The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-29
S hipyard
Worker Asks
About War
Navy Not Being Built
By US. Imperialism
for Defense
By a Worker Corresnondent

by a WORKER correspondent
BROOKLYN, N. we got back
five per cent Of our cut and we're
getting back another five per cent
in July. Our hours have been cut
from A to 10 per week. We were
getting one day off every two weeks
without pay, now we are working
full time. There were about 1900
of us laid off, now they are all COM
ing back.
1t looks like prosperity is coming
back to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
New machines, up-to-th minute
stuff are being installed in a lot
of the shops.
The fleet is on its way to New
York. That means more work for
us here in the yard The Vinson
Bill has gone through, money has
been appropriated for over 20 ships,
we will probably get our share here
in the yard. That all means we
will have steady work for the next
couple Of years.
Now, the Communists tell us that
a war is coming, and that we should
fight against war, and that the
very fact that we are building more
battleships proves it. They also tell
us that it is against our interests
to build more battleships.
But isn't it so, that building ships
is our job? And a job means money
to live with? And isn't it so that
all the papers tell us that if we
have the largest navy, then nobody
would dare tackle us, and so we
would keep out of war Therefore
we are building ships for peace.
OF course I wouldn't want to see
another war, I remember the other
one too we'll. Desires, I have two
sons who are old enough to go in
case of war. Of course, I don't be-
lieve any of this patriotic bunk about
Defending democracy" etc.
I would like to see a few remarks
about the position we, workers in
the yard, are placed in with regard
to war and the building of battle
ships.
Yours truly,
j. M.
Editors N0te.-With millions of
dollars invested in foreign markets
to exploit the people living in the
Latin American countries and in
Asia, the American finance capital
lists are building up the greatest
navy in American history not for
defense of American shores but
to guard and to expand their field
of exploitation. In their effort to
find new markets abroad, because
they have no place for their money
in their own country where people
are starving because of over
production, the American bosses
come into conflict with Jap
anese, French and British robbers
who have the same trouble. That
is what the navies of all capitalist
countries are being built up for
not for defense" but for robbery of
colonial peoples.
Shipyard workers may for a time
get five per cent increase, but ex-
perience has shown that in the
competition between the big capt.
taliSt robbers and contractors, wages
are finally cut again unless the
workers organize for struggle.
But the most important thing for
all workers to remember is that no
bribery in the form of small wage
raises can replace the loss of life
that threatens workers and their
children in the next world butchery
toward which all iHperialist coun-
tries are rushing. The shipyard
workers must organize with all other
workers to fight war now, and to
fight to defend the workers father
land, the Soviet Union, the only
land where all workers are sure of
getting jobs without having to pray
for a war fever to give them jobs
for few years.