The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 24, 1934, Page 7

{ i ny i Resignation of “Left” Socialists from Anti-War Commitiee Reveals S. P. | r, Sabotage of All United Front Struggle ~ om Oa SMa co ee eee PS AES The League of Struggle Against Fascism and War, and the S.P. By BARL BROWDER L truggie for, a united front prittr war and fascism has now been finished, from which definite conclusions can be established re- garding the role of the Socialist Party leaders on the basis of our) conerete experiences in the United States. The incident which marks the end of this chapter is the withdrawal from the National Committee of the American League Against War and Fascism of the last of those na- tional figures of the Socialist Party who had been formally on record for the united front and who had become known as “left” Tepresenta- tives through their activities in the American League. The history of the .experiences since the united front manifesto of last spring, is- sued by the Communist Party, con- stitutes a most serious political les- son for the American working class. Tt is necessary, therefore, to review systematically the whole chain of vents of this period. "The United "Front Manifesto of the Communist Party created tre- mendous interest and support. among the working class members. of the Socialist Party. This began to crystallize itself around the Pro- visional Committee which had been established to organize a general United States Congress Against War to which were invited all working class and anti-war organizations. ‘This committee from the beginning was unconditionally supported by the Communist Party and at all times im its composi- tion a majority of non-Communist elements. ?t was the broadest united front that has been devel- oped in the United States in the post-war period. Its appeal became so great that finally the Socialist Party National Committee consid- ered it necessary to take a stand and conduct maneuvers designed to break up this united front. Socialist Party Maneuver This maneuver was carried out in the following way: The Socialist Party National Committee decided to adhere to the United States Con- gress Against War provided satis- factory conditions could be worked out between. its representatives and the Arrangements Committee. A conference was held in which the Socialist Party representatives pro- posed the addition of eleven Social- ist leaders to the Arrangements Committee and at the same time raised the question of stopping all criticism of one organization by an- other as a condition for the united front. .The Arrangements Commit- tee. on motion of the representa- tive of the Communist Party, ac- cepted the nominations to the com- mittee and declared that the ques- tion of criticism would be dealt with by the Arrangements Committee only in relation to the preparations for the Congress, that all ques- tions regarding such preparations should be thrashed out in the Ar- rangements Committee before pub- lie criticisms were made. On its part the Communist Party imme- diately published a statement of policy, making clear its attitude on these questions to everyone. This statement, published in the Daily Worker of July 17, declaréd: “Tt was the representative of the Communist Party, Comrade Robert Minor, who made the mo- tion which was adopted to accept the eleven nominations of the So- cialist Party. Comrade Minor correctly declared that the Com- munists have no interest in limit- ing the Congress or its prepara- tory committees and no desire to establish any organizational con- trol. Im the Arrangements Com- mittee neither can there be any question raised which predeter- mines the decisions of the pro- jected Congress. The calling of the Congress is not yet the estab- lishment of a united front. It is only one step in that direction. The Congress itself, by the pro- gram which it will adopt, must furnish the real foundation of the united front in the struggle against war. “The Organizing Committee for the Anti-War Congress very wise- ly adopted, from the beginning, Amother chapter in the history of | EARL BROWDER the policy that all participating organizations preserve the com- plete right to agitate and propa- gandize their own special views on the question of war, and to attempt to win the Congress to their particular proposals. This right, of course, includes that of mutual criticism. . . . If and when the Anti-War Congress now in preparation adopts such a mini- mum program of struggle against war, the Communist Party de- clares its readiness to enter into such a united front of struggle for this . The Commu- nists will loyally fight for this Program, together with every or- ganization and every individual who sincerely and honestiy per- forms his part in sich a fight. The Communist Party is even Prepared to suspend its criticism of other organizations in the unit- ed front during the execution of the united front actions, provided that the agreed-upon measures of struggle are carried