THE MILITANT Weekly Organ of the Communist League of America Opposition VOL. II, No. 20.
NEW YORK, SAURTDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1929.
PRICE CENTS IllinoisMiners Bil Gren Pledge Haiti in Revolt!
Out on Strike The real meaning for the American workers of the servile pledge given by Killed, 20 Wounded by Marines in First Encounter Despite the strict censorship on all seditious messages from Haiti, the news arrives as this issue goes to press that five Haitians were massacred by American Marines who also wounded a score of others machine gun fire against a protesting mass of peasants at Aux Cayes, Rumors are afoot of American airplane bombings, and ambuscades by Marines in which other Haitian peasants who are unarmed for the most part were slaughtered. The past record of American imperialist brutality in Haiti, where over 3, 000 natives have been killed by Marines since the intervened in the affairs of the little Island, is sufficient Indication that no blood will be spared to strangle any anti imperialist protest movement. Hoover will not be deterred by the fact that the overwhelming majority of the Haltians are opposed to American control and to the puppet president, Borno, who is a paid agent of the National City Bank of New York, Haiti, where the massacre has just taken place, is under the control of the State Department of the the secretary of which, Henry Stimson, recently sent a note to the Soviet Union demanding that it make peace with China. The Illinois district of the National Miners Union has issued a call for a district wide strike to begin on Monday, December Among the demands ncluded the six hour day and five day week; 15 minutes rest in every hour and employment of larger crews on mechanical loaders or conveyors; no check off: 35. 00 a week social insurance for unemployed miners to be paid for by the operators or the state, etc. etc.
The Illinois miners are experiencing one of the worst periods of recent times.
Unemployment is rife, and is only increased by the introduction of mechanical methods of mining. The old unions, the is being torn to pieces between two sets of corruptionists, Lewis and FishwickFarrington, who have quite successfully exposed each other thievery and betrayal.
The miners are ready for a fight against the growing arrogance of the coal operators who are rationalizing the industry solely at the expense of the workers, and against both sets of misleaders the Indianapolis and the Springfield gang who pretend to speak in their name.
The excellent opportunities for a successful battle against the miners enemies which lie mainly in the militancy of the workers themselves, offer a broad field for progress to the National Miners Union.
Unfortunately a great deal of the energy William Green and Co. for the American Federation of Labor, to Herbert Hoover, 18 inadvertently indicated by the monthly economic news letter of the Labor Bureau, Inc. If the industrial depression goes in any marked degree beyond what is at present expected, it is foolish for fabor to hope that employets will not do everything in their power to reduce wage rates, for their promises do bind them in such a contingency On the other hand, labor (that is, William Judas Green) has given up its right to seek higher wages. There may be businesses and industries that will not suffer, even if there is a general slump. but It may be difficult for labor to convince employers, arbitrators and the general public that it is entitled to take notice of such exceptions.
The bosses pledged nothing. They are wise enough to know that every chance they get to cut wages and lengthen the working day will be taken. But the bellycrawling leaders of the of are always ready at a moment notice to put the workers under their control on the auction block. The workers will be able to resist wage cuts and general attacks on their standard of living only by unloading Green, Woll and their fellow fakers.
has been directed in recent times towards Five New Cruisers by 1933 the oppressed people there, gives the lie Forty eight hours after Hoover smug mentioned in the same breath as gang ly announced to Congress his intention riot in New York or Chicago.
to send an investigating committee to In 1847, and again in 1891, the United Haiti with the aim of withdrawing the States attempted to negotiate for control Marines from the island as soon as possi of the harbors of Samana Bay and Mole ble, five hundred Marines salled from Nor St. Nicholas, for the declared purpose of folk to reinforce the 70 marines that make using them for naval bases. Both times, up the brigade and officers of the Ameri the was unsuccessful.
can controlled National Guard in Haiti Enter: the Nat City Bank The dispatch of additional troops arose Under state secretary Knox in 1911 and out of the declaration of martial law by under the pacifist Bryan a few years laColonel Richard Cutts, brigade command ter, arrangements were made for American er of the Marine Corps in Haiti, fol banks to take over the French shares in lowing upon a strike of students who were the National Bank of the Haitian Republic, soon joined by numerous government em and in 1917, the National City Bank turn ployees and Customs House Clerks. ed the trick, and took possession of the Hoover the Peace Lover financial heart of the republic.
