The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 11, 1932, Page 4

—than 4 last century! ee ee ee, Page Four DAILY W ORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 1932 } = eg Bere nits tg WOMEN, YOU TH, Delegates to Chicago N for Intensive Campaign for Commun Trade Union Unity League Report Pledges Full Support to Commu- Are Not Neutral Between and Employers” nist Platform; Workers spec ection wit! to be r the employers unemployr por? the Communist Pai 0 's’ enemies, agai! Democratic and Soci: Cox and o' | Parties, misleader: day ar ominating “We developed, b:id LD THE UNION” | of the conta-cnce Meldon, ua- nger marches wi!l the cities of Youngs- blic Stec DOTS Oo 6(Ilinu's Sel] ethlehem Steel | he next m es are for the diate relief of lection Clubs” ‘ont bodies in hops where the has contact and organization animously voted for by the e. The setting up of anti- s in the same manner producing war material Youth Conference A special youth conference of 150 uth delegates was held on Sunday. uth conference was called to specific youth demands the election campaign and the S and means of mobilizing the broad m ss of youth behind the Party Platform. Comrade Foster, the Communist candidate for President, addressed the conference. yi youth conference opened with the report of Gil Green in behalf of the National Executive Committee of the Young Communist League. This report brought forthe consideration of the conference a number of youth demands. It also went into special organizational forms. The report poined out that _ihere are about eight million youth in the United States from the ages of 21 to 24. These youth who are in the main young workers and farmers, will participate in a presidential election for the first time. It was proposed to organize a broad movement of ‘First Voters Clubs” which would in- clude all young workers voting for the first time. * Comrade Foster pointed out the special importance of the election struggle for the youth. He said that the youth are not tied down by many of the illusions of the adult workers and can be won much easier than the older workers for revolutionary struggle. Comrade Foster pointed out that throughout the entire campaign the youth must remember the fol-, lowing three points: (1) The devel- opment of broad agitation and prop- aganda; (2) The organization of struggle around the daily demands of CONVENTION DELEGATE the youth; (3) The building of a mass WarWages Aren’tGood Living Wages; Figures Blast a Myth Wouldn't war bring high wages and Prosperity? This is the most com- mon question asked today by work- ers, even by sincere and militant workers. We showed in an article in the Daily Worker, May 21, 1932, that high Wages in war time are a complete Myth, that wages in general lagged | behind the: cost of living even in| what are described as the “boom days” of the last imperialist war. We noted how wages of the best paid/ groups fell far below what even gov-/ ernment bureaus designated as suffi-| cient to maintain « “minimum health | | and decency budget.” | | Let us look at the trend of wages| and living costs in three important war industries during those years, ‘Bextile Real Wages Lower | Than In 90's, | In teh textile industry as a whole | fing that the purchatmg power the workers’ earnings was a little during the war years—1914-1918 it was during the nineties of Fai ‘The avera; men in the dustry during the war years was less than 25 cents, while that of women ‘was 20 cents an hour. In the wool manufacturing indus- try the hourly wages of the men dur- ing the war years was only 27 cents ‘an hour, while women were paid 21 cents. The relative purchasing power of the wage-earners in the silk industry rose from a base of 100 in 1914 to 101 in 1916; but then fell to 64 in 1917 and to 96 in 1918; so the workers hourly earnings of were 4 per cent worse off at the end | of the war than in 1914. Steel Wages Dropped Too. Relative annuat earnings of steel » workers—including those in iron and ‘ steel works, rolling mills, foundreis ! and machine shops, were lower in 1914 than two decades before, and @ropped even lower in 1915. In 1916 they had risen only to what they); hhad been in 1892! There were only @light increases in the remaining war years. The Interchurch World Movement, + its report on the Steel Strike of that this described the condition of manufacturing in-| “Nearly three-fourths of the steel workers couldn’t earn enough for an American standard of living. The bulk of unskilled steel labor earned less than enough for the average family’s subsistence. The bulk of semi-skilled labor earned less than enough for the average family’s minimum comfort.” And the report states definitely workers not only immediately pre- ceding the strike but also during the previous yeasr of war-time “prosper- ity.” This prosperity was only for the Schwabs, Graces, Morgans, Garys and their fellow steel capitalists. And Coal Miners Suffered. ‘The same conditions were found among coal miners In 1900 a pick miner in the central competitive bituminous field received 