OCTOBER, 5, 1940 SOCIALIST APPEAL The TLAKONCIPATE Negro Struggle LABOR WITH WHITE SKIN CANNOT KMANCIPATE ITSELF SKIN IS BRANDED. KARL MARX ORGANIZE FORD: This Is Still The What Officer Biggest Job In Auto Rule Means In the Army Sain obsessed whole By ALBERT PARKER By JOHN ADAMSON joint statement by John Lewis and Thomas, Presidentism, is in addition a major factor fired Ford workers, inexperienced The star of the shone of the United Auto Workers Union, announced the opening of a new in the life of the city of Detroit. and new to unionism, is strug (Continued from last week)
brightest in the days following the drive to organize Ford. It is not the first time that such an an. But the Ford workers are held sling as valiantly as it can with Editor: great General Motors strike. As nouncement has been made. The following article was published in down by long years of submission the Herculean task dumped into Divide and Rule never before, the workers were the SOCIALIST APPEAL of November 12, 1938 at the time of such to a ruthless despotic power.
its lap.
When Congress passed the Draft Law, began aroused out of their lethargy and announcement. It is written by a prominent auto unionist. It is as has successfully crushed all that its first convention on November They know that for years Ford The is scheduled to hold The reason for Jim Crow and Judge Lynch is to take a very personal interest in the army. It to be found in the desire of the bosses to protect imbued with new daring and con pertinent as the day it was written, and we can find no better way would not bend to his will. They 15th. of pararaount importance looked as though d be one of the sheep. so fidence. In those days, anybody wanted to get a preliminary idea of what army and increase their profits. They do this by paying with a batch of application blanks to comment on the latest announcement than to reprint this excel know that practically all the fusing with the of to form of stands of course the question of their workers as little wages and making them life would be like. Here is what have found out in his coat pocket and a lead penlent article. EDITORS ficials of the City of Dearborn are so far.
work as long hours as possible. The workers form cil could organize workers. They controlled body and soul by the one united labor movement in unions in an attempt to improve their condi streamed into the unione by the are again regaining their old constrike electrified the workers sur the deadly spy system in opera should, however, insist that the Ford Motor Co. They know of America. The delegation The daily newspapers discuss army life in one tions. The bosses spend a lot of time, energy and thousands, displaying a passion Adence and ability to resist the sciently to call forth millions or clon at his plant and the hundreds organization of the 150, 000 work way. They describe the physical benefits of milmoney trying to prevent formation of unions and long pent up to destroy the tyran offensive of the employers. them out of indifference and tim tary training guaranteed to build good, strong ny of the open shop.
to weaken and smash them where they exist.
All the recent events dictate to idity to economic and politica marily been fred out of their jobe Ford Motor Co. be placed on the of Ford workers who have sumers employed in the plants of the Americans. They always speak in generalities The best way they know to accomplish this Defeat in Little Steel the the stern necessity of life. successful Ford drive calculated to take the sting out of life.
is by keeping the workers divided. Each worker Then came the disastrous strike returning to its great untinished would grip America organized or union activity and they know agenda, The Itself has not that all the bearings and tom the financial resources at the Newspapers have to hold on to their readers alone is weak, and if he raises his voice, can be in Little Steel. No proper prep logs of the steel strike and the attack against the citadels of cap latlens Board have not yet re organizers, to properly launch a and therefore give us such hypocritical sugar kicked out casily. United, all the workers are arations were made nor system. depression of the fall of 1937 of italism in a more profound man turned these men to work. The new major drive for the Ford coating. Generals don General Ryan, writing strong much stronger than all the bosses put on the same subject in Life many years before together. This explains the strategy of the bossthe determined masters of Little anganizing the remaining army of ner than ever before. The threat. Ford workers have submitted to workers.
