The daily worker. [volume], June 13, 1925, New York Edition, Magazine Supplement, Page 2, Image 8

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

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

                
The Trial of the Communist Party of Roumania
By M. RADU (Bucharest).
ON the 28th of April there com
menced before the military court
of Bucharest, the monster trial of the
Communist Party of Roumania. The
atmosphere in which this great poli
tical trial is taking place is character
ized by the increased intensity of the
domestic and foreign political situa
tion and the economic crisis, by an
unrestrained persecution of the labor
movement, of the subject nationalities
and of the peasantry of the country.
The events in Bulgaria have fright
ened the Roumanian boyars and the
financial oligarchy. The organs of the
government and also of the bourgeois
opposition are raising a great outcry
against the “approaching danger of a
Bolshevik putch,” and are calling up
on the government to learn a lesson
from Zankov. The state of siege pre
vailing in Bessarabia and in the south
ern and western border districts has
been rendered still more severe by
fresh measures on the part of the mil
itary and the secret police. The Dan
ube flotilla and numerous air squad
rons have been mobilized, consider
able bodies of troops have been con
centrated in Dobrudsha and in Bess
arabia, and the few remnants which
still existed of the right of combina
tion and to hold meetings have been
abolished.
DURING the last few months the
pressure upon tha nationalities
lias been redoubled; the schools and
the cultural associations of the peo
ples living in Siebenburgen, Bessara
bia, and in Bucovina have been closed,
and in the best cases replaced by
Roumanian institutions, while the
teaching staffs have been driven out.
The educational act which has been
just passed by parliament, deprives
the national minorities of all possibil
ity of being taught their mother ton
gue. The subject nationalities have
not the slightest chance of exercising
any political rights. The discontent
among the nationalities is, therefore,
constantly increasing.
Owing to the corruption prevailing
in the distribution of the land in old
Roumania and the revision of the
rights te the soil already acquired in
Bessarabia, as well as the systematic
requisitioning of corn, in spite of the
prevailing bread shortage, the indig
nation of the peasantry against the
tyranny of the boyars is assuming
more and more visible forms. In nu
merous localities peasant revolts have
broken out which could only be
quelled with the aid of considerable
reinforcements of gendarmes and mil
itary detachments.
8
To the DAILY WORKER: Reading
the Sunday Times, I came across a
letter written to an American Red
Cross nurse, from a friend of hers in
Soviet Russia. The letter is headed:
“Cry of Anguish from Soviet Russia.”
The Red Cross nurse relates the
life and the letter of her friend in a
very pitiful fashion. She met her
friend in Poland in one o fthe hos
pitals during the previous war, work
ing as a Red Cross nurse.
She was then a young and happy
girl coming from a bourgeois fam
ily. The revolution broke out. The
Reds took over power. And the brutal
red Bolsheviks slaughtered her family,
arrested her, and made her toil and
now she is broken down in health,
unable to maintain life, and is asking
for aid.
Then she closes her letter by say
ing that when she heard in Madison
Square Garden, the innocent little
voices of our free American children
chanting a praise for Soviet Russia,
her heart filled with sorrow and she
shed bitter tears. And she quotes, if
the innocent little children would only
know the truth of the cruel and brutal
Soviet regime, the thousands of tnno
cent little children slaughtered and
the suffering and oppression of the
Russian people under the rule of the
Soviets, then and only then could
we save the free American children
from the red plague.
A general economic crisis completes
this picture of the arbitrary regime of
Bratianu. Agricultural production
shows a constant declino, which re
veals itself in a serious shortage in
the bread supply for the whole popu
lation, and in the introduction of
breadless days. All attempts on the
part of the government to create a
favorable foreign trade balance have
been rendered illusory by a general
crisis of production. The government
has also failed to obtain foreign cred
its for the restoration of industrial
undertakings. Under such circum
stances, whole branches of industry
are at a complete standstill. Unem
ployment already embraces 55 per
cent of the working class, that is 155,-
000 workers. A 40 per cent decline
in the standard of living and constant
attempts on the part of the employ
ers to abolish the eight-hour day and
to Introduce piece work further char
acterize the situation of the working
class.
THE government, on its part, is
hastening to aid the capitalist ex
ploiters by a number of anti-labor
laws. For the past eighteen months
the government has been conducting
an uninterrupted campaign of perse
cution against all organizations of the
working class.
