The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 14, 1925, Page 3

} Ny ARBITRATION, THE FOE OF THE ~ ANTHRACITE STRIKERS, APPLIED TO LABOR BUT NOT TO CAPITAL The following article upon the possibility and significance of arbitra- tion and what it means to the anthracite strikers comes at a time when all their enemies are trying to force a settlement without granting the wage demands by arbitration and mediation. This is the tenth of a series of articles by Alex Reid, secretary of the Progressive Miners’ Committee, whose efforts to speak to meetings of miners was cut short by a jail sen- tence, from which he was recently released. * * By ALEX REID Secretary Progressive Miners’ Committee, (Article X.) The claim of saving the anthracite industry, from the menace of substitutes, according to the coal owners, necessitates ‘the im- mediate resumption of operation, with the points in dispute left to the tender mercies of arbitrators, The United Mine Workers have nothing to arbitrate: They are either correct in their demands, or incorrect. It is they who place their lives in jeopardy to produce the coal that warms our firesides and keeps us from freezing. lives—500 of ‘them per year—t+ It is they who give their that their loved ones may exist.|*” ™uch one-sided, and the claim of Not Only Wages. Arbitrate? It is not only a ques- tion of wages, hours and working con- ditions that they are asked to arbi- trate. It is life itself. The miners refuse to arbitrate their demands, not because they feel their case is unjust, but because they have had bitter experience with arbi- tration before, which has always left them standing with the empty bag. The miners are asked to arbitrate the only thing they have for sale— their human labor power. They are asked to arbitrate how much money they will receive for a certain amount of work, that in turn determines the kind of food he shall eat, the kind of food his wife and little children shall eat, the clothes they wear, the kind of schooling they will get, the kind of house in which they will be sheltered and raised. Arbitrate Lives. In truth, the miners are asked to arbitrate the kind of environment their children will grow up into wo- manhood and manhood, are asked to arbitrate the life of the toiler and the very future and life of his children. The mine workers point out that this propaganda for arbitration is ve- the operators that arbitration must be accepted as a principle for all other disputes, is very inconsistent indeed, and that the arbitration.is to be applied only to one side of the fence—the miners’ demands. It is noticeable that the operators do not invite arbitration of the amount of interest they shall receive on their investment, or the profits on their watered stock. No mention is made of arbitration about the amount they shall charge for coal, or the amount they shall charge their wage slaves for rent while existing in the coal companies shacks—called houses —where the snow slides in and the cold winter blasts roar thru. Only for Labor, No, indeed, arbitration is only for the labor power of the miners, but must not be used to interfere with the enormous profits from the min- er’s labor power. The mine workers remember the refusal of the Rockefeller interest to arbitrate in Colorado in 1913, when President Wilson asked them to do so, instead they sent in mine guards and militia and shot and killed thir- teen men, women and children, and burned them in a pit where they had THEVDAILY WORKER taken refuge;im a tent colony at Ludlow, Colorado. The Rockefeller preacher, Johm,D, Jr., refused to ar- bitrate and staryed and burned the mine workers into submission. Capital Don’t Arbitrate The workers remember that Judge Gary, chairman of the board of trust- ees of the steel corporation, and a member of President Wilson’s indus- trial commission in 1919 also refused to arbitrate the steel strike when Wilson requested him to do so. Why? Because Gary, like Rockefeller, felt they wére strong enough to break the workers, and break them—for the time being—they did. The Delaware and Lackawanna railroad in the last strike of the rail- road shopmen refused to arbitrate the question, and in the railroad shops of that company, situated in the hard coal fields, are to be found harrowing conditions under which the workers have to slave. Arbitrate your life, hopes and aspi- rations, your future as a man, the future of your children—what kind of men the priviledge of arbitrating wrapped up in the question of wages today, in the question of environment, which to a great extent is based on the wages, and living conditions as a result of the price for which labor is sold, is what arbitration means to the slaves of the pits. Progressives Oppose Arbitration ‘The progressive miners in the an- thracite have fought against any at- tempt at arbitration and will continue to do so, We refuse to give any set of men the priviledge of arbitrating our lives and happiness. When the rising power of the work- ing class becomes so strong in any industry, and the workers are about to win during a strike one of the favorite weapons of the bosses is, and will be, arbitration. The anthracite miners can win this strike. The coal owners are begin- ning to realize the miners’ strength, hence their frantic efforts to arbitrate the strike demands. No arbitration, is the slogan of the anthracite miners. ais Palace of Culture. LENINGRAD, Nov. 11.