The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 7, 1930, Page 4

wee TT atteaeN. since cates Polished by New Y are rk City, N Page Four the Comprodaity \ uhliching Co. T 2 Teleph Stu Worker, 26 BUILDING THE NEEDLE WORKERS UNION organized y, is not an es of work- ntary the state, that will rock de- task that requires day t requires the closest ap- Interr ial of Labor policy laid down by the and the 6th Plenum of period of imperialis and proletarian »pportunist ele- shrink from this gainst the turn nds action, and offensive of the and class collab- ars the sharpening of h orror on a or the streets, workers, tries to lands into Ss struggle th divert the ri > mere protes ion cha sm king cla ASS struggle, look ay Ist mare i tide, and eventual; struggle 1 the road traveled by those who fought a t the program laid down b the R.ILL.U. a some of the considera ms that, or unconsciously, are e backgrot opportunist prac- nd vacillations in our trade union work. Overestimation ef Strength of Imperialism. Overestimation of the strength of American imperialism, denial radicalization of the workers, orientation upon the vacillating strata of skilled wor organized in the old unions, united fronts from above instead of from be- low, was the basis of Lovestoneism. And al- though defeated as an organized expression, this false line still expresses itself as a ten- dency in trade union work and must be con- tinuously combatted, exposed and destroyed. It is difficult enough to organize the masses in trustified industry even if one does not over imate the strength of the capitalist ap- paratus of coercion, and has a full realization of the readiness of the workers to struggle, recognizes the obsoleteness of the old trade union methods, and the whole movement fully orientates itself upon those decisive layers of the proletariat, the semi-skillel and unskilled workers who now typify the American work- ing class. One can readily see what happens if the Lovestone perspective, or a tendency in that direction enters into our trade union work, It has a paralyzing effect upon the movement, stunts the growth of the new unions. It means left phrases and right deeds, Musteism, old trade unionism covered with a left phraseology, propaganda overshadows ac- tion, and the workers left unorganized are driven through desperation into unorganized, unprepared spontaneous, defeated strikes. Opportunists Find Difficulties. The opportunist finds all the difficulties in the way of organizing the workers: there are so many unemployed, the workers are afraid to lose their job, ete. They picture favorable conditions for organizing the workers for struggle as difficulties in order to evade struggle. It is these disastrous tendencies which retard the advance of the revolutionary industrial unions that the revolutionary forces must be mobilized to fight against and demand the development of new and broader leader- ship. ‘ In this article I wish to deal with some of the past and present opportunism in the needle trades, which has not yet been elim- inated. In the needle trades opportunism could hide behind many excuses, in certain branches (La- dies’ Garment and Fur) such as: the bulk of prodjuction is in the small shops—a reason ad- vanced by the opportun tice the organizing of an industrial union, and after the union was organized to continue its craft union practice Those familiar with the left wing struggle know that the program in the needle trades called for industrial unionism and the setting up of the shop delegate system and that under the opportunist leadership of Gitlow, Zimmer- man, Gross and company this was never realized. Even today is not yet fully accom- plished. A close scrutiny of the policy of thgt Period will show that the corrupt and class collaboration policies of the. Zigman bureau- cracy was brought by these leaders into the left wing, into the new union, and hidden from the rank and file by revolutionary phrase- ology. ‘ Amalgamation, Shop Delegate System. The left wing was committed to the organ- izing of a revolutionary industrial union based upon the shop. Yet it was only three months ago, over a year after the new union was organized, that the largest section of the union, New York, was formed upon a shop basis and a shop delegate council set up. This was only accomplished after the right wing policy of Gitlow, Zimmerman and Gross, was defeated. Collaboration With the Police. The left wing was, of course, committed to a struggle against the grafting class collab- oration, police loving, A. F. of L. bureaucrats, yet collaboration with the police flourished among the leadership of the left wing and of the new union, and produced such jewels as Shapiro, who’s itching hand and stool-pigeon proclivities were allowed to flourish under a left wing leadership, and in a revolutionary Workers! Join the Party of Your Class! eee alconitie Communist Party U.S. A. 43 East 125th Street, New York City. 1, the undersigned, want to join the Commu- Send me more information. nist Party. Name . Address Occupation ...... Mail this to the Central Office, Communist Party, 43 East 125th St.. New York, N. Y. to