The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 1, 1932, Page 1

| | \ * called it. | | i LIKE A PIG FOR SLAUGHTER—One of the most dreadful tortures inflicted on Negroes in the southern prison camps is being hogtied and left under the blazing sun. This photo, which was taken in the stockade of the Seminole County, Ga,, prison camp, shows a Negro prisoner in a semi-conscious state with a fellow-prisoner watching him. He was sub- jected to this torture for looking at a guard in a way that he didn’t like. (Copyright by John L. Spivak, Author of “Georgia Nigger.) j | | | | | | | Limself !s also opposed to the term, but ts 2 symbol.—Editor. Two lanterns hung from the wooden cross driven deep in ‘ They threw a pale, yellow light | over the ground and the steel cage on wheels so like a huge circus wagon in which ferocious beasts of the jungles are pen- ned. The gtiard, staring absently at the sky, sat in an old chair} tilted against the mess hall shack. It is difficult to sleep when®—- the convict camp stockade. it is your last night on the chain gang and David peered through the latticed iron bars at the cross with its ‘smoking lamps. There were thirteen men in the cage with him nine Negroes and five whites— sprawled on thin mattresses cover- ing the iron bunks ranging the length of the cage on either side in three three-decker tiers. The six nearest the solid steel door were reserved for whites. The fourteen men were naked to the waist. ‘Their exposed bodies shone with sweat even in the semi-darkness. “You kin take a bath in de ribber tomorrow,” a voice from an ad- joining bunk whispered enviously, David did not answer. To bathe in a river, and a haunting devil always with him—that was Caleb's life. The toothless old convict, with a skin .dried.and. withered by - Georgia suns, had long since lost what litle wit he had been born with and now spent his waking hours arguing with evil spirits and reliving the day when he had bathed in a river. FLIES, MOSQUITOES VERMIN A mosquito lit on the boy’s neck and ‘he slapped at it casually. Flies hhummed in the cage. Flies and mosquitoes were always entering through holes in the screen cover- ing the bars and buzzing desperately to get out again. They were worse than the vermin you scratched at incessantly. The guard, too, slapped at his ankles and arms. and face. Some- how it helped you when you could not sleep, to know that the flies and mosquitoes annoyed him, too. The mountainous mass of Sam Gates stretched on the bunk across the narrow aisle from David turned slowly at the whisper and spat through cracked and swollen lips. “You work out dis mawnin’,” he said with difficulty, raising him- self on an elbow. “Yes, suh,” the boy whispered. “I wish I wukked out,” Caleb announced eagerly. huge Negro moved restless- ly. His legs hurt. A steel spike resembling an ordinary pick extendeg ten inches in front and behind each ankle. The twenty- pound weight had rubbed against. his feet until one leg had become infected. Shackle poison, convicts He had asked for a doctor and the guard's fist had crashed against his mouth. That had been yesterday, an@ he had not complained again, though the throbbing pain made it hard to work and impossible to sleep. S KILLER Everyone was afraid of this strapping prisoner doing life for murder. Sam Gates had killed a man on the farm where he had | worked—broke the man’s neck with S two hands. From the day two ths ago when, chained hand t, he had been delivered to county camp at Snake Fork, he had terrified them. In his sullen eyes and powerful body was the tremendous, quiet power of the primitive savage. Sam Gates was a killer. Even the guards who tried to break him and failed only hated and feared him the more. “How long you did, boy?” he “Six months.” . “Six months! “Dat ain’ nothin’ I bin in camps fo’ fiv year an’ I got a lot mo’ tuh do befo’ dey takes dese offen me.” He raised the swollen ‘foot in explanation and let it down easily on the torn mattress. ” Sam repeated. “Five a lot mo’ tuh do—onless 383 NEGRO SLAVERY TODAY John L. Spivak’s Novel “Georgia Nigger” NOTE.