52 cents for @ ton of coal and could buy With it |52 cents worth of food and clothing. ‘The following years saw a continued increase in nominal wages up to 87 cents in 1918. But in reality the |miner was worse off because with | this wage, due to a stead rise in liv- ing costs, he could buy only 34 cents worth of goods as compared with 1900. Where money wages increased | real wages haq declined. ‘The daily wages of mine laborers was $2.10 in 1900. Although this had | increased to $4.75 in 1918, the laborer |could then buy only $1.88 worth of | goods as compared with 1900. Thus | the end of the war found the work- ers in a worse position than at the beginning of the century! In the anthracite industry the sit- ; uation was similar. The relative real earnings during the war years were | considerably below the years 1902-10. These are typical figures for “high war-time wages,” about which the capitalists and their agents in press, pulpit and schoolroom still talk. They would lure the workers into support of the international slaugh- ter and the attack on the Soviet Union by rehashing these lies about higher war-time wages. Workers must see to it that these lies are answered. Imperialist war will mean a still further degrada- METAL WORKERS IN SPECIAL ELECTION CONFERENCES PLAN DRIVEFOR JOBLESS uESS INSURANCE Convention Organize Their Forces | t Platform In Industries Young Communist League as a res of the first two. He said we m constantly remember all these three. He also made a personal appeal to the youth delegates to study Marxist- Leninist literature which with active participation in the class struggle would aid in developing more real mass leaders from he ranks of the youth. The following are the demands re- ferred for final formulation, in addi- tion to the six in the Communist draft platform: 1, The right to vote for all 18} years of age and over. The right to| vote for all servicemen. Old enough} to work, old enough to vote! | 2. Against all discrimination of the | youth in unemployment relief; against | | all vagrancy laws. 3. Abolition of all child labor un-| der 14, Government support of all) children under that age now working. | 4. A six-hour day with full pay} for all young workers under 18. 5. Equal pay for equal work for young and adult workers. 6, Free food, fare, clothing, medical treatment and school supplies for} child renof unemployed workers un-| til unemployment insurance is estab- lished. Abolition of fees in all state | and city controlled schools and col- | leges. | 7. The building of new public| schools, playgrounds and recreatiof centers in working class neighbor- hoods. 8. Against all forms of bosses’ mil- itarism. Against the R-O.T.C., Na~ tional Guard and Citizens Military Training Camps. 9. Against the discrimination of Negro youth in giving of relief, and | in.employment; against Jim Crow schools and community centers. Women’s Conference “The women of the working class | must be won for the Communist Party. They belong to us.” This was the keynote of the conference of women delegates held on the second day of the nominating convention of | | the Communist Party. | One hundred and sixteen workers | were among the thousand worker- delegates to the Communist Nominat- ing Convention. Of these, more than | half were Negroes. Women workers represented groups in almost every state of the union. | The women delegates heartily en- | dorsed the platform of the Commu- nist Party as proposed to the con-| vention and stressed the need of rais- | ing special demands for the working women in the states and cities—equal | pay for equal work, maternity insur- | ance, the struggle against the high cost of living. The need of mobiliz~ ing the working women for the strug- | gle against imperialist war and of winning them from the influence of the pacifists, was carefully discussed by the women delegates. CONVENTION DELEGATE They are in a demonstration against lynching, fighting for the lives of their fathers, and big brothers, and probably of their mothers because lynch gangs kill women too. The white landlord and business man likes to have it believed that lynchings are all “to preserve the purity of white womanhood,” but cold figures show that most lynchings are because some Negro worker or tenant farmer asked for his wages or a part of his crop and got to be known as a “trouble-maker.” June Issue of ‘The Communist’ A Manual of By V. SMITH. ‘HE JUNE ISSUE of The Commu- nist is more than just a monthly publication. It is one of those pamphlets which every worker should have, to read not once but to keep and read again and again. The ar- ticles in this issue, with two excep- tions, are concentrated on industrial and election issues, on strike strate- gy, organizational forms and tactics in the penetration of the old unions, {on the present political situation and on the role of fascism and social democracy. Next issue will concen- trate on war. The leading article is an editorial | summing up the decsiions of the 14th “Plenum” (full meeting of the Cen- tral Committee) of the Communist Party