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The Labor H erald
Only four months old
but already
The Most Talked-of Labor Magazine
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S amuel Gompers
HERALD is monumental, brazen publication."
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such a t hor---L
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o ugn-going . aocun
Both are high recommendations that you should
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The One Indispensable Magazine
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THE LABOR HERALD
june, 1922
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T HE VOICE
of
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LABOR
The Railroaders' Next Step:
AMALGAMATION
By W m. 2. Foster
The Organ of Militant Workingclass
Expression
This 64-page pamphlet, written by a practical railroad man of many
years' experience, fills a long-felt want of railroad unionists. Phase by
phase and step by step it scientifically and irrefutably establishes the case
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file and it will not be long until the fusion of the sixteen railroad unions
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COMMUNISM AND SOCIETYWm .Paul-+LOB.
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d n c h i n g determination to move men and conditions upward and onward.
From the opening sentence, "The supreme need of the railroad men at the
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SOCIAL STRUGGLES IN ANTIQUITY
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FOUNDATIONS OF IMPERIALIST
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BARS AND SHADOWS (Poems)Ralph Chaplin+l.W.
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Communism a Chistianism
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It i e the most hopeful sign that we have come across.
It comes like o meteor awoao the dark s h .
J a c k Carney in Troth.
CONTENTS
P a d I, Oommnnism. Part I a hristianim.
1
Part I I aritieisms. Published, October. 1920.
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BUILDING TRADES NUMBER
THELABOR HERALD
Published monthly at 118 N. La Salle St. Subscription price $2.50 per year. The Trade Union Educational Leanue, Publishers.
"Entered as second-class matter March 23, 1922, at the postoffice at Chicago, Illinois, under the Act of March 3, 1879."
Vol. I.
June, 1922
oe
No. 4
The Building Trades Problem
B y Arne Swaback
T
H E Building Trades unions are face to face
with a terrific war, intended to break their
power. A complete combination of all the
hitherto scattered forces of the bosses is
out to establish the so-called "open-shop," and
the unions are in retreat before the assault. The
committees of the bankers, the manufacturers,
the captains of industry, carefully prepared the
union-smashing campaign and are taking one
industry after another. Having driven the unions out of the steel mills, slapped the railroad
unions in the face, and lined up the forces of
Government and the press, they a re'now engaged in battering our hitherto strongly entrenched building trades unions.
The fight was started in city after city,
throughout the country, and extends from coast
to coast. In some places the bosses have made
rapid headway against the unions ; in others the
workers have put up a most determined resistance. In every case a well worked out plan
was followed, involving the daily newspapers,
the courts and legislatures of the various states
and cities, and the special organizations combining all the employers' forces, variously named
"American Plan" associations, Citizens' Committees, e t ~ . The newspapers began the campaign of propaganda: "Rent is too high! That
is caused by building trades wages, whi* must
come down. Then the building industry will
begin to boom." T his was the key-note, to obtain the support of the 'public.' The pale, fainthearted clerks and the other white-collared wage
slaves echoed:,"Wages must come down."Public opinion was created, and the employers
could proceed with the next step.
Then comes an avalanche of legislative investigations, charges of graft and corruption,
wholesale arrests, commissions of inquiry ; and
finally the decision not to renew contracts with
the 'unions, but to cut wages, destroy union
regulations, and put the industry on the "open
shop" basis. "Arbitration" proceedings put the
seal of official approval upon the schemes, and
the battle is on, with the employers on the offensive. These attacks have everywhere thrown
confusion into the ranks of the workers. The
bosses have cleverly Yaken advantage of the
divisions between the crafts, played off one
against the other, and broken up the solidarity
of the Building Trades. The workers are beginning to wake up to this situation, and today
we are given some cause for encouragement
by the sight, in a few cities, notably Chicago,
of the workers recognizing the immediate necessity for complete unity.
The Chicago Building Trades Struggle
Resistance to the "open shop" drive is seen
at its best (and also examples of its worst) in
Chicago. The most' emphatic protest yet made
by Labor in this struggle was registered in the
great parade held Saturday, April 29th. This
day will be marked in red letters in labor history.
I t was a monster demonstration and protest
against the encroachments of capitalism, embodied in the so-called Citizens' Committee and
the Landis Award. A parade was arranged by
a joint publicity committee of the building trades
unions; more than 125,000 workers marched
shoulder to shoulder. Their banners registered
their solidarity and readiness to fight to the end
against the menacing enemy. Traffic was stopped
for hours in the heart of the city by this demonstration of the United Front of the building
workers. It registered a decided move forward
by Labor.
Already this is being felt, even by the bosses.
I t was a solemn warning to the "Citizens Committee" that the workers are preparing to stop
their retreat. True, the bosses were able to get
in their underhand work even in this parade.
Their agents managed to keep some of the unions
from taking part, by playing up old grudges and
prejudices at the last moment. But it was made
so evident to all that the workers were preparing
themselves for action, that the simple show of
stren@h, &arching down the streets shoulder to
4
-
T'I.;~.E" L A - B O R H E R A L D
June, 19%
June, 1922
T HE, V A B Q R . H E P A L D .
I
$boulder to. the musi= of bands, has created a. i ng hundreds % ofhnion officials and .members,
charging them with complicity 5.1the killing of
+han$e in the situation.
Thk >mili!ant mood b f h e workers is shown 'two policemen during a bombing affiir. The
by a story going the rounds of the union halls. whole city is in a turmoil, unequalled since the
Samuel Gompers was in town for the occasion. days of the Haymarket riot.
The Building Trades Council finds itself pracOne of his henchmen asked permission to have
an automobile in the parade. H e was notified tically helpless. Its past fights have been against
that all must walk in this parade. Gompers de- the contractors. But no longer is this a case of
clined to do so and the parad9 went *its way . fighting against disqnited bosses. The council
ih ts'trw:light, as a loose federa.. ,
:.
-without him.
._
- - h a ~ . b e e n - & ~n i~
I n the strike leading up' t o
demonstkat?on, tion with ea$ craft really acting for itself, and
many stormy events took place. On May 1,~1c92~, i t cannot: cope with the situation. A number of
the employers semed notice of wage reductions. unions have meekly submitted, others have
The unions msiskd, apd m any of them .were sttuck, and others have bargained for sepatate
rlwker! out, A st&e .foIlowed, .and a fter weeks conceksions from the bosses. The "Citizirns'
& struggle, arbitration was agreed to, with the Committee" has become arrogant, and other un,
usual detrimental effect to the workers. Judge ions which took up the fight have been "outLandis became the arbitrator, by consent of a lawed," and the general confusion is increased.
Several desperate efforts have been made, from
number of the smaller unions. The carpenters,
painters (whose agreement had not expired), the ranks of the workers to obtain unified action.
and three other unions, comprising in total mem- But such moves are frustrated by the I n t e r n
bership a large majority of the building wotkers, tional officials, and they also meet the resistance
refused from the beginning to submit to arbi- . of many. local officials. They seem to dread 'the
'thought of the rank and file workers getting tot ratim
Landis, in his notorious "award," not only gether. But when the agreement of the painters '
judged the questions in q spute ;h e also enlarged expired, *April I, 1922, this large body got into
the sco6e of his decisions t o cover the unions not the fight. Their District Council called a con.parties to the proceedings, and assumed jurisdic- ference of delegates from the outlawed trades,
tion over working conditions, writing the follow- and t he joint publicity committee was created.
ing "open shop" conditions into the award: This body united and -crystallized the opposition
"There .shall be no stoppage of work individ- to the "award" and has finally brought t he conually o r collectively under penalties prescribed." flict t o fie new stage evidenced by the big dem"There shall be no restriction against any onstration above-mentioned. .
manufactured material, except prison made."
W hat bas happened in Chicago indicates fairly
nm-union men well t he general situation in the building tradeg..
"In case of- smciV of
work wkh
men
such time as True, in many places the unions have not f?red
union men .may b e obtained."
so well, and have been almost completely deThese
n~~~~ breaking the power
feated; in Chicago there is sti'll struggle. But
rhe unions, and their ultimate destruction. T he
the workers a re in r etreat; Seattle,
workers Protested violenfly- For a time there Butte, Salt La&, Denver, Boston, S an Francisco,
were
s~ontaneousstrikes. But a
and other cities, bear witness to this. T he emof the leaders began to manouver their unions ploye*, are united with millions of dollars to
into 'accepting the "award."
Meanwhile, t he
spend do break the unions. The unions are dicagitdists had organized the "Citizens Commitvided, and their treasuries are rapidly being emptee" t o enforce the award, raised a war-chest of
.
tied.
millions, set u p a scabsupplying agency, mobilDivision Causes Workers' Weat
.
ized bank credits against She small contractors,
T he source of our weakness is readily found.
and completely united their forces. Unions refvsbg, t o .work under the award were declared Our industry is a veritable chaos of craft unions,
"outlaw" and a bitter war began ; armed guards pulling in different directions and fighting each
were placed on the jobs to protect imported other. Within many of these craft unions are
scabs, who were working side by side with union split-hair divisions, where members are confined
men. The strike has been marked by extreme to certain branches, and fight about the inner
violence. Bombings., both of,union and non-union lines of demarcation. O ur Councils, and the
workers have taken place. The "Citizens' Com- Building Trades Department, which could be the
e e e " has declared publicly that it will slug basis for establishing unity of action, merely
two union men for every scab that is beaten up. serve as places where these fights may be carried
As we write this the police of the city are raiding in different forms.
Craft divisions are largely responsible, in turn,
the building trades offices on a great scale, arrest,
f or the poor leadership, and lack of vision among
the officials. These men, from the lowest to the
highest officials, havk been nourished in an atmosphere of craft exclusiveness. They have
worked for years in deadly M t y . toward other
crafts, bred of t h4 f ear that Wr jurisdiction
may be infringed upon. Accustomed by this condjtion to attempting to gain advantages for their
own craft at the expense of others, it is onlx
another step to h d themselves working with the
bosses against the others. Thus they lose sight
entireIy of the broader aspect of the commoq
fight against ex@oitatioa
~ o s'of the other evils wGch hold back our
t
u dons and deprive them of power, also find
their breeding ground and natural habitation in
craft division. Countless opportunities are open
t o'the dishonest few, that element which can always be found in any aggregation 'of men. With
t he'rich o pkings f or graft, 'it is often the most
unscrupulous business agent who can build up
the most power. If he is willing to enter into
an alliance with the employers, he is able to
keep his adherents a t work, while those who
have the temerity to question his control at the
union meetings, can be forced to walk the streets
in idleness. This petty tyranny has created an
atmosphere in some unions which has proven
fruitful soil for the poisonous seed of the "open
shop9"ropaganda of the employers. All these
f o r d s swork for the boss, who cleverly makes
capital of them; and a ll can be traced directly
back t6 the fundamental cause of d t division.
"Internal strife has been a terribls evil in the
p'aSt; Today it is sdisasterous. In the face of
the tinited attack made upori us by the employers,
it threatens ta d btroy o ur organizations. It will
c e M y do so, if a remedy is not found. T he
r kisdy is amalgamation. Truly our present
situation is "Amalgamation or annihilation."
I*,
'w~
o
s
1
a
thq capitalist sheets and dmouncing u Bolsheviks an? disrupters t h e workers who a& advocating for the& unions the same m ea~iuEof mala
gamation that the keqer-sighted employers were
actuaUy putting into prac$icq.,> Unify of action
eah be guaranteed only by unity of organization,
and the Building Trades Unions will stand on
their feet with 'power to protect their memlp$$
only when they have completely unified their OF
gapizations into one 'union to cover the entire
indus~.
T he time has now come for the militant unionists in the building industry to take the lead;
they must organize, all, q e i r forces upon a great,
campaign of education, to infuse their nuniions,
with the new spirit, and give them m undersgqding of &e effective ,modern forms of organ&-,
..
tion.' qur unions must be molded to the form,
which will meet our needs. Amalgamation of the.
unions of the e,ntire industry will give us. the
united front capable, of meetingathe,f ~ r c e s hich.
w
SF& to destroy us, and powerful e nough,to dc-,
feat t q n T he reconstruction of our e o n s i s,
lq.
the immediate. program of militant u niaists,.
il
which wl lay the f owdation , of.control by the
workers, and. the ultimate establishment of the
~ orkers*..Itepablic. , ,
. . ,.,
Tbe Bosses Show the Way
T h e employers do not allow sentiment or pre-
-7
*
judice to prevent them from organizing thoroughly. Amalgamation has no terrors for them ;
they want power to crush the unions, and know
&at ta have power they must have unity. So
everywhere we see them join forces. No where
is this more strikingly iflustrated than in Chicago.
D ligng the present bitter struggle they have
ahalgamated their organizations, the Associated
Building Contractors, and the Building Construetion Employers Association, into one solid body.
Conpast the employers' militant policy of solidarity with the backward stand taken by the
bbilding trades union officials on amalgamation.
Almost at the very moment that the bosses were
amalgamating, Mr. Gompers was iulminating in
,,
V
I
6
T H E LABOR HERALD
I
June, 1922
Call for National Conference of the
Trade Union Educational League
T H E LABOR HERALD
Towards Unity in the Building Trades
B y Joe Petersen
T
HERE is serious division of Labor's forces the agents of the Steel Corporation. Large con-
in the Building Trades. Both nationally
and locally our forces are broken up. We
are finding it impossible to get common action,
in the face of the most terrific attack which our
unions have ever had to face. We are attempting
to meet the situation with antiquated, 18th' century methods of craft unionism, while the employers have united all their forces so that they
act together in the entire industry. Due to the
disease of jurisdictional disputes, our organizations are falling back before the enemy.
