The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 6, 1932, Page 4

18th St, New York C: © Address and mail all ry. N.Y. ‘» to the Daily SAUHFieE by the Comprodafy Publishing CH; Med, Bally Becept Sunday, at 50 Base Telephone Algonquin 4-795$ Cable “DAIWORK." Worker, 50 East 13th Street, New York, N. ¥. Betore the Conventions of Our Enemies Article 11 We believe that the capitalist order drifts to immense catastrophe, but we still think it is pos- sible to present Socialism as an alternative to such great catastrophe rather than its conse- quence. Communist insistence on the inevitability of disaster, probably a new world war, and the beolute -and rigid necessity of a dictatorship with all its risks, seems to us playing into the hands of reaction here in America.” no need anyy that only by nly through the we put an end above- ary. for him, however, rder to further > the idea that within the ftamework of capitalism you can pea ocialism Here we have an excellent combination of the revolutionary phrase, to lull the revolutionary zeal and watchfullness of workers with the socialists’ counter-revolutionary practice, in order to behead the struggle of the worke! With a fine “humanitarian fervor” Thomas tries to frighten the workers with the “horror’ and “risks” of the proletarian dictatorship. The German. - Socialists, the German Hilquits and Oneals .(Sheidman, Noske, Kautsky, etc.) told the German workers in 1918 when they were be- ginning. to build the Soviets “Don’t risk the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, don’t follow the example of the Russian Bolsheviks. Through bourgeois democracy will we introduce Social- ism.” What does history teac hus? In Russia—thru the Dictaotrship of the Proletariat to a class- less Society. In German}—through bourgeois democracy (the masked dictatorship of bosses) to fascism, to hunger and misery. MacDonald was building “Socialism in our own time.” Re- sult—conservative government and more misery. | ism are far greater than the sacrifices, | The toiling masses BE YOURSELF, MR. THOMAS SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mall everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, #1; excepting Boroughs of Manhbattaz and Bronz, New York City. Foreign: one year, $8; six months, $4.50. By SAM DON in the Soviet Union seem “horrors” and “risks” of the first which has liquidated unem- is raising the material and cul- ] of the population of the Soviets. Such horrors” and “risks” of the dictator- ip of the proletariat! We “suspect” that.... workers in the U. S. who’enjoy the Ham Norman Thomas traditional liberties free America look in this period of crisis usly to the Land of the Soviets. Isn’t this real cause for Mr. Thomas’ fascist anger and worry which he covers with a thick layer of socialist liberal phrases Every worker can learn ‘through his own ex- periences that the smallest concession from the bosses was a result of bitter: battles, yes bloody batt. The capitalists, who will not, without » Without a strike grant a penny of increase, shorten hours, will be willing to turn over the means of production, the natural re- sources, to the toiling masses! What a fake, what a utopia! Thomas preaches “peace with the capitalists, good will to all murderous exploiters” in order to give the bosses a chance to attack the workers without meeting any serious resistance. And precisely because the capitalist system is becoming in- creasingly bankrupt in this third year of - the economic crisis; the- dictatorship’ of ae bour- geois become more open. the ve-Year P! to enjoy th of en ‘The horrors and risks ‘of living“ urider capital- | victims of the revolutionary struggles leading to the es- tablishment of the Dictatorship of the Proletar- iat. But what is most important, Mr. Thomas, is that under capitalism the toiling masses are | doomed, and that the Dictatorship of the Pro- letariat with all its “horrors” and “risks” (which are really “horrors” and “risks” for the bour- geoisie and bitter struggles and revolutionary | achievements for the working class) will eman- cipate the working class and free humanity from capitalism, and will lead for the first time in modern history of mankind, establish a classless society. Thornas says that we Communists “insist on disaster,” we “insist on a new world war." What is the meaning of that? The “revolutionist” Thomas tells the workers in so many words: “It is not the capitalist system which makes war in- evitable, it is not Wall Street, the imperialists who are consciously and desperately preparing for war.” The aim here is to disarm the workers in the struggle against war. Thomas and the Socialist Party appealed to the League of Nations, Negro Soldiers and Imperialist War ‘Today “the Daily Worker prints the second of a series of three articles, compiled by the editorial board of the Liberator, exposing the facts of the shameful discrimination practiced against’ Negro soldiers during the last impe- rialist war—a discrimination that ranged from Jim-Crow rest-rooms and mess-halls to brazen and brutal lynchings and massacres of the Ne- gto workers and toilers in uniform. The Daily Worker asks ex-servicemen, both Negro and white, and all workers, to send us additional facts, which we shall print. ARTICLE No. ti. In yesterday's article, we saw how the Negro |misleaders fooled the masses of Negroes into the [last imperialist war. Today we shall see how the Negroes were, as a rule, kept from command lof troops and prevented from becoming officers. Negroes Kept from Becoming Officers The bosses could not afford to break down the Jim