The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-06-13
Sailors and Class Struggle

WE ARE glad today to print a special
" page devoted to letters by sailors in
the U. S. fleet, and articles of special in
terest to the men, sons of workers and
farmers, in Wall Streets Navy.
The Daily Worker, central organ of the
Communist Party, the revolutionary po-
ltical party of the working class urges all sailors
to read these articles what the in the fleet
say about conditions in the navy.
From these letters we learn that the sailors are
also suffering wage cuts, are their brothers on
land, in the factories of the capitalists
The same Roosevelt economy" program that can
find billions of dollars for batteships forces pay
cut for the sailors along with slash in relief for
the starving unemployed millions
Foremost among the complaints of the sailors
their low, miserable wages; the difficult duties
Of incessant and heavy war maneuvers, the long
hours watch, enforced to keep the navy ready
to fight for plumber for the rich bosses of this
country; the sometimes poor and always monotonous
food, and the sickening, lying balyhoo about what
a good time the sailors are having on leave in
New York.
Many of the sailors who were forced by lack
Of jobs rotten conditions at home due to un-
employment and threatening starvation, to join
the navy know that they have not escaped from
these things Every day they read about strikes
throughout the country There are increasing at
tacks made by the bosses and their government
against striking workers. and in some places troops
have been used by the capitalists to drive the
workers back into the shops with starvation pay.
We can see from these facts that the EMPLOYERS
use the armed forces, the Army Navy, militia, not
only in preparation for new imperialist war; but
for use against the working class at home, as the
struggles grow sharper as the resistance to Roose-
velts increasingly fascist measures grow in force
AS one marine in San Diego, whose letter we
publish today, says, when the marines ordered
out against workers demonstration: my parents
on the county welfare and are plenty sore at
their short rations and treatment by the welfare
department"
NOT only are the sailors connected by ties of
~ blood and class to the workers suffering wage
cuts starvation conditions unemployment, fighting
on the picket line against the armed thugs of the
bosses, but they themselves In the navy feel this
attack against their own conditions.
The same people who through the NRA. the
strikebreaking National Labor Board grind down
the workers at home, are responsible for the wage
cuts and rotten conditions of the >aen in the fleet.
The big trusts and their owners the Morgans,
Rockefellers, Fords, MELONS, who profit by lower
wages for all workers, the ones who profit when
the fleet is sent to to protect the investments
of the American blionaires These people and
the others of their class, made hundreds of mil
lions in the last world war. They want another
war to swell their profits at the expense of saugh-
tering the of the workers in the armed forces
To resist the lowering of their standards of
living the workers are organizing their trade unions
battling for their right to organize and strike.
IN THE navy the sailors should discuss their con-
ditions. organize their committees to work out
demands, to express their opinions as men, and
to refuse to be the human tools of the mperia1ist
war mongers. Imperalist war will benefit only the
rich the expoiters of their brothers their fathers
their sisters, their buddes on land
When the son Of a worker or farmer goes into
the navy, when he dons uniform, he does not
cast aside his class connections When he comes
out of the navy he faces the breadlines or the
starvation conditions in the factories.
In the navy he should act as an intelligent,
clasS-conscious member of the working class He
should discuss the reason why he is sent on war
maneuvers, what the preparations are all about,
who will benefit from them, and what he can do,
along with his mates to fight against capitalist war
We urge every sailor who reads this paper to
take it up with his mates Discuss the issues raised
by the sailor correspondents Talk over the uues-
ton OF organization, and the fight against imperial
ist war. Send us letters on conditions in the navy
questions, discussion, the views of the men in the
fleet on strikes, on the Roosevelt policy on war
preparations and the fight against them
The Communist Party, the party of the work
Ing class, the party which puts as its central aim
the establishment of workers government sup
ports the sailors in their fight for the restoration
of pay cuts and clothing allowance; for increase
in the base pay to $50 month, and return of
Shipping over" allowance. We say to the sailors
all workers, whether in uniform or not, must
stick together. Organize and fight against all
capitalist wars! Defend the Soviet Union and
Soviet China! Forward to workers and farmers
government in this country!