THE MILITANT SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 1934 PAGE Minneapolis StrikeReveals Splendid Organization and Militancy Organizing the Strike Support From Other Unions stem.
It Role of the League in Strike track and the creating solubles were medical care to their physical On Firing Line Eestione second det hande te dar credit comes must have the courage to swim showed ther defiance. But the cops We brake every tratric rule in Crowd gathered against the current, and, by so dohad had enough and asked the plek. along the sidewalk and followed the ets to drop their clube saying that procession to the court house.
a better and more militant fight (Continued from page 1) the contact officer wbo would in they would drop theirs. The strik We marched straight to the ers were not fooled by this and mayor office.
Minneapolis, May 28. When the lze that an admirable fight was against the bosses.
volunteer services of two doctors turn send them to the news center stood their ground. No trucks vered to present our demands upon their strike for 11:30 thelr sympathizers. At the build of the Minneapolis General Drivers While the organization and strike the mayor orbis emissary Mr. Tuesday, May 10, very few trade ing trades business agents meeting, may not be the perfect pattern for partment rendered an invaluable Reports from the field commander moved that day.
All Ready for the Big Battle Guise. The gentlemen were not in. union members realized that within due to pressure from the members, a newer labor movement, it has, we service because of the speed and to were also sent by this To supplement this al At dawn Tuesday, bundreds of In fact Mayor Balubridge was in another two weeks one of the great they voted to recommend to the think, set a new tone for workers efficiency with which injuries were special squad of motocycle riders cops and special depotles began to his usual position home in bed ill. est labor struggles in the history of building trade unions to strike in economic struggles in this country.
there ALF. Guise would be in by P. the Minneapolis labor movement sympathy with the drivers. The There are several things which we that in no case did an infection were kept at to perform ope pour into the market until clal liaison duties.
were over a thousand. They were it was then about 12:30. The com would be fought.
Central Labor Union executive took think are unique in the American develop number of special cruising concentrated at strategic pointsmittee decided to wait.
The members of general drivers like action that evening.
labor movement. Within the almost Within the headquarters offices, Brush with Deputies and their sympathizers did some These meetings were followed empty shell of an old time craft crew of men with special instrucsquads manned by hand picked men Later the strikers began to arrive The women, quiet and orderly line work. During the first days of quickly by the fron workers striking. union, which np until now had taktions remained constantly at the and captained by qualified leaders by truckfuls. Thousands of symaAve telephones which Were the were kept under the constant conthetic onlookers lined the streets. during the whole proceedings, sud the strike they had the truck trans. The followed many of the smaller en into its ranks only truck drivers nerve center of the strike. corus trol of of Women assistants under the these squads were given credentiala precision, maneuvering skillfully thing Inquiry disclosed that the thousand completely tied up with could be reached quickly. By Wed from the whole industry. We took rection of the financial officer re which superseded all other authori. for vantage points. Their plan was chief of police had thought it smart the exception of the deliveries an nesday evening the Tatbers, plast not only the truck drivers and help celved applications for membersbip ty in the field. These squads were to catch the cops from the rear and to parade a batch of his special horized by the strike committee. erers, carpenters, asbestos workers. ers from the various business and Issued permits for the pickets tion for the purpose of reorganizing were stationed in the Central Labor the women were waiting tu. Only had decided to defy the strikers voted the sympathetic strike The well. And so when strike became quick thinking on the part of the and make deliveries of vegetables, clectrical workers marched to strike necessary, we presented a solid to obtain gasoline and mechanical the forces and leading the tight. Headquarters nearby service. special committee was they did their work well and more. As the morning wore on, there committee saved those deputies fruits and provisions from the city headquarters in a body and placed fighting front to the bosses. We market place. This was stubbornly themselves under the direction of prepared for the strike, not during set up to hear complaints and re than justified the continuation of were numerous skirmishes that her from being very badly hurt.
this alded the battle to come. Just about The mayor secretary arrived in resisted by the strikers and their the drivers strike committee. the strike but before it. Nothing quests for special permits to oper.