—“Georgia Nigger” is the name of a book. phatically opposed to the white ruling class term, “nigger,” but we compelled to use it in the title because of U. 5. ‘The Daily Yorker is em- f| unfortunately || . copyright requirem: The author it in order to bring forth and expose }| the degrading system which operates against the Negroes and of which this term ]) of the insects as the chains riveted around his ankles struck the rim | of his bunk. | He stumbled to a stool covered with wet newspapers. | t s 4} 8 DER it was a zine tub, and the | smell of its contents drew flies | s nightly to feed in ifling heat the stench | mingled with the stagnant odor of | the nearby swamps and hung heavy over the cage. Sometimes a breath of hot wind shifted the pall rising from the tub. Then, for a bene- ficent moment, the air was filled with the south that was not of a convict camp and the prisoners breathed the sweet scent of rose | and jasmine and rich magnolia growing luxuriously in the war- den’s yard, “Gitting back,” called the con- vict standing motionless beside the stool. “Git *batk,”returned: the ‘guard. The lean, leathery face of the man watching them was distinct in the light from the cross. The sleeves of his blue denim shirt were rolled to the elbows and the col- Jar .was open at the throat. LIKE A WEED IN RICH SOIL This was Charlie Counts’ fourth year as guard. As illiterate as his parents he had grown up in the county .like a weed in rich soil. Before his seventh birthday he had tasted the back-breaking toil of picking cotton under a broiling sun. As far back as he could remember he had always worked hard from dawn to dark. Somewhere in the years before he reached manhood he learned to write his name in | a laborious ‘scrawl. There is little to be earned guard- ing the chained creatures who lay Georgia’s roads but carrying a shot- gun and leaning lazily against a shady tree is easier than sweating in the fields or breathing dust in a cotton gin, so Charlie Counts be- came a guard. | | URING his hours on duty he was Y lord and master. Ang though even poverty stricken Crackers look down upon a guard, the sense of power in having men under him soothed the harassing struggle to house and feed and clothe a wife and brood of ragged children on $1.25 a day the county paid him. To David, Charlie Counts had not been harsh. The boy was a mis- demeanor convict, born and raised in Ochlockonee county. Even the chains of captivity had been spared him during the past months, And now, Within a few hours, he would be away from the clank of chains and the stink of the cage: He would be a freed man again. WORK WAITS AT HOME There was work to be done at (Continued on Page Three) November 8th! Cada = —_ap LXE (Section of the Communist International) | (TRADE UNION UNITY COUNCIL CALLS ALL TO MADISON SQ. GARDEN RALLY @ Vote Communist Da il orker Vote Communist bing November Sth! Mmunist Porty U.S.A. Vol. IX, No. 261 <>: Entered as second-claes New York, N.¥,, under a Sa NEW YORK, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1932 CITY EDITION Price 3 Cents 50,000 Chicago Unemployed March in Rain THOUSANDS AT MADISON ‘SQ. GARDEN DENOUNCE HOOVER HUNGER PROGRAM 6,000 Before Entrance Boo Hoover and Roose- velt, Shout: “We Want Foster!” Police Attack and Try to Clear Street of the Jeering Throng; Arrest Six Workers NEW YORK.—Eighth Ave. in front of Madison Square | Garden was chocked with New York workers demonstrating against Hoover while the president spoke inside. At least 6,000 right in front of the entrance |amplifiers to Hoover. When TUUC CALLS ALL TO MADISON SO. GARDEN, SUNDAY Applauds Cuts, Starvation NEW YORK.—All workers, espe- cially members of unions, are urged by the Trade Union Unity Council, to rally in masses at the final Com- munist election mass meeting and celebration of the 15th Anniversary of the Soviet Uniori in Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Nov. 6, at 7 pm., as a militant challenge to “wage-cuts, mass unemployment, starvation, terror ang attacks on the living standards of the workers.” Speakers at the meeting will in- clude William L. Patterson, Commu- nist candidate for Mayor of New York City; Israel Amter, candidate for Governor of New York; Earl Browder, candidate in the 20th Con- gressional District, and Clarence Hathaway, candidate in the Third Congressional District, Physician Objects to Foster's Speaking. Dr. Bernstein, the physician at- tending William Z. Foster during his illness, today called the Daily Worker on the telephone and informed it that the letter of William Z. Foster which appeared