Steel. But the thought they America organized workers. ened reaction on the part of the long to spontaneously rise up and ized now, the other unions the present war crisis, said this among other es: keep the workers divided and fighting among did not need any plans or prepa and significance is the organiza stopped and the labor movement, Looming in greatest importance manufacturers would be abruptly challenge the autocracy of Ford. will have to put in some real mo.
things: themselves so that they will be unable to fight rations their real enemy, the bosses. And so the boss in the hole who would win the workers employed at the Ford would launch an Roosevelt was their action of the 150, 000 automobile more resolute and self confident out of their apathy was a de What they needed to arouse them ney for the job. We must get our men so that they are Proposals are in order to elect machines, and this can be done only as a process pits white worker against colored in the same steel strike for them in a pinch. Motor Co.
offensive all monstration of from the a representative committee from way that he stirs up Christian against Jew, and When Tom Girdler and his min along the line.
of training. We have to have our men trained nepideatio demonstration from the the key antiche e temmnisthe morn so that the influence of fear is overpowered by Ford remains the only manu. At the Milwaukee convention was strong enough to and financial aid to the great citizen against alien. He doesn do this be ions declared war on the union, factdrer of automobiles who has of the United Automobile Work cause he likes the white worker better, but be the leadership became bewildered successfully obstructed the form ers of America, held August, 1987 the peril of an uncompromising military system, take on Henry Ford.
drive. It is most important to imcause he dislikes both.
often backed up by a pistol in the hands of an and helpless under the assault.
In view of all this, what was press the Ford workers that a The incompetent and pusillanimation of a union among his work the officers vled with each other obviously on the order of the day. new gigantie effort is being made officer. The recruits have to put their heads Unite and Fight ous leadership of Phil Murrayers, recognizes and deals with in eloquent speeches pointing to was a hurricane drive that would by the whole labor movement, in into a military noose.
left the steel workers defense no committees and has signed to the necessity of organizing the catch the imagination of the Fora order to overcome the feeling of private in the American Army hasn the Many white workers don recognize this beless before the eruel blows stands today as the symbol of re the orators pledged his undying on in spite of anything Ford has seized the Ford workers.
right of appeal. If his superiors make a decision, cause the bosses spread their Jim Crow propa of the vigilante gangs and action, industrial autocracy and support towards its accomplish could do. After some glant mass ganda skillfully. These backward workers accept that that. The private must address his officer the National Guard. The unions the open shop. His anti union ment. one dollar assessment Plan of Organization in the third person. When an officer commands these lies about their colored brothers and per in the plants of Little Steel were, utterances have attracted nation was unanimously approved by the meetings that would build up the Then it is up to the mit themselves to be used by the bosses in spreadfor the time being, wiped out.
spirit and morale of the workers.
him to do something, he does not ask, What do to get into action. Assigned to ing discrimination and segregation. In this way you want? but The officer commanded me to With its prestige heavily shat. wide and world wide attention. Al convention to finance the drive the drive would be brought to a tered by the ignominious defeat most naturally, the organization Immediately after the convention, head by the election of committhe drive should be a crack they not only hurt the colored workers, but they do this? Even in these everyday forms, the the lost the momentum of necessary next step in labor pro Vice President, was appointed of the men: union contract of the Ford plants stands as the Richard Frankensteen, union tees to formulate the grievances regiment of field workers, who also hurt themselves. As a result, colored workers private is made to feel the tremendous gap that are inspired with the determits splendid offensive. The faith rector of the Ford Drive and would be written up embodying not only have to fight the bosses, but they have ination to see the Ford plants exists between himself and his officers. The privof the workers was shaken in the fram of action, organization they had believed in bringing the overlord of River campaign was launched. Today, to the management.
