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

DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1934 Page Three Campaign For Social Insurance Weakest In Basic Industries — Pittsburgh, Detroit and Cleveland Lag in Work in the A. F, of L. |and with Cleveland securing eight | of the nine, shows that the unem- | | ployment insurance campaign is/ | weak in precisely the districts where it should be taking the lead, in the| By CARL REEVE Bimageonsioc ae peptic and the NEW YORK.—The Eighth | Chicago Leads 1 In New York, 17 local unions of | the A. F. of L. endorsed the bill. But of these 17 endorsements the National Convention of the) Communist Party recorded | Demonstrate for In Phila. Jobs and Relief| Demand Toles No Re- lief Cuts, Immediate Cash Relief CLEVELAND, Ohio, April 12.—De- manding an end to the one-third relief cut, increases in relief to meet the rising cost of living, and the en- dorsement of the Workers Unem- ployment Insurance Bill, fired CWA| and jobless workers will hold a mass demonstration in the Public Square at 2 p.m. today, following a march Gatti, Who Worked for) George Williams, in Court on Charges — | BULLETIN PHILADELPHIA, Pa., April 12. —Strikes of the S, K. F. plant, | aroused over the hiring of profes- | sional thugs to work in the fac- | tory, halted two taxicabs bearing | strikebreakers and drove them out. Following the demonstration, | fifteen strikers and sympathizers | were arrested and held on the | for the rapid and tremendous growth of the mass cam- paign, led by the Party, for enact- ment of the Workers Unemployment Insurance Bill (H.R. 7598). “It is no accident,” said Comrade Browder, “that the only serious project for unemployment insurance that has come before the Congress of the United States is the Workers Un- employment and Social Insurance Bil (HR. 7598), which was worked out and popularized among the masses by the Communist Party. Only the Communist Party has made a real fight for unemployment in- majority are not in basic or con- from various parts of the city. An centration industries. The only en- dorsements in the basic industries | elected committee of the workers secured in the New York district | will present the workers’ demands were one machinists’ local “and/ to the mayor, the county relief com- three printing and pressmen’s| locals. This is far from a satisfac- Auer een t0)4e,¥, Cannon of tory result. | the Cuyahoga County Relief Ad- ministration, While the face value of all relief was constantly being cut by in- creased cost of food, material cuts were put through by the relief agency. While carrying out a sys- In Chicago, 21 local unions of the A. F. of L. endorsed the Workers’ Bill, and, in addition, six city and village councils. The city and vil- lage councils endorsing the bill were Caseyville, Virden, Benld, Harvey, Medlothian and Belleville, all in Southern Illinois. In addition, the | important Central Labor Union of| the relief rolls, direct cuts such as | tematic elimination of workers from | charge of burning the two cabs. rpg eee PHILADELPHIA, April 12.—A group of professional thugs and gangsters, one of whom worked as a strikebreaker in the recent New York taxi strike under the guidance of the Sherwood Detective Agency and the notorious Mr. George Wil- liams, were arrested here for daub- ing red paint on the homes of strikers for the 8S. K. F. Industries. Tt was charged that the Phila- delphia Metal Manufacturers Asso- ciation had imported this group of thugs from New York to break the | strike in the S. K. F. plant. | The thugs. arrested, gave | when surance and by this fight finally forced before the Congress the first and only bill to provide for real un- employment insurance.” St. Louis endorsed the bill. There | were also endorsements from seven | Progressive Miners of America mine| locals and three Progressive Miners elimination of the paying of rents.