The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 29, 1928, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY WORKER: Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS’N, Inc. | Daily, Except Sunday 83 First Street, New York, N. Y. Cable Address: SUBSCRIPTION RAT By Mail (in New York only): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months $2.50 three months. Address and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. Ho Pa ROBERT MINOR | .WM. F. DUNNE at New York, N. ¥., 1879. Phone, Orchard 1680 "Dalwork” (outside of New York): 0 per year $3.50 six months $2.00 three months. under Entered as second-class mail at the post-offi the act of March 3, The Challenge of Logan County It is true that Logan County, West Virginia, is a strategic point, from which the scab coal magnates conduct operations to break up unionism throughout West Virginia and in Kentucky and Tennessee. But this gives no excuse for Percy Tetlow, agent of the John l,, Lewis machine in the Union, to lie for the benefit of the scab eoal operators, in testifying about “notorious Logan county”’ be- | fore the fake ‘investigation’? committee of the senate. What kind of a “leader” is Tetlow, who holds the position of president of District 17 of the United Mine Workers—a district having the most glorious traditions in the annals of Labor—as he publicly offers a “justification” of the scab coal operators out- side of the county for abandoning the Jacksonville scale, break- ing contracts with the Union and instituting the scab shop, on the ground that they have to do so to meet the competition of Logan County ? When this yellow-streaked “leader” offers an -alibi for his own cowardly failure to rebuild the United Mine Workers, for- merly a splendid organization in West Virginia, on the ground that Logan County has “always been closed” against the Union; | when at the same time he provides an alibi for the scab coal op- erators of the rest of the state in destroying the Union and mak- ing slaves of the miners on the ground that the Logan County operators are “underselling”’ them—Mr. Tetlow is showing him- self to be a typical representative of the crawling, begging, sur- rendering policies of the John L. Lewis machine of which he is a member. In every move that has been made in eight years in the coal industry, the scab-herding operators have successfully put over the policy of making the Union take responsibility for the “condi- tien of the industry”—that is, the mine workers to abstain from forcing their demands until after they can be quite sure that the wealthy stockholders of the coal properties are getting fat divi- dends! John L. Lewis has made it the first business of the United Mine Workers Union under his presidency to guarantee a good salary to himself, second to see that the stockholders of the cor- porations get dividends profits, and third and last the mine work- ers shall have something—provided they can get it without fight- ing for it. Is there any mine worker who does not understand what it means when this fellow Tetlow is put on the stand as president of the West Virginia district of the Union to testify that the central competitive field is faced with the necessity of abandoning the Union wage scale? Is such a man fit to be a labor leader? “Notorious Logan County” is a plague-spot on the map of coal mining—but what is Tetlow president of District Seventeen of the United Mine Workers Union for, if not to clean up that Plague spot? Why is it that Lewis and Tetlow and Kennedy have given up practically all of the Union territory in West Virginia while refusing to make any consistent effort to brave the gunmen of Logan County and to organize that territory? Every tradition of the fighting miners of West Virginia is wiped off the slate by Lewis, who puts in their place the policies of no strike, no organi- zation of the unorganized, expulsion of every mine worker who wants to fight the scab operators, and no political action, but only class collaboration between Lewis’ bureaucracy ‘and the scab op- erators and the selling out of the mine workers to the capitalist political party that is headed by Andrew W. Mellon, billionaire scab coal property owner. Logan county is no excuse for giving in to the scab operators’ claims to the “necessity” to wreck the Union and cut wages else- where in order to meet the competition of Logan County mines. If Tetlow had enough guts to be fit for the presidency of District 17, he would put through the organization of the mines of Logan County, instead of whining alibis for the other scab operators. Secondly, the militant membership of the United Mine Workers of America cannot let “Notorious Logan County” be a perpetual excuse for cowardly officials of the Union to refuse to organize the great majority of the coal mine workers of America—who are unorganized. “Notorious Logan County,” scene of so many murders of union men, is not the main reason why 500,000 mine workers are unorganized. Notorious John L. Lewis, agent of the coal operators is more of a reason, and notorious Tetlow, notorious Murray, notorious Fagan, notorious Kennedy and notorious Cappelini—the whole notorious gang which openly boasts of the policy of collaboration with the enemies of the workers—these are the more basic reason why the Mine Workers Union has been gutted of more than half | of its members and the amount of Union-dug coal reduced to a pitiful thirty per cent. The United Mine Workers of America must clean up Logan County. (John L. Lewis & Co. won’t do it.) The 500,000 unorganized mine workers must be organized into the Union. (John L. Lewis & Co. won’t do it.) The Illinois-Indiana district, the Anthracite districts, and Kansas and all other disrtict$ of the U. M. W. of A. must be brought