PAGE THE MILITANT SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1933 EDITORIAL The of Convention, the Strike Notes of the Two Congresses «Against War»
Week On Gompers Cuban Gov und secuting in The New York Barbusse Movement and the «People Council of 1917 (Continued from last issue) maintained only for a brief time, practically lost its identity rationBut the final resolution of the form of and cannot, must not, take the ally as a force against the war. All SAID THE MAD HATTER united organization. its anti war hetivity is virtually ave New York conventions that When you hear about the wreath question is to display vastauti war movement, a cruel misam organization that does not acAnything else means a bastardized centered in the People Council, pacitist documenty Merely to ask The 3rd annual convention of the American Fed insurgent militancy of the strike wave are especially need of killing 000. 000 hors toullibility. What do the words of a wax figure that melts as soon as conversation of which, moreover, is representation, a deliberate fraud. cept revolutionary action, and the eration of Labor convened at a turning point in the portentous as to what is to follow if the workers help the Drive toward Prosperity. this cooked up resolution matter? events warm up a little.
fail to get satisfaction of their demands.
you will, no doubt, look up and Those who voted for it include not life of the labor movement when the resurgent forces strengthened by the party bureauHasu that already been democrats dominant in its management.
of new life, thrust forward by the powerful impulsion Trade Unionism. After the Collapse wonder. sucuking suspicion will only the Stalinists, but persons grow within you that there is somewhopu avowed policy is to proinote strated in less than a year? Whut The cople Council is being used of the class struggle, are beginning to push their lof the NRA did the Amsterdam movement do to by the Socialist party officials to is requires such waste to keep going and races or who ure opposed to Germany SOT THING? What may succeed, temporarily, but its ching cockeyed with a system that peace between religious classes halt the progress of Fascism in make votes for the party. The way through the dry crust and restraining forms of And this, in our opinion, is precisely what every kind of war and similar conservative trade unionism.
going to huppen. The attempt of the Roosevelt ad.
class collaborationist, reactionary genul, virile mass movement is ultimate effect will to make re The new masses who are sweeping into the trade ininistration to plan industry on u basis of capi. You look around you. Eleven paeltist clap trap. What possible setting in motion now to ward cruits for the Gompers Spargo party talist private ownership is inevitably doomed to a multum bungry men are still want resolution can be adopted jointly by viet Union by Japanese imperial of practical social reform. It is union movement, heralding their arrival by tumultu resounding collapse, and that very probably in the past the purements, employeu. cate such elements and genuinely revoluismNONE AT ALL he truths easy to enthusiastically accept the ous struggles, are without any direct representation near future. With that, and with the failure also ruin trust keep on making up all document of deceit, of sbam, a inere potent, at misleading as the Stalin task, indispensable, is to cleave to at the convention. The strike wave, the great, new, vital and determining factor in the labor movement, aruusud by the Ballyhoo campaign of the NRA, will crop down, to curtall the live stock. calla stalinist string to serve as torn which brought it into being fundamentals and express our own lacks an authentic spokesman there. But this dread come a tremendous disillusionment of the workers they have to. The leaders of tous noose for the militant proletariat The Left Opposition does not olutionary way und a rapidly increasing tendency, on their part to system that we call capitalist tell und its light against imperialist conceal for an instant its attitude territory ocialism. erents of inspectre is present all the time and dominates the war.
resort to moro aggressive struggles; to rely on their bem we buvo too much.
towards this monstrosity perpetratproceedings. The strike wave is the unofficial deleown strength and organization. Trade unionism, The United Front and War ed upon the militant working class. Let the fate of the Socialist party guto which disturbs the dead calm of self satisfied which was held out to them in the first stages of the That the big trouble with us. So you are opposed to the united Our position towards it is not and its People Council serve as conservatism so familiar at all of gutberings Lirst new one. It is identical with that a grisly warning! The August 4th NILA as a device to restrain their independent move. We have too much. That is why front? Not at all. In the in recent years. All the importunt speeches and meut, will become for the workers the medium for eleven million men must starve. place, a genulue united front, and of the Lert wing a generation ago, the Comintern in Germany al not an indecent burlesque, would which had to combat similar mant ready indicates the fate to which its expression on colossal scale. The workers will ovement has been deliberations were mude as if in reply to the thunturn to trade unionism in real carnest, and they will Oud enough, every worker will start off with an open appeal by restations of opportunism treachery the Barbusse the Communist International for a parties of that time. We can there and bureaucratism in the Socialist doomed from its inception.
derous arguments of this new force which is speakbe beul on making the unions serve as instruments admit to hituseluud keep wonder conference with the Second Interna fore do nothing better here than conference started out by welcomP. The call for the New York ing in terms of class battles, of strikes and picket ang. But sometimes the alad Hattonal, the Amsterdam Internation of struggle against the exploiters.