Cracking the Ford fortress and midst much publicity the national the main points and presented organized. At the head of the ate may not sit down or relax in his officer to fight against the prejudices of many backdrive should be placed a person ward workers and to try to educate them. vincible. Fear for their jobs, the Everything presence unless he is permitted to with experience and authority, Difficult as this job is still it is what the deadliest of all poisons with Rouge to terms would have for a year later, the campaign has favored a bold plan of this kind.
greater significance than the mere completely bogged down; the The was at the high water buck private has to carry out all orders colored workers have to do with the help of the which the rulers keep their slaves numerical enlargement of the Ford workers are still unorgan mark of its career. The auto a person whose presence will constitute a partial guarantee without question no matter how degrading he in subjection, again advanced white workers who understand these United Automobile Workers Unized.
that the Ford drive will this may think they are. In peacetime, a private may things. There is no other way. They cannot turn them The began its slow ion or of the Just recal! What has been wrong with the workers union had not yet tasted be tried for insubordination before a military retreat before the employers of what the signing of a union agree Ford Drive launched with soment was on the move and De time proceed in an energetic defeat. The whole labor movetheir backs on the unions, because the only way court martial. One officer prefers the charges fensive and has been retreating ment with General Motors meant much noise and fanfare a year trolt especially was literally and serious manner.
they can end Jim Crow as well as the evils of ever since.
The presidents of all local against him; another officer acts as defense at.
for the labor movement: how that ago?
unions in swamped with the memthe Detroit area capitalism is by fighting side by side with the torney.
accomplished more in one day New Upswing: New Tasks white workers, their natural allies in the fight Workers Want Union should be constituted as a spe.
bers and their activities, than all the speeches and routine The private may even be punished without The Committee for Industrial Or activity of a cial action and advisory comagainst the common enemy. Alone, they can never army of or The Ford workers know the ne Why the Drive Failed ganization was first established for ganizers in the previous year. censity of being organized. They cause. In peacetime or Wartime, a soldier may be mittee, who will make the Ford defeat the bosses.
the avowed purpose of organizing selected for punishment as an example to the drive a special order of busiPrecisely this boldness. this If they turn away from this hard and often the workers of the hitherto unor The Great Job at Ford tant a union in their plant. They conception of a swift dramatte ness in their local unions and rest. When the French troops were retreating in unpleasant task, they will only be helping the ganized mass production indus.
will involve every active union droves during the World War, a certain number bosses keep the workers divided into the unions tries. The economic crisis, which a good union contract with the ot espionage. On every side they thing before it was lackierer Organize the Ford workers, sign list and the shame of the system attack that would sweep every member in the great union in each division were executed in order to terrify the Negroes must go, and they must be the best campaign.
remainder of the oops into submission.
multe altele din umiens on the defende company and their sectory are kerreur doork automobile fighters against the bosses, so that the backward workers who work in union shops. Ford drive was woefully incompeEspecially important is the While such extreme measures have not, as yet, workers will learn from real life how they have continue to it, buttressed as it strike occurred when the mass who enjoy the proteetion of unie tent for the strenuous tasks the setting up of a special Negro been resorted to in the American Army, the been misled and tricked.
Is by the new armament program production industries were still contracts, who are represented by drive imposed. The union ace committee of prominent Negro principle upon which they were based is present Unite and light! Unite with the white work of the Roosevelt administration. largely unorganized and the mass anion stewards and committees organizers are propee were meathing educators and leaders, who will in the American Army.
aid the union in winning the ers and fight against the bosses and Jian Crow! back their workers and the latter. Ition was almost non existent. That young, vibrant and full of optim have been blaced the Ford or good will and faith of the NeThe officer regulates the private reading gro workers in the drive and watertdi and determines the way in which the Build a Labor Party Banizing office: Instead, the Ford its purposes. Once the colored private may use his leisure time. In France, at The Democrats and Republicans defend and drive was overloaded with incomworkers are set in motion at the very time that Leon Blum was premier, the petents, petty maneuverers and preserve the system of Jim Crow that is used to the great River Rouge plant, French soldiers were forbidden to read the paper opportunists. The few sincere they will constitute one of the maintain capitalism. This explains why neither published by Blum party. The army officers, young men were lost completely steel girders of the Ford union party has done anything in all the years they in the noise, confusion and dishaving seen the word socialism on its mast.
as well as the battering ram tohave been in office to abolish or even weaken order.
head, were probably taken in by appearances.
