Party Will Not Aid NRA Drive

...In New York City, Grover A. Whalen, heading the local con¦umer cooperation NRA drive, declared that workers who picket a Code inrV-v may be pr -cuted...

...This precarious situation that faces the working people of this country convinces us that it would be little short of criminal for the Socialist Party to turn from its work of helping to organize the labor forces of the nation...

...Cuba has long suffered from two things...

...Mchind that deni.nd the masses nre united...

...There is only one thing that can prevent the NRA from becoming a monstrous feudalism of capitalist power and that is the thorough organization of workers in all the industries into unions that they control, with the right to protest and to strike, to picket and assemble, to negotiate and to bargain without being molested by the courts...

...The bread drivers' union, affiliated with the A. F. of L., called a three-day strike following Pippan's funeral, on suspicion that he was "put away" at the suggestion of bakery owners lined up with racketeering interests...

...This has been the position of The New Leader since the enactment of the law...

...to American capitalism...

...The revolutionists, including the organized workers who had been able freely to funct'in for the first time in many years, insisted upon a real New Ileal, a new Constitution abrogating the iniquitous iNatt Amendment that was the symbol of the enslavement of the Cuban (>eo...

...GANGSTERS MURDER SOCIALIST OFFICIAL CHICAGO.-^John Pippan, executive secretary of the Italian Bread Drivers' League, and formerly secretary of the Italian Socialist Federation, was shot and killed at Cicero, III., by two gangsters...

...One was absentee United States ownership and control of the four great basic interests of the Republic, sugar, utilities, mining and banking, by men interested solely in profits and not at all in trie human welfare of the masses who created those profits for them...

...Labor's Fight for Security...

...Last week Dudley Cates resigned from the recovery administration because it did not accept his view of a "unionism" midway between the claims of workers and of capitalists...

...With the benevolent connivance —possibly the aid—of the United States government that political system was overthrown, but nothing was put in its place except what was proclaimed to be un honest and decent political system, headed by members of the very [•lass that enslaves by the economic system that enslaves the masses...

...Thomas' references to your attitude towardH picketing of shops by workers...

...Events have proven the soundness of this view...

...The Socialist Tarty onsideis it so vital that to neglect it for a noment would be" a disservice to the working masses...

...Woodin, holds heavy interests In Cuba and r the man first iKted to be Attorney General of the New Deal, the Me Thomas J. Walsh, married a wealthy Cuban sugar plantation owner just before he was to take I in place n the Cabinet...

...That organ of American Junkers carries savage attacks each day against free organization of the working class...

...Cuban Workers Taking Hold I II the ousting of the Dc Cespedes government the Cuban revolution has moved to a more democratic phase more representative of the needs of the masses...

...If democracy is to obtain a firm foothold in the vast corporate enterprises that dominates the lives of many millions of workers it will be only through the organization of bona fide labor unions in the industries of the country...

...That is the one thing De CesiH'd"s gagged at, and on that isWue he was told to get out...

...The conflict growing out of differing interpretations of the labor section of the act, a conflict that finds workers on one side and powerful corporations on the other, is now evident to all...

...Tt<Hffe Selah B. Strong last week jmued a "sweeping injunction prohibiting picketing by^the striking bakery workers, declaring picketing to be a "nuisance...

...Your request has been carefully considered and we submit the following -eply...

...Thus far they have been abb' to act without disorder and bloodshed this is being written the day after the overturn...

...This week President Green of the A. F. of L. and three officials of the Radio and Electrical Factory Workers' Union, appear in court to answer why an injunction last week restraining workers from picketing or any other form of agitation should not be made perma-nent...

...Their vast holdings give them enormous power over the lives of millions of workers...

...The one resource that the working people have between elections in dealing with these great powers of capital and finance is organization into unions of their own...

...Joseph Jacobs, attorney for the Continental Congress of Workers and Farmers, with which the union was affiliated, has been engaged to bundle the workers' interests in legal action following up the murder...

...The corruptly elected Machado congress wan dismissed and many M a r li a d oappointed Supreme Court judges were aeni packing...

...Moreover, the conflict in Washington over the labor section of the NKA shows that, while the corporation magnates are unrestricted in their work of organizing rant trade associations, the status of organized workers is stilt uncertain under the net...

...Tl.at work is far from complete...

...If this resource is impaired by corporate interpretation of the labor section of the NRA, or by judicial blows aimed at the right to strike or to picket, it will mean a reactionary revolution that will enthrone capital under the protecting wings of the Blue Eagle...

...Thoma* to the City Executive Committee of *he Socialist Party...

...The party's answer to Whalen follows: Your telegram to Mr...

...In a letter to President Roosevelt he declared that the NRA trend was becoming "an exercise in price fixing and monopoly building in behalf of big business...

