The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 2, 1934, Page 5

CHANGE -THE— || WORLD! ——— By MICHAEL GOLD 'ARLIEST days of the Russian Revolution. The skies rained blood, and on the Volga the interventionists had ereated one of the most horrible famines in history. Primitive civil war decimated the fruitful lands. The faint-hearted whimpered that the workers’ cause was lost. It was then the great Lenin announced his “fantastic” program for the electrification of Russia. And he found time to say, also, this proletarian general and genius, to the artists, “of all the arts, the most important for us is the cinema.” Today Soviet Russia is rapidly being electrified and equipped with the giant machines that will shortly make it a land of mass-luxury. And its cinema and theatre surely lead the world. The young Soviet industrialists began their labors during the famine days; the men of the theatre, hungry, ragged and cesperate, performed the same act of faith. Yes, it all began with nothing—nothing but the proletarian will. { Some of the same miracle is taking place under our noses in /America, today. In this famine period, with the workers literally fighting for the right to live in every sector of the nation, the begin- ning of a mass Communist Party is apparent—disciplined, mature, courageous. And in the same period may be noted the rise of a workers’ theatre such as we have never believed possible in America, Theatre and Movies As Weapons K DISCUSSING it here, may I indulge in a few personal memoirs? I have known for many years that theatres and movies were the most effective tools one could use next to the Newspapers for workers’ education. I believe I wrote the first revolutionary movie criticism some twelve years ago in the old “Liberator” when the ploture “Cov- ered Wagon” appeared. Most of us despised the movies so heartily then that to confess having even seen one was like admitting that one had slept with a prostitute. In the theatre there had been some stirrings of decency and conscience. The tiny Provincetown stable-theatre in Greenwich Vil- lage, founded by John Reed, Floyd Dell, Mary Heaton Vorse, George Cram Cook, and a group of bourgeois writers, was an honest attempt to “go to the masses,”and to re-discover the real America. Carl Sand- burg, Sherwood Anderson and Theodore Dreiser were groping along the same path in literature. There was also a great Socialist and anti- war movement atthe time. When the war to save democracy had been finally won by Mr. Morgan, all these attempts to restore bourgeois democracy in iife and the arts had been wrecked. I wrote three one-act plays for the old Provineetown. This was done while I still was slaving on some dirty capitalist job for twelve hours a day. It was my introduction to the world of the theatre. Years later I wrote two full-length plays which were produced on Broadway, and by the New Playwrights Theatre. * . . A New Theatre Emerges WAS never stage-struck, but I did feel that I must write plays. Five years ago I tore yup @ play manuscript I was working on, and yowed never to write anoter or even enter a theatre. Three months ago I finished the first draft of a play to be offered the play- reading committee of the Theatre Union. I find that I have fallen in love again with the theatre. She is no longer the filthy, gold- digging whore I learned to hate in my brief experience with Broadway. A new woman has appeared whom one can love—a clear-eyed, brave, husky, beautiful and sometimes naive young darling who appears in every strike and demonstration of the workers—who hasn't a miserable drpp of tained commercial blood in her body—who laughs, who starves, who fights, who works hard and dreams nobly—yes, I mean, our Workers’ Theatre. There had always been groups among the radical workers that put on little shows. This was true especially of the foreign-born workers, nurtured in an older culture. Their plays were generally of a bourgeois content, peasant farces out of the old country, or drawing-room tragedies a la Ibsen. The basic theory of a purely proletarian theatre had not yet crystalized, I can remember one of the pre-war attempts to establish a Socialist workers’ theatre, in English, in the Rand