The Threat to the Labor Movement

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Introduction

Introduction.

The purpose of this pamphlet is to show by documentary evidence, whose authenticity no one can impugn, that the campaign against all progressive tendencies in the labor movement which was launched at the A. F. of L. convention in 1923 has entered a new phase in which there is a more open combination than ever before of the trade union officialdom, the capitalist press, the employers and the government.

It will also be shown that the main motives which prompt the intensified attack, centering on the left wing, are (1) the desire of the capitalists to suppress all struggles which interfere with the development of American Imperialist prosperity and either destroy the trade unions or force them to a general dead level of docility, (2) the desire of the trade union officialdom to force on the unions a policy which will make of them the docile organizations which the capitalists will accept, (3) the desire 'of both the capitalists and their labor agents to drive the most conscious and active left wing workers out of the unions and destroy their influence in the labor movement because they are trying to rally all workers for struggle on a program of immediate and necessary demands.

Finally, this pamphlet will show that the policy. of the trade union officialdom, of which the latest attack on the left wing is a logical result, is based on one phase, and one phase alone, of American capitalist development, i. e. its present temporary upward swing, and that because of this neglect of other fundamental factors, can bring nothing but disaster to the labor movement.

The more "successful" this policy is, i. e. the more endorsement it receives from the masses now, the more disastrous will be the ultimate result. The left wing therefore fights the battle of the whole working class when it resists to the utmost the new offensive of the combined forces of American capitalism which, in the period of imperialism, include with some minor exceptions the whole bloc of trade union officialdom.

The present struggle is in reality produced by the determination of the left wing to prevent the agents of the capitalists in the unions splitting the labor movement or. failing this, turning it over to the bosses.

This struggle could be avoided only by the left wing abandoning its correct program and accepting the official program of unconditional surrender of the unions.

—W. F. D.

Evidences of a New Offensive.

Evidences of a New Offensive.

A SERIES of recent events indicate in an unmistakable manner that a new systematic and well-organized offensive against the left wing in the trade unions has been launched. The left wing, fighting against the official program of "efficiency unionism." in this struggle is actually fighting FOR TRADE UNIONISM which, as a weapon of the working class is being discarded by a leadership "soaked to the gills"—drunk, in other words—in the boss-begotten theory of the "identity of interests of worker and employer."

The tone of the capitalist press, the socialist press and the official trade union press leaves no doubt as to the intentions of the forces for which they speak. All are united in asserting that "the Communist menace" in the trade unions must be destroyed. In the tone of these articles there is nothing new but ill their volume and intensity there is evidence of a method, mutual understanding and determination that shows this campaign to be of sufficient intensity to mark it as a new phase of the struggle in the American labor movement between the "worker-employer co-operation" policy and the policy of class struggle.

This is not to say that all the elements which support one side or the other are fully conscious of the policy to which they give allegiance. The contrary is true and in general it may be stated that only conscious reactionaries of the type of Lewis (United Mine Workers). Woll (vice-president of the American Federation of Labor), Sigman (president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers), understand the full implications of the right wing position, and only the Communists and the workers closest to them realize that the struggle is actually one for the maintenance of the trade unions as weapons of the working class.

The drive against militant unionism took on new force with the settlement made by the New York Joint Board of the 1. L. G. W. U. with the Industrial Council of Manufacturers.

The twenty-five weeks' strike resulted in the union making some gains, (the 42 and 40-hour week, all increase in the minimum rates of pay, guarantee of 32 weeks' work, a wage increase, etc.), but the union also sustained some losses (right of the bosses to reorganize shops with 35 or more workers).

From the beginning, the struggle of the union was for the elimination of the jobbers, but it was unsuccessful in its efforts. The jobbers demanded the same settlement terms as the manufacturers; the union refused this and the jobbers locked out the workers.

Role of Right Wing in the Strike.

Role of Right Wing in the Strike.

