The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 13, 1934, Page 3

ee ‘| insight into the thought processes of DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1934 Demand House Act on Workers Social Insurance Bill (H.R. 7598) 9 Strike Solid Despite To Subpoena LL.D. | Gun Play of Bosses Head in Hill Case, Shoe City Tenements | Militant Workers Keep Rosalsky Froths at Mouth | Factory Owners Do Al | They Can To Aid | Segregation fontinued from Page ¥) fyleewisihip from one group to an- This tendency to segregate them- selves into national groups seems to be instinctive, yet it is encouraged and helped by the manufacturers, several of whom own large blocks of these tenements, some aS many as two hundred or three hundred homies. Lithuanians who rent @ flat are put na building where Lithuanians live and 80 on. The problem of keeping them: sep- arated in national groups which might be important in a non-union area does not seem to enter here because shoe workers have been or- ganized in a union for over 30 years. A new generation has grown up feel- ing that belonging to a union is just part of the scheme of life. Even in these days of unemployment and lower than living standard wages, the union spirit is strong. For years the shoe workers paid dues to the Boot and Shoe Makers’ Union, affiliated with the A. F. of L. Things ran smoothly. Manufacturers were busy and workers managed to earn a@ good living. There were abuses in the union about which they grumb- ed but did nothing. Things were too comfortable. Union Leaders Saneioned Wage Cuts, H But when work became scarce and’) hese who did work failed to earn enough to keep their homes and} families together the grumbling be- | came louder. Cut after cut was put | nto effect by the manufacturers with } the approval of the union. Manu- facturers said they had to reduce wages because they were making a. heaper shoe; union members were discharged because there was no work for them. Slowly the union began to lose memberships; then with a rush memberships dropped terrific- ally. Workers saw no sense paying dues to a union which did not help them hold on to their jobs or, if they did have jobs, helped the manufac- turer to reduce wages. Among the almost 8,000 members there was tremendous unrest. The manufacturers watched it carefully, wondering whether the union would be broken. In the midst of this un- rest, manufacturer and union offi- cial got together and set up a dic- tatorship over the various locals to help the manufacturers reduce wages without a board of arbitration hear- ing as was provided for in the con- tract the union had with the man- ufacturers, ~ A number of locals protested and the union dictator promptly revoked thely charters. The trimmers, 2 specialized form of work, with not more than 250 in the whole town, immediately organized 2 secret group, A half dozen of them went from house to house talking to their fellow craftsmen. When all edge trimmers were lined up they formed the Edge Trimmers Mutual Benefit Association and announced they would accept nO more cuts. z Other specialized branches of the industry organized benefit associa- tions. By last summer 14 such as~ sociations were in full swing. A meet~ ing was called, delegates elected and the Brotherhood of Shoe and Allied Craftsmen came into being. Go On “Sit Strike” 7 The Boot and Shoe Union imme~ diately demanded that the manu- tacturers discharge all who were not members of the Boot and Shoe. Non- members could not work in factories. Many members of the new union were still members of the old one and when the discharges were made the new union members decided on a “sit strike” as it became known. Each day they appeared at the factories and sat quietly at their: benches. Not a machine | { about it; factories were closing; the wheels of industry that ran Brock- ton’s economic life had been stopped. | while two labor fractions fought for _ control of the shoe industry. The. | Bows | while the new union membership-is | placed around 7,000. | Since the new union now controls _ the shoe industry here from the labor | standpoint, it is important to get an | John Murphy, its president and chief _ jeader in the secéssional movement. “The manufacturers will be able | to work with Murphy and get along}: i , secretary. | I’m afraid he can’t. There is a strong cadical element, among the ith, nee who want to avtlints wi UNEMPLOYED DELEGATES REPORT CLEVELAND, Ohio, Feb, 12.—Cleveland | delegates to the Washington National Con- vention Against Unemployment will report at a mass meeting ht it Lithunian Hall, 920 2, Toth Bt., Thurs., Feb. 15, at 8 p.m. A ‘dance and entertainment will be held by the Relief Workers Union on Feb. 17, ANNA SCHULTZ TO SPEAK IN MILWAUKEE MILWAUKEE, Wis.