The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 4, 1934, Page 6

Page Six Daily ,<QWorker TEWTRAL ORGAM COMMUNIST PARTY S.A. (SECTION OF COMMUNIST (MTERMATIONAS > “Amerioa’s Only Working Class Daily Newspaper” FOUNDED 1924 | PUBLISHED DAILY, EXCEPT SUNDAY, BY THE COMPRODAILY PUBLISHING CO., INC. 50 E, 13th Street, New York, N. Y. Telephone: Algonquin 4-795 4. Cable Address ‘Daiwork,” New rk, N. ¥. Washington Bureau: Room National Press Building, l4th and F St. Wasi ton. C. 2 Midwest Bureau: 101 Room 705, Chicago, Tl. Telephone: Dearborr $3.00. By Carrier: Weekly, 18 cents; month; WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 1934 The New York Taxi Sivike-| Some Lessons HE New York taxi drivers strike, com- ing when it did, in the midst of a well- calculated campaign on the part of the owners of big industries to force the work- ers to accept company unions as a condi- tion of work, stands out like a beacon light in the N.R.A. fog; it shouid serve as a guide for workers in every industry in their struggle against com- pany unions, for union recognition and union con- ditions. The general strike is now over. The hackmen have returned to the garages. They have not won their major demand—recognition of the union. But they marched back under union leadership, headed by their garage chairmen. The union has grown in strength and influence and the hackmen have profited by the experiences of the strike. They will have nothing to do with the company union. They understand the strikebreaking nature of the N.R.A. and their erstwhile “friend,” Mayor La j Guardia | Consolidating its forces for greater struggles | ahead, the Taxi Drivers Union of Greater New | York stands today as the undisputed leader of the cab drivers. E history of the struggle of the taxi drivers is divided into two periods: the period of the February strike, when the Taxi Drivers Union was formed; and the period of the second general strike —the strike against company unions. Since the first strike the taxi drivers have made great advances. During the first strike, when the union was still in the process of formation, Judge Panken and Matthew Levy, Socialist Party leaders, sitting with the top committee of thirteen, con- cocted a shameless betrayal agreement which sent the men back to work with nothing but a bundle of vague promises. They tried to pin the faith of the men to the N.R.A. and Mayor LaGuardia. But the N.R.A. and LaGuardia never carried out a single one of these promises. The question of the five cent tax was never settled. Instead, the Mayor and Mr. Allen of the N.R.A. handed the drivers a code—a code which | through the minimum wage joker would bring the wages of the drivers down to a miserable $12 a week. But in the course of the first strike the men amalgamated all existing taxi drivers unions into the one fighting union they have today. In this they had the full support of the Communist Party. This was the first step in the fight to unionize and improve conditions in the taxi industry. = . * 1 gens came the second strike. A garage chair- man was fired from a Parmelee garage for union activities. The men walked out of all Parme- lee garages demanding his reinstatement and recog- nition of the union. A small committee of two from each local of the union was set up to lead the strike. The Com- munists in the union fought for a broad strike committee—a democratically elected committee representing each garage. The Communist policy Proved to be correct, and thereafter the strike was Jed by a broad committee. The strike was then spread to every garage in the city. It was a general walkout. Judge Panken’'s shameless betrayal of the first strike made him very unpopular. He did not dare to appear at the strike meetings during the second strike. So the Socialist leaders worked secretly, advising Samuel Smith, president of the Bronx local of the union, to split with the Manhattan local, which was led by Samuel Orner and Joseph Gilbert, the recognized leaders of the strike. Mobilized against the strikers was the capitalist Press, groups of professional gangsters, provoca- teurs, the city government, the N.R.A. represented by the Regional Labor Board, the police,and in a more subtle form, leaders of the American Federa- tion of Labor and the Socialist Party. The Mayor and the Regional Labor Board tried to drive the men back to work and then take a vote on the company union in the garages under the eyes of company officials and stool pigeons, Through