The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 10, 1933, Page 5

Y | \ i i | seme DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 1933 By V. J. JEROME To the’ American working class the recent World-proletarian celebration | of the fortieth anniversary of Maxim Gorky's literary activity was of spe- cial significance. It afforded a fit- ting occasion for the workers of the United“States to strike back at the insultingreception accorded Com- rade Gerky -by the American capi- talist government when in 1907 he sought to land upon these hospit- able shore The class conscious American workers of today who look upon the Soviet Umion as_ their fatherland... were enabled to demon- strate their revolutionary pride in the greatproletarian artist whom the | e ancilof People’ Commissars hailed “the pride of our Soviet land.” wie is “with gratification, therefore, that we should acknowledge the ap- pearance at ‘this time of Comrade Olgin’s enlightening monograph on Maxim °Gérky.* Coming to us, as it does, in the year of the international Gerky jubilee, the publication of this essay represents an extension of our campaign-for the popularization of the great revolutionary figure among at the old’structure of bourgeois civ- ilization.” Gorky Has Always Been a Revolu- tionary In establishing this point, Comrade Olgin furnishes us with an effec- tive weapon against the bourgeois and Menshevist detractors of Com- rade Gorky who would have it ap- pear that his open allignment with the Communist) Party represents a break with his former self, a change of heart, so to speak. Not a fair- weather Communist is Maxim Gor- ky, a singer of praises to the Revo- lution when it is successful, but a forerunner, a battling pioneer of proletarian literature through the Against a changing background of| social-economic forces we find traced) in this essay the emergence ef Gor-| ky’s Slashes power, we see the rise! darkest days of Czarist oppression.) . of that power, its development through a series of ideological vicissi- tudes in the course of the colossal struggles, the defeats, and the vic- tories of the Russian workers and peasants. Gorky the Bolshevik is the logicl consequence of the aggressive, pity-spurning outcast of the ’90's charged with a dark revolutionary will some day, to be released. Across the chaos and creation of three revo- lutions he has cut his way with the Bolshevik worker and peasant of to- day, the heroic shock-brigadier, the collective-willed proletarian and} peasant clangorous and rhythmic with the construction of the Social- ist positions on the fields and cities of the new Russia. .*“Maxim Gorky, Writer and Rev- olutionist,”" by Moissaye J. Olgin, In- ternational ‘Publishers, New York. Paper edition, 25 cents; cloth, 75 cents, the American masses. And coming from the pen of so authentic a stu- dent of, tlie seene and the epoch—the | old and the new—depicted in the works of Gorky, productive, one may say, of ft man Gorky, the essay goes far“to meet the long-felt need in this’ cdiintry for an adequate pre- sentation’ Of the essence of Gorky’s) life and work in its meaningfulness| for the world proletariat. A Historical-Materialist Treatment » of Gorky - A keer Marxist-Leninist critic of literature,,Comrade Olgin has in this booklet presented to us the writer- reyolutionist Gorky in the clear light of. histe) rical- -materialism. From the outset fe" rejects the shallow judg- ment of the philistine critics who would see in the strong vagrant- types that people Gorky’s early sto- ries solely a romantic ennoblement of the nomadic Lumpenproletarian, of the rural anarch standing be- yond good and evil, elements nega- tively posed against the advancing industrialism and the developing proletariat. © 1g ism perceives the idealization of the vagrant in the early ‘itings of Maxim Gorky, but he perceives, too, the ominousness of a progressive class-force stirring with the movemegjs of those ele- mental, rebel-hearted figures: “As a matter of fact, Gorky was 2x- pressing the aggressive sentiment of a new class that hing come into ex- istence.” And here*we havela profound ob- ya not his ‘heroes,’ wes heraldipg the coming of the proletari class struggle.” Gorky, already then possessed of preletarian literary elements, al- though net yet prepared to take his material from the life of the indus- trial working class, gave utterance nonetheless to the proletarian s- me of criticism and affirm- ation im his treatment of his mag- nificent Sub-proletarian types. To quoté Olgin: “Even in those early stories