The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 2, 1928, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, APRIL 2, 1928 THE DAILY WORK ER! DOWN TOOLS! BEAT THE OPEN SHOP! SAVE THE UNION! Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASSN, Inc, Daily, Except Sunday 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. Cable Address: SUBSCRIPTION RAT By Mail (in New York only): Ma $8.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.50 per ‘year $2.50 three months. $2.00 three Phone, Orchard 1680 “Daiwork' (outside of New York): ix months months. Address and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y- ROBERT MINOR =a 7 7 INNE nas Assistant Editor. .WM. F. DUNNE Entered as second-class mail at the post-office at New York, N. ¥., under the act of March 3, 9, The Mine Workers’ Program “Lewis Must Go!” say the mine workers. The great conference at Pittsburgh, at the moment these lines a success. The membership of the United Mine Workers is represented at the great Pittsburgh conference. All important districts of the Union are represented. The conference is not a sectional conference, not a western, nor an eastern, nor a central states conference—it is a conference representative of the great mass of coal miners. At Pittsburgh are delegates who may speak for the United Mine Workers of America. But the conference is even more than that. yond present confines of the Union, which has been very much reduced in the past few years. The Pittsburgh Conference represents, not only the present body of the United Mine Workers, but it represents the broader and bigger United Mine Workers which existed before the big de- feats of recent years and the greater Union still to be. The Conference represents the dimensions of the Union more nearly as its dimensions were in 1920, than as they exist now— for at the Pittsburgh Conference are the representatives of those sections which are vital to the industry and which had been lost to the Union when Lewis treacherously left Fayette and Wash- ington counties out of the 1922 agreement as a favor to the Steel Trust, gave up West Virginia to the murderers of Sid Hatfield and refused to organize the miners of Kentucky and Tennessee. The Pittsburgh Conference represents the mine workers of West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and the other sections of the Union which have so long been “represented” by mere clerks from the office of Lewis. Now for the first time in years these sections of the industry are really represented by delegates elected by the rank and file whom Lewis had deserted to the terrorism of com- pany gunmen. The Canadian mi»: workers, thrown out of the Union by John L. Lewis, are represented. An important section of the women, who always play an exceptional role in all struggles in the mine fields, is represented. The Pittsburgh Conference represents more mine workers than are now formally enrolled in the Union as a whole. It rep- resents those vital sections of the miners which have been in the past broken off of the main body of organized mine workers, those which were expelled by the tsar, Lewis, and those which Lewis, the friend of the operators, refused to organize in the Union. In short, the present Conference at Pittsburgh represents a re-uniting of the broken fragments of the United Mine Workers. In the fullest sense the conference already shows the justifi- cation of its name—the Save-the-Union Gonference. * * * Then comes the supremely important matter of the program. The program is a scathing indictment of all enemies of the United Mine Workers’ Union, and of John L. Lewis, its most dan- gerous enemy, in particular. The program is a program of action—and the Union has never officially adopted a program of action since John L. Lewis and} his horde of company agents took control of the Union. Lewis} had scuttled the Union’s former program and has stood guard for | the operators to see that no militant program was adopted in its | place. It has long been understood among the advanced sections of the Union that any pro~>am of action must have.as its first point the ousting of Lewis and Lewis’ bureaucracy. The restoration of the Union to the great mass of coal mine workers of the country is the a bc of all action. These points are well provided for by the program as outlined’in press dispatches. But the significance of Lewis’ position lies in the fact that he is the agent of the coal operators. Behind Lewis stand the oper- ators; and the operators must be beaten in the present strike. The coal miners will free themselves from Lewis in order to smash the open-shop drive of the coal operators in a victory for the Union which will restore it to its once honored place as the advance- guard of the trade union movement. The program meets this need. The real smashing, counter- offensive of the mine workers of the whole country only now he- comes possible simultaneously with and as a part of the nation- wide drive against the operators’ agent, Lewis. The special emergency district conventions which have been called by the Pittsburgh Conference must be made such splendid expressions of the will of the rank and file miners as have not been had since Lewis’ election-stealing methods began. _ Fraud, which was the Lewis method of putting himself in power in the past two elections, must never be allowed to repeat itself. The United Mine Workers’ Union must have officials who will represent the free and complete will of the mine workers. John L, Lewis and his gang of mercenaries must go! The miners’ fight is the fight of every honest worker in the coal fields, but it is more than that. The miners’ fight is the fight of the whole working class. The miners themselves bear the most direct