Cleveland, Ohio has an incredibly rich class war tradition. A dossier on the October, 1931 police killing of Edward Jackson and John Grayford, two Black members of a Cleveland neighborhood Unemployment Council, and the wounding of a number of others attempting to stop an eviction at 46th St. and Woodland. Coming during the Great Depression and immediately after a mass confrontation at City Hall, the murders mobilized the city, with dozens of protests and meetings culminating in 30,000 workers marching in a mass funeral. Included are Daily Worker reports and editorials, as well as a critique of the local Communist Party’s activity given by the leadership some weeks later.

‘A Bloody Week in Cleveland: The Killing of Edward Jackson and John Grayford’ from the Daily Worker, October, 1931.

2,000 Cleveland Jobless Demand Relief from City. October 7, 1931.

March to City Council and Resist When Cops Try to Eject Them

CLEVELAND, Ohio, Oct. 6. A militant crowd of 2,000 unemployed, under the leadership of the Communist Party valiantly fought to put their demands before the city government Monday evening in the face of a vicious attack of police, ordered on by Mayor John D. Marshall.

It was only after strong reinforcements arrived that the workers were driven away. Thousands of them marched in the downpouring rain to the headquarters of the Communist Party, large numbers asking to be enrolled into the Party.

The demonstration was called in the public square against the fare increase nod when wages are continually being slashed and unemployment is steadily rising.

The demonstration was called to expose the city council’s maneuver to put through the fare raise for the Cleveland Car Co. and to demand immediate relief for the unemployed.

It was also a protest against the ruling oft of three Communists from the ballot although the double amount of signatures necessary were turned in.

The meeting was opened by Sandburg, secretary of the Unemployed Councils in Ohio, followed by Larkins, a Negro worker, one of the Communist Party arty candidates who was ruled off the ballot. Bart, district organizer of Cleveland, spoke next, exposing the scheme of the council in preparing the fare raise as part of the attacks against the workers throughout the country.

Following these speakers more than 2,000 workers marched in twos to the city council, which was meeting at the time. Only about 1,000 were allowed into the council and the rest, which had by this time grown larger, was kept out, despite the fact that the galleries were empty. As soon as Mayor Marshall opened the meeting Comrade Sandburg demanded that the other workers be allowed in. He was immediately attacked by the police, beaten up and thrown out. By this time all the workers began to shout the demand to be heard and the police attack began in the council chambers. It is not known yet how many were beaten and arrested, but the workers were putting up a militant struggle inside against the politicians and their thugs, while outside a meeting was being held on the steps.

The Communist Party in Cleveland will answer this new attack against the workers, who were met by police clubs as an answer to their demands by organizing protest meetings throughout the city. This will further expose the role of the bosses’ government. An intensive campaign is being conducted for the coming elections, with Marie Nurmi, candidate for council in District One, and the following candidate! who have been disqualified: A. Pinckney, District 2; R. Larkins, District 3; R. Modling, District 4. Full preparations are going forward for a monster hunger march to the county in Cleveland on Oct. 16.

Police Murder Two Jobless Negroes in Cleveland. October 8, 1931.

MASSACRE WORKERS AT EVICTION

Fire Point Blank As Workers Resist Eviction–Jobless Fight Back

CLEVELAND, Oct. 7. The names of the two murdered Negro workers are John Grayford and Edward Jackson. The names of the four wounded white and Negro workers are not yet known.

CLEVELAND, O., Oct. 7. Two unemployed Negro workers were brutally murdered last night by Cleveland police who fired point blank into a crowd of white and Negro workers demonstrating against the eviction of an unemployed Negro worker. Four Negro and white workers were seriously wounded. Several policemen were also injured as the workers heroically defended themselves. One of the injured policemen was wounded by shots fired by his fellow thugs during the barrage of wild shooting by the police.

Scores of workers, including H. Larkin, organizational secretary of the Communist Party, were arrested and are being held in jail incommunicado. The fighting occurred around 47th St. and Woodland Ave.

Drunken Cops Attack.

At the time of the eviction demonstration, the Republican Party was holding a rally in the block with, a number of drunken policemen present. These drunken policemen took part in the attack on the unemployed workers, who were lead by the Unemployed Council.