one can see the fighter aginst bourgeois society. Gorky’s hoboes are a strik- ing contrast to the stagnating peas- ants, to the narrowminded philstines of the cif, to beauty-loving but nar- row-mifidéd ‘and self-centered intel- Jectuals,"Gorky’s hoboes are not pro- letarians, but they shake a hairy fist By CARL BRODSKY | The Trade Unions of the Soviet) | Union have invited a delegation of i eiericen workers to visit the Soviet Union in November this year. They | write as follows: “We propose a delegation of about 20 to 25 members. Seventy- five per cent must be elected by the workers in the factories where | they are employed. Twenty-five per cent elected through union or- ganizations. e We would like to have representatives from the Metal, Mining, Chemical, Textile and ‘Transport industries. Dele- gates must come from factories em- ploying not less than 500 workers. The delegates must be employed in one of these factories.” The Friends of the Soviet Union in this country is conducting the campaign for the election of such a workers’ delegation. It is of tremendous importance for the American worker’to learn about the conditions of the workers, peas- ants, women and children who are | building Socialism in the Soviet Union. By being on the spot, asking direct questions. observing, examining and seeing for themselves, these elected representatives of the factory work- ers and trade unions in this country will return as a mighty force for spreading the truth to their, class brothers; they will counteract the lies and calumny being spread in this country by all the enemies of the Soviet Union. Joint committees should be estab- lished. Particular factories should be concentrated upon, leaflets, meetings, discussions, should be inaugurated, and a united effort of this kind can result in a splendid campaign being conducted with success. Of vital importance is the prelim- inary campaign, acquainting the workers involved with the aims, re- sults and significance of the building of Socialism in the US.S.R. ‘We must utilize such a campaign to make clear many questions that are still unclear in the minds of hun- dreds of thousands of American workers. What is the Soviet Union? What does it stand for? Why do ‘The U.S. Workers’ Delegation to the Soviet Union | Eighteen thousand miners are in the of the workers and farmers in the| U. S.S. R.? About the heroic build- ing of the Five Year Plan, to show the difference in a country where the workers and peasants rule and in the countries where unemployment is growing, ruled by the capitalists. How do they, compare with conditions here? /What about unemployment? How about Social Insurance? etc,, etc., etc. In the course of such a campaign, opportunity is given to expose the lies, and provocations of the enemies of the Soviet Union. We are calling upon the workers, saying to them, “See for yourselves; elect your own trusted fellow worker to report back what he finds.” The delegation will leave the United States about the middle of October. They will remain in Rus- sia about ten weeks. They will see factories, farms, rest homes, work- ers’ dwellings, etc. They will travel extensively ip the Soviet Union. The expenses whe in the Soviet Union will be paid by the Russian Trade Unions. Only the round trip fare must be paid by the workers who elect their delegate. The campaign to raise such funds is an important phase of the work. An example of how such funds were raised is given by the workers in the West Wales mines who elected a delegate and then voted to asess each miner one penny. trade unions in West Wales. "The delegates will be toured upon their return, to speak to other sec- tions of workers and if possible in many parts of the country. Are there twenty factories in the U, S. embracing the above in- dustries where we can get twenty such delegates? Of course there are! Are the workers in the’ United States interested in the werkers in the So- viet Union? Most certainly. The Friends of the Soviet, Union calls upon ALL friends of the Soviet Union to get behind this campaign. All branches of the F. 8. U., all left wing elements in the Trade Union, all organizations friendly to the Rus- sian workers, liberdls, sympathizers, etc., should proceed at once with the necessary steps to elect an American Workers’ Delegation to the Soviet KARL MARX 1818-1883 THE CRITIQUE OF THE GOTHA PROGRAM—KARL MARX, In- ternational Publishers, New York— 35 Cents. by MILTON HOWARD It is not too much to say that the publishing of this magnificent edi- tion of one of Marx's masterpieces