The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 31, 1932, Page 4

ee FO ERT TNE ETE OLE AM econ apc Vage,Kour WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1932 Daily, Worker Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., inc., daily exexept Sunday, at 5@ E, 1ath St., New York City, N. ¥. Telephone ALgonquin 4-7956. Cable “DATWORK.' Address and mail cheoks to the Daily Worker, 50 E. 18th St, New York, N. ¥. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, 3 Borough of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. six_months, $4.50. The Stalwart British Workers Fight MHE strike of the cotton weavers of Lancashire, the oldest } exeepting year, $8; craft in one of the strongest sections of the British trade unions, have come out against a wage slash The strike is spreading and all signs point to one of the biggest battles of the textile industry in many years The textile industry in Britain has long been in a crisis. It has felt the worst blows of decaying British capitalism. Unemployment has been widespread. Misery and poverty have devestated the homes of Yorkshire and Lancashire. RITISH capitalism has attempted to overcome the crisis in the textile industry at the expense of the workers. It was the special role of the MacDonald government to carry through wage cuts and speed-up in order to raise the profits of the textile employers. The MacDonald government which Norman Thomas and Morris Hillquit held up as a “model of socialism” for the American workers to follow, carried slash after another.” The Lancashire twelve and one-half per cent wage cut. uffered a 10 per cent cut through the of the MacDonald government and the through one wage workers received a The woolen weaver arbitration scheme cunning treachery of the trade union bureaucrats. The textile workers that have glorious traditions of struggles have not accepted their situation without a fight, In April, 1930, over the heads of their leaders, the York- shire weavers carried on a ten weeks struggle. Time and large masses numbering hundreds of thousands closed the shops in protest against the capitalist attacks. again down i Nee E * # * in which about two hundred thousand workers are already involved, show the new rise in the militant actions of the British working class. All signs show that the strike will not only embrace the cotton weav- present fight ers, but also the spinners and become a general strike of the textile workers. The militancy of the weavers is shown by the frantic appeal of the trade union leaders to the govern- ment to take action to stop the weavers. Already in the 1930 strike of the Yorkshire weavers, the revolutionary trade unionists, the Minority Movement and the Communist Party played an important part. In the present strike the actions of the militants are spurring on rank and file action. The strike will deepen the crisis of British capitalism and. will strengthen the forces for a revolutionary way out of the misery and poverty of the oldest working class of the world. It will stimulate and strengthen the mass actions of the textile workers in other countries. The American textile workers who have suffered savage wage cuts and who have felt the whip lash of the textile barons should make this strike of the stalwart British work- They should give expression of international solidarity and support to this battle. Hunger, as well as terror will be used against the British work The Armer- ican textile workers, as well as the American workers in general, should see to it that hunger does not strike down these battling wor ers their own * * UCH international solidarity of American and British workers will weld the forces of international labor in the fight against imperialist war. It will strengthen the bonds in the struggle against the war being prepared by the British and American imperialist giants to settle the ques- tion of who shall control the plunder of the world and above all will build up a powerful weapon for the defense of the Soviet Union in which the wages and living conditions of the workers are rising, the socialist fatherland, which these im- perialist war makers are striving to destroy. Socialist Worker Tells Why He'll Vote Communist Terror Against Unemployed of Milwaukee Shows Where S. P. Stands (By a Worker Correspondent) MILWAUKEE, Wis.—I am a 47-year-old unemployed worker who has for many years voted for thg Socialist Party. But now, with a clear view of their deeds, I see what they are. I advise every worker to examine the policies of every party before election day. Examine their deeds, and you will see Mayor Hoan, Benson, Norman Thomas exposed naked, ex-¢-— posed as the servants of capitalism. They are a beast with two faces, but only oné heart, to more intensively reduce all the poor people to slavery for rations of slop, even more than the Hoover party. Yes, if today we have to do forced labor for $1 a day, tomorrow they will make us do it for nothing, all for the sake of cap- italism. Net To Catch Votes ‘Their radical phrases are a net to catch votes, but all they do is to try to rescue the millionaires here in Milwaukee, while we are starved and brutally attacked. ‘The socialist Milwaukee Leader is @ capitalist song book, and I know Sheriff Benson has often wished it could be a phonograph record con- nected with a loud speaker, loudly to sing the victories of the police over the unarmed, starving, unemployed