The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 11, 1932, Page 6

= Page S 18th St & Adres: New York Ci nd mail all checks to the Daly ‘ker, 60 Kast 18th Street, New York, N. ¥, Dail HOW IT WAS DONE--A BLOCK) Herter : Pee US.A. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Foraign: By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; ot Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. one year. cepting Boroughs $8: six months $4.50 COMMITTEE BUILT IN STRUGGLE By E, CARROLL. weeks the Unemployed Il together and organize ro territory of South ommittee- Not until Mrs. oman of 426 Warren St., tice by the landlady rson and her husband Pederson has blis- d that he cannot place to work, and his rent because he has no Holtz, a fat white on that she is a “dirty ill get every “dirty nigger” The landlady owns several ck and paid for them with the these Negro workers who live high as $15 and $20 for a the Unemployed Council 's. Pederson and offered eviction, She, and espe- ntened and sus- However; when we je them no money, also cles for them, that with them and if o insult or strike them, rike, us too, Mrs. Pederson Ne id said that she recog- iends and was willing and happy g the block was visited with ch 34 workers signed their names demanding a stoppage of the petitions a committee of > workers went to the Brooklyn ties. There they were told that out of funds and was unable The secretary of this farce Iso made every effort to ed to the block where the workers ed for the news. more petitions were gathered a latger committee went down to nan of the district. The alderman g for work and her | n However, they did not | committee stuck solidly together | nent was worked up against the | open-air meeting was held in the | was not in, but the story was related to the other politicians. When these politicians saw the unity and determination of the white and colored workers, they made a promise to call on the marshal and stop the eviction temporarily. When the committee returned. it was close to 11 o'clock, but the workers on the block waited to hear the report. x The next evening an open-air meeting was held. Negro and white workers stood together on the platform and called for unity and strug- gle against this and all eviction of unemployed families. Four Negro and two white workers | spoke. A vote was taken of “all those who were ready to support Mrs. Pederson in her fight against the eviction” and all hands went up- There were a few landlords present. When they saw the unity of the workers, they were afraid of it and also voted against the eviction. A com- | mittee of eleven workers, four white and seven colored workers, marched down to the alderman of the district. When the alderman saw the size and deter- mination of the committee, he made a promise | that he would see to it that the eviction would | not take place. All the workers were very en= | thusiastic and everyone realized that the alder- man took this step, not out of kindness, but because of fear and pressure of the block. Every one realized that in the same way, through unity, determination and struggle, many victor- ies can be won by the workers. Upon return to the block the entire commit- tee met. Everyone spoke up and declared him- self ready to build a-strong block committee which would, with the aid of the Unemployed Council, defend and fight for the interests of all the workers there, A chairman and a secre- tary were elected. A commitee was also elected to draw up a leaflet. A time was also set for a larger meeting, at which the block committee | would report on its work. This meeting will be | held in a large yard in the rear of one of the houses owned by the same landlady. Everyone volunteered to canvas the houses on the block. When we parted everyone was enthusiastic. ‘There was no trace-of the suspicion which ex- | isted in the beginning. Everyone felt part of a large family and expressed the desire to meet again. This shows that only on the basis of struggle can we build a solid united front to overcome the suspicion and build.a strong and united front of Negro and white workers. The Soviet Union Relates Its Own Progress By GERTRUDE HAESSLER. 