The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 12, 1932, Page 4

B® Pudlished by the C # 33th St, New ¥ Page Four ———— — NEGRO SOI om p inc, onquin 4-7956. dally eacept Sunuay, r Cable ¥ Address and mail all checks to the Daily W pokken 60 East 13th Street, New York, N, Y. at ovo Basa “DAIWORK.® ae AND} YANKEE IMPERIALISM By OTTO HALL HE recent discussions in passage of the pendence bill, wh dependence to these period of years, recalls that occurred during the earl can occupation. These events ¢ of Negro troops in carr fication” of the native: their exploitation by ! The Radi war tase tenes in whict h Yanket Congress 0° € Pr to so-called h purports islands within a ¢ ome inte destroy the Soviet Unior that the working class of its tasks at this time. TI the American army revolt American imperialists to sion. of colonial toilers the capitalists and the ¢ f conceal this, is not generally known | ican workers. | ‘That Negro toilers have been used in all capi- | talist wars in America, and that their re as always been more enslavement, repression, and lynchings, is common knowledge. After the | Civil War, four Negro units of the American | thank: Negr army were created. These were the Ninth and Tenth calvary regiments and the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry. These outfits were officered almost entirely by whites, usually Uhree Pamphlets on ‘Communist Organization THE COMMUNIST PARTY IN ACTION— By Alex Bittelman—10 Cents. ,NOON-HOUR TALK ON THE COMMUNIST E PARTY—By Harrison George—2 Cents. WHO ARE THE YOUNG COMMUNISTS—Issued by the Young Communist League—2 Cents. ‘The masses of workers are becoming more and more interested in the Communist Party and the Young Communist League. Their growing Thisery and their growing readiness to struggle, drive them to seek leadership other than that in Which they have become disillusioned. But many workers do not know how the Party and League ‘work, how these organizations can give the work- ‘ers the leadership they seek. Here are three pamphlets which will explain all the workers want to know about how our Party and League are organized, how they fight, and how they can Yeod these bewildered workers out of their plight. The Communist Party in Action is addressed to the many new members who have joined the Party as a result of their realization that in the Party they have found the leader they were logking for. The style of the pamphlet is simple, friendly and clear. The pamphlet explains the structure of the Party, the main lines of strug- gle—in short, it acquaints the worker in language anyone can understand, what the Communist Party is. It can be also used to approach work~ ers not yet ready to join the Party, but who want to know more about it. A Noon-Hour Talk on the Commnnist Party is @ popular explanation of what the Communist Party stands for, written in the form of conver- sation between three workers. In the course of the conversation, an explanation is given of the Communist program of struggle on current cam~ paigns and issues, and also how the Communist Party leads the workers in these struggles. A splendid recruiting pamphlet, especially during ‘the.election campaign. Who are the Young Communists achieves the game aim as the “Communist Party in Action”, adapted to the special problems confronting the ‘working. class youth, and addressed to a larger | audience—not only the League anti the close per- dphery of the Party and League, but to the broad Messes of young workers who perhaps have not heard of the League or Party. It is skillfully ee on actual conditions of the working class | ‘youth in America, and gives the League program | | “of struggle on the basis of these conditions. putherners who were presumably, better able handle the Negro.” {ter the Spanish-American war, during. the ine insurrection, the Twenty-fifth Infan- egiment was sent to these islands to carry h the “pacification” of the revolutionary ine masses. How these Negro toilers re- cted to this situation is very interestingly set h by Stephen Bonsal, in an article which ap- red in the “North American Review” on June 7, 1907. In an article entitled “The Negro Sol- dier in War and Peace,” Bonsal writes: the Philippines, the services of the Negro s have not attracted much favorable nt, though I believe that, under fire and open field, their behavior has been sol- In the earlier days of the occupation, {t a subject of congratulation among officers that the colored troops got on more quickly and in closer touch with the native populations than did their white brothers in arms. Many of the Negroes learned the native languages with sur- prising facility. Soon, however, these acquires ments came to be anything but a subject of con- gratulation. “While the white soldiers, unfortunately got on badly with the natives, the black soldiers got on much too well...until the time came, in 1901, when many observant officers expressed the opinion that the color line had been drawn to our disadvantage, and that the Negro soldiers were in closer sympathy with the aims of the native population than they were with those of their white leaders and the policy of the United States, “The desertions from the Negro regiments were large—much larger I believe, than from the white organizations: And these desertions were of a different character. The white deserted be- cause he was lazy and idle and found service life irksonme.... But the Negroes deserted in scores and for the purpose of joining the insurgents, and many of them, like the celebrated Fagin, became leaders and fought the white troops or their former comrades with zest and ability.” (Emphasis