through un- hesitatingly and loyally to the end. It reserves the right at all times to expose and denounce every breach of agreement, every sabotage or betrayal of the strug- gle.” The Communist Party considered this public declaration necessary because we had no confidence that the leaders of the Socialist Party desired to help build a real united front. Our misgivings were quickly confirmed. Within a few weeks the Socialist Party publicly withdrew its signature to the united front call, as their first act after affiliating to the Committee. Mutual Criticism The Socialist Party explained its withdrawal as being caused by. re- sentment at continued Communist criticism of Socialist policy through- out the world and in the United States, interpreting their entry into the Committee as having given them a guarantee of the cessation of criticism. Of course no such guarantee had |been or could be given. But that |this was not their real motive, but merely a convenient excuse, was revealed clearly by the fact that the jaction of the National Committee |in withdrawing from the Anti-War | Congress had been taken on the | basis of a lettér from the New York |City Committee of the Socialist |Party to the National Committee, | which had demanded this action as @ question of principle. This letter is a historical document which must not be forgotten. The letter opens with a statement that the writers have learned of the deci- sion to affiliate to the Anti-War Committee by reading the minutes of the National Committee, and then proceeds: “Your action has caused con- siderable misgivings among the members of Local New York, and at the last meeting of its Execu- tive Committee, it was decided to ask the N.E.C. to withdraw from the conference for the reasons stated in this letter. The under- signed committee was elected for the purpose of communicating our opinion to you.” The letter then proceeds to ex- plain that the New York leaders of the Socialist Party are opposed to any united front, whatever the conditions. The letter states blunt- ly that it is a fixed, a “consistent” Policy of all Socialist Parties affili- ated to the Labor and Socialist In- ternational net to join a united front against war, and gives this as the reason for the N.E.C. to try. to break up the Anti-War Congress, The letter says: “The N.E.C. has evidently not realized that by the proposed par- ticipation the Socialist Party. of America has placed itself at va- riance with the L.S.I. The Labor and Socialist International and all affiliated parties have consis- tently refused to join similar con- ferences, as for instance, those at Amsterdam and Paris. . . . Be- lieving, as we do, in solidarity with the International, we are op- posed to participating in the pro- posed conference, even if the con- ditions laid down by the N.E.C. were strictly lived up to.” It was on the basis of this letter that the National Executive Com- mittee of the Socialist Party decided to withdraw from the Anti-War Congress. The Socialist Party leaders had calculated that this maneuver would succeed in breaking up the Con- gress. They were mistaken. The United . States ..Congress Against War had taken too deep roots to be so easily broken up. A few wecks later 2,700 delegates gathered in the Congress from all over the United States, representing the broadest variety of organizations. Report of the Credential Committee submitted by Delegate Jack Herling: “This report covers the delegates registered at this Congress up until 10 a. m., sunday. We have not questioned the right of any del- egate to this Congress to be seaved. Delegates are present at this Congress from 35 states in the United States and from 3 foreign,countries, present registered is 2,616, listed un Anti-War and Peace Org. . 178 Anti-Fascist Org ........ » 19 Labor Defense and Relief ..... 172 Educational and Cultural . 364 Religious groups ........ 14 Language Labor Groups « 253 Fraternal Labor Org . 370 Trade Unions ... 450 Factory Committees . . 147 Unemployed Orgs. » 135 Farmers’ Orgs. 41 Veterans’ Org. 37 ‘Women’s Orgs. + 106 Negro Orgs ..... 19 General Youth Org. 129 Student Groups 9 In the United States Congress Against War further efforts were made to break up the Congress from within by the Lovestone rene- gade group. This proved so over- whelmingly unpopular with the mass of Congress delegates that it was quickly defeated and those leaders who had a tendency to rally themselves to such an effort to split the Congress retreated. The Congress unanimously adopted a manifesto and program for the struggle against war. This MAX TRAIGER Welcomes workers of I. W. 0., Industrial Unions, Mass Organizations, etc., who would like to obtain the FINEST SPRING SUITS AND TOPCOATS $18.50—$20.50—$22.50 Values up to $35.00 168 STANTON STREET 5 Percent Discount for Daily. Worker Press Fund on every sale made. Cor. Clinton St. Ask for Reteipt SALTZMAN BROS. MEN'S SUITS Fine Clothing for Workers Ready Made and to Order 181 STANTON STREET ‘NEW YORK CITY NEAR CLINTON STREET PHILADELPHIA Musical Program 15 YRS. OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL Ruthenberg Memorial Meeting Kensington Labor Lyceum 2916 N, Second Street HEGHTH CONVENTION OF THE 6.P.,U.S. A. Speakers The total number of delegates at der the following general categories: Communist Party » 130 Young Communist League 70 Socialist Party oe 38 Young People’s Socialist Leagui 1 Other Political Parties ference for Progressive Labor (Con- Action), Communist Party Opposition, Official Represen- tatives aS People’s Lobby Continental Congress National Guard Rifle Club . Anti-War Mas Miscellaneous ........ League of Nations Assn. HS eee ne manifesto and program was the foundation for a united struggle against war and fascism to which every delegate present in the Con- gress pledged himself and to secure the endorsement and active col- laboration of his organization. It is well that everyone should reread that document as the foundation for judgment as to who has been true to the pledges of this Congress. In Monday’s article we will dis- cuss the program adopted by the Anti-War Congress. GEORGE DIMITROFF, Communist leader, recently freed from a RDAY, MARCH 24, 1934 McNamara, Framed Labor Leader Begins 23rd Year in Jail | Betrayed by False Friends, Clarence Darrow, Gompers, and §. P. Leaders, By WHAIAM Z, FOSTER It is high time that a powerful mass movement be set on foot to fight for the release of the political prisoners, J. B. McNamara and Mat Schmidt. These class fighters have been lang 5 San Quentin penitentiary, Califor- nia, even longer than their fellow prisoner, Tom Mooney. McNamara has served 23 years, and Schmidt, 18. McNamara is the oldest in point of time served of any polit- jical prisoner now in jail in any country in the world. ! His Spirit Stiil Unbroken Nazi cell by world protest, speaking before the Society of Old Belshe- viks in celebration of the 65th birthday of KRUPSKAYA, Lenin’s widow. Dimitroff, now one of the heroes of the world proletariat, was made a citizen of the Soviet Union, together with his Comrades Popoff and Taneff, after Dimitroff’s magnificent defense and the actions of the world working class had forced their acquittal in the Leipzig frame-up court on charges of burning the Reichstag. HAMBURG, March 23.—Resist- ance to wage cuts, forced “voluntary” wage deductions for the unemployed relief funds, etc., is growing through- out Germany, as the masses see ever more clearly the hollowness of Hit- ler’s promises to end the miseries of the crisis. In an important machine shop, for example, in Berlin the Nazi foreman informed the workers that their “waiting time” between the arrival of materials would no longer be | paid for by the firm. The firm man- | ufactures parts of aeroplane bombs. The workers responded immediately by calling a meeting, in defiance of the Nazi orders, and elected a dele- gation to protest. All pressure ap- plied by the Nazis was of no avail. The workers were firm. In the end, the wage cut was withdrawn. Further active resistance to the Nazis, despite the threats of constant terrorism, have come to light in the actions of jobless city workers who up to now have been sent out to the rural districts as “land help- ers,” that is, as undetpaid agricul- tural laborers. In Bavaria alone, more than 3,000 jobless workers re-' German Workers Strike Against Nazi Wage Cuts camps. Among women, too, resist- ance to the Nazis is growing, with 150 out of 300 refusing to be sent to farms in a recent examination at & Nazi labor exchange. Strikes have broken out in im- portant factories in Dusseldorf, Ber-~ Ym, Munich, and other smaller cities. Big ON ee BERLIN, March 23.—Wages being paid to the jobless are reaching new low levels on the Nazi government jobs. The Hugenberg paper, the} “Tag,” for example, reports that hundreds of German workers now working on the clearance of trees to make way for a highway in+the outskirts of Berlin are now receiv- ing only the wood of the felled trees as pay for their work. ait iia 4 HAMBURG, March 23.—Further resistance to the Nazi decrees is be- ing developed in the Fascist labor exchanges, it is reported here. The Hamburger Fremdenblatt in Issue number 65, states: “Experience shows that the send- ing of the unemployed to the coun- ry is encountering resistance.” NRA Codes Swell Monopoly Profits, Senators Charge Federal Trade Commis- sion Also Shows Mono- poly N.R.A. Grip WASHINGTON, March 23.