is an historic day in the develop-) ment of Marxian revolutionary the- ory and practice in this country. It is an astounding fact that’ this masterly analysis of some of the ba- sic questions of revolutionary theory has ‘beéh up to now practitally un- available. For the truth is that Marx's “cri- tique” is on a par with the Commu- nist Manifesto as a fundamental document in the arsenal of revolu- tionary theory. CONCEALED BY SGCIALIST LEADERS Tt was first written in 1875 by Marx as scorching criticism of the} political -program adopted by the| German Social Democratic Party. at the Gotha Unity Congress. At this Congress the German workers led by Bebel and Liebknecht followers of Marx, united with the Lasalieans into the German Social Democratic Party. However, this masterpiece, tho’ written in 1875 did not see the light of day until 1891. It was first printed by Engels over the protest and opposition of all the} leading German Socialists, includirg Kautsky, “socialist” who calls for intervention against the Soviet Un- ion, and the leading theoretician ‘of the Second International. From 1891 to the present day it has been al- most impossible to get, particularly in English. When Engels published it, it was received with unconcealed hostility by the “Socialistic big-wigs” (Eng- els’ phrase in his letter to Sorge,| February 11, 1891). The Socialists in the | Reichstag declared publicly that that they would have nothing to do with Marx’s views. And the Central Committee of the German Socfalist Party declared that it dis- approved of Marx’s “Critique” and would never have given its consent to have it published. And no wonder that the Socialist leaders were afraid of Marx's pam- phiet. For it contains a blasting ex- posure of all the opportunism which lay at the basis of all the betrayals the Russian workers invite American workers? What are the conditions Union, of revolutionary Socialism, which FRIEDRICH ENGELS 1820-1895 they were to realize in action ai the breaking ‘out of the World War in 1914, arid of the whole series of treacheries to the present day. With the sharp sword of his un- matched critical weapons, Marx the leaders of the Socialist Party | such as Norman Thomas, etc. MARX ON DICTATORSHIP The basic question which Mi treats in the “Critique” is the seiz | ure of political power by the -revo- lutionary proletariat and the set- ting up of the dictatorship of the proletariat as the form of govern- ment which must supersede the r | of the capitalist class. | ule that the class conflict does not rule out democracy, especially in | a coutttry which, like America, has a tradition of democracy. Democ- racy, #s' Kautsky has pointed out, has eductional value for the work- ers that:’no dictatorship can have. And the leading Jewish Newspaper, the Daily Forward, clared that the purpese of’ the So- cialist Convention in Milwaukee was the “abolition of dictatorship and introduction ef democracy.” What. did Marx believe on this question? his unmistakable answer: “Between capitalist and Com- munist.seciety lies a period of re- volutionary . transformation from one to. the other. ponds also to this a political tran- sition” period during which the state can, be nothing else than the revolutignary dictatorship of the proletariat.”. (Page 45). And Marx contemptuously attacks the Gotha program of the German Social, Democratic Party’ because “It had nor jet’ about the future forms of the state in Communist society.” Thuz..the fundamental teacii: of Marx about the necessity of the revolutionary dictatorship of the) by the Working class are in violent contradiction to the official theories over thé*world. The theories of the Socialist “Teaders are an obvious be- simply crushes all the theories and} doctrines which we hear today from | . 1. LENIN 1870- 1924 ‘al of Marxism. leaders the no} attack aS who had ‘the owner- been (accessed from | ship of the means 0: For the rich peasants ( special favorite the Se who are fighting | their existence as an | FREEDOM FOR WHOM? What did the founders of Scienti- | fie Socialism, think’ about “freedom” for “the enemies of the working class? Engels wrote: (Page 103) In his pamphlet “The Socialist Cure for a Sick Society,” Norman | Thomas ‘states: “Socialists in contrast, believe Socialist | In his “Critique” he gives) There corres- | othing to say about this Iatter | proletariat. after the seizure of power) only laid the of the present Socialist leaders all) quer | proletari “As long as the proletariat still needs the State, it needs it not in the interests of freedom, but