THE strike was nominally a joint effort of both the right and left wings of the union, but was actually conducted by the left wing leadership of the New York Joint Board in the face of sabotage from the right wing elements in New York and from the international officials of the union headed by Presirlent Sigman. The right wing was insistent on the acceptance of the findings of the commission appointed by Governor Smith—in other words, it was in favor of compulsory arbitration under the auspices of the state government controlled by Tammany Hall.

The stubborn attitude of both the manufacturers and the jobbers, who put up the fiercest resistance in the history of needle trades struggles, is a result of their knowledge that they had powerful allies inside of the union—the right wing leadership. The attacks of the bosses upon the left wing is proof of this.

Even if we give such factors as the long period of unemployment which preceded the strike and the tremendous profits which the American capitalist class has at its disposal for aiding its various sections in their conflicts with the workers, it still remains true that the greatest weaknes of the union was the treacherous character of the right wing activities.

The Amalgamated Clothing Workers' officialdom; in contrast to its previous unstinted aid in I. L. G. W. strikes, gave a paltry $25,000 to a strike which has cost about $100,000 per week.

Right Wing Leaders Hold Conference.

Right Wing Leaders Hold Conference.

WITH 20,000 workers out of employment due to the unsettled condition of the industry after the settlement of the strike, when every effort was needed to enforce the new agreement, the right wing in the needle trades got busy. To its aid came the officialdom of other unions in which the left wing was showing strength—the United Mine Workers of America and the United Textile Workers.

A conference of trade union officials, attended by Vice-President Woll of the American Federation of Labor, was held in New York during the week of November 28. Plans were made at this meeting to start a new offensive against the left wing in the trade unions.

The next week a conference of officials which claimed to represent 35 unions was held in the Rand school. This meeting did three things:

1. It adopted a manifesto calling upon the labor movement to exterminate the Communists.

2. It formed a permanent organization calling itself the "Committee for the Preservation of the Trade Unions."

3. It arranged for a larger conference to be called a "General Trade Union Conference," to which all unions in New York are invited to send three delegates and which was held Tuesday, December 21, in Beethoven Hall, New York City.

The manifesto is too long to reprint here, but the introduction denounces the Trade Union Educational League as "an integral part" of the Workers (Communist) Party. It recites a number of alleged Communist misdeeds and states that the Furriers and Cloakmakers' unions in New York have Communist leadership.

The "Call to Action" concludes with:

The time has come when the preservation of the trade unions demands the expulsion of these elements from offices and control.

The unions must remain free from outside domination and from the interference of all political parties! Individually every worker may follow any religious or political creed, but the unions must remain independent of all.

We therefore call for war upon Communist disruption. We call for all workers in all unions to unite against the internal enemy, the disrupter, who is destroying the unions for the benefit of the external enemy, the capitalist. It is a common fight for all workers who believe that their protection lies in the preservation of their unions.

The division between the Communist adventurers and the trade union movement shall be definitely established! There shall be nothing common between these irresponsible elements and the trade unions. The labor movement shall lend no assistance to any undertaking which, directly or indirectly, shall include the Communists. It shall be war to their finish. Down with Communism! Long live the trade unions!

The "Call to Action" was signed by the following trade union officials:

Abraham Beckerman, Manager, Joint Board, Amalgamated Clothing Workers; Louis D. Berger, Manager, Neckwear Makers' Union; Samuel A. Beardsley, President, District Council, Jewelry Workers' Union; Morris Feinstone, Secretary, United Hebrew Trades; Rose Schndeiderman, Women's Trade Union League; A. I. Shiplacoff, International Pocketbook Workers' Union.

So much for the organizational preparation for "war"—it is the word used in the "Call to Action"—against the Communists and the left wing in the needle trades. It must be kept in mind in this connection that the left wing in the I. L. G. W. and the Furriers' Union in New York is actually the union itself, so big is its majority. The attack on the left wing, including the Communists, is really an attack on the union.

The Right Wing Press.

The Right Wing Press.

THE needle trades press plays the same note.

