The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-04-01
LABOR UNIONS
SUPPRESSED BY
INPERIALISTS
English Parasites Feast
While Natives StarVe

by a Worker Correspondent
While a pantryman on the Lam
port and Holt liner Vandyck, had
a chance to stop off on some of the
islands in the West Indies, and also
stopped in Buenos Aires, Argentina,
Walking Skeletons.
The conditions of the Negro work
ers in the Barbados, a colony of
England, are so miserable that the
men, women and children of the
working class walk around looking
like skeletons from hunger. The
Barbados have been reduced to abb
solute starvation by the British En-
pire and the British capitalists.
The dock laborers in the principal
port, the city of Barbados, slave
II hours and often more a day, for
six shillings, or $1.5O. When the
boat pulled in at Barbados, the
scramble for jobs as longshoremen
was so great, that there were over
1000 workers in the scramble for
only 80 jobs. There are over $4,000
unemployed in the Barbados, Negro
workers there told me.
$3.50 A Week.
The tramway workers, street car
and railway workers, are paid 80
shilIings week, or $3.50. The most
highly skilled engineers get two
pounds a week at the most (about
$4,000.
The only ones who have good jobs
in the Barbados are the white Of
ficials from England, who lord it
over the Negro workers and bully
them, to impress on the slaves "the
might of the British empire"
British Parasites.
All these parasites do is play ten
mis-, and when the ship pulls in, they
come on board with their '1ady
friends" have dinner on board, MAX
ing more work for the pantrymen.
They have dances and feasts every
day while the ship is in.
The discomfort is SO great against
the British empire in the Barbados,
that any labor organization is in
stantly suppressed by the military
of the British empire. The workers
on the water front organized a trade
union, which was put down by arms,
when the British troops broke
strike of these water front slaves.
Unions Suppressed.
The policemen are sent from Eng
land, all husky, well-fed porkers.
There are also some favored native
flunkeys, who are taken in as po-
icemen. These are all fat while the
natives starve.
The ship stopped in Trinidad, the
island which is a paradise for the
British oil bosses, but a hell-hole
in the tropics for the natives. The
workers are practically all slavse
in the oil fields. Conditions in Trini-
dad are even worse than in the Bar
BADGES. All labor organizations
have been crushed by the British
imperialist forces.
Trinidad Workers Starve.
The natives have been reduced
to starvation. When l sneaked some
bread from the pantry of the Van
dyck and gave it to some native
workers, they were happy fog
once, for it was like a miracle to
them.
Teaching Slave a Lesson"
was caught by the chief steward
of the Vandyck while giving the
starving Negro workers in Trinidad
this bread, and he gave me extra
work ''to teach you lesson, as he
said. He used to get sore as hell
when he saw me talking to the rsa-
tive workers, both on ship and
ashore.
The oil workers in Trinidad are
all unorganized.
In the Barbados, due to the
starvation, thousands of prostitutes
walk the streets, and offer to sell
themselves for % cents. This is the
result of British imperialist and ca
pitalist rule.
Thousands Jobless In Buenos Ayres.
There are many thousands unem-
ployed in Buenos Ayres, Argentine,
where the boat stayed IT days. The
Communist Party is strong, and
growing stronger. ! stopped in the
Communist Party newspaper there.
The tramwaymen in Buenos Ayres
get 35 pesos week (about $3.50 a
week.. Dock laborers get 35 pesos
a week (about $17.50).
The clothing workers work from
6 a. IN. to II p. m. in Buenos Ayres.
All work under the contract or sweat
shop system of slavery.
The strongest and most highly