The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 5, 1925, Page 8

By WM, Z. FOSTER. ITHIN the past two years a com- paratively new phenomenon has made its appearance in the American labor movement, This ‘is the expul- sion of members from the trade unions because of their political opin- ions and for activities in accordance with these opinions, In the past there have been many struggles between the reactionaries and the revolution- ary wing of the movement and the utmost bitterness has prevailed be- tween the two factions, But almost never was the weapon of expulsion used in a general way in these strug- gles, save in the cases where there was open advocacy of secgssion, and even this was winked at in many cases. As a general rule the fight re- mained pretty much in the realms of verbal argument, however bitterly this may have been carried on. But, as stated, in the past two years the e Ision of members from the unions, and consequently often from their jobs, has come to be looked upon and applied as a regular weapon against the left wing by the reaction- aries. The difference is that where expulsion was once practiced more or less spasmodically and in isolated cases, it has now become a settled means of warfare by the controlling bureaucrats in. the unions. The union that has the shame of having first applied expulsion against the left wing is the International La- dies’ Garment Workers’ Union, which began the policy two years ago under the leadership of Sigman. Unable to beat the revolutionary elements other- wise, Sigman, aided by his lickspit- tle, Perlstein, thot to get the best of them by driving them out of the union altogether. Brutally he expell- ed many of the leading left wingers from the organization in Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland and else- where, merely for membership in the T. U, E. L., with disastrous effects upon the union. — ‘These destructive tactics of Sigman received a blessing from Gompers himself at the Portland convention of the American Federation of Labor in 1923, where with the most elaborate stage setting and in the fullest glare of publicity, he expelled William F. Dunne from the convention. Dunne was a regular delegate from the Silver Bow, Montana, Trades Council, and the only charge against him was that he was an avowed Communist. Dunne’s expulsion was the signal in the trade union movement generally for the use of the weapon of expulsion against the growing left wing, and the reactionaries have not been slow to take the hint. Since then, in union after union, this policy, which is contrary to the basic principles of la- bor solidarity, has been applied. Lewis in the miners’ union has made drastic application of this mean. He immediately outlawed the Trade Union Educational League as a “dual union,” and expelled Tom Myerscough ‘and! other miner leaders of it. He «efucittedethe militants in the Canadian u@istritts.. Farrington of Illinois has followed this up by the expulsion of Thompson, Watt, and others. Through- out the whole organization a reign. of terror has been set up against the left wing and every manifestation of it has been driven underground upon pain of expulsion. Hutcheson of the carpenters, not to be outdone by his crony Lewis, has expelled two-thirds of his organiza- tion in Detroit for sympathies with the Trade Union Educational League. In Los Angeles, with the cooperation of.the police, he got rid of more milit- ants; And his latest maneuver has ‘been to bar Rosen-as a delegate from ‘the New York district council.of the “carpenters because Rosen ran against him on a left wing ticket in the recent national elections. _ In the electrical: workers a number ‘of militants have been expelled, ‘and in the painters the intention to do the same has been shown by the adoption at their recent convention of an amendment to their national constitution providing for the exclu- sion of “members of the Communist Party who oppose the principles of the A, F. of L.” Drive Against Left Wing g WILLIAM Z. FOSTER. In the machinists’ union, under the yellow socialist Johnston, an early stand was taken in this game by ex- pelling a number of militants in To- ledo, Ohio, for membership in the T. U. E. L.. At the ensuing convention Johnston managed to save his skin and to hang on to his job. Now, claim- ing the action of the convention was an endorsement of the expulsion pol- icy, he has issued a ukase demanding the wholesale expulsion of members of the Workers Party and members of the T. U. E. L. throughout the en- tire union. The fur workers was also the scene of an active expulsion campaign, with interesting results not figured on by the reactionary, Kaufmann. -And now we have the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, which so long pas- sed as a left inclined union, showing that-here, too, the reactionary bureau- eracy refuses to be outdone by the reactionaries in the miners, machin- ists, carpenters, et al, and is expelling militant left wingers on the usual pretexts. Other unions are following the same program in a more or less