fl TVHUUTUVEUUHDSTUUATARLWUUDETOSTHEOTEU OTE ADSENSE DUET ae Ox LAW NO. 2: “Obviously, it is ACH day at Swinton unfair te the party to try to get House off London’s it to sell 2 bad paper. Every new bustling King’s Cross way, a small band of men record and help to make the history of modern Britain. Noe one ef them is of the present government, but neither at Westminster nor among the ministries is policy weighed with more regard to conse- quence, or with greater zeal for the well being of the peoples of the world. Their profession is journalism 3 their product the Daily Worker, voice of the Com- munist Party of Great Bri- tain. : The Daily Workers is an ac- cepted national newspaper. It competes in influence with the entire millionaire press, Labor Party bigwigs consider it a rival of the party’s Daily Herald, but read it assiduously. Ministers and members of parliament heed its every criticism and REconie mendation. The three copies in the reading room of the House of Commons are seldom free from use. ‘Trade-union officials study it for strategy, rank-and- filers for its unexcelled labor coverage. Foreign press services frequently quote it its diplo- matic correspondence is account- ed as well informed as that of other organs which have an- “n= side track’’ to ministers. Its fea- tures entertain as well as in- form How the Daily Worker attain- ed this position remains a mys- tery for those who seek its secret in the usual pattern of news- paper growth. Lhe British press is trustified no less than the Ca- nadian press. Wine big press monopolies own most of the newspapers Why it survived ORE than technical know-how is needed to survive in waters infested by these mammoth sharks. It was not in the cards for the Daily Worker to compete, and many were the doubting Thomases who pooh-poohed its prospects. Even by Hinglish standards, its four pages, each with six 17-inch columns, are di- minutive, Its circulation of 100,- 000 daily, 130,000 every week-end, seems insignificant against the huge circulations of several other national dailies, which reckon their daily sales in fig- ures over the million mark. Its plant and printing facilities would long since have been junked by most Canadian small-_ town publishers. P The Worker was compelled by its special qualities, and the limi- tations and advantages inherent in those qualities to develop new promotional and technical meth- ods. Its secret? Simply. this, ihat its founders and builders recognized the necessities inher- ént in the special qualities of the paper, and obeyed the laws of growth dictated by those necessities. For the Daily Work- er, a newspaper of a special kind, had its own laws of devel- cpment, and could grow by no other. Forty-three-year-old chief edi- tor William Rust sets forth the Daily Worker’s laws of deveiop- ment in crisp, matter-of-fact sen- tences: LAW NO. 1: “fhe party must fight for its paper. Cachin at- tributed the success of L’Human- ite to the fact that the party fights for it. Workers, intellec- tuals, party officials go out and sell it.” UT LTT TT UT UHURU TATE TTT TTT Lae The London ‘* Daily Worker’’ OTT AT Tec reader of the Daily Worker has got to be fought for. Reading the Worker represents an im- portant political change for the reader. It’s not enough simply to sell it. Some people take it merely to get you off the door- PROF. J. B. S. HALDANE “ - - a2 paper to turn to” step. The reader has to be won and held. That’s the job of good journalism.” New Year's, 1930 T NEEDED a2 fight to launch it that New Year’s Day, 1930, when the class-collaborationist policies of the Labor Party and trade-unior officials, who sought to rationalize their timidity and capitulation to the surge of reac- tion after the general strike, threatened te surrender the field te the employers. The Commun- ists and militant workers won that fight. Trade unionists, shop- keepers. and intellectuals plump- ed pounds and shillings inte the funds for ‘& fighting people’s paper. The party’s weekly organ was enabled to appear as a small, eight-page tabloid daily. The party concentrated on the oncesa-week issue. Circulation climbed slowly. When the Popu- lar Front drive got under way in 1935, the party sparked a big- press-building campaign, bought new equipment and Machines, in- ereased the staff. A better paper facilitated the fight for circula- tion. From sales of 20,000 to 25,- 000 in 1930, the Daily Worker by 1936 was selling 50,000 daily, 120,- 000 every weekend. The blitz put the party’s devo- tion to its press to a severe test. The blitz struck at the Worker in two ways. On January 21, 1941, Herbert Morrison, the Home Secretary, suppressed the paper without trial under’ a security regulation. And on the night of April 16, 1941, incendiary bombs burned the Worker’s premises to the ground. 'The paper’s enemies thought it was mortally stricken. But their jubilation was prema- ture. Faced with the total loss of the Worker, the Communists in- itiated and organized a popular eampaign for its rebirth which fired the whole nation: The ef forts to launch the paper in the late 1920’s, the struggle to build its circulation in the face of the wholesalers’ boycott—these were nothing now as compared to the energies expended by the party to save the Worker. So effective were the party’s efforts, so overwhelming the re- sponse of the British people, that representations were sent to the Home Office by trade unions, PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 12 By JOHN PITTMAN cooperative societies, bodies of intellectuals and professional and cultural workers, the Labor Party, the Trades Union Con- gress and other powerful sections of democratic opinion. Finally, on August 26, 1942, 19 months after suppressing the ‘Worker, Morrison was forced to lift the ban. That was the first step to rebirth. Of great importance was the campaign’s result in opening the door to financial improvement. This came about in three ways. Changes in operation IRST, revenue from advertis- ing and sales shot up. The wholesalers received orders for 550,000 copies. of which the Work- er was able to supply—because of its small ration of newsprint —only one-sixth, or 83,000 copies. Second, the response to the pap- ers “Fighting Fund” brought in £50,000 (about $200,000) in less than four months, settled down to steady approximation of a monthly quota of £4000 ($16,000). Probably the most important benefit to accrue to the Daily Worker as a consequence of the nation-wide mobilization in its behalf came on September 12, 1945, with