1OMRADES who have been touring the United States recently for various organizations, and especially those comrades who have penetrated into the industrial towns where we as yet * have izational contacts, report the eagerness with which the workers listen to in- formation about the Soviet Union. The rank ave workers, unclass-conscious, 1 the working-class movement, inctively beginning to look upon mn as their fatherland. Although many do not yet realize that the revo- lution: ut of the crisis is the only way for v they do feel that the Soviet } Union a definite hope for them. These , as well as those who are al- ready be g to follow us organizationally, Jook upo: y pamphlet about the Soviet Union as som o treasure. They are eager for the inf pamphlet contains and are willing ir few pennies for them. Recent vhole series of pamphlets about various p of life and activity in the Soviet Union m published by the Co-operative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers in the U.S.S.R., and are being made available to the workers in the United States by the Workers’ Library Publishers, and by the Friends of the i Soviet Union. Three of them are dealt with in this article and others will be described within a short time- ' “Where the Workers Are In Power.” This 58-page pamphlet by D. Zaslavsky gives @ remarkable pic of the Five-Year Plan in the course of development. The contrast be- tween declin capitalist economy and develop- ‘The eis factory “Stalin,” formerly called the “Amo,” in Moscow on the eve of May First. “The slogan on the banner reads: “The First of May In The U,S.8.R. Is The Celebration of “, Victorious Socialism,” and on the First of May ate best shock brigades join the ranks of the Communist Party ef the Soviet Union, i ing proletarian or Socialist economy 1s vividly "4 \ portrayed. The writer's style is picturesque and © \ interesting: “When the perspective of the Five-Year Plan was first outlined in the Soviet Union, the he bourgeois economists split their sides with _ Ianighter, so singular and unexampled did this steeply-ascending tine seem to them. ‘ne irs passed by, and during these years the iter broke off and the smiles froze on The actual curve did not follow & | that of the projected graph, but climbed more steeply, almost at right angles—the Pyatiletka in four years, the Pyatiletka in three years, in some branches of industry it. was. the Pyatiletka in two and a half years. This is not an ascent, but a winged flight, the curve of a banner raised aloft, the curve of youth and prosperity, the curve of hardy manhood, a line of strength and growth.” The chapter headings tell their own story: 1.. Two Curves, Two Classes, Two Worlds. 2. From the Old Russia of Thatched Hovels to the Iron and Steel of the Soviet: Union. . Socialism in the Fields, The Rulers. Work for All, Socialism and the White Collar. 7. Equal Wages, Equal Status for Women. 8, The Production of the New Man., “The Basis of the Technological Economic Plan of Reconstruction of the U-S,S.R.” Lenin said: “Communism is Soviet Govern- ment plus Electrification for ‘the whole coun- try.” This is the basis for this 32-page pam- phlet by G. M. Krzhizhanovsky, in which he analyzes the three elements that go to make up this formula. It is-a theoretical analysis of the forces making for the realization. of this for- mula. The worker who buys this pamphlet must be prepared to do some careful thinking in order to master what the author wishes to convey, but, when he is through with it, he will have a theoretical understanding of applied phil- osophy; that is, Marxian philosophy applied in practice in the development’ of socialist con- struction in the Soviet Union. “The Fight for Steel” N. Mikhailov, a worker in the “Hammer and Sickle” metal works in Moscow, writes this 40-page pamphlet on how lack of discipline, laziness and sabotage were overcome in his plant. He writes in the conversational style of a worker, telling the simple story of the struggle to over- come these weaknesses in production—a true “fight for steel.” How the workers themselves planned to harness their own plant into the swift moving chariot of inereasing production demanded by the Five-Year Plan is the story. “The country needs metal. It’s quite clear we can’t just work any old way. Let’s improve the work in the shop by methods of competition.” This was the strain of the brief speeches made in the five meetings held to discuss the ques- tion of socialist competition. ‘The rest of the pamphlet, in fascinating narra- tive, relates how Socialist competition did finally bring about the necessary efficiency. It is the story of a shock brigade in the Soviet Union of workers consciously competing with each other to bring production up to the level required for the security of their country, their workers’ fatherland. It is not a story of monotonous successes—it is a story of struggle against diffi- culties, the sabotagers were at work, the inertia of pre-revolutionary Russia was a terrible drag. But it was also a story sprinkled with lively accounts of holidays, of dancing and singing, of records reached and records Surpassed, They have more than completed their quota of the second year of the Five-Year Plan. And the pamphlet ends with this sentence: “The third year begins tomorrow! Forward!” All three of these pamphlets, imported