COMMUNISM GOES SOUTH
PORTER, PAUL
Communism Goes South Gastonia Makes Mil Owners See Red By Paul Porter GASTONIA, N. C BY NIGHT David dark has for years dreamed bilious nigt* mares of horrid communistic hobgoblins. By day he...
...The measure at its present stage is infinitely worse than the schedules reported by the committee and they were sufficient to satisfy the most voracious appetite...
...They have not been eliminated...
...Even as this is written the London correspondent of the New York Times writes of Europe uniting against the United States in tariff retaliation...
...Some of the strikers, without the influence of a powerful newspaper back of them, escaped less fortunately...
...Now put the foundations under them.—Henry D. Thoreau...
...Or, is Comrade Well ready to make the bold assertion that members of Tammany do not belong to the ansae n species...
...There is no class struggle in the United States...
...Ignoring The Class Struggle By Bruno Wagner There ha* bam tor tt» lata couple at years a nwdeney in our part* to grta op ranch that to ¦ntltHttto te Parts'- And funny to sat, tbaat propeatttatai do net coma frosn mejii sees bora fax the United States, bat raoat at them MT% fOCVlSO bttl'tt ttoesWOawejjYanea...
...The trivial tin imrrtanre that ths drag* on* of..........mm until recent weeks bare llnswred near their lairs of Moscow and Union Square has not stayed the hand of this daring Don Quixote...
...It Is no exaggeration to state that a communist psychosis has been built up In the Southern cotton mills barons, and their handmaidens, the Rotary and XIwanis boys, that win stlH be rampant when the D. A. R. invitee William Z. Poster to address its annual convention...
...A few impractical suggestions were rejected, the decisions were based on realities, and the deliberations revealed a body of men and women determined to be helpful in contributing something to release their conservative colleagues in the labor movement from dangerous trends and policies...
...The approach is realistic in that it recognizes that organizations cannot be improved by senseless and wholesale denunciations and accepts the view that members may be honestly conservative or indifferent...
...In the middle of the night the union headquarters and commissary were raided ind demolished by a band of masked men...
...If there ia no class struggle in the United States, then there is no necessity for a Socialist or Labor Party...
...e e The palsy of the editorial boys I believe was more violent than any actual «haHng of the foundations of good government and virtue by the Communists...
...Seemingly the strike In the Loray mills of the ManvUle-Jenklns corporation in Oastonla has been broken and the local of the National Textile Workers Union there is fast being reduced to a shell of its temporary strength...
...Widespread protests were instrumental In having the guardsmen removed, but the thugs and hoodlums sworn in as city police and armed with muskets, bayonets and blackjacks proved to be far worse than the guardsmen who at least pretended an air of Impartiality...
...It was freely predicted that more walkouts were In the offing, that the workers were only marking time, that organization was being perfected, and that the breaking of the strike was not a defeat but only a retreat...
...Is that so, Comrade Weil...
...Every capitalist interest in industry has its poodle barking for it...
...We must continue our educational work...
...And they will be heard from again with even more power than they displayed against the rayon oligarchs...
...They continue to consume but do not produce...
...Organization of the South is going to be a bitter and many times discouraging fight...
...You know better, but you are losing your patience...
...While most of the 1,700 to 2,000 workers who struck in the Loray mills almost two months ago are back at work, the unrest and dissatisfaction that caused the walkout is greater than ever...
...The jobless haunting factory gates and stores win be interested in the news of the 164 per cent increase of assets for 29 companies of the Standard Oil Company within the past ten years, ? little on on troubled water* ie always helpful...
...Then, one fine pretty morning His Master's Voice awoke to find a real bonest-to-goodness dragon snorting revolutionary fire in the fair Manvflle-Jenckes garden patch at Oastonla—right on his editorial doorstep in Charlotte...
...Little else can be heard above their shouts...
...The threat of communism Instead of making Southern manufacturers resist more stiffly, organised labor has probably made them tractable—to the United Textile Workers...
...E. T. Willson, the personnel officer, is made "sole judge" of each case...
...After perusing it from beginning to end I began to ask myself the question that had been uppermost in my mind for a long time...
...they're just mill hands, and besides they're "Reds," you know...
...Real, radical revolutionaries preaching the overthrow of precious privilege...
...I found that strike-breakers still came to strike meetings and applauded the orators as enthusiastically as the strikers...
...It was the doty of Miss Weinstock to insist on one or more vital concessions by the exwporation- This may have required more time and pressure but it would have been worth while...
...Desperate men are likely to offer themselves for a few dollars less than the millionaire standard the authors generously allow workers in their capitalist Utopia...