It is well to note that in spite of noon the fight started, when a surprisingly short time. The com sympathizers, but almost entirely other vion membership meetings was left to ce. Ev hing ate trucks. The instructions to this committee were very striet. These the large number of cars, trucks, deputized female attempted to club mittee waited upon bim. They got with their bare bands, which were while not officially striking declared possible was done before the Asht special groupe served excellently as and motorcycles required for this a woman. plcket. The plucky wo just what they expected nothing. not so effective against the wild a holiday for the daration of the to insure victory. When the general buffer to take the burden of rou method of picketing, there was an man seized a club from a picket at the demands were the immediate cons of the cous.
strike and many of their members labor movement so prepares and so Many workers who had felt that were active on Monday and Tues organizes for its future struggles, tine matters off the shoulders of the excess of vehicles volunteered for her side and stretched her flat. removal of Chief Johannes, the reWith a roar that was heard for moval of all special deputies, and the cope were more or less friendly day in the fights in the market. there will be more victories inleaders and to leave them free to service by the strikers.
Handling Stool Pigeons blocks, the strikers swept away the no further interference with pick were disillusioned by the market The light on Tuesday resulted in a scribed on the banners of the workdirect the principal strategy of the fifteen ing class.
was naturally necessary to specials and cops. The specials ets. The committee then left. The light on Saturday morning.
STRIKER.
strike.
Before the start of the strike a maintain a guard at the doors of made no effort to stem the tide but crowd was addressed by Frleda the announcement that over Sunday hundred special deputies and Amcomplete analysis of the picketing the headquarters. But in spite of carnal and ded, tossing away their Charles, and dispersed in an order some fifteen hundred special deputy erican Legionaires, two of whom sherims were to be recruited and have since died a result of thell General Strike with a corps of stenographers and slip through. Once within the bolla were cornered in stalls and blind al. Women Into the Class Struggle armed, the workers set their hack injuries.
mimeograph operators, the leaders ing. thesė miserable wretches can swang everywhere as the fighting again. Let your women work in tend themselves.
In closing let me emphasize saws to work and prepared to de. In spite of the armistice agreeall bad prepared a complete set of do much damage if left unbindered. pickets surged irresistibly through this class struggle. Thelt place is the workers on Saturday 10 between the strikers and the Looms in Toledo written orders and instructions to They operate principally by attempt the rows of stalls smashing down right along side of the men, shoul suffered more physical damage than agreed to keep trucks off the streets, had government forces by which it was (Continued from page 1)
the plckets. As a result of this ing to disrupt the ranks through careful preparation, the entire pick the encouragement of drinking and opposition. Several truckloads der to the wheel, fighting for their the cops. On Monday they were the unions continued to vote sympa permitted to postpone the general et line was established and func through attempts to create disorder of deputies attempting to escape birth right. The Women Auxiliary prepared to ineet the core with thetic strikes. The painters union strike any longer. Nothing can be were surrounded and transferred to of General Drivers Union No. 574 their own weapons. The fight in marched in on Friday pight as the tioning effectively within an hour and discussion.
expected from the strike breaking after the beginning of the strike.
at Special squads of reliable men the mounting casualty list. In des has set an example which we hope the market was about fifty fifty in vote to accept the settlement was Labor Board. The blow must be being completedHad the strike An Effective Strategy of Picketing were kept on duty constantly watch. peration the regular cops drove will be followed by the working sofar as injuries were concerned.
struck while the iron 14 hot. The The principal strategy of the ing for these people and they did their cars into the ranks of the class women throughout the nation. By Monday morning the trade continued over Saturday and Sun workers have fought magnificently.
VOJAUXILIARY MEMBER. union members had begun to real day, no doubt the other driving They are learning to rely upon picketing was to establish station the work very effectively. There strikers in a vatn effort to stop trades which had not yet been their own strength. It should be ary picket posts at the city limits is another and more dangerous type time taking away the specials.
on all highways, at all gasoline bulk of stool pigeon, who comes well within halt an hour the strikers called down, brewery drivers, milk utilized to its fullest extent and drivers, lee drivers would have been every resource drawn upon. Labor plants and direct service filling sta armed with credentials and at. had complete control of the market.
tlone, at the wholesale market, in tempts to insinuate himself into the cops and deputies were comcalled out and upon the call from defense and relief organizations Local 574 the garment workers, should be set up immediately to the loop retail district, and at the position entailing some responsibil truck freight terminals.
ity. It was found that by carefully pletely licked. More than 50 special Minneapolis. Serious and mili found their places in the kitchen cooks, Walters, bartenders, clty and take care of the needs of the workThese stationary pickets were selecting key men who are absolute com were injured, two of whom tant workers confronted with the in the office in the picket line, at county emploges and the civil serlers in the struggle.
supplemented by eruising squads trustworthy and by using creat were hurt. No further efforts were mands for a better standard of tion.
the strike.