Crow lines in the army and promote effi- cient officers regardless of color. So they did wo things. They segregated the Negroes in Jim ‘Crow regiments, and they promoted a few—a very few—Negroes. to.officers’ posts as a sop to ithe Negro “upper crusts,” whose support was needed to fool the masses of Negroes into the war. At the beginning of the war, Congress author- ized training camps, “for white officers only.” Fourteen camps were set up to train white offi- lcers, and the War Department stated it was “impractiable” to admit Negroes to these camps. With the consent of the NAACP leaders, a Jim Crow training camp was set up at Fort Des ‘Moines, Iowa. The admission of Negro draftees ‘into the training schools for officers was ex~ tremely restricted. A special “table of organ- ization” set up by the. War Department in effect Iprevented Negroes from becoming officers of high rank. A telegram from the War Depart~ jment to the training camp of the 92nd Division (Negro) at Camp Funston, Kansas, specifies that the folowing officers of the division must, be “white” officers of general and field rank, imédical officers, veterinarians, all officers at- ached ‘to division headquarters (with very few xeeptions), all regimental adjutants, supply of- ficers, commanding officers of headquarters, panies, and of engineer trains, adjutants of train headquarters and ammunition trains, and supply Officers of sanitary trains, all captains of {field artillery brigade and engineer regiment and laides to-brigade commanders. In order to prevent Negro officers from filling ‘the staffs, the courses given, for example at Fort Moines, were deliberately limited to infan- try and medical subjects, The Student Army Training Corps set up in colleges, very frequemtly drew a strict color Negro.doctors, dentists and nurses were not given the opportunity to serve according to their professions, but were forced to serve as privates, often in labor battalions. A lefter from the eral of the U. S. Army in February, stated that “at the present time colored are not being accepted for service in the nurse corps, as there are no separate quar- available for them and it is not deemed ‘@dvisebls to assign white and colored nurses to |tdoe same posts.” Most -of the commissioned and higher non- idommtssioned officers who commanded Negro roops were white. The Negro stevedore and la- hor battalions were commanded almost exclu- ively by white officers. And, on the plea that Southern whites “best understand” the Ne- is, have the most practice in dis- and lynching—the officers for these a sm ne See CE ee Se the Negro soldiers, calling them “niggers,” etc., forcing them to work under the worst condi- tions, and giving them long prison sentences for any and no offense, officers. In the South, there was open agitation against saluting a Negro officer. Negro officers were seldom promoted; on the contrary, every effort was made to get rid of them. A docu- ment sent by the commanding officer of the 372nd Infantry Regiment, stationed in France, to the Commanding General of the A. K F., re- quested that (a) no colored officers be forwarded to this regiment, replacements or otherwise; (b) officers removed upon recommendation of the Efficiency Boards be promptly replaced by white officers of like grade. But if white oficers are not available as replacements, white officers of lower grades be forwarded instead; (c) the re- maining colored combat officers to go into labor battalions. This request was approved by Gen- eral Pershing. The Efficiency Boards practically always de- cided against the Negro officers. When a few Negro officers had been removed from a regiment it was easy to say that white oficers would not serve with Negroes, and to proceed to get rid of all the Negro officers, Five Negro officers of the 15th N. Y¥. National Guard were removed in France for taking pert in ® demonstration of their regiment against dim Crow practices in the army. The white bosses feared the Negroes beoause of the terrific oppression to which they had sub- jected these people, whom they were now asking to take up arms in order to preserve their ex- ploiting, lynch-law government. It was quite well understood in the army that, in general, the only Negro officers who could expect promotion were the ones who would lick the boots of the white officers and staff. No Negro who took a firm stand against Jim-Crow and lynching could stand well with the army authorities. In tomorrow’s article, we shall see how the | worst Jim-Crow practices were applied in the | army, with the backing of the War Department, (To be Concluded), * Anti-WarDemonstrations in Italy Paris, 10th April 1932. i aged iMegal Communist Party of Italy ts con~ necting the fight of the workers and peasants in fascist Italy for their economic interests with the struggle against imperialist war. A demon- stration of factory workers end unemployed workers took place in Cerignols. Following an appeal of the Communist Party which was dis- tributed in large quantities the masses marched to the Town Hall and demanded bread and work. ‘The authorities made concessions, but when the masses were Marching off they were attacked by armed police and fitrce collisions occurred dur- ing the course of which many workers were in- jured and a number arrested. On the following day new Communist leaflets were distributed. In the Cremona district Communist leaflets were distributed amongst the peasants showing them the tremendous achievements of the Five- Year Plan in the Soviet Union and calling on them to fight against imperialist war. Communist leaflets were also