desultory fashion,” And’ ‘alongwith’ this campaign has’ fone’ systematic terrorizing of the left wing in the unions’ by refusing to let the militants run for office, by placing heayy fines against them upon all sorts of flimsy pretexts, etc. A number of central labor councils have also put into effect the expulsion policy, insofar as their limited author- ity permits them, by refusing to seat as delegates the Communists who have been elected by the affiliated local tnions, The chief offenders in this respect are the councils in Min- neapolis, Seattle, and Los Angeles, It is noteworthy that these are all left wing strongholds. The reason for the sharp application of the expulsion policy in these places is twofold, first, the necessity of the bureaucracy to fight the left wing with all the means in its power, and, second, the presence of all sorts of renegade socialists who are the most willing and unscrupulous tools to lead this fight of the reactionaries. So far in the Chicago Federation of Labor the expulsion policy has not actually been applied. The leaders of the Chicago Federation, Fitzpatrick and Nockels, who long posed as radi- cals, work more insidiously. They conspire privately with the controlling fakers in the local unions to prevent left wingers coming as delegates. In addition they are carrying on publicly the most contemptible fight against the Communists. It is noteworthy that Green, in one of his latest ful- minations against the left wing, used verbatim the lying arguments contain- ed in a circular recently sent out by the Chicago Federation of Labor. At the recent American Federation of Labor convention the expulsion policy once again got the support of the united labor bureaucrats. And in his Detroit speech a short while be- fore the convention, Green declared for-an open war upon the Communists. He said: “Organized labor will not and cannot tolerate Communism or Communists. Members of organ- ized labor are either trade union- ists or Communists. They cannot be both. In view of the fact that the Communists have challenged and are.challenging the hosts of or- a’ farther mg labor and by every means at their disposal are seeking to se- cure supreme contro! of the trade union movement of America, we, the loyal members and officers of the organized labor movement will strike back and strike hard. We will neither rest nor cease our ef- forts until Communism and the Communist philosophy and those who represent it are driven from the ranks of organized labor.” What is the basis for this expulsion policy which is now being used so violently against the left wing? The cause of it has two roots. The cause is to be found in the improved fighting policies of the left wing within the last few years, which makes it neces- sary for the reactionaries to proceed to more drastic measures of struggle. The second js to be found in the turn of the labor bureaucracy more sharply than ever towards class collaboration, which weakens their control over the organized masses, and ,which throws them into the imperative necessity at this time of destroying the influence of the left wing at all costs, regard- less of the means used. As ‘to the first proposition: For many years the left wing, because of its infatuation for infantile ideas of dual unionism, was a negligible factor in-the trade unions. The reactionary bureaucracy had plain sailing to con- trol the masses for their policies—the opposition of the yellow _ socialists yeing never very: vital. Hence there vas little or no need for an expulsion policy, except in special occasions where more or less spontaneous local revolts occurred. But now the situa- tion is fundamentally altered. The left wing, despite all its failings, has learned how to fight in the unions. It has almost fully recovered from the dualism which hamstrung it for so long and it has learned the main principles of left wing organization in conservative trade unions. More- over, it no longer wastes its time in these unions, as it once did, in an empty, égative'criteisnr of the organ- dvattons:and* their “officials in general. Now it has a practical program for the revolutionizing of the unions. It takes the lead, so far as its all too weak resources. will permit, in the everyday struggles of the masses. It contests the union elections against the reactionaries. In other words, it is now engaged in a real struggle against the bureaucrats for the leader- ship of the unions. The effectiyeness of these new tactics of the left wing was graphically demonstrated by the tremendous sweep of the amalgama- tion movement. The _ reactionary bureaucrats, confronted with the new menace of an organized left wing that has learned how to fight for control of the organized workers, had _ to strike back quickly and hard. The expulsion -eampaign was their answer- ing tactics, Now as to the other phase of the expulsion policy: The great defeat of the trade union movement in the historic struggle of 1920-23 demon- strated clearly the burning necessity for the trade unions to consolidate their ranks, to organize a labor