their heroic militant action the strikers forced the Mayor to agree to a plebiscite while the men were on strike. They even compelled the fleet owners to meet with them and discuss terms of settlement. The strike was actually on the verge of being settled—and on the taxi drivers’ terms—on Mon- day of last week. The big fleet owners were com- pelled to agree to a plebiscite. Who helped the big fleet owners out of this tough spot? None other than President Roosevelt and William Green, head of the American Federa- tion of Labor! It was their plan in the auto strike —their plan of putting the company unions on the same basis as the bona-fide unions of the auto workers—that the fleet owners tried to put across. The “Roosevelt Plan,” the plan by which the auto workers were betrayed was praised to the high heavens. The same plan—which worked ‘so well for General Motors and the cther auto kings—was Suggested for the taxi strike. Fleet owners refused to meet any longer with representatives of the drivers. Meanwhile the strike continued. But faced with new forces the strikers wisely considered a plan worked out by the strike committee to return to work in a body on the basis cf no discrimination, “We will return under the leadership of our union garage committees to consolidate our forces for greater struggles of the future,” said the strikers, They voted on this Plan and returned to work, marching behind their garage chairmen. How different was the termination of this strike, led by its rank and file strike committee, to the termination of strikes led by A. F. of L. leaders. Here the men voted to go back, They marched back as union men, organized and disciplined, with the union stronger and the men expressing full confidence in the union. One of the mistakes of the strike was the fact that the questions of wages and conditions were not raise“ charnly enough along with the major demand a /j bs 4 for recognition of the union. At times it appeared that these two demands were separate, belonging in separate compartments. The union leaders recti- fied this mistake later on, when the question of wages and conditions was more closely knit with the fight against company unions. This strike was the spearhead in the fight against company unionism in New York. It smashed through the wild cries of “red scare.” Communist support of the strike was recognized and heartily accepted by the majority of the strikers. The hack- men now consider the Daily Worker their paper. The Soc! st leaders have again discredited them- selves. At last the hackmen have a strong union— @ union born in militant struggle. 'HE taxi drivers must now get down to the hard work of strengthening this union. It must be built up solidly on the basis of democratically elected committees in each garage. The union must pay special attention to organizing the unemployed hackmen to fight for relief and unemployment in- surance. The cabmen must even more sharply than ever before fight against the discrimination shown the Negro drivers. By becoming the fighter for this especially oppressed group of hackmen, the union will build an unbreakable bond between Negro and white drivers that will make it impossible for the bosses ever to split the ranks of the drivers along racial lines, Members of the union must continue their fight against the Socialist Party leaders and their agents who are aiming to split the ranks of the drivers. There must be established a real binding unity be- tween the various locals of the union. Especially must the shop organizations be strengthened in the garages of the Terminal Com- pany, where the bosses are attempting to make a job contingent upon membership in the company union, The fight that the taxi drivers have begun must now be taken up by all workers. Utmost support must be given by all workers to the new fighting Taxi Drivers’ Union of Greater New York. The “Work Relief” Fraud iT IS a new and terrible fraud that the Roosevelt government is trying to put over on the millions of jobless workers and their starving families. The fraud is called by Roosevelt’s Federal Administrator of Relief, Hopkins, the “work relief’ plan. It is with this “work relief” plan that the Roose- velt government hopes to blunt the resistance of the thousands upon thousands of C. W. A. men who are now being flung into the streets to starve. All over the country, Roosevelt's brutal orders to disband the C. W. A. projects are being ruth- lessly carried forward. Thousands at