—Anna Schultz, secre- ary to Ernst Torgler and recent refugee’ _ from Germany, will speak at a mass meet~ ing here on Wednesday, Feb, 14, 7:30 p.m., ao the American Luther Association Hall, L113 W. State Street, ~ ee | ‘Coal Drivers Strike ‘| “The concentration point »} our work is the Unit and the Section | “Right Against Hunger!” unemployed workers in a recent demonstration at City Hall, New Lork, for unemployment insurance, urge Minneapolis A. F. L., Heads Aid NRA End Men Sent Back to Work | With Promise of ‘*Arbitration” MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.—The A. F. of L. leaders accepted the decision of the N.R.A. Regional Labor Board Friday to end the coal drivers’ strike immediately, without receiving a wage increase and submitting this question to “arbitration,” which is the same as giving up the demand for a wage increase altogether. All the strikers received from the Labor Board’s decision was a promise for “temporary recognition” of the union, until a supervised election would be held in the coal yards. The strike was called Wednesday, involving 900 coal drivers, tying up over 50 coal yards, and threatened to spread to St. Paul and to the fuel- oil companies. One of the major demands was for a 25 per cent in- crease in wages, but this demand was dropped by the officials, who only argued for union recognition. Even this was not fully granted, as the “temporary recognition” is only un- til the elections, when the company may maneuver to trick the workers out of this, In the meantime, while waiting for the elections and for the wage-demands to be arbitrated the coal season will soon be over, and the company will be able to dictate terms. The time to have won a wage increase was now, when the coal yards were tied up 100 per cent dur- ing the cold weather. A delegation of the Unemployed Council which came to the strike headquarters offering the support and solidarity of the unemployed to the strikers was put out of the hall by the leadership, and their efforts of support refused. The offer of the International Labor Defense to help in the defense of the arrested strikers who were arrested on charges of overturning scab trucks, was likewise refused. as Workers Protest | Frame-up Iron Picket Ring; Defy Police NEW YORK.—The trial of Oscar ROME, Ga., Feb. 12.—Beginning |7i], marine worker framed by the| the 11th week of the strike of the inolice in the course of the telegraph stove foundry workers in Rome, Ga.,/workers strike, was postponed yes- finds them as militant and deter-|terday to Feb. 23. while Judze Ro- mined as ever. salsky, vicious labor batter, frothed On Feb. 6th the bosses at the |at the mouth over the flood of pro- Rome Stove and Range Co. at-|test telegrams received by the court tempted to get a shipment out of |demanding the release of Hill. | the plant. The pickets were on the; Threatening to subnoena William L.| job and stopped it. Homer Hen- Patterson, National Secretary of the| derson, superintendent of the pliant, | International Labor Defense, Judge became so enraged that he drew @|Rosalsky declared his intention to gun and fired on one of the pickets, | investigate” the character of the Louis Morris. The strikers refused |y, 1. p. to retreat. The shipment was not/| pavid Schriftman, TLD. attorney, made despite the gun-play of Hen-|informed the hysterical judge that} derson. \the LL.D. is ready to appear before The bosses have made other fran- any court to present its program and | Brockton ee Rome, Ga., Foundry Judge Threatens — ) Starving in “Model’ | stopped them. The bosses have called | tic efforts to get shipments out in| the other plants also, but the pick- ets have been on the job and on the police and on the Federal government to break the iron ring | of the pickets, bu tit was no good. | During the recent shooting, the | pickets maintained fine discipline and when the police arrived they did not have any excuse to arrest any of the strikers. Louis Morris has sworn out a warrant for the arrest of Henderson. oS in the 11th week of the strike, the strikers are as militant and de- | termined as ever and are set to win “if the damn foundries ever | open up again”! | Munson Crew Gets NEW YORK.—Although the 8. S. Pan America (Munson Line Ship) was infested with slimy stoolpigeons and dicks, delegates from the M. W. I. U. succeeded in getting aboard and told the crew of Mr. Munson’s answer to the seamens’ demands, and pointed out that the only way to answer Mun- son was to take the same action that the crew of the Munsomo did in Baltimore. The crew stated that they had not been paid their wages for months, and many were ready to take action for this demand. A few others were in favor of striking for the same de- mands that the crew of the Munsomo struck for in Baltimore. Mr. Munson, hearing this, and fearing the crew would take action, immediately paid the crew their back wages. Gary Workers F orced to| Wait 60 Days for Pay As Checks Are Stolen (By a Worker Correspondent) GARY, Ind—Fifty-one C. W. A. workers were not paid here, because someone stole their checks. They