The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 18, 1932, Page 6

Ff BPubdlished by the Comprodatly Publishing C4, lnc, daily except Sunday, at 50 Ban Dail 7 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: = sy Page Six 18th St, New York City. N. Y. Telephone ALgonquin 4-7956. Cable “DAIWORK” Or. er ’ sy mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs wy Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 50 East 13th Street, New York, N. ¥. D USA. of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City, Foreign: one year, $8: six montha $4! — —-—— on —— = ~~ ~~ Se sss] VIEWS OF SLAVE-OWNERS porrae the Struggle Against Them! BILE By (Philadelphia) The whole system of segregation and jim- crowism is a special form of National and so- cial oppression under which the American Ne- s have much to suffer. The origin of all t difficult to find, This Yankee ar- ards the Negroes stinks of the dis- mosphere of the old slave market.” ution of the Executive Com- munist International on the tion in the U.S.A.) nees in Philadelphia in the movement, and the at- olutioni: towards only as remnants In the recent s were made by t of the revolution- here to the program of ents of such character ult to the working class, larm to our Party for a mpromising struggle trying to bring into the views of aim to prevent the ‘o toilers and create of the workers dealt with some rket anizations to the fact mass organiza- inism, but that anti-proletarian yed and elimin- of the working class or- ganizations are to grow of mobilization of all against the common Willie Brown Case the readers of the Daily ainted with the facts framed-up Negro tien for a mass mobilization Brown and for the struggle the International Labor De- ideological discussion in the In one of the Phil- es of the International Workers members voted against 1ch disgraceful cases.” the ILD. entering this remarks were uttered: “What t to do with the class struggle one shouts: “Willie: Brown case, a nizations. anyhow, he always depended on his to support him,” and the third one who that the arguments so far presented are . Tose and loudly explained: “I lie Brown is not guilty, can expect anything from a Negro.” A “leader” of the Philadelphia Schools of the ternational Workers Order in a conversation with a comrade stated: “If I was on the jury, I am not sure whether I wouldn't find Willie Toward Revolutionary Mass Work Brown guilty.” There are many more such re- marks which we shall not go into now. How- ever, we must ask ourselves the question, how is is possible that at this date we find within the ranks of proletarian organizations — organiza- tions which endorse every campaign of the Com- munist Party, such brazen outspoken, anti- working class approach to one of the most fun- damental problems of the American working class? How can we explain that within the I.W.O., an organization which will work over- time to raise money for May 1, or send dele- gates to the Communist Party Election Cam- paign Conference, we find an atmosphere which stinks of the old slave market? Not An Accident To reply to these questions one cannot separ- | ate the occurrences in Branch 76, from the gen- eral orientation of the I.W.O. in this city,,nor can we separate these acts of open white- chauvinism and race prejudice from the leader- | ship given by the Communist Party fraction in this organization on the Negro question in gen- eral, and the Willie Brown case in particular. Such things don’t happen by accident, nor are such remarks a slip of the tongue. The fact is that our own Jewish Buro failed to grasp the class and national character of the Willie Brown case. From the very outset of the case it be- came, evident that certain elements within the Jewish mass organizations adopted a position impermissible for members of a revolutionary organization. Our Party fractions under the leadership of the Jewish Buro, instead of react- ing to this matter immediately, took the whole matter too lightly, discussions in those organ- izations dragged out for weeks and weeks, no steps were taken to develop a real systematic | ideological campaign which should have been followed up by organizational mobilization for the struggle for Negro rights. Such statements as we heard in Branch 76 of the I.W.O. are not only expressions of white superiority, expres- sions which reflect the views of the capitalists and southern slave owners. Not only do such statements place weapons in the hands of the Negro reformists and create distrust against us on the part of the Negro masses, but such state- ments hinder and prevent the further growth of the International Workers Order and other working class organizations—for no mass move- ment in the United States is possible, no strug- gle of the workers can be victorious without the unity of the white and Negro masses. Lenin made this very clear when he stated: “The victory over capitalism cannot be fully achieved and carried to its ultimate goal, unless the proletariat and the toiling masses of all nations of the world rally of their own accord in a harmonious and close union.” The position taken by these people on the Willie Brown case cannot be separated from their position on the Negro question generally. The fact that at this date we have such ex- + ons shows that our Party fractions: within those organizations carried on no ideological work within the last few years on the position of our Party on the Negro question. It dis- closes the fact that our fractions did not orient- | into the