workers. Benson-uses his special ‘riot’ guns, not to fight our enemies but to keep us in tune with the Leader's songs Mayor Hoan And as for Mayor Hoan, he looks as if his mouth is open shouting war- like speeches, but he sings what a fine city this is, and how nice the streets are for Lincolns and Cadillacs, but he doesn’t say anything about how the unemployed are pulling their hand wagons filled with relief junk. Mayor Hoan is openly telling us there is no harm in voting for La Follette. You cannot conceal, Mayor Hoan, that all four parties, Republican, Democrat, Socialist and Farmer Labor, are working together against me and all the masses of poor people in this country, and after 17 years of yoting Socialist I will now yote Communist, for the C. P. is the only party that stands for the eman- cipation of the-working -class, “THEY CAN’T DIG COAL WITH GUNS!” By BURCK The Battle of Denver (Editor's Note:—This is an ac- tual story of how the militant workers of Denver, a few days ago, battled police and hoodlums in a fight for the rights of Negroes to use the public beaches.) ou ee By ELIZABETH LAWSON MINATION was written cn every face as the workers left Ccmmunist headquarters in Denver. Tomorrow, Negto and white together, they would make a united attack on the new Jim-Crow edict of. the police department. The speakers at the meeting had outlined the plans foy this struggle for the Negroes’ rights. The city of Denver was swelter- Ing under @ hot summer sun. The white workers—those who did not live too far away or who had care- fare—sought relief at the bathing beaches. But the Negroes—packed into crowded tenements—they could not go to the Denver bathing beaches. Their skins were black, “Tomorrow,” said the! speakers at the Communist mass meeting, “to- morrow we will go to the park, Negroes and whites @gether. We will have trucks on hand to carry the Negroes who want to go swim- ming. We intend to assert the rights of the Negroes to bathe in the public park. We Communists offer the Negroes leadership, pro- tection and assistance in the strug- gle.” Three o'clock, next afternoon. Three truckloads of Negro bathers arrived at the park. White workers, men and women, were there to re- ceive and welcome them. The city officials were also wait- ing for them, but there was no welcome in their voices. Carl S. Milliken, manager of Safety, and Walter B. Lowry, Manager of Parks, sent police to ask Negroes to as- semble on the east side of the lake. Lowry began to speak: “You are here,” he said, “at the instigation of the Communists and no good can come of this. You never before tried to use this beach. A year ago I offered to build you a beach, but you refused. (“A Jim- Crow beach!” cried voices in the crowd.) You know the white peo- ple are not going to stand for this. You have been ill-advised by Com- munist leaders, If you go into the water you are asking for trouble and I fear you will get it.” ‘The Negroes booed. Said Milliken: “De not do this thing. You are permitting Communist leaders to turn your head. Nothing but trou- ble can result.” Shouts from the crowd. “It is true,” Milliken went on, “that there is no law to keep you citizens from using this beach, but. you have neyer attempted it before, and. you know ‘you are not doing this for any reason in the world except to bring about trouble. I warn you I will not stand for riot- ing, and I also give you. fair warn- ing that if you do go into the lake, you will be acting at your own peril.” “We're citizens—why don’t you have your cops protect us?” jeered the Negroes. A few minutes more of speech- making; then a stir in the crowd, and a sudden movement, and the Negroes swept past Milliken and Lowry, and Chief of Police Clark, With a shout they entered the water. ¢ Suddenly two hundreq whites— hooligans, police agents, and work- ers who had ‘been misled by bosses’ propaganda, advanced upon the Ne- groes. They were armed with sticks and rocks, and they were cursing. i aye. 'HEY were met by an opposing crowd. But not of Negroes only. In the forefront of this crowd were white workers, Communists, Com- munist sympathizers, and militant workers, Negro and white stood ‘shoulder to shoulder, resisting: po~ White and Negro Workers Battle Hooligans and Cops for Right to Beach lice and hoodlums. The Negroes and the whites who were protecting them gained the shelter of the three trucks. Jay Anyon, 22-year-old white. Commu- nist, called for a determined stand against the police attack. Fists began to fly. Patrolman Harry T. McKinney picked out a Negro worker and felled him with a blow. The next instant rocks:and stones flew in all directions. Clubs got into action. Screams arose: “Kill the niggers! - (Party Kill the Communists!” Four policemen pounced on Any- on. Swinging blackjacks battered him down. One officer struck him several blows with a revolver, Battles raged in every corner of the park. Always two opposing groups—on the one side Negroes and Communist-led white workers —on the other the police and the hooligans. Whites threw them- selves forward to protett the Ne- groes, who were, as always, singled Life) Alarming Facts The Daily Worker will regularly carry a column on Party Life. Party members, particularly from the lower units, trade union frac- tions and fractions in mass or- ganizations are invited to con- tribute to this column. We espe- cially urge the membership in the. |factory units to write