for the purpose of crushing its an- tagonisis; and soon as it be- comes possible to speak of freeciom, then the State, as such, ceases to exist.” Again and again Marx and Eng- els spoke ahout the ne ity of the + to crush the resistance of ies by means of its own dic- rship: the proletariat will, from the beginning, have to seize into its hands organized political State power and with its help smash the resistance of the capitalist class | and reorganize society.” (Page 58). Of late the Social-Democratic| philistine has once more been a with wholesome terror at the words: ctatorship of the Proletariat. Well and good gentlemen, do you want) to know what this dictatorship is, looks like? “Look at the Paris Com-| the Dictatorship | Marx and} Critique” It is in this way that Engels, particularly in the laid down the path whi ing class must take in its struggle| against capitalism and for the es- tablishment of Socialism. In the Soviet Union the Commu- nist Party led by Lenin fulfilled its} revolutionary tasks as laid down by) Marx and Engels. Lenin in his) “State and Revolution” revised and/ developed these forgotten ideas of| Marx and Engels. But Marx and his “Critique,” bas! sis for the poll not | leal | class must take after it has con-| real scientific genius he actually| laid the basis for the solution of the) “Proletarian Democracy Is a Million Times More Democratic-Than Any Bourgeois Democracy, and the Soviet Regime Is a Million Times More Democratic Than the Most Democratic:Regime in a Bourgeois Republic.”--Lenin. | “PRIDE OF OUR SOVIET LAND” JOSEPH STALIN 1879 A MARXIAN se EREIERE most complicated practical prolembs of the transition from capitalism to socialism to communism. | MARXISM IN PRACTICE In his historic speech outlining his famous “six points,” n showed how Marx in his “Critique of the Gotha Program” had already given the answers to the difficult problems of socialist construction For example on the question of equal wages for all workers. The So- cialist leaders denounced the pay- ment of unequal wages.as “capital- ism.” Stalin showed how Marx in the Critique” condemned such theories as being Utopian. He quo- ted from Marx's “Critique” “Right can by its very nature only | consist in the application of an equal standard . . married, another single, one has more children than another, and so on. Given an equal capacity of la- bor and thence an equal share in the funds for social the one will in practice receive more than the other, the one will be richer than the other and so forth. To avoid all these inconveniences, rights must be unequal instead of | equal. “But these dificiences are unavoid- able in the first phase of Commu-| nist society when it is just emerg-| | ing after prolonged birthpangs from capitalist society. Right can never} be higher than the economic struc-| ture and the cultural development of society conditioned by it.” Experience of the workers in the | Soviet Union in the building of so- cialism has provided the historical test of the correctness of Marxist analysis in the “Critique” of the questions of the transition from ca- pitalism to communism. Marx's ideas| as clearly and unmistakeably ex- pressed in the “Critique” have found concrete realization in the practice} \of the Communist Party and the | workers of the Soviet Union. A study of the “Critique”, reveals how utterly rotten and anti-Marxian are the theories of the Socialist leaders} all over the world. The edition issued by the Interna- | tional Publishers is remarkable for its thoroughness. It contains com- plete appendices, giving Lenin’s notes on Marxist “Critique,” the let- ters which Marx and Engels sent to up in great detail all the problems raised by the Gotha Program, The but one worker is| consumption, | being Page Five ee | we “U.S., THE CLASSIC LAND OF SWINDLE OF DEMOCRACY” —Karl Marx. Take the fundamental laws of modern States, take their internal | administration, take the right of | meeting and freedom of the press nd the so-called equality of all cit- izens before the law, and you will see at every step evidence of the hypocrisy of bourgeois democracy, with which every honest and in- telligent worker is familiar. There is not a single State, how- ever democratic, which does not contain loopholes or limiting clau~ ses, in its constitution, which guar- antee the bourgeoisie the legal | possibility of dispatching troops against the workers, of proclaim- ing martial law and so forth, im the case of the disturbance of pub- lic order, that is, in the case of “disturbance” by the servile