organization. ate the I.W.O. towards getting Negro workers It further ptoves that our fractions within the I.W.O. failed to un- derstand the political significance of the C. I. Resolution which states that, “in the struggle | for equal rights for the Negroes, it is the duty of the WHITE workers to a at the head of this struggle.” Characteristic of the ideological work carried on by the fractions of the I.W.O. is the fol- lowing statement of a member of the Jewish Buro of District 3: In discussing the Willie Brown case at a meeting of the Jewish Buro, one of its members objected to open air meet- ings by the I.W.O. on behalf of Willie Brown on the ground that, “the members of the I.W.O. might claim that such open air meetings will hinder the recruiting campaign carried on at present by the I.W.O.” Certainly such remarks are not a slips of the tongue! They are the open expression of hidden white chauvinism which come out in the open when forced by events. District Too Slow Undoubtedly the District Committee of the Party carries a certain amount of responsibility for such a situation. As pointed out on a previ ous occasion, the District too was slow in re- acting to the Willie Brown case. The District is still slow, and the slowness of the District Committee is being utilized by the enemies of the working class, is being misinterpreted as hesitation and fear to take drastic steps. The situation is quite serious. What must be done at present is the initiation of an ideological discussion on the position of the revolutionary workers on the Negro question. The Party in this district must make a thorough search within its own ranks and proceed towards the mobil- ization of the entire Party for the carrying out of the Resolution of the Executive Comraittee of the Communist International and our own Central Committee on the Negro question, not only in words, but in deeds. The Party must take the necessary steps to carry out the good decisions on the Willie Brown case that were made weeks ago, but so far not sufficiently put into practice. The Party in this district must carry out its own decision to have a discussion in the units on the Negro problem. These dis- cussions must serve as a basis and be part and parcel of a sharp struggle against white chauvin- ism and the mobilization of the white workers in the struggle for Negro rights. At the same time the District Committee must in a Bol- shevik way criticize its slowness in this case, which undoubtedly was a contributing factor towards the present situation. It is in such a Bolshevik spirit that we must approach our failure to react sufficiently to the Willie Brown case, and rally the white and Ne- gro masses against this outrageous frame-up. It is in the same spirit that we must take the necessary steps to correct ourselves and carry out the ECCI Resolution on the Negro Question in the U.S.A. which will guarantee a success- ful mobilization of the toiling masses of this country for a struggle for Negro rights. DISCUSSION O THE 14TH PLENUM. Some Errors in a Chicago District Outline IN an outline of the Chicago District on the Struggle against war, we have a few serious errors 1. The outli: ne states “The Communist Party must clea understand and be able to clarify to the workers the antagonisms and rivalries existing between the imperialist powers and util- ize this for furthering the interests of the work- y no means sufficient merely to say this. ‘The entire section which deals with the question of war does not speak of the main danger of War today, namely war against the Soviet Union. ‘We must r er that the main contradiction today is the ‘antagonism between the capitalist and Soci: ystems—this growing contrast be- tween the two systems which is the kernel of contemporary international relations effects the further development of the contradictions within the imperialist world, which have become par- tigularly intensified as a result of the crisis.” (ith Plenum Resolution of the C. I.) The special war resolution of the 11th Plenum of the C. I. also points out that “the danger of @rmed conflict between the imperialist powers is growing. But the growing antagonism of in- terest between the imperialists does not dimin- ish, but on the contrary increases the danger of war of intervention against the U.S.S.R.” The resolution of the 14th plenum of our cen- tral committee, in line with the above analysis of the C. I, points out the sharpening of the contradictions and growing war preparations be- tween the leading imperialist powers and “es- pecially between Japan and the United States, who are at present more and more involved in the sharpest conflict for their share in the ex- ploitation and division of China and are con- centrating their war forces (navy, air forces, war industry) for an immediate armed struggle in the Pacific.” The 14th Plenum does not merely speak of the conflicts between the imperialists. The resolution especially emphasizes that at the same time the feverish efforts of Japan, United States, England and France to come together, arising on the basis of their common hatred of | the Soviet Union, their preparations for inter- vention against the Soviet Union, the movement of the Japanese troops to Northern Manthuria, the feverish activities of the White Guards THE SPEED-UP IN LAWRENCE f supplement the detailed report on Lawrence Textile Workers’ Conditions, which covers the @ituation as of last fall, Labor Research Assn. askéq a local investigator to report on more re- Gent conditions especially