The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 12, 1934, Page 3

{ \! DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, MARCH 12, 1934 _ “Brothers, We Want to Unite With You,” Saddivion niet mands to Unite All For Victory NOTE:—The following report was presented to a conference of labor unions in Republic steel mills, held in Canton, Ohio, in February, by a delegation from the Republic Steel Local No. 661, ofthe Steel and Metal Workers’ Industrial Union. The reactionary leaders of the Amalgamated Association (A. F. of L.) steel union were disturbed ia that the delegation of the Steel and Metal Workers’ Industrial and present its united front ap- peal at the conference. Unable to stem the growing de- sire for unity among steel work- ers, they opened a scurrilous at- tack on the delegation. Every steel worker should read this appeal for a united front which gives the basic problems confronting all steel workers, and shows how or- ganization and improved condi- tions, desired by all steel workers, can be won by united action, re- a full report of this conference see article by Joe Dallet on this page. Brothers: We all agree on the need for higher wages and better conditions in the mills. How can we get them? Only by a united fight of ALL the workers in the mill. The members of the Steel and Metal Workers’ Industrial Union in Republic mills are willing and anxious to unite with the A. A. members and unorganized workers in such a fight. That is why we are glad to accept an invitation to send delegates to a conference of representatives of A. A. lodges in Republic mills in Canton, Sunday, Feb. 25. Draft Demands The S. M. W. I. U. delegates pro- posed that both unions and the un- organized workers in Republic mills should co-operate to win the fol- lowing demands: (1) Higher wages; return of the 1929 wage scale; minimum of 25 per cent increases; further increases as cost of living goes up more. (2) Full crews on all jobs; aboli- tion of the speed-up system (3) and company unions. (4) No discharge or discrimina- tion against any worker for joining either union. (5) No discrimination against the Negro workers in the mill or in ing or laying off. Right of the gro worker to hold any job in the mill. (6) Opposition to the N. RA. Steel Code—in its place a code to benefit the steel workers, including the above points and a 30-hour week with $20 a week for common labor, time and a half for overtime and unemployment insurance by Congress of H. R. Bill No. 7598— the Workers’ Unemployment and Social Insurance Bill). (7) Recognition in each depart- ment of committees democratically elected by all the workers in that department, irrespective of union affiliation. To win these demands we pro- posed to set up at once in each de- partment (and later on a mill scale) committees including representa- tives of both unions and also of the unorganized workers—these joint committees to work for these de- mands and also to fight against all grievances which arise in the de- partments. We further proposed that in 30 days there should be a conference of delegates from all labor unions and in all departments of all mills of the Republic Steel Corp., together with delegates from the unorganized workers in all de- partments of Republic miMs—this conference to decide on A PLAN OF ACTION to win those demands. The Two Unions Should Co-operate Instead of Fighting Each Other In other words, we don’t believe that because,we are in the S. M. Ww. I. U. and the A. A. members in another union, that there is any reason why we should fight each other. We work together in the mills and have the same grievances and needs. Instead of fighting each other we should unite and fight against Republic Steel Corporation for our common demands. In the Buffalo, Youngstown and South Chicago works of Republic the 8. M. Ww. I. U. has more members than the A. A. In Warren, Niles, Can- ton and Massilon the A A. has more members, but there is great dissat- isfaction among many of the mem- bers because of the failure of the International officials to put up a fight in their interests. In our opinion THERE IS EVERY REASON WHY WE SHOULD JOIN HANDS IN A FIGHT FOR THESE DEMANDS NOW and why we should work towards the end that some day soon there will be only NE union in the industry, a union | vention of the steel workers—with a name, program and constitution democratically decided by a major- ity of the workers and officers dem- ocratically elected and responsible