| 4) 0). x = r their names 9s Edmund Gat fur- Bas and light bills, clothing and|... priediand, Samuel Binder and medical attention, there has been|Gharies Rinda, all of New York. added on April Ist a one-third slash | ‘They were held in $3,000 each by | Weak In Concentration Points Since the National Convention Against Unemployment, held in ‘Washington on Feb. 4, the increased widespread demand of the masses for the enactment of the Workers Bill, has been striking. In the two months of February and March, one hundred and twenty-three local unions of the A. F. of L. have en- dorsed the bill and written Congress calling for its enactment. Sixteen city councils and ten Central Labor Unions with around 700 local unions affiliated, have gone on record in these eight weeks, for the enact- ment by Congress of the Workers Bill. The sweeping deviand of the masses for security has drawn hun- dreds of thousands of additional workers into the fight, led by the Party, for real unemployment in- surance. However, serious weaknesses and shortcomings of the Party's leadership of this campaign are still evident. The weaknesses must be brought out especially in view of the demagogic campaign of Roose- yelt for the fraudulent Wagner Bill. One important weakness in the campaign, as shown by the two months endorsements, is the weak- ness revealed in the concentration districts and basic industries, show- ing failure of these Party districts to work seriously enough in the A. F. of L., and to bring forward the campaign for Unemployment Insur- ence among the masses of workers in their districts. Only One Local in Detroit Of the one hundred and twenty- three A. F. of L. local unions en- corsing the bill, only one endorse- ment was secured in these eight weeks in the Detroit district, and this endorsement was not in a basic industry, and not in the city of Detroit, but was secured in Grand Rapids from the teachers local union, This one endorsement, in an eisht weeks period, shows that the directives of the National Conven- tion Against Unemployment were not followed up in the Detroit dis- trict and that work in the A. F. of L, locals certainly is lagging behind. Jn ‘the Pittsburgh district, we find the strange situation of the strong- est unemployment movement in the country, leading many struggles for relief, against evictions, etc., with thousands organized into the Un- employment Councils, and at the same time not a single endorsement reported in eight weeks from the entire district, by an A. F. of L. union for the Workers Unemploy- ment Insurance Bill. The fact that in this period two city councils, that of Swissvale and Glassport, Pa., endorsed the Work- ers Bill in the Pittsburgh district, indicates the mass demand for the enactment of the bill in the district and that we must examine our work inside the A. F. of L. in this district. Eight In Three Districts In the Cleveland district, eight local unions endorsed the Workers Bill in these two months. The fact that the city councils of Toledo, Canton and Lindale, all industrial cities, endorsed the bill, shows that the Cleveland district is leading a mass campaign for social insurance, Also, of the eight local unions en- dorsing the bill, the majority are in the basic industries. They include one mine local (U.M.W.A.), three International Association of Ma- chinists locals, one important auto local, and one printing local. These endorsements show a proper orienta- tion towards basic industry. But in Cleveland also, it must be said that the good work done merely shows the tremendous possibilities in the district and the insufficient atten- tion paid to the A, F. of L. The endorsement in these three concentration districts, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, with a total of nine for the three districts, of America women’s auxiliaries and | one Disabled Veterans’ Post. Of the 21 A. F. of L. locals, three were | in mining (U.M.W.A.), one print-| ing, one meat workers, one labor- | ers, one shoe, or seven locals that may be classed as in basic indus- | tries. | Tt must be said that Chicago) leads the concentration districts in the campaign for the Workers’ Un- | emplovment and Social Insurance Bill (H. R. 7598). But Chicago is still lagging far behind its possibili- ties, particularly in its slowness in reaching the hundreds of A. F. of L.| locals. | Of the 123 total endorsements from A. F. of L. locals, 47, or slightly more than one-third are in the five concentration districts. And of these 47 A. F. of L. endorsements in the five concentration districts. | 17 are in the building trades. and| only 17 out of the 47 in basic in- dustries. In Minneanolis there was only one A. F. of L. local reporting en-j dorsement (a metal mining local) | and three city councils, including | the city council of Minneapolis. | Philadelphia showed 19 endorse- ments of A. F. of L. locals, and also the Civil Liberties Union of Phila- delohia, endorsing H. R. 7598. The | Philadelphia endorsements (more | than the three concentration dis- tricts of Detroit, Pittsburgh and Cleveland put together) include one | taxi. five textile (woolen. knit- goods. hosiery. etc.), two printing. 