The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-11-16

=
and the Southern Tenant Farmers
Union Of Arkansas.
In response to a formal proposal
for the interchange Of delegates,
committees and experiences for
Joint actions against the plantation
landlords. H. L. Mitchell, secretary
of the Arkansas union, composed
mostly of small, poverty-stricken,
tenant farmers renting land from
the big landlords, has written to
the Negro organizer Of the Ala
bama shore troopers union, Albert
jackson, that his organization IS
eager for united front,
The immediate program upon
which the two organizations are
moving toward Joint action is as
follows;
/. Against the Bankhsad Act in
1885.
2. Against the Bankhead Gin
Tax.
:. For the repeal of the A.A.A.
4. For the immediate passage Of
the Farmers Emergency Relief Bill.
S. For the right to organize
Against terror. For the class unity
of the Share Choppers Union and
the Southern Tenant Farmers
Union.
A. A. A. Misery for Choppers
Writing to Mitchell in Arkansas,
Jackson, who has become an out
standing leader Of the Alabama
share troopers fighting the lynch
terror Of the landlords, stated:
To the Members Of the Southern
Tenant Farmers Union,
Tyronza, Arkansas,
Comrade Farmers:
We address you tenants share
troopers and small farm owners,
who understand that the Roosevelt
New Deal on the farm, with its
Bankhead Act and A. A. A. acreage
reduction program, has brought to
the poor farming people neither
bread nor freedom from misery and
debt.
Thousands of farmers who plowed
their cotton under for the govern
ment had not the faintest idea what
il was all about. They were told by
the rich planters and the govern
msnt that this program was to bet
ter the conditions Of the poor farm
ers and show them way out OF
the terrible economic situation in
whicn they now live and toll.
Today, not one share cropper is
receiving benefits direct from the
government for the cotton that he
piowed under. The allotment checks
were sent directly to the landlords,
VINO gave the troopers very little if
any of the allotment benefits. Ten
ants and small farmers who for
tunately received checks in theii
hands we're hollered at by the local
bankers, me-merchants and other
local grab cheats, who plucked their
debt-shsre out Of the tenants or
farmers checks, leaving them as
penniless ss ever before.
A. A. A. Aids Only Landlords
The A. A. A. acreage reduction
program brought about the wiping
out from normal existence (such as
it was) more than million agri-
cultural toilers, who at this very
moment are fatty denied relief by
both the landlords and the govern
ment.
The Bankhead Compulsory Act
has sharply intensified the already
existing miserable conditions of the
toiling farm masses in the South
The Bankhead Act is, as we are
fully convinced, an act of federal
taxation imposed upon poor farm
ers' cotton, for the main purpose OF
paying off the rich landlords fol
the land which they have returned
to the government through the Ag-
ricultural Adjustment Administra-
ton.
Furthermore, it is an act Of
squeezing the small farmers into
the lowest capacity of cash cror
production, thereby excluding theil
basic product (cotton from the
market and forces them to sell tc
the landlords at home for the low
est non-market prices.
Lynch Terrorism
Also. there arises before us the
question Of terror 1t is quite OBJ
vious that you watched the devel'
opment of the recent struggle of the
Share Choppers Union in this State
as it led the strike of almost one
thousand cotton pickers to wir
their demand of one dollar hun
dred pounds for picking cotton
Under the leadership of the unior
they won their demand in one
county plus an increase in monthly
allowances from $40 to $15.
AS usual, wave of terror ex-
listed at high degrees, particularly
agsinst the Negro strikers. Raids,
beatings, isiiings and general in
tinnidat ton developed against the
strikers. The terror which was
directed against the striking
troopers and farm laborers in this
state recently followed the shoot
ing and killing of Harvey Scott, a
white union share cropper, in your
state, Sept. IL, 1884. All evidence
showed that SCOTS murder was
committed under the direction of
the High Sheriff Of Pope County,
Greenwood, Ark.
The Share Choppers Union de.
clares that only the united and or.
ganised action of the broad masse.
of white and Negro share troopers
tenants and small and impoverished
middle farmers can and will put ar
end to terror and defeat the further
attacks Of the New Deal" Force