mine, O. H.) ‘The statement made by this jingoist against the white soldiers is a lie. They did not desert because they were lazy. Because many of them were poisoned by the imperialist ideology of white superiority, the great majority of the de- serters did not go over to the Filipinos. But their desertion was in itself a revolt against the rotten food and afmy slavery in a hot cli- mate, and miserable pay. That the Negro soldiers were able to find common cause with their oppressed Philippine brothers is natural and demonstrates the revolu- tionary potentialities of this section of the work- ing class. That these troops, without @ con- scious revolutionary leadership, could react in the most revolutionary mannér and feel their revolutionary kinship to the oppressed Filipinos who were fighting against American imperialist oppression, gives the direct lie to the Lovestone- Pepper theory of “the reactionary Negro masses,” Thanks to these theories, that have been dom- inant in the American labor movement, the im- portance of the role of the Negro toilers in the common fight of the working class against the imperialist war machinations had not been suf- ficiently understood by a large section of the American workers. The Negro bourgeois reform- ist tools of the American imperialists, have also faithfully carried through their treacherous role of hiding these facts from the Negro workers in order to make them believe that they have no revolutionary traditions of struggle, and have always been submissive. . It is necessary to add here that the Negro troops, after these incidents, were speedily re- moved from the Philippines, and that very few have been used since by the United States to “pacify” colonials. After this, the whole policy of American activities on these islands was changed, and the rigid “color line” formerly drawn against all classes of the natives was: withdrawn, and an attempt made to reconcile the native bourgeoisie to American occupation by granting them a small share of the oppor- tunity to exploit the Philippine masses. This experience with the Negro troops proves that the Negro toilers in uniform will not lend themselves so easily to the schemes of the im- perialists to crush the resistance of the colonial masses. The Negro workers, along with the rest of the working class are learning that when they help the imperialists to exploit the colonial toil- ers they are but tightening the yoke of oppres- Phi was | sion around their own necks, With the election campaign gaining momentum day by day, these three pamphlets are indis- pensable is acquainting the workers with our (Party and League. Every member should carry | them with him wherever he goes, and sell them Vat every opportunity. Before the Conventions of Our Enemies Workers and Working-Class Organiza- tions, Protest the Melrose Park Massacre! Send Protest Resolu- tions to Dr. Edw. G. Brust, Village President, Melrose Park, Illinois. ‘we came into Schenectady, there were just two contacts. This is a small town of about 100,000, a one-imustry city (General Electric). We made some connections through the I. L, D. and through some small meetings called by leaflets. We didn’t work on the basis of immediately to join the Communist Party. There was simply a small group and we discussed matters in the plant and the whole lay of the land, and we started to talk about what we could @o t© organize the workers. The shop paper | idea was the best way of getting it. So, without talking about the C. P., we started working on a paper, got all the grievances in the shop, and saw what we could do. The shop paper work was done to a great extent by these new comrades, and they became more interested. It took quite a while to prepare the new shop paper, but during the preparation we took in more workers interested in our work. ‘They were stimulated to read the Daily Worker and the work was going along. By the time the paper was ready, we were calling ourselves a nucleus.. The comrades signed up, about four or five. When the paper came out it was a big event. We had worked for a long time on it. Fifteen hundred were given out, and it stimur lated the whole plant. ‘There were some old Party members in the shop who hadn’t done anything for many years, but when the paper came out there was @ big commotion throughout the plant. The workers were excited. On the morning the paper was given out, a few were left on the ground. When they picked them up, they asked for more. This stimulated the nucleus and it stimulated the sympathetic ele- ments outside of the Party to help with the work, In the last six weeks there have been heavy layoffs. Nearly half of the workers have been laid off. Of course, the Party is functioning and the union ts functioning, byt some are not active. The union has not grown much since the layoff started. There is a feeling that the union can’t do anything in regard to layoffs. Now it is a question of starting an unemployed move- ment, The whole city is a one-industry city. ‘The question now is to start action for relief. ‘The union is taking steps in this direction. There are a great many workers from the one shop in the neighborhood, and through struggles Mass Work in the Election Campaign T the Central Committee Plenum resolu- ; tion says about the basic necessity to free yur mass work from the prevailing sectarianism “ureaucratism and formalism applies with special ree to the national election campaign now fac- g us. Up to this point our work in election mpaigns, especially those of a national char- ter, has been hardly more than @ loose and attered agitation of a number of general