The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 24, 1927, Page 6

The A. F. of L. Convention (Continued from page 1) alliance between the trade union officialdom and to establish a mass labor party. Until this is done the labor movement must flounder’ helplessly in the grip of reaction. The rejection of the general class-collaboration policy of the bureaucracy and the initiation of a militant program to resist wage cuts, to increase wages, and to shorten the workday and work- week, is fundamental. This carries with it a repu- diation of the B. & O. Plan, and similar schemes for speeding-up of the workers in industry. It also means the rejection of trade union capitalism and the illusions connected therewith, and the severance of the labor banks from the trade unions. Finally, to indicate only the basic lines of policy - necessary for the rejuvenation of the trade union movement, the convention, were it awake to the necessities of the workers, would launch a system- atic struggle against American imperialism. It would condemn the growing campaign for the mili- tarization of the workers, arouse the workers to the danger of a new world war, and join hands with the workers of the world for defense of the Chinese and Russian revolutions, and for the establishment of world trade union unity. These are the burning necessities of the move- ment. They are indispensable in order to equip the workers politically and industrially to struggle against powerful American capitalism. A progres- sive convention would inevitably build upon these general lines. What the Convention Will Do. It is not hard, however, to forecast a very differ- ent line for the A. F, of L. convention. It is prac- tically certain that the ultra-reactionaries in con- trol of the trade union movement, corrupt to the eore, will do nothing of their own volition to change the course of the labor movement from a defensive retreat to a victorious advance. And the mass pres- sure is not at present great enough to force them along the line of progress. The convention bids fair to be one of the most reactionary yet held by the A. F. of L., despite the growing alarm amcng the bureaucrats at the manifest failure of their class-collaboration policies. Doubtless the convention will cling to the main line of Green and his co-reactionaries. It will nau- seate us with appeals to the employers to join with the labor leaders to company unionize the tradé unions and to turn them into mere adjuncts of the profit-making machinery of the capitalists. It will smear over the scandalous corruption in the labor movement, exemplified recently by the B. of L. E. and New Jersey Federation situations, and will pour out its eulogies upon the corrupt politicians with whom the bureaucrats stand in illicit alliance all over the country. It will waste its time in the never-ending futile jurisdictional disputes. It will adopt the customary empty crop of resolutions re- garding the organization’ of the unorganized. It will be the usual joy-ride; mutual admiration affair for the upper leadership and it will wind up by re- electing the old gang to power. The convention, instead of beginning to orientate the labor movement towards a definite struggle against American imperialism, will doubtless mark a still more abject surrender of the bureaucrats to the plans of ‘the employers for world conquest. The growing capitalist attack upon the Soviet Union, instead, of being condemned will be glorified and supported. The Communists will be held up as the authors of all the troubles and difficulties of the working class. Such, in the main, wiil be the con- vention. If any progressive actions are to be taken, they are not yet discernable to the naked eye. e The Perspective. The foregoing would seem a somewhat dismal analysis to one not acquainted with the labor move- ment in this country. The American Federation of Labor convention is not representative of the work- ing class, nor of the currents of protest surging through its ranks. It is a gathering of high-paid, reactionary officials. In no country is the central body of the labor movement so undemocratically con- structed. At the A. F. of L. convention the rank _ and file is conspicuous by its absence. The only way a stray worker gets to the convention as a delegate is by coming from some obscure central body or federal union. Although the A, F. of 1. convention may create the appearance that all is serene, deep in the ranks of the working class vast currents of discontent surge. The great masses of workers are exploited bitterly. They work for impossibly low wages, as the general national average of $29.00 per week for male adult workers amply proves. Passaic’ in- dicated what happens when this discontent finds favorable means for expression. The upheaval among the miners, resulting in the defeat of the Lewis administration, is another symptom, Like- wise, the bitter struggle of needle workers, in the face of a treacherous officialdom, indicates that the workers are not in step with the class collaboration policies of the Green bureaucracy, By the use of autocratic methods, unparalleled in the history of the American labor movement, the upper bureaucracy, aided openly hy the employers and the state, manage to stifle much of the discon- tent and protest in the labor movement. But they are merely damming it up. The flood is bound to come, especially should the present recession in industry develop into a sharp industrial crisis. Then, in spite of the Greens and Wolls, the trade unions would be flung into the struggle and the doors opened for progressive developments in the labor movement. The hard shell. of smug conservatism, coating over the top of the labor movement, as expressed by the A. F. of L. convention, is no real index of the state of mind of the working masses. EDITOR'S NOTES: (Continued From Page 1). Federation of Labor done to counteract these im- perialist policies of the American capitalist class? What policies and concrete acts have the Wolls and Greens produced to stop the offensive of the employers? cE is universally recognized that one of the cardinal tasks of the American labor movement is the or- ganization of the unorganized. Even the Greens and Wolls feel compelled to render a certain amount of lip-service to this question. But what has the reactionary bureaucracy actually achieved in this respect? What has become of the decision of the Detroit