in yesterday’s Daily Worker to the effect that Comrade Foster “would appear at the Madison Square Garden meeting without fail’ had |come to his attention. He informed the Daily Worker that it was already certain that Comrade Foster would not be able to speak at that time. As to whether or not Comrade Foster will be able to ap- pear at the meeting, this he said could only be determined after Com- rade Foster had been thoroughly ex- amined on Saturday by his physi- cians. This information the Daily Worker publishes because it wishes to keep the workers correctly informed as to Comrade Foster's health and as to the possibility of Comrade Foster be- ing present. Communist Party Is Leader. The Trade Union Unity Council re- affirms its endorsement of the Com- munist election platform and candi- dates, and says: Come With Union Banners. “The Madison Square Garden rally will be the final election demonstra- tion in New York. It should be made a crushing blow to the treachery and lies of the Republican, Democratic and Socialist Parties; it must be a powerful demonstration of solidarity of employed and unemployed work- ers, Negro and white, in support of the Communist Party. HERDED LIKE BEASTS OF THE JUNGLE—The cage in the Seminole County, Ga., prison camp. In such a wooden cage, barred with steel, the young Negro’ boy, David Jackson, and his fellow-prisoners —nine Negroes and five whites—lived. Tortured by vermin, by flies and mosquitoes that get in through holes in the screening, the night is hardly more restful than the day and is full of unknown terror. th. e Gott aie ae ene, sat sn to oo VEte Communist ¢ stench from the toilet pan un place. The like a pall over the entire . Communist | Program Against Pay | booed every reference thru the some Republican henchman on the platform inside called for three cheers for Hoover, the crowd responded with three booes. On 49th St. and 50th |St. around the Garden were 25,000 to 40,000 more, many of whom | Joined in the demonstration against | Hoover. As Hoover was leaving the Garden | Police che:ged a group of demon- strating workers and arrested six. Attempts of the Democrats to cash in on the resentment against the | Hoover stagger system, the gifts of hundreds of millions of dollars to banks and railroads while the jobless starve, met with just as hearty jeer- ing. A big picture of Roosevelt was carried through the crowd, and the crowd booed it. When Hoover came through the street blocked off by the police, a tremendous shout went up: “Where's the chicken in every pot?” Great Jeers greeted the President as he ap- proached the Garden. After that the mass of workérs, thousands of them, began to parade around the Garden with placards carrying the slogans that had been shouted. Soon after the arrival of Hoover speakers of the Communist Party mounted makeshift platforms in front of the Garden and addressed the crowd, Try to Clear Streets, At 8:45 lines of mounted police pushed into the crowd and lines of foot police followed, driving a wedge and forcing the masses up and down Eighth Ave., away from the door, to let the invited Republican ward bosses and the Park Ave. residents, in their Rolls Royces and Pierce Ar- rows, in to the door. The worker masses resisted. Again and again groups of them broke through the police lines and rushed back to the Garden entrance to shout their de- nunciation of Hoover and capitalism. The roars grew louder: “We want unemployment insurance!” “No war on the Soviet Union!” “All war funds for the jobless!” “No stagger plan!” “We want $50 winter relief!” etc. “We Want Foster!” Police broke into the crowd and pulled out a worker who was shout- ing: “We want Foster!” and as they rushed him away, the crowd took up the shout: “We want Fos- ter!” in a mighty chorus. Hoover had sneaked into town by a route kept secret until the last, but lined with police and with armored motorcycles thick around Hoover's car. A thousand Tammany police were especially picked to defend the Republican President from “any heckling or insults.” Before 6 pm. there were crowds ‘of 20,000 to 30,000 massed all about the Garden, Forty-ninth St. ‘to Eighth Ave. was black with people. They extended up Eighth Ave. to 50th St., and down 50th the full length of the building. Hoover On Defensive Hoover, speaking inside, found it necessary to try and defend