Wars between the unions over jurisdiction result from the craft divisions existing between us.
When the process of building was simple and the
employers were competing small contractors
without great capital, then the divided craft
unions had a chance to make a showing and obtain a few concessions. But the industry has
been changing. In the process of building, a revolution has taken place. New methods have
been introduced, new materials have become
common, and machinery is playing an ever greater part in the industry. Today, while suburban
building remains technically simple, the dominating factor in the industry is the standard city
building of steel and concrete. The new elements
brought in by this change, cut across our craft
lines. This brings the craft unions into conflict.
The amount of work being limited, each craft
wants to get the lion's share. We then have a
mad scramble among them, often several claiming
that the nature of the work places it under their
jurisdiction. There is usually plenty of evidence
on all sides, with nothing to decide between them
but power. So they fight. The test of battle
has for rnanv vears been the onlv one to receive
respect. The result is a continual, bitter fratricidal struggle, with consequent loss of power and
demoralization.
M
I LITANTS! At last the time has come their strength in recent years by consolidating
for us to draw up our programs and to their organizations, amassing vast riches, and
organize our forces throughout the labor becoming intensely class conscious, the trade
movement. The Trade Union Education League union leaders cling desperately to their own anis about to hold its first National Conference. tiquated system. They are constitutionally o p
The meeting will take place in Chicago on Aug. posed to all real organization betterment and
26th and 27th. Militant union workers from every habitually fight it to a standstill. Intellectually
locality and industry are herewith cordially in- they are frozen over solid. There is hardly
vited to attend.
a twig of progress showing above the cold
The labor movement is now passing through and lifeless surface of their collective mind.
the most serious crisis in its entire history. With = But if the static trade union officials fail to
unexampled aggressiveness, the employers are perceive the necessities of the movement, the
smashing one section of it after another. Ortho- the moral courage to acknowledge them), the
dox trade union methods and tactics are unavail- dynamic rank and file will and must seize the
ing to stop this "open shop" drive. Drastic new initiative itself. Hence, the National Confermeasures will have to be applied, or the labor ence of the Trade Union Educational League.
movement will be annihilated and the working This representative gathering of rank and file
class left helpless in the grip of the exploiters. workers will not only point out the needs of
T he multitudes of craft unions must be amal- Organized Labor, but will also outline a camgamated into a series of industrial unions. The paign of education to satisfy these needs by
prevailing craft form' of unionism is out-of-date revamping the prevailing philosophy, amalgaand obsolete. It no longer conforms- to indus- mating the unions, and giving them new leadertrial conditions. It prevents real solidarity and c L k
it must give way t 0.a type of organization that
T he Trade Union Educational League is op
will include all the workers in a given industry.
The multitude of craft unions must be arnalga- posed on principle to dual unionism. It is not
Only the industrial form of organization can cope a labor union itself, nor does .it propose to bewith the powerful employers. Another vitall?~ come one. I t is solely an educational body. It
necessary step is the discarding of the existing aims, not to split the mass organizations, but to
trade union philosophy. At present our labor unite and strengthen them in every possible way.
unions are in the anomolous position of having The proposed conference will not be held for the
w orkhg class bodies and capitalist minds. They purpose of furthering secession movements, but
are in fundamental contradiction with theni- to work out an organized, intensive campaign of
selves. They have proletarian interests and constructive, militant education in all the indusinstincts, but their petty-bourgeois point of tries. Representation will be based upon the
view lleutralizes them. Hence their every effort local general groups of the T. U. E . L.. each of
is paralyzed by uncertainty, timidity, and weak- which shall be entitled to six delegates-if there
ness. And so it musf remain until they finallj is no such group in your town, organize one at
come to realize that there is no hope for the11-1 once so that you may be represented. Trade
- except in the abolition of capitalism and the es- unions and central bodies may send only fraternal
tablishrnent of a workers' r e~ublic. Then. and delegates. Each participating organization shall
t hai only, with a revolutionary goal before them, take care of the expenses of its delegates.
Do you believe that Oiganized Labor should
will the trade unions gain the clearness of aim
and the militancy of spirit indispensable to suc- have a real rebel spirit? Do you believe that
the craft unions should be amalgamated into
cess in the modern class struggle.
I n the present crisis the old officialdom stand industrial unions? Do you believe that the trade
in helpless! consternation. They are at their union movement should have new and militant
wits' ends. Again and again they apply the leadership ? If so, come to the National Confercustomary trade union methods, only to be over- ence of the Trade Union Educational League. It
whelmed by fresh disasters. But still they do not will be one of the most important gatherings in
change these methods. Disregarding the patent the history of the American labor movement.
Wm. Z. Foster, Sec'y-Treas.
fact that employers have enormously increased
'
.
SA*q,.
Our Unions Lag Behind
T he increased power of the employers has been
forcing the unions to also. close up their ranks.
The bosses find, with each new step in their consolidation, that they have more power as against
the workers. Their greed for huge profits immediately causes them to attack our wages and
working conditions. We resist one at a time
with our craft unions, but find ourselves losing.
Then we finally search for ways of acting together. For years the writer, who is a practical
building tradesman has taken part in these e'fforts
toward unity. Thus, although the workers' organizations are continually lagging behind those
of the capitalists, they are nevertheless constantly changing and coming gradually closer together.
During the years 1900-1910 there were many
amalgamations brought about of closely related
crafts. The movement gained great headway for
a time, resulting, among others, in uniting the
The Employers' United Front
steamfitters and plumbers; the carpenters and
W l e we have been fighting among ourselves, wood workers; the granite cutters, polishers and
the employers have been busy in another way. rubbers ; the stonemasons and bricklayers ; the
The rapid development of large and expensive marble workers and several independent unions ;
machines in building, with the use of steel and and the hod carriers and the excavation laborers.
other new materials, did not affect the bosses in The reactionary leaders did their best to head off
the manner it did the unions. Instead, it became the movement, but even they were forced to
i
a power for unifying the employers against our give it lip-service. Samuel~Gompers,n addressorganizations. More and more capital was re- ing the marble workers convention in 1909, exquired for machinery and equipment, greater pressed the hope that all men engaged i n. the
sums were needed for building investment ; i t stone industry would soon be in one powerful ornaturally followed that the industry came into the ganization. The movement culminated in the orhands of the trust companies, great banks, and ganization of the Building Trades Department
d
..
i
struction has thus come to be directly controlled
through the giant construction companies and
banking interests, while the great bulk of small
building is kept in line by the control of building
loans.
This concentration of capital and financial con'trol, has been going on for a long time. Following it has come the unification of the building
trades employers into ever more powerful associations. These have continually been combining
and amalgamating, until today the building interests have one organization, directing throughout the country the fight against the unions. The
so-called Citizens' Committee in Chicago combines practically all building interests, controlled
and directed by the great bankers. In other cities
the unions are similarly fighting the united power
of the capitalist class.
.
8
.
THS L A B 0R H-ERALD
of the G F of L., in 1908. T his was a definite
.
'
recognitibn of 'the common interests of all uriions
in the' building industry, and a step toward uniiication.
T he organization of the Building Trades Department was a very "radical" step. The writer
remembers quite well the fights that raged around
this issue. Many of the same arguments now
used against the program of the Trade Union
Educational League were then hurled against the
idea of forming the Department. But in spite of
the' reactionary fulminations, the "radicals" of
that day went ahead and established the Department.
- T h e new body was intended to eliminate the
worst features of jurisdidional wars, and to
bring about greater unity between the various
craft unlons. I t was a great step forward. At
least it got-the uniond in touch with one another,
and h id the basis for some approach to common
action. But its results, especially under the
pressure of the employers' present organization,
have not justified the high hopes placed upon it.
It has exhibited the fundamental weaknesses of
all federations. In moments of greatest crisis,
when strength is needed most, it has a disconcerting habit of giving way, leaving the unions
in dire confusion. The wars of jurisdiction rage
09. T he Department is only another field of
battle. Union resources are still taken up more
with f ighthg each. ofher, than in fighting the employers. The bosses are also affected by these
6
June, 1922
..
struggles ; strikes over jurisdictional dairns continue, and' the "fair" employer is' i n'the same
danger of them as the "unfair" one. The net
result for the unions is loss. Federation has ,not .
..
met the situation.
.
Two Felse Remedies
%
Efforts t change this situation have been
o
many. Two of them should be pointed out, because, coming from widely different sources,
they are equally false and dangerous to the
workers. One is the effort of the employers to'
set up "impartial" boards to decide upon juris-'
diction; the other is the program of dual unionism advocated by the I. W. W. and others. Ufitold mischief has been done by both of these
quack medicines of unionism.
The movement for a national board to arbitfate
jurisdictional disputes was launched by engineers
and employers. The proposal for such a board;
composed of architects, engineers, employers and
employees, was brought before the Atlantic City
convention of the Building Trades Department.
One delegate, speaking for the adoption, said that
he believed it would go far toward eliminating
the radical element from the building trades. The
proposition was adopted. The organizatiofi which
this same delegate represented is now out of the
Department because of defiance of this board of
awards. Differences between the unions cannot
be settled by any outside agency. They must be
eliminated by the growth of solidarity inside; 2nd
the unificatiw of the various unions. Instead of
June, 1922
THE L A B 0R HERALD
solving problems of jurisdiction, the board of
awards has been a tool for further dividing the
workers against one another. Those unions
which, like the Carpenters', refuse to accept its
decisions are obeying a fundamental instinct of
the 'trade union movement not to allow nonworkers to dictate solutions to their problems.
The program of building new "ideal" unions,
to replace the imperfect craft unions, has been
one of the chief evils of the labor movement.
Disgruntled and rebelling elements have thought
to take a short cut to solidarity, by breaking
away and starting all over. Actions of this kind
have done nothing but increase the confusion and
weaken the labor movement. Today it is plain
to all intelligent men, that progress cannot come
in this way. Every m e of the many efforts in
this direction has failed, and dual unionism is
dead in the building trades. The militant union
men have learned to be on the watch for. this
tendency, and to root it out in its beginnings.
For Building Trades Unity
T he way out of our present mess lies along
the road of arnalggmation, the unification of all
building trades workers for common action on
wages, hours, and policies in the industry. One
union covering the entire building trades is required.
Such a plan will not mean wiping out craft
lines, wherever these meet some need of the
workers. Instead, it will take the form, outlined
b
in 1913 y the famous Tveitmoe resolution adopted by the Building Trades Department but not
carried out, which groups together the closely
related crafts, such as the mason trades, pipe
trades, iron trades; wood-working trades, ets. In
a Building Trades Industrial Union these groups
would form departments, under the general executive which would have supreme power on
questions of wages, hours, disputes, etc. Within
these departments the old craft units could be
retained as sections and separate locals, so long
as wanted to handle purely craft matters. Related crafts will also have the machinery for
handling their own peculiar problems, in the departments. But in the struggle against the
bosses, t h y will all bg united under one executive
commitke, concentrating the enti& power of the
building trades workers.
The technical obstacles to this program are
not great, W e e the railroads, the building
trades (with the exception of helpers and laborers) are vecy d ose tagether in wage scales. T he
adjustmeats ne&sary a re easily provided for by
the department and craft sections. The advanbges w e so evident and so immediate, that they
completely overshadowed any little objection that
m ay be raised.
A great source of weakness today is the thousands of workers in the small towns, where there
are not enough of their craft to make a live local
union. The small-town worker is just as good
material for unionism as, the ordinary union man
in the city, but he does not have the association
of numbers of his fellow craftsmen to keep him
in line, as the city worker has. Imagine w kit
would happen to our great city local unions if
they were divided up into little groups of three
or four, or even 15 o r 20. T he organizatioil
would die out. That is what happens, particularly in the smaller crafts, when you leave the large
centers.
T he Building Trades Industrial Union could
immediately rally all these workers to the union.
The cities like New York, Chicago, and the like,
would need little change in the local unions. The
next smaller cities could unite tbe little fragments
of locals together according to groups thus giving
them size and strength and a feeling of power.
The little towns could have department locals,
or even one local of all building workers in the
villages, even if there should be only one or two
in each craft, and have a fair size local union
which could be alive and healthy. Consider that
this would eliminate the entire supply of scabs,
relied upon by the bosses in fighting the union,
and judge the value of such a united organization in increasing our power. Every buildtrades worker in the country would soon be a
union man with a paid up card and membership
in a live local.
Greater power for the union, that is what
amalgamation means. The employers are out to
smash our unions. They do not discuss the right
or wrong of it-they have the power. The only
thing that will save our unions and defeat the
bosses is greater power. When, instead of a
score or more of executive committees a t the top,
each making a different decision a d p a k g
different ways, we have one committee uniting
in itself the combined power of the txtlilding
workers: then we will stop our retreat and move
forward to new victories. Amalgamation is the
road to that goal.
b
Take this up in your union and urge w tba~e
taken to get all ourr unions together, for the puppose of consolidating their forces. Get yrmr
local union to act; take it to your distriet e m cil; then put it up to your intematiowl mecutives and conventims. Demand h : ogr 6
ty
cials take action. Vote for those union men f ~ r
office in your union, who stand for this prcgmm.
HeSp to defeat those who oppose It. Discuss the
question wherever building trades w o r k s
together, and make this the domiaating i w w in
the entire industry.
