The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 30, 1932, Page 4

DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 1932 Daily,.Worker sraitianed by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc., daily exexept Sunday, at $198 St. New)¥ork jCity, N.Y. Telephone, Abgonguin 4-7956. Cal ‘DAIWO! Address and) malljchecks to the Daily Worker, 50 E. 13th St, New York, N. X. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mail, everywhere: , One, year, §6;. six. months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Borough {of +Mankatfan ‘And! Bronx,\ New 'York\Cit¥. Forefgn: ene year, $8; sixd months, / $4350.” More Energy to Put the Party on the Ballot HE problem of placing the Party on the ballot in the various states is now a burning task. All districts are now working to reach the goal set by the National Nomi- nating Convention to place the Party on the ballot in a mini- mum of forty states. Up to the present, however, due to numerous reasons, n some cases to the election laws, but chiefly to the slowness the work of local comrades, we are only on‘the ballot in following fifteen states: Arizona, New Mexico, Tennes- Illinois (presidential electors only), Michigan, West Vir- ia, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, South Texas, Georgia, Delaware and Montana. There are good prospects that in the next week or ten da provided a steady drive is kept up, we will place the Party on the ballot in 19 other states, giving a total of 34 as the expected minimum. In five states the comrades definitely failed in their task. These are California, Kansas, Louisiana, Nevada and Oklahoma. (In Oklahoma a renewed effort is being made to get the party on the ballot.) * x * O INSURE reaching the minimam of forty states, it is ssary to concentrate particularly on a number of s where our position is now precarious. These include Jarolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Ore- souri, Idaho, Nebraska, Indiana and Mississippi. Special efforts must be taken by the districts in these last- named states that are in the doubtful column in order to guarantee the success of reaching our goal. This goal must be reached. But it can be done only if there is a full concentration of the energies of the Party the assignment of definite task to every Party nember, a check-up on the carrying through of these tasks, non-Party members, members of mass organiz members, revolutionary trade unions and Unemployed Councils wn into this wo The task of placing the Party allot is not merely a technical task. It is a struggle rights of the Party and it is a mass fight of the greatest importance. It is the fight against difficulties deliberately placed in the way by the capitalists and their political henchmen, and such a’ fight can be achieved only by organized efforts, only by bending the energies of the Party members and by drawing in the non-Party members. In the next two weeks there must be an intensified drive which should lead toward the widening of the election strug- gle, toward making a turn toward a mass election fight. * * * VERY Party unit and Party committee must set the task of getting these signatures. Every Party member must in an organized way draw in non-Party workers. Party members must gather together non-Party workers from the factories, the neighborhoods and go out together with them to achieve this task. On to the task, comrades! Get the signatures and along with them get members for the Party, readers of our press and spread the literature of the campaign! The Detroit Anti-Eviction . Fight HE boss class shows no mercy to the poverty stricken masses. Evictions of workers without means to pay rent are reaching unheard of numbers in all sections of the coun- try. To protect the greedy landlords who have waxed fat upon the toilers, the full machinery of the capitalist gov- ernment is put to work in order to throw workers upon the streets and leave them homeless. The capitalists who shriek that Communism would break up the home, destroy family upon family, scatters the members of working class fam- jlies, making hundreds of thousands of working class chil- dren homeless and compels the unemployed to shift for them- selves with only the hard earth for a bed and the sky for a roof. This is capitalism. This is the system: which the Hoo- vers and the Roosevelts glorify. This is the system whose overthrow the socialists hinder and sabotage. UT the workers have resisted the attempts to evict them ever since the crisis began. The militancy of the work- ers in the fight against eviction is rising as demonstrated by innumerable cases and as shown by the most recent battle which occurred in Detroit. There the workers rallied to the support of their distressed