into the fighting line to win the strike. (John L. Lewis & Uo. are against. doing that.) The four strategic unorganized counties in western Pennsyl- vania must come out on April 16. (John L. Lewis is against it.) John L. Lewis and his whole corrupt bureaucracy are opposed | to every measure that will win the strike and save the existence of this, the most important of all the American trade unions. So John L. Lewis must go! With him must go his flunkeys, Tetlow, Kennedy, Murray, Fagan, Fishwick, Hall, Cappelini, Boy- lan, and all other traitors who are gutting the Union from within. The great national Save-the-Union Conference, opening in Pittsburgh Sunday, is the expression of the might and power and militant spirit and courage of the membership of the United Mine Workers. The Union must be saved! It can only be saved by: the mine workers taking the Union into their own hands. ON TO PITTSBURGH! THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 1928 calls for his fellow workers to send their delegates to the big Save-the- Union Conference! By Fred Ellis “| ( Stresses Save- Big Sam Grecio, wounded by gunmen of the Lewis-Cappelini gang, who are trying to force the contract system on the Anthracite miners, The Lewis-Cappelini gang must be cleaned out! ea Labor Unity Union Meet The April 1 Left Wing Conference in Pittsburgh makes history, but to make that history understandable to all the April issue of Labor Unity, now issuing from the press, has de- voted its first pages to a calculation of the forces, the background, of the fight, the first strategy of the op- position to Lewis, the coining of the slogan, “Save the Union,” the re- gional conferences before Pittsburgh, and the building up of a network of left. wing bodies, the best organized and most determined left wing ever seen in America. The article is by William Z. Foster. England and the Orient. The April issue of Labor Unity, with its gorgeous poster cover show- ing a miner smashing the Lewis machine, is not, however, entirely de- voted to the mining situation. Earl Browder, of the Pan Pacific Worker, Shanghai, writes of the underground unions of the Orient. Harry Pollitt, secretary of the British National Minority Movement, describes the left wing of England. Scott Nearing has an article, “Wars—Good Will Brand.” Rose Wortis criticises the A. F. of L. acceptance of injunctions. The left wing shoe workers’ victory at Haver- hill is recounted by a strike leaden The Auto Workers, Arthur E. Rohan, general secretary of the Auto Workers’ Union explains the plan to organize Detroit. “Heads You Win—Tails I Lose” is the title of a tragi-comic personal narrative by Henry George Weiss. Phil Aronberg tells of the textile workers in con- ference to organize that giant in- dustry. ~ Labor Unity is published at 2 West 15th St., New York City. —_——> By JACK STACHEL. It is not too early for our Party to begin the election campaign now. We must get ready at once for the most intensive parliamentary campaiga in the history of our Party. Particu- larly must we bear in mind that our Party membership still lacks neces- sary experience in such work and that we must devote a great deal of at- tention to the ideological and organi- zational mobilization of our own Party if the campaign is to be successful on a mass scale. It is pretty certain now that there will be no Labor Party or even a United Labor Ticket in the field in the 1928 elections on a national scale and that our party will run candidates for president and vice-president and a full ticket in every state possible and will nominate as many local can- didates as possible. This does not mean that we will not participate in local labor parties. It is quite pos- sible that in certain localities there will be formed genuine labor parties that wil! receive mass support. Also it must be borne in mind that one of the chief slegans of our Party in the 1928 elections will be a Labor Party on a national scale. By ROSE WORTIS. - The 7th of May is the date set for the opening of the convention of the International Ladies’ Garment Work- ers’ Union. Now, on the éve of the convention, is the proper time to take account of the accomplishments gains and losses of the organization. The Jast convention, held in Phila- delpHia immediately after the suc- cessful struggle of the Joint Action Committee in 1925, laid down prin- ciples anda line of activity to be pursued by the International for the coming two years. The convention acted on the question of expulsions and discriminations and decided that tolerance of political views and opinions must be a recognized prin- ciple in the union. The convention also acted on the cloak situation in New York, giving the New York Joint Board the power to call a strike in the event the de- mands of the cloakmakers were re- jected by the governor’s commission The convention decided upon an in- tensive campaign to organize the thousands of unorganized workers throughout the country. It went on record in favor of the establishment of a 40-hour week. It decided to carry thru a referendum on the ques- tion ‘of proportional representation and unite all elements for the pur- the organization, Betrayals by I. L. G. W. Misleaders. The brave strike of the cloakmak- ers, who fought twenty-two weeks against the joint forces of the bosses andthe state with its various com- missions and injunctions, was be- trayed by the International clique and their gains sold out to the bosses, In the midst of the strike, the Joint Board was expelled and the Interna- tional clique launched its attack on the New York cloak and dressmak- ers. It is 16 months since this de- structive war is on. As a result of this pogrom, the Best «f wishes to the mine workers assembled at Pittsburgh! « \ union is demoralized and practically destroyed. The workers have lost not i ) pose of building and strengthening | The National Executive Committee will make the nominations within a short time, and these will then be aeted upon by a Naticnal Conference. From all indications it appears most probable that Wm. Z, Foster and Ben Gitlow will again be the standard bearers of the Workers (Communist) Party in 1928. Mobilization of the Party. Generally the campaign may be divided into three stages as follows: 1, The mobilization of the Party. 