of the U. S. A. Strike Strategy. A sharp keynote in the discussion |of industrial organization and tac- tics is struck by O, Kuusinen of the C. C, of the Communist International in an article with the rather general title: “Struggle for the Majority of the Working Class and Our Mass Work.” It is mainly a discussion of strike strategy. “A strike which is carried through well is always a political victory | whether it brought material success or not. But a badly carried through strike may also be a politjcal defeat”, says Kuusinen, and preoeeds to sweep away asedecided already, a lot of the old questions on whether strikes can be won in a period of depression. He discusses the tactics of winning them. This article is followed by two others: Foster’s “Some Elementary Phases of the Work in the Reformist Uninons” and Jack Stachel’s “Les- sons of Two Recent Strikes.” Union Agreements, Foster emphasizes the fight for en- forcement of union agreements, which ar> made (sometimes for de- magogic purposes) by the reactionary leaders. He points out that while there must be struggles within the A. F. L. locals, (there have been too few) it is a mistake to confine struggle to the locals, as too much so hitherto. Work within the locals he says, “has been largely divorced from the real shop life of the work- ers. A typical example of weakness in this respect existed in the An- thracite.” Leadership of the A. F. L. opposi- tions must be in the hands of the revolutionary unions. He warns against premature splits. We must be hampions and fighters for unity— real unity, not merely a slogan of amalgamation such as the Lovestone- ICRY: HELP! Y ins the name of besieged China—in the name of the men- aced Union of Soviet Socialist Republics—in the name of the peoples of the earth—in the name of the great hopes of humanity which the awak ening of the oppressed races of Asia and the heroic reconstruction of proletarian Russia arouse and sustain in us, [ ery: Help! Down with the assassins! And I denounce to all the world, the ignoble lies of the governments of Europe and America, especially that of France, whose handful of adventurers in the ser- vice of the warmongers stretch out their rapacious fingers over the earth and use Japan ese imperialism as the execu- tioner’s axe to sever the heads of the revolution. And I denounce the treson of that intellectual class which for- merly was the look-out at the mast of the ship to pilot it through storms—which today purchases its peace and com- fort by its silence or its servile flattery which serves the interest of the moneyed and privileged classes. And I de- nounce the farce of Geneva a’ Nations. I appeal to the sleeping md the folly of the League of conscience of the best forces of Europe and America, I appeal to the consciousness of colossal power as yet unrealized in all the people of the world, to cut the serpent’s knot of all the plutocratic and military fascisms which tomorrow will encircle the globe —to crush the new born conspiracy-and to seal the wnion tion of real wages of the working class. of the working masses of all ys free peoples. ROMAIN ROLLAND. Strike Strategy ites use as a substitute for struggle. | Exposure of the. bureaucrats must not be just denunciation, but presen- tation of facts. Strike Analysis. Stachel’s article is a detailed study of mistakes and success in applying the Strassburg Resolution on strike strategy to the 1932 Kentucky min- ers’ and New York dress strikes. The Kentuky strike was not prepared for in the spirit of Strassburg. It was called on the initiative of blacklisted men with the National Miners Union leadership largely in ignorance that this was the main group already in favor of a strike. The unemployed miners should have been led into a struggle for relief, while contacts and organization were built among the employed, in preparation for a strike. A whole series of other things are listed by Stachel that ought to have been done and were not done. Stachel does not so much say, as prove by implication, that the main trouble in Kentucky was our leaders’ vast misunderstanding of the situation, flowing, of course from a lock of de- talide study that would have come in the course of real preparation. The dress strike was on the whole successful, but even here the full ad- vantage of the situation was not taken because of a too formal united front policy, not enough trust in the masses of unorganized and members of right wing unions. Our “united front work” was too much in the spirit: “Members of the International You are in the bosses’ union and its strike is not your strike!”, with- out concrete ‘proof being given, and with a chance for the reactionary Officials to claim, “They just want you to join the Red union”. The real united front also would have given the workers in the shops, irrespective of union membership, a chance to vote ,on the strike date. Soial Demagogy and Fascism. W. Knorin analyses the role of So- cial Democracy and Fascism, using Germany as an example. Both are agents o fbig business. They differ on tactics, and big