The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 15, 1924, Page 12

The Alignment By JEANNETTE D. PEARL Generally speaking the © broad masses of women may be classified as a part of the unskilled labor supply of the country. “As unskilled la- borers, the | difficulty of organizing women becomes at onee apparent. Of the four million workers in trade un- ions, only a quarter of a million are women. The A. F, of L. caleulates the organizational strength of women at 5 per cent, to demonstrate. how difficult is the task of organizing women. This calculation of the A..F. of L. is no doubt brought into evidence to conceal its own guilt in having sabotaged the unionizing of women. As wunskilled workers the A. F. of L. practically made no attempt to organize women while such of the skilled women that sought membership in the A. F. of L. were excluded from many of the unions as competitors, threatening the job trust of the A. F. of L. The discrimination against women is not a matter of sex as is contended by the feminists, but is based on economic grounds, the source of prac- tically all discriminations, The in- creasing number of women entering: industry, their attempt at organization, make them a factor that must be reckoned wih, industrially as well as politically. Women are organizable. There are over eight million women (of all classes) organized in social and civic (Continued from Page 1) lette was on the verge of victory. the agrarian northwest. Then read the following table which gives the comparative vote and La- Follette’s percentage in the industrial cities of the east and middle west: AVvozZ poo Pees se eEes eee ss Eee ce S “43 4585p e262 _ : oO SG ces ms: aaPe., oa st 2p: 3 ° i Fo mi: e ® BRi.Si@t iS me} i . tee ri : 4 A : 3 Sera es ee Ge fa Shae oe RE 6 is ie 3 seSkeszeszeed = weane a & | RESSSSePSES Dl wH OI mMweano oy te wowna &| €23SSRessSea ca mt Or ods eb oo = sIqawqa : | sERERREER Eg YHeR ONIN oko WY a OO bo we F|SSaenseesee = 5 enone ee o = weweas :| BERsREets¢ ~ Mich reuse > a2! Sas 2 #| 8388832882 4 > at wk od QO of we Eee we bo & ye ke S Bb bo bo wo IIe Se Ss 3) SRSARSaSSS5 3h em & bt SO bo o a ~~ S| Sarasssssg a lll nal i - & S| Pe aeeeopa sn ox el] | Fep nee a Fe & LaFollétte’s average vote in these states is 10.2 per cent. In New York and Illinois it was over 14 per cent, and in Ohio it was 18 per cent. What does it prove? It proves that large sections of labor in the industrial cen- ters accept at present the political leadership of the objectively petty- bourgeois LaFollette movement. The switch in labor’s ranks from the old capitalist parties is seen more clearly when we compare the vote for Debs in 1920 with the vote of LaFol- lette in 1924 cast in the industrial centers, Read the table: State Debs LaFollette THMONB sessessssecssesseere 74,747 336,000 TNdiAMA Ferrscssseresesseeee 24,708 68,769 ORIG: siccescsoressoosccerceses 09,147 382,279 than one-third, of the total vote. Also that in a few of these states LaFol- It is practically, certain that had the petty-bourgeoisie, whom he represents, voted for him, he would have carried most of those states. Which estab- shes the fact that the LaFollette of Revolutionar clubs thruout the country. In the last presidential election, the eligible voting women, voted to the extent of 43 per cent. Thexcaleulation that the organiza- tional strength of women in trade unions is but*5 per cent is incomplete. Since women constitute but one’fourth of the working population, the 5 per cent should be multiplied by four. Male workers are organized in propor- tion to men employed to the extent of 1l-per cent, women to the extent of 2.5 per cent, The organizational strength of working women compared with working men may be taken as 20 per cent. The number: of working women or- ganized in trade unions is not a con- stant factor. Two thirds of women in industry, according to the women’s bureau at Washington, are Continually leaving industry because of marriage. That proportion may also be assumed for organized women, so that the con- stant factor for organized women is roughly 100,000 with 150,000 as a per- petual fluctuating figure. But even the 100,000 is not altogether a con- stant factor, because psychologically working women in the main regard their work as a temporary condition. The apparent temporary character of women’s employment, her compara- tive newness to industry, her lack of skill, together with the peculiarities arising out of her maternal functions and duties, have all materially con- SOUND THE ALARM capitalist parties and in the direction of a movement which the masses be- mg to be more their own is very defi- nite. sions from each of these tables, we are justified in saying: That the La- Follette movement, objectively a movement of the petty-bourgeoisie, was not supported in the elections in any large measure by the petty-bour- geoisie, but by the workers of the east and middle west and by the poor farmers of the northwest, ~ _ Altho the achievements of the La- Foflette groups fall far short of their expectations, yet the movement will undoubtedly ‘continue towards further crystallization into a definite party. It will continue as an alliance be- tween the ideologists of the petty- bourgeoisie and labor bureaucracy and will be recognized and supported for some time to come by large sections of labor and poor farmers. What we had in America until practically the beginning of July as a farmer-labor movement was completely swallowed up by the LaFollette-socialist-Gom #4 alliance. The Workers Party and Its Tasks. I reserve a fuller treatment for a further article. Here the following must be pointed out. The Workers (Communist) Party succeeded in the election campaign in bringing its mes- sage of class struggle and Commun- ism to wide masses of workers. Our party established itself for the first time in its existence, as the ofily party of working class struggle, as the only uncompromising enemy of capitalism. By our election campaign we have prepared the ground and ourselves for the leading role in the class struggle which we are bound to assume, This must be followed up with a concrete program of action based upon the everyday struggles of the workers, in the spirit of the United Front tactics of the Communist In- ternational, Our main line of action must be: A United Front between the toiling masses and the Workers. (Commun- ist) Party for everyday struggle against the strikebreaking govern- ment and against the LaFollette petty- bourgeoisie ideology in the labor| movement, Forward to the struggle! Pennsylvania ........ 