2. The mobilization of the sym- pathetic mass organizations. “8. The mobilization of the masses. While these stages are not abso- lutely independent of one another, we must nevertheless realize that at the present time the immediate task is to mobilize the Party for the campaign. This will be done immediately. Upon the success of this first stage depends the placing of the Party ticket on the ballot, the mobilization of the mass organizations and the success of the campaign as a whole. The Party membership will be mobilized thru discussions in all nuclei of a politica] letter dealing with the elections. This letter will be sent to all members by the Central Executive Committee. The Party will also be mobilized by the only the gains achieved during the last strike but every vestige of union conditions. The working week is un- limited. Piece work, under the low- est prices, has come into existence and the sweat-shop system is en- trenching itself more strongly from day to day. The employers are the sole dicta- tors. They decide the working hours. They decide the wages. They are the | organizers; the dues collectors. The worst elements, who had been elim- inated at the Philadelphia convention are once more at the head of the organization. Militants Fight Treachery. The best and most class-conscious workers are engaged in a determined struggle against the shameful treach- eries. of the International clique. Armed with the faith and conscious- ness that the fighting spirit of the cloak and dressmakers is alive and will sooner or later succeed in driv- ing out the disrupters from the union, The workers throughout the coun- try have fared no better, In Chi- cago the clique has carried thru a similar progrom. The Chicago Joint Board, which in the course of the left wing adm‘nistration gained important improvements in the working. condi- tions and brought new life and spirit ‘into the organization, was viciously {attacked and broken. The union is now in practically the same condition as the New York organization. Misleaders Rule in Boston. The chaos and demoralization in New York and Chicago had its dis- astrous effects on the Boston market, where widespread unemployment ex- ists at the present time. The best and most active members of the Bos- toh union have been taken off the ballot during the recent elections and the organization has been transferred into the hands of the most discredited | elements, under the leadership of the! outlived. Polakoff, who had been | driven out from the Dressmakers’) Union of New York many years ago.! This dotard, who had even tried his' luck as a cotton salesman only to holding of meetings of Party func- tionaries, articles in the press, etc. It is also planned to have a weekly bulletin dealing with the many phases of the campaign for the exchange of experiences of active workers. All Party organizations from the Central Committee down to the nuclei will at. once elect campaign committees and campaign managers to conduct the campaign. Placing the Party on the Ballot. The entire membership will be mobilized for securing petitions to place the Party Ticket on the ballot in at least 40 states, concentrating first on industrial states, then strategic agricultural states with a large percentage of poor farmers. The national office will place ad- ditional field organizers on the job to help in the work. The Party will make a drive for a Campaign Fund. In the first stage of the campaign it will be up to the membership of the Party to make pos- sible the securing of sufficient ‘funds to place the Party ticket on the bal- lot. Later in the campaign we feel certain that much of this fund will come from sympathetic organizations and workers generally. Treachery in the International Ladies’ find union business more profitable, is now the leader of the Boston union. In Philadelphia the clique has de- monstrated with what sincerity it stands for the slogan “No Party Con- trol in the Union.” There, the for- mer manager of the “Forward,” Pol- lin, who has as much knowledge of the dress industry as the man in the moon, has been. imported to take charge of the Dressmakers’ Union. Get Ready for the Election Campaign Splendid Opportunities For Party Our Party has been the leader of almost every important struggle that has taken place in the labor move- ment in the past few years. Certainly there has been no important strug- gle in which our Party did not par- ticipate. The participation of the Party in the Mining Carvaign, the Needle Trades Struggle, the Passaic Strike, the various strikes of textile and shoe workers in New England, the cam- paigns in which the Party has par- ticipated in connection with the or- ganization of the unorganized, un- employment, the fight against im- perialist war, the war against Nic- aragua, the struggle against the in- junction thru mass violations, the ex- posure by our Party and our press of wholesale graft and corruption not merely as an act of individuals but as part of the capitalist system, all these activities have placed the Party in the eyes of increasing numbers of workers as the leader of their strug- gles and as the only political organi- zation for them to follow. The role of the Socialist Party in these cam- paigns as the