THE MILITANT WORKERS OF THE WORLD.
UNITE Weekly Organ Published weekly by the Communist League of America (Opposition) at 84 ast 10th Street, New York, Batered as second class mall matter, Novem ber 28, 1928 at the Post Ofice at New York, under the act of March 1, 1870 VOLUME V, NO. 41 WHOLE NO. 137 NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1932 PRICE CENTS of the Communist League of America (Opposition)
Saturday: All Out to Union Square The Miners Convention Scottsboro Case Up Ravages of Lewisism; the Position of the Communist Groups For Scottsboro!
In Supreme Court Elephant, Donkey and Socialists Compete for Election Honors As Illinois Conference Opens Convict 6th Harlan Miner October the third undoubtedly turned attitude. It is duty bound to turvits the attention of thousands of miners to attention toward the unitication and fur ward Gillespie, III. Even from far away ther development of all the progressive izers to participate in the demonstration in Union Square, Saturday, October 8, The Communist League of America calls upon all its members and sympath.
Nova Scotia, where the miners completely broken with the Lewis regime, conservative and reactonary elements for that day throughout the nation, demanding the release of the Scottsboro boys taken matters into their own hand and within them, but to support the move.
organized the Amalgamated Mine Work ment in its rebellion against the JewisThe Supreme Court hearing begins October 10. The demonstrations on the Only Mass Action Can Save Framed Up Negro Boys ers, greetings go out to the constitution. Walker crew.
8th must echo and re echo throughout the land. The voice of the workers must al convention of the Progressive Miners penetrate the Supreme Court walls. The Scottsboro boys must not die!
of America. That is understandable.
Those Who Condemn a Split Members and sympathizers of the League are requested to assemble at the The case of the nine Negro boys who country of the globe. In Chemnitz, GerIllinois represents almost the sole solidly organized miners section of some real in its bit with regard to the Illinois go to the Union Square demonstration in a body. Allaturday, so that we can The Right wing Lovestone group chipe Opposition headquarters, 84 East 10th Street, 1:30 were framed in Scottsboro, Ala. by the many, a number of workers were shot substance left in the field. But whether miners situation. It says in sum and subwhite southern bourbons on a trumped while demonstrating for the release of up charge of rape is now approaching a the Scottsboro boys. The tour of Mrs.
this constitutional convention can make tance in an exitorial in Workers Agel tentative clusion. On October 10, the Wright, the mother of one of the boys, a serious beginning toward the solution of Sept. 24, that any Idea of uniting the Supreme Cort of the United States is to and Louis Engdahl through the coun.
of the all important problems, remains anti Lewis groups outside of the review the case. That the case has gone tries of Europe on behalf of the Inter to be seen. would be false and share the same so far is entirely to the credit of the national Red Ald has been of tremendous The mine fields today in an organiza fate as the NW. and that a new International Labor Defense and the Com. significance in the cause of international tional sense present a picture of fright union should not have been organized munist party which have fought in this working class solldarity. From some of ful devastation. In 1921 when John In other words, according to this advice case with an agitational ardor that is the European countries they were sum.
Lewis Was solidly entrenched on his the Illinois miners should be driven back marily expelled.
throne in Indianapolis the of again to the election campaign wears on to Bil; the nation wide terrorism against truly admirable.
No Let Up! reached its highest point of growth ward its climax on election day the the bonus marchers culminating in the The Supreme Court is to review the with a total membership of 615, 243. By ter than that shown by the Socialist the donkey, and the farings of the torch Washington, make up a record of re previous trials the cases of two of the lag in agitation in recent months, as the Is this reactionary attitude any bat: antics of the elephant, the cavortines of armed eviction of the bonuseers from case of only seven of the defendants. In But there must be no let up now. The had been reduced to 172, 632, of which above, giving the present status of the three parties of capitalism as they swing as the result of circumstances. The Rep preme Court hearing is concerned. in have been unavoidable. But the point 83, 446 were in the anthracite and 53, 088 in addition to the well into the final phase of their strategy. The ublican boosters are now prating that the case of one of the boys a mistrial now is to multiply the agitation tenfold.
in Illinois. Reports from the known long series of betrayals by of its skues they pounded so heavily in the Hoover policies saved the country. That was declared, as he was a continerea in the The demonstrations called for by the of of actual membership have been very officialdom, prove, it anything, that condi earlier stages of the campaign have gone is the only shred of demagogy left them. other case a retrial was ordered. The party for October 8, throughout the Unl.
scarce since; bat obviously the drop has tions have long been roten ripe for by the board as they scramble madly for This blind alley into which life has Supreme Court hearing will, in any event, ted States, must be supported by every sone considerably further downward. In a definite split away from this corrupt votes.