This murder of unemployed workers follows closely the attack the night before on 2,000 unemployed workers who had marched to City Hall to present their demands to the city government, when police riot squads were called out to slug the starving workers. It follows the murder by a Warren policeman of an unemployed Negro worker, who was shot down a few days ago while handcuffed and helpless. Two Negro workers were also killed during September by Youngstown police.

The Cleveland massacre of unemployed workers duplicates the police massacre of unemployed in Chicago on August 3, when three Negro workers were killed and scores of Negro and white workers wounded.

A mass funeral will be held for the two murdered Negro workers. The Communist Party, the Unemployed Council, the League of Struggle for Negro Rights and the International Labor Defense, together with other workers’ organizations are mobilizing the workers of Cleveland, white and Negro, for a tremendous demonstration and mass funeral against this wanton massacre of the unemployed workers and their right to live. Mass meetings will be held all week to prepare the mass funeral, the date of which will be announced later.

Workers and their organizations in all other cities must support the workers of Cleveland in their fight against the boss terror. Send telegrams of protest to Mayor Marshall of Cleveland and to Governor White at Columbus, O. Protest against the murder of unemployed workers. Demand the immediate and unconditional release of the jailed workers.

Masses Roused by the Murder of Two Jobless. October 9, 1931.

Protest Demonstrations Being Held Throughout Cleveland Including Scene of Murders–Party and Unemployed Council Uniting White and Negro Workers for Mass Funeral Tomorrow

CLEVELAND, Ohio, Oct. 8. White and Negro workers of Cleveland will turn out in thousands this Saturday for the mass funeral of the two unemployed Negro victims of the police massacre last Tuesday night.

John Grayford and Edward Jackson, two militant Negro workers and members of the Unemployed Council, were immediately killed when police fired point blank into a peaceful meeting of white and Negro workers at 46th St. and Woodland, protesting the eviction of an unemployed Negro worker.

Four other workers were critically wounded and are held in prison where they have been refused hospital treatment. Other workers wounded were taken away by the workers and treated at their homes.

Answering the murderous attack of the police, the workers fought back fiercely and several police thugs were sent to the hospital. One of the injured policemen was wounded by bullets fired by his fellow thugs. Eleven workers were arrested, including H. Larkin, organizational secretary of the Communist Party. The Negro workers in the meeting were especially singled out by the police for the most savage attacks. The killing of Grayford and Jackson was deliberate.

Under the leadership of the Communist Party and the Unemployed Council, the workers, white and Negro are rallying in tremendous protest meetings against this latest terror against the unemployed workers. Directly after the police massacre, hundreds of workers gathered at the scene of the murders and held a protest meeting, cheering the speakers of the Unemployed Council and the Communist Party, and pledging their solidarity in the fight against evictions, for unemployment relief and for full equal rights for the Negro masses.

Another mass demonstration will be held at the same place every night until the mass funeral. Meetings will also be held at many other points throughout the city of Cleveland to rally the masses for united protest and struggle against boss terror.

Mass Funeral Saturday

The mass funeral will start at 1 o’clock Saturday afternoon from the headquarters of the Unemployed Council at 38th Street and Scovill Avenue. Bishop William Montgomery Brown will be among the speakers.

All workers are urged to demonstrate their solidarity at the mass funeral and protest against the police murder of unemployed workers. All workers’ organizations are urged to participate and to mobilize their whole membership behind their banners and placards. The League of Struggle for Negro Rights, the International Labor Defense and several revolutionary unions have already joined the growing mass protest against this latest police outrage.

The capitalist press is not only trying to justify these brutal murders of unemployed workers but is calling for an intensification of the terror to crush the struggles of the workers against wage cuts and unemployment, for immediate unemployment relief, for special insurance and against discrimination against the Negro workers. The workers, white and Negro, must answer these attacks with unbreakable solidarity and grim determination to carry forward the struggle against the starvation program of the bosses.

The Cleveland District of the Communist Party last night issued a statement denouncing the murder of the two Negro worker* and the wounding of four white and Negro workers.

The statement declares that the massacre was prepared by the police and the bosses as a part of the ruthless terror with which the bosses are trying to force wage cuts and their starvation wages down on the throats of the working class.