business is using whichever seems at the moment the best for it. Social Democracy crecks the militancy of the workers through “democratic” forms’ and illusions; Fascism throws these overboard and calls for sterner measures, but also with demagogic arguments that its ways are best for the workers. Our main fight to win the workers is against the Social Fascists (Social Democrats) who claim to be a party of the workers. Social fascism paves the way for Fascism. Bill Dunne, in “The War Offen- sive—Tightening the Capitalist Dic- tatorship in the United States” points out that the crisis now grips the entire working class, skilled as well as unskilled, the average reduction in wages being admittedly 40 to 50 per cent, and certainly actually worse. The rulers of this country begin to work out plans for a bi-partisan dic- tatorship, a war government as a solution, and the Socialist Party sup- ports it. ‘The June issue also carries an ar- ticle by Olgin on the Second Five- Year Plan. The article is highly in- structive. No worker can afford tg miss it. French Gov’t Will Not Wipe Out Reparations LONDON, June 10.—As the British Cabinet met to discuss the policy to be followed at the Lausanne Confer- ence, scheduled to take place on the i€th of this month, Prime Minister MacDonald, was informed by Herriot that the French government cannot approve the proposed wiping out of reparations. In addition, it 1s reported here that Secretary .of State Stimson told the British Ambassador that the Uni- ted States Government is also a- gainst any step to cancel completely the German reparattons. Burlak Reports to TUUL Nat'l Board NEW YORK.—At the last National Executive Board meeting of the Trade Union Unity League, Ann Bur- | lak, of the National Textile Workers Union reported on the situation in the textile industry. NTWU is now in the process of con- solidating jts membership and is carrying through a concentration in a@ number of cities and mills, (Law- rence, Passaic, New Bedford, Paterson, Rhode Island). The leadership of the union is now assigned for prac- tical work in the various centers: In Lawrence work has been begun inside the mills. National Convention ‘The union is preparing for the na- tional convention that will be held on July 4th and 5th, The union has led no’ struggles in the recent ‘period. The strikes in Paterson, Lawrence, Rhode Island, Conn., etc., did not re- sult in increase in membership be- cause of the mistakes made during the strike. Burlak, who was a dele- gate to the Red International of La- bor Unions plenum pointed out the emphasis laid by the plenum on the serious preparations and correct lead- ership of the strikes. ‘She méntioned on mill (Weybottot) where the union through hard and correct work had built up a strong shop branch of the union which embraced about half | the workers of the entire mill (700) and that because of a premature strike and because of the adoption of wrong demands the union was destroyed in the shop following the defeat of the strike- Burlak pointed out that though the union felt that the demands were wrong that it was not possible to win in one plant of the American Woolen Co. the return of the’ 12% per cent wage cut which was.given to some 45 mills, yet the union yielded to some of the shop leaders who insisted that the strike be called for these |, demands after the shop branch of the union was successful in securing @ number of concesstons directly from the company including the. recogni- tion of the shop committee elected by all the workers in the shop. Utilize Experience The lessons she drew were that! while we must at all times formulate the demands with the’ workers, this must not be interpreted to mean that we must merely follow at the tail of the workers. It is our duty to give leadership to the workers to bring them our general experience from all the struggles, analyze the relation of forces and thus help them to formu- late on the basis of their needs the best possible demands, dependirig upon the given relation of forces, that’ can rally the masses and that can be She said the} \CUT WAGES, SPEED UP ON ALL |MEN; LAY OFF STREET RAILWAY LINES >w York icon: 297 Technicians * ind Offers hem Jobs As Motormen—Maybe, Sometime ¢ ttsburgh Traction agnates Raise “Profits by Higher Fares, More One-Mars Cars News of increase of street car fares | ad cutting of wages of street car motormen and conductors and other employes, and of replacement of two- man ¢ars by one-man cars is accu- mulating. Extra burden on the worker who has to use the cars to go to work, more unemployment and harder work for less wages is the city’s or the company’s “way out of the: crisis.” New York Fires 297 The New York board of transporta- tion has notified 297 engineers and draftsmen, highly skilled. workers, that after June 30 “their services will no longer be required,” but, magnificent genérosity, “they will be given first option on jobs as motormen, etc. (low wages), on the new Eighth Avenue subway, if and when’ the city under- takes to run it.” The ‘city saves and makes avail+ able