will have to wait for 60 days while the government ‘investigates,’ ac- cording to Mrs. Mary Grace Wells, Calumet Township Trustee. As long as we workers remain silent and unorganized, the bosses will keep on sucking our blood. It is high time for us to rise like a unit. We must join the ranks of the revo- lutionary, industrial unions and, un- der the leadership of our teachers, Marx and Lenin, we will overthrow the capitalist system which gives to the workers nothing but starvatior, and replace it with a Soviet system, in which the workers and farmers will rule. Then, and not until then, will we Mention the Daily Worker when addressing advertisers. Their Back Wage | the method it employs in defending workers in the courts for their ac- tivities in the ‘labor movement. The district office of the LL.D. de- clared yesterday that the ILD. ac- cepts the challenge of Judge Rosalsky, and what's more, repeats its requests jto all workers and their organizations \to flood Judge Rosalsky with protests \and to pack the court room on Feb. 23 in vigorous protests against his attack on the LL.D. and to force the release of Oscar Hill. Wages Slashed on Work for U.S. Army Textile Plants Get Big War Dept. Orders By The Labor Research Assn. Recent textile orders from the army include opening for bids for over one million yards of khaki tent duck and nearly a million yards of 20-ounce olive drab suiting. Bids for nearly one million wool blankets will be opened March 5. Although recent reports on purchase of other materials, such as airplanes and army trucks, by the ‘War Department, reveal widespread graft and extensive profiteering (“ex- cess profits”), similar conditions have not as yet been recently exposed in the textile field. (During the last im- perialiss war wool manufacturing concerns, such as American Woolen Co., were involved in profiteering on | an extensive scale.” However, it appears that when the War Department goes into the textile market today, it requires such. low prices that the wages of workers—not the profits of the employers, of course —have to be cut to meet them. For example, the War Department recently asked for bids on six million yards of cotton goods—a print cloth with a three color combination. An executive of a New England cotton print works wrifes to the American Wool and Cotton Reporter (January 17, 1934) that “the bare cost figures on a job of this kind in the largest print works like the Pacific is five to six cents a yard. In order to make bids on the order, several print works were obliged to work out lower wage seales ready to be put into effect if they received the contract.” This executive declares that the fact that the government accepted a very low bid on this job “does not hardly seem to be exactly in keeping with the spirit of the N.R.A..,.. It looks as if Uncle Sam was somewhat of a chiseler himself.” F.S.U. MEETING IN BALTIMORE BALTIMORE, Md.—William N. Jones, man- aging editor of the Afro-American will speak on “Is Liberia the Solution to the Negro Problem?” at the regular meeting of the Priends of the Soviet Union Wednesday at be safe from the “officials” who steal our checks, the International Book Shop, 509 N. Eutaw St. at 9:15. Ohio City Council, Chelsea Shoe Union, Page Three Press Washington for Quick Enactment United Shoe Local Sends Letter to President | Roosevelt CHELSEA, Mass., Feb. 11.—Aiter indorsing the Workers’ Unemploy- | ment and Social Insurance Bill, H. R. | 7598, at their last meeting, the | shoe workers of the Chelsea local of | ers Union are now taking steps to/| fight for local relief. | At a meeting of the unemployed | shoe workers last Wednesday John | outlined a program of action for the | Union. A committee of 5 was elected | (later this Unemployment Commit- tee is to be increased to 14) to func- | tion temporarily. | sent @ letter to President Roosevelt demanding enactment of the Work- ers Unemployment Insurance Bill. e 1,000 unemployed shoe workers of Chelsea must unite and through the union demand C.W.A. jobs for relief. Attempts will be made to split the ranks through fake bills and open sabotage on the part of some leaders of the union. An instance of this came up at last week’s meeting. The Socialist Party sent a communication asking the workers to endorse a weak bill that concerns only home _ owners | and those now working. The bill says nothing as to where the money | is to come from and provides in a | Vague manner for only $2 per day for a limited time. The workers showed their utter disgust at such fraudulent bills that they relegated the bill to the files. This week there was no relief | passed out at the local dispensing | | station, which weekly distributes | rotten eggs and rancid butter. Workers here on C.W.A. seeing the Daily Worker for the first time are very enthusiastic about it, 3,000 Pea Pickers Strike in California Demand Pay Increase, Union Recognition (Special to