Os all the political parties of Rou
mania the Communist Party has been
the only one to raise its voice on be
half of the right to self-determination
of the subject nationalities, up to
complete separation from the ruling
state, and to point out to the suppres
sed masses of Bessarabia, Siebenbur
gen and Bucovina the only possible
way to emancipation, which consists
in the abolition of the present regime
and in the setting up of a workers’
and peasants’ government of Rou
mania and the establishment of a
Federation of Soviet Republics of the
Balkans. The Bratianu government
replied to this attitude of the C. P.
o's Roumania with an indescribable
campaign of, terror, with mass ar
rests and the proclamation of martial
law thruout the greater part of the
country. With the establishment of
martial law, the C. P. of Roumania
was rendered illegal.
TOURING the height of the terror,
the Communist Party was con
fronted with the task of adapting ks
organizations to the altered conditions
without losing contact with the
broad masses of the workers, but es
pecially with the suppressed nation
alities and the landless peasants. The
C. P. of Roumania considered it its
duty, more than ever before, to tear
Ihe mask from the face of the gov
LETTERS FROM OUR READERS
To my understanding a letter of
this kind will not weaken the faith of
the thousands of American workers
towards the only free Soviet republic.
Russia is the only country in the
world that cares for the proletarian
children, physically and morally, and
in every way in trying to work out
the best system possible as how to
bring up the Russian youth.
You know well enough, kind heart
ed nurse, that your cry for the poor
innocent Russian children being
slaughtered is in vain.
If you are so good and kind hearted
why not better cry for the free Ameri
can children, toiling in the cotton
fields, mills and mines, the canning
industries of the north. The hundreds
of little children dying of disease due
to the lack of care. Cry for the free
American youth that were slaughtered
in the previous war for democracy.
And then kind hearted nurse, if you
have enough tears left, cry for the
international suffering and struggling
toiling masses all over the world. Why
not cry for the Chinese orphaned
children, their fathers being killed
when they dared to ask for a better
livelihood, for the oppressed and
struggling Bulgarian peasants and
workers. And for the thousands of
workers that were slaughtered In the
time of the French revolution, to save
the noble and capitalistic god of
yours. Free Russia is the Statue of
Liberty, her torch shines bright, and
ernment of boyar despotism and on
every occasion when the nationality
question came to the front, to give
unreserved expression to its stand
point. This was the case in Decem
ber last year, on the occasion of the
congress of the Hungarian minority
party which took place in Brasov,
when the Communist Party exposed
to the broad working masses of the
Hungarian minority, that shameless
political bargaining which the Hun
garian big landowners and big indus
trials were carrying on in the name
of the Hungarian population of Rou
mania, for the mess of pottage of
shameless concessions at the cost of
the working mases.
The government of terror reacted
to this campaign of enlightenment of
the C. P. of Roumania with fresh per
secutions and mass arrests, the like of
which had never been seen since the
suppression of the great general
strike in 1920. The closing of trade
union branches, the confiscation of
the organs of the Unitarian trade un
ions, imprisonment and cruel ill
treatment of close on 1,500 workers —
these were "the measures for main
taining law and order.”
mHE inquisitional “methods of ex
animation,” which even put medi
eval torturings in the shade, the “dis
ciplining” of the imprisoned by con
fining them for weeks in concrete
cells, about th e size of a cupboard
with a small hole for ventilation, com
pelled the arrested comrades to enter
upon a hunger-strike as a protest
against their unlawful arrest and bar
barous ill-treatment. After a 30 to 40
days’ hunger-strike, which almost re
sulted in the death of the imprisoned
comrades, the authorities, under the
pressure of the hunger-strike and the
general indignation of the public,
were compelled to free the prisoners
one by one, with the exception of 30
comrades who are still kept under
arrest.
It was under such conditions that
the Roumanian government hastened
to stage a monster trial of the C. P.
of Roumania, and in so doing made
special use of the recent political
events in the Balkans. The essence
of the “accusation” which Is brought
against the Communist Party of Rou
mania is based upon the latter’s atti
tude regarding the Bessarabian ques
tion. In view of the approaching con
ference of the little entente in Bu
charest, where the basis of an “anti-
BoJshevic bloc” under the patronage
of English imperialism is to be creat
ed, the Bratianu government is en
deavoring hand in hand with Bankov,
by shameful sentences to make it ap
high for the workers all over the
world to follow in her footsteps.—
Comrade Gertrude Pincus.