for Tammany graft the sum of |$761,889 per year by, this “economy measure,” and 23 engineers, three caisson tenders,’ one ‘cement tester, three chemists, 105 assistant engi- neers, 73 construction inspectors, one timber inspector, four steel inspectors, 14 junior engineers, 69 draughtsmen and one laborer get a chance to starve a while. Meanwhile, |the same authorities | who discharged these men report that 20,000 persons have applied for the 1,500 jobs on the Eighth Avenue subway. Wage Cut in Boston Fifteen “hun@red carmen of the Eastern Massachusetts Street Rail- way system got a wage cut of 7 cénts jan‘ hour June '2. The old basic wage of 67 cents an hour for operators of two-man. cars is cut to 60 cents, and the 72 cent wage for one-man cars is cut’ to 65 cents. Cut in Pittsburgh Wages The Traction Conference Board boasts that it successfully cut wages seven and a half per cent on May 1, and now will, on June 26, abolish the weekly pass, by which’ an unlimited number of rides during the week could formerly be bought wholesale for $1.50. The standard.car fare in Pittsburgh is 10 cents, or three for a quarter. ‘The board is also pleased to an- nounce that one-man operation of crosstown cars is increasing, and that the “motormen and conductors dis- placed by the changes will be placed on the extra list”—meaning they may, sometime, get a run or two if they keep in touch. They will have most of the disadvantages of work- ing, without the wages. St. Louis Wages Cut Officers of the Amalgamated Street jand Electric Railways Employees | Union, trained in many sellouts pre- viously, have signed, in return for the closed ‘shop and a guarantee of the dues from every one of 3,100 carmen in. St. Louis, Mo., a new contract, effective as from. May 20, as follows: ‘One-man car operators and bus drivers, now receiving 684 cents an hour, reduced to 65 cents. Two-man crews, now getting 62.1 cents hourly, reduced to 60 cents. A reduction of 5 per cent in the wages of shop men, track laborers and, material handlers. ‘won. in the course of the struggle. Burlak ‘also brought before the N. E. B. the necessity to start a nation- | wide struggle against the deportations that are being carrjed. through whole- sale in the industrial and company towns. This deportation campaign is being directed against the most militant workers and is terrorizing the entite foreign born ‘population. The terror is in particular directed against the T-U.U.L. unions and un- less We Start a real struggle we will find great difficulties in enrolling the workers into our unions. In this con- nection’ she made .proposals for the campaign to secure the release of Edith Berkman. Complete recognition of the union, with a “closed.shop.” One day off. in.eight, without pay, fer regular employes as assurance that extra crews.now on the com- pany rolls will have work. A two-year coniract, instead of an agreement for, one year as heretofore. The percentage-of. wage reduction for one-man operators and bus drivers is 4:9, articfor two-man crews 3.3. per cent. ~~~ An Open Letter to the South By LANGSTON HUGHES White workers. of the South: Miners, «. Farmers, Mechanics, Mill -hands, Shop ‘girls; Railway men, Servants, . Tobacco Workers, Share cr°pper:, GREETINGS! Iam the black. worker, Listen:. That the land might be ours, And the mines and the factories and the office towers. At Harlan, Richmond, Gastonia, Atlanta, New Orleans; That the plants.and the roads and the tools of were, Be ours: Let us forget. what Booker T. said. “Separate as the fingers.” He knew he lied. Let us become instead, you and I, One single hand That can united Tise To smash the old “dead dogmas of the past— To kill the lies of color That keep the rich enthroned And drive us to the time-clock and the plow Helpless, stupid, Scattered, and alone —as now— Race against race, Because one is black, Another white of face. Let us new lessons learn, | All. workers, New life-ways make, One union form: Until the future burns out Every past mistake. Let us get together, say: “You are my brother; black or white. You my sister—now—today!” For me, no more the great migration to the North, Instead: Migration into force and power— Tuskegee with a.red flag on the tower! 2 On every lynching tree, a poster ery- ing FREE i Because, O poor white workers, You have linked your hands with me. We did not know that we were brothers. J Now we know!.... .. t Out of that brotherhood Let power grow! We did not knowy** That we were eqdience Now we see In union lies our priteg é Let union be Cer { The force that breaks the time-clock, Smashes misery, Takes land, ’ Takes factories, Takes office towers, Takes tools and banks and mines, Railroad, ships, and dams, Until the forces of the world Are ours! White worker,” Here is my hand. Today, We're Man to Man: April 25, 1932: (FROM THE NEW MASSES.) a a Writing Headlines On a Wall Newspaper In Uzbekistan The press ts free to: the workits,'tn thd Revie Union. They have which is the “Wall Paper.” It is ¢: ments and complaints, It is workers themselves write and edit it. r} t ed