The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 8, 1934, Page 2

Page 2 DAILY WORKER, Illinois Supreme Court Silent on C. P. Election Petitions Militant Program Pressed to Fore at A. F. of 1 i Parley, REFUSES TO ACT Mass Welfare TO RESTORE PARTY | TICKET ON BALLOT Action Constitutes Attack on Civil Rights of State Workers—Voters Urged to Rally To Support of Communist Party CHICAGO, Oct. 7.—The Supreme Court of the State of Illinois, without giving any grounds whatever, has denied the writ of mandamus submitted by the Communist Party to overrule the decision of the State Election Board and to place the State ticket of the Communist Party on the ballot Nov. 6. s no accident that the center? of attack began upon the Commv- | nist Party which, in the last Spring elections, elected five out of seven to | the Village Board of Taylor Springs, | and one Communist alderman in | Benld, Illinois. The influence and the organizational growth of the Communist Party in Illinois indi- cates that some of the Communist To Strike Today (Continued from Page 1) ments that refused to remove the | strike-breaking placards. Is Main Issue | (Continued from Page 1) | eee see terests. The Communist Party bases itself on one fundamental principle |—to fight for and advance the in- | |terests of the working class. It is the party of the working class.” | Wall Street Rule | Continuing in answer to some of |my questions, Amter, his long fin- ger pointed to give emphasis to his words, declares: “Just look at the situation in| New York state. We have a Wall| Street banker for Governor. We/| have a Wall Street tool for Mayor. | | And the whole Legislature and gov- | jernment machine is nothing but |the machine that gives the ‘big | | boys’ what they want. And this is} |not because New York is some ex-| It is be- ae . a Sc eeee i se 4. Atlantic Seamen (2222 @ce"..2,8."; New York is just like every | part of the present government | machine all over the country, from | Roosevelt down to the cheapest | sheriff—nothing but the tool and| instrument of the employers, land- | lords and the bankers.” “And that is the reason,” he ex- | erty claims of the big Wall Street | banks and landlords. |. “I would act in accordance with ee directives given in our Party platform and election program. I would not permit a single ware- house or swanky Fifth Avenue |Apartment house to remain closed | while thousands of jobless men and women sleep in the streets. Why should there be thousands of fine closed houses while workers are | flung into the streets? “I would immediately put an end | to the payments to the banks, and |turn the money over to the jobless. |If the bankers squawked, I would |levy a 10 per cent capital levy on |all their, investments. That would give the people about $3,000,000,000 Tight off the bat. That can be mighty useful to the thousands of jobless workers in New York State. “And if the courts tried to stop me, that would only prove to the people what we Communists have been asking all along, that the government machine is a cap- italist machine that hinders the welfare of the masses, and which must be abolished by the masses in revolutionary struggle, because it will never be abolished any other way. “In every strike, I as a Commu- nist Governor would place the State’s funds and resources at the disposal of the strikers for relief ‘Armed Struggle Spreads in Spain (Continued from Page 1) | to seize the land of the rich land- lords. Troops. were sent against them, but no reports have yet been received on the outcome of the battle. Farm laborers in the village of Uneastillo, near Saragossa, estab- lished Soviets, armed themselves and declared they would fight against the Fascist Lerroux cabinet. The united forces of Socialists, Communists and Syndicalists have | established a central headquarters, which the police and troops have tried vainly to find and destroy. They are communicating by zadio and telephone with all centers of the armed struggles, particularly with the provinces of Leon, Asturias, Santander, Vizeaya and Guipuzcoa. Diego Miro Menendez, the strike- breaking Fascist police chief in the Azana government, was reported to have been killed in the fighting at Eibar, the munitions’ center, which | was seized by the workers. Martial Law Declared Shortly after midnight, a fierce | battle broke out again in Madrid | workers, the government announced that all wage contracts were can- celled. Street car workers in Madrid and other cities were ordered to go back |to work immediately on pain of being discharged en masse. The workers did not return, but made every effort to stop the running of the cars by strikebreakers, Rally Called For Spanish Masses (Continued from Page 1) road left open to them in the Struggle against starvation and worse, slavery—that is, the road of revolutionary struggle for establish- | ing a workers’ and farmers’ govern- ment. “This united action should be an gle against the hunger, fascism and war program of the ‘New Deal.’ ao jand the unprecedented upsurge ‘The Communist Party and/among the rank and file of wage Young Communist League of New workers in practically all industries. York call upon the workers and youth of New York to support the struggle of the Spanish workers, to spay titel LEADERS TO CRACK | By Bill | SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. tion of the American Federa’ ing this convention has been OVER INSURGENTS Big Strike Siruggles and Roosevelt’s Offensive Sharpen Coniradiction Between Ranks and | Chiefs’ Program of Service to Capitalists ‘ PREPARE THE WHIP Dunne 7.