The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-07-01
ROSE PASTOR STOKES
REVOLUTIONARY
Rv II. NJ. WIClES.

d cd. Her last days werc not of
de- pair, because she perceived the
gathering poWsr storm CT the pro-
letarian revolution. She Wa3 in the
Germany Of fascisn, but the stormy
advance of the proletarian revolution
penetrated even the walls of the hes
pital in which she lay suffering from
cancer. induced by Tammany 20
liceman's club three and e hal years
ago in an anti-impsIislist demon
stration in New York in behalf OF
the Haitian masses.
In one of her last letters TO COM
rades in the United States she eX-
pressed confidence that the Com
munist Party of Germany, steeled in
three revolutions. was marching on
the road that would lead to the pro-
leterian rcvolution--the annihilation
OF fascism and capitalism in Ger
many 1t WIS the implacable fight
OF the German Communist Party
that enabled Comrade Rose Pastor
Stokes to carry on to the last mo-
ment for her own life. In her let
ter she said
Il am watching the scene 1t
is all that keeps me alive
From her sick bed in Frankfurt she
wrote to her husband, Comrade V. J
Jerome:
Hitler speaks around the corner
tonight. The hall is in rich, res
pectable neighborhood. If 1 we're
not so i'll they'd probably throw
me out Of the country. I agitate
er'sgbody!"
She was concerned only with tht
revolution. Her own condition wa'
Of secondary Importance.
CHORTLY after Rose Pastors birth
y in Russia in 1879, the family moved
to London, where they existed ii
direst poverty on the hunger wages
of London sWeatshops When Rost
was eleven or twelve the family mi
grated to the United States. In Cleve'
land Rose worked in a cigar factor!
sweat shop. where she became acqu
ainted with the problems of worker
| in industry.
Writes for New York Paper
1t was in Cleveland that Rose frs
attempted to write for publication
Her first efforts were sent to New
York Jewish daily newspaper, TIL
Tageblstt. There was an English pag
and it was to that section that sh
contributed articles and poems. A
result of this work she was invitet
to New York to become the edito
of the letter box column.
Rose saw in this an opportunit,
to broaden the scope of her acti
vities for the working class Sh
tried to develop her understanding o
socialism. But TO her, in that period
socialism was a vague humanitarian
ism-a mixture of Edwin Markham
Man With The Hoe and Edwar
Bellamy's Looking Backward
Fought in Strike Struggles
But it was in the struggles Of tn
needle trades workers. the hotel ant
restaurant workers and in man,
other conflicts in New York that Ros
found the work most satisfying
During these strike struggles sh
would work from carly morning I'm
til late at night. helping to map gu
the campaigns, heartening the strik
ers by her speeches, fighting on tn
picket lines, Drawing arrests. 1t wa
in this period that she became on
of the most effective agitators in tn
working class movement.
The Outbreak of the World War
With the world war came the col
lapse of the Second international, a
! its chief leaders went over to tn
| side of their various governments
The American Socialist Party, durin
the two and half years between
the outbreak of the war and the en-
trance Of the United States into tn
conflict, CROPPED blindly in the MAJ
of developing contradictions of So
cialist theory and social-patrioti
practice. Hillquit, Berger and othe
leaders of the American Socialis
Party defended the infamous betray
ais of the Kaiser socialists Of Ger
many.
After the United States entered tn
war, after the Emergency Conven
ton of the Socialist Party in 81
Louis in 1917 had adopted an anti
war resolution forced through by al
aroused rank and file led by tn
future leader of the Communist Par
ty- Charles E. Ruthenberg - tn
group of which Stokes was mem
Der left the Socialist Party and cam
out openly behind the war program
OF Woodrow Wilson.
When the group of Spargo, Wall
ing, Sinclair. Stokes and others, wen
out of the Socialist Party and bega
their crusade" inf support of vii
sons war program, Rose went wit
them.
Revolutionary Upheavals in Russia
Then there burst upon the worlt
the March revolution in Russia, ant
seven months later the Bolshevik re
volution. Here, in action, was tn
refutation Of all the theories Of tn
social-patriots. She was jubilant
When the group she had followet
tried to persuade her that the Boil
sheviks were endangering the Gauss
of the allies" she refused furthe,
to follow them. 1t was then tina
she realized she was in the camp o
the enemy.
1t was then that she announced Il
Gn1a