Many workers are now flocking into the ranks of the Communist Party and the Unemployed Council. On the night of the massacre 200 workers Joined the Communist Party at the mass protest demonstration which was held on the scene of the murders following the police attacks.

The bodies of the murdered workers will be on view at the headquarters of Unemployed Branch No. 8, 3804 Scovill Ave., where they will be under constant guard of an honor guard of workers.

Protest the Murder of Negro Workers in Cleveland! Front Page Editorial. October 9, 1931.

Organize! More murders of workers by police! And again, in Cleveland as in Chicago, the police act under the bloody plan of “Shoot the Negroes first!”

It is net an accident that the police terror against the workers in Cleveland, as in Chicago, broke out most sharply in a district inhabited by the most persecuted workers—those who suffer most in the present unemployment starvation and are most cruelly robbed by landlords. The Negro workers are the worst sufferers, segregated into dreary and unsanitary slum tenement houses, often houses that have already been condemned as unsafe and deserted by even the white working class—and in these filthy barracks the Negro workers are charged the doubly high rent which is made possible by the brutish Jim Crow segregation system. Having even less rights in court, the Negro workers are the most easily evicted, and the worst criminal acts of brutality against them are considered the natural right of every big and little exploiter.

The unemployment movement, with the support of more and more tens of thousands of workers in all American cities, has reached its sharpest struggles in opposition against evictions, especially of Negro tenants, from their homes because of non-payment of rent due to unemployment. The solidarity of the white and the Negro workers—the wiping out of the color line within the unemployed movement by the Unemployed Councils under the influence of the Communist Party, has shown not only in Chicago and Cleveland, but also, in the black belt of the South, that the dead weight of white chauvinism can be thrown off and the working class united in this fight.

Spontaneously in every city the landlords and real-estate sharks have recognized, the greatest danger to their privilege of robbery in precisely this new fact—never before seen in America—of the fighting of Negro and white workers together for the right of all. The first glaring example of this came to light in the South Side landlords’ conference in Chicago just before the recent murder of two unemployed Negro workers there in the struggle against evictions. In that conference, led by white and Negro real estate operators interested in the double rent of Jim Crow apartments on the South Side, the Chicago leaders of the reactionary “National Association for the Advancement of Colored People” and some of the De Priest clique as well as a representative of the Chicago Defender took the lead in calling upon the police to use force against the workers on the streets who were interfering with the eviction of unemployed Negroes from Jim Crow apartment houses in the South Side segregated district.

This special mobilization of police violence for purposes of evictions in the Negro segregated districts seems to be occurring in all cities now. Of course it is not an accident that the police terror and murder of workers breaks out in its sharpest form at the point of sharpest persecution—the segregated Negro and working class districts!

But the Negro and white workers have shown that precisely at this point of greatest suffering of our class is also to be found the finest and most courageous working class solidarity and determination! Negro workers who see families starving and children and household goods set out on the sidewalk at the beginning of the winter, have shown themselves to be among the most courageous, intelligent and indefatigable fighters against this reign of terror.

The working class, black and white, has shown that it is not lacking in courage. But individual courage alone will win no fight. If the wholesale death by starvation and exposure to cold weather of tens of thousands of workers this winter is to be prevented—something more than courage is required. The police assaults upon and murders of workers can be curbed only by the establishment of powerful mass organizations.

Mass action and not merely individual bravery—united action and not scattered individual action is what is required.

The working class accepts the challenge at the point of sharpest contact—the point where the worst brutality is turned against the Negro workers. The solidarity of Negro and white workers must be developed to its highest point. Above all, the white workers must go over a still more active and vigilant support of Negro demands against the special discrimination, segregation, high rents and evictions. This solidarity in action must aim to break down and destroy the hideous Jim Crow segregation system! The white workers must show in action that they cast aside the slave ideology imposed upon them by the ruling class—white chauvinism, the superstition of “race superiority.” Every case of. discrimination against Negroes, especially within the working class and its organizations, must be ruthlessly denounced and exposed by white and black workers together.

