The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 29, 1932, Page 4

DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, JULY 29, 1982 >.4% ci ae oS oe ~ 4, “DO 1 HEAR A COMMUNIST WHISPER!” Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc., daily exexept Sunday, at 50 E. 13th St., New York City, N, ¥. Telephone ALgonquin 4-7956. Cable “DATWORK.” Address and mail checks to the Daily Worker, 50 E. 13th St., New York, N. Y. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; Borough of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. six months, $4.50. excepting Foreign: one year, $8; Green’s New Move Against Jobless Insurance I the American Federation of Labor Journal of July 2, William Green wrote an editorial in which he again denounced unemployment insurance n these words: “Labor abhors unemployment insurance.” At the Vancouver convention of last October the A. F. L. officials op- pos¢td unemployment insurance, said it was ‘degrading’ ’and that the crisis would soon be over anyway. But the crisis continued and deepened, the ranks of the unemployed starving men, women and children grew to the fifteen millionsemark and is still increasing. The workers are showing in increasing numbers that they will not quietly submit to mass starvation. On every hand there are evidences of determination to fight against hunger. The struggle against hunger is growing; demonstrations are becoming more frequent, involve more workers and are more militant. The fight of the rank and file against hunger is growing under lead- ership that is in no way influenced by the A. F. of L. bureaucrats. It is growing in spite of and against them. The A. F. of L. Trade Union Committee for Unemployment Insurance and Relief has led the fight inside the A. F. of L. for real unemployment insurance and is meeting with widespread approval. This alarms the capitalist class and threatens their vicious drive against the working class. Tens of thousands of members of the A. F. of ‘L. are disgusted with the reactionary leaders and are more and more understanding the treacherous roles of the Greens, the Wolls, Lewises and Hutchinsons. Hence the necessity for the fakers to adopt new forms of trickery, to pretend to back down from their opposition—but only in order more effectively to carry on their old fight against unemployment insurance. By no means have the A. F. of L. bureaucrats abandoned their old oppo- sition to real unemployment insurance. Green unwittingly exposed the sort of unemployment “insurance” he favors when, in commenting upon the recent decision of the A. F, of L. executive council, he said: “Whether I shall propose that the federal government contribute as well as employers and employees I cannot say at this time.” Green pretends to be speculating, hesitating on exactly what sort of bill the council will propose. But one thing stands out clearly—he in- tends to propose some scheme that will further tax the workers—the “em- ployees” as he calls them. Thus. it can be seen that Green’s “speculations” flow in the direction of the proposals of the governor's commission of New York state, the democraite platform schemes, the Swope General Electric scheme and other such frauds that force the workers in a given industry to contribute to a fund that is handled by the management for handing out crusts to certain categories of those recently thrown out of employment. Such a scheme in no way takes into consideration the millions that have been out of industry for the past few years. Such schemes are not to aid the unemployed, but to beat down further the wages of workers now working part time (there are less than 3 per cent according to A. F. of L. figures working full time) by forcing them to contribute to a fund which the employers control. By virtue of the fact that Green says he does not wish state laws on the question and he does not propose federal aid he thereby excludes the overwhelming majority of the fifteen million unemployed who have not been connected with industry for-a long time. For who can pay in- surance to the workers out of the factories, if not the government? Thus, like a section of the capitalists these people speak of unemploy- ment insurance in name, while denying it in fact. Thus we see the A. F. of L. bureaucrats endorsing a travesty on un- employment insurance. Th: very essence of any real unemployment in- surance, is that it must be at the expense of the government and the ~employers—not a Swope scheme. It is precisely to arrest the mass movement that is gaining such power that it threatens to compel the employers and the government to estab- lish a system of unemployment and social insurance that Green comes forth with his travesty. Unemployment and social insurance is placed as the first plank in our Communist Party election platform. It is not merely a demand. It is @ plank around which masses of part time