An international organization supporting class war prisoners and their dependents. A year after its founding, Amter on the reasons for International Red Relief (sometimes called I.R.A.–International Red Aid, also known by its Russian acronym MOPR), of which the United States had among the most active and successful affiliates, the International Labor Defense.
‘World-Wide Significance of International Red Aid’ by Israel Amter from The Daily Worker Magazine. Vol. 2 No. 35. April 26, 1924.
White reaction holds the working masses of the world in its bloody grip. In Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Italy, Roumania, Lettland, Esthonia and Finland, in Java, India, China and Japan, in Spain and France, in the United States, Canada and South America–tens of thousands of the best workers are languishing in prison.
They have been sent to these hell-holes for daring to fight in the front ranks of the workers against the brutal exploiters. In the interests of the workers they have defied the authority of the capitalist State, and today are paying the penalty of their heroism.
Post-War Annoyance
The World War filled the international bourgeoisie with great pride. THEY had won the war; they were well armed, the working class was split into warring camps. Despite the fact that they had accumulated billions of debts; created values to the amount of more billions had been shot to pieces; and despite the fact that the workers and peasants of Soviet Russia had taken from them one of the most fertile lands for exploitation, they felt strong. Many capitalist governments were on the verge of ruin and collapse; many shuddered before the menace of the working class. The International bourgeoisie felt safe; they would not allow the proletariat of another country to seize power. Together they would drown the workers in blood.
In Hungary, the workers might attempt to establish their Soviet power; in Finland they might declare parliament their own; in Italy they might seize the factories and fight for State control; in Germany they might overthrow the Kaiser and proclaim the country a republic–the bourgeoisie did not fear. The war taught them the necessity of standing together. However much they may fight among themself for the spoils of war and for the right of exploitation–against the working class and the militant peasants they are a unit.
The Black International
Hence the workers of Hungary, Italy, Finland, Roumania did not fight against their bourgeoisie alone. Behind the bourgeoisie of these countries stood the mighty capitalist governments of France and England, aiding them with guns and ammunition, with millions of gold. Just as they had tried to throttle the Soviet Government with guns and aeroplanes from England, France and the United States; just as they sent American, English and French boys to shoot down Russian workers and peasants who threw the bourgeoisie out of their land forever–so, too, they aid the bourgeoisie of every other country in beating down and crushing the working class.
The capitalist system of production is truly anarchic. But the capitalist mind is clear. The capitalists very well understand their mutual interests, and they are organized to protect their interests. Armies are not created by one capitalist government only to beat another capitalist government in the race of profits, for sources of raw material and fields for investment. Armies are created in order to shoot down rebellious workmen and militant peasants. They are to help other capitalist governments in subduing their workers. We have returned to ‘peace’ yet the standing armies of the world are larger than before the war. The capitalist world is preparing not only for another world war, but also to curb the revolution.
The Bogeyman of Capitalism
The capitalists have operated well to befuddle the minds of the workers regarding the meaning of revolution. They have held up to them the “blessings of democracy,” the “splendors of civilization.” They have calumniated the revolutionists, the “Reds”, the Communists. They have pictured them as bloodthirsty barbarians bent upon destroying the world. Under the pressure of the press, the school and the church, the workers have yielded to the influence. But the spirit of revolt cannot be curbed in this manner. Capitalist exploitation and capitalist government–upon which the power of the bourgeoisie rests–are teaching the workers a better lesson. The struggle for existence against the pillage of the capitalist class and the brutality of all capitalist governments are pounding into the head of even the most stupid worker the fact that as long as there is a capitalist there will be a capitalist government, and its function is to crush the working class and keep it in subjection.
The shrewd minded capitalists have succeeded in keeping the workers apart. They are well organized, but in every country they have carried on vicious campaigns to destroy the organizations of the working class, Trade unions, cooperatives, peasants organizations–all of them have suffered under the blighting hands of the capitalists and the capitalist governments. In Italy, Mussolini, the idol of the international bourgeoisie, whose methods they are copying in all capitalist countries, has obliterated the unions and cooperatives and has turned them into organizations against the workers and peasants. In Germany Stinnes, Thyssen and Wolff have carried on one vicious campaign after the other with the aim of destroying the unions. In France, Spain, Norway and Sweden, in England, United Sates Canada and Argentine, in Japan, India and Australia–in all the countries of the globe, the capitalists, organized in their associations, and leagues, have left no means unused in their campaigns to exterminate the last remnants of labor organization.
Betrayers of Working-class
In this brutal onslaught, they have been aided by the reactionary trade union leaders and the reformist politicians. These “labor leaders” and representatives of the working class”–Ebert, Leipart, Turati, Modigliano, Jouheaux, MacDonald, Thomas, Gompers, Lewis–stand for “social peace,” which means working class surrender. It means the acceptance of hunger and starvation, of wages that will not keep body and soul together, of prostitution and child labor, of hours and conditions of labor that crush the very life of the worker. AND ALL FOR THE SAKE OF PROFITS! This is the meaning of “social peace” which is preached and practiced by the reactionary, reformistic “leaders” of the working class.