June,
1~22
t
A Tale of Two Cities
THE LABOR HERALD
June, 1922
6f the trade unions (the ~ b s c o wo r Red Council of Labor Unions). -
H ow the Conventimrr: Differed on the Large
T he Conventions of the Imternatio~zal L adies Garment Workers' Union and
of the A w . 1 g a m t e d Clothing Workers of A w i c a i n. Cleveland mzd Chicago.
T
HERE is nothing easier than to label a
thing or an event. A living, complete
reality is thus easily reduced to a formula,
and there you have it: merely catalogue it and
shelve. it in your memory or conscience. But
then-what ? Then nothing.
Labels h ' t Explain
- A mere fact in history or in life, which is
history in the making, is of no significance whatsoever unless it generates.new force and determines development. And so is the knowledge of
a fact of'no value unless the fact is conceived
in its living connection with what had preceded
it and what follows it. Naked facts, tom out of
their immediate environment, are but incidents
or accidents devoid of much meaning. The knowledge of facts outside of their historical soil is
fruitless, barren of results; and the labeling of
t
facts, perhaps a times' an easy pastime, is at all
times a waste of time. Yet it passes quite often
as judgment and it helps to create what the
market is willing to designate as public opinion.
f L. G W. U. Not Reactionary, nor A. C. W.
o A R&olutionary
f.
The two conventions of the two large unions
in the needle industry held the other day in
Cleveland and Chicago, are illustrations of the
above. H ere large gatherings of labor, organized and aggressive, militant labor made inroads
into history, legislated their immediate future
and determined, in so far as it can be deter-.
mined, what their policies shall be in the days
to come. But what do we see? The press, the
transfer-agent of public opinion, satisfied itself
with the recording of a number of happenings
at these conventions, for the most part an uncritical sort of recording. It then had the happenings duly labeled, and the "movement" is
ready to proceed to other "unfinished business,"
most likelv to "finish" it in much the same fashion. The iibel is the finishing touch in portraying
life.
The convention of the International Ladies
Garment Workers was reactionary throughout,
and that of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers
of America was the one bright spot on the marred
background of the American labor reality. Thus
public opinion summed up the two momentous
labor gatherings, and that i s all so many of us
are satisfied to know. But when we know all
this what do we know? Even if a step further
is made and personalities are introduced to supplement the facts, we still are none the wiser.
Suppose we accept, without critical analysis, the
verdict of newspaper-made history that Benjamin Schlesinger, of the I. L. G. W. U., is a diedin-the-wool reactionary, and Sidney Hillman; of
the A. C. W. of A., is the spirit incarnate of revolution, what then? How much more do we then
know ?
O- pposition In Both Conventions Rather Weak
Only eight hours of travel divide Chicago from
Cleveland, the seats of 'the two conventions, yet
measured in units of political and spiritual advancement,-as evidenced in .the two needle industry conventions, it would seem that there is
a quarter of a century of distance between the
two cities. That much may be readily admitted
if judgment shall be based on appearances. But
is it right to do so? Does judgment by appearances lead us anywhere? Hardly, as a matter of
&..
"&.I
L I ULll.
But let us have a glance at facts.
The convention of the I. L. G. W. U. ran
under the sign of fight on the left wing. I n the
convention gf t he A. C. W. of A. the left wing
felt quite at home. As one onlooker termed it,
there the opposition was extremely anxious not
to embarrass the administration, otherwise it was
rather comfortable. It would be interesting, then,
to discern the objectives of the opposition or the
left wing in either case. And this is not at all
easy to do, as it was shown in an article in the
preceding issue of THE LABOR ERALD.The opH
position in the needle industry is not homogeneous, it is in the making as yet and it lacks both
in clarity of vision and in oneness of purpose.
And, it may be added, it also lacks most badly
in training.
Some Objectiveis of the Left W n
ig
However, in as much as a liberal allowance for
the newness of the situation permits, the following may be considered the program of the most
purpose-conscious element of the opposition or
left wing in the needle unions:
I T he democratization of the organization
.
structure by means of introducing shop representation.
2 T he consolidation of all needle unions into
.
one concentrated fighting body.
3. Lining up with the aggressive world body
Issues
boundaries, engaged in sinister attempts t o defeat and crush the labor movement both within
each nation and on an international scale; a nd
Whereas, .A well-define4 movement $0 defend the sacred cause of labor by co-ordinating
our industrial organizations on an equallj
broad international scale is shown in the communications to the Amsterdam Trade Union International from the Moscow International of
Labor Unions, inviting the former to participate
in t he formation of a United Front of all the
labor unions of the world; t herefore be it
Resolved, That the Amalgamated Clothing
Workers, in its Fifth Biennial Convention assembled, express its approval of the efforts for
a United Front of all the labor organizations
of the world, and give its heartiest co-operation in the fight against organized capital.
Adopted.
On d l of these issues the two conventions took
a stand widely different.
O n the first point the stand of the I. L. G. W.
U. is definitely negative, whereas the A. C. W.
ofA. made ah effort to meet the issue somewhere
haifway. T%e convention of the A. C. W . of A.
empowered €he hcdming administration to
change the organi'c law of the union, wherever
the dernarid f or it will-make itself felt. And it
was let to be known that the geiieral office is in
favor of a 'change in the structure of tIie organO nly those who are intentionally blind could
izatioti'that would bring the'shop as'a unit nearer discover a defeat for the position of the left .in
t o active participation in the goverrimerit of the the adoptation of the above resolution. But it is
union.. . . . " .
.
an old story that with so many wish is the father
' Agajn, on the issue of 'consolidation of ' the
to tha thought.
unions' 'iri ihe .nekdle &dustry,' the' siand o f' the
The I. L. G. W. U., whose defenders-right
&algamated was decidedly positive.' he A. C. or wrong-talk a great lot of unity, would not
W. of A. is for one centralized union $ the in- stand for any "Moscow nonsense," even be it a
dust$ ~ n ' o p p o ; to a IooBe federation of' the genuine effort to bring about unity of all labor.
d
needie tiades, +hi& fis sponsored by t hd I. L. G.
If the actions on the just enumerated three
W: U. Whether a resolution of this kind 'is nec- cardinal points is to be taken as the basis for
;es'sai-ily'a' step t o k r d consolidation' in the hear judgment there would be reasonable ground for
f utute may be questioned;
it is &own that the notion that the I. L. G. W. U. turned reacthe Sternational' ( the I: L. G. W. u:) is' deter- tionary and the A. C. W. of A. has gone decid'
niibediy opposed to such a consolidatioi
edly radical in those convention days. But is it
-.
. - ..
really so?
NOW,on the. point of international" a$liation,
the reports were ~ a.ther isleading, in. so far as
m
W y the D ference in Attitudeh
f
the Chicago convention of the A. C. W , of A. as
One cannot escape facing the following quesconcerned.. W i l e the p.ress hsd it, that 'fthe left
met with crushing defeat on tbe issue of inter- tion, and the questian is to be answered if we are
national affiliation," the following is the truth in to understand what's what.
the q se. There y ere introduced .a number of
The question is-What is really resposible' f or
resolutions a dv~cating. ffiliation with the. Mos- the difference in attitude taken by the A. C. W.
a
cow Council of Trade Unions. These reso1ytio.n~ of A. and the I. L. G. W. U. on a number of
came from local3 and the delegates stood hl- points of great significance? Was it due to a
structed by their mandate of election to have difference in leadership or was a different c0.mthese resolutions brought before the convention. position of membership responsible for the differHowever, in the convention resolution No. 67 ence in attitude? Or-perhaps there was really
evolved and it met with the unanimous approval no such great difference at all in the attitude'of
of all the left -or opposition delegates. It also one organization or the other?
was favored by the administration and it was
As a matter of fact, some ten years ago, one
carried manimousIy. None of the other resolu- would find an exactly reversed situation wi* 'retions favoring direct affiliation had any support- gard t o the organizations under 'consideration.
ers or votes. It inevitably would follow, that The I. L, G . W. U. was then the one radical
there could be no "crushing defeat" under the organization, and the United Garment Workers
circumstarices, and there was none.
of America, the parent body of the present AmalResolution 67 reads :
gamated, was reactionary in many respects. Since
Whereas, the whole tendency of modern then .the leadership of the International Ladies
times is toward the international co-ordination Garment Workers' Union has changed a nd- in
of a ll movements and enterprises, whether they
so far as the personnel is concerned the change
be of labor o r capital; and
Whereas, These are times of monster com- was rather toward the more progressive type.
binations of capital, over-reaching all national And the split that has taken place in the U nited
'
‘sine?
'Z
SS
L
T H E LBABO B H E R A L D
Garment Workers of America and caused the
growth of the Amalgamated was not a split
along lines of radicalism, or industrialism, o r internationalism, only questions of autonomy and
leadership were involved in that controversy.
W hy then the great change?
The make-up of the two organizations, in so
f ar as the membership is concerned, is not different. The same racial groups, practically distributed in the same ratio, make up the I. L. G
.
W. U. and the A. C. W. of A. T he industry,
that is the market, the technique, the earnings
are closely neighboring, except that the system
of work prevailing in the women's wear industry
still retains a greater part of mechanical skill,
whereas in the' production of men's clothing the
operations are further simplified by a wider application of machinery and by a minute specialization and division of labor.
Logically speaking, there should not be room
for a great diflerence in tactics, if actions of
large bodies are motivated by environment.
Of course, it is inconvenient to discuss the
problem of leadership since it involves the analysis of personal motives or abilities. Yet it
would be nothing short of violation of truth to
assert that the leadership of the two organizations differs very widely on the point of radicalism, at least in so far as formal profession of
faith is concerned. In point of fact, the leader
of the I. L. G. W. U. is a prop of the Socialist
Party and President of its most powerful daily
paper publishing company, whereas the 'head of
the A. C. W. of A. is politically non-attached.
Borsing or Leading
There is, however, one difference in the makeup of the leadership of the two organizations,
and rather a vital one. It lies not in any official
label but in the very conception of leadership.
I n one case i t is an attempt to boss a situation
that is underlying the policy of the leadership,
whereas in the other case the tendency is to lead,
to control the situation by creating or acceleratk g the conditions of the sitqation. Benjamin
Schlesinger is a red-card Socialist, and Sidney
Hillman will tie himself with no political group
or philosophy. Yet the one succeeded in having
even his own party members oppose his policies,
whereas in the other case, the administration appears to be the expression of the living spirit of
the entire organization. It is the great, old yet
ever new problem of leadership that is to be
looked for in the search for light in the situation.
The administration of the I. L. G. W. U had
.
its convention under- its complete control. I t
could have its way
to wholesale political murder of opposition delegates. Yet
.
June, 1922
it did so. The spirit of vindictiveness was manifest throughout the sessions of the body. And
also did the administration of the A. C. W. of A.
h v e the convention under its full sway. The
opposition was numerically weak, consisting of
the disgruntled elements, controlled by the politics of the Jewish Daily Forward, politics foreign
to the life of the organization; and of the left
wing groups who had cgnstrudive o r misguided
notions of organization reform, but throughout
confined to the problems of the union. But the
administration did not seek to antagonize the
opposition by fighting their ideas because of the
spiritual fatherhood. It tried to meet squarely
every issue as it arose, and the result was exceedingly gratifying. N b one left t he convention "licked," unless he came for what he was
not supposed to get there. A "defeaty' on a
point. of principle, in a union, is never a c ams
bell;, never causes animosity, if the fight for or
against the principle is a gallant one. That much
in favor of the A. C. W. of A. leadership will
be conceded by any one who saw the convention
in operation.
To sum up :T he two conventions did not differ
very widely in point of radicalism. Both remained on the safe ground of reality i'n s o far
a s the actual problems concerning the life of the
organization are considered. But, whereas one
body, blinded by a partisan animosity and by a
perverted notion of bossism instead of leadership
has created ill-fekling and narrowed down the
sway of the convention to the degree of pureand-simplism ofl a most primitive type, the other
organization managed its way through difficulties and presented a sight novel in the practice
of the American labor movement. I t was not so
'much the actual difference in the attitude taken
by one organization or the other, on one point or
the other. It 'was the mehtod of approach to a
solution of the problems of the movement that
divides the two otherwise similar organizations.
CHILI
H E industrial, commercial, and agricultural employers of Chili have just combined themselves
nationally into an organization called the Association
of Industry. It is headed by a General Council, composed of one delegate from each province, and one
from each industry. The Association intends "to
take all possible steps with a view to harmoniziag
the legitimate interests of employers and workers!'
It declares it will "defend the right of the individual
to work by all means in its power and will give assistance to members who are faced with difficulties
owing to sympathetic strikes and similar disputes."
T
Dr. Joseph Goldstein, "Russian expert," is quoted
by the Chicbgo Tribune to the effect that '&End
of Soviet Regime is Near." Where have we heard
these 1 6news~efore?
b
June, 1922
THE LABOR HERALD
From George to Dick
'
+
Dick Harridan, Engineer, St. Louis, Mo.
Dear Friend Dick:W e all reached home sober and feeling better for the trip. But
since coming back from there I have been thinking over some of our
kitchen-table discussions regarding the union, its policies; etc., and I
want to put my side up to you in a workable form so you wont fail
to understand clearly the point I wanted to make. Here it is:
You are an engineer and probably understand an engine and what
it will do better than I do. Now suppose you had a heavy train, say
2,000 tons, to move, and it was all ready and you were anxious to move
that train to its destination in the least time and at the least cost; and
suppose your future more or less depended upon your making a good
showing on this particular trip.
