II. Franklin Delano Roosevelt won his first of four presidential elections in 1932, with America "not just knee deep" in economic depression, wages of starvation and an endless series of bad hair days. When Roosevelt took office March 4, 1933, the Nazi Party had been in power 32 days. In the Soviet Union building was going on everywhere, as the world’s first socialist state began its Second Five year plan. The contrast between zero economic crisis in the land of the proletariat and devastation in the lands of the capitalist was not lost on the world workers or Roosevelt. A full quarter - 25% of the workforce was unemployed. Farmers were in deep trouble as prices fell by 60%. Industrial production had fallen by more than half since 1929. Two million were flat out homeless. Sensing their interest as a class, tens of thousands of workers joined the Communist Party of America. Roosevelt, a loyal servant of capitalism, set an agenda to save the capitalist system from itself, but from a distinct point of view that put him into combat with political front men for a sector of capitalism represented by the National Association of Manufacturers and newspapers like the Chicago Tribune of that era. These capitalist were fairly straight forth in their policy: "cut wages, starve the workers, give no one anything because that will make those still working lazy, and put the police, army and intelligence agencies on the unions, environmentalist and bleeding heart liberals looking for a handout." As capitalist politician, Roosevelt deeply felt the system could be restored on a different basis. Roosevelt expressed the vision of the international financier wing of capitalism, who sensed the approach of war and the meaning of Nazi Germany’s propaganda demanding a return to a closed colonial system where Germany would lead Europe and shut out investment in European and Soviet oil fields. The international financiers, holders of hundred of millions in oil bonds and other investments could not accept the German vision of a New Europe. See, the international finance guys had loaned European states money to rebuild after the First World Imperialist War, and nothing upsets finance capital more than not being able to collect its interests on payments. Roosevelt’s political grouping understood clearly America could not enter a world war and produce the steel, planes, tanks and trains if the factory floors continued to be war zones. They also realized if the state violently suppressed the strike wave sweeping the industrial work force, not only would this lead to a blood bath, but make national unity impossible. Crushing the strikes and shooting down hungry workers, meant no one would cooperate in the world war which was clearly coming. All the major states of the world understood world war was coming as a way to escape economic crisis gripping the world. Each state only sought not to be the loser with “the short end of the stick.” Roosevelt’s polices were designed to coincide with the major demands of the working class, stabilize the country and take the country to war. However, the turning point in the struggle of the proletariat of this period was the March 7, 1932 Hungry Strike. The Wagner Act opened the door for unionization on a massive scale, but the critical juncture in transformation of the mass consciousness of the fighting section of the proletariat was lead by the Unemployment Councils. III. Dave Moore Interview (I) March 7, 1932 Hunger Strike. PA: Can you talk about the Hunger March? How did you come to be part of it? DM: I became part of it because of a guy by the name of Chris Alston. I was living on Leland Street, right off of Hastings. The Hunger March grew out of many trials and tribulations, and agony. After the Depression started, people were meeting and discussing ways of remedying the situation, about what should be done. Especially during the summer months, you could go up and down Hastings Street or Woodward Avenue and see people on ladders or soapboxes making speeches on how things should be corrected. An effort came about to unify all these individuals and the groups they were speaking for. I joined the Leland Street Unemployed Council. There were many Unemployed Councils scattered across the city of Detroit. Hamtramck, Inkster, and River Rouge – all the suburbs had them. There was a guy named Bill McKie who said, "Let’s call a meeting of all those who speak for these different councils in the various parts of the city. Let’s have a meeting here in Detroit and combine our forces." Bill, I would say, was the father of the Unemployed Councils here in Detroit. I know damn well he was the father of the Hunger March which was soon to take place. We then agreed that all of us from the different Unemployed Councils would meet at a place called Yemans Hall and try to decide exactly what our objectives were. We were meeting to raise hell about the conditions we had to live under. But what were we going to do about it other than to complain among ourselves about how our government was doing nothing for us? It was agreed that this meeting had to happen; so we met at Yemans Hall. All kinds of proposals were put forth, but the one that stuck in the minds of most people was a march or demonstration by the Unemployed Councils to put the fat cats on notice so they would know what we stood for. It was agreed that we should march on one of the Big Three. But I am getting a little ahead of myself. The Unemployed Councils did do some things prior to the march. For instance, landlords used to send people to evict people