the capitalist system itself. He ascribed, quaintly enough, the revolutionary de- sire to change the system to the Demo- crats, but made his appeal to every sentimental tradition for “the whole system which has been builded up by 150 years of the toil of our fathers.” He said: “I realize that in this time of dis- tress many of our people are asking whether our social and economic sys- tem is capable of that great primary function of providing security and comfort of life to all of the firesides of our 25,000,000 homes in America, whether our social system provides for the fundamental development and progress of our people, whether our form of government is capable of originating and sustaining that secu- rity and progress.” There were thousands of people outside demonstrating their opinion that the capitalist form of govern- ment would not do any of these things, and that what is needed is:a Workers’ and Farmers’ Goyernment. But Hoover continued, with the same old excuses he has made before in the campaign: “The crisis is only temporary,” “a passing shock,” “com- ing from abroad,” etc., in spite of the fact that America is the hardest hit recto race JOSEPH OBERMEYER, Parson? OFFICE 301 w. Robert ¥. Dunn Labor Research Asacciation 60 B. 11th 3t. MowYork City New York Dear Sir: list. Pluabers or Steam Pittore, Tam, aoe nretkad bers or steam fitters.” (See photo- graph of letter published above.) ‘The scab Netherland Plaza Hotel, selected. by President Green-and. the Executive Council of the A. F. L. as the meeiing place of the A. F. L. con- vention, has a rate of room prices that shows the delegates are expected to be the usual crowd of highly sal- aried business agents, local officers and “organizers”, Single rooms cost $3 to $5 a day, and if the delegate brings along his wife or some one else, the cost may be $12 a day. “The hopes and aspirations of mil- lions of workers will be centered on the convention”, says the A. F. L. call, and continues, “We must speak for labor and act for labor in a way their determination to resist all at- efforts and to strengthen them in| Replying to your- letter of wtober 26 only say that the Hotel Netherland is not on our fair | | | which will inspire them to renewed {for an intensified mass struggle for | Proof That A.F.L. Leaders Selected Scab Hotel For Meeting BUILDING TRADES COUNCIL OF CINCINNATI AND VICINITY Affiliated with the Building Trades Department of the A.F. of L. . T can This Company does not employ Union Painters ‘Trusting that this covers the inforratio Fraternally yours, Secretary A.F.L. Convention Called to Meet in a Scab Hotel Leaders Say “They Act for Labor” But Their | ance, no evictions, etc. First Act Is to Help Cut Union Wages The official call of the Executive Council of the American Feeration of Labor for its convention this year states that it will meet November 21 in Netherland Plaza Hotel, Cincinnati, Ohio. In response to an inquiry by Labor Research the A. F. L. trades council of Cincinnati writes: “This hotel is not on our fair does not employ union painters, plum- «— building tempis to lower the wage standard and to impose unbearable conditions of employment.” So, the first act which the. mil- lions of workérs are called upon to observe, is to help a scab hotel cut the wages of plumbers, painters and steamfitters! The rank and file of the A. F. L. are called by the A. F, L. Trade Union Committee for Unemployment Insurance and Relief to send dele- gates to a national conference to be held in American Federation of La- bor Hall, Cincinnati, on November 22. They will demand that the A. F, L, convention endorse the Work- ers Unemployment Insurance Bill The conference will work out pl insurance at the expense of the em- ployers and government. “How Do You Stand On The Hunger March” And Thomas Runs Away Cops Called Into Socialist Meet to Drive Out Workers Who Asked Questions one LAWRENCE, Mass., Oct. 31—Norman Thomas had a hard time here, factories. A delegation of the unemployed council came on the platform and demanded that Thomas state his po- sition on the National Hunger March and its demands for $50 winter re- lief and unemployment insurance at the expense of the employers and their government. Instead of an answer from Thomas, what happened was that the police rushed up and “ushered” the delega- tion out. Can't