of their |work and problems, The column |can be made a living force in the | srowth of the Party if the experi- jences in the practical mass work | will find expression in it, Ad- dress your contributions to Party Life Editor. By SAM DON THEN we speak nowadays about mobilizing the Party member- ship for mass work we must im- mediately visualize the new mem- bership in the Party. The same is true of the problem of training new cadres in the Party. The training, however, of new members and the development of new cadres is not taken seriously enough. This is very clearly seen in the indifference to political edu- cation which exists practically in all the leading districts of the Party.. In this article we will merely take a few cases which sharply bring out this lack of a serious attitude to political educa- tion. Let us take first the question of the “Party Organizer.” From the viewpoint of training new members as functionaries in the lower ranks the “Party Organizer” is undoubt- edly an important weapon. The practice, however, shows that some districts, and leading ones at that, do not think so. For instance, Philadelphia. This district did not take out from the. post office its July issue of the Party Organizer, at a time when the August issue is already off the press. Minnesota took out its July issue of the “Party Organizer” at a time when the August issue was already off the press, and this only after two notices from the post office. Certainly these facts show that the district does not take serious steps to popularize the “Party Organizer” and develop its circulation among the membership. OTHER DISTRICTS ALSO SLOW Neither the Buffalo district nor the Pittsburgh district have ordered the July issue of the Party Or- ganizer. New York, the district with the largest membership in the country, took only 700 copies of the “Party Organizer” for the month of July, while the Chicago district, with a smaller membership than district 2, took about 700 copies. Undoubtedly the better sale of the “Party Organizer” in Chicago is a greater interest in the political education of the membership. How serious the problem is of reading and political education in the Party can only be seen from the following facts: At a Harlem functionaries’ class, attended by -about_30.comrades, the question Was putchow many of the com- rades‘ present read the 14th Plenum resolution and the strike resolu- tion of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. Only 8 out of the 30 read the main resolution and only 4 read the strike resolution. And this, more than three months after the 14th Plenum! ONLY FEW READ STRIKE RESOLUTION At the Pittsburgh district con- vention, which was held about a week ago, only about 25 of the 100 present read the E. C. C. I- strike resolution. And this is in the Pittsburgh district. As we know, one of the main sections of the strike resolution is precisely the one which analyzes the lessons of the Penn-Ohio miners’ strike. At least about 50 per cent of the comrades present at the Pittsburgh district convention participated in the Penn-Ohio strike, yet such a small number of them read the E. C. C. I, resolution on the lessons of the strike struggles in the U. S. A. These facts also show that we have not sufficiently popularized the 14th Plenum. At the Minnesota District Con- vention, which was held recently, when the question was asked how many of the comrades’present read the C. C- October, 1931, resolution on unemployment, only about 4 answered in the affirmative. The main reason for the lack of interest in the reading of our Party literature and resolutions is the fact that the mobilization of the Party membership for mass cam- paigns proceeds mainly along nar- row administrative lines without a basic political discussion of the ob- Jectives of the various mass activi- tles and methods to achieve’ them. It is also due to the fact that in practice we do not carry on a fight against wrong political manifesta- tions which are a hindrance in the development of mass work. The question of raising the polit- ical level of our membership, which is primarily a new membership, is, of course, not just a matter of reading resolutions, pamphlets and attending classes. ‘These facts, however, bring out sharply the need of carrying on a fight against political indifference. The educa- tion and training of our member- ship is one of the inner key tasks of the Party in the struggle against pispers sr] and for_the mobiliza- tion of Party membership for the-growing- mass activities out for special attack. Seventeen persons, among them Communist leaders, were jailed. In court, they opened an attack on the Jim-Crow laws and ordinances, and the whole system of segregation. They put forward their Commu- nist program of full equality—eco- nomic, political and social. Milliken, Manager of Safety, is- sued a statement: The Negroes of Denver, who have always been quiet, peace-loving and peace-abiding citizems, have been the victims of a vicious Communist Propaganda. This was caused en- tirely by Communists. We feel ee ea that the Negroes will re- alise this and will not lend them- selves to further disturbances. We will show no quarter to the Com- munist agitators.” oe . RIN other words: “The Negroes of Denver, who,” single-handed and alone, were unable to put up any effective struggle for their rights, have now found allies, white and Negro Communists. The fight