always to the rank and file. This was thé program which we wanted -to submit to the Canton Conference. A. A. “Leaders” Did the Dirty i Work for the Corp. Natureliy the big stockholders of Republic Steel are against such unity. They would have liked to keep us out of the conference. But it was not necessary for Republic posses to be there. PAID ORGAN- IZERS OF THE A. A. DID THEIR DIRTY WORK FOR THEM by get- ting up, one after the other, and by the®fact that the rank and file | of their union in many cities voted | Union be allowed to be present ; Abolition of the spy system | (passage | formed at a mighty unification con- | |W. I. U. Gracijar, business agent in| | Warren, the man who helped mall | |police push carloads of scabs through the picket line during the 1932 strike and Republic Steel! Forge Unity of All Steel Men Gewik Presents De- | making vicious attacks on the S. M. |Corp’s chief witness against the strikers (many of them A. A. mem- bers) when they were arrested; Walter Payne, reactionary “yes-| man” for Mike Tighe, a “leader” who helped break the A. A.’s 1932/ Over Heads of AFL Officials in | | A.F.L. Rank and File By JOE DALLET Youngstown Dist. Secretary of the Steel and Metal Workers Ind. Union On Feb. 25, under pressure of an increasingly militant rank and file, officers of A.A. lodges in Republic {in all mills of Republic Steel. The {A.A. membership in these lodges| | (with the exception of Niles and | Warren) is overWhelmingly a new} | A.A. for action and, failing to get |it from the International Officers, | pressed for such a conference. Workers Industrial Union locals in Republic mills in Youngstown and Buffalo be invited to participate was carried. Local 601, Steel and Metal Work- responded with a delegation which| brought with it proposals for united actions of A.A., Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union and unor- ganized workers in all departments | of all Republic mills for higher wages, better conditions, against the speed-up, against the terror and the company unions, against the N. R.A. steel code and for unemploy- ment insurance. The Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union delegation suggested the immediate | establishment of joint committees in all departments where both unions had membership, and the convening within 30 days of a broad | | delegated conference of representa- | tives of both unions and also of| | unorganized workers in all depart-| | ments of all Republic mills for the | Purpose of planning the joint cam-| paign on a wide scale. | But before the conference opened Mike Tighe and Co. heard that the | Steel and Metal Workers Industrial | Union was invited. The result was that three paid organizers of the A. A. (Walter Payne, formerly of Foliansbee, Gracijar, business agent of Trumbull Lodge (Warren) and | McKeown, of Canton,) all got up} and made almost lynch-inciting Republic Steel Insisting On United Action With Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union concluded and formal adjournment voted on, that rank and file del-| egates succeeded in forcing the reading of the Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union propo. sals. The result of the reading was much favorable comment on the the vicious McKeown was forced,| after the reading, to say “There are some good ideas there. We'll have to find some way to get to- gardiess of union affiliation. For | membership, workers who joined the| gether with those fellows if we want to win.” The action of the conference was not unexpected. But let no workers is forever barred. The fight for it has only begun. Had the Steel and Metal Workers | Industrial Union known of the} posals for united action among the broad masses of Republic workers; had the Steel and Metal Workers| Industrial Union locals in all Re-| proper agitation for united actions} of all Republic workers: had the| rank and file movement, now just | beginning to develop within the} A.A, been conducting a similar} campaign and especially an expos-| ure of the splitting, strikebreaking,| class-collaboration of the official) machine, the results of that con- ference would have been consider- ably different. The accompanying statement of S. M. W. I. U. Local No. 601 con-) tains the proposals submitted in| Canton and the program the S. M./ W. I. U. is following now. This} statement is being distributed in mimeographed form in all A, A.