The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-05-19
BY JOE PoRPER

NEW YORK.-The workers now engaged In
the collection Of signatures which will place the
Communist candidates on the ballot, are daily
learning Of the corruption of capitalism. In the
City Of New York, and particularly in working
class neighborhoods such as the lower East Side,
fragrant examples Of fraud and trickery are daily
uncovered,
At 223 East Second Street, there is an old
dilapidated bath house which the City Board
Of Elections Gin its List Of Registered Voters,
credits with seventeen registered voters" Bath
houses, poolroons, bawdy-houses can boast of
registrations of 'voters" that are amazing in
numbers.
1t is no less surprising when we consider the
fraud of American democracy, to learn that
the bosses will not only fake steal and VOID
votes; but that large sections of the working
class are almost completely disfranchised; de-
MED the right to vote.
Here in the fact that the Negro is barred
from the polls in the South; that the Seamen
cannot vote; that large sections of the unem-
ployed, too, cannot vote; is further revealed the
class character Of bourgeois democracy in the
United States of America.
Negro Can't Vote
Haywood Broun has stated that the l4tF1 and
18th amendments Cbestowing citizenship upon
the Negro is not enforceable. In this position
Mr.. Broun is not alone. There is not a single
socialist leader who proposes any way to stop
the brutal hunger and terror employed by the
white ruling class against militant Negro work.
ers
When we contrast this program Of betrayal
with the militant actions of the Communist
Party, in the organization of the Negro and
white sharecroppers in Camp-HiI, Alabama;
with the splendid struggles for unemployment
relief in Chicago District and Cleveland, involv-
ing thousands of Negro workers; in arousing
the working masses to the defense of the Nine
Scottsboro Boys against the vicious lynch YER
dict; only then can we understand the role Of
the Socialist party as the main social support
Of the bourgeoisie.
The position Of our enemies on this burning
question is only part Of the picture. To COM
plete the picture, we must SEE, on one side
Of the barricades, Wall Street, and the big
bourgeoisie, the Socialist party the Lovestonites
and the Trotzkyites; and on the other side, in
defense of the everyday needs of the workers,
against hunger, oppression and imperialist war;
the Communist Party and the revolutionary
proletariat.
seamen Can't Vote
When ships dock, it must be our duty to speak
TO the seamen explaining to them their dis
franchisement On the waterfront, to the sea-
man who Is "on the beach" (and they num-
Der thousands), a definite sentiment must be
developed among these workers against the
trickery Of the bourgeoisie
JObless Can't Vote
The unemployed workers must be reached, in
the lighthouses, on the breadlines, at the en-
ployment exchanges, and made to resent this
last insult, which renders them impotent to even
vote and thus register their indignation, their
growing resentment against the Hoover Hunger
Program.
The Constitution Of the State of New York
states "the right to vote shall not be denied to
any citizen because he or she may be wholly
or partly maintained by public or private char
ity."
And yet. is 1t not fact, that the Municipal
Lodging House "a City institution refuses
lodging to any unemployed worker for more
than one week q month? And does not the
Election Law requires legal residence? And
does not the bosses hunger drive force workers
out Of their homes into the streets2