Draw the whole mass of Negro working class population into the organizations of struggle of the working class! Draw the whole mass of the white working class population into this struggle and into these organizations! Thousands of white workers, as well as Negro workers, must be organized, into the League of Struggle for Negro Rights which must be built up to mass proportions.

Out of the growing solidarity of Negro and white workers, powerful organs of struggle can be developed—especially the trade unions under the leadership of the Trade Union Unity League in the coal and steel industries which will be the centers of tremendous struggle this winter. Powerful Unemployed Councils of black and white workers together can reach ten or one hundred times their present strength! And when Congress meets on December 2 (if not sooner), intending to ignore the starving masses and to ratify the decision of Hoover’s Wall Street conference to grant financial assistance of $500,000,000 to the parasite capitalist class of bankers and trust heads—let the capitalist Congress hear the noise of marching millions of black and white workers together, determined to compel the parasite capitalist class and its government to grant unemployment relief!

Not the least of all the fruits to be won by this solidarity is the wiping out of division in the American working class—the wiping out of the Jim Crow line that splits the skull and body of the American working class and makes it powerless.

White and Negro workers! Show that solidarity now in your protest against the murders of the two Negro workers in Cleveland! Workers of other cities—organize your mass protests!

Mass Funeral Today for Two Murdered Workers. October 19, 1931.

PROTEST MURDER OF 2 NEGRO WORKERS IN CLEVELAND

City Government Throws Armed Thugs into Negro Section Wounded Workers Held in Jail; Denied Hospital Treatment

CLEVELAND, O., Oct. 9. With mass anger rapidly mounting against the brutal police murder of two unemployed Negro workers last Tuesday night when police fired point-blank into a peaceful meeting of unemployed workers protesting evictions it is expected that thousands of Cleveland workers will march on Saturday in the mass funeral for the two martyred working class fighters. In addition to the murder of John Grayford and Edward Jackson, four white and Negro workers were critically wounded by the police fire.

Mass pressure has forced the police to recede from their position of denying a permit for the mass funeral and to order a suspension of traffic in the block at 38th Street and Scoville Ave. where the workers will mobilize the mass funeral. The funeral, which will be under the auspices of the Unemployed Council to which both of the murdered workers belonged, will take place at 1 o’clock Saturday.

Hundreds View Bodies.

The bodies of the two martyred workers are now on view at the hall of Branch No. 8 of the Unemployed Council, at 3804 Scoville Ave. For the past two days, white and Negro workers have come from the remotest sections of Cleveland to pay their revolutionary respects to the two murdered, workers, who died in the fight against starvation, evictions, for unemployment relief and for unconditional equal rights of the Negro masses. Art honor guard of white and Negro workers have stood at attention beside the bodies day and night. The Communist Party, the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, the International Labor Defense and scores of other working-class organizations have denounced the murderers of these working-class fighters and called upon their memberships and the entire working class of Cleveland. to turn out in masses for the mass funeral.

Thousands In Protest Meets.

Thousands of white and Negro workers have attended the numerous protest meetings held nightly throughout the city since Tuesday’s massacre. At these meetings the workers have expressed the greatest indignation against the murderous police terror with which the bosses are trying to crush the struggles of the unemployed for the right to live. Speakers for the Communist Party, the Unemployed Council, etc., have called upon the workers, employed and unemployed, Negro and white, for the most vigorous resistance to the growing boss terror, and for the protection of the Negro workers who, in Cleveland, as in Chicago, were especially singled out for the bullets of the police. Speakers have all stressed the necessity of the white workers actively supporting the struggles of the Negro masses against special persecution and for unconditional equal rights, including the right of self- determination for the Negro majorities of the Southern “Black Belt.” The response of the white workers has been enthusiastic.

Mass Delegation In Demands.

A mass delegation of representatives from all militant working-class organizations in the city visited the city manager today to demand the immediate release of the workers arrested Tuesday night when the unemployed workers defended themselves against the police attack. The delegation also demanded the withdrawal of the armed police forces which have been thrown into the Negro section in an attempt to terrorize the colored workers and crush their resistance to the bosses’ starvation program. The delegates demanded a stop to the reign of terror against the Negro masses and placed full responsibility for the massacre on the entire city administration.