You find it will take equal to a 160 ton engine to do the work,
and you are told to select your power to make the run. Suppose you
go over to the roundhouse and find that they have 16 engines of 10 tons
each, and one engine of 160 tons, ready for the road. Would you take
one engine of 10 tons and make 16 t rips? Or would you take the 16
engines and make one trip, taking coal 16 times and water 16 times, and
calling 16 more tallow pots, and taking chances on 16 sets of machinery
getting out of order and chances of all not starting together, or some
being in reverse when you started, or maybe an engineer asleep on the
job, or playing hookey to same steam?
.
O r would you take the 160 ton engine, where you had the whole
power necessary concentrated in the one lever under your own hand?
I ask you, as an intelligent engineer, which of the three would you do?
There can be no question at all about your answer. You would
take the big engine. You would do the job in a warkmanlike manner.
Sure, you would.
Now the railroad workers have just this kind of a practical proposition before them at the present time, and they are trying to combat
the railroads by using the 16 little engines, or Brotherhoods, against
the companies who are using the biggest engine they have on hand, and
who are trying hard t q construct one still bigger by misusing the power
of Government, if necessary, to whip us. You might not be able to get
all the power out of the big engine, or general amalgamated union, at
first, but you would soon be able to handle it and to get definite results.
If we cannot combine all our organizations into one, as you seem
to fear that we can't, then we must admit we haven't as much intelligence as the railroad companies have. I such is the case we are a bunch
f
of incompetents and our cake is dough under any circumstances. Think
it over, and look around your yards. to see if you haven't got a railroad
spy among you and the boys, suggesting the ideas you expressed the
other night, because such ideas are in perfect accord with those that the
companies wish you to hold. Perpetuating craft divisions amongst us
fortifies the companies and makes them unbeatable. Amalgamation of
our many unions into one is the only thing that will give us sufficient
strength to defeat them. We must have a general railroad union.
With kindest regards for yourself and all union men and the friends
that assembled Saturday night, I am, As ever,
GEORGE
r3
June, 1922
The League Under Fire
B y Earl
R Browder
[ NE pages of inflammatory denunciation in
the Americart Federationist! This is the
new high point in the campaign against
'the Trade Union Educational League, the be'ginning of which was reported last month in
, THELABOR ERALD.n the May issue of his
H
I
;house-organ, Gompers runs a long screed of
.slander and vilification, continuing the attack
he started in his April issue and on his trip to
Chicago, Cleveland, and other cities. "Organizers" are busily carrying on against the League
all over the country ; Gompers' pocketpiece,
Matthew Woll, is sent to make a slanderous
.attack at the Convention of the Railway Employees' Department ; and ' ~ e n e r a l residents of
P
unions all over the country are taking up cudgels
against the League. Nearly every International
journal has obediently taken a shot in the same
,direction within the past month, with a few honorable exceptions. The natural culmination
,comes with Gompers' resort to the capitalist
,press i n his flamboyant May 1st manifesto.
In a hysterical fear of everything which even
smells of progressive and militant action by the
jworking class, Gompers is hurling charges reck,lessly right and left. H e is flatly and positively
;against real labor solidarity, and denounces its
d
,advocates as "disruptors." W hat are his arguiments? Does he attempt to prove his charges?
, Not a t all. a e is content to damn the League
:as a "secret" organization intent upon destroying
'the unions (one version),, or to deliver them up
:to Lenine (second version-take your choice).
~Gompers'panic, however, does not prevent him
from extreme care in choice of words, where
2direct charges whose absurdity he well knows,
might lay him open. By skilful juggling of
words he manages, without saying so directly,
to make the charge that the League is being
financed by "Bolshevik Gold." The invitation
.extended to him in Chicago, to inspect the books
'of t he League, is carefully ignored.
1
'
Why Reactionary Leadem Shudder
.
tion of Labor, especially, has reverberated
throughout the labor movement of America. The
national convention of the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks, just closed at Dallas, Texas, adopted
a resolution for amalgamating the railroad unions
into one industrial union, and also passed the
Chicago resolution favoring amalgamation of all
craft unions upon lines of industry. In the convention of the Railway Employees' Department,
described in detail elsewhere in this issue, there
was a powerful sentiment for this measure,
which was only headed-off by most strenuous
efforts.
The facts are that Gompers' influence in the
labor movement has been to stultify and stop all
progress. Such a condition is the reason why
the League, boldly proclaiming a program of
q i t i n g o ur unions for effective action, calling
for militant leadership, and affiliation with the
International of working-class solidarity, the
Red Trade Union International, has been given
so enthusiastic a welcome. I t is the first sign
of real life in the labor movement, and as su&
it rallies those in whose hearts hope still springs.
I t is not a violation of confidence to say that
one of Gompers' principal sources of worry is
the knowledge that a surprisingly large number
of high international officials in the unions are
sympathetic to' the League, and are quietly supporting its program. Hardly a week passes without several of these men, from various sections,
dropping into the office of the League to wish
it success and pass a word of encouragement.
They want to see some constructive work done,
and they know the old machine offers no hope.
The reactionary officials have a keen sense for
this atmosphere of wholesale "disloyalty" to their
rule; they do not know how to meet it. So,
with Gbmpers a t the head, they launch a mock
reign of terror. They do not realize that these
very tactics are forcing many union men into the
ranks of the League who would not otherwise g~
the whole way upon the League program. T
%day Gompers is forcing the issue,-"Gompers
and standpatism" or "The League and progress."
All of which is the best possible testimonial td
the correctness of the League's position and the
effectiveness of its work.
T he reason for the panic, witnessed by this
,unprecedented campaign, is very simple. It is,
that the League has received a tremendous re'sponse from the labor movement. The amalga;mation movement, one of the most important
, points in the program of the League, has taken
The Merits of the Argument
o n great headway, and is sweeping through the
We have grown accustomed to have our r e p unions. I t has been adopted by dozens of central lar "May Day Scare" thrown into us each year
labor bodies, and by hundreds of local unions. by A. Mitchell Palmer and similar "Department
T h e resolution adopted by the Chicago Federa- of Justice" officials. Accompanying the w a -
of the bigl cities open wide, and 4th screaming. vilification, and mwth.
Strangely ma?& tb tho* who d a &IX
8 coltma headlines the rnardfesto of Gotapera
kci a waiting world i g i brought j arth U nder Blte the latent: $ @ Wi the trade d o n s , .
m m tn
these q ~ c u k w i t c h - b d g a d - of MF,
,
bidzing heads is carried tsao solumns of such
t he m& of
noqsaaie t hat even the capitalist papers balre been G empm,-sa far fim ~~Q
p
urnable to -refrain freun j o k k g about it. Crompers" t he &ague, h ik~e mmd the m st decided. stirnut
charge w i n s t t he League b in the form of in- hnt t~ i s w e ~ kv53111be8by pmt failures, afld
& muraged by t he. mchianary ~~d ehamcter
fiumdo, and re%& s follows :
a
of
'W. 2 Foster, wka %adno money, went to MOSCOW their miam, atafiy miIiahtats ha8 failed to
.
o
A came back and announced that he was building awaken t the a l l mt out by the Trade Union
d
a great s ectst rgachitrt to uoderazia3e t he Azqedczan Educational L a v e when it w;as
Is;b.er movement and t arn 'it over to the Red ktntermtioaal, a w a d by Z d ETt b ema pubheiltioe of These dormer livewires had lost hope,
ea
&et
z s,xpensive m a w h e and g roclaimd rc thousand upon t he L eague I t mook theforlorn
w
t
d emomtra~cin
dmiried t futility.
o
' s eyet * ~ ~ i s thousand . co-uniti~~"
fa
n
of rm&nary o$icialdom- in a &c:
of f ear t
6
. ~ isreg%di~lg direct lies contained in tbis
.
t he.
conwince them that progress t 'not only posGblt;
paragraph, which -are apparent to any m d e r a nd
which were dealt with in the last &sue of T ~ l e but waiting t o be -called fa& t o transform our
LABOR.
HERALD, e will deal only with .the in&- hbor movemient into a living,-grow& pow&.
w
~ u - !Gqnpem can no longer - hold b d c
l
rect s tatempt that the M e is b e d by Bro.
the tjdess. of propess by m t words. The
pr
L qin of Ruaia. We have ,already poiated aut
e a t Campers was oBerecl Phq opportunity, w h k workers a m getting ready to go forward, and
in Chicago, to examine &% bmkg of the a qpm- eatmot ba mtl& logger fooled. I f the pathway
a
-&icm, but he r;efusc:d t o do so. In t he face of f the fatme m rries them, to k d.uskrid mionbm,
t-O. t d imrdkg of ' f~ssilsl i e : Gom@rs, to afb
this, t he repetition of such a s i d e a nd mouldy
&&rge is $is!inctly in bad faith. The L a p @ &lhtiarn ta the Red T mde Unim htm%at.ianal,
t
demaeds t hat he produce praof of his ~tssertions, Pbey a re not asraid (98 thav-e:W i !or heir name%
T he time ha% p m ~ d hen the scare-craw of
w
or c~
his s hder,
N .G mpers, in dl his decades of oppasitian BrrIsheuism and the bogie-ma of rwalution,
r
o f . G ompe~so of
t~ q ey@ng smacking of progressive or qidical. naanipuhted lby .theMhapdshe-road to betterr orcasx onger CJ& t
tt:ndm~@, a never before display& so much
h
on wad- more w orw-class power. T he
bitterness or attacked mything so atithasly, as
Ize i s
attacking the T rade Union Eciucatiw1- program of the Trade Union Educational L agpe
the way a l o q ithi%r d , the' masses
4 h a g n e . .Not m e n t s ith the use of m o e of has
in the m iom a re beginning t see the way, and
o
t he a m e m t i ~ erade lmian j omaIs, h e needs
t
now that they -have. tftartd it will take m e
must t urn to the c apidistic dailies. T he latter,
significantly enough, g l d y $ve him all the space
I
THE LABOR HERALD
June, 1922
June, 1922
The Railway Employees' Department
Convention
1
F
ROM the standpoint of constructive work, to merely an advisory body, because the Presi-
the convention of the Railway Employees'
Department, recently held in Chicago, was
an almost total failure. This was because it
neither understood the supreme need of railroad
labor, nor did anything to satisfy that need.
What railroad workers require above all i s a
solidification of their ranks, a unifying of their
forces so that they may make efTective resistance
to the powerfuily organized employers. But to
bring about this vital measure the convention did
virtually noffiing. Judging it by results accomplished, it was a standpat, visionless gathering
which refused even to express a desire for real
solidarity.
But, strange to say, ib the convention achieved
little or nothing in a constructive way, it never' theless displayed a g reat volume of radical sentiment. From first to last there was a strong
minority, which on a couple of occasions actually
became the majority, fighting steadily and consistently, if not always wisely and effectively, to
strengthen the bonds between the affiliated organizations and to draw them into amalgamation.
In fact the business of the convention was little
else than a constant struggle between this minority seeking t o progress on towards industrial
uiionism, and the international officials striving
to maintain the present craft alignments. I t was
a case of industrialism versus craftism. Over
it the battle between the two forces raged ceaselessly and manifested itself in every conceivable
fashion. I t was the bone of contention in the
discussions on such questions as the election of
new classes of officers, raising of per capita tax,
jurisdiction, amalgamation, admission of unions,
strike votes, and dozens of others. I t pervaded
everything, made all issues. And t he worst of
the thing was that upon almost every issue the
industrialists lost and the craftists won. That
was the calamity of the convention, the sense in
which it was a failure.
P:
L
-
.
.'
I
.p'i
,
'
'
I
17
tactics, together with all sorts of wild denuncia- ity to support Kutz's appeal. The appeal was
tions, ik took to force the delegates into line so lost, however, as i t failed to secure the requisite
that a majority could be scared up to defeat the two-thirds vote.
proposition.
.
Undeterred by this preliminary defeat, the
R a R evdt Looms
el
progressives waxed dangerously radical. One
The never-ending battle of the progressives delegate got vociferous applause when he defor solidarity of the railroad trades manifested clared:
itself sharply again on the general question of
"I believe the time is here and now when
affiliation of the various unions with the Departwe should decide who is going to affiliate
ment. Two distinct tendencies to this end were
with the Railway Department and who is
in evidence: one to bring into the Department
going to decide which organizations shall
all the real railroad unions, and the other to excome in.-Are we going to let the carpenclude the numerous craft unions that were tryters and joiners, the cigar makers, the pating to edge their way in so that they might ext ern makers, stone cutters, barbers, peanut
pand at the expense of the existing organizapeelers, peddlers, packers and polishers tell
tions. Under the latter head the Painters and
us who is going to affiliate with this Departthe Steamfitters were barred, because their entry
ment?-It
is time for us here and now,
nieant merely to divide and weaken the railroad
American Federation of Labor or no Amerworkers, not to unite them. Under the former
ican Federation of Labor, to say that the
head an invitation was extended to the four
railroad men of all crafts shall be united."