and move their furniture out onto the street, but wherever there was an Unemployed Council, we would go and move the furniture back in. I have some pictures of myself, Chris Alston, Jimmy Neoff (a Bulgarian), Nate Koffman (a Jew), Gabe Zukoff (an Eastern European), and Max Rodriguez (a Mexican), all of us together putting people back in their homes. I don’t think you have ever seen, and I hope you never will see, people being evicted in December and January in Detroit. It was snowing like hell. I remember one time it was snowing hard, and an evicted woman was actually having a baby on the sidewalk with other women around her, wondering if they had enough blankets to cover up the woman having a baby! I don’t think you ever saw something like that. That happened here in Detroit, but not only in Detroit – all across the land. The conditions were so bad and working people had suffered so much that they had reached a point where anything could happen. This helped speed up the momentum of the Unemployed Councils. A display of unity between all the people – Black, white, religious, and political, just about everyone – was shown. Because all of us were suffering the same fate: hunger, poverty, unemployment, needing medical care etc. It still makes me mad as hell when I remember the conditions working people had to go through during the Depression before the Unemployed Councils and the Hunger March took place. I hope you never will witness what people went through. People would go down to the old Eastern Market and pick up half-rotten white potatoes or sweet potatoes, lettuce and cabbage, whatever the farmers were throwing away. That was the source of food for many people, picking up a half-rotten banana or a half-rotten potato, any kind of half-rotten vegetables, to bring home so your mama could make a meal out of it. I came from a family of seven boys and two girls, and the older boys had to leave home. Whatever food there was, was left for the younger ones. David Moore, and a lot of other David Moore’s went very hungry at that time. But we tried to make it possible for our moms and dads and brothers and sisters to eat. We’d go out and try to salvage whatever we could from the stores and street corners, wherever different kinds of food – discarded vegetables and meat – had been thrown out because they couldn’t sell it. That’s how we got together a meal for ourselves. But to get back to the Unemployed Councils. They grew out of this desperation: the hunger, the poverty, the suffering, the death, the untold misery that working people had to go were going through, especially Black people. The Blacks were always at the bottom of the economic ladder, but when the Depression hit we were pushed off the bottom of that ladder, and the white working people came down to where we had been. We were down on the ground. As [Black labor union leader of the National Labor Union in the 1860s and 1870s] Isaac Myers told us: The same chains that bound Black people in physical slavery bind white folks in economic slavery. That means that when economic slavery came to get the white folks as well as the Black, the working white folks dropped down to where we Blacks had always been, and the Black folks got pushed right down to the ground. Now we were all suffering the same economic plight. But out of the desperation and trials that we all had to go through – and when I say all of us, I am talking about white people as well – a rebellious attitude began to develop. That rebellious attitude went into the Unemployed Councils. Not only did it go into the Unemployed Councils, but that rebellious attitude began to solidify into a demand for action by the Unemployed Councils. It was therefore decided by the leaders of every Unemployed Council that there should be a march on the fat cats. The question was should we march on their homes out in Grosse Point and North Detroit, on Chicago and Boston Boulevard? Or should we march on their manufacturing sites? Some said, "Let’s march on GM, it’ s the biggest one." Others said that GM had plants scattered all over Detroit, Hamtramck and Flint. Some said Chrysler was the same situation. Then there were those who said, "Let’s march on Ford, because Ford has one location, the Rouge – it’s the smaller plant. But the biggest majority of Ford workers and those who were suffering the most worked at the Rouge. So let’s have a march on Ford." After much discussion and differences of opinion, it was finally decided that we would march on Ford. This resulted in what we now call the Hunger March. On the day of the march itself, March 7, 1932, all of the Detroit Unemployed Councils gathered on Russell and Ferry Street, here on the East Side. All of the Unemployed Councils in Hamtramck gathered at Yemans Hall. We had an agreement with all the outlying Councils that Detroit would lead off from Ferry and Russell and march over to Woodward, and that Hamtramck and Highland Park could join us when we hit Woodward Avenue. When those of us on Russell and Ferry marched west to Woodward and then south on Woodward, the momentum began to swell. Highland Park showed up. Hamtramck showed up. And there were also a lot of other individuals standing on the sidewalks who began to join in. We had three guys beating drums, four saxophones, two trumpets, and some guys with guitars up in front. It was a sight never before seen in Detroit and one that has never been seen since. We went all the way down Woodward Avenue until we got to the old City Hall. end part 2 Waistline
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