The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-02-05

I OF Cne C0mlnLern winch nave Deell Coi1hih
in the further shaking up of capitalist stabil-
ization and by the general sharpening OF class
struggles, pointing to the beginning of an
economic crisis in the United States as an
event of the greatest historical Importance,
marking the beginning of that general crisis
of capitalism which the 10th Plenum predicted.
The Political Committee of the Communist
Party of the U. S. A. in its resolution on the
Economic Crisis and the Party Tasks" has
carefully analysed the present situation, point
ing out the deep going economic crisis already
gripping the country, which will become one
of the most far-reaching crises in the history
of capitalism, involving the whole capitalist
world. 1t is the duty of every League men,
Der to study all the facts indicating the SER
iousness of this crisis which is as yet only IN
its first stages, and the perspectives for its
extension. Only by understanding the full
significance of this crisis, by struggling
against all tendencies to underestimate the
deep nature of the crisis and its consequence,
by re-orientating all it's activities to meet the
demands of the crisis-can the League prepare
itself for the performance of those gigantic
tasks which the new situation presents.
The capitalist class will try to come out of
this crisis, first of all, at the expense of the
working class through the creation of mass
unemployment and intensified attacks upon
wages and working conditions, and secondly,
at the expense of their imperialst rivals, of
the oppressed masses in the colonies and semi
colonies and by means of new and sharper at
tacks against the Soviet Union. The new
capitalist offensive, which will find especial
reflection in the worsening of the conditions
of that most exploited section of the working
class, the young workers, will call forth STU
pendous struggles on the part of the workers
w. Yhio fha will 111a
creasingly important role. The new attacks
upon the colonial masses will create a new
revolutionary wave in the colonies Undia,
Haiti, etc., The sharpening of the contradic
lions between the imperialists themselves and
especially between the capitalist world and
the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics con-
fronts us with the immediate danger of war:
the main danger of against the Soviet
Union and the danger of new world war be-
tween the imperalsts themselves, especially
between Great Britain and the United States.
The Crisis and the Young Workers.
II. The analysis of the conditions of the
young workers by the Leagues Fifth National
Convention has been fully confirmed by recent
developments The tendencies for the grow
ing role of the youth in production and in the
class struggle not only have become definite
facts but are being further accentuated with
the development of the crisis. The economic
crisis also increases the proportion of young
workers in industry, and the weight of the
working youth in the basic industries min
ing, auto, steel, etc..
This increase in the relative importance of
the young workers in industry also subjects
the youth to ever greater exploitation and
suits in an especially strong rehabilitation
among the working youth. The definite low
ering of the standard of living of the young
workers, the marked reduction in their wages,
their greater physical exhaustion, which al
ready showed itself in connection with capt.
talist naturalization, will show itself to an
ever greater extent with the development of
the crisis. The intensified attacks against the
working class called forth by the economic
crisis will be felt especially by the young
workers. These young workers, already work
ing at top speed and receiving wages far be-
low the level of existence, will least of all be
able to accept the speed-up and wage cuts
which will ensue and among the first to join
the counter offensive of the workers against
TIL capitalist offensive
-4us the economic crisis Is causing the
young workers to move to the left at an ex-
tremely rapid pace. This growing activity on
the part of the young workers finds expression
in the ever increasing number of youth strikes,
in the participation of the young workers in
the general struggles of the workers and in
the extreme militancy and higher level of
these struggles The crisis will further in
crease the number of youth strikes at the same
time that the tendency of these youth strikes
to pass rapidly into general struggles of the
workers in the factory and industry will be-
come ever more marked. The active partici-
patton of the young workers in all recent
strikes (Gastonia, Elizabethton, Illinois, etc.,
their relatively good response on Red Day, In
ternational Youth Day, and in the Haiti dem
onstrations; their active participation in the
Trade Union Unity Convention; their response
to Party and League shop papers and cam
paigns-shows to what extent the youth are
becoming one of the most militant sections of
the working class and one of the strongest
forces in the struggle against the consequences
of capitalist naturalization and for the final
overthrowing of the capitalist system
The already large unemployment among the
young workers is rapidly increasing with the
further development Of the crisis. Although
relatively the young workers are not so much
effected by unemployment as the adult work
ers, the young workers hard hit by the
big lay-offs which come in the wake of over
production as an outstanding feature of the
crisis. The low wages which they previously
received means that they are Immediately con-
fronted with actual starvation, at the same
time are given second place in what little re-
lief may be given to the unemployed. Those
young workers who remain at work suffer the
most extreme worsening of their conditions.
Those young workers who are unemployed feel
in the most drastic way its effects In those