revo- BT slogans, all of which agitation was ité disconnected from the life of the workers. | msequently our campaigns did not strike deep | % among the masses. The whole business | 8 pretty much froth at the top, 3ut now we must resolutionize our election tk. While we must point out more energet- lly than ever to the workers the revolution- way out of the crisis—they being especially ponsive now to revolutionary propaganda— must have as the very starting point of our Kk the daily grievances of the workers, That we must put the immediate demands, shop sands and local political programs, in the center of our election activities. This must ‘noth be done simply in an agitational manner, ‘but by concretizing them and linking them up with the workers’ struggles. This means further ithat we must in general make skillful applica- of the principles of mass work, basing our ‘upon the shops, using the Reeds ct By WM. Z, FOSTER, concentration, and energetically applying the united front. We must especially utilize the campaign to greatly recruit our Party and to strengthen our mass organizations in every di- rection, The Election Campaign and the Daily Struggles Our election campaign must be a great mobili- zation of the workers for actual struggle against every phase of the employers’ offensive.. These are concretized in the six central immediate de- mands in our national platform. The thousands of meetings that we will hold must be the start- ing points or intensification points of definite struggles for concrete immediate demands against specific employers, city governments, etc., linked together in local platforms. Our agitation must not result simply in applause, votes, and ideo~ logical sympathy, but definite mass action by the workers, That is to say, our election activities mast Taunch definite struggles such as, for example, the initiation of strong local fights for un- employment insurance, the formulation of spe- cific demands and organization of movements of the unemployed against the local city govern- ments for relief, the beginning of concrete strug gles against wage cuts in specific planta the development of fights against crass forme of movements inside the A. F. of L. unions against the bureaucrats, eta Our election meetings should turn around definite programs of action, not mere propagation of demands in a general way. We should so organize things that great demonstrations of the unemployed culminate at points where our leading candidates speak; out of our agitation there should be organized definite strike movements, properly’ prepared. Everywhere that the workers are in struggle our campaign must be made a burning issue by the most active Party support of these struggles. In short, we must try to make it so that when the workers think of our election campaign they will at once link it in their minds with their own most burning grievances and inspiring struggles, If we thus connect our campaign with the workers’ life the latter will be incomparably more receptive to our more general slogans. It ‘will be easier to show them why they should join in the defense of the Soviet Union. 1 will be more simple to make them understand why they should vote our ticket and join our Party. They will begin to understand that our Party not only talks about the ultimate revolution but organizes the workers for struggle here and now. Our a will be enabled io sink its roots deep in S4A 2 Toward Revolutionary Mass Work ( | could go no further. This shows that we reach Experiences of Shop Work in General Electric By P. B. The New York District held a special meet- ing of comrades active in shop nuclei in prep- aration for their district plenum. We are reprinting reports of the speeches by Com- rades P. B. and John Steuben. We are repeat- ing our request to the other districts to send in articles based on the reports made by the comrades active in shop work for the various special conferences to discuss the 14th Plenum resolutions, it should not be such a difficult matter to get relief from the company. Since the layoffs, there has been a distinct Jack of interest in the leaflets. Since nothing is done, they probably feel there is no use anyway and they throw the leaflets away. Many of the workers are home owners and belong to the taxpayers association controlled by the company. We will have to carry on work inside this organization. On the election of the F. S. U. delegate, we put out two leafiets, and we bad a lot of ma-~ terial in the shop paper. The leaflets aroused a great deal of interest. After a campaign through leafiets and newspaper publicity, we had a pretty good meeting and the same delegate that we proposed was nominated by a worker that didn’t belong to the organization, This delegate was pretty well known and has a lot of prestige in the city, and attracted a lot of interest. How does the group function; what are its activities? In all the work that we carried through we followed the method of leaflet dis- tribution inside the shop, information from the company unions, working on individual workers, organizing union groups, visiting contacts, .con- Shop Struggles for Strikes By JOHN STEUBEN. 