and unemployed workers, Negro and white, men, women and children are being mobilized in the day to day struggle against hunger and for jobs and bread. It is a ques- tion of generating sufficient power to compe! the capitalist thieves to dis- forge some of their plunder, to make them pay for food, clothing and shelter for the workers who alone have created their wealth. The Curtain Is Down 'HE curtain is finally down on the Tragi-comedy called “Disarmament Conference.” After nearly six months of empty talk and cunning manuvers, the diplomats have taken a vacation from their arduous labors in behalf of “peace. In the last week, the conference feverishly devoted its energy to get- ting at least some sort of a show of accomplishment. After much hag- gling behind closed doors, with Premier Herriot having been hastily sum- moned from Paris, the imperialist pursuers of “peace,” let the world know that they have reached an agreement on “armament reduction ‘in princi- ple’” The old Fox Bismark once stated that to accept “in principle” means in the language of diplomacy to reject in actuality. That this agreement is not worth the paper it was written on, is apparent to all workers who have followed the activities of the scheming ‘war mongers in Geneva. There can be no doubt that not one of the im- *perialist governments has any intention of carrying out even the very negligible arms-limitation so pompously proclaimed in the last resolution of the conference. There wil have to be six months later—further con- ferences and protracted negotiations for the “practical” application of the agreement in “principle.” Why then the resolution? The answer is that the imperialists had to save their faces. They had gone to Geneva not of their own free will. They had been driven there by the growing resistance among the masess to th war preparations and by the challenging disarmament proposals of the Soviet Union which made a profound impression on the workers of the world. The masses are opposed to war. They fear the monstrous military machinery set up by the governments. The severe crisis has deepened this animosity. The imperialists unable any longer to sabotage the calling of the disarmament eonference—a game they had successfuly played for over three years~ decided to kill it from within. This they did, although it cost them six months of manuvering. Each imperialist representative came to Geneva determined to prevent the weakening of his own military machine. But each sought to push his rivals to th wall Hoover's plan was a cunning devise to reduce the armaments of his rivals—England, Japan, and France allowing Washington to go on en- Jarging. its army and increasing certain types of its battleships. That Hoover was not serious with his plan can be seen from the fact that the American delegates refused to vote for their own plan when Litvinoff at the close of the conference, put it as an amendment in order to show their bluff. ‘The tactics of the two chief European imperialist. powers in Geneva and Lausanne showed that there is in existence a skeleton of a block ‘among them aimed at the Soviet Union in the first line (with the up- holding of the treaty of Versailles), and against the U.S. in the second line (on the question of reparations and war debts). From the failure of Geneva and Lausanne looms a new realignment of the forces of world imperialism, new block and secret alliances, The mad rivalry in armament will go on as witness the secret arming of fas- cist Italy, and she is not the only one. The danger of war becomes more immediately. ‘The Soviet delegation in Geneva spoke not only for the masses in the Soviet Union, but it gave expression to the desire and mood of the toil- ing masses everywhere, August First will be the day when the workers will demonstrate their complete solidarity with the peace policy of the Soviet Union and their Getermination to defend the Socialist Fatherland with all their might. First Workers’ Republic, Melvin A, Taylor, President, First National Bank of Chicago. ee By BURCK Mooney--16 Years in Prison By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL ‘Y 26, 1932, marked the sixteenth anniversary of the arrest and imprisonmeunt of Tom Mooney, the best known among all the class war prisoners in the world today. ‘The American bourgeois “demo- cracy’ ’algme among all the cap- italist nations in the world holds working class prisoners in chains, dating back into the’ period of the last world war. In fact, the lesser known working-class leaders in California, McNamara and Schmidt, ‘were confined to the same living tombs that now hold Mooney and many other working-class prisoners, as long ago as 1911, Mooney’s imprisonment spans the period between the two imperialist world wars, the war of 1914-18, and the war of 1932 against the Soviet Union rapidly in the making. Free- dom for Tom Mooney, for his fellow