Unite in Support of Toledo!
which were assigned to definite dissecrecy in issuing orders that it is made to move the trucks.
The urgent need for uniting the tricts throughout the town and by comparatively easy to The living, have the problems of organ That the unions and other work. One of the big lessons of the discover bosses agreed othe uising suads which were these people through their great anton.
to recognize the ization, program and leadershipers. organizations came forward strike to be learned by the union forces of labor behind the Toledo. WILLIAM KITT.
assigned to cover certain areas ambition to disrupt.
before them from the very In material and moral supportists is the need for a better organ strikers is emphasized by an anwhere trucking activities would To summarize the general results the Minneapolis drivers strike was due, in no small measure, to izational form, an industrial form, nouncement that the automotive inmost likely be attempted.
of this organizational method, we Women Activeunion for very definite reasons. enped by the stigma attached to quickly and more solidly to protect Company to the limit in its defiance thousands of workers came to the the efforts of our comrades. Handi so that the workers can move more dustry will back the Auto Lite The plckets were transported to find that we have a group of strikers of labor unions. The Stalinists as First: the Union is a mass organ Communism by the false and reactheir interests.
and from the stationary posts by who are given food regularly, and policy of the Official SYMPATHETIC STRIKER. usual are sabotaging all efforts for a united front. In New York City provided with fast automobiles. comfort. We find that they have the achievement of the Coal Yard Communist Party (the Stalinista)
a meeting called to protest the Workers strike. Third: ITS LEAD we have relied upon the judgment reserve force with adequate trans reliable mechanical equipment to do portation facilities was kept in the their job. And we find that they When the General Drivers Union ERSHIP HAD BEEN TESTED. of the thinking militants in the swered by every organization ap.
group of pickets and each cruisingers know at all times where they of their members to aid in every ways followed the policy in the to support a true Communist trade headquarters at all times. Each soon come to realize that their lead made a strong appeal to the wives The Communist League has al trade untons to learn to know and proached with the expection of the The Communist Stalinists who called a united squad was commanded by a picket are and what they are up against. way possible, they met with a re trade unions of working with an union polley.
captain, who had been given writ. They wade in fearlessly because sponse they had not dreamed of. progressive forces to be found in League has never asked that the front meeting of their own. The ten Instructions as to responsibiu they know that if they need help it Women came to Strike Headquar the organizations. Its trade union advanced workers in the unions acThe Minneapolis General Drivers organizations participating in the ties. Each truck driver was also will come, if they need new capters, ready and willing to do any policy has been proved in action. cept our political opinions in order strike has demonstrated the truth meeting include the Socialist Party, given special written instructions to tains, they will come, and they feel kind of work assigned them.
Concentration of Mass Picketing vantage their leaders will be able their heart and soul to the feeding and routed the police and the se.
confident that if they win any trained in office work took over Today there stands, confronting the that we may find a place in the of one fact beyond contradletion, the Communist League, the Love the routine work.
Others save sanized the picket line that fought never demanded any special privit class, when properly led and or Party, the American Workers Party Wherever mass picketing was re to hold it for them.
We have taken our places canized, will fight. The workers and the Similar meetings quired field commander was ap These Minneapolis workers tben of hungry droves of men.
armed bands of the Citizens Alli there in order to render whatever have shown here in Minneapolis the should be called throughout the Women on Picket Line!
pointed and given special creden. are merely representative American ance.
services we had the ability to renutter falseness of that old adage, country.
Women pickets took up the cause tials with instructions to establish workers, who have risen to a new der.
spreading the principal excuse that is used! The strike new period has opened up in by moral cowards everywhere: throughout the country opene grandcontact with General Headquarters made to uncover and develop their women were seriously injured in been aroused. Everyone in the the class struggle in America. The The workers will not stick and lose perspectives for the develop feld headquarters to maintain belght because of the careful efforts on the line of battle. Three of ourThe entire labor movement has ment of the class struggle on a new This was accomplished by station every resource.
workers organizations must be pre they will not fight The Minneapolis riots with police. One life was city has been strengthened.