—The 54th annual convene tion of Labor has now come pleted the first week of its sessions. In previous dispatches the basic contradiction confront- noted: that is, the contradic. bi inspiration to the Socialist workers \tion between the official program |of the leadership intended to pro- | |tect the interests of monopoly capi- |talism and its various corporations, This upsurge is directed against the ; hunger program and the denial of |the right to organize and strike, if the circumstances. This indicates that there is a pretty fair under- Standing that the important issues in this 54th annual convention do not consist of the issues In the in- ternal official fight for position and prestige in the building trades council; that they do not get their Party candidates could have been elected in the Nov. elections. Attack on All Groups | and protection against the employ- defeat the forces of fascist reac- | necessary, that was supposed to be ers. I would urge the workers to Axtel Pushes Scab Actions tion. Members of the Socialist jconceded in Clause 7-a of the Na- Silas Blake Axtel, counsel for the claimed with growing warmth, “why more than one million work- dest expression in the formal pro- posal of John L. Lewis, head of the near the home of Premier Lerroux jin an exclusive residential district. The attack upon the Communist Party, the elimination of the State ticket, was a signal to proced to a more brutal attack against other Political parties and groups and in Cook County. Objections have been filed against local candidates such as congressmen, assemblymen, State Senators, not only against the Com- munist Party, but against the So- cialist Party, some independent can- didates, as well as against the split- off of the Democratic Party, which wanted to enter on the ballot in the name of the National Progres- sive Party. This attack of the Democratic “New Deal” administration in the State of Illinois and in Cook County (Chicago) is evidence of the attack upon the civil rights of the toiling people in the State of Illinois. The Communist Party protested most vigorously when Governor Horner and his administration attempted to rule the Socialist Party off the bal- lot. Despite the fundamental prin- ciple differences between the Com- munist Party and the Socialist Party, the Communist Party saw in that act an attempt to deprive the workers of their rights. Governor Horner, in placing the Socialist Labor Party on the ballot, declared that he waves aside technicalities and permits these parties on the ballot because not placing them on the ballot “would deny them an op- portunity to express their convic- tions at the polls.” But as far as the Communist Party is concerned, the State Democratic administration | arbitrarily removed the Communist Party from the ballot, despite the| fact that the State Certifying Board originally accepted the Communist | Party on the ballot and the Com- munist Party was the first to file! Petitions. { Growing Indignation There is growing indignation against these fascist methods of the State administration. Many trade | unions and a number of influen- tial liberals, including Clarence Dar- | Tow, protested against this action. The State Committee of the So-| International Seamen’s Union, con- tinued his strike breaking maneu- vers yesterday. He announced that leaders of the I. S. U. were exert- ing every effort to halt the strike. The New York Times said yester- day that “it appeared likely .. . to announce wage increases to strenghten the case against the Communist agitators.” Commenting on this statement, Roy Hudson, chairman of the Joint Strike Prep- arations Committee, said that it is wage increases that the Communists are demanding as are all seamen, Communist and non-Communist affiliated with the Joint Strike Prep- arations Committee. “Tf the shipowners give wage in- creases they will be forced to do so by the militant activities of the Joint Strike Preparations Commit- tee, which is backed by thousands of seamen, officers and longshore- men,” Hudson declared. “The strike- breaking agreement signed by Vic- tor Olander, secretary of the I. 8. U. said nothing about wage increases. It was only after the shipowners saw that the Joint Strike Prepara- tions Committee was going ahead with the strike that they began to talk about increased wages. A strike will make them give us what we are demanding.” Young Seamen Affected |. Thousands of young seamen who | have begun to go to sea in the re- jcent years are walking off the ships in solidarity with the old-timers all along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts in a common fight for the improve- ment of conditions aboard ship, In| the past few years the ship owners | have followed a policy of recruiting | Masses of youth into the industry, using them to lower the standard of living of the men going to sea. These youth were also recruited with emergencies, such as the West | Coast strike and the present At-| lantic and Gulf Coast strike in! mind, | The Marine Workers Industrial | Union is making every effort to in- volve this important section of the .