The daily worker., 1934-09-04
The Gallagher Vote

CPEAKING of the savage vigilante
~ terror in California that the great in
dustrialists employed against the West
Coast Strike, Earl Browder secretary of
the Communist Party recently said, after
a visit to the coast:
"The California workers have no sense of
defeat. To them the battle has only begun. They
have taken the opportunity to retreat temporarily
and prepare for the next stage of the fight"
Most convincing proof of the fact that the
workers of California feel sense Of defeat is
given by the 10000 votes for Leo Gallagher in
the primaries Gallagher, candidate for the Cali
fornia Supreme Court, was openly endorsed by the
Communist Party
Gallagher is known not only to the workers
Of the Coast but to the workers of the world for
his courageous struggle for the rights of the work
ers. He has, in a fortnight manner, defended
the agricultural workers, the Tom Mooney run
ners the recent criminal syndicalism cases. His
association with the Mooney defense is well-known
He has been physically attacked by ruling class
terrorists for his defense Of labor prisoners.
Last year he went to Germany to aid in the
defense of Dimitrof Torgler Popoh and Tanef
in the world-historc Reichstag fire case. At all
times he was associated indeliby in the minds of
the workers with militant labor struggle, and with
the Communist Party.
THUS the vote for Gallagher was on decidedly
different plane than the over 100000 votes for
Upton Sinclair The Gallagher vote was the ex-
preston of the conscious resistance of tens of
thousands Of workers and farm workers to fascist
terror, and for defender of proetsrian revolu-
tonists. 1t is proof positive that by no means
has California labor been cowed by the vigilante
blackjack and the gangster gun. The Gallagher
vote, while no doubt including certain liberal ele-
ments. is mainly the expression of the disciplined
conscious discomfort of the toiling population of
California with the capitalist state and it's terror
The Sinclair vote gathered hither and yon
while expression Of the mounting discomfort
of the Western masses emphasizes to great ex-
tent the illusions still existent among many Cali
fornia workers the belief that without breaking
with the capitalist state, with the economic forms
and content of capitalism, it Is possible to solve
their problems.
The Communist Party, in this election as in
all others, points out to the masses that only a
revolutionary workers government, a Soviet gov
ernment finally solve their problems. feed
the hungry, start the idle factories working and
present the solution to all the other problems that
confront the masses.
The Communist Party places in the immediate
foreground the issues of the right Of the workers
to organize, strike and picket, the right of the
workers to free speech, press and assemblage-
the disbanding of the vigilante thugs-the points
which Gallagher emphasized and which was the
basis for his tremendous vote.
California workers, inspired by the splendid vote
for Gallagher should go forward most energehcally
in the coming election campaign and ring I'D a
powerful vote for the entire Communist ticket
headed by Sam Darcy, candidate for governor