...They are tied together in many ways as allied powers...

...Norman Thomas requesti g .he cooperation of the Socialist Party and its subdivisions 'n the NRA consumer pledge card campaign on Tuesday, September 5, \,as rightly referred by Mr...

...When the code was being considered last July, President Bugniazet of the Electrical Workers protested that the employers were being favored and the workers handicaped in the hearing...

...The parties of invested capital, of big banks and of , ,w rful property interests in general, are n turally not interested in this urgent work of labor organization...

...Corporate capital today consists of a number of gigantic capitalistic powers...

...Here are three great capitalistic powers mobilized for an interpretation of the labor section of the NRA which, if conceded, will make workers serfs in an industrial feudalism licensed by the government In Los Angeles, considered throughout the country as the Gibraltar of anti-union and anti-labor reaction, the Times is leading a hitter fight against any compromise with labor unionism under the (let...

...In ii letter tc Whalen Comrade ThomaB made a caustic criticism of his threat of ariesting strikers picketing establishments working under the Blue Eagle...

...For these reasons we cannot abandon the work we have undertaken...

...New elections were promised but everythi ig within the framework of the system again ' which the masses were in revolt...

...Be on your guard...

...Without such organization of the working class the NRA may develop into some form of in lustrial feudalism that would be even more menacing to the interests of the workers than the corporate oligarch} known as "company unionism...

...Workers of the nation...

...The Revolution wants a return of the country i-ud its magnificent resources to the Cuban people...

...The I)e Cespedes government promised ever"tl ,ng — except the one thing iceded...

...he Weakest link in the NHA program and the most important in our Judgment is the organization of men and vomen wirling in industry into unions...

...We wish to i.dd thst whether tho pickets lie Communists, Socialists, Democrats, Republicans or workers having no political convictions, the right of organized protest through tho strike must never be abrogated...

...porkers can be sure of nothing unless they fight for it and under the NRA they must fight harder than ever...

...The Chamber of Commerce of the United States through its president also marches to the front this week in support of this fraud...

...From the moment the National Industrial Recovery Act was signed tile Socialist Party and its youth orgaaizations hr.ve given their human and other resources to he task of helping orkers to organize under the act...

...That question is probably facing Socialists in many cities and may become of national importance...

...If they are able to keep their forces united and disciplined, to prevent careerists and adventurers from corrupting them ana disrupting their ranks, efficiently to administer affairs and maintain outward order it is possible that they will be able shortly to complete their revolu- j tion and establish a regime more i satisfactory to the masses...

...You arc quoted as saying that picketing a rode establishment is a criminal offense that may lead to the arrest of pickets...

...We also take this occasion fully to approve Mr...

...Throughout the depression period the great banking houses have also dictated anti-union conditions to many industries...

...Do Cespedes himself is a large sugar plantation owner, while the almost forgotten Secretary of the Treasury, William II...

...The union has agreed to refuse to label any loaves with the emblem of the Italian Bakers' Association in the future...

...Yield nothing to the powers of plunder or this transition period may prove to be a corridor leading to the subjection of you and yours to a malign corporation feudalism...

...New York Socialists answered No through the party's executive committee if* a letter to Grover A. Whalen, chairman of the drive, who sent a letter to Norman Thomas asking cooperation...

...The National Electrical Manufacturers Association are working under a code...

...The other was a vile, corrupt and murderous political system safeguarding that absentee American control...

...The Socialist I'arty considers that its first duty is to the working masses who are the hardest hit by the industrial depression...

...Their rule extends over whole communities and across state lines...

...The powerful National Association of Manufacturers hoisted the company union banner in July...

...It is significant that today the' army is commanded by a sergeant, as it is that the highly-placed provisional rulers selected from the land-owning and governing class are ousted by men from the working class and their spokesmen in the professions anil the universities...

...This is the interpretation given the revolt ')y its leaders...

...We will bend our efforts to organize the workers into bona Ada trad* unions and urge the consumers to pstronlze establishments that sell union-made goods.| The anion label is the only guarantee that decent wages and working conditions prevsil In industry...

...It Is the only immedlato form of protest that workers have In ln« dustry against tyranny, vlolullon of labor standards or discrimination against them...

...Their program thus far is pledged to maintain order and to call a Constituent Assembly to give Cuba a constitution that will embody the needs of that sorely-tried people...

...The steel, coal and automobile interests are not alone in fighting genuine labor organization in the industries...

...To outlaw peaceful picketing is to outlaw the right to strike, and If this Is the interpretation placed on the NRA, then there Is so much more Justification for the poisiion we take...

...In our (pinion it is much more fundamental and promises more enduring results than if we were to divert our resources to the drive for consumer cooperation under the NRA...