|and have police smash picket lines that some of the lines would hasten} ers in New York go hungry every | day while LaGuardia hands over to | |@ handful of about fifteen bankers | more than $120,000,000 every year | in bond payments. That is the rea- | | son, the employers can cut wages | n the workers organize to fight | |back by striking. That is the rea-| json Governor Lehman's banking ing millions in profits stments in milk com- |} panies like Borden and Shef- field, while the small farmers up-| state are losing their farms to the | mortgage holders and bankers.” | “What do the other parties pro- | pose to do about these things?”| Amter questioned. “They can do} nothing but make them worse, for | they are capitalist parties who are | responsible for this hunger amid plenty.” Main Issue “What would you say is the main | issue in this election?” I asked. | “The answer is given in very| Plain language in our election plat- | form,” Amter replied. “Listen,” he | said, reading to me from the penny | leaflet which the Communist Party | is distributing by the thousands in| this campaign. | “The issues the Communist Party | raises in this campaign are the is- | sues of the welfare of the workers and farmers, of the clerical and) white collar employees at the ex- | | pense of the bankers and trust bil- | Honaires,” he read. | “That is why we say boldly and | jbluntly that the State mus. stop appropriating over $106,000.609 ev- | ery year for police, over $250,000,000 every year for the payment of Wall St. bond interest, instead it should | immediately set aside $200,000,000 for emergency unemployed relief | without adding one cent of taxes to the already too great burdens on! the harassed small home owners, and without taking one cent off the too small salaries of the state em- ployees.” “In the clash of issues in this campaign, there is really one major clash of issues,” Amter said. “It is really the clash between the private cialist Party in its meeting likewise | industry demanded the placing of the Com- | undertak in the great struggle being en. Demands munist Party on the ballot. The Communist Party calls upon |Ployed have been drawn up. The| affecting those ratings where youth are em- the workers in Cook County and/Strike demands include $50 a month the State of Illinois to adopt res-|for Ordinary Seamen with $10 in- olutions, to send delegations, ar-|Creases at the end of the first and Tange mass meetings of all workers, | Second year of sea experience. This regardless of their political affilia- | Will do away with the mad scramble tions, demanding that the Cook |fF A. B. tickets which results in County Election Board places the Communist and Socialist parties and all their candidates on the bal- lot. Workers Should Register The Communist Party furthe: men holding jobs for which they really are not qualified. The de- |mand for the abolition of the deck- boy rating, which forces beginners to work for $25 a month, has been raised. The Youth Committee of the calls upon workers throughout the|Marine Workers Industrial Union State to register Oct. 9 and 13 and | has issued a special appeal to the vote for the candidates of the Com- youth, raising these demands, and munist Party that will be on the ballot and everywhere else where the Party has been deprived of the ballot, to write in the name of the Communist Party. The Communist Party calls upon the working class organizations and workers in general to rally around the Communist Party election cam- paign, to give it maximum support. ‘We must also appeal for contribu- tions to the election campaign fund. The filing of the C. P. petition) in the Supreme Court in Springfield and other legal actions connected with this, printing of 250,000 copies of the platform, requires thousands of dollars. The election campaign fund has been exhausted. A deficit has been created. To carry on the campaign we need immediately no less than $500. Every organization should register its support by giving donations to the election campaign committee of the Communist Party. All funds should be forwarded to the state election campaign headquar- ters, 101 S. Wells Street, Room 702, Chicago. Workers of Illinois: Your civil rights have been attacked. Your answer is to rally around the ban- ner of the Communist Party and} unite all workers, regardless of political affiliations, to register your protest by writing in the name of the Communist Party on the ballot where the Communist Party name does not appear. In Montgomery County we call upon the workers to vote for the workers’ ticket which is a united front ticket, embracing Communists, Socialisis, trade unions Vete against fascism! Vote Communist Noy. 6! calling upon the young seamen to |stand by with their adult brothers. The Youth Committee has also | taken the initiative in calling a con- ference of all working class youth organizations in support of the strike. This conference is to take |Place on Wednesday at the Textile Trimmers Hall, 40 W. 18th St. Attention, ¥.C.L. Members