The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-07-07
NATIONAL CONFERENCE Of
WORKERS INTL RELIEF


the strike struggle and its fighters.
In view of the splitting activity of the re-
formist leaders and organizations and their
open selling out of the workers struggle, the
W. l. R. also had to become an important
agency of unity in the struggles. The
Solidarity of Deeds" the actual help by dis
tribution of food clothing, administered with
out any discrimination, to all races and ma
tionaties, to unorganized workers and I'M
skilled masses--had necessarily to become the
basis for a broad mass unity in the struggle
against the 6isintegratng influence of re-
formism.
In order to establish the unity of the masses,
the W. l. R. had to use every effort to strength
en- the revolutionary unions strike commit
tees as the strategic instruments of the mass
struggle. 1t had to organize around them as
strategic centers.
International Solidarity Decisive in Giant
Glass Battles.
During nine years of its existence the w. l.
R. participated in nearly every important
struggle of the international working class
The W. I. R. organized historical solidarity
campaign for the German working class in
1928, when the German and international bour-
geoise united in gigantic onslaught against
the German workers in order to crush the
forces of the German revolution and prepare
the ground for the colonization of Germany
and the Dawes and Young plans. The W. I. R.
at this time conveyed to the struggling Ger
man proletariat the solidarity of the work
ers of the world. The strikers of the mining,
metal, transportation and chemical industries
received $3.50 900 donations from their fellow
workers.
In 1925 and 1926, at the time of the out
break of the first wave of the Chinese Revolu-
ton, the w. l. R. responded to the call of the
All-China Labor Unions and had sent along
with the Russian Trade Union Congress more
than $250000 as a solidarity donation to the
strikers of Canton and Shanghai. In 1925 the
W. I. R. also assisted the first struggles of
the young Indian textile proletariat during
the Bombay strike movements.
The British general strike in 1926 and the
subsequent heroic struggle of the British min
ers found the w. l. R. at its post. Its world
wide campaign brought S105,000 for the sup
port of the British workers.
In the mining fields of Belgium, among the
textile and metal workers of Northern France
in 1926 and 1927 the W. l. R. gave important
demonstrations of international working-class
solidarity In 1928 the strike of the metal
workers of the Ruhr and the coal-dggers of
central Germany were the ma or actions
w. l. R. Important in Struggles of the Third
Period.
Presently we witness important changes in
the character of mass struggles internationally
They came about because growing cpntradic-
tions are SCATTERING the structure of capitalist
Sterilization" In order to postpone the ap-
preaching catastrophe the master class is
sharpening the exploitation of the workers by
naturalization and by opposing the unholy
alliance of ownership, state and social-fascist
organizations to the growing proletarian Of
fensve.
The recent Southern textile strikes in Gas
tonia are showing the growing significance of
strike struggles of this character in the United
States. At the same time they also show the
tremendous Importance of mass relief or
ganizaton as the w. I. R.. which practically
demonstrates the Solidarity of Deeds" to I'M
organized and unskied masses, playing now
a militant and decisive role in all struggles.
In order to foster the leadership of the
revolutionary unions in the unorganized and
unskiled masses, in order to unity them in
the struggle against the new "front of the I'M
holy alliance" the w. l. R. as an agency of
mass relief, of contact and approach, is more
important than ever. The looming new mass
struggles and their specific character require
a powerful W. |. R. organization on mass basis
all over America.
w. l. r. and Unemployed.
The chronical unemployment arisen as an
other consequence of the naturalization is
new emergency of the working class in this
period and must have the attention of the
w. |. R. Here the W. l. R. cannot follow the
reactonary activities of socialist and bour-
geois charity apostles. 1t must. however, help
the unemployed workers to organize them
selves, to fight for "work or wages" for an
all inclusive system of state social insurance
for the 7-hour day, 5-day week and all other
basic demands. This fight can only be carried
on by an active alliance of unemployed and
employed workers.
The w. /. r. must, therefore, especially use
every effort to create brOtherly bond between
workers in the factory and unemployed work
ers on the street by its campaign.
National Conference on July 6.
These problems and the building of the W..
l. R. on a mass basis are the tasks before the
First National Conference of the w. !. R. in
the United States in Chicago.
On the eve of the historical struggles Of the
American working class, the foundation of a
powerful orgacization for the support of mass
struggles must be established, in order to
tighten the bonds of solidarity between the
fighting vanguard and the decisive main
masses of the proletarian army.