deny in prac- | industrial union, which was defended by Git- low nerman and Gre he 4th Con gress of the RILU. Class Collaboration. The main political struggle with the A. of the le 1 ¢ but i ft wing was one is willing not collaborate with one boss “against” f class collaboration f but put lass collaboration, to and use the police v the employers, why another, So the the was fought a; ne left wing into practice bj volutiona leader- ship. They even were going so far as to help organization, and, of > the proper kind of bosses’ not agree to arbitration mpartial ct jing to anothe ovement with the p tion. an—one opportunist the whole collabora- permeatin Fighting Tammany Hall. Hall to supporting as the direction in which the hip was drawing the needle many Hall police retain a high priced Tammany Hall strike lawyer who is friendly with a Tam- many Hall judge was the practical strike policies of opportu leadership; course, while the strike is on, do not ‘ammany Tamr opportu trades left win, during a str thing against Tammany Hall politié union, do not irritate them, do not bother about mass action, mass strike committees, mass picket lir this would interfere with “clever” polit Struggle Against the A. F. of L. Betrayers. Struggle against the A. F. of L, betrayers, yes, this is a good left wing program, but it is better to have their support in time of a strike than their enmity, was the line of this opportunist leadership. Mr. Ryan, who, as a practical grafter, president of the New York Central Labor Council, and providing the left wing did not fight him on the floor of the Central Labor Council, could always be de- pended upon, providing again that the persua- | sion was substantial enough, to have the Cen- tral Body endorse our strike. Thus the new Needle Trade Workers left wing and in the early life of the Needle Trades Workers’ Jnion under the leadei ship of mmerman, Gross, “brains” of the union was being hooked up with roderic, head of the “Industrial Po- with Mr. Ry: A. F. of L. grafter, Butchell, Tammany Hall lawyer, and poli- “friendly gentlemen from the employ- and was being led into the ass collaboration. This old A. F. of L. policy, was being dressed up with left phraseology. “Left” Reformists. This “left” leadership supporters of Love- stoneism, were, of course, nev Communist, or revolutionary trade unionis They were never more than young militant “left” re- formists. If they had been revolutionists they would have seen that while on the surface the industry appeared in many respects the same as before, that is, in certain branches, the small shops continued to dominate, the super- structure of the industry had changed com- pletely. Finance capital had developed forms of centralization and control adaptable to the industry, that the small bosses were complete- ly dependent upon the large employers, that a comparative few rich operators determine the standards of production and dominate the employers’ ass is shown by the growth of chain stores, mail order houses, de- partment stores as controlling factors in pro- duction and distribution. (The merger now taking place between J. C. Penny, with some 2,000 chain stores, Sears-Roebuck, gomery Ward, the latter directly controlled by Morgan and Co.) That mass production and standardization of styles was dominant in some branches of the industry (men’s clothing, | millinery, ete. at the industry spread- ing into the s ler towns; that the compos tion of the workers in the industry was rapid- ly changing, and that new working class ele- ments were being drawn in. A. F. of L.—Company Union. The A. F. of L., recognizing this change, has given up.all semblance of pretended struggle and now appeals openly to finance capital to be recognized as their company union on the basis of cooperation, no strikes, ete, On the other hand, the pseudo-left leaders, Giflow, Zimmerman, and Gross, attempted to carry forward the old A. F. of L. policy after the A. F. of L. had abandoned it for the more modern form of working class betrayal. control of finance-capital was not answered by a struggle, was not answered by strengthen- ing the mass base of the union, by the build- ing of shop committees, by organizing the shop delegate system. The old game of play- ing one group of bosses against another was the basis of their program, the old A. F. of L. police-and-class-collaboration tacties was continued. Tammany Hall was considered a useful means. Nothing was allowed to inter- fere with this policy. When Hillman’s right bower, Beckermen and his underworld hire- lings were slugging and expelling ‘the left wing in one of the most bitter struggles in the Amalgamated, this leadership declared, “That the Joint Board of the I.L.G.W. was not fight- ing the Amalgamated.” “Clever” Trickery. “Clever” tricky prop of this leader Ninfo, reactiona G., with bosses, with A. F. of L. fakers, Git- maneuvers was the main ret dealings with vice president of the I. L. low’s speech at the 1.L.G.W. Philadelphia con- vention after he was released by Governor Smith following the mass protest of the work- ers throughout the world, in which he thanked the Sigman