CommunismSocialismStalinStalinismStrikeSyndicalismWorkers Movement

August 15, 1929.
THE MILITANT Page Summing Up the Fur Strike rorism. passive.
had a This shady a long may wing union has not the rank and file control it needs: even the shop delegate system was given an icy reception at the union foundation convention. The atmosphere in and about the union is more that of a political On June 19, 1929, the New York furriers strike be demn it semi officially in an article by Philip Aronberg Party than a trade union sympathetic to the revolugan under the direction of the Needle Trades Workers in Labor Unity. The Left wing fought Sigman for tionary movement.
Industrial Union. The Daily Worker of June 20, car his class collaborationism, for his impartial arbitra Is it to be wondered that there is passivity, disilried an eight column headline: Furriers General tors. but the Left wing dressmakers agreement called lusionment, pessimism, and absence of spirit among the Strike Cripples the Industry. Thousands of Workers for the same kind of impartial arbitration. It also workers?
in Response to Call on the First Day of Struggle. forgot the question of week work, instead of piece In the furriers strike, as in the cloakmakers. Five weeks later, in an obscure corner of the Daily work. It failed to make the jobbers responsible for the Left wing nonchalantly threw overboard the powerWorker the announcement was published that the strike the workers employed by the contractors. The militanful slogan of Unity. There was no agitation among had been called off without a successful conclusion. cy of the workers not of the leaders was the only the workers in the Right wing union which, unfor THE FAILURE TO ESTIMATE THE DEFEAT thing to distinguish the strike from one managed by tunately, is gaining in members because of the mistakes the Right wing.
One would imagine that when two fights in as many by the Left for joint action, struggle, strike against months in the New York needle trades (cloakmaker NEW UNIONS AND THE COMMUNISTS the growing impudence of the bosses and the increasingstrike and furriers strike) have resulted in two decisive The Left wing has not made the mass of the workers ly rotten conditions suffered by the workers.
feel at home in the new union. The Party hugs the defeats for the Left wing and big gains for the Right The yellow Forward writes that the reason for the new union to death. It is so fearful of losing its grip wing, the Daily Worker would attempt to make an defeat of the Left wing in the cloakmakers strike was analysis and draw the proper lessons and conclusions. that it establishes a devitalizing mechanical control in that in past years the workers were deceived. by But not so much as an editorial was written on the the organization. Only Party members and often only the Left wing cry for unity, but now the Communists matter. The Joint Board of the Union, however, did members of a certain Party faction are entrusted with have even dropped this cry and the workers are turnmake a statement pretending to estimate the situation responsible offices. Non Party workers who are most ing back to their tried. leaders. Analyzed properly, and analyze the shortcomings of the furriers strike sympathetic with the Left wing are looked upon with the words of the Forward should be a source of insuspicion and are alienated. The workers get the feelwhich resulted in such a mortifying defeat for the struction for the Left wing. It is the Forward and Left wing.
its whole tribe that gain when the Left wing pursues ing that they are merely instruments for maneuvering But its statement (Daily Worker, July 24 25, 1929) has no value. It analyzes nothing. It from the outside, instead of feeling the healthy in an incorrect policy, when it abandons the struggle for That fluence and dominance of Communist ideas acquired by unity.
finds nothing wrong with the policies of the Union, why we shall continue to hammer at but plenty wrong with the ranks of the workers who daily experience and intelligent guidance. The Left these truths.
are filled with pessimism. fear of right wing terThe statement fails to explain FROM GOMPERS why it is that the Left wing which, as late as 1927 28, TO STALIN a position in the needle trades vastly superior to that of the Right wing, is today no longer followed (The evolution of William Foster)
that pursuing a constructive policy he could be of real actively by the majority of the workers; it fails to ex(In previous issues of The Militant we have given service to the cause of labor. He was a man of abiliplain why, to limit ourselves here to the furriers the political biographies of a number of the Party lead ty, a man of good presence, gentle in expression, a strike, the workers followed the orders of the employers ers Lovestone, Pepper, Wolfe, etc. who had charge commander of good English, and encouraged him.
and the Right wing and remained at work. The Left of the slander campaign against the Opposition ComI was willing to help build a golden bridge for mine wing in the needle trades is today weaker than at any munists. The removal from leadership of this enemy to pass over. was willing to welcome an errprevious time in the last five years or more of its crew has been followed by the appointment of ous, ing brother into the ranks of constructive labor. Pages history and the reasons for its defeats and weakness with Foster as the chief, and the latter, after a 111 112. must be made plain. genuine explanation of the silence, has begun to hurl the words counter revoluFOSTER: am one who changes his mind once in recent defeats of the Left wing is imperative, for with tionist and renegade at the opponents of Stalinism.
a while. might say that other people do. shook out it there will be further, more crushing defeats for In order that his qualification for this hands with Gustave Herve in La Sante Prison. At occouption the Left and progress of the Right wing at the expense be established, we print here some facts about his that time he was in there for anti militarism and for of the workers involved.
record which are certified correct by Foster himself, preaching sabotage, and today think Gustave Herve The calling and the calling off of the furriers by Gompers and Fitzpatrick. The material printed be(Herve had turned Socialist Patriot Ed. is one of strike were conducted irresponsibly. There was no low consists of extracts from the published stenographthe biggest men in France Page 396. preparation for the strike. This is virtually admitted THE CHAIRMAN (To Foster. But at that time, ic record of the Senate investigation of the Steel Strike when the Joint Board statement says that the workers in 1919. The published volume is entitled: Investi when you were advocating the doctrines of the in the Associated (the manufacturers) shops did not gation of Strike in Steel Industries. Hearings before through the country and abroad, you were running join the strike. These workers are the decisive factor the Committee on Education and Labor, United States counter to the policies of the American Federation in the industry and are still under the control of the Senate Sixty sixth Congress, first session. Pursuant of Labor. Right wing. Of the 2, 000 to 2, 500 workers who went to Res. 202 on the Resolution of the Senate to inFOSTER: Yes, sir.
out on strike a meaningless minority of the workers vestigate the Strike in the Steel Industries CHAIRMAN: Mr. Gompers, however, has not in the New York trade a large percentage of them It would not be necessary to bring this record to changed his views concerning the but your were already unemployed.
public notice again were it not for the fact that only views have changed?