1 molders. 1 coopers, one food, one} sheet and tin. Philadelphia also} had four important independent | locals and two district councils | (painters and Amalgamated) en- dorsing the bill. Boston district leads with 30 A. F. of I. locals endorsing, and, in addi- tion, the Providence A. F. of L. cen- |tral body, the Providence building | |trades council, the district Indge | and district convention of the I. A. of Machinists and the Boston Amalgamated Clothing Workers’ Joint Board. The A. F. of L. locals endorsing the bill in Boston dis- trict include 15 building, one as- | bestos, one iron, one hoisting engi- | neers, one boilermakers, one bakers, two machinists and one sheet | metal, A. F. of L. loca] unions. Other important endorsements were the Newark, N. J., A. F. of L. central body, the city council of} Clifton, N. J.; the Salt Lake City, |Lineoln, Nebraska; Denbury, Conn.; Greet Falls. Mont.; Spokane, | Wash., and Nebraska State A. F. jof 1. central bodies, with hundreds | et A. F. of L. local unions affili- | ated. | The conclusion must be reached in view of these figures, that first, the Party has launched a campaign for the enactment by Congress of the Workers Unemployment and Social Insurance Bill (H. R. 7598), which has achieved considerable mass support; (2) the campaign is weak in most of the concentration | districts; (3) in all districts, work | inside the A. F. of L. must be in- tensified; (4) work in the basic in- dustries for the Workers’ Bill is still weak; (5) the entire Party must be mobilized for this campaign and. the decisions of the National Con- yention of the Party applied in the fight for real unemployment insur- ance, especially in the concentra- tion districts. ‘ * (NOTE—The 123 endorsements analyzed here include all those re- ported to the Daily Worker, the Un- employed Councils and the A. F. of L. Rank and File Committee. Un- doubtedly other locals endorsed the bill which were not reported.) Make sure that your greeting will appear in the May Day edi- tion by mailing it at once, ad- dress, Daily Worker, 50 East 13th St., New York City. CLEVELAND, Daily Worker: OHTO Banquet and Dance Banquet Pull Hungarian Supper From 6 to 8 P, M—25c Danee Saturday April 14th Speakers Mayor. Excellent Dance Orchestra From 8 to ? — 15¢ I, O. FORD, Former Communist Candidate for JOHN WILLIAMSON, District Organizer of the Communist Party. HUNGARIAN WORKERS HOME 11128 Buckeye Road, Cleveland, Ohio | the head of the C.C.R.A. in relief standards. Instead of docily accepting this relief slash, the workers are organ- izing and demanding continuation of C.W.A. at prevailing union rates of pay, jobs for all unemployed, im- mediate cash relief, and the enact- ment of the Workers Unemployment Insurance Bill. On February 5th, 2,000 workers demonstrated for these demands. On April 2nd, an elected committee of 100 workers again presented these demands before the mayor, the county commissioners of relief and Having been continually denied their demands, the workers will demonstrate at 2 p.m. today, and again send a mass committee of workers to the mayor and relief officials. 12th Year of Jewish (. P. “Morning Freiheit” Hailed Celebrate Anniversary in Bronx Coliseum Saturday NEW YORK. — The 12th anni- versary of the fighting Communist daily, the Morning Freiheit, will bring forward a colorful mass cele- bration this Saturday evening, April 14, when workers from all sections Coliseum to demonstrate for this occasion. An unusual program has been ar- ranged for the celebration. Maxim Gorky’s revolutionary masterpiece, “The Stormbird,” adapted in Jewish by M. Olgin, will be feaigired. This will be a glaring mass pageant, rendered jointly by the ARTEF players, the Freiheit Gesangs Ferein and the ARTEF dance group. In addition, the famous Hall Johnson Negro quartette will present a pro- gram of stirring songs. The speakers will be Comrades Earl Browder, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the United States of America, and M. J. Olgin, editor of the Morning Freiheit. Both will bring first hand reports from the Eighth National Convention of the Communist Party, recently held in Cleveland. Comrade J. Sultan, Secretary of the Central Jewish Bu- of this city will gather in the