Voice of action. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1933-1936, 1935-02-01

call for relief and unemployment
posals put forward to meet thes
declares that can economic cr
State of Washington" This is an
inadequate and consequently an
inaccurate statement of the
case.
Ii is not the state of Washing
ton that is confronted by an &C.
onomic crisis, but America and
the whole capitalist world. This
makes a great deal of difference
in what is required to cope with
the situation.
Misleading
This same Section goes on
to declare that "the State OF
Washington is no longer able to
supply funds sufficient to pro-
vide the unemployed population
with the necessities of life, and
the government of the United
States, upon which the state
has depended hitherto for aid,
has announced that henceforth
such aid will not be forthcom-
ing"
The first part of this state
ment is inaccurate and mislead-
ing. Washington has plenty of
untapped wealth to care for the
victims of capitalism's crisis if
taxes are laid directly upon the
capitalists, upon incomes of more
than $1,000 per year, and upon
the huge and growing sums spent
yearly for military purposes.
These measures are precisely
the one proposed in the workers
Initiative 4, and now embraced
in House bill 1928, which is being
vigorously pushed by the Com
munist Party, by all fighting Ia
Dor unions, and by the mass
might of statewide unemploy-
ment groups.
Provides for Aged
House bill 12S provides a real
measure of relief for the unem-
ployed, for the aged, and for
the victim of accident and sick
ness. 1t presents a militant pro-
gram and a fighting front to the
capitalists proposal to pile the
whole burden of relief on the
shoulders of the working class.
The bill calls for weekly cash
relief of not less than ten dollars
with three dollars additional for
every dependent, without any
discrimination whatsoever, re-
gardless of race, color, sex or po-
litical opinions.
1t will put the burden exactly
where it belongs-on the shout
ders of the rich. the people of
large incomes, and by using mill
tary appropriations that are
chiefly intended and chiefly used
for strike-breaking purposes.
Forced Labor Colonies
Compare this with the Com
monwealth Builders proposals.
Does this organization offer to
tax the rich? Not at all. Does it
propose genuine resistance to
the starvation program of the
Roosevelt starvation plot con-
tanned in the withdrawal of Fed
eral aid from the states? 1t does
not.
On the contrary, the Common
wealth Builders meekly accept
as inevitable the cutting off of
Federal relief, and offers nothing
more resistant to this vicious
assault on the very lives of the
workers, than the economically
unsound and politically treacher-
Gus EPIC program of isolation
colonies for the unemployed.
1t is a program that regardless
of deceitful words means forced
labor camps a la Nazi Germany.
No Cash
There is no provision for cash
relief, but simply system of
scrip that nobody but the unem-
ployed themselves are obliged to
accept. People imprisoned in
such labor colonies could not
take a bus trip to the next town,
could not even buy a stamp, with
the scrip.
Furthermore, provision for the
of the Common
wealth Builders Security Pro
gram" is completely in the hands
of a political board appointed
from above, wholly and absolute
ly without responsibility to or
by the workers con-
cerned.