FOSTER ON RETREATS by a study of Fosters past can his present Centrist FOSTER: don think Mr. Gompers views have The strike was visibly lost in the first week, and all fight against the revolutionary line of Opposition be changed only to become more pronounced, possibly.
the workers realized it.
CHAIRMAN: And you say now to the Committee responsible leadership explained. that your views have would have acknowledged the situation and known FOSTER AND GOMPERS how to retreat in time in order to conserve its forces FITZPATRICK. He (Foster) is not preaching and FOSTER: Yes, sir, don know that it is 100 perfor a new struggle. But the opportunist group whom is absolutely confining himself to the activities and cent, but in the main they are. Page 423. the Stalinists have put in control of the union, Gold, scope of the American Federation of Labor, and has FOSTER AND THE WAR Zimmerman, Wortis and Co. compelled the strike to done so for the years that have known him. This is SENATOR WALSH: What was his attitude toward drag on until it was beyond exhaustion, rather than not a new thing for me. have known Foster for this country during the war, if you know?
admit their failure and mistakes. Only after five probably six or seven years. Page 75. MR. FITZPATRICK: Absolutely loyal, and he dia weeks was the strike officially called off in an outTHE CHAIRMAN. Have you ever discussed this everything in his power to assist in every way. of the way corner of the Party Press. Such a leaderbook (Syndicalism) with him at all?
worked with him. worked with him during the whole ship and policy can teach the workers nothing. It has MR. FITZPATRICK. Oh, he joked about the views of the war, and know the service that he rendered nothing in common with militant unionism; it is rehe had in his younger days, when he associated with actionary to the country. think that he rendered as great a irresponsible. No less authority than men who were actuated with radical thoughts, and he service, not only to the United States Government, but William Foster once said: was imbued by it, but when he got both his feet on to the Allies, as any man. Page 75 76. common mistake of reactionaries, in case of a lost the ground and knew how to weigh matters with bet SENATOR WALSH (to Foster. What was your strike, is not to offically call off the strike. They ter discretion and more conscience, he had forgot all attitude toward this country during the war?
usually let it drag along interminably, long after it has of those things that he learned when he was a boy, FOSTER: My attitude toward the war was that ceased to exert real pressure against the employers. and is now doing a man thinking in the situation. it must be won at all costs.
The consequence is that many loyal workers, who have (Page 76. SENATOR WALSH: Some reference was made by fought valiantly while there was even a slight chance GOMPERS: About a year after that meeting at Mr. Fitzpatrick about your purchasing bonds or your to win the strike, are forced back to work with the odium of scab upon them. They then are largely lost Zurich no, about two years after the Zurich meeting, subscribing to some campaign fund. Do you mind the trade union movement. far more intelligent (where Foster had appeared as an International deletelling the committee what you did personally in that course is to call off the strike officially when it is gate of the Ed. and about a year after direction?
manifestly lost, and let the fragments of the defeated that pamphlet. Syndicalism. had been printed, FOSTER: bought my share, what figured was army go back to work with honor. It facilitates great was at a meeting of the Chicago Federation of Labor, ly the reorganization of the workers.
able to afford, and in our union we did our best to It is an imconducted under the presidency of Mr. John Fitzw help make the loans a success.
portant detail in developing an organized retreat. was called upon to make and did make an WALSH: Did you make speeches. Strike Strategy, page 83 address. One of the delegates arose after had con FOSTER: Yes, sir.
That was once. Now. Foster, who is in charge of the cluded and expressed himself that it would be wise WALSH: How many?
Party trade union work, is a silent accomplice to the for the men in the labor movement of Chicago and of FOSTER: Oh, dozens of them.
methods he once condemned.
the entire country follow the thought and philoso2. The workers are losing faith in the leadership of WALSH: would like to have you, for the sake of phy and so forth which President Gompers had enun the record, tell us how many speeches you made, what the Left wing, not because it follows out the Left ciated in his address. did not know who was the wing policy, but because it does not carry it out. The time you devoted, and what money you expended for Golds and Zimmermans are shouting very radical delegate. He was a new personality to me. might bonds, for the Red Cross or for any other purposes.
say that was rather flattered and pleased at the fact FOSTER: Well, think bought either 450 or phrases today, but only so as to cover up their Right wing acts. In 1927, Gold and his fellow opportunists only my utterances but of the delegate who had first that there was general comment of approval of not 500 worth of bonds during the war. cannot say ended the furriers strike with such a collaborationist spoken after had concluded.
WALSH: You made speeches for the sale of bonds?
agreement that the National Committee of the Young Much to my amazement, after the meeting was over FOSTER: We carried on a regular campaign in our Workers League had to repudiate it publicly in part. was informed that the delegate was Foster, organization in the stockyards.
In 1929, the agreement made with the bosses in the the man who had appeared in Zurich and the man WALSH: And your attitude was the same as the dressmakerer strike, led the Left wing union, was who had written that pamphlet. think addressed a attitude of all the other members of your organizasp little different from a typical Sigman Schlesinger letter to him expressing my appreciation of his change tion?
Dubinsky settlement that the had to con of attitude, his change of mind, and pointing out to him FOSTER: Absolutely. Pages 398 899. móny with the views of changed that you are in harpatrick.
exactly.