| lodges in Republic mills and to the| broad masses of Republic workers in Buffalo, South Chicago, Warren, Niles, Canton, Massilon and Youngs- town. Tt will be a powerful weapon to} spur the fight for unity. Over the| heads of reactionary pay-rollers and officials—in the departments of the} mills—the fighting unity of ALL Republic workers can and will be speeches against the Steel and | Metal Workers Industrial Union. Gracijar, former Musteite, gave as, one excuse for barring the Steel | and Metal Workers Industrial Union | | delegation that he didn’t want the; reports of the conference to appear | in the Daily Worker. The Steel and | | Metal Workers Industrial Union del- | egates weren't given a chance to} | present their proposals for united | action—the motion to bar them was railroaded without their even being allowed to answer the vicious at- tacks, And it was only after the Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union delegation was ordered to leave the hall, the business of the conference | forged. It is the especial task of the} members and supporters of the| 8. M. W. I. U. to popularize this program, to expiain it carefully to| every worker, to work and to fight that this program be put into life.| Only in the fighting unity of ALL! steel workers, no matter what their| union affiliation, does hope of suc- cess in the coming struggles lie.| And the &. M. W. I. U., by putting forward such a program, by hon- estly fighting for such a program of unity of the steel workers, proves that it is THE union for! ALL the iron and steel workers not | only of Republic Corp. but of the} entire country. General: Siti | In Gardner Mass.; Furniture Plants Workers Mass to Hit Injunction Against Picketing GARDNER, Mass., March 11.—A | general strike in all furniture shops | was declared here Friday, following @ police attack on the picket line at the O. W. Siebert plant yesterday, Five hundred strikers at the Sie- | bert furniture plant stopped strike- \breakers from going through the picket lines Thursday, despite an injunction issued against picketing. Court warrants have been issued against many of the strikers and leaders. The strikers are determined to break through the strikebreaking methods maneuvers of the bosses. The entire town was aroused when piekets were attacked Frdiay. Work- ers in many shops throughout the city have joined the protest. Archibald, Pa., Toilers To Hold Open Hearing} On Unemployed Relief) Chicago Police Attack Workers Protesting | Jimerowism, Arrest18 | \ | Mid-West Bareau Daily Worker || CHICAGO, Mar. 11.—Kighteen || Negro and white workers were arrested Wednesday when police broke up a demonstration pro- testing discrimination against Negro workers in the building of the new wing of the Jim Crow Wendell Phillips High School on the South Side. The demonstra- tion was held in front of the school. The few Negroes hired on the job are given the dirtiest work. The League of Struggle for Negro Rights and International Labor Defense are/defending the workers and leading greater ac- |) tion against the distrimination. U. S. Court Studies Howto Disbar Ades LL.D. Urges Protests to Smash Conspiracy BALTIMORE, Md., March 11.— Ruling in the disbarment proceed- ings against Bernard Ades, Interna- tional Labor Defense attorney | charged with militant defense of | Negro workers, has been deferred by Judge Morris Soper in Federal Court, following conclusion of the case on Tuesday. case, he would detiberation” to to give “great have his decision. Soper against this attempt to bar working-class defense from the this meeting, | Say Delegates to AFLand Unorganized Men Fakers Angry At Move Toward Unity of All Steel Workers strike in Follansbee; McKeown, who | cials himself a “radical” but who| works hand in hand with former City Safety-Director Kramer (who tried to break up the unemployed hunger march and whom the Mas- silon workers had to kick out of office)—these three (all of them on Tighe’s payroll), led the attack on} the SM.W.LU. delegation. The honest workers at the conference, not understanding clearly what it was all about, never had a chance to hear us present our proposals for | UNITED ACTION. The reaction-| ary motion to bar us from the Con- ference was railroaded without even giving the SM.W.LU. delegates a chance to answer the false attacks. Unity in Struggle Can Still Be Achieved! Does this mean that all chance |mills in Canton, Massilon, Warren,| part of the rank and file delegates| for united action is gone. NO! By Niles and Youngstown met in Can-|—pbut action on them was deferred.