The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-09-15

Congress has come right to the forefront in this
situation and is in fact acting as the center of
the Labor Party. The Trades Union Congress
which opens at Bristol on September 7th, will
be of vital Importance. The T. U. C's proposals
previously rejected by the Labor Cabinet now
hold the field although the proposed revenue
tariff has not yet been officially taken up by
the Labor Party The General Council pro-
poses tax on fixed rest-bearing securities,
suspension of the sinking fund, mobilization of
international investments, a revenue tariff and
conversion loan. Most of the proposals will prob
ably be taken up by the National Government
but not alternatives to the Economy Plan.
A conversion loan is favorably discussed in
the Times and it is admitted by the Cabinet
that next years budget will include proposals
for new taxation. The suspension of the sinking
fund is inevitable. The mobilization of the in
ternational investments has already begun and
tariffs is the official policy of the Conservatives
although it is too controversial an issue for the
National" Government to carry through
The General Council is concentrating all at
te0tiOn on how to balance the Budget in order
to avoid the question of how to fight against
the Economy Plan which the National Govern
ment is putting through at lightning speed.
The alternative economy plans and the advice
to wait until the next general election and then
return a majority of Labor MPs is the sum
total of the official Labor policy
In this situation the Communist Party is con-
centrating on building up the united front of
the workers behind the simple fighting slogans
of:
Not one penny off the Dole"
Not one worker off Benefit
Not one penny off wagesl
Not one penny off Teachers Salaries!
Not one penny extra taxation on the Peoples
Food
Down with the National" Government
Clearly this is the line of working class re-
sistance. Those are the slogans that concen-
trate tina struggle on the real issues of working
class resistance instead of the false scent of how
to balance the Budget. The test of any trade
union or labor leader who says he is in oppos-
ton to the National" Government is will he
pledge himself to fight on this basis and having
given the pledge actively help in the factories,
or at the labor exchanges and on the streets, not
in the sham opposition at Westminster.
The Communist Party is not for one moment
renouncing its basic revolutionary propaganda
for the revolutionary way out of the crisis of
capitalism Workers Dictatorship, the popular
agitation for the reputation of the War Debt
and the placing of all burdens of the crisis on
the shoulders of the capitalists and the cam
paign for the Workers Charter as the line of
working class advance. But at the present mo-
ment this is propaganda, not the slogans of
action.
The Communist Party and Minority Movement
are endeavoring to express the fighting opposi-
ton by every means in their power BY mass
meetings and demonstrations resolutions in the
trade union branches, local labor parties and CO.
operative societies, the lid is being lifted off the
seething cauldron of discomfort Above all the
drive is being made in the factories, mills and
mines; at the labor exchanges the unemployed
organization is being strengthened and broad
ened. The Party has not issued the slogan of
strike action but urges the necessity of careful
preparation. The fight against the Economy
Plan and for the defense of the UNEMPLOYED is
bound up with the defense of wages and only
strike action can prevent wage cuts. The wages
fight is now on and will become ten times sharp
er in the near future Cotton operatives, ship
yard workers, miners, lockers furniture work.
ers, etc. are all facing wage cuts and the prep
aration of strike action is a direct urgent
QUESTION.
The Party has avoided premature calls for the
formation OF committees of action because only
as the mass agitation develops will it be pos
siole to elect united front committees Charter
committees and strike committees Such pre-
mature organizational steps could lead to isola-
ton, especially as one of the outstanding tasks
at the present moment is the work within the
reformist unions and the winning of the dis
contented membership for revolutionary mass
struggle.
Already there are many indications of the
fighting mood of the masses. In Glasgow ten
thousand workers matched through the streets
in q great demonstration in which the Commu-
mist Party played a leading part from s. Wales
London, Dundee, Manchester and other great