Bronx | Magistrate Freidel for a further hearing today. Those whe have been reading the | stories in the Daily Worker on the | New York taxicab strike will re-| member the name of Edmund Gatti | (also known as Eddy Gatty). On| March 21, the Daily Worker pub- lished a story disclosing the fact that Gatti (Gatty) was one of the professional gangsters hired by| George Williams and Max Sherwood | Taxicab System. It is on the basis of this article that George Williams | has brought charges of criminal | libel against Harry Raymond, Daily | | Worker staff writer. | Gatti and his partners, it is said, were sent to Philadelphia by the Bergoff Detective Agency, located | at Columbus Circle, New York. Sev- eral days ago the homes of John Cosgrove of 2541 North Second St.,| and Joseph Thompson, of members, were daubed with red| paint. An hour later Gatti and his three partners were arrested in a paint-smeared automobile at Fourth St. and Susquehanna Ave, Names and addresses of the strikers were found in the posses- | sion of the thugs. and Mrs. Florence | Zanghorn, of 2539 North Second St., | identified Gatti and Friedland as the two men she saw in front of | Cosgrove’s house carrying paint cans. Binder is said to have con- fessed his crime at the police head- | | quarters, O'Toole Takes Job Following the arrest of the gang- sters, the Bergoff Detective Agency is reported to have retired from the | job. The dirty work of shipping | scabs and thugs was taken over by | the Val O’Toole Agency, 521 Fifth Ave., New York City. The scabs| are being shipped from New York, | it is said, through a. blind office | known as Pioneer Service. | A group of these eso | were shipped from New York in a Greyhound bus on April 9. Workers in New York and Phila- | delphia should demand of their re- | spective city governments that these strikebreaking and gangster agen- | cles.be put out of business. reau of the Communist Party, will | be chairman. | Workers are urged to secure their | tickets immediately. The price of | the advance ticket sales is 40 cents | and 55 cents at the box office. | Tickets can be obtained in the of-| fice of the Morning Fretheit, 50 E. | 13th St., sixth floor. \Alnbame Coal to NOTE: First of a series of articles describing workers’ and croppers’ life in the Black Belt and Pittsburgh area of the South, re- cent strikes, and activities in the A. F. of L, and Communist move- ments.) By MYRA PAGE Wate your step!” the miner cautions, just in time to save us from a thrust through a footsize hole in the rotting plank porch of his cabin. Well, he snorts, what else ean you expect from a company shack? They've been promising for two months to replank it, but if it takes half as long as it did to get the leaky roof mended, then next fall’s frost will find those splintered boards laying right there. Unless he finds time to fix it himself—time after his eight hour day which stretches to ten and eleven at the coal mine, and after he has hoed his patch which must help make ends meet. Eight bucks a month the company holds back on him for this palace, he tells us. The neatness of the place only accentuates its bareness. A bed, chest, two straight chairs and a rocker along the walls; over the bed, a gilded motto: “God Bless Our Home.” The ugly shadow of J. P. Morgan hovers over this Alabama mine country, Through the powerful Ten- nessee Coal and Iron Company (T.C.1.), a subsidiary of U.S. Steel, Morgan interests dominate the state, Controlling Birmingham's First National Bank and also its City Commission, its Governors as they come and go, this big finance syndicate, headed by Morgan, holds the economic and political life of this industrial heart of the South in its greedy mailed fist. Unknown Delicacies The black diamonds which Jim. and his mates hew from the earth’s j they've had to pinch these last two Diggers |same fist, which has not failed to’ | leave its marks on Jim’s coal-pocked | | face. Nor have his little girl Amanthy and spindle-legged Bert escaped: their tiny underfed bodies are grim evidence to the fact that milk, but- ter, oranges and other fruit are un- known delicacies in an Alabama miner’s shack. Cornbread and bis- cuits, fatback, oleomargarine and | molasses are the steady numbers at their table. Jims wife Annie, with her sunken chest, bowed back and hanging arms gives an outline of a sagging dollar mark, Out of his twenty-three bucks for half a month below ground, Jim gets