The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 30, 1927, Page 7

A Conspiracy Against the Workers of the Americas ARTICLE I. The fifth convention of the Pan- American Federation of Labor, which met in Washington, D. C., July 18- 23, was the most significant gather- ing ever held by that so-called or- ganization. Certainly it attracted far more attention than the previous con- ventions, not only in the United States but thruout the western world. Inereased popular interest was. not due to growth, for the Pan-American Federation of Labor has not grown. The convention acquired significance because: Great Interest In Gathering. 1) Massacre of 300 Nicaraguans by the United States Marines at Ocotal, Nicaragua, was reported in the midst of the first morning’s session; (2) Considerable tension was known to have existed following the ambiguous stand of the A. I. of L. leaders and the Mexican Con- federation of Labor, of special im- portance in view of the fact that the Mexican conferedation is the only bona fide general labor organ- ization in Latin America affiliated te the so-called Pan-American fed- eration; ; (3) This is the first convention of the Pan-American Federation of Labor at which there has been any kind of straight-out opposition to the administration. Not Stormy Convention. Contrary to the impression given by the press, it was not a stormy con- vention. In fact it .was extraordin- arily quiet exeept for two days out of the six. The A. F. of L. delegates were in easy, monotonous control] up to the very end, when the officers of the Pan-American Federation of La- bor (William Green, president; Luis N. Morones of Mexico, vice-president; Santiago Iglesias, secretary, and Matthew Woll, treasurer) were un- animously reelected by a rising vote. The only high lights of the conven- tion were: (1) the Ocotal massacre and the discussion on the resolution submitted by the Nicaraguan dele- gation; (2) discussion on the Haitian question; (8) discussion on the Mon- roe Doctrine and American imperial- ism in general; (4) the attacks against thé reds; (5) the silence of thé Mexican delegation, which sub- mitted no resolutions on Mexican or Latin-American relations and which did not participate in any of the dis- cussions, with the exception of Mor- _ ones’s opening and closing addresses as vice-president of the Pan-Ameri- can Federation of Labor. Against Workers. But these things were enough. In the situations created by then the stifled cry against American im- perialism was released in the conven- tion. Secondly, the entire convention was exposed, and with it the so-called Pan-American Federation of Labor, as. nothing less than a conspiracy against the working class of the Americas. The sessions were held in the rest- ful detachment of the* A. F. of L. council chamber, on the top floor of the American Federation of Labor building. They were attended by some 20-odd delegates, nine or ten newsp2permen, a sprinkling of curi- ous idlers, a number of A. F. of L. intellectual hangers-on, and a busy army of government spies—United States spies, Cuban spies, Peruvian spies, Venezuelan spies .. . amateur and professional spies ... pies of all nature and description who watched supicious individuals like myself when we were in the build- ing and who follower us whenever we left. it. ; Represent Small Groups. As to the delegates themselves, the A. F. of L. was represented by Green (who presided), Woll, Morrison, Noo- nan and Wilson. The Mexican Con- federation of Labor was re} esented by its big Chief, Morones, and by (This is the first of a series of articles analyzing the Pan-American Federa- é - tion of Labor and its recent convention at Washington.) pinata OR six days delegates claiming to represent the organized workers of | Why? the Americas? such attack? 9 tion of Labor continent. a number of years. joenare — we —_" Moneda and Yudico,—the latter leav- ing after the second day to attend the forthcoming congress of the Am- sterdam International. In addition President Green re- ported delegates present from nine countries: Porto Rico, Cuba, Nicara- gua, Guatemala, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia and Peru. Of these the Porto Ricans represented an organization which is not independent but which is an intergral part of the A. F. of L., the Cubans represented an organiza- tion which is confined to a single in- dustry and is only one of a number of Cuban unions in that industry, the four delegations from Central Amer- ica represented organizations having only the shadow of actual existence, the Peruvian delegation represented organizations which do not exist at all, and the Colombian delegation never appeared. a No Serious Action. The convention proceeded in a leisurely way, refusing to get excited even over the Ocotal massacre. It did not grapple seriously with a single practical trade union measure. Here is what it did do: (1) Recommended to all govern- ments not having a Department of Labor to institute one. (2) Recommended to all govern- ments to add labor attaches to their embassy and consular staffs in foreign countries. (3) Adopted a protest against the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gomez in Venezuela. (4) Urged that effective control of the National Bank of Nicaragua, now in the hands of Wall Street interests, be turned over to the Nicaraguan government. (5) Attacked the relatively powerful Argentine labor move- ment on the excuse of disunity and radicalism, and announced the in- tention of substituting it by a “legitimate federation of trade, unions affiliated to the Pan-Amer- -ican Federation of Labor.” Attack Communists. (6) Attacked the Communist In- ternational and the Communists in every country. (1) Adopted a resolution sub- mitted by the A. F. of L. delega- tion and embodying the entire sub- stance of the “Monroe Doctrine of Labor” as expounded by Matthew Woll at the El Paso and Atlantic City conventions of the A. F. of L. (8) Killed an effective protest against the rape of Nicaragua by American imperialism; heading off original resolution by adopting a harmless substitute. (9) Killed a general resolution against American imperialism. (10) Killed a resolution providing that the United States government be asked to indemnify the family of a Haitian citizen murdered by a drunken U. S. marine in Haiti. North, South and Central America met and débated. day of the convention the associated press reported that 300 Nicara-| guans had been slaughtered by the U.S. marines in Nicaragua. The news echoed thruout the world but it did not shake the convention, presided | over by President William Green of the A. F. of L. A resolution of protest | submitted by the Nicaraguan delegation was quietly brushed aside, a “respectful petition” to President Coolidge being adopted in its place. How is it that the convention did not take up a single important matier of practical trade-union co-operation on behalf of the wo.izers of What is this “Pan-American Federation of Labor” and| how is it that reports of its convention filled the newspapers with attacks | against American imperialism while the convention itself engaged in no} What did Latin America learn as a result of the opposition of a single delegate at the convention? ican working class co-operation in relation to the ‘“Pan-American Federa- These and other questions are answered by Manuel Gomez in the present series of articles on the Pan-American Federation of Labor and its convention, written especially for The DAILY WORKER. Gomez is secretary of the United States section of the All-America Anti- Imperialist League, haying sections in twelve countries of the American He attended every session of the convention and has been in close touch with the affairs of the Pan-American Federation of Labor for On the first What is the future of all-Amer- —— (11) Adopted a recommendation of the committee on officers’ report praising the accomplishments of the last Pan-American Commercial Conference. Green Addresses Gathering. (12) Reelected the officers. (13) Thanked the officers. (14) Selected Havana as the next convention city of the Pan-Ameri- can Federation of Labor. The above list includes all of the resolutions and decisions passed with the exception of those which were so trivial as to make it unnecessary to refer to them here. President Green’s opening address was a paean of praise for “pure and simple” trade-unionism as practised by the A. F. of L. leadership. It was also a pompous repitition of meaning- less abstractions like “freedom,” “lib- erty,” “justice”? and “democracy.” But there were other things in the ad- dress, which might easily have de- ceived someone unfamiliar with Green’s lingo. He said he would op- pose the use of armed foree by the United States against any Latin- American nation, declared against in- tervention of any kind and expressed belief in the doctrine of self-deter- mination for all nations. His declara- tions were soon to be put to the test. After green came the vice-presi- dential speech of Morones, which was one long harangue against the reds. It was at this point that the news of the Ocotal massacre was made known. Message Of Death. That message of death from Nicara- gua ought to have determined the character of the whole convention from then on, firing it with the spirit of indignant militancy against American imperalism. But it did nothing of the sort. One of the Nicaraguan delegates. Salomon de la Selva, meade one pessionate anneal and after perliementary chiections and filibusterire by the A. F. of L. delegation-——finelly succeeded in get- ting his resolution before the conven- tion. That was all. Matthew Woll’s committee on resolutions then got in its dirty work, with de la Selva weakly assenting. The newspaper- men made much cf the Nicaraguan matter, and with reason. Bu the con- vention did not. As for de la Selva, he showed himself to be a phrase- maker who carried on no real fight on this or ary other issue. One Fighting Delegate. The “straight-out oppositin” which I mentioned at the opening of this article came entirely from one dele- gate. It was not a sustained opposi- tion and it did not manifest itself at all, except by occasional inferences, until the fourth day of the conven- tion. Yet the nature of it was such as to distinguish it sharply from the By Manuel Gomez play-acting of de-la Selva, and to ac- complish everything worth while that was accomplished at the convention— exposure of Green, Woll, Morrison et al and their handpicked fellow- conspirators from Latin America. Draws Green Oxt. The delegate to whom I refer Ricardo A. Martinez, representing Venezuelan Labor Union. Hesit: and unsure of himself as he was, Martinez fought a real fight whereas everyone in the room could feel, in- stinctively that, de la Selva had fought a sham fight. Martinez made Green and the others fight back and show their hands. The Venezuelan delegate offered a resolution which not only denounced the Monroe Doc- trine and attacked American im- perialism along the whole line, but which proposed concrete measures for Struggle against it. Moreover, in defending his resolution he went out- side the circumscribed field of Latin America and called for independence for the Philippine Islands and with- -drawat of the U. S. troops from China. He voted for his resolution too, against the inevitable substitute of the resolutions committee—with not a single other delegate support- ing him. _ With the exception of this resolu- tion of Martinez’s, and one other, every decision taken by the conven- tion was unanimous. The other ex- ception was on the motion to make Havana the next convention city. Nine delegates held out bravely for Guatemala City! ; Conclusions. In the series of articles» to which the present is an introduction the writer will analyze the convention in a erg 4 the following con- clusions which the conventi to establish: ee _() That despite nine years of ettort on the part of the A. FP. of te bureaucracy who control it the ran-American Federation of la- bor is still virtually a paper organ. ization. (2) That outside of Mexico it only exists at all in Latin America by basing itself on nondescript in- dividuals most of whom are in the service of Wall Street-owned, reac- tionary and bitterly anti-labor gov- ernments in need of a labor fig- leaf. (3) That the Pan-American Fed- eration of Labor does not construc- tive trade-union work, nor does it engage in struggle of any kind on behalf of the workers of the Amer- icas. ) That the Pan-American Fed- eration of Labor is a laber instru- ment sable Monroe Proctrine as expressed in the foreign policy Wall Street and Wathtagtn.” e : (5) That the purpose of the Pan-American Federation of Labor is to disarm Latin America, and particularly the Latin American workers, in the face of American imperialism. (6) That the Pan-American Fed- eration of Labor is now trying to expand by destroying every vigor- ous Latin-American trade-union or- ganization and replacing it with a servile body dominated by the Pan- American Federation of Labor. Besides illustrating each of these points, I shall endeavor to set forth a positive line of action for the work- ers of the Americas, as against that laid down by the leaders of the so- called Pan-American Federation of Labor. See eeees The following articles in this most interesting series on a subject of vital importance to American work- ers, will appear in the regular issues of The DAILY WORKER, beginning Monday.