Jim Crow. It would be foolish to expect anything At the head of the drive stood wards organizing the rest of the Ford workers.
They should have known better.
different from them this year.
Frankensteen, inexperienced for The whole drive must be In wartime, a private may be transferred What the Negro workers must do now turn such a difficult task, but conRICHMOND. Va. Sept. 28 explained that he didn know given shape and continuity by from one section to another, regardless of his their backs on both these parties, the same way The most astonishing testimony, sumed with an undying ambition An application for a writ of er these persons personally.
the establishment and the reg wishes. It was a common practice during the according to defense lawyer Stone, to carve out a career for himself that these parties have turned their backs on ular issuance of a weekly Ford ror will be made by attorneys in World War to send radicals into dangerous secWhile returning from Danville was given by the two sons of the Even as a careerist, however, he them when it came to the Anti Lynch Bill and the Waller case which ended yes to Chatham, Sept. 26. Campion victim. The day after the shoot. did not possess the imagination Drive Bulletin, REGULARLY tors to isolate them from the other soldiers.
similar measures.
terday at Chatham, Va. when said he stopped at a gas station ing they said they saw their fath and the sweep of thought to rerecording the plans, the aims permanently.
What they must do now, together with the Odell Waller, Negro sharecrop about four mites south of Chather in a Lynchburg hospital for alize the vast opportunities that and the achievements of the per, accused of the murder of his am and overheard the station about an hour and that all he said the Ford drive offered.
campaign. The Bulletin can bewhite workers, is build a new party, a Labor EXPLANATION FOR Party, controlled and run by the workers in it, former employer, Oscar Davis manager say Waller has a nig was am going to die. Odell Secondly, there never was a come the most effective organARMY REGULATIONS izer of Ford workers and the presenting an independent program defending white farmer of Pittsylvania ser lawyer from Richmond and shot me without any cause. well thought out and well defined County last July 15, was sen a Community Lawyer from Chi Dr. Risher of a Lynchburg hos plan as to how the Ford workers means of infusing the new It seems to me that Army regulations can the interests of all workers, and running labor tenced to die the electrie chair cago they ought to be lynched. pital testified that Davis was op would be membership with zeal and enorganized Everyone be explained in three ways. First, the nature of candidates, Negro and white, against the canat the state penitentiary on Fri thusiasm.
During the hearings Common erated on at the hospital which went about his own way, doing didates of big business.
war itself demands a very high degree of disAs the drive begins to take. the cipline. It would be suicidal, for example, to have victed after a trial lasting less state witnesses on the stand, four died from a collapsed left lune. the disorganization and confusion form, giant mass meetings held an army pause to discuss its strategy in the heat The Socialist Workers Party than two days.
of whom were police, who said in He said he couldn shy positively was the factional strife that was in Detroit and Dearborn will enthuse and inspire the great of battle. But not all the regulations are designed The Socialist Workers Party calls on the Odell Waller, who is about their opinion Waller could get a whether death was due to the beginning to eat away at the vimasses of Ford workers and to promote military efficiency. Some are expres.
Negro workers to join with it in the struggle twenty three years old, was de fair and impartial trial and that shooting since the collapse of the tals of union activity. Everyone will begin a mass recruitment sions of the vast social differences that separate against the bosses. It calls on them to support fended by Attorneys Thomas they had heard no one discuss the lung could result from other fac was anxious to prevent the oppos.
of members into the union. The the rank and file soldier from the officer caste.
tors.