...It will not appeal to those leading labor men who are confident that finality has been reached in forms of organization, methods, policies and philosophy...
...That happened to the slave power in its old age and it was thrown on the dump heap...
...Innocent bystanders as well as strikers were brutally assaulted...
...This is the assertion of their claims to being human as against the advertisement that they were cheap and submissive...
...I talked with the Communist leaders, workers still on strike, workers returned to the mills by the force of economic necessity and official oppression, and workers who had remained in the mills throughout the strike...
...Congress has thus become a subcommittee of the Chamber of Commerce...
...They are not theorists motivated by abstractions...
...They are actually kkking the farmers in the face by jacking up rates on most everything which the plundered farmers must buy...
...Bain or no rain young children are sleeping In unsheltered beds, perhaps with mattreaa and bed clothing soaked...
...They are like the barkers at a street fair...
...These working men and women will stick to the movement .and fight with us to the end for the overthrow of the capitalist system, while those who-come to us as impractical opportunists will leave us when the first storm arises...
...What Is the fight of the textile workers In the south...
...But how are we humble folk going to become millionaires if there are several millions of jobless men seeking our places...
...Reading The New leader of M*y Si, and especially the article "American Socialists aad the class fKunila" by my friend, Joseph A. Wen, I looked oear the paper twice to be tare that X bad The New Leader and not a capitalist sheet In his eagerness to act the "American" workingznen Interested in oar party be uses all the nice stories and examples of the flower rich oriental language to prove that there is no class struggle in the United States...
...Men are enlisted for labor that kills...
...Those jobless men number millions today and their problem is solved by the language quoted...
...Why does a former secretary of a trade union who stole $35,000 of hard earned money, go free in court...
...That permits punishment of the leaders and most active pickets...
...Or let John D and "John the street cleaner" appear Ir court before the same judge accused ol the same crime...
...If it be true, as Abraham Caban and some of his followers, including Comrade Weil, believe, that "John the street cleaner" is socially and politically the equal of John D. "and 'John the street cleaner1 has his hopes of getting there," what is the use of having a Socialist party or even a Socialist movement...
...Comfortable ministers of the gospel In Oastonla preach glowing sermons about Christian service and the pillars of the church radiate their warm satisfaction by princely tithe...
...But it may yet be too early to set on paper a definite forecast for the future of Communistdirected unions In the South...
...Tenn., whereby the strikers in the two big rayon plants have returned to work...
...At least the workers have won a temporary dignity, and unless the foreman shows them some deference they are likely to stalk out of the plant in high dudgeon...
...But why must I tell you all these things...
...A few tents have been received by the union relief I committee but their erection is delayed by the city health authorities, who have manifested a sadden interest in sanitation and declare that tent habitation is unsanitary...
...Three Important Dates Secialtota are asked to keep fee following dates open, and net arras** any affairs ea these dates: June «, when SeeUHsts ef tke «b*« City, wil meet at a place te be dstsrzained upon later te pay tribes* to tbe memory ef Meyer LHtSoo...
...That language conceals cards stacked against the strikers...
...A Humiliating Settlement ^BOUT the most dismal settlement of a strike that has been made in this country was that effected at EUzabethton...
...Their heirs appear in Congress...
...The composition of the conference was overwhelminglv of men and women who are members of trade unions and who believe that educational work among their fellow members is essential if the disintegrating influences of company unions, the National Civic Federation, the mechanization of industry and the economic revolution continue to work havoc in the labor movement...
...Perhaps the only consolation we have is that this stupidity will cause a widespread political revolt and the first establishment of a party of the workers that will drive the Bourbons into the oblrvion which their ancestors earned...
...But this servility to capitalist corporations and making the hardships of farmers and workers more acute is not the only offense...
...Yes, comrades, there is a class struggle in this country and there has been class struggles since the discovery of this Continent, but there is up today very Utile class conciousness...
...As quickly as they can afford to they come out again, causing considerable harassment far the mffl management Some of the workers told me that sabotage was unknown...
...The Governor offered a reward of $400 for information leading to the capture of the raiders, and sponsored an investigation of tbe affair which has resulted in nothing more than an official white-wash for the national guardsmen...
...One splendid gain made by the striker* cannot be affected by any settlement...
...You know it is not...
...Maary of them, the leaders say, return to work for a few days or a few weeks only...
...The result is a general drive all along the line...
...John and John D. it Mr...
...It is all so simple and is to be effected through more industrial combinations which will result in high wages and low prices...
...If you have built castles in the air...