fellow worker and threw a picket line of over 1,500 workers, under the leadership of the Un- employed Council. Three hundred police, a squad of police cars and motorcycle cops, blackjacks, clubs, gas and ma- chine guns were necessary to break up this united defense of the evicted family. The family was finally evicted but the fight caused the welfare agency to provide them with other shelter. At this time more than ever, the Communist Party members and revolutionary workers must take up the leadership of the defense of the working class against the capitalist attacks. They must unite the workers, irrespec- tive of political opinions and organizations, into one broad fighting front. There must not be a man, woman or child without food, lothing or shelter. The strong arm of labor must block the hideous system of evictions. This united front will not only put a stop to the persecutions, hounding and oppression of the workers. . * * 1 Ne capitalist masters can be forced to grant relief to the hungry. They can be forced and have been forced to let ap in their plunder. But only the closed fist of the working ‘lass can do it,. Through these fights, the Unemployed Coun- tils can grow into powerful mass organizations. The example of the mass fight, mass picket line, mass orotestion of the, evicted family, of Detroit, should be taken tp throughout the entire country. Give blow to blow to the apitalist attacks! “If We Get Rid of Him, We'll Have Something to Eat!” ecomnane By BURCK (Continued from yesterday) A Hypocritical Slogan In the Democratic Party platform is this slogan: “equal rights for all—special privileges for none.” Can you imagine a more hypocrit- ical slogan than that? A party responsible for the jim-crow system in the south has the crust to come before the masses in this country with such a slogan! Never was such a slogan more completely fepudiated in practice than this slogan—by the repression of the Negroes in the south. Again: one Party alone fights for the Negro masses and that is the Communist Party. Comrades, our Party puts in the very forefront of its program the defense of the rights of the Negro masses and in order to emphasize these demands we have nominated as one of our na- tional candidates a Negro wo , James W. Ford, vice-president. (Applause). The Communist Party demands for the Negro masses full economic, political and social equal- ity. We demand for the Negroes the right of self-determination in the black belt. That is: where they constitute the maj they shall have the right to form such government as they please. The Communist Party especially lays stress upon the demand for the right of social equality for the Negro masses. Amongst the white workers of this country there has been cultivated a feeling than in some respect or other they are “superior” to the Negro masses. Where did this idea come from? From the white workers themselves? No. It is an idea Planted in the brain of the white worker by the capitalists, who want to isolate the Negro masses and use the white workers as tools to help him isolate, exploit and persecute the Ne- gro masses, The Communist Party fights this conception and we burn out of our ranks ten- dencies.to look down upon the Negro masses; we fight for this principle of equality not only in the North, but down South amongst the lynchers. (Applause), The Struggle Of The Vets Another immediate question before the work- ers of the U. S. is the ex-servicemen and their demand for the bonus. Who are these men? ‘They were drafted by American imperialism and sent to Europe to fight the battles of American imperialism. They were paid $30 a month, most of which they did not get. And while they were fighting in the imperialist war the capitalists made billions, yes, tens of billions of dollars of profit; cash on the spot; but when the ex- servicemen come back and demand their bonus this capitalist government which has billions for the banks and railroads, tells them “we have nothing for you. If we paid your bonus it would bankrupt the government”, and when the ex-ser- vicemen insisted upon their demand, the goveri- ment turns loose its police and soldiers upon the men who fought its battles in France, and we see three vets and their children murdered in ‘cold blood. All this has exposed more than anything in recent years the capitalist character of the government. And what about Mr. Roose- velt during this period? He and his party in its platform speak vaguely of “justice” to the ex- servicemen. What’does that mean in reality? Where does he stand on the bonus? He agrees with Mr. Hoover that the vets shall not get the bonus. Not only does he agree with Hoover but with Mr. Thomas of the Socialist Party. What did he say about the outrageous