Stone, white, and Bryon Hop case one way or another.
its candidates in the elections in those places kins Jr. Negro, both of Richmond In Trotsky Red Army, an officer was addressed Sheritf Archer Overby, however, the physician testified that none alt for a successful drive and get campaign can be brought to a where they are on the ballot. It calls on them to head by the election of rank as Comrade Lieutenant, Comrade Sergeant, The case for the prosecution was one of the state witnesses, admit of the bullets had touched the vieting control over the Ford work fight for its program on election day and every handled by Commonwealth Attorted that after he had brought tim left lung.
ers.
and file committees to formu etc. that was because the officer was a comother day in the year: ney Joseph Whitehead, who asked Waller back from Ohio where be High Point Missed late the grievances of the men The Real Story rade, a fellow worker who had risen from the and demand a conference with Against Jim Crow! For full social, political for a death verdict in his final fled after the shooting, he was The high point of the drive, ranks. In the American Army, however, it is the Waller mother, in her test: argument if the jury felt that informed by telephone that a Henry Ford to negotiate a unand economic equality of the Negro people!
favored sons of West Point, the specially trained ion agreement.
For the right of Negroes to sit in the movies Waller shot the white farmer del. lynch mob was being formed, but mony before the court, spoke of such as it was, was reached when iberately or without justification, he said he had taken the noces bad economic treatment of the mercilessly beaten by Ford serve national in scope, obviously all or Plattsburg business men, who command. These While the campaign must be have nothing in common with the buck private.
and restaurants when they want to. For their sary precaution to prevent a lynch self and Waller at the hands of right to vote, and to run for office. For their Judge Prejudiced ice men at the gates of the Riverganizational work must be cen third explanation for Army regulations is ing. On this testimony the judge Davis.
Rouge plant, in open sight oftered and concentrated on the that the war which the American government is right to belong to trade unions and other or Soon after the trial got under denied the motion of the defense Archie Waller, the accused ganizations of their choice. For their equal right way the defense made a motion for a change of venue.
man uncle, told the court that newspaper photographers and ro River Rouge plant, the heart of That day thousands of the Ford empire.
preparing will not represent the interests of the to jobs in industry, at equal pay. For an end to that Judge Turner Clement of the he had gone to the Davis farm Detroit automobile workers were American people who will do the fighting and Bosses on Jury with his nephew and had never aroused to a white fury at this the deportation to the South laws which deny Pittsylvania County Circuit Court The Job Must Be Done the dying. That is why the army forbids the them relief. For the passage of the Anti Lynch ernor James Price appoint an member of the jury panel when against the victim, and other de brutaliteti the Powd drives ha As everybody knows, the best seldiers to read those revolutionary and labor and Anti Poll Tax Bills.
come national news and the Ford laid plans are worthless unless newspapers which expose Roosevelt fraudulent other judge on the ground that the called, if he had any land out on fense witnesses made similar tes workers, stirring uneasily, were properly executed. It is impossible anti fascist pretenses.
Against the war! Against the Jim Crow prac judge had made prejudicial and shares and found that he did. He timony.
The very nature of war, have said, makes tices in the Army! For military training under legal inflammatory remarks in challenged the method of select the accused man, in simple and watching with bated breath the on paper to lay out blueprint control of the trade unions!
the presence of the jury panel at ing members of the fury on the carnest words, told the court the next unton move. 25, 000 work for an organizational campaign it necessary for armies to be keyed to a high the Sept. 19 hearing. The motion ground that such men would na: story of his association with Mr. to march on Dearborn, it is an such a gigantic scale as the Ford on pitch of discipline. There must be people who For the government to appropriate money for command and people who obey. But this is posa system of military training under control of WaThe defense then asked the dis interests opposed to those of the for Davis in January, 1939 and Powdent would have been made ing the question too abstractly. Who commands What is important, however.
the trade union movement, to teach the workers missal of hanemtended to hear the white employer farmer and reduction crop program set in a Ford drive would have been det overcome the handicap of the an of the jury, accused and similar to those of got along until the government among the Ford workers and the beyond this or that detail, is to and who obeys. That is what we want to know, and that depends on what class is in control.
tect themselves against their enemies at home ing on Sept. 19, but this motion that as such Waller could not get cut his acreage. He then told Da initely on its way.