burden of the} fight. But the fight must not be left to the mine workers alone. The whole working class must take up the miners’ fight. Workers everywhere must make it their concern to see that the miners are supported in every way. The fighting mine workers must eat while they fight. The workers everywhere must multiply ten times the relief that is being sent. The Pittsburgh Conference is not the end, but the beginning of the biggest struggle. All eyes on Pittsburgh! All hands to help! The miners’ cause is the cause of the whole working class. e written, surpasses even the best earlier hopes for its | It extends be- | | | | | | | | By WM. Z. FOSTER. (Since this article was written the Save the Union Committee has called, subject to approval by the Pittsburgh conference, a strike for April 16 of the 100,000 unorganized miners in Fayette, Somerset, West- moreland, Green and other western Pennsylvania counties. The District 12 Save the Union Committee calls Illinois miners to strike April 1.) eet, Go ‘HE coal industry, both bituminous |* and anthracite, finds itself in a deep-going crisis. The principal fac- tors contributing to this are: over de- velopment during the war period, :in- |stallation of machinery and speed-up |systems, the introduction of oil, water-power and other substitutes for coal, the ‘reduced demand for coal caused by the general industrial de- ssion, etc. The crisis in the Amer- an cecal industry is part of the in- ternational crisis in the coal industry. The general resuit of the working of these factors is a falling off of |production, also a rise in production per man, The principal harvest the workers reap from this situation is an unpar- alleled’ unemployment, the breaking of their union, wage cuts, etc. The slogan of the operators and the reac- onary trade union leaders is “There 250,000 miners too many.” The is in the industry reflects itself by a deep-going crisis in the union. uradually the organization is being crushed. During the past several years it has been wiped out entirely in West Virginia, Tennessee, Mary- land, and many other districts, It is now being attacked most desperately in the three key districts, in West Pennsylvania and Ohio, The crisis in the union is graphically indicated in the fact that four years ago 70 per jcent of all bituminous coal dug was | produced by union coal miners, but on } April 1, 1927, at the beginning of the present strike, the amount of bitum- jinous coal produced by union miners had been reduced to 30 per cent. The Lewis administration tries to throw the responsibility for the crisis in the union upon the difficult situa- tion in the industry as a*-whole. Na- turally the conditions in the industry have contributed to make the position of the union more difficult, but with | proper policies the organization could |have overcome these obstacles, and ero maintained but strengthened itself, | Criminal Misleadership. demand for and a decline in total} inous miners jointly with the anthra- cite miners in 1925 and thus put aj stop to the violation of the Jackson- ville scale. ‘He made no preparation | for the present strike; carried on no{ preliminary organizational work; and } made no stimulation of the union for} the struggle; and when the strike | took place he did nothing to draw the | unorganized into the fight. For six) months after the strike began no or- ganized relief was given the miners; | | militancy was systematically sup-, pressed; no mass picketing; no mass | violation of injunctions was engaged | in. While the miners starved, he and | }his cronies drew their fat salaries. | |They directed the miners to place | their hopes not in an aggressive fight | | but in futile appeals to Coolidee, | |empty senate investigations, ete. | While Lewis was thus weakening | the miners’ union with his criminally wrong policies, the employers were constantly growing more powerful. | The spread of non-union territory, the consolidations of the coal operators | themselves, the general strength of | jother great industrial corporations with coal-mining departments, the in. crease in the open-shop militancy among employers generally: all con-; tributed towards increasing the pow- | er of the employers, while strength of the union diminished. The general result has been to| bring the United ‘Mine Workers of America to the greatest crisis in its history. The organization is now in very real danger of being destroyed | altogether. | at Strategy of the Opposition. | wo years ago the left wing, per- | ceiving the increasingly air eae position of the miners’ organization, | raised the slogan of “Save the, Union.” Forming a united front with | the progressives “On tHe" basis of a | minimtm program including the Or-! ganization of the Unorganized, the Formation of a Labor Party, a Na-| tional Agreement, 6 Hour Day and| |5 Day Week for all Coal Miners, Na- | tionalizing of the Mines, etc., the left | wing embarked upon an_ intensive struggle against Lewis, This strug- gle first took the forms of an elec-| tion campaign with the progressives | putting up a ticket against the Lewis | the | organization’ of the unorganized min- ers in preparation for the approach- ing bituminous strike. { These movements brought forth | afresh thé corruption and ruthless- “ofthe ~ Lewis administration. » brazenly stole the election, \packed’ the convention, and resisted machine, a campaign for delegates to | the national convention and for the! The Lewis administration has wan-| every proposal for the launching of tonly permitted the destruction of the/@ Caimpaign to organize the unorgan- union in various districts, and it has; ized districts, The defeat of the op- jabsolutely, refused to earry on any \organizational work to re-establish \the union, It is saturated with cor- |atically .crushed. every manifestation of militaricy in the organization, ex- pelling militant fighters wholesale. |it has divided the coal miners against | themselves, splitting off the anthra- cite miners’ from the bituminous min- ers, and in the present strike, sign- ing separate district and individual |agreements. This destroys solidarity |among the miners, * Ever since Lewis came into power his general policy has been one fatal to the union. His betrayal of the 1922 strike, one of the most shameful features of which was his abandon- ment of the Fayette miners, is typ- ical, The signing of a separate five- year agreement for the anthracite was a crime against the miners; like- wise his failure to strike the bitum- ae ruption and inertia, It has system- | position resulted in a spread of pes- simism ‘and dual-union spirit among the miners, tance for the future, was that it was hopeless to try to revive the U. M. W. A. through the democratic chan- nels of the union. -~ Phe Second Stage The second general stage of the op- position eresey, eae about three a _by the holding of an cae the opposition in Pitts- borelt and the definite formation of ie i m~- mi _ of which cts ‘and P. tary. upon an open struggle against the Lewis machine to force it out of control of the union and thus bring about, A conclusion quite gen- industry. erally reached, full of great impor- | eecemvenses WILLIAM Z. FOSTER. tion. The typical opposition slogans of this period are: “Lewis Must Go” and “Miners, Take Control of Your Union.” The present policy of open struggle is based upon four general considera- tions: (a) The union is in the most criti- cal danger of being destroyed. Dras- tic measures must be ‘adopted to save (b) The Lewis machine, hopelessly reactionary, is wrecking the organiza- tion and there is no hope of it volun- tarily adopting policies that will pre- serve the union, {c) Only the policies advocated by the opposition can save the organiza- tion and relieve the pressure on the miners, (d) Democracy being completely wiped out in the union by the Lewis autocracy, it is futile to try to func- tion through elections and conven- tions corrupted and dominated by the Lewis machine. The only means left to put into effect the fundamentally necessary policies of the opposition is by an open clash and contest with the Lewis administration for the leader- ship of the miners. Strike Strengthened. The immediate general objective of the opposition in the struggle against ‘the coal operators who are deter- mined to smash the union and of whom the Lewis bureaucrats are the agents, is the mobilization of all pos- sible forces to win the Pennsylvania- Ohio strike, it being manifest that if this great struggle is lost a tremen- dous obstacle will be placed in the way of unionism generally in the coal This strike, the most im- portant in the history of the Amer- ican working class, can and must be won with correct policies. The min- | ers involved are making the most des- perate struggle in the face of unpre- resign difficulties, and they can win the victory provided ‘they are given real support. ‘ < Tneredible though it may sound, the strike has been considerably strength- ar so fast as in the bituminous. sections, ened in the past three months,; due principally to the swift serelppant is of the opposition movement gives the miners the first of hope, ad To win the strike the opposition is [They were held openly notwithstand- working on the following general strategy: j ‘ r (a) The strengthening of the strike itself through mass picketing, viola- icy necessary to save the organiza- tion. of injunctions; the extension of “Communist” ‘Must Be Put on 1 | | News-Stands By D. BENJAMIN. Very soon the election campaign will be in full swing. The Workers (Communist) Party will be on the jballot. Our party will be pointing {eut to the workers of this city the | real significance of the unemployment ' situation, the attack on the unions, the war danger. Our party will be ham- mering away at the capitalist parties. and the capitalist system. Many workers and students will be hearing from our party and about our party at that time. Many of our charges and many of our points will strike home, The workers will want to knew more about our movement. Some of them will see. the DAILY WORKER on the news stands and read it. That will help our fight. Others will want to go deeper into the question. Our Party should surely meet them half way, should make it possible for such to know more about the Communist movement. We can more than meet them half way if we put the Communist on the news stands. More attention to this important task. Over 25 news stands in New York have already been covered. Let us make it 100. Then let us make it 250. After that still more. Every literature agent on the job, every unit on the job. Every comrade on the job. Let us make every news stand, at least every one in the working class sections of the city, a small fortress of Communist propaganda by putting the DAILY WORKER and the Com- munist on the news stands. iganda to stimulate the spirit of the strikers. | (b) Drawing of Illinois, Kansas ,and Indiana into the strike on April ist. These districts were signed up | separately by the Lewis machine sev- eral months ago. simply to betray the Pennsylvania- \tors in these districts a chance to ex- ploit the winter market. With tem- porary agreements expiring on the ¥st of April, these districts are con- fronting demands of the operators for the liquidation of the Jacksonville seale. The Lewis machine pulled these districts oat of the strike; the left wing proposes to pull them in again. The effect of their coming into the strike afresh will give tremendous