The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 17, 1925, Page 8

The Pan-American Federation of Labor By MANUEL GOMEZ HE Pan-American Federation of Labor has great pretensions. It poses as a labor international repre- senting the labor movement of the western hemisphere. At its congress held in Mexico City, December 1924, Matthew Woll, proclaimed the “Mon- roe Doctrine of American babor”’ modeled on the imperialist .doctrine of the U. S; gevernment. By this phrase plagiarized from capitalist di- plomacy the Pan-American Federation of Labor declared a monopoly on all workers from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, and denied “foreign” interna- tionals any jurisdiction, The organi- zations forbidden to “interfere” with the labor movement of the western hemisphere were the Moscow Red |_-Trade Union International, the Berlin anarcho-syndicalist International, and the Amsterdam International Feder- ation of Trade Unions—still too revo- lutionary for the A. F. of L. The grandiose gesture of the Pan- American Federation of Labor is based on the claim that a majority of the countries of the western hemis- phere are affiliated with it. Geogra- phy lists twenty independent coun- tries in this hemisphere; the Pan- American Federation lists twelve na- tional labor federations as affiliated members. If this figure were correct there might at least be a numerical basis for the labor imperialism of the P. A. F. L. : An analysis of its boasted member- ship however tells another story. HE twelve countries listed by the P. A. F.L, ag its members are the U. S., Mexico, El Salvador, Hondu- ras, Nicaragua, Peru, the Dominican republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Co- lombia, Venezuela and Porto Rico. Porto Rico, represented in the P.A.F.L. by the “Federacion Libre de Trabajadores” has been an Am- erican colony since 1898. As such it should logically be affiliated with the A. F. of L. But merely by being listed as a member of the P, A. F. L. it has been raised to the dignity of an independent country. Thus without firing a shot, the P. A. F. L. has liberated an oppressed people. Nothing remains now but for the state department to recognize their independence. Though “liberating” Porto Rico, the A. F. of L. (the head of the P.A.F.L.), has long ago “an- nexed” Canada, which helps to swell the A. F. of L. membership list. Nicaragua with a population of 630- 000 has five general federations. of labor. Only one of these, the “Fede- racion de Obreros Nicaraguense” be- longs to the P. A. F. L, El Salvador, with a population of 1,500,000 also has several general 1a- bor federations, These are loosely or- ganized and are rather mutual bene- fit societies than real Jabor unions. Two of them — “La Confederacion de Obreros del Salvador” and thé “Union Obrera, Salvadorena” — are affiliated with the P. A. F.L, These two organi- zations claimed in 1921 a combined membership of 2,000. Neither of them sent a delegate to the last P. A. F. L. congress, In fact the labor movement in El Salvador is so backward that there is not a single labor. paper in the country. Equally significant is the fact that in the case of Salvador, William Green is willing to admit dual unions‘to the P. A. F. L., while allowing the A. F. of L. to scab on “dual” unions in the United States, Yat Dominican Republic has a po- pulation of about 900,000 of which 5000 are organized workers. Its prin- cipal labor organization “La Herman- dad Comunal Nacionalista” (the Na- tional Communal Brotherhood) is af- filiated with Pan-American Federa- tion. Unlike other Central American members of the P. A. F. L. the Domini- can organization was represented by a delegate at the last P, A. F.L. con- gress. He was a physician practising in El Paso, Texas, who got a free ride in the Mexican government train to Mexico with the other A. F. of L. delegates, Guatemala has a population of 1,500- 000. Of its 30 labor associations five are trade unions and one a federation. The latter “La Federatcion Obrera de Guatemala” with a membership of 16,000, is affiliated with the P. A. F. L. Guatemala has no labor paper, but it sent two. delegates to the last P.A.F.L, convention. These were seated not as full fledged delegates but merely as fraternal delegates on the ground that the labor movement in Guatemala is still too weak to deserve complete re- presentation. The real reason, how- ever, was thdt the two young deleg- ates were known to be dissatisfied with the reactionary Gompers ma- chine, The P.A.F.L. claims bigger game when it lists among its members Co- lombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. The last three have never sent a de- legate to any P.A.F.L. convention, nor have’ any of them ever contri- buted