School. The olass- collaborators smeared their amateur faces with grease-paint and put on an evening of three one-acters; the first, a feeble, pacifist protest against war, the other two, as I remember it, boudoir fan- tasies from the pen of Oscar Wilde, “The Happy Prince,” and “Birth- day of the Infanta.” ‘Phat was an entertainment, above the crude workers’ struggle, like foe cream soda or a visit to the Bronx Zoo. It was not a weapon in the strong hands that must build a better world. It was a source of confusion, even degradation, not a clear bugle call to courage. Conceived in this sickly womb of yellow socialism, without a spark of proletarian pride, or honor, or. vision, it is na wonder nothing came of all these half-hearted attempts. The workers were amused, perhaps, but they were not stirred to any loyalty. After one or two performances, most of these theatres lay wearily down and died. Today there remain perhaps a dozen of these theatre groups under Socialist or conservative trade union auspices in America. * * * An Audience of Two Million Workers Bo there are approximately 375 revolutionary theatres, with some 5,000 active members who write, play, direet or orgapize. It has been estimated that they perform for audiences of workers, farmers and lower middle class—averaging about 0,000 a week—which, multi- plied by 52 weeks, gives one a yearly total of some two million. It is hard to believe such figures, but they were not compiled to impress anyone. They are from the records of the League of Workers’ Theatres. This figure excluded the 200,000 and more persons who have paid their way into the perfprmances of the Theatre Union in New York, which is a revolutionary theatre on a professional basis, having the same back-breaking overhead bills to meet as any Broadway speculator. In addition, there is the proletarian movie audience. Garrison Films, a commercial organization which distributes Soviet and other European films made for the working-class, stated recently that their audiences among American workers and farmers last year numbered approximately 400,000. And the workers' dance league has crowded theatres when it per- forms in some of the bigger cities, and there are nights of proletarian music by the composers’ guild, and Jchn Reed Club performances—a new cultural life is in the making. * * A Red Riddle ME it is infinitely more fascinating than anything on Broadway and thousands of others are finding it so, even the bourgeois eesthetes. Many have begun toe write floundering essays trying to salve this red riddle. The proletarian “Mob,” whom they learned to despise with Mencken, has begun to love and produce art, And some of it is better art than their own, Mystery! . Contributions received to the credit of “Change the World” in its Secialist competion with Harry Gannes and the Medical Advisory Board in the Daily Worker $60,000 drive. * A Sympathizer + $1.00 Ida Haavisto .. ie 4.00 Provicusly Recsiyed .. Porrereer errr irr + 34,65 TOTAL TO DATE + $30.65 International Children’s Week LOS ANGELES, Sept. Be tatae | Intensified children’s solidarity on national Children’s Week celebra-|_ world-wide scale. Among the! ? tions in Los Angeles, taking place/ events on the ee i \e an the week of Oct. 8-15, will be con-| interesting display of international cerned with issues perticularly af-/ projects which the Pioneers of all fecting workers’ ‘children. The week| troops haye prepared to depict the originated in 1920, when children / conditions in countries all over the all over the world organized into globe; a troop review by a Women’s famine scouts to send relief to Rus-| Council raember, recounting the sian workers’ childrsa who were} achievements ef the L. A. Piancer being Eierigeth sires y Rei troops and awarding a prizé to the tionists ant 3 White guards.