prisoner, Warren K. Billings, for the Scottsboro Negro boys, for om- nesty—the liberation of all working class political prisoners—thus be- come a major slogan of the anti- war struggles on the 18th anniver- sary of the beginning of the world war, 1914. The Maneuver of Mayor Walker The sixteenth year of Mooney’s imprisonment was emphasized by the ruling class effort to rob the Mooney case of its working-class character through the hypocritical appeal of Mayor James J. Walker of New York City, upon Governor James J. Rolph, Jr., of California, for Mooney’s release. Mooney could have been a free man today, insofar as the prison regime itself is con- cerned, if he had consented to the conditions laid down to him by the agents of the boss class that wanted this ‘sue divorced from the work- ing class struggle in the period of the still deepening economic crisis, “so that we wouldn’t have so many and so large red demonstrations in New York City,” in the words of Mayor Walker himself. These con- ditions among others were: (1) repudiation of the Communist Party and all militant working class organizatons, especially that the red trade unions: (2) An at- tack upon the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics; (3) His pledge not to return to trade union ac- tivities, Mooney’s reply was uncomprising. Governor Rolph’s reply to Mayor Walker's appeal declared that Mooney must continue to rot in the infamous San Quentin prison until released only by death itselif, Mooney’s reply to Governor Rolph’s decision was a clarion call to new working-clas mass struggles. He declared: “I am ready and willing today as always to give my life to the cause of the toilers of the world regardless of race, creed, color or nationality. This decision (Rolph’s) in the face of world- wide protest against my brutal frame-up is an insolent and sinster challenge hurled by a doomed capitalist system into the teeth of the entire working-class. I call upon the militant working- class of the entire world to ac- cept this challenge. They must also demand that the frame-up Scottsboro Negro boys do not die, and defend the Kentucky pris- oners and all proletarian political prisoners.” Letter from Siberia ‘Through the barred windows of San Quentin's dungeons breaks the sunlight of Soviet power in the Units of . a * August 1st Demonstrations Will Demand Free-; dom of All Class War Prisoners the Red Army, workers on the state and collective farms, as well a@s in the factories of the Soviet, Union, are continually writing to Tom Mooney of their tremendous achievements. Some lettters, or scraps of letters pass the prison censorship. Such a letter came from far-off Siberia and Mooney repied in part as follows: “At a time when the capitalist world is experiencing a crisis which is shaking it to its foundations; when death is raining on workers ,and their families in far-off Shang- hai and Manhcuria; when im- perialism is getting ready to cut loose with another mass slaughter on an unprecedented scale, it is an unforgettable sensation to read how you workers ere constructing @ new land and a new life. “So build your land. Rest assured that though entombed as we are by concrete and steel, our vision is not blinded. We are watching you closely. We glory in your achieve- ments. We are with you in your struggles, as we know it is difficult to build where there was nothing before. We are thrilled to see arising out of the muck and filth and ignorance and __ superstition that was old Russia, the new land of the Soviets, the homeland of the world’s proletariat. I express 'HE Central Committee Direc- tives on August First include directives on literature. In this article we want to show which lit- erature should be used, and how it should be used. The directives say: “Our daily activities in mob- ulzing Une masses tor struggie against imperialist war, in our preparations for August First, must. be based on the sharpest realization that we already are in the midst of an imperialist war against the Chinese people, that ° any day imperialist war against the Soviet Union may break out, that a new imperial.‘ world war is impending.” Shall we prove this to the masses? Nothing easier. Have them read “Japanese Imperialism Strip- ped,” to show designs on the Soviet Union—the secret memorandum of ‘Tanaka, Premier of Japan. Have them read the “Communist,” July issue, which is entirely devoted to the struggle against war. The Forces At Play. The directives say: In all our anti-war activities we must clearly bear in mind the analysis of the 14th Plenum of - our Party, that “the great im- perialist powers, especially Japan and the United States, are at present more and more involved in the sharpest conftict for their share in the exploitation and division of China, and concen- trating their war forces for, an immediate armed struggle in the’ Pacific.” Do you want the workers to