BrotherhooBs t o become part of the Department,
Further attacks were pressed against the Comand the Stationary Firemen were taken in over mittee's report. Amendment after amendment
t he strenuous, opposition of the administration. was offered, but they were all declared out of
This action was taken because it was felt that the order on the same grounds. Finally there was
Firemen wonk4 lend strength to the Department nothing left to do but vote on the report. Then
by coming in.
the p rogr~ssiveswere able to make their majorBut the real fight occurred over the request ity count by voting down the report. This left
of the Maintenance of Way for readmittance the matter before the convention without i ny
into the Department. The Committee reported recommendation. A motion was then made to
that this should not be granted until the organ- admit the Maintenance of Way forthwith. This,
ization straightens out its jurisdictional squab- too, was ruled out of order as unconstitutional,
ble with the Carpenters and is reinstated in the and the rebels lacked the necessary two-thirds
A. F. of L. But the progressives would not vote to upset the ruling.
agree to this ; they launched a determined fight
This last blow left nothing for the progressive
for re-filiation of the Maintenance of Way re- majority t o do but to amend the tabled section
gardless of consequences. They could not see of the Department's laws sd t hat affiliated unions
why the ranks of the-railroad workers should be should not be required to belorfg to the A. F.
split and this important organization kept de- of L. This they hoped to be able to do with
tached from the rest simply because petty poli- their majority vote when the matter was bronght
ticians in the A. F. of L. saw fit t o give aid and before the body again by the Law Committee,
comfsrt to the Carpenters' ridiculous jurisdic- But when the occasion arrived they were asleep
tional claims.
at the switch. Chairman Jewell put the section
The fight started by Del. Kutz moving to to the house and it was adopted without objecamend the Committee's report so s a t the Main- tion before the delegates realized what it was all
tenance of Way might be admitted immediately, about. This put the progressive majority in the
regardless of its suspension from the A. F. of L. same old difficulty of requiring a mo-thirds vote
h n d m e n t ruled out of order on the ground in order to get action. They moved to recon.that a section of the laws provided that only sider the action just taken and though polling
or@atbns
in good standing in the A. F. of L. 82 votes as against 79, failed to get the requisite
&n afffliate with the Department. Kutz appealed amount. An appeal from the decision' of the
from ,the decision, urging the very clever soph- Chair for having declared the section adopted
istry t hat the law in question was not i force without taking a formal vote on it went the
n
became it bad been laid on the table pending same way. Further attempts to amend the laws
further action by the Convention. It was a so that the Maintenance of Way might be adquibble, but so eager was the convention to mitted failed similarly. So, finally, the Prostrengthen its ranks by taking i the isolated gressives had to confess themselves beaten and
n
micm, and so little respect did it have for the give up.
A. F. of L. heads, that it actually voted in majorThe fight of ttre majority to seat the Mainten-
.
dents, although handling the business of the Department, are not responsible to it, but only to
their respective craft unions. T he proposed arrangement would upset this and bring the Council directly under the control of the Department
convention. It was an industrialist proposal of
first rank and its adoption would have gone a
long way towards solidifying the organizations.
Hence, the international officials turned their
heaviest guns against it. Practically all the Presidents denounced it, likewise many Vice-Presidents and Organizers. But, notwithstanding all
the alarmist outcries that its adoption would
wreck the whole movement, the resolution actually got the votes of a majority of delegates, so
strong was the desire to unify the ranks. The
vote was 141 f or and 138 against. The project
was defeated only by an appeal to the antiquated
system of voting by craft units. The six important crafts split three and three on it, bu&two
delegates, one casting the vote of the whole
Clerk's organization, and the other of the Switchmen's, made the h a 1 vote three crafts for and
five against. The thing was lost.
Another battle raged around the question of
increasing the per capita tax paid by the Internationals to the Department. At present it is 1%
cents per member per month. The proposal was
to increase it to 10 cents. This was another industrialist measure. Giviag the Department more
money meant to strengthen it and give it more
independence in the face of the craft unions. The
International Presidents perceived this very
clearly. They wanted to keep the purse strings
in their own hands, to keep the Department poor
so that they might dictate its policies. It was
pointed out that last year the income of the Department, through donations, etc., all of which
came from the craft unions, amounted to 9%
cerits per member per month. But when it was
proposed that this should be collected by a regular per capita tax guaranteed to the DepartT he Fight Be?gins
ment, and not through gifts and voluntary assessOne of the first big dashes came over a prop- ments under the arbitrary control of the Presiosition to enable the Department to elect its own dents, most violent objection was raised. One
Executive Council. As things now stand the a fter another the International Presidents, or
Ekecutive Council is made up of the Presidents their spokesmen, took the floor and stated that if
of the several affiliated craft unions. The effect the increased per capita tax was adopted their
of this is to reduce the ~ e ~ a r t m conventicsn organizations would quit the Department. Such
dt
TH-E.LABOR HERALD
1
8
THE LABOR HERALD
ance of Way, notwithstanding specific A. F. of
L. law prohibiting it, was a remarkable illustration of the strong rebellious spirit, in the convention. This spirit.was the more noteworthy in
view of the fact that fully 95%'of the delegates
were p 4d o,fficials, system c h a i ~ e n ,each receiving anywhere from $300.00 to $6oo.oo:salary,
plus expenses, p er month. If such high-paid
officials were in this mood it may well be
imagined what was the state of mind of the rank,
and file of workers on the roads. The International officials had to constantly exert all their
power and influence to keep the convention from
running away from them. On nearly every important issue the Presidents, who are usually
reluctant to speak, had to take the floor to hold
,the delegates in check. So standpat, was their
attitude and so unpopular did they become, that
their appearance o a the floor was usually greeted
with ill-concealed groans.
The General Strike V ote
All through the convention the reports of the
committees and speeches of the delegates were
replete with details of how seriously t he organizations are suffering under the "open shopn attacks of the companies. This, in fact, was the
basis of the strong radical sentiment prevailing.
Most of &e delegates realized that the unions
were being driven back and they were eager
for almost anything that would solidify and
strengthen them. A streak of desperation ran
through all the convention's proceedings. This
came strongest to the fore in the discussion on
the question of a general strike of the six shop
trades as a means to put a stop to the "farrriing
out" of work, &he institution of piecework, the
establishment of company unions, and the many
other measures used by the companies in their
militant efforts to destroy the unions and to reduce the workers to slavery.
From the beginning it was evident that a
strike vote would be carried. The only question
was what kind of a strike it should be, a sectional or general one. After reviewing the hostile attitude of the Pennsylvania, New York Central, Erie, Western Maryland and many other
railroads, the Xesolutions Committee presented
a resolution providing for the taking of a national strike vote of the six shop trades if t he
grievances complained of could not be straightened out within sixty days after the close of the convention. This radical proposal did not suit the
Administration and they immediately &gan,to
war against it. Their plan was to confine the
strike merely to the roads affected. Hence Jewell
himself pleaded with the convention. for an
amendment to that end, saying:
-June, 1922
"I am going to earnestly suggest to this
convention t hat the second resolve of this
resolution be amended so the strike ballot
be submitted to the membership .on' the several railroads that may on the date of the
taking of this strike vote, be involved in
the conditions complained of in the whereases of this resolution."
The amendment was obligingly made by a delegate. But the convention reacted viojently
against it. They would have none of its policy
of leaving one part of the shopmen at work to
scab upon those that were on strike. The sentiment was overwhelmingly for a united stand
against.the common enemy. So strong was this
that not even the International Presidents dared
oppose it. For the most part they confined themselves to straddling and to pointing out the difficulties that would have to bg faced.were a national strike called. Some urged that the unions had
no money to finance such strike, and they were
told that the men were hungry 'now and they
.might a s well starve. striking as working. Others
called aqention to the fact that some of the roads
had signed contracts with the shop unions, but
the contention that the roads took them serious
and that the unions should consider them sacred,
was laughed out of court. I t was, indeed, the
time of the radicals. In their determination to
fight and to fight unitedly against the oppressor,
they swept all before-them. The Jewell Administration amendment was overwhelmingly beaten
and the original resolution providing for .a national strike vote unanimously a d~pted. I t was
the one victory of the rebellious spirit of the convention, and it was a veritable triumph.
The Amalgamation Scare
From the opening day of the convention it
was apparent that amalgamation of the many
railroad unions would be one of the most impo'i-tant questions to be considered. The delegates, most of whom realized the imperative necessity of doing something to greatly strengthen
the unions, were full of the subject. They talked
of little else. No less than 40 resolutions demanding. amalgamation in some form or other
were before the convention for action. The very
air was electric with get-together sentiment.
. All.this greatly alarmed the old-time railroad
union leaders. In fact, some of them became
almost panic-stricken. From top to bottom they
ascribed the sentiment to the Trade Union Educational League, which lately had been very activa among t he railroad workers. Their plan was
to scare the budding amalgamation movement.to
death. Caucuses of the delegates were held and
dire warniogs issued of the sad consequences to
follow if amalgamation was encouraged. In this
I
q ' n E : LiA!BO *R H E R A L D
June, 1922
campaign Mr. Gompers hilnself did yeoman service. In a conveniently arranged trip to Chicago,
where the convention was held, he publicly attacked the League most vigorously. Not content with this, he sent his man Friday, Matthew
Woll, to the convention itself to campaign against
the League. Ostensibly Mr. Woll was to advovate the union label, but in reality he spent over
half bis platform time heaping coals of fire
upon the head of our much-maligned organization. His harrangue to the delegates consisted
of the usual torrent of lies and abuse that are
doing service in certain circles as argument
against the League's constructive program. How
frightened he was at the sudden growth of our
educational movement, promising as it does some
real progress in the unions, may be judged by
his lengthy plea that the delegates should not
allow themselves to be made "the tail of a bookselling; proposition," as he dubbed the Trade
Union Educational League. He declared)that the
labor movement was watching to see that this
alarming calamity did not take place. Seldom
has anyone more openly insulted a convention's
intelligence than Mr. Woll with his peurile warnings. But then, he was so anxious to head off
the League and to save the railroad workers
from its terrible machinations that he did not
realize the asininity of his remarks.
.
The Thing Fizzles
T he general air of expectancy and (for the
reactionaries) alarm about the amalgamation
movement increased as the first days of the convention passed and the big fights developed over
various projects tending towards industrialism.
Especially the battle over the election of the Executive Council directly by the convention added
fuel to the flame. Another factor was a mass
meeting called by the League and attended by
fully half of the delegates, at which Wm. Ross
Knudsen and the writer made addresses on amalgamation. Practically everybody looked forward
to a battle royal on amalgamation in the convention, with a good chance for the principle at
least to be adopted. But little came of it. When
the actual issue camegbefore the delegates it
proved pretty much of a fizzle. The industrialists s+ed away from it badly and made a poor
fight. It is not too much to say that a large portion of them were influenced by the intimidations. and red-flag wavings o f. the standpatters.
Th'e measure received only a fraction of the support that it should have, considering the temper
of the convention. It was one of the ironies of
the convention that the body of the delegates
fought consistently for at least a dozen different
measures, all making for the fusion of the railroad organizations and the building of the De-
'g9
partment into an industrial union, but when they
came squarely up against the issue of amalgamation, the. very thing that their many fights on
the flooIf were leading straight to, they fell down
and failed to support it. When they came face
to face with their actual goal they did not recognize it.
T he amalgamation question came before the
convention in a minority report of the Law Committee, submitted as a substitute for the famous
40 resolutions and calling for a referendum vote
of the affiliated unions on the proposition. The
standpatters sailed into this, belaboring it from
all sides. The historian of the future, studying the development of the movement after
the unions have reached the industrial stage, will
snicker at the arguments made against amalgamation at this convention. Fully 99% of them
were the most trivial nonsense of the outpourings, of violent prejudice. Never was the real
question of amalgamation met. The poor old
Knights of Labor, which all the world knows
was merely a mass organization, was dug up
from its grave and made to serve as an industrial union. Likewise the American Railway
Union and the One Big Union, both secession
movements pure and simple, were cited as horrible examples of the folly of amalgamation.
Even President Wharton, who used to be a progressive, was not above putting forth such intellectual trash. H e was a pinch-hitter for the
Administration a ud was brought into the convention to close the debate on amalgamation,
which he did. It would be a waste of t h e and
space to analyse his trivial remarks on the subject at issue.
But if the standpatters made no real arguments
against amalgamation it must also be admitted
that the latter's proponents made few in favor
of it. They were too much on the defensive.
They spent too much time telling what it was
not and too little telling what it was. Outside
of a couple of speeches, there was very little
meat in the many talks favoring amalgamation.
Quite evidently many of the industrialists had
been a little overawed by t&e violent campaign
made against it by Mr. Gompers and other officials. Also, two mistakes were made by the
minority of the Law Committee. The first was
in reducing the proposition to merely an amalgamation of the eight trades affiliated tp the Department, whereas it should have c ~veredthe
whole sixteen. But something much more serious
was their failure to present a concrete plan of
amalgamation when called upon to do so. Jewell
put their shoulders squarely to the mat when he
demanded something more definite than the mere
(C&.nzced on page 30)
June, 1922
Labor Movement'
B y Fritz
B
EFORE the war, the German trade unions
Heckert
starving and poverty-stricken proletariat, likewere counted as the most progressive labor wise a wrecked industrial system.
organizations in the world. They stood under
The working class, brought by Capital into
the immediate influence of the Social-Democratic these difficulties, and disillusioned by the overParty. But even more aapidly than did the whelming defeats in +e war, stormily demanded
party, they passed from the policy of revolution- the repudiation of the trade union policy of class
ary class struggle to that of reformistic oppor- cooperation. They insisted that property rights
tunism. With the outbreak of the war the in the means of production .be abolished. So
leaders of the German trade union movement originated the watchwords, "Socialization of the
became unquestioning followers of the militar- mines and the industries," and "Control of proists. They threw themselves into the arms of duction by the workers." And again it was
nationalism and did all possible to increase na- the trade union leaders, in cooperation with the
tional hatred and to further the war slaughter.