The lack of even a moment hesitation Numerous times during 1914 and 1915, to send the Marines to Haiti to shoot down the State Department, acting for Wall Street, proposed to take over the customs direct to all the pacitic intentions and control of Haiti. Towards Christmas 1914, claims made for themselves by Hoover and a contingent of American Marines landed ris secretary of State, Stimson, with the in Port au Prince, and in broad daylight Kellogg Pact thrown in.
broke into the vaults of the National Bank, The American Marines are being sent seized 500, 000 and carried it off forcibly to Haiti for the protection of the financial to New York for deposit with the National and military interests of the American City Bank! All the protests against this bankers and business and not to Improve high handed piracy were unavalling: the the country and establish order Hoov State Department did not even deign to er and Stimson are as much the office boys give an explanation. few years later, of the American imperialists as all the Roger Farnham, vice president of the presidents and sectaries of state since the National City Bank, later testified before days of the notorious Philander Knox. a Senate Committee, that the Marine raid The record of American imperialist in was arranged jointly between the State tervention in Haiti, committed under guise Department and the National City Bank!
of the usual lofty sentiments of Yankee In July 1915, while the was trying hypocrisy, is one of the blackest in the to ram Its domination down the throat of books. For over a century, from 1804 to Haiti, a revolution broke out. Without any 1915, when the forced it to sign a justification, an American warship landed treaty enslaving itself to Wall Street, Haiti Marines who Immediately took control. Adwas an independent republic. Its inter miral Caperton installed himself as the acnal disturbances were never of a kind to (Continued on Page 5)
Right in the face of all the deceptive talk of peace, disarmament. and the Kellogg Pact, Secretary of the Navy Adams has just announced that the present plans of the government call for the completion by June 1933 of all of the first of the 15 cruisers authorized in February. Construction of of the cruisers is already under way, while Hoover budget calls for appropriations to continue preliminary work on the other three war machines to be built in government navy yards. Despite the assurances that the keels of the latter vessels will not be laid until after the London disarmament conference, the preparation of plans for the vessels and the construction of their armament and machinery are to be pushed immediately.
The first of these modern crufsers is being built by one of the companies involved in the Shearer scandal. Business is business!
And we we were told that the Kellogg Pact was going to abolish war and that Hoover and MacDonald would disarm!
Internal factional maneuvering to kick out any one not in one hundred percent agreement with the present heads of the Communist Party and narrowing down the basis of the union to Communists and their closest sympathizers. The recent attack on John Watts, removed as president of the union mainly for the crime of disagreement with the Party bureaucrats, has not resulted in any consolidation of the union, but, on the contrary, in creating a spirit of antagonism among the militants in the An additional weakness of the leadership of the Union has been the neglect to make sufficient preparations for the strike. It would be mdiculous to overlook the hard job that the miners have before them. The entire state machinery, the coal operators, both the Fishwick Farrington and the Lewis machines will be mobilized in a solid unit to smash the efforts of the to organize the miners, conduct the strike and win its demands. It is clear that the was not made ready to the necessary extent to cope properly with the needs of the situation, and to prepare and arouse the workers, mine by mine. The demands of the union are, furthermore, mainly of a character suitable for a national strike for which the immediate prospects are lacking.
Nevertheless every miner must not only give tacit support to the Illinois strike but join actively and militantly in the fight.
The conditions for a victory are favorable, in spite of the irresponsible errors that have been made by the Party leaders.