We have shown that in spite of level. The place of the militants of despaired of for several days. Ap. recruiting of workers into the oring contact officer at a suitable workers call upon the workers of other was taken to the hospital Banizations is going forward all pared for new and greater tasks.
telephone location and providing America to demand such cooperahim with assistants. In this man tion and guidance from all labor with a very seriously fractured along the line. The forces of reac The capitalists are more ruthless all differences, the workers can and izations of the workers where they ner could phone orders to leaders. STRIKER.
can lead and guide their struggles.
ankle. She is at present confined tion have been dealt powerful and stubborn than ever. They are will fight for what they consider to now as ever is in the mass organ to her bed, and will be there forers stand up today. proud to have powerful chambers of commerce and Inside workers joined together THE CLUB PLAN SUB DRIVE blow. Tens of thousands of work better organized and financed, they be just demands.
have centralized their already The six thousand drivers, helpers some time to come.
still another was so badly beaten been a part of the smashing drive. The unions must also find better in one organization, is living proof ENDS AUGUST 1st in the Tribune riot that an old The Minneapolis Branch of the forms of organization, change com that they can be organized and that operation leston opened up and Communist League bears consider pletely the old outlook, and put in this manner, and in this manner Buy Your Cards Now!
Minneapolis, May 28. The mag trucks under heavy police guard there is danger of internal hemorrable responsibility for this achieve forward a new and militant leader only, can they make gains against six month sub cards for 00.
nificent struggles of the truck pierced the picket lines. The yel hages. Still another was beatenment. 18 wc nown that its ship. This is becoming more and moder organization of thel The regular subscription rates drivers, particularly the battle in low press began to denounce the across the arm with a billy. She members have been active in the more apparent to the workers. bosses. Without inspiration and for The Mititant are 50c for six the market Tuesday morning. May strikers, who were trying to get is still carrying her arm in a sling. trade unions for a long period of the League long ago recognized militant leadership they will contin months, for a year.
22, the Battle of Deputies Run. decent living conditions for them Another interesting angle to this years. It has not pressed forward this truth, auid with its numerically ue to drift in the same old rut that The Club Plan sub drive affords the minds of the Minneapolis work elements. Abuse was heaped upon sympathizers began to offer their League members have at all times, but confidently toward the great ership consists principally in have time to secure a six month subwill be permanently engraved in selves and their families, as lawless situation was brought out when for place or prestige alone. The small forces, has moved deliberate has led them nowhere. Such lead you an opportunity for a limited ing class.
them by all the agencies of the services. One young woman, acted in accord with the real inter task of reconstruction.
This fight in which the strikers Citizens Alliance. The workers be graduate of the University who had ests of the union.
This work, ing the vision to estimate the extent scription for 256 Club consists of subs. Cards routed over 500 police and special gan to realize the seriousness of the specialized in sociology came down adopted has been submitted to the necessary for the very life of the and scope of the movement, a know deputies is full of meaning for the struggle and settled down in real to offer her services. She felt that rank and file from time to time workers movement, is not the easy ledge of what must be done and the are not sold in groups of less than future. Coming as it did after earnestness to the task confronting the power of the women had not Proposals, suggestions, criticisms imagine it to be. It requires the We consider here that the New who should be getting The Militant If you know four or more people week of lesser fights, it shows the them even been felt in this class strug have been welcomed. The League devotion and sacrifice capacity of the workers, once aroused, for determined struggle. behest of the bosses began to round other girl, offered their services. to the strike. It is willing te ac lighting unions are the need of the posed by a New Deal for Labor.
Meanwhile the police chief at the glo. young couple, friends of the has given its best to the union anders who see and understand that tion for the bosses must be counter send us and we will send you prepaid cards.
NEW SUBS RECEIVED Not the New Deal of the comproIt reveals their rreourcefulness, up the ex crooks, murderers, and an Using these three as an advisory cept its part of the blame for any hour.
courage and intelligence.
the scum of the city, including gen council, the officers of the auxiliary mistakes that may have been made.
Ben and Gendelman The Minneapolis Branch of the misers of Labor who end strikes We think they were very fow. Such Communist League asks those work but do not settle them. It must be Step by step in this 10 day strike tlemen from the social register, and started to raise money.
Waukegan Br.
the workers learnt that law and made them special deputies, to pro The Women Auxiliary errors can and will be made good. ers who believe as we do, or who a New Deal which will be a new Loca: New York City order. constitutional rights. 1b serve Law and Order.