70,021 239,153 New Jersey . 27,217 99,123 New York ..... 203,201 454,588 Connecticut . 10,350 37,839 Massachusetts ...... 32,267 140,309 III astncsinesssateesend 499,653 1,709,160 Almost four timés as many workers voted for LaFollette in 1924 than for breakaway, Moye: Putting together the conclu- tributed in checking the class solid- arity of women. ‘ To draw working. women into the class struggle, the peculiarities arising out of sex differences (that does not mean sex- inferiority) together, with the social and political inequalities must be carefully studied. An appara- tus should be created to consitler the entire woman’s problem in its relation to the class struggle, with-the view of establishing closer contact with .the broad masses of working women, to develope their social and revolution- ary psychology and to draw the class conscious women into our party. The Women’s Bureau should be made up of comrades in sympathy with the work. The secretary of the bureau should sit at the executive ses- sions of the C. B. C., or a member of the C»E. C, should be in the bureau. All woman’s work should be under the jurisdiction of the Women’s Bureau subject to the approval of the C. B, C. The functions of the bureau should be to study conditions peculiar to wo- men’s activity, to carry on work of education, agitation and organization among the broad masses of women and to equip Communist women for that task—a-proper psychological ap- proach. The women’s work is not to make for the organization of a wo- men’s political party. Every branch should have a wo- men’s committee, reports on women’s work should be rendered at all branch meetings and all other subdivisions of the party. At every party confer- ence and convention women’s work should be on the agenda of the day. In our national program of action, an eighth division should provide for woman’s work. The duties of the women’s committee of the branches should be to study the local conditions of the district as they effect women and to make plans how to best serve the revolutionary move- ment thru the local conditions pre vailing at any given time. The study should include industrial ONS, SO ; ities, problem: effecting house and mothers, the public school system as it effects the children of the work- ing class, ete. All women of the branch must be mobilized for wo- men’s work. 5 Women Communists should pene- trate all working women's organiza- MEET YOUR FRIENDS at Russian Co-operative RESTAURANT No. 2 ‘We Serve to our Patrons the Best Meals, Prepared from the Fresh Pro- ducts, in European Style, at Moderate Prices, 760 MILWAUKEE AVE. Phone Monroe 1239. POPP PLD LL PLD LD LOD DOP OOOO OO ED. GARBER QUALITY SHOES FOR MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN 2427 LINCOLN AVENUE ' CHICAGO Telephone Diversey 5129 EDUCATE Editor of conditions. in- OURSELF FOR THE STRUGGLE THE WORKERS PARTY OPEN FORUM (Lecture, Questions and Discussion) Every Sunday Night at 8 o'clock, Season 1924-25 ‘SUNDAY, NOV. 16—EARL R. BROWDER orkers Monhtly, and member of the Central Execut Committee of the Workers Paer will pcg : Ps What the Election Returns Mean to the Workers In the Lodge Room Ashland Auditorium, Ashland Ave. and Van Buren St. Take Metropolitan “L” to Marshfield Sta, or surface lines on Van Buren reer eeereeeeeereee ene ; _ Single admission 25c Tickets good for any three admissions, 60c tions, openly join as members of the W. P. and act as standard. bearers, tactfully portraying the Communist viewpoint, bringing the principles of the W. P. to the attention of an ever increasing number of women and 80 create sympathy and confidence in our party and its leadership. In every strike, our women must be ready at a moment’s notice to organize relief committees among strikers’ wives and sympathisers and support the strike thru-the W. P. Women W. P. members must. sys- tematically engage in the industrial work and strive to draw industrial women into the union and shop-nuclei, Women of little social contact re- spond more freely when approached by members of their own sex. Working class housewives repre- sent a constant factor in society and deserve serious consideration. En- tirely ignored by the A. F. of L,, greatly influenced by the church, they are the conservative props of things as they are. They not only exert a re- tarding influence upon their husbands, they also exert a most reactionary in- fluence upon their children. We must rescue the children, thru an approach to the housewives and mothers. The housewives’ problems center around prices. That interest should be linked up with the organizational posibilities inhezent in co-operatives and civic clubs. ‘There exist in many trade unions women’s auxiliary organ- izations, composed of workers’ wives. These in reality are social clubs but these clubs should be given labor and political impulses. The T. U. E. L. ought to take it upon itself how best to organize such women’s auxiliaries for the purpose of the class struggle. Any plan regarding women’s. work must necessarily be in the nature of an experiment. A real working plan can only grow out of our experience with work among women. We must not study women as a sex but rather as a subdivision of a sex. Each grouping should be separately studied | & more effective ap-. General agitation thruout our should be started in the ineavest “4a oman’s work. Our literature must be built up on an intensive study of the women’s problems in relation to Com- munism, out of which will follow methods best adapted for the drawing of women into the revolutionary ranks. George E. Pashas COZY LUNCH 2426 Lincoln Avenue One-half a pes Imperial a CHICAGO Res. 1632 S. Trumbull Ave. Phone Rockwell 5050 MORDECAI SHULMAN ATTORNEY-AT-LAW 701 Association Building 19 S. La Salle Street CHICAGO Dearborn 8657 Central 4945-4947 |