as related to speed- up-- This is his report: Tnthe dye house of the Pacific Print Works, they have been working 12 hours, from seven to seven, straight shift—eat while you work. Be- fore the strike of October, 1931, one worker ran two jig machines; now he is forced to run three. Lay Off in Print Works “The Superintendent of the Print Works stated, hortly after the strike, that he would run the whole plant with 1,000 workers instead of 1,500. This has been carried out. In. the worsted division of No. 10 Mill of the Pacific Mills, in the English spinning depart- Ment, wages before the strike were $26.50 for a week of 6242 hours, six sides to a spinner, one hhelper.to each spinner; two bobbin setters and four doffers to a section. At present, wages for @ full week are $21, four sides to a spinner. But ach spinner now does his own cleaning, doff- ing, and bobbin setting; the workers who per- formed these operations are now completely elim- “In the Lower Pacific Mill, the workers are now ‘running four combs instead of three as before. In the Dry Room of the Washington Mill of the American Woolen Co., four women formerly produced 1,400 pounds of wool a day; at present two women are forced to turn out 2,200 pounds ® day, the machines having been very much Speeded-up, and more machines “given” to each worker, More Speed-up Tn the combing room of the same mill the Sears on the frames have been speeded-up. For- | | merly it took 12 minutes to fill a spool; now it takes only six minutes. At the same time the workers have been put on three frames in place of two, These workers were put on piece work several weeks ago, but mar such a strong pro- test that they were put back on day pay, which amounts to $16.40 for a full week. Resentment | against efficiency men in this department has been: so strong that the company has withdrafn them temporarily. The looms have been speeded up from 130 to 154 picks per minute in the Wood Worsted Mill of the American Woolen Co. The “stagger sys- tem” has been in effect in the weaving depart- ment of this mill for over four years. The pres- | ent speed-up puts too great a strain on the looms which are constantly breaking down, thus caus- ing harder work and pay losses to the workers. 12 Men Do Work of 100 Before the strike of October, 1931, about 100 men were employed in the dye house of the Wood Worsted Mill. But new kettles were in- | Stalled by means of which 12 men now do the work that was formerly done by 100. At the same time the 12 men now turn out the cloth in about two hours whereas before the cloth had to stay in the kettles 24 hours. This has practically eliminated the night shift. In the spinning department of the same mill new machines hav been installed with a double deck of rovings in place of a single deck, This gives 200 rovings to the side of a spinning frame instead of three. Doffers in this department, who are mostly girls, now get nine cents for two sides of rovings where before they got nine cents for one side. This is, in effect, a 50 per cent cut. Besides they are directly robbed of their wages when the company refuses to pay for doffs they have made. sharply raise in this situation before the inter- national proletariat, above all, the greatest danger of common intervention of the impe- rialist powers against the U.S.S.R., the world proletarian fatherland.” It is clear then that while we must see the growing conflicts between the imperialist powers, particularly between Japan and the United States, in connection with the present impe- rialist war in China, not for a single moment must we forget however the main danger of war, namely that of an attack against the Soviet Union. The section of the outline which deals with the forms of anti-war activity does not ade- quately answer the question that imperialist war will not bring back prosperity. We cannot merely answer it in a general manner as it is done in the outline, namely “it (war) is no solution of unemployment which is an outgrowth of the capitalist system and can only be abolished together with the system that breeds unemploy- ment.” One of the reasons that merely such @ general answer is given is because the outline itself allows the idea to penetrate “no doubt many workers will be placed in the war in- | dustries.” To state it in such an unqualified manner, objectively, also tends to create the idea that war will essentially liquidate unemployment. What we must particularly point out is that while there may be bread for one, there will be bullets for thousands, and in such a concrete manner, to also raise of course the question of the revolutionary way out of the crisis and war. The Daily Worker carried a number of Work- ers Correspondences, showing how in the large munitions plants, rationalization schemes are being introduced which result in mass layoffs, with heavy wage cuts. It is very essential in our concrete exposure of the bourgeois pro- paganda about war bringing back prosperity, to utilize such concrete cases. The Daily Worker of May 21, carried an article by the Labor Re- search Association exposing the myth of high employment, high wages and high standard of living during the war days in the United States. We also refer the comrades to the two articles by comrade Sparks on “Will V xr Bring Back Prosperity”? which appeared in tl:2 Daily Work- er of May 14 and 15. The outline of the Chicago District on the 14th Plenum correctly points out the need of linking up our struggle for immediate de- mands with the anti-war campaign. Here again our