The greatest maritime strike on the East and Gulf coasts has al- ready begun. This strike requires ;the most effective and energetic mobilization on the part of our en- | tire league in the New York dis- |trict. The following steps must be immediately taken by all league units and members of the Y.C.L, 1—All comrades available must immediately report for active strike duty each morning at 7 o'clock at the following points. All of Brook- lyn mobilizes at 15 Union St. All of Manhattan and Bronx at 505 W. j19th St. | 2—All youth organizations must be visited in the neighborhoods, se- |curing the active and financial sup- Port from these organizations. All organizations must be urged to send delegates to the conference in |Support of the marine workers’ | strike being called by the Youth Committee of the M.W.I.U. on Wednesday, Oct. 10, at the Textile Trimmers Center, 40 W. 18th St., at 8 p.m. 3—The broadest agitation and propaganda in support of the strike must immediately be developed throughout the entire city. Street corner meetings, issuance and dis- tribution of leaflets, collection of fi- nances as well as the collection of relief must immediately be devel- | oped by the units and individual District Committee, Communist | mimbers. Party in the State of Illinois. B. DISTRICT SECRETARIAT, K. Gebert, District Organizer. YL. D a= investments of the Wall Street banks and the needs of the majority of the people. “Hundreds of thousands of work- ers starve—because LaGuardia is carrying out the infamous Bankers Agreement where the city mortgages itself to guarantee the profits of the National City Bank and the Guar- anty Trust Company, Morgan- Rockefeller banks. “Working class children must get less milk—because Governor Leh- man’s Milk Control Board is cur- tailing production, is robbing the small dairy farmers, and is guar- anteeing the Milk Trusts 300 per cent profit on every quart. “The schools are being closed, ‘teachers’ salaries slashed, standards built up through years of effort, degraded and cheapened by pro- fessional ‘patriots’ of the Board of Education—because LaGuardia and Lehman will spare nothing that is vital to the people’s welfare in their servitude to the Wall Street baks.” eae ee § A Communist Governor wey would you as a Commu- nist Governor do,” I asked Amter, firm. “I would continue to act in of- fice as I do out of it. I would act as a Communist, as a member of the revolutionary party of the working class, I would act imme- diately with energy and determina- tion to raise the daily, material wel- fare of the masses no matter what this would do to the precious Bank- ers Agreement or any other prop- His reply was quick and organize themselves into mighty picket lines. I will fight with every means at my disposal against the use of the State’s armed forces | against the workers. Lerroux, who had been in constant | | conferences with his other Fascist ministers, fled to his home, when the battle around the government 1-Cent Fare “There would be no menace of any seven-cent fare, as there is now under Lehman and LaGuardia. I would nullify the rotten contracts by which the banks now milk them | fajjing into the hands of the work- | for fat profits. There would be no menace of more teachers’ wage | cuts. I would stop the budget | “crisis” by doing away with the Bankers’ Agreement. A “Socialist” City “The Socialist Party teaches the masses that they can take control of the country by ‘electing Social- ist majorities,’ and ‘socializing’ in- dustry,” Amter said. “But this only helps the ruling class by concealing from the masses that there can be real libera*ion only by smashing | the present government machinery | and setting up a new one. “Look at Bridgeport and Mil- waukee,” Amter declared. “There, the Socialists ‘took power,’ and immediately began to act funda- mentally like any other capitalist party. Their main worry is how not to default on the payments to the bondholders. And when it is ‘necessary’ to cut wages to pay the bondhelders, why then they buildings became intense. The work- ers, armed with machine guns, opened fire on his home, but they were driven back by a superior con- centration of forces which was mo- bilized to keep this Fascist dog from ers. Martial: law has been declared throughout the country. The an- nouncements of tye Lerroux gov- ernment show its increasing nerv- ousness over the situation, as the armed forces and fighting of the workers grow, with more and more of the peasants coming into the battles on the side of the workers. The French imperialist govern- ment has already taken steps to aid the harrassed Lerroux fascist French officials detained the steamer Turquesa at the request of the Madrid gove:nment authori- ties. The ship, it was claimed, carried 18 tons of arms and ammu- |nition consigned to the Catalonian | forces, The Portuguese government of- fered to assist the Fascist govern- ment of Spain by sending troops against Spanish workers, News Censored | regime. proceed to cut wages. In fact, they boast of their ‘clean record’ in paying bankers’ debts. “We Communists are quite dif- ‘erent. We don’t give a single rap for bankers’ deb‘s. To us the wel- fare of the masses comes above everything else. And we say that we will fight not only to win better conditions now, but that this fight can be successful only if we strive day in and day out to end capital- ism altogether.” SILVER WORKERS STRIKE NEW YORK.