—Construc- tional work has commenced in Lenin- grad on a palace of culture to hold 7,500 people, This will be the biggest construction in Leningrad during the last ten years. It is expected to be finished by the middle of 1926. Send for a catalogue of all Com- munist literature. Instead the coal miners must make the union officials—their servants—do their bidding. The Movement for World Trade Union Unity This is the fourth instalment of a series of articles dealing with the question of World Trade Union Unity. This instalment deals with the British Workers and International Trade Union Unity. Following instalments will deal with the Communists and World Trade Union Unity, and the American Federation of Labor and Unity. By TOM BELL. i (Continued from Last Issue.) At the meeting of the executive hureau of the Amsterdam International in June, 1924, the British representatives, led by Fred Bramley and A. A. Purcell, president of the international, stood for the opening up of negotiations with the Russian unions on the question of unifying the trade union movement. This was bitterly opposed by the right wing of the Amsterdam International. However, this proposal of the British representatives opened the road toward making the question of unity one of international significance. At that time these British leaders looked upon the Amsterdam International as being the logical unifying center, but today they stand along with the Russian trade unions for a world congress to establish a single united trade union inter- national. In June, 1924, the Russian unions sent a delegation to the Hull meeting of the British Trades Union Congress, headed by Tomsky, secretary of the All-Russian Central Council of Unions. This delegation raised the question of the creation of a united working class movement to meet the offensive of the capitalists and the dangers of new wars and fascism before the British trade unions. In return the British Trades Union Congress sent a delegation to the sixth congress of the Russian trade unions in December, 1924. There the question of working for trade union unity in a practical manner was taken up with the result that the Russian unions invited the British unions to join them in establishing an Anglo-Russian trade union unity committee to work for unity on an international scale. The representatives of the British unions agreed that this was necessary and that they would recommend that their general council endorse the plan. This has been done and the Anglo-Russian unity committee co-ordinates the efforts of the two strongest trade union movements in the world for trade - union unity, On its return from Russia the British delegation published its report on conditions in Russia under the title of “Russia Today.” This report has become famous thruout the world The reactionary leaders of Amsterdam and the capitalist time. since that press attacked it. viciously. The delegation was slandered and vilified and every effort was made to prejudice the workers aganist the report because it was favorable to Soviet Russia. The following is the gist of the conclusion regarding Soviet Russia, arrived at by the British delegation. It explains why the capitalist press attacks the report: 4 A report on labor conditions in the Union of Socialist - Soviet Republics must begin by pointing out that in Russia le: the workers are the ruling class. For unless the reader bears this in mind throughout he will be misled by much in the Russian labor conditions that at first sight seems very much the same as with us, Really everything is quite di rent; because in Russia we have a regulation of the workers’ rights that they ha put upon themselves for their own well-being. Elsewhere we have a restriction of the workers’ rights put-upon them by the wealthy. . . No one who ; aa this will ever be misled by the lies he can read almost jaily that the worker in Russia even less liberty than, with us. th class. ves a life as limited as, and The Russian workers are uling class of Russia. They enjoy the rights of a ruling ey are beginning to exercise its responsibilities, They still have much to learn, but they “have made a start. in a village school visited by one of the ba se the chil- _ dren were learning to write in copybooks in wi ‘over “God @ave-the ozar,”" had been pasted, “Once we v saves, now For World Trade Union Unity The Russian delegation to the Anglo-Russian Trade Union Unity Con- ference held in London recently. From the left to right: W. Michailov, M. | Tomski, chairman of the delegation; O, Chernyshev, |. Lepse, G. Melnichanski, secretary. we are free.” The following few extracts from the captalist and socialist press will indicate how bitter they were against this report: The London Daily Chronicle (Feb. 28, 1925) under the head- line, “Trade Unionists Who Were Hoodwinked,” said of the report: “It is a naive document, and where it is not naive it is mis- leading.” * The following headlines appeared in the London capitalist press regarding the report: Daily Mail: “Eyewash: For Blind Lead- ers of the Blind.” Westminster