Lers of capitalism carry their cruzyal, the independent organizations, to quote with lines.
Then, as already been clearly intimated in Falk and topsy turvy ideas solar the syndicalists and the Internal of the left with the viewsing the step taken by Sherwood in the Socialist Anderson, Theodore Drelser and The forces of resurgent life, represented by the the threatening speeches of Roosevelt and Johnson that the worker can just stop with tional Lett Opposition, to discusses torty with regard to the people Cpton Sinclatr. Not one of these strike wave, which have not yet found formal expresminimum program and not to seted in the ottical organ of the Left. sent at the congress! Sinclair is sion in oficial representation, did not record their of the Roosevelt administration will be taken off.
real strength in the convention proceedings. They The unions they encouraged, and even coddled, as The other day, for instance, Mr. second place, a united frout with the class struggle (Sept. Oct. running for governor of California only recorded their presence in the situation and long as they thought they could serve as harness Gerard swopu, a big buu umuug slucerely pacifist elements can uover 1017. With hardly the change of on the Democratie ticket. Dretser served notice of a future participation. That alone will meet open opposition from the government. All the boss class, the head of Gewerbe organized to tiglat war in gen hrase, applies word for word has endorsed the Roosevelt pro Was sutlicients ominous is the new power to make the forces ut its command, from systematic anti Electric and a member the NIRA eral, or even imperialist war to the problem in band.
gram. Anderson follows in his The Left Wing in 1917 it the axis around which all the proceedings and union and anti strike propaganda to police and mili board, was caught thinking aloud such. The pactists are totully in footsteps. Shouldn it begin to be The Socialist purty in its sup clear now where the heads of discussion revolved. The stormy and irrepressible tary force, will be brought to bear. The unions, in. He was comparing the NASA with capable of eren starting such the kussian five year forces of the new labor militancy, clamoring their sofar as they really fight and that is the function Alr. Swope: plan. Suid light, and the duty of the Commun port of the People Council has the historic congress have been ists is to say so plainly. united again made a tactical error of the pulling its body to say nothing demands in the nation wide strike movement, evoked which the conditions of the times impose upon thom The Soviets started from front with such groups can be con Hirst importance. Indeed, the of its stalinist posterior?
the territled concern of the labor lieutenants of cul will have to fight for their existence against the scratch. They had no industry, fined to nothing more thun concrete tragedy of the situation is seen in ital gathered in solean convention, and of the political MAX SHACHTMAN.
government itself.
no financial structure, no probquestions of the moment, can be the circumstance that our party has spokesmen of capital, including the president of the The capitalist attack against the trade unions lems of over production such as and his general, Johnson, who addressed them. as organs of struggle will be carried inside the un. we had to deal with. Their from the standput parties of the ions. Green, Lewis Co. will be called upon to economic problem is comparumaster class.
The Real Program of Roosevelt purge the organizations of their militant elements tivey easy. Recruiting Sergent For The real design behind the benevolence of the and restore the unions to conservative and respect Capitalist War Roosevelt administration towards union organization able docility. The prompt response of these treacherThe Soviets, under Lenin (Continued from Page 1) It was quite appropriate that (Continued from Page 1)
was brought out more sharply and clearly at the ous agents of capital to this demand is assured in Trotsky, took over a country for convention. They want a trade union movement that advance their attitude at Washington, in harmony Lord, neglected and backward, the misleaders like Gompers and allt. Compers should be the recruiting But this victory and the failure ruins of an empire misruled by chell, this Civie was an sergeant for the American Imper of the workers to raise their struswill be au lustrument to restrain the workers, to with all their previous conduct, signifies this first medieval despots. Its industry lay open class collabonencialist plunderbund holding the Angle to the plane of the contest for prevent strikes and to suppress and outlaw the of all.
allow and devastated, the wreckage consecrated to the idea of the partstate power placed the Left wing the strikes that do occur. Only a few months have gone New Struggles within the Unions ous war. hostile capitalist world settling of strikes at the expense of slaughter for protits they were probere, of course, they cannot long of the petty bourgeoisie in power.
by since the NRA was halled as the liberator of the The trade unions, swelling into larger propor surrounded Workers kussia. When the workers and to blocking the The capitalists remain. Below, the workers retuse workers, and already the iron fist is coming out of tions by the indlux of new members on one side, will that world could not put it down road to organization of the unor made here would be to be satisted with programmutic the velvet glove. Roosevelt threat to put the retrouble from the workers when promises which supplement pledges calcitrant horses in acorralGeneral Johnson witness wholesale expulsions and splits, engendered by force of sword, the international ganized.