for their rights was made at the in- stigation of Communists. Smash the Communists, and we smash the leadership in this struggle.” But at this very moment, the fight for the rights of Negroes in Denver is going forward. New sec- tions of workers are coming for- ward to defend the jailed Negroes and whites. New plans are being laid. More white workers are shed- ding their prejudices and their boss-inspired hatreds. More Ne- groes are coming to realize that the leadetship of the Communist Party is the only effective leader- ship in the battle against Jim- Crowism and segregation, The Question A worker asks us: “What do you mean by fwo classes in so- ciety?” Answer: A class is a big group of people whose way of making a living gives them a common rela- tion toward the whole of society, common needs, common dangers, and, if they are class conscious, an organization and political program for the whole class. Capitalist socicty is built on the ownership of the machinery of production, the factories, mines, railroads, etc, but a few owners, and these hire millions of workers who own nothing to do the work: The class which makes its living by owning and exploiting workers, is ~one main class, the capitalist class. The class that makes its living by working for wages, and not by own- ing, is the other main class, the working class. There are sub-divisions within each class, there are industrial capitalists, bankers, merchants, etc., in the. capitalist class. There are craftsmen who own their own tools, white collar workers, and manual workers, etc, within the ranks of the working class. ‘There are also remnants of older classes, like big landlords, who usu- ally line up with the capitalists, and, like land-owning small farm- ers, who can be brought into ,alli- ance with the working class.” But, as Marx said in the Communist. Manifesto, “society as a whole is more and more splitting into two great hostile . . . classes directly facing each other.” That means, the capitalist class.and the work- ing class. All their most important interests are directly against each other, High wages for the worker means less profits for the em- ployer. . The struggle between them is what we ordinarily mean by “class struggle.” It must end some day in a victory for’ the workers, and the destruction of the capital- ist class, and that means the de- struction of capitalism. The capi- talists can not get along without workers, but the workers can. get. “THE STRIKE” STORY OF DREDGING FLEET STRUGGLE—1905 By PETER NIKIFOROV SYNOPSIS The author, Nikforov, a Bolshevik, tells how he got a job on the fleet at Kerch Straits as sasistant 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. He makes friends with Bespalov’s son, Andrew, small circle of young workers who discuss economics and politics, and soon has ® One young worker, Danilo, suggests they meet on shore. Andrew objects, pointing out that this would give (Installment No. 3) “Quite right, that’s not the way,” said I, backing up Andrew. “We'll always have time to get pinched by the police, so we needn’t hurry; we must get the boys in gradually, once at a time, choosing the steady ones, not the gas-bags; we must get a strong circle and, then we'll See what next.” “That's right; slow and steady. We must get our own man on each boat and through them bring the rest into our cause.” Andrew was quite carried away, as though the cause had been his for years, very near to his heart. The boys took up the task agit- ating among the youth and recruit- ing them from the other boats. They decide@ to form a special circle and to put in Andrew as its responsible organizer; they decided not to link me up with the new recruits. “You sit in a corner, comrade, and show us how and what, and we'll do the rest,” said Danilo with great conviction. Thus we added one link more to the chain of our great political work. At my suggestion the committee decided to arrange a May Day mass demonstration, including the largest possible number of dredge-workers and dockers. I instructed Danilo to mobilze the workers, all of the members of our circle. The lads did their best; over a hundred workers from the dredging-leet turned up. The outposts, the chain of bodyguards, the secret’ passwords all made a deep impression on the workers. Some Social-Revolution- aries also found their way to the mass meeting, though we always had sharp arguments with them. The Kerch Social-Revolutionaries were somewhat weak theoretically, and the Social-Democrats always tried to make terror the main point of their argument, which was easier ground for them. However, they failed to take possession of the de- monstration and quieted down. The meeting lasted a long time; we ex- plained in detail the need for celebrating May Day and how we should do it; why the autocratic government and the capitalists were hostile to the May Day celebrations and so on, oy wSare. 