The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-12-12
BY MICHAEL GOLD.
Foreword.

w attended summer school con-
ference lasting a week Of the Plebs
movement. This is the movement for
real MARKHAM working-class education,
which has fought the English brand
of Brookwood-A. f. of L. impartial"
education, and which has been so
militant and successful that it has
begun to outstrip the bourgeois-labor-
list outfit in trade union Importance.
In fact, it has become so powerful that
the Trades Union Congress at its ses-
sion year ago, decided to recognize
the movement of which the Plebs
group has been the dynamic nucleus.
This conference was intensely inter-
esting. William Paul, w. 7. Collyer,
and other active Communist leaders
held sessions, also ]. +. and Winfred
Horrabin, Mark Starr, Ellen Wilkin-
son and other outstanding figures.
There were warm debates, and real
process OF education in working-class
realities. Fascism, Imperialism, Rus
STA, economic geography, trade union
unity, and proletarian art were some
of the matters discussed. There was
also football, cricket, hikes, and ex-
cursions in the afternoons, and sing
songs every night, at which had the
pleasure of teaching the forty odd
British workers there the songs of
the American proletarian revolution
which, up to now, have been mostly
the wobbly songs.
never enjoyed myself more social
ly or intellectually, and l kept think
ing what a fine idea such vacation
week conferences would be for Amer
lean workers.
One learns at these conferences,
and one forms fine rank-and-tile con
facts. There were agricultural work
ers, clerical workers, maehinists, fur
niture workers, textile workers, and
group of miners-all intelligent men
and women with a real grasp of the
labor struggle. Thru their eyes l got
a clearer and more accurate picture
Of British proletarian life than could
have gotten by personal investigation
III ACoo euAn a JCoA VI wv VI AAe'y "
more.
One of the miners was George
Williams, a tall, powerful looking
young chap, about 80 years old, who
came from Mansfield, in Nottingham.
had many walks and conversations
with him, and before the week was
over, felt as if l had never met
finer type of worker anywhere. When
/ think of the English labor movement
now l think of this strong young
miner, with his slow north-country
dialect, and his deep, steady, fearless
way of tackling problems.
A real rank-and-filer-a miner since
childhood-he goes to work at six
every morning. He has two children
and wife, and has to support them
ON the $40 a week wage the British
miners now receive-when they are
lucky enough to be allowed to work.
At night Georges work begins all over
again. He carries a great deal of the
miners problems for his district. He
is organizing secretary for the ma
tional minority movement for Not
tingham, and he serves on executive
and other committees for his trade
council, local labor party branch, CO.
operative, labor college, and Com
munist Party branch. He has to con-
duct large correspondence by hand;
tho writing doesn't come easy to him,
for he has had to fight painfully for
his education. He is always active,
and now he Is conducting a factory
newspaper for the mine where he
works. Everyone knows him in his
district; the workers in his mine
know they can trust him in anything,
even tho most of them are not Com
munists, as he is. What liked best
about him, too, is that he has just
begun growing. Painfully, gamely, he
crowds in a lot of study and reading
rae