a time, like beasts of burden for whom the capitalist masters no longer have any use, these C. W. A. workers, penniless and jobless, are being driven off C. W. A. work, the only miserable support that kept them and their hungry families from stark starvation. This Roosevelt brutality, this callousness to the fate of the C. W. A. workers and their families, has been met in many places by organized strikes on the C. W. A. projects. Chicago, Canton County, Kentucky, Utica, N. Y., Lancaster, Pa., and many other towns and cities have already seen the C. W. A. workers refuse to take this Roosevelt Hunger decree lying down. This fight on the C. W. A. jobs must go on with fiercer energy. The C. W. A. men can win work, and make the Roosevelt officials pause before they proceed to slash these workers off the rolls. 5 But to demoralize and confuse these struggles of the C. W. A. workers, and to cloak from the rest of the country the fascist brutality of Roose- velt't orders abolishing the C. W. A. work projects, Roosevelt, through Hopkins, is dangling his rotten promises of the new “work relief” jobs before the eyes of the jobless workers. ee ia) blab a the new Roosevelt “work relief” plan is nothing but a calculated plan to establish the lowest standards of coolie wages on brutal, forced labor projects for the fortunate few who will get jobs at all. The promised “work relief” is only another brutal blow at the hungry, job- less workers and their families, driving them still lower into the swamps of coolie standards of living. In the first place, of the thousands fired from the C. W. A, only a miserable handful will ever again find their way back onto any “work relief” or any relief lists—if the Roosevelt Plan is carried through as scheduled. This is made clear enough by the procedure outlined for the new “work re- lief.” “Only those in absolute need” will be considered for these new “work relief” jobs, declares the New York City administrator, Hodson, This is a definite threat that the vast majority of those who are being flung from the C. W. A. projects can have no hope of work on these projects, As for the rest, they will again have to go through the hell of endless waiting, endless answer- ing of endless questionaires, endless and agonizing attempts to hurdle the jungles of official relief bureaucracy in order to prove that they are “in absolute need.” Only a handful will be taken. Then of the handful who will be re-hired, there will be a new frightful lowering of living standards to unheard-of levels of degradation. What is in store for these fortunate few who will get jobs again is made clear by the latest statement of Hod- son who will direct them in New York: " “We are going back to the relief wage... to the minimum subsistence level ++. We will pay 30 cents an hour for not more than 24 hours work a week...” For the jobless C. W. A. worker, maddened by the need for his children of milk, bread, care, ete, Roosevelt offers—to a lucky few—the coolie wage of $l a day! 'UCH is Roosevelt's new program for the jobless, Forced labor, absolutely minimum, coolie crumbs of starvation fare, flung to the country’s jobless to keep up the pretense that the Roosevelt gov- ernment is interested in the starving jobless work- ers and their fantilies, the program that will be the cheapest for the Wall Street masters, that will leave their huge money bags untouched and pro- tected. The jobless cannot and will not accept this Roosevelt brutality and hunger program. Immediate steps must be taken to organize mass resistance on all the ©. W. A. projects, at all the work relief stations. Be Fight for the continuation of the C. Wz A. ys! Demand that all fired C. W. A, workers be immediately placed on relief lists to get cash relief equal to C. W. A. wages for themselves and their families! On the work relief projects, organize against the coolie wages, against the $1 a day standards, Fight for full union wages! Fight against the Roosevelt plan that dooms millions to starve in order to protect the Wall Street billionaires! Fight for the Workers Unemployment Insur- ance Bill (H. R. 7598), to be paid by the Gov- ernment and the bosses, so that no worker wiil starve when the capitalist employers shut the factories and fling the workers into the streets! Fight against the Roosevelt hunger program! DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WE ‘Pioneer, 14, on ‘Hunger Strlke! In Cuban Jail) |500 Workers in Court | as Strikers Come Up for Trial (Special to the Daily Worker) HAVANA, Aprii z.