The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-09-10
By JAMES MANNING


This is the opening of the Fourth Annual Con-
ference of the National Minority Movement of Great
Britain
There are seven hundred and sixty-three dele
gates seated in the body of the hall and they hail
from four hundred and thrty-three different
branches of the various unions and cooperative So
cietes. Men and women from the mines and textile
industries, delegates from the engineers agricul-
ture, garment workers, railway men, clerks and
eeachers; every workers organization of any i'm
portance IN Great Britain is represented at the con-
ference. All are obviously their toes and ready
to take an active and constructive part in the pro
ceedngs.
On the speakers platform is seated the Executive
Committee, among whom Harry Pollitt of the
boll9makers, W. Harrington of the engineers Nat
Watkins of the miners and Alex Gossip of the furni
ture workers, and there modestly in the back
ground, is Rutland Boughton, famous composer and
author of the Immortal Hour. The conference is
presided over by none other than old friend and
comrade, Tom Manp.
Tom is speaking now making the address which
opens the conference. The words snap from his lips
IKE SHOTS from a machine gun as he outlines to the
delegates the tasks that confront them and the
workers of Great Britain. Tom catches up his
audience and carries them with him, bursts of an
plause halt the speaker at intervals as the delegates
are carried away by the eloquence and virilitv of
this old and loved fighter in the revolution cant
talist reporter sitting next to me gapes I'D at the
speaker and is carried away with the rest of u.s. he
a
sudden start that rather funny, picks up his
pencil and turns to his task
Tom speaks of the intensified exploitation of the
workers IN every part of the world he outlines the
merclless aggressions of British imperialism and
amid the thunders of applause from his hearers he
calls attention to the attitude that is being
taken by the workers of Great Britain an attitude
that scorns patronage and charity demands the own
ershlp and management of industries by and for
the workers, a disciplined, fighting attitude that
VIII add new dignity to the working class cause
and leave the forces of reaction laundering in the
mlre OF their own futility. eve must face death
rather than fight for the capitalist CLASSIC declares
Tom as ne concludes his address and the audience
rises and cheers him to the echo. Clearly. things
are beginning to stir in old England, the attitude
OF these men and women bodies very lively, tinoa
Iof the bosses IN the near future.
A resolution was next offered on the ipd;cia1 NM,
der Of Sacco and Vanzetti. The crimes Of American
capitalists were denounced in no uncertain terms
and the various speakers on the resolution drew
graphic lessons to be learned by the workers of
Great Britain in order to make impossibln similar
outrages in their own land
The space available in The DAILY WOPKFp
docs not admit of my giving a detailed account of
the business taken up by the conference ResoIu
tlohS on all the vital subjects that are of interest
TO militant working class organization were +alan
up and discussed with degree of understanding
and business-like ability that I have naver soon
words or phrases here, these men and women knew
the conditions existing in the various industries
Whch they represent down to the smallest detail
situations were explained with clarity and brevitv
that oenghted me, especially as 1 had paid visit
70 the house OF Commons only few days before
andOstened to the colorless bleatngs of the home
secretary and his troupe of performing sheep
arthur Horner, Of the Miners Federation execu
i've made an eloquent speech in which he called
T W 10 the necessity for the formation of a
workers defence Corps. He reminded the delegates
OF the tactics of the police during the SaccoVanzetti
oeonstratlons thruout the country; his suggestions
were adopted and will be carried into effect. No
paclfst tendencies are noticeable in this gathering
these men and women girding themselves for
Struggle that they know will be grim and re
lentiess' and they are constructing machine that
WILL think, eventually drive goodv number of
the exploiters of England to Join their friends If
the Russian White Guard in the dives Of paris ond
New York. ' 0'N
me feature that marked the second day of the
conference was Tom Mann's report on the situation
in China. 1t will be remembered that he was one
OF the members of the international Workers Dele