| mast successful general It has developed into a period of| strike, Lice hess b poisoned \eities and towns will be destroyed. ‘'MWIU Pamphlet DAILY WORKER, NEW Y! ORK, Tt TUESD! AY, OCTOBER 2, 19% 3 Page Five A Stirring Message From Maxim Gorky To 2nd Anti-War and Fascism Congress Muscle That the Dail y eral: 6 Capitalism a Cancerous Growth on Toiling Mankind (Special to the Daily Worker) MOSCOW, Sepi. 28. (By Wire- | less)—In a letter of greeting sent | to the Second American Anti-War and Anti-Fasciss Congress, which closed yesterday in Chicago, by Maxim Gorky, world-famous Sovies| » writer, he compares the decay of} capitalism with the fresh health of | Socialism in the Soviet Union. to Other things, Gorky de- elares: “Capitalists ate zealously pre} | ing for a new world slaughter. This means that tens of millions of work- ers and peasants will again be de- Stroyed, that millions of tons of metal will be used for slaughtering people, that the fruitful soil will be by gases and that many “The leaders of fascism, which earries out the criminal will of capi- talists, claim that war will accom- pany the history of nations for cen- turies. The term ‘nation’ means, in reality, many tens of millions of manual laborers working for the benefit of a few thousand bankers, money-merchants and manufac- turers who, by means of the hands of half-starved workers, prepare weapons, footwear, clothing and foed for themselves,” Gorky states. A Nation—Serving Capital “The term ‘nation’ includes mil- lions of brain-workers who labor to enrich capitalists, to strengthen) their power and to amuse them. Every intelligent person who is de- termined to think honestly about the meaning of the relationship of capital to labor must inevitably realize that capitalism has ‘done all it can’ and is now a cancerous growth on toiling mankind, and that capitalists represent an interna- | tional organization of thieves and murderers,” he continues, “A whole series of facts indicates | that ‘brain workers’ become entire- ly superfluous ballast in capitalii culture, Here is one more ‘fresh’ | fact illustrating fruitless labor for capitalism: “September 12: At a meeting of the British scientific associ- ation, Engineer James Hender- | son made @ very interesting dis- closure, which characterizes the conditions under which the sci- entist must work in capitalist | countries. “Henderson complained that large firms are buying up inven- tions and then deliberately de- | stroy them, in order to avoid the expense of development, and at the same time keep the inven- tion out of the hands of their competitors. Thus have been lost many valuable inventions, Hen- derson declared that the owners Explains Program Of Hiring Halls CENTRALIZED SHEPPING BU- REAU, published by the Marine, Workers Industrial Union, Price 2 cents. S08 Reviewed by J. A. Here is a pamphlet that is of in- terest and value to every worker, not only longshoremen and seamen. It shaws a method of creating the united front in the trade union field, | and on the job, The program for the Centralized Shipping Bureau or Hiring Halls, in the case of longshoremen, was one} of the major demands of the Pacific! Coast strike. Enthusiasm for it is sweeping the Atlantic Coast sea- men. Over 700 seamen signed peti- tions for it in one day in New York alone. This pamphlet contains really two stories. One is how the longshore- men of Everett, Washington, de- veloped the hiring hall, where each man got work in turn, without any discrimination or graft, and that of the seamen in Baltimore, who conducted a similar organization, An elected committee of seamen, regardless of union affiliation, ran the bureau. They registered all sea- men and the mass of men stood by their committee. Thus for a period of time, 8 per cent of the shi Sailing out of Baltimore had to get their crews through the bureau. This meant to the seamen that they could ship without peying graft to shipping sharks, that union men could ship without fear of black- list, etc. Of course, the shipping owners did not like this. It is almost like read- ing a “thriller” to read of the steps they took to break the bureau. Rivers of free whiskey, prostitutes, government agents, nothing was barred by the bosses in their efforts to demoralize the men. But the men stood firm and wiped out the dives created by the agents of the besses. They staod firm with their committee until the end. It was the failure ta build similar | "5; bureays in the other major poris that resulted in the Sere de- feat of the Baltimore bureau. The bosses stopped hiring in Baltimore and at great expense brough! in Scabs fray other