—Five hundred j Havana workers demonstrated yes- | terday before the tribunal where | hearings of workers accused of vio- lating the anti-strike decrees were | opened. Three workers have been freed after a hunger strike lasting 100 jhours. Five others are still on | | hunger strike in prison, demanding | freedom and protesting against the anti-strike decrees. One of them is a 14-year-old Pioneer, Antonio! Arce, ‘Nazis Prepare For Thaelmann Trial by | ‘Mass Convictions | Series of Frame-Ups Is Meant to “Prepare Public Mind” BERLIN, March 16, (By Mail) — A series of trials of Communists has been held in various parts of Ger- many with the obvious aim of pre- | paring public opinion for the great trial of Ernst Thaelmann, leader of the German Communist Party. The special court of Hamburg terday condemned 14 Communists, charged with fighting Nazis at the beginning of the year, to various terms of hard labor up to eight years. Another trial of 17 Commu- nists, also in Hamburg, resulted in 15 convictions. The Supreme Court of Leipzig yesterday opened the trial of six Dusseldorf Communists charged with having kept three and a half’ kilograms of prussic acid for “poisoning storm troops.” This amount according to “experts,” is enough to kill 18,000 people. All the defendants emphatically deny the charge. Mention of such poison had already been made at the Reichstag trial as proof of Commu- nist “terrorism.” The widely advertised new book by a certain Sommerfeld on the “terrorist activities” of the Commu- nists is also designed to serve the same purpose of creating the proper | atmosphere for the trial of Thael- mann and other Communist leaders. ‘Brownsville Will, Rally Against War And F ascism Apr. 5 Called for April 5; New Lots H.S. Students Back Meet NEW YORK.— The Brownsville Section of the American League Against War and Fascism is arrang- | ing a demonstration against war. It has been called for April 5, for the purpose of building up the city-wide action of April 6—the day marking; the entrance of the United States into the World War. The Youth Section has issued the call and all organizations, both youth and adult, are called upon to participate on a broad united front basis, Already many social clubs and organizations, not in the workers’ movement, have pledged their support. The General Organiza- tion of New Lots Evening High “WE’LL OPEN THE ESDAY, APRIL 4, 1934 WAREHOUSES!” by Burck me S “Save: Thaelmann, As You Saved Dimitroff,” Dimitroff's Mother Appeals to All Workers MOSCOW, April 2.—Paraskeva Dimitrova, mother of George Dimi- troff, heroic Communist of the Reichstag fire trial, now safe and happy in the Soviet Union with her son, her daughters and her grand- nidren, has written an appeal to workers throughout the world to save Ernst Thaelmann, imprisoned leader of the German Communist Party, and the 200,000 other pris- oners of the Nazis. The full text of her appeal fol- lows: Appeal of Dimitroff’s Mother “Toilers of all countries! | “I owe it your solidarity and to the Soviet country that my son, George Dimitroff, and his two comrades were released from prison | and saved from death. Only now, | in my old age, have I learned the} meaning of international solidarity. | “During the six months of my) stay in fascist Germany I had many | bitter experiences in the course of my visits to the Leipzig prison and | to the Secret State Police Depart- ment in Berlin, as well as to the other offices in fascist Germany. I should have despaired if I had not | known that the oppressed of the | whole world were backing me in my struggle for the life of my son and his comrades, Popoff and Taneff. Only this. knowledge and conviction | School (acting for the 3,000 stud- ents of the school), with only one dissenting voice, voted full sup- port to this action, and in addi- tion, called for a two-period school strike against war on April 12. The parade will be divided into two sections. All organizations in East Flatbush and Crown Heights are to mobilize at Fulton St. and Ralph Ave. All organizations in East New York and Brownsville are to mobilize at Hinsdale St. and Sut- ter Ave. The time is 7:00 p.m. on ‘Thursday, April 5. Both sections of the parade will converge in a gigan- tic open-air mass rally to be held at Hopkinson and Pitkin Avenues upon the conclusion of the march. Amplifiers will carry the voices of the speakers to the crowd. that Dimitroff and his comrades are fighting for the