The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 5, 1926, Page 3

a PASSAIC MILL STRIKERS GET U. 1. W. CHARTER 8,000 Strikers Signed Up in A. F. of L. — (Special to The Dally Worker) PASSAIC, N, J., Sépt. 8.—With the chartering yesterday of Passalo Local, No, 1603, United Textile Workers of America, the striking textile workers of Passalc and vicinity, who hi waged a herolc battle for the past 365 weeks against the robber textile barons, became affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, thus fulfilling one of the major aims &n- nounced from the beginning of the strike by the former leaderships. With the continued backing of the American Federation of Labor, which, now that the strikers have been ad- mitted into the U, T. W., will be in- tensified a thousand-fold, the strikers expect to bring their 224-day strike to a speedy and victorious close, To Ask Congressional Probe. Henry T. Hunt, vice-chairman of the Lauck committee, thru which the A, F, of L. affiliation was negotiated, said yesterday that the work of the com- mittee was not yet ended, as it had been asked by the U, T. W. to col- laborate in further negotiations with the mill owners. . Mr. Hunt also said that the work of organizing a general committee of 100 to promote a congressional investiga- tion of the textile industry with spe- cial attention to tariffs and wage scales, will be proceeded with. “I would advise the textile barons to put their house in order before this in- vestigation,” Mr, Hunt added, “as they are in no position to go before the public now.” He pointed out as an ab- surdity the 74 per cent protective tar- iff imposed on the American consumer thru the tax on imported textile goods, which, ho said, combined with the mis- erably low wages paid their workers, enables the American textile manufac- turers to make 100 per cent profits, Charter Dated August 30. The new charter is dated August 30 and 4,500 of the 8,000 union cards are ready for distribution in Passaic as soon as the executive committee of the strikers goes thru the formality of accepting the charter from the Lauck committee, to whom the charter has been officially turned over by the U. T. W. Eight thousand strikers have enrolled so far, but the lines are still long at 743 Main avenue, and it is con- fidently predicted that over 12,000 will enter the new A. F. of L. union. At 8:30 tomorrow Thomas McMa- hon, president of the U. T. W., will meet the strikers’ executive commit- tee to discuss the details of the organi- zation of the new union and plan for future mediation proceedings, Albert Weisbord, the organizer of the strike and leader thru the past seven months of heroic struggle, will step aside as soon as the strikers ac- cept the charter of the U. T. W. in ac- cordance with his promise during th early negotiations when the U. T. demanded his withdrawal from thi strike as the basis of their acceptance of the strikers into a U..T. W. local. Weisbord, for the past several weeks, has been rallying the strikers to the U. T. W. and doing everything in his power to keep their ranks intact and turn over a 100 per cent strike to the U. T. W. In this he has fully suc- ceeded, and the strike today is still a@ 100 per cent strike, 25 Cents een eile chit GRIGER & NOVAK GENTS FURNISHING and MERCHANT TAILORS Union Merchandise 1934 West Chicago Avenue (Cor. Winchester) Phone Humboldt 2707 To those who work hard for their money, | will save 60 per cent on their dental work, DR. M. RASNICK DENTIST 2050 Center Ave., Cor. Errin St, PITTSBURGH, PA. mre _ } all the world as a historic triumph of labor. Dl he oe ee DAILY WORKER Albert Welsbord, the leader of the striking textile workers of Passaic, N. J., who have conducted a long and hard battle against the mill owners, will come to Chicago to speak at the big ma meeting arranged by In- ternational Labor Defense at Ashland Auditorium on Labor Day eve following the national convention of I. L. D., which will meet on the fifth. American Trade Unionism Shown Road (Continued from page 2) protection of the trade.unions, Special campaigns should be launched to organiag the Mexican and Japanese work- ers in this country, 12. Women and Youth The A. F. of L, shall emphasize the special importance of organizing women and youth workers, calling upon its affiliated unions to remove all constitutional barriers existing against these workers and to intensify the work of organizing them. It must demand equal pay for equal work, prohibition of night work, child labor and excessive hours, and propose that their demands be brought for- ward in all wage movements by trade unions in industries in which they are employed. 13. Corrupt Labor Papers The A. F. of L., in order to lay a basis for a campaign to eliminate the numerous fake labor papers which infest many cities with or without the endorsement of local labor, shall appoint.a special committee to investigate this prolific form of corruption in the labor movement and to report back to the next A. F. of L. convention, 14, British Coal Miners’ Strike The strike of the British coal miners is of profound ‘portance to every trade unionist of the world. Their victory will be our victory and their defeat would en- courage attacks on labor in America. The A. F. of L. shall pledge its complete and active support to the strike of the British miners. It shall call upon the marine trans- port and railroad unions to refuse to haul coal destined for Great Britain, and it shall call upon all affiliated members each to donate immediately to the strike relief fund a sum of not less than two hours’ pay. In addition it shall proceed to organize a loan of not less than $3,000,000 from the labor banks to the pie verhcit gaa of Great Britain. 