The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 24, 1932, Page 4

Bege Fees Publiasea by the Comprodas: WSth Ge, New York City. F Wééress aud mel! afl checks to the Daily Worker, 50 Hast 18th Street, New. York, N. Y. Y. Telep! e ALgonguin 4-7956, Publishing Ce, ine, Geily except Sunday, at 50. fast Cable “DAIWORK.® Daily, Worker’ CA Porty US.A. By mail everywhere: One year, of Menbattazs and Bronz, New York City. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $6; siz months, $3; two months, $1; escepting Boroughs Vorelgn: one yea: $8; six montha, $4.50, COMMUNIS By JAMES W. FORD Article 10 MR, E. WASHINGTON RHODES me of th bourgeois Ne ars Ww. roRD Troposed Candidate the Communist Vice-- Turty for President s f Negroes are turning to Com- He states that he has beer told “that are more dark-skinned than white Com- Philadelphia.” This, in Mr. Rhodes’ , is clearly something to be dis- e doubts in the minds of the Negro toilers, Coubts as to whether Communism can solve the cuestions of economic robbery and exploitation, cf national oppression. Mr. Rhodes sets up his class—the Negro bourgeoisie—as the only class emong the Negroes capable of thinking, and writes the following gem “Thoughtful Negroes may reason that the philosophy and economic theories of Commun- ‘om are unsound and will not obtain for them a more equitable distribution of the products of their labor, or a larger share of justice—but a drowning man will grab at a straw.” In previous articles I have dealt in detail with theory and its application to the d problems of ressed national ies and of the whole working-class. I will not go into that aspect in the present ar- ticle, but will give a concrete example of how Communism has successfully solved both na~- tional and economic problems in the Soviet Union where the workers of the various races have overthrown capitalism and thereby abolish- ed the roots of race hatred and of exploitation of man by man. And I will quote a respected Wberal intellectual, J. Louis Fischer, who had an article in the May 25 issue of The Nation, entitled “The Jews end the Five-Year Plan. In that article, Mr. Fischer wrote “The Five-Year Plan is revolutionizing the character of Soviet Jew At the same time it Promises to save the s of the Soviet Union from the economic cclipse which threatens the M AND THE NEGRO } the opportunity for educational purposes. The And Mr. Rhodes sets out very cleverly | A prominent political . He points out the antj- evik character of antl-« quently. the worker confesses and the reason of his guilt: that he has not yet shaken off the traditions of “‘s pre-revolu- tionary past, that he went to church in bis youth and imbibed the anti-Jewish spirit, that he has not attended Communist courses suffi- ciently and has not learned the Marxist ap- proach to racial questions, In this manner such rials are exploited to expose the significance nd purpose of anti-Semitism. It is @ misde- an anti-Semitic joke in a Soviet- audeville performance. Russians rrested for applying the uncompll- het of Zhid (Yid or Sheenie) to are not caricatured or mimicked, evolutionary disabilities have, cc 4 ck removed... All restrictions have been lifted and no person would dare to inipose his own without immediately inviting the wrath of the state. Soviet universities enroll thousands students, Whereas Jewish young and women in European universities are ed to offensive discriminations and at times attacks, race is completely ignored in the triculations in Soviet higher institutions of learning. “Of all the benefits conferred by Bolshevism on the Jews, the greatest is the abolition ‘of pogroms. These massacres occurred fretuently before the war, and when they did not, occur, the fear of pogroms was ever present. Life was nerve-racking and precarious. But no pogroms have ever taken place in the Soviet Union. Ex- perience in Czarist Russia, in post-war Poland and Rumania, and more recently in Palestine, has shown that a pogrom is, by definition, vio- ried in public. rosect da Jews pI or € | lence perpetrated with the active assistance, or at least the connivance of the authorities. Po- groms are therefore impossible under the Soviet regime. And this security means more to Jewry than any hardships it must undergo during a transitional period of economic adjustment. Far from discriminating against Jews, the Soviet Government has been known to discriminate in favor of Jews. Agricultural colonization is the outstanding illustration. The Bolsheviks submit | —and President Michael Kalinin once enun- Jews of almost all other East European coun- | tries. The