from the Soviet Union, sell for ten cents. ‘The next pamphlets to be described will be: HOW WORKERS BECOME ENGINEERS IN THE U.S.S-R., By V. Druzhinin, 10 cents. THE SOVIET PATENT LAW, 10 cents, THE NATURAL WEALTH OF THE SOVIET UNION AND ITS EXPLOITATION, by I. M. Gubkin, 20 cents, SOCIALIST RECONSTRUCTION AND THE STRUGGLE FOR TECHNIQUE, by N. Bukharin, 10 cents. tes ao 2 or Toward Revolutionary Mass Work ( News item—‘“According to Dr. William Fowler, Health Commissioner of Washington, D. C., are frightful and threatening to the residents of Yvashington.” (1 hed District has not reacted sufficiently to the danger of social-fascism and. we have not really exposed in our every day. work, that social-fascism—that the influence of the Social~ ist Party, and AFI bureaucracy and the Muste- ites—is the main enemy which prevents us from winning the decisive influence over the workers. I call attention to the sentence in the resolution of the Central Committee which says as follows: “This confronts the Communist Party with the task of increasing, sharpening and improv- ing its fight against social-fascism, as the main enemy in the struggle for the successful mobil- ization of the masses in the fight against the bourgeois offensive and the war danger.” Deep in the ranks of the Party this is not yet felt and in my opinion we did not carry on any real organized struggle against social-fascism. For instance, we have in our district varied forms of social-fascism: we have the Socialist Party in Wisconsin, as not just a party in the sense it is throughout the rest of the country, but a government party. In Milwaukee there is not only a Socialist mayor but the majority of the city council; also in Racine, despite Swa- boda’s being expelled; and also only last month, @ Socialist mayor was elected in West Allis, where the large metal plant of Allis-Chalmers is located. Then we have the variation of the social-demagogs—LaFollette, and in each part of the district we find one or another expression of this. In the steel region of section six the Socialist Party is now holding mass meetings and taking up the struggles for the unemployed. In Indiana and particularly Terre Haute, our movement is in difficulties because of the influence of the Socialist Party, conscious or unconscious in- side our ranks. Some of our own members— of whom there are many good workers—still have certain democratic illusions and influences from their past in the Socialist Party. Others very consciously, inside the Party, are working with outside bourgeois elements, preaching the program of the Socialist Party and trying to bring its influence into our Party. Our move- ment in Terre Haute is going through a crisis today which is brought abeut because of this influence of social-fascism inside the ranks of the Communist Party in Terre Haute. This ex- Learn to Answer Questions of Wokers in the Election Campaign eS collecting of signatures for placing Com- rades Foster and Ford on the ballot pro- vides us with an excellent opportunity of learning to know the conditions and thoughts of the workers. ‘When the comrades collect signatures they should never tire of convincing the worker why he should vote for our Party. Our six main demands should be explained. We should learn to listen patiently to every argu- ment of a worker, why he might be against signing our petitions, why he hesitates. We will also find workers who will sign, yet not be ready to vote for our candidates, some who will even be sympathetic but not willing to sign. We urge the comrades to send in their ex- periences in collecting signatures, the ideas and arguments of the workers that the com~ yades face and have to answer when they collect signatures. The collective exchange of experiences will help to improve our agi- tation. We will learn to know how to meet the arguments of the workers. If we will learn to know and ANSWER the doubts and objections of the workers in signing our petitions or voting for our candi- dates we will improve our agitation and meth- ods of struggle in the election campaign. WE ASK THE COMRADES TO SEND IN THE QUESTIONS PUT TO THEM BY WORKERS SO THAT WE CAN ANSWER ‘THEM IN THE DAILY WORKER. We also suggest that discussions be devel- oped in the units on the experiences in col- lecting signatures. This will help to develop political life and initiative in the units. Of course, it will help in improving our struggles in the elections. Sectarianism and the Danger of Social-Fascism By JOHN WILLIAMSON Plains why we have a factional fight in Rvans- ville and Terre Haute. There are no rounded- out political platforms, but it is the influence of the Socialist Party being felt inside our own ranks, Understanding Social-Fascism., In the city of Chicago in connection with