Social-Democratic parliamentarians and theoreFrom the beginning of 1915 we find the trade ticians, who sabotaged the struggle of the workunion leaders carrying on a sharp struggle ers to revolutionize the economic system. The
against the anti-war elements. "Whoever is great strike of the Ruhr miners and iron workers
not for the war policy of the unions is our in the Spring of 1919, fought to socialize the
enemy and must be relentlessly fought," so said mines and the steel works, was betrayed by the
Fritz Paeplow, president of the Building Trades trade union leaders and drowned in blood by
Union. The head of the Sailors' Section of the the Social-Democrat, Noske. The central organ
German Transport Workers' Union, Paul Muller, of the Social-Democratic Party, "Vomaerts,"
wrote after the capture of Antwerp : "The black- directly demanded the assassination of Rosa Luxwhite-red flag waves on the walls of this old embourg and Karl Liebknecht, saying: "Four
seaport, let us hope forever," and the editor of hundred dead in a row, and Rosa and Liebknecht
the miners' journal declared in the Summer of not there, not there!'
1918, "Ninety per cent of German trade unionThe principal theoretidians, Kautsky and Hilists are for holding the conquered territory."
ferding, told the workers that socialization of
I n this frame of mind the labor leaders ceased production is not possible. They compared the
all struggle against the capitalists, declaring broken down German industry with a quarry
social peace with them and helping them legally and "Quarries cannot be socialized." Then, t o
tie the hands and feet of the workers with anti- deceive the workers, a socialization commission
strike legislation. Every revolutionary they was established. Up to this day it has done
considered a mortal enemy to be fought by any absolutely nothing. With the lie that socializameans. They denounced the oppositional ele- tion is at hand, the German Government managed
ments to) the military and civil officials, and to save itself from the assaults of the wqrkers in
many were either sent to the trenches or thrown June, 1919, and to escape an overthrow.
into jail. The leaders were bitterly opposed to
Although the German trade union movement
the revolution, until the fateful 9th of November, had shrunk to only 700,000 members at the end
1918, when, for good or evil, they found them- of the war, in 1919 i t grew to over g,ooo,ooo
selves drawn into it.
members in the Socialist trade unions and almost
In the days of October, 1918, when the mili- 4,000,000 in the others. With only a total of
-tary and economic collapse of the Empire took .17,w,ooo workers in agriculture and industry
place, the German trad' union leaders, headed *The Arbeitsgemeinschaft is a sort of economic parLegien, drew' up the Arbeitsgemeins-iament, made up half of representatives of eml
chaff* with the coal and steel king, H ugo Stinnes. ployersi organizations and h i f of representatives
T he Arbeitsgervueinschaft still stands unshakably of trade unions. It covers all industries, and has
fast, in spite of the revolution, which gave power shop, local, district, state, and national sections. Its
into the handsi of the workers, and notwithstand- function is to settle all disputes arising in German
industry. The whole mechanism is an elaborate
ing a thousand disasterous experiences with i t institution to kill militant action and to establish
later. The end of the war left in G rmany a class-cooperation.
--
THE LABOR HERALD
in general, 13,ooo,ooo organized workers r eprq
sent an irresistible power. But the trade union
leadership has never understood how to use this
power in the interests of the workers. Yes,
apparently they have never even had the intention t o do so. I t is no wonder, therefore, that
the employing class, which after the collapse of
its imperialistic dreams was completely helpless
and exhausted, has been able to take courage, to
reorganize itself, and to begin to wring from the
workers one after another of the latters hard-won
concessions. Indeed, an opposition in the movement sought to win the trade unions for another
policy, to give them a new leadership. And it appeared a s if this opposition would overthrow with
success, the opportunists. u nder the leadership
of the Independent Sodalist, Robert Dissmann,
the great Metal Workers' Union, numbering
~ , b , o o o embers, was conquered. But soon
m
the membership of this big organization learned
that Robert Dissman was only a "word-radical,"
who from the moment he arrived at the head of
the Metal Workers' Union, pursued exactly the
same opportukistic policy as his Social-Dem~cratic predecessor.
In 1920, the opposition split : the Right-Indep ~ d e n t s under the leadership of Dissman, went
;
back into the camp of the class-cooperationists
21
about Karl Legien: while the Left elements affiliated themselves with the small Communist opposition in the trade unions. It was clear that
the right wing of the opposition, although publicly pledged to the postulates, "revolutionizing of
the trade unions," and "dictatorship of the proletariat," really had no other goal than the winning of a few easy-chairs in the labor movement.
When this end was reached it ceased its struggle
and joined hands with jts former enemies. O n
the other hand, the left wing of the opposition
expended its energies to give the entire labor
movement a new fig'hting spirit and to make it
more capable for the struggle. Ever clearer became the differences between the two factions :
A~beitsgemeinschaft nd class cooperation on the
a
one side, and relentless class struggle on the
other. The more the right-wing trade unionists
became prisoners of their class-cooperation policies, the bitterer became their struggle against
their opponents. Where they could, they drove
the latter out of the trade unions.
At the end of t he war the buying power of
equalled 45 pfennigs of prethe Gemn
war time. In the course of a year its value had
fallen to 1.6 pfennigs. Wholesale prices, according to official figures, were 43 times as high in
1922 as in 1913. T o offset &is waFes had
June, 1922
mounted only 15 times. At. the close of 1921
the productivity of the average German worker
was only three-fifths of what it was in peace
time, and his actual wages barely half as much.
Rapid decay of the national economy and rapid
decay of labor power, are the consequences. The
future offers only the saddest prospects. The
cost of living for the workers, from the end of
October, 1921, to the end of February, 1922,
mounted 120%. A broader and stronger wave
o f. price increases is now coming on.
The trade unions have done nothing serious
to organize the defensive struggle of the workers
against these conditions. It is true, however,
that the Socialist trade unions enunciated ten
demands for the workers to fight for, and which
should save the working class and the national
economy from collapse. The chief demand was
the seizure of 25% of all wealth. That meant
codfiscation, for State purposes, of Capitalist
property to the extent of 50 billion gold marks,
and the socialization of the mines and other natural resources. With this help the ruined industrial system was to be set right again. The
working class saw in the realization of. these
demands the possibility to protect their standard
of living and to reconstruct the broken down
industries. Yet the trade union leaders failed
to push these demands, and the Social-Democrats have concluded a tax compromise with
Hugo Stinnes, which freed the bourgeoisie from
the confiscation of their property in return for
the latter's loan of a billion gold marks to the
State. Consequently the workers have been
loaded with new taxes, which swallow up 30%
of their entire income.
Against &is insane policy the working masses
are in revolt. The strike of the railroaders and
the solidarity demonstrations of the workers
generally on behalf of the strikers are visible
sics of the indignation of the working class.
The policy of the trade unions, serving only the
interests of the capitalist class, has led to the
result t hat the workers, badly divided, could
be &fly defeated by the employers. Consequently
a great indifference towards the unions is becoming rtxinifest in the masses. The revolutionary trade unionists are, therefore, devoting
their entire efforts to unite the scattering fights,
the united front of the working class against the
capitalist class is their slogan. And likewise they
are fighting no less resolutely against those
revolutionary workers who turn their backs on
the trade unions and therewith leave the field
entirely free for the old bureaucracy to carry
out its injurious policies.
, I n all national trade unions, in all localities,
in all shops, the revolutionary trade unionists
HowsI Became a Rebel
'
A Symposium. ' Part I.
Editors' note;-A fundamental p wt o f th.e g ei- era1 troops with shotted guns and orders to
era1 ' revolz~tionaryprogram i s to p ake rebels; kill. Next? The brotherhood officials in allit o develop me% ' am? w o m n w ho hawe defbnn'tely ance with the railway officials and orders issued
b rokm iPrith c apitati-~m d w ho are tookivtg fora
to the craft unions . to fill the places of the
&d to the establishment of a Workers' Society. strikers. Next? The office of the American
Bzlt h o d carz such rebels be made? T o t hrow Railway Union raided without warrant of law by
some gght olz t& a ll-+aportmt qwmy, TEE government. thugs, the clerks driven out, the
LABOR JEWD has a sked prom'nent figures in records carted away, and the officials thrown into
I
all b d nches o f the radical movement, to explaili jail in accordance with the law and order probr: fly j w t - h ow, &hy, and m d e r w hat circum- gram of the railway corporations. My blood
st,mce$; t k y b e c a e co.qz61zced that capitalism boiled as I s at with my associates in the foul,
hkd t o be dofie a my':with. The symposium m
l
'
Z rat-infested jail at Chicago. A six-months' sen6 e completed in our J uly m mber.
tence followed, jury trial having been denied.
I
I n jail there was time for sober reflection. RevoI
i
lutionary literature came through the bars. My
. 'E By ~ & e n eV &bs
.
blood cooled and my head cleared. The class
was d v/e r a time in my life when struggle came into bold relief and I saw clear as
I .was not with the weak and poor and the noonday sun how and why the government
again3t-the rich and strong who oppressed came to do the bidding of the railroads abjectly
them. At - fourteen I was a wage-worker in as a trained monkey obeys his master.
In the darkness of a prison cell I saw the
a rriilroad shop. My pay was fifty cents for a
light, and when I walked forth I was a socialist
fen hour day. I had my lesson in wage-slavery
early in life and never forgot it. I n later years and from that day to this I have -been the remany offers came to desert the ranks and climb lentless and uncompromising foe of capitalism
to the "top" but they were all refused. It suited and wage-slavery.
me better to remain a slave than to become a
B y Wm.Roas Knudsen
master. Upon that point I never had a doubt.
R ESH out of High School, with a bourgeois
At sixteen I was firing an engine and at ninepsychology and fame as a roller-skater,
teen, in 1875, I joined the Brotherhod of Locowell dressed and with a beautiful crimson
motive Firemen as a charter member of the necktie as a headlight, I put on my best efforts
Lodrre instituted at Ter- and strolled into San
"
r e Haute. In 1892 I re- Diego, California.
signed the office I held
There was a free
in the Brotherhood to or- speech fight on, but of it
.
ganize the American I knew nothing. SuddenRailway Union. The ly a policeman's hand
craft no longer satisfied shook my shoulder, and
me. The great body of when; insulted, I resistrailway employes were ed, I was slammed in the
not organized at all and jaw ;completely subdued,
.
the American Railway I was brought before the
Union, based upon the police sergeant, absoindustrial principle, ern- lutely in the dark as t o w. R- K~~~~~~
, .~~~
E~~~~ V. DEBS
braced them all. The what was the cause.
railway managers recognized the menace of
"Here's another Red, Sergeant."
the new industrial power of their united emCompletely bewildered, I looked about in a
ployes in the Pullman str&e in 1894 and com- frightened manner. Those ahead of me were
bined t o destroy it. The federal government, questioned regarding Socialism, Unionism, I. W.
subservient to the railroads, gave willing sup- W., etc. I thought I was in a bughouse.
port. The strike had been won clean and the
' Where a re you from?" 'Who are you?"
victory was complete. Not a wheel moved. The "'Are you an I. W. W. ?"
roads were paralyzed and the managers helpless.
I tried to ahswer questions that I did not
What followed ? Injunctions, arrests, and fed- understand. "What are you wearing that red
d
\.
*sy
have formed groups whose duty it is to show
the working masses the necessity of a united
struggle against capitalism and the necessity, of
the revolution. They point out to the workers
that the class-cooperation policy of the trade
union bureaucracy leads only to ruin. During
the past few months this intensive educational
work has had great success. Everywhere, grows
the influence of the revolutionary elements. But
this brings upon their heads equally the hate of
the bovgeoisie and that of the trade union
bureaucracy . Thousands of the best workers
have been deprived of their means of livelihood,
thousands of t he best fighters' have been expelled
from the trade unions. Still our comrades are
undismayed. They see in the hate of their opponents that they are upon the right way, and
they will allow no measure to turn them from
their course of revolutionizing and conquering
the trade unions. During the week after the
railroad strike numberless victims paid the pen-'
alty for their zeal. But every day shows us that
headway is being made, and we are determined
that the organized Berman workers, in the very
near future, can again be pointed to as the most
progressive in the ranks of the world proletariat.
F
1
-
&em that I
my Z r d ~ m .
lay mind. Soes? mil while
together, I ~uddenly
Y approach to the socSPrl problem m s p d i d h a . In I wept and w s
a
tical. I was a tepartxr, ia rnwtzkrakw; a d
d the p a n t p b and literature 5
l
n
I had been a college m an; American, Gere h t A* I tmd to $ 1 with m mm full, a ma& R n h uiiimsities. My working Wy
1.
y
ex
r,
scuddRn cammatian bmlre i tn, my tb1~gt;l&. therefore, was W & t i f i i c The ~lc.ialproblem
n
A r dd
v m to me a polrtiaf p b h ; a d the.political
f fc
ad
graMem w u m d . E d m a made our g o t
kd
Be
This
= p a s and h t a the tank g o v ' m m t bad and
P w eat Here X ,XSIPd k m W g arguing, aJld g a d men wadd make i t
iZ
n
sn. ext
wg N
I h 4wI the fire hose was gwd, H one~tS;~ beI
turned &to the
I tried b r d ta away f m t ~ Lievd k t .
the water; w e d i the b wit% &e fuil
n
&
Honestly I * lqosed"
f a k e of the s t m m from. t he howsI fell a moment seventeen cities. Tizey
k ter i m e feet: uf water.
n
were aJ1 ~ ~ f r u p they
T
The brutal acaoxls of the palice, the confine- were all oorrupted hthe
ment wjth these r e W * and my mental reactions s ww way, to the same
t M5, caused me ta have a great interest in c sd. Reg"'d1.a~of mm.