tragedy of European Jewry is its }middle-class composition. In Poland, Rumania, the Baltics and the Balkans a new national \petite bourgeoisie is expelling the Jew from his chief profession—commerce. Using anti-Sent- Hieism as a crowbar, it is quickly loosening the Jewish hold on marts and rialtos... “Czarism nourished the roots of anti-Semit- ism with gold and with rivers of blood; the re- yolution withdrew these foods. The Bolsheviks, indeed, tried to burn out some of the roots and ‘te poison others. The roots, to be sure, are deep. \Anti-Semitism is a hardy plant. Nevertheless, anti-Semitism in Russia is waning. The state, the Communist Party, and like schools, clubs and trade unions are making very effort to combat it. ‘demn anti-Semitism as reactionary and as a {weapon used by capitalism to inflame racial an- imosity in order to obstruct class antagonism. ve propaganda against anti-Semitism is cted in Soviet schools, clubs, and news- s. ‘The struggle with it also takes the form ‘of irials to demonstrate its evils. bs instance, a Russian worker has insulted a lew. The incident is not very serious. It might have been overlooked. But the authorities seize ee social institutions | In a factory, | ciated the policy in public —that more money and more attention should be given to the set- tlement of Jews on the land than to the settle- ment of non-Jews, because conditions before the revolution militated against the creation of a Jewish peasant class. The revolution must wipe out the handicaps imposed by the monarchy. This is one of the fundamentals of Bolshevik policy vis-a-vis nationalities.” Contrast this with the deliberate cultivation of race prejudice in America by the capitalist press, the theatre, the church, the schools, courts and all instruments of thé capitalists! Contrast it with the hullabalo raised in the capitalist press when jurors in Hawaii dared to bring in a verdict of guilty against four self-confessed white lynchers of a dark-skinnéed nativé! Gon- trast the Soviet policy of burning out race pre- judice with the reward given by thé United States government to these four lynchers, the pressure brought to bear by the United States government and the Congress to secure their imn- mediate release, the enthuslastic weléome given them by the capitalist press and the American imperialists upon their arrival in this country, the present move in Congress for a full pardon to wipe out any disability imposed upon them by the verdict of guilty! “Progroms are therefore impossible under the Soviet regime.” While lynching of Negro work- ers is rapidly increasing during the capitalist crisis, with the courts increasingly used to carry out the lynch verdicts, as in the case of the | Scottsboro boys, Orphan Jones (Baltimore), Wil- The Bolsheviks con- lie Brown (Philadelphia), Willie Peterson (Birm- ingham) and scores of other Negro victims of ruling class justice. And how do the Communists of America combat lynching and national oppression of the Negro masses? Mr. Rhodes admits that “they went into Scottsboro and Salisbury (Or- phan Jones Case) with banners flying, con- demning the persecution of Negroes.” But, of course, the stock in trade of the bour- geois Negro misleaders is that the American Prosecutor of Herrin Miners--- Standard Bearer ot the Republican By BILL GEBERT State of Illinois for its standard-bearer for the foming November 8 elections, s FP. Glenn r Glenn, who and jominater a@ candidate for Wi at is the the wor! to re-elect him Negro ma Southern Tilino m County ir in elec of the same county, dur- 1916 to 1920. ‘Then in 1920 state senator from that dis- il this period he served best the The bosses recognized this. Glenn » the State of Illinois to prosecute iners in 1922, Although he was i 'y from the state, 00 of tax-payers’ ainst unemplo: s inst soldiers’ bonus, against * unemployed, against social and un- yployment insurance, he supported Hoover in he two billion dollars present to big business, ? serves best the interests of Insull and Wall "eet. s the Republican and Democratic candidates in emocratic candidate, every mut tnow the fact about every Republican, iE on @ campaign against them, expose them. This record of Mr. Glenn is a typical record ‘ coming elections in the state of Mlinois. We the records of every Re- Ses cond - C2 ale -Labor candidate. it ‘vill > known to the workers. The work- nocratic, Socialist and Farmer-Labor can- late so that they will be able to successfully show the true and natural character.of the ent insur- | Party candidates of the betr: the capitalist parties and Parties ts of the working class, such as | the Socialist party, Farmer-Labor party,"éte.’ “fn opposition to these candidates we “nilist’ show who are the candidates ofthe’ workers, poor” farmers, and Negro masses. For instance, the candidate who is running against Glenn on the Communist Party ticket is Wm. E. Browder, District Secretary of the In- ternational Labor Defense, who for many years has clive in the working class movement and thru his activity proved his loyalty and ability to fight with his class against the boss, class for unemployment Insurance,‘ ‘for Negro” rights, against imperialist war and ‘for thé’ de- fense of the Soviet Union. secant ite ‘The workers, poor farmers and’ Negro masses must know the truth about the candidates. Help the new working class weekly of the Mid-West, Workers’ Voice, bringing this truth before the workers. Help throw the light on the capitalist parties and their candidates, District Committee of the Communist roposes Wm. E. Browder as candidate for . Senator, subject to be ratified at the State Convention of Illinois of the Communist Party in Decatur, June 26, at which the workers, poor farmers and Negro masses will elect their can- didates. _— In the U. S. A, the chief direction of our blow is the break-up of the positions of Amer- | lean capitalism by means of mobilizing the | masses for struggle for the realization of secial insurance at the expense of the capital- ists and the bourgeois State. —(From Comrade Manuilsky’s report to the llth Plenum of the Executive Committes of the Communist International), e white workers are somehow “different.” ‘That while Communism has won the Russian mas- ‘ses to the struggle against race prejudice, a- gainst~ anti-Semitism and. national. oppression (of Jews and other national minorities in the Soviet Union), the white toiling masses of the United States cannot be won for that struggle. Yet life itself shows that new sections of the white toilers’ are constantly rallying under the leadership of the Communist Party to a relent- jess struggle against white chauvinism and for full equal rights for the Negro masses, includ- ing the right of self-determination for the Ne- gro majority in the “Black Belt.” Tens of thou- sands of American white workers have risked life and limb in militant demonstrations pro- testing against the Scottsboro lynch verdicts. Hundreds have been c.. »ed and jailed for their activities in the mass fight to free the Scotts- boro boys. But the bourgeois N-gre misleaders, in their defense of the capitalist system, in their deliberate covering up of the root causes of race prejudice and national oppression, of unemploy- ment, starvation and war, would spread distrust of the revolutionary white workers among the Negro masses. divert the Negro masses from the necessary re- volutionary struggle for th overthrow of the vicious system of economic robbery and national oppression. (To be continued) By this means they attempt to | RESULTS OF THE CHICAGO STOCKYARDS HUNGER, MARCH 'HE Hunger March to the Clicago Stockyards organized for April 16, at which: 20,000 em- ployed and unemployed Stockyards workers, in- cluding Negro, white, women, youth and a good percentage of Mexican workers, brought results for the working class. Although the bosses, which includes representativés from Armours, THE SOCIALIST CANDIDATE i jane Central Committee Resolution stresses the necessity of a relentless struggle against sec- tarlanism, against formalism in our work and against bureaucratic methods of our activities. The Resolution brings to the atetntion of the Party that despite the number of achievements in mobilizing larger masses of workers for the support of our Party, our Party remains in the same groove. Is there a contradiction between the ability of our Party to mobilize hundreds of thousands of workers as manifested in our May Day demon- strations, in the ability of our Party to develop _ struggles in the coal industry in Pennsylvania and “stucky or among the unemployed, with the statement of the Resolution that we are sectarian in our approach? No, there is no con- tradiction, Analyzing the latest achievements of our Party and comparing these achievements with the ob- jective possibilities in developing mass work, especially in the third year of the economic crisis and the period of acute war danger, we must come to the conclusion that just these mani- festations of mass mobility have brought for- ward the weaknesses of our Party to a larger extent and manifested more so our sectarianism in our mass work. The slow growth of our Party is the best proof of our sectarian methods of