The Advance, official organ of the Amalgamated, devoted its whole editorial page to the Cloakmakers' strike and said:

What has happened since the beginning of the cloakmakers' strike and what is happening in the Cloakmakers' Union now is but the inevitable outcome of the way in which the Communist Party plays trade union politics. It is the inevitable outcome of the initial sacrifice of industrial policy to politics.

"Justice," official organ of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, likewise devoted its whole editorial page to the strike and the right wing offensive. Speaking of a circular sent to all members of the union except known Communists and left wingers by the General Executive Board, "Justice" says:

It appears at a moment when our members, stunned by the terrific blow they have received as a result of the outcome of the cloak strike in New York, and boiling with indignation over the terrible mismanagement of the strike by its Communist leaders and directors, are searching for an answer to this calamity which has befallen their organization and are seeking light and guidance that would lead them out of the morass into which the political adventurers have dragged them.

The searching analysis contained in the G. E. B.'s statement supplies this light abundantly. It lifts the curtain over the New York cloakmakers' tragedy and exposes mercilessly the hypocrisy, insincerity and blatant incompetence which its principal actors, the Communist camarilla, have displayed from the first day they became the masters of the destiny of the 35,000 cloakmakers involved in it.

The stage having been set for an attack all along the line it needed only some rank and file camouflage to allow the officialdom to appear as saviors of the union. A farcial "investigation" was held by the General Executive Board of the I. L. G. W., the board then met in solemn session and passed a resolution ordering the regularly elected members of the Joint Board and strike committee to surrender their positions and turn over all books and property to the G. E. B. Local union executive commitees were removed from office and all positions filled by appointment by the G. E. B.

National Character of Right Wing Drive.

National Character of Right Wing Drive.

BUT the new offensive of reaction is not confined to New York or to the needle trades and its official press. It was planned as a nation-wide movement and it developed rapidly in this direction.

Extension of the drive against the left wing to Chicago gave the campaign a national character.

A rapid succession of incidents showed that the drive was not conducted by needle trades officials alone, but that the Chicago Federation of Labor officialdom co-operated actively with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers' officials and the right wing in the Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and the Furriers' union. These events were:

1. The breaking up of the Temple Hall meeting on Friday, Dec. 10, at which Ben Gold, chairman of the Joint Board of the New York Furriers' Union, and Sacha Zimmerman, manager of the dress department of the New York Joint Board of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, were to speak on amalgamation and aid for the cloakmakers' strike. The meeting was under the auspices of the National Needle Trades Committee for Amalgamation, a section of the T. U. E. L.

This meeting was broken up by a combination of police, sluggers and right wing officials, and a right wing meeting held at which Levin, manager, of the Chicago Joint Board of the Amalgamated; Fitzpatrick and Nockels, chairman and secretary of the Chicago Federation of Labor, were the principal speakers.

The Chicago Federation of Labor officialdom thus gave its sanction to the war on the left wing.

2. On Sunday, Dec. 13, another meet- ing under the same auspices, with Ben Gold as the principal speaker, was broken up by the same combination of forces. The manager of Hertzl hall was bought up by the right wing after he had demanded a deposit of $1,000 from the Needle Trades Committee, and the hall turned over to the Amalgamated officials, who were in charge of the fight.

The left wing went to another hall and held a meeting, which the gangsters tried their best to disturb.

3. On Tuesday, Dec. 14, a meeting of the Furriers' union, regularly authorized by the executive board, with International President Shachtman present ,at the time, was held in the Odd Fellows hall at 12th and Albany to hear Ben Gold.

This meeting was likewise broken up by police and gangsters, including officials from other than needle trades unions.

The day before the meeting Edward Nockels, secretary of the Chicago Federation of Labor, called the police department, told them that "a Communist agitator by name of Gold" was "disrupting" the labor movement and that he wanted him taken care of.

In Boston, Hochman of the executive board of the I. L. G. W., with the assistance of gangsters and democratic politicians, broke up a left wing meeting.