...Many of then have had their household roods unceremoniously" damped into muddy an paved streets and there they lie...
...American capitalists through their agents in Congress are ranging their best foreign customers against them...
...At the same time lawlessness aimed against the strikers went unnoticed...
...By day he has transcribed bis nightmares into frothing editorials for the Southern Textile Bulletin which be edits...
...There is evidence to bear out these contentions...
...Bourbons at Washington JT is an old saying that the Bourbon kings never learned anything new and never forgot anything old...
...John the street cleaner," is Mr...
...Comrade, I am afraid you are getting tired of the hard task we Socialists have still before us to show the American workers that there is a class struggle and that we are in the midst of this class struggle, but only a few of us realize it...
...You might get them for a short time, but in the end you lose everything...
...Election returns will soon be complete when the politicians at Washington finish the job which you assigned to them last November...
...However, these politicians will get compensation for their injured feelings by interfering in another country, India, with machine guns...
...Mission sentiment to strong here and a goodly portion of the Sunday morning contributions finds Its way to the missionary colonies In China and Africa...
...Yes, Comrade Well,, der dienst der freiheit 1st eln haster dienst...
...Lesser-fry editors have echoed his roars...
...I sure hated to go back to the mill, Fred, but I list had to...
...atheism, free love and race-equality...
...One votes for the other in return for similar support...
...John...
...Build up the labor press...
...Some of the editorial writers rolled longing eyes at the American Federation of Labor, and it is suspected that a few cotton mffl owners secretly wished that the more conservative labor group could come in and displace the Communists...
...He will even resort to direct action and sabotage, weapons which we Socialists do not advocate, and which he, the American worker, will condemn, when anybody preaches them...
...Now if the Workers and farmers will follow the example by scrapping their old political ideas they will get a genuine thrill because of the possession of power...
...It is just as simple as making millionaires of the rest of us...
...That is, the union is not recognized...
...Get Rich Quick...
...But these strikers...
...The members of Congress do not have sufficient intelligence to understand that they are giving every justification not only for retaliation by every other nation but a combination of nations to make this reaction as effective as possible...
...Imagine two dogs snarling and snapping at each other over a bone and you have a picture of the present fight between two unions over the collections of dues from Southern cotton mill operatives...
...One amazing feature is this situation is the almost complete absence of "scab consciousness.'* With a few exceptions there has been no attempt to or even denounce the strikebreakers...
...The members of the Executive Committee have knowledge and practical experience...
...Ah, but the liberal breezes that turn these mine of public opinion, David Clark knows, issue from the fiery breath of Moscow dragons...
...Ths lasulm «—>—'»«¦•»> that man* of ths strikers return to work simply to have a chance to get even with some of tbe foremen who had made life unpleasant for them...
...A tccechixtg pen far his flaming sword, be Has made reliant onslaughts against such respectable windmills as the Federal Council of Churches, the American Federation of Labor, the University of North Carolina and The Nation...
...Cheer up...
...When the picket lines persisted even after "Bloody Monday," as it was called by the Charlotte Observer, the city council passed an ordinance forbidding parades except on consent of the council (of course consent was denied the strikers), and the company began eviction of strikers from company owned houses...
...The mill has been greatly handicapped by an insufficient force and with workera constantly walking out, the management has assumed a strange unctiousness in its attitude toward some of the nowtemperamental employees...
...This is rubbing salt into gaping wounds...
...Why were 8aceo and Vansett) murdered by the Capitalist class and its agents...
...They didn't lie down and die—they remained in industrial civilization and got their living from it without contributing to its support...
...that is where they ahould be...
...The program is one that will not appeal to two extremes...
...Aside from a bad fright for the apologists of low wages, long hours and feudal oppression, what has been the net result of the Communist Invasion of the South...
...If we all would not be so much interested in that race-conciousness and pay more attention to the people we live with In this country we would find that the American worker Is one of the best fighters, only he does not know that he is carrying on a class struggle...
...As this story is written some eighty families are homeless...
...industry do not hesitate to abandon old ideas and scrap old methods to accomplish their aims...
...One indirect result of this Communistled strike needs be observed...
...Comrades, don't give up In order to get "better results...
...Some may, but we will have the jobless with us...
...How do the authors dispose of the jobless...
...If we would adopt Comrade Weil and his co-theoreticians' standpoint, we might as well agree with William English Walling and join either the Republican or Democratic Party and get our reform planks in then* platforms...
...Let John D. and "John the street cleaner" only try to use the same elevator in a Fifth Avenue or Park Avenue apartment house...