work. Let's examine the May First demonstrations to prove the correctness of the Central Committee Resolution. The demonstrations on May First, with hundreds of thousands of participants, clearly revealed the weaknesses of our Party. Despite the mass character, the demonstrations were primarily the result of our ability to mob- ilize the forces already connected with our Party in one way or another. They were not demon- strations where large sections of new masses of workers have been brought into motion. In New York, for instance, we found that at the demonstration there was present only a small ; group of Negroes; no organized factory repre- sentation; no organized bodies of unemployed workers. We must admit that the lack of Negro Participation, the lack of organized factory groups from large factories and bodies of un- employed in this present period, cannot be over- shadowed by the outside splendor of the demon- stration. This can primarily be traced to our formal methods of work in preparing the May First: demonstration, which was predominant in nearly every district. Let’s take Kansas City, for example: The united front conference in Kansas had the fol- lowing representation: ©. P. units, Russian Mu- tual Aid Society, LL.D, W.LR. and ¥.C.L. This “in itself did not alarm our Kansas organization. No attempt has been made to reach A. F. of L. locals; no factory activity has been carried on in connection with May First preparations. It is therefore no wonder that the weaknesses of the demonstration were tremendous. In Detroit, for instance, the comrades report only five factory gate meetings have been held | in the preparations for May First; that the work | inside the factory was negligible and that the preparations for May First had the same charac- “ter-as in the previous which were By A. W. MILLS. bring May First and the issues around May First into the shops and factories among the unem- ployed workers in order to involve new masses of workers to our actions. It is therefore no surprise that the May First demonstrations, de- spite the larger number of workers who partici- pated as a result of the increased resistance among the workers, against the economic and Political offensive of the bosses, had glaring weaknesses of a basic nature. What were the organizational results of May First campaigns? ‘The initiation stamps sold during the last week of April and the first week of May amounts to 636, and is 30 per cent less than the same period in the previous month, Judging the results of the campaign by organ- izational gains, the May First campaign, despite the outside splendor, was not so successful, and in this lies the sectarian character of our work. Methods In Shop Work. One of the most important points of the reso- lution is the necessity of a turn in our shop work, to carry through a real concentration Policy in building up shop otganization. Let us exaffiine some experiences in connec- tion with carrying through previous concentra- tion plans, in order to understand the formal character of our methods of work. Concentra- tion plans have been worked out in the past. Right after the 13th Plenum of our Party, all the districts worker out plans of work, picked a factory for concentration, and then stopped with this. If we will review the concentration activities we will see that while we pick the fac- tory we do not take the further necessary steps for concentration, which consists of clarity in shop policies, of assigning proper forces, of con- tinuous activities and outside of the factory. It is no wonder that with such superficial methods very little results have been gained from our concentration. The shop nuclei which have been organized during the recruiting drive were pri- marily of a character of bringing together our forces already in the shops as a result of the registration. And the vast majority of them were not organized as a result of real concen- tration and getting new contacts in the shops and factories. Such experiences as we had in the General Electric, where one or two comrades with the proper coordination, with clarity in the demands, could in a short time organize a shop nucleus and a union group of eighty and develop a mass Movement, show the tremendous possibilities in’ every section of the country, if we follow the proper methods of work. f Against Formalism in Concentration. I will cite a few examples of our formal con- centration of the past. A comrade tells us that his unit decided to concentrate on a factory.’ Much was spoken about factory work and the unit decided as the first step to issue a leaflet to the workers of that particular factory. In this leaflet they called upon the workers to join the Communist Party, to join the Industrial Union and to organize shop committees. All in one shot, Everything at once, Well, the workers were confused and did not know exactly what to organize. No concrete demands were worked DISCUSSION OF THE 14TH PLENUM Sectarianism is Responsible for Self-Satisfaction | By BURCR bution of a leaflet from time to time, to dis- tribution of the Daily Worker. And, of course, the comrades :were surprised why such forms of concentration did not bring results, Another report of a similar nature: A unit de- cided to concentrate on a shop and they sent out comrades with literature and the workers asked the comrades whom they represent. The comrades answered, they represent the “shop committee.” When the workers asked the com- rades if they are working in this particular fac- tory, because they were interested in the shop committee, our comrades concentrating from the outside, had to admit that they were not work- ing in the factory, Surely the workers could not have confidence in a shop committee outside of the factory. Such confusion among the comrades on what a shop committee is and how a shop committee is organized, could surely not bring results, Fur- thermore, reviewing the leaflets which have been issued in connection with concentration, we can notice either a lack of demands and repetitiort of general phrases on the necessity of organiza- tion, or in some places the comrades try to be So “concrete,” to work out so many “concrete demands,” to fit every concrete situation in the shop. And therefore a list of 15 to 20 demands which should cover everything, without one out- standing demand for which the workers are ready to fight. To Overcome Fluctuation. Our sectarianism in our mass Work is a re- flection of sectarianism and formalism in the inner life of the Party. The inner life in our units can be characterized as very formal ap- proach to our campaigns, very little political dis- cussion by the membership of our campaigns, bureaucratic approach to new. members. All these things are responsible not only for the in- ability of developing mass work in the shops and factories, but for losing members whom we have already gained, for the tremendous fluctuation in our Party is charaéteristic ‘of nearly every Let us examine some figures. The sale of in- itiation stamps during the first three months of this year amounted to $6,994, The increase in dues payments during these three months amounted to 3,402. What happened to the new members who came into the Party? Some of them have dropped the Party, some of them are not sufficiently assimilated. the reasons we will find primarily formalism and sectarian approach to our work. When a worker fills out an application card to the Party, he feels that he has done a revolutionary act. Com- the Party unit, however, he is not im- the spirit of mass work and is not given mass work. ..No attention is paid and when he feels this mechanical “ap- to everyday tasks, he does not and can- not see the Party as the leader of the mass struggles of which he dreamt. A worker writes to us: “Enclosed you will find my membershi) book. I am resigning from the Party. I con assure you that I remain a Communist and true to the revolution.” Swift's and Cudahy and other packinghouse® refused to recognize formally any of the dee } mands presented by the committee, some of the have been acepted by the bosses already, instance, the already prepared 10 per cent eral wage-cut in the Stockyards did not place and every worker in the Stockyards e rectly attributes this to the Hunger March an@ the fear of the bosses of a strike in case the 10, per cent wage-cut was put over. The wage-cub has been put oved on the teamsters in some off the companies, and the teamsers of the Darling Plant answered the wage-cut by a strike. | In the last three weeks more workers re been hired into the Stockyards, including worke! ers who sell the Daily Worker in front of the’ Stockyards, The bosses offered jobs to those! selling the Daily Worker, saying: “Why should l you sell the Daily Worker and make only a few pennies? We can give you a job in the Stocke | yards.” | Relief is given now to a larger number of tine employed Stockyards workers by Armours, as w as other companies. Also, medical aid was si to quite a number of workers who were uneme ployed. 