The national character of the right wing campaign is clear. It is necessary now to determine two things:

1. If other sections of the labor movement outside of the needle trades, in which Communists are active, were affected.

2. The immediate reason for the launching of the campaign at the time and its connection with the rapid sweep to the right of the official labor movement.

Background of Present Struggle.

Background of Present Struggle.

A NUMBER of recent events in the labor movement have occurred which are strictly at variance with the "worker-employer co-operation" program mapped out for the labor movement by officialdom. It will be wekk here before listing the events which have disturbed the even tenor of life in official labor circles, to enumerate some of the actions and utterances of labor officialdom which furnish a background for the reactionary campaign and which gave notice of this offensive.

Writing in The DAILY WORKER for September 30 in the second of a series of twelve articles entitled "From Portland to Detroit," I listed a number of reactionary developments in official labor circles from the Atlantic City convention of the A. F. of L. up to that time. These are:

1. The failure of President Lewis to call out the maintenance men in the anthracite strike, the acceptance of a five-year agreement, abandoning the union shop, the acceptance of arbitration in principle, failure to utilize the violation of the bituminous agreement by the coal operators to bring them out in support of the anthracite workers.

2. Legalization of the "worker-employer co-operation" policy by the enactment of the Watson-Parker law, supported by labor officialdom and railway managers.

3. Failure of railway union officials to make any public opposition to the appointment by President Coolidge of known representatives of corporations to the mediation board provided by the Watson-Parker law.

4. The eulogy of this collection of Wall Street tools, individually and collectively, in the leading journals of the railway unions.

5. The welcome extended to a delegation of the fake British trade union leaders, organized by the leading British imperialist paper, the Daily Mail, by the executive council of the A. F. of L.

6. The organization of a "labor" life insurance company by heads of national and international unions with Matthew Woll as president.

7. The organization of a real estate corporation by a group of New York trade union official's.

8. The fight carried on by the A. F. of L. executive council against the proposed delegation to the Soviet Union, which was to be composed of trade union officials, labor editors, economists and attorneys for labor unions.

9. Sabotage of the Passaic strike, winding up with a public statement denouncing the strike as a "Communist enterprise" and attempting to stop further financial aid to the strikers.

10. Woll's article in the Photo Engravers' Journal (republished in the New York Times) proposing a conference of farmer organizations, labor organizations and BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS, under the leadership of Herbert Hoover, to devise ways and means for SAVING WASTE IN INDUSTRY.

11. The failure of the Chicago Federation of Labor to wage any kind of a struggle for the release of 91 members of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union imprisoned for violation of an injunction against their strike.

12. The failure of the executive council of the American Federation of Labor to give even sympathetic support to the struggle of the Mexican labor movement against catholic feudalism and American imperialism.

13. The endorsement of the Citizens' Military Training Camps by the A. F. of L. officialdom and the public offer of its aid in popularizing them.

14. The attempt of President Green of the A. F. of L. to force a settlement of the furriers' strike, ignoring the basic demand for a 40-hour week.

15. The investigation of the furriers' successful strike ordered by the A. F. of L. ex.ecutive council in violation of all trade union custom and law.

The tremendous mass support received by the Passaic strike forced the A. F. of L. executive council to retreat from its original purely hostile position and accept the strikers as members of the United Textile Workers. It was smarting from this defeat when the A. F. of L. convention went into session.

Here it met a broadside from the hard-boiled open shop capitalists of Detroit, Who appeared to take seriously the purely platonic statements relative to organization of the auto industry by the officialdom. It was impossible in this situation, without abandoning all pretense of loyalty to trade unionism, for officialdom to refuse aid to Passaic, altho Vice-President Woll did his best to postpone consideration of the question.

Growing Influence of Left Wing.

Growing Influence of Left Wing.

THE Passaic strike was endorsed, aid from international unions pledged and another defeat administered to an officialdom which a few short weeks before had called it "a Communist enterprise."