—The employees of the Federal Silver Company went out on strike last Wednesday for union recognition and for a written agreement, under the leadership of the Silver Holloware Local 302 of the Steel and Metal Workers’ In- dustriall Union, | All news from Spain is heavily | censored in order to aid the Lerroux | cabinet in its bloody struggle against the revolutionary general strike. Capitalist correspondents sit in | their offices and cable mainly the | news handed them by the Lerroux government. With all transporta- | tion stopped, with the main lines of communication cut and fighting | going on throughout the country, no one is in a position to give an accurate picture of what is going on. In several instances the govern- | ment reports were proved to be a | tissue of lies. The government had reported that railroad traffic was |moving nearly “normally,” when | every report coming from railroad | centers showed that no trains were leaving. In an effort to terrorize the Philadelphia Labor Booed Rules That Lees Mill Reopen Today, Barring 600 Strikers PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 7.—After having killed one young worker on Oct. 4 and gassed a large number of others, including women and children, through their special dep- uties, officials of the Lees Woolen Company called on the Philadelphia Regional Labor Board to finish their s‘rike-breaking job. The Board ruled that the “diffi- culties” would be settled by the mill re-opening. But close to 600 workers are not to be re-hired until “conditions warrant,” and 19 others are to come before a special com- mission charged with violence, etc. This is exacily the same kind of decision the Board made in the Budd strike, which kept 800 men on the street for almost a year, and in the taxi strike, which blacklisted 13 men forever. Charlotte Carr, State Secretary of Labor, was present at the hear- to come on the picket line next week, if “differences are not set- tled by then.” However, workers Yemember very clearly her per- formance at the Collins and Aik- man mill here two weeks ago, when she headed more than a thousand pickets, and then told them to go home or to their strike hall. Workers packed the court room in Norristown on Oct. 4, and sev- eral thousand others surrounded it, while the five thugs who s‘arted the shooting were given a hearing. So high was the sentiment of the workers that the magistrate held the thugs in no bail. But their at- torney spirited them out of the way, and got Judge Knight to release them in $5,000 bail, in spite of the fact that Elwood Quirk, young worker whom they shot, had died. Workers here are carrying on mili- tant agitation against the City Council, several of whose members ing, and Mrs. Cornelia Bryce Pinchot announced she was ready are foremen of the Lees Mill, with relatives scabbing there. Party! Members of the Young Peo- ple’s Socialist League! Members of the American Federation of Labor! Join in a mighty demonstration to- morrow—at 12 noon—in front of the Spanish Consulate—53rd Street and Madison Avenue. “Rush to the defense of our Span- ish brothers! Socialists and Com- munists, unite your forces for the victory of the revolutionary general | strike, and for the defeat of the forces of Spanish reaction and fas- cism! “COMMUNIST PARTY, YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE, NEW YORK DISTRICT.” ‘Speed Drive Funds for New “Daily” (Continued from Page 1) to mobilize its full forces. Less than $15,000 has been received in the drive. Therefore, as editor, we make this appeal specifically to you, the reader of this statement. Will you today do your part in the drive for $60,000? What can you do? You can obtain contributions, you can see that your unit, your | oeeanias ton is set in motion. You can contribute yourself. Between disaster and the im- | proved Daily Worker stand the rev- olutionary workers. A mighty ef- | fort is reqyired. We have the new “Daily.” The revolutionary workers of America | will keep it! ‘AFL Delegates toSpeakin N.Y. NEW YORK.—A mass meeting to hear the report of rank and file delegates to the American Federa- tion of Labor Convention, now go- ing on in San Francisco, will be held in Webster Hall on Oct. 25, The meeting has been called by the A. F. of L. Rank and File Com- mittee “for Unemployment Insur- ance and Relief, whose national headquarters are at 1 Union Square, this city. The call has been isstied by the committee for the national confer- ence of the A. F. of L. rank and file, to be held at National Slovak Hall, 516-518 Court Place, Pitts- burgh, on Oct, 27 and 28, All local unions of the A. F. of L. are urged to elect delegates to this national conference, at their next meeting. Questions to be taken up by the national+~conference will include: report and analysis of the A. F. of L. convention; the campaign for the Workers’ Unemployment Insurance Bill; activities of local A. F. of L. rank and file committees; the Rank and File Federationist; election of a national executive committee; and organizational questions. The A. F. of L. Rank