...The company agrees to not discriminate against a striker because of his affiliation with the union, "provided the employe's activities were legitimate and were not carried on at the plants...
...The discussions and the decisions show that wild, visionary and reckless proposals not only were unwelcome but that none were offered...
...High powered publicity has also almost drowned any criticism that may be made of the "prosperity" hokum...
...Maybe a German-American war...
...To him all labor organizations bore the Moscow stamp: "Disgusted with the declarations of the National Textile Workers whoee openly made statement offends an ideas of patriotism and decency some mill managers have been led Into making comparisons favorable to the United Textile Workers, over whose destinies Thomas Failure McMahon presides, and some newspaper reporters have twisted such statements into a welcome for the United Textile Workers...
...While falling in their own struggle in Oastonla, the Communists have undoubtedly served their despised rival, the United Textile Workers, in EUzabethton by frightening and spurring the executive council of the A. F. of L. into active and militant support of tbe EUzabethton strike lest tbe Communist gala a foothold then* toe...
...June IS and IS, when the mnnHSW convention of the Socialist party «* take place...
...The opinion was unanimous that employer -employee relations were far from a proposition of milk and honey...
...a hanqmet wfll be held at wWea She Seetoltst party will formally teen** ttm erty wide eaanpaig...
...Women's clubs, college classes, and other organized bodies are beginning to notice at their very doors the blight of the Southland...
...The management also agrees to "meet a committee of employes for the purpose of adjusting* any grievances...
...Probably the leaders exaggerate, but it to certainly true that the strike has bad Its little compensations • • • Except for the ruthless oppression and brutality on the part of tbe mm management and us legal and military handmaidens tbe strike might have been settled distinctly in the favor of the workers, seemingly the strike occurred before Organizer Beal was ready for It Ha had been working in the Loray mfll for several months, but the news of the organization was carried to the management by stool-pldgeons prematurely for BeaTs purpose...
...The rejected worker may appeal, not to an arbitration committee, but to a new personnel officer of the corporation as "an impartial person...
...Socially and politically everybody it equal in this country...
...He talks against everything we advocate and when it comes to a real fight for "bread and butter," as be calls it, he is ready to do anything...
...Several of the leading spirits were fired and the union dared to strike...
...Consider the important terms of the settlement...
...Avaricious and stupid, they have been called to extend relief to farmers...
...Furthermore, if it be true that "there Is a social consciousness dormant In every human being which can be awakened with the proper kind of literature," as Comrade Weil fearlessly asserts, why not work together with the Wolls, Basleys and others of the Civic Federation and Manufacturers' Association...
...A few women who were misled into believing that stiikers had constitutional rights were badly beaten, had their arms wrenched, and hair pulled from their heads...
...I witnessed strike-breakers walk up to Fred Beal, organiser for the National union, greet him warmly and apologise for having returned to work...
...Will the masters of American industry accept the lower wage bids made by the jobless ? No answer...
...Recognized as the bellicose loudspeaker for the cotton mill barons of the South, he has trumpeted long and furious against the bloody menace of dastardly communism...
...Nay, if "there is a social consciousness dormant in every human being which can be awakened with the proper kind of literature," why not try to awaken this consciousness in all the members of Tammany Hall...
...Moreover, the method of the settlement, secret negotiations by an agent of the Federal Department of Labor who, according to the account of the New York Times, had "orders from her chief to end the struggle," was reprehensible...
...your work need not be lost...
...But anyone who thinks that organization can proceed by calling upon the Manufacturers Association and persuading the barons labor unions are nice and desirable is believing a lot of superficial nonsense...
...It is probable that the situation facing the strikers compelled them and their union advisors to accept the settlement for there is no doubt that the strikers^ voted to accept it, though reluctantly...
...Despite the fact that two of the raiders were Identified they have never been brought to justice...
...The experience of the Communists, brief as It has been, has shown that organisation here cannot make headway by stereotyped formulas, whether the formulas emanate from Moscow or from A F. at L. conventions...
...On the one hand," reads one paragraph of the Times story, "Great Britain maintains the principle of a free trade country, yet certain of the British dominions, notably Canada and Australia, are affected by the new American tariffs, which tends to arouse British interest...
...Why are Thomas Mooney and Warren R. Billings in Jail...
...We repeat that these gentlemen must regard us as blind illiterates to market such stuff...
...IN A NUTSHELL British capitalist politicians object to American Socialists raising funds for the British Labor Party on the ground that we are interfering in another country...
...We are confident that they will undertake the work placed in their hands with the spirit, intelligence, and sympathy that are required to aid and strengthen the trade unions and the whole labor movement in all of its many phases and activities...
