The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 24, 1927, Page 5

THE New MAGAZINE Section of The DAILY WORKER SATURDAY, SEPT. 24, 1927 EDITORS NOTES : ies ruling bureaucracy of the trade unions comes -* to the convention of the American Federation of Labor with a record of “achievements” which may be very pleasing to the American capitalists but which must call forth disgust and resentment of every honest working man and working woman. The treacherous game of collaboration with the employ- ers in which the Greens and Wolls are so fervently engaged is working out splendidly in the interests of the capitalists while at-the same time continuing to sap the life of the trade unions and to- weaken the working class generally. We would like to ask the following questions: What has the class collaboration leadership of Woll and Green accomplished for the American trade union movement since the Detroit convention of the A. F. of L.? Where, if at all, have the conditions of labor been improved? What positive gains can labor register as a result of the “New Wage Policy” in which William Green takes so much pride? Where- in has the position of the workers been strengthened with respect to the employers consequent upon the numerous ventures of the trade union bureaucracy into so-called labor banking, insurance schemes, real estate enterprises, etc.? A truthful answer to these questions would make a story of incompetence, failure and betrayal such as would conderan forever the reactionary bureau- eracy in the eyes of every conscious and militant worker, : a * * T° secure a clear picture of the exact position of the American working class today, it is necessary to compare the position of the workers with that of the employers. It is essential to know what policies with regard to labor the capitalist class is pursuing and what have the capitalists achieved in this respect. And the answer to this question is that the American capitalist class has continually strengthened its posi- tions, has proceeded steadily on the offensive against the working class, forcing the workers and their unions to retreat and still further retreat. We are living in the age of imperialism. And one of the outstanding events in this era of post-war im- perialism is the emergence of the American capitalist class as the biggest and most powerful imperialist power in the world. This is evidenced by the tremen- dous accumulation, concentration and centralization of capital, the growth of capitalist combines and mighty super-trusts, the export of American capital to all parts of the world on an unheard of scale, the consequent extension of the rule of American capital into Latin America, China, etc., the sharpening of imperialist rivalries and the danger of fresh imperi- alist wars. The exploitation of the American work- ers is becoming ever more intensifted. The capitalist class of the United States is pro- ceeding on the offensive against the working class. The wages of the millions of semi-skilled and un- skilled workers are being kept at the lowest possible level. Through speed-up systems, company unions, welfare schemes, etc., the employers are increasing exploitation, undermining the unionis, poisoning the minds of the workers with bourgeois illusions and weakening the working class generally. At the same time the capitalist class is continually extending its power and control of the government of the United States. The machinery of the federal and state governménts is becoming ever stronger and more centralized and systematically employed to crush the workers’ struggles and to keep the working class down. The capitalist class on the political field is just as alert as on the economic field. Through its control of the republican and democratic parties the American capitalist class secures the fulfilment of its wishes and interests by all the agencies of the American government. In the field of international relations, the Ameri- can capitalist class and the government which serves its interests are militantly pushing ahead for the extension of American imperialist rule in Latin America (remember Nicaragua, Mexico, the Philip- pines, etc.), on,the Pacific, in Europe, China, etc. With regard to the Soviet Union, the first country on earth ruled by workers and peasants, the Ameri- can capitalist class maintains a consistent policy of hostility which heightens tremendously the danger - of a united imperialist attack upon the Soviet Union for which British imperialism is feverishly prepar- ing. What has the official leadership of the American (Continued on Page Two) SESE neal This Magazine Section Appears Ever y Saturday in The DAILY WORKER ALEX BITTELMAN, Editor —Will He Tackle Him Like This? The A. F. of L. Convention By WILLIAM Z, FOSTER HE 47th convention of the American Federation of Labor finds the labor movement in a deep- ening crisis. More than ever the class-collaboration policy of the Green-Woll bureaucracy is demon- strating itself to be utterly unfit to build the po- litical and industrial movement of the workers. The past year has dealt severe blows to this policy. Although it has been a period of high indus- trial activity, the unions have not succeeded in or- ganizing the unorganized, save in the cases of a rela- tively few skilled workers. This failure to build the movement in a period of so-called prosperity is one of the most striking signs of the bankruptcy of the official policy of the A. F. of L. The cringing “union-management cooperation” schemes, B. & O. Plan, ete., have not saved the unions from the open-shop attacks of the employers. As this is written, the United Mine Workers are engaged in a life and death struggle, the employers seeking desperately to destroy this once powerful organization. And Willard, the great champion of the B. & O. Plan, shows where he stands by endors- Wm. Green, President of the A. F. of L. ing the program of big capital to introduce the tene hour day on the railroads. The Watson-Parker Law, the outstanding expres-. sion of the no-struggle policy of the “Higher Stra- tegy of Labor” and hope of the bureaucrats, is prov- ing itself such a millstone about the necks of the unions that even the upper officialdom are begin- ning openly to condemn it as a menace to the labor movement. The fight against this law will go on with increasing tempo. Trade union capitalism received a body blow in the collapse of the boasted of B. of L. E. financial in- stitutions, which exposed the squandering of mil- lions of the workers’ money by grafting officials and brought to light more clearly than any other incidenf in recent labor history the deep decay of the trade union officialdom. : _The lickspittle political policy of the Green re- gime, in keeping the workers officially tied to the two old parties, has only resulted in a fresh series of governmental attacks against the unions. Never was there such a broadside of injunctions and hostile legislation directed against the unions as now. The newly exposed corruption in the New Jersey Fed- eration of Labor shows the poisonous effects of the alliances between the officials of the unions and the capitalists, developed largely by the Gompersian non-partisan political policy. : The position of the labor movement is that of a general retreat before the attacks of the mili- tant employers. The surrender policies of the reac- tionary bureaucracy, instead of protecting the work- ° ers, simply stimulate the employers to make fresh an upon the: workers’ organizations and ideo- logy. The Tasks of the Convention. In the face of this crisis, the convention is con- fronted with the most elementary tasks for the building of the labor movement. First, the direct strengthening of the unions themselves by the or- ganization of the unorganized, by the amalgamation of the craft unions into industrial unions, by the democratization of the unions and the development of an honest and aggressive leadership. Then there is the burning necessity to break the (Continued on Page Two)