Towards the New York Dressmakers Strike time.
The Strike As We Go to Press.
the working class movement, and we must make an effort to get all those who de finitely support the strike. All workers, members of our union, should be drawn into activities regardless of their political opinThe call for the dressmakers strike of By SYLVIA BLEEKER delegates council meetings. The machin fons. Regular and systematic shop meetNew York is about to be issued. Although ery of the strike now, about two weeks beings must be called of all the connections it is to be a strike of only one branch of fore the call is to be issued, has not as policy of the party has been changed the that we have made so far in the Right wing the industry it is nevertheless of concern attitude and approach to the Right wing yet been organized, constituted and put and non union shops, to discuss their to all needle trades workers. The condimembership is still erroneous. In essence.
into a workable body. When is all this to grievances and bring them to a head at the tions of work prevailing at presentare the changed policy must be a call to the be done this puzzles every needle trades time of the strike call. Every shop conpractically the same in every branch: fierce worker.
worker of the needle trados, regardless of Such fraternal organizations as trolled by the Industrial Union should exploitation through the piece work systheir union afiliation, for a common strug the Workmen Circle, the Independent spare one or more members for colonization tem. constant reduction of wages and gle against their class enemies, the bosses, Workinen Circle, and a number of other in non union and light wing shops. The the complete abandonment of regular hours.
and their reformist agents.
labor fraternal organizations, The twowere not strike committee must begin to function To be able to pull through in any way, front policy proposed by the Communist asked to support the strike. The reason with the existing standards, the properly by assuming its legitimate funeneedle League (Opposition) was originally regiven for this attitude by the leadership un fions immediately. We cannot delay the trade workers in many cases work seven jected and condemned. We suid, What is til opposition comrades in the strike com perfection of this apparatus. All members days a week besldes putting in long hours Deedel is a two sided policy of strengthenmittee made the proposal was that they with experience in strikes and willing to While the cost of living has been reduced ing the new Union and simultaneously are bosses organizaions, and that the In he active should be drawn into the work.
somewhat here and there, wages have deternational Workers Order has the juris. The conference in preparation for Jan. 31, working within the old Unions, with a sinclined from 25 to 50 percent. The situadiction in this field.
gle objective: to unite the workers on a must work in the direction of sending out tion varies very little in the different broader basis under the Left wing banner.
Of course, this policy of the Communist a call to the demanding from branches of the trade. To liquidate the new unions would party for the trade unions is thoroughly them not to see the machinery of the union The Assault of the Bosses wrong. By maintaining this policy. the mean to deprive the workers of the concento scab on the dressmakers, and call upon The onlaught of the bosses against the trusted kains of their long dtruggle and Communist kurty is only aping the rene the workers there to exert preesure upon standards of the needle trades workers is paralyze their fighting power for a long tionary of which recognizes no the officialdom and join the ranks of the dual organizations regardless of their strikers.
assuming phenomenal proportions. In the The strike of the dressmakers completely unorganized shops, the bosses The Lack of Preparation position, strength and effectiveness. This should become the focal point around which proceed with a general slashing of wages, Up to now, the preparations for the policy is only a remnant of the preceding the issues of the needle workers will be dress strike have not been much to speak isolation course of the party, mhich concutting down the earnings of the workers crystallized and a definite Left wing orto the very rock bottom, meeting with of, to put it mildly. Since the last monferidered every worker not a direct supporter ganized in the Right wing unions will ence in June 1930, there were only phrases of the party social fascist or worse.
practically no resistance. In the shops unemerge. To this end, every class conscious der control of the Right wing union, the but no organizational preparation. The There are certainly many honest workers worker must strive. We must try to make bosses have the tacit support of the ad famous theory that all workers of the in these organizations and they must be up for the criminal lack of preparation by ministration in the wage cutting campaign. of unions are socinl fascists made it appealed to, to show their solidarity with our devotel work. Our tireless and wholeimpossible for the Industrial Union to orthe dress strikers.
hearted participation The Right wing betrayers help the bosses must become the pacify the workers, subdue their spirit of ganize opposition groups in the InternaWhat Should Be Done?