class of its servile conditions, and of at- tempts to strike a non-servile at- titude ..... Proletarian democracy of which the Soviet regime constitutes one of the forms, has given to the world a hitherto unknown expan- sion and development of demoe- racy for the gigantic majority of the population, for the exploited and laboring masses -(“TheProletarian Revolution,” by N. Lenin). “The fundamental idea of the dictatorship: ef the proletariat as . the political domination of the proletariat and as a method of the forceful overthrow of the regime of capital was created by Marx and Engels. “Lenin’s new contribution in this field was that: (a) utilizing the experience of the Paris Commune and the Russian Revolution, he | discovered the Soviet form of gov- ernment as the state form of the dictatorship of the proletariat; (b) he deciphered the formula of the dictatorship of the proletariat from the point of view of the problem of the proletariat and its allies, and defined the dictatorship of the proletariat as a special form of class alliance between the proletariat, which is the leader, and the exploited masses of the non-proletarian classes, (in the peasantry, etc.), who are led: (c) he particularly emphasized the fact that the dictatorship of the proletariat is a higher type of democracy in class society, i. e. PROLETARIAN democracy, which expresses the interests of the majority (the exploited) as against CAPITALIST democracy, which expresses the interests of the minority (the exploiters).” (Stalin, Interview with the First American Labor Delegation in i Russia). {edition is well bound, and takes its place in our revolutionary literature | by the side of the Communist Man- ifesto, as one of our main weapons in the fight for the overthrow of capitalism. The revolutionary movement in America owes the International Pub- lishers a debt of gratitude for its d the capitalist class, but with | one another and their friends, taking| edition of the “Critique of the Gotha | Program.” It is a masterpiece whose \ riches we cannot exhaust. “Fendamental Task of 5-Year Plan Was.... Creation of Economic Base for Abolition of Classes and for Construction of Sociali. ‘THE NEW SOCIALIST TOWN OF DNEIPROSTROY By NATHANIEL BUCHWALD (Di ‘orker Correspondent) ‘The world Knows of Dniep- rostroy, but in Moscow a clerk in the telegraph» office refused to accept a telegraphaddressed to Dnieprostroy, stating that’ there was no such place on his list. At the railway station you would find equal difficulty in buying a- ticket to Dnieprostroy, and the local. would be at a loss where to deliver a letter marked “Dnieprostroy.” In a loose sort of way the Dnieper Hydro-Eleetrie Station, the dam and the newly built town in the neighbor- hood of the power-plant are referred to as Dnieprostroy. Actually this word does not denote a geographical point so-much as a stupendous pro- gram of industrial, rural, and com- munal development. Much of this program; has already been accom- plished. ‘ 3 More Turbines to Be Installed ‘The power-plant gave its first cur- rent a year*ago and was officially put in Shi Boe last October. In a few months, the remaining three of” fie rants turbines and gen- erators will have been installed, the plant will ‘haVe a capacity of 550,000 kilowattswith an annual output, of nearly five’ billion kilowatt hours. With its present six units in opera- tion the plant could develop 350,000 kilowatts” Of "an annual output about three billion kilowatt hours. But only a small of the ity ofethe plant nt,” It supplies current to the ‘huge. iron and steel works at Dniep- ropetrovsk, including the Petrovsky plant, Dnieprostal and others. Its - current ig also used by the Dzherz- shinsky and iron works, its feed- total pais is thus tapped. The Dnieprostroy’ station can easily take care of ten.times the load it carries “now, and in a year or two it will probably ‘carry its peak load. Many Big Factories Daeg igh the area of the of able to consume all of its output, and being utilized | of Kil hastily built barracks, What the Russians calls the plosh- tshadka (platform) of the new in- dustrial center occupies an area of 40 square kilometers. Upon it some of the largest plants in the Soviet Union are being built and are nearing completion. The aluminum plant with an ultimate capacity of 40,000 tons annually is in its final stages of equipment. Some of the shops of the giant steel plant, Zaprozhstal, are already functioning, and in the very near future the first two blast furnaces will be put in operation. In point of up- to-date