a cent to the support of the eA. Fh, CUADOR has a population of 1,500,000 of which three quarters are pure Indians and the rest chiefly mestizos with a small fraction of whites. It has several labor federa- tions. One of them is the “Federacion del Trabajo” with headquarters in Guayaquil. It claims a membership of 300. Another is the “Federacion de Sindicatos”, also with headquarters in Guayaquil. A third is the “Confe- deracion Obrera Ecuatoriana”,~ with headquarters in the capital Quito and a membership claimed to be 20,000. Only the last of these declared its iffiliation with the’P. A. F. L. However it has never sent a delegate to any of the conventions or contributed a cent to the treasury of the P. A. F. L. None of the three federations of Ecuador is of national importance. Efforts have recently been made to unite them into one general federation to be known as “Federacion de Trabajadores Re- gional Ecuatoriana”, but with no de- finite results so far. Colombia, with a population of 6,- 000,000, has no general labor federa- tion. However there are a number of unions and socialist groups in the country. These Socialist groups pub- lish eight or nine papers, and are united in a loose federation known as the “Directorio Ejecutivo Nacional Socialist.” . The “Directoria” is a purely politi- cal organization and in no sense aj labor union; nevertheless it is listed as one of the affiliated members of the P.A.F.L. In addition Colombia is re- presented in the P. A. F. L. by the “Sindicato Centrale Obrero de Bogo- ta” (Central Labor Union of Bogota). However, the P. A. F. L. letterhead omits the word Bogota, so that due to that little omission, the title reads as if it were the central labor body for the whole of Colombia. At the last P,A.F.L. congress, Co- lombia was represented by one deleg- ate who supplied the only amusing incident throughout the entire dull proceedings. He proposed that a Pan- American merchant marine be creat- ed and operated by the P. A. F. L, with money raised by a weekly contribu- tion of one cent from every member of every union affiliated with the PA F.L. Though the delegates had come all the way from Colombia for the express purpose of submitting this Proposal, it was turned down amidst laughter of the convention. haw Pern also appears on the mem- bership list of the P. A. F.'L. it has never sent a delegate to any con- vention or contributed to the federa- tions support. Peru has several labor federations. One of them, the “Centro Internacional Obrero de Peru” has joined both the P, A. F. L. and the Amsterdam International. In 1921 it claimed 25,000 members. It is not, however, strictly a labor federation but largely a body of representatives from various local mutual benefit societies. The only labor papers pub- lished there are those of the anar- cho-syndicalists. ‘ These facts show sufficiently the the tremendous amount of bluff used in the make up of the P. A. F.L. But this is all surpassed by the “affilia- tion” of Venezuela, represented on the Pan-American Fed. of L. list by the “Union Obreva Venezolana”. It is generally known that Venezuela has no labor unions at all. Savage govern- ment repression has made labor organ- izations and strikes impossible in that country. Nevertheless the Venezuelan Labor Federation appears on the P. A. F. L, letterhead as a full fledged member of the labor international of the western hemisphere. * Still, it is a fact that a Venezuelan Labor Fe- deration actually exists. It has its headquarters in Brooklyn, New York and consists of sixteen exiles from Venezuela. Some time ago these six- teen workers formed a group which they called the “Venezuelan Labor Federation of New York”. They ap- plied for admission into the P. A. F. L. as a body representing the national labor movement of Venezuela and in 1925 they were admitted as such at a meeting of the P. A. F.L. executive committee in Washington. By omit- ting the wérds “of New York” from the title of the organization. and making no mention of the fact that it is located ‘in Brooklyn and not in Venezuela, the P.A.F.L. is able to present on its list one more Latin- American country over whom it ex- ercises its labor Monroe doctrine. N the end Mexico alone, of all the Latin-American countries remains a genuine member of the P.A.F.L. along with the American Federation of Labor. Mexico, however, ‘is represen- ted in the P.A.F.L. by the “Confe- deration Regional Obrera Mexicana” (the “CROM”).. At the opening of the A. F. of L. convention in El Paso last December, Roberto Haberman claimed a membership of 800,000 for the CROM. A week later the close of the convention he claimed 1,200,000. When the American delegates began to laugh at the sudden rise in member- ship Haberman