cities, under armed To Be Celebrated in Los Angeles|»%=" The pamphlet is part of a cam- si on. paign to establish these halls in the major ports. It tells how this is to be done and what can be gained from it. With an Atlantic marine sirike! only a matter of a few days, this pamphlet comes like rain in tho drought. Every Party unit on the waterfrant should seo that each| worker on the concentration docks | ¥ gets a capy. Undoubicdiy ii will help thase workers to break through | 2 the strike, preventing moves of their misleaders, |prepared were MAXIM GORKY are interested only in the inven- | tions that cut down the cost of | production, and enable the dis- placement of workers, “Henderson was immediately answered by Josiah Stamp, director of the Bank of England, and a prominent capitalist, that W hat’s Doing in the Workers Schools of the U.S 3,000 SFUDENTS AT NEW YORK WORKERS SCHOOL | classes. The class will be held Wed- | nesdays from 4 to $5.30 p.m, (Paks PARC With the first week of the fall | term over we find that 3,000 stu- dents attended classes at the New York Workers School, 35 East 12 Street. Of this number 1,300 are | registered for Principles of Com- | munism. that the twenty classes originally immediately filled, necessitating the opening of eight additional classes in Principles which in turn were also filled in two evenings of registration. Only | the lack of space prevented th | Opening of more such classes. Due | to this unfortunate fact, hundreds were turned away. It is quite clear | that an important task of the New York Workers School, in order to satisfy the needs of the future ar’ of workers seeking the weapon 0! theory in the ciass struggle is to exert every effort and sacrifice for the erection of a Workers School sufficiently big in size to hoid the many hundreds now kept away be- cause of insufficient space. ee The first of a series of Short- Teym Courses will begin this Sai- urday, Octeber 6th, 2 p.m., at the Workers School of New York, 35 East 12 Street. Clarence Hathaway, editor of the Daily Worker, will lec- ture on The Economics and Politics of Fascism and Secial Fascism, This course is still open for registration, bd ea The regular Sunday forums, which is an important feature of the Sehool, will begin this Sunday, October 7th, on the 2nd floor. Com- jrade Jack Stachel, Acting National Trade Union Unity League, will speak on “The Present Wave of Strike Struggles and the Tasks of the Trade Union.” Admis- sion is 25 cents. Students who pre- sent their Workers School admis- sion cards and members of the Friends of the Workers Schocl who present their membership books, are admitted for 20 cents. Secretary, OPEN AIR CLASSES IN BROWNSVILLE In order to reach large numbers of workers who are not yet con- nected with the revolutionary move- ment the Brownsville Workers School, 1855 Pitkin Ave., will hold Pe open air classes in the street. Each week one of the instructors will de- liver a lecture on some Marxis:- Leninist subject to be linked up with the election campaign. In ad- dition the Brownsyille Workers Scheol proposes to start a class in Principles of Communism in the af- terncon for unemployed workers | workers and Russian. Students are ™an and a choir of voices providing who cannot attend the evening! urged to register early. 'Phis course is so popular | | The Harlem Workers School, 415 Lenox Avenue, has a total of 350 dents registered for the Fail | term, This is the largest registra- tion in the history of the School. The School will begin shortly a series of Sunday afternoon Forums. | Watch this column for further in- | formation, The Buffalo Workers School, 760 Main Street, opened the Fall term | September 27th. As yet we have not received the final reports since | students are still continuing to reg- | | ister. The following courses are be- | | ing taught: Principles of Commu- |nism; Political Economy; Trade | | Union Strategy and Tactics; anizational Principles; Negro Preb- Jems and English for workers. A} new course in Youth Problems has | been introduced which will start in two weeks. See hie WORKERS SCHOOL IN WASHINGTON, D. C. ment of Washington is being mo-! | bilized for the support of the newly | | organized Workers School. For