The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-04-14

Our enemies accuse us that We are not really
interested in winning these immediate demands,
They say that we only use them as a means
to an Interior purpose, which has no relation
to these demands, the revolution They say we
only use the united front in order to manipulate
our associates as cats paws to pull our own
revolutionary chestnuts out of the fire.
For example have recent issue of the
Haverhill, Mass. Evening Gazette, which con-
tains vicious editorial attack against the Com
munists The occasion is a shoe workers strike
that has been going on for more than three
weeks. The Haverhill shoe employers want to
defeat the workers demands by forcing them
to submit to arbitration.
Some of the leaders, among them the Love-
stoneite I. Zimmerman, wanted to submit to
the bosses demands. The Communists showed
the workers how defeat has come to all workers
who have submitted their cause to so-called
impartial boards. They called upon the workers
to strike until the bosses grant them their very
reasonable demands The Communists have
been the most active and devoted organizers and
leaders of this fight. This enrageS the Haver-
hill Evening Gazette, Let me quote a few para
graphs from its editorial;
To-day Haverhrs shoe industry with its
scores OF IdGLOT1eS anu LOOuSdOuk DI WOfkefe
Is in grave danger Of destruction
The industry cannot survive under he
terms laid down by the strike leadership. To
yield TO those terms is TO submit to industrial
death. To compromise with this leadership Is
to make fatal dicker with an evil force.
"This leadership does not care what becomes
of Haverhill. Let HaverhiII become an indus
trial leper. Let the homes of the Hayerhill
been destroyed. Let the hopes of Haverbill
workers be doomed because their means of
livelihood have been taken from them. What
does this leadership care? 1t doesn't care.
"This Ieadershps motive is political; its
purpose revolutionary. Haverhil, Ha7 -
deliberately selected as the site for demon
stration of Communist Power. The demon
stration is now taking place. 1t is part of
the grandiose Communist scheme for an
American revolution"
Then the Gazette draws the conclusion that
the workers must forget for the moment nego-
tiations to end the strike, forget compromises
on an agreement, forget everything but the
urgent necessity Of Kidding the Haverhill in
dustry of this evil dangerous, strike leadershin.
This attack is typical concrete example Of
the general charge against the Communists that
date demands, but only in an abstract 'reyo-
luton Keeping this in mind, let us analyze
this concrete charge a little more closely. What
is the substance Of it2 1t is, that If the bosses
grant the demands of the workers Ito recognize
the union and give a small wage increase) that
'the industry cannot survive" The bosses can
not afford to grant the workers what they
demand The leadership of the workers is evil
and dangerous because this leadership refuses
TO abandon the demands Of the workers, refuses
to hand them over TO a supposedly impartia
tribunal to decide. The complaint Is that thi;
leadership is fighting, too uncompromisingly, tt
achieve now the immediate demands Of thest
workers. That's why the Hayerhill Gazette pro
poses to drive this leadership out of town anC
tries to rouse mob violence against it. The!
are interested in preserving the profits OF tn
bosses at the expense Of lower wages to workers
They don't give rap about the Hypothetical
revolution that they talk about. That's VIII,
they speak very kindly about other leaders ant
Mr. l. Zimmerman who also claims TO be
Con n1unst and for the revolution, but who /
ready to abandon the workers demands i