The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-03-26
BRITISH PLEDGE
THEMSELVES NOT
TO GO into ARMY
Call on Soldiers Not to
Shoot Workers

demonstration yet neld in the fight to
free the imprisoned Communists took
place at Albert Hall, where a crowd
of 10000 gathered.
The most dramatic moment in the
meeting and one which has tremen-
dous significance in revealing the
state of mind of a very large portion
Of the British working class occurred
when the entire audience rose to its
feet and solemnly repeated the words
of the chairman, George Lansbury,
member Of parliament:
1--WE call upon all soldiers, sailors,
and airmen to refuse, under any cir
cumstances, to shoot down the
workers Of Britain, and we call upon
all worklna-cIass men not to join
the capitalist army"
Greet Miner.
Almost equally dramatic was the
appearance of Tom Dafen Williams,
miner from the Ammanford district,
imprisoned with others for his mill
fancy. He was greeted with a whirl-
wind Of applause when the chairman
presented him with the certificate and
medal of the International Glass War
Prisoners Aid.
Release Them All.
1t was rare galaxy of labor speak
ers which the meeting brot together.
A. A. Purcell, member of parliament,
president of the Amsterdam Fedora
ton of Trade Unions and a vice
president of the British Trade Union
congress, moved a resolution demand
ing the release of all class war pris-
oners and pointing out that there
were still thousands imprisoned in va
rious countries. $50 long as these
are in prison." he exclaimed, labor
men and women outside are not free"
Fight the Capitalists.
George Hicks, of the Building Trade
Workers and the Trade Union con-
gress, seconded the motion, stating
that if the government did not open
the prison doors the workers should
close the factory doors. 1T is no use
appealing to capitalists" he added,
"or singing to them or praying to
them. You have got to fight them!"
Another tumult of applause came
when Mrs. Harry Pollitt, wife of one
of the imprisoned Communists, pre-
sented Lansbury with the red-ribboned
medal of the International Class War
Prisoners Aid for his conspicuous SER
vices to that movement last year.
Resist Unemployment.
John Wheatley, member of parlia-
ment and former minister in the
labor party cabinet, presented another
resolution declaring that unemploy-
ment, low wages and the restitution
and misery arising therefrom are the
direct result of the capitalist system,
and calling up the British working
classes to unite in bold and coura-
geous agitation for securing the ma |
tional ownership, organization and |
control of industry and the means of
life.
He said the workers were not active |
enough in resisting the view held by |
the other side, that the unemployed |
were largely responsible for their
present circumstances.
I'VE should press forward the
view" he declared, 'that the unem.
pIoyed, instead of being the cause
of their condition, are the victims
Of the existing obsolete order of So
ciety."
The Crisis.
We were entering on a week which
might be more critical than that Of
August A, 1914, he stated. The center
Of the crisis was not in Geneva, but
In the counsels Of the engineering en-
ployers, in the report of the coal COM
mission, and in the attitude of the
who would treat with
contempt weak working-class organ
ization.
Seconding the resolution, Mr.. ]. F.
Horrabin editor of Plebs) said the
resolution was seditious, and he sup
posed that meeting was a conspiracy.
The whole labor movement, indeed,
was fundamentally seditious.
A attn Pot Napoleon"
Miss Ellen Wilkinson, M. p, in a
telling speech, accused the cabinet as
a whole Of deliberately intensifying
the unemployment problem, and de-
clared that the chancellor of the ex-
tin-pot Napoleon"-had
made present to his own friends, the
super-tax and greater income-tax pay
ers, of thirty millions year, and then
turned round to the unemployed and
the children and the health services
to recover what he had given back to
the very rich.