shoot- fz down of the veterans, just as of the un- employed and strikers who have been shot down? Well, Roosevelt never opened his damn irap ‘| about it. I listened to him today making the blah blah speech but he was careful not to men- tion the shooting of the ex-servicemen in Wash- ington. Why didn’t he protest against the out- rage which has re-echoed throughout the world? Because in this, like every other question, he represents the interests of the capitalist class and finds himself in complete agreement with Mr. Hoover. Roosevelt in the White House would have done as much in shooting down the vet- erans as Hoover. The Communist Party, on the other hand, is the only political party in the U. S. which has come out squarely in the bonus. We supported the ex-servicemen in this demond. Wha organized this fight in the first place? The } call was issued by the Workers Ex-servicemen’s William Z. Foster, Communist Candidate for President, Un- masks Wall St. Nominee in Columbus, 0O., Speech League, a revolutionary organization which re- ceives the full support of the Communist Party. The capitalist terror is growing in this country. When the imperialists force the workers to ac- cept starvation conditions it cannot be done alone by demagogy: by creating illusions among the workers. Force is also necessary, and all through this crisis we are witnessing the use of the courts, police and troops against demonstra- tions of the unemployed, against strikers, vet- erans, etc. There is a fascist spirit developing amongst the ruling class in this country ex- pressed by such movements as Father Cox's blue shirts, Waters’ khaki shirts and the demand of Al Smith, the “great Democrat”, for a dictator of the U. S. And what does Mr. Rooseveit say and do about the growing terrorism and the use of force against the workers in this country? In his own state, in the state of New York, the conditions regarding terrorism are no different than the reSt of the states in the country. I had the privi- lege of doing six months in jail in his state be- cause, with thousands of others, we tried to exercise our so-called right of presenting de- mands to the mayor of New York. But how can we expect Mr. Roosevelt to have any other atti- tude except one of support towards terrorism? Isn’t it a fact that his party finds its main sup- port in the South, the classical land of terror in the U. S-? What is the attitude of this so- called liberal Roosevelt on the Mooney question? Did you hear of his speaking about that? You did not. Everybody in this country knows that ‘Tom Mooney is not guilty but the big imperial- ists of this country want to keep him in jail, out of the ranks of the working class, to use him as a nexample of terrorism against the workers. And Mr. Roosevelt joins the conspiracy of the capitalists to keep Mooney in jail. Anybody who doesn’t demand the release of Mooney is helping to keep ‘him in jail. I have shown Roosevelt's attitude on Scotts- - boro, on the veterans. One more illustration. I refer to the wholesale program of deportation now being carried out by the federal government. against the foreign-born. Last year 20,000 work- ers deported to Europe, 50,000 to Mexico; ‘this year probably two or three times as many, What an outrage! Search all over the .capitalist world and you will not find a more outrageous attack upon the workers than this deportation cam- paign—and the purpose ts to terrorize the for- eign-born so they will not dare fight for relief or to strike, for fear the agents of the Department of Labor, led by Doak, will come in and sieze them, deporting, them to some fascist country of Europe. What a monstrous thing. Picture a for- eign-born worker: like millions of others coming hear; created wealth, worked in the industries, created billions of dollars. Now when industry is bankrupt they are sent back to these countries that they have lost contact with for years, Roosevelt Backs Deportation Drive A worker who has raised a family of Ameri- can-born children is suddenly seized and sent to @ country he has lost all contact with. Imagine the tragedy in his life, in the life of the family. And this is happening in thousands of cases in the U. S, It may be said conditions are no worse in Europe than here. But that is not the point, The workers, the Communist Party, demands for the working class the right to live in any coun- try they want to. And what does Roosevelt say about this \i¢ campaign? Mr. Roosevelt has said nothing; he never breathed a word of it today in his big speech. Nor does the platform of the Democratic Party. Why? Because he is in favor of this policy of Mr. Hoover. It is a tactic of the imperialist class to weaken the fighting ability of the workers at the present