In the violently reactionary mid-1920s the Federal Government instituted a week of right-wing propaganda to be held at every public school across the country with each day devoted to another topic, such as “Patriotism Day” and “Conservation and Thrift Day”. Below is a Young Pioneers program counteracting each topic with refutations and positive slogans day-by-day.

‘Program to Combat ‘Education Week” from The Daily Worker. Vol. 2 No. 269. November 13, 1925.

WORKERS PARTY AND YOUNG WORKERS LEAGUE ISSUE PROGRAM TO COMBAT “EDUCATION” WEEK

The following program which is being sent out by the Workers (Communist) Party and the Young Workers (Communist) League lays down the slogans and day-to-day program arranged to counteract the program laid down for “Education Week” which will be observed in all public schools, starting with “Constitution Day” on Monday, Nov. 16, and ending with “For God and Country Day” Saturday, Nov. 21:

Monday, Nov. 16, “Constitutional Day”

The constitution is the bulwark of capitalist rule and of the oppression of the workers.

1. The constitution protects and maintains the bosses in their exploitation and oppression of the workers.

2. The constitution suppresses every attempt of the workers to get better conditions and to free themselves. (Class war prisoners in America, etc.)

3. The workers must overthrow the rule of the capitalist maintained by the constitution and establish a workers’ and farmers’ government as in Russia.

Slogans.

Free the class war prisoners!

Down with the fake justice and equality of the capitalists!

Against the rule of the bosses!

Long live Soviet Russia where the workers rule!

Defend the Soviet Union from the attacks of the imperialists!

For the rule of the workers—a workers’ and farmers’ government in America!

Join the Workers (Communist) Party!

Join the Young Workers’ (Communist) League!

Join the Young Pioneers of America!

Tuesday, Nov. 17, “Patriotism Day”

Patriotism means slavery and obedience to the bosses; international solidarity of the workers is the road to freedom.

1. Patriotism is loyalty to the bosses who are the workers’ worst enemies.

2. Patriotism means fighting for the bosses and against your brothers and fellow-workers of other countries all for greater profits for the bosses. Patriotism means war, death, destruction, poverty and starvation for the workers; wealth, luxury, and power for the bosses.

3. The American legion (which is helping to promote American Education Week) is a tool of the bosses to spread patriotism and militarism and to be mobilized against the workers in their struggle.

4. The boy scouts are organized by and for the bosses. They poison the minds of the workers’ children and make them into obedient wage-slaves and patriotic citizens; they are used against the workers in their struggles; they are used to draw workers’ children into the capitalist armies to light for the bosses.

5. International solidarity is the union of all workers and oppressed masses of the earth for the struggle against capitalism and imperialism. In this struggle lies the road to the emancipation of the workers.

6. International solidarity means the common struggle of all toilers for their common interests. The toilers of all lands must unite to defend the Soviet Union, the republic of the Russian workers and peasants.

7. The duty of every worker, young worker, and working class child is to stand shoulder to shoulder with their fellow workers in the struggle against the bosses.

Slogans.

A united front of labor! Unity of the world trade union movement!

For a labor party!

War against capitalist wars!

Down with capitalist militarism!

Down with the American Legion!

All workers’ children out of the boy scouts—into the Young Pioneers!

For the defense and recognition of the Soviet Union!

Join the Workers (Communist) Party!

Join the Young Workers’ (Communist) League!

Join the Young Pioneers of America!

Wed., Nov. 18, “School and Teachers’ Day”

Schools are the instruments of the bosses to poison the minds of the working class children.

1. Schools are used by the capitalists to turn the children into good wage slaves and patriots. Workers must fight against the capitalist control of the schools.

2. Soviet Russia, the schools are in the hands of the workers and are used in the interests of the working class to bring up the children in the spirit of the workers revolution.

3. Children of the rich have the best of school conditions; the workers’ children go to school under the worst of conditions.

4. Millions of children in America cannot get any education at all because they have to work their lives away to grind out profits for the bosses.

5. Millions of children in America cannot get any education under proper conditions because their worker parents are too poor to clothe and feed them properly.

6. Teachers are workers exploited and oppressed by the capitalists; teachers must not let themselves be used to poison the minds of the workers’ children.

7. The workers must see to it that their children grow up into militant and conscious fighters for the proletariat.

Slogans.

Out with the capitalist anti-labor poison propaganda from the schools!

Proletarian parents councils to fight capitalist domination of the schools!

Defend the Soviet Union!

The organization of the teachers to fight the bosses!

Against rotten school conditions for workers’ children!

Abolish child labor!

State maintenance of school children under workers’ control and supervision!

Every worker a member of the Workers (Communist) Party!

Every young worker a member of the Young Workers’ (Communist) League!

Every working class child a member of the Young Pioneers of America!

