The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-03-07
By ]. LOUIS ENGDAHL.


onslaught with the clearly intended object of
seeking to crush all labor's class struggle or
ganizations and thus paralyze the resistance
and gag the discomfort of the whole working
class.
Thus the boss class, faced with an ever
growing industrial crisis with new millions of
unemployed, seeks to outlaw the growing ra-
dicalization of the working class, to stifle the
demands of the iobless, to mask its war prep
arations and hostile maneuvers against the
Soviet Union.
The wholesale arrest and Imprisonment of
workers in Michigan pontiac, Flint and De-
troit). including Fred Beal, recently released
on extortionate bail from the textile mill own
ers' prison at Charlotte, North Carolina, fol-
lowing the anti-working class verdict and
brutal sentences in the Gastonia trial. has
dramatized before the workers of the whole
nation the drastic use that is being made OF
clearly conceived laws in the drive to illegalize
the growing activities of the Communist Party
and of the class struggle unions being carried
on under the banners of the Trade Union
Unity League, to organize the unorganized, es-
pecially in the basic industries.
The outstanding issues involved in the Gas
tonia persecution, which is the attack on the
workers of the South carried on by the en-
ploying class under the leadership of the tex
tile mill millionaires, now face the working
class nationally in an ever-sharper form as
result of this ruling class attack, which 1t
seeks to buttress with mass deportations, as
one phase of the attack on foreign-born work.
ers; wholesale arrests on minor charges as the
result of the most elemental activities OF work
ers (5905 arrests in the two-year period, 1928
1929; sos arrests during January, 1890; muir
derous police attacks on workers meetings,
picket lines and demonstrations (the shooting
down of Ella May, Steve Katovis and others),
and a new wave of lynchings against Negroes!
There are 113 workers in all now facing
11O5 years in prison under the anti-sedition
laws.
The sentencing of the seven Gastona strik-
ers and organizers to 1T years Imprisonment
was a major defeat for the whole American
working class. Since these sentences imposing
a living death on the convicted textile workers
were pronounced October 81, 1929 in North
Carolina, the employing class has attacked on
numerous fronts pennsylvania, Ohio, Michi-
gan, Illinois, California, New Jersey, with the
criminal syndicalist laws, on the statute books
Of IS states, as the chief weapon of the at
tack These exception laws not only attack
membership in the Communist Party, but IN
every other revolutionary organization and
reach not only those who advocate but also
those who "assemble with" those who advocate
q new social order.
From the steel area of Woodlawn, Pa,
strong hold of the Infamous Jones and Laugh
lin Steel Corp, the three workers Muselin
Resetar and lima, have been sent to prison
for five year terms. One week after the Gas
tonia sentences October %, 1929 the United
States Supreme Court presided over by Will
liam Howard Taft, cynically refused to even
consider their appeal One month later, No
4ho
fused to review the case and the three work
ers were Gagged away in the worst prison hell
hole of Western Pennsylvania. Brutal and
bloody "Jones and Laughlin" tyranny still
rules at Woodawn, seeking to profit by the
security that the Manvlle-Jenckes Corpora
ton feels at Gastonia, North Carolina.
Three days after the Gastonia verdict and
sentence, the trial, conviction and sentence to
as high as ten years imprisonment of the"
five women, including Yetta Stromberg, ar
rested at the Yucaipa, California, Children's
Camp, were rushed through to their inevitable
conclusion "Open Shop" Los Angeles had
scored another triumph" The Los Angeles
Chamber of Commerce and its poisonous
mouthpiece the Times claimed another victory.
The Gastonia persecution ushered in the
campaign launched against the Communist
Party in Chicago, with the arrest of of its
leading officials on sedition charges and i'm
prisonment on extreme bail. This effort to
outlaw the Communist Party in the Chicago
district of heavy industry is bulwarked by 26
additional warrants for the arrest of other
active militant workers on sedition charges.
These warrants may be served at any time.
The Gastonia verdict was the signal for the
capitalist state officialdom in Michigan to re-
fuse to make any move for the dismissal OF
the seven-year old sedition cases growing out
of the arrests august 81, 1929 of numerous
delegates attending the Communist Party con-
vention at Bridgeman, resulting in the indict-
ment of rs individuals. The court still holds
the $500 bail provided for c. E. Ruthenberg,
although he has been dead for nearly three
years. Ruthenberg was under 10 year prison
sentence when he died. Thus the court seeks
its revenge. These seven-year-od charges may
be brought into court for trial at any moment.
The same anti-sedition law is again being
used in Michigan to send workers to prison
for long terms. 1t is the weapon of the auto
mobile profiteers against the rising discomfort
of the slaves of their assembly lines.
One month after the Gastona verdict the
prosecutors doing the bidding of steel mill and
coal mine owners of Belmont County, Ohio,
were ready to go through the farce of trial
that resulted in the conviction and sentence
to ten years Imprisonment of Charles Guynn,
of the National Miners Union, Tom johnson,
Trade Union Unity League organizer and Lii
Andrews, district organizer of the Young Com
munist League. The stacked jury "deliber-
ated" five minutes before bringing in this out
rageous verdict. The "crime" had consisted of
J;.&r;br+;rc loofIo+c opd cnaa limo ut hn mill