The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 20, 1926, Page 8

‘astray. The miners will struggle against having their standard Labor in Ireland once the fundamental reason for the]scale. This has mostly meant getting divisions in the ranks of the labor] necessary work done, such as road movement is apparent, This is the} making, at wages much lower than real cause of the break away from the] the trade union rates. The latest in- Irish Transport & General Workers} stance of this is the Shannon scheme, Union to set up the workers’ union} which is to provide electric power of Ireland. This has greatly aggra-|for the whole of the free state. Be- vated the discord but is not the first cause of the low wages offered, the cause of it, as so often asserted. How scheme has been boycotted. Here al- the employers have benefitted by the so the resistance of the workers has disunity in general and the splitting of broken down, principally because the the largest trade union in Ireland in ynemployed ex-soldiers (national ar- particular, will be seen later, my) have been used by the govern- ment contractors as scabs for the un- loading of ships with material for the scheme in Limerick harbor and on the job itself, One more in the long taining a certain amount of economic | Seauence of defeats for the Irish freedom.! Immediately this had been workers during the last three years. done by force of arms, the great de-| Increased competition, from Den- mand of the employers was cheaper mark and Sweden and the raising of production, and economy in the affairs | the ban on Canadian cattle has great- of the state, including the municipal | ly reduced agricultural exports to the and other local bodies. Economic impoverished British market, and so pressure had forced many workers in-| the agricultural workers share in the to the free state army. Soon the most}umemployment and onslaughts on of them were demobolized, thus add-| wages and the general miserable con- ing to the already large numbers of ditions of life now the lot of the work- the unemployed. Systematic on-} ers. slaughts on wages have been the} Such is the condition of affairs, and order, taking the workers section by| never were the Irish workers worse gection, Municipal councils, such as| prepared to meet the combined at- Dublin and Cork, that refused to use|tacks and systematic reduction of their powers to reduce the wages of| their standard of living. ‘heir employes and to bludgen down} ff ever the fallacy of splitting the the standard of living generally, have} oxisting union, rather than carrying been dissolved and commissioners aD-} on the first against the reactionaries pointed to do the dirty work. Tariffs within has been in doubt, the lesson have been placed on clothes, boots,“ or [reland should once and for all furniture, confections, tobacco, soaps fi prove that the place to fight reaction and other goods coming into the coun-| ig inside the existing unions, No one try. These are the methods of the] qoubts the earnestness and good in- capitalists to enable the small and) tentions of those responsible for the badly equipped Irish industries to| preak away from the Irish Transport compete against the highly organized /anq General Workers’ Union, When industries of Great Britain, Germany |the split took place the great need and other countries, was to reunite the politically divided Very few of unemployed in the free} Workers by forcing the issue of a state get any unemployment benefit united front on the industrial field to or the “dole” as it is called. The| meet the attacks of the bosses. exact numbers of the unemployed is} The Irish Transport and General ence that is now part of the forces| 4+ known. They have little or no or-| Workers’ Union had a membership of shaping toward the forming of a work-| -. nization, and what they have are on | about 100,000, roughly on-third of the ers’ party on a larger and wider basis. i+». charity-collecting basis., Attempts | organized workers of Iréland. A frac- The dissension and chaos that led|at organizing them have been on/tion of the energy spent on the setting to the break up of the Communist} wrong lines, and so the government | up of the Workers’ Union of Ireland Party of Ireland has been general,| does as it likes because there is no|and its activities since, if concentrated both. politically and industrially, in| organization to take up the cudgels on} within the I. T. and G. W. U., would the labor movement in Ireland for|their behalf. There must be at least | have once again made that union the the last three years. This is the natur-| 60,000 to 70,000 unemployed in the | driving force of the Irish labor move- al outcome of the national split and|free state of whom only about one |ment and have prevented at least some struggle. Consider that the ‘workers | in every twelve gets the “dole.” They |of the defeats that the workers have who formed the bulk of the free state| have to depend on charitable organ- | suffered. forces on one side in the armed| izations and their friends and rela-| Instead, false issues have been struggle and of the republicans on|tives. Under guise of doing something | raised and workers, instead of fight- the other, are the same workers who| for the unemployed the government | ing the employers, have been splitting make up the trade unions—and at|has set up relief works on a small|each other’s heads and sowing weeds of rank-and-file hatred that will take years to get over. From being a WHAT PRICE DOES JUDAS GET? powerful weapon in the working class struggle, the I. T. and G. W. U. has (Continued from page one) : become a'scab-providing organization, Z " used by the bosses to beat the new wages, speed up the miners and in many other ways seek to in-|} union—the Workers’ Union of Ireland. crease their profits. Every miner will feel the brunt of this agree-| In the latest instance, the coal work- ment. The operators will feel safe in taking advantage of them jers’ lockout, the I. T. and G, W. U. relying on Lewis and Co. to keep the miners at work—to “pre-! provided scabs working under police serve the sacred contract.” pogo As — a . Trae . . oO e men’s union, the W. VU. L, ! This is exactly where the calculations of the operators go bath Sclad the iehabcelide Sauce pe P sacking some of the scabs and taking of living reduced because of any “sacred contract.” Lewis in lin- |}, 6% - the aan. ae tik comune ing up with the operators to force the miners to accept the pro-| wages. Beaten and without lockout visions of the agreement will increase the opposition to him | pay, these had little or no option but among the rank and file. Lewis today cannot boast as he did at|to accept. the last Indianapolis convention that “I always bring home the| On the political side, the only opol bacon.” This time he brought the miners nothing at all. The|osy for the labor movement is the opposition to Lewis and his machine is bound to grow rapidly be- Irish labor party. But for an occasion- cause of this “settlement.” a In face of this the task of the progressive elements in the . ers’ union, both bituminous and anthracite miners, is to or- ‘ 5m ganize to break the Lewis machine and win the union for the rank The New Saturday Maguzine Supplement of The Daily Worker al feeble protest by the fourteen or so members in An Dail its existence would scarcely be known. Enmeshed by supporting the Free State to be set up, it has ever since played the part of the mongrel cur, kicked for its pains and unable to do more than give a feeble yelp, or rather lacking courage to do more, The republican party, altho having forty-seven members of An Dail (who have never taken their seats is fast losing ground. The economic needs of the Irish workers are great, and because of the strong capitalist see- tion of the membership of the Irish labor party, the party has never been able to formulate an economic pro- gram to hold its supporters among the town and country workers and attract the now disillusioned workers that had supported the Free State because of specious promises regard- ing “plenty of employment,” ‘better houses,” etc. Further, the abstension- ist policy of the republican T. D's, has proved a failure, and soon @ further split in the ranks of the re- publicans will take place, ostensiously around this question of going into-An Dail. As there are quite a number of. the T, D’s. who are left wing re- publicans, standing for the setting up of a workers’ republic, the split, if it comes, altho nominally around the question of going into An Dail, is more likely to be in reality for and against adopting a program for ral lying the movement on a workers’ republic basis. Anyhow, to settle ques- tions of policy, a special Ard Feis has been arranged for March. Before he was shot by the Free Staters in 1922, Liam Mellows had smuggled out of prison documents ad- vising the republicans (then in full military possession of Cork and the South) to adopt the economic program put forward by the Communist Party of Ireland in the “workers’ repub- lic.” As the Free State captured the documents and ae. them det — licity, this has since been kno the “Liam Mellows’ Economic Polity.” ~ The James Connolly Workers’ Educa- tional Club has continued the policy of the Communist Party of Ireland, of assiduously propagating this pro- gram, particularly among the rank and “file of the republicans, until today the workers’ republican elements in their ranks are very