party, and generally to adopt a more mili- tant policy of struggle. But the bu- reaucrats controlling the unions ab- solutely refused to learn this lesson. Instead of developing the power of resistance of the unions as against the employers and adopting a policy of an offensive, they proceeded to hoist the white flag of surrender, and accordingly began to work out and apply the various new schemes | of class collaboration, such as the B. and O. plan, workers’ insurance, labor banking, etc., which are tending to degrade the trade unions into little better than company unions. But such a policy was not without its hazards for them. It had to be fairly rammed down the throats of the rank and file of the unions, who, for the most part, although not yet ideologic- ally advanced enough to penetrate the real meaning of the new schemes of class collaboration and to ‘develop a real opposition to them, nevertheless tefuse to accept them in place of a policy of militant action and the sub- stantial results which guch a policy brings. They want amalgamation, the formation of a labor party, the or- ganization of the unorganized, and at in Trade Unions /better. But if the opposition is in least some semblance of a fighting program. This creates a situation highly dangerous to the bureaucracy, The rank and file are susceptible to the propaganda of the left wing. Hence a basic condition for their con- trol of the unions and for the con- tinuance of the class collaboration program recently so highly developed is to crush the left wing at all costs, This cannot be done by argument and ideglogical struggle. Consequently the resort to force through the expulsion policy and the many other harsh dis- ciplinary measures that are being used* against the militants in the various unions, What shall our policy be in this situatien? How shall we successfully defeat the expulsion policy of the re- actionaries and reach the rank and file with our message? The fate of our work in the trade union jn the present period depends upon our cor- rectly solving this problem, The first and most important step to its solution is the mustering of the full available forces of our party for work in the trade unions, There still remains much to be done in this re- spect. A very large proportion of our membership do not yet belong to un- ions, and of those who are members only a small percentage are really ac- tive. These conditions must- be re- medied at once, A persistent and in- sistent campaign must be carried on to the end that every proletarian member of our party is at the same time a member of a trade union. We must make our members understand once and for all the truth of the statement in the recent letter of the Comintern and Profintern to the ef- fect that no worker in an industrial country like the United States can really be a Communist unless he is a member of a trade union. And we must see to it that our members not only -join the trade unions but be- come active in them. The only Com- munist in the trade uniohs who is worth his salt to our party is the one , who militantly and mtelligéntly:4tgbts | H to put its program into effect and thus to extend its influence over the masses. This development of our full party strength is the first and founda- tion step, not only for combatting the expulsion policy, but also doing any successful work whatever in the trade unions, A special feature of our fight against expulsion must be a flexible attitude towards the expulsion orders now in force in the unions, whether they be in the shape of constitutional amend- ments, as in the painters, or instruc- tions from the executive boards, as in the machinists. In the trade unions there are organized proletarian masses, contact with whom is vital for the success of the revolutionary work of our party. This contact can best be maintained only if we are members of the unions. Hence we must put up a militant and intelligent struggle to remain within the unions. If we can do this openly as members of the Workers Party and the Trade Union Educational League, all the such a desperate frame of mind as to use the expulsion policy and is in a position to apply it effectively, then we must be prepared to deny our membership in these ‘organizations rather than be expelled from the un- ions, Such a policy means the occasional swallowing of nasty pills in the way of signing the various statements that are put up to us by the feaction- ary officals in the hope that our revo- lutionary gorge will rise against them to the extent that we will not sign them, and thus make our expulsion all the more easy. A type of such statement was that recently gotten out by the carpenters district council of Cleveland, which reads as follows: “1, the undersigned, do hereby promise and agree that | will ob- serve and comply with all the rules, regulations, and laws of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Join- ers of America, and that | will In no way affiliate with, or give sup- port, assistance, or comfort to, the Trade Union Educational League, (Continued on page 3) ~ —