The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-11-12
HOW COMMUNIST
PLATFORM WAS
SPREAD IN WEST
California Rein cry
Employees Reached
by a Worker Correspondent

MallJ.-Ine Cr0cket, Call1., sugar
refinery workers heard their i';;rst
Communist speakers in their history
at meeting, held under the aus
pieces of the Workers (Communist)
Party, Oakland Sub District Elec-
tion Campaign Committee. Accord
ing to the Party instructions of or
ganizing four Red Sundays before
the elections, the Oakland Sub Dis
trict Election Campaign Committee
is attempting, for the first time, to
reach some of the neighboring in
dustrial towns, in order to make con-
facts with workers and farmers
this has never been done before.
Saturday morning, a group of
comrades with Comrade A. Whitney,
candidate for United States senator
on the Workers (Communist) Party
ticket, organized themselves with
machines and Party posters and
banners on their machines, for the
purpose of reaching neighboring
towns with Communist propaganda
Our experiences were as follows. We
first went to the Pullman shops at
Richmond, Cal, posted Party posters
on poles in strategic places, for the
workers employed in the shops to
read. At noon we went to the fac
tory gate at the time that the work
ers were coming out, distributed
Party leaflets, entitled "Vote Com
munist," Party Platforms, and &C
ceptance speeches, which were fav-
orably accepted by the workers. We
were unfortunate in being unable to
organize meeting as the workers
hurried home.
We went through the main streets
of Richmond as far as the Sante Fe
railroad shops. Here we were I'M
able to reach the workers, so we put
leaflets and Daily Workers in all
workers cars. We attempted to post
posters on the telegraph poles so
high that no one who wished to re-
move them could not reach them.
In the mean time company "bull'
came around and tried to force us
to remove the posters by telling US
that he was an officer and would
not permit any such posters to be
put on company property. We told
him that this was an election cam
paign and if he didn't like it he
could remove the posters himself, as
we wouldn't mind seeing him do
some work. He then started to try
to remove the posters and it gave
US big kick to watch him. He took
stick and tried it, but this was of
nc avail. He then found one long
enough for him to remove the poster
with, but when Comrade Whitney
approached him and spoke to him,
hn was man enough to accept our
leaflet and literature.
On our way to Crockett, while
passing villages and farmers homes,
we posted Party posters in impor-
tant places. When we reached
Pinole, small town, where the
Union Oil Company refinery is To-
Gated, we stopped on the highway
and attempted to do some propa-
randizing among the workers. We
found a Negro worker and some
white workers who were very favor
able towards the Communist move
ment and the general public
was greatly attracted by the Com
munist banners, with the hammer
and sickle; some of the workers ad-
noitted that it was the first time
that they had ever seen such posters.
Comrade Whitney and another COM
rade, canvassed from house to house
in order to reach the workers and
succeeded in selling some literature.
The remaining comrades posted
posters, and while doing this posted
one on a farmers barn. The farmer
became so excited that he took a
shovel and removed the poster while
we were across the street. After
some discussion among ourselves,
we came to the conclusion that we
should speak to him, to find out
whether he did it consciously or IN
consciously. After a short talk he
admitted that he was wrong, apol-
ogized and bought Party Platform,
acceptance speeches, and Daily
| Worker, allowed us to put poster
on his fence and assured US that y
would remain there. AS we walked
across the street we met another
worker and called his attention to
our literature ard the purpose of
our campaign. He said that he as
very glad to see us because he was
wishing that something would start
in that section because he had made
up his mind not to vote for either
capitalist party. He said that he
would vote as we instructed him,
bought a Party Platform, accept
ance speeches and Daily Worker
and said that whenever he was in
Oakland he would call at our head
quarters. 1t was unfortunate that
due to lack of time we were unable
to hold a meeting.
We reached Crockett where a
sugar refinery is located which ex-
ploits hundreds of workers with
long hours, small wages and miser-
able conditions. We were told by
the workers of the open shop system
and the stool pigeon system en-