barely eleven of it in cash. The rest has gone for rent, the company doc- tor, school tax, miner’s lamp and explosives, while eight dollars of it) they had to draw in advance in company Iscrip or “Clacker.” for groceries, So every two weeks the company hands him a neatly item- ized slip—and some ten bucks in cash, Annie Carson says she sold the eight “Clacker” dollars for six greenbacks, and took them to trade in a Birmingham chain-store. Prices were so high at the company store that she could get more beans and fatback, that way. She is sure glad that the men walked out on strike, Jim is glad, too. Even though weeks. For he wants a real union, and no more standing in water down the mine hole, unable to work with no cars to load, and 700 pounds cheated out of every ton of coal. Jim isn’t a Red—yet, But he takes from hiding the Miner’s Rank and File Committee leaflets, and asks to get those papers we spoke of, the “Daily” and “Southern Worker.” He tells what. fightin’ spunk these Negro miners have shown, in the strike. Back in 1920, the companies split the men, and brought in col- ored farm-hands from the southern part of the state to take the strikers’ jobs. This time, the old trick failed. underground caverns go into this Negroes form three-fourths of Ala- Gatti in Tax Strike ‘To Ma Fe a et a How the Scabs Were Shipped to SKF A group of professional strikebreakers hired by the Val O'Toole Dete Penn: ing sent to Philadelphia to slug of the SKF industries. Clearance and Housing on the South Side (Daily Worker, Midwest Bureau) CHICAGO, Aprl 12. — United struggle for the right of Negro workers to jobs will be planned at a conference in Chicago April 29th, called by the American Consolidated 2626 | Trades Council, Negro labor organi- | North St., both strikers and union | zation fighting the jim-crow policy| of the leadership of the A. F. of L. Demands to be discussed at the confeernce are: 1, The rght of Negroes to work on all jobs, in all trades. 2 The immedate forcing through of more jobs on the new | Wendell Phiilips High School. 3. The right of Negroes to be admitted to all trade unions. 4, To force the carrying through of an appropriation from the P. W. A. for a housing and slum clearance program here on the South Side. _The building of modern apartment homes with a | maximum monthly rental of $4.00 per room. 5. The adoption of the bill for unemployment and social insurance now before Congress: Bill H. R. 7598. Continuation of the C. W. A. jobs with 30 hours work a week at union wages. Jobs or cash relief for all unemployed, including single workers. Negro Workers Barred On Jim- Crow School The Wendell Phillips High School | job is the storm center of the fight for “jobs ; for Negroes. place, designed This as a Jim-Crow | School, to draw Negro students from! the other high schools, is being | built in the heart of the Negro| __.| territory of the South Side, with P.| y by | manding the continuation of the| County Building, Pittsburgh, Pa.,| Only by the combined efforts of the W. A. funds. The job was stopped when the corrupt school board went broke, and lay unfinished for two years, before federal money was ap- propriated. Negroes were given work at first, the worst work, cleaning up the two year collection of debris. But when the building was resumed, Negroes were consistently barred e Agency boarding a chartered Greyhound Bus in front of the ania Station in New York at 4 p.m. April 9, They were be- and terrorize the striking workers p Fight For jobs For Negroes In Chicago _ At Conference, April 29 as strikebreakers for the Parmelee} Demand Grows for Slum | from all skilled trades by the con- tractors and A. F. of L. officials. No Negro tradesmen -are on the job ex- cept a very few bricklayers. A protest delegation that demanded jobs for Negroes was arrested on the job about two weeks ago. A few jobs Were given as the result of this struggle. Delegations of workers have visited the ward committemen, al- dermen, and other politicians and have forced them to endorse the |demands of the Negro workers. Other delegations are visiting various organizations, asking for | delegates to the conference. The following is a partial list of organizations endorsing the con- | ference: The Trade Union Unity League, the Negro Youth Move- ment, the International Labor De- fense, Touissant L’Ouverture Boosters, League of Struggle for | Negro Rights, and many churches. Sixty delegates attended a prelimi- nary conference in March that planned the campaign. Consolid- ated members estimate that at least 300 deelgates will attend the 4 Conference April 29. ‘ | The Conference will open at 10:30 a.m, at 3934 South State St. Re- quests for credentials and other in- formation should be sent to the American Consolidated Trades | Council, 3129 Cottage Grove Ave. Detroit A. F, of L, Unions Demand C.W.A. | |_ DETROIT, Mich—The Advisory Board of the A. F, of L. Brother- hood of Painters, Decorators and | Paperhangers, representing locals 37, 42, 357, and 591 here, have peti- tioned federal relief administrator | Hopkins, Senators and Congress- men, the Wayne County and the City Council of Detroit, de- Cleveland Jobless Thug Hired to Break Taxi Strike Held Only Preparati on for Defiling Strikers Homes Strike Action on R.R. CanStopPayCutMove Brotherhood Chiefs Maneuver With Eastman and Roosevelt to Keep Men from Only Action That Can Gain Pay Rise By JOE ALLEN CHICAGO, Ill., April 12—The Grand Lodge officers of the railroad brotherhood usually have a barrel of excuses to offer for their action or lack of action on questions af- fecting railroad workers. On the question of anotl Jobless Leader Is Freed After Mass Protest in Pitts, But Frankfeld Is Still in Danger of 2 to 4 tension of the 10 per cent agreement which pires on June 30, however, the excuse barrel is empty. opening of negotiations on the railroad wage controversy on March nh with Roosevelt coming for an extension and aq ace by the Grand Lodge officers qu to mediation by Eastman ngness to throw the he squirrel-cage ap- he Railway Labor Act a storm of protest against f ‘. ‘ on of t ropos: t = Years in Prison ion of the proposals to con but v rou : an increase in -wares, cient PITTSBURGH Pa. April cebthe tae Gh ire mcion Sam Jessop, organizer of the T: re 5 crisis set in. Ror Ss Creek Unemployment © released from Blawnox Workhouse on Wednesday, April 4, due to mass protests, after serving five weeks of @ one year sentence. On Monday, April 2, Mrs. Sa Jessop was called before Judge Gre: who had sentenced Jessop, and reprimanded because of the tre dous number of protests in the form of resolutions coming from all parts of the district, demanding Sam's re- lease. Judge Grey told her that this must stop. that this is contempt of court and he will not tolerate it. The reply of the workers in the Pitts- burgh district, was to intensify and to increase the number of proiests with the result that on the follow- ing Wednesday afternoon Sam Jes- sop was freed after having served only five weeks. Jessop was sentenced in connec- tion with the Patton Towr ip farm sale, a foreclosure sale in which 23 cows and other farm implements were sold for $1.10, an Unemploy- ment Council member being the highest bidder. Phil Frankfeld, organizer of the | Allegheny Unemployment Councils, involved in the same case, has re- ceived a sentence of two to four years on charges of inciting to riot and obstructing legal process. Th case of Frankfeld was being argued before the Superior Court today in | an effort to obtain a reversal of the conviction on the frame-up charge. | Frankfeld is at liberty on a $4,000 bond pending the outcome of the appeal hearing. As in the case of James Egan, the court here spoke | of the “threats” that are being re- ceived and stated that the court | “will not be intimidated by | threats.” | Frankfeld was recently sentenced to two to four years for being the leader of the unemployed movement on charges of “inciting to riot” and “obstructing legal proce during | the course of the sheriff's sale. The Pittsburgh district of the ILD, calls upon all Unemployment | Councils throughout the country, as well as,I.L.D. branches, trade union locals and all organizations, to rush judges of Supericr Court, City these |? rip provided the excuse for in the proceedings to give wastman and the Grand Lodge of- ficers an opportunity to caim the storm and bring the rank and file under control. Roosevelt's Last Proposal The latest proposal of Roosevelt is that the wage cut be continued with the understanding that basic rates be restored when carloadings return to the 1931 level with an ad- justment of wage rates for employes who are receiving rates below mini- mums established in N.R.A. codes, The G manet they call called the Grand Officers to. the White House and after this con- ference, A. F. Whitney, spokesman for the Labor Executive Association, stated that the controversy would be submitted to a Board of Media- tion, but that nothing would be done until Mr. Roosevelt returns from his vacation. ke votes have been taken on nk lines during the past year which were Viewed by thie workers to be for the purpose of enforcing Settlement of thousands of claims and grievances accumulated by the clogging apparatus of the Railway Labor Act. Every ballot taken re- sulted in an overwhelming majority voting in favor of strike. Prepare Strike Action In each instance a strike was averted by Emergency Boards, which with the collaboration of the Grand Officers, sewed the grievances up still tighter, sending them back to the point of origin for further negotia- ions. The mass of railroad workers now realize that the only way they can stop the pay roll raids of the man- agers supported by the government and assisted by their own leaders, is by strike action So called “outlaw strikes” are not unknown to railroad labor, The switchmen’s strike in 1920, although poorly prepared and confined to only one craft in a few large terminals, C.W.A..| their protests immediately to the | Paralyzed the transportation system of the country and was defeated C.W.A. The petition is to be printed demanding the immediate uncon-| brotherhood chiefs. and circulated on the jobs urging dual workers to mail copies to | these officials. Your revolutionary greeting to the Daily Worker on May Day will show that the workers sup- | port our “Daily.”. ditional release of Phil Frankfeld. our fellow workers this y hrough the columns of | the “Daily.” All greetings mailed to us before April 22nd will positively appear in the May Day edition, | Respect for the Railway Labor Act has reached zero. the Grand Officers are under suspicion and the Roose- velt administration is discredited. Resolutions demanding strike action and the setting up of joint committees to prepare for strike action is on the order of the day. Go Into Action In Morga Myra Page, in First of Series of Articles, Gives Graphic Story of Conditions and Struggles of Alabama Miners bama’s 23,000 miners, and an equal proportion of the union membership. And wherever the miners have ignored their District President Mitch’s orders not to picket, but marched several hundred at a time to close some mine tight, three out of lfour marchers, or more, were colored, In the Negro Camp My companion and I leave Jim Carson's, and by a round-about way come to Tom Battle’s shack, in the Negro miners’ camp. Conditions here are even worse than over where Car- son lives. By now it is night. With doors and blinds shut tight, eleven miners discuss with us the contents of the next leaflet to be issued by the Miners Rank and File Commit- tee, U.M.W.A. The one lamp flickers over the fireplace, the few coals in the grate (miners have little coal) give out a steady glow, lighting up the intent faces and heavy shoulders of these Alabama Reds, as they set about their work, discussing how best to prevent a sell-out, spread the strike. The trouble is, our forces are still too small and in too few camps. The whole machinery that the big com- panies and state have at their dis- posal, including the National Guard, daily press, dicks and provocateurs, could not defeat the miners—if their union leadership were on the right track. They aren't. Communist min- ers know it, many others sense some- thing wrong, but the majority, newly organized, don’t understand just how or why. Like miners everywhere, they are militant. Over at Little Cahaba, coal-diggers disarm fifteen special deputies the sheriff was Swearing in, At Porter and Brad- jford mines they organize forced | marches to stop the scabbing. n’s Southern Domain recognition. But the miners feel | that winning the right to organiza- | tion would surely mean more than | t The dollar e month that the company would hold back from | their slim rp to turn over to Mitch |and the District U.M.W.A. office as} union dues was aimed, as they saw it, to bring results: better conditions | below ground and more pay. | __ This, even while Mitch and other 1 | ; r Amanthy end Bert can have milk UMWA officials are sitting In closed | aq eggs to grow on, and Tom Bat- | j sessions with the operators’ com-/ tio: wife a pair of shoes, | | mittee at the ritzy Thomas Jeffer-| ~~ : . | | son Hotel, negotiating a no-strike,| The convention of two hundred | no wage-increase settlement Frtween| and forty delegates has about one- themselves. Over their sessions the| third Negro and two-thirds white—| well-known General Persons pre-| although the colored form three-/| sides, as “neutral member” and | fourths of the membership. This is | | chairman of the committee, so ap- pointed by Governor Miller. General Persons is also president of Mor- gen’s First National Bank in Bir- | mingham, with big investments in | Alabama coal, ore, and steel. The third week of the strike: fresh mines are pulled, over Mitch’s open disapproval. For reasons known best to himself, he does not see fit to call out the mines of the powerful T.C.I. or Republic Steel. What sort of rabbit's foot does Morgan use? Seeret Agreement Nevertheless, a secret strike vote is taken in all mines working, to walk out the coming Monday. Four days preceding this, the papers carry front-page news: Secret Pact Con- cluded Between Operators and Union. A hastily convened District Conven- gates are elected, without the min- ers knowing what are the terms of agreement. This is U.M.W.A. “dem- the assembled convention about the pending agreement, they say, “We don't know any more than you— only what we saw in the papers, this morning.” tion of the U.M.W.A. is called. Dele- | ocracy.” When I ask delegates at/| |a deliberate policy of the officials: jas one Mitch hanger-on tells me boldly, “We give niggers one out of three on committees, keep ‘em sat- isfied and white man control.” Inj jlocals, vice-presidents are usui colored, presidents and executive secretary white. Such a Jim-Crow policy cannot fail to cause dissen- {sion and weaken Alabama miners’) jranks, making it easier for the | operators to hold them down. In spite of long bitter opposition in the convention, and in local union |meetings afterwards, Mitch suc-j) | ceeds in putting it over. Jim Carson and Tom Battle are back down the mine hole. They must still work in watery pits, on an eight-hour at the face that stretches all told to ten or more. Wages in most cases are no better, although the vicious con- tract system is abolished; the right to a checkweighman will put an end |to cheating at the scales, provided the mine committee is on the job. | | But worst of all, Jim and Tom} and all Alabama miners have been | tied up by their officials with a jyear's no-strike agreement. This! means enslavement, if the miners put up with it, to another year of | near-starvation and speed-up. There Mitch had insisted from the be-| is another menace in this agree- ginning that the only issue at stake} ment. A menace that must concern! was the check-off of dues and union workers throughout the country, for it is spreading to other industries. Mitch announced at the convention that “our agreement is subject to any change made by the Bituminous Coal Code Commission or executive order of the President of the United States.” Why these powers of dicta- tor to Roosevelt and the commis- sion? The right to set aside, at one ‘oke of the pen, whatever gains the miners might win? This is a step toward fascism.-Under the N.R.A.’s silk glove hides the mailed fist of the same J. P. Morgan. But the Communist Party and Miners’ Rank and File Committee of the U.M.W.A. are growing, spreading out to new camps. Again 5,000 leaflets appear in the pits, and are read with greater readiness than before. Alabama miners are taking up the call to “Make Our Union a Weapon in Our Own Hands.” They want strong mine committees com- | posed of the best miners, elected and supported by the rank and file, a wage scale of $3.40 for outside, and $4.40 for inside labor, equal rights for Negro miners on the job and tn the union, union dues to re= main in the local treasuries, plenty of cars, dry places to work, good timbers, and eight hours from top to top. If the big T.CI. and Republi mines don’t grant union recogni« tion, which they haven't yet, these mines will no doubt go out—and the Miners’ Rank and File Commit- tee and the Communist Party will be in a stronger position to help . spread the strike for the miners’ full demands. Such a strike may well break at the same time that Bir- mingham’s steel mills are on strike, for the working masses in this steel and coal stronghold of the South are in motion such as they've not been since the days following the world war. They are keen to hear more about Soviet miners and their six-hour day, and sick leaves and vacations with pay. And as Bie-inghgmn gneg, 50 goes the South,