backbone of the dressmakers in their tight resistance. utilizing the control over the tional and raise the sentiment for the To insure a favorable outcome of this against the bosses. The Communist League membership and the apparatus of the union strike Leaflets, open forums, are essential, strike we must immediately intensify the of America (Opposition) calls upon all its as a profit raising machine for the bosses but cannot take the place of direct and de organization within the Right wing unions members, its sympatizers and the needle and against the workers.
finite organization. The making of contacts and rally the workers around the call for trades workers in general to join the ranks The most fundamental principles of un in the open and Right wing shops has been the dress strike. We must appeal for aid of the striking dressmakers and help them ionism have been wiped out and replaced conducted in a loose manner. with very ob to all labor and fraternal organizations carry it to a victorious conclusion. The by open hand in glove work with the bosses. viously meager results. Due to the mechan. without exception and urge the membership dressmakers will pave the way for a miliThis class collaboration policy is threaten ical discussion at the various meetings of to exent pressure upon their officialdom to tant fight of the rest of the needle workers ing to destroy the last vestige of power of the union, the interest of our membership make the strike of the dressmakers the against the greedy attacks of the manufae the organized needle worker and stall of turers.
is not suficiently deep going. This has been fight of all the workers, so that the strike the organization of the unorganized further demonstrated by the small attendance from successful at the present crisis will have a We wand with you, dressmakers, and and further. The needle trade workers, the shops controlled by the Industrial Union far reaching effect on all the workers. Speak will do all in our power to help you win especially the class conscious ones, cannot to the dress conferences, and by the shopers for all our meetings should come from the strike and build the Industrial Union.
and must not allow these conditions to continue. We must call a halt, and that GOLD ON THE SKIDS From friends in France we learn: without delay.
The strike of the dressmakers. being At the recent international conference called by the Needle Trades Workers Inof the revolutionary litterateurs in dustrial Union, must become a rallying Since the article by comrade Bleeker the strike of its real objective and of all Odessa, a most instructive episode broke the point for all needle trade workers in their was written, and just as we go to press, we militaney.
otherwise even calin of the proceedings. Not fight against the bosses for better conditions, have received the following information: The Left wing militants must bear this unexpectedly, the tumult centered around for shortest diours, for week work, against At the party needle trades fraction in mind: Inder present conditions a strike the noted proletarian artist. Michael Gold, the stagger system. against the class col meeting on January 29, 1931, with Amter for recognition of the Industrial Union editor of the New Masses. In the course of laboration policy of the Right wing officialin the chair, Foster, Johnstone, Stachel and will not move the non Industrial Union the discussion, one of the American dele dom, against terror in the unions, and for other party leaders present, and under their members to struggle. The demand is in gates, Kumity, directed a few telling strie pressure, it was decided to change the abstract one unless it is bound up with the the organization of the unorganized. The tures at Gold, pointing out that the man economic interehts of the workers, organbasis of the coming dressmakers struggle for economie conditions. Workers was simply sliding fast to a comfortable ized and unorganized, are identical. The strike. Instead of a strike for the economie join in struggle for the improvement of bourgeois outlook and. existence. As economic interests of the workers in the demands of the workers in the trade (hours, their conditions and only under that ban. we pointed out once in the Militant, Kunitz. are just the same as those of Wages and conditions. the decision was ner, and not for an abstraction.
pointed out at the conference how the the workers who, hecanse of job control, adopted to conduct the strike SOLELY on What does the Left Opposition propose financial motif ran through all of Gold are at present in the Right wing union.
the basis of a struggle for the recognition at present? The point of view exrewed in work. Before Jack Robinson could be said, Even the working conditions of the two of the union. This marks a distinctly comrade Bleeker article remains entirely Gold simply upped and engaged in a fistgroups of workers do not differ to any debackward step, which rob tihe whole pro correct. If a strike is called, it must be fight with Kunitz. The Russians, of course, gree and their needs are identical.
posed strike of its genuine significance. At called on the basis of the conditions of the took the side of Kunitz not physically, but This identity of interests of the needle the present time, when the main task must workers and their improvement, and with Ideologically. Gold hints for a bit of workers in the Industrial Union and in the be the strengthening of the Industrial Un. adequate preparations and a correct ar subsidy, later on. were met with a cold Right wing International must become clear ion in the face of the severe onslaughts of proach to the majority of the workers who statement: Print the Marses on a mimeoto all workers, and should the guide for the bosses upon the ciressmakers conditions, do not yet follow the Left wing. If it is graph machine. he was advised. We can.
