The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-01-22
lsy VERA RUCH.

cOnScrlpleQ by the hundreds OF thou
sands to work in the factories
Women will manufacture the ma
terials Of war for the ruling class.
No longer will it be a case of 1917,
when America came tardily into the
conflict, throwing in little Of its
resources in comparison with the Eu-
ropean powers. Even in 1917-191S
tens of thousands of women and
Girls in the United States worked in
factories, making munitions-shells,
powder and bullets--and hundreds of
thousands of others worked in other
industries directly connected with
the war, such as food and garment
manufacture.
But in the next world war. in
which America, as the towering
giant of Imperialism, the most pow
erful capitalist country of the whole
world, will either be the aggressor
or at any rate one of the chief par
Elephants in the conflict. One of the
first wartime measures will be the
passage of acts conscripting the
whole working class and lower
middle class population, not only
men, but women and children as
we'll, for the bloody service of the
capitalist murderers.
Men will be drafted for the army
and navy and women and children
Will take their places in steel mill
and auto plant, in shell, powder and
chemical factory, as we'll as in the
second line war industries of food
and clothing and in agriculture.
Upon the working class women will
rest the burden of keeping the war
going.
Realizing this, it becomes imme-
diately apparent how extremely vital
it is to win the working class women
for the struggle against imperialist
war and for the proletarian revolu-
ton. 1t is essential for the imper-
lists plans that the women should
be inspired with enthusiasm, with
sacred zeal, not only to sacrifice
their men on the battlefield. but also
personally to give their all for the
"stars and stripes" in the shape Of
Shaving long hours in the factories,
speeding-up and sweating to rush
out munitions orders, risking life
and limb in dangerous manufacture
of shells and chemicals, etc.
The working class must snatch its
women from the imperialists' poi
sonous embrace. 1t must win the
women so that their heroism and de-
votion will be all for the working
class. There must be won over at
once, in each wartime industry, at
least a group of women workers who
understand the nature Of the smper-
ialist war as struggle only for cap
italist markets and capitalist prof
it's, who will rally and organize the
ether women around them SO that in
time of war the women producers
will strike and will refuse to turn
cut war materials for the govern
ment.
The women must be won over SO
that they will join in the struggle
Of the whole working class to turn
the imperialist war into a civil wal
between the exploited and the ruling
classes, to turn the arms in the
workers hands, not against the
workers of other countries, but
against the employers of the home
country.
This is not a task of the dim fu-
ture, it is the task of TODAY. Every
day brings new signs OF the quick
approach Of the next world war
War industries are uniting in huge,
vastly powerful super-trusts (Gen-
eral Motors combined with U. S.
Steel and DuFond Powder; chemical
combines, Intelligence" combines Of
telegraph and radio, etc..
The naturalization drive, which
the employers. faced with the bit
terest competition in other countries
for the colonial markets, must enter
into increasingly in order to put
their industries in the most eff
cient and economical shape possible,
cooa On anoco Weak firms and
uneconomical factories are elimin-
ated; workers organizations are
smashed and their leaders corrupted;
exploitation is increased by speed
UP and wage-cuts; technical organ
ization Of industry is improved; pro-
Guctive processes become simple and
monotonous, women and youth in
creasingly replace men.