good naturally ex- plained that Mexico being a tropical country everything there grows very rapidly. Of this number claimed by the CROM the vast majority is admit- tedly recruited from the peons, the agricultural laborers, who never paid any contributions. The peons have never supported the CROM during. that brief period when they Were’ nade to belive that CROM and the fight for land were inseparable. except. Now the Calles government has re- pudiated the agraristas and a bitter fight is going on between the leaders of the CROM and the leaders of the agraristas who stick to.the original program of land distribution. Thus the CROM can no longer in any sense be said to represent the peasants, It is now mainly a kind of fascist gov- ernment union used to fight the more progressive labor unions which wish to remain independent on the tutel- age of the .government, such as the powerful Railroad Federation (“Con- federacion de Sociedades Ferrocarri- leras”) with about 40,000 really dues paying members, led by syndicalists and Communists, and the anarcho- syndicalist ‘“Confederacion General de Trabajo,” with about 18,000 mem- bers among the bakers, electricians and oil workers. MJ\HE principal class action of the CROM is to organize dual unions where the independent unions are predominant and then to call strikes, in which the police picket the shops, in order to force the employers to recognize only the new CROM union and to dismiss all workers who belong to the revolutionary unions. After all the grandiose flourishes the Pan-American Federation of Labor reduces itself to the conservative Tammanyite A. F. of. L., the anti-re- tionary government unions of the CROM and a few dummy organiza- tions of Central America. The official report of the Pan- Ame- rican. Federation of Labor congress (p. 148) shows that the income of this as follows: The,A. F. of L. $19,996; the CROM $4,379; the Dominican La- bor Federation $250. No contributions were made by any of the other affilia- ted groups or alleged groups. And none of the larger Latin-American countries with real labor movements, like Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, will have anything to do with this ex- traordimary labor “international” guarding the entire western hemis- phere against Moscow, Berlin and Amsterdam. Fakerism in the Needle Trades {By A Worker Correspondent.) . The history of the left wing in the Chicago International Ladies’ Gar- ment Workers’ Union has been a varied one. No Weapon Unholy. - : Four years ago, the reactionaries in their fight against the left wingers in the union used every sort of weapon that their minds could invent. First, intimidation, then expulsion, then the shooting at the Ashland Auditorium, where thopsands of needle. trades¢————————_—____________—— workers were listening to the mes- sage of the Trade Union Educational League, with William Z. Foster as its spokesman. No method of terroriza- tion of those who supported tlie mili- tants, was considered unholy. Money was spent left and right in their des- perate attempt to crush any sem- blance of an opposition to the back- ward policies of the reactionary bu- reaucracy, headed by Sigman. The in- ternational now has a debt of $282,000 according to Sigman’s own report, due to the hiring of sluggers, etc. After a battle of fifteen weeks, the New York needle trades workers de- feated’ the reactionaries that tried to get a strangle hold on the union. To- day the reactionaries realize that the backbone of their vicious attacks have been broken. Honeyed Phrases Flow Freely. In Chicago, the reactionary leaders that a few weeks ago were doing all in their power to crush the radicals and terrorize their supporters, today have come forth with honeyed words ‘and flowery phrases of endearmefit trying to bluff the needle trades work- ers into believing that they are pro- gressives and that they have always stood for progressive policies. In the coming week, elections will be held within the union. It behooves every worker to*throw his support against these wolves who are trying to act the part of lambs. Defeat the Reactionaries! Tho their threats and terrorization have for a short time been abandon- ed, we must not forget ourselves and allow them to once more do in the future as they did in the past. The needle trades workers should judge not by the flowery phrases and terms of endearment they may throw about, but by the acts they have com- mitted and will commit in the future when they feel they are strong enuf. ah Hi il 4th with a loss tempted to reach the striken naval men, passengers on the City of Rome and strvivors of the ill-fated under- sea boat were among those called to The hearings are expected to last from five to ten days. . nd ct