freedom of the workers and the oppressed masses gave me strength—notwithstanding my old age—to endure until we won victory. “But I know that this victory alone is not sufficient. Ernst Thael- mann, and with him 170,000 honest anti-fascists are languishing HEROIC MOTHER Paraskeva Dimitrova, mother of George Dimitroff. in the prisons and concentration camps of Hitler Germany. The heroes of the Austrian rebellion are likewise pining in the capitelist dungeons, as well as hundreds of thousands of political prisoners ‘in the other capitalist countries. Thou- sands are threatened by death. “Therefore I appeal to you, work- j ers, toilers, especially to the wives and mothers whose husbards and sons are in prison, to continue ad intensify the struggle for the re« lease of all these victims of fascist terror. “I am happy to have the oppor- tunity to see the Soviet Union and tts victorious Socialist construction, The idea for which the Paris Com- munards have died has become a living reality here, in a sixth part of the world. “My son, Georgi Dimitroff, said at his departure from Konigsberg: “T hope to return to Germany, but as guest of the German Soviet Government.’ “Toilers! Struggle for the re- alization of this hope! Struggle to hoist the banner of the Commune | in all capitalist countries! “PARASKEVA DIMITROVA.” |ItalianFascistsPlot To Kill French ‘Communist Leader Evidence Found On Body of Assassin Who Killed Self PARIS, March 17, (By Mail) —A plan to murder Marcel Cachin, leader of the French Communist Party, failed, when his would-be nt, Dante Bonfanti, an agent of the Italian Fascists, committed suiicde at a Communist meeting held here yesterday at which Cachin was the main speaker. Documents found on Bonfanti established his identity as the man whom the Italian fascists had del- egated to kill a number of prom- | inent leaders of the French Commu- nist Party, the leader of the Inter- national Labor Defense and the murderer of Clerich, a prominent Italian anti-fascist emigrant in Paris who was shot the other day in mys- terious circumstances, Bonfanti, writes the “Humanite” organ of the French Communist Party, was a tool in the hands of the police and French fascist or- ganizations, who had worked out an elaborate plan of terrorist acts against Communist Party leaders and workers’ organizations, 2 Pittsburgh Protests for Thaelmann Baltimore Meet Raises Funds for Austrian Victims of Fascist PITTSBURGH, Pa—Leo Gal. lagher, who arrives here Wednes- day, will head a committee of the National Committee for the De- fense of Political Prisoners to the German Consulate in Pittsburgh with a demand for the release of Ernst Thaelmann, leader of the German Communist Party, and of the 200,000 political prisoners now being held in the jails and concen- tration camps of Germany. Gallagher Speaks Thursday Gallagher, defense attorney in the Reichstag fire trial, and Ada Wright, mother of two of the Scottsboro boys, will be the prin- cipal speakers at a huge mass meet= ing in Pittsburgh on Thursday, April 5, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Side Carnegie Music Hall, Federal and Ohio Sts. PITTSBURGH, Pa.—A delegation of representatives of workers’ or- ganizations, headed by the Pitts- burgh I. L. D., called upon the Ger- man Consulate here today, in a demand for the release of Ernst Thaelmann. The committee had representatives from the following organizations: International Labor Defense, Lithuanian Workers’ So- ciety Association, International Workers’ Order, Pen and Hammer, Jewish Peoples Committee, Icor, Steel and Metal Workers’ Industrial Union and the National Rank and File Veterans’ Committee. Cee ihe (Special to the Daily Worker) BALTIMORE, April 3—Five hun-= dred workers contributed $60 for the relief of Austrian victims of the Dollfuss-Heimwehr terror, at a meeting organized by the Interna- tional Labor Defense. They were addressed by Leo Gal- lagher, I. L. D. attorney who went to Germany in defense of the Com 'munist Reichstag fire trial de- fendants, and Mrs. Ada Wright, mother of two of the Scottsboro boys. With burning enthusiasm, the assembled workers pledged unani« mously to support the parade in defense of Ernst Thaelmann, An- gelo, Herndon and the Scottsboro boys, on April 21. Twenty persons joined the International Labor De- fense at the meeting. Japanese Socialists to Confer With Fascists TOKYO, March 17, (By Mail) — As many as 88 different organiza. tions, in addition to three major fascist organizations and the Social- Democratic Party of Japan are to take part in a conference to be held shorily under the slogan of the “overthrow of Saito.” According to the newspaper “Dzi-Dzi” it is in- tended to broadcast the decisicns of the conference throughout Japan NAZIS PERSECUTE BLIND JEWISH VETERANS BASLE, April 3.