It is probable that the report of the committee appointed to investigate the conduct of the furriers' strike would have been made at Detroit had it not been for the assault made by the open shoppers.

We have, then, in connection with the occurrences at the Detroit convention which irked sorely an officialdom whose reactionary tendencies can be traced clearly by the series of actions and utterances enumerated above, a series of militant strike actions by the rank and file supporting the left wing policies:

1. The Passaic strike.

2. The Furriers' strike.

3. The I. L. G. W. strike.

Worse than this for officialdom has been the splendid discipline and spirit of the workers in these struggles and the gains made by the workers in spite of the sabotage of the right wing.

These developments naturally are a menace to the policy of worker-employer co-operation, and there is no question but that there have been some sharp reprimands administered to their agents in the labor movement by such bosses' organizations as the Civic Federation.

But this is not all. There have been other indications of a growing organization of left wing forces that did not fit in with the plot of the play in which imperialist-minded labor officials were to be directors and the workers only actors—most of them without speaking parts.

One of the indications of a growing left wing movement, part of it inside and part outside the trade unions, has been the tremendous mass support for Sacco and Vanzetti.

This case has been neglected shamefully by the officialdom of the American Federation of Labor. It has confined its activities to the passing of formal resolutions, which, while asking for a new trial, expressed no opinion as to the guilt or innocence of these workers.

It is obvious that had labor officialdom pressed the issue honestly and militantly it would have been impossible for the Massachusetts government with fiendish cruelty to drag out this case for 5 years without giving these innocent men a new trial.

The Sacco-Vanzetti committee proper has always been unable to organize any broad mass support for the defense of the accused men. It was not until the International Labor Defense took up the case that the support took on a real mass character.

Big mass meetings were held thruout the country, demonstrations took place before the American' consulates in the principal foreign capitals, dozens of prominent trade union leaders and public men of all shades of opinion thruout the world sent protests to Governor Fuller.

Sacco-Vanzetti conferences have been organized and preparations are being made for a huge national conference to be held in New York after the first of the year.

The International Labor Defense, a non-partisan organization for the defense of all class-war prisoners, in which Communists are, of course active, can be said with truth to have saved the lives of Sacco and Vanzetti.

Right Wing Treachery Towards Sacco and Vanzetti.

Right Wing Treachery Towards Sacco and Vanzetti.

ON the heels of the drive against the left wing in the unions comes the following statement sent out by the press service of the "Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee." It is addressed: To Whom It May Concern:

The defense committee is constantly questioned as to the relationship existing between the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee with the International Labor Defense, the Communist Party, and the so-called Sacco-Vanzetti conferences, because of their propaganda and collection of funds made in the name of Sacco and Vanzetti.

This committee specifically states that the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee has no official relationship with the International Labor Defense, the Communist Party, or the Sacco-Vanzetti conferences, which we understand were organized thru the International Labor Defense.

We wish further to state that the defense committee has repeatedly urged them, since the International Labor Defense began to raise funds in the name of Sacco and Vanzetti, to send accounts of their activities and also accounts of the various Sacco-Vanzetti conferences. To date we received no satisfactory replies to our many letters regarding the purpose of the aforementioned organizations, or an accurate account of funds received and disbursed by them. We have been given to understand by the International Labor Defense that there are a number of Sacco-Vanzetti conferences thruout the country from which We have never received any report. This was the reason why the committee has repeatedly advised friends of the Sacco-Vanzetti case to communicate directly with this office. Fraternally yours,

It is not hard to guess the source of the inspiration for this ambiguous and incorrect statement, which, neverless, deals a blow at the nation-wide movement for liberation of Sacco and Vanzetti and at the proposed national conference.

But we do not have to confine ourselves to a guess. The New York Times has already published as a news story the correspondence between the Sacco-Vanzetti committee and the reactionary "Committee for Preservation of the Trades Unions."

It may be stated here that the International Labor Defense is under no obligation to account to the "Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee" for any funds it may raise, but that its receipts and disbursements and duly audited financial statements are published monthly in its official organ, The Labor Defender.