The police reign of terror continues today, with numerous arrests of militant Negro and white workers throughout the city and with deliberate attempts to split the working-class and incite to race rioting. The police have confiscated thousands of leaflets issued by the Communist Party and the Unemployed Council calling for solidarity of white and Negro workers, and have broken up all gatherings of Negro workers on the streets.

Bosses Whitewash Murderers.

While the workers are preparing the mass funeral for the two murdered Negro workers, the city authorities and the boss press are frantically trying to whitewash the police attack. The mayor and the chief of police have both rushed to defend their police thugs, Justifying the shooting without even the usual pretense of an investigation. Following the example of the Chicago authorities after the massacre of Negro workers in the eviction fight on August 8, he city authorities are mobilizing he local Negro Uncle Tom reformists for work in quieting the anger of the Negro masses and diverting them from the necessary revolutionary struggle against starvation and national oppression.

Wounded Denied Hospital Treatment.

The four wounded workers arrested Tuesday night are still refused hospital treatment although two of them, Henry White and Davel Nevels. Are critically wounded. They are held in the prison cells, along with eight other workers who have been arrested in the police attempt to whitewash their crimes against the working class. Several of the police murderers have been identified by witnesses and reporters for the capitalist press.

The International Labor Defense, supported by other workers’ organizations, has demanded the immediate removal of the wounded workers to the hospital and the release of all the arrested workers.

Workers Will Answer Boss Terror

The workers of Cleveland will answer the murderous attacks of the police agents of the bosses with a tremendous demonstration at the mass funeral Saturday and with a further development of the struggle against starvation and evictions, against imperialist war preparations, directed especially at the Soviet Union, and for unconditional equal rights for the Negro People.

A Bloody Week in Cleveland. October 10, 1931.

TO the long list or martyrs throughout the country in the past year (New York-Chicago-Camp Hill) is now added Cleveland. Two unemployed Negro workers, John Grayford and Edward Jackson, were killed by the police. Both were active and militant workers in the Unemployed Council, one of them a member of the Communist Party. Last Monday the City Council decided to put through an increase in carfare to ten cents.

This at a time when thousands of workers are unemployed and those working partially have their wages cut to the bone. The City Council found that Its schemes were exposed. Two thousand workers marched to City Hall to protest against this action. In the council meeting, when the workers demanded the right to be heard, Mayor Marshall answered by calling the police. Attacked by these thugs the workers defended themselves heroically and for half an hour the council could not meet. Finally, leaving the City Hall, they marched in a heavy rain to the headquarters of the Communist Party and held a meeting there. To show their support to the Party 150 filled out application cards.

The following day an eviction was taking place at 2693 E. 47th St. This is the center of Unemployed Council No. 8, which prides itself on its considerable activity. Afraid to evict the family during the day the landlord and police decided to do it that night. But they found their plans frustrated by Council No. 8. Over 300 workers were there to fight against this eviction. For this they were murderously attacked by the police. Unable to stop the workers from putting back the furniture, the police shot point blank into the crowd. As a result two workers were killed and four known wounded, besides some that got away without treatment. Terror reigned In the neighborhood for over an hour. Police squads from all over the city were sent in.

But, to the surprise of the police, the crowd was undaunted. Everyone remained in the neighborhood and a protest meeting was held immediately. Speakers were cheered and all pledged to Intensify the fight against evictions and starvation and for equal rights for the Negro people. This was followed by a number of arrests in order to stifle the militancy. A large number are arrested and held incommunicado. The wounded are in jail without treatment. Henry White, a Negro worker, suffers from bullet wounds in the right thumb and left thigh, but, like all the other wounded, does not receive hospital treatment.

The high spirits among the workers here is seen by the events that took place on the day following the shootings. At a meeting of the Unemployed Council, attended by 500, they unanimously decided to go back to the same place and put back the furniture. However, the charities had already felt forced to take action in the morning. The number increasing when they reached the house, a march was begun back to their headquarters. Such activity cannot be killed by policemen’s bullets.

The Party here is answering this murderous attack by mobilizing all workers In a united front to resist it. Preparations are going forward for the funeral, where the Cleveland workers will answer the mayor, manager and city council, who are responsible for this murder. The city authorities are already refusing to give up the bodies of their victims and in this way to cover their crime.