un- derstand this play of imperialist forces in China? Give them our pamphlets to read, which analyze this situation: “War in China,” by Ray Stewart (10c.), and “Soviet China,” by M. James and R. Doon- ping. The Socialist Party. ‘The directives say: “Especially must we expose the role of the Socialist Party, which uses the slogan “Recognition of the Soviet Union” in order to cover up the direct war prepara- tions on the part of American imperialism against the Soviet Union and to cover up the at- tacks of the Socialist Party on the Soviet Government and the dictatorship of the proletariat.” Unfortunately there is nothing at August Ist--Which Literature to Use and How present to help the workers un- derstand the problem as it con- fronts them today. A short, clear pamphlet on the subject of war, which will include the stand of the Socialists, as one of the series for the election campaign, is now being written, and will shortly be available. However, a study of Lenin's writings, in the Little Lenin Library No, 2, “The War and the Second International” (20c.), will explain to any worker what the stand of the Socialists is, exposing their sham struggle against war, their immediate capitulation in the face of reality when war has broken out, and their complete be- trayal of the working class to the imperialist. war-makers. Struggle Against Pacifism. The directives say: “In our struggle against social fascism we must be guided by the statement of the 14th Plen- um, which says: “Under the ban- ner of pacifism they (social fas- cists) are trying to keep the masses from fighting against war, and support the war policy of the Hoover government, League of Nations, disarmament swindle, war debts, Laval visit, etc.” This is further explained in sitteiman’s “Kevolutionary Strug- gle Against War Versus Pacif- ism.” Thorough Ideological Under- ~ standing. The directives say: “The Leninist teachings on war must receive the widest popu- larization in line with the reso- lution of the 11th Plenum of the Executive Committee of the Com- munist International.” Read this resolltion—it will tach every comrade some very funda- mental truths about war and how to struggle against it. It is in- cluded in the new pamphlet “Ta- ward Revolutionary Mass Work” (0c.), Then there are Lenin's works, and for those to whom these works are not as yet available there are the two smaller pam- phlets: “War and the Second In- ternational,” Little Lenin Series No. 2 (20c.), and “Socialism and War,” Litile Lenin Series No. 3 (15c.). One of the most important theo- retical works on the anti-war struggle is the Sixth Congress Resolution on war, contained in the pamphlet: “The Struggle to you, from the bottom of my heart, my solidarity with you.” ‘This was Mooney’s reply to the demand that he attack the Soviet Union, He refused to retract one syllable of his blasting exposure of the role of the American trade union reaction, showing how it conspires with the profit takers to keep him in prison. As for the demand made up on him that he desert the working-class struggle, he declares: “T am ready and willing today as always to give my life to the cause of the toilers of the world regard- less of race, creed, color or nation- ality.” Won’t Surrendrr Freedom is a precious treasure to be won by a class war prisoner especially, like Mooney, after 16 years in a prison tomb. But Mooney refuses to pay the price of surrender for that treasure. So did the 14-year-old Roy Wright, one of the Scottsboro Negro boys, refused to surrender when the jud- ical lynchers of Alabama recently offered him his freedom and added $500 to the bribe if he would be- tray the other eight Scottsboro boys. The Mooney-Billings persecution links closely with the Scottsboro infamy in many ways. The 84-year- old mother of Mooney with a Scottshoro mothers, tours the United States in the renewed Scottsboro-Mooney campaign; while the Scottsboro mother, Mrs. Ada Wright, touring Europe, raises the struggle not only for the release of the Scottsboro boys, but for the liberation of Mooney and Billings, and all the class war prisoners. ‘Thus July 26th, the anniversary of Mooney'’s imprisonment, linked closely with the July and August days of struggle of the whole working-class, Against Imperialist War and the Tasks of the Communists” (15c.). Defense of the Soviet Union. The workers want to know what the attitude of the Soviet Union is toward imperialist war, and how it struggles for peace. Give them Comrade M. Litvinov’s speech at Geneva Disarmament Congress. This speech is contained in a booklet, which includes all his other speeches at Geneva: “The Soviet’s Fight for Disarmament” (20c), with an introduction by A. Lunacharsky. The “How” In Using Literature to Rally the Masses. It is casy enough to say: “Use this pamphlet and use that pam- phiet,” but how to use these pam- phiets in our organizational work previous to August First, and on August First itself, is a little more difficult. The directives them- selves give some guidance in this matter, but Some veiy detailed, clear, organizational suggestions are made in the June issue’ of the Party Organizer, on page 29, en- titled: “August First and May First.” The rallying cry, “Defense of the Soviet Union” is rallying thou- sands and millions of workers, Why? Because the Soviet Union is making every effort to maintain peace in the world. Read Litvinov’s speech at Geneva: “The Soviet ‘Union Stands for Peace” (one cent). 