—Fur- ther attack on the N.R.A. codes as definitely strengthening the position of the Wall Street monopolies came to light Wednesday in the Senate speeches of Senators Borah and Nye, and in a report just published by the Federal Trade Commission. The N.R.A. code for the steel in- dustry is in the direct control of leading representatives of the steel monopolies, and was written by them with the direct purpose of strengthening the position of these monopolies against the small non- |}monopoly producers, the Federal Trade Commission states in its re- port. The N.R.A. has raised the price of steel, giving the steel trust an enor- mous increase in profits, through price-raising agreements, the report continues, These charges were repeated by Senator Borah, who declared on the floor of the Senate: “Under the N.R.A. codes the small business man has no chance. The steel code is definitely mo- nopolistic, It is an example of eco- nomic feudalism, The same is true of practically every large in- dustry.” Senator Nye confirmed this charge NRA, A.F.L Heads Try To Break Strike of 500 Cleaners and Dyers (Daily Worker Midwest Bureau) CHICAGO, Mar. 23.—The N.R. A. with the co-operation of A. F. of L. officials is attempting to break the strike of 500 cleaners and dyers who went out last Wednesday after the sentiment of the workers forced the leaders of the A. F. of L. cleaners, dyers and pressers union, Local 17,- ‘742, to call the strike against piece- work, for a uniform wage scale, a 36-hour week and back pay. The workers of the A-1 Cleaners shop, at 5318 Broadway, refused to return to work when ordered to do so this week by the union officials and the Labor Board. They were told that the strike would be “ne- gotiated” April first, after they re- turned to work. There will be a meeting of strik- ers Sunday at Plumbers’ Hall, 1340 Washington Blvd., at which a gen- eral strike of all 3,000 inside workers will be planned. by saying: “I don’t think there ts any doubt,” said Senator Nye, “the re- port can be made the basis to show that big business has hogged the N.R.A. show from beginning to end. The report, combined with the re- port of the trade commission on steel and what has been disclosed as to the electrical manufacturing code, must convince the public that the N.R.A, program is in the inter- est of monopoly.” At the same time both Senators praised the Roosevelt recovery pro- gram, forgetting that the N.R.A. mo- nopoly prices are part of the Roose- velt “recovery program.” fused to be sent to the rural labor | ‘The imprisonment of these men grew out of the bitterly fought gen- | eral metal trades strike in Los An- geles in 1910. The unionists of San Francisco, strongly organized them- | selves, were carrying on a big cam- | paign to organize the notorious | open shop city of Los Angeles, This | culminated in the metal trades | general strike. The employers, led by General Otis of the Los Angeles “Times,” used every violent method | to break the strike: professional | scabs, injunctions, wholesale arrests | of workers, police brutality, etc. It was a ruthless struggle. | McNamara Betrayed, Attacked | by A F. of L. Leaders | As the fight grew more and more | J. B. McNAMARA intense, suddenly on Oct. 1, 1910, | \the L. A. “Times” building was | ————__ aE eae SRLS |dynamited, The bomb, it turned | to | sions, American workers, gga damage jiding, but through |ing to repay the bosses with their the ‘ecttion he apes mains and|own coin, have used violence in because of faulty fire escapes, it strikes with the full knowledge and caused the death of 21 non-union |consent of their ‘law abiding, workmen. In April, 1911, J. J. Mc-| Patriotic and “respectable” union . General Secretary of the | leaders. In such cases the main out later, was intended only Namara, International Union of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers, and his brother, J. B. McNamara, were ar- rested and charged with the dyna- | miting. The employers mustered | every force to conyict these men. The Steel Trust and the Merchants | and Manufacturers’ Association saw | in the situation an opportunity to | destroy the powerful Iron Workers’ | Union and to cripple the whole | labor movement of the Pacific) Coast. They cooked up a lynch | atmosphere in Los Angeles. | The workers rallied all over the country in support of the McNa- maras. The A. F. of L. top offi- cialdom had to make a gesture of | assistance. The workers held great | protest demonstrations and p9-| rades everywhere and over a quar- {ter of a million dollars was raised | for a defense fund. The Socialist Party and the union leaders riding |the movement, put up a candidate | for Mayor, Job Harriman, and con- |ducted an active election cam- paign. Altogether, it was the great- | jest. defense movement ever organ- |ized, before or since, by the Amer- ican working class. Socialist Party Leaders Cut Loose From Defense Right in the midst of this tense situation, suddenly the announce- ment was made that the McNamara brothers had pleaded guilty. This came as a terrific shock to the labor movement. The employers were quick to use the guilty plea to heap | insu and injury upon the trade unions. The great defense cam- paign collapsed like a pricked bubble. |The S. P.