The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-05-11
DON'T SHOOTT
SLOGAN is NOW
MASS DEMAND
Communist Prestige
Raised by Strike
WILLIAM F. dunno
Fifth Article.

government was prepared to smash the
trade unions. They said also that
campaign against the use Of the mill
tary as a strikebreaking agency was
necessary and that the struggle of the
miners would inevitably involve the
whole labor movement
The party issued its now famous
Don't Shoot" leaflet ito the soldiers
and sailors and twelve members of
the central executive committee were
sent to prison under the Mutiny Act
of 1897.
No sooner were they convicted than
nationwide campaign campaign for
their release began. The rank and
file of the trade unions were aroused
and even the right wing leadership
had to go along with the tide.
Sir William Joynson-Hicks, the
home secretary in the Baldwin gov
eminent, derisively called "Jix" by
the workers, succeeded in raising a
storm of protest against himself. The
right wing of the labor party and Of
the trade unions tried hard to show
the falling Of the Communists as
personal enterprise Of an egotistical
reactionary, but the rapid develop
ment Of the coal crisis, the organ
ization by the government Of the o.
M. S. with fascist participation, were
indications that the drive on the
Communists was no isolated incl
dent.
The prosecution and Imprisonment
Of the leading staff of the Communist
Party can be said without exaggera,
ton to mark a new period in the
development Of the British labor
movement.
1t dramatized sharply the decad-
ence of the boasted British democ-
racy because it showed clearly to
thousands of workers that under the
Tory regime sedition unaccompanied
by any overt act had become a pun
ishable act in time OF peace.
1t is my opinion that even consider
able numbers of Communists we're
surprised at the drastic measures
used against them.
The response of the. masses to ap-
peals for the defense of and financial
aid to the dependents of the imprison-
ed Communists was splendid. In
ternational Glass War, Prisoners Aid
reached hundreds OF thousands Of
workers by mass meetings, demon
STATIONS and literature.
The treatment of the prisoners,
their Imprisonment as, common Grim
inals with no distinction because Of
the political nature of their soffense
became topics of wide discussion in
the capitalist as well as in the labor
press.
On April 10 parade, mass meet
ing and demonstration was held in
London in honor of the six Com
munists who were released after serv-
ing their sentences. (Arthur McMan-
us was held three days longer be-
cause he had "insulted" a warder.)
Ten thousand workers gathered at
Kings Cross Circus and marched the
four or five miles to Chaplain Com
mon. Half of them had already
walked from five to fifteen miles to
reach Kings Cross.
Twenty thousand people took part
in the meeting at Chaplain Common
where speakers of all shades of poll
teal opinion addressed the huge
crowd from dozen platforms.
Then the crowd marched three
miles more to Wandsworth Prison,
where another meeting was held,
while 10000 workers following the
lead of chairman in the most dis
ciplined fashion, made the walls Of
the prison shake with thunderous
shouting for more than two hours.
have never seen a hoarser or hap
pier crowd.
The direct attack on the Commu-
mist Party as preliminary to the
attack on all of organized labor, the
complete correctness of the slo-
gans and program OF the party in
creased its influence tremendously
The general strike and the massing
Of the military by orders of the gov
eminent actuated by. an obviously
deadly purpose has shown the masses
that the failing of the Communists
was the signal for the offensive of
British capital.
The slogan issued by the Commu-
nists to the soldiers and sailors has
taken on life. Don't Shootl" is now
a mass appeal of workers in indus
try to workers under arms.
On May Day the United Press cor
respondent in London cabled as fol-
lows about the May Day parade:
Conservatives and Laborites alike
we're dumbfounded by the discovery
that the sharp rocks Of the days
developments had changed the sta
tus Of the Communists In London.
Today. the red from Bat
tersea proudly led off the process
sion. They simply took the lead,
none said them nay and there they
marched In place Of the usually
acknowledged leaders.
IL.