4 Forced Labor--J ersey * Answer to Cry tor Bread att The Government Cashes In On Unemployment By REBECCA GRECHT. VICIOUS system of forced labor is now being established in New Jersey, by decision and under the supervision of the state gov- ernment. Beginning with August First, cash relief with sid of state funds will cease everywhere. All able-bodied unemployed workers will be compelled to work in return for a weekly bit of groceries, or find their only means of subsist- ence to keep death from the door, the starvation allowance of the government charity system, taken from them, New Jersey ranks as one of the first states in the number and per centage of unemployed. Over 800,- 000 are jobless, almost 25 per cent. of the total population. New ‘ay- offs take place regularly in all in- dustries. Compelleq to recognize the seri- ousness of the situation, the state director of relief, Chester I. Bar- nard, admitted in his report to the State Legislature eight months ago, in December, 1931, that not less | than $250,000,000 would be needed for cash relief and a public works program to care for the unemploy- ed and their families, for the com- ing year. The answer of the state government, then, was to appro- priate “the miserably inadequate sum of approximately $10,000,000, intended to last seven or eight months! Now, faced with deepening crisis and a tremendous increase in un- employment, the state legislature at its last session concluded in June, demonstrated its complete bankruptcy as concerns any at- tempt to provide for the unemploy- ed. In the face of the hunger and destitution rampant in the state, a Telief appropriation of some 14 mil- lion dollars was made|on paper, with no definite provision as to where this money was to come from, outside of four millions dol- jars taken from the teacher’s pen- sion fund, never to be returned. This sum admittedly can in no way suffice even the barest needs of the workers, and condemns them to deepest misery and suffering. With the cry for bread of the toiling masses ringing in their ears, the corporation - controlled state legislature voted starvation for the workers, while refusing to touch one cent of the profits of the rich. They have inaugurated a system forced labor to save funds, keep the taxes of the banks, trusts, rail- roads down, and provide a new source of profits for the munici- palities, counties and state govern- Now, everywhere, cities will build sewers, pave streets, build highways, drain swamps, dredge rivers, clear water sheds, at the expense of the workers, forced to labor without wages, in return for a morsel of bread. “Voluntary” slavery for the unemployed—this is the latest ex- pression of capitalist demagogy in New Jersey, The state government is itself directly putting through this system, sending representatives of the state relief department to the various cities, to show them how they can compel the unem- Ployed to work without wages. How profitable this new scheme of forced labor will be for New Jer- sey cities was quite openly adrattted by the Newark Evening News, lew Jersey's leading capitdlist newspa- per, which stated: “Municipalities of New Jersey are deriving benefits from the unemployment crisis that years of prosperity never brought them.” Thus, one city in south Jersey Was persuaded by the state relief director that the time had never been so good as now to develop the marsh land in the city’s territory. “The state administration,” de- clares the report in the Newark Evening News, “showed this mu- nicipality how a job that ordinarily would cost $381,000 could be done for $35,000 if those men whoge families were receiving relief froma ' the city were required to do. at least one day of work each week in j return for the aid.” : The state emergency relief’ ad- ministration is now busy “selling” ideas to the cities, on how dead» end streets could be © developed, dumps could be turned into | city trucks repaired without mechanics, lumber hauled, etc., all | on the basis of forced labor. The | dredging of the Passaic River; planned for the last 25 years, is now actually to be undertaken, be- cause under the forced labor sys- tem it is found to be profitable,~, Municipalities aré being taught to exploit the suffering and migery. of the masses, to use the whip of hunger to force them into this