The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 10, 1926, Page 12

By TOM BELL HE special conference of the Na- - tional Minority Movement held here (in London) on Sunday, March 21, was a wonderful demonstration of the swing of the masses of the trade union rank and file against the dila- tory tactics of the trade union official- dom. Eight hundred and five dele gates represented over 900,000 trade unionists organized in local unions, es and labor councils and local groups of the National Minority Movement. Tom Mann, veteran of the British labor movement and chairman of the National Minority Movement, acted as chairman of the conference. George Hardy, well known in the U. S. labor movement before his deportation and secretary of the National Minority Movement, was secretary of the con- ference. The conference was held in the Bat- tersea Baths, and was greeted in the name of the Battersea Trades and La- bor Council by Brother Clancy, the president. S. Saklatvala, member of | the house of commons for Battearsea, welcomed the conference in the name of the labor movement of this bor- ough, The" largest number of delegates were from the Amalgamated Engineer- ing Union, the second being the Min- ers’ Federation of Great Britain. It is significant that delegates were pres ent from more than fifty of the trade British “Minority Movement” union councils. Every important in-|a regularly elected delegate to the dustrial center of the country was rep- resented, including the South Wales and Scottish mine fields. HE spirit of the left wing of the British trade union movement is demonstrated. The first resolution presented was the “defense and main- tenance of trade union rights.” The present menacing situation confront- ing the trade unionists of Britain in outline in the resolution, the brutal attacks on the coal miners of Amman- ford and the arrest of the twelve lead- gis of the Communist Party, together with the organization of all kinds of fascist organizations, is pointed to as a direct warning to the workers that they must prepare to resist all at- tacks of the bosses on their organiza- tions. The most important point in this resolution is Clause B, which reads: “To form (thru and under the su- pervision of the trades councils) workers’ defense corps, in order to protect working-class speakers from bourgeois terrorism, to protect trade union headquarters from fascist in- cendiarism, to defend strike pickets against police interference, and finally to build up a powerful work- class force capable of defending the political and industrial rights and liberties of the workers.” This resolution was introduced by Alex Gossip, general secretary of the Furnishing Trades’ Unions, who was conference. He urged the passage o the resolution and recited the neces sity of the formation of a workers defense corps because of the use o: violence by the bosses in many strikes in which he had participated. While he is a convinced pacifist and opposed to the use of violence on principle (either by capitalists or workers) he saw the necessity of the defense corps qu the present situation. The resolu- don was seconded by Brother J. J. Vaughan, recently Communist mayor of. the Bethnal Green and delegate rom the London Electric Trades’ Unions. Many delegates partieipated in the discussion and the resolution was carried unanimously, HE next resolution was entitled “The Capitalist Offensive,” and calls for the following measures to be aken to meet the offensive of the osses on the working class: (a) The complete scientific utili- zation of the whole trade union movement in the struggle. (b) Securing the co-operation of the co-operative organizations. (c) Securing the active participa- tion of the parliamentary and Na- tional Labor parties in the organi- zation of the struggle by placing themselves at the disposal of the general council of the Trades Union Congress. (d) Urging the general council of the Trades Union Congress to take ' other with their eyes. “THE CRIER” By Henri Barbusse (Continued from page five) that he had said something perhaps never said before, and which was true. He made you come out of yourself, where you were hidden. THE public square and the holiday were one thing; you could see that right away if you looked down from a window on the square, so that your gaze covered it like a lid. The metal- lic dust of the music. In the crow@, zigzags of people flowing toward the swings, giant whirling saucers, and to the shooting galleries, and the booths, decorated with geometric fig-. ures, daubed, streaked, full of gewgaws. In the fotr corners, winesellers stimulating the thirst of the crowd. A cyclist passed, curved over his bicycle like a capital letter, a right angle tangent to the perfect wheels upon which speed shimmered like watering on silk. The loungers stared at each other, studied each other, undressed each What was each one thinking? Surely this: “Me, above all. I de- serve to be happy,” and “The others are wrong when they think I’m like everyone else.” Now, about eleven o’clock, first a lot of noise, then a rich man rolling in his jewel-box of an automobile. You saw, supposing that you were still perched up in that window, the excitement of the crowd, flowing and moving around the trajectory of the car. The king of the car alighted, in flesh and blood, at the hotel. for lunch. You saw the American of wood (it was — his head that was of wood) with his y. When they came out again under the sign of the hotel, to their waiting car, the Mayor, who ; had learned of their arrival, and had come run- | ning to await them, saluted them. The American didn’t see him at first, preoc- cupied as he was by the price of the lunch: 8 francs each; he could hardly believe it, it was 80 small; only 8 francs! “O, damn it,” he said, “how bad the food must have been!” The mayor showed him the pretty new houses, like candy and gingerbread, on the square and on the hillside, hoping to influence the memory of this important tourist. “There used to be only old houses here, all alike, their red tiles grey with age. Now there are Swiss.chalets, Tunisian houses, Spanish villas, chateaus—one