Fight against evictions and hunger! Fight against the murderous attacks on the Negro masses! Build the Unemployed Councils and all revolutionary organizations! Vote Communist on Nov. 3. Join the Communist Party!

30,000 Take Part in Mass Funeral for Two Negro Workers Murdered by Cleveland Police. October 12, 1931.

CLEVELAND, Ohio, Oct. 11. Ten thousand white and Negro workers marched five miles to the cemetery In the mass funeral here Saturday afternoon for the two unemployed Negro workers murdered by Cleveland police. Thirty thousand altogether participated in the funeral, demonstrating a magnificent solidarity of Negro and white workers in tremendous mass resentment against the police massacre of unemployed last Tuesday night.

CLEVELAND, Ohio, Oct. 9. A mass delegation to Safety Director Barry from the Communist Party and other organizations, backed by the growing mass resentment of Cleveland workers succeeded in forcing the removal to the hospital of the workers wounded in last Tuesday’s police massacre of unemployed. The city bosses had previously refused hospital attention to the wounded workers who, though in a critical condition were held in their cells.

The tremendous mass protest has also forced the release of all workers arrested distributing leaflets calling upon the workers of Cleveland to attend the mass funeral for the two murdered Negro workers and to defend the Negro masses.

A promise was forced from Barry that there would be no attempt to break up workers’ protest meetings tonight or to stop mass mobilization for the funeral tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 11.

One hundred thousand leaflets have been distributed. Dozens of meetings will be held throughout Cleveland tonight.

30,000 Protest Murder of Cleveland Negroes. October 13, 1931.

White, Negro Workers Show Fine Solidarity in Huge Mass Funeral for Murdered Workers Pledge Carry Forward Fight for Unemployed Relief and Unconditional Negro Equality

CLEVELAND, O., Oct. 12. 30,000 white and Negro workers gathered in the heart of the Negro section of Cleveland on Saturday for the mass funeral of John Rayford and Edward Jackson, leaders of the Unemployed Council, who were murdered by city police on Tuesday night.

Later, over 10,000 workers, maintaining perfect working class discipline, marched five miles through streets lined with tens of thousands of sympathetic workers to the Harvard cemetery, where the final meeting was held as the bodies of our comrades were lowered into the grave. The growing solidarity, under the leadership of the Communist Party and the Unemployed Councils, of Negro and white workers was expressed by the fact hat fully fifty per cent of the workers were white.

For two days preceding the funeral a continuous stream of workers passed before the bodies where they lay in Spiro Hall, guarded day and night by 25 Negro and white workers who took turns in mounting guard. Day and night the workers, men and women. some with children in their arms, passed in silence through the hall to pay a last tribute to these murdered fighters of the working-class.

For days thousands of workers gathered in protest meetings to express their indignation against the murderous boss policy of answering the demands of the unemployed workers with bullets and gas.

Workers March To Funeral Hall

Marching columns of thousands of workers from five different sections of the city converged on the funeral hall at 1 o’clock Saturday afternoon. In front of the hall they were joined by fresh thousands who had arrived individually or in small groups. In grim silence the workers massed around the huge red-draped platform erected at the center of the street.

The city government, whose police had shot down Raymond and Jackson, had been forced to cut off all traffic in the street where the funeral was held. All police had been withdrawn from the area of the funeral in face of the evident determination of the workers to stand for no interference.

The meeting was opened at one o’clock by the chairman, Herbert Newton, a Negro leader of, the working class, who represented the arrangements committee. Representatives of the International Labor Defense, the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, the Communist Party and the Young Communist League, spoke briefly, pledging the support of their organizations for the struggle in which Rayford and Jackson lost their lives. Maggie Jones, leader of the Number 8 Unemployed Branch to which Rayford and Jackson belonged, called on the workers to join the Unemployed Council in mass and to stop every eviction in the city of Cleveland as a tribute to the slain workers. She called for tire intensification of the struggle for unemployment relief and for social insurance, to be paid for by the bosses and to be administered by committees of workers.