distributed in La Spezzia, an important naval base. Thousands of leaflets against war were distributed in the five barracks. A number of secret meetings for the soldiers and sailors were organized. Similar leaflets were also distributed in M¥lan and Naples and demonstrations of various groxpe Everything was done to persecute the Negro | to the Hoover administration, to become the peace makers in the Far East. Here the true social fascist role is exposed. The very war makers are appealed to as peace makers! The Communists, the only leaders against im- perialist war, are pictured as those who are ree sponsible for imperialist war. The pacifism of Norman Thomas is the best imperialist weapon of the bourgeoisie in the ranks of the working class. In order that the workers should be able to organize their forces against imperialist war, for the defense of the Soviet Union, they must free themselves from the pacifism of ‘Thomas and drive ont the social fascists from their ranks, Thomas says the Communists are preparing reaction. Merely to remind him. Thomas sup- ported the German Socialists in their alliance with the Hindenburg monarchist The reason given was that this will prevent the growth of Fascism. Just the reverse is the case. And is not the Labor Party in England with his beloved friend, MacDonald, responsible for the Con- servatives coming into power in Great Britain? The Bolshevik Party, under the leadership of Lenin, carried on the sharpest fight against the Mensheviks, the Russian Socialists (supported by Thomas and -Hillquit), who are today as they were-then, allied with the counter-revolutionary forces seeking the overthrow of the Soviet Union. The annihilation of the Russian Socialist-Men- sheviks made possible the establishment and growth of the Soviet Union. THE LESSON FOR THE WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES, FROM THE EXPERIENCES OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORKING CLASS, FROM OUR OWN EXPERIENCE IS THAT “TO FIGHT AND DESTROY FASCISM YOU MUST FIRST OF ALL DESTROY THEIR CLOSEST ALLY, THEIR AGENTS IN OUR WORKING CLASS RANKS—THE SOCIALISTS.” VEE Ma fi an s ° Warn TUNA COMMUNISM AND THE NEGRO By J. W. FORD vir ioe Umitations prevent- ed me from dealing fully in my previous article with all the Hlusions, Jim Crow tendencies and political and economic @frors appearing in the statement of Mr. ©, &. Richardson, bour- geols Negro editor in the “Symposium” on Commun. ism in the April Crisis, I was forced to save his prize analysis on Communism for JAMES W: FORD Proposed Candidate with authority on Commap- of ‘the Communist ism. The results are even Party for Vice-- More ludicrous than in the President. case of Mr. William Kelley, editor of the Am- sterdam News (New York), who likewise flaunted certain theoretical pretensions in his statement in the Apr Crisis. Mr. Richardson says: “Communism is a form of socialistic govern- ment which advocates the doctrine of having or possessing all property in common, or popu- Jar ownership a>d conrtol of all property. Fun- damentally, Communism is opposed to violence and does not seek revolutionary methods to change existing conditions and governments, but essays to accomplish political reformation and economic equality through orderly and evolu- tionary process.” Anyone even slightly acquainted with the teachings of Communism will realize at once that Mr. Richardson does not know what he is talking about. What Mr. Richardson repre- sents as Communism in the abone quotation has absolutely nothing in common with the prin- ciples of Communism as expounded and ex- plained in the voluminous Communist literature since the days of Karl Marx. Even Mr. Richardson will agree that sound reasoning, not to mention intellectual honesty, would have required at least a correct state- ment of the principles which he is so ready to reject. However, if we cannot trust Mr. Rich- ardson to state correctly what we Communists stand for, how much faith can one put in his criticism of us, based as it is upon a total ig- norance of Communism? Certainly a criticism which is based :on # misrepresentation of Com- ™munism ts hardly a suffitient reason for reject~ ing its teachings! But let us examine Mr. Richardson's state- ment point by point. Mr. Richardson undoubt- edly believes he is doing Communism a good turn by representing the Communists as op- posed to revolutionary methods. We even ven- ture to hope that in so doing he is trying to turbing innocence of the fact that it is precisely because of their revolutionary methods and revo- lutlonary aims that the Communists are feared and hated by the Jim Crow rulers and exploit- ers of the United States. Of course, it is true that the more the capi- talists pile up. their bloody instruments of mass claim about the “violence” of the revolutionary workers. The crimes of all the slave owners the exploited and oppressed of all lands. Capi- talist wealth began wh the plunder, pillage and murder of colonial peoples and it continues to drip with the life-blood of millions of toilers at home and in the colonies. American history might easily be described as a story of capitalist violence, directed at all times particularly against the Negroes. One of America’s most respected bourgeois historians of the 19th century, John L. Motley, has admitted this as far back as 1861. “No man,” Motley wrote, “on either side of the Atlantic, with Anglo-Saxon blood in his veins, will dispute the right of a people, or of any portion of a people to rise against op- pression, to demand redress of grievances, and, in case of denial of