The daily worker. [volume], March 07, 1925, New York Edition, Magazine Supplement, Image 7

About The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
"" '
“The idea becomes
power when it pene
trates the masses.”
—Karl Marx.
Coal Miners and the Dawes Plan
IN order to carry out the terms of
the Dawes plan, that has saddled
Germany with a reparations’ Install
ment of one milliard gold marks for
the period of 1924 to 1925, German
% industry in general and the mining
industry in particular is execting it
self to increase exports, and to sup
plant English competition, which al
ready in pre-war times, dominated the
north German market. To this end,
since October, German coal prices as
well as freight rates have been lower
ed. ~
THE decrease in coal prices has
been carried out chiefly at the
expense of the workers. Work has
been speeded up to a terrific degree.
According to the ‘‘Revolutionary
Miner,” (Germany) there are now
about 77,000 fewer miners employed
in the Ruhr than in 1922, the number
having dropped from 530,974 to 453,-
595. Despite this decrease in the
number of miners working, the out
put has increased from a total of
7,981,761 tons to 8,817,458 tons, the
daily output being 32,000 tons and the
monthly, 835,697. The same situation
exists in the coal fields of Upper Sile
sia. Here, too, the number of miners
employed has been reduced, in this
case by x 6,039, from 52,239 to 46,200,
the total output at the same time
increasing from 721,850 tons to 1,046,-
495. A similar increase in production
can also be observed In the other Ger
man coal fields.
| Piecework Increases Output. j
THE increased output is due to the
introduction of a merciless piece
work system. The miners are com
pelled to exert themselves beyond
the limits of endurance in order to
meet the vicious demands made upon
them. The best witness to the ter
rible overstrain to which this system
subjects them can be seen in the ap
palling increase in mine accidents.
In addition to all this, the bosses are
making the work day longer. In place
of the former seven and eight hour
day, an eight hour underground and
a nine and a half hour day on the
surface is now in general force, while
in many places the bosses have al
ready forced thru a twelve hour day
underground and a fourteen hour day
on the surface.
NOT contented with this accom
plishment, the coal owners are
now trying to put over a general wage
cut. They have artificially increased
unemployment by shutting down many
of the smaller mines, and laying off
thousands of miners. In order to make
quite sure tot their position when
strikes break out, the mine-owners of
the Ruhr have supplemented the al
ready over-large labor force there by
bringing in numbers of men from the
rural districts who are naturally much
less class-conscious than the indus
trial workers, and can easily be used
as strike-breakers.
THE reformist social democratic la
bor leaders are doing nothing to
help the German miners in their pres
ent struggle. During the elections of
last December, they used the situation
to parade revolutionary phrases and
to set themselves up as the true de
fenders of the interests of the work
ing class, but immediately after the
elections these promises were for
gotten.
THE revolutionary miners under the
leadership of the Communists
have been presenting a program be
fore a number of factory council con
ferences, demanding among other
things a 40 per cent wage increase,
reinstatement of workers who have
been dismissed, support for the un
employed, etc.
SPECIAL MAQAZINE SUPPLEMENT
THE PAltr WORKER.
THE measures taken by the bosses
in Germany, have of course, enorm-
Situation in Other Countries
ously increased coal exports. Accord
ing to the Manchester Guardian, Ger
man coal exports to France and south
irn Italy for the first half of 1924
amounted to 20.2 million tons as
against 15.4 million tons pre-war.
IN Poland the situation has grown
proportionately worse. Before the
war the Polish mines supplied coal
What the “Public ” Sees
to Austria, Germany, and, to some ex
tent, to Russia, the domestic market
not being able to absorb the whole
supply.
IN BELGIUM the same situation
arose thru the reparations deliv
eries. Here, too, the coal bartons uti
lized the situation in order to launch
THE article on this page by G. Slutsky, secretary of the
* Miners’ International Propaganda Committee of the
Red International of Labor Unions, containing as it does a
detailed account of the conditions of the miners in the
principal countries of Western Europe, is especially interest
ing to American coal miners in view of its account of the
operations of the Dawes Plan.
TIE coal operators’ association is now trying to cut the
wages of American coal miners and there is a close
connection between thiß assault on the wages ,of miners
here and in Europe.
The Dawes Plan is a scheme of international capitalism.
THE coal miners and all other workers must have their
international unions and it is to this end that the Red
International of Labor Unions is working—world trade
union unity.
March 7, 1925.
an offensive against the miners. Un
der pretext of German competition
wages were reduced in the Borinage
fields, for example, by 8 per cent.
In HOLLAND the miners were for
ced to accept a wage reduction in the
new agreement arranged last Decem
ber.
In ENGLAND, from similar causes,
the coal demand is on the decrease.
The demand during last September
i was 270,000 tons less than in the same
, month of 1923. The number of miners
employed, which in July amounted to
1,190,30 b had sunk to 1,163,300 by
September. There are over 125,000
unemployed miners in England at
present, and great numbers are em
ployed only three, four and in many
cases, only one day a week.
I —-
BECOND SECTION
This magazine supple
ment will appear every
Saturday In The Daily
Worker.
By G. Slutsky
Revolutionary Miners and
Dawes Plan
A CONFERENCE of revolutionary
miners was - held in Berlin in
September, during the great strike of
the Belgian miners in the Borinage
coal fields. All the more important
European countries—England, France,
Germany, Belgium, Czechoslovakia,
Poland and Holland were represented.
The conference concerned itself par-
ticularly with the situation in Bel
gium. In addition to a number of
practical measures for the organiza
tion of international aid, the confer
ence came to the decision to carry on
energetic propaganda among the
miners for directing their struggle
against the London agreement.
The revolutionary miners answered
the call, and took various steps in aid
of the strikers. In France the United
Miners’ Federation (Left) held a con
ference, explaining to the French com
rades the importance of the strike
movement in Belgium, and organized
a mass meeting at which 30,000 francs
were collected. In addition, delegat
ions of French and Belgian comrades
established direct communication be
tween the miners of the two coun
tries; the French Federation Unitaire
(left) declared itself ready for a sym
pathetic strike in case a general
strike should be declared in Belgium.
IN Germany and Holland the revolu
tionary miners launched a rousing
propaganda campaign informing their
comrades of the situation in Belgium.
Tlese steps gave the impetus for
(Continued on page 8)