forced the Wall Street elephant has given affect all of the nine defendants. class conscious worker. We must not other words while in 1921 about 75 per clique. But up till now the subjective the Democrats a great opportunity. With The agitation carried on in behalf of leave to the socalled impartiality of the cent of all the soft coal bolsted was factor, the membership itself, was not Only mined by union labor there is today less suficiently matured to carry it through hand wagon was assuring the country windy demagoey they are parading them the boys has not only had a tremendous Supreme Court the fate of the Scottsboro mass for than 10 percent of the total tonnage un Attempts were made, but mostly on a that if the engineer was not measuringing to the liberal clement of the com as well. Agitation for the Scottsboro our demand that the Negro boys of Scottslon mined. What a frightful trall of de false basis. Now, it appears to be con up to the publicity ballyhoo it was not munity. That is the line of Roosevelt boys has been carried on in almost every boro do not burn!
struction!
clusive, and at least with prospects of his fault. He was the victim of circum speeches in Iowa, Wisconsin and Detroit.
How the Miners Were Eliminated heading in the right direction.
stances over which no man or party The Donkey Brays Opposition Youth Calls Scottsboro Meeting The method of its accomplishment bel Unity of the mine workers throughout could prevail. But a series of dramatie How well the donkey is braying this The Spartacus Youth Club of New and Capelis.
how John Lewis in the 1922 strike be can no longer be accomplished within the not play the least role brought out clear tune will, of course, be decided on Elec York will hold a special meeting on the comes somewhat clear when one recalls the field is the essential problem. That incidents in which the Communists did The date is Friday, October 7, at the trayed the 60, 000 miners of the Fayette bounds of the remnants of the ty the reactionary character of the adtlon Day. But this strategy is already and Somerset countles in Pounsylvania, controlled by reactionary etique of ministration and its shining light. The Baylone dividends the New Work Timestrial comes up before the supreme at o clock wharp. All members and sym.
case boysCasino. These miners had just been organized but capitalist agents of the Lewis Walker Hunger March of last December, the of October reports Whitney, pre court on the tenth of this month. The pathizers of the club are urged to attend Railrond were in the settlement left to shift for types, whose objective is exactly the op shooting of workers demonstrating for sident of the Brotherhood of themselves and disappeared as an organ posite. The place of the revolutionists in relief in Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, etc. Trainmen, as saying: am supporting dastardly frame up of these mine innocentinis important meeting. Lers are dent of the Minols district, chargedection and for unification outside of the vant engineer to the demands of the unok the masses will result in general pros investigation of the Negro question pre ty the on Union Square in de Frank Harrington, who was thn Presl lighting for its necessary Leftward dir ance of the capitalist class and its ser. Liberal views pertaling to the welfaremoother cases of frame up in the labor day, the Club and its sympathizers will John Lewis with having received deadening grip of the reactionaries employed for petty bourgeois sented. Three speakers will handle the fense of the imprisoned boys.
bribes to the tune of 750, 000 from interhunting down and deportation of foreign. But it is not alone ests closely associated with the PennsyA. born militants; the passage of the Dios strata of the working class, the labor diferent toptes, comrades Cralue, Bord, All out on Saturday!
aristocracy, which are singing Roosevelt Ivania and Kentucky operators, to break liberalism. Senators and congressmen, the strike. This accusation was made in staunch and not so staunch supporters of repayment for the Lewis charge against the Republican machine in normal Farrington of baving received 27, 000 to break the 1919 Illinois strike. Undoubt.
times, are coming out for Roosevelt.
edly both gentlemen were entirely cor.
They are alarmed at the Leftward drift of the masses, awakening to class con Now Serving Life Terms While 37 Others Still Await Trial rect, and certainly both instances ex Miners Are Militant but Right Wing Forces Are Organized sciousness from the illusion nurtured by Hoover and company. section of their The sixth union miner to be sentenced The trials of the arrested miners have small measure, what the miners had to SPRINGFIELD, ILL endure during this kind of a regime.
down. The first day was only taken up political base, the petty bourgeoisie, is to life imprisonment by the coal barons been as indicative of American class Over 200 delegates, representing at with routine business.
also moving to the Left under pressure of Kentucky has just been announced. justice as any one could hope to cite.