considerable. The failure of the ultra-leftist pol- icy on the industrial field, the extreme weakness of the official labor party and lack of failure to adopt an econ- omic, program, all tend to-make the time opportune for the formation of the mass workers’ party of Ireland. ‘The time of waiting for the effects of hard economic pressure has been a trying one for Communists. To assist in the process the James Connolly Workers’ Educational Club has car- nied on for two years regular weekly indoor lectures in Dublin and also regular classes in economics, indus- trial history, speaking, etc. Criticisms levelled at the foolish tactics adopted by the ultra-left were much resented, but are now admitted as correct, and such tactics are admitted to be wrong. In short, the time for action is now here, and soon it is expected to have a strong virile section of the Com- munist International in Ireland. By G. McLay. T present there is not a Commun- ist Party in Ireland. Formed in November, 1921, shortly before the signing of the treaty, the Communist Party of Ireland was only about eight months in existence when the civil war broke out. Born in the lull of the truce, the party was very soon cradled in the lap of the armed revolt by Its immediate decision to take up arms with those remaining true to the republican cause, thus ful- filling the revolutionary need of help- ing on the struggle for national free- dom in order to weaken the forces of imperialism—Great Britain, The stress of the struggle proved a great strain on the resources of such a young organization. Imprisonments, raids, made it very difficult to carry on. Despite the difficulties of illegali- ty, the Worker’s Republic, the party organ, was published every week ex- cept for the first two weeks of the fighting, and very considerable propa- ganda carried on among the repub- lican forces urging the adoption of an economic program suited to the needs of the town workers and peas- ants of Ireland. The efforts in this direction failed with the leaders, but had good results among the rank and file of the republicans. The defeat of the republicans and the cessation of the fighting, found the party sharing in the aftermath of the struggle—quarrels about policy and conduct of party affairs. Before the end of 1923, it was found impossi- ble to continue publishing the Work- er’s Republic, and shortly after this the party was disbanded. Thus ended the first attempt, since the shooting of James Connolly, to form the mass party of Irish workers, and though only a little over. two years in existence, the revolutionary activities of the party gaimed for it a tremendous amount of latent adher- In Irish revolutionary history, the setting up of the free state will be recorded as the betrayal of the na- tional struggle by the employers’ ob- SS EE, FEL AO Ee A AEE. Sg SI AR a SLO ELOISE AY AA TOD OT ELE SN AER A TORE AET A, |? TC SE EN nT aeecabtestauaienddenhiasoeucaieennaisecienieaeaiansiansca ceandeed-iaieapieaneielesneneinhensiapangriaraennetaenntey and file—to turn the union into an instrument for the protection Wants 4 the interests of the perpetihn International Progressive on iners’ Committee has a splendid field for work. Sentiment against Lewis and his whole machine is wide- ART. ICLES AND STORIES spread in the union. The sixty-six thousand opposition votes cast i Empl ‘actories in the last international election shows that. But this sentiment ner ice oped tn. hops end ries. must be organized, hardened into a determined movement to oust |We want the Truth of the Workers’ Lives. The Workers actually at work Lewis and dismantle his machine. in the shop can’tell the facts of Life thru The Daily Worker. All the vote stealing, slugging, Zeigler frame-ups and expul- ’ sions that Lewis can commit cannot prevent his defeat. The fate Workers! The columns of the New Saturday Magazine Supplement of The Daily Worker are especially for your own writings. You don’t have to have a. pcr ral yee yap Regge Bibethyer eee “professional style.” Don’t imitate the professional writers. Write in your to last five years, is if the progressive elements in the union fail |°™™ “* *™¢ Yur fellow workers will understand, in.their task of winning the membership to their program and or- | Write on only one side of the paper, put your full name and address on the ganization. Patient: work and correct tactics will build such an | manuscript, and state wiether or not you want your name used. Don’t roll the manuscript» Fold it. Send it to Robert Minor, editor Magazine Section opposition movement in the miners’ union that both Lewis and his of The Daily Worker, 1113 W. Washington Blvd. Chicago, i. scab agreement wit be smashed before very long. ~- TOM BELL. a ee eee