The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-11-24
MASS STRUGGLE AGAINST
SUPPRESSION AND THE
WAR DANGER

ClSlYS SeCGlOQS OF q communist RaTUy, 1OfClnR
illegality upon it is the worst blow that the CAPT
talists can deliver to the Party and the working
class. But Communist Party never accepts
an illegal status. 1t fights for every possible
avenue of legal expression and activity and for
its right to work openly and freely.
The best protection against illegahty Is of
course powerful mass movement in all fields
Of struggle. An indispensable part Of such a
movement, especially when inlperallst war in
such a powder magazine as the Fax East has
already begun, is the united front Of HE working
class, and its allies among the intelloctuals, ex-
plotted farmers, etc, against all forms of sup
preston of the working class and its organiza-
tons.
Just as the line of Lennsr1 against imperial
st war is to fight against 1t NOW and not
walt until it begins, the struggle for the legal
status Of the Communist Party must not wait
uniI IL has actually been forced into illegality,
but must be an integral part of every mass
struggle.
Millions of workers now realize clearly for the
first time that capitalism will not guarantee
living even to those who are able and willing
TO work that they have to fight for the right
to work, that they have to fight for the right
to live This is an elementary struggle which
raises very sharply the question Of power. 1t
raises sharply before workers the whole ques-
ton of the right of the capitalist class and
its government TO condemn millions to poverty,
hunger, disease and death.
It raises the whole question of the right to or
sanze and carry on fight for the right to live
When such basic questions are in the minds
of millions, capitalism is in dangerous way
Its spokesman know very well the value OF agtt-
alton and propaganda. They know the value of
49,
of an unhampered press. They know the value
of organization. They know the value Of force.
They know very well the danger to capitalism
in its present decadent stage Of those popular
liberties which gave it strength in its childhood
1t is here that reformist and so-called liberal
organizations create grave dangers for work
ing class which is beguiled by their activities
always and everywhere devoted to perpetuating
illusions relative to capitalist democracy Under
this head came the activities Of socialist leaders
like Norman Thomas the Civil Liberties Union
and other middle class organizations whose
members become alarmed by the careless brut-
atty with which the capitalists forcble sup
preston from time TO time.
Concerned lest the decisive sections of the
working class lose all faith in capitalism fright
ened lest the continual shift from republican to
democrat party and vice-versa-with an occa-
sional interim of socialist" city government here
and there-no longer serves to conceal the whole
anti-working class character of capitalism and
all its political parties these elements rush in
and protest every so often-as warning to the
capitalists to watch their step, to be more adroit
to preserve the outer garments of capitalism
in better repair, to deck out and rejuvenate the
cruel bag of capitalist democracy.
Their purpose is to head off mass movement
for elementary rights-to operate so that one
capitalist institution appears to be more de
mocratic" than another judge more favor
able to the workers, one governor more friend
ly," one sheriff less brutal one police chief more
tender hearted. In other words, TO show to
workers that it is not the system that is bad but
only the bad old men who run It,
For this reason it is necessary that Commun-
lists take more seriously the whole question of
the struggle for the right to organize, to strike,
the right Of free speech and assemblage etc. 1t
is necessary further to curb all tendencies to dis
miss such struggles with the thought that they
are of minor character, that these rights can
not be won under capitalism and other excuses
for doing little if anything about the increasing
denial of these rights, Of increasing legal sup
preston, of increasing fascist tendencies and
methods.
For months, while the terror was at its height
in Harlan there was very little done to make the
oaSlc issues OF the struggle there the central
point of sweeping nationwide campaign. This
should have conceded with the strike
struggle and have been tower of strength for
1t. The attention attracted by the Dresser Com
mittee and to the prosecutions launched against
its members following the great publicity given
to their exposure of Kentucky terrorism, shows
that there is a widespread response to the ap-
peal in behalf of the Harlan miners that can
not be accounted for merely by the prominence
of the Dresser Committee members.
American workers win support such struggles,
they will fight themselves in huge masses on
ju5t such issues
These issues must not be left in the hands
Of the reforn1ists and capitalist party denla-
gogues.
The fight for the right to organize and strike.
to picket, to free speech, for the right to as
sembe freely, against all forms Of police per-
degenerates maintained for war on workers by
the big corporations ETC., today involve all the
basic issues of the class struggle beginning with
the right to work and live. These issues and the
mass struggles centering around them now take
on profound revolutionary significance.
They are connected inseparably with the fight
against imperialst war and as the war situation
grows more acute they will have a still greater
Importance for the working class and its Com
munist Party.
There must be no fatalstic acceptance among
revolutonists of the inevitability of the wiping
out of all elementary rights of the workers in
the United States of the Historical" nature of
the brutality of the American ruling class, of
the 'impossibility" of winning and retaining