The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-04-28
By JAMES W. FORD

ist attacks along with systematic
plans lowering the standards Of liv-
ing of the workers Of the United
States and the further enslaving Of
those colonies of American imperial
ism such as Cuba, the Philippines
and Haiti. These attacks are es-
pecially directed against the Negro
people.
Roosevelt went into office a year
ago. promising the return of pros
perity, increase in wages, aid to the
unemployed. A year later We find
the collapse Of the N. R. A. and the
New Deal. everywhere except help
to the rich (Which it did and not
the poor. This nobody can deny.
c. W. A. has been stopped, throw
ing hundreds of thousands of work
ers again out Of work and, in turn,
of relief which they formerly had.
c. w. A. workers are supposed to
live of what they earned" on the
c. W, A. jobs
The codes-what did they mean?
The codes were put into operation in
order to spread or level down the
wages of the workers The wage
difIarentials for Negroes (jim-crow
wages, supported by the Negro re-
formists, notably, DR., Motion of Tus-
kegee Institute, the Negro philan-
trophic institution in Alabama, to-
gether with the program of blowing
up cotton plants, have threatened
the Negro nation in the South with
determination, and what is more,
dragging down with them the poorly
paid white workers on the farms
and in the mills of the South. This
is shown by the fight of the coal
barons in Alabama to maintain the
wage differentisls in the South.
During this year We have seen the
most brutal terror and torture Of
the Negro people, To recite a few
examples that Roman Holiday at
Princess Anne, Maryland; that week
Of jubilee Of legal lynchings in Ala
bama and Louisiana when q
slaughter of nine Negroes was car
ried out in one week in Alabama
alone; the brutal attack upon the
welcome to Mother Wright in Har-
lem; the systematic torture of An
gelo Herndon, that intrepid fighter
for the unity of Negro and white
workers in Georgia; the torture Of
the Scottsboro boys in the county
Jail in Birmingham, Alabama, sup
ported by the FACE leaders. This is
capitalism in the United States on
May 1st, 1884.
Roosevelt announces that Il am a
tough guy"
There is no doubt about it, the
Roosevelt government heads towards
fascism. Fsscism is being developed
around a varied program, a few
examples; first an intense national
istic program lin the struggle for
markets. - my country right or
wrong" Down with Jews, Negroes
and foreign-born workers" The U.
5. A. capitalists are trying frantical-
" to find her allies to attack the
Soviet Union. War War; War
rends the air! on May 1st, 1884
Plunge the workers into War! That
Is the slogan. Only the working
people by mass action and organ
ization can head off this rapid de-
velopment towards fascism and war
These are the struggles for May
Day, 1884.
THE struggle for the liberation of
the Negro people is tied and
bound up with the aims and trsdi-
tons of May Day.
May Day is day Of struggle against
capitalism and for socialism, for q
Communist Society May Day sym
bolizes the best f1ghting traditions
achievements and victories Of the
working class throughout the world.
It's significance is profoundly ex-
pressed in the Workers and Farm
ers Government Of the Soviet Union,
where by mighty class action the
workers and farmers have captured
power and are welding together
workers State, where hundreds Of
formerly oppressed nationalities
have been liberated
1t is to the honor of the American
working class that May Day had it's
origin in the United States The
movement for shorter working
dey, covering 2 long period of bitter
and heroic struggle, gave birth to
May Day. From 1900 onward the
American workers struggled against
working IA, Is and 10 hours per day,
which eliminated in the great strike
Of May 1st, 1886. The achievement
OF the 8-hour day was most bril-
Isn't victory of the American work
e.
The capitalists answered with
brutal terror. On May 3, 1885, six
workers were murdered at the Nc
Ccvmick Harvester Works at Chi
ergo; on May 4, agent provocateurs
(tais was later proved threw
bornlo into squad of Chicago police
killing several of them, for which
* working class leaders were
framed-up and hanged. These mar
tyrs are the best and most beloved
fighters of the American working
class. One of them, a German,
F2r5ons, was the husband of Mrs.
Parsons, a Negro woman now liv-
ing in Chicago; she is among the
feg survivors of this great period.
What meaning has May Day for
the Negro people? Following the
death of slavery, the labor move
msnt Of the U. S, A. began most
rapid growth around agitation for
the 0-hour day. The Negroes, freed
from chattel-slavery were thrown
into wage-slavery. But withal they
remained an enslaved nation, with
letters Of peonage, the denial of all