and File Committee reports that a mass meeting in Philadelphia of A. F, of LL, members has telegraphed the A. | F. of L. convention calling for the passage of the Workers’ Unemploy- ment and Social Insurance Bill and condemning the Wagner-Lewis Bill as inadequate. The meeting was held Oct. 6 in the Kensington Labor Lyceum with Frank Mozer of the Plumbers Union as chairman. Jobless, Relief and Auto Workers Organize Demonstration By A. B. Magil (Special to the Daily Worker) DETROIT, Mich., Oct, 7—Auto- mobile production in the United States and Canada sank to new lows for the week ending Saturday with a nearly 50 per cent decline. Production totalled 18,998 passenger cars and trucks, according to Cram’s. 37,234 in the preceding week, The output was 27,926 less than in the corresponding week last year. The assembly lines of eight com- paniés were completely closed dur- ing the past week, five having com- pleted production of 1934 models. Ford was practically ciosea, Piy- mouth, Chrysler, DeSoto, Buick, Murray Body, Budd Wheel and other plants are shut down. Ford, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile and Terra- Plane-Hudson are expected to complete assemblies oi current models by the end of October. This Automotive reports, compared with greater than seasonal decline in output is due to the collapse of the retail market. Tens of thousands of automobile workers are being laid off and the number of relief de- pendents in Detroit is threatening shortly to break all records for the economic crisis. In the fact of this situation, County Welfare Administrator Johan F. Ballenger Friday answered the demands of the unemployed by an- \nouncing plans for putting into ef- fect the proposals made by Dr. Wil- liam Haber, State Welfare Admin- istrator, for slashing nearly a half DETROIT LAYOFFS RISE, RELIEF IS CUT AS MOTOR PRODUCTION HITS NEW LOW Fight for Aid Is Mapped As Budget Is Cut By Half Million million dollars from relief expendi- tures. The Unemployed Councils, the Relief Workers Protective As- sociation and the Auto Workers Union are rallying the workers for @ determined struggle against these cuts. A demonstration is being or- ganized for Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the Scotten Relief Station, 3025 Lawton St. (Rank and File |tional Recovery Act, sponsored by |the Roosevelt administration and |the leaders of monopoly capitalism which it represents. No single fact in connection with the six days’ session of this conven- tion is of more importance to American workers than that the scheduled anti-red drive, designed primarily to distract attention of the continually more exploited working class of this country from jthe drive aaginst their wage, living and social standards, did not really get started. In all probability it will get under way next week. It has taken a full week for the official- jdom of the A. F. of L. to devise |the ways and means by which this | drive is to be started. The Anti-Red Drive Walter Citrine, secretary of and representative to this convention of the British Trade Union Congress, dominated by the social reformists of the British Labor Party, will very likely be selected by the convention officialdom to fire the opening guns in the barrage which the big em- ployers and the Roosevelt adminis- tration have insisted should be laid down at this convention against the Communists. This is of course an attempt to |isolate the “Reds” from their con- nection with the hundreds of thou- sands of wage workers who have} conducted truly heroic struggles in} the last year against the starvation | standard of living which A. F. of L. officiaidom and the Roosevelt ad- ministration, of which it is an ap- pendage, insists upon the American | working class accepting so that cap- | ital can crawl out of the five-year crisis over the hunger-ridden bodies |of American wage: workers. The official program has not done very well at this convention so far. |The officialdom is handicapped to @ great extent by the fact that its 54th annual gathering, by reason of @ decision made a year ago when ;the class struggle in the United States had not reached its present intensity, is meeting in the principal city of an area with me million and a half population, the entire working class of which engaged in @ general strike in support of work- ers in the main industry of the area —the maritime workers organized in some ten unions. Because of this the officialdom in control of the convention has been compelled to make certain very important polit- ical concessions to the opinion of the working class in this area—and consequently to the entire American working class, organized and unor- ganized, which welcomed and sup- ported the tremendous demonstra- tion of working class solidarity that took place in San Francisco and the Bay Counties some three months previous to the opening session of this convention. Rank and File Resolutions Also, and of decisive importance so far as the open struggle between. the top leadership and the repre- sentatives of the A. F. of L. Rank and File Committee who are dele- gates to this convention, and are committed to the program expressed in some 26 resolutions now before this convention is concerned, is the fact that