—The Basler Na- tionalzeitung reports that the Ger- man Association of Men Blinded in the World War has ousted all Jew- ish members, thereby depriving them of special care accorded sight- less veterans. In Bavaria alone, 40 Jewish blinded ex-servicemen have been thrown out, the newspaper says, What is your Unit, trade union, mass organization doing to get new subscribers for the Daily Worker? Help put the sub drive over the top! Tell of Growing Mass Struggles By CARL REEVE (Special to the Daily Worker) CLEVELAND, O., April 3—“The Communist Party leads and organ- izes the revolutionary struggles of the workers and farmers towards the only road that can lead out of the capitalist crisis—the establish- ment of a workers’ government,” Earl Browder, general secretary of the Communist Party of the U. Ss. declared, at a mass meeting of 4,000 workers at the Public Auditorium here. The workers had gathered to greet the opening of the Eighth Na- be Convention of the Communist arty. As John Williamson, District Or- ganizer of the Cleveland district of the C. P., and chairman of the opening mass session, introduced | Browder, the audience arose in a magnificent demonstration of en- thusiasm, the thunderous applause culminating in the singing of the battle-song of the World Revolu- tion, the Internationale. “In every material respect,” Brow- der declared, “the United States is fully ripe for Socialism. There is no possible way out of the crisis in the interests of the masses except by breaking the control of the state power now in the hands of a small monopolist capitalist class. “There is no way out except by establishing a new government of the workers in alliance with the poor farmers, the Negro people, and the impoverished middle classes. “There is no way out except by the creation of a revolutionary democracy of the toilers, which is at the same time a stern dictator- ship against the capitalists and their agents. There is no way out except by seizing from the capital- ists the industries, the banks and all of the economic institutions, and ——- 6 Browder, Minor, Ford) transforming them into the common 4,000 in Cleveland Hail Opening of Communist property of all under the direction of the revolutionary government. There is no way out, in short, except by the abolition of the capitalist system and the establishment of a Socialist society.” The international character of the C. P. was strongly emphasized in the opening mass session. Anna Schultz greeted the conven- tion in the name of the Central Committee of the illegal Commu- nist Party of Germany and of the revolutionary and anti-fascist work- ers of Germany. “Thaelmann is not here tonight, but the fight for Thaelmann’s free- dom is here,” she said amid stormy applause. “The C. P. of Germany is alive and fighting. It has car- ried out 400 strikes by a united front from below, and we must prepare for Soviet power, not only in Ger- many, but in the U.S. A. as well.” The convention stood a minute in silence in honor of Petko Miletich, foremost leader of the illegal C. P. of Jugo-Slavia who, it was learned, was murdered by Jugo-Slavian fas- cist military dictatorship, after three years of fiendish torture in prison. The speech of Harold J. Asch, former secretary of the Socialist Party of California, brought out the support given this convention by rank and file socialists. Asch, now a member of the Communist Party, said: “I was in the Socialist Party for 19 years. I should have left years ago. I am now with my own kind, with the revolutionary work- ers.” More than 300 have left the So- cialist Party in California and joined the C. P., he said, as a result. Former Y.P.S.L. Organizer — Explains Why He Left S. P. By PAUL SHAPIRO Five years ago I joined the Young People's Socialist League because I was interested in bringing about a Co-operative Commonwealth and a place where workers would have a chance to receive some of the joys of life that they had missed under the capitalist system. The leadership at that time was composed of a group of young peo- ple who were interested only in good times for themselves and their friends. Activity in the Y. P. S. L, was nil. The only activity