to the imperialist wolves that their surgent workers who insist on striking the horses Credits, its sources of economic together with the kings aud barons lately enlisting the only to souns and property will be respecte blunter declaration, You cannot tolerate the strike. by the reactionary bureaucracy, on the other. In. Boss class tried to cut o kussia Through this organization and there whered the war by and his appeal to public opinion to destroy every that refuse to work in harness. will meet the con borbeSiestin anodder cattempt waged a bitter struggle against so declaration from the beer mills and mluws us guaraules of Gompers services of Gompers. He secured aed. The workers are taking over subversive intiuence. the glorification of Gompers demnation of the labor bureaucracy. Their strikes world of Mr. Swope. Their eco ciulism within and without the Am meut in the war in the event of better conditions, setting up work and the reminder of his role in dragooning the Am will be outlawed and denounced as Communistienomic problem comparatively erican Federation of Labor. As United States participation. Gomore committees to run the world erican workers into the war in these expressions pilots. campaign of red baiting will be inaugur simple. but.
of the authentic spokesmen of the capitalist exploi.
ated against revolutionaries and Communists. Where ters the Roosevelt program was given a plainer and But over here we have an was instrumental in betraying the per was a meinber of the Council these do not exist they will be invented. Every overdeveloped economic and insteel strike of 1901 and numerous of National Defense created in 1916, here and there they are setting up 10 Soviets and organizing Red more easily read translation than before.
worker who wants to fight for his rights and wants dustrial patteru. That has Nhip of Gompers in this weber und was influential in primins Am. Guard. All this constitutes a pot ikes thereafter. The erican publle opinion to war COD ential threat to the whole capitalist The appearance of Green in a Washington church to make the union fight for them will be branded as been a colossal task with which pulpit, with his pitiful appeal in biblical language to Russia never had to be botherorganization and his concurrent pre sciousness.
a red. The next developments of the trade union imperialist system in Cuba.
ed.
Prior to and even after the outthe masters to be good to their servants. unThis threat has driven the petty movement will unfold in a seething tide of labor of Labor is keenly symbolic of his break of the war to make the world bourgeoisie to the right, toward the speakably contemptible and servile as it was, only rebellion of outlaw strikes, clashes with the aurole of the guardian, the watchdog safe for biseer and better profits American modiators. This is served to demonstrate how neatly the of thorities, tierce internal struggles in the unious, ex world war a debtor nation. It came class in the labor movement.
entered the of the interests of the capitalist there was a large pacifist sentiment covered up by the protest that the leaders have fitted themselves into the NRA scheme pulsions and splits.
in this country and in the labor workers are provoking armed luterto harness the insurgent movement of the American The fact that already today hundreds of thou nation, the dominant world power. gentus of labor unleashed the virus do for Gompers who put his whole the petty bourgeoisie is not the Against the this evil organizations. This would never vention. The anti imperialism of workers through the official trade union movement. sands of workers are streaming into the trade unions Its industries surprised in wealth of his hatred. That the heart into the patriotic campaign revolutionary, international antiThere is no doubt where they stand, nor where the is in itself a fuet of incalculable significance. The and technical progress those of all was champloning the cause of the into driving the workers into the capitalist program of the workers convention which they dominate stands The New Factor in the Labor Movement is what is important in the situation. The trade the real dictators in a war ridden Strongholds of trustified capitai Rather of the American AiWance for it is the futile, nationalist, house union is the first and most elementary form of work Europees esources. unlimited. meant nothing for Gompers, They Labor and Democracy, which enlist. Without a social program and with.
But the outward manifestations at Washington ing class organization, for which no substitute has a whole world, stood ready to do were reds, against the governed the social patriots like Spargo out the resource and ability to are by no means an accurate retection of the situa ever been invented. The workers take their first its bidding. It had everything. ment and he was out to destroy and Russell and spread war pro guide the destinies of modern 80tion within the of and still less of the steps on the path of class development through that with which Russia never had to tticials acted as strikebreakers at try to the other. That has been a colossal task the When the paganda from one end of the counciety.
present day labor movement in its broader aspects. door. Hundreds of thousands are taking this step be bothered.
