The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-03-14


thrown into prison or driven out
Of the state. Leaders of the de-
tense and relief forces and the Or
ganizers Of the National Miners
Union are now being held in prison
at PineVille and Harlan, Kentucky.
JailS Are Filling
Jails are filling with the best
fighters Of the working class in
all great population centres. Near
ly two years have passed since the
vicious war was opened on the agri.
cultural workers in Imperial Valley,
California, with the leaders Iof
these workers still buried alive in
the San Quentin and Folsom pri-
son tombs. The Centralia prisoners
in Washington are still held in the
WaIla Walla Prison. Nearly two
score Of the most courageous fight~
ers OF the Western Pennsylvania
mine strike are held in the infam-
GUS Allegheny County workhouse
at Blawnox, where the vile con-
ditions resulted in the death Of Sam
Resetar from tuberculosis and heart
disease.
Anti-labor laws are being sharp
ened or new ones being put on
the statute books. The use Of the
criminal syndicalism laws grows,
resulting in the wiping out Of all
senablance Of workers rights Of
speech, press and assemblage, the
right to organize, to strike, to pick
ct and self-defense. The deport~
alton drive Of the Hoover-Doak-
Hunger government wldens. The
right Of political asylum is COM
pletely abolished. The effort grows
to outlaw not only the Communist
Party, but the Trade Union Unity
League and all its affiliated unions
and other militant organizations Of
the working class. Demagogy and
terror go hand in hand. Mayor
Walker, Of New York City, rushes
to San Francisco pleading hypo-
critically for the release Of Tom
Mooney in an effort to divorce this
issue from the class struggle, while
the bloody attacks on workers in
creases, not only In New York but
everywhere over the land. The
savage attack on labor's most mil
liant section is the effort Of the
ruling class to impose its jobless-
hunger regime on the whole work
ing class. At the same time, how
ever, 1t strives desperately to create
the illusion that the murder and
jailings Of Reds" or Communists,
does not concern the working class
as a whole.
The Paris Commune Lives
All these ruling class methods, Of
murder, of assassination, Of lynch
ing, OF jailings, Of the chain gang,
Of deception, of the suppression Of
all workers rights, makes clearer
for the working class in this coun-
try the meaning Of the mass
slaughter Of the Partisan workers
81 years ago, as the boss class
method Of drowning in blood the
mighty effort Of labor to break
through the chains Of capitalist
oppression.
The Paris Commune lives today,
more significant than ever for
American labor, in the 18th year
Of the triumphant Commune Of the
Russian workers, and in the Fourth
and victorious year Of the Five
Year Plan. Socialist economy
grows daily stronger, all class dis
tinctions disappear under the Sow
let Power that is bringing half Of
Europe and one-third Of Asia
rapidly to the threshold Of Com
munism
The Anniversary OF the Paris
Commune, with It's 100000 mar
tyred dead, is particularly the Me-
mortal Day OF the international
Labor Defense. Not only a day Of
commemoration, however, but day
of developing new and greater
struggles.
During and since the world war
the workers of many countries have
followed in the path Of the Paris
Commune, Hoover the hunger
president, led the forces Of Wall
Street Imperialism that helped des-
troy the Hungarian and the Bava-
rina Soviet Republics. Dollar In
tervention also helped defeat the
Canton Commune In China In De-
cember, 1927. But the Soviet
Power Of the Chinese worker and
peasant masses grows, learning how
to fortify itself against all foes.