The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-12-17
report of Herbert Benan,ins Speech National Hunger
Marches December 9TH Refrnes Capitalist Press Lies

- ~VF~~
well, now the election is over, now
there is no need for such talk, we
have been elected, now we will give
them dose of the same kind Of med
icine they had before"
They thing that by these means
they are going to discourage the
Hunger Marchers. We say to you:
You won't stop the Hunger Marchers
because you will not provide food
and lodgings for them. (Shouts Of
hurrahD
You won't stop the Hunger March
ers by trying to intimidate them with
your weapons. The only way, and
only time that the Hunger March
ers will stop is when there will not be
hunger. (Shouts of Hurrah!)
Fellow workers, We are going to q
Congress which is controlled by q
majority of the members of that Par
ty that made such lovely promises
to us few short weeks ago. We
are going to a Congress, both Houses
Of which are under the control of
the Democratic Party. And if they
have the intention to provide relief,
they would have demonstrated 1t al
ready now by their attitude towards
the Hunger Marchers.
And we know, and we must draw
the attention of the entire working
class to the fact, that their attitude,
their treatment Of the elected dele
gates Of the unemployed representa-
tiyes, is a fair example of the kind
Of conditions that they intend to i'm
pose upon the toiling population Of
this country and We here today, and
we are going to Congress tomorrow,
to say we will do our damnedeSt to
prevent them from imposing such
conditions. (Shouts Of HurrahD
Win Workers Through Struggle
The conditions undeE which we
meet does not permit of that thoro
discussion of our problems which we
of the National Committee would
have liked to arrange, but on the
other hand, they provide SUCH living
arguments for the program that we
must put forward that less discussion
is therefore made necessary. We
know what our task is. Whatever
little relief we have won has come
only as result of our militant strug-
gle. They tried to make us submit
to eYictions from our homes by the
use Of such forces as we see arrayed
here But they didn't succeed. They
murdered three workers in Chicago
for fighting against evictions but the
struggle swept the city and made
them stop evictions, whether they
liked it or not. (Shouts Of hurrahD
The Minute Men of 1882
They fired into demonstration of
unemployed at the City Hall in st.
Louis, in an effort to make them sub
nit to a decision that 1900 families
shall be cut off the relief roles, but
the workers there in demonstration
made such vigorous resistance that
the authorities of st. Louis found it
necessary to restore these $4,000 fam
lilies to the relief roles.
From these experiences, we know
what our task is if we would enjoy
the right to live. We know that wo
can enforce our right to live only
by our united might, and therefore,
the big task ahead of us is to unite
our power by bringing greater masses
into the sweep of our movement, to
organize them. We have come for
ward with the resolution that not
one unemployed or his family shall
be without housing, without decent
food and clothing during the present
winter. We have made great step
forward towards ensuring this by our
national Hunger March because in
every city and town We have created
minute-men of 1882 who will stand
guard over the homes Of the Amer
lean working class and prevent these
workers from being eVicted out Of
their homes. (Shouts Of hurrahD
Marcher An Organizer
We have established minute-men in
thousands Of neighborhoods and
blocks who viii stand guard to see
to it that no family starves because
they will be able, by organized mass
pressure, to compel the authorities
to provide relief. That is the purpose
of our Hunger March and that is the
purpose Of our struggles for which
this Hunger March is only a prelude,
only an introduction, a beginning.
When we go back to our various COM
munities, each and every one of us
Will be provided with a card identify
ing him as an organizer of the IN
employed Councils of the United
States. Shouts of hurrahD
Each and every one of us will I'M
d,rtake to build up, to develop, that !
necessary unity of the workers in the !
neighborhoods, factories, on the
breadlines ard in the Lighthouses, so
that it will % possible for us to en-
force our demands. We will leave |
Washington with our hearts steeled |
with greater determination to go for
ward in struggle We will leave |
Washington feeling not that our task |
is already done, but realizing that our
task has but just begun. We will |
leave after having presented to Con-
gress our demand that the federal |
government shall supplement the |
Dr. ssent miserable local relief bv pro- |
viding for every unemployed $50 as
cash winter relief. Shouts of Hur- |
rah)
No Let I'm Until Relief rs Won
We will leave after we heve pre-
sented TO CONGRESS our demands, OFT |
ayn7riences. opr determination to |