15. International Affiliation 5 The A. F. of L. shall endorse the Anglo-Russian Trade Union Unity Committee, and support its program of a world congress for trade union unity, to include the Amsterdam International, the Red International of Labor Unions, the American Federation of Labor, and the unions of South America, China, India, etc, It should recom- mend to its affiliated internationals that they affiliate to the respective industrial federations of the Amsterdam International on the basis of the admission of the Russian mens’ unions and the holding of a world trade union unity 16. Recognition of the Soviet Unio The progress in the Soviet Union of the socialized in- dustries can no longer be questicned and the Soviet government of workers and peasants now stands before Its strength has been shown in the recognition by scores of nations, among them the most important countries of the world. Only the United States withholds such recognition, and the A. F, of L. should demand of the United States gov- ernment that it recognize the Soviet Union and estab- lish full diplomatie and commercial relations with that country, 17. Trade Union Delegation to The Soviet Union Che trade unions of Hurope have practically all sent delegations to investigate the conditions of labor under the Soviet government, no longer trusting the prejudiced news of the capitalist press, which time after time has proven wholly false, The American trade unionists have a right to know at first hand why it is that the whole world capitalist class is so bitterly opposed to the Soviet government and what are the conditions that 8,000,000 Russian trade unionists share under that government. Therefore, the A. F. of L. shall accept the invitation of the Russian unions and send an cial delegation to visit the-Soviet Union and be naa report to the Amer- ican labor movement, TT ee PCENT cen’ form of organization, which cripples the ef- me: _ nent to Progress fectiveness of the workers’ struggles against the em- ployers. The A. F. of L. shall, therefore, initiate an active campaign for the centralization of the forces of the trade union movement, including the affiliation of the Railroad Brotherhoods, the Amalgamated Clothing Work- ers, and other independent unions, The executive council shall be enlarged to 45 members, representing principally mining, railroad, metal, textile and other key and basic industries, The executive coun- cil shall meet quarterly, with a smaller board to transact executive business in between meetings, We must look forward to the time when, with a dem- ocratized A. F. of L. and an educated membership, all affiliated unions, before presenting demands to their em ployers, shall first have them passed upon the executive council, whereupon the executive council shall ‘mobilize the support of the labor movemeyt behind these demands to the extent and in the manner required by the situation. The executive council shall have the right to levy strike assessments. There shall be a. universal transfer system prevailing between the various unions, and efforts shall be initiated to establish a standardized dues system. Progressively, the Central Labor Councils shall be ex- tended more jurisdiction over the organization and activi- ties of their affiliated unions, | 19. Amalgamation | As a part of the general movement to centralize the forces of the trade unions, the A) F. of L. shall endorse the principle of industrial unionism and call a series of conferences in the various industries for the purpose of amalgamating the many craft unions into industrial or- ganizations. In carrying thru ‘this amalgamation, the principle of organization on the basis of the shop, instead’ of the miscellaneous local union, shall be introduced. Amalgamation is a powerful weapon against company unionism. [20. Democratization of the A. F. L| The task of democratizing the A, F. of L. is basic, and a necessary complement to the centralization of the trade union movement. The present system of complete control of the A. F. of L. and its component untons, the A. F. of L, convention, ete., within the hands of a small, autocratic bureaucracy to the exclusion of rank and file participation and control is highly injurious to the growth, function and progress of the organization, For the democratization of the A. F. of L, the following measures are necessary: At least 25 per cent of the members of the executive council shall be actual workers. The representation of the various international and local bodies in the A. F. of L. convention shall consist of at least 60 per cent of rank and file workers employed at their trades, All convention delegates must be selected by general refer- endum vote of their respective organization. No person should be a delegate to the convention who is himself an employer of labor or an owner of stock in any capitalist business institution. HE convention representation of the State Federations and Central Labor Bodies shall be increased from the present system of one dele; ach to from two to ten, and two to five, respectively, according to the size of these organizations. Upon the demand of 25 per cent of the members of the executive council, or of 25 per cent of the delegation at the A. F. of L, convention, or of 1,000 local unions, any question, including the election of officers, shall be submitted to ¢ general referendum vote, In order to make a start at correcting the glaring evil of an overpaid officialdom, the salaries and expense ac- counts of the general officers of the A. F, of L. shall be <r 50 per cent, and the general organizers accord- ingly. 