machine for his release, and warned the left wing not to carry their strug- gle too far, express?! the past and the future rotten policy of this leadership. One could very easily see that there were no basic differences between these “left” lead- ers and the old bureaucracy. Hence the real inner union politics consisted of a maze of “clever” intrigues, maneuvers, with the so- called progres: Sheily, Sorkin, sections of the bureaucracy, the police, the bosses and the underworld. But never laying a base among the work Even going so far as electing Fish, a member of the Sigman ma- the The | Central Organ of the Communist Vuriy of the U. S. A. Worker re VYHALEN’S NEW WEAPON—FORGERIESI By FRED ELLIS Build the N. Y. Revolutionary r Trade Union Centre By DAVE GORMAN. LL revolutionary unions, industrial leagues, | and groups, recognize in theory the neces- sity of building the new local trade union cen- ter, In practice, however, very few of our unions, leagues and groups, have taken steps to build the new center. This is the most seri- ous problem confronting the T.U.U.L. The function of the local trade union center, to coordinate the various unions and leagues, | to give leadership to the unions, to lead the | unions, in short to be the leading revolutionary | | | | workers, strengthen the unions already in ex, istence and organize the unorganized into new organ of struggle, all of that is yet to be achieved. To make this nossible,it is necessary to build the Trade Union Unity Council. Every union, league, shop committee and group that is af- filiated to the T.U.U.L, in N. Y, were instruct- ed to elect delegates to the Council. Most of the unions, leagues and groups, failed to com- ply with the request and did not elect delegates. Some unions and leagues that elected delegates, did not attend the Council meetings. ‘gn of credentials to the local T.U.U.L. is not a substitute for electing delegates and attend- The send- | ing the meetings of the Trade Union Unity Council. To build an effective Local Trade Union Center, we must have ‘he.attendance of dele- gates from the shops and factories and these delegates to actively participate in the work of the Council. Unless the problems of the workers in the shops and factories are the chief questions before the Council, the Local Trade Union Center can never hope to be the leader of the workers and build the revolu- tionary unions. We cannot have a duplication of the A. F. of L, Central Labor Council, which consists of es who are business agents and other ficials. Our Trade Union Unity Coun- st consist of delegates from the shops cil m We therefore call on the members of the unions, leagues, shop committees and groups affiliated with the T.U.U.L. in N. Y., to insist that the first, order of business at the regular or special meeting before May 8, to take up the question of electing the full quota of dele- gates to the Trade Union Unity Council and be present at the next meeting of the Council to take place on Thursday, May 8, at the As- toria Hall, 62 E. Fourth St. at 7.45 p. m. chine, as secretary-treasurer of the joint board. The workers, as conditions grew worse, how- ever, felt the changing situation in the indus- try. They looked more and more to the left wing for leadership. The Party and T.U.U.L. press gave form to this discontent, shaped it into a fighting policy, and in a short time the left wing dominated the membership. But be- hind the left phrases of the leaders of the left wing there was not the practice. They were as much opposed to rank and file control of the organization as was the A. F. of L. bureaucrats. Lovestone’s theory of exceptionalism was Mus- teism in practice—the covering of the old bureaucratic policies with a left cloak, a “left” clique fighting a clique of regulars of the A. F. of L. for control. The workers sensed this. They were through with the old leaders. They saw no great dif- ference between the new and the old leader- ship. Their enthusiasm was allowed to die down. The corrupting poison of opportunism degenerated the movement, from which it is now just beginning to recover. Bureaucratic Tactics. The organizing of the new union saw many bureaucratic tactics of the LL.G.W. brought over. The leadership of the new union even participated and helped in the election of Schle- singer over Sigman, expressing in this act, that the change of fakers was good for the workers and orientating the workers towards a fake ‘election instead of organizing them for strug- gle against the employers and their agents. An opposition to the reorganization of the union upon the shop basis, a resistence to ori- entating the struggles of the workers on the basis of the fundamental changes that had taken place in the industry, a continuation of the old A. F. of L. strike strategy, one shop surprise strikes, orientation upon “conflicts between jobbers, contractors, inside manufac- turers, trimmers, etc.” No attention was paid to the industry outside of New York, no payment of per capita tax to the General Executive Board paralyzing the nation] work. Complete neglect of the men’s clothing and white goods workers, and whenever