time and any- thing along this line of course gets the support of Mr. Roosevelt, this conspicuous spokesman of the capitalist class of the U. S. \ Another point—the most important of all—the question of war. How does Roosevelt stand on this question? We know the war ‘situation is Who Is Franklin D. Roosevelt? becoming more intense throughout the world Between the capitalist countries the antagonisms multiply and sharpen in every direction—one example, the U. S. and Japan. In the past few weeks we have seen where this reached almost the breaking point—and this is symptomatic of what is taking place in many capitalist coun- tries all over the world. And, of course, the big- gest antagonism, the growing attack of the im- perialist countries upon the Soviet Union. Roosevelt—Imperialist What is the attitude of Mr. Roosevelt—the so- called “liberal”, who is coming to solve the prob- Jems of the world, who besprinkles his speech with “T's” like Mussolini, does?—his proudest boast is that he was the Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the last war and from that time to this his whole policy has been the support of @ maximum navy and army and a militant im- Perialist. policy on evety front. The eiection of Mr. Roosevelt would mean the continuation if ner the intensification of the militant imperial- ism of the U. S. in China, Latin America, Eu- vope—ali over the world. His elections would mean an intensification of the war danger—the greatest of all problems menacing the workers of the world. (Applause). And what, specifically, is his attitude towards the Soviet Union? I have indicated the growing attack of the imperialists upon the Soviet Union and one of the leaders in this is the American government. Hoover refuses to recognize the So- viet Union; he has let no opportunity slip to take hostile steps against it. He is ready in any op- portunity to join a war coalition against the Soviet Union. And Mr. Roosevelt’s attitude to- wards this new government of socialism, which is the hope of the world. He doesn’t speak about that. He and his party say nothing about it in their platform. And we can only conclude that in this basic question, like all the rest I have touched upon tonight, Mr. Roosevelt is opposed to the Soviet Union like Mr. Hoover, and is in agreement with the big capitalists of the coun- try who hate the Soviet Union, who are only awaiting a favorable opportunity to try to de- stroy it. When we look for a party fighting im- perialist war, we must look to the Communist Party. Our brother party in Japan is fighting against imperialist war, and defending the Chi- nese people and the Soviet Union. The defense of the U.S.S.R. is not the task of the Russian workers and peasants alone; it is a task for the workers of the entire world. Bound up with the success of the Soviet government is the inter- ests of the oppressed masses of the world. The Job of defending it is the task of the workers of the world. When the capitalists venture to deliver their attack against the Soviet Union you may be sure that the workers are going to defend the Soviet government. (Loud applause). No Crisis In Socialist U. S. S. R. Capitalism is in decay and all of the Roose- velts and Hoovers and their office-hoy Thomases will not save the decaying capitalist system, Only a Workers’ and Farmers’ Government can solve the great problems confronting the toiling mass- es of the world, can solve the economic crisis. For proof look at the Soviet Union, the only country in the world where there is no economic crisis. Socialism alone solves the problem of un- employment. There is nobody without work in the Soviet Union; everyone has a job and the industries are clamoring for more workers to complete the industrialization program. Under socialism only can the workers achieve a rising standard of living. All over the world conditions of life are being worsened and wages cut, but oniy in the Soviet Union are wages on the in- crease and the living standards being improved. We must learn this lesson, The goal of the Communist Party is to do in the U. S. what the Russian workers and peasants have done: to abolish this decaying system which means starv- ation, unemployment crises, fascism and war and to establish in this country a Soviet gov- ernment. (Applause), This is the Communist program that I have briefly touched upon. If you believe in this pro- gram support our election ticket. We must gath- er more signatures in order to get placed on the ballot in various states. You must help in this % The author, Nikiforov, a Bol- shevik, tells of how he led a strike of the dredging fleet at Kerch in 1906. In the first in- stalment of the stroy, published yesterday, Nokiforov, tells how he got a job on the