Los Angeles Br. committee, composed of Mrs. Just as the League accepts re have the desire to learn more about method and a new form of organerty and justice. right to organ. The first real fight occurred Sat Grant Dunne as president of the sponsibility for mistakes that it our views to join the League. To ization. It must secure for the Friends of the Mil. Club ize were hollow phrases used by urday morning in the market, when auxiliary and Mrs. Farrell Dobbs, may make it insists upon a calm become a part of the International workers victories and not defeats.
of Chicago the bosses to keep them in ignor 500 pickets battled with their bare as secretary, these three friends, and careful appraisal of its work Communist movement. To help in This New Deal must have first a Springfield Br.
ance and subjection. No sooner dia llists, trying to prevent 600 cope and and two other women not conected in the union and the strke. In the vast work of building a new broader form of organization. The they learn than they swiftly trans deputles armed with clubs and with the union, met at four o clock short we ask the workers to judge revolutionary party in America. unions must be reorganized on an 44 lated these lessons into militant ac blackjacks from moving two trucks. one afternoon. The next night at us for the work done and for poll. COMMUNIST PARTY worthy of the industrial union basis. Second, at Previously reported Hon, not individual action but or. The cops succeeded in getting the midnight the auxiliary had in its cles and programs proposed. name, a Party of workers that will must have leadership which, by ganized action. The whole record trucks through, but only after bitter Commissary Relief Fund, 16. 70. The real work of Communist mill be also a section of the 4th Interna understanding of the class problems, TOTAL of the strike is a record of the fighting in which the unarmed the necessity of feeding the fam tants in the trade unions consists tional.
STRIKER. can show the way. And third, it transformation of workers to whom strikers gave a good account of lies of the men on strike until in putting forward correct propoTHE MILITANT the idea of unionism was new, into themselves, sending many cope to they would again be able to draw sals, fighting for their acceptance; Entered as a second class mall resolute experienced fighters, who the hospital.
wages was brought home to us very then, by alligent and patient effort, matter November 28, 1928, at the IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT have successfully fought their class Sunday was comparatively quiet. torcibly during the last few days. rallying the advanced workers to Post Office at New York, Un.
enemy, the bosses, and know the Themen were thinking hard and Denonstration at City Hall enrry these proposals into action.
der the act of March 8, 1879.
value of organization and militant learning fast.
With the appearance of the theoretical monthly magazine The newspapers of Minneapolis, That the League membership Published Weekly by the ComTHE NEW INTERNATIONAL leadership Early Monday morning hundreds being the instrument of the citi played an active part in the strike munist Lapue of America on June 15th In the first days of the strike alot pickets assembled at the market son Alliance, were muzzled to is shown not only by the fact that the character of The Muitant will definitely change to that 126 East 16th Street, New York, holiday spirit prevailed. There were armed with clube, rubber hose, and such an extent that do news in our comrades were in leading postPhone: Grammerey 9624 of an agitation mase paper. serious clashes with pollee nor other improvised weapons. They favor of the strikers was ever pub tions in the strike committee. It is Vol. VII, No. 22. Whole No. 226)
To effect this change, any determined effort on the part were no longer a mass of strikers, Lished. To attempt to counteract also shown in the part played on SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 1934 of the bosses to move trucks. The they were soldiers obeying orders this state of affairs, the women or the picket line where every man To guarantee the regular appearance of The Militant, To expand organizationally by keeping comrades in the feld EDITORIAL BOARD sentiment of the men was for peace from their captains. Police attempt. ganized mass demonstration. We and woman available from our Martin Abern James Cannon tul picketing and Law and Ordered to disperse the pickets and the marched from the Auditorium on ranks was placed. In the work of FUNDS ARE NECESSARY.
Max Sbachtman Maurice Spector Many had Illusions about impartial nght was on. The strikers rushed Grant and 14th Streets straight organizing for the strike our comWatch for further details regarding the Arne Swabeck ity of the cops and the press. the cope, who went down like nine down Nicollet Ave. Led first byrades took a leading part. This ORGANIZATION PRESS CAMPAIGN Subacription rate: 00 per year But on Friday the bosses began pins. After considerable fighting tour women carrying our banner, alone was the work of months. Literature explaining this campaign will be in the malls 50 per half year. Canada their offensive. Cops began to ar the cops drew their guns and followed by about five hundred wo the headquarters, both before and and Foreign. 50 per year: next week.
rest pickets by the dozens. few. threatened to tre. The workeralmen, many of them sympathisers, during the strike, our The for six months.
members Bundle rates ane seat.
Workers Show reign of terror in Toledo as an Fighting Ability wave Lesson in Law and Order 20 175 219 At