the Daily Worker) | | BRAWLEY, Cal. Feb. 12—Three |thousand pea pickers are on strike around the Calipatria district. The strike is led by the Agricultural and Cannery Workers Industrial Union against the l-cent = pound tate. The strikers are demanding 2 cents @ pound, clean water, one| weighman for each 150 men and union recognition. ‘The entire area is paralyzed by the strike. Only 30 scabs are on the Job. Scores of deputies have been sworn in and sent to the strike area. Two) strikers were arrested. The 30 pris- oners arrested in the lettuce strike are to be tried this week. Bury Jobless Negro in Poor Farm Potato Field By a Worker Correspondent BENTON HARBOR, Mich. — Joe Martin, unemployed Negro and mem- ber of the Unemployment Council, who lived in a river bank shack, was recently transferred to the poor farm, where he died. Although the poor house officials | | had promised Martin that if he died | the Unemployment Council could Force Congress Jobless Insurance Bill! to Enact the IODAY a delegation, representing the jobless workers, is in Washington, led by the Unemployment Councils, to demand the United Shoe and Leather Work- | that the House Committee on Labor immediately report favor- ably on the Workers’ Unemployment Insurance Bill (H. R. 7598). This bill has been indorsed Weber of the Unemployed Council | unemployed workers. Every day additional city councils, A. F. locals, employed and other workers’ organizations and mass mectin; | resolutions demanding that Congress shall immediately enact the Workers’ Unemployment Insurance Bill. Meanwhile, the Roosevelt government The union at its regular meeting | Committee, are trying to bury the Workers’ Unemployment Insurance Bill. They are boosting the Wagner-Perkins Bill, which does not give any bene- | by hundreds of thousands of representatives in the Labor fits to the sixteen million totally jobless and which does not call for any federal appropriation for Unemployme: nt Insurance. House of Representatives Bill 7598, the Workers’ Bill, is the only un- employment insurance bil] now before million workers now totally jobless. Congress which benefits the sixteen Congressman Lundeen, who himself introduced the bill because of mass pressure for it, is not fighting for the passage of the bill. Employed and unemployed workers! Introduce resolutions in all or- ganizations and meetings, demanding the enactment by Congress of the ‘Workers’ Unemployment and Social Insurance Bill. Introduce motions at once in all Unemployed Councils, C.W.A. workers’ unions, A.F.L. locals, fraternal, veterans’, farmers’ and all other organizations calling for im- mediate passage of the Workers’ Bill Rush these resolutions by telegrap! nery, Chairman of the House Labor Committee, and to your own con- | gressmen and senators. by Congress. Ih and letters to Congressman Con- Linndale Town Council Indorses Bill for Job Insurance CLEVELAND, Ohio, Feb. 12.—Tr of the village of Linn- one of the largest railroad towns of Northern Ohio, has gone on record endorsi ie Workers’ Unemploy- t Social Insurance Bill H. R. 7598 The Linndale Council passed a resolution memorializing Congress to pass the Workers’ Bill at its regular weekly session on Tuesday, Feb. 6. The village clerk was instructed to send a copy of the resolution, for the ment of House R. Bill No. 1598 to Congress The Unemployed Council member- ship, which is active in Linndale, was present when the resolution was passed. This is the second local gov- | ernment in Cuyahoga County to in- |dorse the Workers’ Unemployment | Insurance Bill and call for its adop- tion. * ‘Party Urges United ‘Front Fight Against Borders’ Treachery Chicago Socialist Took DEMAND THE IMMEDIATE ENACTMENT BY CONGRESS or H.x,| Fat Roosevelt Job 598—THE WORKERS’ UNEMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL INSURANCE BILL, Tax Collector Takes Last | of CWA Workers’ Wages For “Back Tax’ (By a Worker Correspondent) } HAZELHURST, Pa., Feb. 12.—/ While Wall Street bankers are per- | mitted to evade payment of taxes | and Pennsylvania industrialists are | still collecting tax returns given them | by Andrew Mellon, C. W. A. workers | here are forced to pay “delinquent taxes,” under threats by the tax col- | lector. Carl Paulson, tax collector for Hamlin Township, McKean County, | called at a C. W. A. worker's home while he was away and threatened | his wife if some taxes were not paid. Frightened, the worker’s wife offered | to pay $2 out of a $5 bill which she had to buy food with for the entire | week, She gaye the bill to Paulson, ex- | plaining that it was all the money | that she had. He took the money, pocketed it, and refused to give her the change. | Demand Back Pay LOS ANGELES, Calif, Feb. 9.