To the uninitiated it may appear as least 22, 000 miners of all sections of the The spirit of the delegates can be shown of the crisis. These windbags must move His name is Jim Reynolds. The five In the case of Negro workers brought the present break in Illinois occurred state, from the terror ridden southern by the fact that many were forced to along with thean or be left behind. And, others who are now serving life terms in to trial, race prejudice and race hatred that is, the maintainance of the basic ine) to the far northern Peoria Wilming sorts of vehicles were pressed into ser wall: Hoover and the Republican party tower, Poore, Hudson and Elzie Phillips, the prosecution. In. the are keynote stressed by 10 a day scale or the sell out agree ton fields, assembled in constitutional vice to bring these striking miners into are going to get a beating. These new a Negro miner. All in all there are 43 South a jury composed of petty bourgeois ment of Lewis Wailker for the 00 a convention to decide upon the form and Gillespie. The heroism of the under prophets of liberalism have a keen eye miners facing life imprisonment on a whites could be relied on to bring in day scale. This is only one of the mani aims of the organizntion of coal miners ground, illegal Progressive Miners of Am. for their political futures. They will charge of murder growing out of the the proper verdict guilty. In the case festations To the miners, though, it be to replace the shell of an organization erica groups in Franklin County was un luse nothing, they calculate, by climbing battle at Evarts, Kentucky, on May of the white workers, class hatred was comes a quite important difference when left by the Lewis Walker Coal operators consciously and unwittingls expressed by aboard the band wagon now.
1931. The case of the six already indict a rosed in the bosoms of the propertyone considers that an employed miner combine.
the delegates from there. To belong to The indicated success of the Democrats ed is under appeal by the state supreme loving members of the jury by telling in the soft coal Beld is quite lucky to them hair. raising stories as to the deeds average about two working days in a The opening of the convention on Mon the means the loss of the job in corralling the liberal vote has alarm court.
The battle of Evarts came as a cul of violence these men had committed Week, aside from the large number total day, October was marked by a parado be active is only possible by threat of making a bid for this vote themselves. mination of a reign of terror instituted against property.
ly unemployed.
life.
in their campaign book Just issued, they by the coal barons and their hirelings, The General Defense Committee of the The fundamental cause is naturally far folk. The demand for clean fighting us The president, Pearce, in his opening make it plain, according to the New York the police. After trying by individual. has carried on more deep seated. It is the very question ionism has reached Into elements hither.
of unlon organization which is involved, to dormant or nearly dormant. The spirit address gave a review of the month Times, that they do not advance any revshootings and terrorixing to break the struggle for these imprisoned miners.
They limit them. strike in larian, Ky. the mine owners Lighting in the bourbon South for workand in that sense thousands of miners of the wellorganizedwomen auxlliary The problem of Franklin County and the selves to reforms within the limits of organized a concerted effort to break ers imprisoned by the class enemy is no may Justifiably turn their eyes toward the Gillespie constitutional convention.
absorption of the miners therein into the capitalism. Their New York state elec the picket line. On May 5, when the easy task. All in all the Geneal Defense The convention heard the secretary of state wide strike will be a most import tlon program reeks with the same ro mine pickets were attempting to stop a has stood nobly by the imprisond workIn that sense also the responsibility of the West Virginia Miners Union with ant topic.
formism. Mr. Fuess of the Republican truckload of household goods from beingers. It has been instrumental in having that convention becomes a far greater great attention and evinced their solid The Right wing, however, is active and party halls socialist party as re shipped to strike breakers one.
a nearby the indictments against five of the minThe Parties and the Minery arty wth that movement there. The ap seems organized. Their refusal to allow spectable. In the rush for votes the so town, three auto loads of thugs were ers dropped.
Not all of the General Defense Comit.
It is not at all strange that the Social. the ninots miners on the question of marked by demagogy, illogic and the class it claims to represent but whose in cover in the adjacent bushes and be toe activity in the strike however can plause left no doubt of the position of a speaker of the to speak was cialist party leans, not on the working seen approaching. The pickets sought ist party officially takes the position of national unity when Shearer, the secret conspicuous waving of the red herring terests it betrays, but strains itself to wind rocks. The thugs then opened fire be placed on the credit side of the ledger.
neutrality and non interference in the ady of the va. Miners Union, raised The Left opposition is proposing to the the right, to allure the petty bourgeoisie by splattering a hail of machine gun bul. There is at least one important debit to break the Illinois miners have made with this point in his speech.
with its respectability.
the Lewis Walker clique. That was to be joint Left wing action.
lets.
The convention was very jealous of the Socialists and Liberals side. In self defense some of the beselged too much on the legal aspects of the case.
expected. First of all, and this may be the smallest consideration, that position rights of the membership. As a ronction To offset the threatened Democratie miners who were armed expecting just in a matter of working class defense be The above is a brief summary of the enables them to have their members in to the mandatory fashion of the Lewis first day imortant news items. More sweep of the progressive and liberal such an emergency, returned fire. When fore capitalist courts, mass agitation and vote the sociaist party had undertaken the fighting ceased Jim Daniels, the pressure is at all times of the utmost both camps to fish for votes and sup bureaucracy, this swing to rank and file Inter.
a mobilization of the more radient lib leader of the gunmen, and two other importance. It should be clear now even port in both directions. But essentially is goes to Dearly ridiculous extremes.
this cover of neutrality enables the so One miner Carl to the most die hard of Wobblies, what erals. Together with them it has organ thugs were found dead.
