The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-03-30
by W. NJ. HOLMES.

When the 500 Hunger Marchers"
marched into Trafalgar Square Feb.
Cd, to be greeted by a tremendously
enthusiastic demonstration of $4,000
workers, two facts emerged with
striking force.
One was that the Communist
Party-which, through the National
Unemployed Workers Committee
movement IN. U. w. C. NJ, had
single-handed led the march against
the solid front of reformist sabot-
age-had scored remarkable tri-
umph: Tor the demonstration in the
Square was easily the largest that
had been seen since the great I'M
employed demonstrations in 1922.
New Wave of Militancy.
The other was that the depression
that has overhung the working class
in Britain during 1927 and 1928 is
slowly but surely lifting; new wave
Of militancy is on the way. These
two facts are indeed not two sepa-
rate facts at all, but two aspects of
one basic fact.
But the triumphant London dem
onstration was only the eliminating
point in the march. All along their
line of route the half-dozen main con-
tingents met with enthusiastic well
comes from the rank and file work
ers-welcomes that were the more
tangible by reason of their contrast
with frequent hostility of the local
reformists, who followed the lead of
the Trades Union Congress General
Council not to recognize" the
march Ior to assist the marchers
in any way.
Just how complete was the bar
rier that the reformists sought to
erect between the marchers and the
working class may be seen from the
experience of the Scottish contin-
gent. In the course of their four
hundred miles march from Glasgow
to London, occupying five weeks,
this contingent only once had an Of
ficial reception from a local Trades
Council and Labor Party, and that
was at Watford, a few miles outside
London.
Coerce Reformists.
The barrier was virtually COM
4 rlete; and yet experience showed
that it was only a paper barrier
In some cases the workers forced
4 the local reformist leaders to I'M
ldertake the reception of the march
lers, as in Doncaster, where special
| delegate meeting of the Trades
Council reversed the Executives de,
Ecision not to assist the North-East
coast contingent.
In other towns sympathetic work
lers either gathered round the loca
IN. u. W. G. M. branch and the Min
ority movement group to form re
lception committee Gas at Bristol)
or else conferences Of trade uniol
branches and other working clas'
organizations in the town wer,
called, at which a reception commit
tee was elected birmingham ant
4 Stoke on Trent).
Practically without exception tn,
y Cooperative Societies along the lin
4 Of march were most generous il
their gifts of food, ETC., TO tn
marchers. And the, generosity o
bourgeois and petty-bourgeois PEG
pie stood out in strong contrast t.
the sabotage Of the reformists. /
was a frequent thing for manager
Of cinemas to give the marchers
free show, or to allow collections t
lbe taken; for mayors of towns t.
give food and tobacco to the march
Eers and to make arrangements TO
them to sleep in the town hall, AM
Ito have the use Of the municipal
baths.
Militant Demonstrations.
AT every large town, and in man
small towns too, the marchers wer
greeted ~ large and spirited demon
strations. At Mansfield ."two thou
sand attended = send-off demon