Thursday, Nov. 19, “Conservation and Thrift Day”

The natural resources of this country should belong to the toilers; they have been stolen by the capitalists.

The conservation of lives of the workers’ demands the abolition of child labor and better conditions for young workers.

It demands the abolition of capitalist militarism and war.

Thrift is a delusion and mockery for the workers. They have nothing to save.

1. The “conservation of natural resources” means the conservation of the property of the capitalists—stolen from the toilers. The Workers must seize their stolen resources back from the capitalists.

2. The workers must see that their power is conserved. Children must not be crippled and stunted mentally and physically to the profit of the bosses. Young workers must not be destroyed thru the intolerable conditions of life and work. The flower of the working class must not be destroyed in capitalist wars to the interest of the bosses.

3. Under capitalism children and young workers always suffer worst from any attack of the bosses. They always have to endure the lowest conditions and the worst of treatment.

4. Under workers’ rule in Russia children and young workers have the best there is. All improvement in the lot of the workers brings them the most immediate and the greatest benefits. No child labor exists in Russia. The 5-day week and the 6-hour day for young workers exists in Russia. The young workers have the greatest opportunities for cultural and political development.

5. “Work and save” is a mockery for the workers. The harder the workers toil the less they get and the more the bosses get. The toil of the workers means the wealth of the bosses.

6. “Thrift spells prosperity” is a delusion for the workers. It makes them believe that they can be saved from their miserable conditions thru thrift. Only thru overthrowing the bosses thru the proletarian revolution, can the workers free themselves.

Slogans.

The natural resources belong to the toilers—away with the thieves, the capitalists!

Abolish child labor!

A 5-day week and a 6-hour day for the young workers!

Long live Soviet Russia—the workers’ republic! Defend the Soviet

Union against the attacks of imperialism!

Down with capitalist militarism and war!

The products of the workers’ toil to the workers! Away with the parasites!

Down with capitalism!

Join the Workers (Communist) Party!

Join the Young Workers’ (Communist) League!

Join the Young Pioneers of America!

Friday, Nov. 19, “Know Your School Day”

The American schools are the strongholds of reaction.

1. The American schools are factories for turning out blind, obedient slaves of the bosses.

2. The platoon system (Gary system, etc.) is a scheme for producing machine-like unthinking and uncomplaining workers at a lower cost to the masters. It is a reactionary move in educational methods and is a danger to the workers.

3. The schools are centers for the propagation of reactionary superstition and religious dope (religious instruction in the schools, anti-evolution teachings, etc.)

4. In Soviet Russia, the schools are used for scientific and political enlightenment of the masses.

5. The workers must fight against the public schools being centers of reaction.

Slogans.

Out with the capitalist anti-labor propaganda schools!

Out with the religious dope from the schools!

Down with the reactionary platoon system (Gary system)! Better schools and school conditions for working class children! Schools under supervision of proletarian parents’ councils.

Defend the Soviet Union! Proletarian parents’ councils to fight capitalist domination of the schools!

Join the Workers (Communist) Party!

Join the Young Workers’ (Communist) League!

Join the Young Pioneers of America!

Saturday, Nov. 20, “Community and Health Day”

Service to the working class is the highest duty of every worker.

Brutal capitalist oppression and exploitation destroys the health and life of the working masses.

1. Equality of opportunity is impossible when there are rich and poor, bosses and workers, masters and slaves. The rule of the capitalists must be destroyed.

2. “Health” talk to workers’ children is a mockery when capitalism condemns the whole working class, especially the children, to the most miserable and unhealthful conditions,

3. In workers’ Russia the first regard is for the health and development of the workers’ children and young workers.

Slogans.

Away with the capitalist parasites!

Only thru the struggle of the workers to overthrow capitalism can tolerable conditions be obtained for the workers’ children and the young workers!

Abolish child labor!

Long live Soviet Russia, the workers’ republic! Defend the Soviet Union against the imperialists!

The poor farmer youth must stand side by side with the young industrial workers in the ranks of the Young Workers (Communist) League!

Join the Young Workers (Communist) League!

Join the Young Pioneers of America!

Sunday, Nov. 21, “For God and Country Day”

Religion, capitalist morality, and capitalist education are mainstay of capitalist rule.

1. Religion is opium for the masses—the church and priests are tools of the bosses!

2. Capitalist morality and capitalist education help to make the workers obedient slaves!

3. The workers must rely on their own strength—on the strength of the working class!

Slogans.

Down with religion—opium for the masses!

Out with the religious dope from the schools!

A class conscious and militant working class must be victorious!

Down with capitalism!

Long live the workers’ and farmers’ government in America!

Join the Workers (Communist) Party!

Join the Young Workers (Communist) League!

Join the Young Pioneers of 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/1925/1925-ny/v02b-n260-NYE-nov-13-1925-DW-LOC.pdf