The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-11-24
BY BILL DUNE

which carries on its masthead the motto
the republicanism of Abraham Lincoln, the de-
mocracy of Thomas Jefferson, and the Americ-
ansrn of Theodore Roosevelt" said August 81,
in an editorial entitled THE Harlan Situation"
There has been altogether too much 1eni-
ency shown agitators of the type of men and
women in Jail in Harlan, and the sooner such
cuprits are shot at sunrise the better off the
United States will be. they should be de-
ported if possible, and II not should be made
70 face a firing squad for the protection of
society It is useless to send men and wo-
men Of the Harlan stripe of the Harlan agit-
ators to the penitentisry 90. They would be
much safer in pine box under six feet Of
ground"
During the recent strike of % 900 textile works
er5 against wage cuts in Lawrence the Law
renee Leader declared editorially on Nov. ], fol-
lowing scores of arrests and clubbings and the
mobilization of some 200 police to prohibit pick
citing:
There is need of speedy, more deter
mined more permanent. more lasting action
The police only arrest. The courts can
only penalize within the limits of the statutes
when recognized law and order unable
TO cope with serious situation In the West
some years ago-citizenry succeeded in clean
ing the place out-firing shot for shot"
These statements are quite typical, though per-
haps a little more brazen than usual, of the
capitalist press in the United States whenever
the complete control of its masters is threatened
by strikers demonstrations or other mass
tons of terribly exploited workers Thousand;
of similar quotations are available .,
The entire campaign for the release and de-
Tense of the miners of Harlan County, KY, ur
to a short time ago. as well as the strikes in
Pennsylvania, Lawrence, Patterson, show that we
have become accustomed to taking for granted
that in the United States legal" and armed sup
preston of workers fighting for higher living
standards is a matter of course that it is in
evitable, to be expected and more or less &C
cepted, that talk about the 'heroism" of the
workers involved steels them sufficiently to re-
siSt all such attacks, and can, at least to con-
siderable extent replace any real mass struggle
against the suppression of the right to organize
strike, picket, to meet and speak freely, to be
free from police interference and supervision,
freedom from searches and seizures, etc.
Net only this. But it has become an accepted
belief that the policy of coal companies. textile
companies steel companies and so on, of hiring
End maintaining private mercenary armies of
thugs rests on some kind of right which can
net be challenged successfully.
What is happening is that under the guise of
this seemingly "hardboiled" but actually senti-
mental approach to the question of the suppress
sion of workers in the United States, the mass
struggle for elementary rights is being neglected
and the rights which the capitalists never dared
to challenge seriously on q wide scale up until
the war period have been or are now being
stolen and destroyed right under our eyes.
There can be little doubt that many militant
workers and considerable number of Com
muniSts actually feel that the struggle for free
speech, the right to organize and strike, the fight
against arbitrary searches and seizures etc.
takes on reformist character when carried
over into this period of wars and revolutions.
They feel that the mass attack through big
strike struggles, mass demonstrations, and "the
fight for the streets" the struggle against i'm
perialist and for the defense of the Soviet
Union, are far more revolutionary 1t is there
fore necessary to establish the fact that the re-
Voutlonary character of demands, and of the
extent of the revolutionary struggle for them
docs not depend solely upon the demands them
selves but to what extent they embody the needs
OF the masses, their willingness to fight for them
and the extent TO which they weaken the hold
OF the ruling class on the masses, either by win
ming them by the struggle for them, or both
Furthermore the reason for the growing sup
preston and terrorism in the United States lies
in the sharpening class relationships in the in
crsa-ing instability of capitalism. The capital
the growing mass movement against their rule
force is the principal weapon of the ruling class
snd it is nonsense to say, as many good COM
ra6e3 do, that forcible suppression only adds to
The militancy of the workers, creates a wider
r. basis for the struggle, disilusions the mas
So &c
~ these statements are T. lily correct if
orr IS willing to take the long pull" view as
{ financial writer's say, but they are merely
lily philosophical and defeatist If one speaks
{ concrete possibilities of successful strug-
s cw for any one Of the scores of immediate
needs and demands of the working class
Precisely because the class relationships are
Seeming and because the world crisis has rid
0c1 millions of workers of their illusions rela~
tive to the benefcence and permanency of cap
i.1-snn. it is more than ever necessary and DOS
slbe to rally workers to fight stubbornly against
every encroachment upon the rights and privil-
EGGS which capitalism was forced to grant in its
struggle with the feudal order and to be able to
organize and carry on its system of factory pro-
duction.
Here the question of the legality or illegality of
our Party arises in connection with every strug-
gle which it organizes and leads and stimulates
One hears frequently such statements as: 1.-THE
government will not allow the Party to work
legally" or "illegaty is inevitable in this period"
Or "the Party vii soon be illegal" These SEN
timonts are heard in one form or another every
time there is new wave of arrests in connec-
ton with strikes, demonstrations or when Party
offices are raided, etc.
1t is necessary to make sharp distinction