— Carpenters working under the Fed. eral Civil Works Administration, do-| ing skilled work, have signed a peti- tion demanding back pay from Jan. 4. They have been getting 50 cents an hour, although they were promised $1.10 for skilled work. Investigation by the Construction | Workers Industrial Union has shown that none but a very few political favorites have been given this skilled pay; all other workers doing car- pentry, stonemasonry, and other skilled work, have been getting 50 cents an hour. CWA workers in Burbank and San | Fernando report a statement by Rit- | tenhouse of the locai CYA board that | arrange for his funeral, they have refused to do so, burying him in a potato field without any of his com- rades present, no worker who had been on county relief can get skilled workers pay no matter what kind of work he does under CWA. CWA Jobs in Hands of A.F. of L. Leader on Needle Projects Workers Demonstrate in Protest on Feb. 13. NEW YORK.—-The militant and termined struggles conducted by the thousands of unemployed needle needle trades workers under the leadership of the Needle Trades Un- employment Council forced the Civil Works Administration to go through | with the needle trades project. These jobs were promised to the needy un- | employed, but what is actually hap- pening? The C.W.A., together with Hillman and Dubinsky, are giving jobs to their henchmen and not to those who are in need. They are | Playing politics at the expense of the starving unemployed. The Needie Trades Unemployment | Council declares, “Fight against the Policies of the C. W. A. of Hillman and Dubinsky. Fight for the right to jobs or cash relief. Demonstrate on Tuesday, February 13th at 2 p. m. in front of the offices of the C. W. A. at 8th Ave. and 14th St., New York City. Mobilize at the Union Auditorium at 131 W. 28th St., at 1 p.m. Dress and Cloakmakers mobilize at 140 W. 36th St.” PITTSBURGH PEN AND HAMMER ‘ SYMPOSIUM PITTSBURGH, Pa.—The Pen and Ham- mer will conduct a symposium on “The Danger of Fascism in rica,” on Thurs- day, Feb. 15th, at the ¥.M.H.A., on Belle- field Ave. at 8:30 p.m. Carl Hacker of the Communist Party, Professor Roswell Johnson of the U. of Pennsylvania and Louis J. Lappe, Editor of the Italian paper, “La Tri- nacela,” will speak. Party Pre-Convention Discussion Party Members! Send in Articles, Letters, Questions in Convention Discussion Concentrating to Strengthen the Roots of the Party on the Railroads Must Not Neglect Other Points When Centering On Key Roads EDITORIAL NOTE.—This is the second and concluding article on the Open Letter and concentration in the railroad industry. The ar- ticle is published in connection with the discussion preparatory to the 8th Convention of our Party. We invite and urge all Party members working on the railroads to discuss these articles and contribute their experiences to the Party discus- sion. Questions are invited. peti Soe. By B. W. ARTICLE It The path for the mobilization of win- ning of the railroad workers to the iclass struggle program of our Party. » At the Extraordinary Conference ;;Comrade Browder asks the question at|“What are the instruments of con- for all of the Party . we must make use of every means of concentration, every feature of our work must carry through the principles of concentra- ‘tion, Party organizations, trade punions, unemployed councils, workers’ of | Us against clubs, I. W. O., I. L. D. branches, lJanguage clubs and language press. the point that we must continue stress is, the central instrument for carrying through the turn to the is the unit and the section.” fact that Comrade Browder particularly stresses, from the point of view of concentration, the units of a as some railroad workers have placed the question, that the railroad industry in District 8 is a national and district concentration; that there are 80,- 000 employed and unemployed rail~ road men here and 250 railroad lodges in the city of Chicago alone which the Chicago District is responsible for. It does not mean therefore that many outside forces must be picked up and assigned by the District to cover these various points. an interpretation of the question is precisely what the Open Letter warns in the sharpest terms when it states: “The Party must make its main basis in the most important in- dustries, in the most important Dis- trict and in these Districts in the most important factories.” Comrade Browder in explaining the Open Letter at the Ext Party Conference tells us why we pick certain key points for concentration. He asks the question: “Why do we concentrate at certain key points?” and then explains: “Our concentration ts to win the strategic points precisely because such success will move the entire industry, or at least the whole locality, where- as, if we concentrate on the whole locality and the whole industry, it will take so long to move it that the workers will be somewhere else by the time we get anything done.” However, by concentrating at certain key points in the railroad in- dustry, it does not mean that we neg- lect other railroad points. Such a conception means narrowing down the