The spirit, however, is very healthy and ized the Commitee of 100, 000 to support Richmond, was killed by the thugs. Mar with the mock trials in the courts of cialist party to give its support in reality very vigorous in its extreme care for VOTE the Thomas Maurer Ticket.
The chair tial law was then declared. Forty three Kentucky, that extra legal pressure from to the reactionary camp and help stem democracy.
man of this melange of philosophers, people were arrested and charged with without by thousands and millions of the Leftward tide of the new movement.
That part of its role will become in the convention. The proposal to hear a he vetentional ter wang pos appeared in COMMUNIST. Bishops. editors, and economists, Paul murder as a direct result of the class. Workers can be the most effective weapon Douglas, professor of economy in the Sixtythree others were picked up and in fighting for the release of those of our creasingly clear with future develop speaker from the was turned (Continued on page 2) charged with criminal syndicalism comrades imprisoned by our class enemy.
ments.
But there should be no less concern over the attitude of the official Commun.
ist party. From a letter issued by Joe Tash, the and party organizer in the Illinois field, dealing with the foundation conference of the of The unemployment situation, which is 1926 is reckoned as 100.
Efforts of the American bourgeolsle to holds in store the prospect of increasing we take the following excerpts: How growing continually more acute, presents In this connection it is necessary also issue out of the crisis have not been resistance to the capitalist enemy. The ever, it should be obvious Just from ajan enormous problem to the American to take into account the drop in total lacking. There is now beginning a mobt perspectives of the unemployment situaglance that the Icadership of the con working class. With an over accelerated payroll for which the recorded index lization of capitalist resources to restore ton are therefore intimately connected on October 15, the League will move into new headqarters at ference succeeded in putting over another speed this situation helps in the process Agures are based upon the same indus contidence, within capitalism, in the con with the coming serious working class betrayal of the Illinois miners. And of separating it from its former bour tries and with the full year of 1926 tinuity of the process of reproduction, struggles.
126 EAST 16th STREET further, This further means splitting bois political ideology and allegiances, reckoned as 100. The July 1932 total to expand credits and to restore al Communist policies, tactles and slogans New York City the ranks of the miners and defeating on the whole the unemployment situa payroll index figure was 36.
profit rate in an endeavor again to re must particularly take this into account.
the splendid unity of the Illinois miners. tion constitutes, particularly by ite desume the cycle of production.
The tacties and slogans must change to THE INTERNATIONAL It is the same policy that Walker and finite aspect of permanency, an important The disparity shown by the much Fundamentally these efforts imply, on correspond with an unemployment situa WORKERS SCHOOL Lewls are known for and which smash factor in our revolutionary perspectives. greater drop in total payroll gives con. the one hand, a greater accumulation and tron bound to develop in growth, intened the as Aghting un There are no exact flgures available clusive proof to the contention that un concentration of capital, and on the sity and sharpness, even with coming will also be located there fon. if this be true, then as to the size of the unemployed army employment and wage cuts go hand in other, intensified exploitation of the temporary let ups. The Communist polcould be no distinction between the new of the country, but even the conservative hand and that the growing unemployed workers and a further reduction of their icy is the means by which we aim to union and the old gang. In that respect American Federation of Labor estimate army becomes a particular incentive util standard of living. The general results reach the specific revolutionary goal. But the party is duty bound to change its grants a total of 11, 400, 000. There need ized by capitalism to reduce the standard can be only that the unemployed army. in each separate stage of development be little doubt that the actual figure is of living of the worker In sum and in its main composition, remain perman our tactics must lay the correct basis for much larger than this estimate. This is substance this situation today within the ently unemployed with its ranks grow preparation and direction of the next THE NEXT ISSUE OF quite well borne out by the Department imperialist stronghold reveals the staging despite ang temporary industrial re one Wrong tactics lead away from it THE MILITANT of Labor Index figures of unemployment gering working class misery accompany. vival.
and strengthen the enemy. correct On Saturday Evening, OCTOBER 15 WILL CONTAIN FULL based upon returns from 89 manufacturing the large scale overproduction of cap These are the two outstanding prob approach to the problem of ameliorating REPORT OF THE ing industries. The month of July 1932 ital. It shows also the picture of arro lems. 1) Further attacks upon the the working class needs of today, and Friends and sympathizers are cordially ILLINOIS MINERS registered the lowest employment per gant flaunting of the demands of the un standard of living of the working class now so acutely pressing, prepares the invited. Come and bring your fellow CONVENTION IN centage yet on record. The Index figure employed workers and brutal suppre. by wage cuts and speed up. 2) a per battles of the rising labor movement to workers. Help us realize this for.
GIILLESPIE had dropped to 56. The full year of slon of their demonstrations. manent, growing unemployed army. This (Continued on page 4)
ward step Program of Action of the League on the Unemployment Situation NEW QUARTERS OPENING BANQUET