If the American workers want to fight a and abroad. For the right to the soldier workers too, was turned down by the a fair trial and would not consti vis he couldn get along on one But the golden opportunity was couragement and moods of pestutionally be tried by his peers. acre and asked for two. Davis missed. Nothing of any import. simism engendered thereby.
judge.
genuine war against fascism, then, of course, they to elect their own officers from out of their own The defense had previously con The defense made the same objec, safd he couldn sive him two ance was done for several days. What is important is that the must have arms and the ability to use them. Of ranks, colored and white. For an end to the discourse, they must have an army united by discriminatory practices which give Negroes the change of venue because the ac the jury who had land out on April 1st went to Maryland to allowed to pass by. At the end of this is not just another petty in cipline. But this army will be an anti fascist flunkey jobs in the Army and deny them the cused could not get a fair trial shares.
work. During his absence Davis the week, a demonstration was effectual stab but a bona fide army only if it is an army controlled by the right to advance themselves.
in the county. To prove their Judge Clement denied the mo evicted his wife and mother.
main enemy of the fascists, the workers thempoint they had Edmund Campion tion for a change of jury with Against the profit system that breeds Jim finally organized, poorly prepared large scale campaign, behind When Waller returned he ask and poorly led. Then the Ford which all organized labor has selves and not by the best friend of fascism, the Crow! For a workers government that will for make an investigation of the case the remark that the hearing was the white farmer for his sbare of drive again reverted to the grind pledged its unstinting support. If reactionary militarists now in command. To preever end discrimination and Campion, who lives in Rich conducted according to law and the wheat erop and Davis tola ing routine of collecting names, a drive of this character is pare the way for the creation of such an arm ition.
mond, spent considerable time in not on any economic or social him he could get it later. On visiting individuals, a drive with launched and properly carried the county to determine the sen theory.
Waller insistence Davis is re out prospect and without hope.
the workers must demand that military trainthrough, it has every chance of IIenry Davis, a young boy, who ported to have said Hell no, you The factional fight which flared success. The Ford workers can be ing be placed under trade union control.
timent on the case. Campion tes.
An AP dispatch from Chicago states that the tified that he had heard a garage works for the Davis family and can have it, and reached in his up again during the summer of organized.
Fraternally.
world wheat supply is ample for the world owner of Gretna, named Franklin the only eye witness to the shoot right pocket where Waller said this year put the finishing touch With the final smashing of one EUGENE VARLIN needs, but that due to the war the gulf between say the damn nigger ought to being, testified that Waller and Da he usually kept his gun. Waller es to what remained of the Ford of the last of America open shop the wheat supply and the potential consumer dekilled. On Sept. 25, he said he vis had always got along peace then took out his gun and shot Drive. Several weeks ago, the fortresses, new vistas will open heard three men in a restaurant fully and there seemed to be no the farmer.
mand has never been so wide. One veteran trader Ford men were chartered as a up for the as for the labor The defense Indicated that the separate local in Chatham say, the nigger ought 111 will between them on the day An inventor union of the movement as a whole. success.
Santa Rosa, California has in observed: Mother Nature has seen to it that to get the chair who shot Davis of the shooting. Waller shot Da case will be appealed and that ful Ford Drive will unquestionvented a mousetrap from which the bait can be there should be plenty of bread for all, but man in the back while he was going vis for no reason so far as he necessary it will be carried to the The local Executive Board, lably usher in a new era for all stolen. Probably built on the lines of the capital.
has forbidden their eating it.
to eat his breakfast. Campion could 800, Henry said. Supreme Court.
composed for the most part of organized labor in America. ist system.
Negro Condemned to Death For Murdering His White Boss