justice, to take up arms to vindicate the sacred principles of liberty. Few Englishmen or Americans will deny that the to govern itself, according to its own will. When the silent consent is changed to fierce remonstrance, the revolution is impending. The right of revolution is indisputable. It is written on the whole record of our race. Brit- ish and American history is made up of re- bellion and revolution, Many of the crowned kings were rebels or usurpers, Hampden, Pym and Oliver Cromwell; Washington, Adams and Jefferson, all weré rebels. It is no word of reproach. But these men all knew the work they had set themselves to do. They never called their rebellion “peaceable secession.” ‘They were sustained by the consciousness of right when they overthrow established author- ity, but they meant to overthrow it. They meant rebellion, civil war, bloodshed, infinite suffering for themselves and their whole gen- eration for they accounted them welcome sub- stitutes for insulted liberty and violated right. There could be nothing plainer, then, than the American right of revolution.” (J. L..Motley, “The Causes of the American Civil War.” A letter fo the London Times, 1861, pp. 15-15) Violence, the violent suppression of the ex- plotted workers and poor farmers and of the Negro people, is of the very essence of capital- ism. Seventy-nine Negro toilers were lynched jast year alone, Is not this the most dastardly act of violence against an oppressed people? Only yesterday our Daily Worker reported that the steel barons of Pittsburgh have installed machine guns in their plants for use against the workers should they strike against the coming third wage cut of 10 to 15 per cent. Is this not viblence of the most brutal and murderous character? Toward Revolutionary Mass Work ( Hardly a month has passed since the auto- mobile king, Henry Ford, ordered his former employees massacred by machine guns when they demanded jobs or unemployment relief at the gates of his Dearborn factory. And his own son personally supervised, the murder of four of these victims of Ford’s capitalist system of hunger, terror and violence, Is not this mur- derous deed an act of violence against the lives of hungry workers? Indeed, what else is it but violence when 60,000,000 people throughout the capitalist world are forced to starve amidst plenty! The history of capitalism has been the his- tory of violence aganist the working class, and it is only by the revolutionary struggle of the Majority of the working class; supported by the Oppressed Negro people and poor farmers that the masses will finally be able to rid the country of the plague of capitalism. Not only has all history proved that this is the only way out for the oppressed and expioited majority, but the open cynical statements and deeds of our own 59 rulers have made this perfectly clear. A ruling class that did not hesitate to murder thirteen million people in a war for profits will not peacefully relinquish its hold on the indus- tries and the wealth of the nation, produced by the toil of the workers and poor farmers. Mr. R’thardson obviously conceives the ques- tion of revolutionary methods in the timid and fearful spirit of a respectable bourgeois. But revolutionary methods are much deeper and in volve much more than the mere exercise of vio- lence. Wherein is the essence of the revolu- tionary method? It consists, first, in develop- ing a real struggle against every form of oppres- | achieve this. sion and exploitation, against every wrong and grievance of the workers and poor toilers, against every case of police persecution, against every assault on the lives of the working class, whether it be evictions or wage cuts or unemployment, | ete. It consists of a thousand and one little daily struggles whith are gathered up and accumu- lated and directed not only against one wrong or one grievance, but against the entire system of économie, political and national oppression and exploitation of the majority of the popu- lation by a small group of parasitic landlords, bankers, capitalists and speculators. The real esesnce of the revolutionary method consists in the fact that every action is inspired by a fun- damental aim not merely to make the slavery of the masses @ little more bearable under capi- talism, but to destroy the entire system of sla~ very which reeds and extsts only at the expense of the lifeblood of all the toilers. In the second place, the revolutionary method consists in rousing ever larger masses to eco- nomic and political struggle against the capi- talist system and the capitalist government. It seeks to awaken all the masses to political con- sciousness and to draw them into the arena of the historical struggle for the establishment of a new social system. For only their struggle can Precisely because it is not merely a question of correcting one wrong but of elim- inating the very system that continually re- produces these wrongs, do the Communists seek to raise every struggle to a fundamental, revolu- tionary struggle aimed against the entire polit-, ical and social system. | In tomorrow’s article I will again return to the arguments of Mr. Richardson. DISCUSSION OF THE 14TH PLENUM. Activizing Workers During Strikes (From the Resolution of the Executive Com- mittee of the Communist International on the lessons of strike struggles printed in full in the May issue of the COMMUNIST. We are reprinting excerpts from the sections dealing with the miners’ strike of last year). x tage work of the Communist groups in the strike leadership showed serious neglect in the organization of broad