it was thought of, a policy followed that played into the hans of Hillman, Turn to Correct Policy. With the help of the Comintern and the R.LL.U. the turn to a correct policy was finally made. At the Cleveland Convention of the T.U.U.L.; August 1929, the rank and file, rep- resenting every industry in the country, buried the Gitlow-Zimmerman-Gross opportunist line in an avalanche of votes. ’ Still we find that this organized opportunist opposition still has representation in the lesd- ership of the N.T.W.I.U. which was not gained by a vote of the majority of the rank and file. However, while the policy of the organized Zimmerman right wing is hot the official pol- icy of the union, the union has made and is making a number of serious right errors that still hamper the growth of the union, and the tendency to make right errors among the lead- ership still dominates. Just to cite a few of these errors: Some Right Errors. Following the organizing of the N.T.W.LU. on January 1, 1929, the union was thrown into strike struggles in the dress section of the industry in New York. This strike struggle showed how deep the poison of class collabora- tion had permeated the leadership. Despite the class struggle program adopted at the conven- tion, the broad rank and file organizations were not set up, which would have insured the correct conduct of the strike. The result of this was that a class collaboration agreement was reached, arbitration accepted and the usual A. F. of L. “impartial” chairmen set up. The union was further compromised by its aid in organizing a bosses’ association. What does this mean? It means that arbitra- tions take the place of class struggle. It means that the leadership believes that there is such an animal as “impartial” chairman; that there are “friendly” bosses who can be used against unfriendly bosses. It means that class collabo- ration has not been killed in the leading cadre of the new Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union, With a right line policy. in a strike con- ducted by the newly born union under its leadership, it naturally follows, that the fake “strike” called by the company union in the cloak and then in the dress sections of the industry about a year later woull be met by the leaders of the N.T.W.I.U. with a similar incorrect poliiey. The T.U.U.B. strenuously tried to inject a fighting program into these two fake strikes. In ‘theory this policy was accepted. In practice it was not. * Most Dangerous Method. The most dangerous method that any em- ployer can follow is to allow his company union to call the workers into a fake strike. Workers have the very good habit of wanting to fight during a strike. Yet in spite of the fact that the meetings calfed by the N.T.W.LU. of cloak makers were splendid mass meetings of strikers, the leadership of the new union was orientated to a mere exposure of the SUBSCRIPTION RATES: everywhere: One year $6; six months $ tian and Bronx, New York ; two months $1; y, and foreign, which are: One year $8; six months $4.50 excepting Boroughs of ANSWER THE SOUTHERN j} BOSS ATTACK By A. S. APITALISM in the South, demanding the death of Powers and Carr as Communist organizers, is once again acting as the van- guard of the capitalist attack on the working class of the United States. Larlier in the struggle to organize the South, through the cynical acquital of the murderers of both Ella May Wiggins and the six Marion victims in the face of overwhelming evidence of guilt, the Southern courts officially announced that any worker who dared to revolt against the slave regime of southern industry was legiti- mate prey for its fascist murder gangs. In the Gastonia case, following the defeat by armed workers’ defense of the bosses’ at- tempt to wipe out revolutionary unionism in the South at its inception by the niassacre of the organizers and union members the courts ordered death for those defending themselves and their organization against such attacks. Now, without any attempt to conceal its object, capitalism in the South directly decrees death for every worker carrying on the or- ganization of the wage slaves of the Sounth under Communist Party leadership. Fury of Attack Growing. The fury of the capitalist attack on the revolutionary organizationns in the South is growing in proportion to the growth of the it of revolt among the workers under the ically increased pressure exerted on them with the development of the economic crisis (particularly severe in the South), and the in- creasing measure in which they respond to Trade Union Unity League and Communist leadership. The answer to this attack must be a nation- wide campaign, to defend and free our com- rades facing trial in Atlanta and Gastonia as leaders of the struggle, and push organiza- tion in the South, with the Southern District Conference of the Trade Union Unity League to be held on May 27 in Chattanooga, Ten- nessee, as a central point. Many comrades still persist in a geographical instead of a political approach to the South. They regard it as a region remote, exotic and bloody, where strange and violent deeds are done, totally