The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 14, 1927, Page 7

When I was your age,I worked . eighteen hours a day — And now, I've saved up enough money to-—~ and water! — Rest up— The New Open Shop Drive 150,000 miners are out on strike against wage reductions. The avowed view of the interests in control of that industry is to smash the Miners’ Union. In the needle trades in New York, open shop con- ditions are being established by the employers with the cooperation of the Executive Council of the A. F. of L. led by the president of the Civic Fed- eration, Matthew Woll. The Master Plumbers’ As- sociation of New York under the direction of the erganized building trades bosses, break their agree- ment with the Plumbers’ Union and make a lock-out of 10,000 men in order to stop any new upward wage movements in this industry. In New Eng- land the textile industry for the last six months has seen an intensive drive to establish the 54-hour week in which McMahon, president of the U. T, W. A., A. F. of L. textile union cooperated, The production record in a number of important industries shows a definite downward trend. These are a few of the weather signs indicating what is war gains, that is, over a million members in this E ship cooperated in efficiency foremen officially in its so-called New Theory resolution adopted at the Atlantic as the B. & O. plan. \ f the employers ‘in obtaining a 48 per increase in at but 8 per cent additional expense incurred in wage increases and bonus systems granted to skilled mechanics in indus- tries especially favored by imperialist prosperity. To put such a policy across on the organized work- ers inside of the A. F. of L. was possible by the suppression, persecution and expulsion of progres- sive opponents. Thus we had the continual war inside the A. F. of L., a war in which the A. F. of L. bureaucracy had the whole support of the employ- ers, the capitalist press and their government, a war which could be earried thru by arbitrary rule and the abolition of democracy inside the unions. The effect of this policy upon the unions prevented their growth and reduced the A. F. of L. membership far below the pre-war figure, present estimates being as about 2% million as against 3 million when the U. S. entered the war. It is the first time in the history of the American labor movement that a prosperity peried is passing by without tremendous growth in membership or- ganization, drives to organize the unorganized and big forward movements in general. The fact that in the midst of snch prosperity there could even be a tremendous loss in membership shows that the A. F. of L: is rapidly deteriorating under the present leadership, that the policies of this leadership are diametrically opposed to the very evolution of capi- workers are faced with on the eve of this new open shop drive, That such a drive is coming there is no doubt in my mind. The Dawes plan has put in its work. American capita! invested in the weakened capitalist empires of Europe has re-established their produc- tion and hence their competitive power on the world market, With the standard of living of millions of And ate pompernickle, bread Yeung man, I supported a whole family! By JOSEPH ZACK fate of a possible crash. It wili therefore continue to cooperate with imperialist capital, as a part of the exploiting class, to beat its competitors in the world market. The fact that nothing is being done to support the miners to save the Miners’ Union while all energies are being put forward to smash the opposition to such a policy as exemplified by the war on the left wing ante the wholesale expulsion shows that the A. F. of L. bureaucracy is ready not only to fall in with this line, but te even pave the way of capital in the dewnward -revision of the standard of living for workers. The edge of the oncoming depression may be taken off by American success in the Far East, by recog- nition of Soviet Russia and the granting of credits; by imperialist suecess in general. This accounts for the extraordinery imperialist activity of the U. S. of late. But even off such a success cheaper prod- ucts are a pre-requisite and we ean expect in any event that the benefits of such a presperity of which enly a part of the population was beneficiary will be considerably curtailed even under the most fa- vorable circumstances. *But even as it is the bally- hoo the capitalist press made about the workers getting prosperous, buying homes and automobiles, etc., was considerably exaggerated, and, but for the fact that even many of our own comrades became infected by this propaganda, I would not even men- tion it. Avalogies have been made on the affects of im- perialist prosperity COrrupting the labor movement hetween Britain and the U. S. It is true that we can profit by the experience in Britain to some ex- tent, but there is a fundamental difference in this case between the effects of British imperialist pros- perity and the one we have. Britain conquered politically the territories in which to dump the in- dustrial preducts of the British Islands. It had a virtual monopoly of these markets. Britain at the height of its imperialist development had no im- portant industrial rival, the other European states being in the main under feudal regimes based on agriculture. While the U. S. imdustries have out- stripped great industrial giants with American capi- tal pleying- both ends against the middle. ° The effect of this is that whereas in Great Britain in its heyday of imperialism, the advantages the workers derived from it were pretty evenly divided among the industrial prvietariat, particularly the organized skilled workers in the U. S., imperialist progress has under-mined even below pre-war level the conditions of millions of workers in industries subject to the international competition. How much did the bituminous miners, textile workers, needle workers, marine workers, ete., profit by this pros- perity. Even the highly siilled in these industries were, in the main, adversily affected. What abcut the farmers who were bankrupted by the tens of theusands? The only ones that really profited were the skilled workers. particularly those that are or- ganized and work in sheltered domestic industries like building éonstruction, printing, railroads, etc. Under radical leadership they could have profited much more even in these industries. The bosses assisted by the trade union bureaucracy got double general profited but little and that is in the form of steadier employment. And in order to get their moral cooperation and substitute the beenfits of unionism, they were given company unions io take (Continued on page 7)