the first time a revolutionary institu- tion of Marxist-Leninist theory and practice is being established right | in the heart of Wall Street’s cap- itol. The first public undertaking of the Workers School will be a show- ing of “Ten Days That Shook the World.” The School will be officially open- ed October 15th. Courses will be given in Principles of Communism, | Organizational Principles, Union Strategy and Tactics, Negro Liberation Movement, Survey of Marxian Economics and English. WORKERS SCHOOL OF SAN FRANCISCO OPENED CLASSES FOR FALL TERM The San Francisco Workers School, raided on July 17th, re- | opened September 24th, at the new | headquarters at 675 Minna Street. | Six classes have already started, jw ith five more opening later. | the auspices of the Young Commu- nist League and including one hour of drill and one hour of political discussion of current events, will be given as 1223 Fillmore Street every Monday. Other classes Or- | The whole revolutionary reall Trade | | One of the classes, given under is \Brain Wor k ers Must Now Decide Where | They Stand the accusations were correct, but, | by way of justification, argued | that these new inventions would @ pro- bourgeois law: through the | indirect before the Starving workers, the creat mass unemployment, etc., we re- | |member that during 1914 and 1913 | the war-industrialists of France, ! | Great Britain, Germany, | with each other in metal, and ex- changed inventions. for the b destruction of soldiers,” Gorky a “Such exchanges, such bi trades, are substantiated facts. doubt they will be repeated in 4 ture wars. ¥ competition among them: munitions magnates are not nearly so much interested in the victory of one over the other, as they are in trade with each other. Further- more, they begin to realize that the |best that the history of the growth |of capitalism has produced, is the growth of revolutionary: proletariat. | Therefore—the more proletarians | are destroyed, the longer will be | put off the final doom of capital- | ism—a simple and clear Christian calculation. “Every war of national groups of }capitalists is inevitably the war of | the proletariat against itself. The | proletariat is the only force capable of changing the world for the com- |Mon welfare of its entire toiling | | beople. It is time that ‘brain wi ork- | jers’ understood this,” Gorky adds further. “History constantly brings all mankind closer and closer to a de- cisive clash between the proletariat jand capitalism; and we need not |be prophets to state confidently that |this clash will terminate with the | death of capitalism,” he emphasizes. | “The inhuman and senseless ac- | tions of the capitalists are inco: rigible. The rapidity of the d | struction and the fall of the weight jot the capitalist world is governed | by this inexorable law of \the lower a weight falls, the faster | falls. “Alongside this process, the or- | ganization of the Socialist State by |the proletariat on the enormous | area of the Soviet Union proceeds more and more rapidly. Fhe success | of this work has the unquestionable aim of the emancipation of the toil- ers of the whole world. It is time |that brain workers decide on which [ot the two sides they stand.” Stage and Screen |Back to the Land Theme | of “Our Daily Bread” With “Our Daily, Bread,” which | United Artists brings to the Rialto for a preview tonight, King Vidor {becomes a full-fledged producer in his own right. Taking up where | “The Crowd” left off, this new pic- | ure follows the theme of “back i | the land.” | Featuring Karen Morely, Keene, Barbara Pepper and John Qualen, “Our Daily Bread” has | |been given a special musical score | by Alfred Newman. Following the | [lead of the Soviet and German di- tors, King Vidor uses this mu- |sical accompaniment to heighten | |his effects, especially in the climax | where there is practically no dia-| |logue—sound carrying out almost} the entire emotional buildup. |_ As in his other successes, King Vidor strives for camera effects, and | Planck's photograpay in “Our Daily | Bread” has been hailed as out- | standing. | | Supplementing the run of “Our Daily Bread” at the Rialto, “Red | Republic, "a reel of colorful and in- | timate closeups