entire work of the Party in the rail- road industry to those territories which are national or district con- centration points. Such an approach would ignore the fact that the Open Letter is a guide not only to the dis- trict and the center for them to con- centrate their activity, but it is also a guide for every unit in the Party in every locality. In the railroad industry, for ex- ample, in the cities of Chicago and St. Louis, there are many units which are not part of the national or dis- trict concentration point, whose most important shop or point of activity is some railroad shop, yard or terminal. For these units, for the fractions of the mass organizations in these particular territories, railroad work constitutes their point of concentra- tion. The District Committee, altho it cannot pay major attention to all these points, which are not major concentration points, however has the responsibility of seeing that these forces are rallied and mobilized to carry out the Open Letter as it af- ects their particular territory. Does this contradict the principles of concentration? I do not think so, As I understand the problem the mobilization of the section commit~ tees to give leadership to the units in the carrying out of the Open Let- ter does not mean the neglect of certain units of the Party because they are not national and district points of concentration. On the contrary, if the units in railroad territories are mobilized by the section to really penetrate the workers in the railroad industry they will be strengthening the possibility of success at the points of concen- tration, They will help to carry out the very purpose of concentration, that is, the utilization of certain key points which “will set in motion an entire industry, or at least a whole locality.” How to Pick Points of Concentration | In choosing the points of concen- tration in the railroad industry, there were a number of misconceptions which were developing, showing a lack of clarity on the methods of choosing our points of concentration. In Chicago, where a number of pow- erful railroad systems terminate, it is naturally very difficult to pick out the particular point which we can utilize to develop activity and put into motion the entire locality. Our discussion from the start showed @ lack of contact with railroad work- ers and, therefore, an inability to discuss all angles from the viewpoint of picking out those roads where con- tradictions are more rapidly driving towards a clash between the workers and the roads. Some leading comrades in the dis- trict and in the railroad fraction de- veloped the wrong conception that our main point of concentration must be on those roads where we already have forces. ‘The comrades failed to consider the importance of the roads and our con- tact with and influence on the work- ers in the industry. They failed to take into consideration the fighting traditions of the workers on particu~ lar roads, the influence of the fakers who have not been exposed equally on every road, the financial position of the roads selected for concentra- tion, all from the viewpoint of being able to force concessions from the The. example, ‘trial centers, were totally left out of consideration. All these signifi- eant factors were pushed to the background and the main question became only a matter of the number of forces we had on these particular roads. It was only after considerable discussion that an alteration was made in our points of concentration to include the key road of the entire country, the Pennsylvania Railroad. On the other hand in the same dis- cussion the wrong theory was de- veloped that concentration means mechanically taking the biggest road without at the same time taking into consideration the other factors dis- cussed above. Against both these one-sided conceptions Comrade Browder warns as follows: “At the same time let us keep in mind what the Detroit Comrades de- scribe as the strongest and the weak- est links for concentration. Some success in our auto union came from concentrating not only on the biggest but simultaneously also on the weaker and smaller plants. And espe- cially when these can be combined with one region in one town, this combination will often be found val- uable. Of course, where we have forces inside, this is often a good} 4), reason for beginning some concen- tration work on this factory.” Must Build from the Bottom In the railroad industry there has existed a theory that it is impossible Strategic Local Places Can Be Picked for |. CHICAGO, Ill, Feb. 11.