| no means. But it does mean that ail |ton, Ohio to plan concerted action| It is interesting to note that even| who believe in it must WORK for it. The Role of the N. R. A. and the | National Labor Board As long as we let things slide, no one will help us. The working-man never got a thing he didn’t fight for (unless the boss knew we were prepared to fight and for this rea- | Pressure was so great that a pro-|one think that this means that) son he gave in.) The A. A. leaders posal that the Steel and Meta]| unity of A. A. and S. M. M. I. U.| tells us, “Wait—the government will help you.” But the government gave us the N.R.A. steel code which was, in reality, the Steel Trust’s Code. The National Labor Board | conference more in advance so that) gave the Weirton workers a lot of lers Industrial Union, Youngstown, | it had time to popularize its pro-| phony promises, broke their strike, and sent them back to work with-| out wage increases and without rec- dgnition of their union—just like it broke the strikes of the Budd | public mills ben carryinge on al workers, the Ford workers, the New York hotel workers and New York| and Philadelphia taxi and trans- port workers, | Refuse To Give up The Right | To Strike! | The N.R.A., the N.LB,, the A.A.| and the whole A. F. of L. leadership | want us to give up our right to| strike. We can’t give up our right sed strike. The organized mass strike is labor's strongest weapon. We must be ready to use it, under rank and file control, with mass picket lines, whenever it is necessary. To give up that right is for the unions to. commit suicide. We must pre- Pare to use the strike weapon to win the demands listed above. The S. M. W. I. W. Unconditionally Supported the Weirton Strike! Brothers in the A. A.! Don’t be fooled by reactionary fakers who get paid to tell you we are bucking you. We are with you, solid. We/ proved our sincerity by uncondi- | tionally supporting the Weirton | strike, even though the men were | demanding recognition of the A. A.! We are against Michael Tighe, Ed Miller, Leondard and certain other leaders of the A. A. because they | have systematically betrayed th interests of the A. A, membership| and the steel workers generally. They sabotaged the 1919 strike, broke the 1923 strike, put over Wage-cut after wage-cut in the union mills during the last few years, losing almost every strike the A. A. conducted from 1919 to 1934, and, while the A. A. members| were heroically fighting in Weirton in 1933, Tighe and Miller knifed the | strikers in the back saying, “This is| an outlaw strike. A wildcat strike. You men had to right to strike.” | They told the strikers to stay | away from the mill gates (so the seabs could get in) and refused to| spread the strike to nearby mills | that wanted to come out in support of the Weirton strikers. We are against such misleaders because we are for the rank and file first, last and always. S. M. W. I. ©. Won 40 Strikes in 1933 | But we don’t ask you A. A. mem-/ bers to leave the A. A. and join our) union, Nor do we want to leave our union and join the A. A. We can cooperate without that. Our union is built and controlled by the rank and file. We don’t have to fight our Officials to get action. The re- sult is that we won about 40 strikes | last year, winning higher wages, | better conditions and recognition in plants in every major district— Pittsburgh, Buffalo, New York, Ohio, Chicago, St. Louis, Connecti- cut, ete. Can we afford to let a few re- actionary agents of Republic Steel Corp, stand in the way of the fight- ing unity of the steel workers? NO! Brothers in the A. A.! Organize rank and file committees in your lodges to fight for policies of united action. Kick out any offiicals who stand in your way. Don’t wait for Official approval! We can start at once to set up these joint commit- tees in the departments for united action, | Uno: workers, join the! fighting Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union at once—help to| build it up in your department. To. all Republic Steel Corp. Workers: We pledge to fight for| the above demands until they are| won, and to cooperate sincerely with any and all groups of organized and j unorganized Republic workers who} are willing to work with us for such | & program. \ (Signed) Republic Local No. 601, 8, M. W. I. U., 266 Federal St. Youngstown, Ohio. National Guards Kill 30 Sandino FoHowers MANAGUA, Nicaragua, March 11. ‘Thirty followers