The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 28, 1932, Page 9

» MAY 28, 1932 ERS LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES oyed--Unite in Struggle / perialist War! tion, laliy ry of rem. eat- alue the lues The r is one sto- imit ele- tain ptu- ork~ ces- ible The ne- ul- of hy- bor ned life. but -er- the »ple rhe be rd; nan jan or the led, TH [AT NOTHING REMAINS BUT THE PHYSICAL LIMIT.” The program of American capi- talism has as its very center this ovjective of destroying the tradi- tional standard of life of the Amer- ican workers and of reducing the physical element of labor power to the lowest possible “physical limit.” As-a matter of fact millions of the American working class popu- lation are today living below ‘the subsistence level. This holds true even of hundreds of thousands of part time workers who are rated as “employed” by government agen- cies, Wages Below Minimum. Marx pointed out that the wages .of English laborers during the time of the anti-Jacobin wars were re- duced “even beneath the mere phy- sical minimum” and that the rul- ing class made up by the Poor Laws, “the difference necessary for a physical perpetuation of the race.” This is precisely what is being done in the United States today on a far larger scale by the so- called” “Emergency Unemployment Relief” contributions. Millions of workers are being maintained at a pauper level with just enough food, clothing and shelter to enable them to reproduce for the reserve labor supply capitalism wishes to main- tain. The American working class, in the words of Comrade Manuilsky at the lith Plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist In- < ternational, “is being Europeanized” ‘on the basis of the new lew levels of living and social conditions forced upon European workers by the “Americanization” process sup- ported enthusiastically by the soci- alist parties. The American working class to- day-makes upon Party the greatest demands in the twelve years of its existence. Our Party isnot yet in the position to fulfill these de- mands. The ceentral purpose of the main resolution of the 14th Plenum, and of the resolution on strike strategy and tactics, is to clos? this gap between the reeds of the working class and the capa- city of our Party to fulfill them in this decisive epoch, “the period of wars and revolutions,” as described by Lenin. To fail to do this means to surrender the leadership of the working class to fascism and social fascism, The resolution reiterates in the sharpest and at the same time in the most concrete and detailed form the Leninist slogan of the Communist International: “Ge to the masses!” in estimating the work of the Party as a whole, emphasizes the failiite of the Party to really make the turn to mass work as repeatedly demanded by the ECCI. The reso- lution states: “Although the Party has recog- nized the necessity of this turn, and ‘although the Party can show 2 number of successes in the attempt Sag 3 ; an man port. long r 15 eed. y in nyth for L. GES ) ring ; up air. the ages irect ieh) proof that side by side with the war preparations is a united attaci by the bosses on the living standards of the American workers. To avoid a united opposition to the wage cut the bosses 02 the plant put the cnt over in a couple of the departments on Monday, a few more on Tuesday, etc. Before the cut went into effect the workers were getting $15 on an average. This cut from 4 to 25 cents an hour for time workers and 10 er cent for piece workers means a reduction of around $4, Of those already cut tne young workers suffer the most. Time Workers among the youth were re- duced from about 30 cents on the dollar. Resides the young ~workers are the first ones to be laid off, Information has “een spread that everybody will be put on to worl reparations of U.S: Bosses haif days only instead of a couple of full days a week. This will mean more carfare for the workers, RUBBER WORKS GETS RUSH ORDERS FROM U.S. NAVY (By a Worker Correspondent) NEW HAVEN, Conn.—The Win- chester Arms is not the only com- pany that is working on war or- ders here, The Rubber-Kraft Corp- oration of 85 Willow Street is also doing its bit to speed up the new world war, This company announeed through its president, Frederick Rosenthal, that a rush order has just been received from the United States Navy for rubber boats. The order represents %21,000 worth of mer- chandise. The main resolution, . to carry out the turn in practice, (strikes, Scottsboro, Hunger Mareh) the work of the Party fundament- ally remains in the same groove.” “Sectarianism and a deep rooted formalism in the respective Party organs have been the chief obstacles to overcoming the ‘inner orienta- tion’ of the Party and to achieve the task to further root itself in the decisive industries by lack of solid personal contacts with the workers.” The resolution, and this is of the greatest significance for the entire Party, places the emphasis on elementary but basic political tasks which are prerequisites for becom- ing a Bolshevik Party, rather on criticism of actions and campaigns in which the Party has. been en- gaged. It is precisely the result ot the development of a certain self- satisfaction, “Communist vanity” as has. been termed by the ECCI, con- sisting in the overestimation of achievements and at the same time failure to understand and put into practice a whole series of good re- solutions, that we have not yet es- tablished solid personal bonds with the working class. In comparison with the possibili- ties of the situation wherein years of rationalization and the three years crisis have brought into be- ing a mass of