It can be stated further that the International Labor Defense has forwarded sums as large as $1,000 at a time to the "Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee," and has published photographs of the checks.

As in the cloakmakers' strike and the Passaic strike, the reactionary elements in and out of the labor movement have been willing to sacrifice the victory of the workers, to send Sacco and Vanzetti to the electric chair by sabotaging their chief support in order to do something they think will damage the left wing.

Undoubtedly these elements have prevailed upon the Sacco-Vanzetti committee, by threats of withdrawal of the official support which has been so weak and grudgingly given, to issue such a statement. It is almost like signing the death warrant of Sacco and Vanzetti.

Here is a concrete example of what it means to the labor movement when the self-styled "Committee for the Preservation of the Trade Unions" puts into practice its slogan of:

The labor movement shall lend no assistance to any undertaking which directly or indirectly shall include the Communists. It shall be war to their finish.

But it is not war "to their finish"—meaning the Communists. In this particular case it will mean the finish of Sacco and Vanzetti if the masses of workers are fooled or coerced into passivity by this drive of reaction. Communists are workers and they cannot be banished from the ranks of the working class. Such tactics merely aid the enemies of the workers.

To the strikes of furriers, textile workers and cloakmakers, mentioned before, we can add the great protest movement for Sacco and Vanzetti, likewise organized and led by left wingers, as one of the examples of rank and file militancy which is in direct contradiction to the worker-employer co-operation policy of officeholders.

As this is written news comes of the action of the general executive board of the International Ladies' Garment Workers, headed by President Sigman, declaring the 25 weeks' strike of cloakmakers illegal, vacating the offices held by members of the New York Joint Board, regularly elected by the membership; vacating the offices held by members of local union boards who support the left wing and appointing hand-picked committees to take their places.

This action in the face of the mass support of the New York Joint Board, elected as a result of a membership revolt against right wing policies and tactics, is accompanied by an onslaught on a parade of the rank and file by police and gangsters.

Such occurrences as these, having a strong fascist character, can result only from the application of a policy which finds powerful support, not only in trade union circles, but from the capitalists and their press and from the socialist press.

The United Front of Reaction—The Official Socialist Press.

The United Front of Reaction—The Official Socialist Press.

THE united front of these elements against the workers who are fighting for militant unionism can be shown to exist beyond reasonable doubt. Their own utterances convict them.

In the public justification of the campaign against fighting trade unionism, there is a unanimity of expression in the socialist, capitalist and official trade union press that can spring only from a common policy.

The New Leader, "a weekly journal devoted to the interest of the socialist and labor movement," used a column of editorial space in its December 2 issue for an attack on the left wing. Said the New Leader:

It is because ALL THE OTHER AND RELIGIOUS GROUPS STOOD TOGETHER against this exotic menace that there is any union left at all and any hope of recovering lost ground. (Emphasis mine.)

That "all the other political and religious groups" constitute a minority of the membership of the New York section of the I. L. G. W. and are supported by the bosses and the capitalist press did not cool the holy ardor of the New Leader. It proceeds to incite its readers, by what is a finished example of official socialist demagogy, in preparation for the national conference of the "Committee for the Preservation of the Trades Unions" on December 21:

Yet in the presence of the disaster they have wrought, Foster's league announces that it will hold a national conference of its shock troops in the needle trades in New York York City Jan. 1 and 2. Families of union members are today suffering privation because of the dual allegiance brought into the union by this league and now it is proposed to rub salt into the gaping wounds. The measureless insolence of this proposal is amazing. Its sponsors might at least have the grace to beg forgiveness of their victims. Instead of this they have the impudence to gather at the scene of their bungling and propose further meddling in the union.

The above sounds much like the provocative statements published by the patriotic press against socialists during the war. It was plainly designed to incite gangster violence against the meeting of the Trade Union Educational League after which the New Leader would claim that the work of hired underworld elements was the spontaneous reaction of honest union men.