In the first perlod following its Lawrence in 1912 to stamp out the Against the policy and intentions of the capitalist already today, a large percentage of them for the If the war was to be a success assumption of goverumental politicians and their labor allies, as revealed at the first time. Millions of others will follow them to Help! We ve got too much, cries Gompers condoned the act. The there must be a docile, unrebellious, the petty bourgeoisie made cuawer proletariat in the sions to We workers. The arbitra Washington convention, the new outstanding develmorrow. No matter how conservative the unfons this loon. And you ve got to door agreement with the bosses. The man for that. member of the tuted granted the workers demands may be no matter how reactionary their present more than just wonder this time. With remarkable indifference Gom. War Labor Board the watched At this stage of the revolution the opments must be considered the influx of hundrede home (puntry and Gompers was tion of strikes which they justi of thousands of new workers into the unions, leadership, and regardless of what the real purposes Because there is some reason in his formation within a few months time of 500 new fed of the Roosevelt administration were in giving a madness this time. Says Mr. Swope per ignored the bloody massacre hawklike that there be no strikes petty bourgeoisie in the work eral unions, the insistent demand for the industrial certain encouragement and impetus to this trade of the Soviets: of the striking coal miners in Lud during the war; and if such broke us allies against the imperialists, union form of organization to meet the needs of the When they need more coul union revival in spite of all of this, the movement they expand their mines, put Dewly organized masses. These factors, countera machine to hamstring the work cessions for themselves terests. Similarly with the St. loosen itself represents an elemental force, a power which, Bartholomew night in the copper ers struggle for whom exploitation balanced to the formal official decisions and pro properly influenced at the right time by the class more men in them and pro duce. The same is true of mills strike in Calumet, Michigan. grew more intense in times of war. any longer to follow the leadership But when the workers refused nouncements, require consideration in a rounded view conscious vanguard, can break through all the abso and other industrial structures.
Against Industrial Unionisaw. And for this service Roosevelt is of the petty bourgeoisie and con of the actual situation.
lete forms and frustrate all the reactionary schemes. They do the job.
They are an essential part of the proceedings as much for their industrial form Notes they in his plaudits, when he ducted independent struggles in The Task of the Militants of the 53rd convention of the of And in of organization, which cut across says that it was bis Gompers) their own interests the petty bour But over here, in NIRA America, the lines of craft and encompasse patriotication of the workers in ing spectre of the proletarian rey leadership for the unanim. seoisie became terrified at the risaddition to that, the thunder of the strike wave outThis movement of the masses into the trade un with all the natural. buman the mass of unskilled, As for their every part of the union which sup olution, On the other hand, the ous side the door also belongs in the record. An apions can be seriously influenced only from within. Jealousies that go with it.
preciation of the present situation in the trade union From this it follows: Get into the unions. Stay there.
burning ereed of class struggle. The plemented the mobilization of the swift development of the workers different groups strive for consistent policy of were told the movement, and of the of convention as a Work within different advantages and in workers monument to Gompers in Washing olutlonary character distorted reflection of it, is possible only if these Before any serious development of a revolution many cases with little regard into innumerable segments, to rip on little crosses on the battle bourgeoisie who, dissatisfied with factors are taken into account and given due weight ary organziation can be expected in America this for the general good.
and importance. In that case the one sided picture penetration of the trade unions must begin in earnwasteful jurisdiction disputes. To of the Washington gathering, as just another expres est. The militants who undertake this task now, Here you can do the job. You ve this every day the American Feder who fought for Wall Street gold made and are making attempts att sion of hide bound conservatism, fades away and we ufter all the discredit brought to the name of Com got all the tools and all the mateation of Labor is torn by fruitless In His Dotage Fighting the Reds armed Insurrection to overthrow the see the actual movement as it is in reality, ferment inunism by the Stalinists, will labor under a double rials, but you can do the job. jurisdictional bickerings the seed For Gompers the war did not end government of the to put down ing with new life and on the verge of great convulIstice in November 1918 not the the workers. In this they are en advantages, and in many cases with it rotten fruits.
sions which will upset all the schemes and plans. of the reactionaries in the trade union leadership: little regard for the general good. In polities as in the trade unions, ceased to recognize that. Under Non Partisan Politics class war, to be sure; he had long couraged by American imperialism.
Nothing was sirmly settled or decided for the the weight of the government and of all capitalist The fear of the bourgeoisie and labor movement at the Washington convention. The propaganda and repressive forces on their side; the Mr. Swop knows his capitalistie Comperes garned the statue erected the cry that the war was still on the imperialist on the one hand, now elements at work in the trade unions registered popular hostility to communism and the relationship system, the system of proat and blm in Washington. Here he Gompers and Lewis, frightened and the fear of the workers on the themselves and served notice, so to speak, of a of forces in general these circumstances alone will greed, of wasteful competition and lot of the capitalist class the Rep. Lever Act declaring the coal strike these plants reflect the contradie further participation later on. The contending forces constitute huge obstacles at the beginning. Besides industrial anarchy.
ublican and Democratie Gold Dust outlaw, drove 425, 000 coal miners in the trade union movement, which will clash with tory position of the Cuban petty That is the big difficulty over twins of Big business. By the back to the pits. Gompers did bourgeoisie. Today, as was inevitthat, the new Left wing movement will have to pay here. That is what stands in the slogan of Reward your friends everything in his power to sabotage able from the beloning, the work increasing fury from this time forward, met in a prefor the sins and failures of the old.
liminary skirmish at Washington. From there the The labor fakers will start new expulsion camU. And Mr. Swope tells you liek spittle of the political repre he finally succeeded in putting the ers. That is the meaning of the conflict will be transferred back to the field of class paigns against the radicals the movement their influ that the only the thing that sentatives of the bosses. He shied rebellious steel workers in the shooting of the Communist demonstruggle to the strikes, the picket lines, the battles enco is felt again in the mass movement. It is folly stands in the way. In 80 many away from a party for the workers corral.
with the state forces and armed thugs, and the forth to think that the task of penetrating the mass trade words.
strators in Havana and in the incoming internal struggles within the trade union unions, under the glven conditions, and reconlike leprosy, only to maintain a Samuel Gompers spent his dotage terior. That is the meaning of corpe of toudying lobbyists who in a fitting manner tighting reds. the sacking of the left trade union organizations.
stituting a vigorous Left wing within them can be crawled on all fours for favors Here he was the fury of old age in enter. That is the meaning of the All of this is projected on the basis of a strike accomplished with brass bands playing and banners flying. Quiet and persistent work, and loyal cooperaTHE MILITANT wave of such dimensions as has not been seen in Bettcarnated. Part and parcel of the organization of the Carribean recent times and which, in our judgment, is only a post war red hysteria, Gompers dia Army and the illegalization, in Entered as a second class mail tion with all progressive minded workers who want his bit to preserve American practice, of the Communist Party.
curtain raiser of what is to follow. The bosses and to build fighting uulons this simple prescription Post Office at New York, 28. institutions from the Bolsheviks. It remains to be seen whether their political and trade union agents apparently have stands first in order. The rest will follow. Ile hounded the Communists and the workers will not drive of the We give no pledge to refrain from revolutionary Published weekly by the Communist To Celebrate the Fath Anniversary of Under the act of March 3, 1879.
the same opinion. They have enunciated their proexpelled the Left wingers from the armed the seized mills and mines: students who are moving against the gram at the of convention. The labor move activity in the unions or to turn our backs on out League of America (Opposition)
of the American Opposition and ment itself, that is, the real movement of the masses, and whether the workers, confrontlaw strikes. We leave such trade union tactics to EDITORIAL BOARD The American workers the Sixteenth Anniversary of will reing the soldiers cannot win them has yet worked out an estimation of the perspec opportunists and traitors. It is our aim, on the Martin Abern member this labor lieutenant of the over. What they need most for tive and a program of its own. This is the big taslo contrary, to be with the masses, especially at the Max Shachtman Maurice Spector on Saturday, Nov. 4th, 1938, P. capitalist class with an oath of hate that is a correct program and lend and need of the present time. Its solution devolves moment of their sharpest collisions with the capitalArne Swabeck At STUYVESANT CASINO of this country crosses the pinnacle ism is growing But the failure naturally on the class conscious clements.
ists, whatever form these collisions may take. In SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1933 9th Street and Second Avenue of power it will write this inscrip of the workers to put forward pollThe strike wave is the first reply that the Am order that this association with the revolting masses Vol. VI, No. 47 (Whole No. 194) ADMISSION Be tion under the monument in Wash tical demands signifies that the erlean workers have made to the frightful conditions can have a fruitful revolutionary influence, it has Subscription rate: 00 per year Auspices: Local Communist ington: Communist Party, haltered by Stal and standards Imposed upon them during the crisis to begin now by an entrenchment of the militant and. 50 for six months League of America (Opposition. Samuel Gompers the Evil Gen Inism, is 126 East 16th Street measuring up to the and which the NRA mechanism is seeking to stabil.
class conscious elements in the of unions Foreign 50 a yr: 75 for Mos ius of the American Labor Move great tasks that the situation has ize and make permanent. The present scope and and the formation of a Left wing within them. Bundle rates cent per copy De ment. GEORGE CLARKE. thrust upon it. STAMM.
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