fleet at Kerch Straits as assistant to Bespalov, an old sailor employed to repair the piping on the ship. Nikiforov decides the young workers are the best element for him to start on. San Instalment No. 2 Bespalov’s \ son, Andrew, was studying at some technical school or other and dreaming of becoming a ship's mechanic; I soon made friends with him. Often we sat for hours on the shore and chat- ted on various subjects, and I cautiously introduced him to poli- tics. My talks about\ the revolu- tion which had recently taken place led to ask why “underground par- tes” existed, why they were against the Tsar, and so on. In his father’s presence I talked in a milder tone; the old man put in a word now and again, as for instance, “some from hunger, others from surfeit, enter the revolution; for us . . . so long as there’s work; then they say the yids are to blame... . .” I cautiousuly mentioned the mass ° strikes of workers in the towns, the strikes in the postal telegraph system and on the railways. The old man stubbornly argued with me and the son listened and helped me. At the end of these arguments I always added for the old man: “You and I, old man, aren’t going to make a revolution, but a man ought to know what’s going on.” This precaution was not superflous. The stoker on the ship began to take part in our arguments; the old man nicknamed him, “Danilo.” Danilo was a Ukrainian, and a good-humored chap; he had fin- ished his term of service in the army and immediately taken up work as a stoker on the dredger. Cheerful, straight out-and-out, he-! was extremely quick and imagina- tive and lapped up all the doman- tic elements of revolution. Having returned from the Japanese War, he himself had been seized up in the great revolutionary wave and thrown on to the shores of the Black Sea. He was always pleased with our talks and introduced an element of liveliness into them, and the old man _ consequently dislikeq him; a “loud-speaker,” he snarlingly called him. FORMING A GROUP ~Gfadually the youth gathered round us. We read the papers during lunch, we commented on events, the echo of which had not yet died down. Then we began to argue after work on the shore, and the youth gradually became interested in politics. From gen- eral questions I worked round to questions of life on the fleet. We worked eleven and a half hours a day on the dredgers, and I chose this point for discussion with the young workers, linking it up with the main struggle of the working-class, with the necessity for becoming politically educated. I told them how the capitalists with the help of the gendarmerie and the police were waging a bitter fight against the workers and per- secuting them for the least sign of open dissatisfaction- ‘These talks in particular called forth many questions and height- end the interset of the young men in the revolution; a certain ele- | I decided to develop my activities ew “THE STRIKE” ISTORY OF DREDGING FLEET STRUGGLE—10 By PETER NIKIFOROV ment of romance and mystery, in the fight pith the government. ai the police’ met with lively response in the hearts of the young workers. In this way a group formed im: perceptibly around me, I began'to call meetings of the group on shore) and had long discussions. about this time the press was full of the “Duma questions.” In this connection I was able to get:into close contact with the old workers as Well; true, not with all of them, I explained to them what the Duma was, why the tsarist Government was calling it, and so on. In/a@ word, I became the regular person, even emong the old men, for ex plaining political questions bound up with the Duma. My work made considerable progress but still‘had not yet come to the notice of the administration. Lulled by the sub- servience of their workers, they failed to notice what was going on under their very noses. They did not notice me in my guise of nn- skilled labourer, the more so, since the arguments with the old men I kept still, and even sometimes agreed with them, when the youth became more than usually insistent, The young workers unconscious- ly became imbued with revolution- ary ideas. The inspiring examples of the seamen’s uprisings and the barricade fights im the towns fired their imagination. When I tolq them that in many big factories the workers had won the nine-hour day by unanimous strikes, they were very excited; Danilo rubbed his hands togethe with glee and then clenching his fists said: “If only our men would stir a bit!” “You can’t move them so easily.” The sagacious Andrew cooled Danildé down a bit, “Look at my old man... .” “Why the old man? It’s not the old chaps. .. . we must get a move on.” The thought of gefting a “move on” themselves caught the, inte- rest of the young