lat- est method of slave-labor. |The government is showing itself openly as the slave-driver, the “exploiter, to make profits out of the suffer- ing of the working class. Z But while the workers are given forced labor, the bankers and’ rail- roads receive direct gifts of aid from the government. Building and loan associations, rajlroads, in’ New Jersey have already ‘received. millions from the Reconstruction Aid Corporation. The Central Rail+ road of New Jersey has just ree ceived from the Federal ‘govern- ment a gift of over $200,000 in tax refunds. The policy followed in New Jersey is the Hoover hunger . program. Categoric refusal of ade> quate unemployment relief for the workers, but full protection of the profits of the capitalists and mil- lions for their aid. Sacredly guarding the profits of Standard Oil, U. S. Steel, Public » Service, etc, the New Jersey state government is seeking new ways of forcing the workers themselves to bear the full burden of wmemployed relief; of taking from the workers who still cling to part-time jobs, the funds for the shameful charity, doles handed out to the unemploy- ed. Hence, the infamous New York “block-aid system” is now also to be put into effect in New Jersey, and Governor Moore has been busy conferring with Tammany Hall on how this system can most smoothly he estab‘ished . Worke.3 everywhere are seething with indignation at this latest bra= zen attack upon the unemployed. On the basis of an intensixe cam+ paign throughout #2 state, it is possible to smash the system of forced labor. We must. develop a: broad agitation, demonstrations, parades, leading to organiged r sistance to putting this slaye-drit ing policy into effect. A campaign of organization of block committees, Unemployed Councils, must be started in -all sections, to lead the workers in the neighborhoods. The struggle | against forced labor must be con- nected up with other demands of the unemployed—with the fight against the block-aid system, against discrimination in relief of young workers and Negro workers, for milk for the children, Cutting off cash relief will mean a big ifi= crease in evictions, against which a determined struggle must be con-_ ducted. We must expgse the role of the government in establishing the new~ system of slave-labor, and intensify manifold our activity to mobilize’ the workers for the fight for un- employment insurance. ¥ The situation in New Jersey48' ripe for militant struggle and or. ganization of the unemployed. Agd the establishment of a new district of the Communist Party in New Jersey, recently effected, makes Possible an intensified campaign against the starvation, forcag labor Program of the state gowernment;’ representing the oil, steel, ° cal, railroad, textile and banking trusts of New Jersey. e Letters from COPS FIGHT SOLIDARITY (By a Worker Correspondent) Kansas City. Dear Editor: Certain Negro workers living in my neighborhood, knowing me as a “radical,” and being hard pressed for food and clothes, have been in the habit of coming to my house to read literature that I have and to discuss their problems with me. As a result someone reported it to the police, and they came and visited me and warned me not to admit Negroes to my house. It happens that these cops were under the rule of the Repub- ican administration of Governor Caulfield. Since then the control of the Kan- Sas City police department has gone into the hands of the Democrats, And last night a couple of Demo- cratic cops came to my house. They asked me if I came from the North. I answered: Yes. They then said: “You are in Missouri now and we don’t like niggers. The next time one of them comes up these steps, we will take you all down.” I belong to no political party, but will vote Communist in the coming elections. —J. A, fi) * * a , PHILLIPSPORT, N. Y.—A group of comrades who have given up their homes in New York (not being able Our Readers New York City. To the Daily Worker: . I have been a socialist “for ‘many years. Recently I have been listen- ing to the Communists. As a socialist rank and filer T call down the New Leader for its ie that the rank and file Communists ip Germany followed the 8. P. leaders ship to demonstrate against the bans ning of the “Vorwarts.” It is ulous to expect the Coxamunist rank and filers to give up their shi because of the capitalist dictatorship of the Von Papen. ministry estabs lished by Von Hindenburg, whom the. socialists supported in the last. elece tion. : af Besides, the N. ¥. Times reports daily armed struggles between -the- Communists and the fsacists usually results in several deaths. Communist Party fights fascism. Socialist Party talks about it ee to pay the high rents) and who have: no job anyway are out here for the summer. We have established a. Women’s Council, a pioneers’ group, and camp. fire meetings at which we explain the Communist program to visitors trons: