The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 9, 1934, Page 5

ILY WORKER, NE vy YORK, SATURDAY Page Five Brutal Attack, Savage Jail Terms Against Boston Anti-Nazis Is A Challenge To All Anti-Fascists LL.D. Presenting Proof Barred by Court; Calls for Mass Fight POSTS N.—Savage sen- tences, totalling, 98 months in jail, have been imposed on 15 workers and students by Judge S. Sullivan in the Charlestown District Court, Boston, Mass. Three others) have been ordered to pay fines} totalling $220. Another three have | been placed on probation—for “good behavior” in the future. Who are these offenders against American capitalism? Anti-fascst workers and students. Their crime? | Participating in a peaceful demon- | stration May 17 against the “good- | will” propaganda visit of the Nazi warship “Karlsruhe”; against the official welcome extended by Boston capitalists and their city govern- ment to the Nazi officers, represen- | tatives of the hated Hitler murder regime; against the growing fas- cization of the bourgeois state ap- paratus in democratic “free” America. | The police deliberately attacked | the peaceful protest za | For over an hour the battle be- tween the workers and students for ther constitutional rights of free speech on the one side, and the Boston cops defending the murder- | ous emissaries of Hitler “against any discourtesy” on the other hand raged back and forth literally in the very shadow of the Bunker Hilt Monument, a couple of blocks away. ! Finally at the close of the battle after the forees were scattered, the two Jewish detectives, Gouiston and Goodman who, as heads of the red squad* were specially in charge of the defense of the Nazis through- out the visit, rushed around pick- | ing out known Communist leaders, and ordering their arrest. Inside the police station the cops began a systematic beating up of prisoners shouting “Heil Hitler!” with every kick and punch. | The trial of the 21 arrested be- fore the rabidly reactionary Judge Sullivan in Charlestown Court has made history in Boston. For seven years, ever since the murder of Sacco and Vanzetti in Charlestown | jail, there have been no struggles or political action in Charlestown, Except for a case in a ship strike a few months ago, the Charlestown | court has never witnessed workers’ | self-defense in the courts. The trial of the 21 on charges of inciting to! riot went far beyond even ordinary | prejudice on the part of the judge. | Every question by the defendants | bringing out the brutality of the| police was excluded by the judge. | Time and again the judge was forc- | ed to bark out, “I tell you the po- lice are not on trial here!” “Hitler is not on trial here!” Fifty cops guarded, the courtroom outside. Fol- lowing irrepressible laughter at the clumsy and easily exposed evasions by the police witnesses, the judge | ordered a dozen cops to stand all| over the courtroom with instructions to arrest immediately anyone, caught laughing. | On the second day of the trial} Donald Burke, I.L.D. organizer, act- ing as attorney for some of the defendants, was summarily remoyed | as attorney by the judge and order- | ed out of the courtroom. ry Sel-! lin, one of the defendants, was ar- rested for contempt of court and plackd in the dock for insisting on telling how workers had been beaten up. Leon Lapin, one of the defend- | ants, was removed as attorney by the judge and arrested for con- tempt of court because he didn’t | take hfs seat quickly enough. | Whereupon Mary Sellin got up in| the dock and told the judge what | She thought of him. “This trial is| a farce. You are hopelessly biased and prejudiced from the start.” She | was immediately arrested a second! time for contempt of court and | taken out to a cell while her trial | on the original _inciting-to-riot | charge continued. By the time that | Leon Lapin from his seat in the| dock explaining why he went to| demonstrate against fascism, stated that “Fascism is dying capitalism shedding its last democratic pre- tenses like justice in this court,” the judge seemed to give up the LERMAN BROS. STATIONERS and UNION PRINTERS Special Prices for Organizations 29 EAST 14th STREET New York City Algonquin 4-5356—4-8343 4.7893 y For Meetings, Dances, Banquets, Conventions, Ets. STUYVESANT CASINO 140-142 2nd Av. Near 9th St. Catering fer All Occasions KRAUS & SONS, Inc. Manufacturers of Badges-Banners-Buttons For Workers Clubs and Organizations 157 DELANCEY STREET ‘Telephone: DRydock 4-8275-8276 PANTS. TO MATCH Your Coat and Vest Paramount Pants Co., Inc, 693 Broadway SP 17-2859 WE AAT, ALL EHADES AND ATTERNS proposition as hopeless tented himself with utilizing a slip made by Pete King, one of the de- fendants, longshore organizer of the Marine Workers Union, and removing him as at- torney. The trial ended with sentences of six, seven and eight months and | $100 fines distributed among the defendants. To cap the climax, the Socialis Party, after complete silence, held a protest meeting against the Nazi warship on May 28th, a whole week after the ship had left port. The struggle against the Nazi warship undowbtedly made a dis- mal failure of the Nazi attempt to carry “good will’ in the city of Boston. On the contrary, the visit of the cruiser has resulted in wide- spread exposure and discussion of the meaning and the menace of fascism among the workers Charlestown, among the students Gives Board Power To! Prohibit Strikes; Jail Pickets By H. M. WICKS ‘HE workers of the United States are-moving against the terrible conditions of hun- ger that for five years have grown steadily worse. Tens lof thousands are on strike. Hundreds of thousands are on strike or preparing to go on strike—longshoremen, steel work- ers, textile workers, automobile workers, miners, printers, electrical workers. A new mighty wave of strikes is rising, surging to new and higher levels of struggle. More and more we hear the slogan for a gen- eral strike to smash through the hunger drive—to turn the defensive struggle against the N.R.A. slave codes into a counter offensive against capitalism. Up from the ranks of struggling workers, defiant- \ly facing the combined attacks of |the armed forces of city, state and nation, there increases in volume the slogan of the general strike. On Saturday, May 26th, the re- | vised Wagner bill, known as the \“National Industrial Adjustment | Act,” was presented to the United | States Senate by the notorious | Tammany Hall Senator from New | York, Robert F. Wagner. It was | immediately hailed by the capitalist |press, by industrial magnates and | by their kept newspaper editors as a means of preventing strikes. The | bill was brought forward under the | | direct supervision | Roosevelt. New Weapon Against Labor The Wagner Bill is the new weapon the Roosevelt administra- tion is trying to forge for use against the great wave of working class battles against N.R.A. and its hunger codes. The Communist Party and the Trade Union Unity League apprais- ed correctly the Wegner Bill from the day its first draft was published. On March 23, the Daily Worker carried a first page story of the exposure of the real anti-working class character of the proposed bill in a report of the speech and argu- ment of Bill Dunne, representing the National Committee of the T.U. U.L., before the Senate Committee on Labor and Education. He stated: “The peace that the Wagner Bill and the official program of the American Federation of La- bor proposes is the pax Romana— the peace of death — for the American working class, It is a program of preparation for a new drive against the working class, Preparation for imperialist war, of President, =. and con- in Harvard University and } ;chusetts Institute of Technolog; | among the Jewish people in Ri bury and Dorchester. The brutality Industrial | of the police in their attack upon graphically | the demonstration has exposed the | Pretensions of Mayor Mansfi to be a. friend of the Jewish people and a foe of Hitlerism. The militant self-defense of the twenty-one | workers and students in the court }has won the respect and support | of all anti-fascists, |. By another dramatic coincidence the next week brought the Soviet steamer Dimitroff to the port of Boston. The workers of Boston feel that their struggle against Karlsruhe has been a fitting wel- |come to the first Soviet steamer to | Visit this port, in the spirit of the great revolutionary whose name the | ship so proudly bears. | The full story of the brutal po- lice attack on the demonstration, in | Of the bestial beating up of the ar-|of the I. L. D, rested demonstrators, of their Revised Wagner Bill Is A ®©COURT the | BARRED OTHER EVIDE OF POLICE BRUTALITY ABOVE LEFT: Police pulling. pushing and kicking Alice Burke while taking her to the station. ABOVE RIGHT: Police officer de- liberately twisting arm of Beila Lewis. BELOW: and students gathering peacefully for the May 17 anti-Nazi demon- stration which was brutally at- tacked by police. All evidence of po- lice brutality and responsibility for the riot was barred by the court which imposed savage sentences on the arrested anti-Fascist workers and students. - frame-up on charges of “inciting to | | riot,” of the farcical trial with its cynical denial of the rights of the defendants—all and more is told in a four-page folder issued by the Eastern New England District of the Interna tional Labor Defense, 12 Hayward Place, Boston, Mass. Irrefutable proof of police brutal- ity, of deliberate intention to drown \in blood the anti-fascist demonstra- | tion, is presented in this leaflet, backed with photographic proof of police brutality against the arrested workers and students, The folder is issued as part of the I. L. D. campaign against these vicious sentences, for the freedom of the “Karlsruhe” demonstrators, for the right of workers to assemble | and_protes Funds are urgently needed for this fight and should be |sent to the New England District 12 Hayward Place ' Boston, Mass. Boston workers | | The Fighting | y H. B. BRIGGS 'HERE are two reasons for the leome extended to gobs in New York. One is the direct interest that all shop-keepers have in some one else’s pocket-book. The other is the pampering of those who will in the near future, be called upon to do the dirty k of protecting the profits of Wall Street. Every store, shop. barroom, hotel, ete | stretches its hand out to grab a part of that “million dollars” will spend. The capitalist newspa- pers, like the prostitutes they are | primp their front pages with coy phrases about the jolly tars. One paper even hired extra “girl repor- ters” to get the dirt on the gobs in their off moments. But there are two kinds of wel- One for the officers, another for the rank and file seamen. In y travels, I have yet to see any s hanging around the Ritz Carl- ton or the Savoy Plaza. These places are reserved for the gold- braid. Ordinary seamen are free to stagger o of cheap Coffee Pots, barrooms, ete. This “freedom” is dearly paid for. “You have only a few days left in port. Make good use of these by doing a little exploring on your own and some critical thinking on your “welcome.” Just before you landed there was a group of unemployed ex-servicemen living in a shanty town on the Hudson underneath the famous Riverside Drive. This was their reward for defending Wall Street in the last war. They were ousted before you arrived because |the powers that be did not want you to mix with the victims of the last war and view their deplorable conditions. | You will notice in reading the | papers that the country is embroiled in a vast strike movement. These are your brothers, workers like your- self who cennot enjoy the best | hotels in civilian life either. They are fighting for a decent standard of living. Their interests are your interests. Talk to them, see what they think about the N. R. A. and Roosevelt's “New Deal.” You will get some surprising answers. These | workers, like yourselves, know what |is ahead of them, their wage cuts, | like your own are part of the vast scheme to cheapen the cost of an- other imperialistic war. You may meet some ex-service- men. Ask them why they have not received their bonus. They will tell you that they are now among the forgotten men,” but in 1918 they |also had the freedom of the city. |They also paraded down Fifth | Avenue, they also received praise and pampering in the press. But |15 years is a long time between drinks and promises. Today these | buddies of yours have no uniforms | but they are with you in every way. Have a good time, gob, while you | may, but remember the purpose be- | hind your welcome. Remember the | waiter who hands you your coffee, | the conductor that takes your fare. | the taxi driver who runs a risk of accidents and loss of job to get you back to ship on time, They will be the victims like your- | self of the next war, for which the | capitalists are preparing. They are your real friends. Dangerous Weapon A the gobs The Fi ght for Bread, — Wages, Is A Fight for | The Seizure of Power Sees ‘Militants’ and R.P.C, Groups Evading Revolutionary Fight MILTON HOWARD of the Americ irgecis HE be soul dismayed during the weeks by the spectacle battles in of largest cities in the country, Detroit, Minneapolis. Toledo, New Orleans, San F These actions of of the i class some 0. American the working class are the unm signs that we in this cou approaching those days of Marx long ago spoke, those “when the masses learn more in one day, than in previous ten years of quiet. IN THIS recent period two party 1 conventions met—the Co Party and the Sociali Which convention presen masses the policies that 1 lead to victory in the fight for better wages, for unemployment relief and insurance, and from there on, to the overthrow of capitalism? The Communist Party boldly pro: claimed persistent and merciless war against the whole Roosevelt pro- gram, exposing it as the program par excellence of the most reection- ary clique of Wall Street finance capital, as the program of monopoly Calling for the organization of powerful strike movements against the wage-cutting attacks of the employers, calling for assault on the Party d to the whole Roosevelt N.R.A. strike-break- | ing machinery, the Communist Party proclaimed that the daily economic battles with the employ- ers must be steadily driven forward to the struggle for power, to the struggle for the overthrow of the capitalist system and the setting up of a Soviet government in this country The Socialist Convention, meeting at a time when the two great classes in society are forming their battle lines for the ultimate revolutionary | clashes, cowers in fright before the question of the armed struggle for the seizure of power, and in the face of day-to-day bitter struggles between ruling class and exploited class, offers one of the most equi- yocal, slippery and empty programs ef radical verbiage ever flung into the face of a class engaged in bit- ter conflict with the dictatorship of a ruling class. er ate re ARX long ago established the fundamental relation between |the d o-day fights against the employers and the ultimate strug- | gle for the overthrow of capitalism, when he showed that the fight ‘against daily exploitation becomes and another step towards fascism. We shall do our best to expose it and to arouse and American workers against jit.” Since that time the Daily Worker and the publications of the T.U.U.L. and its unions have dealt with the strike-breaking character of the and editorials. These are the only papers and organizations that have told the truth about the Wagner Bill to the working class. The orig- inal draft has now been mended and company unions given still more legal recognition. The reason for the speed-up of the Wagner Bill is admitted by gov- ernment spokesmen to be the strike wave that is rising to great heights throughout the country. All the papers, in commenting upon the bill, referred to the strikes of long- shoremen on the Pacific Coast, the truckmen’s strike in Minneapolis and the electrical workers’ strike in Toledo, Ohio. The revised bill, like the original bill, is an extension of Section 7a of the National Recovery Act. It is \not something that stands alone, but must be considered in connec- tion with the history of the N.R.A. With the present strike wave ri: ing ever higher, and assuming more militant forms, the Roosevelt ad- ministration now comes forth with the amended Wagner Bill as a means of outlawing strikes com- pletely. In brief this bill: 1—Sets up a permanent board with power to prohibit strikes. 2—Enforces compulsory arbitra- tion. 3—Legalizes company unionism, 4—Splits existing unions by es. tablishing department organiza- tions of workers in industry. 5—Causes to be jailed without trial anyone who resists strike- breaking and union-wrecking de- cisions of the board. 6—Ties organizations of labor directly to the government, and establishes a prison parole sys- tem for labor. |The Board As a Permanent Strike Breaking Agency The old National Labor Board, which is now headed by Senator Wagner, is to be abolished as soon as the act is passed and the new ‘board to be created is to be known as the National Industrial Adjust- ment Board, and, according to Sec- tion 1 of the amended Wagner Bill its purpose is for the “peaceful set- tlement of labor disputes.” The board is to consist of five members—three appointed by the President to represent “the public” —and one representing the employ- ers and one supposed to r2present labor. The labor representative is to be chosen by the President, on edvice of “representatives of labor.” The three representatives of the public are to serve for five years Wagner Bill in numerous articles | > gainst Labor ————® NORMAN THOMAS a fight against the whole system of exploitation, becomes, in other | words, an open ass battle for power, Thus it comes about that a pa which will not sh N. R. A. codes, which allies i twith the A. F. of L. officialdom which does not organize mass strug- gles for unempl }can never serious! question of the struggle fo! And conversely, the Socialist P: because it pledges itself to the against the dictatorship of the pr ‘letariat (it is opposed te ‘all dicta- torship’) will inevitably betray | day-to-day struggle against capital | And the reason for this Comrade Browder made excellently clear in |his spech at the Communist Con- vention when he declared: It is true that all struggles for y bread, for milk for children, against evictions, for unemploy- ment relief, and insurance, for | wage increases, for the right to | organize and strike, ete., are di- rectly connected up with the question of revolution. Those who are against revolution, who want to maintain the capitalist system, are prepared to sacrifice these struggles of the workers in order to help the capitalists preserve their profits. Only those can courageously | lead and stubbornly organize the fight for the immediate interests | of the toiling masses who know | that these things must be won even though it means the destruc- tion of capitalist profits, and who draw the necessary conclusion | that the workers and farmers | must consciously prepare to over- | throw capitalism. That is to say, a party that does not consciously prepare day in and |day out to raise the revolutionary | consciousness of the masses for the | seizure of power through the smash- ing of the capitalist state machine, |such a party cannot really defend the wages and working conditions, ithe daily life of the masses. and can be again appointed at the| anthotized to represent employes.” ; workers. Any member of the board, Legalizes the Company end of that time. The two repre-| In reaching such a decision the| representing the “general public % | organize | sentatives of the employers and the| bill provides that the board can,| ‘that is the government) may, ac- | |employees are to be chosen from|if it wants to do so, take a secret |cording to Article 1 of Section 11, panels of six—that is the President | appoints for terms of one year a | panel of six individuals represent- ing the workers and six representing the bosses, who shall rotate in such @ way that there will always be one person on the board even pretend- ing to speak for labor — and these or Emil Reive. Enforces Compulsory Arbitration Section 9 of the amended Wagner as arbitrator in labor disputes, when Parties agree to submit the whole or any part of a labor dispute to | ballot or it can: | “utilize any other suitable method | to ascertain by whom or by what labor organizetion they desire to | be represented.” \“have power to require by subpoerfa the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of all such documentary evidence relat- ing to any matter under complaint.” | Union; Enforces “Arbitration” cisions, in spite of the fact that the labor fekers who support the bill try to interpret that section to mean | Thus, the board can refuse to To make the turning over of such) that it applies only to employers. official government. conception of a | union or organization of workers, j way affect commerce. In other |words, the government demands Bill specifically states that the board | that such “workers’ organizations” | shall “have power to act, and ap- | must be one pledged in advance not | point any agent or agency to act|to take any action that may tie up| | commerce—that is to strike. | It is this union-wrecking feature jof the bill, this legalizing of com- | Resist the arbitration of the board or its|pany unionism, that meets with| ‘ appointees.” This clause is decep-|loud acclaim by the whole capital-| tively used by the labor fakers who | ist press. In the New York Times of support the Wagner Bill to try to | Sunday, May 27th, Arthur Krock, deny that it means compulsory ar- | one of the Times’ Washington cor- | bitration, but when we consider | respondents, stated that the new that the board has the right to/| bill legalizes company unions. The | | decide “by whom or what labor or-j Philadelphia Inquirer of Monday, ganization” workers desire to be rep- |May 28, a rock-ribbed Republican | resented, as stated in Section 10|sheet, praised the Roosevelt Dem- (a), we realize that there can al-|ocratic administration for pushing ways be found excuses to claim that the Wagner Bill. “parties” to the dispute who are| Splits Existing Organizations agents of the bosses or the govern-| Section 10 of the revised bill not | ment in the ranks of the workers, | Only does not compel an employer | | “agree to submit” to arbitration. In|to recognize a union shop even if| the following sections we shall see | it is organized into a national or! | how this works out. |international or independent union, Legaiizes Company Unionism but it even shows the employer how In the revised Wagner Bill the | he can divide the workers on craft ,main emphasis is placed upon |lines in case they have industrial company unionism. The very defini- | organization. Each shop can have ition of “labor organization” places | as many kinds of group representa- the stamp of approval upon com-/|tion as desired. For example, take pany unionism in these words from |an automobile plant. If there exists Article 5, Section 2: }one powerful union in the plant, “The term ‘labor organization’ |the bosses and their agents can , , ‘ r si than representative, but never more than | recognize unions of workers’ choice,| documents more compulsory A one of each on thg board. Thus una? the pretense that such or-|the usual court procedure, Article | to put labor on a prison parole basis there will never be more than one] ganizations do not comply with the |3 Of Section 11 specifies: | “No person shall be excused | from attending and testifying or will always be people of the calibre | That government conception is that; {rom producing books, papers, of William Green, John L. Lewis,|such organization of workers must | George L. Berry, Sydney Hillman|be one that does not interfere with | documents germane to the mat- the free flow of commerce or in any | contracts, agreements and other ter under investigation before the board, or in obedience to the sub- i poena of the board, on the ground that the testimony, documentary or otherwise, required of him, may tend to incriminate him or sub- ject him to a penalty or forfeit- All decisions of the board are filed with the United States Dis- trict Courts, and in case of any re- sistance to decisions the violator can be hailed into court and sent to prison for contempt of court. These proceedings are carried out without trial by jury—the federal circuit court judge simply throws the vic- tim in jail for any length of time jhe desires. Also there are strong | | penalties provided for anyone who} resists or interferes with any mem- ber of the board carrying out the strike-breaking provisions of the bill. Section 12 reads: “Any person who shall wiifully assault, resist, prevent, impede, or interfere with any member of the board or any of its agents or agencies shall be punished by a fine of not more than $5,000 or by imprisonment for not more than ore year, or both.” For the worker the above full sentence—fine and imprisonment ure.” | Can Jail Without Trial All Who} means any organization or any ageney of empioye representation committee, in which employes participate and which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, ef dealing with employers con- cerning hours of labor, wages or working conditions.” Provision for recognition by the board of any organization, or in- dividual or group it chooses to rec- ognize is set forth in Article A of Section 10 of the revised Wagner Bill as follows: “In any disputes as to who are the representatives of the em- ployes, the board, if the dispute might burden or affect commerce or obstruct the free flow of com- merce, may investigete such dis- pute and certify to the parties, in writing, the mame or names of the individus!s [my emphasis— H. M. W.] or labor organizations that have been designated or | split away a department and create | would mean anywhere from five to a department organization, or even an organization of a few individuals in.a department and the full power of the government will back up such splitting and union-wrecking activities. The clause guaranteeing that (Section 10) reads as follows: “The beard shall decide whether eligibility to participate a One of the vilest sections of the choice of representatiy bill is that section dealing with the determined upon the basis of em- |“Prevention of Unfair Labor Prac- Ployer unit, craft unit, plant unit, | tices,” (Section 8) which provides er other appropriate unit. Each | that all who are regarded by the unit may be given representation | board as likely to violate the pro- according to its membership.” visions of the act shall be required Other union-wrecking provisions |to “make a report from time to ten years in jail because, being un- able to pay the fine of $5,000, he | cents or a dollar a day, in addition |to the year in prison. Ties Labor Organizations to Gov- ernment, and Establishes Prison Parcle System | representatives to produce before | has complied with the order” of the lists, dues, and everything else per-|enforces the board's orders or its |taining to the conduct of their or-|own modifications of such orders. |ganization. Thus the government This clause applies to anyone who agents can furnish the company|may be suspected of breaking or stool-pigeons the names of militant | intending to break any of the de- | would have to “work it out” at 50! {are those which compel workers’ | time showing the extent to which he! the board their books. membership | board or any District Court which | | Thus, we see that the bill proposes | where one is compelled to report on | “good behavior” for a period of | time to be determined by the board or any member of the board. All in all the bill is the worst legislative assault ever made in this country against labor. Every thing that organized labor has fought for in this country over a period of three-quarters of a cen- tury can be set aside if this bill | ean be put into effect. | Heavy Responsibility for Our Com- | munist Party Whether or not this bill becomes \law it must never be permitted to larrest the mass movement against hunger that is now surging forward {It must meet with mass defiance jand the fight right now against its | passage should put in motion such forces that its adoption by Con- s will be greeted with stormy violation. More insisistently |m |shoud we put forward our whole |Program of struggle against the ‘New Deal.” In this respect the campaign for the passage of the Workers’ Unemployment Bill (R.H 7598) is of tremendous importance. The fight against fascism in this {country and against fascism in gen- eral must be developed into a power- ful mass movement. This must be combined with huge protests and action against the Hitler terror regime in Germany around the demand for the libera- tion of Comrede Ernst Thaelmann, leader of the heroic Communist Party of Germany, the one force that is mobilizing the masses for the revolutionary overthrow of the Nazi regime and for a Soviet Ger- many. In this fight against the Revised Wagner Bill, we must realize that at this moment the government ha: mobilized all its agents of treachery and deception in the ranks of the | workers, to try to chain labor to the Roosevelt-Wall Street govern- ment, In the fight against the Revised Wagner Bill it is the duty of our Party to give an impetus to the mass movement that is now rapidly rising in this country. That sort of action can smash to pieces the anti- strike and company union and com- puisory arbitration drive. We must take up the challenge of the Wagner Bill, the most vicious of all the leg- islation of the “New Dea Watehes C. P. Call for United Front Coolly Sabotaged The fight for bread, for wages —the fight for Soviet power, they are inextricably connected. he exploiters te ess exploitae of of the markets masses hat working class be 1 ered of more surplu of more unpaid labor n order to exploiters. profits for the It is the ral objective of the mment to provide is can be dona Roosevelt the means py the bi But how id the Socialist cone vention answer the needs of the ma nm their daily fight against the employers? They did not procleim the need for powerful strikes against the monopolies and the N. R.A. codes, On the cont they clumsily tried to crawl out the early Socialist Party welcome of the N. R. A. as a “peaceful pa to S& ism” by a mild r t with the most corrupt breaking labor burocracy in world, the A. F. of L Hours? The S. P. convention echoed the rationalization and spread-work slogan of the employ- ers by calling for a shorter week, without emphasizing the need for struggle for higher wages at the same time. The entire country is blazing with the struggles of the masses against the Roosevelt program. Did the 8. P. convention tear into Roosevelt ripping the mask off his face, ex- Posing him as the most ruthless agent and tool of the Wall Street monopolists? On the contrary, Roosevelt, whom they have been depicting as a Liberal and well- meaning social-reformer, gets off easy. To this very moment, the Socialist Party has supported the Roosevelt Program, through its failure to de- nounce it as the program of the Wall Street monopolists. To this moment not one Socialist leader has flayed Roosevelt as the conscious and willing tool of Wall Street, deli- berately deceiving the masses to conceal the dictatorship of his Wali Street masters. The farmers, ruined and impover- ished? Not a word against the mortgage holders, the usurers, the banks. Not a word for cancellation of all mortgage debts. Not a word for the smashing of the Roosevelt A. A. A. program. The Negro masses? Not even on main agenda. Jim-Crow locals supported and sustained. No fight against Roosevelt as the main sup- porter of the whole lynch system. Fight against war? The empty bluster of a threat of general strike “Sf possible.” But not a word about stopping the shipments of muni- tions RIGHT NOW. How will they meet the capitalist war machine? Fight? Not at all, By offering the most futile pacifiism, that only chloroforms the masses, On the day-to-day needs of the masses, the S. P. convention put forward a program that means class collaboration in practice. On the question of the fight for power, the S. P. convention dan- gles deliberately hypocritical, empty verbiage that conceals a deadly enmity to the dictatorship of the proletariat, the sole form by which the working class can seize and maintain its rule. They talk of power. But of the immediate, day-to-day strugglea which are the milestones to power, they dull the revolutionary con- sciousness of the masses. Thus they betray both the fight for bread and the fight for power, the treachery in one affecting inevitably the treachery in the other. HE events of the past few weeks make it clear that the ques- tiox of the revolutionary seizure of power, the question of the overthrow of the capitalist State power and the setting up in its place of the proletarian State power, will increasingly confront the American masses from the iren logic of their own day to day straggles for bread and security, In the period that now faces us, the American working class, as it makes even the slightest efforts to win some measure of improve- ment in its daily life, will find it- self confronted not only by the immediate forces of the employ- ers, the thugs, scabs, police, ete. The fight for bread now becomes a CLASS STRUGGLE AGAINST THE HOLE CAPITALIST RULE, a political struggle against the entire government, the capi- talist government, This makes it necessary that every worker understand with abso- lute clarity the relation of the day to day struggles with the question of the seizure of power, and the | precise road that leads to the cap- ture of power. The Communist Party leads the daily economic struggles, always | seeing in the daily economic strug- gle the road to the revolutioniza- tion of the masses, making the masses conscious of the necessity for the seizure of power, for Soviet Power. The Socialist Party, precisely be- cause it does not believe in the seizure of power, because it seeks to delude the masses into thinking | that the capitalist dictatorship can be overthrown through “peaceful | methods” of bourgeois democracy, duils the revolutionary sense of the masses, conceals from them the and | brutal Wall Street objectives of the work with all our might to turn| Roosevelt government, and warns | the tide of struggle against the | them against that which alone can whole Roosevelt program. which is ‘the program of Wall Street. set them free, the iron dictatorship of the proletariat