8 by agenda system shall be introduced by a provision providing that two months before the holding of the annual convention, an agenda shall be made up touching upon the most vi issues confronting the labor move- ment, and such agenda shall be submitted to the various organizations for their consideration, ' Full freedom of expression shall be guaranteed to mi- norities in the unions, The foregoing general proposals for democratization shall also be introduced into all the affliated unions of the American Federation of Labor. THE TRADE UNION EDUCA. TIONAL LEAGUE, 186 West Washington Sty Chioago, II Patan y Game ¢ Page Thread | CONVENTION OF ANTI-FASCISTI IN NEW YORK First National Meet Opens Tomorrow NEW YORK, Sept. 3. — The first national convention of the Anti-Fascist Alllance will be held here Sept, 5th. Delegates from all parts of the United States, representing thousands of Ital- ian organized workers will be present at the convention, Industrial, political and fraternal working class organizations will be represented and also Italian refugees driven from their home-land by the fascist regime. Masonic organizations will be represented. Mussolini has outlawed the Masonic organizations in Italy, The present status of fascism in Italy will be discussed and considera- tion will be given to the problem of fighting fascism and Italy and pre- venting the spread of its influence in the United States, Tried To Make Split. A trivial incident in the Anti-Fascist Alliance due to the resignation of a socialist branch from the anti-black shirt organization was magnified by the socialist party organs into a serious crisis. Due to some criticisms made by the Communists of certain socialist members in the alliance the socialists demanded that the alliance take measures that would mean the elimination of Communists. This demand was turned down by the membership and the west side branch of the socialist party resigned. The only sufferers from this attempt at creating a split were the socialists. The Anti-Fascist alliance was organ- ized in April 1923 and has done splen- did work since its organization. It has conducted several campaigns against fascism and has rallied the great majority of the Italian workers in America to its side. Organized Big Protest. When Matteotti was murdered on the order of Mussolini the alliance or- ganized great demonstrations in every large city in the United States against the murderers, Mussolini sent emis- saries to America to counteract this propaganda but his speakers were never able to hold one successful mass meeting. Italian workers met his vents on the pier and the police had o protect them from the wrath of heir anti-fascist fellow countrymen. When Valentino’s body was on ex- hibition in New York City, the fascisti tried to make political capital out of the situation, Black shirts were sent to stand guard over his body but the anti-fascisti alliance protested and the guards were compelled to withdraw to prevent a riot. Judge Lenient With Gary Boss Who Beat up Dyer on Strike GARY, Ind., Sept. 3.—A case of a striking member of the Cleaners and Dyers’ Local 17868 against a plant owner who slugged him, was tried here before Justice of Peace C. L Clemence. The defendant, C. T. Warner, the owner of a shop, pleaded guilty on a charge of assault and battery brought about by the union man, brother Wil- fung. The boss excused himself stat- ing the first offense i will let it go at tieup of his shop. We are all liable to loose our temp- er, said the justice sympathetically, “Hspecially boys, at your age. Better stop your jabbering and fighting and get to work. “I will have to make it five dollars and costs,” the judge continued. Ought to make it more but this be- ing the first offense I will let it go at that. It was unfair to beat up a man ‘taking advantage of his physical in- capacity (Wilfung is not in good health.) The boss had to pay $17.50 $32.60, the balance of the bond, was retained by the court as security for C. Warn- er’s appearance in court on two more charges. ee @ Slackening of Work in the Steel Mills of Gary GARY, Ind., Sept. 3. — In the morn- ing one can see large crowds of work- ers standing at hte gates of the Illi- nots Steel Co. But only a few are tak- en in .The Axel Mill is at a stand- still, The Wheel mill is working only four days a week. The plate mill is working Mkewise four days a week. GINSBERG’S | Vegetarian Restaurant 2324-26 Brooklyn Avenue, LOS ANGELES, CAL. Ashland Blvd, Auditorium, Ash- land and Van Buren—Monday, Sept. 6, 8 p.m. On Labor Day of labor prison- A subscription to The DAILY WORKER for one month to the members of your union is a good woy. Try ik ae * ibs By Upton Sinclair (Copyright, 1926, by Upton Sinciairy WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE. J, Arnold Ross Is a wealthy independent California off operator who was first Jim Ross, a teamster and then a merchant before he went into the oil business. Bunny, his son, is a sensitive boy, learning the oil business and now going to high school. Dad has a field in the San Elido Valley on the Watkins ranch. The Watkins family are holy rollers. Eli Watkins has become a religious fakir with a church of his own. Bunny had met Paul Watkins when they were both much younger. He liked Paul who had run away from home because he didn’t like the religious discipline imposed by his father, Paul is now a carpenter in the new Watkins field and his sister Ruth is keeping house for him. The Watkins field is really Bunny’s and he has been made very wealthy thru the bringing in of a great well which has grown to fourteen der. rikes. In the meantime war with Germany looms and the men in the olf field under the leadership of an organizer for the Oil Workers’ Union, Tom Axton, prepare to strike for an eight-hour day and