a strike merely for recognition makes it proposed to call a strike merely for rea common struggle against the bosses. The not fully agree with this advice. We would fact that for the present or even for some virtually impossible to draw into the strug cognition the strike will be devoll of its like to know why should it be printed at gle the thousands of workers who are un real objective, for which the party bureau all?
time in the future, these workers are divided in their union afiliation, muxt not for organized or in the Right wing union. It crats will hear the full responsibility. Raone moment befog their common aim. Those is always the polley of the labor lieutenants ther thin such a rike. we propose that workers who are fighting under the banner of capitalism in control of the of the present strike committee he ransformed of the being the most allto conduet strikes purely for recognition into AN ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITTECH vanced section of the needle workers, must from the bosses, and not for the ameliora with a campaign wurke out to lay the tion of the workers conditions. The Left ground soldly for a real strike in the fucontinuously and tirelessly work in the direction of helping the workers in the Right wing cannot and must not follow this road. ture. These are the proposals which the wing unions free themselves from the yoke What is behind this overnight change Left wing as a whole inust adopt.
of the treacherous bureaucracy. Our isolaof policy.
First, a belated recognition by It goes without saying that regardless EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT tion up till now has only helped the Inter the party bureaucrits that the preparations of what steps are taken by the Industrial FEBRUARY 7: RECENT STRIKES IN national to spread the notion among its for the strike have been grossly insufficient Union, the Left Opposition will be found EUROPE STRIKE STRATEGY.
workers that the Industrial Union exists up to now. Second, the idea of making a fighting on the side of the Left wing and by Arne Swabeck only for jobstles. Such propaganda can dicker behind the seches with one section in the very front ranks. Our interests are be eradicated only through persistent work of the bosses, those with whom the Indu theirs: their struggle is ours.
Strikes against wege cuts in Germanyin building the Industrial Union as a mill nal Union already has an agreement, for We shall return to this question in Strikes against the stretch out system in tant organization, as well it through The resadoption of this agreement lenuding greater detail in the next issue.
England Strikes against the insurance fighting group in the International for the system in France. What have they interests of the thousands of neexlle workachieved? What was the role of the ers there. The sonner we do that the soonreactionaries? What was the role er will we separate the needle workers of the Communists? What is from their reformist leadership.
the position of the Red Unions? What are the prospects Party Policy and Ours Will The policy of the 11. in reSpeak On for revolutionary activity lation to the workers in the International.
within the reformist in which has been changed somewhat under MARXISM AND LENINISM ions? What constitutes the pressure of the Opposition criticism, revolutionary strike strahas led the workers to confusion and isolatexy? All these questions and others re tion. By calling the broad masses of the at the neelle trade workers by the same name as lated to the subject will be answered their bureaucratie leadership. hy classifying LABOR TEMPLE these workers in the same group as their at the Labor Temple yellow socialist leaders 14th Street and Second Avenue the Industrial 14th Street and Second Avenue Union only put up a barrier between these It is this On Monday Exening: February 9th, 1931, at 8:30 two groups of needle workers.
Admission 25e Come Early isolation polley that was the cause of the Admission. 35 Cents Unemployed admitted tree upon presentalack of organization and resistance on the part of the workers in the International Auspices: Institute of Adult Education, 32 Union Square tion of Unemployed Council card.
against the betrayals of the Schlesinger of Auspices: New York branch of the Comficialdom. Even now. when the trade union munist Leagu erica (Opposition. Stacc AC CRNE Conca nimicamente THINHCHECHISCHICHIRIERIINIDAMISULICHUKURICIO MIMICALECOS CHICHELARIAS THE MILITANT, Vol. IV, No. 3, Feb. 1, 1931. Published twice monthly by the Communist League of America (Opposition) at 84 10th St. New York Subscription rate: 00 per year: foreign 250. Five cents per copy. Bundle rates cents per copy. Editorial Board: Martin Abern, James Cannon Max Shactman, Maur ice Spector Arne Swabeck. Entered as second class mail matter, November 28, 1928 at the Post Office at New York under the act of March 3, 1879 (Total No. 62. whole YOPEN FORUM MAX EASTMAN (The Science of Revolution)