1e m. gwhat i t ~ a a saIl aboltt. I i a v d g a t d . The WWCB of corn@. a in
I f d a2 the litemfare I d d gee. Read*
e1
md W n g produced thr? m t a Red.
dtie ware the m a This
L ~ N ~ C-RS
SN
suggested h t general,
not merely personal forces were at work, and that
N I was g ~ u a g W* taught IWS. the preb1rm.s of all our cities were all m e p roblm
I
I
wozs taught tb€?rKk very mmstly, a d I and that the s01ntioa.mmt be one,
At b t time many dty people thought that*
to aagpdy t m auld I diswvered that t world
h,
k
w-h& the cities were "bad? tbe state govern$id not mean for them t o be a- mlied. Neither ments were "g80dm g r '%&fm?' I took the trail
&e i d d s of
tQ the statesI and I "did" eleven of them. They
ity, which I learnedpnor
were 211 corrupt. They were all mmptad h
rhos2 of the poets w b m
eact1y the same wag. They were all cormpted
I w w tan&t $0 h e I had
c
,
just a s the cte were corrupted. h l as ia
iis
the c itie~,the s m c e s of t-he cormpltion in an
my eleven states were the -me.
But thu: nationail ~ o v m l e n t .that a t Iiast was
:
"gmd;'I wrote a sedes d artides in W d &ton8 giving prticdan whkh i genera1 &own
eb that the 3P$dmt G overnmat was n d mly
~~t
like!the cities and the ~Clrtw it w s e ;
am
mpted i r ~ same m y , by the same interests.
the
d a~trid ad financial
mm
L.2LABa
Xla the T g m m o this inmdgatiofl I m t
m
f
e
syshm js founded uPQn
f
r
a s i ideas d btrie;mUp qjposctd t a thaw ;ef all mrb o men i9 p &tia: p o d and bad, c&
et: d
md r efomen. 'It made no. essential CSiBemce,
C hrissie$- and d h w e .
Our p dithl system w8.S ,@qpma?dta be better : The best and ablest refarmers I watched at wcark
that L tci say, m-ay,ero&@ a d We +bts of were either beaten or comptwl. The. pmm of
lmwmity w as ~ u p p d ail there. But s amption weht on over or w der o r
t~
E8ridt~tiythe problem was m at moral
em politics w e corrupt, md.1 d!acoverd that then~~~
i t w a ~ ig business ij.M&
b
&e corrupting. pmblm liuld the mlprion waa nd-goa$ness.
&
the
When 1 I
W
&,
s
i
md
eat attout ita I Bad men d i4 a CLLUSX evil; gcmd mcm d d
f w d h t the upholders a f &e present system not do much good.
invariably either r idialed a of h a m e fadig&,
Still thinbg in t erns of good and evil, I asked
n ant with m - So gradually I Betame a r&l,
e.
what did the evil, and to firid the answer I passed
and I %aa kept in tfie fnmd of rebg.lli.lliwl by evew- by &a sad started for the rcma That's what
I kam about t e present world; by every *'radidJm e m : a
h:
for the mots Qf SOne-e
for?$* I h all7 @ced
W~S
a
P I M 'w'
C C %b' and gained
C%n~e tdde I
w
M
'
,
;.
Metal Workers Awake
B y Jay Fox
T
I RTY years ago when a dozen! of us metal about our joint relations with the boss, that is
mechanics were delegated to organize the well worth the years of effort.
first Metal Trades Council in Chicago, the
Not Craftsmein, Just Employees
initial step was taken in the evolution df t he idea
that, in the near future, is going to reach its
W e have learned t hat a s union men all of u s
culmination in the amalgamation of all our un- have the same point of contact with the boss.
ions into one metal trades organization. A t that Whether we be molders, blacksmiths, m*
a&
time none of us had the least idea of amalga- ists, boilermakers, patternmakers, engineei-s, firw
mation, although we felt the need of united men, o r whatnot, when we approach the boss
action on the part of the metal trades. AfKlia- with a n agreement our craft distinctions disaption through a council was, naturally, the first pear and we become "etnployees'" seeking to batstep. I t was for the future to determine the gain f or our services collectively. The more of'
practicability of our move and to carry the idea US there are in that collectivity, the better barfurther if it failed to fulfill the need.
pain we will be able to strike. Having. &&
T he ideal of the most advanced of us at that &owledge we begin to look around f br & o m
time was a Metal Trades Council that would take of union that will always insure us the b i g s &
m
full charge of our relations with the bosses and crowd when we wish to negotiate terms of e ployment. A union that would represent every
swing all unions behind the demands of each.
person in the plant is the ideal organization. For,
W q did not know to what extent our separate why have more than one union, since one win
International union relations would interfere with fulfill the desired function, and do it best? I
such a plan. I t had to be tried out first. In don't think I need to elaborate upon this phase
fact, we never thought that our crafts unions of the subject. Every metal mechanic' h aws
might be improved upon. I t was not up to us, it is only too true, that our greatest obstacle .to
at that early date, to have such a far-off idea as united action is our different International a s h that of a union that would take care of us all. tions.
Yet the idea, is very simple and most logical. I
We have tried to carry out this idea of udtjf
am sure that if anyone had p.roposed such a of action through our M. T. Councils, but o w
union he would have been laughed at.
success has not been at all what it should have
been. Nlot that the councils are at fault. The
We were all such staunch believers in the councils are all right, and must remain as t he
craft union idea in those days, that we did not local central bodies through which our various
admit helpers. Thus there were two unions in
local r nions will function, as for example, the
the blacksmith shop, in the boiler shop and carpenter's district councils. The trouble with
foundry; and the machinists would not admit us is that the power behind the councils is
men who operated drill presses, bolt cutters, or scattered and we have a dozen different constiturret lathes. The theory was that we highly tutions and a dozen sets of International officers.
skilled men had nothing to gain by bothering The result is, that it is almost impossible to get
with helpers or semi-skilled men. But in time joint action at any given point with the assurance
we learned that these workers did cut some figure that funds will be forthcoming in case of need
in the shop, and that in a strike, by staying on from all the Internationals. Some of the bthe job, they made it much easier for the boss ternationals may be financing strikes elsewhere
to get on without us. So we proposed amalga- and don't feel able to undertake burdens. Such
mation to the helpers and now, with the excep- Internationals either forbid their men to stsilce
tion of the foundry, we are down to one union o r tell them they may do so on their own r e s p in each department. The molders amalgamated sibility. Thus the opportunity for united a c t h
with the core makers, but somehow left out the a t strategic moments is lost, and our whole
other foundryworkers.
of metal trades unity falls t o the ground.
The fault does not lie with the I nternatiawb.
Thus far only have we gone in the way of
actual amalgamation in 30 years. However, our I t is the system that is a t fault. How can
30 years of association in our Metal Trades have united action locally when we havenst $ot
Councils have prepared the way for the greater it nationally? The Internationals can never,
amalgamation. We have learned a few simple agree upon a working code so long as
things about our relations with each other and have separate treasuries and separate rules; s
T &e
m
tind C m @a 6e heard from
Qt
to
in the al&tio. of the & M s t s " U d h ,
the
for Pre&lenf i rqmftd on May 16@h,
s
%6
f 1 0:
01m
wf&. . jb&b&bXl, ...;..... 3 ,
E
.0
w
..,... 10,2118
W m. W h o t s & #
s
T he p Iatfam u pfi wM& &dsa made his
campaign w as un-compFamisi.s:1y k r b dustrial,
mbnism in the meh1 W e s , st~~g&e agahst the
employing A s s , &d '*ation
tQ &e Red Trade
Union International.
I wish to m e 6 a coqectioa in my W e
A R W bB HAUMFB? In mp .
m ~ I ,naBwrtkntJy omitted axwi&h ka-E %he
i
Br&t.hcm@ of Railroad Signabea, ~~"~,
,
.
I
s t impregnable ink=finance and the M e
railroading, the utter
amtian becomes apmostly always takes
r bitter experience
the burdens of the
orrect its mistakes.
E . K. Henry
T HE LABOR H ERALD
A -Militant, Constructive Monthly
Trade Union Magazine
Official Organ of the
Trade Union Educational League
WM. 2 FOSTER, EDITOR
.
Subscription prica, $ . 0
-25
mediate action in the matter. Each central labor
body, district council, state federation, and international union, should take the matter up. Governor
Stephens, in Sacramento, California, should be bombarded with resolutions, letters, and telegrams, d e
., manding t hat Tom Mooney a nd.Warren Billitlgs be
released. Upon the action of our unions will ilepend the fate 'of these champions of Labor. Act,
a t once.
p a year
Published a t
1 8 No. L a SalIe Street
1
CHICAGO, ILL.
Member o The Federated P n s s
f
DEMAND TOM* MOONEY? RELEASE
H E Governor of California has many times
stated as his excuse for not taking action in
the Mooney Case that "Labor is not interested
in the freedom of Mooney and Billings." The entire
case against these two men has been shown, point
by point, to have been a frame-up. Every piece of
substantial evidence brought against them has been
proven rankest perjury. No one doubts that they
are completely innocent of the charges upon which
they have been in prison for years. District Attorney Brady has requested Governor Stephens to
grant them pardons. But the Governor answers,
"Labor is not interested."
As a matter of justice, what difference does it
make whether b b o r is interested or not? W hat
has this got to do with the case? ' Since when has
justice openly become a mere question of politics?
The Mooney frame-up is a stench in the nostrils of
the whole world; it stands as a Bving indictment
of our entire system of "justice," which has two
codes, one for the poor and one for the rich. Mooney
is proven innocent, but there is no way to release
him from prison. Imagine t h e prisoner a wealthy
man; does any one doubt that he would have been
released long ago? No case in modern times has
shown such a bold and shameless miscarriage of
justice; even the famous Dreyfus affair is not to
be compared with it. There is not tlre shadow of
reason for the men's imprisonment.
The Mooney Case is only the most glaring of our
many travesties upon justice in labor cases before
the courts. Hundreds of other labor men are still
in prison on frame-ups differing only m degree from
this one. But the Mooney Case, particularly, symbolizes the whole struggle against a corrupt and
heartless capitalistic machine.
Unfortunately, there is a germ of truth in Governor Stephens' statement, that " labor is not interested," and that is exactly *he reason why Mooney
and Billings are not released. I t he trade union
f
movement had given proper support to the case,
the victims would have been out of prison long ago.
Notwithstanding that their continued incarceration
is a monstrous crime, Governor Stephens will not
act until he is forced to do so. He wants to hear
from the labor movement. Well, let him hear.
The case is in the hands of' Organized Labor.
Every local union in the c ountrycshould take im-
T
.-
'
-
THE LEAGUE CONFERENCE
d
Y LSEWHERE in this issue is printed the Call
f or the First National Conference of the Trade
Union Educational League, to be held in C
hicago, Aug. 26th and 27th. This conference will be the
constituent body of the League, and will officially
launch the nationql movement and its organization.
This gathering will be the first time in our lab,or
history that practicalry a ll of the aggressive, forward-looking, radical and progressive groups have
come together ,for; t he purpose of planning on a
large. scale for. the educational w ork which is t o .,
consolidate and strengthen out: t rade unions, slaking.
of them the fighting instruments which, we must,
have if' we are to' stop the present retreat of our
organizations and go ' farward instead of backward.
f
In addition to t he~delegates rom the League groups,
i
who wW make up t h e conference proper, there will
be delegates from sympathetic and radical organizations in a consj tative capacity. It would b e<hard
t o overemphasize the importance of this gathering,
or to overstate 'its Significance for the futnre'of
I.
American h b o ~ . .
Out of this conference of the active unionists of
t he movement will come a New Charter for Labor,
holding up for the gliidance of the militants everywhere the t rue principles of militant trade unionism, and , the ideal and goal toward which our organizations. must struggle, and. which give meaning .
and value to the trade union movement. Into the,
darkest corners of the labor m oreqent, light will
go, giving new hope and courage, and adding
strength to the arms and brains of all who work
in the cause of Labor's emancipation. Every milit ant union man ,will a t opce become active, and
make sure that his locality has representatives a t .
this, t he 'most important iabor gathering of the
i
period.
a
I
I
THE
1
.
TEXTILESTRIKE
,
a
.
,.
wopde;fu!ly ' heroic struggle of the tex&
T H E _ r k e r s is being waged againat terrific,,odds.
Froni week to week it has gone dn, with no signs
of a settlement, or of weakening upon t ke ' part of
the workers.. T he rich barons of the textile mills
a re determined to add to their enormous wealth,.
wrung from the toil and sweat of these men and
women, by increasing still further their exploitation.
With the weapon of immediate and quick starvation,
they hope t o force the textile workers to accept a
condition of abject slavery.
In contrast to their wonderful stand against the
mill owners, there is a deplorable lack of unity
within the ranks of the strikers. I t is- pitiable, t o
watch the quarrels between the Amalgamated Textile Workers, the One Big Union, the United Textile Workers, and the other unioas, with tbeir mutual
o
recriminations in the press, ~ icketing f each other's
A
.
1
.
THE LABOR H E R A L D
30
c ar after car of scab coal. The Coal Kings are
'cashing in on the strike a t t r e m e n h s l y increased
prices, with the assistance of the railroaders. In
fact, i f , the men on the railroads had entered into a
deliberate alliance with the employers to break the
miners' strike, they could not work more effectively
to that end than they are doing. Knowing, as every
wide-awake worker does, that the great industries
of steel, mines, and railroads, are owned by exactly
the same financial interests, they should recognize
the need for one common fight against the common
enemy. But still the unions seem not to have learned
that their interests are class interests, not craft
interests.