the counter-Olympics whom do we find put on the executive board? Carl Borders, member of the Socialist Party, secretary of the League for In- dustrial Democracy, and also head of the Work- ers Committee for Unemployment. In the Young Communist League, as Comrade Kling reported, we have in our anti-war work, members who hhave been in the League a long time, but who say that in order to get a broad united-front against war we cannot bring in the Soviet Union. In Wisconsin there, as in many other places, our main task is the concrete exposure of the Socialist Party. We have excellent opportunities to expose the Socialist Party. For instance as was reported to me in Milwaukee, Hoan cam- paigmed in Milwaukee on the slogan “Elect So- cialist Supervisors because workers will then be able to dictate the question of control of unem- ployment relief”, and no more than one day after this, these same socialist supervisors came out with a proposal for forced labor in the city of Milwaukee. Only two or three days ago the coun- cil voted for a six-hour day for all city workers. But actually the workers understand this and are against it because it means in plain words, the stagger system, cutting of wages of the workers. How about Melrose Park: I do not think we sufficiently exposed the fact that the/hall which was rented to us for May Day and then denied to us and resulted in the massacre, is owned by the Workmen's Circle in Melrose Park which is controlled by the Socialist Party. This plainly shows the connivance between the Socialist Party leadership there and the boss government. Here we have an excellent opportunity to ex- pose the Socialist Party, not only in Melrose Park, which is a small town, but here in Chi- cago and all over. Particularly the comrades in the Jewish field, in the Workmen's Circle, who tend to think we have finished our work among the Jewish workers because we built up the Iw. oO. Concrete Struggles to Defeat Social Fascism. In Southern Illinois, certainly the main enemy is Pat Ansbury. In my opinion he is the new Edmondson. Edmondson is discredited and that is why Ansbury is there. He makes nice speeches but he does not take a position on the basic is- sues confronting the workers. I am sure that there are some hesitations and illusions amongst our own Party members with reference to the role of Pat Ansbury. In the South Side of Chicago we have to carry on a sharp struggle against the Negro reform- ists who are very active against us. But specifi- cally in connection with the war situation—we see the Garveyites increasing their activity man- ifold. They have hundreds of meetings. Par- ticularly dangerous are the well-trained Japan- ese orators lecturing under the auspices of the Garveyites, talking of Japan unifying the darker races for struggle against whites. Imagine, im- perielist Japan with its imperialist offensive of Corea; its slaughtering of Chinese masses; its war in Manchuria, becomes the champion of the darker races, with relation to white im- perialism and we are not exposing them. ‘The point I am emphasizing 1s that we have a tendency to think that the social-fascists have no influence, because in our sectarian isolation we do not see what is taking place. But when the City Council of Chicago holds an open hear~ ing on unemployment relief, we find Carl Bor- ders is on the job with reference to his fake ‘unemployment relief. But neither the Commu- nist Party, Unemployed Council or Trade Union Unity: League is there with our program. We find the Borders’ led “Committee. for Unemploy- ment” is growing today. We are able to win workers over from that movement when we make a real effort. When we take the miserable little May Day parade of the Socialist Party, we nevertheless can see that there was one division of 20 American workers under the leadership of Borders who all came from this movement. BOY”—DOCTOR FOWLER DISCUSSION 'OF THE \4TH PLENUM) : By, BARD health conditions among the bonus marchers I think that we underestimate the influence of the Socialist Party press. The Socialist Party press in the District is larger than the Commu- nist Party press. In our District we have the “Leader” in Milwaukee, the “Socialist Campaign- er” in Wisconsin, which is given away free. The “American Guardian” which is a direct spokes- man for the Socialist Party, is getting finances and subs here in the city “of Chicago and throughout the district. We do not come in con- tact with these activities in our every day life and activity, and we feel and know that we are the yanguard, and the Socialist Party are so- cial-fascists, and therefore we satisfy ourselves with that knowledge. The most we ever do is make a nice speech about it, but we do not de- velop concrete forms of struggle to defeat