A Fight Against Starvation

“This meeting today is more than a proletarian funeral,” declared Tom Johnson, representing the Central Committee of the Communist Party. “It is above all a fighting demonstration against starvation and pauperization of the workers, against police terrorism and for the unbreakable solidarity of the Negro and white workers in the struggle against the system which took the lives of our comrades.”

Phil Bart, district organize of the Communist Party, called for a mass recruitment of thousands of Cleveland workers into the Communist Party as a living monument to the memory of our martyred comrades. “The city government hopes to smash the militant fight of the unemployed and beat them into accepting starvation quietly by the shooting down of unarmed workers,” Bart pointed out, further declaring, “but this brutal murder, as this meeting shows, will not terrorize the Negro and white workers. On the contrary it has aroused the deepest indignation in the hearts of tens of thousands of workers and inspired them to greater struggle.”

For Unity Jobless and Employed

Bart called for the unity of unemployed and employed workers in the fight against the wage slashing campaign of the bosses, against their war preparations, directed especially at the Soviet Union, and for a united fight for unemployment insurance and for the unconditional equal rights of the Negro masses, including the right of self-determination for the Negro majorities of the Southern Black Belt, with confiscation of the land for the Negro and white workers who work the land.

Grimly and silently the massed workers stood until the speakers concluded. Then Comrade Newton slowly read an impressive working class pledge to continue, until final victory is won, the struggle in which Rayford and Jackson lost their lives. Thirty thousand clenched fists shot into the air as Newton concluded and 30,000 throats roared out the words of the pledge in unison.

Pledge To Continue Struggle

With the mass recitation of the pledge the meeting ended, and under direction of scores of captains the workers fell into line, four abreast, for the long march to the cemetery. First came a picked guard of white and Negro workers, followed by the hearse with the bodies of the heroic dead. Behind the hearse marched tens of workers laden with the flowers sent by working class organizations and individual workers. Then block after block the long line strung out, a sea of placards and banners with many organizations marching under their own banners. Behind the marchers came in cars and trucks carrying women and children.

All traffic was stopped in the main streets of the south side of Cleveland through which the procession passed. The marchers walked in closed ranks in silence. The best expression of the solidarity between the marchers and the tens of thousands of the workers who watched from the sidewalks took place as the march passed E. 55th St. and Woodland. There a street car tried to break through the line. Immediately some 200 workers rushed from the sidewalk and surrounded the car, preventing it from moving until the procession, a mile and a half long, had passed. The same thing occurred at another point to a police squad car which tried to break thru the procession.

For More Intensive Fight!

The funeral concluded with a short speech by Sandberg, secretary of the Cleveland Unemployed Councils, and a stirring appeal for the workers to join the Communist Party by Herbert Newton, as the bodies were lowered into the grave. Hundreds of workers filled out applications for membership In the Party.

Still in silence, grim and determined, the workers returned to their homes to take up on the morrow a more intense and better organized struggle against hunger and police terrorism.

The Recent Events in Cleveland. October 21, 1931.

THE shooting of two Negro workers and wounding of four in a fight against evictions following similar incident in Chicago should give many experiences to our whole Party in mobilizing large masses of workers. In the past two years capitalism has taken a large number of martyrs from our ranks. This has called forth a mass resentment (New York-Chicago-Cleveland) which must be even more consolidated into our ranks. Building the Party and mass organizations.

The Activity of Council No. 8.

It is not accidental that the attack was made against Unemployed Council No. 8, which is located in the heart of the jim-crowed Negro district in Cleveland. This council, with a membership of 800 before the massacre (now reached about 1,200) is an active force in fighting against evictions and for immediate relief of the workers in that territory. It is especially this section with its large Negro population segregated that suffers more the brunt of unemployment.

Recognizing this the sheriff decided to carry the eviction out at night. In this way attempting to frustrate the plans of the Unemployed Council to fight against the eviction. But in this they were mistaken. Immediately more than 300 were gathered to stop this new maneuver. Finding themselves frustrated the police were called and without warning the murderous shooting into the crowd was started.

Immediate Response Against Police Terror.

The workers heroically defended themselves as best they could from this murderous attack. Undaunted by the attack a meeting was held immediately, attended by hundreds of workers in protest against the murder and preparing to fight against the police terror. Despite the sending in of additional police to terrorize the Negroes in the neighborhood the Unemployed Council jammed its hall the following afternoon and marched back to the house to put back the furniture.