-Union labor mayoralty | candidate in Los Angeles was over- whelmingly defeated. It was a} devastating anti-climax. At once, throughout the trad union movement, the labor fakers joined in the bosses’ cry against the McNamaras. thereby aiding the former’s attack upon the workers. Numbers of union offi- cials denounced the prisoners as murderers and _ traitors. others ‘demanded that they be hanged. The Socialist leaders also, of course, cut loose from the Mc- Namaras with loudsounding cries of treachery. Doubtless great masses of workers, even many revolution- aries, were confused by this whole- sale denunciation of the McNa- maras, Hypocrites Raise Hands in “Horror” These attacks by the so-called lead- ers of labor upon the integrity of |the McNamaras did the latter a great injustice. They were based upon cowardice and hypocrisy. Of this rotten character was their nation-wide cry of “surprise” and “horror” of these people that the McNamaras had actually used dynamite in the labor struggle. Now it is a matter of common knowl- edge that upon innumerable occa- consideration of these leaders has been to see to it that they did not endanger their own saf And it is also a known fact that the top leadership of the A. F. of L. were quite aware of the militant tactics that had long been used by the McNamaras and others in building the Ironworkers’ Union and they had said nothing agair Hence the union officials’ at the exposure of the McNamaras as labor dynami' much hypoc It was an attempt to protect themselves by throwing these fighters to the lions. Forced “Guilty” Plea on McNamaras Labor officialdom's “indignation” at the McNamaras’ plea of guilty was no less treacherous and hypo- critical. It is an established fact that the guilty plea did not originate | with the McNamaras, but was prac- tically forced upon. them by their “friends” and “defenders” and was made by the McNamaras unwill- ingly and against their better judg- | ment. The originator of the guilty plea idea was Lincoln Steffens, a then |famous muck-raker and capitalist | have pointed out, journalist. Something of an anar- chist and petty-bourgeois utopian, Steffens developed the fatal notion that this bitter struggle could be harmonized. By a practical appli cation of the Golden Rule the fight could be liquidated and Capital and Labor would become friendly brothers. All that was necessary was for the McNamaras to plead guilty and for the capitalists to agree to give the McNamaras light sentences, abandon all further prosecutions, and then down sit |and work out an agreement with | the unions. them. | “horror” | ters was just so, them to agree to plead guilty. But they r d, and especially militant in his refusal, was the iron-willed J. B. McNamara, the younger of the brothers and the real center of the case. They insisted that the fight be carried on to the end, ex- pressing their willingness to die on the gallows i necessary. Then every conceivable pressure was put upon the McNamaras. They were | told that they would surely be con- |Victed and that their conviction would not only deal a fatal blow to the trade unions all over the | country, but would also send many of their labor union friends to the |Balliows with them. And all this |could be avoided if they would | Simply change their plea to one of | guilty. They would then get off |lightly, no one else would be ar- rested, the unions would be saved, On August 7, 1915, Anton a San Franciseo labor hmidt-Caplan defense meeting, held in the Labor Temple of Kansas City, and organized by the local Syndicalist League: “The McNamaras were led to believe, and they did believe. that they and they only would suffer (by a plea of guilty) and there | Would be no farther prosecutions | in Los Angeles, that the strike in | Los Angeles would be settled, that the 8-hour day would be recag- nized, and that organized labor would be greeted and met and be reasoned with by the Merchant and Manufacturer’ Association in Los Angeles.” Lawyers, labor leaders, friends and relatives pressed upon the McNa- maras to force them to accept the |plan. The prisoners were pleaded | with, argued with, cajoled. And |finally they reluctantly yielded, | They changed their pleas to guilty. Of course, they did not confess or involve anyone else. Upon the urgent advice of all their friends they bared their heads and took the blow. Their change of plea was a big tactical error. It de- moralized the great mass defense campaign of the workers. But it is the height of injustice to blame the McNamaras for it. They made | the guilty plea not to save them- selves but upon the solicitation of their friends and in the firm belief | that, is would protect the labor | movement. It was a mistaken ges- | ture, but the action of brave men jand honest fighters in the class | struggle. | Paved Way for Bosses’ Drive | on Unions |. Then came the avalanche. As we the capitalists | used the plea of guilty with deadiy | effect, and the labor fakers, the very ;ones responsible for this plea, helped the bosses by their confus- ing and demoralizing the workers through their treacherous con- |demnation of the McNamaras. The jemployers quickly repudiated their | “agreement.” The “Golden Rule” of Steffens never went into effect. War |to the knife was waged against the | Los