convention to initiate an organization cam- paign among the automobile workers? The answer is: Nothing, because the bureaucracy never took seriously that decision. The only genuine efforts made in that direction have come from the Auto- mobile Workers Union of Detroit which is an organ- ization independent of the A. F. of L. The organization of the unorganized is at present the acid test for true loyalty to the American work- ing class. And the reactionary bureaucracy of the A. F. of L, despite its official protestations, takes its position on this question on the side of the em- ployers and against the workers. This fact was conclusively demonstrated in the Passaic strike where the organization campaign was carried through by the left wing and progressives in the face of the most damnable opposition and sabotage of the official bureaucracy. For a period of several years the Communists and the left wing have been warning the American labor movement against the capitalistic ventures of the reactionary bureaucracy in the field of labor banking, insurance and real estate enterprises, .etc. The answer of the bureaucrats was more persecu- tion of the left wing. Their own capitalistic schemes they represented as something which was going to work miracles in the improvement of the conditions of labor. These labor banking proposi- tions, together with the “New Wage Policy,’ were heralded through the labor movement as the dis- covery of a new path to working class freedom, It was even styled: The Higher Strategy of Labor. Ask the Locomotive Engineers.. They’ll tell you. Theirs is one of the oldest and most powerful unions. It was the bureaucracy of the B. of L. E. that was first to start labor banking and other capitalist schemes and to develop them on the grandest scale. What happened as a result would take a book to tell, but the outstanding fact is that this powerful union has been brought to a most dangerous condition by the failures, corruption, in- competence and capitalistic ventures of the champ- ions of labor banking and the so-called Higher Strategy of Labor. * * * In the momentous ‘question of imperialism, mili- tarism and war the reactionary bureaucracy fol- fowed the lead and supported the policies of the capitalist class. The last congress of the Pan-Ame- rican Federation of Labor offers a brilliant illustra- tion of this point. Woll and Green once more de- monstrated their loyalty to American imperialism by defending the domination of Wall Street in Latin America, by shielding the murderous acts of the American marines in Nicaragua, by crushing the opposition of several Latin-American delegates to the outrages of the American imperialists in those countries, ete, ie ae The hostile attitude of the Wolls and Greens to- Chas. E. Hughes, who not only sperts the hand- somest set of whiskers but is also the presidential candidate of Andy Mellon for the next electjon. As once before he will suddenly proclaim himself a friend of labor. \ a NT ward the Soviet Union continues unabated, the same as that of the American capitalist class. The-dele- gation of American trade’-unionists to the Soviet Union, which ig at present on its return trip home, was organized .and proceeded to Russia in the face of the most bitter attacks, persecution and terror- ism of the reactionary trade union bureaucracy. Woll and Green have in this instance also served their masters well. * * ” And as to the political task of the American working class, the trade union reactionaries con- tinue to hold the workers back from independent political action pressing instead for more loyalty and support to the capitalist parties. Just recently Matthew Woll delivered himself once more on the subject. And what was his message to American labor? No independent political action. No Labor Party, the old futile and discredited policy of labor supporting the “best” candidates on the tickets of the republican and democratic parties. The reactionaries are following a consistent line. Having abandoned the policy of struggle against the employers, having adopted as their gospel the policy of class collaboration (including the New Wage Policy, Trade Union Capitalism, B. & 0. Plan, the Higher Strategy of Labor, etc.), the re- actionaries ar@ vigilantly guarding against the emergence of working class struggle on the political field. bees * * *- fo of fighting the employers the reaction- aries are devoting their energies to fighting the militants and progressives in the labor movement. When the capitalists attack the workers, Green and Woll attack the left wing. This is the sort of divi- sion of labor arrived at between the trade reaction- aries and the capitalists. The disgraceful attitude of Green and Woll in the case of Sacco and Van- zetti, two working class martyrs of capitalist class vengeance, will never be forgiven nor forgotten by the American working class. One of the outstanding “achievements” of the Green-Woll combination in the past year is its vici- ous persecution of the left wing and progressives in the trade unions, It is to the extermination of the militants in the labor movément that the reac- tionaries are bending all their efforts. The trade union reactionaries, the same as the capitalists, seem to realize that in order to turn the working class completely helpless the left wing must be thoroughly crushed and exterminated, But this is not going to happep. The Ameri labor movement has already developed sufficient consciousness, stamina and militancy to be able to withstand even the combined attack of the capital- ists, their government and the reactionary bureau- pvr The danger lies in the vital disintegration the trade union movement, such as is threatening the United Mine Workers, as a result of the trea- chery and corruption of the bureaucracy. The left an) all the militant and ¢ e labor i the disastrous policies of the i cr gd Pigs stil life, optimism and militancy among the work- - pice against the capitalists, to draw into ‘ e labor movement the millions of unorganized, ‘to levelop the political consciousness of the mas and to move towards a Labor Party, to prepare the workers for the growing war danger and for the defense of the Soviet Union, ; ; n, to break be the capitalist business dion hey tae sae eee: to struggle against American imperial- sm and militarism and thus build a powerful and militant workin . Satis. ing class movement in the United progressive forces in th