was in times of campaign and then the supposed leaders would not even allow soap-box meetings because they did not accomplish anything. (Little do they know.) At the National Convention in Reading in 1933 I realized that the Y. P. S. L. was not a workers’ or- o~ ganization because of the expul- sion of George Smerkin and Sol Larks, but I was still determined to see what I could do in Los An- geles, Elected county organizer, I did not even receive the co-operation of the executive committee. Time and again I fought for the united front, but was repulsed each time. After a while I became disgusted and decided to do something on my own. At the mass meeting war and fascism at the Plaza in Los Angeles I spoke, trying to show my solidarity with the workers. For that I was expelled from the Y. P. S. L. for being too Communistic, I am glad that I woke up in time to see who are the real leaders of the working class. For that reason I am joining the Communist Party and the Young Communist League. of the united front activities of the? Communist Party. | The entire audience was once more on its feet when I. O. Ford of Cleve- land presented to the convention the historic banner which Cleveland Socialists. presented to the Commu- j nist Party in Cleveland at the last Lenin Memorial Day. This banner was the same banner carried in the famous 1919 May First parade by C. E. Ruthenberg, founder and first secretary of the Communist Party of the U.S. A. The banner was received on be- half of the convention, by Ella Reeve Bloor, veteran leader of class bat- tles. Mother Bloor’s inspiring talk brought a tremendous ovation. John Williamson, in opening the convention, said: “We open this con- vention, confident in the working class—and our Party program, and determined that under the leader- ship of our Central Committee and the Communist International, we will lead the daily struggles of the American workers and make these the rehearsal for our historic task of overthrowing capitalism and estab- lishing a Soviet America.” James Ford, Negro Communist leader, outlined thé:role of the Party in fighting for the rights of the cppressed Negro masses and on the concentration in building the Party in the factories, As the last speaker, he summed up the chief tasks of the Party. “The workers will fight,” he concluded, citing the strikes of the miners, steel, taxi and other work- ers. William L. Patterson, National Secretary of the International Labor Defense, spoke on the great struggle to free the Scottsboro boys, and the support pledged by the I.L.D. to all working class fighters. Delegate Bender, a coal miner from East Ohio, greeted the con- vention on behalf of the miners, and emphasized the necessity of building revolutionary unions and militant oppositions in reformist unions. Robert Minor, member of the Pol- itical Bureau of the Party, was the Convention German C. P. Alive and Fighting, Fraternal Delegate Declares last speaker. His appearance was the signal for stormy applause. Minor, just back from Alabama, spoke of the heroic deeds and tre- mendous sacrifices of the Southern Negro and white workers in the class war, ~ “The C. P. has sent its organizers into the South and awakened the Southern masses and developed Southern organizers,” he said. He told of the fight against Jim-Crow there, of the Scottsboro case and of Angelo Herndon, sentenced to 20 years on a Georgia chain-gang, for his Communist activity. “Before very long, there will be a mass Communist Party in Alabama,” he said. The speakers hailed the leadership of the Communist International and its fight against imperialist war pre- parations. They hailed the C.P.S.U. and Stalin, its foremost leader. The: called for a continuance of the ment Insurance Bill. The convention sent warm greet- ings to William Z. Foster, Chairman of the Communist Party of the US., whose health did not permit him to attend the opening of the con- vention. The coinbined workers’ revolution- ary choruses provided a worl class musical program. A message from Bishop William Montgomery Brown, of Galeon, Ohio, who described himself as the’ “only red bishop in the country,” was read, in which he warmly greeted the convention. The speakers’ table was draped with a huge red banner with white hammer and sickle. From the ceiling of the convention hall hung banners with slogans: “Join the Communist Party—Leader of the struggle for Soviet Power,” and “Workers of the World Unite.” \ } { struggle for the Workers’ Unemploy= _ ‘a