The greatest spirit of sacrifice and struggle is necessary. victory for the in Illinois may mean a radical change in the co.:ditions of the miners throughout the country and have a profound effect on the whole labor movement.
Line up in a solid battlefront! Smash the Lewis Fishwick operator government machine!
CHIANG KAI SHEK COLLAPSE Accorsi Trial Opens Salvatore Accorsi, prisoner in the Allegheny County Jail (Pittsburgh) went on trial early this week before the coal and iron courts of Pennsylvania with his life at stake. He was arrested some time ago in Staten Island and extradited to Pennsylvania. protest meting had taken place there on August 22, 1927 against the excorof Sacco and Vanzetti. In the midst of the peaceful meeting, a troop of drunken state police charged the assembled workers, men, women and children, clubbing them down, firing gas bombs and trodding them with horses hoofs. In the disturbance that followed, one of the uniformed thugs, Downey, was killed. Although no one knows the man responsible for Downey death, a victim had to be found and consequently, Salvatore Accorsi, a former Cheswick coal miner, chosen for the sacrifice, has been framed up. His life is in danger. The courts of Pennsylvania are notoriously venomous against workers who come before them. Unless a mighty movement of protest is aroused. Accorsi will meet the same fate as his brothers Sacco and Vanzetti.
The shabby attempts by various groups to make factional capital out of the case must be stopped Unity, a solid fighting front is needed right away to snatch Accorsi from the clutches of the capitalist vultures!
With the miserable debacle of his anti Soviet policy seizing the Chinese Eastern Railway, the collapse of the Chiang Kai Shek regime in China appears to be a matter of days. The empty promises to unify the country have all come to nought in the boiling kettle of foreign imperialist conflicts. Five big areas throughout the country are in open revolt against Chiang rule in Nanking. With generals just as reactionary and corrupt as Chiang Kai Shek, attacking armies are moving in upon the latter from all sides. The butcher of the Canton Soviet, Chang FaKwei is only a few miles from Canton, Hankow is virtually in the hands of General Tang Seng chi. The chairman of the Hunan province, Ho Chien has come out for the anti Chiang forces. The shrewd Feng Yu hsiang is in outspoken revolt and is only waiting the most favorable moment to take hold of the situation to his own advantage. Shanghai, Ichang, Cangchow, Wuhu and other centers have either fallen to the rebels or else their capture is just a matter of days, or hours.
The attempt made by American Imperialism, through the Stimson note to Russia, to save the prestige of Chiang Kai Shek, suffered a deservedly miserable fate, It was laughed out of court by the representatives of the Soviet Union. It did not succeed in its aim of spiking the negotiations between the Soviet Union and the Chinese for the return of the Chinese Eastern Railway to joint control. It even met with a cool reception by many of the other imperialist powers, notably Japan. Out of the complicated mess that is usually formed by Chinese reactionary politics, it appears clear that the fall of Chang Kai Shek will be a blow to American imperialism in China. Should Feng Yu hsiang succeed in gaining mastery of the situation, there will very likely be a comeback by Wang Chin Wei, erstwhile leader of the Left wing of the Kuo Min Tang. In any case, no improvement of the atrocious conditions of the Chinese workers and peasants is to be expected. Chiang KaiShek, the first darling of Stalin and Bucharin, built his throne on the skulls of thousands of the finest fighters of China young proletariat and the peasantry. The second white hope of Stalin and Bucharin, Wang Chin Wei and the Hankow govern.
ment of 1927, proved equally illusory. Wang betrayed the Chinese workers and peasants to the imperialists with the same readiness as Chiang.
The however, has not said its last word on the situation. Previous victories by Japan and England in China have also faded away before the blows of American imperialism. The worker who watches the developments in China will have his eye directed to the possible scene for the next Imperiallat war All readers are requested to notice that the telephone number of The Militant is: DOCK DRY 1636