A meeting in New York exposes the links between U.S. cigarette companies and fascist reaction in the tobacco-producing countries of Europe, most notably the Greek dictatorship of General Kondylis.

‘Greek Workers in New York City Assail Fascism’ from the Daily Worker. Vol. 2 No. 219. December 4 1924.

Resolution Against the Blackshirts Adopted

NEW YORK, Dec. 2. Blackshirt tyranny in Greece and American imperialism were the target of the same shot at the meeting of the Greek branch of the Workers Party at Bryant Hall, 42nd St. and 6th Ave.

The Greek workers that crowded the hall enthusiastically listened and applauded the two Greek speakers, Comrades Socrates Georganteas and George Arvanitis, and Ben Gitlow, vice-presidential candidate on the Workers Party ticket in the recent elections, who spoke in English.

Denounce General Kondylis.

The meeting was called in protest of the persecutions of the Greek workers by the fascist General Kondylis, who only lately ordered his hordes to shoot at workers in the port of Cavalla, Greece, because the tobacco workers fought against the exportation of raw tobacco from Greece in order to save the industry and provide work for the workers who suffer from long periods of unemployment. The speakers assailed the Greek government, which is the tool of the American Tobacco Trust, because it cares more for the interests of the trust than for the preservation of the industry and the provision of work for the workers.

Comrade Arvanitis, himself a tobacco worker, in his inspiring talk described what the exportation of such raw tobaccos meant to the workers. He also aroused great enthusiasm when he told the audience about the reward that the workers get, when they come back from the battle front of the wars of the imperialists. He said that the workers are good and loyal as long as they give their lives and leave their limbs in the valleys of Macedonia and Asia Minor, where they were sent to “liberate our unredeemed christian brothers from the Turkish and Bulgarian tyranny,” but they get bullets and bayonets when they get wise and have the “audacity” to ask for a few more crumbs of bread. He accused the Greek government for having asked the Bulgarian government about the “hereditary enemy,” how the latter manages in combatting Communism within its boundaries.

Comrade Gitlow in his inspiring speech attacked the American Tobacco Trust, that as a gigantic octopus has under its influence the governments of the Balkan states, and thru its activities wants to totally subjugate the tobacco industry and, therefore, the workers that get their livelihood from it. He added that this policy is nothing else but part of a general program of American imperialist capitalism to enslave the peoples of the tobacco producing countries.

A resolution of protest against the Greek government and sympathy to the fighting workers of Greece was adopted unanimously. The resolution follows:

Resolution.

“We, the Greek workers and toilers of New York and vicinity, at a meeting at Bryant Hall, after having heard the Greek and American speakers resolve:

“We protest vehemently against the fascist orgies of the capitalist government of Greece, and especially against the crimes committed by the arch-fascist General Kondylis, who spills the blood of our innocent brothers, persecutes, jails and deports the leaders of the Communist Party of Greece and request the immediate ceasing of these persecutions:

“We expose to the parties of the workers of the world the crimes committed against the Greek workers;

“We call upon the workers and peasants of Greece to close their ranks and organize themselves in the Communist Party of Greece, the only organization that is able to successfully combat the tyranny, and to protect the suppressed rights of the working masses. We declare that the salvation of the working people of Greece, as well as of the working peoples of the Balkan states, where the ugly paws of fascism are shown to the toiling masses, lies only in the union and solidarity of the workers and peasants of the Balkans, and to this end declare ourselves in favor of the Balkan Workers’ Federation;

“We stand by the Communist Party of Greece, the Communist (Workers) Party of America, and the Communist Parties of the world, because we are convinced that only Communism is able to put an end to capitalist exploitation and to bloody fascism, and to liberate the working class.

“We resolve that copies of this resolution be sent to the Greek Communist organ of America, the Empros, The DAILY WORKER, the Rizospasis, the daily Communist paper of Athens, and to the Communist Parties of Greece and America.”

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1924/v02a-n219-dec-04-1924-DW-LOC.pdf