of the Savict Union | |B Margaret Bourke White, will be| hown, Sat ‘Roll, Sweet Charict” Opens} Tonight at Cort Theatre “Roll, Sweet Ohariot,” a sym- | Phonic drama of the Negro people | poems: | 9:15-wa2— scheduled to open include. History jby Paul Green, who won the Pulit- of the Three Internationals, Trade |2€f Prize in 1927, opens tonight at Union Organization, Reformism | *he Cort Theatre with a Negro co1 and the Labor Unions and classes | Pany of sixty, inciuding Frank Wil- in short waye radio, English for | 503, Rese McClendon, Warren Cole- | a musical background, The play has |been directed by Emjo Baashe, with WHAT? S ON Tuesday OPEN Unit Meeting on lath Anniver- sary CP. 9% 261 Schenectady Ave., 9 p.m. Speaker: Leo Benscn. Questions and Dis- cussions. Adm. free. Auspices: Unit 3 16. SOVIET Film Satire “Marloneitss.” New Stone and GREET the New York De Posgitet Mass Meeting, 8| entral Opera Ssd Ave. Clarence Hathaw James W. Ford, Krumkein will Band will por: N—Ferewell Dinner and Dance Seaver, New Editor cf Soviet Russia Today. Liston N. Oak, Retiring oe ;Dolphe Martin, camposer, cond: ing the choir. Margazet # sponsors the work, which has f its theme the visitation of the legendary John Henry upon the Negroes of Potters’ Field. Editor. Smith SYAN between Firat Ave. and Aven: Praternal Poderation fc ‘4, hala hy 2 to cae views nce, Monday, Oc- Strauss Music Pleases in “The Great Waiic* Panic i | “Phe Great Waltz,” Max Gor-— don’s spectacular production at ‘he Center Theater, is the story of the Strausscs, father and son, whose |Mnusie set all Vienna singing and dancing in the early years of the |nineteenth century. Johann i5| Strauss, Sr., waltz king of his day, living to see his music outshone by | the sprigatlier measures of his son, is the theme around which Moss! | Hart has woven the play that drow | over 14,000 people to its first four’ performances. The music, forming the back- und, is composed entirely of the atod s: waltzas “Wine, Women and Song,” “Tales of the , | ma Woods,” “The Beautiful | Danube”—all are there, sung | i| by an operatic company and anced | ! by the Albertina Rasch ballet, ato Life,” series of § pictures. Ausp! ‘Theatre. Proceads to MAX BEDAGHT cpea! and Teachings ¢f Karl M. rick Engels,” Saturday, e ticket ing Tic worth | of Fannbtote at aul werk. ers’ Book Sheps. Chieago, Iil lv. th 12, Broadway Arena, Christian streets, “We Must Strain Every May Live and Expand’ By JACK CONROY (Author of “Th; HERE has the Daily needed than nov lines from ment and Bs “Phere is lots of R: jtry, but you would the amount of W real § > and tells of Johnson's pants to him when “he was going this morning to break The -Hearst p! Brisbane, applau California, and c against the s WABC—Just Pla 1:30-WEAF— Special Reduccd Rates for Parties Rg riory Theatee, iith St. & 6th Av, GILBERT & SULLIVAN f from London Duey, Baritone we GR -ampsign ‘Talk n Dill Wid foaa Close-Up—Sketel WAEC—Goncert Orchestra Judge Wil- | ee | NEW bhi sy aie “apa WoR—Va WIZ—Lawi Concert nedy, Narrator WABC—Lyman Ore ‘GAN ‘you HEAR VHEIR VOICES” | frp the BAEK LONDON CLUE of CAE WARK A FLAY BY HALLIB FLANAGAN F--Mad FROM THE WHITAKER GHAMBERS | | | @LILRIAN SHAPIRD wa dawec- | GOCO MORNING REVOLUTION” E MIP CHELLaat ESTHER HALL Bo} e 9:30-WEAF—ZEd Wy Orchest 4 | WOR tm’ and sonae—seeien | SE prentbenelea Seatbeceetins TERNOQN-B.GGS Eveninc WABC— 10:00-WEAF—Operetta—Miss onan, NPAY.O6E,7 With Gladys Swarthout, Soprao; John Barclay and Others WiJZ—To Be Anno’ nee saeaerite eh ON 6 NEW THEATRE -11y WY ST. BOOKSHOP SOE I a ee ee nette O'Keefe Red Russia Comes to America! RE enly KING VIDOR . courageous , indepen- dent American producer had the guts to create . the daring to pre- sent such a revolution- aty picture . ». as - every “extreme proponent . civic... indus- ~ reformer : of change in the so trial life of America! A PICTURE for the proletariat . . . of the a 3 and by the masses! ea EXTRA! First Now York Showing! Margaret Bourke-White’s “RED REPUBLIC” Exclusive Russian Pictures. Tonight at 9 ® RIA LTO @ Bway & 424 St. SUPER TALKING FILE Dostoyevski’s “Peters shurg Nights’* he DAIL we ER says: “New n film worthy addition to Soviet salt | “Thinderstorim” Sa reatest Film [OKMTO LEN Bf |