The militant workers revolt against such conditions. In every country of the capitalist world, the workers are rebelling. For five years in Germany they have fought against the combined attack of the German bourgeoisie and the French imperialism, who are aided by the upholders of social peace. Poincare, Ebert and Stinnes–these are the bloody triumvirate which has strewn Germany with the corpses of German workers and filled the prisons with ten thousand workers who have dared to rebel.
In Bulgaria, five thousand workers and peasants have been slaughtered, five thousand more languish in prison. five thousand have been sent into exile for fighting against the fascist government.
In Italy and Poland thousands of the bravest workers and peasants are rotting in the dungeons of capitalist prisons.
In Spain, France, Holland, Finland, America, Canada, Japan, China, Java and Korea, the best fighters for the working class are tortured in the prisons; many are driven to madness and suicide, others are murdered.
The largest number of the workers who were massacred and imprisoned are Communist. The masses of India have been told by the MacDonald Government of Great Britain that if they dare to fight for their freedom, the full force of the British Government will crush them. But the masses fight on, although their leaders and their best comrades are in prison.
Thousands Doomed To Death
Tens of thousands of the world’s most courageous fighters will die in capitalist prisons. Tens of thousands more must face capitalist courts to be sent to decay in the pest-holes of prison, others to be shot. Tens, yes, hundreds of thousands of women and children are doomed to hunger and death by the savage hand of capitalist “justice.”
The international bourgeoisie could not succeed in its diabolical plans) were the working class not disorganized and disunited. The capitalist) class will succeed still further if the workers of the world do not unite in defending their fighters. The capitalists do not ask about color and complexion. They are indifferent to race, or faith; they do not ask about political affiliation. Militant workers are a menace and must be removed; prison torture and death are their reward. President Wilson first heard of Tom Mooney when the workers of Leningrad demanded his release. Dato was released from a Spanish prison after the workers of France had demonstrated.
INTERNATIONAL RED AID IS THE DEMAND OF THE HOUR. International solidarity is the strongest weapon of the working class in the fight against the bourgeoisie. The working class must learn to stand together as the internationalist capitalists stick together. With this weapon they will free themselves from capitalist tyranny. They must stand solidly behind the militant revolutionary workers in prison. They must aid their families. They must help the imprisoned peasant who are paying the penalty for their heroism.
The white terror in Europe and Asia demands that the workers of the whole world unite in defence of the imprisoned comrades and their families. It demands that the workers of countries where the hand of reaction does not yet press so heavily, form their Red Ald organizations at once, before the guns of capitalist soldiery and gendarmerie mow down the best fighters of the working class. SELF HELP AND INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MUST BE OUR SLOGANS!
The International Red Aid
The barbarous torture of the White Terror caused the formation of the INTERNATIONAL RED AID one year ago. The need of it is apparent. In this short period, the International Red Aid has sent tens of thousands of dollars to aid the fighting working class prisoners in Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Hungary, France, Esthonia, Lettland, Finland, Lithuania, Roumania, Java, China, Palestine.
Where has this money come from? Chiefly from the Russian workers and peasants. The Russian workers and peasants cannot forget the solidarity that the workers of the whole world manifested towards them when they fought against international reaction in defence of their Soviet Government. They cannot forget the aid that the workers and peasants gave them when famine threatened their land. They cannot forget how, in the times of the czars, their political refugees were aided by foreign workers, Russian workers have given of their earnings. They pledge themselves to aid their fighting comrades abroad, and their starving families. They know that the CAPITALIST GOVERNMENTS HATE MOST OF ALL THE POLITICAL PRISONERS, BECAUSE THEY ARE THEIR BITTEREST ENEMIES IN THE CAUSE OF THE WORKING CLASS. Russian peasants give their grain; their last trinkets they contribute. FIGHTING WORKERS AND THEIR FAMILIES, NO MATTER WHERE, MUST BE SUPPORTED. THERE IS NO MORE GLOWING TESTIMONY OF INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY THAN THAT OF THE RUSSIAN WORKERS AND PEASANTS!
Four hundred thousand Russian workers and peasants are in the organizations of the International Red Aid. Their slogan is ONE MILLION MEMBERS by May 1. The workers and peasants of other countries should take an example from these workers.
There is no more urgent task than that of the International Red Aid. It is a powerful weapon of the working-class against the White Reaction.
The Daily Worker Saturday Supplement, later changed to a Sunday Supplement, of the Daily Worker was a place for longer articles with debate, international focus, literature, and documents presented. 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-n035-supplement-apr-26-1924-DW-LOC.pdf