Angeles unions. J. J. McNa- | Mara was given 10 years in jail, and |J, B. McNamara sentenced to life imprisonment. Later on, in 1915, in Many | |further violation of the agreement, Entered Agreement with Bosses / David Caplan and Mat Schmidt The capitalist forces, led by Otis,| were arrested and convicted, the were acute enough to agree to this| former serving a 10-year sentence bizarre proposal. They realized|/and Schmidt still being in San what a weapon the whole arrange- | Quentin doing his life sentence. As ment would be against the workers./an aftermath, many other national Next Darrow, leading attorney for | and local officials of the Iron Work- the defense, accepted it. At the time | ers’ Union all over the country were he was threatened with jail for at-| arrested and railroaded to jail for tempted jury fixing and plain cow- | jong terms. ardice seems to have been his im-| J p McNamara’s i 5 pelling motives, as he saw & W8Y| 106 been a long and Hae One Ae to save himself. Finally, the Pacific | y 4 tacked and deserted by labor of- Coast, spor Ineders handling We | sols. who: onbe called themselves ia | bsretaabd ile itt Mot | Bis friends, and with his motives them also feared indictments in| ™isrepresented and his character connection with the dynamiting|Slandered before the workers, Mc- and the proposed plan was a prov Namara in jail for a life term has dential way out of their difficulty. | faced a situation that would have Gompers’ representatives on the | Quickly broken the heart of a ground also agreed, and it is in- conceivable that the Socialist, Job Harriman, who was working very closely with the defense, was not fully acquainted with the widely | discussed plan. All these powerful forces began to work upon the McNamaras to get Machine Guns Shot Out Her Windows in 1905 Uprising By VERN SMITH OSCOW, U.SS.R. (By Mail)— Batova, a 56-year old woman textile worker, retired a month ago. That is, the social insurance depart- ment of the textile workers’ union mill committee at the Trikhgornaya factory in Moscow placed her on a pension. Batova still considers her- self able-bodied, so she promptly got an order from the mill manage- ment allowing her to come in at any time to her old department in | the mill, and have a machine placed at her disposal, to work as many |days a month as she cares to, at full pay for those days, and in ad- dition to her pension. But these last few days Batova hasn't worked much. She heard the description of the workers’ revolt in Vienna as it came over her radio in her family’s four-room apart- ment in the huge workers’ settle- ment of new brick buildings ad- joining the Trikhgornaya mill, and she read about it in the newspapers she has learned to read since the Bolshevik revolution. And when she read of barricades in Vienna, she remembered her own experience vividly. She gave her household tools to help build the | barricades in the streets near the Trikhgornaya mill, then privately owned, in the workers’ uprising in 1905, in Moscow. All the windows of the house in which she lived in 1905 were shot out by government machine guns. Her house was bar- ricaded. Eventually she and her five children were driven out, and slept on the floor of a school house. Chil- dren of her neighbors were wounded by police bullets as the children of Vienna workers are now wounded. So Batova spends some of her time now going to workers’ meet- ings, to study circles, especially those on international and political events, and pointing out that the working class of Austria now needs the help and support of all the world’s work- ers. Hundreds of Batovas and thou- sands of such workers’ meetings in the Soviet Union adopted resolutions condemning the white terror Vienna, and collect money to help support the victims of that terror. + I talked with Batova yesterday. She is not fooled by the situation in Austria: the arguments of the So- cialists that workers must wage a purely defensive fight, to pre- serve bourgeois democracy against fascist dictatorship do not impress her. She told of her hard lot under the dictatorship of the Czar, and pointed out that conditions got no better here when the Czar gave way to a capitalist “democracy,” the Kerensky regime. Only the estab- * * A lishment of Soviet power brought her present enormously improved conditions, and she thinks that all workers in the whole world have a similar right to such conditions, and to use the only possible means of obtaining them, the overthrow of capitalism, whether it be called “fascist” or “democratic.” “I hope the Austrian workers will build their Red Army,” she said. “I know they are mostly unemployed. Here no one is unemployed, I hope the Aus- trian workers will no longer bend their backs to the bosses for the right to feed their children.” Batova herself had 13 children, of whom six died during the hard pre-revolutionary life. She lives now in the apartment where I met her, with several of the youngest. The oldest are already workers, highly skilled