jimpetus to it and do enormous injury to the prestige of the Lewis machine. ; (ce) Drawing in the unorganized miners. Fundamentally necessary to jwinning the strike in Pennsylvania and Ohio is to draw in the vast ar- mies of unorganized miners of Penn- sylvania and West Virginia. Lewis The effect was « \Ohio strikers and to give the opera-! strike relief* and invigorating propa~ guise of union leaders, systematically betrayed them for years into the hands of the operators. be Everywhere district Save-the- nion ‘Committees have been created. hese haye behind them a vast net- ork of Save-the-Union Committees innumerable local unions. The or- an of the movement is the Coal | Digger with a rapidly growing mass ‘girculation. It is this whole machine echanism which will send forth a free delegation to the Pittsburgh | Gonference. Thé effect of this great mass moye- ment has been to stimulate the fight- ing spirit of the miners in Pennsyl- vania and Ohio. A weakness of the progressives was that almost unani- mously for several months they held the position that it was wrong to criticize the Lewis machine durit the strike. The result of this was to give Lewis a free hand to destroy \the strike. ; Mass Attack Strengthens Strike. The left wing, however, firmly makes no effort in this direction. The} maintained that especially during the. unorganized have no confidence in the! strike Lewis and his policies had to Lewis machine; the “Save the Union|be attacked. Now progressives and Committee” has the confidence ofall are agreed that the mass attack on these strikers and is now making! Lewis has vastly strengthened the strenuous efforts to mobilize them| strike and gained it its first real pros- for ‘the struggle. Thus, the very) pect of success. Should the strike be heart of the problem of the union,}successful Lewis will, of course, try namely; the organization of the un-|to claim the credit. But the opposi- organized, is being systematically at- tacked. (d) Drawing in the anthracite min- ers. Reversing the wrong policy of the Lewis machine in separating the anthracite from the bituminous min- ers, the Save the Union Committee is now working to join them up with the bituminous miners. The anthracite miners’ confronted with heavy unemployment, speed-up system, and betrayed by their offi- cials, face the destruction of their or- ganization unless they, too, join forces with the bituminous miners. These four points in brief: (a) Im- mediate strengthening of the Pitts- burgh-Ohio strike; (b) Drawing in the signed up districts; (c) Drawing in the unorganized; (d) Drawing in anthracite miners constitute the main factors of the strike strategy of the opposition. To mobilize the full forces of the organized and unorganized miners to put this general strategy into effect, the National Save the Union Commit- tee has called an open conference of miners, official representatives of their locals, to be held in Pittsburgh on April 1st, as Labor Unity comes from the press. This conference has been preceded by the holding of rank and file conferences in all the princi- pal districts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Kan- ~. Bituminous Miners, 4 Especially marked is the upheaval ‘amongst the bituminous miners. In the anthracite districts where there has been no strike and where the union crisis is not so evident to the 'miners,. the upheaval is also. develop- ‘ing,-but ‘the tempo at present is not The mass saist confer- ‘ences, the ntative delega- ‘tions of 160 to 300 each, were verita- ble outpourings of the rank and file in revolt against the Lewis machine. ing threats from the misleaders of the union. They indicate, especially in the bituminous sections, a tremendous upheaval of the rank and file miners against the one who have, under the { tion must know how to instruct the rank and file in the real truth. The evident determination of the Lewis machine is to hang on at all cost in the face of the opposition of the majority of the union, securing |the support of the operators and the government in order to retain con- trol of the union. The Importance of the Struggle. The importance of the struggle now j going on in ther coal industry can |hardly be overestimated. The coal | operators are aggressively attempt- ling with the active assistance of the government and the treacherous mis- jleadership of the Lewis machine, to break up the United Mine Workers +and to put through their wage-cut- ting policies. The loss of the United Mine Workers of America would deal a most destructive blow to the trade junion movement as a whole, and give an enormous impulse to the open-shop movement in every industry. The | Saving, rebuilding of the United Mine Workers and the driving out of its corrupt leadership is of fundamental importance to the whole labor move- |ment. The situation turns around the struggle between the Lewis machine and the opposition. The defeat of the Lewis machine by the opposition would have far-reaching consequences |not only in the miners, but in the la- bor movement generally, It would put the present strike on the road to vie! and would lay the basis for real unionism amongst the miners. But more than that, it would give a shattering blow to the corrupt bureaucracy of the A. F. of L. in all its ramifications. On the other hand, a defeat of this movement would plunge the trade unions deeper into the mire of reaction. The strike against the coal operators and the /Struggle in the union against the Here machin mark a turning point e ory of the 1 Hovenkae ry American labor “Active campaigns of relief should initiated everywhere and money _ ‘ould be sent to Penn.-Ohio Miners’ lief, 611 Penn. Ave, Room 307, ‘ittsburgh, Pa. i Background of the Coal Miners Struggle | \