fellows, and they stuck to this idea, My first experience of my work among the youth showed that this form of political work was right and that I could boldly rely on the youg menand work through them. in such a way as to keep as much as possible in the shade myself attention of the political gendar- merie and police o my person. SOME NAIVE IDEAS With the permission of the Par- ty Committee, I brought some of the young workers into a party circle. Their entry into this circle gave wings to their ambition; they looked upon their participation in the circle with an exaggerated idea of its conspirative nature that -was quite naive; thy proudly eon- sidered themselves members of a secret revolutionarty party, waging war on the Tzar, his government. and all its supporters. Their heads were in a whirl We were now faced with the qustion as to how to bring in the young workers from other ships. “We must get them together on shore after work and talk it, over with them,” suggested Danilo. “What a fool!” Andrew retorted. “You think everybody's a fool, clever boy!” snapped Danilo, offen- ded. “Not everybody, only you; you’de a fool; collect everybody together and they'll shout it all over the town the same day.” (To Be Continued) Letters from Suggests Articles On “Podolsk” Be Printed In Form of Pamphlet Bridgeport, Conn, Editor, Daily Worker: There is a Singer plant in this town and your article about the Sin- ger plan in Soviet Russia went over big here. If you could reproduce those articles in leaflet form and spread a few thousand around here everyone, into whose hands they would fall, no mater their station in 'ife, would read them. It would be fine propagar.da and I think you get enough subsczipticns out of it to more than >9y tor the investment. When people see a thing they like they will want it and when they want it they will get it. The progress being made by the Soviets is the big- gest news item in the world. c T. F. McL. ™ New York City. Dear Editor: The beer question is being discuss- ed everywhere. It looks as though Our Readers most o fthe workers are still under the illusion that if beer comes back again the wheels will start turning again, and everything will be hotsy totsy. Therefore, I thing that it is very important to expose this fake issue. — Worker, Ed. Note:—A' new pamphlet, pre- pared by the National Election Cam- paign Committee, to be sold for one cent, entitled, “Will Beer Brg Back Prosperity?” will be off the pfess in a few days. The Daily Worker will announce its appearance when it is available. — LETTERS MUST BE SIGNED We will not publish unsigned letters, neither can they be an- swered individually. We urgently request all’ workers writing to the Daily Worker to sign their names and add--sses. We will not pub- lish the name unless they speci- fically suggest it. Fey ss work. You must go into the elec- bsg not only to cast your votes for us as a matter of principle, but to rally the workers to bring @ powerful vote to elect our candid- ates to the state legislature. A couple of Communists in the state legislature here will give the bosses more fight than they have had for a long time. I ask you do more than vote our ticket. You must build our Party, the unions of the T.U.U.L., minorities in the A. F. of L., to fight against the reaction- ary leaders for the control of the organizations, Building up Unem- ployed Councils. Build the Com- munist Party. Our Party is grow- ing by leaps and bounds. In this election campaign we will take in atleast 25,000 new members. READ THE DAILY WORKER! VOTE COMMUNIST NOV. 8TH! Read the Daily Worker, main- tained by the heroic sacrifice of the workers, in order to know what n | Caud Applat What has the young worker got to look forward to under capitalism? Out of schcol and on to the bread line. In fact he is lucky to get on the bread line. In most commu- nities they get no relief. He is the male mosquito who is supposed to live without eating at all, And they have for the youths more terrible tasks—the youth will be sent to the battlefields to die by millions to further the interests of the imper- ialist masters of this and other cap- italist countries, e place of the youth is in the Y©.L. Join shoulder to shoulder with the Communist Party. Be a fighter a the Revolu- tionary Movement. If you under- stand that under captialism you must conduct militant struggle, if you are a class conscious worker who understands that capitalism is Cecaying, that the workers have task of abolishing capitalism and building socialism, your place is in the Communist Party, which fights. for and is building socialism, whi« is building socalism in the Union and Neate it in the U, 8 THE END, ‘ Ni and not to’ attract too soon the | at \y | Just" ty @ 4