unrelated to the general trend of developmert in other parts of the country. For a long time, for instance, many insisted that the issue of workers’ defense, involved in the Gastonia case, was an exclusively South- ern question without any connection with the class struggle in the rest of the United States. The same attitude reveals itself today in the failure of some comrades to see the significance of the Power and Carr case to the whole revo- lutionary movement in this country. Not Isolated. The fact must be hammered home that this new murderous attack of the Southern bosses is not an isolated thing, but the spearhead of a nation-wide attack on our Party and the revolutionary unions. Special conditions ex- isting in the South—the background of. chattel slavery, the semi-feudal legal code andy’rela- tionships still existing, the comparatively re- cent date of industrial development, the large percentage of workers still drawn directly from the farms, ete., combined with the highest degree of rationalization — explain the fact that the South leads in the savageness of its repressive measures against the working class. But any failure to see the swiftness with which capitalism throughout the country is following the lead set by the South, means underestimaticn of the rate at which the strug- gle is sharpening in the United States as a whole. After Eila May in Gastonia came Steve Katovis in New York. His murderer was also acquitted and praised by the grand jury. The drive to outlaw the T.U.U.L. in the South is followed by Whalen’s A. F. of L. instigated nation-wide drive to outlaw the revolutionary unions, Once the Southern situation is seen as not | isolated but as the most intensive expression of the situation existing in the country as a whole, more effort will be thrown ino the work of organizing the South. Severe Crisis in South. The economic crisis is especially severe in the South, where textile is the leading industry. and the 24-hour production schedule, unlimited child labor and women’s night work and the extreme stretch-out and speed-up intensify the overproduction problem. Unemployment and part-time on a tremendous scale, hitting work- ers who in the best time never get far away | class struggle is steadily growing. from the border-line of starvation have created a depth of misery approaching famine condi- tions among the workers of India and China, Starving men, women and children, drift from city to city, from state to state, in a hope- less search for jobs, or trudge the roads back to the farms on a desperate chance of aid from kin equally distitute; while at the same time there is a constant flow of starving cotton and tobaceo. farm laborers and tenant farmers to to the city who swell the ranks of the unem- ployed. The Southern worker, absolutely prop- ertyless, has no reserves. The little furniture, bedding and clothing he possesses are all bought on credit. Unemployment, even for a very short period, means losing everything, complete destitution. With unemployment as a bludgeon, employ- ers are carrying on a wholesale wage-cutting campaign (10 to 50 per cent) in the textile mills, metal plants and mines of the South, and a constantly increasing stretch-out to a ; still higher degree. d Under these unbearable attacks the South is o smouldering with revolt. ‘ Jobless, starving, constantly hounded by ‘ | police, pulled in on vagrancy charges, unor ganized raw workers who have never heard a revolutionary speech or read revolutionary \ literature of any sort are talking revolution of the coming war between “the capitalists and * the laboring elasses of people.” The Southern '} workers responded to the first call for May Day demonstrations ever issued in the South, Negroes and white together, despite the ut- most attempts of the bosses to terrorize them. They distributed May Day leaflets in the face | of the bosses’ gunmen, forimed workers defense corps and defended the speakers against fas- cist thugs. Workers Entering Struggle. Under pressure their understanding of the The bat- tering of exploitation is eyer breaking down the wall of race hatred erected by the bosses to keep the Negro'’and white workers of the South divided. Slowly but steadily, despite lurid capitalist lynch propaganda, the workers are realizing the correctness and accepting the policy of united struggle on the basis of full economic, political and social equality. Southern’ capitalists realize that any strug- gle in the present situation under T.U.U.L. leadership means not merely a fight for higher wages or shorter hours, but a political strug- gle against the whole semi-feudal system of suppression by which they have managed to hold the Southern workers on such a low level so long; and, above all, a struggle against race discrimination and race oppression. | The situation is now at a point where fail- ure to carry on a counter-offensive against the terrific offensive of the bosses, culmin- ating in the present attempt to put. through the legal murder of Powers and Carr, means a retreat. Without the leadership of the T.U.U.L. and the Communist Party, the struggles of the Southern workers