so- cial-fascism. This direct activity of the social- fascists—this influence that they have through’ their press— direct organizations and indirect otganizations, the influence which the Chicago Federation of Labor has right here in the city of Chicago where it is stronger proportionately than in estimated as at present. And therefore we must raise sharply, in connection with the breaking of oup isolation, the entire question of. struggle against social-reformism and specifically against’ the Socialist pats influence throughout the dis- trict. By Sk GERSON Ts bosses are’ overlooking nothing in. their attempt to develop the wave of: political re- action against, the workingclass. Particularly at this time are they beginning more and more to utilize the sport organizations under thelr con- trol for strike-breaking, anti-labor purposes. In America this is a relatively new thing. In Ger- many, for instance, this process has reached a high stage of development.’ With the formal dissolution of the fascist Storm Troons, the physical backbone of the German ‘fascists have become their sport organizations, of which they have thousands, These sport organizations hélp to broaden their base—among the youth In par- ticular. In the United States the boss class has begun more and more openly to use the sport organi- zations under their control for their anti-labor purposes. It is not our purpose to deal with this at length in this articie. We merely wish to give a few cases to prove the point. Some Examples Case No. 1—In the fall of 1929 the militant National Textile Workers Union was leading a strike at a woolen mill in Leaksville, N. C. The entire mill struck with the exception of the company basketball team. They formed a strike- breaking nucleus and hélped to demoralize the strike. i Case No. 2.—In 1931 there was a strike of “shirt workers in the Lesnow factory in. New Haven, Conn. Almost the entire mill struck with the exception of the girls company team, which scabbed. Case No. 3.—In 1931 there was a strike of dock workers in Duluth. The. local Y.M.C.A. recruited strike-breakers, Case No. 4.—On March 6, 1930, a band of ath- letes from the University of Wisconsin were gotten together to break up the unemployment demonstration held by the workers of Madison, Wisc., the neighboring town. These athletes, to- gether with the local leaders of the American Legion, etc., finally managed to break up the peaceful demonstration. Case No. 5.—Only a few months ago militant students who were on strike against the expul- sion: of Reed Harris at Columbia, the editor who supported the student, delegation to Ken- tucky, were beaten and mauled.by a band of the college athletes. . Case No. 6—In the week -preceding May 1, 1930, Father Walsh, anti-Soviet Har par oxcel- lence, spoke at a meeting of 500 et the New York Athletic Club, openly ine.iing them to come down to Union Square to break up the workers May 1 demonstration. (As it happened, the N.Y.A.C. members thought better of it, re- collecting, no doubt, that the New York work- t other cities of the country, must not be under-~ = a Dollar Journalism in es ope . LOUIS ‘ENGD! ABL, or two Avnerican newspapers, tne New Yorks Herald-Tribune and the Chicago Tribune, maintain editions ed in Paris characteristic ot coilar journalism, One of the biggest ne stories in Europe toe day tor the American masses is the>tremendous response to the appeal of the Scottsboro Negro mocher, Ada not only for the lives of her own two ¢.*.s, but for all the Scottsboro Negio boys. a auro.ean labor iaised the Scottsboro demand on May Firsc and again on May.17, Scottsboro ‘agit, duy, in the iace,of rolice a resulting in deavhs, wounus, arrests. When~the Scottsboro mother arrived in Hamburg, the Social-Demo- cratic pelico denied her the right to speak in that city and threw a police-guard around the American embassy in Berlin.-in fascist Hungary, young workers haye raised the cry for the lib- evatiun of the Scoisboxo boys before the Amer in Budapest. In Vienna, the Amer- ador is the invited guest of the social-democracy at the opening of the munici-+ pal housing project dedicated to George Wash- ingion, but is compelled to listen to workers de- manding the release of the Scottsboro boys, leaflets are scattered carrying the same demand, and the police claimed the dollar ambassador in flight had his automobile stoned and there are 20 “arrests. sae This growing uphcavyal of European labor, fighting for the lives of the Scottsboro Negro boys, acclaiming the Scottsboro Negro mother wherever she goes, does not, exist,for the Pari- sian boulevard editions of Wall Street's mouth- pieces in New York and Chicago. To tell the truth would be tO unmask. the European capitalist allies Gf Iyrich mob justice in the