workers, one a specialist, in| with their own apartments. Batova’s apartment has large and cheery rooms. It is well heated by central heating. Pictures are on the wall, and flower pots on the win- dow ledges. There are books and papers around. There is plenty of furniture, in good taste. Everything is clean and pretty, An interesting thing is that every room has either a bust or a picture of Lenin. Batova heard Lenin speak, and has since tried to “do what Vladimir Tlytch said, and to bring up my children and grand- children to do it too.” Her fourth daughter, Alexandria, is a member of the Young Communist Leagtie.! Batova herself is a Party member, since 1925. Her oldest son is a tech-| nician in a steel mill. Her son) Peotr is learning to be an artist.) Her daughter Serafima, is in the fifth grade in school, and is a| Pioneer. One daughter is married) to a Communist Party worker on a) Sovkhoz. Other daughters work in the Trikhgornaya mill. Bo eae ATOVA describes somewhat the life of a working woman under the regime of private ownership of mills and lands. | She regards the first 40 years of; her life as lost, not really living.) She started working in the fields of) a rich peasant, a kulak, at the age/ of ten, doing needle work for his family in the winter time. She was paid 15 kopeks a day, and not pro- vided with food. Sometimes she was} paid, not with money, but with a) piece of soap, or anything that was) handy. At the age of 14 she entered a} cotton mill; she got seven rubles, @ month wages, for twelve hours work per day. Twenty-five persons rented one large room from a kulak and slepfon the floor, without beds. She Fought on Barricades; Through Soviet She Enjoys Victory Today, on Pension from Factory, She Cheers Fight in Austria factory was like a jail, and the foremen acted like slave drivers. For laughing too much (though it sounds incredible anyone could laugh) Batova was dismissed once. Her sister kneeled on the floor in front of the foreman and begged to have her taken back. At the age of 17, Batova was mar- ried to a joiner, whose only room ‘was a space under his bench for his belongings. He slept on the bench. Batova’s first child was born with- out medical attendance, and she worked up to the very hour of child- birth. Such things happen still, in capitalist countries. But they are impossible in the Soviet Union. So Batova, in spite of her religion, became something of a revolution- ist. She helped with the barricades; she was beaten up by Cossacks, even though she was eight months pregnant, because they suspected her of concealing her nephew who fought on the barricades. The beat~- eagh tenant providing some sort) ings have happened in strikes, quite of food, which was thrown into al often, in capitalist countries. But common pot. All washing was done on the | the land that was called Russia. street, ¢ven in winter, At the fac-| Batova and her sort now not only tory, there was no hot water, and feel, but they know that they “own even the cold water was dirty. The) the works,” The landlady made their dinner;| ing caused a still birth. Such beat-| they will never happen again in) | weaker man. But not McNamara, | the courageous militant of the Iron | Workers’ Union. He has survived the ordeal wonderfully. Whoever knows McNamara personally is struck by the tremendous firmness | and power of the man.- He is in- | domitable, the very » epitome of courage and unbreakable fighting | spirit. Strong in his loyalty to the workers and in his conviction that |they understood and believed in him, “J. B.” has stood like a rock | through all these hard years. Never | waver has he made and never a whimper has come from him. He has asked no quarter either from jthe labor fakers, the prison officials, |or the state authorities. He repre- | sents the very best fighting qualities |and traditions of the labor moves |ment. Such a brave fighter is am | inspiration and an honor to the | working class. | Mat Schmidt, the co-prisoner of | McNamara, is another real fighter. |; One of the militants of the old ‘Wood Workers’ Union, he has a long fighting record in the Chicago labor movement. He was also ac- tive in anarchist circles. He did not plead guilty, but he has been, nonetheless, abandoned and slan- dered by the A. F. of L. and So- cialist misleaders. And he, too, haa never lost his fighting spirit. McNamara and Schmidt have not spent their long years of impris- onment in repining or in vain re- grets. On the contrary, they have closely followed the course of the world’s labor battles. They have learned well the lessons of the Rus- sian revolution and the many bit- ter struggles of workers since the days when they fought in the front line trenches of the class struggle They have become fully class-con- scious workers, abreast with the vanguard of the proletariat. Long ago they have learned and admitted the folly of hoping to achieve any- thing for the workers by individual- istic acts of terrorism, They clearly (Continued on Page 10) y