Gazette: “Labor’s Soviet White- wash.” Daily Express: “Red Whitewash.” The socialist press was no less bitter in its efforts to discredit the report. Le Populaire, organ of the French socialist party had a leading article under the headline: “The Naive Delegates of the Trade Unions Will Deceive No One.” Every paper supporting the right wing of Amsterdam against international trade union unity denounced the report. In America the conservative labor press attacked the report, led by the reactionary Jewish Daily Forward of New York. ! During the last year the movement toward the left of the British workers has shown itself in no uncertain manner. A. J, | Union Congress also secured the support of the transport workers luse of force against the working class. Cook, on the basis of the R. I. L. U. program, was elected to the, position of secretary of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain over the reactionary Amsterdam leader, Hodges, who was civil lord of the admirality in the the MacDonald cabinet. The revolutionary wing of the trade union movement or- ganized in the National Minority Movement, led by such staunch revolutionary fighters as Harry Pollitt of the Boilermakers’ Union, and Tom Mann of the Engineers’ Union, has grown to great pro- portions. In February, 1925, the conference of the National Min- ority Movement held in London, had present over six hundred delegates representing over six hundred thousand trade union- ists. This is no fake membership because the membership of the Minority Movement is based upon dues payment, both individ- ual and collective. This movement has as its basis the program of the R. I. L. U., and is making rapid headway in winning over great masses of British trade unionists to their revolutionary program. The capitalist attack on the wages of the British miners pro- duced a wonderful exhibition of solidarity ih the formation of the workers’ alliance com; of the miners, railwaymen and trans- port workers, bagked , the Trades Union Congress, The Trades a of continental Hurope in refusing to ship coal to Britain in the event of a miners’ strike. This alliance pledged itself to strike along with the miners and actually issued strike orders. This display of solidarity and militancy forced the capitalists to halt their offensive on the miners. The government. subsidized the mine owners to the extent of £50,000,000 on the understanding that there would be no reductions in wages and that the existing contract be extended until May, 1926. That the British ruling class understands that this swing to the left on the part of the workers means a challenge to the cap- italist system is shown in the preparations being made to ad- minister a crushing blow to the trade unions. The fascist move- ment is openly organizing. Strikebreakers are being organized on approval of the government in an organization named the Maintenance of Supplies. Cabinet: ministers openly threaten the The Communist Party and the National Minority Movement leaders are arrested charged with seditious propaganda, especially among the armed forces. The right wing trade union leadership was repudiated at the Scarborough Trades Union Congress, and the left wing leaders assured of the support of the overwhelming mass of trade union- ists. In the labor Daily Herald a discussion raged for some weeks on the question: Shall the workers arm? The parliamentary labor party is still dominated by MacDonald & Co. But the masses of the trade unionists are following the left wing—the battles being fought between the left and right wings inside the move- ment today are preparatory steps towards an effective challenge of British capitalism. The new outlook of the British trade union movement was given concrete expression at the Scarborough Trades Union Con- gress held in October, 1925. The following constitutes the pro- gram of the British trade unions according to the decisions of that congress: 1. That capitalism can no longer function in the interests of the working class and must be replaced by a system of society based upon the socialization of the means of wealth production. 2. In the struggle against capitalism new forms of struggle are necessary; therefore it is necessary to organize shop commit- tees to mobilize the workers for the fight against capitalism. 3. The actions of the general council regarding internation- al trade union unity were endorsed, and the council instructed to continue to work with the Anglo-Russian Unity Committee for this aim. 4. Definitely broke with British imperialism and declared that the British empire was based upon the exploitation of mil- lions of colonial slaves, that it was the duty of the unions to aid in the destruction of this slave empire, and that the Trade Union Congress must help the colonial workers to organize themselves in trade unions and political parties for the fight against British capitalist exploitation. This program, in conjunction with the growing class con- sciousness of the trade unionists as shown by the growth of the Minority Movement, has laid the basis for the renovation of the British trade union movement. That movement has always been held up as the ideal conservative, craft union movement of the world. So conservative was it