equipment and potential out- put these furnaces challenge the giants of Magnitostroy and Stalinsk. ‘This plant alone will soon be able to produce a million and a quarter tons of steel. Several alloy plants, chemical fac- tories and other industrial establish- ments are scheduled to start work within the first half of the Second Five-Year Plan. All of these new works will be fed current from the Dnieper Hydro-Electric Station. The Aluminum Combinat particularly will consume much current, since the pro- duction of aluminum involves the ex- tensive use of electrici ! To Supply Wide Areas But even these new “customers” of power-plant will not be exported ei” to dloent, parts hundreds e@ " int parts hi eters sway. It is only a ques- tion of building the necessary trans- ission lines and sub-stations for the itepping down” of the current that is shipped out of the plant at a ten- sion of 161,000 volts. Truly, the Dnieper Hydro-Electric Station will soon become the pulsating heart of industrial Ukraine. The Chief Consideration In the Soviet Union, industry is welfare of the masses. The men working in the steel mill are ever aware of the live, immediate connec- tion between their blast furnace and the potato patch of their colhosz gar- den, Steel means tractors and trucks and machines. Tractors, trucks and vlarge factories, towering at impresses one with aera and rows upon rows of machines mean grain, vegetables and naturally translated in terms of the| mill. equal boots, pants and harmonicas. Boots, pants, harmonicas plus tractors mean greater well-being and better efforts of the million sof peasants in the collective farms, and so on. Tae new chain of plants and fac- tories developing around Dniepros- troy is thus more than an increase in the number of industrial units. It is a promise and an assurance of bet- ter living in the rural communities as well. In an immediate sense, the lives of all the thirty-odd millions of the Ukrainian population are affected by the development o the industrial center loosely named Dnieprostroy. And with the free, unhampered inter- course among the various Republics and nationalities of the Soviet Union, the industrial development in one sec- tion of the country has its reverbera- tions throughout the U.S.S.R. Change in Progress In a very immediate way, Dniep- rostroy is already beginning to alter the face of the surrounding country- side. In some o fthe nearby colhozes and sovhozes, plowing is done by elec- tricity, with a movable “sub-stati tapping the near-by power-lines. “Electric Vegetables” raised in an ex- perimental sovhoz near the power plant are a thrilling demonstration of the potentialities of the plant so far as agriculture is concerned. These “electric vegetables” derive their nick name from the fact that the hot- houses are eq with over- ground and underground electric wires for the heating of the soil and the air. The size and the quality of these vegetables are the envy of the best. truck-farmers of ene neighbor- hood. At the kolkhoz “tnternational” about an hour's ride by automobile from Dnieprostroy. I saw @ cow-barn equipped with electric devices for cows. The same collective farm has its own electric driven flour “Tlyich’s Lamps” The electric bulb, or “Illyich’s lamp” as it is called among the peas- | dams ants, is making its way further and further into the out-of-the-way rural communities. Given the continued development of metallurgy, the in- creased production of wires and elec- raw stuffs. Raw stuffs plus aN tricdl equipment—and the entire , countryside will become a-glitter with the electric lamps named after the man who had the genius and the vi- sion to map out the program of elec- trification for the Soviet land, and who added to his many brilliant for- mulations the one about Communism being equal to Soviet rule plus elec- trification. There is still another meaning to the term “Dnieprostroy.” In terms of communal development, it means the rise of new towns laid out along ra~ tional lines with a view to serve the needs of the toiling ulation. Many such “socialist towns” have sprung up throughout the Soviet Union in the course of fulfilling the first pyatilet- ka, but the finest of them all is the new town at Dnieprostroy. The post office address of this new town is still Kichkas, the name of a village settled by German peasants. But the socialist town of Dniepros- troy is a community quite distinct, and in many ways—unique. Some would regard this new settlement as part of the Greater Zaporozhye that »| is to be. ‘The new town and the