United States, especially “the European social-democr the socialists of Germany, Czecho-Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland, France, in a year when floods of social demagogy are being let loose in the United States in the effort to hold the working class voters for the parties of capitalism, including the American Socialist Party that has again’ nominated the preaches, the Reverend Norman Thomas,,as-its candidate for president. Much was said’ about. Moiliers’ Day but | nothing about the Scottsboro mother. The big- gest story is not the fight. for the-living Negro children but the finding of the: dead Lindbergh baby. Columns and pages are devoted to the military reception given by Wall Street’s army ; heads in Paris to the so-called “Gold Star’ Mothers”, the yictims of dollar imperialism’s participation in the last world, war. But there are no Negro mothers in this delegation. The race line is sharply drawn as if no Negro worker victims fell in the world war, The Negro mother crossing..the.Atlantic to build the unity of labor in its struggle against class and national oppression, and.the response she has received, far oustrips in significance, in fact comparisons become odious, with the cross+ ing by airplane of an Amelia Earhart. Yet the latter becomes the center of an avalanche of publicity. It has remained fo. the Paris edition of the New York Herald, however, to start a discus- sion on what self-styled “mothers”.of pet dogs should do at the cinemas. The origitfal contribu- “tion started off with this paragraph: “The other night at a cinema, I had the most annoying experience. I always go everywhere accompanied by my child (an adorable peking- ese) and the film was absolutely ruined for me by the barking of the other dogs,” and concluded with, “even when we returned home, my pet was so upset by the vulgarities of the intruders at the cinema that he kept me up all night.” * Side by side, however, with this: discussion, theré is the parallel acclaim that is supposed to have: greeted an editorial calling for “Fascism In America”. This is dollar journalism in. Europe. The Bosses’ Sport Organizations ers had put up a fairly good scarp on March 6). The above are just a few cases, chosen ale most. at random. The above cases, however, taken together with the vicious jingo and anti- labor, anti-Soviet propaganda with, which most of the boss controlled. sports organizations reek, show a whole tendency. If-any doubting Thomas still feels skeptical the remarks of Avery Brund- age, rich Chicago building contractor and pres- ident of the Amateur Athletic Union of the ~ United States, should quickly dispel his doubt. Says Mr. Brundage, in appealing to his fellow~ capitalists’ for money for the American Olyme pic team (Chicago Tribune, 5-27-32): “It is remarkable that in this unprecedented period of financial and industrial distress there has been practically no disturbing disorder. or social unrest. Undoubtedly this is due in a large measure to the training our boys and girls have received on the field of sports. “For this reason, if for no other, our pro- gtam of amateur sport, with its high ideals (‘Be a good, loyal strike-breaker’—S. G.) and | with its lofty standards of sportsmanship, merits the support of every patriotic citizen.” We are disposed to agree in some respects with Mr. Brundage. The capitalist-controlled sports organizations, unfortunately, still have & |, great influence on the masses of working youth, For Workers Sports~ It should be clear to every militant worker that it is nec@&ssary for us to have our own workers sport organization. In’ the United States this organization is the Labor Sports Union of : America, This organization should receive the ‘unqualified support of every worker—something which it doesn’t as yet. Workers should recruit for it, particularly in their shops. In every shop there are workers who like sports. Telt them about the L.S.U. Point out.the difference between a workers sport organization in which workers actually have a chance to develop theme selves and the boss-controlled organizations where the messes of workers are sacrificed so that a few “stars” may develop. ~ f: Particularly at this moment is it necessary that workers support the International Workers Athletic Meet, to be held at Stagg Field, Chie cago, July 29, 30 and 31, ‘This meet will be the wind-up cf the Counter-Olympic Campaign, led by the Counter Olympic Committee, the honor- ary chairman of which is ‘Tom Mooney, the framed-up worker. Workers — whether sportsmen. or not—should give this mest Loy ubricet edt (Workers besale in getting more informa. tion about the International Workers Athletie Meet should write to the National Counter Olymme | pic Committee—799 Rroaidwagy: = York.)