Answer. The chairman then announced there was no question period. The workers in the crowd then repeatedly interrupted Thomas to ask: “What guarantee have we that the social- ists here will not do what they did when elected in England, cut relief and force the jobless to fight for it?” “Why doesn’t Hoan ,mayor of Mil- waukee, use the $5,000 cash balance in the city treasury to feed the job- less instead of having police club and arrest the unemployed?” “How can the Socialist Party be for re- lief when they even oppose the vet- erans' demands for their back wages, the bonus?” An attempt ,was made from the platform to have June Croll arrested for asking a question from the audi- ence, but the crowd packed around her and prevented the arrest. Thomas then slunk off the plat- form, without applause, after only ten minutes speaking, speaking in the Metheum Forum, Saturday, and trying to convince mill workers that the Communist Party is no good because it “proposes to change the social order” outright, whereas the Socialist Pariy proposes “evolution of government” and a gradual change with the workers buying the 4500 AT FOSTER- FORD MEETING Fanious Writers Tell Why They Vote Red NEW YORK.—Two thousand, many of them at a Communist -election meeting for the first time in their | lives, packed Cooper Union Sunday night to hear Earl Browder of the Communist Party Central Committee, Harry Jackson of the Marine Workers Industrial Union, and a group of the best known. novelists, writers and artists, vell why they are for the Communist party in this election, Unable to get in because the hal) was jammed full, were fully 2,500 more, outside, Browder greeted the audience in the name of the Communist Party and remarked that the support of Foster and Ford by the intellectuals was a most significant event in American history. John Herman, novelist, told of dis- franchisement of 52 per cent of the voters of Pennsylvania, because, being unemplpoyed, they cannot pay their poll tax. Eugene Gordon, famous Negro writer, declared that the only way the Negro can fight effectively against discrimination and Jim-Crowing and $6,500,000 Call Out “Down With and said he would “write a letter.” to pay fares. stration. CHICAGO, IIL, Oct. |relief, unemployment | The whole demonstration was a gigantic united front struggle for the right of the jobless to live. Force Through Victories. ‘This demonstration won signal vic- tories even before it started. Mayor | Cermak, openly stating “We are sit- ting on dynamite,” not only promised } | Communist Party || Fights for Relief; Vote Communist! | The Communist Party stands | for: Unemployment Insurance at | the expense of the state and em- ployers; united front organization | | | in neighborhoods and on the bread- lines, in flop houses, ete., for im- |mediate relief;; full support to | | the National Hunger March and its demand for $50 winter relief. to withdraw the relief cut, but the Reconstruction Finance Corporation | hastily wired a money order for 0,000 to Chicago for relief. They did this Friday, two days before the march, in the hope that announce- ment of funds for relief would quiet the militant employed and unem- ployed workers of Chicago. | | Among the banners carried was| one Ve pledge solidarity to the London Hunger Marchers.” | _A huge painting of a Negro in the! electric chair was labelled: “Stop the Scottsboro Electrocution.” | Other signs read: “$80,000,000 for} Dawes Bank, 8 Cents a Day for Work-} ers!” Ex-Servicemen carried a sign proclaiming that the heroes of the great war are hoboes now. An anti-fascist group of Italian| | workers had a big painting of Musso-| lini with a skull and cross-bones. “Vote Communist” signs were many. “The Communist Party Leads the Masses in the Struggle Against Starvation,” read one huge banner. | All these banners were carried in defiance of police orders that there |should be none. Other placards and banners called for freedom for Nels Kjar and Geb- ert, Mocney and other class-war pris- oners. Massing in solid ranks in Grant Park, the hunger marchers voted| beeing nah ON PAGE THREE) | Nov. 7th Bundle Orders Must Be in | By November 3rd The special Daily Worker Edi- tion of the 15th Soviet Anniversary will be off the press Sunday, No¥ember 6, at 6 p.m, | All bundle orders must be given in by the Units to the Sections not