'HE meeting finished at dawn. We all marched from it together. The police knew that the meeting was taking place, but were afraid to leave the town and come out on the steppe; they were afraid of the bodyguard of whom they had also been informed, very much overestimating its military signifi- cance; they decided therefore to await the return of the demonstra- tors at the outskirts of the town and then make arrests. But our scouts marched the workers in a roundabout way across the hills to the opposite side of the town. Over three hundred workers with songs and much noise came down the them away to the police, ror on to the high road of the class struggle. oes UR ties with the other boats had become so strong that we could begin to think of intensifying the work of our organized youth. I decided to put before them the question of a concrete plan of work in the struggle for shorter hours. The task was pretty difficult; they all doubted the possibility of bring- ing the workers cut on strike; the work was new to them; and the youth alone could not decide the question, the old men had also to be brought in. TI also thought that nothing would come of the strike, that much more intensive and pro longed work had to be done. I suggested they try to cut down their working hours themselves, without a strike. At first they could not undestand this way of looking at things,/then began to think it over, and/ it turned out that they thought after all they could give it a try. Andrew and I took over the working out of the plan, and the rest were instructed to begin strong agitation for shorter hours. We decided to leave the questions of increased wages alone for the time being. WORK OUT i DETAILED PLAN j Andrew and I worked out the plan in detail, and it amounted on the whole to the following: the workers on the dredging-fleet were to cut dowy their working day secretly from 11% to 9 hours, The secrecy lay in the fact that on a definite day, known only to the workers themselves, the caravan would set out to work not af 6 but at 7 o'clock; the workers would take half an hour for dinner, and leave work at 5:30 pm. As soon as the workers were ripe for action, we would appoint the day for carrying out our plan, Further, it was de- cided that on the preceding night, before leaving work, the men would chalk up on all the portholes and and all the boats’ funnels, in large letters, the time to start and the time to finish work cn the follow- ing day, A committee was appointed, the “Victor Shum- sky,” where I was working: Andrew was appointed the respon- sible organizer of the campaign and president of the committee. The “Victor Shumsky” from that moment began to find itself in the centre of the growing movement in the whole fleet. ae . wer I reported my plan for the campaign to the party com- mittee, the whole of the member- ship protested, declaring that we must limit’ ourselves to study-circle work and not to take active work, I told the committee that the tactic of organized militant activities would give bigger political results than educational circle work alone, In view of my categorical declara- tion, the committee was compelled ‘to agree to my plan and allowed me to begin the campaign, j hillside and through the main street of the town; the police on duty whisled the alarm, the police ambush which had been deceived rushed to the place, but found no- body. The network of dark little side turnings had swallowed up all the demonstrators; all scattered safely to their homes. DISPUTE TERROR METHODS Dispute concerning terror were especially violent; the romance at- tached to the terroristic method of struggle turned out to be extremely attractive and wonderful .. . dan- Berous spirit of adventure. Andrew put up the question to me of the need for explaining the question of terror in our circle. He was extremely afraid that this dan- serous question might cause trouble in our circle and smash up our work, And after a long, detailed talk in the circle on the meaning of the mass proletarian struggle, in which inspiring examples of mass armed uprisings of the seamen and the rebelion of the workers in Mos- cow were put forth, after we had talked about individual terror as a harmful method of struggle de- fecting the attention of the work- ers from the mass political strug- gles, the young workers beran to take a cooler attitude towards this difficult question. We pointed out the colossal significance of pre- paring the mass labor movement to serve as a threat and conquer- ing force, and the boys were con- vinced and brought back from the “individualistic romanticism of ters — ‘The young workers began to act. firmly; they began to agitate openly for shorter hours. The adminise tration, accustomed to their quiet security, did not scent the danger and paid little attention to the “wild talk” of the young fellows, OUT FOR THE NINE-HO! WORKING DAY t The preparations for winning the nine-hour working day went apace. Not only a considerable section of the youth, but also the older work- ers were brought into the work. The estimate taken showed that there was a small active group strongly backing the nine-hour day slogan. on every ship. The crews were seriously interested in the affair and were prepared to “try it out.” But we were up against the older men, who stubbornly declared: “We're making no strikes!” “But we don’t. want strikes, _ either,” “insisted the youth, “We simply want to work nine hours, without any sort of strike.” The older men stuck to it, still some gave way: All right, only no strikes; and if you are thinking of starting some- thing . . . we don't help!” The young fellows urge the older men not to funk “We. don't funk it, what’s it to us? Only no politics.” We decided to start the campaign in two days. The boys began to get fidgety; I also was worried, fearing our whole scheme it fall through, if the affair developed , into an unforseen strike, . Lou. (To Be Continwedy, 4 } ==