jobless workers num- bering more than twelve millions; when 85 per cent of the employed workers are on part time work; when the cold charity of the capi- talists is admitted by even their own spokesmen to reach merely the outer fringe of the unemployed army; when the local relief agen- cies admit their bancruptcy; when the mind staggers in the attempt to grasp the vast extent of the mass misery; when Wall Street Hoover government, the leaders of the democratic ang republican part- ies and the “progressives” who act as a buffer to divert the anger of the working class contintie with a cynical brutality unparalleled even by the czarist government of old Russia to take a single dollar trom the billionaire rulers for un- employment insurance and relief, we must say honestly to ourselves that our organization and leader- ship of the struggles of the unem- ployed is one of the weakest sec- tions of our mass work. Solid Personal Bonds With Workers Millions Starve. One has to bring forward the famine periods in India under British imperialism, in China under the rule of the militarist agents of the imperialist powers, in order to tind adequate comparisons for the mass suffering existing in the Unit- ed States today. But in these countries there was not enough feod—here there is plenty. In no period of the history of capitalism haye many millions of workers, poor farmers, and their dependents, in any capitalist coun- try, been driven en mass into paup- er conditions of life in so short a time. In no country have the living standards of the entire working class population been reduced so sharply in so short a time. Starvation conditions for millions exist in the midst of mountains of food—grain, meat and vegetables, fruit—stored in gigantic warehouses and rotting on the ground. Watch the capitalist press. Only the other day it was murderously jubilant. Why? It was reported that bad weather cut the wheat crop to 42 per cent of last year’s yield. This would raisethe price but not furnish more and cheaper food for the masses of hungry wolkers. In the Soviet Union the sown area has been doubled this year. No Excuse for Failure. Given such conditions there can be little excuse for our failure to unite the struggles of the unemplo- ed and employed workers, to con- duct them on a ever wider basis and even higher levels. Our work in this field is marked by a few high hut narrow plateaus and a succession of deep and wide val- leys where no struggle took place for long periods. There has even been an opportun- ist underestimation of the will of the unemployed workers to fight to such an extent that it was possible for a leading comrade in Detroit to re- port that the response of the workers to the Ford Hunger March and the call for struggle against the murder terror that “the entire district leadership was overwhelm- ed.” With the exception of the Wash- ington Hunger March, a _ historic event but at the same time the pro- duct, not of systematic work, but ot a short period of intensive en- deavor, little has been done to po- pularize and extend the struggle for unemployment and social in- surance—especially in the A, F. of L. unions. Even the Hunger March was not followed up. This neglect an weakness opens wide the door for the fascization oi large sections of the unemployed, for their organization under fascist leadership like that of Father Cox. It opens wice the door for the de- magogy and maneuvers of the so- cial fascists. It hampers any real struggle against the traitorous lead- ers of the American Federation of Labor. These weaknesses and formal mee thods of work help to drive the une employed masses in desperation te the belief that the imperialist war is to be weicomed “because it wilt bring back prosperity.” Above all, it creates in the mogy concrete form the danger of the ranks of the working class being split..wide open by the capitaliste. and their fascist and social fascisS agents, the danger of the employed and unemployed >eing divided into. seperate camps. The capitalists have managed to get through the winter without wide mass struggles of the unemployed occurring. This was no small feat. ‘Nevertheless, they realize, perhaps better than some of our comrades, the acuteness of the situation. For instance, the McClure Newspaper Syndicate recently sept to all edi- tors taking its service a confidential item stating that the Atlantic and Pacific and Butler chain stores had been securing all the riot insurance they could get. One by one the illusion of the workers in regard to the ability of the rulers to get out of the crisis fall away. One by one various me- thods of keeping the unemployed masses silent fail. The unemployment situation is reaching a crisis point of its own inside the general eapitalist crisis. We have the invaluable experien- ces of McKeesport where the right. to meet and free speech was won - by masses organized around cor- rect slogans for the unity of the employed and unemployed after 22 years of denial of the right to meet We have the experiences of the great struggles in Chicago and Cleveland, of the Ford Hunger March, of the Chicago packing houses. We must now really throw our Party into work. The revolutionary unions must at once to set up close relations with the Unemployed Councils and actually exercise lead=, ership in putting into effect thé three concrete directions in the main resolution. The unemployed must be organ- ized against imperialist war and the whole capitalist offensive: The united front of employed and un- employed must be established for the fight against the capitalist of- fensive and the defense of the Sov- iet Union and the Chinese people.