The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-06-10
By ST GERSON.

the development OF Cne new proleIarlaI IN Jne
South, and second, with the internal develop
ment of our Party.
1t is from these two approaches that
must anayze the work of our Party in the
South, its achievements and shortcomings.
There are three characteristics basic to the
South which must first of all be understood.
They are:
(1) The South has been and, in certain
sections still is primarily an agricultural sec
ton, where almost semi-feudal conditions
have obtained and to an extent, still obtain.
The rapid flow of capital from the North into
the South, capital that seeking cheap,
unorganized, unskilled, labor power, proximity
to the sources of raw material (cotton), and
cheap water-power, found a paradise in the
South. This process has left its imprint deep
on every bit of the economic and political life
of the South In the wake of the tremen-
dously rapid industrialization of the South
came a new proletariat, Anglo-Saxon whites
or Negroes, off the farms and mountainside,
unused to industry, bringing with them their
traditions of individualism, their low cultural
level and their racial and religious prejudices.
They came into the most modern type of in
dustry, where naturalization knew no bounds
beyond that of human endurance--that is,
they made the jump from agriculture directly
into large-scale industry mainly controlled by
finance capital without any intermediate steps
of small industry.
(2) An almost unheard of degree of me-
chanization and naturalization exists in the
decisive industries of the South. The result
is a high percentage of women and youth $50
per cent in every industry except the heavy
STEEL lumber, transport-and there while
women are not found, there are many young
workers, although not as many as in textile
and rayon, for instance). This means that,
with the exception of the printing and build
ing trades and small percentage of workers
in transport, there is no considerable stratum
of the aristocracy of labor. AS consequence
there is no great objective base for the tradi-
tional A. F. of L. policy of getting a few
measly concessions for the skilled at the cost
of worsening conditions for the unskilled
masses.
(3) The racial-national problem. The Ne
gro population of the South is said to be about
100000, the majority being on the land, al
though ever greater sections are coming into
industry tobacco, steel, marine transport In
certain sections of the South the Negroes
form the majority.
Our Party in the South.
With these objective factors in mind we
must now turn to the subjective factors in
volved, the most important of which, of course,
is our Party. In no other section of the coun-
try, perhaps, is the effect of the internal de-
velopments of our Party so apparent as in the
South. Here more than ever the dead hand
of the past was often felt on the present
Many Party comrade working in the South
has fervently cursed the heritage" that Love-
stone left US.
In the first place the Party came into the
South at least two years after events de-
manded that it should have. Southern work
ers themselves tell us that revolutionary
unionism and our Party should have come
about 1927, when the stretch-out fust come"
that is, when the first effects of the interna-
tional crisis in the textile industry were being
translated to the workers in terms of wage
cuts and speed-up answered in the North by
the Passaic strike and later by the New Bed
ford strike) But the Party was paralyzed by
the famous Lovestone theory of the South as
RESERVOIR of reaction"
When the Party did come into the South it
was ideologicaly and organizationally unpre-
pared for the coming events. The Gastonia
strike broke with almost elemental force over
us and, although it was to certain extent
prepared for by the N. T. w. u, it neverthe-
less caught most of the left swing and the
Party hitherto paralyzed by the Lovestone OPP
portunist theories, unprepared The southern
workers, however, were electrified by the Gas
tonia strike. Strikes broke out in Bessemer
City, Lexington, Pineville, (which came under
the leadership of the N.T.W.U Strikes also
occurred in Greenville and Ware Shoals, S. c.,
under U.TW. leadership. There also a
number of spontaneous strikes at about the
same time. the impetus to which was undoubt-
eddy given by the Gastonia strike.
Gastona.
The traditional tagging behind events soon
manifested itself in the mistakes made in the
strike itself, the failure to give. it sufficient
support, the real lack of perspective of the
center--all flowing from the originally wrong
and as yet (the Address had not yet arrved)
current theory of Lovestones regarding Amer
lean imperialism in general and the South in
particular. There steady dwndling of
the strike until June 7th, when there was a
resurgence of strike feeling. The events of
that night need no repeating. Suffice, it to
say that June 7th put the question of the or
ganization of the southern workers sharply
before the Party. Coming on the heels Of the
Comintern Address it was like a lightning
flash at night, illuminating the landscape. The
Party despite some political hesitatons Che
wrong frame up" slogan, etc. plunged itself
into this campaign, correctly placing the issue
and, on the whole, correctly fighting the cam
pagn against the electric chair for the 16
workers on trial for their lives.
During the trial itself, there was constant
pressure exerted to avoid politcalizng the
issue. This was especially exertel by liberal
supporters. like the American Civil Liberties
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