The response of the Cleveland workers to the mass demonstration at the funeral even surprised many leading comrades. With over 30,000 at the demonstration and 10,000 in the line of march the Cleveland workers have shown that they support the Communist Party. Significant is the splendid discipline on this occasion and the fact that we succeeded prior to the funeral in wringing a number of concessions from the city administration. While many plainclothes men were no doubt sent, not a policeman was to be found at the demonstration or near the line of march. The high militancy among the workers against this massacre forced the city officials to concede to many of our demands (removal of wounded to hospital, no police at funeral, marching through congested traffic area on a Saturday afternoon).

Our Mistakes In This Campaign.

In order to correctly estimate these events we must learn from the experiences in Cleveland. A number of these mistakes are too oft repeated, but in an “emergency” they are usually tested and glaringly shown up. What are they?

1) We waited too long before issuing our first leaflet. While the capitalist press shouted for more blood, we had no leaflets to counteract It.

For example, the Press, “liberal” Scrlpps-Howard sheet, wrote editorially, “The occasion calls for the prosecution of the mob leaders under the appropriate laws.” But we waited until the second day before we had any leaflets issued. This was later overcome but some time was lost. The fact that we had the Uj Elore here was of considerable aid. It demonstrated what a Communist press can do in a city. With its special edition and appeal in English it gathered 1,000 Hungarian workers for the funeral.

2) While exposing the Negro reformists in our propaganda we did not sufficiently link them up with the city administration of which they are a part. Especially was it necessary to tear off the mask of the Negro councilmen who were aiding the preparation of “race riots” on the basis that white Communists had “led Negroes to slaughter.” This was answered by the mighty demonstration which was attended by about 50 per cent white workers and was the greatest expression of Negro and white solidarity witnessed in Cleveland.

3) The quick response that was necessary on this occasion showed the lack of our emergency apparatus. It proved to our whole membership that this phase of work, heretofore neglected, must be immediately corrected. In the present period our Party must be prepared for any emergency and have an apparatus that can cope with the necessary problems.

4) The main resolution of the 13th Plenum stated concerning the Young Communist League, “The work among the youth is more and more becoming a living, practical problem of today for our Party in every field of struggle, unemployed movement, Negro work, etc.” Yet, only a short period since the Plenum we must record that the Party on this occasion did not carry out the decision of the Plenum. While the Y.C.L. responded to the situation, the Party did nothing to help the League on this occasion.

5) During the whole campaign we said nothing concerning the role of the “socialists”. But immediately following the murder, the “socialist” party came to the support of the murderers. It stated, “We condemn” the leadership of the Communists who are “fanatics and who are irresponsible.” What difference between this and the rest of the bourgeois press? While the “socialist” party is insignificant here, it must be recognized that they will be utilized by the bourgeoisie just when such events occur and we must from the beginning expose them before the masses.

The Main Immediate Tasks.

Here we do not wish to emphasize all problems that have arisen as a course of this campaign. But only indicate some main points in our program of work. In separate articles it will be necessary to point out to what extent we are successful in this work.

In all speeches and leaflets responsibility was primarily stressed on the city administration. Now a mass workers’ trial is prepared where the city administration will be exposed and the meeting utilized to winning workers to the support of the Communist election program.

The largest number of those recruited must be kept in the Party. For this a special commission has been set up. Meetings are being called of all applicants. Classes “On What the Communist Party Stands For” will be conducted and comrades assigned to be responsible that these new members attend the meetings (special visiting committees). Workers from large factories who have joined are being visited personally by members of the commission in order to help in organizing shop nuclei. In the section where the massacre has occurred a full time comrade has been placed in charge.

Leaflets exposing the Negro reformists are issued as well as a series of meetings explaining our program. The L.S.N.R. is preparing for a broad united front conference to be held at the time of the Nat Turner centenary and to be linked up with the present murderous attacks here.

All our revolutionary organizations have intensified their activity as a result of this event, to increase their membership and build the revolutionary movement In Cleveland on the basis of the tremendous support of the workers against the bloody attack.