The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 30, 1927, Page 6

PAN-AMERICAN LABOR CONFERENCE JULY (8% 1927 ~ WASHINGTON. 0,6. Martinez (marked by arrow), Venezuelan delegate, who staged a fi ght against Imperialism to the consternation of assembled reaction at the Pan-American Convention. Green af **> 4. B of J y emeeateaemmneel oe EDITOR’S NOTES | (Continued from Page One) aac Green and Woll will NOT be exonerated by the op- pressed peoples of Latin-America and by the work- ingclass of the United States. The workers of Amer- ica will neither forget nor forgive the agents of imperialism in the American labor movement and will proceed to organize and struggle despite them and against them. %, * * The Chicago Tribune, which speaks ihe mind of big Western capital and whose political affinities lie in the direction of the republican party, endorses fully the murderous actions of the American im- perialists in Ni a, and is making a frank ap- peal to the egotistic interests of the reactionary Ja- bor bureauc and the corrupted upper section of the labor aristocracy. The Tribune makes its ap- peal on what it calls: THE LABOR STAKE,IN CENTRAL AMERICA. It argues like this: “Labor in the United States will not find its future in visions and fallacies. It will find its welfare in the production of raw materials and the manufacture of them in ordered society. Organized labor is based upon a recognition of force as a means of acquiring good. It is much more willing to use force in domestic affairs than the United States has been in international affairs.” And further in the same editorial, the Tribune gays: “The world will do better with order in dis- ordered regions nearby than it will do with violence and insecurity. The United States will do better with doors closed to European med- dlesomeness and doors open to the production of materials. In this there is a higher human- ity than there is to be found in the armed po- litics of jungle adventurers, And in it labor has a stake.” The Chicago Tribune, as is its habit, is very frank but not quite frank. What it meant is not that labor has a stake in the acquisitions of American imperial- ism, but that the reactionary labor bureaucracy has such a stake. The Green and the Wolls reason along the same lines as the Chicago Tribune, and they do so because they represent in the American labor movement the interests of American imperialism and of that upper section of labor which is corrupted by imperialism. The mass of American labor has no “stakes” in Central America. It is as much a vic- tim of American imperialist oppression as are the peowles of Latin-America. And its answer to the Chicago Tribune will be: a strong and militant la- bor movement at home, fraternal unity with the ex- ploited peoples of Latin-America for common strug- a uadnnnEIn DE EEN nS nena gle against the monstrosili« i ism. smi perkal- The Ohio coal operators are preparing to open their mines with seab labor by equipping them- selves with armed thugs, machine guns, ete. A new and’ sinister move is being made to break the min- ers’ strike, but Lewis and his henchmen don’t seem to notice it. And Matthew Woll, vice president of the American Federation of Labor, engaged in de- stroying the labor movement among the New York needle trades workers, cannot be “expected” to pay much attention to the miners’ strike except to en- courage the reactionary and treacherous policies of the Lewis administration. Rank and file sentiment and spirit among the miners has not been weakened, despite the demor- alizing tactics of Lewis. The miners want to fight but the reactionary leadership would not let them mobilize all their resources. The deliberations of the Ditrict One Convention of the U. M. W. of A. are indicative of a stroyg sentiment of militancy among the rank and file which the opposition in the convention has not as yet fully expressed. It is becoming absolutely imperative that the left wing and the progressives in, the miners’ union steps for- ward more militantly than before to resist the treacherous gnoves of the Lewis administration and to strengthen the ranks of the strikers to insure their victory. The extension of the strike into the anthracite region thus making it a national strike for a national agreement is at present the most urgent and imperative step in the struggle against the coal operators. * ea * The existing traction situation in New York City is full of great and important possibilities for the strengthening of the labor movement. economically and politically and in every other way. But to achieve this end, the labor movement will have to display real progressive and militant leadership which (this must be said) is not to be found in the circles that dominate today either the Central Labor Council of New York or the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor. This progressive and militant leadership, which is so essential for a full and proper utilization of the traction situation fgr New York labor, will and must come forward from the ranks of the labor movement, from its left wing and progressive ele- ments. And the first prerequisite for this is a definite program and a clear line of policy based upon the widest application of the united front. The workers employed by the New York traction companies are decidedly against the company union and against the labor conditions imposed upon them by the Hedley contract. By the time these lines appear in print, these workers may be on strike to ‘enforce their economic demands and to establish a genuine union. Beeause of the pressure from the workers, and because of the political complications that may arise for some of the dominant labor re- actionaries in New York if the traction companies o— 2 om The prosperous looking representative (2) of Labor in the natty white Palm Beach suit in the front row is President are permitted once more to crush their workers, the leaders of the Central Labor Council of New York and the leaders of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor felt compelled to step forward in favor of the workers. But the suc- cess of the present struggles of the traction work- ers will demand considerably more than friendly statements of labor leaders. What is imperative at this moment is a full utilization of all the economic and political power of New York labor in support of the demands and struggles of the traction work- ers. The demands of the traction workers—the abro- gation of the Hedley contract, a wage increase and the recognition of the union—are economic demands primarily. But the strategic nature of the traction utilities, the big and powerful economic interests involved in it; the contradictions of interest even within the capitalists in the traction situation, the repercussions that a successful traction strike will have throughout the country—all these elements are making the struggles of the New York trac- tion workers a class conflict of first rate magni- tude. This means a political conflict which must be prepared for and handled by the labor movement with a complete economic and political program looking toward the fullest mobilization of all the indutrial and political resources of labor in support of the traction struggles. Only in this way will the struggle of the traction workers be won and labor as a whole strengthened.