4 Seeing these results of the Stockyards Hunger March, the Stockyards employed workers are ready more than ever for organization, and ask comrades who are distributing leaflets and sell- ing the Daily Worker how they can join the union. A number of workers. are giving their, names and addresses to the workers who are selling the Daily Worker and are expressing their willingness to join the unio. The Pack- inghouse Workers’ Industrial Union ft under- taking an organizational campaign to develop struggles in the Stockyards, uniting employed and unemployed in struggle for immediate de- mands. The Packinghouse Workers’ Industrial Union and Unemployed Councils are calling upon the workers to continue the struggle for the de- mands of the huge Stockyards Hunger March. ‘These demands are as follows: 1. Jobs for all laid-off workers. 2. Immediate payment of a lump sum of $50 relief. 3. Ten pounds of meat weekly to be given to each unemployed worker by the company. 4. Free medical aid to employed and unem- Ployed Stockyards workers and their families. 5. No discrimination against Negro and. Mex- ican workers in jobs, relief and medical aid. 6. No investigators to be sent to workers who report for relief. 7. No part time or full time worker shall re- ceive less than $18 a week. 8. No deduction from pay for accident in- surance. 9. Seven-hour day with no reduction in pay. 10. Slowing down the deadly speed-up. Two 15 minutes’ rest periods—one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Equal pay for equal work for Negroes, women and young workers. 12, ‘The right to organize. Abolition of com- Pany police and spy system. 13. All maternity cases to: receive half pay two months before and after childbirth. 14. The company to furnish free of charze all tools, working clothes and individual towel:. 15, Unemployment insurance at the rate of full wages. It is necessary to point out that the Stock- yards bosses in the year of 1929, out of the sweat and blood of the workers, gathered $27,945,766.75. DID YOU GET A COPY OF THE PLENUM PAMPHLET? Weer a thorough knowledge of the Plenum resolutions, one cannot really participate in the Plenum discussions. But, what is most im- Portant, one will not be able to understand how effectively to carry the line of the Party to the masses, We therefore urge all comrades to get a copy of the Plenum pamphlet, called “Toward Revolutionary Mass Work.” In addition to the two main Plenum resolu- tions—the general Resolution of the Central Committee and the Resolution of the E. C. C. I. on the Lessons of the Strike Struggles in the United States—the Plenum pamphlet contains two other important resolutions. One—the Cen- tral Committee Resolution on Unemployment adopted and the two the 11th Plenum C, I. Reso= lution Against Imperialist War. ‘The importance of the above mentioned resolu- tions is so decisive that no Party member can afford not to be acquainted with them. | i The capitalist press, the agents of the ruling class, | has been publishing ‘less and less news about a unemployed workers’ families. We must constantly expose the miserable treatment of families of the unemployed by the city governments and charity institutions. We must uncover all cases of starvation, un- dernourishment, sickness. We must pub- Mish these cases in our press, in the Daily Worker, in Labor Unity, tel them at all workers’ meetings. Un- employed Councils should publish i bulletins to inform all workers of the starvation and misery of the unemployed. six tasks which he could not carry through, was made to understand that if. he does not carry them through he will be expelled. Well, he wrote instead of being expelled he might as well resign. This particular worker took the trouble at least to send back his bool. How many werkers drop out for the same reason, without even notifying the Party? Another worker tells us that he is a member of the Party for the last three months. He was active before in a workers’ club. He qistributed i Jeaflets before joining theParty. He participated . in the demonstrations of our Party while being a sympathizer. He came to the unit meetings and saw no difference between the unit and the ac- tivities of his club, and, instead of belonging to similar organizations, he decided to remain in the club and dropped the Party. This is clear evidence tuet’many workers who join our Party do.not sec the political leeding role of the unit, where plans cro w ovt for m activitics and where gu de it all the indivicuel uctivities of every Pa i. Without the unit becoming w real Communict organization of action, the turn in the Party will be impossible. Ib 4: especially true with re- gard to shop units. The Resolution therefore Speaks correctly that our Party is the unemployment. It hides the starvation of the t e.