—The Dis trict Committee of the Communist |Party, Chicago District, has issued a |statement through Bill Gebert, Dis- | trict organizer, exposing the record of Karl Borders, socialist who har lust taken a lucrative job with the | Roosevelt government, and calling for |a united front with the socialist work- lers. The statement follows. Dear Comrades: | Karl Borders, a member of the So- cialist Party, Chicago Secretary o! | the League for Industrial Democracy jand the chairman of the Chicago Workers Committee on Unemploy- |ment, has been promoted to the posi- |tion ‘of ® government Field Relief Representative for his services to the | ruling class in the ranks of the work- jing class, as a “capitalist captain of je workers’ army.” The assignment came from Harry Hopkins, the |starvation administrator of the Roosevelt war and hunger govern- ment. Tn accepting such position, Mr orders did not betray his past role. It_is the same Mr. Borders who up | till now was used by the capitalist class to divide the ranks of the un~ employed. He remains the same social-fascist misleader in the employ of the Roosevelt hunger and war ad- ministration as he was before. Borders Fought Unity All this brings out more clearly |than ever the real role of Borders when he fought against the united front of the workers. He always stated that it was the Communists who were responsible for failure to have a united front because the Com~ munists had no faith in the sincerity of those whom they invited to thé | united front. It is absolutely true that the Communists had no faith in the sincerity of Mr. Borders’ parti- cipation in the United front. But the Communist Party has faith in the membership of the Socialist - Party and other workers’ organiz-~ tions that we can unite in common struggle against the common enemy. | that our interests as workers are the same. We can and must unite in struggle against hunger, starvation, wage-cuts, fascism and war. We can unite in struggle against capitalism, for the overthrow of capitalism, for a workers’ rule in the United States. | It is only the leaders of the Socialist Party, of the A. F. of L., etc. who stand in the way of establishing such unity. The Communist Party of the Chicago District invites you, brother ‘kers, | leaders prevented their members from pee 2 solid unity of the working class, for Beginning Work oo) burning etisig ms ae united front conference wil March Letter do not apply to the railroad} 1ith, 9:30 A. M. at the Peoples’ Audi- industry. 2457 W. Chicago Avenue, However this theory, which has been developed by both the Grand Lodge officers and the railroad to) spread defeatism and prevent rank and file action, has no justification in ANY industry, least of all the) railroad industry, Unlike most fac- tories, which are complete units in| themselves, the railroad, as a unit, is spread over a large territory. From the point of view of paralyz- ing traffic it is not necessary to tie up the whole unit, but only one or two key points ... and like every other plant, it is not necessary to tie up every department, but only certain departments. In addition, workers at variows points of the sys- tem, can, unlike other industries, es- tablish quicker contact with each other, thus making it easier to spread & movement once it has started. It is this feature of the railroad in- dustry which places rail labor in a most strategic position for carrying out the principles of concentration, that is, of picking certain key points as a means of spreading and de- veloping both organization and ac- The various misconceptions out- lined here, have to a great extent, prevented the development of a large militant rank and file movement in the railroad industry, and the sooner we discard these disconceptions, the more rapidly will we be able to win the railroad workers to the program of the Party and the revolutionary trade union movemsp* | torium, | Make preparations to send your dele- | gates. | The members of the Socialist Party | in Chicago must see clearly who their |leaders are, and whom they serve... Mr. Borders is not the only one. Paul Blanshard of New York is in the \service of La Guardia. Upton. ‘jin- | clair in California went over to the Democratic Party. The rank and file members of the Socialist Party are establishing unity In action with the Communists and other workers in many places thruout the country. . There is a beginning of the disin- tegration of the Socialist Party in the United States. Just as in ‘Germany, and internationally, where the Social- ist leaders serve the interests of the fascists, and the rank and file mem- bers of the Socialist Party are going on the side of the revolution, into the ranks of the Communist Party, Members of the Socialist Party in Chicago, follow the example of the | comrades in Germany, the comrade: _ in California, where in protest against _ the treachery of Sinclair, 300 joinec the Communist Party; the comrades in the Y. P. 8. L. of whe found their way into the Young Com- munist League. That is the only road for you, comrades, workers i the Socialist Party. Repudiate Bor- ders, Blanshard, Sinelair, Thomas etc., and join the ranks of your Party, our Party, the party of the working class, the Communist Party. Join the United Front for May Day. wt