying to get thelr hands on eaten bot had failed etther beenuse Henry Mord ‘These are a few of the points to keep tn mind in connection withour shop work. Conscious preparation of economi¢ struggles is the burning problem for the revolutionary move- ment, and partitularly its advance guard, the Communist Party. Hand in hand with this, goes the winning over to these struggles of the stra- tegic elements: the youth, including white, Ne- gro, female youth, as well as the adult, white, Negro and female. Consciousness of preparation for struggles is the best fighter against the theory of sponta- neity, the theory that makes us lag behind the masses, and lose considerable organizational pos- sibilities which could strengthen our revolution- ary Trade Unions and our Party to a more de- sirable degree. Where War Materials Are Made made a bigger offer or because the Government was still a bit shaky from the Teapot Dome Scandal and hesitated handing over such tre- mendous water power reserve to a private com- pany. Failing to get Muscle Shoals, they lo- cated at Hopewell where they could use the water power. Speculation. ‘Then the fun began. The newspapers, prom- ised that this new plant would permanently em- ploy 15,000 workers. Stone & Webster, which had charge of construction of the plant, had its stock climbing on the Stock Exchange together with the rise of the Allied stock. Real estate agents began to pour in from all parts of the country with mysterious blue prints and dia- grams for the construction of the new city. These agents made fortunes on commissions of sales without even investing a cent of their own. Real estate speculation began with real war spirit. ‘The most outlandish spots were sold as the future location of great buildings. Lots and buildings changed hands as often as several times a week. Agents expected to-get several thousands of dollars per square foot of land. ‘The local papers announced that Allied expected- to get. several thousands of dollars per square foot of land. The local papers announced ‘that: Allied ex- pected to invest eventually $250,000. Feverish building began in anticipation of the tremen- dous profits that would follow in the wake of Railroad drew tracks and a station into Hope- well in order to betier facilttate shipment of products from the Allied. In this auspicious Negro” in Saturday’s Daily Worker, several lire’ having been omitted, Correct paragraph 11 to the opening of parae, graph 14 as follows: { Why does Mr, Kelley think this can be dous' in Soviet Russia and not in the United States? Because he accepts the ideas of the white ruling class in this country—that the Negroes aré naturally an inferior people. Mr. Kelley admits that “Communism in Russia has brought about revolutionary reforms affeet- ing the welfare of the nation’s hitherto subju- gated masses.” But, says Mr. Kelley, “these , masses are for the most part white.” Here Mr. Kelley displays his complete ignorance of facts. The huge population of the Soviet Union includes 70 different nationalities, millions of whom are of non-white races, It is not a matter of a certain “treatment” handed out to Negroes. The Negroes will, etc. ood Famine Rages in Japan Ag Gace million dollars are spent dafly be Japan for its robber war against the people! of China. Several millfon bushels of rice are re- served for the army in : Japanese im- perlalism is reserving all resow.ci cf the coun-' try for the war, which is designed to develop to one of the most disastrous attacks in the history of the Far East. On the other hand, 1,300,000 peasants are starving in the districts of Hokkaido, Aomori, : Iwate and Akita, Prefectures of the north-} eastern part of Japan. K The harvest amounted this year to practically nothing in Hokkaido, since only 370,000 chobu (one chobu is 0.5 acres) that means 30 per cent of the land area has been cultivated this year, The situation is no better in Aomori, Iwate and Akita. In these Prefectures 50 per cent of the land is so-called government land of Mikado’s | land. Starvation is therefore chronic, regardless ' of weather conditions in these districts. In 1930, for instance, in the famous year of excel- Jent harvests, the famine did noe leave the poor peasants of Northeastern Japan, since not so much weather as social conditions, big landlord exploitation and rule is responsible for the per- petualized famine. H In the midst of a deepening agrarian crisis , the peasant must pay enormous prices for rents, ' taxes, fertilizers and other industrial products necessary for his small economy. The peasants are selling whatever they have, their eggs, their fowl, their agricultural imple- ments, for a little food, if they can get any. There is very little food in these provinces now. In autumn already the peasants ate roots and rotten potatoes. Now the snow is still ¢ov- ering the fields and forests. They don’t get even that. The school children can hardly go to school, many of them are fainting during the school hours since they did not eat anything for days. Some of them suffer from night blank- hess, Which is & consequence of malnutrition and the of eértain vitamines in their food. Uneredible things are happening in this land of unlimited pauperization. The press is, for in- stance quoting the story of an old peasant whose son was sent to Manchuria. The sol- dier then wrote-a letter to his father from the front. The father, however, could not pay, the few cents which were needed by the postage. So the letter went back to Manchuria. The sons of the family, the forthful youth, are taken to China as cannon-fodder, while the old ones are left’ back in despair and starvation. In a few weeks they are coming back wounded, mutilated, or never come back at all. The Sec- ond and Eighth Divisions, which are recruited from Aomori, Akita, Yamagata, Iwate, have clearly shown their protest against the imperial- ist war of Japan by a series of mutinies at the front. The soldiers are getting disquieting news from their parents. Instead of relief they are getting the attention and the savage pressure of tax and rent collectors. This, of course, does not mean that there is not a loudly announced “emergency relief campaign” to save the star- ving peasants by the government. Only this campaign does not help the peasants, it helps those who administer it and some rich kulaks. The Mikado sent its Chamberlain Kurota\to the famine districts, to show the great concern of the august Emperor in the misery of his sub- jects. He had to state after his return that “the peasants are losing their national conscience and dangerous ideas are spreading among them with horrible force.” The peasants are fighting, indeed. Tenants are refusing to pay rents. They rise. In 1,800 cases actual battles are recorded. They are burning the landlord houses, capturing village halls, attacking police stations. tural that in such a situation the leaders of the social-fascist party are raising slogans like “Post- pone the Debt Payment” and other misleading directives, Allied with them are the left-wing organizations and expelled groups of Communist renegades, It is the Japanese section of the Workers’ International Relief which, with the active sup- port of the revolutionary trade unions and the left wing of the peasant federation of Japan, that are carrying on a thorough mobilization of the industrial centers for actual solidarity with the struggling peasants of the northeast. They demand the cancellation of rents and all debts of the poor peasants, the supply of fertilizer, seed and instruments as well as the daily living expenses of the poor peasant families by the gov~ ernment. They also demand free collection of fowl and the government’s and Mikado's for- ests, higher wages for the employed and imme= diate relief for the unemployed workers. The national relief campaign was especially successful in the factories of the Matsuo Come bine in Towio and among the co-operative soe cleties. Students of the Tokio and Waseda Unie versity created groups of the W. I. R. and are campaigning for the peasants of Hokkaido, School children are collecting for the relief drive of the W. I. R, = 300 or 400 workers were retained as permane ent help. The bottom promptly proceeded ta drop out of the real estate market. Banks be. came bankrupt and workers were fired as quickly as they had been hired. Retail bi especially in Petersburg which had depended upon the Hopewell boom to revive conditions, began to take on alarmingly small proportions, The Allied will probably never hire the tree By SEN KATAYAMA 2 > It is only na- | } PII Di cance Je ssasetibaoaaens