struggle against war is presented a bit one- sided. While it is correct to put a great deal of emphasis on the question of our struggle for immediate demands in relation to our struggle against imperialist war, we must also at the same time emphasize the need of direct strug- gles against every manifestation of imperialist mobilization for war. One of the reasons for the slowness with which the Party responds to the anti-war campaign and to the defense of the Soviet Union are weaknesses in developing direct struggles against imperialist war. The same outline also suffers from the fact that it does not present the struggle against Socialist Construc- tion in the Soviet Union On May 14 the Volkhov aluminum plant, near Leningrad, started operations and for the first time in the history of the country aluminum is being produced on a factory scale. By May 21 the plant was producing 4 tons a day. The pres- ent annual capacity of the plant is 6,000 metric tons of aluminum, but it is planned to expand the plant to double this capacity. The founda- tions for this factory were laid on July 3, 1930. ete ee ‘Invitations have been extended to three Len- ingrad societies for the International Gentics Congress, to be held at Cornell University, Ithaca, this year. 8 a Capital investments in fisheries throughout the Soviet Union are to be increased to 36,500,000 rubles during the current year. ‘The program for this year’s fish catch throughout the Soviet Union has been set at 1.9 million tons, as com- pared with 13 million tons caught in 1931. Fate Gea | Construction work on the second cotton substi- tute factory in the Ukraine was begun early in May at Chernigov. The factory is to have an annual capacity of 8,200 tons of raw cotton sub- stitute, iceiwe The second blast furnace of the Magnitorgorsk steel mill has been blown in. Construction work SCENE AT MAGNITOGOKSK on the third and fourth blast furnaces is pro- gressing rapidly. On May 25 the first blast fur- ‘nace produced 1,966 tons of pig iron and on May 26 1,104 tons, as against the daily program of 870 tons. Caer ea a: Large sums will ‘be expended during the cur- rent year by the chief cities of the Soviet Union on the purchase of new buses and trucks and the building of garages. The Moscow city ad- ministration plans to spend 50,000,000 rubles, Kharkov 3,000,000,° Baku 2,390,000, Tiflis 990,000 rubles, etc. Wie te On March 1 subseriptions to the “Third and Decisive Year Loan” totaled 1,995.8 million rubles ($1,027.9 million), or 25 per cent above the program. Thirty-three million persons sub- Scribed to the loan, 16.9 million cf ther ursan workers and the rost rural. In the cities prac- tically the entire loan was subscribed during the first ten days, the imperialist war which has already begun in China, as the struggle against the Chinese people (it merely speaks of the defense of the Chinese masses and not the defense of Chin- ese people) that is an imperialist struggle against an oppressed colonial people. We urge the comrades to read the articles which appeared in the recent issues of the C.I. magazine, which should be of real ‘help in clari- fying our Party members on the. war situation, Also the July issue of The Communist, which will be a special war issuq By BUECE THE “ACHIEVEMENTS” OF THE WORLD “DISARMAMENT” CONFERENCE By NEMO. F the seven months which the World “Dis- armament” Conference is calculated to last, four have already passed without the heroes of bourgeois diplomacy gathered in Geneva having adopted any decisive measures which would lead to the melting down of one gun, the discharge of even one soldier and the saving of one item of expenditure on armaments. After the League of ‘Nations has taken fully seven years in pre~ paring disarmament, the World Conference has arrived at an impasse from which it is seeking a way out solely in the direction of increased military securities. If one examines the pro- ceedings of the Disarmament Conference, it be- comes evident that the more obvious the fact of a new wer becomes, the more openly the wire- pullers of imperialist war abandon their pacifist phrases. The struggle for armaments and the preparation of a new war is carried on openly; the fire of the guns in the Far East has dis- persed the Geneva peace-fog. After the World Congress had been. meeting for six weeks, it was adjourned on March 18. Of these first six weeks, eight days were devoted to greetings and organizational questions, a week and a half to the setting up of commissions, and two and a half weeks to a general discussion, which consisted of solemn speeches of all gov- ernment representatives. After this activity, in which the only positive thing achieved was the rejection of the radical disarmament proposals brought forward by the Soviet representatives, the Conference was adjourned for three weeks in order to enable the delegates to recover from their strenuous exertions. Not even the draft convention drawn up by the Preparatory Dis- armament Commission, and representing the re- sult of five years’ work, could be adopted by the World Conference as the fundamental method of its further activity. The declarations of the leaders of the differ- ent delegations invariably contained disarma- ment proposals which were cleverly calculated to be rejected by the other delegates or, as the plan for the setting up of a League of Nation's army, would be bound to give rise to endless discus- sions. Japan advocated the abolition of aircraft- carriers in order to meet the superiority of America in