cadres of strikers for the purpose of the constant activization of the masses. In the first stage of this strike there were wide spontaneous mass activities, but what was lacking was a network of sufficiently broad organs which could systematically lead and de- velop this activity and which would also have been in a position to assure the carrying through of the necessary tasks during the strike. The picket line duty also should have necessitated the formation of special committees through the activities of which ever new workers should have Into the Factories What can the proletariat put up in op- Position to the power of finance caital with its trusts, its cartels an its fighting fascist gangs? Only organization in the factories. ‘The struggle for the factories will be the most dramatic page in the history of the struggle between Communism on the one hand and the bourgeois dictatorship, with its parties of fascism and social democracy, on the other. The further sharpening of the class struggle, the imminent threat of imperialist war and military intervention against the USSR, raise and will continue to raise before the Com~ munist Parteis the question of the hest or- ganizational form which can guarantee both successful defense and also the victorious at- tack of the working class. This best and most flexibie form is the reorganization of the Communist Parties on the basis of the factories. (From the Report by Comrade Manuilsky at the 11th Plenum of the OL). been drawn into the picket line and through the constant control of which the decrease in the number of workers on picket duty towards the end of the strike could have been prevented. Also for the organization of the collections of money and foodstuffs, in which thousands of workers participated, it would have been neces- sary to form the broadest possible committees in each place for the increase of this activity during the entire course of the strike. Such committees should also have been formed for the organiza- tion of the defensive struggle against the em- ployers and the police terror ,against evictions, for the organization of agitation and propaganda in the various districts, etc. A wide network of such local auxiliary organs of the strike com- mittee would have made possible the consolida- tion of the broad strike cadres, of the most ac- tive workers, with the help of whom the Commu- nist committees could have really led the big mass movement. , Our comrades overlooked the fact that even the most intensive work of the relatively small active part of the strike committee can in no way replace the necessary work of the broad strike cadres consisting not only of hundreds but thousands of workers. Our comrades did not understand that the limitation of this big movement to a relatively small “active” created the danger of later separating the broad masses from the strike committee. When Reformists Lead Strike to Make the Workers Leaderless In the Pennsylvania strike the reformists in the main disclosed hefore the masses their open strike-breaking position, and undisguisedly tried to help the employers to defeat the strike. On the other hand, with regard to most of the other strikes of the year, the reformist trade unions did not play such a simple and undis- guised rolé, bit, on the contrary, they partici- pated in the strikes, led them in order to betray them at the opportune moment. They led the strikes in order to make them leaderless. Against this cunning “left” reformist tactic of strike betrayal, the American Communists were sometimes rather helpless and by their tactical mistakes ‘they, in some ‘cases, played into the hands of the “left” reformists in their treacher- our game. Wherever the Communists in their mass agitation before the strike simply asserted that the reformists would on no account take part in the strike, whereas the latter by joining the strike, were able to give the lie to this as- sertion, the Communists through this clumsy tactic were placed in an awkward position, where it became much more difficult, for them to make the masses believe during the strike that the reformist trade union leaders were bound to be~- tray the struggle. The Communists should have prepared the masses of the workers from the~ beginning for the various tactical subterfuges of the reformists, for open or disguised strike- breaking, as well as for an open or disguised betrayal of the strike. For instance, the strike in Pennsylvania, the second strike in Lawrence, and the strike in Paterson, have shown ‘three different types of the reformist tactics in this respect (open strike-breaking, open betrayal af- ter a certain time and disguised betrayal), The Key Tasks ‘The radical improvement of the situation im the revolutionary trade unions is the key task of the Party. The Red trade unions have not yet recognized the fact that only by persistent work in. the enterprises and by taking up all questions that confront the workers in connec- tion with the offensive (reduction of wages and piece-work rates, increase in working hours, dis- crimination against the Negro workers, worsens ing conditions of women and young workers, etc.) is it possible to mobilize tie masses and consolidate and expand their red union organ- izations. They have not yet realized that this is the correct ‘preparatory work for the strike struggles and still have the tendency of “wait- ing for strikes.” Within the red trade unions there is not yet real trade union democracy and a, narrow sectarian tendency exists with regard to the acceptance of members. (From the Reso- lution of the XIV Plenum a joined