To the DAILY WORKER: I have
been receiving the five copies of the
DAILY WORKER for the last week
past and have been scattering them
among the working men, but have not
sold any or been able to get any subs
as yet, but I think 1 will soon. Its
looks scares some working men. It is
like throwing a large piece of bread
down among a small lot or a lot of
little chickens, it scares them until
the older ones picks in smaller
chunks.
But after they once get started to
read the truth they then take right
ahold and are anxious for more and
more.
Yet there is a great number of peo
ple who say, “Well, I think our gov
ernment is getting about as rotten as
it can get to be, yet, before we change
we want something better, before we
tear down what we have and will ask
what the Communists are offering to
take its place.”
They ask what kind of a financial
system do they offer and what protec
tion against the big banking Interests.
First, I have suggested that we put
our money on a paper basis at |6OO
per capita, then compel all banks to
call in all excepting paper and pay
them in full legal tender greenback
2
pear as if it were necessary to sup
press every movement for freedom in
its own country and to justify such
suppression in the neighboring coun
tries. This is the purpose of tha
monster trial which is to put a legal
stamp upon the unconstitutional out
lawing of the C. P. of Roumania and
the other proletarian organizations.
At the commencement of the trial the
building of the military court of the
Bucharest army corps was surrounded
by strong military forces, and in the
court itself troops were stationed
with machine guns and fixed bayon
ets.
TN the trial there are 70 accused, 57
of whom are before the court.
More than 400 people were proposed
as witnesses, among them the Prime
Minister Bratianu, the late ministers,
Tranku-Jassi and Argetojanu and
other familiar names in the political
life of Roumania. Further, Henri
Barbusse, Monmousseau, Smeral, Ser
rati, Ekaterina Arbore-Ralli, Clara
Zetkin, Cachin, Sadoul, Blasco Ibanez
and others. The accused demanded
that foreign lawyers be allowed to
come and defend them, and also that
they be allowed to speak their own
language at the trial. The court, af
ter long discussion, granted the last
request.
Comrade Dr. Egon Schonhof, a
lawyer who had come from Vienna,
was refused the right to act as de
fender on the ground that he is not
a Roumanian citizen and not a mem
ber of the bar of Bucharest. He was
afterwards given permission to de
fend, but was arrested on the very
next day, held under arrest for six
days and shamefully treated, and fin
ally expelled and conducted to the
frontier.
TT was characteristic of the court
that on the conclusion of the first
day of proceedings it declared that
all accused who were still at liberty
should be arrested; whereupon all
the accused entered on a hunger
strike. The defense raised the ob
jection that scarcely 10 per cent of all
the witnesses who had been summon
ed had appeared, and therefore de
manded the adjournment of the pro
ceedings on account of insufficient
evidence. The court overrode the ob
jection; neverUierless on the Becond
day of the proceedings it had to ac
quit six of the accused comrades as
nothing could be proved against them.
The trial is still going on and will. In
all probability, in view of the impos
ing mass of "evidence” brought for
ward by the prosecution, still last
some weeks. It will serve as a model
for other Balkan States.
as gold. Then when every cent of
this fake money is in, then onr gov
ernment pay off all her banks at the
price the banks paid the government
for the bonds and stop all interest.
Make a penalty, any person or per
sons to offer to discount our money
would mean forfeiture of claims
against the government. The next
thing would be to establish a central
bank in every Btate in the onion and
branch banks in every community and
loan money, like the postal system, at
cost of clerk hire. This makes it un
lawful for any person or persons to
loan money in competition with the
government. Make it so any person
starting to farm or other bnsiness
could borrow up to $5,000, but should
be safely guarded by a board of
directors residing in the county where
loan is to be made.
All directors to be elected by vote
of people of each banking district and
it be a law where an enterprise re
quiring over $6,000 must be operated
by the government in the Interest of
the whole people and let it be law
that a man must be one who occupies
land and cultivates the soil before he
can get a loan. He must do the labor
himself and should he hire any part
of the work by other person or per
sons he 1s disqualified. He must do
real labor himself and such other
measures as would make it safe tor
the worker.—Theodore Pierce, Boise,
Idaho.
8