that the great deeds of the found- ers of the first trade unions at the beginning of the last century, and the heroic deeds of the Chartists between 1830 and 1849 were forgotten. But the misery brought upon the British workers by the capitalist crisis has forced them forward as a matter of self- preservation. The British workers will prove in the future that they are able to perform even greater deeds than the heroic Chartists in the coming great class conflicts, The movement for world trade union unity having for its basis the 11,000,000 trade unionists of Britain and Russia repre- sents a powerful force in the working class movement today. The opposition of the reactionary Amsterdam leaders, encouraged by’ the American Federation of Labor officialdom, to this move- ment will be swept aside, by the sheer necessity of the workers to defend themselves against the coolie standard of living forced upon them by, capitalism. wh ° ’ Page Thred NATIONAL PLOT TO HERD SCABS Fabulous Pay Offered by Silk Mills By Albert Weisbord. (Worker Correspondent) HILLCREST, N, J., Nov. 12-—— How the slik owners’ association of Hud- son county, with headquarters at a New York employment agency, Is can vassing the entire nation to get wore ers and money to break the strike et the Hillcrest Silk Mill and even offere as much as $70 a week, exepnses and $30 commission for securing scabs, was revealed by cleven detect work on the part of two strikers, Suspicions Verified, Growing suspicious on reading ad- vertisements in. New York papers calling for weavers for outof-towm work, these two silk strikers went to apply, saying that they were from another, state. It didn’t take them long to-find out that the employment agent wanted to send them to the very millon which they were striking, the Hillcrest Silk Mill, altho no hint was given of the strike. The strikers were able to point out secretly to others who had answerea ‘the add that they were to be shippéd out as scabs and so persuaded them not to go. In the meantime, one of the strikers gained the confidence of the agent to such an extent that he was offered a job as assistant to secure scabs in Connecticut, with $70 a’ week salary, all expenses paid and $30 extra for — each scab secured. As the striker pretended to agree, the agent invited him out to the plant to make final arrangements. Nation-Wide Plot Revealed The following important informa- tion was wormed out of the agents First, that the silk owners associa- tion of Hudson county is supporting the Hillcrest mill owner, De Barr, to the limit, This is for the very good reason that the strike is against an attempt to introduce the three and four loom system. Not only would this system be established in. Hill- crest but in all of Hudson county, if the strikers lose, and it would effect thousands of workers there, as well as bringing wage cuts for Astoria, Long Island, Brooklyn and New York City, Second, that a fund has been esta- blished to secure strikebreakers thru- out the country, Scabs are to be paid forty dollars a week, much more than the strikers ever could make—and besides to have free railroad fare, with room and board en route paid by the company. On Sunday, free “en- tertainment” was to be furnished. Third, that the bosses and govern- ment agents are trying to frame-up the strike leaders,—Albert Weisbord, secretary of the United Front Com- mittee of Textile Workers’ central bureau, and George Pearlman, of the Hudson county committee, Strikers Give answer ’ Strikers declare that their answer to this plot will be to double the picket line, to fight harder than ever to spread the united front by winning more workers for the strike, and by spreading the warning that the fate of all silk workers depends upon the outcome of the strike,—that the bos- ses aré ready fo cut wages nationally and to,put all silk workers on a three and four loom basis. All workers are urged to get their organizations to join the United Front Committee, which has its headquart ers.at 393 Broadway, Union City, New i: Jersey. Factory Schools Teach Russian Orphans Trades. MOSCOW, Nov. 12—The people's _ commissariat of educatién is orgam zing a series of “factory schools” im which homeless children and waits will be tdught various trades in addi- tion to general education. There are to be 20 schools of this type, with. facilities for 10,000 youngsters, q ‘The chief attention in these schools ~ will be directed towards equiping the — pupils. for skilled work in | and work shops after graduating from the schools. x The factory schools will be run im close connection with industrial en- terprises, co-operative organizations and other public bodies. The system of work in these schools will be harmonized with the discipline exist- ing at the adult factories and work shops, with the necessary deviations — to conform to the character of the . youngsters, The working time will from 4 to 6 hours daily, depepding on the respective ages. nas Such schools will be opened at Ivanovo-Voznessensk, Orel, Moscow and other industrial centers, Special funds for this purpose have been granted by the courteil of people's commissaries, HELP SAVE THE DAILY WORKERI TTT TTL MLL LL LLL FOR RENT: FURNISHED ROOM by com- rade. 9, Telephone , Keystone J /