defender and ally of the bureaucracy of the A. F. of L. and as apologists of capitalism has served to disillusion tens of thousands of workers with the policies of the Socialist Party and has helped to bring them closer to our Party. Our Party can crystalize the senti- ment of the masses into concrete sup- port of our Party in the coming elec- tion campaign. We can also utilize this campaign to make new and im- portant contacts in important sec- tions of the country where we have not yet succeeded in penetrating. We can thru a successful election eam- paign create many new shop and street nuclei and recruit thousands of new members into the Party. We can put our Party before the workers as their political party. This last point if of the greatest importance since our following on the economic field is far greater than is reflected in our previous election campaigns. This is due largely to the fact that we have not functioned properly as a political organization in election cam- paigns in the past. We must now correct this. We must become not only the leader of eemomic struggles of the masses, but the political leader of the masses as well. Garment Workers’ Union are described by Mr. Pollin himself in this manner: “The first point (the 44-hour week) is observed by the employers only during the dull period. “The same is the case on the question of price settlements and the other points of the agree- ments.” Now a few words about the Cloak- makers’ Union. The prosperity which existed in Philadelphia during the His only qualification is the fact that{cloakmakers’ strike of 1926 has long he was manager of the “Forward” and is a loyal “Forward” man. Regarding the policies of the Philadelphia union toward the em- ployers, we will let Mr. Pollin speak for himself. In the “Justice” of March 2nd, he writes: “There is in existence an agree- ment or a ‘platonic understanding’ between the Waist & Dressmakers’ Union and the Manufacturers’ As- sociation.” It required the ingenuity of an ex-Forward manager to discover this new term, “platonic understanding,” in the trade union phraseology. Ac- cording to this “platonic understand-, ing” the employers are not obligated to come in too close contact with the union. They are not obliged to recog- nize the business agent or chairman of the shop. The blessings of this “platonic” agreement for the workers Fes avin tine 1D? are tae ant ev ROSE WORTIS. passed. The bosses have introduced the speed-up system and are laying the basis for the introduction of piece work. Misleaders Out of Town. This situation has its effect on the Cleveland market also and before long it will be felt there severely. In Baltimore, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and other smaller centers the union has been completely wiped out. No doubt the clique will even find it difficult to bring the usual out of town delegates to the conven- tion. During the two years since the Philadelphia convention, not a single organization campaign, not even a fake campaign, has been carried on in the out of town centers. The union has suffered tremendous losses in its membership. (It is curious to know what sort of report the secretary will submit at the com- ing convention on the question of union membership). Financially, the International is bankrupt. The bank has been sold to private individuals. The various union buildings have been either sold or highly mortgaged. The out of town locals, which have been bled of their funds to’ finance the pogrom in New York and Chicago find themselves in similar financial difficulties. The union is broken and demoralized. In place of a spirit of “tolerance” it is ruled by a fascist dictatorship. In place of unity the organization is divided into two hos- tile camps and the clique is itself divided ifito various groups and groupings. This is how the general executive board has carried o the Philadelphia convention. This is the record of accomplishments for the past two years with which the International clique is coming to the Boston convention. Progressives Will Not Submit. What then remains for the work- ers to do? Shall they bow their; heads in submission to the agents of the bosses? Shall they submit to the yoke of slavery forced upon them By the united front of all the reac- tionary forces? NO! The cloak and dressmakers will never make such a choice! On all occasions when the cloak and dressmakers were face to face with the alternative of either a struggle or submission to slavery they are always chosen to fight.~ The workers are too class-conscious; they have suffered and sacrificed too much in the struggle to. build a union to serve as a weapon for the improve- ment of their living conditions to make peace with a “company union.” It is many years since the internal struggle has been on. Not at all times was it carried on in the same form and with the same tempo. One thing is clear, however, that even the clique has abandoned the hope of ever dominating the cloak and dressmak- ers, and knowing this, it is ready to’ destroy the union. ‘ The expelled Joint Boards and lo- cals are coming to the convention asi duly elected representatives of the! great mass of the workers in the in- dustry to demand their rightful seats. They are coming to demand the re-| diation of the policy of discrim: ination, expulsion and_ persecution, which has proven so disastrous the workers. They are coming to: de-| mand an end to the struggle. v are coming to demand unity in organization for the purpose of building the union and restoring} union conditions to the workers. The coming convention of the In-' ternational will either bring about an| end to the internal war, or it will be the rallying point for a rei struggle against clique domination o it the mandate of the union.