The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 2, 1933, Page 8

Page 4 \ Dally Worker—May Day Supplement, 1933 STRUGGLES AGAINST HUNGER AND WAF British workers batiling police who try to evict them — Japanese imperialists Celebrate af- ter shooting Chinese masses i & worker killed by German police on May First Traetmy the past year there has en a sharp plunge to new depths 2 the economic crisis in the United Sates. Capitalism, though changing its federal administration, shifting the posts in its government, which is the executive committee of the capitalist class, has pursued one consistent uninterrupted policy. That is to use every means at hand to place the burden of the capitalist crisis upon the backs of the toiling masses by increasingly fierce at- tacks upon the standards of life. By increased ferocity against the colo- nial and semi-colonial masses and by a mad drive toward imperialist war, especially war and intervention against the Soviet Union. The prolonged crisis, the most deep-going in history, has led to the most appalling misery, suffering and wretchedness of the masses of workers and farmers. Radicalization of the Masses. It is this economic crisis and the offensive of the capitalist class that has determined the course of strug- gles in the United States since May Day, 1932. The continuous succes- sion of unemployment demonstra- tions, fights against hunger, against evictions, the strikes against wage cuts, the national hunger march which was .marked by a series of sharp clashes with the police, the war veterans’ struggles, the battles of farmers against the police and state authorities, the Scottsboro campaign and the struggle for Ne- gro rights, the demonstrations against imperialist war, the fight against fascism—al! these idicate a growiag radicalization of the mass2s in the United States. Series of Strike Struggles Two weeks after the May Day demonstrations last year, a strike broke out in the sugar beet indus- try against wage cuts, involving 18,- 000 workers. There were a number of small strikes in various indus- tries—printing, building, etc., dur- ing that same period. On July 15 came the strike of mill workers at High point, North Carolina. In the middle of August 30,000 miners in Southern Illinois went out on strike. All of these struggles, while they in- dicated determination on the part of the rank and file to fight against hunger, met with little success, The leadership in some cases did not know how to conduct an effective rtruggle and in some instances there were conscious agents of the bosses who betrayed the workers. Victorious Strike Struggles One of the most significant ac- tions was the strike of workers in the Republic Steel works plant at Warren, O., where a partial victory was won. e Auto Workers sirike against wage cuts in Detroit, involying over 15, 600 Bonus Mareh to Washington last swmmer Natior Workers, Farmers and Veterans All ( _by Their Actions the Attempts of the Crisis at the Expense | troit went out on strike and by their action succeeded in stopping wage cuts in practicadly all plants in De- troit and vicinity. In both the Warren and Detroit strikes the unions affiliated to the Trade Union Unity League played an important and leading role. They pursued a policy of urging organiza- tion of rank and file committees to lead the struggles. They strived for the. most effective united action em- bracing employed and unemployed, Negro and white, native-born and foreign-born. In the Detroit struggle, especially, there were clashes with the police thugs ef the city, the state police and. the private thugs of the auto magnates. But most vicious of all were the attempts of the bureau- cracy of the Detroit. Federation of Labor to split and disrupt the fight- ing front of the workers. That the steel workers and the auto workers have taken up the struggle against wage cuts and hun- ger is of tremendous significance and is the guarantee that the con- tinuation of the savage offensive against the standards of life will meet with increasing resistance by the masses of toilers in thege basic and war industries. Jobless Demonstrations Everywhere While strikes occurred in a num- ber of important ‘places, the strug- gles of the starving workers for un- employment and social insurance at the expense of the government and the employers were general. In ev- ery part of the country there have been increasingly determined strug- _ les against hunger and in not a few places there have been victories of great importance. Perhaps the most notable single victory in the series of local strug- gles for relief was the huge Chicago demonstration on October 31 when 50,000 workers succeeded in forcing the withdrawal of an order for a 50 per cent cut in relief and compélied the Reconstruction Finance Corpo- ration to make up the difference. National Hunger March On the wave of increasing local struggles, county hunger marches, state hunger marches that assumed more and more militant forms, there was built up support for the National Hunger March to Wash- ington to again place before Con- gress demands for immediate emer- gency relief and unemployment in- surance. In the course of this march there were repeated sharp clashes with the police who had received in- structions from Washington to “dis- courage” the marchers. But in spite of this, 3,000 delegates assembled at Washington, where they were at first surrounded by heavily armed police on a bleak wind-swept hill- side. The expressed intent of the authorities to prevent the Hunger Marchers presenting their demands was set aside by the nation-wide protests that flooded Washington and by the splendid discipline and defiant heroism of the marchers themselves. It can be definitely recorded that there are tens of thousands of men, women and children alive today in the United States who would have starved to death had it nof been for this nation-wide struggle against the hunger program of Wall Street carried out by the Unemployed Councils. Struggles of the Farmers The entire year, from May 1, 1932, to May 1, 1933, has been character- ized by spectacular and militant struggles on the part of the farmers against low marketing prices for farm products, against foreclosures of mortgages, against forced sales. On the basis of the experiences of these struggles and the necessity for a national organization of farmers to fight against the hunger program of Wall Street there was held in December the United Farmers Re- lief Conference in Washington. This has proved to be a powerful co- ordinating force uniting and giving aim and direction to the struggles of the rank and file farmers. So effective were the farmers’ “strikes” in Iowa, Dlinois, Pennsyl- yania and many other states that the big insurance companies were forced to admit that:it} was impos- sible to enforce collection of farm mortgages. But the Roosevelt administration is trying to come to the rescue of the mortgage holders by using the power of the federal government to try to bludgeon out of the farmers enough to satisfy the bankers and the mortgage sharks, Many of these farm. strikes haye been highly successful and there is every indication that. they. are ris- ing to higher levels. Upsurge of Veterans’ Struggles The dramatic struggle of the war veterans was a powerful factor in unmasking the hunger and war gov- ernment at Washington. These war veterans, who had been told there would be nothing too good for them when they were needed to defend the investments in Europe of the House of Morgan during the worid war, were being cheated out of their back pay—the so-called bonus—by the hunger government. One of the most infamous chap- ters in the record of government tyranny was written when a part of the armed forces of the country, on express orders of the president of the United States, drove out with fire and sword the veterans encamp- ed on Anacostia field last July 28. The heroes of yesterday had, in the eyes of the government they fought for, become the outcasts of today! Share-Croppers’ In Action In the Black Belt of the South the fight of the Negro and white share- croppers against the‘frightful tyr- anny of the bankers and the land- lords advanced to a higher stage when on December 19 Negro share croppers with arms in hand drove off a force of armed and murderous deputies bent upon taking the prop- erty from one of their number. This conflict at Tallapoosa, Ala., was the secon first | Hill 2 Wh sherif ried the ] shelte cropp action South heart: hold i of ter Black presse Scott On agains agains lease | record vance: save 1 inhoce Tom ! The going there treack cialist of L. ing fr the gt free \ such } freedo The swept decisic bama cent 1 electri hands The s Haywe roar 0 Negro tion 1. engagt italisn Figh An ‘j was tk war, it ple an Day m thund tempts find a