right near, with turrets, It’s the good taste of France!” said the Mayor. My lord Red-Skin answered that he had a daughter who was interested in knick- and who had read several books, but that he himself was a practical business man. He gave one to understand that others might have tal- ent, others might have ideas, others might have taste; as for him, he bought all that. Then a giant laugh burst out among the peo- ple (they guessed where it came from) and that laugh whinnied that the kings of today aren’t even savages, but only mechanisms. , “Our master is a dead one rolling in gold!” The American climbed into his automobile (bows and salutations to him.) He pulled down the blinds (bows and salutations to the window-blinds). And out of the great raucous laugh a hand pointed out the big, round twinkling coins, the golden wheels of the traveling throne. That laugh was as strong and.ample as the mountain of sound that falls from a bell-tow- er. Scandalous! That peasant, that nobody, mocking the lord of the universe! But the audience felt comfortably sure that the rich man couldn’t understand—while the other yelled as loud as Jeremiah in the streets of ‘Jerusalem: “Our master is a dead one!” Just the same, the image brought there by the mechanical .tabernacle with them; it was the ideal of each one, it was the model, the Statute of what each wanted. For each one tried, on a petty scale, to be like the millionaire, a being of superior essence, although not of superior essence, and to command, and to reign over others; over one, over two, over a hun- dred. . . and each one whispered to himself: “My highness, My holiness.” The man who had laughed like an avalanche, said now in a very ordinary tone of voice: “There’s one word—‘petty bourgeois’—it’s indispensible, that word! If you try it on every one of the inhabitants of the country, you see that it fits perfectly, it’s just made to order for them. The rich make the not-rich in their own image.” Something else now. “Yes,” said the men around the table, “the Best is the enemy of the Good.” The great voice was there, as usual, and ex- claimed: “What? "end ai ploye peevishly, “ ” e employe » “you contradict that maxim?” “The best ‘is not the enemy of the good,” he shouted, “‘since the best is just the best.” The other man reflected: “Evidently, it’s just a manner of speaking. When you say, the best is the enemy of the good, you don’t mean at all that the best is the enemy of the good, just the contrary!” As serious, as careful, as excited as a child absorbed in play, that’s the way he broke down, one by one, the ghosts of catch-word phrases and ideas that you run into and that dance around the substance of reality (the reality which is: war of ‘man upon man, and of men upon men.) (To be continued next week in the Saturday Magazine 8 of The DAILY WORKER —the issue of Saturday, April 17.) steps to ensure the full support of the International Trade Union Move- ment for the struggle of the British working class, In the discussion on the resolution the delegates stressed the necessity of the general council of the Trades Congress to utilize the resolution of the Scarborough congress to become the real leading center of the trade union movement and also to call a special meeting of the congress to take steps to put the movement in readiness for the coming battles. The mining situation, the engineering crisis and the unemployment situation were pointed to as justifying this course, » now speeches of the delegates showed that the bosses had deter- mined to place the burden of the con- tinuance of the capitalist system on the backs of the workers by reducing their standard of living. It was par ticularly refreshing to see that many Ccelegates pointed to the low standard of living of the colonial peoples ex- ploited by British capital as one of the main reasons for the desperate plight of the British working class. Delegates from Dundee textile unions showed that the reason for the unem- ployment and starvation was the low wages of the Bengal textile workers and demanded that this be taken into consideration, HE resolution on international trade union unity was introduced by Comrade George Hardy, acting sec- retary of the National Minority Move- ment. He delivered a splendid speech on the subject and was greeted by greate applause by the conference. The resolution calls on the Trades Union Congress to issue a special bul- letin for the information of the trade unions on this subject, to work for closer co-operation with the Russian trade unions, to send workers’ delega- tions to the trade union conventions on the continent to explain the neces- sity of world trade union unity and to work untiringly for the convening of an international trade union con-’ gress of delegates? ffonf if crgaiiga! tions, irrespective of whether they be- long to Amsterdam or the Red Inter- national of Labor Unions. The discussion from the floor showed what a grasp of the necessity of world trade union unity the left wing of the British trade union move- ment has. Delegate after delegate took the floor and pointed out that the success of the British workers in defending their already low standard of living depended on the solidarity: of the international trade union move- ment. The resolution was carried unanimously amidst loud applause. R. BAHT represented the All-India Trades Union Congress and in his speech showed the close connection of the‘ situation of the Indian workers with those of Britain. Three Indian ailors who accompanied him on the Platform were given a rousing wel- come. The Trade Union Educational League of the United States was rep- resented by Tom Bell. In his speech of fraternal greetings he outlined the situation confronting the left wing trade unionists of the United States. The question of “company unionism” and the “B. and O. plan,” labor bank- ing and the other forms of class col- work of the National Minority Move- ment and the other left wing trade union movements in other countries were of the greatest importance to the working class and must continue Jational Minority Movement would be rade union movement, —_