the establishment of a cooperative society to own and cperate it. : Objective of this program was to make the Daily Worker a “first-class national newspaper with a mass circulation ...a popular newspaper based on modein journalistic technique, a paper which the man in the street will turn to in order to find the news of the day and stimulating reading material, as well as po- litical guidance.” William Rust, charter member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, member of the Political Bureau, and editor of the Daily Worker since its inception, is a self-made journalist. He was . born in 1903 of working-class par- ents, left school at 14, became a trade unionist at 16, and was the first secretary of the Young Communist League. A victim of political persecu- tion, he was kicked out of a job at 18- and became a leader of the National Unemployed ‘Workers Movement. A year later he was sentenced to prison for two months on charges arising out of preventing evictions. Several years later he was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment at the famous trial of the 12 Commun- ist leaders shortly prior to the . General Strike. The paper’s tasks RES knows newspapering by way of experience. He hand- led every, job on the Daily Work- er: “Journalism is a trade,” he says, in characteristic clipped, di- rect sentences. “It’s got to be learned.” “The essence of good journalism is quick reaction to facts; to give the news and at the same time the views on the news, so that the reader can understand what’s go- ing on in the world.” Rust classifies the problems of the Communist journalist into ~ three main categories. “The first and foremost job is politically to know and wunder- stand what is taking place.’ That calls for continuous alert- ness and effort to apply Marxism te objective reality. “The second is to write in a style that really interests people.” This problem of presentation, Rust believes, is the “essence of journalistic. problems.” A view- point may be presented, he says, by (1) a certain tendency in writ- ing and headline treatment; (2) direct signed comment; and (3) editorials; (4) feature material.. “The third problem is to give the news and information, and at the same time combine it with views.” The key to the solution of these problems is to be found in the unity of Marxist theory and journalistic craftsmanship. The editorial executive’s notes for the Daily Worker sub-editors stress this point: _ “Sub-editing — especially on a paper like ours—combines in it- self both political and technical aspects. They can no more be Separated than can theory and - practice. It is no use if our subs concentrate On technical effici- ency and forget that they are Comminists; without a sound and lively grasp of politics, (which implies personal political activi- ty and‘ thinking) all the technical slill in the world is so much empty, and dangérous virtuosity. Equally, without the highest de- gree of technical skill the politics will remain sterile (so far as the Baper is concerned).” Best In Britain ROUND Bill Rust are some of the ablest journalists and big- gest names in Great SBritain. Chairman of the editorial board is world-renowned scientist J. B. S. Haldane. The board includes, Eesides Rust, Dr. Hewlett John- son, the Dean of Canterbury; Beatrix Lehmann, a talented and mationally famous actress; R. Page Arnot, veteran Marxist writer and assistant editor of La- bor Monthly; Sean O’Gasey, the famous Irish playwright; Arthur Horner, newly elected secretary of the WNational Union of Mine- workers; A. F. Papworth, mem- ber of the General Council cf the frades Union Congress; J. R. Campbell, member of the Com munist Party central committee and long-time industrial writer; Jack Owen, veteran reporter of trade and shop problems, ~ Around this core of veterans, the Worker has. a number of promising. young writers. But old-timer and newcomer, widely known and relatively unknown —all staff members participate in the teamwork of study, personal activity in party life, and ecol- lective staff discussions, the sum ‘total of which produces a paper which itself fights for, wins and hoids its readers. _ HERBERT MORRISON Wartime Home Secretary who banned the Daily Worker, was later forced to lift his ban through pressure of pub- lic opinion. # By ART SHIELDS COMMUNIST first prosecut- ed Hermann Goering, No. 2 Nazi, and predicted his doom. The Communist, Georgi Dimi- trov, exposed Goering as a murderer and arsonist in open court, and forecast his future punishment. The scene was the famous Reichstag fire trial. The time, late 1933, the year that Hit ler and Goer- ing were given power by the German mon- opolists. Dimitrov, the accused, became t h e accuser throughout the long trial. And Goering, the ac- euser, who had to frame Dimi- trov for the fire, which his own agents had = Dimitrov set, became the actual de- fendent in the eyes of the world. The swolien fascist leader came strutting into court like a big pouter pigeon. His stooges cheered and ~ gave the fascist salute as the bemedal- led butcher came into the Leip- sig trial room. But his pom- posity was quickly burst by the Communist’s hammer blows. Goering soon was tangling himself in his own lies under A Communist prepared Goering’s doom the pitiless questioning of the Communist, who was defend- ing himself. The Nazi bully took refuge in Screams; he began threatening Dimitrov with the gallows. But the Communist had accomplished his purpose—the murderer, the arsonist had been exposed be fore the world. z DEttRev prosecuted - Goer- ing in the name of the Communist Party throughout the three months’ trial. In the Name of the Party also he told the fascists Commumists would play the leading role in the destruction of the Nazi order. That prediction was fulfilled | when the Red Army of the Soviet state occupied Berlin. The Communists’ power was shown at the close of the trial when Hitler and Goering felt compelled to free Dimitrov and two of his Bulgarian com-= rades. Goering had shouted im the court he would get his hands on Dimitroy when the trial was over. But he had to Surrender the three Bulgarians to their friends in the Soviet Union instead. Medals multiplied on Goer- ing’s bulging bosom in «the coming: years. His directorships on cartel boards increased. But the prestige of the No. 2 Nazi and the cause he represented had been permanently dented in the Reichstag fire trial, 138 years before he bit the cyan- ide pill. : FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1946 | } i