'HE major task of this meeting is to bring out | Just exactly what are the problems that we face at the present time and what is the next step, We have no blue print for this. We have a resolution of the C, ©. and this resolution has to be applied to each individual shop. The com- rade from the large electrical plant pointed out that they have been working for 6 years and a certain stage and because we don’t know what the next step is, we try sometimes to explain away the situation and do not solve it. This can only be solved by consultation with the workers of each shop and the purpose of this meeting is to give to the District Buro exactly what the problems are and how to solve them. ‘We have the problem of when we reach a cer- tain point, we get lost. If we don’t produce for the workers the next practical step, the move- ment either dies down or there is a tendency to become impatient. The latter brings out dis- astrous results, premature strikes, etc. I can give you excellent examples of where we killed (excellent possibilities. Strike struggle is one of the highest forms of class struggle. There are plenty of things to be done before a strike. We have for example, increase in speed-up. Now we must devise certain means where the workers will fight against the speed up—not im- mediately going on strike. We have compulsory unemployment insurance or compulsory dona- tions for the unemployed. Comrades refuse to pay, and get fired, instead of pointing out to the rest of the workers what it means and creating a struggle around it. And all of these little strug- gles can become a splendid weapon in our hands to win the confidence of the workers. All of these little struggles are the best means for the prep~ aration for strikes. I raise these small things, comrades, in order | to point out the difference between shop strug- gle and shop strike. There can be plenty of DISCUSSION OF THE 14TH PLENUM. SUBSURIELION RALHS: By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; of Manhattaa and Bronx, New York City. excepting Boroughs Foreign: one year, $8; six months, $4.50. stant passing of literature. The active ones visit contacts, they study, write articles for the shop paper. When we have big meetings they bring down groups of sympathetic workers to the mass meetings. How do we work out the demands? There is a discussion for a few weeks among the leading comrades, All the information about the shop is gathered together. There is a picking and choosing until there are a number of demands gotten together by the leading comrades, and then all these demands are brought before the union executives, who in turn discuss them and add very good suggestions. The Party group takes part in it. Since they work in the union, these demands are worked through the union. I felt that the District in the past, that is, in the beginning of the work (I don’t know if it is because they are too busy or if they simply don’t know how to do it) didn’t help us much. A comrade was sent up who didn’t know anything. It seems to me that they should have given the comrade a few pointers on how.to carry on the work. How to organize a meeting. New com- rades especially should be given some practical pointers that they themselves cannot ask because they haven't any experience and don’t know just where to turn. I think that the only way that the District can actually follow up what is going on (our work superficially looks very good, but there are @ great many shortcomings, and at the present it is a critical period because of the layoffs). I think the District should make it a point, espe- cially in important industries in out-of-town sections, to send down a representative to stay over a period of time. You can’t tell what the work is like in a half day. I think they should take part in some of the work, then they can actually, give some cofistructive advice. in Preparation The reason, I am sure, is because we haven't got something new and therefore the leaflets are dry and not interesting. If you-can find just what the next practical step is and link up your past activities with the new, then your organi- zation will not disintegrate, but will continue to grow. On the relation between units, shop nuclei and sections, We ‘are discussing unorganized shops. I think in this point the comrades should say more because the district plenum will deal with this. Is our leadership sufficiently acquainted so that the comrades in the section can help to solve the problems? The second question is the relation between our shop nuclei and the terri- torial units. For instance, where we have small shop units, they cannot do it all themselves. ‘What we want to know is/yhow much help are you getting from the street units? In conclusion, let us not repeat all of our prob- lems, but let us enumerate the problems that face us in our -work so that we make headway and don’t go backward. If we can bring this to the plenum and solve them, I believe this meeting will be successful. In regard to our leadership in the shop or- ganization. In this we are extremely bad. Many of our shop groups disintegrated because there was not the proper leadership. I believe our section committees have not thoroughly discussed shop work. It is necessary that the plenum should take up in just what concrete fashion will the section leadership give guidance to our shop units, Historical Initiative of the Masses Marx values MOST OF ALL tho | of Ripley's struggle before we reach the stage of strike. We either call premature strikes or become passive. ae comrades from the electric shop say that do's accept our Watets ax ther aed ‘ fact that the working class makes world history heroically, self-pacri- By JORGE cane In “Merry England” In another Spark we spoke of the lament of American churches that, according to their statement, which we suspect is as false as their teachings, they get only three-quarters of a cent of each American dollar spent. We happened to read an English paper and saw how, in “merry England,” the church don’t take any chances, but goes after you like a bill collector for an installment