of Augusto San- | dino, murdered nationalist leader, were massacred by national guards- | men near the Wiwili co-operative | farm colony on the Coco River, proceedings against Ades, Others have fied toward Honduras. on. The nion 100 member Mar Page Three Republic Steel Union Meet Hears Powerful United Front Appea time the present Fire 51 Negro C.C.C. 4 fter Protesting W ork Tucci, Shoe Union Mrs. Herrick’s In. Freesing, Weather Leader, Dies in N.Y. Sell-Out Scheme es Pa. 3 Was Communist Party (Continued from Page 1) tor. But the drivers have no need |for such gentlemen. The fact that LaGuardia’s police were beating up pickets was brow to the attention of Deutsch, who made no moves to stop this tality. He mer his good offices.” Ben Gold Gets Ovation agency to bosses, the di Don't from the one Negro “C Member vers state Want Panken hich was to oust Josey union failed One of the outstanding events of Manhattan local, 12,000 strong, de- the strike over the week-end was an clared that it will stand solidly be- enthusiastic mass meeting of strik-| hind the militant leader ers held Saturday night at Lenox| Panker Socialist leader, Assembly Hall, Second Street, near | whose aking role was ex- li Ave. C, which was addressed by Ben| posed in the first strike, has been get dishonorable’c Gold, leader of the Needle Trades| unable to get his snout into the pie i authorit Workers Industrial Union, since the new st developed Thunderous applause and three |The men don’t want hi rousing cheers greeted Gold when | The judge demanded that Gilbert he brought greetings from the | retract a statement made by him was well known needle trades workers and pledged | at a meeting Friday night that “the Shoe workers in their active support in the strike, strikers do not want Panken or/}, In the name of the Needle Trades | Ernst Pa en said he wou tep Workers Industrial Union, Gold | out of the picture if the union would gave the hackmen $50 for their | not oust Gilbert leader of the strike fund. Union officials declared that Gil-| re igs onoyets Reject Herrick’s Plan ber tement stands and add that ory of Mr. Gand ‘ : The strikebreaking role of Mrs.| he will neither retract it or get out|slanders the Taxi Driver patties set cs = Herrick was clearly brought to light of the organization. with accusations of rac! 1 ag ane Nt na ert yesterday. She proposed that the| “Panken and Ernst are respon-|stating that the elections were con. ice tee hye Baabraen drivers return to work and then vote | sible for the fact that drivers went| ducted by strong arm m is Lan a é on the question of what union they | back following the first strike with-| untrue,” said Joseph Gilbert, NOTICE want to represent them. The strike | out winning their demands,” Gilbert | organizer, “It must be interpret In sending in new subs te the itself proves that the workers want| said. “We do not w any more| by us at this time when the ! “Daily” please write the name the Taxi Drivers Union and will have| such settlements. We want to bet-|men are on strike as wilful strike-| and address of the new sub- nothing to do with the company ter the condit: ions of the drivers.” | breaking and highly suspicious. scriber clearly. CRAWFORD 518-75 SALE PRICE CONTINUED BY POPULAR REQUEST UNTIL AFTER MARCH 24 Material and manufacturing costs have increased 43%. So we told men there was nothing else for us to do but increase the price of Crawford Custom Quality Clothes from $18.75 to $21 after March 10th. Crowds came—but hundreds begged us to extend the date. “We don't get paid until the fifteenth,” many said. “Give us a chance to save.” NOW HERE’S WHAT WE'RE GOING TO DC —extend Crewford’'s $18.75 price until midnight March 24th. You win! But don't wait until the last few days for your new Crawford Spring Suit —Topcoat—or Sport Suit—come in teday. And remember — CUSTOM yily CLOTHES i ALL STORES OPEN ad OVERCOATS EVERY EVENING Price yoos up ofter Murch 26 . Sizes up to 44—so that many NO CHARGE FOR economical fathers ean he fit- ALTERATIONS ted with these great values too! ° 50 er $5 EXTRA SALESMEN 1962 BROADWAY (MeAlpin Hotell—N. &. Cor. 33rd Street 467 FULTON STREET— Cor. Lowrence — Brooklyn BRONX WO EAST FORDHAM 8D. Neor Jerome Ave Kingsbridge Re saaaica ave cow ‘i fin Bnd of the "L") Jomelcn, Nowak 0 MARKET SF sepeey_erey 377 CENTRAL AVE a uh FITON AVE. Opp. Loew's Pitkin Theatre Car Hoptinaon ‘ave Near Varet St 1422 PITKIN AVE. Taner 1981 ST NICHOLAS AYE. Bat ZMH 6 ROW Sh. 26 MANMATTAM AVE.