...Why is there a government by injunctions if there is no class struggle...
...Representing the masters of American capital, they are staging the craziest tariff program in our history...
...They no more believe in their own stuff than the circus faker who sells pink lemonade to gudgeons...
...farmers...
...It will appeal to members of the unions who think at all, to those who fear the growth of company unions, and the political helplessness of organized labor...
...They have learned how to resent imposition and degradation...
...American owners of...
...I claim that by giving up the theory of the class struggle, or, better to say, by denying the fact of the class struggle, we do more harm to the Socialist movement than good...
...Don't get tired 1 After glancing over The New Leader, my eyes became riveted on' the article "American Socialists and the Class Struggle," by Comrade Well...
...Yet it is admitted that all those thrown out of work by the industrial revolution are not and cannot be absorbed in production...
...Not so the editor of the Southern Textile Bulletin...
...For the decisions of the conference our readers are referred to the story on another page...
...Would he be free today if he had stolen S2S,ooo from a capitalist concern...
...because the capitalists there are Germans and the workers are 100 per cent Americans...
...Education alone is essential to awakening interest, for any changes made must be based upon decisions willingly made by the members of the unions who are most concerned...
...They haven't time yet to consider the thorough unsanitary company houses or tbe unsheltered striken In the streets...
...The Communists had come...
...Here is a book bearing the attractive title, "Make Everybody Rich—Industry's New Goal...
...You can do what you want...
...The difference between the two organizations may be likened to the 'kettle calling the pot black,' jumping 'from the frying pan into the fire,' and the skunk holding its nose while the pole cat passes by...
...Apparently panic-stricken an appeal was made for national guardsmen, and Governor Gardner, himself a mill owner, promptly responded...
...Beal accepted the challenge and to the astonishment of the management about twothirds of the workers walked out...
...A reporter for the Charlotte Observer, Legette Blythe, was clubbed into unconsciousness for no good reason at all, and after that even the most reactionary papers protested against the uncalled for violence...
...Howavar das may be, pur condemnation of the Labor/ Department is not affected by this view...
...The Progressive Conference THE two-days' conference of 150 members of economic, educational and political organizations of workers in New York City last Saturday and Sunday was a test of the capacity of these men and women to meet the problems which confront them...
...Outside of the Immediate area of the red scare though, I believe that this strike with the starvation wages, deadening long hours, and official oppression that it has revealed has helped awaken a new social conscience in tbe J South...
...The mill owners, the Governor of North Carolina, and the Gastegua police furnished all the pretexts necessary for creating class hatred, and the Communists have not failed to capitalise the situation...
...The workers of the cities are being plundered in the same way...
...It will not appeal to the other extreme represented by the Communists whose idea is to seize the unions by any means and force an absurd program dow» unwilling throats...
...Indeed, why couldn't we unite with the Liberals, Progressives and Republicans in the City of New York to help elect a fusion candidate for Mayor against our after-dinner speaker Walker...
...A number of European economists have already aroused interest in a program of European cooperation and economic unity against the stupid American policy...
...let them he enlisted for labor that feeds...
...They have staged a magnificent battle...
...Use every opportunity to open the eyes of the workers and show them that there is a class struggle and finally we will triumph...
...The National Textile Workers under Welsbord openly admit their advocacy of Communism, while the United Textile Workers, under McMahon with exactly the same Ideas, try to conceal their Communistic plans...
...Workers may register for re-employment but if a worker is not reinstated he or she will be told why...
...Young men, pragmatic and realistic, are the sort of organizers needed...
...You will not induce the American worklngmen to vote our ticket until he realizes the class struggle...
...One yelps for higher rates on sugar and another for lumber, and so on...
...and let the captains of the latter be held as much gentlemen as the former.— John Ruskin...
...And on the other hand, Great Britain has looked favorably on proposals to create some economic unity in Europe against the United States, a unity of a defensive rather than an offensive nature...
...Not until the wreck was complete did the guardsmen rush upon the scene, and then they arrested a group of strikers...
...gOME writers on the economic changes now being effected seem to write on the assumption that we are blind illiterates...
...You want results...
...On the evening ef JeS* IS...
...Isn't this profound...
...Miss Anna Weinstock, the agent, simply served as a strikebreaker, for not an item of the settlement can be considered a concession to the strikers...
...Therefore, you want to camouflage the class struggle...
...This simply means that our ruling classes do not know how to intelligently handle their own best interests...
...They had made the mill life of one foreman so unpleasant that he had resigned...
Vol. 8 • June 1929 • No. 20