Such a shameful situation cannot be accepted
without protest. The question of active solidarity
with the miners should be raised in every local
lodne a nd svstem federation: railroad men should
..
getatheir organizations unitediy t o refuse t o handle
scab coal.
a consistent point of view upon all o-f the labor
e vmts as they occur,' makes it a thing to be
wondered about.
"I keep asking myself how it happened. Yesterday, there wasn't anything but a desert of
half-dead, miconnected, meaningless "labor papers" kept going by artificial respiration; and
suddenly today we find a garden teeming with
ripe fruit. Evidently, the makings of it were
there all along. And now, irrigation.
"Salutskv's article on the needle trades situation is v eG keen, I think. I t is b ig calibre stuff.
For meaningness, it is almost like a business
letter. Nobody would write a business letter
unless he had to convey certain information.
I'm delightid t o see that this month's LABOR
HERALD i s just as merciful upon its readers and
the paper supply, as any business manager is in
FOSTER MAKES WESTERN TRIP
writing letters.
E GINNING early in July, the secretary of
"Well, I haven't said much, but you must
the Trade Union Educational League will know that my heart is pumping fast with enmake a trip through the West, covering the thusiasm for the marvelous thing you are doing.
plincipal cities. He will lecture on "The-Crisis And I'm very happily amused with seeing that
in the American Labor Movement." If your you smoked Sam out. I hope you printed a big
city has not received a date for a meeting, write edition.
Robert M n r
io.
to the League, and an effort will be made to
arrange such a meeting. The routing will be
RAILWAY EMPLOYEES' CONVENTION
closed within two weeks.
(Contz'rmed from page 19)
word amalgamation and they replied that they
AN OPINION OF THE LABOR HERALD had no plan to offer. The greatest argument
HAVE just read No. 3 of THE L-R
against amalgamation was the failure of its advoHERALD. t is the most stirring reading that cates to adequately present and defend it.
I
has come to my eyes in many long months.
The convention accomplished absolutely nothI can't resist the temptation to say that the, quality of it is astonishing-astonishing to me, who ing in a constructive way, save possibly the orexpected much of it. The s tartlkg thing about dering of the strike vote, and 'that could have
it is its complete success in getting away from been done about as well by the Executive Coun"dead matter," or "boiler plate" filler, and, what cil itself. Representing the craft idea, the Adis perhaps more rroteworthy, its plastic adjust- ministration was content to defeat the progress'ment t o the entire gamut of national Labor ive stuff proposed by the industrialists. They,
themselves, proposed nothing new. Apparently,
Union events and, situations of the day.
desperate situation of the railroad"The first d d e on the Coal Strike is such in the
a relief from the ;miles of unenlightening news- ers, they believe there is nothing to be done but
type that I've been reading- i t is informative. to run around in the same old circle. The conT h a the heme gait is kept up all the way vention left off just where it began. It w& the
through, or, in fad, t he juciness of the stuff old story of marching the army up the hill and
increases with each page. G udsen's stuff makes then marching down again. This is a sad fact
a man know a lot of things about the Metal but a true one. The only encouraging feature
Trades that he didn't h o w b eforeinteresting of the convention was the prevalence of such a
large body of progressive thought. This in&thing t hat you like to refnember.
"And then-Gee whiz! I can't keep it up; it. cates a similar condition among the rank and file.
would be too much like a recommendation col- It is to be 'hoped that this spirit will grow and
expand so that when the next convention of the
umn in Lydia E. Pinkham's advertieement.
"The mere fact that THELABOR
HEBALD has Department assembles the delegates will come indrawn together an array of writers who can only structed to merge our many weak and detached
be classified as the best trade union brains in the railroad unions into one, militant, all-conquering
United States, is enough. That it is,being edited combination. To bring that about is the task
in such a mann&r a s to play a sSeady stream of now before live wire railroad workers.
THE LABOR HERALD
June, 1922.
June, 1922
THE INTERNATIONAL
FRANCE
T H E Provisional Administrative Council of the
Unity
of Labor-C.
G.
T. U. (the revolutionary half of t he F rench union
movement which recently split away f rom t he old
General Confederation of Labor-C. G. T.) has published a projected constitution for the new body, to
be discussed by the movement in preparatioi for
the coming convention in St. Etienne. The proposed
statutes differ widely from those of the old organization. Most of the differences are devices to prevent bureaucratic domination by the officialdom and
to place control in the hands of the rank and file.
The French militants have had mbre experience in
fighting autocratic officials in their unions than any
other rebels in the world; first in the big struggle
beginning 30 years ago when the original Syndi& calists won control of the organizations from the
primitive union autocrats, and then in the recent
desperate battle with the yellow Syndicalist leaders,
which resulted in splitting the whole trade union
movement in two. In these internal wars for control they have learned just what forms of organization serve best as seats of autocracy and which yield
most to rank and file pressure. On the basis of this
dearly-bought experience they are trying, in the
proposed constitution ,to place the direction of the
new organization as far as possible in the membership. Their experiment, coming as it does from
such seasoned militants, will be of the utmost importance to the whole labor world. The official
statement accompanying the projected statutes,
-
B
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I
cave
.
i
I
.
"In working out the present constitution, the
Provisional Administrative Council has been inspired constantly by the necessity of placing
the entire confederal organization under the
direct and permanent control of the membership.-Henceforth, the C. G. T. U. will live, not
merely through the activity of its superior organisms, but especially by setting in motion all
its cells, by the initiative of all its members!'
In the new statutes many means are proposed to
check the growth of autocracy, such as limiting the
officials to one term of office and making them ineligible for re-election until after a t erm of years,
etc. But the most fundamental of all is the drastic
shearing of functions and importance from the national industrial unions and the transference of
these functions and importance t o organizations
called regional unions. Before the significance of
this can be realized we must glance a moment at
the former state of affairs.
In some respects the old C. G. T. was a unique
organization in the world's labor movement. I t was
in reality a double federation. Its national executive
committee had two secretaries and was divided into
two sections, one of which was made up of a representative apiece. of all the local trades councils, or
bourses du travail. This peculiar type of organization dated baek to the early struggle for control
between the Syndicalists and the reactionaries. The
former secured their first stronghold in the local
trades councils and eventually used them as the
means to revolutionize the national industrial unions,
which were more s usce~tible t o autocratic rule.
Hence, the Syndicalists ;eveloped a &eat liking f o r
the trades councils, and when they came into power
in the C. G. T. they insisted that the trades councils
be organized nationally t ogether and accepted as a
distinct wing of t he movement. ~ ~ wingsh were
t
supposedly of equal
A t first the nationally organized local trades
councils, because of their great prestige for having
revolutionized the movement and given birth to
modern Syndicalism, were the dominant wing. But
gradually the national industrial unions, throngh
having greater economic functions, got the upper
hand. Little by little, with the passage of the years,
they took on more and more influence until, finally,
the local trades council section of the C. G. T. became little more than a withered appendix. The
result was that when the recent fight developed
between the "lefts" and the "righs" in the unions
the former, although again capturing the local trades
councils quite easily, had a desperate struggle with
the "rights" intrenched in the national industrial
unions. And now that the split has occurred, and
in consideration of their bitter experiences with the
national unions, it is not strange to see the "lefts"
emasculate these natural seats of autocracy and turn
their functions over to the type of organization
which they have been able t o control and get results
from, in this case the regional unions.
The regional unions are local trades councils.
They are based upon industrial, rather than political
or geographical lines. They include all the local
unions in given industrial districts. Being local in
character they will lend themselves more easily t o
rank and file control. Under the new plan they are
given full autonomy to organize and direct the
battle.of t he workers in their respective jurisdictions. Quite evidently, if they grow and prosper,
their prime weapon will be the local general strike
of all trades. Nationally they are linked together
in the National Confederal Committee, the highest
committee in the C. G. T. U. I n fact, they make
up the whole committee, whereas the national industrial unions, so powerful in the old C. G. T. and
all other labor movements, are denied all representation whatsoever on the committee. The national unions are reduced to little more than technical societies ; henceforth the burden of the struggle
will fall upon the regional unions. The official
statement has this to say about the functions of the
two types of organization, national industrial unions
and regional unions :
"The regional unions fill an evident need;
they arise irresistably out of the'industrial evolution and concentration registered in late
years. They are called to bring about the harmony of the labor movement, by wiping out the
trade barriers which hinder the proletariat from
realizing its true moral unity. The regional
unions are the complete cells of federalism; the
perfect expression of the C. G. T. U. in their
organization, their functioning and their action."
"It i s quite evident that-the birth of the
regional unions leads us to determine the new
role of the national industrial unions, which is
.'
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.
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-
TH-E L A B 0 R I3ERAL.D
--- materially different*from t 4e .aid one. I# these
' f bodies continue to co-ordinate the national. trade
I
action, it is undeQiable t hat their task has beeb
considerably lightened by the regional unions.
T he perfect liason between the regional unions
and the national industrial unions will make the
role of the latter all the easier. The national
, ' $industrial unions especially shall study the industrial life of the country, each in the specialty
' 9which concerns it. Upon them particularly will
I
fall the duty of studying technical improvements,
assembling statistics, and making investigations
& 6f all sbrts, so as to permit the C. G. T. U., in
' ,$full knowledge, to direct its defensive and offensive action, a nd t o indicate, so far as possible,
. r t he constructive task of trade unionism!'
I
Book Department of THE LA--1. HERALD
Live Wires Wanted to Circulate the Following Books:
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP-AMALGAMATION.
(Second Edition).
By W m. Z F oster. 64 pages. Revised and Enlarged.
Single copies, 25c e ach; 10 to 200 copies, 15c.
STORIES OF THE GREAT BAILROADS.
By C harles E dward Russell. 332 pages. $1.25 per copy.
THE GEEAT STEEL STRIKE.
By Wm. Z. F oster. 265 p ages Cloth, $1.75; p aper, $1.00 per copy.
RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS OF THE FIR8T WOBLD CONGRESS OF
REVOLUTIONARY TRADE UNIONS-MOSCOW. 96 pages. 15c p er copy.
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION. By \\'m. %. F oster. (Sold out.)
THE REVOLUTIONARY CRISIS OF 1918-1921 IN GERMANY, ENGLAND,
ITALY AND FRANCE.
By Wm. Z . F oster 64 pages.
Single copies, 2 % ; 1 0 or more, 15c.
9,
,a
abolish the local and national unions
,.
4
,
j +-;.
8
-
AUSTRALIA
GENERAL a idgarnation of all t he trade unions
in Australia, on the 0. B. U. plan is now taking
place. The union is being constructed upon the
department plan. Three unions, t h e Miners, Laborers, and Transport Woikers, have already come in
on the plan. They number approxiinately 200,000
workers. .Other unions are now balloting and will
unquestionably decide to join. Thus is rapidly coming to fruition many years of work and propa- it prevail. The succe
ganda by Australian rebels. The latter have been worth of 'intelligent
fortunate in their methods. For a long time past
they have concentrated their e££orts upon the @id
unions, seeking t o merge them together and t o
infuse them with revolutionary ideals. Success is
now being achieved. The new organization, built nail.
of the old ones, is distinctly revolutionary in character and promises soon to play a most important
FINLAPTI)
art i n the industrial life of Australia.
Y a vote of 12,881 for and 5,813 against, the Finnish trade union movement has voted to atEiliate
with the Red Trade &ion International. This is
HE Norwegian trade union movement is now an indication of the rapid *growth of radical senticonsidering (and will probably adopt) a funda- ment in the former organization. During the past
mental plan of reorganization , somewhat %kin t o year the Communists have. succeeded in securing a
that being applied in Australia. The aim is to trans- majority of the Executive Board of the Confederaform the present loose national federation of trade tion o f T rade Unjoss, and of several important naunions, controlled by b ureai~crats,into a compact tional unions, including the Sawmill Workers, and
class organization dominated by the rank and file. Laborers.
A t t he 1920 convention of the Norwegian Federation
of Labor the following resolution was adopted :
"The congress recommends that the Federation
of Labor be reorganized on the basis of local
trade union councils. These local councils will
N amalgamation plan is now being carried out
in all essential points take over the rights and
to fuse together the unions in the metal indusduties of the present trade unions. The Federa- try, including the Federation of Metal Workers,
tion w ill be divided into groups corresponding bronze workers, motor engineers, and tin smiths.
This move followed upon the heels of a consolidation
to the great industriese"
A committee of nine was appointed to investigate of the employers forces.
this proposal, and its report is now before the various organizations for consideration. The question
will be definitely settled a t the trade union convenSWEDEN
tion in 1923. T ~ O lans have been submitted by the
p
committee f or the proposed re-organization . One, F OLLOWING t he merging of the Swedish Fedrration of Bakers and Pastry Cooks and the Swedendorsed by the majority, establishes the local trades .
councils as the basis of the labor movement. These ish Federation of Butchers, a new organization has
bodies, each of whjch a re to be made up of the been formed, called the Swedish Federation of Food
local unions in i ts locality, shall have a large degree Industries. Further amalgamations of important
of autonomy in handling trade. disputes. The local groups of unions a re looked for in the near future
trades councils are to be organized nationally in as part of the workers' program to offset the growthe Norwegian Federation of Labor. The latter ' ing power of the employers by strengthening their
.
shall take over complete control of 'the whole labor own ranks.
.,
sf.
A
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