new fac- tories are of oné piece, organically bound up with the welfare of the workers, calculated to afford a max- imum of comfort and recreation to the people who harnessed the Dnie- per and made it drive the wheels of socialist industry. The “socialist town” at Dniepros- troy is situated on both banks of the Dnieper. Until now, the left bank has been developed to @ greater de- gree than the right one. But on both fides of the river you can see parks and boulevards laid out, and the houses tl shout are marked by pas and originality of modernistic oemmere is no great engineering in- volved in the houses that make up the “socialist town” at Dnieprostroy. Yet these houses are as great an achievement as the Great Dam itse}f. In capitalist countries, too, they have and power stations, but only in the Soviet Union, only where the workers are masters of their own des- tiny, is a town like Dnieprostroy pos- sible. To see this town is to become doubly dedicated to the causa of Workers on Boulder Dam Fill Hospitals, BOULDER CITY, Wy.—Be Care- construétion area. Men are shoved out of the hospital just as soon as they can crawl about, a worker charges, ‘because in the hospital his living expenses are covered by the | deductions from wages for accidents but as soon as he is pushed back into the bynkhouses he must pay for his keep, as. before. The Be Careful signs don’t mean anything, it is fur- ther charged, because those who take oe to be careful are fired for loaf- ing. Handbook of Soviet A 216-page paper-bound book seli-) ing at-30.cents a copy, is now being! distributed by International Publish- | ers, This book gives a comprehensive | account of the present status of the Soviet trade unions, their role in the building of Socialism, their tasks in improving production and the condi- tions of the workers, the organization of shock-brigades, socialist competi- tion, . business-accounting brigades, counter-planning, the production of | labor, housing, cultural activities, etc.’ Elaborate charts help in presenting | a complete but simple picture of the unions an dtheir work. The book is made up of the comprehensive re- ports and addresses delivered at the Ninth Congress of Trade Unions. The main portion of the book is taken up | with the: teport of N. M, Shvernik, General Secretary of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, and the speech of L. M. Kaganovich on the present tasks of the Trade Un- ions. It also includes the report of A. M. Tsikhon, Commissar of Labor, Unions.’ ‘The appendices contain the chief resolutions of the Congress. gf a mine of authora- | ation for all those inter- | de union work and the) Soviet Union, it can serve as the hand) for all trade union activ- ities. The book may be obtained at all workers’ bookshops or direct from Internatiohal Publishers, 381 Fourth workers rule the world over. Ave, New York, ful, the hospital is full is the wording | of signs-ail-around the Boulder Dam | Trade Unions Ready | on the principal tasks facing the) | | | tory. {nished by the Six Companies and st Society.”---Stalin. BOULDER DAM AND DNIEPROSTROY By JACK SMITH | The Boulder Dam at Las Vegas, Noveda, was built under capitalism. Thirty years elasped between the time the plan was formed until the dam; was finished. The Dnieprostroy Dam was built} in the course of Socialist construc-| tion, in the Soviet Union. It took enly three years to finish. The Boulder Dam cost $165,000,000. Dnieprostroy cost $110,000,000. | Yet while the Boulder Dam supplies 663,000 horse power of electricity,| Dnieprostroy supplies 756,000 horse power. | There are other features that) sharply distinguish the building of a! | dam under capitalism, and the build-| ing of a dam in the Soviet Union. Thirty years ago, it was suggested to name the dam in Nevada “Roose- velt Dam” in honor of “Teddy”, our president at that time—but the thing) hung fire over states rights and who} would get the juicy contract until| River. _ Finally the work started. The first thing they figured out | every cent possible. They even sign-| ed the contract two days before the} Federal Prevailing Wages law went ‘into effect, that permits the “Six Companies, Inc.” to pay 25 to 50 per cent less than is paid in that terri In addition, the workers must live | in company houses and are charged | 20 percent more than ether houses hear the dam's site. Also gas is fur- charged for at their own price. Tt takes 11 hours to go to the works and return home and put in an eight hour day. The men are paid for 8 hours only, Schools for the kiddies are ‘not large enough, and workers have to pay tuition to private schools, The result is that the kiddies get no schooling. Workers boarding at the Six Co.'s | mess hall and lodging in the firm’s| jshacks pay $1.65 a day. In mining camps in Nevada the charge is $1.00) a day. | The workers are compelled to get advances on wages, and this is not redeerable at par. Failure of the firm to obey Nevada safety laws has taken ja deadly toll. From April 1, 1931, to, ' December 9, 1931, there were two ac- cidental deaths, but the firm man- aged to tie up enforcement of Nevada | statutes and since then 15 deaths re- sulted from disregard of the laws. An ex-serviceman writes from Las Vegas, Nev.: “When you read of the} Boulder Dam dead, you must not im- | agine ordinary dead—whole corpses—| many are blown to bits, and they sometimes can find only a hank of hair, a few teeth, or a bit of skull. Funeral expenses are very small in such cases. If you are a legionnaire the Boulder Dam Post will blow a bugle over the grave (known in the army as “taps”) and they will shoot a few blanks as the dirt is thrown in. Whenever us unemployed hear the} shots we know that another ex-ser- viceman has been sacrificed to the gods of capitalism.” At Elizabeth, N. J., where the Lid- gerwood Co. is making the heavy ma-) |chinery for the Boulder Dam, they! ‘much water ran down the Colorado| work their men seven days a week |and 12 hours every day. The com- pany takes its place in the ranks of | was how to gyp the workers out of! low-wage payers, 50 to 65 cents for igh grade machinists. | Now let us see ink sthe workers can do for themselves when they run the government. First off, they beat she U.S. in time from the drawing of the plans to the finished dam was “just three years compared with 30 ears in capitalist America. Tackle Gigantic Problems A leader of the shock-brigade tells | us how, in order to cut a trough in |the granite of the river bed of the} dam, a false dam must be built across the river, if you can imagine the third largest river in Europe roaring thru @ narrow granite channel in these foothills of the Carpathian Moun- tains, you may get some idea of the difficulty and danger ofthese first | steps. The winter of 1929 was nearing and by 1930 the work of laying the con- crete was to begin and the trough must be as clean and dry as this desk. If frost set in and froze water in th trough before it Was cleared work would be set back six months Some of the specialists lost heart and said it couldn’t be done, But the Communist leaders called meetings of | the masses. They decided that it joe. be done. “Clear the trough at all costs” was the slogan of the work- | ers. | The eight-hour day was found in- | sufficient to do the work in time, Volunteer overtime brigades were then formed. In the course of 90 days 22,- 000 men had worked overtime more than once in addition to the regular- workers on the job. The fight against the river gripped the imagination of every worker on | the job. Men workéd, ate hasty meals, | worker again, slept a little, never left the job until at last, before the frost came. | The dam contains 1,200,000 tons of concrete, and in winter the temper- | ature falls to 20 degrees below zero. Now to carry on the work of laying concrete and assure finishing on time. The American engineers said it was impossible. | In 1980 the plan called for 427,000 cubic meters of concrete by December —the workers pledged themselves to place 500,000, and exceeded that by placing 518,000. During that winter, the workers made another record. When cold weather set in concrete work lagged and the American en- gineers decided that 8,000 tons would be enough to expect—this stirred the workers to action—it was clear that lat this rate the task would not be done on time, so they raised the amount to 12,000 and at the end of the month 16,000 had been laid. When the American engineers de- | cided that the work could not be done, brigades were formed. An active part was played by the young workers who were engaged in the winter of 1931- 1932 in laying concrete between the piers of the dam, It should be made clear that, al- though the workers gave time and energy without stint, every worker who answered these emergency calls was well rewarded. In addition to | overtime pay, premiums were paid for | Special efforts. Every time a gang completed its work in less than the appointed time a per centage was |added to its wages. Could you find any contractor adding to overtime » rate in the “free” U.S.A. without @ strike, riot, gunmen, etc.? ‘