later than Thursday,* November 3. The Section D. W. reps must turn in all orders to the District not later than Friday, November 4. All mass organizations should turn in their orders to the District | Daily Worker office, 35 East 12th) fifth floor, not later than , November 5, at 2 p.m. -tings for the 15th Anni- | versary must be in not later than Thursday, November 3, lynching, was by joining hands with the Communist Party for a united struggle of Negro and white workers. Malcolm Cowley, literary editor of \the New Republic, stated that Com- {munism, far from being destructive, jas charged, of culture, it is Hoover UNITED FRONT OF MASSES WINS PROMISE OF NO CUT: RELIEF SENT |Red Flags Fly in Defiance of Police Edict; | Marchers Shout Demands for Relief |Smash Past Police Aiming Pistols at Them; Hoover and Cermak” ‘Cheer Communist Candidates CHICAGO, IIL, Oct. 31—Mayor Cermak refused to answer the del- egates when they presented demands to him from the hunger march, Many hunger marchers flooded street cars going home and refused In some cases police cleared the cars of non-marchers who paid as well as marchers who did not. up small groups of the marchers on their way home after the demon- Police attacked and broke . 31.—Fifty thousand jobless workers marcheed through a cold drizzling rain today in three solid columns which merged and paraded the “Loop” and massed in Grant Park to hold the mayor to his unwilling promise that the 50 per cent relief cut would be rescinded. They demanded more insur-@- BRITISH MARCH DEFIES BAN; GOES ‘70 PARLIAMENT Thousands of Jobless Fight Police; Protest Cut in Dole LONDON, England, Oct. 31—An enormous crowd of London jobless surrounded the 4,000 national hunger marchers at Trafalgar Square yester- | day, shouted and cheered the speak- ers at the base of the Nelson monu- ment , and endorsed with great en- thusiasm the demands of the march- ers for the repeal of the Means Test (which cuts the jobless off the in- surance lists). M6unted police charged the crowd, followed by foot police. They bat- tered down men, women and children with the greatest savagery. The marchers forced the police back, fight- ing with sticks, stones and railings and parts of paving blocks. The Imperial Horse Guards were called out to aid the 10,000 regular and special police collected about the neighborhood to crush the demon- stration. Several officers were knocked from their horses at the foot of the Nelson monument. To Present Demands The marchers .spent today in the various boroughs participating in mass meetings and preparing to pre- sent their demands to Parliament to- morrow. Despite the fact that police have served notice on the jobless that } they will not be permitted to ap- proach closer than a mile to the Parliament buildings, the marchers have declared that they will elect a delegation of twenty to accompany thirty leaders of the jobless to present the demands tomorrow. The marchers have decided to re- main in London and compel the Par- liament to hear them. The British Hunger March is led by a united front committee, promi- nent members of which are Wal Han- nington and Tom Mann. It is @ movement against reduction of insur ance through the Means Test which requires that the jobless worker show proof that he has no relatives who can take care of him or no possible means of support. The marchers also demand that over a million workers who were taken off the insurance lists shall be placed back on the lists, T0 TELL WHY HE WILL VOTE RED Neero Editor Speaks Here Tomorrow One of the outstanding Commu- nist election meetings in Harlem will take place tomorrow night in Renais- sance Fall, 150 West 138th, Street, with William N. Jones as one of the main speakers. Jones is the editor of the Baltimore Afro-American and is also chairman of the Foster-Ford Committee for Negro Rights. Jones, a leading Negro journalist, will state why he will vote Communist on November 8. William L, Patter- son, Communist candidate for Mayor of New York City, will also speak at this meeting, as will Clarence Hath- away, Communist candidate in the Third Congressional District. Admis- sion is free. Volunteers to help at this meeting are urgently needed, and and the class he represents that are wrecking it all over the world, should apply from 10 a.m. on, at 650 Lenox Avenue, near 142nd Street _—