this respect; Amerlea opposed sub- marines in order to protect its trade routes; England fought for the abolition of bombing planes, wisely realizing its particular vulnerabil- ity to air attacks; Italy opposed heavy weapons of attack, because it was unable to keep up with French armaments. The Geneva delegates. all endeavored to put forward demands which would weaken their opponents and strengthen the military position of their own countries, as this will always be the cas? under cvitalism. The result, of this method was that wo: of the World Disarmament Conference did not advance one step. In His closing speech before, th Con- fersnce adjourned, Arthur Henderson Admitted that in the first six weeks the Conference had not even approached its main tasks. When the World Conference met again in the middle of April, there commenced a game, which was interrupted by the Whitsun holidays, and wes then resumed end is being continued up to the present time. If an important question d3- manded a concrete answer, it was referred by the General Cc ission to the appropriate Technical Commission, from which it came back unanswered. Under the pretext “unclearness of technical detail,” the General Commission re- ferred the question to be solyed by them to a technical Commission, which politely sent the question back with the remark: “question one of political principle.” In this way the most mentary questions remained open, es for in stance, “shall only gas warfare or alco its prep- arations be prohibited?” The technical committees of experts at the -Geneva World Conference, who should only play @ subordinate role, have proved to be the actual _ brake on the machinery at the Geneva proceed- ings. The Technical Committees, consisting of Generals and Admirals, have been given the task of determining the limits of disarmament. That is to say, the generals shall dig their own graves. Even the “Neue Zurcher Zeitung, dé- clared that the members of these Committees “theoretically always’ consider themselves at war with the armed forces of the country with whose hostility they reckon,” so that from the stand- point of the military experts the Conference will be successful “if the meesures jointly decided on are calculated to strengthen their own relative positions rather than that-of their opponents.” According to the “Neue Zurcher Zeitung,” the disputes and discussions in the Experts’ Com- missions have a great similarity with the war- games which are based on the very real war- hypotheses of the various General Staffs. The most important result of the Geneva negotiations is without doubt the motion adopted on April 19, according to which disarmament should take place on the basis of the notorious article 8 of the League of Nations’ Covenant, “on that minimum which is compatible with national security and with the carrying out’ of the obligations rendered necessary as a result of international action,” at the same time tak- ing into account. the.geographical situation and the special conditions of each State. The World Conference decided that its work should repre- sent only the first step on the path to disarma- ment, and that further disarmament Confer= ences must follow,..With the adoption of these decisions, which represent a victory of the French security thesis, there was put through the principle of a limitation of armaments spread over a number. of-years. At the same time the reservations regarding the countries bordering on the Soviet Union made disarmament com- pletely illusory. It should be remarked that the German representative also voted for these de- cisions. The negotiations at: Geneva up to the present have surpassed the most pessimistic expectations. All hopes of a fulfilment of the disarmament promises made seven years ago have long since been buried. It was characteristic of the atti- tude of the Geneva peace prophets that the Danish Foreign Minister, Mr. Munch, could sub- mit a memorandum from his government de- manding the carrying out of disarmament in Several siages, between each of which there should intervene ‘a peried of five years. There can be no doubt that the actual application of the above resolution of the League of Nations more then justifies the d2mand of Denmark, which was inspired by. the big imperialist Powers. “The Conference-as such, i. e., as a body rep- resentative of all goyernments, which, under the contrel of the public, should investigate and solve the disarmament question, has long sinee disappeared,” reports the Genéva correspondent of the “Deutscho Allgemtine Zeitung.” As a matter a fact the most important questions of the Conference have been kept out of the public debates and discussed behind closed doors, where they form the object of politival bargaining be- tween the imperialist powers. strong forces are at work in order to bring about a fresh postpohement of the negotiations. Significant in this.respect is an article published in the Paris “Matin” of. May 17, suggesting a postponément of the World Conference until November, eva Conference is lsading only a shadow ex- ictence, so that merely a long postponement would suffice to bring: this comedy of a Con- ference to a conclusion.<.. ‘The desire fe¥ @ postponement of the World Disarmament Conference is as old as the Con- ference itstIf. No délegate, however, has the courage to make-such a proposal openly, be- cause they are all hoping daily for an ending of their Deste-comeny <br ame outbreak of @ new world war, At the same time _ According. to the “Matin,” the Gén- © i