a raise In wages. Paul becomes a leader of the strikers and a battle is on between the oi! workers and the Oil Operators’ Association which supplies thugs and gunmen to the various operators, including Dad, during t Bunny is back at school and receives the reports only thru the pres: the strikers and doesn’t believe the calumni strikers, Paul becomes a member of the strike committee and strike paper. Bunny takes a trip up to the field and finally gets a chance to talk to Paul who tells him he is too soft to take the stand he would tike'te take—with the strikers, 9). Soe Se j Ix. - Bunny walked on and there was a fever in his soul. He was enraged because of Paul’s lack of understanding, his cruel harsh- ness; but all the time another voice inside him kept insisting, “He’s right! You're soft, you’re soft—that’s the word for it!” This, you see, was the thing in Bunny which made his sister Bertie so absolutely furious; that Bunny subjected himself to Paul, that he was willing to let Paul kick him, and to take it meekly. He was so utterly without sense of the dignity which his father’s millions conferred upon him! Bunny went back to school, and the oil-workers took a hitch in their belt, hanging on by their eye teeth, as the saying is. Meantime America was in the war, and Congress was passing a series of measures—one providing for a vast “liberty loan,” to pay the war costs, and another for the registering of all men of fighting age, and the drafting of a huge army. And then began to come wild rumors of a truce with labor. It came first in connection with the railwaymen, many of whom were on strike for a living wage and better conditions. The.rail- ways were absolutely vital to the winning of the war, and so Congress must authorize the Government to intervene in. dis- putes, and make terms with the unions, and see that everybody, got a square deal. If such steps were taken for the railway’men, they would surely have to be taken for others; the oil workers might get those rights of which the Employers’ Federation was endeavoring to deprive them! The labor press was full of talk about the new deal that was coming, and telegrams came from labor headquarters in Washington, bidding the men at Paradise stand firm. It was like the “big scene” in the old “ten-twenty-thirty” melodrama that we used to see on the Bowery in our boyhood in which the heroine is lashed to a log in the saw-mill, and being swiftly drawn to the place where she will be sliced éown.the middle; the hero comes galloping madly on horseback, and Teaps from his steed, and smashes in the door with an axe, and springs | to the lever and stops the machinery at exactly the critioakin- stant, Or, if you want to be more high-brow and dignified, ft was like the ancient Greek tragedies, in which, after the fates: | the characters have been tied into a hopeless knot, a goé scends from the sky in a machine, and steps out, and resolves, the perplexities, and virtue is triumphant and vice is cast: down. You believe this, because it is in a Greek classic; but youwill' find it less easy to believe that the “open crowd” in Southern California, the whole power of the industrial system, with allthe| millions of their banks, their political machine and their strike- breaking agencies, their spies and gunmen, and their state mil-' itiamen with machine-guns and armored cars in the background —that all this terrific power felt its hand suddenly grasped by a stronger hand, and drawn back from the throat of its victim! Another god descended from a machine—a lean old Yankee divin- ity, with a white goatee and a suit made of red‘and white stripes with blue stars spangled over it; Uncle Sam himself stretched out his mighty hand and declared that oil workers were human beings as well as citizens, and would be protected /in thetr rights as both! The announcement came from labor headquarters in Wash- ington, saying that the oil workers would get a living wage and the eight-hour day; a government “conciliator” would be sent out to see to it, and meantime, they were to go back to work, so that the benevolent old gentleman with the white goatee and the red, white and blue suit might have all the oil he needed. The President of the United States was making speeches—oh, such wonderful, convincing speeches, about the wars that was to-end the war, and bring justice to all mankind, and establish the’ rule of the people and by the people and for the people over all the earth. Such thrills as shook all hearts, such a fervor of con- secration! And such rejoicing on the playground of the school- house at Paradise, when the news came that the gunmen would slink back into the slums from which they had come, and that work was to start up at once! Dad got the news early in the morning, and Bunny danced all over the house, and made as much noise as if it were a foot- ball game; and Dad said he felt pretty good himself, he wouldn't have been able to hold on another week without them. And Bunny said he'd cut school in the afternoon and they’d drive out and see the celebration, and make friends with everybody again, and get things started. The first thing they would do was to tear down that barbed wire fence that separated capital from labor! In the new world there would be no barbed wire and no more bad feeling—the roses would bloom on the hedges in front of the workers’ homes, and there would be a book of the Presi- dent’s speeches in the reading-room, and all the oil workers would | have time to read it! (To be continued) IN DETROIT! Every Worker Should Hear WM. F. DUNNE Editor of THE DAILY WORKER, Speak on “DEMOCRACY AND CORRUPTION,” Tuesday, September 7th 8 P. M., at the G.A.R.HALLD Corner of Grand River and Cass Avenues