plan furniture house, It seems that British law, according to the 1925 “Tithe Settlement Act,” allows for church “authorities” to seize your possessions if you don't fork over to the church what the church thinks you ought to “give.” And although no end of small property owners are hard up and cannot pay anything, the Church of England refuses to re-open discussion of its “rights” and goes about seizing one man’s pigs, another’a horses and old women’s furniture. Marx once said that the Church of England would give up twenty-eight of its twenty-1 118 articles of faith, rather than give up one twenty- ninth of its income. So it looks like Marx was correct in that saying, too. But, mind you, all this holy thievery has been going on under a so-called “labor” government (until the “labor” party leaders formed a coali+ tion government with the other capitalist pare ties), and is now going on with MacDonald, the professed “socialist,” as premier. In Spain the church used to collect its own tithes, but since the monarchy was overthrown and the so-called “socialists” have been in con- trol, the people resented the collections so much that the church (Catholic) couldn’t collect; so the government led by these “socialists” guaran- teed to do the job for the church. Things don’t go that way in the réal country of socialism, the Soviet Union. Which accounts for the many bitter attacks of the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury against the Soviet Union, their encouragement of war on the Sov- iets. To which war plans the “socialists” and “Jaborites” are contributing their services in and out of government. “Freak Facts” Ripley 4 “Believe it or not” Ripley, the guy who gath- ers what are supposed to be facts, “freak facts,” published as sketches in the Hearst press to divert the mind of the masses from their vital interests, is back in America after a voyage in which he was supposed to be collecting “facts.” His radio broadcast on‘ arrival reminded us of a little argument with him, referring to our exposure of a second-hand anti-Soviet lie, in a Spark published Dec, 7th, last. The Herald- Examiner of Chicago on Nov. 30, was one of the papers running Ripley’s sketches the follow, ing item: 4 “THE MERCIFUL MURDERER—Dr. Alexi | Sukoy, of Moscow, poisoned 40 of his incurable patients to save them further suffering and then committed suicide! The Soviet govern- ment will erect a monument to his HUMANE- NESS.” Along with it, was nothing less than a “pic~ ture” of the “doctor.” And we questioned the whole tale, especially the obvious lie that the Soviet was erecting a monument for this im- aginary “doctor.” As Ripley’s sketches bear the challenge that he will give $500 if any of his “facts” are dis- proven, some reader of Red Sparks evidently sent our Spark to Ripley’s office (where some- pody else does most of the work, of course), and the King Feature Syndicate, who markets his stuff, sent us what it calls “proof” over Ripley's signature. He explained that he got the story from the Vienna, Austria, “Arbeiter Zeitung,” which he pleasantly misrepresents as a “workers newspae per,” dated Oct. 25, 1931, and gees on in detail to tell us that that newspaper is in the N. Y. Public Library, as is also another paper, publish- ed in Warsaw, Poland, from which the paper's November issue he copped the “picture” of this “doctor.” All this “explanation” is wound up with: “There is no capitalistic taint in the quotation from ‘Abeiter Zeitung.’ ” Oh, isn’t there! Well, Mr. Ripley, either you have been in pickle for fiffeen years, or are even simpler minded than you look—or you sure= ly have heard that the so-called “socialist” par- ties of all this world are the most poisonous liars against the Soviet Union. And this is not the first time the Vienna “Arbeiter Zeitung” has lied about the Soviet Union and defended capitalism, as an organ of the fake “socialist” party of Austria. j In the Noy. 7th issue of the “Arbeiter Zeit- ung,” for example, it tries to make the workers believe that the process of mergers and mono- polization of industry which is being speeded up as a result of the crisis, is “transforming” capi- talism into socialism, and, therefore, the workers need only look on, instead of overthrowing capie talism. The “Arbeiter Zeitung” voices the lying slogans of the so-called “Austro-Marxists” that socialism is impossible in one country, speci- fically “a small, poor country” (the big rich ones, of course, don’t need it), thus giving a wonder ful exeuse to oppose revolution—and defend cap- italism—in this, that, or the other country, deny- ing the whole piece by piece. If this has “no capitalistic taint” we don’t know what does. In fact, we suggest that Ripley should make a composite picture of the leaders of the world “socialist” parties, and say: “Be- lieve it or not, these scoundrels who call theme selves ‘socialists’ are the worst’ foes of sociale ism.” In the case of the “merciful murderer,” it is clear that the “socialist” Arbeiter Zeitung set the pace for all the other capitalist liars. For it is clear, is it not, that with thousands of papers being published in the Soviet Union, if the So- viet government was so proud of this imaginary “doctor” that it was going to build a monument for him, some of the Soviet papers would publish both the story and the picture, and Ripley would not have to rely-on Austrian and Polish papers, notorious for anti-Soviet lies. But Ripley cannot find anything in the Soviet press, which is also in the N. Y. biked Libre AN. k(t ~ ent us in a copy “prooi,” with ibd advice that we should be more careful, should get hep to hime As at Bu