will resolve themselves into the sporadic, spontaneous outbursts of the past, which ended either in defeat without leaving behind any organization, or betrayal by the chief lieutenants of capitalism in its attack | on the workers of the South—the officials of the A. F, of L. The revolutionary unions must make every effort to push organization in every industry in the South—in textile, rail- road, mining, metal, tobacco, agriculture—and give leadership to the masses of Negro and white workers of the South, ready and eager, for struggle. Jobless in Great Britain In the city of Lancashire the textile mill “Griffin” is now being controlled by the Lan- cashire Cotton-Corporation. The restlt of this control is that from every department of the factory about 50 men were discharged, but the production is kept on the same level, be- cause the remaining workers have to speed up. Among the fired workers there are some who worked in the factory for 30 and forty years. They say that is only the beginning. Now we have here over 10,000 unemployed. In the city of Spondon, ‘near Derby, 3,000 workers lost their jobs, being discharged from an artificial silk factory, “Celanese.” There | are also 450 construction workers who were thrown out of work. The labor exchange had to be increased because there was no room for the unemployed. company union. They did not have faith in being able to rally the cloak strikers into real struggle. They underestimated completely the mood for struggle. They did not see this splendid opportunity, had not reorganized the union on a shop basis or Set un’ mass united front strike committees; and this svlendid op- portunity to strengthen and build the new union, to develop a real strike struggle was not taken advantage off. In the dress fake strike a slight change for the hetter took nlace. But it was wholly in- adequate to develon the strike. Arain was dis- played an orientation toward a fieht pure and simple to expose the company nnion. the rais- @ of ench noeative, demoralizing sloeats. as | “Don’t Join the Fake Strike.” the main obfect seemingly was to protect the shons that had signed agreements with the new union, and not to turning the fake strike into avreal strike. The united front tactics in hoth these strur- gles were not brought forward, a thorough mobilization of the rank end file to take over the Jeadershin of the strike was not carried out. Some prorress was made, A few shons were won over. But the onnortinity to win the masses for the revolutionary industrial mion wes not erasned, Tt conld have heen, if the noliey ontlined in conivnetion with the T.U.U. L. had been carried out. Carrying Out the Correct Policy. The N.T.W.LU, now in hands of a hrost shop deleeate council of hundreds of rank and file members, insures the carrving out of 2 more correct poliev. However, the present of- ficials, while they hove disassociated them- selves and firht the Zimmermar-Gross organ- ized right wing opposition, still continue to make corious errors of an opnortunist char- acter. ,Thev have not, as revolutionists must do, acknowledged their errors to the member- ship while associated with Gitlow, Zimmer- man end Company, and the errors made since that time The present leadership, Gold, Potash, Buro- covitch, Wortis, etc., while they express a will- ingness to carry out the policy as laid down { by the R.LL.U., they vacillate in its applica- tion and hesitate in, orientating the union toan¥ | ® understanding and discussion of he principal | errors that were made. . | This is absolutely necessary for the building of the union. These mistakes cannot be glossed over and forgotten. They can only be cor- rected by a free discussion. This will guarantee that the union will not allow them to be made again. Shop Délegate Basis. The N.T.W.I.U. is reorganizing itself upon a shov delegate basis. This has been dore in New York. A broad campaign for organizing the unorganized has been worked out in con- junction with the T.U.U.L. This plan which has been accepted by the Shop Delegate Coun- cil will draw all members of the union into active organizing committees, with a planned program of work, which will, develop through the initiative of these organizing committees. Block and building organizing bulletins will be issued. It is the most comprehensive planned organizing campaign yet worked out by any section of the T.U.U.L. It is a good plan. It can, and it will, get resnlts. It will mobilize the workers for struggle. It will build the new union in New York. What is needed is a correct political orientation. That is a political interpretation of the organizing campaign, what the union intends to accomplish, the reason why the union did not make the proper head- way in the past year. What was wrong with the policy of the past, what is the nature of the present errors and an assurance to the membership through the refreshing of the lead- ership that the mistakes of the past, of the present will not be committed in the future. With this properly placed before the mem- hershin the successful development of the N. T.W.LU. as a fighting section of tha ZU.U.L, will be assure?” a