President Roosevelt de- manded, in a radio speech broad- cast to the entire country on the day its first session opened, that the officialdom of the A. F. of L. agree with him to a so-called “truce between industry and labor.” The meaning of this “truce” is clear to every delegate in this con- vention and still clearer to the dues-paying membership they are supposed to represent. It means that President Roosevelt (having failed to fool American workers forced to fight against organized employers, company unions, and the armed forces of the various governmental agencies in a basic struggle for elementary rights) has come out for a showdown between capital and labor. The growing tensity of the rela- tions between officialdom and the dues-paying membership has been shown in this convention, and per- haps most clearly by the way in which the press has reported the proceedings. Nothing is more sig- nificant in this connection than the submission to the 6fficial Resolu- tions Committee, their acceptance for the proceedings, and the publi- cation of all these resolutions in the printed daily proceedings of the convention, of the whole detailed program of the delegates support- ing in whole or part the proposals of the Rank and File Committee. The Main Issue The San Francisco papers have given the titles and short sum- maries of these resolutions with an United Mine Workers of America and his supporters in the official delegations of various national and international unions, for industrial unionism as against craft union- ism; that the main issue in this convention is not the expected bat- tle between so-called horizontal jand vertical unionism, but that the main issue is a struggle of a scope far wider than that of the dele- gates assembled in the convention hall, affecting and involving enor- » mous numbers of the American working class. \ | This main issue is: A Nemant for the complete reorganization of the American labor movement, not only on a formal industrial union basis in the fashion of Lewis, but on a program ex- pressed in the 26 resolutions of the delegates supporting the Rank and File Committee of the A. F. of L., bringing the class struggle issues into the organized labor movement in a clear and definite form, demanding as the main guarantee that the mem- bership without compulsion or restriction shall be allowed to discuss and then decide for the program of action the member- ship desire. It cannot be said that A. F. of L. officialdom has covered itself with glory in the first week of the con- vention. This is mainly because of the murderous official internal fight in the building trades, and because Roosevelt, with his demand for a truce, reviving the old Hoover form- ula of “no strikes and no wage cuts,” which meant precisely no strikes and plenty of wage cuts, has. kicked the moral props from under the leadership of the A. F. of L.—one of his main supports in his program of recovery of Ameri- can capitalism. Cracking the Whip The only explanation for this seeming contradiction is that there is a new and much more acute sharpening of the economic crisis in the United States. Consequently there is a crisis in the Roosevelt administration, in its official family of the labor bureaucracy, and, as a result of these factors, it has be- come much more difficult and to some extent even impossible to maintain what might be called the ordinary decencies of official rela- tionships. In other words the crisis in the United States and the internal cri- sis in the leadership of the labor bureaucracy in the family of its parent and protector, American monopoly capitalism, is of so acute a character that the strengthening of organizational loyalties on the basis of prestige and jobs has be- come paramount so far as the life” of both these administrations is concerned. In other words, it is necessary now to crack the whip and to call the boys to order no matter what happens. This means, of course, sO « far as general national policy is concerned, a much more intensive, vicious and brutal drive against the entire American. working class, its organizations and the whole living standard forced down to the coolie level. These are the math conclusions to be derived from the sessions of the first week of the 54th annual convention of the A. F. of L. Philadelphia Councils Smash Discrimination PHILADELPHHIA, Pa., Oct. 7.— Smashing down a flagrant case of Negro discrimination, a committee of 25 workers, elected at a meeting of the Unemployment Council, forced the relief office here to grant jf immediate relief to Ruben Jones and his wife, an aged Negro couple who had been denied relief for five years. Immediately after the case was brought to the Councils, a commit- tee of Negro and white workers placed demands with the local re- lief supervisor for an end to the - discrimination against this family and all unemployed Negroes. They demanded that the slurs and in- sults hurled at the Negro unem- ployed be stopped at once and all committees of the unemployed be ~ recognized. After the workers stated that picket lines would be thrown around the relief station unless the demands were granted, the relief supervisor was forced to accede to accuracy that is remarkable under each point,